Am I Still EDB??

The year was 1984. Calling this a super productive year, would be without question an arguable statement... The Los Angeles Raiders defeat the Washington Redskins, 38–9, to win Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa, Florida. TED (conference) founded. Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, announces his retirement. Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, a day before his 45th birthday. The Edmonton Oilers win The Stanley Cup, beating the defending champion New York Islanders by 4 games to 1. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games to capture their 15th NBA Championship. Jeopardy! begins its syndicated version, with present-day host Alex Trebek. Republican President Ronald Reagan defeats Democratic former Vice President Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% popular vote victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral college; Mondale wins only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia. Future U.S. Secretary of State and 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry gets elected as the Democratic U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and was in office until 2013, when he resigned to become the Secretary of State, succeeding Hillary Clinton. White supremacist and Order leader Robert Jay Mathews is killed in a gun battle and fire during an FBI siege on Whidbey Island. And with all that going on around the world, smack in the middle east end of these states united sits a young baby full of opportunity.

What exactly was going though the brain of this vibrant child? A child who dared to be told who he was, and what he could achieve. You were a child of force, said my grandma. A kid who even before you could speak knew how to express what you desired. Who had a deep seeded confidence about yourself, if you wanted it, you went after it. You didn’t care if people opposed you, criticized you, nor were you concerned about the consequences. I sit here almost thirty six years later, thinking.. How far off am I from this precious moment in time? Now I recognize, we must evolve right? No one is the same way now, as when he or she was born, yet how different is my character now from this kid? Do I still believe strongly in myself? Do I still seek to defy the odds? Do I still operate with somewhat reckless abandon?

Fifty one years earlier a man named Franklin Roosevelt took the national stage declaring “This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Even in then fifty years from my birth, now almost ninety year ago, the world was full of sadistic, self centered, ego centric people who wanted to do whatever they could to demoralize those who were weaker, and despite their efforts the weak had not only survived but has been made stronger. History has proven, more closely MY HISTORY has proven, no matter what ya deal with, along as you are still breathing, you can not just survive, but thrive.. I need this picture framed, placing in a prominent location, constantly reminding me, EDB, you can, and you will get through it. You will survive those who criticize, you will survive those who attack you, you will survive those who set out to screw you. You will even survive the bull 💩💩💩 squating in your head..

To you reading this, may the same motivating thought which has carried me, carry you.....