For many this year has been a tough one, and it doesn't matter the reason or circumstance, it perhaps hasn't been your most promising year.  That is often the time we least feel like celebrating Christmas because we are looking for the wrong thing.  We look for the hassle not the blessing.

You will not find Christmas in the department store.  You will not find it standing in line at the post office after hours of wrapping and packing gifts.  You will not find Christmas in your worries about the impact on your budget.  You will not find Christmas when you stress over the cards that were sent late because you had no time.  You will not find Christmas in the stress, worry, or chaos as you work like a madman or woman to force a Christmas to remember on everyone and everything in your path.

Christmas is never found there, because it can't be found in these man made hassles.  The spirit of Christmas can only be found when you realize the things around you that make life special… faith, family and friends.  This is where you will find it.

Live simply, laugh often and celebrate the love that is Christmas.  I found Christmas in the miracle of Christ and the people I love.  Finding Christmas this year was easy… I just had to stop, look and suddenly there it was right where it should be, and I can't wait to make the memories.

Wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas!

I first got involved in politics after the 2008 election.  I saw how the youth blindly followed Obama’s message of “hope and change” and I felt the need to do something that could show other young people that the change they had been promised and the change they would receive were two very different outcomes.  I read about current events for two years before actually beginning my own blog, Next Generation Voters, and since then have written for many media outlets and worked on numerous campaigns.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet elected officials who have only encouraged my desire to get further involved.

I’m involved in politics because I believe our future is at stake in the next election.  If we continue down the path of destructive socialist policies Obama is implementing, America as we know it will disappear.  I believe we must replace the current administration with one that recognizes the freedom we were founded on and its crucial role in maintaining a free country.  Regardless of the fact that I can’t vote this year, I believe that every voice does make a difference.  We cannot win this year without the help of volunteers around the country, no matter their age.  If we don’t reverse the dangerous freedom-stealing policies that are in place very soon, it will be too late.  The risk is too great to ignore and not get involved.

Publisher's note.  We could not be more pleased to have this very bright young woman join our team, and we look forward to her insights and perspectives. 

David DiCrescenzo

From sonnets, to screenplays, to novels, a common theme has been presented throughout the decades. Societies fallen from natural disasters, war, and famine have rebuilt into strict, regulated nations ruled by tyrannical and absolute leadership.

In 2008, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games was released.  The story, now known internationally, tells a story of dictatorship, revolution, and the hunger for survival in an unjust world.  Not only were the readers entertained with a war story, they were also implored to think: to think of the unwritten social laws in which every human born into this world should follow, and most importantly, to think of the state society and government is reaching.

A government that establishes and enforces rules is effective. A government that establishes and enforces lifestyles is disastrous.  Usually, the difference between the two is astronomical, yet the steady line modern society is taking blurs the line between the two.

President Obama has been enormously successful in changing many people's somewhat subconscious perception of the world into that of a high-school atmosphere-- constantly trying to portray himself (and, consequently, the United States) as the "cool kids" by continuing to support radical regimes around the Middle East with hopes of becoming even more "popular." While reading his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly yesterday, I found myself thinking many of the same thoughts I have thought before while watching his speeches: I agree with most of his words, but his actions don't match up to those words. As much as I liked the empty speech, there a few key points that he hasn't seemed to pick up on. This high-school theme was displayed in parts of the President's speech yesterday, and I want to go through this "high-school drama" piece-by-piece; in his attempts to become the cool kid in this high-school-like world we live in, President Obama is becoming more and more like the impetuous high-schooler who's desperately hoping to be voted homecoming king.