Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

What will be the answer to the gun violence that continues on our American streets? How will we navigate protecting the second amendment and also keep the guns out of the wrong hands? Even with the toughest background checks it is not wholly unrealistic to assume that guns will end up in the wrong hands. Doing away with guns altogether is not the answer, yet an armed populace is an important counter balance to a very well-armed national government.  As the most armed country in the world we actually practice a great deal of responsible gun ownership when you consider the amount of weaponry owned by individuals compared to the level of gun violence that is perpetuated.  A 17-year old youth was shot in point-blank range in his temple in New York City this last weekend, another was gunned down in front of over forty police officers. The New York Post sais that, as with this case, even with a phalanx of police officers presence, even with flood lights ligh...

When we meet people, if we let ourselves yield to each other, we open up and our stories can come forth. They can impact us, change our perspective, create empathy and even get us to change our actions. During my last visit to Florida, I met a father and son team straight out of a crocodile dundee movie. The young boy, Will, was very outgoing and met me with a big smile upon my arrival. Two of my sisters and I had visited his 'estate' as guests of his Dad. My eldest sister is friends with him. It is a log cabin home filled with stuffed alligators and mounted heads of hunted stags of the field. This is a man's home, nay a cowboy's home. In the entrance to the property there is a humongous Oak Tree and as my experience that afternoon and night unfolded I would soon learn that I was a guest at the estate of two living Oaks. A Dad Oak and a son Oak, if ever there could be one.  Will's Dad was taking us out on their airboat on the St. Johns River a half hour ...