EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
A Florida toddler has become the 10th child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, outpacing the number of such tragedies during the same time period last year.
Three-year-old Sholom Tauber died Monday after his father left him in a car outside the preschool where he and his wife work in Miami Gardens, police said.
Sholom’s father’s LinkedIn page lists him as the technology development and faculty trainer at the daycare, called the Lubavitch Educational Center.
Police will forward the case to prosecutors who will decide whether charges are appropriate. Oftentimes in such cases, prosecutors declined to file charges because they’re mostly accidental.
So far this year, at least 10 children have died in hot cars. In the same time period last year, seven children had died in hot cars. Although this year’s numbers are up, they’re far below the record years of 2018 and 2019, when 21 and 30 children died in hot cars through mid-July, respectively, according to data kept by Kids and Car Safety.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
This is our final installment of this feature now that fall has arrived.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
I wrote the following when she just a few months old.
From August 2009:
Words cannot describe the joy of being a new father of a beautiful little baby girl. I now fully understand that which so many in the massive society of fatherhood have had the pleasure of appreciating before me.
You wish time could virtually stand still so this tiny little miracle could forever retain her angelic innocence. That being impossible, you try to soak in every glorious baby moment. Pondering what lies ahead, however, is part of the deal. The focus on the present is often broken by well-wishing friends and relatives with those two now oh-so familiar words: “Just wait!”
Ah, yes.
So much to look forward to.
So much to worry about.
I was reminded about my future father role working backstage at the Main Stage at the Wisconsin State Fair during the Demi Lovato concert. Lovato is the latest Disney Channel star.
Prior to the show, I joked with some of the handful of fathers who looked less than thrilled to be on hand.
“Do you have any idea what you’re in for?” I asked them, knowing that 5,000 screaming prepubescent girls can shatter eardrums a mile away.
“Oh yeh I do,” chuckled one dad. “I’ve seen Britney Spears.”
Britney’s path from cute bopping teen to adolescent tramp is legendary. Following such a transformation, there’s always another young girl to step in and play the part, selling mega tickets, CD’s, videos, and merchandise. The latest is Miley Cyrus who has grown out of her sweet, Hannah Montana character.
Cyrus stunned moms all across America recently when she performed a pole dance at the Teen Choice Awards.
Lest we forget, Cyrus is 16 years old. Doesn’t matter to her big lug, achy breaky heart father, Billy Ray Cyrus who defended Miley’s stripper-like routine:
“You know what? I just think that Miley loves entertaining people. She loves singing and songwriting. I always tell her to love what you’re doing and stay focused for the love of the art and not worry so much about opinion,” said the proud papa.
So, is this the only way for young girls to “make it?” Dress and behave as provocatively as possible? That certainly is the message they’re getting.
Then there’s the music.
When I was growing up, parents (the ones that weren’t cool) were having heart attacks about anything even remotely more exciting than Pat Boone.
I’ve never understood what all the fuss was about. Elvis simply wanted to be your teddy bear. The Beatles just wanted to hold your hand. Today, almost every song is scandalous in its sheer obscenity.
“From June 10 to July 22, 29 songs were listed on the top 20 airplay charts as posted by Mediabase. An astonishing 69 percent of the songs made at least one reference to sex, alcohol, drugs, or contained profanity. Nearly half (46 percent) of the songs contained sexual lyrics and 31 percent of the songs referenced drugs or alcohol. Profanity occurred in 41 percent of the songs.
Despite these troubling numbers, the media has been generally indifferent to the obscenity, and often praised the artist. Some of the artists even performed on the networks’ morning shows.”
Great.
Let’s move to the computer.
The London School of Economics reports nine out of 10 teens who go online will view pornography. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that 70 percent of those who viewed porn stumbled across it – many while innocently doing their homework – and had not been looking for it.
That’s the current state of affairs.
Who will be and what will the teen tramp star be like when my daughter is 12, 13, 14?
What kind of trash will be on the radio, on the Internet and other outlets?
I trust my wife and I will be up for the challenge.
And we haven’t even discussed boys!
I’ve already addressed how I’m going to handle that whole issue. There will be two simple rules young males will have to follow:
1) The young lad will have to get out of his car, walk up the driveway, ring the doorbell, expect to enter and meet me face to face where he will be subject to a series of probing, not so subtle questions about himself, his family and just about any other topic I choose for interrogation.
That’s rule #1.
Rule # 2 is even easier.
2) The young lad is not allowed anywhere on or near my property.
I can always turn to this gem, a column by one of my favorites, Doug Giles:
“The Ten Commandments for My Daughter’s Potential Boyfriends”
Here is a sample:
Thou shall not touch my daughter, or I’ll tear your hands off and you’ll have to ‘whip the bishop’ with a stub. Not only am I not cool with your being around me, I’m sure as heck not down with your touching my daughter. Therefore, when you’re in my space (and in my absence) you’d better treat my daughters with the utmost respect.
Do not under any circumstance hang all over my daughter, fondle my daughter or soul kiss my kid until you have a wedding ring on her finger, a joint checking account and MMA at Wachovia—or I will shove your Justin Timberlake backside off my 3rd floor balcony first chance I get, capisce?
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
This one drives me nuts. How dumb can you be?
I wrote the following prior to the November election of 2008 and it’s still true today:
Voters in Wisconsin can begin making their choices official today via the absentee ballot. Wisconsin officials predict about 15% of all ballots this year will be cast as absentee votes. In Wisconsin, it’s no questions asked if you want to vote with an absentee ballot. Just ask for one, and you’ll get one. You can then vote in the privacy of your own home and take as much time as you’d like.
Nationwide, about a third of the electorate will vote early this year.
It shouldn’t be surprising that so many people are taking advantage of ever-increasing popular form of voting. Some states were already accepting votes two weeks ago, meaning that four to six weeks out, many Americans have made their decisions. No doubt, there minds were made up a long time ago.
So what’s with the 15-18% of Americans still coveted by news interviewers, pollsters and the candidates who remain undecided?
A few weeks ago while filling in for Mark Belling on Newstalk 1130 WISN, I addressed the topic of the “undecided” voter. Quite frankly, there’s no excuse for being bewitched, bothered and bewildered at this stage of the game.
The Presidential campaign has been going on for what seems like an eternity, but in reality, about two years. That’s an awfully long time.
You’d have to be a hermit locked up in some cave not to have been exposed to the barrage of political information, inescapable for even the most disinterested souls.
The public has been inundated with election news in newspapers and magazines, on talk radio, TV news coverage, on cable, on the Internet, on blogs, in campaign literature and in those incessant TV ads and dinnertime phone calls.
The candidates are light years apart on every single issue. There’s no middle ground, a stark contrast that should render decision-making ever so easy.
If the economy eclipsed the Iraq War as the top issue a long time ago, I submit the choice of who’s best qualified to get us back on track is not the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate that will tax and tax and tax and tax some more. Give me the candidate who will exercise restraint on spending. In the war against terrorism, I’ll take the war hero who’s been there and will take the tough stance rather than the guy who wants to sit down and have tea with our enemies. I certainly would feel safer if John McCain were in the White House.
As a Roman Catholic, I’m baffled that so many Catholics are confounded or leaning towards Obama, forgetting he’s an unborn child’s worst nightmare.
Why so many perplexed voters? As I stated on WISN, I submit they’re undecided for the following reasons:
1) They’re uninformed. Despite the avalanche of available information, they’re clueless on the candidates and the issues.
2) They don’t care. Not everyone is a political junkie. Not everyone is engaged. And many don’t give a damn.
3) They are, let’s face it, not that bright. That’s putting it as diplomatically as I can. How else do you explain that according to some reports, one out of five Americans is still firmly entrenched in the “I don’t know” camp?
Not all undecideds are dumb. But a whole bunch of them are. Take 31-year old Matt Powell of Widefield, Colorado, quoted by the Associated Press:
“Neither one has really come up with anything to make me say, ‘That one right there, I want that one.’ I don’t even know what I’m looking for. Just a little bit of hope.”
“I don’t even know what I am looking for.”
Matt, your answering service called. Your brain will be ready next week. Here’s another beauty. Karen Wamback, also 31 of Rutland, Massachusetts could open a waffle house.”John McCain has a lot of issues I have issues with but Barack Obama has a lot more.” Then, about 15 minutes later, after going through the pros and cons of each candidate, Wamback offered this gem:
“I guess I’m pretty much set with McCain because he’s the lesser of two evils. Then again, I might just vote in (Sesame Street’s) Elmo. At least he’s for the children.”
Undecided voters, if they truly are undecided, are unreliable.My advice to both camps would be to concentrate on your base. Focus on registering people whoa re apt to vote for you. Don’t waste time trying to coddle or psychoanalyze these softies who can’t make a choice between just two candidates.
Finally, as we get closer to Election Day, newspaper editorial writers will beg for a high turnout, clamoring that it’s a citizen’s right and duty to get out and vote. Ideally, I prefer a lower turnout of more educated voters that have actually given their choice some thought, have done some homework, have conducted the research. No, I’m not suggesting you must possess a PHD, but I’d rather you not going write in Big Bird.
I want those who can’t make up their minds to save their lives, those who will decide based on the last :30 ad they see on television before they walk out the door, to just stay home. —October 6, 2008
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER, I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
Today Elvis Week 2021 began in Memphis.
Those who don’t know or respect the history and legacy of Elvis may, unfortunately only view Elvis as critics suggest, a bloated caricature of himself.
Amazingly, decades after his death, we still talk, write, discuss, compare, analyze anything and everything Elvis.
Britney reminded me of Elvis
By Kevin Fischer
Thursday, Sep 13 2007, 08:38 PM
I AM AN ELVIS FAN. I NEVER WILL MAKE ANY APOLOGIES FOR THAT.
I feel myself feeling sorry for Britney Spears this week.
And I’ll tell you why.
Women, yes, women of all shapes and sizes happily shout, “She’s too fat, she’s too fat,” knowing all too well they will never be as thin as Britney is.
Jay Leno, a fellow of sizeable girth, has no shame ridiculing Britney’s physique.
And I could go on and on.
Imagine if Britney had emerged onstage at the MTV Awards with the same outfit 9 out of 10 insecure Milwaukee women wear every wedding or every weekend night out: the ever so safe black dress or black blazer and black slacks.
What are you hiding ladies??????
What would the critics have said then?
Why is Britney so covered up?
When the *** puts clothes on, you still find fault?
Look, anyone with a brain knows Britney Spears is not fat. And yes, we build stars up, just to shoot them down.
Not me.
Not this week.
The nostalgic bones in my body traveled back to the summer of 1977.
One of my boyhood heroes (the other was Hank Aaron) stunned the world by his premature death at the age of 42.
CBS had been following Elvis around all summer, filming his concerts for a TV special that would coincide with an RCA album, Elvis In Concert.
I watched TV that night along with millions of others, as Elvis was captured, walking on stage for the last time. As difficult as it is for true Presley fans like me to watch, it solidified in my mind how dedicated this man was to his craft, to his audience, to his fans. Pay close attention to Elvis’ face as he’s just ready to go on, his eyes reaching toward heaven, the look of nerves felt by the greatest entertainer ever. He could have sat home at Graceland. He chose, instead, to give his fans what they wanted.
The broadcast of that CBS-TV special has never been shown again since its first airing in 1977.
Why?
Isn’t it obvious.
Look what’s happening to Britney Spears, a young woman with virtually no body fat accused of being overweight.
Was Elvis too fat?
Let’s say he was. True Elvis fans didn’t care. His second golden records’ album had the very appropriate title of “50,000,000 Fans Can’t Be Wrong.”
Of course, there will always be the imbeciles who wouldn’t know good music from their electric shaver. Whatever trash they’re listening to is only possible because of Elvis.
Britney made me realize it again this week.
Elvis wasn’t too fat.
Was he heavier than he was on those historic Ed Sullivan shows? Of course he was. Were you heavier at 42 than you were at 22?
Let’s imagine Elvis at 42 years of age, walking into a bar in Milwaukee. Would people fall off their bar stools, aghast at how obese this man was?
No.
The fact is, when Elvis died, he looked like your average 40-year old guy.
But because he was Elvis, it was so easy to take shots.
Elvis worked his butt off.
Two shows a night, every night, in Vegas.
No one, not Sinatra, not Newton, not anybody did that, especially after Elvis died. His good friend, Wayne Newton said it just became a rule after Elvis passed on that you just didn’t do two shows a night, period.
Elvis performed vigorously when he probably should have taken some time off. That only adds to his legend and greatness.
Watch this next video from one of his last concerts (as difficult as it may be for true fans) with narration from one of his best friends, George Klein.
As you watch, you fall into one of two camps.
You either admire the man for, despite his struggles, having the passionate will to storm that stage and satisfy his fans, or you are one of the shallow-minded that sophomorically just can’t resist a snicker and ugly joke.
Here’s what I say.
Elvis on a bad day was better than anybody else. Thank you Britney, for making me realize it.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
From July 2010:
Why is it liberals aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy, taking all our comforts away? Remember, this comes as a stifling heat wave is gripping many parts of the nation.
Stan Cox has written what I’m sure is a riveting, captivating book:
In a book review for the lefty web site, Salon.com, Ryan Brown writes:
“In the last half century, air conditioning has joined fireworks, swimming pools and charred hamburgers as a ubiquitous ingredient of an American summer. It’s no exaggeration to say it has changed the way this country functions, shaping everything from where we’re willing to live (Las Vegas, anyone?) to the amount of sex we have (more: It’s never too hot to get it on when the A.C. is blasting). Nine out of 10 new homes in this country are built with central air conditioning, and Americans now use as much electricity to power our A.C. as the entire continent of Africa uses for, well, everything. It has so thoroughly scrambled our way of life that when the National Academy of Engineering chose its 20 greatest engineering accomplishments of the last century, A.C. not only made the list, it clocked in ahead of spacecraft, highways and even the Internet.
But as science writer Stan Cox argues in his new book, ‘ the dizzying rise of air conditioning comes at a steep personal and societal price. We stay inside longer, exercise less, and get sick more often — and the electricity used to power all that A.C. is helping push the fast-forward button on global warming. The invention has also changed American politics: Love it or hate it, refrigerated cooling has been a major boon to the Republican Party. The advent of A.C. helped launch the massive Southern and Western population growth that’s transformed our electoral map in the last half century. Cox navigates all of these scientific and social angles with relative ease, providing a clear explanation of how A.C. made the leap from luxury to necessity in the United States and examining how we can learn to manage the addiction before we refrigerate ourselves into the apocalypse.”
AC.
We’ve paid “a steep personal and societal price” for not sweating to death.
AC will cause us to “refrigerate ourselves into the apocalypse.”
This week, the kooky flako author speaks out on his own in the Washington Post. Wacko Stan Cox says cranking up the ACs duirng intense heat and humidity “isn’t smart.” You hear that. If you turned on your air the past week, you’re stupid.
AC, you idiots, is evil.
“Air conditioning is one of the worst power-guzzlers. The energy required to air-condition American homes and retail spaces has doubled since the early 1990s. Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for — you guessed it — more air-conditioning.”
Cue the kumbaya music…
“Saying goodbye to A.C. means saying hello to the world. With more people spending more time outdoors — particularly in the late afternoon and evening, when temperatures fall more quickly outside than they do inside — neighborhoods see a boom in spontaneous summertime socializing. Rather than cowering alone in chilly home-entertainment rooms, neighbors get to know one another. Because there are more people outside, streets in high-crime areas become safer.”
Most outrageous is Cox’s downplaying of the jeopardy living without AC brings. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (I’m sure Stan Cox has heard of it) heat is the primary weather-related cause of death in the United States.
Slate(Another source I’m sure Stan Cox is aware of) reports, “Heat waves kill more people in the United States than all of the other so-called natural disasters combined. More than 400 Americans die from heat-related illnesses in a typical year. Annual mortality from tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods together is under 200. Heat-wave deaths aren’t the worst natural disasters only in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative ones because they’re slow and preventable. There’s no telling when an earthquake will strike. But dangerous heat always comes announced, and it’s fairly easy to prevent human damage. Victims of heat tend to wilt gradually, alone and at home, out of touch with family, friends, and social-service providers who could save their lives simply by treating them with water or bringing them to an air-conditioned place.”
That’s small potatoes according to Cox:
“A.C.’s obvious public-health benefits during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use in everyday life for months on end.”
Without supporting data, Cox makes the ridiculous claim that turning off the AC reduces heat deaths.
G-O-O-F-B-A-L-L.
I just love the thought processes of liberals. Hope Cox has stocked up mightily on Right Guard. —This Just In…July, 2010
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
This week my look back takes a markedly minority position.
Posted on April 9 of this year, with flashbacks to previous blogs:
Just about everybody and his uncle, and that would include newspaper editorial writers, advocates for high, higher, highest voter turnout each and every Election Day. Not me.
I’ve blogged on the subject several times. Here’s one from August of 2016:
On Tuesday turnout in Franklin for the primary election was 25%. The predicted turnout was about 16% but as the chief inspector at my polling place told me Franklin always does better than expected.
Even so most newspaper editorial writers around the state would probably lament Franklin’s 25% turnout as dismal and a troubling social ill.
Even before a vote was cast the Beloit Daily News was expressing disgust.
“We in the news business become frustrated after working hard to keep issues of self-governance in front of people, large numbers of whom demonstrate lack of interest.”
Low voter turnout makes many people disappointed, even angry. As for me, I’m cool with it.
I wrote the following back in March of 2008:
I have blogged several times that I’m more than ok with a low voter turnout on Election Day.
GASPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, the horror!
Yes, I know that such a notion sends newspaper editorial writers into orbit.
Then again, I don’t really care what editorial writers think. They’re notoriously wrong, most of the time.
If you haven’t read a single newspaper article about a certain election, you should stay home.
If you don’t know who the candidates are, you should stay home.
If you don’t know where the candidates stand on the issues, you should stay home.
If you’re basing your vote on the 30-second ad you saw the night before the election, you should stay home.
If you’re voting for a candidate because your spouse is, you should stay home.
If you’re voting for an incumbent because the incumbent has experience, you should stay home.
If you’re voting for the challenger because you feel it’s time for a change, you should stay home.
If after a gazillion months of campaigning, zillions of ads, trillions of news stories, and billions of speeches you wake up on Election Day and are undecided, please, please, please stay home.
I have nothing against a high voter turnout if somehow we could get more voters to the polls who have studied the issues and the candidates.
If voter turnout is low because people could care less or are unsure of who to choose because they just don’t know enough, I’m not going to lose any sleep.
Enter into the discussion my friend and former colleague at the state capitol Christian Schneider.
Schneider blogs about an interesting article he found in the 1958 edition of the Wisconsin Blue Book.
Lo and behold, the article says, “It is essential in a democracy that the people keep informed about the objectives and operations and operations of their government, exercise the privilege of voting and participate in the activities of their government.”
Schneider puts it bluntly, and well, I might add when he writes:
Basically, the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau had no problem essentially calling people dopes if they either made an ill-informed vote, or threw their vote away as a “protest.”
—March 4, 2008
MORE…from May of 2010:
Lo and behold I am proud that conservative columnist John Hawkins, one of my favorites feels the same way.
“In all honesty, we’d be better off if less people voted. If the only people voting were well informed, highly motivated people who paid income taxes, I guarantee you we’d have a much better government and a much better country,” Hawkins writes.
EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.
Kevin Fischer takes on the Bible Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Whenever I fill in on Newstalk 1130 WISN, I generally get a fair amount of feedback.
I’ve been flooded with e-mails responding to a topic I discussed recently while filling in for Mark Belling concerning politics and the pulpit that I also blogged about several weeks ago.
To re-cap, at a Sunday Mass at my church this summer, the visiting priest during his homily suddenly launched into a loud dissertation about child abusers and the general attitude most people have towards them. He gestured with his hands and asked everyone in the pews if they wouldn’t like to wrap their hands around the throat of a child abuser. The priest used similar rhetoric about identity thieves and illegal immigrants.
Hmmmmm, I thought to myself in the back of church. I don’t particularly have any affection for any of those groups. I have been quite vocal in my disdain for child abusers and illegal immigrants. And I’m not a fan of identity thieves.
The visiting priest preached on.
“As we forgive those who trespass against us! The Our Father! Oh, the Our Father can be a dangerous prayer!”
Why? Because, the visiting priest opined, the prayer challenges us to forgive the evildoers among us.
“Have mercy for the merciless,” the priest instructed us before slowly walking away from the lectern. Sermon over.
I was not impressed or convinced.
I have no sympathy for a child abuser. None.
I have no sympathy for illegal immigrants None.
I consider myself a devout Catholic, but after hearing this homily, am I a bad one?
Finding it extremely difficult, if not damn near impossible to forgive vicious criminals or illegal immigrants, many of whom are vicious criminals, am I rejecting my faith, neglecting to follow its teachings?
I don’t think so. I am content and satisfied that I can detest killers and other violent criminals and still earn a path to Heaven. I won’t feel a single pang of guilt the next time I recite the Lord’s Prayer.
Not long after that Sunday Mass, there was this story out of Sheboygan. A two-time convicted sex offender is now willing to accept the fate of a lifetime behind bars after confessing to a third assault — repeatedly sodomizing an 11-year-old boy — and pleading guilty in his first court appearance.
Virgil D. Outland, 51, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted under Wisconsin’s repeat child sex offender law. He confessed to sexually assaulting the boy more than 30 times in a July letter to a relative, and confirmed the account in interviews with police.
“He asked for forgiveness for what he did and indicated that God commands us to make right all that we have done,” said Lt. David Schafhauser of the Sheboygan Police Department, describing the letter. “The statement was, ‘This is the only way to receive forgiveness from God.'”
Armed with all of this, the sermon, the Sheboygan sex offender, and solid data of the numerous crimes committed by illegal immigrants in America, I took it to the airwaves. I even supplemented it all with selected quotes from the Bible instructing to forgive the unforgivable.
I opened the Mark Belling program that afternoon outlining my feelings. The phone lines exploded. My first caller flat out condemned me, saying there was literally no hope of salvation for me. Others disagreed with me without turning the hour into a Bible-thumping fest. Some tried to “help” or “explain to me” without lecturing. I respectfully stuck to my convictions.
More than a few callers used this argument: Jesus forgives, why can’t you, Kevin? With no intent to make light of the subject, I readily admitted that Jesus was a far better guy than I am.
Many callers also agreed, the best call of the hour coming from a woman taken over by emotion while describing the rape of her young daughter. Unable to keep from breaking down, the woman could not understand how anyone could forgive such monsters.
Her call was so powerful, the next person in line to go on the air had told my producer, Paul that he vehemently disagreed, but once on the air, completely toned down his opinion.
Since the program, I have been hit with e-mails. Remarkably, even though most disagree, their demeanor is that of a soothing attempt to reach out and again, attempt to “help me.” I’ve never had people disagree so respectfully.
For that, I am touched, and grateful.
However, despite all the thoughtful e-mails and passages from Scripture, I have not wavered from my position, fully confident that Jesus understands.
I UPDATED WEEKS LATER… The sex offender I referenced as part of my discussion, Virgil Outland, was sentenced to life in prison. I repeat. I have no sympathy.
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This Just In... From Franklin, WI 
