Merry Christmas

For Our Liberal Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to observe religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2011, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures.

For Our Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and may God bless you and yours in 2011.

This time of the year is about change; it's about the future. We look at the New Years celebration as a change of the year and look forward to all of the exciting things to come that year. But Christmas is also about a change - it's about a change in the World for the rest of the future, not just a year. When Jesus Christ was born in a manger, it signified a change; it was the start of a beautiful future full of possibilities that last much longer than a year, but an eternity. So, this holiday season, don't just look to 2011, but look to the future. And the future is bright. In this Christmas and Holiday Season, let's work to change the future and change the World. And we as Republicans, can do just that if we stay focused, stay energized, stay loyal, and remain the best party on Campus. Look to the future, my friends. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

(Jeffrey Isbell, a pentecostal minister, is a former UIS College Republican and field representative for the College Republican National Committee.)

Mayor Tim Davlin

Mayor Tim Davlin

Though I missed a friend's call this morning (which I'm assuming was regarding this same news), I woke up today (after sleeping in too late, once again!), as a couple of service workers were at home, one of whom asked the other if he'd heard the news today, regarding Mayor Tim Davlin; he said he'd been getting messages about that, all day. "That's crazy," they remarked.

I thought that the news may be regarding some policy or personal-based development (several such items had recently been in the news). When doing a web search on my Blackberry however, I was shocked at what it actually was.


Our Mayor, here in the (Illinois) capital city, was found dead today, of an apparent suicide (though the cause of death is uncertain, at this point). The Illinois State Police, from what I've read/heard, called a press conference, but didn't reveal any information.


I have been a critic of the Mayor (and our successful (College Republicans!!) actions in the last Municipal elections probably didn't make him too happy!), but he was a decent guy, who had tough decisions to make, and faced a lot of heat, from his fellow Democrats, in addition to Republicans. The Mayor was also respected by people, across the board.

====> Mayor Davlin's activities were being nationally-watched, on two major occasions during the 2007-2008 election season; Both Barack Obama's presidential announcement, and his VP (Biden) announcement, were done from the Old State Capitol. (I don't think the Obama campaign ever fully reimbursed our City, for this; That bill is probably still due... Which seems to be a prominent type of problem, for this administration!)

I will post more on this, as the situation develops...

For now, please keep the Davlin family in your prayers.