Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Fatherhood and victory!

Well, first of all, one of the most prominent things to ever happen in my life occurred about a week and a half ago. Aiden Noah Sowder was born at 7:18am on November 2, 2006 at North Florida Regional Medical Center, Room 350 at the Women's Center.

What a whirlwind of activity this was. Late last week, we did learn that Aiden has Down Syndrome. After a bit of grief and disappointment from Michelle and myself, we accepted these cards we were dealt and know that it was done for a reason. Our goal to nurture Aiden may have been made just a bit more difficult, but I feel that we are more than up for the challenge.

Amid the rabid rounds of congratulations, mazel tovs, and other all around acts of jubilation, one comment still sticks in my craw. After leaving the meeting of our local Democratic Executive Committee, a congressional candidate who lost his election the night before simply said to me, "you're too old to be having kids."

Excuse me?

I know I should consider the source and simply let this go. Knowing this man's political mis-steps as of late should give me even more reason to dismiss the above comment. As a self-proclaimed champion of the Left, the comments and proclamations of this man are at times quite sad. Even more sad is that I tried to help this person win his seat in Congress in previous elections despite being outside of the district in which I live.

In summary, I did not find the above comment surprising or productive. It's hardly the first time such a verbal mis-step was made by this man and will certainly not be the last. He'll probably continue to run for this office again, after losing miserably a staggering three times thus far. Instead of building a political career by beginning with a state, local, or regional seat, he continues to try to fly to the moon on a bottle rocket.

Let us not dwell on these things, though, shall we? We are here to celebrate. The dems have taken control of both houses of Congress and there is work to be done. What the opposition has done in the last 14 years in the legislative branch is both shameful and overwhelming. Let's hope that Congress gets out of reverse and puts the gear in Pro-gress.

Shalom, y'all...