Belief can.

To live in a world where guns and the designated hitter are banned, a world where we apologize and mean it, where I'm not scared of what might happen and am instead excited about what could happen, where I can close my eyes and go to sleep at night without having to think about what worlds I could have changed and haven't yet, where we aren't afraid to be ourselves because we might get picked on or made fun of, where we trust one another, where love reigns with no room for hate or fear, where I know that my children will have a better life than mine, where I'm inspired by music and art and other people.

A world that doesn't put labels on people, where gay and straight and black and white and Christian and Muslim are afterthoughts, not first impressions, where I'm not afraid to fall in love, where no one gets left behind, no one, and everyone is cared for, where AIDS and SARS and cancer are things we read about in history books instead of the morning paper, where we're free to express ourselves and our opinions and still be respected.

A world that doesn't tell us who we're supposed to be from the time we come home from the hospital, world that lets children grow into their own skin and become who they want to be instead of who we decided they should be all while telling them to reach for their dreams, where failure isn't scary and success isn't either, where we're not afraid of ourselves but instead afraid of what might happen if we aren't ourselves.

A world I can write too much and erase it too many times, where a passionate personality isn't scary, where the things we have don't mean as much to us as they do, where we aren't afraid to speak up for someone who is scared to speak, a world that praises educators and coaches and mentors more than we do athletes and movie stars, where our motivation isn't money, where all are open to the same opportunities, where we support one another in times of need, where our enemies no longer exist, where we can wait to grow up and then keep waiting some more.

These are the things I want. These are the things I hope for. These are the things I need.

Let us all be leaders.

I woke up this morning and, as I do almost every morning, looked at the previous few hours worth of tweets from the long list of people I follow on Twitter. I scroll them fairly quickly on my phone, knowing that I have to be at my desk sooner rather than later, often scanning through them so quickly I miss the text of many of them.

But this morning, one tweet caught my eye that normally wouldn't have. It was retweeted by someone, someone I didn't even think to check who it was, about the United States Congress proving themselves inept once again. In my opinion, I don't think Congress is inept or incapable, I think they're misguided and using their emotions instead of their minds to play the political game.

The tweet caught my eye because it was almost too ridiculous to be true. It said that the United States Congress, one of our three governing branches, had declared pizza to be a vegetable. Upon reading further into the linked article, I came to find out that this was not a ridiculous article by The Onion, but something that had actually happened yesterday. Congress, in reviewing a school lunch bill put forth by President Obama, declared that the sauce on frozen pizza that is served to students would count as a serving of vegetables.

I've had my fair share of school pizza in my day, having eaten lunch in the cafeteria almost every day from 6th grade to 12th grade, and certainly throughout elementary school on pizza day and other select days. A normal school lunch for me during high school would consist of a slice of pizza, french fries, perhaps a bowl of pineapple that had been canned in a surgery syrup, some kind of dessert, and a glass of Dr. Pepper or Coke.

At the time, eating healthy wasn't too close to the front of my mind and I thought nothing of it (while I still eat pretty terribly, I at least know that things I'm filling myself with are bad, so give me a little credit here...). I had no idea that school lunches were government mandating on the amount of certain things that had to be served each day. But I think I would have known that the sauce on my flimsy piece of pizza was not and should not be considered a serving of vegetables.

While this measure passed through Congress after much urging by frozen pizza companies, potato growers, and the salt industry (three organizations that exude the thoughts of healthy eating...), President Obama's jobs billed remains on the table. A bill that would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work and help our country dramatically.

While the jobs bill is held up, Congress also took the time to reaffirm that "In God We Trust" is still our national motto after President Obama mistakenly said it was "E Pluribus Unum" several weeks ago. So, not only are they taking the time to pass measures that will, in the long term, harm our youth, they're also taking the time to be jerks by making sure our President, our leader, is set straight on something that most people probably don't know.

Its only been in the last three or four years that I've come to enjoy politics and really become interested in who I was represented by and what their opinions were. In that time, I've also come to absolutely adore The West Wing and the idealist view of the federal government it often projects.

In the last four years, my political views have shifted dramatically. My learning about the political system and the hot-button issues, along with growing in my own faith and love, have helped me come to my current views and opinions on the world. While those views most-times side with the Democratic party, the two-party political system in this country infuriates me.

Along with our elected Republicans and Democrats not being willing to compromise on most issues, we have also allowed corporations to control legislation with way too much power. Money has always, always been where power stems from in the political arena, but now we're too the point where a group of frozen pizza companies and potato farmers can get processed tomato paste to be declared a serving of vegetables.

"Government, no matter what its failures in the past and in times to come, for that matter, government can be a place where people come together and where no one gets left behind. No one...gets left behind. An instrument of good."

The Occupy Wall Street movement started for this very reason. A group of people got fed up with corporations securing legislation and finding loop holes to continue to do business the way they wanted to instead of the way that was best for all people and the legal way to proceed in a fair market economy. As the protests have grown and more Occupy movements have begun around the country, their message has become scattered and misconstrued, but the fact that dollars can not be votes is the core of their message.

"If our job teaches us anything, it's that we don't know what the next President's going to face. If we choose someone to inspire us, then we'll be able to face what comes our way. Instead of telling people who's the most qualified, instead of telling people who's got the better ideas, let's make it obvious."

In determining who our next President will be, who our next Governor will be, our Mayor, City Council, and who every elected official we'll vote for will be, we have to look at who is best for us, the people that will be represented. We have to find the representative who inspires us and who has the better ideas so that she or he can lead our cities and counties and states and nations into the years to come. We have to leave our emotions and our party affiliations at the door, and vote for who is better for we the people.

My favorite teacher from all my years in school is beginning his political career next week by announcing his run for the Indiana House of Representatives. I was so excited to vote for President Obama in 2008, so excited and so proud, but being able to vote for Mr. Mann would make me just as proud.

These are the kinds of leaders we need; the kind that make us excited to get to the polls and cast our votes so that they can represent us and lead us; the kind that inspire us and have the better ideas.

We can do better, we must do better, and we will do better...

(that's from The West Wing, too!)

Who I am loves who I've been.

An old friend and I were reminiscing about our childhood on Facebook today. I had posted that I was starting to get excited for Christmas and she brought up a futuristic Christmas musical we did at church when we were 8-9-10 years old. I don't remember how far into the future this musical was supposed to have taken place, but our view of that random year was terribly skewed. All of us made hats out of tinfoil and we used Game Boys to make electronic sounds. My guess is the future in our minds was the year 1999 and 2011 wasn't even a glint in our eyes.

Looking back on that musical was great, both because of how much I enjoyed my childhood and because of how funny the situation we put ourselves in was, looking back on it at least. As I look back at the last 20 years of my life, almost nothing has turned out as I thought it would. I might not have been as far off as thinking we'd be wearing foil hats and robot noises would dominate our ears, but very little of what I thought my life would be has come to be.

As a child, our family was huge. Four grandparents, two parents, an aunt and uncle, us three kids, and several great aunts and great uncles and cousins coming in and out of town over different holidays. There would be some Christmas mornings that we would spent two or three hours opening presents, taking the time to let each person open one gift at a time, one by one, no matter how many gifts there were or how many people were in our perfect circle.

As the years have gone by, our family has changed dramatically. My aunt and uncle, who I consider some of my largest influences, are now divorced. Three of my grandparents have passed away. And none of the three children in the family live in our hometown.

The thoughts I had about what my future was going to look like were idealistic to say the least. I still have my idealistic personality, but what I want isn't as picture-perfect as what I used to think I deserved. I used to think I would be married and have kids by the time I was 25. I used to hope to be a millionaire by the time I was 30.

As I've grown, I've realized you can't just put a certain age on goals like this. If you do, you're only setting yourself up for failure. I still have goals and I will always have dreams, but they aren't nearly as selfish as my dreams used to be. I still want a wife and kids and a house and to have enough money to not have to worry about it, but most of all, I want to be happy. I want peace and equality for all persons. These are my new ideals.

I've now been in Nashville for more than four years. I love it here. I have friends whom I adore, a church that fills me completely, a job that I'm still learning, but am very good at, and a life to call my own. I've learned that I like to cook. I've heard my call for youth ministry. I've started to take risks I didn't used to take. And I'm so happy.

Though the person I am today is in some ways completely different from the person I was five years ago, I am still the Midwestern guy I was raised as at heart. I am growing more and more like my parents every day. The future may have changed from what I thought it would be, but that's not as scary as it used to be.