"A City Morns..."

Not too many decades ago my home town of current residence for the past 28 years was unflatteringly referred to as "God's waiting room," euphemistically so labeled because it had been embraced as the final roosting spot for hundreds of our nation's seasoned citizens who had flocked from the colder northern climes to enjoy their remaining days basking in our warming sunshine. The streets of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, particularly along both sides of Central Avenue, were neatly spaced rows of "green benches" upon which our elderly residents would while away the day's hours in casual communal communication. Those iconic green benches have long since disappeared, as has the city's melancholy reputation, to evolve and reinvent itself into the state's fourth largest city, teeming with a vibrant, younger and proud citizenship that is eager to make and keep their hometown an enviable place to live and raise family.

Not unlike Tuson, Arizona, where the recent tragedies unfolded, St. Petersburg also regards itself as a "biggest, little city." With a population of just under 250,000, the axiom of six degrees of separation firmly and lovingly holds we citizens in its embrace. We all know somebody that knows somebody who knows us. We proudly celebrate each other's victories and morn each other's tragedies. On this past Monday tragedy wrapped its icy fingers around the throat of our city. Two of our city's finest, police officers Tom Baitinger and Jeffery "Yaz" Yaslowitz, were fatally gunned down in a hale of bullets inflicted by a wanted felon as he attempted to cowardly hide in the attic. Collectively our hearts stopped and the expressions of disbelief and tears of sorrow poured forth.

Today my home church humbly, proudly and reverently served as the host facility for the funeral of these two fallen policeman. An estimated 15,000 people were in attendance at the memorial service. It was further anticipated that thousands more of we St. Petersburg and citizens of Flordia watched on television with quite and reflective hearts. For we citizens who were so humbly served by these two men, who gave their full measure of service to their fellow citizens, it is the very least that we can and should do.

May God rest their souls eternally and honor each of these fallen heroes as we who remain behind pay our final respects to the two lives so well spent in our service.

"Three...Two...One...Bub-Bye!!"

The "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" finally and thankfully reached zero last evening when MSNBC permanently pulled the plug on the contentious liberal talk show host. In an ironic twist of his unfettered bias and inflamed diatribes against anything and everything conservative, Olbermann was afforded an unscripted ten minutes to say his goodbyes to his seventh place rated TV viewership; trailing irritatingly throughout his his eight year stint with MSNBC behind his arch conservative nemesis on the FOX News Channel.

Appealing principally to an audience of malcontents who prescribe to the philosophy that the world owes them a living just because they exist and that the government must provide for them a standard of living that they have no inner-driving ambition to secure for themselves, Olbermann ran afoul of his employers on several notable occasions, believing that he was first and foremost always the smartest man in the room, flaunting an air of superiority that thumbed its nose toward any entity of authority who had concluded otherwise. Obermann now unceremoniously finds himself to be thrust among the ranks of other unapologetic egos, such as fellow traveler Nancy Pelosi and her disenfranchised minions of ousted liberal Democrats, who, now like Olbermann, finds that they have plenty of time to lick their self-imposed wounds with no further ready access to a bully pulpit from which to espouse their arrogant, absent of fact, opinions.

MSNBC finally came to the ultimate conclusion, as did so many other fair-minded persons of intellect, that Olbermann was a self-proclaimed emperor sorely lacking in outer garments of substance and bid him a long overdue adieu. How much will I miss ole Keith's liberal rants? Let me count down the ways...

"HE'S CRAZY!! GET IT?"

ENOUGH SAID...

"And In This Case...

The Jury Is Still Out..."

"A Picture Worth A Thousand Words..."

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself.