Have You Been Robbed?

I detest thieves!

I recently bought a circular fan as a donation to the gym room at my apartments.  It’s pretty neat that my apartment complex has this small room with a treadmill, exercise bike, and weight machine. Hey, it’s not a 24-Hour Fitness or anything but the convenience works. Unfortunately, the apartment staff has a tendency to turn the A/C off after hours making the room sometimes unbearable.  The fan I bought was nothing fancy, just something I found at Wal-Mart the other day. After dragging my body to the room yesterday morning before work, I was so mad that I could spit nails--what a site that would be.  The new fan I bought was already gone! The nerve! You know that feeling, the disheartening and anger that someone would actually steal.

Usually it’s not the “things” we are really mad about but the complete lack of respect to robe us of our values. Often we think of material things as the stuff being stolen from us.  However things can be taken away from us almost on a daily basis. 

Have you ever “given” or practically “sold” yourself away? When we give away our rights, privileges, happiness, or settle for less than what we deserve, our peace and joy is robbed right from underneath us.  Unless we have peace inside of who we really are, the money and material things are just duct tape – a temporary fix for happiness.  True, I’d like to win the lottery someday just so I can see if money really does buys me happiness. Yet there are a lot more important things to me than that. 

My heritage, my family, my friends, my beliefs, and my values are priceless!  Those are the things that need to be protected the most.  Its unfortunate that the society we live in today are the thieves – the media, the politicians, the entertainment business, the economy, and even false religious leaders are the ones stealing from us.  We lose a part of ourselves when we become like mindless sheep and abide by what society says who we are or who we ought to be.   Like robots we allow these people to take advantage of our weakness instead of standing up for ourselves and our values.
What's more disturbing are the innocent young lives that have had their life literally taken away from someone because they were unable to defend themselves.

It breaks my heart to see and hear about those who steal or give away a part of themselves. Often I find myself giving away a part of me, trying to make someone happier or feeling that I am not good enough.  In my past relationship, I had to pay for nearly everything. In a sense, I “paid” to have a relationship and gave away the true me. The true lost is being without the inner peace. So in an odd way, those who steal are being robbed themselves from the inner peace.

Sometimes when I have had things taken from me, I want to seek refuge.  The anger and powerlessness I feel overwhelms me.  Then I am reminded of a couple of Bible verses, Leviticus 19:18 which states “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD” and Romans 12:19 that states “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"^[a]says the Lord.” In due time, God will restore what was lost.

Inner peace...blah, blah, blah…whatever and who cares…right? Well, once you find it and know it well, that inner peace will be your most valuable asset and the one thing you can take with you to the grave. 

Re-Evaluate Your Values and Protect Them!

Drunk on Election Day

Tempted to Sell or Give Away Your Vote? 

     When I was growing up, election time seemed to be an eventful time in my family. On occasions I was able to visit the polls as my parents voted. Since my dad couldn’t read, it was not uncommon for voting volunteers to assist him in the voting booth. It also was not uncommon to see him and my Grandpa as well as many others drunk (intoxicated) on Election Day. In fact, everyone I knew was aware that Election Day brought many alcoholics to the polls. As a child, I had no clue that selling your vote was any harm nor given an alcoholic a 5th of Jim Beam for his vote was illegal. It all seemed natural to me. In fact, many of the poor like my family looked forward to Election Day so the electric bill could get paid or groceries bought. So it doesn’t surprise me that this tradition still continues today except the candidates have graduated from alcohol to pills and other drugs. It’s very easy for officials and candidates to take advantage of those who are poor, addicts, or just uninformed.
      Not long ago I had written about the issues my mom was having with the Breathitt County officials (Issues with Breathitt County Officials)  in fixing the Fugate's Fork Road.  A political official offered to fix the road in return for votes.  In addition, it very easy to see the many newly "graveled" driveways during election time with signs posted for those already in office.  Meanwhile the public county roads nearby are in awlful conditions that don't include enough gravel to barely cover a mud puddle.  So the issue regarding voting fraud hasn't been far from my mind since it is election time.

All this made me wonder why officials are still able to get elected into office if many of the residents disagree with their leadership. Obviously, people either 1.) Refuse to vote, 2.) Vote out of guilt for friends or family, or 3.) Bribery.

 Although voting fraud seems impossible to stop, it’s important that people know the importance of voting.  Nothing will improve in the area if residents continue to sell or give away their right to vote. Nothing will improve in the area if residents don’t stand up for what they believe in.  With what little rights we still have left, it’s not worth selling out or risking jail time to corrupt candidates who obviously care less about you and your community and more about themselves. 

DO your part - anonymously report voting fraud at

1-800-328-VOTE (8683)!!!