Friday, June 21, 2019

Born on the 4th of July






The latest issue of Time magazine included an article about Bruce Springsteen, who has been performing for five decades. Although he has sung about poverty, racism, and corporate greed, the cause that he is the most passionate about is soldiers returning home from war. His latest album, Western Stars, includes a song titled “Tucson Train”, which describe the struggles of a young man dealing with PTSD.




His 1984 song, “Born in the USA” was a scathing condemnation of America’s treatment of its fighters. The flip side of the album includes a song titled, “Shut Out the Light, which depicted a soldier racked with PTSD and insomnia.



Ironically, Springsteen has never served in the military, but his father served in WWII, and suffered from bouts of depression and paranoia.

His activism  for soldiers started in the late 1970’s after he met Ron Kovic, who had written “Born on the 4th of July”, which was later made into a movie. Kovic won the Golden Globe Award for best screenplay on January 20, 1990, exactly 22 years to the day he was wounded in Vietnam. He was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.






Before the end of the war in Vietnam was declared on April 30, 1975, Kovic became one of the best-known peace activists among the Vietnam veterans, and was arrested 12 times for political protesting. He attended his first peace demonstration soon after the Kent State shootings in May 1970, and gave his first speech against the war at Levittown Memorial High School in LevittownLong Island, New York that same spring. Kovic's speech that day was interrupted by a bomb threat and the auditorium was cleared.

Kovic has been an anti-war activist for more than 40 years, and has been arrested numerous times as a result. His life history, which can be found at the link above, makes for interesting reading.

I served in the military for six years, but never considered myself to be a hero. Truth be told, though, I was never in any danger unless the Viet Cong had decided to attack the National Guard hanger at Holman Field in downtown St. Paul.

I was in basic training when 4 students were killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State. A month later, my cousin Donny’s helicopter was shot down in Vietnam. The name Donald J. Lundequam, warrant officer,  is now listed on the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C.

Our involvement in Vietnam actually stretches back to 1954, but the trigger for our deeper involvement was based on a lie called the Gulf of Tonkin incident. 39 years later, another whopper, called Weapons of Mass Destruction, drew us into another costly and unnecessary war. Today, the current administration is “rattling sabers” at Iran, which is another foolish idea. In fact, Trump was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate against Iran for downing an American drone, but canceled the strikes 10 minutes before they were to be carried out after being told some 150 people could die.

Don Caron may not be a name that’s familiar to you, but he is a very talented musician. His full biography can be found at the link below:


My exposure to him came about due to his founding of the Parody Project in 2017, an organization that has produced dozens of protest songs about current events. The most recent one, “When Johnny Comes Rolling Home”, is the story of a young man coming back from a future war with Iran – and it will give you chills.


If you know anyone who has received treatment at a VA center, you are aware of the fact that the care that they receive there isn’t always the best. It’s impossible to estimate exactly how many of our veterans suffer from PTSD, but we DO know that 20 veterans a day in this country commit suicide.


In 2016, there were approximately 40,000 homeless veterans in this country. More than likely, you have seen them on streets corners in many cities of the country. The vast majority are male, single, live in a city, and have mental and/or physical disabilities. The most substantial risk factor for homelessness, though, are the traumatic brain disorders and PTSD that they acquired as a result of their military service.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have long had programs that provided at least some assistance to homeless veterans, but the Obama administration started two additional programs (in 2012 and 2014) to further assist the vets.

On a personal basis, we can all help the homeless vets by giving a few bucks to the guy on the street corner – but there IS a better way.


The best way to protect our veterans is to prevent more wars. The current occupant of the White House has been called one of the most dangerous politicians in the world, so we need to do as much as possible to make sure that he doesn’t get re-elected.

Our veterans will thank you.






Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Donuts!







In case you missed it, June 7 was National Donut Day. Most donut locations either provided a free donut or a discount, so you had plenty of options on how to take care of your “sugar fix.”

National Donut Day actually has its origins more than 100 years ago, when it was created to honor the women (known as Doughnut Lassies) who served in the Salvation Army during WWI in 1917. Since cooking facilities were rare in abandoned buildings, the women frequently fried donuts in soldiers’ helmets. The Doughnut Lassies were started by two volunteers (Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance). Purviace once said, “ There was... a prayer in my heart that somehow this home touch would do more for those who ate the doughnuts than satisfy physical hunger."


National Donut Day brought back to me memories of a time long ago, when Sharon and I belonged to a Catholic youth organization known as ACC. Our group got permission from the council of St Pascal’s church to sell donuts between masses on Sunday morning. It became a modest fund raiser for our little group, but (more importantly) it gave us an opportunity to talk with members of the parish who we otherwise may not have met.

ACC is an acronym for Active Christian Catholics. Although it’s possible that many Catholic parishes have a youth ministry program, not all of them do. According to the Pew Research Center, 1/3 of those raised Catholic are no longer Catholic. If you do the math, that’s 10% of the US population, or around 30 million people. When Pew studied those who have changed religious affiliation, they found that over 70% of those who leave the Catholic Church do so before age 24. As a result, churches that are experiencing declining membership should seriously consider a youth ministry program in order to slow down the exodus.

On March 27, 2002, a young man in Lacombe, Louisiana named Clint Messina decided that one donut with his morning coffee just wasn’t enough to satisfy his donut crave, so he and a friend stole a Krispy Kreme donut truck in Slidell, Louisiana at 3:30 in the morning. The Krispy Kreme deliveryman had left the engine of the truck running and its rear doors open while he went into a convenience store to make a delivery. Upon returning to find the truck and the hundreds of doughnuts inside missing, the deliveryman called police, who pursued and caught up to the vehicle. Messina and his friend then led police on a 15-mile chase, leaving a trail of doughnuts behind them as they fled. The incident was the subject of nationwide media attention and, as it involved cops and doughnuts, kept late-night comedians busy for several days. Although Messina managed to escape after abandoning the donut truck, a later incident finally brought justice.

On June 10, 2002, this day in 2002, he was arrested and charged in the attempted murder of a police officer after driving into a patrol car while attempting to flee from sheriff’s deputies. Soon after, police discovered that he was already a wanted man due to “the great donut heist”. For that crime, he was charged with auto theft and resisting arrest by flight. Afterward, Lt. Rob Callahan of the Slidell police joked, “We’re glad he’s off the streets, but this unfortunately means we’re going to have to stop staking out all the local doughnut shops looking for him.”




We haven’t had any donuts in our house for YEARS, but our abstinence hasn’t hurt the donut industry, since 10 BILLION  are made each year in America. A chain called LaMar’s is the oldest chain (going back to 1933), but Krispy Kreme is not far behind, since it began in 1937. After Krispy Kreme went public in 2000, the number of locations exploded to over 1000, so they are widely available. In contrast, you can only find LaMar’s in 6 states.  If you really  LIKE donuts, the link below will take you to the best donut chains in the country.


My favorite donut?

Tom Thumb, and that is likely due to the fact that I grew up in Minnesota. The mini-donut machine was invented in California in 1947, and the Tom Thumb Donuts company was established two years later. In 1952, John Desmond and his wife Janey brought Tom Thumb donuts to the Minnesota State fair. A few years later, Desmond passed away, and two boys in Desmond’s Minneapolis neighborhood (Ted Boecher and John Hanson) took over running the stand. A few years after that, Hanson had a heart attack right in the main Tom Thumb booth near ye Old Mill, which left Boecher to run the business on his own.



Today, you can buy Thumb Thumb donuts online and shipped to your home, but you just can’t beat the taste of a tiny donut fresh out of the fryer.

What am I having for breakfast tomorrow?

Well, that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.








Thursday, June 6, 2019

The night when Elvis shocked the nation







Early in his music career, all of Elvis’s hits were on the Country and Western charts, but the next six months would make him a superstar. It was his debut single on RCA/Victor, his new label, which propelled Elvis to the top of the pop charts. But if “Heartbreak Hotel” is what made him the king of the radio and record stores during the spring of 1956, it was television that truly made him the King of Rock and Roll. And if any one moment might be called his coronation, it was his appearance on The Milton Berle Show on June 4, 1956, when he set his guitar aside and put every part of his being into a blistering, scandalous performance of “Hound Dog.”


https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/elvis-rocks-the-milton-berle-show


Starting in January, 1956, Elvis started appearing on a variety of television shows. His first appearance on the Milton Berle show was on April 3, but his second appearance, on June 4, set the world on fire. 









His gyrating hips generated a huge amount of controversy, and caused the  Catholic weekly America to get right to the point in its headline: “Beware of Elvis Presley.”


A day before his second appearance on the Milton Berle show, the town of Santa Cruz, California had banned rock ‘n roll at public gatherings, calling the music “detrimental to both the health and morals of our youth and community.” Santa Cruz police entered the Santa Cruz Civic auditorium just past midnight to check on the event, and what they found, according to Lieutenant Richard Overton, was a crowd “engaged in suggestive, stimulating and tantalizing motions induced by the provocative rhythms of an all-negro band.” But what might sound like a pretty great dance party to some did not to Lt. Overton, who immediately shut the dance down and sent the disappointed teenagers home early


https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rock-and-roll-is-banned-in-santa-cruz-california



Both Santa Cruz and the “America” publication evolved over time, and became decidedly more liberal. 


Ten years after rock ‘n roll was banned in Santa Cruz, the town became the favorite haunt of Ken Kelsey and his Merry Pranksters. A brief scan of the link below will help you quickly realize that Kelsey was  (to quote Steve Martin)  “a wild and crazy  guy”.






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey


“America”, the magazine, was started by the Jesuits in Manhattan in 1909. Although its early position on Elvis may lead you to consider it to be a conservative publication, it’s Jesuit foundation has caused it to be a liberal-leaning publication for most of its existence, and it got even more liberal starting in 1998, when the magazine became known for publishing articles and opinion pieces taking positions contrary to official Catholic teaching on matters such as homosexualitypriestly celibacybirth control, and the abortion debate. The magazine’s weekly publication is a relatively modest 45,000,


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(magazine)


Although you might assume that religious publications, in general, are going to be conservative, “America”  is proof that not all of them are. A brief scan of the publication at the line below will confirm that.


https://www.americamagazine.org/


There is no shortage of Catholic newspapers in the Untied States, and the St. Paul-based Wanderer is THE oldest, having  been founded in Germany in 1867. In 1931, it merged with the English language version. In 1957, the German version ceased publication. 


https://www.w3newspapers.com/usa/romancatholic/


It’s not possible to get circulation information about the Wanderer, but three Catholic newspapers have weekly circulation in excess of 100,000, The most widely read Catholic publication is the Catholic Digest, which was originally started by St. Thomas College in St. Paul, Minnesota. It has a weekly publication of 300,000,


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_newspapers_and_magazines_in_the_United_States


If you scan through the latest issue of The Wanderer, you’ll discover that it is a VERY conservative publication, and I would take issue with just about every opinion expressed therein. I have little doubt that the newspaper would STILL have dim view of Elvis.


https://thewandererpress.com/


Elvis Presley has been dead now for more than 40 years, but his estate still managed to earn $35 million in 2017. As a result, he probably was not overly concerned by early criticism of his singing style.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/10/30/elvis-presleys-earnings-35-million-in-2017/#112ccf324187


Since none of us are likely going to hear Elvis on the radio anymore, let’s take a stop back in time, and WATCH “Hound Dog” one more time.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQ8GDBA8Is












Sunday, June 2, 2019

Teenage drivers







We’ve all had teenage drivers in our household at some point in time, and managed to survive those perilous times. The first time I saw my son driving down the street by himself in my car, I have to confess that I felt more than a little anxiety. Fortunately, Brian managed to get through his teenage driving years with no incidents – with one exception.

When he was 16, he and some friends went out in his mother’s station wagon with baseball bats, and decided to do a little “mailbox bashing” in an area just south of where we lived. An alert neighbor got the license number, and Brian’s dad (me) forced the boys to apologize to the neighbors and pay for the damage to the mailboxes.

Things could have been a lot worse than that. The son of one of our relatives picked up his first DUI when he was 17, while driving his dad’s car. It cost mom and dad a TON of money in legal fees, and the boy in question had high insurance rates for many years after that.

Brian’s affinity for mail boxes eventually led to the “MacGyver bomb” incident – but that’s a tale for another time.


For years, teen drivers have had a disproportionate number of auto accidents, but age is not the only factor affecting collisions. Here are a few more:

1.     Montana is the nation’s crash-death capital; its fatal car-accident rate is more than twice as high as those of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and three times as high as Massachusetts’s numbers.
2.    Males aged 18 to 20 are nearly seven times more likely to drink than are females aged 18 to 20.
3.    Drivers over age 65 are only half as likely as younger drivers to see pedestrians.
4.    Depressed young women are 10 percent more likely than other drivers to engage in risky driving behaviors such as speeding and cellphone use.
5.    Kansas is home to the nation’s best-prepared drivers; they scored 11 percent higher on written driving tests than drivers in Washington, D.C., who are the nation’s worst prepared.
6.    Children are twice as safe when riding in cars driven by their grandparents as they are when riding in cars driven by their parents.
7.    Native Americans are 17 percent more likely to be involved in alcohol-related driving fatalities than are Caucasians or African Americans, and 12 percent more likely than Hispanics.
8.    Male drivers are involved in a whopping 80 percent of motor-vehicle crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians.
9.    Drivers under the influence of marijuana are more than twice as likely as other drivers to be involved in motor-vehicle accidents.
10. More than one third of all drivers tested in New York State and Washington, D.C., failed a written driving test.


If you have a teenage boy, you have every right to be nervous. The most accident-prone age group, by a substantial margin, is young men. Indeed, 17 to 21 year-olds are three to four times more likely to have an accident than 70 year-olds.




If you are the parent of a teenage driver, technology can definitely be your friend. The article below is worth reading in its entirely, but the short version is that some Chevrolet models can be equipped with the Buckle to Drive feature and Teen Driver mode. The most interesting part of the system is an in-vehicle report card where parents can view how their teen drove the vehicle. The report card tracks distance driven, maximum speed traveled, over-speed warnings issued, wide-open throttle events and the number of times other safety systems were activated, including stability control, traction control and antilock braking.


By the time our grandson is old enough to drive, auto safety systems will have advanced to the point that it will be almost impossible for him to have an accident – and that’s a very good thing.