Yesterday and today marks the 40th anniversary of the last U.S Military withdrawal from Vietnam. A confusing times – personally and nationally! The Kennedy’s had been shot, the War was not going well. The USA never lost before – It wasn’t part of our self-image! Hollywood and John Wayne had never allowed that to happened! We had never thought about that option! The thing that I recall the most was – “The Draft”!  Hey You? –You’re IN! I was a senior at FSU and about to graduate, when I got a letter from Uncle Sam – Be at the Tallahassee Trail-a-ways” bus station at 6:00 AM for a trip to the Jacksonville Naval station.  As our bus pulled in to the Naval station, carrying we – “draftees” as the Fellow dressed in Military fatigues called us – FSU + FAMU students + Locals young guys from Tallahassee and the smaller towns surrounding it. I remember the excitement of the Locals after seeing others in the fields, as we were driven to our drop-off point!  “Look at that guy…Look at his rifle  -  WOW!” “There another Rifle…. Like young men at a strip show! There’s another---some more…. Really excited!  I didn’t get that excited – I though –“sorry clowns -  the other side, maybe shorter and Asian but they had guns too! Having been the beneficiary of a Student Deferment, which was about to run out! I was SCARED! They had me! Well not that fast!. Eventually after being the beneficiary of additional deferments: Married, Fatherhood, Teacher exemptions – I never served!  Many went to fight in a war to which they didn’t volunteer and may not have understood for a country that was conflicted with it and many did come back! While the fall of Saigon two years later, with its indelible images of frantic helicopter evacuations, is remembered as the final day of the Vietnam War, March 29 in many ways marks an anniversary that holds greater meaning for many who fought, chickened out, protested but  otherwise lived it. God bless the fallen and damaged and Eric Tucker, a student of mine from Miami Central H.S.

Yesterday, while on-line – (Computereze for “Dumpster Diving”), I found a comment from “The Donald”. Now I know that “Wallet Weighting” is a way to determine correctness in our culture! If you got it – “Ching, Ching” – Yes, sir you’re right! And the Donald does awfully well in “Wallet Weighting” catagory plus he has a lot of hair – two things with which I’m impressed! Not to mention his latest wife – That great looking automaton! Oddly, The Donald must be so distracted with flashes of “Not Al’s" but "His-heimers” to fulfill his promise to produce documentation proving that Our President was fathered from the Loins of Beelzebub or from a burned out star or untitled Asian island but BOTTOM LINE-“Ain’t no American”! Fortunately for we who may find him out of touch but comical, he belched out another non-sequester: TOPIC: Baltimore and it’s problem:  "Our great African American President hasn't exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore!" Plus the Mayor! - Now that we are pointing fingers, the ineffective Baltimore Police who have allowed the city to be destroyed, “Are the U.S. taxpayers expected to rebuild it (again)?…" The world is watching Baltimore, President Obama, you have a big job to do. Go to Baltimore …with proper leadership, It can be done! Do it!”-And that’s a COMAND! Is anyone surprised that our urban underemployed, under educated, racially isolated citizens are angry? Violence should not be the answer and may only feels like a form of relief – But when did the Donald or any of us think of these problems before the repeative explosions? Made any suggestion, did any foot/hand work? Open our wallets, our heads, our hearts and come up with some ideas + solutions! Probably NEVER! God, I’m like the Donald – Huh! – Opinioned but Uninvolved! Dammit!

I’m confused! Emotionally and Politically! Bet you never thought that you’d hear me say that! Confusion is for the weak! Well not only – Could be that Thinkers get confused and hoist themselves up, on their own petards – sometimes – maybe often to be honest!  I’m usually for the ‘Little Guy” – the poor, the powerless, los descamiseros but…On Monday, a judge in Lexington ruled in favor of a print shop refusal to print Tee-shirts for a gay pride festival based on the shop owners’ religious views but which was NOT based on the sexual orientation of its requesting clients but on the requested message: advocating “Free Sex/Love”!  It was a “faith issue”! I get hot under the collar when I hear about racial or economically abusive denials of services to others but I’m less certain when it comes to differing “philosophical or political points of view”! If I were a Rabbi, could I not have an anti-Semite removed from the Temple – swastika, brown boot and all? Or if a Priest, reject a contract to rent the parish hall to a Pro-abortion group,  ETC. – Restaurateurs refuse service based of the failure of some to meet a dress code. A bartender, stop serving a person they think had more than their share. I know that these are decisions based on “facts” but Blackness, Gayness, Pro-Abortions are facts! I’ve argues that if licensed by a community to do business and/or provide services – You are to do business and/or to provide services to everyone in that community – Ultimately and democratically, “everyone” gave you the right to do business there! - SO EVERYONE CAN BE YOUR CUSTOMER! … But Conflicting Philosophical Questions-Searching for TRUTH!  – That's a different matter? Dam-it – They maybe the exception!

Today after Sunday mass, Lynn asked if I would like to go to the movies? Remembering that it not “good to be negative” and I like movies, so off we went to the Tower Theatre in Little Havana and saw – “The Salt of the Earth”, which was about a Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado who has been travelling through the world and witnessed and photograph some extremely selfish act of one group against another pitiful groups. Most were major events of our recent history, which have faded from concern or memory! i.e.: the massacre in Rwanda or a cholera epidemic in Ethiopia or problems which Doctors Without Borders were and are helpless to solve. He photograph graphically and was able to record the event. Brutal dictatorships + and careless Western countries seem almost routine in his photogenic experience, and so are the outrageous examples of man’s inhumanity to man: international conflicts, starvation, and exodus! Ignored! He photographs in Black and White which seemed to emphasize the ugly and darker side of those experiences. He made his point – Painfully Clear! In attempt to escape our self-made “Black-White Guilt Trip”, we went off to Key Biscayne and the Rusty Pelican, attempting to camouflage the emotional downer - worked slightly!  Not sure that I’d recommend the movie – Those things occurred during my adult life and apparently I had forgotten – inintentionally or deliberate – I’m not sure! God, Help us and others!

I complain about not being busy and when I get a chance to be busy - I screw it up! There is a Men's group with which I am a "Luke Warm" associate member, "Emmaus". It's purpose is to associate with other Catholic men and share our faith experience and understandings. Frankly, i don't find it as rewarding as I once did. Bottom line: There was a retreat and a breakfast in a church complex in Hialeah - +/- 10 to 15 miles from my home.  I was reminded last week by email of the event - figuring that I might be of some help - I went to help serve breakfast last Saturday - Opps! I was a week early! Today - Saturday, I tried again! I got there +/- 8:15 am and was told that the breakfast had been served at 7:00 am - Opps again - Dammit, I can't even be a Nice or Helpful Guy! Thanks God - I know it - I need the humility and you are real good at providing it to me!  

Last night-“Oklahoma” U of M Ring Theatre – Very Good Production by those who are so talented! We enjoyed it! Not having been much exposed or aware of the musical as a younger teenager when I was allowed to join others as unpaid counselors in 1956, at a place, then in far off undeveloped South Dade, called Camp Matacumbe  (since re-named Boy’s Town of S. Fla. and which served the incoming Cuban refugee kids whose parents were not permitted to leave Castro's Cuba as the Pedro Pan program) Some of the more talent and knowledgeable counselors re-wrote the lyrics to OKLAHOMA to match up with the name of the camp – “MATA – CU - BE, where we all go walking down the Trail”!  Exciting time for me, grew up a little (OK, Very Little!) Might have been more significant than I have thought and I will have to consider that time and the influences on this “Old Complainer”! Thanks Fr. Claude Brubaker, John Hemmer and Maureen Bennett, et.al. - You to God!  Owe you all a lot! Belated: Thanks.

William Paul, the 22-year-old son of 2016 presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was cited last Sunday for driving under the influence of alcohol after rear-ending a parked car. "Our Opinions" are tough to sanitize and apparently are always skewing-up our thinking – either positively or negatively but selfishly! I read about this incident with a partial joyful reaction – WHY?  I oppose Rand Paul and his Republican ranting – but that’s not the kid’s fault! He got caught doing what many of us could have been stopped for - but weren’t! (Or maybe you were - not me - yet!) No one asked if the arrest was proper or the arresting officer acted within the law - or looked for or thought of any mis-handling, excess violence, overreaching political overtones, NOPE! Not yet and I’m not suggesting that there were any either. But our  “Closely Held Biases” aka - Oyr Free Thinking!" seem to re-morph reality somewhere beteen our eyes and our minds. The more partisans or hating we are - the more the re-morfed thought becomes, 

I have to keep an eye on that and check it  personally and more frequently  – Do you?

I dislike being embarrassed! It seems like strong proof of my own inadequacy. Having been a quitter on to many occasions, I am my own worst and weakest supporter who feels often that “I’m just a Failure – AGAIN!” Well I’m going to do it one more time! As a kid I didn’t read well and therefore I didn’t READ! I carried that inability through most of my education – I could listen (a substituted method to reading to collect information) but if I had to read – no luck, I believed that I COULDN’T!  And I didn’t! Recently after a discussion about Religion, a friend suggested and gave me a book which he recommended –“Constantine’s Sword” by James Carroll- a non-direct and rambling commentary about the Church and it's feelng and relationship with and about the Jews. As one who dislikes anti-Semitism, the topic had my interest – the writing is far less interesting! I’m quitting again! The book = 616 pages of material + 102 pages of notes and bibliography but the guy didn’t write a complete idea, rooted of presented as historical. OK, it could be me but after 12 chapters equaling  122 pages – I surrender! – and feel bad again but it was like a dictionary without any definitions – just non-direct rambling! Going to go to Mark Twains’ “Letter from Earth”. (Archangel Satan, having been banished for a celestial day for his sarcasm regarding the creation of natural law and mankind, visits the Earth and writes letters back to his friends, the Archangel's Michael and Gabriel, about his discoveries of mankind and their beliefs.) – Thanks God – I try harder with this one!

A fellow to whom I am distantly related to through marriage, entered into to an online conversation with me concerning some of my posts-I kike the guy-He show some guts and gumption but my attitudes and opinions seems to rub folks the "wrong way". I up-set them! I know, apparently, how to do that - ergo: many of my contact disagree with me! As a person who feels that Government has a purpose and a function and a responsibility i.e. a Liberal, I see the recent high growth on the right and on the part of complainers of Obama as just that - Anti-Obama! Or more particularly - Anti-Any-Black-President"! Now I sure took enough cheap-shots at "W" and Chainey - and some how that seemed correct and patriotic. Yeah, so I'm Two Faced and politically a Bigot, what else is knew! No other president has had to stand up to such a disrespectful Congress, press or right wind nuts as does Obama -
No he can take it, and i realize tht it come with the territory - but it not just holding different political views - IT'S DEATH WISHING HATRED! WHY? ….. RACE! That the way I see it, sorry if my views are not comforting, but what do you see as the basic reason that so many American have HATED our president and his efforts. That RACE HATRED stuff, in my way of thinking, is based on Cultural Ignorance and Stupitidy - He's not ONE of us! Difference is DANGEROUS! We all have the right to believe what we want - but should we all contest each others beliefs - shouldn't we test our own? Has reading and thinking been replace with "FOX NEWS" - Do you have any friends with which you discuss ANYTHING or is it just a "CAN YOU TOP THIS ABSURDITY?" Republican Congresswomen and her Obama cause the soon to come "End Times!" The anti Vacination crowd! The Nuclear Sell out to Iran! Global Warming - BS!, - Ok so there are many differing opinions - but some are just stupid and I think to easy to sell to a racist crowd of poorly educated non-reader/non-thinker  but strongly opinionated sheep. Sorry I'd like to say more but i have to prepare for th end times by doing my walking exersise!  Help me understand what I see as the "STUPIDS!"

Wednesday/Apr. 22nd.- Not cool but overcast - Walked 2.81 miles in 54:11 minutes (19:17 per mile) Tired-Sweaty - Did I mentioned "OUT OF SHAPE! - Not sure that this stuff is healthy? Going to try to find some applicable Russian music to go along with our St. Petersburg, Russia tour and hopefully close another section of our "Round the World in 29 days" I-photo/I-movie flick. Please God, a little help here!

Mark this one down as Marco Rubio’s first stab at political pleasing “some but NOT many or all” with his proposed “tax reform”. Basically it's a replay of George W. Bush’s tax cut which would have drained about two and a half trillion dollars from the Treasury over a decade plus establish a REGRESSIVE  Tax Plan – AKA 

Rich Bitch and pay less while the The Poor just pay MORE!

The lowest-earning fifth of taxpayers would save, on average, $79 a year, or 0.5 percent (half of a percent) of their income. Taxpayers in the middle fifth would save about $1,100 a year, or 2% of their income. While the highest earning 1% would save $40,000 a year, or 2.8% of their income.  Seems FAIR – Huh?

                                  "RAT - He's GONE!"
             Wee Tee Mousey, He ain’t with us no more!
      He died beneath an enclosed kitchen cabinet's floor.                              
 But odorific, and like old and yet forgotten - rotting bacon!

        With saber saw in hand, I did cut to the chase!
                               
And YES! -The kitchen cabinet I had to and Yes - I did deface!

      That Wee Tee Mousey’s corpus is what I surely found!
                And soon thereafter, without honors, 
                         Was unceremoniously taken 

                             To it's final resting place;
                           While my nose was pinched 
         And with my transporting gloved hand, still shakin!
     Life seems to short and sometimes to odd to understand! 
                 But I dropped that damnable rodent's carcus 
                    Ingloriously - In the closest Garbage Can!

                                           AMEN!

Last night, Lynn acquiesced to my often repeated request - "Let's go out to Dinner!" Now don't get me wrong - I am lucky to have her in my life with her concerns for the preparaton of "Healthy Foods" i.e.- No Beef but Kale, fish and other veggies + Red Wine! But last night she pulled a cute one! "Ok, where do you want to go?" she asked - Surprised I responded -Well…aaaa…???? ( After the passing of "a non-decisive" but long period - I finally said: " Let's do Chinese!" Her retort - "Which one?" - Well aaa???? - She volunteered - "How about Tropical Chinese?"  We haven't been there for a long while but it is a favorite of Liz and Jud - So Off we went! I had "Spicy Basil Clams" - W O W ! Wonderful! - Will order them again + again + again! Hope you had a good dinner but if it wasn't Basil Clams - I win! Thanks God. PS Today is the anniversary of my College roomate's 21st Birthday - Happy Anniversary Gary - Many more and Keep being the Guy we all know that you are and have been! I was lucky to be zapped by Florida and stumble into MDJC and pick such a smart and effective debate partner and friend! …55 year now! WOW! Who would have thunk it?

I'm more fortunate than even I think I am. Over the Easter vacation, we had the Dirth's of Vienna Virgina as visitors. Our Daughter Dara's Family- Chip, Dara, Ava and Cal. Somehow, Chip and I got into a conversation, probably over two cold beer, and he said that I should take care of myself! I translated tht to mean tht - I wasn't and He and maybe other were concerned - Certainly I am sloppy about my life style+throw in a big handful of LAZY and "DON'T BOTHER ME!" But my sone in law is a GREAT GUY and I emailed him the following: Your concern + encouragement that I should take "Care of Myself" has rubbed off! Today for the 3rd ( not consecutive ) day this week I took a morning walk - 2.75 miles for 52 min. 33 sec. A little on the hot side in Miami but today I started eariler - i.e. 7:00 am! It was a little better - just a L I T T L E ! Thanks for the encouragement - Heck, I may see Ava's children or Greggy's! Thanks God!

Some ( to many ) have reminded me - That often my "personal" FB messages are open to those connected to all of those to whom I am connected and to thoe that they are connecte with and so on and so on and that what I naively thought was a "Hush-Hush Message" is really a "Scream-Scream" Headline for almost everyone to see. They or you were right! Privacy - your or mine is personal and valuable - For my prior F-ups, I apologize. NEW APPROACH! - a Blog -"I think therefore it's me!". I opened it some few years ago but myown slovenliness and the seeming universal use and ease of FB distracted me - to all who I may have embarrassed or basically said what should not have been said publically - I am truely sorry - Please consider catching me on - I think therefore it's me! - my old Blog but hopefully revised attempt to stay connected! Thanks - lot of love and laughs in all of our lives and Thanks God!