It has been a while since I last entered some thoughts in my blog spot. I guess I just had to get through the frustration of the changing politics in our nation. I can honestly say I have been re- energized by the November 2010 elections. I cannot say with any certainty how often my thoughts will appear but I will have some observations.
As I look at the political seen since the elections, I have to wonder if the Congress in Washington is really listening to the people. I have come to the conclusion that only some were listening. For the past year, Congress has known that they needed to put together a budget for next year (FY2011) and yet they waited until the Lame Duck Session over the last two weeks to do this and also try to cram a few other questionable pieces of legislation down the throats of voters. I believe the Dems majority in both the Senate and the House purposely did this to pass as much of their agenda as possible before the new session begins in January with a Republican majority in the House and a Senate much more in balance with the loss of six Democratic seats.
There were a couple of victories during this session for the Dems but in all, perhaps a sign of better times to come. Certainly the passing of the Bush Tax Cuts Extension for everyone was huge. I congratulate the Republican Congressional Members for standing firm and refusing to pass the Omnibus Spending Bill (2000 pages) with its $1.1 Trillion price tag and $8 Billion in Earmarks ('pork"). Nothing but a blatant attempt by the Dems to dictate the budget for next year.
Before closing I want to say a few things about "ObamaCare". Obviously, many hope this takeover of our health system will be reversed by the courts as unconstitutional. There has been problems surfacing already and two of those problems I mention briefly. Yesterday the Obama Administration announced rules which are an effort to prohibit or reduce necessary rate increases by private health insurer's. Under proposed regulation, rate increases of more than 10 percent would come under scrutiny of state and federal officials. This opens the door for more oversight of private business. The feds want to give everyone health insurance (including children to age 26) but they want to prohibit health insurers from increases to cover such added expenses. Another highway to demise of the private insurer.
Last week the Food and Drug Administration revoked the approval of the drug Avastin, which as been one of the drugs of choice by thousands of Oncologists across the nation for the estimated 17,000 plus women struggling with advanced stages of Breast Cancer. The FDA states that the drug does not show "a significant benefit in slowing disease progression to outweigh the significant risk to patients." Risk!.. Not a significant benefit... Sorry to say that without this drug, these patients. short of a miracle, are going to die from Cancer, unless the drug is available and saves them for a while. Is this the first step towards "Death Panels"?
That's My Opinion...
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Turning Back the Clock - Part Four
Alumni Weekend was over for most of the Class of 1957 and for the many other classes as far back as 1937 with a sprinkling of 1944, 1948 and many others. The class of 1960 had more alumni show up but understandably it was their 50th Anniversary.
To all my classmates, this was personally a joy for me to see you again. Tony, great to see you and your "new" bride. Orley, we just did not get much chance to talk. Ron, you really looked healthy and had not aged much. George Null, I wish I had more time to talk. To all of you my classmates, the time was too short but I am thankful we had some time to share and remember.
There was one last thing on the agenda before leaving. Ray and I arranged for a final get together at the 94th Aero Squadron for dinner on Sunday night. This is a restaurant located at Montgomery Field, in San Diego with the decor of the "dough boys" and pilots of World War One. A fitting place for a last dinner for the "brothers". The brothers were a group of cadets that kind of buddied around together and on weekends when we could have gone home, we were just as likely to be all together in another town hosted by one of the "Moms". Being in the "brotherhood" was a special kind of bond which stood the test of time. The brotherhood consisted of Fred Sweet, '58; Jim Christian , '55; Buck Buchanan, Doug Loukota and myself from the class of 1957. There were a couple of others including Bill Camp and Gordon Yaekel who were no longer with us. We gathered at the dinner table and made a toast to our group. I am thankful to call these guys my brothers and I manage to correspond with them on a regular basis after all these years. We all said goodbye with our hugs, wondering what the future would bring. I have a feeling that we will find a way to get together again.
When I started writing about this trip, I titled it Turning Back the Clock because of the obvious story to be told. There was one more event before "returning to present day". In all the planning leading up to this trip, I had several conversations with Ray about the house I was born and raised in located in Los Angeles. The house was built in 1938, the year of my birth and I lived there until graduation from Army Navy Academy and my departing for a career in the Navy. My parents sold the house in 1975. Ray graciously agreed to take me there after leaving Carlsbad for one last look at the one remaining memory of my childhood.
I had not been there since 1961 and of course there had been many changes in the growth of the community. Back then, there was no interstate just three blocks away, but here we were taking the National Blvd exit off of the "405" and two blocks later turning left on the street I remembered so well. There was no problem finding the house. How could I ever forget it. I had brought along a couple of pictures taken back when the house was built along with a photo
of my Mother, Father and I sitting on the front porch with a cake celebrating my first birthday.
As we pulled up to the curb, a young man in his late 20's or early 30's came out of the house to get in his car. He asked if we had broke down or needed help. I said no, and walked up to introduce myself. I showed him the pictures and why I was there. His first words were "Oh my God!" To have taken him by surprise would have been an understatement for sure. He offered us a look around the outside of the house and said he was just a renter. The house was obviously not in the condition of 50 years ago but the pool in the backyard and guest room beyond the pool that I had helped my Dad build was still there. We did not spend a lot of time there but enough to bring back the great memories for one last time.
To all my classmates, this was personally a joy for me to see you again. Tony, great to see you and your "new" bride. Orley, we just did not get much chance to talk. Ron, you really looked healthy and had not aged much. George Null, I wish I had more time to talk. To all of you my classmates, the time was too short but I am thankful we had some time to share and remember.
There was one last thing on the agenda before leaving. Ray and I arranged for a final get together at the 94th Aero Squadron for dinner on Sunday night. This is a restaurant located at Montgomery Field, in San Diego with the decor of the "dough boys" and pilots of World War One. A fitting place for a last dinner for the "brothers". The brothers were a group of cadets that kind of buddied around together and on weekends when we could have gone home, we were just as likely to be all together in another town hosted by one of the "Moms". Being in the "brotherhood" was a special kind of bond which stood the test of time. The brotherhood consisted of Fred Sweet, '58; Jim Christian , '55; Buck Buchanan, Doug Loukota and myself from the class of 1957. There were a couple of others including Bill Camp and Gordon Yaekel who were no longer with us. We gathered at the dinner table and made a toast to our group. I am thankful to call these guys my brothers and I manage to correspond with them on a regular basis after all these years. We all said goodbye with our hugs, wondering what the future would bring. I have a feeling that we will find a way to get together again.
When I started writing about this trip, I titled it Turning Back the Clock because of the obvious story to be told. There was one more event before "returning to present day". In all the planning leading up to this trip, I had several conversations with Ray about the house I was born and raised in located in Los Angeles. The house was built in 1938, the year of my birth and I lived there until graduation from Army Navy Academy and my departing for a career in the Navy. My parents sold the house in 1975. Ray graciously agreed to take me there after leaving Carlsbad for one last look at the one remaining memory of my childhood.
I had not been there since 1961 and of course there had been many changes in the growth of the community. Back then, there was no interstate just three blocks away, but here we were taking the National Blvd exit off of the "405" and two blocks later turning left on the street I remembered so well. There was no problem finding the house. How could I ever forget it. I had brought along a couple of pictures taken back when the house was built along with a photo
of my Mother, Father and I sitting on the front porch with a cake celebrating my first birthday.
As we pulled up to the curb, a young man in his late 20's or early 30's came out of the house to get in his car. He asked if we had broke down or needed help. I said no, and walked up to introduce myself. I showed him the pictures and why I was there. His first words were "Oh my God!" To have taken him by surprise would have been an understatement for sure. He offered us a look around the outside of the house and said he was just a renter. The house was obviously not in the condition of 50 years ago but the pool in the backyard and guest room beyond the pool that I had helped my Dad build was still there. We did not spend a lot of time there but enough to bring back the great memories for one last time.
Turning Back the Clock - Part Three
On Saturday night the Black and Gold Banquet was held at one of the larger hotels in the area.
This was an opportunity to bring together all the alumni, wives and guests in a social gathering. Cocktail hour was followed by a nice dinner and dancing. After a long day at Registration and a bit of a sunburn, I was ready to call it a night fairly early.
On Sunday we met for the morning brunch which was driven in doors by the weather. Maybe just a bit of unknown fate because many of us from our class had spent a few semesters working in the dining hall at the Academy during our cadet years to help off set the cost to our parents. So here we were one more time returning to the mess hall. However the brunch did not offer any SOS as we used to call Cream Chipped Beef on Toast. It was a pleasant surprise to see my old classmate Jack O'Brien show up. The last time I had seen him was not expected but during a deployment to Viet Nam, Jack was a Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Navy attached to a squadron on board the USS Ranger. We had a couple of nice memories to share at the time. He left the active service and maintained his reserve status retiring as a Captain. He went on to fly for Delta Airlines for 31 years. Now some forty years later, he was was sitting with us at the table having breakfast.
Shortly after the brunch came the Sunday parade of the cadets. How well we all remembered this event in our own cadet history. Cadets in full dress parading before special guests, parents and dignitaries. Only this time, we were the special guests as alumni to stand on the front line of the parade grounds as the Cadet Battalion passed in review honoring us. It was our final gathering of the weekend and we had great memories to take home.
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