CSC UPDATE***JEANNETTE AND I WILL BE MOVING BACK TO LOUISIANA IN OCTOBER--WE WANT TO THANK ALL OF THE CSC FAMILY FOR ALL OF ITS SUPPORT!
I sent the email (below) to our board and I wanted to send a similar note to the CSC family. Jeannette and I will miss you and the warm friendships we have found over the last fourteen years—memories have been made that will not be forgotten!
I joined CSC the night I went to a CSC meeting led by Pete Riehm at the battleship parkway around this time in 2009 after we moved here from Florence, AL. I signed up immediately and 14 years later, I can say it has been an honor and a distinct pleasure to have been allowed to lead CSC and interact with so many of our members who are such wonderful patriots and who have rallied time after time to help CSC fulfill its mission.
Thanks to all of the CSC family for the many years of working, laughing and crying together—for the meetings, rallies and forums we held, especially Kay's Tax Day Rally that became our yearly signature event! But, most of all, for all of you who brought yourselves to so many events year after year! Not only did you attend events, but, the classic example of what I'm saying is how many volunteered to work to help Kay put on the Tax Day Rally—see my thank you note below for our last rally! It goes beyond saying as I do below, that without the strong support of the CSC Board, our chapter presidents and Callie holding it all together, little could have been accomplished! I would be remiss for not recognizing and thanking Jim and Jackie Zeigler for their support BOTH LOCALLY AND STATE-WIDE! Thanks to both of you!
I think that what I just described is the essential element of CSC's ability to remain in the fight: We have been a team and must remain a team in our efforts if we expect success! The ingredients are there, but CSC must remain together, and on course, fighting for those Christian conservative values we all cherish and hold dear.
Again, thanks to all of you for the many years of friendship and working together for God, country, and the people we love. Lou
Special thanks from our last Tax Day Rally—one example of the support CSC generates—I cannot thank everyone who has worked at our rallies and forums, but your support will always be remembered—many thanks to all!
>To the BEST Emcee in Mobile, Co-founder of Common Sense, with his distinguished looking Naval, gray beard, our own Pete Riehm—THANKS PETE!
>To Callie, CSC's Business Manager who works tirelessly behind the scenes on all our events! BIG THANKS for getting out our Rally Flyers, updating our brochure and having it ready for the Rally, and for donating your incredible cake and working the sheets for the Silent Auction!
>To Linda King (our Common Sense Girl") who let the media know about the Rally—THANKS!
>To our cooks: Cathy Lockett for the delicious lasagna and Kay for the equally great spaghetti! Thanks also to all those who provided salad, paper products, drinks, and desserts!
> To Shelia Richerson who organized and handled the Kitchen in a smooth manner as she always does! BIG THANKS!
> To Pastor, Dr David Gonnella--THANKS FOR ALWAYS BEING WITH CSC!
> To Cindi Gartman for her beautiful patriotic songs--BIG THANKS CINDI!
> To Dr. Martin (Scott) Cantino, our first speaker—THANKS FOR AN INSPIRING TALK ON THE DANGERS WE FACE AND HOW TO OVERCOME THOSE WHO ARE EVIL (See below)
> To Usama Dakdok: A hearty WELCOME BACK to CSC and THANKS FOR ANOTHER WONDERFUL TALK ON “WHY ISLAMIC BELIEFS CONTRADICT THE BASIC RIGHTS FOUND IN OUR CONSTITUTION” (See below)
> To Missy Gates and Lori Cyree of the “Alabama January 6th Cmte,” BIG THANKS for bringing to our attention the plight of those incarcerated in DC after the January 6th protest.
>To Charlie Wycoff for our sound and Steve Stone who helped set it up—A GREAT BIG THANKS
> To Jud Blakely, our faithful video man, who is always there and does an outstanding job capturing our events! BIG THANKS!
> To Woody Wood and Jim Marshal of the John Birch Society for providing information on our local JB organization. ALWAYS GOOD TO SEE THEM! THANKS!
>To those who helped Kay set up on Friday: Mark and Cathy Lockett; Tim, Noah, and Anna Bruce;
>To those who helped clean up after the Rally: Steve Stone, and the above mentioned Bruces and additional younger Bruces.
>Mostly, THANKS to all our Patriots who came out to hear from our inspiring speakers!
__________________________________________________
MY EMAIL TO CSC BOARD
After much thought and talking to our family, Jeannette and I agreed to move back to Louisiana to be closer to our youngest son, Tim, and Jeannette's sister and brothers who live in New Orleans. In our 55 years of marriage, we have never lived in one place as long as we have in Daphne and Fairhope (14 years!), so this was not an easy decision to make especially as it pertains to CSC for me. However, difficult as it is to leave here, we just felt that being near family is too important at this time in our lives and that we could make the move now, not under pressure from health or other reasons, that would make a move far more traumatic.
With that, I do want all of you to know what an honor it has been to be part of CSC and to have worked with such dedicated individuals as all of you are. I also want to thank each of you for working with me at every turn—it has been not only an honor, but a real pleasure to work with each of you over the years—your advice and willingness to step up when necessary is indicative of a healthy organization that puts mission first not personal agendas! I have no doubt that our newly restructured organizational model that emphasizes our Chapters will be successful as CSC continues to meet the challenges that have inspired us to do what we have done over the years. New challenges will be met by CSC because they must be addressed: "IF NOT US, WHO?” That is a heavy burden, but one we have been willing to bear and will continue to do so because that is who we are as Board members and that is WHAT CSC IS!
So, although we are in the process of leaving, I will continue to work to ensure a smooth transition to whoever is our next president. Again, I want to thank each of our Board members, past and present for the support, friendship, and dedication that made what I had to do so much easier! I would be remiss if I did not mention Callie's central role as Business Manager and jack-of-all-trades when it came to doing EVERYTHING to help me accomplish my job. THANK YOU CALLIE!
Along those lines, I have to say a BIG THANKS to our Chapter Presidents who through the years made all things possible by being there and doing the hard work of recruiting new members, holding meetings, forums and rallies! Special thanks to John Lewis for his work on getting the North Baldwin Chapter organized and handling it for many years and then jumping back in recently to assist us in getting NB back on its feet; Thanks to Ricky and Donnis for many years of hard work on behalf of NB and to Ken for taking the North Baldwin Chapter, before leaving to run for the Baldwin County Board of Education—he'll have our 110% support to win that race!; Thanks to Cody for not only leading the ES Chapter for so many years, but also leading CSC last year until his health issues led him to resign; How can I thank Robert for all he's done to make the South Baldwin Chapter a showcase for grassroots activism as shown by the outstanding study his Team did on Studies Weekly and for taking that issue to the State Board Of Education! Needless to say, finding a way to thank Kay for all she has done in Mobile is very difficult because she has done so much! But if I have to choose one thing to thank her for, it is her TAX DAY RALLY that has become CSC's SIGNATURE YEARLY EVENT. I have to thank our Common Sense Girl, Linda King, for her recent leading role in working with redoing the website as well as her long years of working with the Media and her behind-the-scenes efforts to advise me on the best way forward on numerous issues. Lastly, I want to thank our former Eastern Shore Chapter president, Janet Taverna, for playing an important part in our local rallies and the Welcome Back Rallies in Montgomery by dressing in patriotic period costume as Georgette Washington!
Again, thanks so much to all of you! Jeannette and I will miss each of you so much because we have been together for so long!! Lou
PS: I have cc'd several members who have DONE GREAT WORK for CSC: Robert's South Baldwin Chapter team (Barry, Malinda, Jayne, Jim ) that did such a great job on the Studies Weekly analysis; Jud Blakely for working with us on redoing the website and recording so many different things we have done; Charmein for leading our Team (Celia, Danielle, Gene, Phyliss, Robyn, and Theresa) on a project to analyze Baldwin County Board Of Education's school library books and content of classroom materials once the library analysis is completed. All have taken significant leadership roles for CSC on different issues, but nevertheless all have made important contributions to what CSC does—BIG THANKS!. Lastly, I included Kevin Spriggs and Willard Simmons to thank them for their financial support and advice at critical times over the years.
****************************************************
