I don't normally get into the whole New Years resolution thing.  New Years day for me is all about turkey and football.  It's sorta like Thanksgiving-Lite.  Hang out with the family, reflect on everything that happened in the last three-hundred-and-sixty-five days and then boom, time for kick-off.

But every now and again I'll make a resolution and when I do I'm pretty good at sticking with them.  Last year I was determined to start taking better care of myself physically by eating better and running regularly (a campaign diet can take it's toll on a guy).  And what do you know, here we are a year later and I'm still out on the street running almost every day, eating a heck of a lot less pizza and I'm down to a 2-liter of Pepsi a week instead of a couple a day.  I call that progress.

We always see the little blurb on the news about resolutions and the list of the top two or three.  People want to quit smoking and they want to lose weight.  I've never been a smoker and I don't need to drop any weight but I get what they're doing.  Folks are trying to improve themselves.  That's the hope of the New Year.  It's a fresh starting point and that allows us to look forward while forgetting what's happened (and all of our personal failures) in the past.

Well this year I'm going to make a few more resolutions and I intend to follow through on them.  But as much as I'm concerned with improving myself (and I am, I've got a few cooked up just for me), I'm more concerned this year with improving Michigan.

I love this State.  I was born here, raised here and I want to go out here in seventy or eighty years.  Other places are nice to visit but c'mon, no place is quite like Michigan.  Which is why the families who've lost a job, the people hurting, struggling... when it strikes close to home (and it did this year) it can break a guy's heart.  

So what's a guy to do?  Get to work and make a difference.  That's what I'm going to do and I want to encourage each of you to do the same.  But we're going to do it in a little bit different way.  We're going to have an altar call.

For the uninitiated, an altar call is when the Pastor at a church asks the congregation to make a decision, whether it's to give their lives to Jesus (a good idea, by the way), to participate in a special program at the church, to change a certain behavior, to consider missions work... pretty much anything, and then to illustrate that decision by getting out of your seat or off the pew and walking down to the front of the church with everyone else who just made that same decision.

It's a statement of faith and a public testimony that you as an individual are going to make a difference.

Michigan needs us.  Each and every one of us.  And we absolutely can make a difference.  Saw a great ad for the new Rambo movie over the weekend with one of the all-time great tag lines I think I've ever seen.  "Heroes don't die.  They just reload."  Boys and girls, it's time to reload and start firing again.  Michigan is depending on us.  

Below I've listed a handful of areas where you can make a difference right here in Michigan with ONE HOUR a week throughout the course of the year.  Starting next week.  My challenge to each and every one of you is to pick one (or two, if the spirit of Rambo calls to you like it calls to me) and make a personal commitment to spend an hour on it each and every week in 2008.  Pick one or two (or something I haven't listed) and then leave a comment or email me at RightMichigan@gmail.com and let me know what you'll be doing.  That's the altar call.  

We're all crunched for time.  I know that.  And we all have commitments.  But each and every one of us can find an hour over the course of a week.  It's only a question of whether or not we're willing to put our own time and effort where our mouth so often is.  And by telling others what you're going to be doing you're adding a layer of accountability.  We know what we're up against in 2008.  We know what we're up against every day here in Michigan.  Pick one or a couple and let others know.  You'll be saying "I'm serious" and "not on my watch."  And who can't get behind that?

Read below for a list of suggestions and then leave a comment or shoot me that email.  Lets get to work!