Be grateful for what you have this month, but never stop improving and striving for something better.

Success is a journey, as it says in the Toot’s HQ.

I’m grateful for where I am, for where I’ve been. Gratitude is good for you, you know. But I have hope for a better future.

The growing season is coming to a close. It’s time for breaking out the jackets, cooking marshmallows on the fire, vivid colored leaves and SEC football.

As of press time, New York City and New Jersey are still there, but their future as above-water societies is questionable.

Z-Train brings up a great stat, as far as the football end goes; SEC wins for Dooley: 4. He’s 4-17 against the greatest league in the land. He still hopes for a good season, or at least to disguise that record with some victories against the less mighty.

Now, as far as the election and the office of the president go, I’ve lost hope.

Four years ago, a candidate talked about looking out for the little people and changing the culture in Washington—restoring the American dream, cleaning up the mess, getting along with the world, ending cronyism. This was inspiring for a lot of Americans. Many actually believed the country was going somewhere new, somewhere better. Then the new president goes out and appoints a bunch of career politicians and elites to his cabinet, recruits a bunch of warmongers and financial executives for his team. And he’s just like all the rest.

At the end of the first term, his biggest legacy is handing billions of taxpayer dollars to corporate America; we have to save the auto industry, we have to save the banks. Oh yeah, the country did kill Osama bin Ladin during the president’s term. Bush didn’t seem to want to do that. His and bin Ladin’s families were big buddies; they made lots of money together.

I suppose I’m thankful I live in the land of the free. It still seems better than most countries out there. I don’t really have first-hand accounts of many other places to compare it to, but I don’t think I want to live in a Muslim majority country or a theocracy of any kind.

How many people want to come live in the U.S. every year? Millions. This has something to do with acceptance, tolerance and opportunity. How many want to go live in Musilm countries? (Iran, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Somolia, etc.?) Not quite as many. This has something to do with corruption, violence, stifling of free speech and ideas, human rights abuses, etc. Something to think about.

Keep hope alive. Keep pursuing your goals and a better future, but don’t wait on the president to make something positive happen in your life. It’s up to you.

And Mr. Obama, if you get elected for another term, it’s not too late to follow up on some of the talk from your 2008 campaign. Back then, you used words like “solutions,” “hope,” “progress,” “change,” “dreams.” Lately, it seems more like “tough times,” “recession,” “difficult” and the like are big parts of your vocabulary.

I don’t want to hear about tough times, I want to hear about hope!

Peace,
Bracken Mayo
Editor in Chief