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Add as Friend…

I looked up an old friend in Facebook yesterday and clicked ‘add as friend’ as I have hundreds of times before. The difference this time is, I know he’ll never accept. Why? Zach Vander Griend’s life was cut tragically short on Tuesday while he was doing what he loved best on this earth; flying…

Zach’s facebook profile picture; doing what he loved best…

Firefighting News covers it here, although his name is not mentioned. Details on the accident are sketchy…

“The Lockheed P2V-7 aircraft on the way to drop retardant on a California wildfire was between 100 and 300 feet off the ground when it crashed less than 2 miles from the Reno-Stead Airport on Monday evening, said Tom Little, lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Little said nothing indicates pilot error played a role in the crash, which brings to 27 the number of deaths in fatal crashes of firefighting air tankers in the U.S. since 1991.” Source: Official: Jet engine on fire before tanker crashed - USATODAY.com

My buddy Craig Hairrell and I were talking about this yesterday as we pored over the reports across the internet over the phone. You read this stuff in the headlines every day, but once in a blue moon it means something to YOU personally.

Zach was a young man of the most exceptional character and potential. We both attended Morningstar Community Church in Aurora, IL when I lived there and we would still visit from time to time when we came back to town to visit family. Later, when I was engaged by LoPresti Aviation on a couple of projects and he was a student at Moody Bible Institute’s Aviation School we would seek each other out after services and talk flying. He was living my dream; young, handsome, gifted, a bright career in aviation ahead of him. His eyes would shine as he shared details about the program and I would hang on every word. All that is over now…

All except the eternal part — the part that really counts. You see, Zach knew Jesus Christ in a personal way and it showed in everything he did. His salvation and eternity are secure. Still, my heart breaks for his parents, Marci and Steve, and the temporary loss they most certainly feel until they are reunited with him in glory. Until then, I imagine that Zach will be testing a new set of wings — one that will never fail him…

Moral of the story? You’ve heard it before. Life is short. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet “Those friends thou hast and their adoption tried grapple to thy soul with hoops of steel”. In other words, ‘add as friend’ while you still can…

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About this Site

Todd Lohenry is a business development and technology professional with 25 years experience in marketing, sales and technology. His firm e1evation, llc helps small-medium businesses develop the strategy and structure they need to succeed in the marketplace. Mr. Lohenry is an entrepreneur, marketing and sales expert, technologist, journalist, speaker, instructor and political consultant…
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Rick Hood Makes us Proud…

His question to Senators Obama and McCain was featured on Military.com. You can see it here

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The 9/11 Tribute and Olbermann’s Reaction…

Isn’t Keith Olbermann the same drama queen who called John Gard on of the ‘worst persons in the world’? Yup! The same one…

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Stop Future Sarah Palins! ;-)

What a whiner!

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Proud to Support John McCain

From Celebrity Photos

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Hockey Mom and Hunter Leaves Two US Senators as Road Kill!

Here’s an interesting perspective from the Libertarian VP Candidate Wayne Allyn Root…

“That should be the headline in newspapers around the world this morning. . . . After watching last night’s Sarah Palin performance, I can only say, now, that Obama’s best shot at victory is if Biden plagiarizes Palin’s speech! . . .

A pit bull Hockey Mom just left most of America’s most gifted male politicians (and orators) dead in the middle of the road. She sliced and diced Obama, last night, like a wood chipper. Obama’s political career is lying in pieces, in a ravine somewhere in Alaska- with snowmobile tracks leading from the carnage.

Pallin’s line about a “community organizer” being about the same as a small town Mayor…”except the mayor has responsibilities” was a hockey puck to Obama’s groin. Then, she finished Barack off, by referring to his fake Greek columns being carted back to Hollywood. Ouch! I could hear every guy in Middle America screaming in laughter. With one line she emasculated Barack’s entire fake career. Then, the hunter shot him once more for good measure with the line about Obama saying nice things to small town America to their faces…then badmouthing them when he’s back in San Francisco. Did the body move on that last shot? Or was he already finished off? Hard to tell.” Source: ARRA News Service: Libertarian VP Candidate Praises GOP VP Candidate Sarah Palin

What do you think?

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Sarah Palin’s Full Speech; Worth Watching Again…

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Newt on Sarah…

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I Have Mixed Emotions…

…about watching the convention on tv. I mean, I think I should be there. After all, I was named as an alternate delegate. I was also credentialed as a journalist. So, why am I not there? Time and money, time and money, time and money…

I was told it would cost over $3,000 to attend. $3,000. Sorry, but there’s something that just not right about that. So, I’m watching on tv…

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Huckabee on McCain

“John McCain doesn’t want the kind of change that allows the government to reach deeper into your paycheck and pick your doctor, your child’s school, or even the kind of car you drive or how much you inflate the tires.”

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Alaska Maverick…

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You Won’t Want to Miss Sarah Palin this Evening…

Most thinking people agree that the choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate was perhaps John McCain’s best decision ever [or at least in this campaign]. Here’s an excerpt from her upcoming speech…

“I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

And so it begins. If you can’t catch it on tv, perhaps you can grab the streaming video over the internet here.

Palin in Newsweek, Before all the Hoopla…

It’s interesting to see what Newsweek had to say, before Palin was a VP candidate…

“In Alaska, Palin is challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state’s political culture. “The public has put a lot of faith in us,” says Palin during a meeting with lawmakers in her downtown Anchorage office, where—as if to drive the point home—the giant letters on the side of the ConocoPhillips skyscraper fill an entire wall of windows. “They’re saying, ‘Here’s your shot, clean it up’.” For Palin, that has meant tackling the cozy relationship between the state’s political elite and the energy industry that provides 85 percent of Alaska’s tax revenues—and distancing herself from fellow Republicans, including the state’s senior U.S. senator, Ted Stevens, whose home was recently searched by FBI agents looking for evidence in an ongoing corruption investigation. (Stevens has denied any wrongdoing.) But even as she tackles Big Oil’s power, Palin has transformed her own family’s connections to the industry into a political advantage. Her husband, Todd, is a longtime employee of BP, but, as Palin points out, the “First Dude” is a blue-collar “sloper,” a fieldworker on the North Slope, a cherished occupation in the state. “He’s not in London making the decisions whether to build a gas line.”

In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Palin said it’s time for Alaska to “grow up” and end its reliance on pork-barrel spending. Shortly after taking office, Palin canceled funding for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” a $330 million project that Stevens helped champion in Congress. The bridge, which would have linked the town of Ketchikan to an island airport, had come to symbolize Alaska’s dependence on federal handouts. Rather than relying on such largesse, says Palin, she wants to prove Alaska can pay its own way, developing its huge energy wealth in ways that are “politically and environmentally clean.”" Source: Now This Is Woman’s Work | Newsweek Women and Leadership | Newsweek.com

Go the source to read the whole article…