Like, Love and Don't Like

This Week I like Rick Burgess.  Several weeks ago, our nation’s President expressed his support of gay marriage in what was clearly a political maneuver.  On his radio show the next day, Burgess dually expressed his recognition of this maneuver and his disgust with the people that were falling for it (and outright supported gay marriage).  Rick is a popular local personality known for his strong spiritual beliefs – and his ability to defend his beliefs.  Rick welcomed calls about the topic and the response varied. One particular caller expressed a foolish, unfounded support of gay marriage…and received a healthy dose of education from Rick in return.  Rick absolutely roasted this guy for trying to validate gay marriage and he did so using his biblical knowledge.  He defended the Lord’s commands with a passion that reverberated over the airwaves.   It wasn’t until I got married that I truly understood why gay marriage cannot exist and should never be recognized by any level of government.  But my lack of confidence in my own ability to defend my beliefs has prevented me from being like Rick.  However, listening to Rick that day really inspired me to try harder and I wrote him an email to let him know just that.  I won’t share all that I wrote but, you know what?  Rick wrote me back.  And I look at his response on a daily basis.  I really appreciate his words and his encouragement.

This week I love the original Dream Team.  Can you believe the assembly of the greatest sports team occurred 20 years ago this summer? European and South American professionals were allowed to play in the Olympics so the good old USA decided to do the same for the 1992 Olympics.  The 1988 Olympic team (featuring college players) could only muster a bronze medal – a sign that the international talent level was increasing.  There were so many intreaguing factors about this team – many of these players competed against each other in All-Star games but this opportunity placed them all on the same team!  These were the best players of their era but there was also an unspoken recognition that these guys were some of the best of all time.  One special attraction to me was the inclusion of Duke’s Christian Laettner, the only college player to be included on the roster.  Even then I thought it was questionable that he edged out Shaquille Oneal for the spot but Laettner’s international experience was more impressive.

NBA TV will air a documentary that commemorates the 20^th anniversary of this great team tonight.  The problem is that I won’t be able to watch it as NBA TV is not carried by our cable provider.  Hopefully it will be streamed on NBA.com soon.  I really want to see this film because it looks like it includes a lot of never-before-seen footage.

This week I don’t like not living up to my word.  Remember my celebrity retweet project? Yeah…well…that fizzled out.  Not because I stopped using Twitter but because thinking of clever ways to garner retweets from random celebrities takes more thought and effort than I imagined.  I don’t like that I had to bail but the responses were getting pretty weak, folks.  I was super pumped about this project too but I’m the type of guy that will cut bait rather than give a less-than-best effort.  So, I’ve cleaned my slate.  Maybe I’ll try again soon?  I’ll keep you posted.