Happy Easter to all my valued readers

I would like to take this opportunity to wish my valued readers a very happy Easter.

I have taken the past week off from reporting here, but I hope to get back to it very soon. We here at Freadom Nation are a little burned out from work as an RT, and we will be loafing around this Easter Sunday, the earliest in 95 years, and hope to get back into the swing of things tomorrow.

This blog is my #2 priority behind my Respiratory Therapy Cave blog. So, when my family allots me one hour on the computer (the modern boob tube), I usually report there first, so if you really want to know what I'm up to, you can check over there. Sorry, though, I try not to talk politics on my other blog.

Like you guys, I love politics. I try not to just focus on things that you can just read about on other blogs, or other media outlets, but rather I like to analyze the news and report at an angle you might not get anywhere else. Mostly, this is my thinking blog and, if I do a good job, I get my readers to think too.

Now, I understand that you guys aren't going to agree with me on everything I write. I understand that when I review history here, you might rather believe what you read in the New York Times as opposed to what I think is a more accurate history. That's fine. If you want to disagree with me, then we can at least have an intelligent discussion.

Intelligent discussion. That was the purpose of me starting this blog. My wife tries to stay away from politics, and I tell her that that is a good idea. And my nine-year -old son wants loves to have intelligent discussions with me, but I absolutely refuse to discuss much of what is politics with him. My reason there is I want him to learn to think for himself.

He asks me on a daily basis who I'm going to vote for for president.

"I'm sorry, Jordan, I'm not going to answer that," I say.

He smiles and changes the subject. "Let's play a game."

I understood my parent's value system, but neither my mom nor my dad told us kids who they were going to vote for for president, nor what political affiliation they were. It wasn't until I was in my early 20s when I started to put two and two together. My mom grew up in a strictly poor democratic family, and my dad tended to lean more conservative, yet not nearly as conservative as the William F. Buckley Jr crowd.

I have five brothers and one sister, and my sister, like my wife, tries to stay away from politics. Four of my brothers agree with me on most of the issues of the day, so what fun is that. My youngest brother is a true Independent who told me his is having trouble deciding between Obama and McCain. I have some good discussions with him, but I try to be fair in our discussions as to not offend him nor sway him.

That's real life. Even at work, where I have many opinionated co-workers and patients, I tend to try to avoid politics. I usually smile, listen, and agree or disagree, yet rarely do I let these people know my opinions.

For example, just the other day I had a patient who was stressed because she had to go for a scope of her lungs in a few hours, and I was watching Fox News with her. I thought since she was wathcing Fox that she'd be a republican, but I found I was wrong. And she said, "I don't like Obama, and I don't think McCain has a chance of winning."

"So," I said, "Who do you like." I thought she would say McCain.

"Oh, I like Clinton."

"She has a good chance of winning," I said. I wanted to be politically correct. I know that she is stressed out as it is, and if she can go into that surgery thinking good thoughts about her favorite candidate rather than fearing that McCain will win, then I have done a good deed.

See what I mean. I am unable to have a true intelligent discussion throughout the course of a normal day in my life. I occasionally do manage to slip one in, but not enough to satiate my needs. So that's why I created Freadom Nation.

So, that leaves Freadom Nation as my sole place of escape, a place where I can write about whatever is on my mind, be it politics, history, philosophy, or whatever. This is my home. And when I started it I thought I'd be writing only to myself, but I seem to have found a small following, and that's cool. You guys bring joy to Freadom Nation. Even you guys who disagree with me, you get me to think, and that's good -- right. We get each other to think.

Just for the record, I try not to be stubborn on any single issue. And, in the past, I have been known to change my mind from time to time. Hopefully, you guys are equally open minded. I wish, and hope, that our politicians are the same way.

I also have been slacking on my reading of other blogs lately, but, as I've mentioned before, I have to prioritize my time, and you guys, however great your blogs are, get put behind my other responsibilities: God, Wife, Kids, other people, other things.

For now, I'm avoiding politics, avoiding history, avoiding reading up on my philosophy, avoiding reading anything that might get me thinking, and I'm enjoying a day with my children and my wife. I'm enjoying the day God has set aside for us to celebrate his gift to us.

So, that in mind, I have to get off of here now. I have to cuttle up with my little girl in front of the TV. I have to turn off my Detroit Tiger spring training game and spend the rest of the day with them.

I hope you all have a great day, and I hope to hear from you soon, and we can get back to making each other think.