South Carolina Politics

May8

state-flag-south-carolinaI try to stay away from the sub­ject of pol­i­tics due to the poten­tial to get into fights for to offend oth­ers.  I con­sider myself mid­dle of the road.  Socially lib­eral and fis­cally con­ser­v­a­tive.  I vote issues and not by party.  I am shar­ing my feel­ings today only because of my sin­cere embar­rass­ment of our state vot­ing Mark San­ford back into gov­ern­ment and send­ing him to Washington.

 

It would appear that any repub­li­can would have won that seat.  SC is a repub­li­can state.  How­ever, do the vot­ers in the low coun­try have short term mem­ory loss?  Do they remem­ber what Mark San­ford put our state through?  How can vot­ers trust him again?  What has he done to try to regain our trust?  These are ques­tions that I am strug­gling with.  Mark San­ford is a human being and makes mis­takes and he has asked for for­give­ness for those mis­takes.  I per­son­ally don’t dis­like the man.  I do dis­like him as a politi­cian and don’t want him rep­re­sent­ing my state.  Once again we will be the butt of jokes.  There was a Tweet last night from Valerie Bertinelli that made me mad. It was “Wow. The Car­oli­nas really seem to like their lyin’, cheatin’ men. Mark San­ford, John Edwards, Strom Thur­mond… #what­ever”.   This is just the first of many insults that will be lev­eled at us.

 

South Car­olina does not believe in gay mar­riage, believes that fam­i­lies are sacred but can vote in an untrust­wor­thy, adul­terer Mark San­ford.  Make up your mind South Car­olina.  We either have val­ues or we don’t and right now it looks like we talk out of both sides of our mouth.

 

Thanks for read­ing this.  I apol­o­gize to any I have offended and I respect your views as I hope that you will respect mine.

Anna Huckeba July 28, 1987-June 23, 2012

Jun29

Life changed on June 23 for all that knew and loved Anna.  She was bru­tally mur­dered in Spar­tan­burg early that morn­ing.  Today as I write this I still have a hard time believ­ing that such a beau­ti­ful, smart and vibrant young woman is no longer here with us.  Her death is hard to com­pre­hend alone.  How­ever, try­ing to come to terms that she was mur­dered has made her death even more trau­matic and we are search­ing for answers.  Why? Why our Anna?  Hope­fully the law enforce­ment will get those answers for us.  The answers will still leave us with even more questions.     

Anna was about to start a new chap­ter in her life this week.  A path that was going to be tough but one that would end with a new begin­ning.  She will never get that new begin­ning and that is so tragic.  Anna, as we all have, made some bad choices in her life.  She was ready to move for­ward and  grow from her mistakes.  

Please keep her fam­ily in your thoughts and prayers as well as all that knew Anna and loved her.  Her death is a bit­ter pill to swal­low. How­ever her light will always shine in our hearts.  

Doing It!

Jun5

I am ten weeks into my weight loss lifestyle now and have lost more than 40 lbs.  I can say that it has been dif­fi­cult at times but I am deter­mined to suc­ceed.  I am start­ing to feel bet­ter and will only get bet­ter and bet­ter.  I am hav­ing to deal with my emo­tions instead of stuff­ing them down with food.  Feel­ings can be raw at times and have not been pleas­ant to deal with.  How­ever, my feel­ings must be dealt with in order to live a healthy lifestyle and be suc­cess­ful in los­ing this weight that has shielded me from liv­ing my life.  Fat was my excuse for not dat­ing, being active or going anywhere.

have a long road ahead and I have only started my jour­ney.  I look for­ward to this jour­ney and the new chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties it gives me.  I will suc­ceed this time and no longer hide behind my cur­tain of shame and fat.

100 lbs by 50

Mar11

I have come to that deci­sion that life as I know it has to change or my life will con­tinue to suf­fer or even end.  I can­not keep eat­ing and liv­ing like I have. I know that it will not be easy but I am deter­mined to lose 100 lbs. before I turn 5o next March.  I will be blog­ging more and not stuff­ing my feel­ings down with food.  I am ready to face my emo­tions whether good or bad.

Watch out world! I am ready to live.

Not Looking Back

Jan2

This is the sec­ond day of the new year.  I have plenty of things that I need to change. How­ever, I am mak­ing one res­o­lu­tion.  I refuse to dwell in the past.  I have made mis­takes, been hurt by oth­ers and learned lessons along the way.  The past can­not be changed.  Dwelling in the past will rob me of my present and my future.  

I am look­ing for­ward to what this won­der­ful new year will bring.  I am no longer chained by my past.  My head faces for­ward.   Happy 2012!!!!

We Remember Them

Oct9

At the ris­ing of the sun and at its going down We remem­ber them.
At the blow­ing of the wind and the chill of win­ter We remem­ber them.
At the open­ing of the buds and in the rebirth of spring We remem­ber them.
At the blue­ness of the skies and in the warmth of sum­mer We remem­ber them.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn We remem­ber them.
At the begin­ning of the year and when it ends We remem­ber them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remem­ber them.
When we are weary and in need of strength
We remem­ber them.
When we are lost and sick at heart We remem­ber them.
When we have joy we crave to share We remem­ber them.
When we have deci­sions that are dif­fi­cult to make We remem­ber them.
When we have achieve­ments that are based on theirs We remem­ber them.
As long as we live, they too will live; for they are now a part of us, as we remem­ber them.

Jew­ish Prayer

Never Easy to Say Good-bye Trey Pennington Oct. 9, 1965-Sept. 4, 2011

Sep19

  It has been two weeks since Trey took his life. In some ways it seems like for­ever an in other ways it seems like just yes­ter­day.  Trey was the friend that I was refer­ring to in my pre­vi­ous post.  It came as a shock to many of us when he first attempted sui­cide.  He always had a smile on his face and had so many friends.  We would later learn that he was going through a per­sonal cri­sis with his mar­riage.  I don’t know all the details and so I will just leave it at that.  He was doing bet­ter we thought and he was tweet­ing and post­ing on Face­book about how he has a lot of speak­ing engage­ments com­ing up. Unfor­tu­nately he wrote about a future that he chose not to have. I think that is the hard­est part of his death.  He made a choice not to exist any­more.  My father made the same choice on New Year’s Eve 2009. I will never under­stand why my Dad made that choice and I don’t under­stand why Trey made that choice.  Trey was such a gen­tle soul to his friends.  He really cared about you and gave you his undi­vided attention

I like to think that Trey’s death brought a lot of atten­tion to sui­cide and hope­fully some­one will ask for help when in a black hole or oth­ers will reach out to some­one that is down.  Trey and my Dad are two peo­ple that I would have never thought for a sec­ond that they would end their own lives.  We need to real­ize that no one is sui­cide proof and we must be aware of how we are feel­ing and reach out and con­nect to others.

His friends have con­nected with each other.  Trey would really like this.  Trey has a remark­able mother, his brother Erick has com­mu­ni­cated and let every­one know what was going on and even shared his eulogy.  I have become friends with his cousin Rhonda who was extremely close to Trey in the past year.  Money is being raised to have a swing donated in his honor in Falls Park to be fac­ing the Lib­erty Bridge.  This was his favorite place in the world. He was well trav­eled so the fact that the Lib­erty Bridge in Greenville SC was his favorite place speaks volumes.

I miss Trey’s posts and his pic­tures from the bridge.  My heart goes out to his six chil­dren.  I am much older than they are and I am still hurt­ing over my father’s death and don’t under­stand it so I am sure that they are hurt­ing even more.  I am includ­ing some links at the end of this post.  Two were made by his friends in his honor.  We are going to walk in honor of Trey on his birth­day at the Walk out Dark­ness to be held in Spar­tan­burg. Please open the link and donate.  This goes to sui­cide aware­ness.  I am also includ­ing a link to the Sur­vivors of Sui­cide page.  This is a great source for those try­ing to make sense of sui­cide and try to heal.  

I just ask that every­one be aware of those around you and reach out and con­nect.  I am tak­ing my own advise and try­ing to make myself get out of my four walls and get back into life.  It is too short.

Trey Pen­ning­ton, In His Own Words

http://​www​.youtube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​Z​y​k​M​X​n​o​Q​u​p​A​&​a​m​p​;​f​e​a​t​u​r​e​=​s​h​are

 

Rus­sell Tripp’s Video of the can­dle­light memorial

http://​cloud1​.rus​sell​trip​pllc​.com/​v​i​d​e​o​s​/​t​r​e​y​/​t​r​e​y​+​m​e​m​o​r​i​a​l​+​v​e​r​s​i​o​n​s​.​wmv

 

Out of the Dark­ness Walk-Team Trey’s Light   Please donate

http://​afsp​.donor​drive​.com/​i​n​d​e​x​.​c​f​m​?​f​u​s​e​a​c​t​i​o​n​=​d​o​n​o​r​D​r​i​v​e​.​t​e​a​m​&​a​m​p​;​e​v​e​n​t​I​D​=​1​3​4​0​&​a​m​p​;​t​e​a​m​I​D​=​2​6​841

 

Sur­vivors of Suicide

http://​www​.sur​vivor​sof​sui​cide​.com/

Greenville SC Sur­vivors of Suicide

http://​www​.mhagc​.org/​1​-​g​e​n​e​r​a​l​-​i​n​f​o​r​m​a​t​i​o​n​/​2​-​s​t​a​t​i​c​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​s​u​r​v​i​v​o​r​s​-​o​f​-​s​u​i​c​ide