Letter to Speaker Pelosi - a call for action.

Following is a letter that I just sent to Speaker Pelosi.  I could not go another day without having my voice heard.  I encourage all of you to make your voice heard.  I do not expect everyone to agree with all that I have stated in the letter and that is OK.  I do ask that you respect others opinions.

March 27, 2010

Honorable Speaker,

I am concerned with the direction that our nation is headed, and the recent developments around the health care legislation is most disturbing.  I can appreciate the fact that the bill was passed by a major of the congress, but now that it is time to work on reconciling the law I feel that we, the American people, desire to have full access to the discussions on the matter. I believe in the past you have referred to this as being open.

It is my understanding that CSPAN has made a request to cover these discussions and that it has not as yet been granted permission to do so.  As Speaker of the House you have the ability to influence others to make this happen.  Choosing to not have these materials discussed in public would be doing yourself and your party a great dis-service. 

I hope I am only one of many that will reminder everyone in Congress that you represent the people of this nation and we are not happy with your actions.  Be open, get the discussion in to the hands of the people and remember because we elect our representation in government each of you can be replaced.

On another note. Even though we elect congress to office, we do not feel that is license to give yourselves a pay increase. We, the people of this nation, are struggling and you are one of the few groups I know that can grant themselves a raise.  The rest of us get raises based on performance of our job function as determined by those we work for and the overall performance of the organizations for which we work.

Our nation has become very reluctant to get involved in the governance process because they feel that they have little or no influence of what happens in Washington. We need to get the people of this nation engaged. I feel that you should be as vigorous about introducing legislation to limit terms, and have elected official compensation determined by job performance, as you were to reform health care.  Congress's pay increases and compensation packages has create elitist with special privileges and compensation packages.

The majority of this nation's people must work for a living and most of them cannot grant themselves a pay raise.  Rather they are granted a raise by those for whom they work based on performance of their job function.  Why not do the same for our elected officials?  It would be refreshing to see laws put into place that allowed the people to evaluate their elected official and have that determine the compensation given.

I challenge you to push for such legislation. Remove the elitism that has been setup in our government bodies. Our constitution never intended that elected officials be elitist or given special privilege, but rather that they be given the resources to perform their job and to represent those that elect them.

I know such legislation this does not set well, which just re-enforces the very points I have made. If you are truly honest with yourself, you would have to agree that I am not off base.

Move to put our nation on a firmer foundation. 

I respect the value of your time but your person acknowledgment of this letter would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully
Drew Terry

Lets see if we can engage the people of this great nation.  Get involved in what our nation is and where it is headed.

If you would like to have your voice hear by Speaker Pelosi, click here.  To have your voice hear by your Congressional representative click here.  Remember be respectful, but firm.  If you are seen as a fanatic you will not get very far.

If you want a little background on what caused me to write to the Speaker watch this video clip.

Will our nation remain strong?

More that 250 years ago men with a desire for freedom left their native lands to come to this continent. Why would people do such a thing?  Some may have come here out of a desire to experience an adventure, but the majority came seeking a freedom and peace that they did not have in their former lands.  Once here they wanted to ensure that their freedoms would be protected and thus men with great wisdom and insight drafted a document outlining the freedoms and rights which they felt all who would reside here could expect.  From this a new form of government was established, and the United States of America was thus established.  We know these men as the writers of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  We often pass over their names without reflecting on their work and their character.  For just a few moments reflect on what these men were like and the fact that it was individuals that formed the basis for our nation.  It was not a corporation, or a club, nor a university that defined the basis of our nation but rather individuals who were upright, and respectful, God fearing, and men of foresight with a desire for good.  They were not self centered, or out for personal gain.  They wanted the best for all men.  They also realized that to have the best for all required effort and a nation of individuals with good intentions. 

When I was a youth one would never have thought up some of the things that plague our nation today.  The strength of our nation comes from its people just as it did in the days of the origin of our constitution.  We will not find the strength in a body or organization for they get their strength from the individuals that make them up.  God set aside this land as a land of freedom and peace as long as its people were righteous.

We each must stop and ask ourselves --

1. Are you doing all that you can to move this nation in the right direction?
2. What more can you do to be an active part of the bodies that governor our communities, states, and nation?  
3. Are you a good citizen? Respecting others and looking after the good of all?  Are your intents self centered?
4. Are you looking for others to take care of you or are you doing what you can to be self reliant?
5. Is your focus on "me" or are you helping others that are less fortunate or in need of help?
6. Do you hold a vision of what the future may be and are you actively doing things to make this vision a reality?
7. When situations arise, do you ask yourself what the real issue is and not just settle for the politically correct view of the problem?  Often those that pose a solution to a problem are off basis on what the actual situation really is and are only seeking for political gain not for a solution to the root problem.  Thus they try to lead us to believe that the view of the problem is the actual problem.

If you are not doing these things then you are probably not contribution to the strength of our nation.  In fact, you are doing just he opposite.  Whether or not you agree with me you may want to watch the video clip from the Red Skelton show recorded in 1969.  It is definitely food for thought. Click here and reflect on the things which he says.

Happy viewing and I hope it motives you like it did me.

So what is it like

This photo shows the lot on which our home will be built.  This was taken from the south east corner of the lot looking north.    It is located at 6742 W Temecula Lane in Herriman.

This is looking south from the lot.  As you can see we are very close to the mountains.  While there will be more homes developed in this area, the mountains will always feel close by.

This photo shows the lot from the culdesac located just to the north of our lot.  Our lot would be in between the two closest homes in the photo. The one on the left of the photo is on the same street as our home and the back of the lots in the culdesac share a property line with our lot.   You will also notice that the home on the left appears to be two stories, but in all reality it is a single story home with a walkout basement.  Our home will also have the walkout.   They should start building in the next week or two so we will keep things updated here on our blog with photos to show the progress.

Ginny is getting very excited.  In fact she is in the storage room packing a few things right now.

New home is in the builder hands. - Pray for us.

We have not said much about the details of our new home, until now. We did not want to get anyone's hopes up, especially the developer. We feel that it is time to share our thoughts, feelings and experience because as of last Friday we have finally settled on the terms for our new home. We feel that we have done very well in selecting the location and the builder. More about that latter. The lot for our new home is located in Herriman, Utah which is about 12 miles south of our current home here in Kearns and it is just 3.5 miles west of my office.

About Herriman
Herriman is on the very south end of the Salt Lake Valley and is an out-of-the-way community that is just coming into its prime, so if you look at the location in Google maps you will probably notice that the property appears to be farm land or at least a very rural location, but in fact since the aerial photos were taken for the map of this area it has been subdivided and the roads are paved and utilities have been brought in. That said we will be at the foot of the mountain and so there will not be very much more development south of us. I would think that at most they will development no more that another 8 to 12 blocks south of us.

Why are we moving
For many years I have teased Ginny about wanting to move.  My  idea was to move to Idaho, some place on the South Fork of the Snake river.  I love the area just north of Palisades Reservoir not only for the beauty, but  also for the fishing in the area.  I wanted a nice home overlooking the river and have a great view of the Teton mountains.  Ginny liked the idea of the beauty, being out of the city and all that, but she had one problem with my idea.  She could not come to grips with the location. No I do not mean Idaho or anything along those lines.  She had a problem with the fact that the children and grandchildren are all in the area around Salt Lake and we would be 200 miles away.

I had not mentioned the move idea for some time. Then in November of this past year, Ginny woke up one morning to inform me that she had a very strong feeling that we needed to move and we needed to move soon. For the previous year I to had wanted to move, but I did not feel it was the right time so I had not mentioned it to her.  The moment that Ginny mentioned this to me I knew that the time was right.  I had asked her where she thought we should move to and her only reply was closer to my work.

A little over a year ago my work announced that our entire department was being moving from downtown Salt Lake to a new location in Riverton (about 20 miles south of downtown).  The church had just purchased the Intel building and the land around it.  This building was built by Intel in the past 10 years as a research and development facility, but after the turn in the economy the facilities were just more than they wanted to carry. It was not until the middle of last year that we actually moved into the build because of the remodeling that had to be done to make it ready for us.

As it turns out our son Daniel and his wife, Katie, had just moved in November into a home that they had built in West Valley City.  Their experience and contacts turned out to be valuable assets in helping us to focus on what we were looking for and how best to proceed with our own home. 

Things had starting to fall into place (not without some work on our part and a lot of faith and prayers) letting us know that this was the right thing to be be doing and the right time to be doing it. We have never regretted moving into our current home.  We have always feel this was where the Lord wanted us to be.  Our neighborhood has been a major factor in how our children have turned out and allowed us to help others in their circumstances.  There are many good, honest and hard working people that have educated, loved, labored and just been there for us. We will always cherish those people and the experiences we had shared with them over the past 23 years and if it where not for knowing deep inside that the Lord's hand is in this move, we would not being moving because it will be hard to leave the friends we have made.

About the home
One of the criteria that we had for our home was that it be large enough to have the kids and their family over and not feel like we were walking on one another. However, we did not want a huge home since were are looking at the fact that our day to day living demands less and less living space. As we are getting older we did not what to live in a home that required a lot of going up and down stairs, so we wanted a rambler style home.

Early on in the process of locating a new home we had determined that our new home needed to face south (that will allow the sun to melt the snow off the driveway--therefore less shoveling) and that it need a garage for our vehicles, and would also provide a place where we could do some of our hobbies (gardening, woodworking, etc.)

We never intended to build a new home and so we started looking at homes in the Riverton and Herriman areas. In every case there was always something that we did not care for in the home (things like the yards being too small, the home was in very poor repair, it did not face south, etc). As we were looking for homes that we could walk-though, we happened onto an ad for Candlelight Homes and soon learned that they were a home builder. When we sat down with our builder we told them we have some very specific things that we were hoping to get in our new home, but at this point we did not share the exact details, not wanting to set ourselves up for walking into a builders sales trap. They explained what they were offering, and that they had just finalized the agreement to build the subdivision and as such they had not sold any properties yet. All of the lots were approximately 1/3 of an acre and they had many floor plans to choose from. Most all of the lots had a premium on them, some have a negative premium (meaning they would reduce the home price by the premium amount) and a few had a zero premium. We tested the waters with them to see how willing they were to work with us in modifying their plans to accommodate our wants and needs. Armed with the information we had gathered, we left and at the first chance we drove to the subdivision to see what things looked like. As we arrived at the subdivision we fell in love with the area. Both of us commented on how it did not feel like the city because of it's proximity to the mountains and it felt like the areas we had both grown up in. Even though it was December and there was snow on the ground it felt warm and inviting.

We were very interested in the only south facing lot that they had but we were not expecting much because it was one of the few zero premium lots. We drove through the subdivision to get to the lot and when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised. The lot has a gentle slope to the north, just enough slope that we feel that we could actually build a walkout basement (one of the things that we had hoped for in a new home.)

To top the whole thing off, the lot has a fantastic view of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. This is a view we hope to be able to maintain as the homes that will be north of us will be about 20 feet lower that our property and our home floor plan has the majority of the living space on the north side of the house.

So when is the move
So you ask when are we actually going to move? Well we are very excited and wishing that we were on our way right away, but as with any new home that is being built it takes time. Several things have driven us to make sure we are in our new home before the end of June. We originally wrote the contact such that the home would be substantial completed by June 9. However, it took much longer to finalize the contract that we originally planned. For this reason the builder asked to have until June 25 to complete the home, but this was too close to the end of the month for us to feel comfortable with our deadline, so we have settled on the 20th of June. I know many of you may be saying, "we will believe it when we see it." but we feel good about the plan. Part of the reason is that the builder takes on additional financial obligations if they are late and that obligation is written into the contract. Considering how hard it was to get the builder to reduce the purchase price or include additional items for the original asking price, I do not believe they will be willing to fork over the cash for being late. Also the general contractor stated that the home they had just finish was larger than ours and they had completed in in 72 day.

So in answer to the big question. We plan to be in our home before the 1st of July. I know every one is asking because they want to help us move, right?? Well, help will not be turned down and would be appreciated, but we are not expecting the neighborhood to move us.  I fact if to may show up to help we may even feel thing that neighbors want us out and out quick so their property values can start to rise> ;)

What are we doing with our home in Kearns.
We are planning to keep our home in Kearns for a few years and we will be renting it. I hate to disappoint anyone, but it is not available to rent at the present time as our son Thomas will be renting it. By renting the home we will be able to maintain some of our ties to those we have grown to love and appreciate in our neighborhood over the past 23 years.  As I have reminded my wife on more than one occasion, we are only 25 minutes away and she can return to visit anytime she feels the need to.

In later blog we will describe some of the things we have learned and experiences we have had in putting together our new home. We also intend on posting photos of the new home as it progresses.