Bill Bestpitch

Just after city elections earlier this month, newly re-elected Roanoke Councilman Sherman Lea asked what it would take for the city to move its elections from May to November.

Lea said he’s looking to increase turnout from the 15 percent who voted on May 1 closer to the 66 percent who voted in the 2008 presidential election.

We reported this weekend that various council members have different opinions on the question, but they’re all willing to have that conversation.

Today, Roanoke City Councilman Bill Bestpitch floated the idea of appointing a 7-member task force that would consider the question of moving elections, as well as the separate but related issue of consolidating the city’s precincts from 32 to 19.

Bestpitch’s recommended task force consists of one representative each from the NAACP, SCLC, Mayor’s Committee For People with Disabilities, the school board, Roanoke Neighborhood Advocates, the city electoral board and the Roanoke City Council.

Councilman Ray Ferris suggested the work force should draw from a broader selection of organizations.

In any case, Lea was absent from the meeting, so the council put off any further action until its first meeting in June.

What do you think? If the council appoints a task force to consider precinct consolidation and moving elections, who should be on it?

And below the fold, find extended comments sent via email by Lea on the question of moving elections.

– Mason Adams

Lea writes:

For many years, Political Scientists who have studied elections have observed that the vast majority of people who vote in stand-alone Council elections are homeowners. People who rent have traditional not voted in stand-alone City Council elections. Conversely residents vote in Presidential and Congressional elections regardless of whether they are renters or homeowners. When Roanoke first set its elections system in place, the vast majority of Roanoke residents were homeowners and turnout was respectable. Over the past 50 years, the number of people who are renters in Roanoke has grown ( I think well over 50%) the voter turnout has mirrored that and has gone from respectable to abysmal. You can track the two trends of increased renters and decreased voter turnout to Council elections. For example, 40,328 Roanoke residents voted in 2008 Presidential elections compared to 9,374 in the recent 2012 Council elections. Generally, those few voting precincts in Roanoke City that have maintained large percent of homeowners have kept turnout around the same percent. As a result, around 3 or 3% of the current voting precincts or neighborhoods are now able to City Council and Mayor. Further when turnout is so low the ability to raise money for campagin advertising becomes even more important and effective thus further marginalizing potential candidates from low-income precincts. Despite these dramatic changes in Roanoke City households from homeowners to renters, no adjustment has been made to when our elections are held. The resulting maarginalization of voters in low -income neighborhoods has been severe. With a handful of precincts, totally dominating local elections the results on local appointments can also be severe. The risk if we do not change is that important appointed public bodies like the School Board and Planning commission will not represent the entire City( the currrent council works hard to prevent this) . this has a further dampening effect on participation in Local government from a broad group of neighborhoods. Base on this background information I would make the following RECOMMENDATION: Roanoke City Council pursue a change in our City Council and Mayor elections from the first Tuesday in May of even numbers like 2014 to the first Tuesday in November of even number years. The Mayor and three City Council seats would be with Presidential elections and the remaining three Council seats would be up two years from that or along with Congressional elections. The advantages of moving elections to this November cycle would be as follows: 1) Greater voter turnout at Council elections-(40,000+ versus 9,3740) using the 2008/2012 elections as example. 2) Greater voter turnout will insure in the future that appointments to important local government boards and commissions will be representive of the population at large thus assuring more involvement and interest in local government activities. 3.) Assure the spirit of the federal voting rights is upheld; when 3% of the precincts with the highest incomes can elect local elected officials by themselves voting rights get threatened. 4) Higher voter turnout also reduces the influence money directed at May elections for advertising for local elections currently have in the City(not County) the current situation puts lower income people at a great disadvatange in running for local elections. 5) Democrats by definition work to support any effort to increase voter participation. (we all run under that banner) . 6) We need to do whatever increases voter turnout across the City . there is not a lot of facts that tell us local issues such as School Funding, Public Safety, Econonic Development, would get lost in the minds of those citizens, that not like Roanoke. I would hope we would not let Egos enter into this effort. 7) Money would be saved for the Registrars office by moving our elections to November. thus, any Council member who cares about “looking out for the tax payer” would have to support moving our elections to November. Its the right thing to do.

Every now and then in my reading I come across references and stories that our readers here at the Blue Ridge Caucus might find interesting. (Past examples include “1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs–The Election that Changed the Country” and “The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox.“)

Right now I’m working on “Pirates of Virginia: Plunder and High Adventure on the Old Dominion Coastline,” which is available in the Roanoke Valley library system. (And this book looks even more thorough if this all sounds interesting.)

While most of this doesn’t apply to western Virginia, there is a tale about John James — a pirate described as “ugly, aggressive, and severely disfigured by smallpox” — and his taking of a sloop called the Roanoke Merchant in 1699.

The Roanoke Merchant was headed from Barbados to Annapolis when its captain, Nicholas Jones, saw James’ ship — The Providence Galley — but assumed it was an English man-of-war since the various estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay were used for naval anchorage.

James’ ship fired its cannons and ordered Jones aboard, where he interrogated him before plundering the Roanoke Merchant and seizing the following:

“sixteen barrel of porke, one Barrell of tallow, twenty nine Bushels of Beans, two Quoiles of Ropes, Six firelocks with all … Ammunicon, most of ye Carpenters tools, and diverse necessary Utensils for use, 1/2 Barrell of Tarr, Balls of Rope Yarn, long line and Reckle, several Cask of Water, and a quantity of provision, by which about 30 or 40 barrels of Corn were damnifyed, fallen down to yet bottom of ye Sloop, likewise one barrel marked R.M. belonging to one Mr. Robert Mellam a passenter, one Bear skin & one Bever skin.

Then James made Jones beg, both privately and then in front of the crews from both ships, before finally releasing him while impressing most of the rest of the crew of the Roanoke Merchant into his pirate company.

Jones ran promptly to the Maryland governor to tell him of the incident, but by that time James had hightailed it up the coast. His appearance in the Chesapeake Bay, however, heralded the arrival of a lot more pirates and many headaches for the governors of Virginia and Maryland.

So what’s the connection to Roanoke and western Virginia? Well, none, really, except for that name. Still, it’s kind of fun to imagine pirates in the Chesapeake Bay.

– Mason Adams

Sen. Mark Warner

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, appeared in an early segment on “Face the Nation” yesterday morning. He and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were in a segment just after the show’s opening interview with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

You can watch some of Warner’s comments here, or see the whole program here.

Or if you don’t have time for the full video and just want to read what Warner had to say, click here for the show transcript beginning with Warner’s introduction on page 2.

In a discussion concerned largely with U.S. debt and the budget deficit, Warner talked up his bipartisan “Gang of Six.” He also had strong words for House Speaker John Boehner’s idea to revisit last year’s debate over the debt ceiling ahead of the presidential election.

“You know we saw what happened when the speaker last year played, in effect, debt ceiling roulette,” Warner said. “He almost blew up the whole economy and the notion with fiscal turmoil going on in Europe right now that he would try to say we’re going to draw this bright line again, and kind of my way or the highway approach. I think it’s incredibly irresponsible.”

Warner also had some thoughts on politics in the nation’s capitol. These are the sorts of lines that are fueling talk that he might step down from the U.S. Senate to run for Virginia governor again next year. Host Bob Schieffer asked whether Washington can actually govern when it comes to these budget problems.

Warner responded, “I do think this issue around debt and deficit has become a proxy for whether our institutions can still function. Because we’re not going to get to any other issue until we can in effect figure out what our balance sheet looks like, what’s our long-term tax code is going to look like; what’s our entitlement program is going to look like. And I think that there is a real sense amongst most members we got to get it fixed. And I think there is actually a lot of common ground. There is no institutional support though in Washington for people to do the right thing. As a matter of fact, all of the interest groups are very much opposed because it’s going to mean changes to the tax code, it’s going to mean changes in the entitlement programs. And we need to make it to safer, particularly for some of the folks who have been there a long time to step up and put country first.”

More at those links.

– Mason Adams

Republican Del. Bob Marshall of Prince William County, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, was on CNN this morning to explain why he led the fight to block the appointment of an openly gay prosecutor to a judgeship on the Richmond General District Court this week. The House of Delegates thwarted the nomination of Tracy Thorne-Begland early Tuesday morning, and the ensuing controversy is getting national media attention. Democrats have denounced the House vote as an act of bigotry, and some conservatives are expressing dismay over the vote and its fallout.

It will be interesting to see if this issue is raised next week when the Republican Senate candidates — Marshall, former U.S. Sen. George Allen, Jamie Radtke and E.W. Jackson — hold their final debate before the June 12 primary.

– Michael Sluss

Dwight Holton

Roanoke native Dwight Holton, the son of former Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton, lost Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Oregon attorney general in a race that may have turned on marijuana, of all issues.

Holton, a former federal prosecutor, was trounced by former appellate judge Ellen Rosenblum in the primary. According to this story in The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Rosenblum’s campaign gained steam after Holton criticized the state’s medical marijuana law.

As reporter Jeff Manning wrote: “A pungent whiff of weed enveloped the Rosenblum campaign in the race’s closing days. Marijuana legalization advocates threw their support to Rosenblum, contributing nearly $200,000 – about a third of her total – to her campaign in May.”

Holton’s father was Virginia’s first Republican governor of the 20th century. And his brother-in-law, former Gov. Tim Kaine, is the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s open U.S. Senate seat.

E.W. Jackson stops at a billboard on the way to his news conference. Photo by Greg Aldridge, provided by the Jackson campaign.

Laurence Hammack, who has been covering the legal arguments over posting the 10 Commandments in a Giles County public school, today spoke to Republican U.S. Senate candidate E.W. Jackson after a news conference about the issue.

Hammack reports:

The legal issue of whether a copy of the Ten Commandments should be posted in a Giles County school became a political one today.

Chesapeake minister E.W. Jackson, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for a U.S. Senate seat in Virginia, held a news conference this afternoon in Pearisburg to offer his views on the dispute.

Jackson said he thinks a lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a student at Narrows High School upset by the display, should be dismissed.

He called the lawsuit, and a recent suggestion by U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski that the first four of the commandments be redacted to convey a more secular message, just the latest in a long list of government intrusions into people’s religious freedoms.

“We’re simply not going to be backed into a corner any longer and be told that the mere mention of God is a violation of who we are as Americans,” Jackson said in a telephone interview following the media event.

Courts have held that the posting of the Ten Commandments in a public school violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government from endorsing one religion over another.

“I think there’s a lot of wrong-headed judicial precedent that has been going on for a long time,” Jackson said.

Jackson is one of four candidates — including former Sen. George Allen, state Del. Bob Marshall of Prince William County and Virginia tea party leader Jamie Radtke — seeking the Republican nomination to run for the seat being vacated by Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat.

– Laurence Hammack

A well-funded conservative group announced plans today to launch a month-long, $25 million advertising campaign against President Barack Obama in targeted states, including Virginia.

The first phase of the Crossroads GPS blitz starts Thursday with a 60-second spot that takes on Obama’s economic record. It features footage of Obama making pledges about housing, taxes, health care and the deficit, and argues that the president’s record has not matched the promises.This ad is hitting Virginia airwaves in the same week that Obama’s campaign began a television advertising attack on presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s record running the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Crossroads GPS, founded in part by GOP strategist Karl Rove, is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that is not required to disclose its donors. It is  one of several independent interest groups on both sides of the political battlefield that are poised to take advantage of looser campaign finance laws in the 2012 presidential election. Crossroads began running anti-Obama ads in Virginia last year. And the election is still 174 days away.

“President Obama made commitments on core issues to the American people, and this ad holds him to account,” said  Crossroads GPS President Steven Law of the new ad. “Our country faces serious economic and fiscal problems which require practical solutions and not just promises.  If we don’t hold Washington politicians accountable, we won’t fix these problems that are holding our country back.”

– Michael Sluss

Bob McDonnell

State tax collections for April were 10.6 percent greater than in the same month last year, keeping Virginia ahead of its annual revenue forecast with two months remaining in the fiscal year.

Total revenue collections for the first 10 months of the fiscal year have increased by 5.9 percent from the same period last year, exceeding the 4.6 percent growth forecast embedded in the state budget, Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration announced this afternoon.

The April surge was fueled by a 17.5 percent increase in individual incomes taxes from sources such as dividends and the self-employed. Individual income taxes from all sources showed a net increase of 7.1 percent, according to a letter from Secretary of Finance Ric Brown.

McDonnell’s administration cautioned that May is a major month for income tax returns and that revenues from April and May must be looked at together to get a clearer picture of the state’s finances.

“Our bipartisan effort enact pro-business policies focused on job creation continues to foster a recovery more robust than elsewhere in the nation,” McDonnell said in a statement issued by his office. ” However it remains too soon to celebrate and lose focus on our fragile economy. We must redouble our efforts to ensure our government is running at peak efficiency, and we must continue to aggressively pursue new business investments and job-creation strategies in Virginia to fan the flames of this recovery and put back to work the 250,000 Virginians still in need of good-paying jobs. May and June are also very important months for revenue collections, so we should see more data in the coming months that will confirm whether Virginians can expect this recovery to return us to prosperity again.”

For a deep dive into the numbers, click here.

– Michael Sluss

President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is back on the airwaves today with a two-minute television ad attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s record running the private equity firm Bain Capital.

The  spot features former employees of Kansas City steel company GST Steel, which was bought by Bain Capital then shut down after more than 100 years in business. The ad, which is running in Virginia and select battleground states, also directs viewers to a website with more criticism on Romney’s private sector record. It’s all part of an effort to paint Romney as someone who was interested in generating profits for wealthy investors and not in building businesses or creating jobs.

Romney’s campaign hit back equally hard this morning, noting that Romney had left his day-to-day responsibilities at Bain two years before the GST bankruptcy and layoffs occurred. Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said the Republican’s camp is eager to take on Obama on economic issues.

“We welcome the Obama campaign’s attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their failed record,” Henneberg said.  “Mitt Romney helped create more jobs in his private sector experience and more jobs as Governor of Massachusetts than President Obama has for the entire nation.

“President Obama has many questions to answer as to why his administration used the stimulus to reward wealthy campaign donors with taxpayer money for bad ideas like Solyndra, but 23 million Americans are still struggling to find jobs.  If the Obama administration was less concerned about pleasing their wealthy donors and more concerned about creating jobs, America would be much better off. ”

– Michael Sluss

Mitt Romney (AP photo)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addressed graduates of Liberty University in Lynchburg this morning. Here is a text of his remarks, provided by Romney’s campaign:

For the graduates, this moment marks a clear ending and a clear beginning.  The task set before you four years ago is now completed in full.  To the class of 2012: Well done, and congratulations.

Some of you may have taken a little longer than four years to complete your studies.  One graduate has said that he completed his degree in only two terms:  Clinton’s and Bush’s.

In some ways, it is fitting that I share this distinction with Truett Cathy.  The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A.  Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting.  So, Truett, thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved honor today.

There are some people here who are even more pleased than the graduates.  Those would be the parents.  Their years of prayers, devotion, and investment have added up to this joyful achievement.  And with credit to Congressman Dick Armey:  The American Dream is not owning your own home, it is getting your kids out of the home you own.

Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches.  And let’s just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have.

That’s a theme for another day. But two observations.  First, even though job opportunities are scarce in this economy, it is not for nothing that you have spent this time preparing. Jerry Falwell, Senior, long ago observed that “You do not determine a man’s greatness by his talent or wealth, as the world does, but rather by what it takes to discourage him.”  America needs your skill and talent.  If we take the right course, we will see a resurgence in the American economy that will surprise the world, and that will open new doors of opportunity for those who are prepared as you are. 

Of course, what the next four years might hold for me is yet to be determined.  But I will say that things are looking up, and I take your kind hospitality today as a sign of good things to come.

I consider it a great life honor to address you today.  Your generosity of spirit humbles me.  The welcoming spirit of Liberty is a tribute to the gracious Christian example of your founder. 

In his 73 years of life, Dr. Falwell left a big mark.  For nearly five decades he shared that walk with his good wife Macel.  It’s wonderful to see her today.  The calling Jerry answered was not an easy one.  Today we remember him as a courageous and big-hearted minister of the Gospel who never feared an argument, and never hated an adversary.  Jerry deserves the tribute he would have treasured most, as a cheerful, confident champion for Christ.

I will always remember his cheerful good humor and selflessness.  Several years ago, in my home, my wife and I were posing for a picture together with him.  We wanted him to be in the center of the photo, but he insisted that Ann be in the middle, with he and I on the sides.  He explained, by pointing to me and himself, “You see, Christ died between two thieves.”

Maybe the most confident step Jerry ever took was to open the doors of this school 41 years ago.

He believed that Liberty might become one of the most respected Christian universities anywhere on earth.  And so it is today.

He believed, even when the first graduating class consisted of 13 students, that year after year young Christians would be drawn to such a university in ever-greater numbers.  And here you are.

Today, thanks to what you have gained here, you leave Liberty with conviction and confidence as your armor. You know what you believe.  You know who you are.  And you know Whom you will serve.  Not all colleges instill that kind of confidence, but it will be among the most prized qualities from your education here.  Moral certainty, clear standards, and a commitment to spiritual ideals will set you apart in a world that searches for meaning.

That said, your values will not always be the object of public admiration.  In fact, the more you live by your beliefs, the more you will endure the censure of the world. Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ.  May that be your guide.

You enter a world with civilizations and economies that are far from equal.  Harvard historian David Landes devoted his lifelong study to understanding why some civilizations rise, and why others falter.  His conclusion:  Culture makes all the difference.  Not natural resources, not geography, but what people believe and value. Central to America’s rise to global leadership is our Judeo-Christian tradition, with its vision of the goodness and possibilities of every life.

The American culture promotes personal responsibility, the dignity of work, the value of education, the merit of service, devotion to a purpose greater than self, and, at the foundation, the pre-eminence of the family.

The power of these values is evidenced by a Brookings Institution study that Senator Rick Santorum brought to my attention.  For those who graduate from high school, get a full-time job, and marry before they have their first child, the probability that they will be poor is 2%.  But, if those things are absent, 76% will be poor.  Culture matters.

As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate.  So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage.  Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.

The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate.  It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with.  Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government.

But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man.  Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution.  And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action.

Religious freedom opens a door for Americans that is closed to too many others around the world.  But whether we walk through that door, and what we do with our lives after we do, is up to us.

Someone once observed that the great drama of Christianity is not a crowd shot, following the movements of collectives or even nations.  The drama is always personal, individual, unfolding in one’s own life.  We’re not alone in sensing this.  Men and women of every faith, and good people with none at all, sincerely strive to do right and lead a purpose-driven life.

And, in the way of lessons learned, by hitting the mark or by falling short, I can tell you this much for sure.

All that you have heard here at Liberty University – about trusting in God and in His purpose for each of us–makes for more than a good sermon.  It makes for a good life.  So many things compete for our attention and devotion.  That doesn’t stop as you get older.  We are all prone, at various turns, to treat the trivial things as all-important, the all-important things as trivial, and little by little lose sight of the one thing that endures forever. 

No person I have ever met, not even the most righteous or pure of heart, has gone without those times when faith recedes in the busy-ness of life.  It’s normal, and sometimes even the smallest glimpses of the Lord’s work in our lives can reawaken our hearts.  They bring us back to ourselves – and, better still, to something far greater than ourselves. 

What we have, what we wish we had – ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed … investments won, investments lost … elections won, elections lost – these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us.  And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life.  Our relationship with our Maker, however, depends on none of this.  It is entirely in our control, for He is always at the door, and knocks for us.  Our worldly successes cannot be guaranteed, but our ability to achieve spiritual success is entirely up to us, thanks to the grace of God.  The best advice I know is to give those worldly things your best but never your all, reserving the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.

Many a preacher has advised the same, but few as memorably as Martin Luther King, Jr.  “As a young man,” he said, “with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow.  But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

In this life, the commitments that come closest to forever are those of family. 

My Dad, George Romney, was a CEO, a governor, and a member of the President’s Cabinet.  My wife Ann asked him once, “What was your greatest accomplishment?”  Without a moment’s pause, he said, “Raising our four kids.”

Ann and I feel the same way about our family.  I have never once regretted missing a business opportunity so that I could be with my children and grandchildren.  Among the things in life that can be put off, being there when it matters most isn’t one of them.

As C.S. Lewis is said to have remarked, “The home is the ultimate career.  All other careers exist for one purpose, and that is to support the ultimate career.”

Promotions often mark the high points in a career, and I hope I haven’t seen my last.  But sometimes the high points come in unexpected ways.  I was asked to help rescue the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. 

I’m embarrassed now to recall that when this opportunity was first presented to me, I dismissed it out of hand.  I was busy, I was doing well, and, by the way, my lack of athletic prowess did not make the Olympics a logical step.  In fact, after I had accepted the position, my oldest son called me and said, “Dad, I’ve spoken to the brothers.  We saw the paper this morning.  We want you to know there’s not a circumstance we could have conceived of that would put you on the front page of the sports section.”

The Olympics were not a logical choice, but it was one of the best and most fulfilling choices of my life.  Opportunities for you to serve in meaningful ways may come at inconvenient times, but that will make them all the more precious.

People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology.  Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview.  The best case for this is always the example of Christian men and women working and witnessing to carry God’s love into every life – people like the late Chuck Colson.

Not long ago, Chuck recounted a story from his days just after leaving prison.  He was assured by people of influence that, even with a prison record, a man with his connections and experience could still live very comfortably.  They would make some calls, get Chuck situated, and set him up once again as an important man.  His choice at that crossroads would make him, instead, a great man. 

The call to service is one of the fundamental elements of our national character.  It has motivated every great movement of conscience that this hopeful, fair-minded country of ours has ever seen.  Sometimes, as Dr. Viktor Frankl observed in a book for the ages, it is not a matter of what we are asking of life, but rather what life is asking of us.  How often the answer to our own troubles is to help others with theirs.

In all of these things – faith, family, work, and service –the choices we make as Americans are, in other places, not choices at all.  For so many on this earth, life is filled with orders, not options, right down to where they live, the work they do, and how many children the state will permit them to have.  All the more reason to be grateful, this and every day, that we live in America, where the talents God gave us may be used in freedom.

At this great Christian institution, you have all learned a thing or two about these gifts and the good purposes they can serve.  They are yours to have and yours to share.  Sometimes, your Liberty education will set you apart, and always it will help direct your path.  And as you now leave, and make for new places near and far, I hope for each one of you that your path will be long and life will be kind.

The ideals that brought you here … the wisdom you gained here … and the friends you found here – may these blessings be with you always, wherever you go.

Thank you all, and God bless you.