Free Speech

I have been watching the news coverage of the recent events in Washington D.C.  As I look at the news coverage on the different networks, I notice various points of views of view.  The reason for the different point of views is because invited commentaries on this coverage could give their point of view.  As I was watching this, an idea came to me then—we live in a great country where people can express their own personal beliefs, and the government can not censure them.  The point hit home today; I was listening to KBQI HD2 out of Albuquerque, New Mexico on the IheartRadio App. They played a caller who says she loves country music where her boyfriend listens to rap.  I love living in a country where all types of expression are allowed.  What a blessing that is to me and others in this country. 

Public Transportation

I am blessed to live in a town that offers public transportation.  I am from a rural area where there was not any.  It was so hard to get around.  You had to rely on your friends for rides or a very expensive taxi service to run even the basic of errands like going to grocery store.  When I moved to the Champaign-Urbana Illinois area in 1995, I loved being able to jump on a city bus and feel like I had a life.  I could be independent and do my shopping, go to the library to get a good book and enjoy community activities.  I realize that this is not a free service but I am grateful for the state, local and federal government for subsidizing this service.  I am so thankful that the buses mean freedom to get out of your apartment to see city sights or just get a ride to the park to enjoy nature’s air.  We are so lucky to have this source in our community.  From their webpage on CUMTD.com, “Today MTD provides nearly 13 million rides per year.”  I guess I am not the only one who uses the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. 

Public Libraries

Today I thought I would share how public libraries have blessed my life and the lives of others.  My mom taught me the joy of reading.  Since, I came from a single parent household, since money was tight family vacations were out of the question.  I came up with a solution that has carried with me through my adult life that I would enjoy the scenery of faraway places in the books I can read.  I enjoyed going to such states as Maine, Alaska, and Hawaii with the characters in the books I read.  I am grateful that my mom made sure that I had access to a public library in the town.  I would get books every Saturday and play The Oregon Trail on the old Apple Computers that had basic black and white text every week growing up.  Now with mom gone, I am carrying the tradition that she started.   I do what I can do my best to support my local libraries available to me especially the Urbana Free Library and The Champaign Douglass Branch Public Library.  I even help at the Urbana Free Library used book sales to help fund such things as the summer reading program.  The libraries are now becoming the social place in the community to keep the members of the community active together with such activities as an Adult Coloring Group that is held at the Rantoul Public Library and book clubs that is held by other libraries in the area.  What a great blessings libraries are.   

Classic TV Channels

Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of friends, but I do have hours of family-friendly comedies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s to keep me company.  I was excited when Nick at Nite launched on our cable system back in the day.  I love watching old shows such Dennis The Menace, The Donna Reed Show and Lassie.  I was sad that Nick at Nite started phasing out those old shows for newer reruns as Friends, but those shows did not have the same appeal to me as the old shows did.  Then Viacom made a smart business move and launched TV Land so they could play those shows again but they also had a lot of limited run series and spinoffs from that time period, and it was great.  But as I learned in life, all good things come to an end.  Recently, TV Land has shifted their programming to original programming to be more edger and not be as family friendly.  I am disappointed in that direction.  Well, Weigel Broadcasting Co. Inc. decided to take what was working in Chicago IL and brought their own tv classic channel forward called ME-TV-Memorable Entertainment Television to the national level.  Then their competitor Tribune Broadcasting in that market jumped into the classic TV wars by launching Antenna TV.  There are now a lot of Diginet classic TV networks to list now but reassure there will always be a place for good TV reruns that stand the test of time called Evergreen Classics. 

iHeartRadio

One blessing that helps me in this world keep happy is the iHeartRadio app.  I love the idea.  You get thousands of stations all across the country and if you want your own mix-you can create your own playlist.  Growing up, I didn’t have many friends, so I use the radio as a way to be connected to the world.
Recently, Advertisinginsider.insideradio.com quoted, “A recent article in Forbes magazine reports the number of radio listeners as “staggering.” More Americans listen to AM/FM radio each week than use Facebook. Nearly 80% of the population listens to the radio on a daily basis, and nearly 85% of the American people report listening to the radio at least once a week.” That tells me a lot of people want to be connected to the world too.  We are blessed that the iHeartRadio has a little bit of everything and even has some NPR affiliates, and sports talk radio stations so you can stay informed.  Plus, if you want news from your hometown if you recently moved this is where you can find it.  I know that this company is facing some financial pressures I hope that they can move forward and we have this service for many years.

My First Post: Overview

My name is Gary Walker. I am a 42 year old male attending the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign returning back to school to complete a degree in broadcast journalism. Recently, I been giving many blessings in my life including the opportunity to return to school. I decided that since the world has so much negativity bombarded us every day that I could make the world a better place by placing happier things in the world. I decided to do this by creating this blog. My goal is to update this blog 2-3 times a week with something that gives. I know that life will be hard so I thought I would talk about the blessings I find in my life through this blog—feel free to share this blog with others if this gives them encouragement. Hopefully, you will be able to take some of my blessings and turn them blessings into your own life. I also going to teach myself WordPress where I am going to do a second blog about Faith and Hope where I can have more religious overtones but give people faith and hope that they can get through life even when things are difficult. In that environment, I will place more practical things that have helped me through the hard times. I hope that you will enjoy the journey with me. I also hope that you will be patient with me as I learn this software and improve as an writer through this process.