It’s 2009 – time to shake off the chains of yesterday and let loose of the ideas that have held us captive. We must adopt philosophies we can believe in and ideals we can stand behind.

But in doing so, we must ask ourselves some simple, yet complex questions:

Why do we believe what we believe? Is it merely because we were born here, raised in this state and steeped in its ideology? Or, do we truly stand behind what we say, what we have heard for generations and what we teach our children?

There comes a time in every person’s life when the risk to remain tight in the bud becomes more painful than the risk it takes to blossom.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

As Americans, we have entered into a new era, no longer shackled to the mistakes of past generations. We are looking into the future, colorblind and uninhibited.

Change is all around us – it’s literally everywhere we look – and so we must change to meet the standards of the day and hold on to what is important in life, for nothing is fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing and the sea is always grinding down the rock.

Great philosophers have said, “Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

Remember what is important in an ever-changing world and stand behind only what you truly believe is right.