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Welcome to Thinking Out Loud, a blog that contains postings from The Tampa Tribune’s Editorial Board and from various Tribune Community Columnists. Unlike the unsigned editorials that represent the newspaper’s institutional voice, the blog postings offer personal perspectives on the issues, personalities and events of Tampa Bay. We invite you to participate by posting your comments. We’ll do our best to respond.

Contributors:

Joe Guidry

Joe Guidry is the deputy editorial page editor of The Tampa Tribune. He is a Tampa native and a graduate of the University of South Florida. He is married and has an adult son.

Jeff Stidham

Jeff Stidham grew up and lives in Bartow. He has been with the Tribune for nearly 22 years, the last 10 on the editorial board.

William Yelverton

William Yelverton is a Tribune editorial writer who has worked for the paper nearly 22 years. He lives in the Dade City area.

Jim Beamguard

Jim Beamguard is a Tribune editorial writer. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Davidson College. He and his family live in Brandon.

Jackie Papandrew:

Jackie Papandrew is a freelance writer and editor. Her syndicated humor column appears in publications in the United States, Canada and India. She lives in Largo with her husband and children. Visit her website at www.jackiepapandrew.com.

Camille Beredjick

Camille Beredjick is a senior at Chamberlain High School, an avid musician and a scribbler with a quirky sense of humor. In the fall, she will be attending Northwestern University to study journalism, political science and music, and she plans to pursue a career in journalism.

Jim Harnish

Jim Harnish is in his 17th year as Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa. He and his wife, Marsha, have two daughters and two grandchildren. He is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary and received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Bethune-Cookman University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles and studies. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and cheering for the Florida Gators.

Angela Hunt

Angela Hunt is a novelist living in Pinellas County with her husband and two 220-pound mastiffs.

Sheryl Young

Sheryl Young was a Tampa Tribune Community Columnist in 2005-2006. A freelance writer since 1997, including the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Style Magazines, St. Pete Times and nationally in Better Nutrition, Today’s Christian Woman and more. She’s received a First Place Amy Foundation national "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award, and has lived in Tampa Bay with her family for over 20 years.

Christie Gold

Christie Gold teaches English and journalism at Freedom High School in Tampa where she advises Revolution, the school newspaper. She has been both the Hillsborough County Teacher of the Year and Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year. She lives on a small farm in Wesley Chapel where she trains as a competitive equestrian.

Natalie D. Preston

Natalie D. Preston is a karaoke singing, only-child pouting, Seminole Tomahawk waving, newlywed bride blushing, 50-state traveling, girlie girl who loves to shop, read, run and jump up and down on her soapbox.

Fernando Figueroa

Fernando Figueroa is a researcher, educator and lives in Riverview.

Gary Beemer

Interests include humor, politics, economics, community and world affairs, finance, people, religion, music, sports, current events, the arts and education.

Nicole Yunger Halpern

Nicole Yunger Halpern is an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, where she studies everything she can get her nerdy little hands on. Desired major: life. No, not necessarily biology. Life.

Kris DiGiovanni

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tribune Community Columnist, Huffington Post contributor, Daily Kos diarist, and teacher, who recently moved from NW Hillsborough to another planet - a small beach community in Pinellas County. She also blogs at www.sandscript.wordpress.com

H. David Braswell Jr.

H. David Braswell Jr. is an Information Systems Professional. He is a native New Yorker and a lifelong NY Giants fan. He attended college in California (Cal State Northridge) and moved to Tampa in 1998.

Sean Marcus

Sean Marcus teaches creative writing, journalism and reading at Chamberlain High School. He has one son and is expecting a daughter in early March. He can be reached at wuizabug@gmail.com

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How the Grinches in DC Stole Christmas

Posted Dec 14, 2009 by Kris DiGiovanni

Updated Dec 14, 2009 at 02:21 PM

The holiday season is in full swing. But like a clumsy child dragging her toes in the sand and twirling idly on her seat, I need a push.

Normally my tree is up and my lights are hung by the first of December. But here I sit, a mere two weeks from the big day, having bought no presents, sent no cards, and decked no halls.

I just can’t seem to get in the mood to celebrate. And I’ve deduced that my malaise has less to do with personal happiness or satisfaction than the big picture. You see, I was unfortunate enough to be born with an acute sense of right and wrong.

For the past year, I’ve watched as too many of our public servants have done little but posture and strut, and use extreme rhetoric to put party over people. I have watched as they have built division rather than consensus, obstructed and delayed, while the constituents they swore to serve continued to lose their homes, their jobs, and their medical coverage. I have listened to them argue over silly things like whether the union of two people who love each other, but just happen to be the same gender, will cause untold misery for our country, when in fact, it is their lack of attention to things that truly matter that is responsible for much of the hardships Americans are facing.

And I’m ashamed. I’m appalled. I’m fuming mad that the very people we entrusted with our well-being can’t seem to see past the special interests that swell their campaign accounts. I’m embittered that they wooed us with pledges to do what was right, then once elected, broke every promise they ever made.

I think that what I need this holiday season, to get me in the mood, is for the people we chose to look out for our interests to actually start doing just that. So today, I’ll be sending all my elected representatives, local, state, and federal, a message. It won’t say “Happy Holidays,” because they are not happy this year – not for me or for millions of others. Instead, it will say, “You have let us down. You have too much to do to take a holiday break. Get off your soap boxes, ladies and gentlemen, and get to work.”

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