Manny's Saga

For three days the air waves have been 'abuzz
Red Sox Nation has been stirred into a frenzy
From near and far they voice their opinion because
Their much maligned Manny was simply being Manny

Some say trade him cause he's a bum
He doesn't hustle when he hits a grounder
Someone interviews Papi, he says it's dumb
All we're being offered is just another flounder

Some say we'll put up with his shenanigans
As long as he keeps producing with his bat
He'll take the team to the World series again
Please Theo, we don't want Manny wearing a Met's hat

As the team prepares for the light hitting Twins
A cloud of rumors hangs over some players
With Manny out of the lineup, it's tough to win
A group decides to involve the mayor

Menino decides to take matters into his hands
Picks up the phone and places a call
"Larry", he says, "what are you doing to the fans?
It's ok if Manny does wee wee in the wall."

Ever the shrewd and savy politician
"You owe me a favor", he reminded Lucchino
"Go to John Henry and seek his permission
To give more playing time to Tony Graffanino."

Henry and Werner called on mayor Menino
They heard his requests and also his pleas
Manny and Francona would meet with Lucchino
And agree to be given the new rest room keys.

Manny was happy and said all was a mistake
"Boston is the home of my great legacy
There's been a misunderstanding, there's no one I hate
I just ask that you give my family some privacy."

"This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it"

This passage comes from Psalm 118, a Psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord. Yes, give thanks to the Lord for giving you another day to share in his abundance and love. Be glad that you have been able to open your eyes and put your two feet on the floor and walk. Rejoice in the fact that you have been given another day of living.

What I put down in words is to remind me that no matter what may trouble me or afflict me I need to start each day with a fresh slate. What transpired last week or yesterday or one hour ago or two minutes ago is gone, wiped off the slate - nothing can be done about it -so Fogetaboutit as the wise guys say in the gangster movies.

One thing I've noticed during the last two or three years is how coaches and/or managers of winning teams stress the importance of focusing on the task at hand today, what's at stake now. When interviewed after a loss, most reporters will question them about what went wrong, the coaches will try to shift the focus on the next game. If the team dwells on the past they will have a hard time focusing on the next game. Yesterday I lost my temper and said some things to a loved one that I now regret. Can I go back and undo them? Can I undo the hurt I caused?

No, but I have been given a new day to work on making amends. I can use the events of yesterday as experience and hopefully to learn not to make the same mistake(s) again. The Lord whose steadfast love endures forever gives us this day, so give him thanks for having given you another chance.

As a volunteer at St. Anthony's Shrine on Arch st. in Boston, I occasionally work at the front desk. This area can be extremely busy since it's the place where people come to for information, Mass cards, requests to see a Brother of Father or just to vent some of their frustrations. On the counter there's a sheet of paper where people can write down their prayer intentions. Most people will come up and write a petition and leave without having any contact with the person at the desk. If I'm not serving anyone, I always try to acknowledge them with a greeting. Some respond and some don't. In some you can see by the pained looks on their faces that they are experiencing a lot of stress in their life.

Some have gone to Mass and prayed and probably also lit a candle to Our Lady or a saint prior to their stopping at the desk to write down their petition. It's almost like they want to make sure they cover all the bases in enlisting God's help. One man stopped and holding back tears mentioned that his new born child had been in the intensive care unit for 26 days. What could I say to this man other than offering my own prayers for his child.

On another occasion, as I was writing Mass cards for a man, I noticed a middle aged woman writing some petitions on the prayer list. The next time I picked my head up, I noticed she was gone. Fifteen minutes later, there was a lull at the window and I saw the same lady approaching the desk, she seemed troubled and did not make eye contact with me. When she finished writing she paused briefly and seeing that I was free approached me and said Father. I was so caught up in this woman's sorrowful expression that I didn't have a chance to tell her that I was not a priest.

She proceeded to tell me that she had lost her mother that week and was having a difficult time doing anything. She couldn't sleep nor eat and seemed really depressed. She came to church to pray to the Lord and was now waiting for the Ride to come to take her home. I tried my best to console her and I wanted her to leave feeling a little better than when she came in. It must have been the Holy Spirit working through me, because all it once I started to focus on some positive things that might be going on her life.

Things came to me all at once. I told her not to worry, her mother was now at peace and that she was no longer suffering. I could see her posture change, she started to come out of her slouch as if a heavy weight was being lifted from her shoulders. When I found out she had children, I tried to make her focus on them by telling her that her mother loves her and is watching out for them from above. I proceeded to tell her that whenever the Lord takes something away He replaces it with something even more precious. As she stared at me inquisitively, I told her that a child would be born to replace her mother. When she heard this her face started to beam and then she told me that her daughter was expecting a child soon.

Where did this come from? This all came to me, a person of a few words, in a matter of seconds. I was able to make this woman take her focus away from the death of her mother and respectfully place on today and the beauty and gift of life. She was now standing a lot taller. By that time, she noticed that her ride came, she turned to me and said, "Thank you father" and left. I was so caught up on her hurt that I never got the opportunity to blurt out that I wasn't a priest.

I am amazed at the number of people that come to church in time of stress, distress, and hurt to pray for God's help. Don't wait until your time of need. Thank Him for giving you today, rejoice and be glad in it.

Communication

Have you ever felt like no one cares
You have something important to share
So you start to relate your personal thoughts
And soon you find the other person caught
In their own self absorbing infatuations
To them you are just a distant imagination

Right in the middle of your expounding
They break in and with pride abounding
Trampling and stomping on your precious words
Nearly severing your vocal chords
You are forced to instantly supress
Thoughts and ideas into your memory recessed

People today don't know how to communicate
They lack the knowledge of give and take
Not knowing when to push the listen button
They become obnoxious gluttons
Adding to the world's noise pollution
By their boorish elocutions

Keep It to Yourself

A week doesn't go by that I don't have to put up with someone flaunting their GAEITY.
Why do I have to know if someone is gay? And when I find out, as if I hadn't known, what am I supposed to do? Oh, congratulations on being gay, I'm so glad for you.

I noticed that some of my neighbors, go the additional mile to broadcast that they're gay by hanging a gay pride flag over their front door. What's with all this insecurity? There's no need for that, you live in the "Gay" State. Last week in the Herald I noticed a story about how the State Tourism Board was spending $100,000 in ads to lure gay tourists to our wonderful gay state. Now today I read a story of a woman in Utah who was given the ok to have GAYSROK on her license plate. Boy, was I glad to hear about that. Who cares? Why are we spending all this time and money on such foolishness?

Our country is slowly being torn apart by distractions. It reminds me of the story of when Rome was burning and the emperor Nero played his fiddle. I think someone has put something in the drinking water. I look next door and I think I have the Village People living there. The South End is infested and it has spread to Jamaica Plain and now it's making it's way to Roslindale.

Where is Dapper O'Neil when you need him?

Grocery Shopping Back Then

Even though I've been doing grocery shopping for the last 12 years, it's been only in the last year that I've noticed the choices we have when it comes to selecting a product. It seems like new products come on to the market almost every week and that future supermakets will have to be placed in airplane hangars to carry all of them and that we'll probably be shopping with golf carts since the walk will be too much for most people.

I started to wonder how it must have been like when my mother went shopping back in the 50's and 60's in the North End of Boston. I don't recall any major supermarket chain other than the Kennedy Butter and Egg store on Blackstone Street. I remember that my mom had to visit different stores to do her shopping and sometimes she would even buy things from the various vendors on the street. For fish, she stopped at Giuffre's. For meat, she went to DelBene's meat market then she would stop at Purity Cheese to get fresh ricotta and mozzarella. Then she would go to Martignetti's on Salem Street to buy cold cuts and cheese, various types of pastas, rice and imported can goods such as Pastene tomatoes and tomato paste. Then she would go to Parziale's bakery to get fresh bread and occasionally would bring home some slices of pizza from the bakery. Fruits and vegetables would be purchased from the various stores on Cross or Salem Sts.

Polcari's at the corner of Salem and Parmenter St. was the place where you would find all types of imported coffee beans, spices, seeds and essences. Back in the 60's my mom would make her own liquors as long as she could find someone that could get her the alcohol. With the alcohol and the essences from Polcari's, she make Anisette and a yellow liquor called Strega (means witch). What she couldn't make, she would purchase at Cirace's or Martignetti.

If you were in the mood for an exotic dish, such as escargot, you went to a lady that sold periwinkles on a pushcart next to Bova's bakery. If you were in the mood for fried zucchini flowers you would go to a lady that would have a stand in the middle of Salem St. The one and most important thing that stands out in my mind is THAT EVERYTHING WAS FRESH and it tasted good. And the other thing is that all the store owners new their customers by their first names and took good care of them.

Shopping back then was an adventure and a beneficial social experience. You didn't have to buy a newspaper to know what was going on because you would get all kinds of news by traveling to all these different stores. You also got all your exercise for the day from all the walking, not to mention the stair climbing you did especially if you lived on one of the fourth floor apartments as we did on Endicott St. The only people that went to a gym in those days were boxers or trainers. The North End was abuzz with people out and about. Today, that beautiful and happy familiar noise I grew up with is not there.

Today we can't live without cell phones, back then people communicated by yelling out windows, "Hey, Anthony, come home it's time to eat." And out of the 100 Anthony's in the neighborhood the right Anthony would always respond, because of voice recognition. There were telephones but few people needed them, women would talk to each other from their windows across courtyards as they placed their laundry out on the clothes line. A typical conversation would go something like this; "Mari, how's your daughter Filomena doing?" Maria would answer, "Madonna mia, she had a terrible morning, you know she's four months pregnant." Anna at the other window would say, "Mari, don't worry, she's got morning sickness, make her some camomilla and she'll feel better." Camomilla (chamomile tea) was a cure all for many things and now it's gotten a lofty stature as a herbal tea. Another remedy or cureall would be to put two laurel leafs in boiling water and drink it. This would take care of many stomach ailments. The old timers were smart - they knew how to use different herbs to treat their maladies.
It was wonderful everyone was so open with each other, that's why they never had the need to see a psychiatrist (I don't even know if they existed back then). They would talk their problems out amongst themselves and would help each other overcome them. With all the children born back then, I never heard of a woman suffering from post-partum depression. They would never get to that point because there was always some form of support if not from your family certainly from your neighbors. There was always someone willing to take your child or help you with some chores or bring you some escarole soup. People helping people. They didn't have much in the way of money, but their lives were rich with the abundance of love from all around. They knew how to have a good time with very little. They might have not had the finer things in life but they always made sure that they had enough to eat. They had the theory that if you had enough to eat you were healthy and if you were healthy you could find work and make money to buy food to put on the table.

Which reminds me of a story told by one of my favorite authors, Leo Buscaglia. He was telling about how his mother and father were open with their children, never hiding anything from them. So the kids would see their good sides and their bad sides. They were not symbols of perfection he says, but symbols of humanness.

I remember my father sitting down and telling us that his partner had absconded with all their money and he didn't even know where our next meal was coming from.
Mama had the craziest habit - she loved to laugh. And that just struck her so funny. He was furious with her! She was laughing, tears were coming down her cheeks. You know what she did? We all went off and came home that evening and she had prepared a banquet such as we would have for a baptism, or a wedding; antipasto, pasta, veal, everything!
My father said, "My God, what's this."
She said, "I spent everything on this."
He said, "You are crazy!"
She said, "The time we need joy is now, not later. This is the time we need to be happy. Shut up and eat!"
Isn't that interesting?
We sat down. That was years ago - and I tell you I will never forget that dinner, Mama's Misery Dinner. And you know, we survived! Isn't that crazy? We survived. Look! I'm here! Papa lived to be 86.

The story is taken from the book, Living, Loving & Learning by Leo Buscaglia who passed away a few years ago.

Francis and the Sultan

A few days after I wrote about my visiting the Umbria area of Italy, I was surprised to find this story among my e-mails this morning which I would like to share with you. This is one of the reasons that I hold Francis of Assissi in such high esteem. I think if he walked the earth today as he did then, he would be locked up. He definitely looked like a homeless person in appearance, wearing only a sackcloth. The poverello, which means little poor one, was truly a great man.

Francis of Assisi was sorely troubled. A great army of his Christian countrymen had come to Egypt to fight the Mohammedans. They were on a crusade to win the Holy Land from the Turks. They were killing many people. Francis saw people starving; he saw little children dying. It was not right. What could he do to stop the terrible massacre?

Francis decided to go to Cardinal Pelagius, the Christian commander of the army.

“Please, Lord Cardinal,” he said, “stop the fighting. People are starving. People are dying without even having heard that Jesus loves them. And they are dying because of us Christians.”

But Cardinal Pelagius would not listen. “We are killing these people for a good reason,” he said. “We must conquer them so the church will be powerful. When the church is strong it will be able to conquer evil.”

“The Lord Jesus did not ask us to strive for worldly power,” replied Francis. “God uses the weak, not the powerful.”

“Ridiculous!” cried Cardinal Pelagius angrily. He dismissed the poor man from Assisi without a further word.

Since the Christian commander would not listen to him, Francis decided to go to the enemy commander, the great Muslim Sultan Al-Kamil, to plead for peace. The Sultan was a cruel man. He had vowed that no Christian would ever leave his presence alive. But Francis was not afraid of him. Death would of course only bring him into the presence of his Lord.

Calmly Francis started out one morning walking toward the enemy camp.

The Sultan’s soldiers did not take Francis seriously. He looked so small and so poor and unimportant in his threadbare cloak that they let him pass. When Francis smiled at them and asked, “Cairo? Al-Kamil? Soldan?” they just laughed and showed him the way to the Sultan’s palace.

Just as Francis neared the gates of the palace, the Sultan, bedecked with jewels and followed by his retinue and crowds of people, came galloping down the road.

“Soldan! Soldan!” shouted Francis to attract his attention.

The foreign pronunciation of the word Sultan caught Al-Kamil’s attention. As a ruler he had learned to speak Latin. He pulled his horse to an abrupt halt and looked at Francis with his piercing black eyes.

“Did you come from the Christian camp?” asked Al-Kamil.

“Yes, yes, I did,” said Francis, smiling happily.

“I knew it!” cried the Sultan. He turned to his guards. “This fellow is a Christian!”

The guards, with daggers between their teeth, leaped upon Francis.

“Stop!” said the Sultan. “Don’t kill him just yet. Bring him into the palace. I want to find out first what brought him here.”

Soon Francis sat on the floor in front of the great Sultan.

“So!” exclaimed Al-Kamil, “did they send you over here to kill me?”

“Oh, no,” said Francis. “No one sent me. I just came myself to ask you to end the war. Our commander won’t listen to me, so I came to you.”

The Sultan couldn’t believe his ears. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.

“What is your name, and where do you come from?” he asked.

“My name is Francis, and I came from the town of Assisi in Italy,” answered Francis.

“Well, Francis of Assisi, what do you want me to do?” asked the Sultan, amused. “Should I hand Egypt over to the enemy and let my people starve?”

“No,” said Francis earnestly. “Egypt belongs to you. But you must do something else that would put an end to the war.”

“What is that?” asked the Sultan.

“You must become a Christian,” said Francis simply.

The Sultan broke into a gale of laughter. “Become a Christian!” he howled. “You know I will torture you, don’t you? Aren’t you afraid to suffer?”

“Our Lord suffered for us. Why should I not suffer for him?” said Francis.

“Your God suffered?” asked the Sultan, surprised.

“Yes, he suffered more than we can understand. He laid down his life for us. That is why we love him so much.”

“Fair enough,” said the Sultan, “but why should I love him when he did nothing for me?”

“Oh, but he did it for you, too,” cried Francis. “He loves you. He knows you. You are his beloved child.”

Giotto, "St. Francis and the Sultan" (detail)

Francis spoke with such conviction that the Sultan became thoughtful. “What does your God require you to do?” he asked.

“Nothing, except that we love him,” said Francis. “He wants us also to love everyone and share what we have with others.”

“Ah,” said the Sultan. “A long time ago we had a teacher in our midst who spoke about your faith as you do. But we have never found Christians to be like that. Christians are untruthful and cruel. They fight among themselves like wild animals. The stories about your faith are not true.”

“Unfortunately there are evil Christians,” said Francis. “Human nature is weak. But God’s mercy has no limits. Through him the most wicked can become holy. That is not possible anywhere except in Christianity.”

The Sultan sighed. “You may go now,” he said. “I will not kill you. Indeed, I will even reward you for the interesting conversation I have had with you. Take all the gold you can carry.”

“Gold!” exclaimed Francis, horrified. “I don’t need gold.”

“Well,” said the Sultan, “that is the first time I have ever seen a Christian who does not want gold! What do you want then?”

“I would very much like to visit the Holy Land where our Lord lived when he was here on earth,” said Francis. “Would you allow me to do so?”

A crafty look came into the Sultan’s eyes. “Yes,” he said. “I will even send a slave with you to take you as far as our borders. Remember, however, the slave belongs to me and you must send him back.”

Francis nodded. “I will send him back,” he said.

The Sultan turned to one of his guards. “Have one of the Christian slaves brought,” he said. “He shall accompany this man to our border.”

“But the slave will escape!” gasped the guard.

“Do as I tell you,” shouted the Sultan. “We will see,” he said to himself, “whether this Christian can be trusted. We will see whether he will send the slave back.”

Francis and the Christian left the palace of the Sultan together.

On many days the great Sultan Al-Kamil, with a wistful look in his eyes, asked his servants, “Has the slave that I sent with the Christian Francis of Assisi returned?”

“No, not yet, O great Ruler.”

The Sultan stared out of the window. “I thought this man was different from the rest. I thought he was a real Christian. But I was wrong. They are all alike. All are false. All are untruthful. There is no such a person as a true Christian.”

Just then a guard came in, bowing low. “Oh, great Ruler, I just want to report to you that the slave has returned,” he said.

“Ah,” said the Sultan. “So Francis of Assisi kept his word after all. Good! You may go.”

Some time later, the Christian army was defeated. The commander, Cardinal Pelagius, who had hoped to make the church powerful, now stood in bitter humiliation before the Sultan, Al-Kamil. “Let our twelve thousand men go home,” he begged.

“Listen to me,” said the Sultan. “I vowed that not one of you Christians should remain alive. I would kill you all. Nothing you could say would have changed my mind. But some time ago a man by the name of Francis of Assisi came to me from your camp. I think highly of him.”

Cardinal Pelagius looked up, startled. He vaguely remembered that foolish little man.

“He is the one and only man whose deeds showed me that the words about your faith are true,” continued the Sultan. “For his sake, and for his sake alone, mind you, I will spare your lives. You may all go—you, as well as all my Christian slaves. I want Francis of Assisi to remember me well.”


From “Blessed Are The Meek” by Zofia Kossak, transl. Rulka Langer (New York: Roy, 1944).

This was reprinted from www.bruderhof.com

About July 26

Some tidbits about today

Irish playwright and novelist George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)was born on this day in Dublin. Some of his famous plays and pamphlets include Candida (1898), Pygmalion (1912, (about a cockney girl who learns to pass as a lady, which became the basis for the musical My Fair Lady) and Saint Joan (1923). He was self taught because he disliked formal education and wrote most of his own work in shorthand. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

A few of his famous quotes are:

If you are going to tell people the truth, you'd better make them laugh. Otherwise they'll kill you.

Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
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It's the birthday of the writer Aldous Huxley, born in Surrey, England (1894), best known as the author of the novel Brave New World, about a future in which genetically engineered people take drugs to keep them happy, have sex all the time, and never fall in love. His masterpiece, Brave New World was written before Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin rose to power.

"Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted," warned Huxley who inspired Jim Morrison with the novel The Doors of Perception (1954) to name his rock group "The Doors" and even made it on the album cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1987).
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Today is the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne.
St. Anne and St. Joachim are the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Anne, or Ann, is not mentioned in the Bible. The story of Jesus' mother and grandmother as written in the Gospel of James was very popular among early Christians. It had
a great influence on Christian worship, art and devotion. Around the year 550 a church in honor of Saint Ann was built in Jerusalem near the temple area on the site where Ann, Joachim and their daughter Mary were believed to have lived.

The Crusaders brought the name and legend of Saint Anne to Europe, and the famous Dominican Jacobus de Voragine (1298) printed the story in his Golden Legend. From that time on the popular veneration of the saint spread into all parts of the Christian world. It was encouraged by the religious orders of the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Carmelites. In southern France a Feast of Saint Anne was celebrated as early as the fourteenth century. Pope Urban VI in 1378 extended it to England at the king’s request. Not until 1584, however, did the feast become universal, when Pope Gregory XIII prescribed it for the whole Church.

In those days people were ostracized for not being able to conceive children. St. Anne and St. Joachim spent approximately 20 years praying to blessed with a child. Finally an Angel appeared to St. Joachim and said, "Don't be afraid. I have come to tell you the Lord has heard your prayers. He knows how good you are and he knows your many years of sorrow for having no child. God will give your wife a child just as he did Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and Anna, the mother of Samuel. Your wife Ann will bear you a daughter. You shall call her Mary and dedicate her to God, for she will be filled with the Holy Spirit from her mother's womb."

Many churches have been erected to her, most of them becoming famous centers of pilgrimages. One of the best-known shrines in this part of the world is St. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec, Canada.

From the eighteenth century on, Anne, which means ‘grace," was used more and more as a favorite name for girls. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was the most popular girls’ name in central Europe, surpassing even that of Mary. This preference was based on a famous saying of past centuries, "All Annes are beautiful." Naturally, parents wanted to assure this benefit for their baby daughters by calling them Anne or by adding Anne to a first name. Thus we have the many traditional names containing Anne or Ann (Mary Ann, Marianne, Marian, Ann Marie, Joanne, Elizabeth Ann, Lillian, Martha Ann, Louise Ann, Patricia Ann)."

These are a few of the famous people we honor today. We will also be blessed with many others who will be born today.

TV Viewing

There's a lot of material that I receive via e-mail on a daily basis that I try to keep up with as best as I can. A lot of it is spiritually based (tied into religion or inspirational).

Today I was reading about a woman with children aged 3 and 5 and her decision to pull the plug on TV watching. This occurred in November at the height of the holiday wish lists when she noticed her three year old asking for a pink plastic item that she had just seen in a TV ad and her five year old saying yes it was ok to have it. She acknowledged that it wasn't easy to do but she wasn't fanatical about it. If the weather was bad she would always offer the choice of watching a video.

She said, 'I began to see the changes in their lifestyle. At first, they were subtle. My children began to play together more and fight less. Instead of acting out familiar movies or TV shows, they started creating stories of their own. My son had fewer tantrums. We lived through entire weekends with no TV — and didn't miss it.'

What she didn't know was that a recent study conducted by Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a researcher at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, makes the case that the speed at which the images change on TV causes a child's brain to respond so quickly that children's brains are actually "re-wired" after prolonged exposure. As a result, Christakis reports, children who watch a great deal of TV are more likely to be diagnosed with attention disorders.

I remember that when my three boys were growing up in 70's and 80's, my wife and I attempted to curtail the amount of time and the content of what they watched. We were'nt fanatical over it but some family members were critical of the fact that we were doing it. As the woman in the article found out, encouraging good old-fahioned play (coloring, reading, playing with dolls or LEGOs etc.) makes children use their imagination a lot more than someone sitting in fron of the idiot box being bombarded by subtle messages. My children were never overweight even though they were brought up eating traditional so called high carb Italian meals (lasagna, ravioli, spaghetti and meatballs, etc..) because they were always (weather permitting) outside playing. They had no problem going to sleep because they were tired from the running and playing.

As an adult, TV watching gets very tedious and I can't fathom how a child can digest all that's craftily presented to them. I can't keep up with the unending bombardments of ads. They try to appeal to most of your senses and if there was a way for them to make you smell a product I think they would spend millions to do it. I can't even sit down to watch a sporting event without being constantly distracted by some form of advertisement. It's not enough for them to play 3 or 4 commercials between innings of a baseball game, but you're also constantly reminded that today's lineup is brought to you by Brand X, or this pitching change is brought to you by Brand Y. The ballparks with a few exceptions are named after some corporation. How about all the strategically placed signs in the ballpark and how the camera angles seem to always catch these ads in the background? If that's not enough some company will float a blimp overhead for 3 or 4 hours and what is emblazoned all over the blimp? You guessed it. It seems like I tuned in to watch some commercials and a ball game broke out.

And have you noticed what happens when you're annoyed by the ads and figure that you'll use your clicker to escape and go to another station? Lo and behold the other networks are breaking for commercials at the same time. You just can't get away from them. And we're worried about the terrorists? I wonder who sponsors them?

I can see it now, if things continue the way they are you will soon see, "This suicide bombing was brought to you by BEANO. Sorry for being so crude, but these marketing whores will stop at nothing.

It's not easy trying to shelter your children from the snares of the corporate world but as the woman in the article said; "I can't keep the world at bay forever, but maybe we can make it through kindergarten and first grade."

One network has a slogan of;Must-see TV" --

The hidden meaning in the slogan is; "Yeah, what else are you gonna do, Shakespeare? Read?!"

Yes, you could read!



-some information for this article was found at www.bruderhof.com

Umbria

If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Italy please don't leave without going to the province of Umbria (pronounced Oom bree ah). I was fortunate to spend a week just on the outskirts of Assissi and I will never forget the experience I had there. The major cities such as Rome, Florence, Venice etc. have a lot to offer to a tourist but they don't compare to the mystical aura that transcends the Assisi area.

Umbria is a landlocked region lying in the shadows of Tuscany. The area is well noted for it's lush chestnut groves and elm forests. Visiting Umbria will bring you back to the Dark Ages. Some of the small towns are unchanged in character and make you feel like you are living back in the 1400's. Umbria's rolling hills are dotted with castles, monasteries, and watchtowers. In many of the hill towns you will find beautifully crafted ceramics and the area also is home to one of Italy's largest lakes, Lake Trasimeno. Henry James called Umbria, 'the most beautiful garden in all the world.'

Many of the monasteries here were founded by a host of local saints. Other than the mystical beauty of the area, I think I'm partial to this area because this is where one of my favorite saints lived and roamed, St. Francis of Assisi. St. Benedict, St. Clare were also born and raised here.

There are three famous towns in the area that most have heard of; Spoleto, home of the Festival of Two Worlds, Orvieto, which has the cathedral of Santa Maria which took centuries to build and Assisi which is home to St. Francis' Basilica.

One of the most favorite hidden jewels that I found was the small town of Gubbio. The town has a lot of character and is well preserved with some of the houses dating back to the 1400's. This town is famous for the tale of St. Francis and Brother Wolf. If you wish to read about this do a web search of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio. I was mesmerized walking around this small cobblestoned hill town festooned with various flags. Another thing you notice is that there are various types of flowers in containers everywhere. No matter where you stop to get a bite to eat you will be treated like family.

The capital of Umbria is Perugia, world renown for it's chocolate and candies. If you have ever eaten Baci (hazelnut covered with chocolate), this is where they come from. This is the city that my mother was taken to (displaced from her home town which was 3 hrs. away) by the German soldiers during WWII. She was fortunate to find a lady that took her in and provided for her until the war came to and end.

There are a few towns that are famous for their wines. The town of Orvieto is famous for a white wine called Orvieto and Torgiano makes an excellent red wine fron Sangiovese grapes called Torgiano Rosso Riserva. Olive oil and wine, the two essential things in life that are said to encourage the body to live long and healthy, are specialities of Umbria.

There are few secrets to Umbrian cooking, other than the native's insistence or obsession, really, on home-grown produce: fresh vegetables and fruit, dense green olive oil, roast meats, poultry and game, pecorino cheese and the herbs, greens and mushrooms that grow spontaneously on wooded hillsides.

We were fortunate to have the use of a condo for a week and we lived with and shopped with the locals. We found a local butcher shop and we stopped there four out of the seven days we were there. He provided some of the freshest local meats such as pork loin and home made sausages that we made for dinner. Since we were traveling with the three boys we tried to be at home in the evening not only for dinner but also to rest our weary feet after long days of walking (which is the optimum way for sightseeing). The only time we ate out was during lunch.

Our treat after dinner every night was to go out and visit one of the many local Cafes to have gelato (Italian ice cream). My boys, who were in their early teens then, would agree with me when I say that nothing that I've had in the U.S. compares with the ice cream in Italy. By the way they would have blended in perfectly with the locals if it wasn't for their insistence on wearing Boston Bruins hats.

Visiting the Umbria region was truly a mystical experience. I found the area to be clean, smog-free, pollution free and noise free. I will definetly make it a stopping point the next time I visit Italy. You're welcomed to come along.

How To Measure Success

HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons
and the affection of children;

To earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of
false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others; to give of one’s self;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden
patch or a redeemed social condition;

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;

To know even one life had breathed easier because you have lived ---

This is to have succeeded.


- This poem is generally attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

You need to read this over a few times, digest it and see how you stack up against these various benchmarks. These are very different measuring sticks of success as those ascribed to by the Fortune 500 companies.

No where will you find the mention of accumulating wealth and material things as a measurement of success. The exact opposite is true. Succes is attained by giving and not receiving, by serving others, even if it's just one life that you touch. The Lord gave the greatest example in serving others when He washed the feet of His disciples at the Last Supper.

Every once in a while we hear of a man who has exemplified this teaching. One that I can recall is Aaron Feuerstein, owner of Malden Mills, a company that made Polartec clothing. After a fire destroyed the complex on the Lawrence-Methuen line, he became a national celebrity when he announced that he would rebuild in Massachusetts and continue wages for his workers until the new plant was up and running again. He did this even though insurance didn't fully cover the costs of rebuilding, and competition from less expensive foreign fleece producers further cut into Malden Mills' bottom line.

Today, Feuerstein splits his attention between financing tasks and the mill's business. He lives in a plush but modest condominium in the Brookline neighborhood where he grew up, in the heart of his Orthodox Jewish community. He sneers at what he considers the excess consumption of large houses and boasts about the secondhand engine that's gotten his dark green 1997 Cadillac beyond 158,000 miles.

How do you think he stacks up against the benchmarks in Emerson's poem?


God's instructions for how to live your life and gain eternal success can be found in Matthew Chapters 5, 6, 7. It's been documented for almost 2000 years, yet people still go searching aimlessly for the secret of success.

Autism and Alzheimer's

I'm fairly ignorant on the subject of autism and I don't know of anyone personally who has a child with this condition, if that's what one calls it. I am more aware of Alzheimer's in that I've seen a few elderly neighbors and a friend and Ronald Reagan dealing with it.

I've read that autism is a complex developmental disorder best known for impairing a child's ability to communicate and interact with others and that there's been a 10-fold increase in autism rates over the last decade. No one seems to know why the increase.

Some people claim that Autism and Alzheimer's share a common cause, mercury. Human exposure to mercury today comes principally from three sources: dental amalgams, vaccines, and fish. Vaccine makers add thimerosal (which is half ethyl mercury) to vaccines to prevent bacterial contamination. There has been a lot of discussion concerning thimerosal lately and it's relationship to autism.

Despite growing evidence from various studies that mercury is related to autism and alzheimer's our regulatory agencies such as the CDC and the FDA continue to ignore them and focus strictly on mercury levels in fish.

Autism was discovered in 1943, in American children, twelve years after ethyl mercury (thimerosal) was added to the pertussis vaccine. (The disease was not seen in Europe until the 1950s, after thimerosal was added to vaccines used there.)

In the 1950s, with an immunization schedule limited to four vaccines (against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and smallpox), 1 in 10,000 children developed this disease. Those born in 1981 were given 135 micrograms of mercury (on average), and one case of autism occurred in every 2,600 children born that year. With the addition of hepatitis B vaccine (injected on the day of birth) and one for Haemophilus influenzae Type b, providers injected 246 micrograms of mercury into children born in 1996. Autism occurred in one out of every 350 of these children. Today's immunization schedule call for 13 different types of vaccines including various booster shots bringing the total to 33 before the child reaches age 2 (when the development of the brain is completed).

Autism now afflicts 1 out of 100 boys and 1 out of 400 girls. Over the last 30 years more than one million children have come down with this disease, and currently one in every 68 families in America has an autistic child.

Alzheimer’s disease was discovered in 1906, again in America, where dentists used mercury-laden amalgams to fill cavities (dentists in Europe largely avoided them). Today, more than 4 million Americans now have Alzheimer’s disease. It afflicts half of people over the age of 85 and 20 percent aged 75 to 84. Dental amalgams are the main source of mercury in an adult’s brain. An average-sized amalgam filling contains 750,000 micrograms of mercury and releases around 10 micrograms a day. People with Alzheimer’s disease have mercury levels in their brains that are 2 to 3 times higher than that seen in normal people.

Another important factor with regard to mercury on the mind, which officials at the CDC, FDA and the professors in the IOM do not consider, is synergistic toxicity – mercury’s enhanced effect when other poisons are present. A small dose of mercury that kills 1 in 100 rats and a dose of aluminum that will kill 1 in 100 rats, when combined have a striking effect: all the rats die. Doses of mercury that have a 1 percent mortality will have a 100 percent mortality rate if some aluminum is there. Vaccines contain aluminum.

Vaccine manufacturers have started removing thimerosal from vaccines. And for the first time since the state began keeping records on this disease, California has had a decrease, of 6 percent, in the annual number of children over the age of 3 who have been diagnosed with autism. This occurred in children born in 2000, when the phase-out of thimerosal in vaccines began.

Avoiding flu shots that contain thimerosal, and having dentists stop implanting mercury amalgams in people’s mouths would lower the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. If you have amalgam fillings, particularly if there is a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, you might consider having them removed.

Most of the data mentioned above was taken from 'Mercury on the Mind', by Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD. If you want more information, do a Google search on Autism and Mercury and you will find a wealth of information.

I originally heard about thimerosal and its potential link to autism on the Imus in the Morning radio show. Many others have started speaking out including President Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The more I read, the more I start wondering about my own situation. Back in the summer 1965, I experienced what's called a Grand Mal seizure. I was 18 at the the time and had been in fairly good health all my life. I was very active and in fairly good shape when out of the blue I was hit with the seizure and subsequently told that I had Epilepsy. I was put on medication, Dilantin, and with a break or two in the medicine regiment, I'm still taking same 40 years later.

After the seizure, I had never had any problems and everytime I would have a change in doctors, I would always question the diagnosis. They never wavered from the original diagnosis. I would never find out what caused the seizure. Years later, MGH received the first CAT scan machine and I had a CAT scan of my brain. There was nothing there to cause a seizure.

Now that I read about mercury and the relation it has with Autism and Altzheimer's, it brought back memories of the summer of 1965. I had gone to the dentist and was told that I had thirteen cavities, yes 13. So, I spent the better part of three months going to the dentist every week to get one or two of my teeth filled. Looking back, I now realize that I had thirteen teeth filled with poison that was slowly escaping and going to my brain. Based on the numbers mentioned above, the fillings were releasing 130 micrograms of mercury a day into my system. Could this have been the cause of my seizure? I wonder.

As a side issue to the above subject the following was found in an article at www.bestsyndication.com 'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks out about Vaccinations causing Autism':


Since this time there has been legislation to add release of any liability to drug companies from thimerosal-related health issues. In 2002, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, added a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill. Eli Lilly contributed $10,000 to his campaign in addition to purchasing 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. Congress repealed the measure in 2003, however earlier this year; Frist slipped another condition into an anti-terrorism bill that would disallow reimbursement to children with affliction from vaccine-related brain disorders.

Why is Eli Lilly worried and why is Sen. Bill Frist in bed with this pharmaceutical company? Isn't Bill Frist a doctor? Wasn't he extremely vocal on the Terri Schiavo case? Why isn't he representing the people of this country?

Who Really Cares?

Yesterday's heat, with temperatures in the 90's and with the humidity almost as high, drove many people to various areas to try to find some relief. Some stayed indoors in the comfort of their airconditioned room or house while others sought relief by going to the numerous beaches available to the residents of eastern Massachusetts.

As a I sat drinking a light beer having lunch, I couldn't help but think of my oldest son who is away at Camp Drum, New York along with many other National Guardsmen on their annual 2 week excursion. I wondered how they were coping with this oppressive heat and humidity. I don't think they were practising their manuevers or whatever they do in shorts and t-shirts. I also thought how this was perfect weather to acclimate them to what our soldiers are dealing with every single day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Later that day as I sat having my supper, the lead story on all the local news channels had to do with the heat. Interestingly they showed people at the beach and then they showed and interviewed people who were working with 350 degree coal tar who were hard topping a street. They also interviewed an AC repairman who said that he was having a hard time keeping up with service requests from people who's AC was not functioning. He said some people were quite upset when he could not get to them promptly. I started to choke on my shish-kabob - God forbid that they have to be inconvienced for a day.

Maybe if we were forced to ration some of our commodities to help pay for the war on terror we would have our priorities where they should be. Many people in this country are SPOILED. Too bad you have to be inconvienenced and sweat a little for a day. Sweat is a good bodily function to keep your skin cool and to clean out your stinking pores. What about that poor 19 year old just out of high school who is crawling on his stomach in the desert in 110 degree heat carrying at least 70 lbs. on his back so you can complain about the AC going down, who is he complaining to? He's not. And he is not inconvenienced just for one day. If he's lucky he'll make it back in one piece in a year from now.

I believe that there sould be a law stating that in the event of a declaration of war every family should sacrifice one member whether it be in combat or some other type of service. Why should the people of Wellesley and Dover and Weston and Lynnfield or for that matter any affluent area be excluded from service?

News of loss of life shouldn't become ho-hum because we're bored by hearing the same thing over and over again for two years. As a reminder, here's some of the stuff that's going on over there as written in today's Washington Post. If you want to continue to live in la-la land don't go any further.

U.S. troops, hoping to show their good intentions and win popular support, and mindful that boys among those Hamza's age will grow up to be the insurgents or soldiers of the next few years, often hand out candy bought from local stores or saved from meals-ready-to-eat ration packets while on noncombat patrols.

For the U.S. soldiers, Iraqi children often provide the relief of welcoming faces in a strange country of suspicious, wary looks. For soldiers with families at home, the children also are a reminder of their own.

Iraqi children "always surround them, laugh, imitate the way they walk, go like this with them," Khuzai remembered, giving a thumbs-up as he and his family and other mourners gathered in the front room.

About 10 a.m. last Wednesday, a suicide bomber drove his brown Suzuki sedan and its load of explosives into the crowd of American soldiers and Iraqi children clustered around the Humvees, residents said. Twenty-six of al-Khalij's children died. The bomb killed boys old enough to play out in al-Khalij's streets and young enough to still want to. One U.S. soldier was killed and at least three others were wounded, the military said.

In a 110-degree-plus summer in Baghdad, with wartime water and electricity shortages, gas lines again stretching from the pumps through neighborhoods and across the spans of highway overpasses, kidnappings, killings and bombings, and a government struggling to secure the country, the killing of 26 children quickly became al-Khalij's tragedy alone.

Hamza's father reflected on the silence, and recalled the July 7 bombings in London, which killed at least 56 people, including the bombers. "What happened in England drew condemnation from all the presidents and kings of the world. But when all our children here are gone, not even an Arab leader says a word," Khuzai lamented Monday. In the neighborhood, black funeral banners hung on front gates, sometimes two or more, for each dead child within.

I say to the person complaining about their AC, maybe you would like to trade places with Khuzai. He's got every right to lament and NO ONE cares, 'not even an Arab leader says a word.' I think most of our service men care, but they get blamed because they are there. I know that most would rather be here suffering with a few days of sweltering heat.

Lost Sheep

I read an interesting and thought provoking article that I would like to share with you. The main theme of the article was that we are on an endless treadmill searching for success through the amighty dollar. As we achieve some form of success we find that we are still searching for happiness although some people do think that money brings them happiness.

The average household has three TVs. We sit in front of these idiot boxes and we're bombarded with messages on how to be succesful. They parade all kinds of successful people selling us stuff that's suppose to make us feel happy. That stuff is supposed to fill the void in our soul. What do you do with all that stuff when your child or parent or loved one is struck by some catastrophic illness? What happens to all that stuff when all of sudden, like the people that worked at Enron, you lose your job pension and health insurance?

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, there are now enough self-storage units in the United States to cover the entire area of Manhattan three times over, or fill all 110 stories of the Sears Tower in Chicago 426 times. That’s where our stuff lives. Happily ever after. And remember, that doesn’t include what’s in our playrooms, attics, basements, and garages.

Consumeritis is highly contagious. In China several megamalls have out-spaced Canada’s West Edmonton Mall, which until recently was the largest worldwide. The International Herald Tribune reports that on a good day 600,000 shoppers pass through Guangzhou’s colossal mall in southern China. The Golden Resources Mall in Beijing (a five-story building twice the area of Minnesota’s Mall of America) employs 20,000 people, spans an area the size of six football fields, and is more than one and a half times as big as the Pentagon.

Why is it that with all the stuff we have we see millions of people wandering around like lost sheep looking for a deeper meaning to their life?

Viktor Frankl writes in Man Searching For Meaning:

Again and again I admonish my students both in Europe and in America: “Don’t aim for success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself."

In order to achieve happiness and success we need to make some hard choices ourselves. Stuff or service. Purchases or purpose. Unfortunately this is not the so called American way as can be evidenced by our own President telling us after the tragedy of 9/11 to go shopping, don't be afraid. Thank God for the people that didn't listen to him and dropped everything to go to New York to help their fellow men. These were the ones that chose service over stuff and purpose over purchase.

The Army's slogan tells us, "Be all that you can be!"

A Proliferation of Drugs

When I was a kid growing up in the 50s and 60s you would go to a pharmacy/drug store and you would notice a soda fountain, an area dedicated to the mixing of various soft drinks such as colas and root beers, and Moxie and tamarindo. Many of them would have a long bar or counter with anywhere from 6 to 12 stools. I used to go to the drug store (Burdens) to get an ice cream soda or frappe or a vanilla drink with pinapple bits or whatever concoction the soda jerk would make. There was very little shelf space dedicated for the sale of non prescription drugs, maybe because there were so few of them.

You would go there to purchase cod liver oil, castor oil, Bayer aspirin, Anacin tablets, Brioschi and Alka-Seltzer for indigestion. Ace bandages and those rubbery hot water bottles were also a big seller. They would also carry liniments and ointments for various aches and pains. The biggest prescription drug back then was probably penicillin.

Fast forward to today and you will have a hard time finding an independent druggist. Most have been replaced by the CVS and Brooks and Walgreens of the world. Walk into any large supermarket and your likely to find a pharmacy area. Other than the early morning hours you will always have to wait in line to pick up your prescriptions. You will also find a 50 or 60 foot aisle dedicated strictly for ibuprofen type pain relievers, not to mention 7 or 8 additional aisles for other non-prescription type drugs.

What happened to the soda fountain? I don't remember when they started to disappear from the drug stores. I remember that there were always more people waiting at that counter than there were waiting for prescription drugs. Somewhere along the line a gradual and suble shift took place where now the prescription drug counter is always the busiest part of the store. How did such a healthy nation of people suddenly come down with so many maladies?

Many of the prescriptions back then were only temporary and were never issued with refills. A lot of medications prescribed now seem to be for a lifetime. Your cholesterol is at 220, no problem, you will be on Lipitor for the rest of your life. My mother, who is 82, is now on a regiment of taking 8 different types of pills a day and anytime she tells her doctor of a new ache or pain the doctor is ready to offer her another new drug.

These doctors who all started with good intentions have all become legitimate drug pushers. Between them and the illegal drug pushers, I'd say a high percentage of the people in this country are on drugs. As a kid growing up in the North End, the mob used to make their money by loan sharking and book making. Then somewhere in the mid 60's they decided (with much objection from the old timers) that more money could be made by diversifying and going into the sale of illegal drugs. I think some of the characters from the mob infiltrated the likes of Bristol Myers and Pfizer.

I thought only the Mafia had foot soldiers until one day while waiting to see a neurologist on Beacon Street I spotted a foot soldier from one of the drug companies. The guy was sharply dressed and a smooth talker. He went right up to the receptionist as if he had known her for a long time and said that he had something for the doctor. It reminded me of the days of hanging out on the corner in the North End when the loan shark would make his weekly rounds to collect the vig on outstanding loans. You sort of knew from the tone of his voice that you were'nt going to get rid of him easily. As a matter of fact you had better do what he said otherwise there would be trouble.

The receptionist tried her best to get him to leave but he persisted and waited until the doctor came out of his office. You would think that with a few people in the waiting area the salesman would have been more discreet. He went right up to the doctor and gave him a few gifts along with a box that contained samples of a fairly new drug that he wanted pushed. That transaction took place right in fron of my eyes and was probably repeated numerous times on Beacon street that day. With the shake of his hand the pat on his back and the wink, the doctor knew exactly what the foot soldier wanted. If he pushed these new pills, there would be a cut for him. What was illegal in the North End was now legalized in the doctor's office since it had the backing of the FDA, the Godfather of the drug companies. When the salesman left, I could swear that he was wearing a shark skinned suit. Boy was he slick!

What is different today that we have a nation of drug addicts? Knock on wood, thank God, my three boys have never needed to be put on medication other than the occasional antibiotic for an infection here or there. Go to any school in this country and you will see young children lining up at the nurse's office for their daily dose of Ritalin. I ask why? I don't see any difference in kids today than when I was growing up. Actually there is a difference in that there is definetly more affluence. Kids acted up then just as much as they do now but they weren't drugged. They were sent outside to run around and play and by the time they came home they not only had a good appetite but were also too tired to act up.

In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote a novel, Brave New World (required reading at Boston Latin School), that depicted a "utopian" society, one that was insane and bent on control. It was a controlled civilization, using as he stated, "technique of suggestion - through infant conditioning and , later, with the aid of drugs." This has become a reality as evidenced by the 17 million children worldwide consuming mind-altering drugs. In the U. S. alone, 1.5 million children and adolescents on antidepressants are at risk of known, drug-induced violent or suicidal side effects.

Why is it that in the United States today, more than 6 million children are taking mind-altering psychiatric drugs for the learning and behavioral “disorder,” ADHD and two million children take antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs? Maybe it's to fatten the drug companies' bottom lines. They're certainly not doing it "for the children."

I'll leave you with a story from one of my favorite authors, Leo Buscaglia. He tells how his Mama believed that garlic was the cure-all for any disease. Every morning she'd line her kids up and she'd rub garlic on a little hankie and tie it around their necks. They'd say, "Mama, don't do that." She'd say, "Shut up." (She was a very loving woman.) She'd send them off to school with this garlic around their necks and they stunk to high heaven, But as Leo says, he was never sick a day. His theory was that no one ever got close enough to him to pass the germs. He got an award at the end of elementary school for never having missed a day.

What a crew!

They say that one picture
is worth one thousand words,
but looking at this one
makes my heart start to yearn


You see most of these guys
with the exception of that mutt,
either worked with me or for me
and were a pain in the butt.

They all had their egos
that needed to be stroked,
except good old Andy
who always teased and joked

All during the night
Andy would scheme out his pranks.
Then would try them out on Skulski,
that loveable old crank

He grew tired of Stanley
and searched for someone new,
good old Walshie was the target
of some good ribbing too.

Although it seemed a lifetime
working with Kevin on Tour One.
After one week of complaining
his stint on the night shift was done.

Many people would come
and many people would go,
but whatever the reason
we couldn't budge good old Joe

There was Mike, Andy and Dick,
Feraco and Watkins made him really sick.
Then Norris and Harm interviewed Sal,
who hit it off with Joe when he said, "Hi pal!"

As old timers retired
new faces would appear,
the young new whipper snappers
were'nt welcomed here.

There was Dave and Pete and Billy
who were joined by one named Hillery.
Paul provoked the occasional tiff.
saying, "It was a good day to get stiff."

Disagreement and scuffles
I remember a few,
But I can truly say
It was a wonderful crew!

A 25 Year Sentence

Some people are questioning the 25 year prison sentence given to former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers. U. S. District Judge, Barbara Jones was asked to go light because of the 63 yr. old's heart condition. Two weeks ago, Ebbers agreed to give aggrieved investors almost all of his remaining cash and assets — with an estimated value of as much as $45 million — in what legal experts viewed as a bid to win leniency from the judge. The guidelines called for a 30 yr. sentence but the judge deemed this excessive and reduced it to 25 yrs.

Is 25 yrs. too much for the biggest accounting fraud in U. S. History? How do you think the 30,000 people layed off by this would answer? Many former employees and investors were in court to follow the case. One of those laid off, Henry Bruen Jr., read a statement in court describing how the fraud ruined his career and cost him $800,000 in savings and assets.

A USA Today poll of 12,175 readers shows that 47% think that the sentence is just right, 39% think it's too short, and 14% think the sentence is too long. Frankly, I'm surprised that the judge gave him that much but I'm glad to see that they are no longer giving these white collar criminals just a slap on the wrist. I would have been happy if he got 15 yrs. but I wasn't effected by his fraudulent activities.

Maybe this tough sentence makes up for the acquittal last month of Health South Corp. founder Richard Scrushy who had been implicated in a $2.7 billion accounting scam. Next up is L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco International, who was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and grand larceny in June and is awaiting sentencing. What will he get?

Maybe the harsher sentences will make these white collar criminals stop and think as to what kind of striped suits they are going to choose to wear.

Be vigilant

Terrorists have struck in England and our Homeland Security people tell us to be vigilant. I guess I should feel safe because of a change in the color code that tells us that we are under a heightened alert. What is being done locally?

Riding the T I notice that they have increased the frequency of messages played over the public address speakers. As I wait for the train I hear the message telling me to be alert for anything that looks suspicious and to report it. Gee, thanks that really helps. Half the people that ride the T are suspicious looking characters. Do I report them? Many, including myself, travel carrying some sort of bag or backpack. I notice some people on the verge of losing their pants or shorts and wonder if they are hiding some load in there. Could I be suspected by another rider since I have a beard?

When we stop at Downtown Crossing, a recorded message is played reminding the passengers to make sure to take all of their personal belongings when leaving the train. This reminder is replayed at the Back Bay Station. I take this opportunity to put two hands on my bag for fear that someone would steal it. I'm more concerned with the people that are staying on the train than the ones leaving. How could I stop a suicide bomber?

While I do my part to be vigilant, our country does very little to stop the flow of illegal immigrants that are pouring into our country. Experts say that possibly 12 million people live in the United States illegally — more people than live in Oregon, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas and Rhode Island combined. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, agents from the US Customs and Border Protection agency have stopped 132 nationals from countries considered a national security threat, including Syria, North Korea and Iran.

If those numbers are accurate, they may indicate that hundreds more from suspect nations made it across the border. Some spent the last eight years in an area known locally as the "Arab Road," where ranchers recently found a prayer rug, a Koran and a diary written in Arabic.

The president's constant reminder that we are fighting "over there that way we don't have to fight them over here" is a lot of bull. This reminds me of the old saying, "while Nero fiddled, Rome burned." Mr. Bush stop fiddling and start protecting our borders, especially down your neck of the woods. Take our National Guard troops and place them on the border between Mexico and the US. It's only a matter time before another 9/11 happens again.

Extremes

Recently I read of two severance packages given to a CEO and his co-president that just boggled my mind.

The CEO was a Mr. Purcell who worked for nearly 20 years as chief executive of Dean Witter and then Morgan Stanley when it combined with Dean Witter. He was given a package worth $113 million while Mr. Crawford his co-president of only 3 months was rewarded with $32 million after leaving the firm amid a power struggle.

This seems to be a trend that started a few years ago - reward the man at the top for screwing the men and women on the bottom. A person sweats and toils for 20 to 30 yrs. then has the rug pulled out from under him leaving him without health benefits and in cases like Polaroid no retirement benefits.

Locally we have Mr. Kilts who will be remembered as the chief executive who sold a century-old icon (Gillette) and is due to receive compensation valued at $165 million. At Gillette and Nabisco, Kilts oversaw the elimination of 13,200 jobs.

In the same paper I read of a Shawnette Treat, 37, who was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and told that she has less than 2 yrs. to live. She lives with her husband and two children in Melbourne, Arkansas. She had to stop working in March to undergo a double mastectomy when the cancer spread. Because of the corporate greed that persists in this country, she finds herself in a position in not being able to afford Tarceva, a cancer drug which costs almost $90 a day, or $31,000 a year. The family has private insurance which covers 80% of Tarceva's cost, but she can't afford to pay her insurer's $500 monthly co-payment.

"My husband's the only one working, and we have bills and stuff that we have to pay, and it takes all he makes for us to make it," Ms. Treat said. "Five hundred dollars is a lot to us a month."

How can we have such extremes? A woman trying to extend her life by a few more months has to scrape to come up with $500, while CEOs are lavished with millions.

Scripture tells us, "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kngdom of God."

Gotta Serve Somebody

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,
You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

These are the partial lyrics to Bob Dylan's song Gotta Serve Somebody from 1979.

1900 years earlierMatthew wrote:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and mammon;

Mammon is the Aramaic word for wealth/money. In the lyrics above your choices are to serve the devil or the Lord. If you are preoccupied with the love of money your are probably serving the devil simply because you can't serve two masters at once.

Simplify your life. Do you need a TV in every room? How many phones do you have? How many things could you do without if you had to abandon your house in the event of some unforseen disaster? How many material things are you holding on to that you will never use? It's time to start giving them away. That's what will happen when you die.

Accepting Manny

The Boston Red Sox have arguably the best hitter in baseball in Manny Ramirez but the fans have had a hard time warming up to him. Statistically his offensive numbers compare with all the great athletes in Boston Sports history yet he hasn't got a third of the respect or adulation he deserves from fans and media alike.

Terry O'Reilly never put up big numbers but was a big fan favorite. In fact when he came up to the Bruins he had very limited skills, wasn't a scorer nor a good skater, but he won the fans' hearts by being a plugger. He worked extrememly hard at improving his skills and found his niche on the team. He earned the utmost respect and had his number retired to the rafters of the Garden as an average player.

Manny also works extremely hard as witnessed and reported by his teammates but fans can't relate to an individual who is making approximately 400 times the money that they make playing a game that is a fantasy for most of them. The expectations of a person earning $20 million a year is beyond reach. He could put up triple crown numbers but let him show any sign of "Manny being Manny" and he is immediately castigated and made the scapegoat for all the losses the team has suffered.

Thursday night, July 7, the Red Sox were playing the division rival Baltimore Orioles. It could easily be seen that the game would not last the full nine innings because of rain. With the Sox trailing 2-1 and the Baltimore starter reaching his limit of pitches and battling control problems, they loaded the bases and were on the verge of at least tying the game. On the second pitch to John Olerud which was a ball the catcher fired to second base and picked off Trot Nixon for the third out and snuffing out the rally. The game was called in the 7th and the Sox lost.

When I tuned in to the sports talk shows the next day there was very little talk of Trot Nixon's blunder. Most of the ire and venom were being cast on the manager for resting four of his starters. I wondered what the tone of the calls would have been if Manny had been the player that had the brain lapse at second base.

Why was Trot Nixon not hung out to dry the next day like Manny would have? Could it be a race issue? I doubt it. Could it be a perception issue? Maybe. Trot is a Terry O'Reilly type, a grinder, a hustler someone who'll crash into the wall for the team. The fans have an easier time relating to him.

Manny's happy-go-lucky type of exterior is perceived as aloofness and laziness. Has he had some senior moments on the field? Of course, but his hitting more than makes up for the occasional shortcoming he's had on the field.

It took me a while to understand that Manny's demeanor is what makes him a very good hitter. You rarely see him lose his composure when he's in the batter's box. Even when the umpire misses a call he gets right back in the batter's box and gets ready to hack away. He is definetly one of the most feared batters in both leagues and one of the most productive in the clutch. Just look at his stats.

I hope in due time more fans will appreciate what they are witnessing in Manny Ramirez. I haven't seen a more productive hitter since watching Ted Williams at the end of his career.

A Respected Man

It seems that 99% of what I hear, see, and read about on a daily basis has to do with some form of evil element in society. I might be exagerrating somewhat, but if it's not 99%, it's definetly a high percentage of the daily news. It's always refreshing to hear something positive. I recently read about a man who lived in my lifetime who had a positive influence on the people around him.

In Italy, one achieves notoriety when you are labeled or called un uomo rispettato, a respected man. You don't acquire this title because you're rich or famous or of nobility but because of how you help people, especially the less fortunate than you. One such man was Danilo Dolci who sacrificed much to try to improve the living conditions in Sicily.

He followed in the footsteps of many other great and respected men in history who abandoned their wealthy surroundings to live in substandard conditions and at the same time risking their lives to improve the lives of the destitute.

Danilo was inspired by Don Zeno a Catholic priest who was running Nomadelphia, a Christian commune in Tuscany who's purpose was to take care of war orphans. Though he himself had never been a big follower of the Catholic Church he liked what the priest was doing and quit school at the age of twenty-five to join him. Impressed with his work, Don Zeno had Danilo set up another commune called Ceffarello. While there the army caught up with him and he had to serve compulsory time in 1951.

During this period he became aware that Don Zeno was being harassed by officials who felt he was a Communist. The government wanted to close both communes and put the orphans into asylums. Even the Vatican turned against Don Zeno, calling him the "mad priest" while the government forces took off with many of the commune's children. By 1952 Danilo was ready to move on and work elsewhere and learned early on that he would get nowhere with officials if he tried to reach them in conventional ways.

Throughout his career in Sicily, Dolci used fasting as a method to force the government to make improvements. Aldous Huxley called him the Gandhi of Sicily. He was the single most important force for improvement in the horrendous social conditions rooted in years of exploitation at the hands of dishonest officials, ruthless landlords and the black hand of the Mafia.

This uomo rispettato was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize and was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. The money he received from the Peace Prize was used to address the needs of the poor by establishing a string of social centers.

Keep in mind what Scripture tells us about inheriting eternal life. When asked, Jesus' answer was, "..sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me."

Freedom?

In celebration of Independence Day we should be thankful of all the freedoms this country makes available to us, but in the long run the freedom that we are really seeking is the freedom from ourselves. We can readily see this in our country of great abundance we have millions of people taking anti-depressants. Are we really free? No, we are slaves to a media that tells us what is good for us. We are slaves to prescription and non prescription drugs as a solution for our happiness. Ghandi said, "Live simply, so that others may simply live." To live free does not mean to be selfish but to become totally available to your fellow man.

This great country with an abundance of wealth has 35.9 million people living below the poverty level which equates to 12.5% of the population based on data from 2003.

Twenty-eight percent of families in the US are one parent families.

Forty five million people (15.6% of the population) are without health insurance.

We have our freedoms, but we also have many socio-economic problems that need to be addressed.

Locusts

Pictured is a mummified Rocky Mountain Locust collected from a glacial deposit

It was on this day. July 20, 1875, that the largest recorded swarm of locusts in American history descended upon the Great Plains. This species of grasshopper maintained its permanent range in the Rocky Mountains, but when its population fluctuated, the Rocky Mountain Locust expanded its range well into the Great Plains. The final swarms peaked from 1873-1877 at the same time that masses of European migrants were flooding the Great Plains in search of gold and silver and the American Dream. They ended up homesteading in places such as Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. This was the Great Plains—open, continuous grasslands, as far as the eye could see.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote Little House on the Prairie chronicling life on the Great Plains, describes the intensity of locust swarms in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek:

...the grasses were still and the hot air did not stir, but the edge of the cloud came across the sky faster than the wind. The hair stood up on Jack’s neck. All at once he made a frightful sound up at that cloud, a growl and a whine.

Plunk! Something hit Laura’s head and fell to the ground. She looked down and saw the largest grasshopper she had ever seen...

The Cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm.

These grasshoppers ate everything in sight, even fence posts, leather, dead animals, and sheep wool. One common comment was that “grasshoppers ate everything but the mortgage.” The Rocky Mountain locust is believed to have been the most common macroscopic creature of any kind ever to inhabit the planet.

The swarm in July of 1875 was about 1,800 miles long, 110 miles wide, from Canada down to Texas. People described the locusts as driving snow coming down in winter. They sounded like thunder or a train and covered the ground nearly a foot deep. Trees bent over with the weight of them. Some farmers tried running into them to scare them away and they had their clothes eaten right off their bodies.

The conditions were ideal since there had been a drought since 1873 and the size of the swarms tended to grow when there was less rain. Similar swarms continued until the mid 1880's when the rains had finally returned. Within a few decades, the Rocky Mountain locusts were believed to be extinct. The last two live specimens were collected in 1902, and they're now stored at the Smithsonian.

July 2005 finds locusts swarming in Africa. "Unless control measures are carried out immediately there will be a great deal of destruction of crops," Yimer Assen of FAO Ethiopia, said. "The volume of the locusts is increasing and the problem we face is that they are migrating from one village to another."

Swarms contain millions of locusts that literally eat everything in their path. Each insect can eat its own body weight in food each day.

"They are very destructive in the amount of matter they eat in a day," Peter Odiyo, head of the Desert Locust Control Organisation of East Africa (DLCO), said.

"In a country already facing serious food shortages, that translates into a lot of damage to livestock, grazing areas and food crops in the field. They eat anything green," he added.

Locusts have in the past laid to waste parts of Africa. In 2004, they ruined more than one million hectares of crops in Mauritania. The swarms have spread from Chad through Sudan and into Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.

Locusts have been around for a long time.The Bible talks about how when such locust swarms came, `the land was darkened and ate all the plants in the land so that nothing green was left'. The ancient Egyptians referred to them as an army in the sky.

Stay The Course

He's forced to come before us
Because the polls are down
Rove tells him to address the people
Before heading to Crawford town.

George summons his advisors
'Cause he doesnt't know what to say.
They put their heads together
They think and write and pray.

A rallying theme is needed
Advises of one of the seven
And with this they all agree
We'll keep stressing nine eleven.

We need to distract the people
Was next on their agenda to plot.
What better place was there to use
Than Fort Bragg and soldiers as backdrop.

The mood and tone must be set
This was not to be a pep rally
Tell the soldiers not to clap and cheer
That is, not until the finale.

After three days of preparation
And much fine tuning to the speech
They sat back and thanked the Lord
For the words that Bush would preach.

From Fort Bragg we hear the President
Tell us to stay the course.
We're winning the war on terror
He'll yell it 'til he's hoarse.

I was hoping to have heard
A little more than, Stay the course.
I was hoping to have caught
Just a tinge of remorse.

I was hoping for an explanation
Of the miscalculations of our course
But I don't feel much better
After hearing your discourse.

You acknowledge the pains and suffering
That some families are going through.
But never once did I hear you mention
Of the sacrifices we could all do.

You still have time to rekindle
That patriotic spirit in all
The country is sorely thirsting
For a leader with some gall.