Seasons of Change
It has been several months since I wrote last. Back in February 2014, my wife and I decided that we would be running for the vacated seat that Dr. Tom Coburn opened up by retiring early from the United States Senate. On April 11, 2014 I filed as a candidate for this position and have spent the last 90 to 120 days campaigning for the position of United States Senator here in Oklahoma. The primary was held on June 24, 2014 and I received 2425 votes.
I intended to resume updating my blog and website following the election. I had a change in plans when my father passed away on June 28, 2014.
Suffices to say, I’ve had some change take place in these recent months.
The question for me now, is where do I go from here? I learned a great deal from my campaign and from the election, much of which I don’t have proper words for just yet. I have grown as a result of my campaign and I’m very thankful for my experience.
The platform on which I ran was one of restoration of the traditional core values that this great nation was founded upon within our leadership. This idea or concept is still very close to my heart. As a result, I am refocusing what I’m writing on and what I’m speaking on.
What I have discovered is my passion and zeal for this great nation and the roots of this great nation. You see this nation was founded upon Judeo-Christian values by our Founding Fathers. Each one of our Founding Fathers was very conservative and very committed to their Christian principles. The leadership in our nation has, in my opinion, strayed from these core values that we were founded upon.
It is our core values that determine where we go. Our core values determine what we look at and what we don’t look at. What we do and what we don’t do. Who we help and who we don’t help.
I like using the example of a fruit tree as an illustration and a word picture. If you would, visualize an apple tree. Picture the root system of this tree. This tree and its fruit are dependent upon a healthy root system. When the tree has a healthy vibrant root system it has big, juicy, delicious, yummy fruit. However, when the root system is diseased and lacks attention the fruit becomes small, full of holes and of worms and otherwise non-desirable. But, when this diseased root system is given proper attention then it becomes healthy and its fruit becomes healthy once again.
This is where our great nation, the United States of America, is currently. The picture of the fruit tree with a diseased root system is where we are right now. The fruit that we have right now, the question of marriage and what marriage looks like, the question of when life begins, our current financial situation with our debt and deficit spending and any other issue that one would want to address, is a result of our root system or the core values we have in our nation’s leadership.
These core values must be restored. Once these core values are restored then our fruit, every issue that we want to discuss, will be restored as well.
During my campaign, I discussed three core values that must be addressed. There are more than three of these values but these are the three values that I highlighted:
Commitment: doing what we say we’re going to do. We as Americans too often send an elected official to do one particular job. When our elected official goes back to Washington DC to do this job, in many cases our elected official has promised to do A but delivers B. We must have a restoration of commitment and follow through on what we have promised.
Personal Responsibility: every decision that you and I make has a consequence with it. We have positive consequences and we have negative consequences. When we make a decision or a choice we must own that choice. There should not be any blaming of any other person and the influence from that person that resulted in the choice that was made. When I am Personally Responsible, I own my choice and the benefits and the consequences of that choice. I do not blame anyone for my choice.
Trust: we as Americans have lost trust in our nation’s leadership, and for good reason. Our elected officials must earn our trust back again. We, as Americans, are very cynical about our government. I believe this is due to the first two items I addressed, Commitment and Personal Responsibility, not being honored. I believe when our elected officials adhere to these core values, and other core values as well, then our trust will be restored.
As I mentioned before, these are three core values of many more that need to be addressed. There are a total of 10 core values that I would like to see addressed. These 10 the core values come from a book called “The Compassionate Samurai” by Brian Klemmer. Brian was a mentor of mine and this was his final book before his passing.
Once these values are restored, as mentioned before, every other issue that we want to discuss will be addressed. It will take time, because like with a fruit tree it may take a season or longer for that route to produce the correct fruit, but it will happen.
In my viewpoint, there are two ways for this restoration to take place. We can either educate or reeducate our elected officials or we can replace our elected officials. I believe that a combination of these two options is ideal. I believe we have many elected officials that have been in Washington DC for far too long. These individuals we should thank for their service to our great nation and send them home for them to move on to their next phase in life.
We need new blood in Washington DC. We need new ideas. We live in a time where change takes place very very rapidly. I believe we need term limits in both our House and Senate. With new blood and new ideas in Washington DC, I believe, that every issue we face in this nation there is a solution for.
My campaign and election is over for this year. However, I am by no means finished with running for office. I firmly believe that I am called to serve the people of this great state of Oklahoma and the people of this great nation of the United States of America in some form of elected office. What that office looks like in the timing of that office is a question that will be answered at a later time.
So, for those of you that have wondered where I have been, here is your answer. I am alive and well and re-focusing my efforts and moving forward.
If you would like to learn more about my platform and campaign you can visit my website at http://www.VoteAndyCraig.com.
For the people,
Andy Craig
Source by Andy Craig
#Season #Change speaking tree
