ON THE NIGHT of April 11, 1981, Joe Louis stared blankly as Larry Holmes and the late Trevor Berbick circled each other in the Las Vegas ring. It was the last fight he would ever see; for hours later he would be dead.
However, as I watched the great champion from the past, no more than 20 feet away, I knew he was in another world, that of dementia.
However, Louis wasn't the only one to have suffered from what was once called "punch drunk" syndrome or "dementia pugilistica" or "chronic traumatic brain syndrome."
There have been others, who have seen their great skills diminished or wiped out such as Sugar Ray Robinson's Alzheimer's and even Muhammad Ali's Parkinson's.
If you'll indulge me to reflect on the past, this is his obit from those sad April days of 1981:
"They wheeled out The Champ one last time. Joseph Louis Barrow was placed in a gold casket and flown from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. His body will "lie in rest" at the 19th Street Baptist Church prior to burial at Arlington National Cemetery on the instructions of Ronald Reagan.
In death, Joe Louis, who was born May 13, 1914, in a cabin near Lafayette, Ala., has gained more respect from the U.S. government than while he lived. Arlington National Cemetery is usually the burial plot for American heroes. Joe Louis was one of them, but his own government didn't treat him that way. His tax bills were larger than the national gross of some European countries.
Of course, Uncle Sam waited until his days as heavyweight champion were nearly over before sending him the bills. An honest man, he tried to keep his head above water by first turning to wrestling and, in later years, he played host and greeter at Caesars Palace in Glitter Gulch.
Joe Louis was one of the few people associated with boxing who remained untainted. For boxing, as a sport, is about as corruptible as the Spanish court circa 1400. There usually is no way to get near it without getting tainted.
The underworld always loved it. It was easier to fix than a World Series, it kept you in touch with the riffraff as well as high society, and it was a perfect place to invest your rum-running profits.
It's been said that boxing is a refuge of drifters, grifters, guys who have done one to 10 for shooting their wives, and just got out of prison in time to kill again. It's not a sport, it's a rabble, according to the great, late Jim Murray,
Of course, The Champ stood above the pettiness of James Norris.
He had seen it all. The bad times, particularly, his own, including strokes, heart attacks and then was confined to a wheelchair and wheeled out on special occasions such as title fights like the one on April 11, 1981 when Larry Holmes scored against Berbick.
As we said at the start of this column, he stared at the ring that right, probably remembering his own career. During the period of 1937 to 1950, he defended his heavy crown 25 times.
In the middle of the Holmes-Berbick fight, I noticed as his entourage wheeled The Champ to one of the exits. Early on April 12, Joe Louis suffered a fatal heart attack in the bathroom of his Las Vegas home.
With seven days, there was a funeral in the same ring where he had watched Holmes and Berbick.
"Let's hear it for The Champ," cried a voice from the ring and the crowd responded.
They had wheeled him out one more time. And now he'll be buried in Arlington. It's unfortunate that the U.S. government hasn't been so considerate while Joseph Louis Barrow was alive."
Monday, April 30, 2007
My Mother's Miracle -- re-visited
ALRIGHT, I'LL SAY IT right out, I've survived Guillane-Barre Syndrome.
As I approached 30 years of age, I, suddenly, became paralyzed in my limbs; losing all strength in my arms and legs; and losing weight -- in the neighbourbood of 40 pounds -- within a matter of weeks.
It was a dramatic time. Even today, those symptoms occasionally reoccur, sometimes causing anger to swell up, but then I remember the most inspirational person I have ever met -- my mother, Anne Corbett and her perservance in overcoming the darkest days in her life.
Perhaps, you've read about my mother in a number of newspapers, but with Mother's Day fast approaching on Sunday, May 13, it bears repeating:
***
The tall, handsome mother, who had a very active life, including being on a national women;s softball championship team, was suddenly struck down with the supposedly incurable disease, multiple sclerosis, in her early 30s.
It's a disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by an unknown agent that attacks the covering (myelin) sheath of nerve fibres, resulting in temporary interruption of nervous impulses, particularly in pathways concerned with vision, sensation, and the use of limbs. The hard (sclerotic) patches produced by the disease eventually result in permanent paralysis. And death.
She spent many hours in doctors' offices, attempting to alleviate the pain associated with M.S. She also spent hours and hours praying, along with her close friends, for she had great faith in her Creator.
Despite her affliction, the tall, handsome mother managed to smile and even tried to play games to alleviate the worries of her husband and young son. A daily ritual for the young boy and father was to play "choo-choo" in which the boy would stand in front of his mother and the father behind her and push on her legs to move her around the small house.
However, after a year or more the disease started to take a great toll and she was forced to use a wheelchair. Her legs and then arms became, increasingly, dysfunctional. He vision became severely impaired and her glasses resembled Coke bottles. The doctors didn't have any encouraging news. Multiple sclerosis would soon claim another victim.
The tall, handsome mother, nevertheless, still had her faith. Maybe, prayer would help. It seemed like the only answer left.
One day, as the woman wheeled into her bedroom, she heard a voice as she looked into her closet. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said. The woman looked around to see who was in the room with her. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said again.
"You know I can't put on my shoes, Lord, I can't walk," she said. Immediately, when she said, Lord, she realized the voice wasn't human. She leaned over, put on her shoes, unused in more than a year, put them on, and shakily got to her feet.
She walked out into the kitchen of her home, where the young boy was playing..
Her mother-in-law was also standing there in awe. All three started crying. Her husband and father-in-law were just as dumbfounded when they returned from work.
The tall, handsome woman abandoned her wheelchair, and within a year had a "miracle baby." The doctors had said it was impossible to have another child because of the effects of M.S.
She then returned to high school and would later obtain her teaching certificate and would teach for 22 years in the Calgary school system.
The "miracle baby" -- Garry -- grew up to be a strapping man, and excellent athlete, and a noted psychologist.
She believes in miracles. So do I, for I was that young son, who was there when his mother walked again.
As I approached 30 years of age, I, suddenly, became paralyzed in my limbs; losing all strength in my arms and legs; and losing weight -- in the neighbourbood of 40 pounds -- within a matter of weeks.
It was a dramatic time. Even today, those symptoms occasionally reoccur, sometimes causing anger to swell up, but then I remember the most inspirational person I have ever met -- my mother, Anne Corbett and her perservance in overcoming the darkest days in her life.
Perhaps, you've read about my mother in a number of newspapers, but with Mother's Day fast approaching on Sunday, May 13, it bears repeating:
***
The tall, handsome mother, who had a very active life, including being on a national women;s softball championship team, was suddenly struck down with the supposedly incurable disease, multiple sclerosis, in her early 30s.
It's a disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by an unknown agent that attacks the covering (myelin) sheath of nerve fibres, resulting in temporary interruption of nervous impulses, particularly in pathways concerned with vision, sensation, and the use of limbs. The hard (sclerotic) patches produced by the disease eventually result in permanent paralysis. And death.
She spent many hours in doctors' offices, attempting to alleviate the pain associated with M.S. She also spent hours and hours praying, along with her close friends, for she had great faith in her Creator.
Despite her affliction, the tall, handsome mother managed to smile and even tried to play games to alleviate the worries of her husband and young son. A daily ritual for the young boy and father was to play "choo-choo" in which the boy would stand in front of his mother and the father behind her and push on her legs to move her around the small house.
However, after a year or more the disease started to take a great toll and she was forced to use a wheelchair. Her legs and then arms became, increasingly, dysfunctional. He vision became severely impaired and her glasses resembled Coke bottles. The doctors didn't have any encouraging news. Multiple sclerosis would soon claim another victim.
The tall, handsome mother, nevertheless, still had her faith. Maybe, prayer would help. It seemed like the only answer left.
One day, as the woman wheeled into her bedroom, she heard a voice as she looked into her closet. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said. The woman looked around to see who was in the room with her. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said again.
"You know I can't put on my shoes, Lord, I can't walk," she said. Immediately, when she said, Lord, she realized the voice wasn't human. She leaned over, put on her shoes, unused in more than a year, put them on, and shakily got to her feet.
She walked out into the kitchen of her home, where the young boy was playing..
Her mother-in-law was also standing there in awe. All three started crying. Her husband and father-in-law were just as dumbfounded when they returned from work.
The tall, handsome woman abandoned her wheelchair, and within a year had a "miracle baby." The doctors had said it was impossible to have another child because of the effects of M.S.
She then returned to high school and would later obtain her teaching certificate and would teach for 22 years in the Calgary school system.
The "miracle baby" -- Garry -- grew up to be a strapping man, and excellent athlete, and a noted psychologist.
She believes in miracles. So do I, for I was that young son, who was there when his mother walked again.
Friday, April 27, 2007
It's a Blog World after all (April 27/07)
THE LATE, GREAT Lewis Grizzard once wrote "these fingertips have never, and will never, touch one key on any sort of computer."
And somehow, the humourous columnist struggled through with the adage of: "Listen, you imbecile, there is only one way anybody should compose and that is upon a manual typewriter."
Some how, after a mountain high pile of scribblings, I sometimes wish I had listened to Lewis' advice. But I didn't. Instead during the past couple of decades, my knowledge has expanded from computers, which always seemed to malfunction, to advanced technology and now, within the past six months, I have "graduated" to the edge of another universe, called blogging.
As I've said before, the question is no longer "what's your sign?" but has sprouted into "what's your blog sign-on?"
And so in order to show my knowledge in this "art," I'm ready to give a few lessons from How Stuff Works.com.
So what is a blog, Professor?
Well, as the manual says, "a blog is a lot like an online journal or diary. The author can talk about anything and everything. Many blogs are full of interesting links that the author has found. Blogs often contain stories or little snippets of information that are interesting to the author."
However, that doesn't mean I'm about to tell you how I almost landed the "Big One" off Bass River on my blogs.
So, I'll just continue:
"Even though blogs can be completely free-form, many blogs have a focus. For example, if a blogger is interested in technology, the blogger might go to the Computer Electronics Show and post entries of the things he/she sees there. If a blogger is interested in a certain disease, he/she might post every news article and every piece of research he/she finds on the disease."
Say, Corbett, you're typing up all that information from the website, aren't you?
Alright, you caught me, but they are a great boon to a reporter, who's pressed for time and without much effort, he/she can get a new perspective, for as the howstuffworks site said, "there are now millions of them."
For a writer, who now has created at least five blogs, stuffed with columns and other trivia, it's been great, but what would Lewis think?
I think I know the answer, for Grizzard, if he were alive today, he would still be advocating the use of a manual typewriter and even citing the Bible as a reference point.
"Then they ask, "Where in the Bible?" Lewis wrote. "And I say, "The book of Royal," and they say there is no book of Royal in the Bible, and by that time I'm halfway down the street and the conversation is over." Incidentally, Royal was the name of the typewriter brand he always used.
To make another point, the man with the Southern drawl, cited the computer virus as the bane of society with these words: "It's been all over the news that something called Michelangelo, probably an evil spirit, could get into computers and wipe out everything stored in them. Great industries could be brought to their knees. Kingdoms could crumble. Authors could kill themselves in droves."
Then he also offered this bit of wisdom: "Do you think if Margaret Mitchell had done "Gone With the Wind" on a computer, and it had disappeared because of a dog's indiscretion, she would have gone to all the trouble of rewriting GWTW?"
Perhaps, it's fortunate that Lewis Grizzard has passed on to that Great Typewriter Heaven in the sky. After all, he would cringe at a veteran scribbler not only knowing how to blog, but also considering learning about iPods, etc.
***
CRY ME A RIVER: Although I promised not to haul out The Book of Lists again, a couple of "criers" made me do it. Yes, two hockey players made the List: Todd Bertuzzi and the Great One, no not Sid Crosby, but Wayne Gretzky ... Big Bertuzzi, once with the Vancouver Canucks and now with the Detroit Red Wings, bashed Colorado's Steve Moore with a sucker punch back in March 2004. Two days later, he broke down in tears before the media. As for the Phoenix Coyotes' head coach, who has now lost most of his front-office support staff including GM Mike Barnett, Gretzky has been long remembered for his tearful farewell from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988. Who ever said grown men don't cry?
***
FINALLY: Who said the Ol' Columnist doesn't get any e-mail? Just in the last 24 hours, I've heard from such suspects and their one-liners as Oscar Vegas: Getting thinner can be enjoyable ... Sidney Maxwell: Become fit and happy ... Gerald Baez: Look in the mirror and enjoy yourself ... Betsy Whitt: Obesity is dangerous, stop it. Incidentally, I didn't open any of this "hazardous" material even though I should lose the weight.
And somehow, the humourous columnist struggled through with the adage of: "Listen, you imbecile, there is only one way anybody should compose and that is upon a manual typewriter."
Some how, after a mountain high pile of scribblings, I sometimes wish I had listened to Lewis' advice. But I didn't. Instead during the past couple of decades, my knowledge has expanded from computers, which always seemed to malfunction, to advanced technology and now, within the past six months, I have "graduated" to the edge of another universe, called blogging.
As I've said before, the question is no longer "what's your sign?" but has sprouted into "what's your blog sign-on?"
And so in order to show my knowledge in this "art," I'm ready to give a few lessons from How Stuff Works.com.
So what is a blog, Professor?
Well, as the manual says, "a blog is a lot like an online journal or diary. The author can talk about anything and everything. Many blogs are full of interesting links that the author has found. Blogs often contain stories or little snippets of information that are interesting to the author."
However, that doesn't mean I'm about to tell you how I almost landed the "Big One" off Bass River on my blogs.
So, I'll just continue:
"Even though blogs can be completely free-form, many blogs have a focus. For example, if a blogger is interested in technology, the blogger might go to the Computer Electronics Show and post entries of the things he/she sees there. If a blogger is interested in a certain disease, he/she might post every news article and every piece of research he/she finds on the disease."
Say, Corbett, you're typing up all that information from the website, aren't you?
Alright, you caught me, but they are a great boon to a reporter, who's pressed for time and without much effort, he/she can get a new perspective, for as the howstuffworks site said, "there are now millions of them."
For a writer, who now has created at least five blogs, stuffed with columns and other trivia, it's been great, but what would Lewis think?
I think I know the answer, for Grizzard, if he were alive today, he would still be advocating the use of a manual typewriter and even citing the Bible as a reference point.
"Then they ask, "Where in the Bible?" Lewis wrote. "And I say, "The book of Royal," and they say there is no book of Royal in the Bible, and by that time I'm halfway down the street and the conversation is over." Incidentally, Royal was the name of the typewriter brand he always used.
To make another point, the man with the Southern drawl, cited the computer virus as the bane of society with these words: "It's been all over the news that something called Michelangelo, probably an evil spirit, could get into computers and wipe out everything stored in them. Great industries could be brought to their knees. Kingdoms could crumble. Authors could kill themselves in droves."
Then he also offered this bit of wisdom: "Do you think if Margaret Mitchell had done "Gone With the Wind" on a computer, and it had disappeared because of a dog's indiscretion, she would have gone to all the trouble of rewriting GWTW?"
Perhaps, it's fortunate that Lewis Grizzard has passed on to that Great Typewriter Heaven in the sky. After all, he would cringe at a veteran scribbler not only knowing how to blog, but also considering learning about iPods, etc.
***
CRY ME A RIVER: Although I promised not to haul out The Book of Lists again, a couple of "criers" made me do it. Yes, two hockey players made the List: Todd Bertuzzi and the Great One, no not Sid Crosby, but Wayne Gretzky ... Big Bertuzzi, once with the Vancouver Canucks and now with the Detroit Red Wings, bashed Colorado's Steve Moore with a sucker punch back in March 2004. Two days later, he broke down in tears before the media. As for the Phoenix Coyotes' head coach, who has now lost most of his front-office support staff including GM Mike Barnett, Gretzky has been long remembered for his tearful farewell from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988. Who ever said grown men don't cry?
***
FINALLY: Who said the Ol' Columnist doesn't get any e-mail? Just in the last 24 hours, I've heard from such suspects and their one-liners as Oscar Vegas: Getting thinner can be enjoyable ... Sidney Maxwell: Become fit and happy ... Gerald Baez: Look in the mirror and enjoy yourself ... Betsy Whitt: Obesity is dangerous, stop it. Incidentally, I didn't open any of this "hazardous" material even though I should lose the weight.
The Return of The Exorcist 2007 (April 25/07)
WAS ANNA NICOLE SMITH demon-possessed?
After Bob Larson, the well-known exorcist, appeared on the Dr. Phil television program Tuesday afternoon, that highly-flammable topic will now be discussed throughout millions of households.
On Larson's website, he stated her death came as no shock. In fact, the energetic red-haired preacher was surprised she'd lived so long.
"The autopsy will only tell what physically killed her, not the spiritual reason behind her death. Anna Nicole was set up by Satan. Generational and family curses were hanging over her head from the day she was born. These curses grew stronger the longer she lived."
Then Rev. Larson reiterated his belief about the former Playboy Playmate with these words: "Although her life seemed to be rich and glamorous, it was not always like that. She hungered for attention.
"In one interview she said, 'I love the paparazzi ... I've always liked attention. I didn't get it very much growing up and I always wanted to be, you know, noticed.'
"Why didn't she get attention growing up? It probably had to do with the fact that her father abandoned her at a very young age. In a 2004 People magazine interview she said, 'I don't have any good memories from Christmas when I was a girl.'
"Her mother raised Anna (known as Vicki Lynn Hogan) as a single parent. This curse of abandonment literally turned her over to the devil. If her mother had known what do do, she could have broken the curse. Anna's life indicates that her mother did not break the curse."
Rev. Bob went on to state that "when she was a child, Ms. Smith declared she wanted to grow up to be like Marilyn Munroe. Well, she succeeded, down to the circumstances of her death. By wanting to be like Marilyn Monroe, Ms. Smith spoke a curse over her life and the devil used it to his evil advantage."
Then Larson went on to claim that besides Anna Nicole being born with a curse, so was her son, the now deceased Daniel, and "so was her new baby daughter that lawyers and ex-lovers are fighting over."
Demon possession would seem to be a fringe subject for late-night movies and even later late, late, late talk shows, but now Dr. Phil has brought it into the daylight.
In exploring the subject with Larson, who has been performing exorcisms for more than 30 years, he outlined on his website a litany of factors from demons and diseases; when is a person ready for an exorcism; to even where a demon goes when he's cast out.
So where do demons go?
This was Rev. Bob's answer: "I have cast out hundreds of demons, commanding every one of them to go to the pit. Every time I have cast demons to the pit, they have pleaded not to be sent there. I've confronted demons that screamed, writhed and begged to avoid the pit. As a practical matter, any place a demon doesn't want to go is where I want to send them."
Larson's expertise in the area of cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena has been sought throughout the world. He's appeared on Oprah, Donahue, Montel, Sally Jessie, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor and, of course, Dr. Phil. Besides the TV talk shows and newspaper features, he's written some 30 books, including four best-selling novels, Dead Air, Abaddon, The Senator's Agenda and Shock Talk and others on such topics as In the Name of Satan and Extreme Evil: Kids Killing Kids.
Of course, Dr. Phil was correct in asking numerous questions, particularly the major one of whether the reverend was just on a witch hunt.
As for this investigative reporter (ID* Investigative Day), the subject of devil worship and exorcism has tweaked my interest in the past, however, it's been dormant for more than 20 years now, and for a valid reason.
In the 1980s, as an assistant to a well-known Canadian evangelist, I encountered something out of "The Exorcist" on at least one occasion..
While an exorcism was being performed, a small woman, about five feet tall and weighing in the neighbourhood of 1110 pounds, growled and snarled, and threw three large men aside as if they were toothpicks. Her darting eyes still are ingrained in my memory bank.
Whether she was demon possessed is a matter of conjecture, but it was enough for me to leave the subject on the backburner until now.
After Bob Larson, the well-known exorcist, appeared on the Dr. Phil television program Tuesday afternoon, that highly-flammable topic will now be discussed throughout millions of households.
On Larson's website, he stated her death came as no shock. In fact, the energetic red-haired preacher was surprised she'd lived so long.
"The autopsy will only tell what physically killed her, not the spiritual reason behind her death. Anna Nicole was set up by Satan. Generational and family curses were hanging over her head from the day she was born. These curses grew stronger the longer she lived."
Then Rev. Larson reiterated his belief about the former Playboy Playmate with these words: "Although her life seemed to be rich and glamorous, it was not always like that. She hungered for attention.
"In one interview she said, 'I love the paparazzi ... I've always liked attention. I didn't get it very much growing up and I always wanted to be, you know, noticed.'
"Why didn't she get attention growing up? It probably had to do with the fact that her father abandoned her at a very young age. In a 2004 People magazine interview she said, 'I don't have any good memories from Christmas when I was a girl.'
"Her mother raised Anna (known as Vicki Lynn Hogan) as a single parent. This curse of abandonment literally turned her over to the devil. If her mother had known what do do, she could have broken the curse. Anna's life indicates that her mother did not break the curse."
Rev. Bob went on to state that "when she was a child, Ms. Smith declared she wanted to grow up to be like Marilyn Munroe. Well, she succeeded, down to the circumstances of her death. By wanting to be like Marilyn Monroe, Ms. Smith spoke a curse over her life and the devil used it to his evil advantage."
Then Larson went on to claim that besides Anna Nicole being born with a curse, so was her son, the now deceased Daniel, and "so was her new baby daughter that lawyers and ex-lovers are fighting over."
Demon possession would seem to be a fringe subject for late-night movies and even later late, late, late talk shows, but now Dr. Phil has brought it into the daylight.
In exploring the subject with Larson, who has been performing exorcisms for more than 30 years, he outlined on his website a litany of factors from demons and diseases; when is a person ready for an exorcism; to even where a demon goes when he's cast out.
So where do demons go?
This was Rev. Bob's answer: "I have cast out hundreds of demons, commanding every one of them to go to the pit. Every time I have cast demons to the pit, they have pleaded not to be sent there. I've confronted demons that screamed, writhed and begged to avoid the pit. As a practical matter, any place a demon doesn't want to go is where I want to send them."
Larson's expertise in the area of cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena has been sought throughout the world. He's appeared on Oprah, Donahue, Montel, Sally Jessie, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor and, of course, Dr. Phil. Besides the TV talk shows and newspaper features, he's written some 30 books, including four best-selling novels, Dead Air, Abaddon, The Senator's Agenda and Shock Talk and others on such topics as In the Name of Satan and Extreme Evil: Kids Killing Kids.
Of course, Dr. Phil was correct in asking numerous questions, particularly the major one of whether the reverend was just on a witch hunt.
As for this investigative reporter (ID* Investigative Day), the subject of devil worship and exorcism has tweaked my interest in the past, however, it's been dormant for more than 20 years now, and for a valid reason.
In the 1980s, as an assistant to a well-known Canadian evangelist, I encountered something out of "The Exorcist" on at least one occasion..
While an exorcism was being performed, a small woman, about five feet tall and weighing in the neighbourhood of 1110 pounds, growled and snarled, and threw three large men aside as if they were toothpicks. Her darting eyes still are ingrained in my memory bank.
Whether she was demon possessed is a matter of conjecture, but it was enough for me to leave the subject on the backburner until now.
There she is ... Miss America 1944 (April 20/07)
OLD AGE has failed to slow down Venus Ramey.
And at 82 she has managed to thrust herself back in the headlines because of her tenacity.
For certain, there are other more descriptive words, but tenacity will do for now.
At an age when most seniors start to mellow, Venus Ramey, is just beginning to show that the red in her hair means something.
The other day, a guy named Curtis Parrish from Ohio and apparently others decided to "invade" her farm near Waynesburg, Ky. It was a bad idea.
When Miss Venus saw her dog run into a storage building, she knew something was up. And sure enough, apparently the scoundrels were trying to steal some old farm equipment.
They had been caught red-handed and one of them told her they were just leaving.
Well, Miss Venus wasn't having any of that and balancing on her walker she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-calibre handgun and plugged the intruder's tires.
In an AP news story, she was quoted as saying, "I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another."
And that should be the end of the story, but there's more, for Venus Ramey happens to be Miss America of 1944 and she's been a "fighter," all her life.
In peering into the Miss America scrapbook, it showed Venus had solid roots, for a relative fought in the Revolutionary War, a grandfather was a Kentucky state senator and a father was a Kentucky State Representative in 1934.
Venus showed her passion for politics by becoming a page in the Kentucky House and then she left for Washington, D.C.
She was never one to stay idle and with a flair for dancing, singing and comedy, Venus entered and won the Miss Washington D.C. title and then went on to claim the Miss America 1944 title, and without missing a beat she proceeded to sell war bonds.
According to the Miss America website, her picture was pasted on a B-17 fighter plane and that plane made 68 sorties over war-torn Germany without losing a man.
In 1945 she worked for Senator Kaper of Kansas and Congressman Somner of Missouri on the "suffrage" bill and, in 1947, Warner Brothers tried to sign her up for a Hollywood film, but by that time she was fed up with show biz.
Although Venus Ramey returned to Kentucky and her tobaco farm, where she married and raised two sons, her name never seemed to disappear from the newswires.
She ran for a seat in the Kentucky House on educational issues as well as trying to eradicate the word "illegitimate" from the birth certificates of "innocent children." And she even has had her own radio show and was publisher of a political newspaper.
One of her major achievements was getting the Over-The-Rhine area listed on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places in the 1970s.
And then her name faded; that was until just the other day when she fired her snub-nosed .38 at an intruder's get-away vehicle.
Now, the culprit and the world know of Miss Venus' tenacity.
***
Alright, since we're introduced you to Miss Venus, it might be interesting to find out who proceeded her and who followed her as Miss America.
In 1943, soprano Jean Bartel from Los Angeles took the crown by singing Cole Porter's Night and Day.
While the pageant had been awash with bathing suits, Bartel refused to pose in one afer taking the title and then she went on a Bond-selling tour.
Later, Bartel starred in a Broadway musical; worked in radio and TV on such shows as The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Perry Mason and she even has had her own production called, It's a Woman's World.
Later she would run her own travel agency as well as being active in church work.
On September 17, 1945, a Time Magazine article read: "Atlantic City, once a mecca for giggling cuties in Mack Sennett bathing suits, abandoned itself for five days last week to a ponderous appraisal of the female mind. The occasion: the annual Miss America contest. The prize: a $5,000 college scholarship on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. The winner: Miss New York City, a Hunter College graduate named Bess Myerson, who excels at the flute and pianoforte."
Then the last paragraph of the article read: "On the last night of this unique academic process Miss America 1945 was crowned by Miss America of 1944, a typist named Venus Ramey, who seemed more the phsyical than the intellectual type. It was obvious that the winner deserved her victory. She had been cool and ladylike throughout and had played Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor without a bobble. She also looked good in a bathing suit."
Bess Myerson also made a name for herself, having appearing in various TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s and being involved in controversial New York City politics in the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent years, although ailing, she has been involved in social causes and philanthrophy.
And at 82 she has managed to thrust herself back in the headlines because of her tenacity.
For certain, there are other more descriptive words, but tenacity will do for now.
At an age when most seniors start to mellow, Venus Ramey, is just beginning to show that the red in her hair means something.
The other day, a guy named Curtis Parrish from Ohio and apparently others decided to "invade" her farm near Waynesburg, Ky. It was a bad idea.
When Miss Venus saw her dog run into a storage building, she knew something was up. And sure enough, apparently the scoundrels were trying to steal some old farm equipment.
They had been caught red-handed and one of them told her they were just leaving.
Well, Miss Venus wasn't having any of that and balancing on her walker she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-calibre handgun and plugged the intruder's tires.
In an AP news story, she was quoted as saying, "I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another."
And that should be the end of the story, but there's more, for Venus Ramey happens to be Miss America of 1944 and she's been a "fighter," all her life.
In peering into the Miss America scrapbook, it showed Venus had solid roots, for a relative fought in the Revolutionary War, a grandfather was a Kentucky state senator and a father was a Kentucky State Representative in 1934.
Venus showed her passion for politics by becoming a page in the Kentucky House and then she left for Washington, D.C.
She was never one to stay idle and with a flair for dancing, singing and comedy, Venus entered and won the Miss Washington D.C. title and then went on to claim the Miss America 1944 title, and without missing a beat she proceeded to sell war bonds.
According to the Miss America website, her picture was pasted on a B-17 fighter plane and that plane made 68 sorties over war-torn Germany without losing a man.
In 1945 she worked for Senator Kaper of Kansas and Congressman Somner of Missouri on the "suffrage" bill and, in 1947, Warner Brothers tried to sign her up for a Hollywood film, but by that time she was fed up with show biz.
Although Venus Ramey returned to Kentucky and her tobaco farm, where she married and raised two sons, her name never seemed to disappear from the newswires.
She ran for a seat in the Kentucky House on educational issues as well as trying to eradicate the word "illegitimate" from the birth certificates of "innocent children." And she even has had her own radio show and was publisher of a political newspaper.
One of her major achievements was getting the Over-The-Rhine area listed on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places in the 1970s.
And then her name faded; that was until just the other day when she fired her snub-nosed .38 at an intruder's get-away vehicle.
Now, the culprit and the world know of Miss Venus' tenacity.
***
Alright, since we're introduced you to Miss Venus, it might be interesting to find out who proceeded her and who followed her as Miss America.
In 1943, soprano Jean Bartel from Los Angeles took the crown by singing Cole Porter's Night and Day.
While the pageant had been awash with bathing suits, Bartel refused to pose in one afer taking the title and then she went on a Bond-selling tour.
Later, Bartel starred in a Broadway musical; worked in radio and TV on such shows as The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Perry Mason and she even has had her own production called, It's a Woman's World.
Later she would run her own travel agency as well as being active in church work.
On September 17, 1945, a Time Magazine article read: "Atlantic City, once a mecca for giggling cuties in Mack Sennett bathing suits, abandoned itself for five days last week to a ponderous appraisal of the female mind. The occasion: the annual Miss America contest. The prize: a $5,000 college scholarship on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. The winner: Miss New York City, a Hunter College graduate named Bess Myerson, who excels at the flute and pianoforte."
Then the last paragraph of the article read: "On the last night of this unique academic process Miss America 1945 was crowned by Miss America of 1944, a typist named Venus Ramey, who seemed more the phsyical than the intellectual type. It was obvious that the winner deserved her victory. She had been cool and ladylike throughout and had played Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor without a bobble. She also looked good in a bathing suit."
Bess Myerson also made a name for herself, having appearing in various TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s and being involved in controversial New York City politics in the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent years, although ailing, she has been involved in social causes and philanthrophy.
Unforgettable newspaperman of note (April 20/07)
WHEN I FIRST met David Wylie, it was under strange circumstances, indeed.
After returning from Israel where I had been working as an investigative reporter for a number of news organizations, I was slowly recovering from illness when fire swept through my "valley" in August 2003.
However, it really wasn't a surprise when a reporter showed up at my door, asking questions about the wildfire, which had burned the land near Falkland and scorched many people's dreams in what had at one time had the appearance of "paradise."
That reporter was David Wylie, and, I thought at the time, he was an articulate and thorough journalist, who knew exactly how to extract information and I would later read his article concerning the fire in an e-mail message he sent me.
A short time before the first edition of the Vernon Daily Courier, Wylie contacted me, telling me about his new appointment as the M.E. of the offshoot of the well-established Kelowna Daily Courier. And, to my surprise, he asked me to write a column for him, knowing my background with the Toronto and Edmonton Suns and even ventures in far-off venues such as Africa and the Middle East.
It's strange, the twists and turns of life, for here was another "beginning" after being at the start of both the Toronto and Edmonton Suns. But for an old newspaper warhorse, it gave me an incentive to get back into harness, instead of "vegetating."
For me, it was an experience to be savoured; for although Wylie has the face of a young man, his reporting and editing skills are unmatched.
Besides his newspaper instincts, he is also a Christian man of high integrity with a sense of humour and wisdom far beyond his years.
Athough the Vernon Daily Courier is only two plus years old, it was Wylie along with a bank of "old" codgers such as George Dobie and myself as well as freelancers of every ilk, who have made an impact in a short time.
However, Wylie's leadership has been the key in keeping this community informed and also helping keep honesty intact in government. If that is possible.
Starting what was essentially a "brand-new" newspaper with a "rookie" seemed like a futile scheme, but not with Wylie at the helm.
Now, he and his wife move on to other fields of endeavour with the CanWest News Bureau in Ottawa. He's going back "home" to Ontario, but it's certain he'll leave a piece of his heart in B.C., for he was the backbone of a "little paper, which will, hopefully, grow and grow."
And, one more thing, I consider David Wylie to be a true friend.
We will miss you, but never forget you.
His post has been taken over by Scott Neufeld, who has all the makings of an excellent successor. He will do well. After all he has had David Wylie as his teacher.
***
SO I BROKE MY PROMISE: A couple of weeks ago, I vowed to destroy the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. I fibbed. After scrambling through the crumpled papers in the dustbin, I discovered these "gems":
* David Shepherd, a biology prof at Southeastern Louisiana University, put rubber reptiles "on or near roads" and watched how 22,000 motorists reacted to them. His conclusion: "There are apparently very few animals hit accidentally on the highway."
A few examples Shepherd witnessed:
* "A truck driver crossed the centre line, went into the opposite lane of traffic, and drove onto the shoulder of the road to run over a 'turtle'"
* A housewife who saw what she thought was a snake in the road swerved to kill it, "then turned around to run over it five more times."
* "A policeman crushed a 'snake' with his tires, then stopped and pulled his gun. I quickly jumped from some bushes and explained it was a fake."
CONCLUSION: "Some people just have a mean streak towards animals."
After returning from Israel where I had been working as an investigative reporter for a number of news organizations, I was slowly recovering from illness when fire swept through my "valley" in August 2003.
However, it really wasn't a surprise when a reporter showed up at my door, asking questions about the wildfire, which had burned the land near Falkland and scorched many people's dreams in what had at one time had the appearance of "paradise."
That reporter was David Wylie, and, I thought at the time, he was an articulate and thorough journalist, who knew exactly how to extract information and I would later read his article concerning the fire in an e-mail message he sent me.
A short time before the first edition of the Vernon Daily Courier, Wylie contacted me, telling me about his new appointment as the M.E. of the offshoot of the well-established Kelowna Daily Courier. And, to my surprise, he asked me to write a column for him, knowing my background with the Toronto and Edmonton Suns and even ventures in far-off venues such as Africa and the Middle East.
It's strange, the twists and turns of life, for here was another "beginning" after being at the start of both the Toronto and Edmonton Suns. But for an old newspaper warhorse, it gave me an incentive to get back into harness, instead of "vegetating."
For me, it was an experience to be savoured; for although Wylie has the face of a young man, his reporting and editing skills are unmatched.
Besides his newspaper instincts, he is also a Christian man of high integrity with a sense of humour and wisdom far beyond his years.
Athough the Vernon Daily Courier is only two plus years old, it was Wylie along with a bank of "old" codgers such as George Dobie and myself as well as freelancers of every ilk, who have made an impact in a short time.
However, Wylie's leadership has been the key in keeping this community informed and also helping keep honesty intact in government. If that is possible.
Starting what was essentially a "brand-new" newspaper with a "rookie" seemed like a futile scheme, but not with Wylie at the helm.
Now, he and his wife move on to other fields of endeavour with the CanWest News Bureau in Ottawa. He's going back "home" to Ontario, but it's certain he'll leave a piece of his heart in B.C., for he was the backbone of a "little paper, which will, hopefully, grow and grow."
And, one more thing, I consider David Wylie to be a true friend.
We will miss you, but never forget you.
His post has been taken over by Scott Neufeld, who has all the makings of an excellent successor. He will do well. After all he has had David Wylie as his teacher.
***
SO I BROKE MY PROMISE: A couple of weeks ago, I vowed to destroy the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. I fibbed. After scrambling through the crumpled papers in the dustbin, I discovered these "gems":
* David Shepherd, a biology prof at Southeastern Louisiana University, put rubber reptiles "on or near roads" and watched how 22,000 motorists reacted to them. His conclusion: "There are apparently very few animals hit accidentally on the highway."
A few examples Shepherd witnessed:
* "A truck driver crossed the centre line, went into the opposite lane of traffic, and drove onto the shoulder of the road to run over a 'turtle'"
* A housewife who saw what she thought was a snake in the road swerved to kill it, "then turned around to run over it five more times."
* "A policeman crushed a 'snake' with his tires, then stopped and pulled his gun. I quickly jumped from some bushes and explained it was a fake."
CONCLUSION: "Some people just have a mean streak towards animals."
When evil walked the hallways (April 18/07)
WHEN 23-YEAR-OLD South Korean-born student, Cho Seung-Hui, shot and killed fellow Virginia Tech students and teachers, most at point-blank range, it brought to the forefront the disturbing question of Why?
His identity has been determined, but the reasons for his murderous behaviour on the sprawling Blacksburg, Va. campus, which is home to at least 26,000 students, remains. However, a note uncovered by the Chicago Tribune, may give a clue to the killer's state of mind. That note rails about "rich kids" on campus, "debauchery" and "deceit" by "charlatans." He signed the note "Ismail Ax" in red ink.
Of course, the Virginia Tech massacre follows in an ever-growing list of "killing fields," which has even included Canada. The most notable being the 14 women slaughtered in the corridors of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique by 25-year-old Marc Lepine on Dec. 6, 1989. Lepine, who would kill himself, actually separated the men from the women and then opened fire on the female engineering students while screaming, "I hate feminists."
However, such shootings on a massive scale stretches back to August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the tower at the University of Texas and opened fire. He murdered 15, including his mother and his wife the night before.
And who can forget about the milkman who shot 10 Amish girls in a picture-book Pennsylvania schoolhouse in October 2006?
Or who can forget Columbine?
In April 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wiped out the hopes and dreams of 12 fellow students and a teacher in the Colorado high school.
All these mass killings, including the Virginia Tech madness, had, seemingly, been pre-mediated.
While the previous massacres have been as a result of gunfire, the most savage attack came as a result of three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan on May 18, 1927. In this deadliest mass murder in U.S. school history, farmer Andrew Kehoe slaughtered 45 people and injured 58.
In trying to piece together Kehoe's rampage, it seems as a school board member he was furious over a property tax that had been levied to fund the school building and, in turn, he blamed the additional tax on causing foreclosure on his farm.
Kehoe "snapped" over a period of many months.
After killing his wife on the morning of May 18, he set his farm buildings on fire and as the firefighters arrived at his farm, a devastating explosion occurred at the school building. Kehoe had secretly planted dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol inside the school and he set it off with a detonator.
However, Kehoe wasn't finished with his deadly rampage. He drove over to the school area; denotated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent.
As with most killers, Kehoe had a sordid history.
It seems when he was 14, the family's stove exploded as his stepmother was attempting to light it. According to Wikipedia, the oil fueling the stove soaked her, and the flames set her on fire. Andrew watched his hated stepmother burn for a few minutes before dumping a bucket of water on her. She would later die from the injuries. The stove malfunction was left unresolved, and Kehoe was never charged.
Among Kehoe's attack were children in the second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School.
Now nearly 80 years later, the Virginia Tech slaughter took 33 lives of the learning and teaching elite and one sullen gunman.
***
As expected, the "copycats" are starting to come out of their holes as I knew they would.
While writing this column, there were reports of threats and lockdowns and even evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana.
* Bogalusa, Louisiana High School and Middle School and Bowling Green School, Franklinton, La.: Man arrested for threatening mass killing.
* St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas: Threatening note found.
* University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tenn.: Telephone bomb threat.
* University of Oklahoma: Man spotted carrying a suspicious object. It was an umbrella, not a weapon.
His identity has been determined, but the reasons for his murderous behaviour on the sprawling Blacksburg, Va. campus, which is home to at least 26,000 students, remains. However, a note uncovered by the Chicago Tribune, may give a clue to the killer's state of mind. That note rails about "rich kids" on campus, "debauchery" and "deceit" by "charlatans." He signed the note "Ismail Ax" in red ink.
Of course, the Virginia Tech massacre follows in an ever-growing list of "killing fields," which has even included Canada. The most notable being the 14 women slaughtered in the corridors of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique by 25-year-old Marc Lepine on Dec. 6, 1989. Lepine, who would kill himself, actually separated the men from the women and then opened fire on the female engineering students while screaming, "I hate feminists."
However, such shootings on a massive scale stretches back to August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the tower at the University of Texas and opened fire. He murdered 15, including his mother and his wife the night before.
And who can forget about the milkman who shot 10 Amish girls in a picture-book Pennsylvania schoolhouse in October 2006?
Or who can forget Columbine?
In April 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wiped out the hopes and dreams of 12 fellow students and a teacher in the Colorado high school.
All these mass killings, including the Virginia Tech madness, had, seemingly, been pre-mediated.
While the previous massacres have been as a result of gunfire, the most savage attack came as a result of three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan on May 18, 1927. In this deadliest mass murder in U.S. school history, farmer Andrew Kehoe slaughtered 45 people and injured 58.
In trying to piece together Kehoe's rampage, it seems as a school board member he was furious over a property tax that had been levied to fund the school building and, in turn, he blamed the additional tax on causing foreclosure on his farm.
Kehoe "snapped" over a period of many months.
After killing his wife on the morning of May 18, he set his farm buildings on fire and as the firefighters arrived at his farm, a devastating explosion occurred at the school building. Kehoe had secretly planted dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol inside the school and he set it off with a detonator.
However, Kehoe wasn't finished with his deadly rampage. He drove over to the school area; denotated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent.
As with most killers, Kehoe had a sordid history.
It seems when he was 14, the family's stove exploded as his stepmother was attempting to light it. According to Wikipedia, the oil fueling the stove soaked her, and the flames set her on fire. Andrew watched his hated stepmother burn for a few minutes before dumping a bucket of water on her. She would later die from the injuries. The stove malfunction was left unresolved, and Kehoe was never charged.
Among Kehoe's attack were children in the second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School.
Now nearly 80 years later, the Virginia Tech slaughter took 33 lives of the learning and teaching elite and one sullen gunman.
***
As expected, the "copycats" are starting to come out of their holes as I knew they would.
While writing this column, there were reports of threats and lockdowns and even evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana.
* Bogalusa, Louisiana High School and Middle School and Bowling Green School, Franklinton, La.: Man arrested for threatening mass killing.
* St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas: Threatening note found.
* University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tenn.: Telephone bomb threat.
* University of Oklahoma: Man spotted carrying a suspicious object. It was an umbrella, not a weapon.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Yes, war is definitely hell (April 12/07)
GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN (in an 1880 speech) apparently said: "Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell."
And the author Kurt Vonnegut, who died Wednesday at the age of 84, seemingly caught the absurdity of warfare in classic novels as Slaughterhouse-Five and in his semi-bio called Fates Worse Than Death. Although Vonnegut would deny he drew from his experiences as a German-held prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, his life would later fall apart with excessive drinking and even attempted suicide.
However, the most startling reason for considering such a statement as "war is hell" also came from news accounts out of Afghanistan on Wednesday where two Canadian soldiers -- Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons and based in Petawawa, Ont., had been killed by a roadside bomb explosion.
On Sunday, six of "our boys" were killed when their armoured vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the city of Kandahar.
It brought Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to more than 50 and counting, including a diplomat, since 2002.
And the question remains: Why?
Why have we put our young men and women on the firing line to face notorious Taliban thugs?
Does Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Ottawa cohorts have a legitimate (and honourable) reason for shipping these elite to a country unknown to 95 per cent of the Canadian population?
Are we such a war-mongering nation that we must take up arms and continue to lose precious lives and then label our efforts as humanitarian in a land forgotten by time?
The CBC News In Depth outlines there are three Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan -- with the largest being Operation Athena with 2,286 troops. This operation includes a battle group of 970 in Kandahar; 35 soldiers connected with Operation Archer and 15 members with Operation Argus.
Other facts include: About 10,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan since 2002; and the military costs reached $2.2 billion by November 2006 or nearly $1.6 million per day and the costs are expected to skyrocket to about $4 billion by the end of the mission in 2009.
One of the most startling facts has been that more than $1 million has been spent on funerals for "our soldiers" killed in Afghanistan.
Why?
The death toll has reached staggering figures, unless Mr. Harper, you believe that the fatalities, including one diplomat, Glyn Berry, are mere statistics which can be written off as some kind of federal expense?
And for what?
Besides Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, who lost their lives in that miserable piece of real estate on Wednesday, here is a casualty list which should be looked at and one which should conjur up nightmares:
Pte. David Robert Greenslade; Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy; Sgt. Donald Lucas; Cpl. Aaron E. Williams; Cpl. Christopher P. Stannix; Cpl. Brent Poland; Cpl. Kevin Megeney; Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard; Cpl. Albert Storm;
Sgt. Darcy Tedford; Pte. Blake Williamson; Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson; Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam; Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell; Pte. Josh Klukie; Pte. David Byers; Cpl. Glen Arnold; Cpl. Shane Keating;
Cpl. Keith Morley; Pte. Mark Anthony Graham; Sgt. Shane Stachnik; Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish; Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan; Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley; Cpl. David Braun; Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom; Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh; Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt; Sgt. Vaughn Ingram; Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller; Pte. Kevin Dallaire; Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid; Cpl. Francisco Gomez; Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren; Cpl. Anthony Boneca;
Capt. Nichola Goddard; Cpl. Matthew Dinning; Bombardier Myle Mansell; Lt. William Turner; Cpl. Randy Payne; Pte. Robert Costall; Capt. Trevor Greene; Cpl. Paul Davis; Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson; Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield;
Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy; Sgt. Robert Alan Short; Cpl. Robert Christopher Beerenfenger; Sgt. Marc D. Leger; Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer; Pte. Richard Green; Pte. Nathan Smith.
Also more than 100 Canadian soldiers have been wounded.
And the question remains: Why?
And the author Kurt Vonnegut, who died Wednesday at the age of 84, seemingly caught the absurdity of warfare in classic novels as Slaughterhouse-Five and in his semi-bio called Fates Worse Than Death. Although Vonnegut would deny he drew from his experiences as a German-held prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, his life would later fall apart with excessive drinking and even attempted suicide.
However, the most startling reason for considering such a statement as "war is hell" also came from news accounts out of Afghanistan on Wednesday where two Canadian soldiers -- Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons and based in Petawawa, Ont., had been killed by a roadside bomb explosion.
On Sunday, six of "our boys" were killed when their armoured vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the city of Kandahar.
It brought Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to more than 50 and counting, including a diplomat, since 2002.
And the question remains: Why?
Why have we put our young men and women on the firing line to face notorious Taliban thugs?
Does Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Ottawa cohorts have a legitimate (and honourable) reason for shipping these elite to a country unknown to 95 per cent of the Canadian population?
Are we such a war-mongering nation that we must take up arms and continue to lose precious lives and then label our efforts as humanitarian in a land forgotten by time?
The CBC News In Depth outlines there are three Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan -- with the largest being Operation Athena with 2,286 troops. This operation includes a battle group of 970 in Kandahar; 35 soldiers connected with Operation Archer and 15 members with Operation Argus.
Other facts include: About 10,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan since 2002; and the military costs reached $2.2 billion by November 2006 or nearly $1.6 million per day and the costs are expected to skyrocket to about $4 billion by the end of the mission in 2009.
One of the most startling facts has been that more than $1 million has been spent on funerals for "our soldiers" killed in Afghanistan.
Why?
The death toll has reached staggering figures, unless Mr. Harper, you believe that the fatalities, including one diplomat, Glyn Berry, are mere statistics which can be written off as some kind of federal expense?
And for what?
Besides Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, who lost their lives in that miserable piece of real estate on Wednesday, here is a casualty list which should be looked at and one which should conjur up nightmares:
Pte. David Robert Greenslade; Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy; Sgt. Donald Lucas; Cpl. Aaron E. Williams; Cpl. Christopher P. Stannix; Cpl. Brent Poland; Cpl. Kevin Megeney; Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard; Cpl. Albert Storm;
Sgt. Darcy Tedford; Pte. Blake Williamson; Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson; Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam; Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell; Pte. Josh Klukie; Pte. David Byers; Cpl. Glen Arnold; Cpl. Shane Keating;
Cpl. Keith Morley; Pte. Mark Anthony Graham; Sgt. Shane Stachnik; Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish; Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan; Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley; Cpl. David Braun; Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom; Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh; Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt; Sgt. Vaughn Ingram; Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller; Pte. Kevin Dallaire; Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid; Cpl. Francisco Gomez; Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren; Cpl. Anthony Boneca;
Capt. Nichola Goddard; Cpl. Matthew Dinning; Bombardier Myle Mansell; Lt. William Turner; Cpl. Randy Payne; Pte. Robert Costall; Capt. Trevor Greene; Cpl. Paul Davis; Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson; Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield;
Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy; Sgt. Robert Alan Short; Cpl. Robert Christopher Beerenfenger; Sgt. Marc D. Leger; Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer; Pte. Richard Green; Pte. Nathan Smith.
Also more than 100 Canadian soldiers have been wounded.
And the question remains: Why?
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Repeating history and the Holocaust
SEARCHING THROUGH the attic of my Jerusalem office/apartment, the musty and grainy photographs spoke volumes. A couple and their children in happier times, of places and people with names I didn't know, and suddenly, it was if this intruder was in a time warp.
And I also felt as if I had violated a family's privacy so I quickly closed the attic opening and tried to erase those photos from my mind, but I never could. That was in the summer of 1999 -- more than seven years ago.
Later I was to learn, from a weeping relative, that the fading photos were of a few members of a family, who had somehow survived Nazi Germany's genocide of the Jews, known as the 'Final Solution,' to barely escape to Israel with only grim memories.
That life-altering experience awoke dramatically earlier this week when a news report out of Britain caught my attention with this headline: British schools drop Holocaust lessons for fear of enraging Muslims.
Of course, the mainstream press has given the report little coverage, if any, when it should have received front page headlines, but then again we seem to be preoccupied with appeasing this generation with frivolous coverage and photographs of Paris Hilton and news of British PM Tony Blair's acquiescence to Iran, who have not only openly declared to wipe out the United States (which would include Canada), as well as their main target, the tiny sliver of land known as Israel.
But then again, this generation seems bent to forget the past and its savage history when six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust just prior to a few being able to escape and establish a homeland in May, 1948, less than 60 years ago.
And while the British may be the epitome of that so-called plague of "political correctness," such denial of man's inhumanity to man has spread around the world, with anti-Semitism becoming a plague once again as it was just before the Second World War.
In the 1940s, Britain and the U.S., along with Canada, were major forces against Hitler and Nazi Germany and their demonic plan to "rule" the world and annihilate the Jews. Today, however, militant Islam has been given its head to march across the globe without so much as a whimper.
While this generation might be hoodwinked into believing it's all about control of oil resources in the Persian Gulf; those with a sense of history well know that world wars and atrocities have their roots in the evil premise that Jews must be annihilated.
And where does such thinking begin -- in schools. It already has in Britain where a sense of history has evaporated. Of course, Canada has not been immune to such vile words from the equally venomous pronouncements of Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra.
"Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government-backed study has revealed," was the lead paragraph in Britain's Daily Mail. However, every school child throughout the world should be made aware that Hitler's rampage began in stages, starting with racially discriminatory laws in Germany and then "expanded to mass murder ... Besides Jews, others deemed "unworthy of life" included Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians and others) while other groups, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, were "persecuted on political and behavioural grounds ..."
In addition, any so-called "holocaust denier" must constantly be reminded of the millions of murders committed at such places as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.
While the denial of even using the word, "Holocaust" in British schools might seem to be a trivial matter, it could have dire consequences, for as philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) once wrote: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Or as a reader of the Israel Insider wrote: "Ever hear of the Dark Ages? We are returning to them and I imagine this is how they came about, a society that lost all sense of reason came into being."
***
NEWT GINGRICH (Former U.S. Speaker of the House by video to the Herzliya security conference outside Tel Aviv): "Our enemies are fully as determined as Nazi Germany, and more determined than the Soviets ... freedom as we know it will disappear, and we will become a much grimmer, much more militarized, dictatorial society."
And I also felt as if I had violated a family's privacy so I quickly closed the attic opening and tried to erase those photos from my mind, but I never could. That was in the summer of 1999 -- more than seven years ago.
Later I was to learn, from a weeping relative, that the fading photos were of a few members of a family, who had somehow survived Nazi Germany's genocide of the Jews, known as the 'Final Solution,' to barely escape to Israel with only grim memories.
That life-altering experience awoke dramatically earlier this week when a news report out of Britain caught my attention with this headline: British schools drop Holocaust lessons for fear of enraging Muslims.
Of course, the mainstream press has given the report little coverage, if any, when it should have received front page headlines, but then again we seem to be preoccupied with appeasing this generation with frivolous coverage and photographs of Paris Hilton and news of British PM Tony Blair's acquiescence to Iran, who have not only openly declared to wipe out the United States (which would include Canada), as well as their main target, the tiny sliver of land known as Israel.
But then again, this generation seems bent to forget the past and its savage history when six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust just prior to a few being able to escape and establish a homeland in May, 1948, less than 60 years ago.
And while the British may be the epitome of that so-called plague of "political correctness," such denial of man's inhumanity to man has spread around the world, with anti-Semitism becoming a plague once again as it was just before the Second World War.
In the 1940s, Britain and the U.S., along with Canada, were major forces against Hitler and Nazi Germany and their demonic plan to "rule" the world and annihilate the Jews. Today, however, militant Islam has been given its head to march across the globe without so much as a whimper.
While this generation might be hoodwinked into believing it's all about control of oil resources in the Persian Gulf; those with a sense of history well know that world wars and atrocities have their roots in the evil premise that Jews must be annihilated.
And where does such thinking begin -- in schools. It already has in Britain where a sense of history has evaporated. Of course, Canada has not been immune to such vile words from the equally venomous pronouncements of Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra.
"Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government-backed study has revealed," was the lead paragraph in Britain's Daily Mail. However, every school child throughout the world should be made aware that Hitler's rampage began in stages, starting with racially discriminatory laws in Germany and then "expanded to mass murder ... Besides Jews, others deemed "unworthy of life" included Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians and others) while other groups, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, were "persecuted on political and behavioural grounds ..."
In addition, any so-called "holocaust denier" must constantly be reminded of the millions of murders committed at such places as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.
While the denial of even using the word, "Holocaust" in British schools might seem to be a trivial matter, it could have dire consequences, for as philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) once wrote: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Or as a reader of the Israel Insider wrote: "Ever hear of the Dark Ages? We are returning to them and I imagine this is how they came about, a society that lost all sense of reason came into being."
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NEWT GINGRICH (Former U.S. Speaker of the House by video to the Herzliya security conference outside Tel Aviv): "Our enemies are fully as determined as Nazi Germany, and more determined than the Soviets ... freedom as we know it will disappear, and we will become a much grimmer, much more militarized, dictatorial society."
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