As we Americans view with concern the path our country seems to be taking and the resulting fallout on employment, jobs and the homeless, perhaps we might be able to learn from history. While not a perfectly accurate comparison, it is hard to ignore the history of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. An empire which was such a glorious, wealthy and powerful one for many hundreds of years but, which ended with a whimper. How could that…
David Carroll Cochran has written a very proactive article, Plutocracy or Democracy? In the February 10th issue of Commonweal magazine http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/. What is plutocracy? Cochran says it is a system in which political influence is used to maximize the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of the rest of society. It is a political corruption of the Golden rule – a society in which those with the Gold, rule. In the plutocratic scenario all costs and risks…
So, how's your Washington state history knowledge? Do you remember learning about "Fifty Four Forty or Fight" in school? The slogan comes from a boundary dispute in the 1840's between the U.S. and Great Britain involving an area including the modern states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana, Wyoming and even British Columbia- generally known as the Oregon territory. It referred to the latitude line of fifty four degrees and forty minutes North which the U.S. wanted as…
Today, January 24th, is the annversary of the death of a great coach and mentor to me, William Taylor. Many of us can point to one person or perhaps several people who played significant roles in our life. People who made the difference at a tipping point in our lives. Someone whose words or actions changed our attitude and the direction of our life for the better. For me, after my parents, it is a short list of those who…
I've written about this event before, but a recent book on the trench warfare of the first World War made me think about this again. World War I began in July of 1914 involving primarily Germany, Russia, France & the United Kingdom. It wasn’t until April of 1917 that America entered the war against Germany. President Wilson had tried to keep America out of the war, but German submarine attacks sinking American ships caused America to join the allies. The…
I wasn't going to comment on politics because it is such a waste of time, however I don’t know about you but I am totally fed up with the Republican candidate’s political efforts and their debates as well as a worthless Congress locked in a total stalemate while people suffer economic pain. Who cares about the army of Republican want-to-be-presidents as they continue to debate while the public knows they will say anything to get elected…well with the exception of…
According to a report in a Christian blog http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/RA/k/274/No-Greater-Love.htmthe February 13, 1987, issue of The Missileer, a newspaper of the 45th Space Wing, U.S. Air Force, ran this brief and apparently true story by Colonel John W. Mansur: The mortar rounds landed in an orphanage run by a missionary group in the small Vietnamese village. The missionaries and one or two children were killed outright and several more children were wounded, including one girl about eight years old. People from…
Fishing on the salmon purse seine boats was an enormous part of my life experince which benefited me the most. The lessons learned, the relationship to men, most of whom were much older and poor at English and being involved in a clean life on the sea will always be a huge part of who I am. I've written about this more then once. I referred to Brent Lunsford wonderful book about te Croation fishing families, including my own, of…
I'm writing this about my late mother in law, Elizabeth (Betty) Catherine Devitt, who was born December 5, 1910 in Butte,Montana and died December 20, 1995 in Puyallup. Her children included my wife, Lita, Devitt (deceased) Hollis, Barbara and Monica. She was a very remarkable woman in so many respects. She was also someone for whom I had a great deal of admiration, respect and love. Betty's parents were Merritt John Devitt and Elizabeth McCarthy Devitt. She was baptized at…
My grandmother on dad's side of the family, Phyllis Filippa Luvera died in Anacortes, Washington on December 20, 1946. By coincidence, that is also the day my wife's mother died. Nonna Luvera was born in Italy May 26, 1870 and spoke little English. Since dad believed the children should speak English we never learned Italian and could only communicated with her through dad. She was typical Italian grandmother, an excellent cook and who was always feeding us something. She had…
