Summer begins....Friends, with Memorial Day weekend upon us here in the US, we will be enjoying a three day break that typically marks the beginning of summertime activities.As usual this will be a light issue of the FoD -- you probably have BBQ plans and time with family you are planning. Me? I have a need.....a need for speed.Yes, I will most definitely be catching Top Gun: Maverick and all of it's 80s action nostalgia on a local IMAX screen. It will be a much needed guilty pleasure after a long week.Two things I will leave you with:Let's not forget the reason we have this break in the first place -- and all of those that have served protected us and our freedomsI would be remiss not to mention that the heartbreaking events in Uvalde, TX this week really shook me and I suspect many of you as well. I really try to keep politics out of this newsletter, but our collective acceptance of the normalcy of mass shootings in our country sickens me (if you follow me on Twitter, you have probably seen some of my unfiltered thoughts there). I am tired of the deflection, the lack of leadership and the lack of action on all sides. There are common sense controls that can be implemented (such as, why is it easier for an 18 year old to buy a gun than alcohol?) if our elected leaders just did their jobs, were open to compromise and put human interests over their own. And while this is a complex and multi-faceted issue, there is absolutely no excuse to do nothing....and this answer to just put more guns in schools or focus on doors is weak....I don't care where you sit politically on this issue -- we all need to demand that some action is taken. Children being shot in school is not acceptable. We cannot allow it to become "normal" in this country. This cannot happen again.XOXODave