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If I could turn back time? If? I can’t. On occasion during a long drive, or extended moments of quiet I think back to life changing decisions I have made. Usually I play those decisions back like an old “choose your own adventure” book.

I remember the day I chose my college. I was on the campus of Murray State during a drive by tour during spring break of my senior year of high school. I fell in love with that place the day. My mind wonders to plan A of my college plans. I was supposed to attend Miami University, study business, live close to home. What would have happened then? Would I be rich? Who would my friends be? Would I still have married my wife?

During college I made a ton of mistakes. Girls. Drinking. Studying. Survived it all intact. But what if? What if I hadn’t taken that job, that internship, pledged that Fraternity? Would my life now be more rich, had I done something a bit different.

After college I was dating my girlfriend, now my wife, she lived in Baton Rouge, I lived in Ohio. I was invited to backpack around Great Britain for a few months. I declined the offer, went on the road with a truck driver and moved to Baton Rouge 3 months later. What if? What was waiting in England for me?

Dwelling on the “what ifs” and constantly seeking a second chance will kill people. I know folks who dare say that they have no regrets. I don’t buy that at all. We all have regrets. It’s the minute possibility that by taking the road not chosen our life would be better now somehow.

If I could turn back time, I would take advantage of the opportunities I had and passed on. Like telling my dad I loved him, needed him and encouraged him to better his health. Losing him changed my life. Changed my personality. Changed everything.

If I could turn back time, I would have gone to Britain. Soaked up the culture and secured those friendships.

If I could turn back time, I would have insisted that my 1st Grade teacher allow me a bathroom break, thus avoiding an accident at age 6 that haunts me til today.

If I could turn back time, I would have studied harder, allow my academic grades to better represent my knowledge on a subject matter.

If I could turn back time, I would have been a better big brother, less competing and more mentoring.

If I could turn back time, I would have spent more time on the mountain watching the sunset and less time worrying about the hike back down the trail.

If I could turn back time, I would have asked more questions of my grandparents. We are losing too much knowledge and history as we lose more and more of that generation every day.

What would you do if you could turn back time?

This morning I was thinking about my dad.  I do that often, but since it is father’s day, I thought I would share a story.

A few months ago, Pete Miller and I, were sharing trucking stories, and I shared this one with him.

When I was 11 or 12, my brother and I, raced BMX bikes. My dad was hauling freight for Kendrick’s and was usually home on the weekends that year. My dad learned about a state qualifying race up near Akron somewhere and had suggested we make the trip north to race.  It’s a 4 hour drive and working out the logistics was taking some work.

The weekend was approaching and dad wasn’t sure he we get free to take us up there. Friday night arrived and like clock work his truck drove past our house, honked his horn, and 20 minutes later he was parked in front of our house.  Coming in the door, my mom greeted him with a hug and kiss, he then announced, get packed, we’re racing in Akron tomorrow.

After his shower and a quick dinner, tall glass of whole milk and two cheese sandwhiches, he told us the plan. We would take his truck up that night. He had a load to drop in Lodi Ohio and would pick up an empty trailer there. We would get to the track early Saturday morning.

Tool box, bike, cooler, sleeping bags, lawn chairs and a duffel bag with clothes and race gear fit behind the load in the trailer. He drove a small conventional Mac Bulldog and there was no sleeper berth. My brother and I would split time riding shotgun and on a box between the two seats.   Friday night we arrived on the truck yard in Lodi and we were able to swap our loaded trailer for an empty one. Moving our gear between the too we made our way to a truck stop. Spending the night in the trailer was no big deal. Plenty of room and worked well with sleeping bags. We had camped in much worse.

Saturday morning we made our way to the track. Imagine the look on these 100′s of BMX’ers when we rolled into the bike park with a semi and trailer. Kids followed us thinking we had the trophies. Then we told them we didn’t have trophies. When we got parked out of the way, my brother and I jumped out to open the back of the truck. Keith and I were the two coolest racers! We had an entire truck and trailer to carry our bike and gear!  The kids were both impressed and a little let down to know we didn’t have trophies and were not a big sponsored race team.

The point was this. Most dad’s would have come home and planted themselves on the couch. My dad came home, made a quick turnaound and made it work so we could race. He did this over and over, whether it was scouts, vacation, camping or racing bicycles. I am sure my mom had a lot to do with his success and spur of the moment planning.

My dad did what he knew how to do to support a family. He knew how to drive a truck.  Sometimes things work out pretty well when you just work with what you got. My dad did. Not being a 9-5′er he still managed to go to Summer Camp with us, make it to ball games, drive us to BMX games and a million other things that made having a truck driving dad not so bad.
Happy Father’s day.

Recently the President of the United States has ordered troops to support a UN Mission in Libya. Some conservatives don’t like this. For the record Libya has a record of international terrorism. America has been targeted. This country now is in the midst of a political uprising and the leaders have turned to killing civilians and hiding among women and children in an attempt at self defense. Reports of innocents being killed by their own governments armament has been heard around the world. Our President decided to act in support of those civilians and the armed opposition to Libya’s leadership. Speaker of the House Boehner opposes our involvement there. He is pointing to the War Powers act as evidence that the Commander in Chief needs congressional approval.

Two things here. Bush 41 never asked congress to go to Iraq the first time. Secondly, the GOP has never worried about the price of war before now. Perhaps wrapping up the unwinnable, undefined war in Afghanistan and Iraq first would be a good idea. I am all for intervening in Libya. Our President has learned from Bill Clinton and I am glad he paid attention to history.

First some history.

I remember sitting in Hart Hall at Murray State University in the Spring of 94. I half dozen of us watched the mass exodus of 1000′s of Rwandan Refugees fleeing their tiny country. They were running from an ethnic genocide on a scale 0not seen since WWII. It was on the morning news! Rwandans killing Rwandans and no one was helping. I didn’t think much of it then. My beloved President Clinton had it under control, according to his press secretary, and the trustworthy UN was taking lead. I thought I remembered it correct.

It wasn’t until my wife’s trip to Rwanda late last year and her return that I really began to study and understand the genocide that occurred that spring. Rwandans had killed a million other Rwandans in a slaughter as efficient as any other in modern war history. In the wake of the destruction caused by years of control by the Dutch, the Hutu majority planned and executed an attack on the Tutsi minority that resulted with nearly 20% of the total population of this tiny central African country being slaughtered in broad daylight.

Prior to the Dutch being in control, there was little way to know the difference between Hutu and Tutsi. The Dutch separated the population over years and gave favor to the one over the other. The Dutch left a class system which bread hatred, resentment and a racial divide that wasn’t even visible by eye. War broke out when the minority had enough and America sat idly by with the UN alongside. We watched the murder of a million people on the 6 O’clock news. Reading and studying now, I wonder, why didn’t America step in? Why not send a few troops. The aggressors in Rwanda fought with machetes and fear. Not an arsenal of state of the art weaponry.

Why did the President do nothing? One word.

Politics. Well. Two words. Politics and Somalia.

The evening news brought us Kuwait, Iraq and Somalia to our living rooms much like the Vietnam war twenty years before. The death and exploitation of an American soldier in the early 90′s in Somalia had left American’s uneasy about interjecting their military into African civil wars.

Even when those wars resulted in thousands upon thousands of innocents dying.

Bill Clinton suffered greatly for avoiding Rwanda. Perhaps his biggest failure of foreign policy. Most don’t remember this about him or his presidency. Lucky for his legacy, Rwanda was overshadowed by the Monica Lewinsky affair.

President Obama has learned much from Bill Clinton. Obama is perhaps the only other modern politician to match Clinton and Kennedy’s charisma, he won’t repeat two of Bill Clinton’s mistakes. First, Obama doesn’t strike me as the type to chase interns around the oval office. Secondly, he won’t sit idly by and watch as innocents die under the wrath of dictators who will kill to keep power.

I am glad the our president, like Bush, Bush, and Reagan before him, knows when the world fails to intervene on behalf of innocents, America will. That is what we do. We go and save those who can’t save themselves. We can’t force peace on peoples in foreign lands who are hell bent on killing one another. But, we can help. In Bosnia we were able to support a UN mission that led to peace talks here in Dayton Ohio. Libya, and other parts of Africa aren’t tired of fighting and arent ready to talk peace yet. But that is where America comes in.

One author said this when looking in the rear view at our American military in Somalia:

American military power had established the conditions for peace in the midst of a famine and civil war, but, unlike later in Bosnia, the factions were not exhausted from the fighting and were not yet willing to stop killing each other and anyone caught in the middle. There was no peace to keep. The American soldier had, as always, done his best under difficult circumstances to perform a complex and often confusing mission. But the best soldiers in the world can only lay the foundation for peace; they cannot create peace itself.

In between the Somalia disaster and Bosnia was Rwanda. Somehow the Somalia experience had frightened American’s out of African. Today Africa is shrouded by ethnic fighting, Darfur in the Sudan, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, the Congo, Libya, and the Somalia coast are all hotbeds for fighting where innocent, unarmed civilians represent the highest amount of casualties.Let’s help protect the innocent and set the table for peace.

In my opinion Boehner should stick to bringing us out of the mountains of Afghanistan. The only people who win wars in those mountains are the locals. Besides, the bad guys there aren’t mass killing locals. In general the Taliban treat the locals pretty well. As well as Sharia law allows anyways. Looks like Iraq is winding down. Ethnic killing is down and the locals are starting to work alongside one another. Setting the stage for peace there among three major religious groups. They are tired of fighting. We should be present in Libya until the killing of innocents ends.

Lets learn from the mistakes of the past. War is war. Killing innocents is never okay. Mr. Speaker can’t we agree on that?

For more background on Libya and the feud between the Speaker and POTUS click here. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16powers.html?_r=2

Dear Friends,

In recent weeks my desire to run for Kettering City council has diminished. Many of you have offered to knock on doors, keep the books, manage the campaign, write checks, lend your expertise, advocate for me and invest in my pursuit of local elected office.

After many hours of prayer and serious consideration I have decided now is not the time to run for office. The reasons are many. Please understand that I still believe that this is a winnable race. The team that was assembled and the monies that had been pledged were more than ample to win this race. Winning for the sake of winning is hardly justification for the immeasurable investment of time and energy. That investment would be at the sacrifice of my family and vocation. That is not okay.

I am very excited about continuing to play a behind the scenes role in next years races. Thanks for your pledge of support, time, resources and advice.

–
Bryan N. Suddith

Husband to Melissa
Daddy to Caleb and Andrew
Best friend to Patrick the dog
Cubmaster Pack 236
Chair, Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Advisory Board
Board Member, Dayton Right to Life
Board Member, Ohio Right to Life Political Action Committee

The phrase “remember that time” holds a special place in my marriage with wifey. We have lived a pretty fun life together over the last 14 years or so. When things are going well, or not well, or when the weather is crappy, we might say to the other “remember that time we lived 4 minutes from the beach, and had a warm pool and palm trees outside our door?”

Today was one of those days. This morning while three of us were crowded into our small 6 x 10 bathroom getting ready for work and school, I said:

Remember that time, when you got pregnant, and I quit my job, then you quit your job, then we were homeless, then moved to Ohio to be close to your family who moved the month before to Colorado?.

In April of 2000, I quit my job as a social worker. I wasn’t created or cut out to be a child abuse investigator. Melissa was now 2 months pregnant and had begun the process of separating from the Air Force where she was serving as a Civil Engineer. We were living minutes from Satellite Beach and had no idea what the next 6 months held for us. Married for almost three years we braced ourselves for a little adventure.

By August of that year Melissa and the Air Force had come to terms, I was a finalist for a government job in Dayton and were were looking for an apartment near my parents in Springboro.

Who quits their jobs when they find out they are expecting? Who leaves the beach life for Dayton? I guess we did.

Today we make plans to sell the only house we have ever owned and begin preparations to purchase our second home. Funny how things workout.