I wanted to take the opportunity to praise 5 people of my lifetime who have made it better. Great people inspire and make the world a better place. Isn’t it amazing that so few of them overall are Republicans? My rebuttal is FDR, Kennedy, Obama, I await your response.

Barack Obama

As the first person to receive my vote for president he was always going to be on this list. Inheriting a financial crisis and 2 wars of his predecessor it was as if the deck was stacked against him like so many African Americans in this country. Hope, the infectious positivity of this eloquent speaker and the healthcare plan that he started made me believe. Yes We Can! I’m waiting with baited breath for the next political figure who can move hearts and minds for the better like he did.

Tiger Woods

I followed him from the early days at Stanford where Arnold Palmer was buying him dinners and it was an NCAA violation, unbelievable in this NIL era. Walking and winning a US Open on a broken leg, there are just sports moments that inspire you to do your regular day job a little better having seen that. Tiger made an entire generation of people love golf who wouldn’t have otherwise, and broke down the racial barriers to the sport in a way that only greatness can. To quote a Nike campaign, ‘I am Tiger Woods.’

LeBron James

The Chosen One. The man who married his high school sweetheart and made 8 straight NBA finals. The man who came back to Cleveland and won a title. The block, the shot, the stop, and that championship comeback from down 3-1 should shut the mouths of every feeble minded asshole that burned his jersey when he went to Miami. In stark contrast to the previous person on this list, no scandals in the social media era should be a lionization in its own respect.

John Mayer

As a guitarist, I had to include one on the list. Most know him as the pop star with the ladies, and most Swifties get this look on their face when you mention his name, but I want to talk about the music. The pop acoustic stuff to start was fantastic, but the Continuum album and the guitar work with the John Mayer Trio during that period was sublime. The gold standard as a guitarist to me is being able to cover Hendrix, and if you look up John’s cover of Voodoo Child, you will have no more questions.

Dee and Jimmy Haslam

I don’t know how the 30 for 30 hasn’t been made yet on ‘Save the Crew.’ But in a miracle that was hard worked for by so many in central Ohio, the Browns ownership struck a deal to keep the Crew in Columbus. Symbolically to right a wrong that had taken place in Ohio within my lifetime, with the Browns moving to Baltimore, they are my Flying J capitalist heroes. It means we get to still have the Nordecke, we get to still have the greatest team the world has ever seen. Glory to Columbus.