Carlsbad had definitely changed in 53 years. I remember only one main street in town and ANA was most prominent as one passed through ending south. Now, I could easily become lost. The town had grown. No longer a couple of hotels, a couple of restaurants...this had become a major tourist area with many shops and places to stay and eat. thanks in part to the influence of the game of golf, and the world famous La Costa Resort and Spa and the Four Seasons Resort. Ray and I checked into our small motel and I made a call to one of our classmates to let them know we arrived. We arranged to meet for dinner at a local restaurant in a couple of hours.
That dinner will be remembered for renewing the personal friendships that had waited so many years to come together face to face. I wondered if my "brothers" thought about me the way the same as I about them. The years had worked their magic on our bodies and weathered faces. Nevertheless, in their hearts, the energy and ethusiasm of true friendship was still there if indeed a little bit slower of a pace. It was a great start to a great weekend.
Friday morning the much anticipated Alumni Golf tournament was held. I will not dwell on this very disappointing performance. My teammates, Bill Rafferty, Byron Taylor and Jack Jackson, all from the Class of 1955 must have thought I really put one over on them in selling my golf skills. Truth of the matter was that I forgot everything I thought I knew about the game. I did realized much much later than I never kept my head down to watch the silly little ball. I will blame it on too much anticipation and being tired from a long trip. I apologize to my teammates although it would not matter. They played really well. Part of our problem as I look back was the fact that this very long playing course was tough on us. We as a team (I was the youngest at nearly 72 years of age) were required to play off the Blue Tees (all the way back) the same as the young bulls of the past three or four graduating classes who were all in the 20's. Just did not seem fair.
Friday evening a no host "Margaritas and Memories" Reception and Mexican food buffet was set up on the athletic field and for the first time, most of us were able to see all of our former classmates and other friends who had made the journey for this reunion. I was very proud that the Class of 1957 had the second highest total of returning alumni with I believe twelve former classmates by Sunday. There was even a young man from the Class of 1937...wow!! Can't even begin to tell you how great it was to see my classmates again.
Saturday morning I met with Jack Jackson in front of the Administration building where the representative from the school and alumni office were registering alumni and friends as they showed up. I had volunteered to be on hand to present and discuss the proposal for a ANA Veterans Memorial plaque to honor those alumni who had gave their lives in the service of their country during the 100 years of the Academy's existence. It was also an opportunity to meet and greet many others. One person in particular stood out. Kati Polhamus was the daughter of Captain Al Polhamus, my mentor and Band Director at the Academy during my years as a Cadet. I owed my career as a Musician in the United States Navy to the fact that "Capt Al" arranged for an audition with the Chief Musician at the Naval Training Center in San Diego in 1961 to become a Navy Musician instead of getting out after four years.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Turning Back the Clock - Part One
It is Thursday morning, May 20, 2010 and I have just took off on a flight to Los Angeles, California. A lot of things going through my mind. I am going back to the west coast and to a place that is dear to my heart. Fifty-three years ago I graduated from a private military high school, called Army Navy Academy. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and this is truly an experience that I thought I may never have again. After graduating from ANA in June of 1957 I joined the Navy and with the exception of one trip to Carlsbad after I retired in 1977 this was the first time back.
There had been an alumni gathering at our 50th anniversary in 2007 but I could not make it. I wanted to but financially could not afford the long trip. I had spent most of the past fifty odd years stationed wherever the Navy wanted me and after retirement found myself staying on the east coast because of job opportunities at the time. Now those dreams of returning one more time had finally come to pass. Anticipation was high while the trip was very long. Six hours in a modern day jet is still a bit tiring when your nearly 72 years of age. I wondered what my fellow classmates would look like after all these years. I had only my yearbook to remember back and I was bringing it with me. My classmate and roommate, Ray, was waiting for me at the terminal and even then I did not recognize him. He and I had kept in touch and I did have a group photo from the 50th reunion to help we out. Ray had volunteered to meet me at the airport and we arranged to split expenses while in Carlsbad for the weekend. I am so grateful to him for assistance because I sure would have got lost. I must confess, he was waiting at baggage pickup and I did not recognize him at first. It really was one of those double takes. I looked around, saw him, looked around some more, looked back and then thought well maybe. I walked over to him and said "excuse me, are you Ray Hymer? Of which he returned "only if your middle name is Walter". A moment I will never forget.
Driving out of LA was an experience in itself. The new interstates built in the past fifty years helped a lot. But I noticed a lot of changes. All the way down I-5 it was nothing but wall to wall buildings and homes until we reached San Clemente. It would have continued to the border if it had not been for the federal government lands which contain the very large United States Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton. The other thing which was quite apparent was the hispanic influence in the Southern California area. Every exit was marked with a sign that stated that is was Avenida this or Avenida that. This was true all the way to San Diego. It was not a long drive. We covered the distance in about 90 minutes. Back in the old days it was easily about 3 hours on the crowded city streets of Los Angeles and a two lane Coast Highway. We got off at the Oceanside exit and he drove me down to what used to be the "main drag" through town. Again, I was amazed how everything had built up. As we crossed the lagoon into Carlsbad, one thing stood out...the campus of ANA. There was the old guardhouse and the walkway up to the Administration building. The clock had turned back to June 1957.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
President Obama - "This Is What Change Looks Like"
In some respects, I am one of the most fortunate people who because of career military service has had health care provided to me and my family for most of my adult life. After retiring from the service, I was able to continue in a government sponsored health care program paying reasonable monthly premiums with the usual shared costs and availability of prescriptions through local military medical facilities. Without question, I and my family have over the years received the best medical care available anywhere in the world. It is therefore a fair question for others as well as myself to ask, "If you have been happy with your government provided medical care, why would you raise questions about the present administration attempting to provide medical care for all its citizens?
To begin with, the current population of the United States is approximately 309 million people compared with 1.5 million on active duty in the military. It is not simply throwing a couple of million more people on the government insurance program. Likewise, current costs including military retirees for medical benefits run approximately $50 billion dollars annually. Current costs for Medicare and Medicaid alone are costing the federal budget over $764 billion. Current projections show implementation of the new Health Care Reform bill at $938 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Bottom line..we are talking apples and oranges. No way to make reasonable arguments for comparison. The national administration of medical care for citizens is a huge weight on a bloated and out of control budget and the beginning of a new entitlement.
HealthCare reform is now the law but I think it was a bad idea at a time when our nation can least afford the costs. There is no question that there are problems with the current system but it is not the Health Insurance industry as the Administration would have you believe. The national profit margin for these companies consistently run in the 3-4% range. Very low in the scheme of things. I actually believe that the conservatives in Congress had very good ideas such as tort reform and selling health insurance across state lines which would bring premiums down through competition. Regretfully, and honestly, the conservatives where shut out of all discussions. Only the final meeting with the President brought the two parties together and then television coverage showed the meeting to be a joke with total rejection of conservative ideas.
Last Sunday night after the final vote, the President addressed the nation and stated "This is What Change Looks Like". Quite frankly I find it repugnant and a shameful exercise in what democracy should not look like. We elect representatives to act on our behalf. Not to make backroom deals, and financial concessions such as the "Louisiana Purchase and the "Cornhusker Kickback". Representatives would tell you that is the way things are done in Washington. That may be true but is it morally correct? I think not! This is change that is by any language ugly. President Obama in an interview last week with Fox News refused to discuss the "process" of this legislation but I contend that the entire argument by the people must be about the process.
The bill is law. Chances of a repeal at this time should be forgotten. There is a chance that legal challenges may triumph but I would not bet the farm. It is important to remember that this is going to be a entitlement. Nearly 43% of adults pay no federal income tax. As the aspects of this bill take effect, the acceptance of health care to all becomes entrenched. The conservatives need to remember what the argument is about. This November the ballot box must be the place where good people with high morals make a statement. It is not about rejecting health care for all. It is about rejecting partisan politics, reprehensible and ethically unacceptable methods of policy against the obvious will of the people.
To begin with, the current population of the United States is approximately 309 million people compared with 1.5 million on active duty in the military. It is not simply throwing a couple of million more people on the government insurance program. Likewise, current costs including military retirees for medical benefits run approximately $50 billion dollars annually. Current costs for Medicare and Medicaid alone are costing the federal budget over $764 billion. Current projections show implementation of the new Health Care Reform bill at $938 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Bottom line..we are talking apples and oranges. No way to make reasonable arguments for comparison. The national administration of medical care for citizens is a huge weight on a bloated and out of control budget and the beginning of a new entitlement.
HealthCare reform is now the law but I think it was a bad idea at a time when our nation can least afford the costs. There is no question that there are problems with the current system but it is not the Health Insurance industry as the Administration would have you believe. The national profit margin for these companies consistently run in the 3-4% range. Very low in the scheme of things. I actually believe that the conservatives in Congress had very good ideas such as tort reform and selling health insurance across state lines which would bring premiums down through competition. Regretfully, and honestly, the conservatives where shut out of all discussions. Only the final meeting with the President brought the two parties together and then television coverage showed the meeting to be a joke with total rejection of conservative ideas.
Last Sunday night after the final vote, the President addressed the nation and stated "This is What Change Looks Like". Quite frankly I find it repugnant and a shameful exercise in what democracy should not look like. We elect representatives to act on our behalf. Not to make backroom deals, and financial concessions such as the "Louisiana Purchase and the "Cornhusker Kickback". Representatives would tell you that is the way things are done in Washington. That may be true but is it morally correct? I think not! This is change that is by any language ugly. President Obama in an interview last week with Fox News refused to discuss the "process" of this legislation but I contend that the entire argument by the people must be about the process.
The bill is law. Chances of a repeal at this time should be forgotten. There is a chance that legal challenges may triumph but I would not bet the farm. It is important to remember that this is going to be a entitlement. Nearly 43% of adults pay no federal income tax. As the aspects of this bill take effect, the acceptance of health care to all becomes entrenched. The conservatives need to remember what the argument is about. This November the ballot box must be the place where good people with high morals make a statement. It is not about rejecting health care for all. It is about rejecting partisan politics, reprehensible and ethically unacceptable methods of policy against the obvious will of the people.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Our Rights Come From God
I do not believe I have ever been more offended and ashamed of my country as I am this evening. Ashamed because we the citizens of the United States have allowed our country to be hijacked by a progressive movement and a slight majority of what has aptly been called a "multitude of fools". They elected the most far left individual in the history of the United States, Barack Obama. Offended because the results we now face is the gradual transformation of our nation into at the minimum, a European style socialist government. There is an abundance of written and audio visual evidence to show that Barack Obama had every intention to change us. In October 2008 just a month before elections, he stated "We are just days from fundamentally changing America as we know it". The voters were just not really listening.
What he has done in the past fourteen months has often been noted in my previous commentaries and far to much to list here. Today, we stand at the threshold in that transformation. During an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, Obama made it quite clear in stating, "Yes, It is one-sixth of the economy, but were not transforming one-sixth of the economy in one fell swoop". No, they will transform the economy step by step. He also as been quoted as saying, "By the way, Canada did not start off immediately with a single-payer system". As I have said in the past, Marxism changes a nation by revolution, Progressivism changes a nation step by step. Obama learned the ways of a Community Organizer through the teachings of Sol Alinsky and his book, "Rules for Radicals".
I was watching a television show today which was pointing out how the radical left was going to change our nation. They were pointing out that part of the premise for passing what has come to be known as ObamaCare, was that health care was a right. Just as they believe that you have a right to education, a home to live in and a job. It struck me that this was so wrong from what I was taught and the principals that I was raised on.
I also received an email today from my oldest son, who was expressing the anger, the frustration and the fear that we are losing the principals of the nation that I tried so hard to instill in my children. He was talking about "the good, honest and God fearing Americans like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan". He said that we had let our guard down. It really hit home and I share that feeling with him.
Our rights come from God. Not from Barack Obama, not from the progressive movement that wants to transform our nation. This is a principal that makes the United States totally different than any other nation on earth. Our founding fathers built a nation that espoused that "we are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". I was taught by my father that what I received in life is determined by my willingness to work and my efforts to be successful no matter what my chosen profession. I was taught that I should never expect something for nothing. I was taught that charity is for the less fortunate and only a means to give a hand up rather than a handout. Socialism teaches redistribution of wealth and all things come from the government. I reject that philosophy now and forever to my last breathe.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
What he has done in the past fourteen months has often been noted in my previous commentaries and far to much to list here. Today, we stand at the threshold in that transformation. During an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, Obama made it quite clear in stating, "Yes, It is one-sixth of the economy, but were not transforming one-sixth of the economy in one fell swoop". No, they will transform the economy step by step. He also as been quoted as saying, "By the way, Canada did not start off immediately with a single-payer system". As I have said in the past, Marxism changes a nation by revolution, Progressivism changes a nation step by step. Obama learned the ways of a Community Organizer through the teachings of Sol Alinsky and his book, "Rules for Radicals".
I was watching a television show today which was pointing out how the radical left was going to change our nation. They were pointing out that part of the premise for passing what has come to be known as ObamaCare, was that health care was a right. Just as they believe that you have a right to education, a home to live in and a job. It struck me that this was so wrong from what I was taught and the principals that I was raised on.
I also received an email today from my oldest son, who was expressing the anger, the frustration and the fear that we are losing the principals of the nation that I tried so hard to instill in my children. He was talking about "the good, honest and God fearing Americans like John Wayne and Ronald Reagan". He said that we had let our guard down. It really hit home and I share that feeling with him.
Our rights come from God. Not from Barack Obama, not from the progressive movement that wants to transform our nation. This is a principal that makes the United States totally different than any other nation on earth. Our founding fathers built a nation that espoused that "we are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". I was taught by my father that what I received in life is determined by my willingness to work and my efforts to be successful no matter what my chosen profession. I was taught that I should never expect something for nothing. I was taught that charity is for the less fortunate and only a means to give a hand up rather than a handout. Socialism teaches redistribution of wealth and all things come from the government. I reject that philosophy now and forever to my last breathe.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Socialist is an Ugly Word
This week on the Fox cable news show "The O'Reilly Factor", Bill took what I consider to be a bold move by asking his viewers to answer the question of whether they thought that President Obama was a socialist. The response was decidedly in agreement with the question. It is a fair question that many citizens of our nation are beginning to ask. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Presidents ethic background but everything to do with political and economical theories.
In an article entitled "Why Do We Fear Calling Obama a Socialist?, noted author, columnist and former speech writer for Senator Bob Dole, Douglas MacKinnon presents the argument that there is nothing wrong with the identification of the Presidents political persuasion and questions why the media wants to dodge the question. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "socialism" as "Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods".
It would be in total denial not to recognize that the current administration has exhibited these traits by taking over the supervision of some of our largest banks; by completely taking over the administration of two of the three largest automobile companies in the United States by "saving them" from collapse. The administration wants to take over one fifth of our economy by passing legislation for a government-run national health care system, and certainly made it quite clear that redistribution of wealth from the "elite" to the poor levels the playing field for all.
Fortunately, our Republic allows everyone the freedom of speech and President Obama has every right to call himself a Socialist. However, the President has not been forthright with the American people and resists any attempt to be called a "socialist" or "ideologue". Most likely because of the negative labels. Stalin of the Soviet Union and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela come to mind. As Douglas MacKinnon points out, it is a matter of political survival and "the same reason the far-left duplicitously runs from the word "liberal" and now substitutes "progressive." Marxism has been characterized as the overthrow of a country through revolution whereas Progressivism is done through small incremental steps. President Obama and the progressives of this nation might very well succeed but it would be proper to call them what they are... Socialists. The American people need to know the truth.
In an article entitled "Why Do We Fear Calling Obama a Socialist?, noted author, columnist and former speech writer for Senator Bob Dole, Douglas MacKinnon presents the argument that there is nothing wrong with the identification of the Presidents political persuasion and questions why the media wants to dodge the question. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines "socialism" as "Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods".
It would be in total denial not to recognize that the current administration has exhibited these traits by taking over the supervision of some of our largest banks; by completely taking over the administration of two of the three largest automobile companies in the United States by "saving them" from collapse. The administration wants to take over one fifth of our economy by passing legislation for a government-run national health care system, and certainly made it quite clear that redistribution of wealth from the "elite" to the poor levels the playing field for all.
Fortunately, our Republic allows everyone the freedom of speech and President Obama has every right to call himself a Socialist. However, the President has not been forthright with the American people and resists any attempt to be called a "socialist" or "ideologue". Most likely because of the negative labels. Stalin of the Soviet Union and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela come to mind. As Douglas MacKinnon points out, it is a matter of political survival and "the same reason the far-left duplicitously runs from the word "liberal" and now substitutes "progressive." Marxism has been characterized as the overthrow of a country through revolution whereas Progressivism is done through small incremental steps. President Obama and the progressives of this nation might very well succeed but it would be proper to call them what they are... Socialists. The American people need to know the truth.
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