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One day, the wind and the sun were sitting around casually gazing upon the goings on in the earth. A man caught their attention as he walked in an open area with a long and heavy coat.

An argument ensued over which of them could cause him to remove it. A flip of the coin and the wind got to go first. It blew and blew which at one point knocked the man down. However the man rose to his feet and drew his coat tighter and tighter. "You lose!" the sun shouted. The sun then simply increased its brightness and warmth, and the man slipped out of his coat.

On January 7, I had surgery on an earlier left knee replacement. Recovery is always slow and painfully difficult. I ought to know, I have had six big time operations that cut short my college football aspirations. Although, to be entirely accurate, the defensive back coach might also have cut it short -- by cutting me.

Omar Khayyam was a Persian philosopher, poet, and mathematician, who is perhaps most remembered for his agnosticism, at least by those of us who studied him from the Judeo/Christian perspective. Nonetheless, he was a major thinker of his time.

The one thing that will always stand out in my mind, is the Khayyam poem, which rhythmically expresses an eternal truth:

"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."

People working full time jobs should not have to raise their families in poverty. This week I fought hard in Washington to bring the issue of raising the minimum wage to the House Floor for a vote. And I will continue to do this. 

Why?