Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Message of Monday January 19, 2009
It’s a new year and as I reflect on all that transpired last year in the historic presidential election between Sen. McCain - Gov. Palin and Sen Obama - Sen. Biden, and as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 80th birthday, and prepare to swear in President Barack Obama as our 44th President, I’d like to share a few observations.
First of all, we as a Nation should be thankful for the great service that President Bush has given our country these past eight years. History, I predict, will be fairer on his record than the partisan media have been. No review of his Presidency can fail to note that 09/11/01 forever changed and marked his legacy. While he had to make difficult decisions involving the sacrifice of precious American servicemen and women’s lives, no one can deny that, while under his watch and determined vigilism, no second 09/11 occurred during the balance of his Presidency.
Senator John McCain waged a very respectable campaign. Though written off many times, and running in an off presidential year for Republicans, he showed his true heroic character. If you have never read his autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, I heartily recommend it. Candid, self-effacing and interesting best describe, in my opinion, his reflection on his life, his grandfather and father - both four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy - and his P.O.W. experience written in conjunction with his first run for the presidency in 2000.
One cannot but conclude that Senator John McCain is a true American hero who genuinely puts his country first. It is not hard to imagine his being elected President at a prior time in our history, but for different events and/or circumstances.
His selection of Governor Sarah Palin as a running mate was a complete surprise and, I think, a stroke of “maverick genius,” and many conservatives, including myself and my wife, were immediately impressed by her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Everything that later occurred, including her and her family’s tremendously unfair, and even disrespectful, treatment by the media, only galvanized our respect and admiration for this great and accomplished American woman.
Isn’t it sad when traditional American values, such as marriage, family, womanhood, citizenship, honest hard work, achievement, and virtue are held up to ridicule by the national media?
It is somewhat funny to remember back when I decided to run for the Maryland Senate for District 12 in 2006 that my friend and campaign manager Larry Litt suggested that my wife Kim should run against Senator Ed Kasemeyer - because she “would kick his butt.” With all that my wife Kim does, and she does it all so well - what with raising our five children, driving car pool for school, ice-hockey and gymnastics practices, cooking, cleaning house, doing laundry, helping with homework, involvement with Church and Right to Life Committees, working at various times as a secretary, waitress, licensed Realtor and legal secretary/paralegal, she certainly could serve as State Senator. But not so much for what she does so well - but rather because of who she is - her character. These character traits were also present - and obviously as one of fifty Governors even more successfully so - by Governor Palin.
Yet the national media ripped into her to discredit or lessen her - instead of celebrating her achievement, even her decision to bring a disabled baby into the world. After all that, I’m glad my wife Kim has no desire to hold public office or subject herself to such unfair scrutiny - much to the relief of the whole Martel household.
However, I think it is very sad, and shows where our media is now, that a Governor of the State of Alaska would be referred to over and over again as Ms. Palin, or just Sarah Palin and not Governor Palin or praised for her character as well as her accomplishments. Where were the “feminists’” hue and cry at that slight?
For that matter, think of how many times the national media referred to President Bush as Mr. Bush, in comparison to Senator Obama. I for my part urge all Americans to always refer to President Obama as President Obama, as the office far transcends any party affiliation. We should all, and especially all in the right-to-life movement, pray for President Obama that he have and be granted courage, wisdom, and fortitude to act rightly and justly in leading our country.
Turning now to the state of our great State of Maryland. Now, as our Legislature is in session, we find ourselves staring at a projected two billion dollar deficit. Clearly, last year’s ill-advised Special Session fixed nothing. Senator Alan Kittleman and Delegate Tony O’Donnell, and others in Republican leadership, have said, we do not have a State revenue problem, we have a spending problem. We need our elected representatives to do what we working citizens have to do in a difficult economy, and that is to live within our means. If that means approving a flat line budget, or even doing the unthinkable - approve a budget that is less than the current fiscal year, then we must be prepared to do so.
We should be, but apparently are not, past the time when a candidate who has real substance and concrete solutions continually gets defeated by candidates who promise “ice cream” to everyone but doesn’t tell where, when, or how it will be delivered.
We should also not elect representatives who do not represent our core values. Too many elected Maryland officials are simply interested in getting elected over and over again and they do so in spite of the fact that they just fall in lock step with the Democrat leadership in the Senate and House.
Just today C4 featured on his daily WBAL radio show Delegate Jill Carter from Baltimore City who, along with Delegate Michael Smigiel, were advised on their return to the House this session by House Speaker Michael Bush that they were no longer members of the House Judiciary Committee - in obvious retribution for their taking positions, e.g. on slots or the Special Session, contrary to House Democrat leadership. We as citizens should be outraged that our elected officials who have the courage to stand up and voice a contrary position - while trying to represent their consciences and districts, are being effectively “silenced” for doing so. Is that democracy? Delegate Michael Smigiel successfully challenged the constitutionality of the special session last year and three judges on the Court of Special Appeals so ruled, but disagreed with the remedy he sought as too stringent, i.e. the nullification of the bills of the special session. And for that he is being removed from the House Judiciary Committee?
Is that what we want going into a session that will likely deal with the handling of illegal aliens in Maryland, or the many other important bills that will come out of the House Judiciary Committee?
As busy as citizens are in working or running our businesses, we have to remain vigilant and active in watching what goes on in Annapolis. We must make our voices heard, that just because they were elected, again, does not mean that they were given a mandate, that the rule of law, traditional American values, honesty, virtue, and real democracy are not expected of our elected representatives, and particularly our legislative leadership and our Governor as well!
We should not give up or move away. These are the times that try and reveal people of real character. I, for my part, have been asked by many whether I plan on running again for the Maryland Senate or any other elected office. I can honestly say that I have no current plans to do so. I, like so many other people who reside in District 12, am so busy trying to run my business, pay for my daughter’s college tuition, etc., that I cannot see how I could rightfully ask my wife, my children, my friends to support me in such an endeavor again. However, in a very real way I think that because Kim and I are so busy struggling to keep our small businesses running in such a difficult economic climate, the challenges and struggles we face in our personal lives are so much like everyone else’s struggles that I really do know what real people, the workers, the business owners, and families are facing in the real world. Still, I have said to all who have asked me about my future intentions that I would make a decision by the end of 2009.
In the meantime, I am fully engaged in the day-to-day struggle to survive as a solo-practitioner in a world teeming with lawyers. I do, however, enjoy being a neighborhood lawyer and invite any in District 12 to come see me in my new law office at 606 Edmonson Avenue, Suite 100, Catonsville, Maryland 21228. My phone number is 410-788-7071, fax is 410-788-7075, and e-mail remains rick@rickmartel.org .
In closing, I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. We are all in this together. We need to come together in our neighborhoods and communities as Americans, as Marylanders, and help each other the best we can. And not to worry. Anxiety solves no problems. As Dr. Ben Carson says in his excellent recent book “Take the Risk,” we need to use our God-given brains to think to analysis the serious risks we all face, and make reflective, rational decisions. Lastly, in the words from St. Matthew 6:34: “Enough then of worrying about tomorrow. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Today has enough troubles of its own.” Let us work, pray, and trust in God.
God bless,
Rick Martel