Thursday, March 15, 2007

Meet the Crew and Thank You

Since the beginning The Utah Amicus has enjoyed a variety of contributors. At first I would ask those people to submit their articles and then I would format and post their work.

It didn't take long for someone to ask if they could have free access to The Utah Amicus but up until this year I just wasn't ready to relinquish that control. But after what was supposed to be a two week break during the holiday season, I realized that the time had come to let go.

The first person I asked to come on board was Christian Burridge. Christian did a great job with his campaign blog, and he was, and still is an inspirational force in my life. It only took one post for me to see that Christian's contribution was exactly what the voucher doctor had ordered, and what I needed to get back on track.

Because of Christian's success I decided to approach "The Voice of Reason", Tom Barberi. I grew up listening to Tom's morning show on KALL Radio every weekday morning. Mom had a radio in her bedroom and in the bathroom so that we could hear as much of Tom's show as possible before we left for the day. Some how Tom became a part of our family, and how could we get through the Christmas Season without listening to the baloney eating, beer drinking Chief Santa. Didn't life seem a little brighter when Tom Barberi was there to start our day?

My next invitation went out to Ben McAdams. Although Ben has been busy with his Utah Dialogue site with Charlie Luke (Check out their interview with Governor Huntsman), I'm still hoping that one day we will see a post on this blog by Ben, a future Utah State Governor (D).

Emily Hollingshead is our Democratic star in Iron County. Like Christian, Emily's campaign blog was well received, and she has also contributed some great posts on Cliff Lyon's One Utah. Emily continues to remind us that we should all treat each other better, and that civility and politics can co-exist.

Craig Johnson has had some great moments on our blog. At a public meeting on redistricting for a potential forth seat Craig proved that it is not that difficult to draw the lines that would allow Utah voters to choose their legislators instead of legislators choosing their voters. He also pointed out that the Apostle Paul has endorsed Parents for Choice, and it was Craig who discovered the 100 Problems with Education Vouchers.

There are many other contributors who have helped to make The Utah Amicus a wonderful experience for me. Richard Watson's Society's Incivility about little leaguer Romney Oaks was a breakthrough post for The Utah Amicus. One day I checked my site meter to discover that over 4,000 people had paid a visit to our little blog that day. Eventually I would meet my hero Romney Oaks and his parents at the Davis County Fair. I had asked his parents if I could interview Romney for The Utah Amicus, but after meeting Romney I decided that I wanted to keep that special experience for myself.

I need to mention my Uncle Don Miller who stops by from time to time, and we can't forget Bob Van Velkinburg. What would we do without the wisdom of Bob who explained to us all that Utah has the best legislature money can buy.

And there are others, so many others who I want to thank for taking a part in this journey. There is one person in particular that I want to thank and who has truly made The Utah Amicus a better place to visit. It's the person we all know as Anonymous. Anonymous has been there since the beginning, and it is my hope that Anonymous will never go away.

So please accept my thanks for your contribution and for your inspiration.

With every best wish,

The Utah Amicus

8 comments:

Emily said...

Woohoo, GO ANONYMOUS!

Bob said...

I had thought about doing away with Anonymous on my blog, but then I realized that I liked him way too much.

Anonymous said...

Meh...I always though Anonymous was kind of a loser.

Congrats to Utah Amicus for your expansion. Nice work Rob on making this an even better place to visit and an essential daily read.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for thinking of me!!!!! I love you too!

Emily said...

LOL LOL LOL LOL
Say what you want about him, but at least anonymous has a sense of humor.

Anonymous said...

Anon is kind of like the "unknown" comic from the Gong Show, but more unknown.

Anonymous said...

From reading the posts..I think there are 2 anons, one male, one female

Frank Staheli said...

Tom,

I'm sad to hear that you're not on the radio now. I admit that I used to get really P.O.ed when I listened to you sometimes (but not all the time) on KALL 910, but the fact is, I listened to you because you were intelligent and challenging.