Don’t jump to conclusions

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We are all blessed with the faculties of mind endowed by our creator to allow us to reason.

Now some folks, as my late mother would say, stood behind the door when God was giving out good sense, and that would also expand to reason.

I have seen people all my life faced with situations and they jump to a conclusion and pull folks into their prejudice or the negative Spirit within them based upon their life experiences.

Without evidence they gossip about someone or accuse someone of something that offends them in some manner.

We find these kinds of folks in all walks of life, those can inhabit our work place, our church, our school but especially these folks live to type on social media.

There is no repercussions for typing away whatever one assumes about someone.

Sadly, families are sometimes the worst hive of folks that jump to conclusions about someone they are suppose to love. In some cases, the love is suppose to be unconditional. That circumstance is generally within one’s immediate clan. The extended clan gets a bit of grace because they are removed from the unconditional assumption, but the benefit of the doubt is still expected. Blood is thicker than water as they say.

What is it we lose when we jump to a conclusion without evidence and then act upon it. It usually results in hurting someone’s reputation, or their feelings, or both. Depending on how serious these things are, it could also impact them financially, socially or even legally.

Because we have the ability to move the world with our words and our Spirit pushing upon other people’s, we must be cautious of what we say about others and the conclusions we draw based upon a set of circumstances.

Now, that does not mean we should not reason with the evidence we see to protect ourselves and those we love, it just means, we should not rush to judgment and speak upon someone publicly unless we know beyond the shadow of the doubt that the evidence we have seen is conclusive. Even then, is it our job to be the spokesperson of this news?

Did God make us His orator? Or have we taken it upon ourselves as a gossiper? Does telling the story bring us joy or excitement? Then we may not be God’s chosen orator.

If he has chosen you to speak ill about someone in any situation, that is something that you will not want to do. In fact, you will desire not to do it so much, you will avoid it. You will only do so, when you have no other choice.

As children we all learned to jump rope in some fashion. Some of us excelled at it and were able to even rhythmically jump while rhyming with great speed. While many of us enjoyed seeing or participating in this play, we all had the good sense to only join the activity if we were capable of not getting our feet caught in the rope.

We should use a similar approach to jumping to conclusions. Make sure you have the ability not to get yourself or someone else tripped up on what you tongue might be saying about your conclusion.

The lights of the season

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I climbed up the stairs to the attic and in a way it did reflect the season, as all throughout there was a covering of white. It was insulation instead of snow but it did put thing in mind, as I crawled around in the space finding the boxes with Christmas decorations.

I would hand them down one by one to my mother or dad in alternating fashion as we prepared to begin the annual tradition of making the homestead more festive.

The boxes would pile up in the living room as each one awaited emptying.

We had foregone real trees for the an artificial years before. I was tasked for placing each branch in its appropriate hole in the trunk and shaping it.

Before long it would be ready for ornaments, lights, icicles, and eventually the star on top.

The process went fairly fast considering it all had to come out of boxes and placed with care until it glistened and gleamed with the shine of the season.

After the tree, then came all the special additions around the house. Each table got a Christmas doily, a Christmas candle, and maybe some hand made decoration to draw the eye.

The cards would get their very own clothes line that stretched across the wall with each displayed to add to the season.

We didn’t have a fireplace, although for a few seasons, we had a brick lined box with and electric light within its hearth which would add a glow to the living room.

When the inside was just as mother wanted it, my father and I were dispatched to the exterior attraction.

Which meant all the front bushes would each have their own colored lights some flashing and some solid. A wreath of greenery with red ribbon would be added to the front door.

One of my favorite pieces that is now long lost to time was a large lighted face of Santa Claus which was always placed last hanging on a trellis of holly by our door.

Christmas in my mind’s eye is always more colorful, more vibrant and ever so more festive than each one that seems to pass these days.

Perhaps, I recall things much better than they were or I don’t recognize the beauty around me at present as much.

Maybe the absence of many who brought life so much joy dims the present over the past.

It makes a challenge in my heart that I must strive to be more mindful of those that are with us who can bring life to each and every moment of the holidays.

Use the coming season to uplift and enrich your heart by bringing joy to all God sends your way!

I’m on my way back to the old home

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The holidays always bring a sense to me within my soul. It’s a desire to go home and spend time with the family and old friends in familiar environs.

For me a peace comes over me when open horizons turn to mountain hillsides and tight roads winding between them back into the hollers. The farm houses stand upon the high points leaving what bit of flat there is for growing crops.

Smoke rises from the chimneys as I wind up through the valley to reach the old home place that sheltered our family for nearly two hundred years.

On the porch as I reach the drive are my grandmother and grandfather finishing the hanging of the greens to decorate the outside of the house.

The interior will already be filled with the smells and the vision of hundreds of Christmases – stockings on the mantle, a fresh cut tree with all types of handmade decorations hanging from the limbs.

Sadly, the vision I see today is only in my mind’s eye as the old home place is now someone else’s and the older generations that once gathered at it’s hearth are now resting beneath the family sod.

This year I chose to make my journey to my musical home place. So much of my life and mentoring came from the musical lineage of the Father of Bluegrass Music – Bill Monroe and his Uncle Pen Vandiver. The lineage is sort of mine as they both were my mother’s cousins. I was so blessed as a teen when Bill took me on to mentor my fiddling and my band leading.

So, I decided to go back to his hometown of Rosine, Ky. To visit. I was blessed in that my old friend Marty Hays and his wife Robin hosted my visit at the Bill Monroe Homeplace. The restored home has many of the aspects of the home that Bill knew as a boy. Each room offers a unique look into the warm fires that once burned in the fireplaces.

In one of his songs “I’m On My Way Back to the Old Home,” he tells a story of the Homeplace.

That today also hosts the annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Festival. I hope that you will take the time to add it to your plans for 2025. It’s a wonderful show with many of the top talents of bluegrass being there.

During my visit, I was blessed to also take in the Uncle Pen’s Cabin – owned by James Monroe, and the Bill Monroe Museum. I went to the Rosine Cemetery and paid my respects to Bill, Uncle Pen and all the Monroe clan.

To help make the visit a musical connection back to my time touring with his Blue Grass Boys, I celebrated my 40th Anniversary with a concert at the Rosine Barn Jamboree accompanied by the talents of The Rosine Sound. This talented group includes Marty Hays, Jasper Dale Beatty, Larry Hill and Dylan Lunsford. It was an uplifting show and with their help I played many of the tunes that I had shared with Bill.

Meeting the people of Rosine and enjoying the warm welcome they offered was similar to the mind’s eye vision I described at the beginning of my piece. I may not be able to recreate those days that stand in my memory, but I sure can make them over in news ways.

I encourage you, if your wishing to take a trip and find both good folks and some interesting places to see look towards https://www.ohiocounty.com/billmonroe . Learn more about my history with Bill Monroe at https://RandallFranks.com/Bill-Monroe-and-the-Blue-Grass-Boys/ .

Making memories is a holiday tradition

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As we continue to forge forward, there a feeling in the air in my hometown and region that is very positive.

Despite anything that may be hyped up in the social media or on the news, folks are doing their very best to create a holiday season for their children and families that uplifts and goes beyond what those in power may want us focusing upon.

It is in times like these that I fondly look back upon the memories my parents created for me as a youth. The dinners, the parties, our traditions of decorating for Christmas and how we spent Thanksgiving and Christmas, all imprinted into my brain joys that still yield dividends in my heart.

Standing with my father, holding the end of a string of lights as we tried to discover the broken bulb before hanging those outside our home, remains a colorful moment in my memory.

We always finished it by hanging the large lighted face of Santa in the holly trellis by our door.

I can remember my mother shopped for weeks, picking up the items she needed to make her holiday meals a success. Extra was needed for guests and the additional food choices added to the monthly budget. But she would spread the purchases out over several weeks, to make it fit into the budget. An item here, and item there, especially while using coupons to make the deals even more affordable.

Holidays always meant family and friends visiting or us going to visit with them. Games, music, and lots of talk always combined into what we all saw as memories that we share in our hearts.

Today, it is a little hard to overlook the high costs associated with the expense of normalcy.

During Halloween, the cost of giving out candy was outrageous compared to previous years.

Now we are moving towards Thanksgiving. As we look around us, there are many great opportunities to find things to be thankful about. Despite the best efforts of those who may wish to infuse the political landscape into how we should conduct our holidays, I say “poppycock.” And for those who are not familiar with that word it means: nonsense or senseless talk.

I keep hearing via social media how some are uninviting friends and relatives to holiday events. Well, if that’s how you carry on your life, all I can say is you need a healing helping of the Holy Ghost. Nothing is more important than you relationships with family and tried and true friends of a lifetime.

Politics come and go, and despite philosophies, family and friends must overcome being on different sides of a vote.

We are all better than petty arguments over national trends that we have very little impact upon.

For an analogy, we all are passengers on the ship of state and we must find a way to live our lives, no matter which way it turns.

I see my neighbors already putting up their Christmas lights and shopping in the grocery stores for their holiday meals.

I am sure we will see many gather in their homes, sit around the table, take in a movie at a theater, watch some football on the big screen TV, go to the Christmas parade, and gather for holiday parties.

We have a life to share with those we love. Though sometimes we must forge different paths over things that happen in life, politics is not one of those things that merit such. Build the memories that you and your children will look to cherish decades from now when all the nonsense is forgotten.

Finding Peace

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Life can be hard for every single person who has ever walked the earth.

We must all work in some way each and every day to provide for ourselves and those we love.

Today, most folks do this to get money to buy what is needed.

In the past, our ancestors, awoke to the reality each day they had to till the land, plant, cultivate, hunt or fish to fill their bellies and their stores for the year.

Food, shelter and clothing are the primary needs each of us have. Many children today are sheltered from this reality by their parents as they try to create a period of innocence as they grow.

In my parents’ generation, from the time they were walking, they were working in the fields to sustain the rest of the family. For me and my brother, we had it easier as the work shifted to home and the family business rather than the fields which was the family business in my grandparents’ day. Although we did do our share on the farm too as we were taught what we needed to do to survive but our eating did not solely depend on what we were doing.

Our world is in a moment when people are looking closely at their bottom line. They are making choices that the believe will improve their pocketbooks today and into the future.

You may not have to worry about where your next meal comes from. You may work for the government at some level, the school system or have a job you feel is very secure because the industry you work in seems secure.

There are many who cannot say that, they know where their next meal is coming from. I come from a family where that is the case. There were times my folks did without to try to provide for us and the same is true for many in my extended family.

We are at a point in our country when people are looking at elected people spending their tax dollars overseas, within our country on people who came here circumventing our laws, or for feel good projects rather than necessities and they are done watching quietly in the corner.

I think that is what we saw at the ballot box recently. Americans are tired of everything that goes against their personal budget, their livelihood and the success of their families. They have felt helpless as they watched things they cherish being destroyed in various ways.

These feelings have been tapped into by leaders throughout the world’s history. It is an opportunity to reset the direction we are going and pull us back from the brink of disaster.

A country cannot sustain the deficit spending and continued borrowing from future generations.

It must stop. It will not be easy and many will face hardships as the belts begin to tighten.

However for all our futures, it must be done. It needs to be done while there is a possibility of lessening the impact overall. Otherwise, we will find ourselves walking the rubble of our lives in rags for clothes grubbing for roots to try to put in the water for soup to live another day. That may be extreme in your mind, but we are only 90 years ahead of millions in our country living that exact same life. It is very possible we might see it again. Such happenings are cyclical and we are very close to the time in those cycles, it could happen. But maybe, just maybe, we can be pulled back from falling off the cliff or at least a few feather pillows might be thrown at the bottom of the precipice to ease our fall.

Many in our country are elated by what is ahead with new administration coming in January while others are not. So much of our focus by those that are not is being forced onto concerns of feeling by people on social media. When the house is on fire, you have to put the fire out before you worry about how folks are feeling. We are in the house on fire stage and it may be there for the next few years as we watch these serious issues be handled one by one.

Based on what I saw in the last Trump administration, the swiftness when not impeded in the efforts was amazingly quick. So, I think we will see progress for the American people and our future very quickly. We are already seeing much positive momentum just since the election.

There will be many happy times along the way as we see individual wins and successes. Cherish those and smile every day because smiles are infectious. Have faith because God is with us always. Through all things He strengthens me.

Legendary American singer Earle Wheeler is called home

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So as best I recall, it was 1984 at Raccoon Creek Bluegrass Festival in Dallas, Ga., I took it into my head that the Marksmen Quartet needed a fiddle player, so I crawled up on stage fiddle in hand from the audience and joined in. I was surprised Earle Wheeler didn’t kick me right back off.

Already a legendary American music singer Dr. Earle Wheeler, of Murrayville, Ga. whose appearances on “The Gospel Singing Jubilee,” J.G. Whitfield’s “All Nite Sings,” and “The Warren Roberts Show” greatly impacted Southern gospel and now he was making strides in bluegrass music. He would go on to add country music as another musical genre among his conquests.

Dr. Earle Wheeler (Marksmen Media: Leslie Laurendeau Abby-J Photography)

He contributed over 500 career recordings to American music and amassed over 20 career award wins across the three musical genres plus three Dove Award nominations for “God’s Masterpiece” and “Blue Ridge Mountain Memories” and “This My Crowd” in 2008, 2010, and 2013. He attained numerous chart songs including several #1 songs, some of those were “Sound the Battle Cry,” “He’s Still Setting My Place at The Table,” “Potter’s Wheel,” and “Preach the Cross.”

Earle left this world doing what he loved while on tour in Texas at the age of 84, (1940- 2024). An accidental fall caused a broken second vertebra requiring his hospitalization prior to his passing from heart failure on Oct. 31.

Earle had led the Hall of Fame and multiple-award–winning Marksmen Quartet since 1967, a re-branding from his group The Gospel Hearts that he began in 1961.

My intervening in their performance 40 years ago, began friendships and musical collaborations that remain to this day.

My early years in music, I spent countless nights in their home. I slept in a bunk pulled out from under guitarist and vocalist Mark Wheeler’s bed when we were youth. Mark is Earle’s only son and a mainstay of the quartet. I ate many meals prepared by his wife Shirley at their dining room table.

When I graduated, Earle helped me get my first record company job. Of course, they would soon sign with that label and I promoted their music. While there I played on my first chart record for Earle “Meet Me in Heaven” which featured a fiddle solo in it.

That was one of a long list of chart songs in the three genres Earle would bring to music fans.

I stood on stage beside Earle for many years watching him move an audience with his master level skills of emceeing a show. His performances often brought explosive response from audiences was when he led “Get Away Jordan” and “I Want to Go There.” I saw long-time stars express their frustrations to follow Earle on stage because he would wear out an audience through his ability to move them emotionally.

The Marksmen joined me in my performance for the Grand Ole Opry’s 63rd Birthday Celebration in 1987 electrifying the audience. Within a year, they were included in a performance for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Legends of Bluegrass Concert in 1988 alongside Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Jim and Jesse, The Lewis Family, and the Osborne Brothers. Their efforts garnered them nine Gospel Bluegrass Band of the Year Awards once such an award was created.

I was honored to be there for many of those great achievements with Earle and appear with them on shows such as “The Huff Cook Gospel Sing” from Bristol, Va.

Beginning in 1988, I joined the cast of “In the Heat of the Night,” and when the opportunity arose, I included Earle and the group to sing on “In the Heat of the Night” “Christmas Time’s A Comin’” CD with Anne-Marie Johnson and featured them with Carroll O’Connor, the cast and country hall of famers.

In later years, when ever I appeared Earle used to joke I left the Marksmen because Carroll O’Connor paid me more than he did.

His acceptance in bluegrass also yielded his transition and acceptance into the country genre performing side by side with that genre’s biggest stars. Still performing in the same fashion, just finding new audiences for four voices and their unique songs. The group would win Five Country Gospel Group of the Year Awards. They won Two Country Music Video Awards for “Grandpa Was a Farmer” and “Wagon Tracks.”

From our first concert to raise funds for the Pearl and Floyd Franks Appalachian Music Scholarships for the Share America Foundation, Inc., Earle and the Marksmen Quartet were there and made our efforts a success each year joining us for the last time in 2023 on the Hollywood Hillbilly Jamboree.

Earle and his wife Shirley were an extra set of parents who have checked in on me throughout my life. Earle was there supporting me when I lost both my dad and mom. He is survived by his wife Shirley, his son Mark (Joy), and his grandchildren Will, Sarah Grace, and Cana and current and former members of The Marksmen Quartet.

Rest in Peace Earle… Well done good and faithful servant!

                            The Marksmen – 1987

 

Finding independence in music

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Music begins within each of our souls. If we are lucky, God bestows us the gifts to let it out.

Some sing, some play, some do both and their gifts bless their families, their church, their neighbors.

For many years now, the advent of the internet has broken down the hold gatekeepers had on reaching the mass audience. Now folks can sit in their living rooms with a camera, make music and people from around the world can find the, like them and buy their music.

Of course, the old fashion approach, town to town, church to church, club to club still helps build an audience too. Now, stars can come out of nowhere.

I was recently in attendance for an independent music awards called the 10th Annual Josie Music Awards.For 10 years, these have grown and expanded recognizing artists in country, Americana, bluegrass, folk, R & B, Rock and Roll, World Music and other forms. This was my second time to attend and both times I have taken it in as an artist who was nominated in categories in the awards. For me, it was Inspirational Vocalist and Musician of the Year – Fiddle. I have been so honored the last couple of years by their recognition of my musical efforts.

The Josie Awards are coordinated by Josie Passantino-Boone and Tinamarie Passantino. Beginning small it has grown to now be held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn. Folks travel from all over the U.S. and Canada and even foreign countries to attend the events surrounding the awards.

When I started in country music, we had a grassroots system operated by fan clubs that allowed artists to grow their followings and climb the ladder in a way. That has been replaced by largely by social media and followers.

While attending I met artists from around the country, many who have been growing and building their careers for years and some just starting but they all were standing side-by-side as award nominees, dressed in their finest, posing for photos, interviewing with media trying to expand their audiences.

In this award show, new and seasoned artists saw long-time artists, multi-million sellers, many hits in varying genres come across the stage and be honored and also perform. This year, they joined Neil McCoy (Lifetime Achievement Award Winner), Tiffany (Icon Award Winner), and John McCuen (Musician Lifetime Achievement Award Winner), and Randy Edelman (Songwriter Legend Award Winner), Doug Stone was also a presenter as were some recent music stars created by American Idol and similar shows.

I was so impressed by the artists I saw walk across the stage. They came from many backgrounds and regions. Their looks, musical talents and fashion choices varied. Their acceptance speeches were heartwarming and a dominant overall theme was faith in God and the revelation that He bestowed their talents and salvation. It was so refreshing!

As I sat towards the back of the auditorium watching folks, I realized the hosts called my name from the stage, so I made my way to the stage, climbed up the stairs on stage and awaited the other winners in the Musician of the Year categories.

We then each got to walk center stage and stand on the Circle. A section of floor taken from the Ryman where the Grand Ole Opry called home for so many years. As a Grand Ole Opry guest star, I had stood there before, so the experience was not new to me, but still highly revered by me.

“Forty years ago, Bill Monroe brought me here as an artist,” I said.

I thanked some of the fiddlers who influenced me like Howdy Forrester and Kenny Baker, Tommy Jackson, Chubby Wise, and Paul Warren who inspired me to want to be better at fiddling. Also my early Georgia fiddling influences – my Great Uncle Tom Franks who learned from my Great Grandfather A.J. Harve Franks, Dr. Donald Grisier, Dallas Burrell, Gordon Tanner, Eugene Akers and so many others.

I thanked my late parents Pearl and Floyd Franks, and God above for the honor. I also attributes all that has come to my mentors Grand Ole Opry stars Jim & Jesse McReynolds.

All in all, I can probably sum up the sentiments of the winners and the nominees and their families and friends who attended. It was such wonderful night, everyone walking the red carpet, sharing interviews with media folks and meeting other music artists from around the world. New friends made, old friends renewed and our musical toils recognized.

For those interested in my work as 2024 Musician of the Year – Fiddle, my latest single is the fiddle-backed patriotic film monologue “The American’s Creed – Recitation” and brand new on Nov. 1 is the historical fiddle single “Cotton-Eyed Joe” performed live with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys raising funds for the Pearl and Floyd Franks Appalachian Music Scholarships. Both available on ITunes and Amazon.

Learn more about the Josie Music Awards at https://www.josiemusicawards.com/.

I thought I had lost my marbles

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I was going through some boxes in the attic the other day and came across something that spurred some fond memories.

It was an old cotton tobacco bag with a tie string. These were designed to keep the tobacco fresh and protected but instead inside of it was my collection of marbles that were an amazing part of my youth.

A marble is a small, spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. Typically those are around 13 mm (1⁄2 in) in diameter. These colorful toys can be used for various games, such as marble runs or races, or created as a form of art.

I don’t know if children still play marbles but for me it was an amazing past time.

A couple of friends would draw a circle on the ground in the dirt, drop marbles into the circle and then we would take turns shooting to knock the marbles out of the circle. Of course, the winner got to keep the other player’s marbles. So, our collection could grow or reduce depending upon our skill with our favorite shooter and the skill and strength of our thumb flick.

I am amazed that this childhood collection actually survived all these years. I was not the best player in the world, so I must have become tired with playing and stored away my marbles. I sort of figured I had lost my marbles years ago. Most people would probably say something similarly.

I don’t know if that little boy could have imagined who the adult man would become.

He certainly could not have imagined the crooks and turns of love and life in general. I have many friends who have remained throughout my life, others who fell by the wayside. I have fell in love several times but never successfully. The process never took as it was. That was definitely not how young Randall envisioned his future. But God had another plan.

Professional opportunities have taken me around the U.S., Canada and Mexico entertaining folks from all types of stages and placed me of TV and in films for audiences around the world. Those are also things little Randall could never have seen coming. But I will say, I was blessed by each and every moment thus far and look forward to anything He allows ahead.

Playing games was a vital part of every childhood day. Those kept us physically active, mentally engaged and strategically learning and growing. As adults, we need the same type of activities to make each day better. We all work hard to make a living; so a little time each day doing something for recreation stimulating our mind and/or our body is productive for us all.

I fondly miss those days when I looked forward to the sun coming up and I hit the door running to fill the day with all types of adventures and games. Finding people to play with and creating game to play was all that was on my mind. I guess as adults, we see our hobbies in this way – fishing, hunting, sports, racing, motorcycling, bicycling and others. So, in a way we have days from time to time we rush out of the house looking forward to doing these things with our friends and/or families.

As I stared into the beautiful colors of those marbles rolling them around in my hand, I could see myself on my knees shooting with ease at the marbles in front of me within the circle. I could hear the clicking sounds they made as they hit. I could feel my bag heavier after winning.

Marbles may be bygone for me, and I am sure there are some who would say I lost them long ago, but I am sure glad I ran across them at least for a bit before returning them to their box once again for safe keeping until I find them again.

It’s Fall Y’all

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As the leaves begin to turn into a cornucopia of color, I make my last round in the yard with my lawnmower. I have prepped and planted my winter garden hoping for the best crop of turnip greens ever seen.

The branch pile at the street becomes almost as tall as me. It’s cold enough at night to start a fire for the heat but warm enough in the day for air conditioning. The scenes around me begin to be filled pumpkins and scarecrows decorating our light posts and porches.

I have always loved this time of year. However, like many, I dread what I really loved in my youth – the cooler weather. For so many of us, as the years pass, the aches and pains from the abuses our body has received through our times on earth, hurt with these changes.

In my part of the world, this time of year also turns our thoughts to the mountains. We head there to see the beauty of the leaves, to enjoy the fall festivals, and to experience small town America. This year however, many of our favorite spots in Appalachia are suffering due to Hurricane Helene and its aftermath. I encourage everyone who can reach out to Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina and other affected areas with your financial assistance and include them in your prayers. There will be ongoing needs for months and months. Now, in the immediacy, they need things to help them keep warm. But I want to remind you all that many of our favorite mountain destinations in both states are open for business. Their leaves will be filled with colors, their towns will be decorated, their fall festivals will occur. Many of these towns are banding together to advertise they are OK and ready to welcome tourists. Don’t forget them. If you are going to travel. These regions have already been devastated by the Hurricane, they need their brother and sister towns to succeed and keep the tax base that will help rebuild from bottoming out. I am sure also you will find efforts to help their neighbors in all these communities.

Another aspect of fall coming on are the blooming of signs on corners and in yards reminding us that its time to go to the polls and place your vote for local, state and national political candidates. In many areas, early voting has already begun. Our neighbors are sitting there anxiously awaiting your arrival to cast a ballot. A right that each of us adult American citizens have due to the forethought of our founders and the blood, sweat and tears shed by thousands of people who have served in the military to defend all our rights across generations.

So, get in the car, drive to polling place, if close enough, enjoy a pleasant walk in the fall sun, cast your ballot either early or on the day of the election and let your voices be heard about your wishes for the future of your town, your county, your state and our country. While you are at it, thank every veteran you come across for their service! I plan to vote on election day. I look forward to spending some time with my neighbors hearing about their lives as we wait on line.

It’s a privilege to vote for the future. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Most of us want to run our own lives. However, we are all like the children riding in the back seat of the station wagon. We are not holding the steering wheel, our foot is not hovering over the gas or brake pedals. However, unlike childhood, when we could not choose our parents and their driving habits, we can decide who is driving the car in our respective towns, counties, states and our country.

So, as you get ready to get in the back seat to ride along for the next four years: which candidates will make you feel safe, content in your life and opportunities, happy with the direction they are taking us,

ever ready to hit the brakes and steer a different direction, or prepared to hit the gas to get us towards an amazing destination when they see an opening for successful forward momentum.

At every level, these people we elect impact our lives, take it seriously. Vote for the future of your lives, your families, your pocketbooks and wallets, your opportunities in business and employment and the generations ahead of all of us.

Vote for the success of us all, your hometown, your state and our country.

Just vote. Make a difference. Put on the sticker, wear it proudly, thank a veteran and enjoy fall, y’all!

Help where you can

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The winds blew strongly, some trees crackled as the broke while other simply bent with the wind.

Around us houses were lifted off their foundations and some where obliterated into a pile of rubble or every stick that made them up was simply carried away in the wind.

These were some of my memories of living through a tornado 14 years ago that impacted 600 homes destroying many and many businesses in my home town. The coming weeks and months while serving in rescue, relief and rebuilding were an unbelievable experience that I would not wish to live again.

In the process of doing those efforts, rescue and relief workers develop their own type of post traumatic stress disorder. This doesn’t become apparent in many until after all is said and done.

Our Southern country and my native Appalachia have been dealt a terrible blow by Hurricane Helene and now we learn Florida will face another with Hurricane Milton as I write this piece.

As I watched the stream of bits and pieces coming out of east Tennessee, southwest Virginia, western North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, I found myself rolling back into my post tornado senses.
I had the urge to go out and get in the car to go to help with the rescue and response. The reality of it was, I was hours away, there was little I could do in areas where I was unfamiliar with the territory and without an organization on the ground to which I could connect, unlike in my own hometown.

As I saw ancestral towns that previous generations called home in distress, it pulled upon me, knowing there was little I could do at this point but pray and share opportunities for people to assist financially as I found solid leads for help.

From my experiences, I learned it is the local churches and local non-profit volunteers supporting local fire, sheriff’s and police departments alongside the responding city and county workers that carried us through. Endless hours and endless tasks as long as there were more to help, more to seek out, more to provide for days, weeks and months.

As I have seen the needs on social media streams, the remote areas impacted in the Appalachians, I know the rescuers have their tasks cut out for them to try and reach as many as they can. I have seen teams on foot, on horseback followed by pack mules or pack goats, folks on ATVs, and helicopters and drones carrying in supplies, and those same helicopters taking survivors to safety.

The devastation across six states will require months and in many areas years to recover as towns were simply wiped from the face of the earth. We need to include these rescue and relief workers and the victims constantly in our prayers as our lives go on as normal, theirs are mired in the mud that now surrounds all they knew.

If you are able to physically respond and volunteer in any of the impacted areas, I encourage you to seek out opportunities and bless those in need. If you are able to give, please find local churches or non-profits or those you know for sure are on the ground making a difference. My experience is your monies go farther and are better utilized with them than if given to well-known nationally known organizations. The one exception to nationally known in my experience is Samaritan’s Purse which I have seen on the ground working in the Appalachian areas. The Cajun Navy has been very active in the response as well. Also, there are many private helicopter pilots flying missions and their fuel costs are extensive. So, if you can find ways to help those through charities or individuals, I know it will be an appropriate place for funds.

Once all the areas are reached and the living are initially helped, there will be thousands without a houses because insurance will not cover their losses either at all or even in part. Their homes will have to be rebuilt and there will be need for money and volunteers.

There will likely be thousands that must be buried once that phase becomes the focus. I read of one family that lost fifteen members as a house slid down a mountainside. In the end, many families will never know what happened to their loved ones because no body will be recovered or will be recognizable or identifiable wherever they may have washed to rest. With their homes washed away, knowing whether they had any life insurance will likely be very difficult. Their survivors will need help and I imagine counties will be developing cemeteries for rest of the unknown victims.