Last Sunday Lita and I headed out of Gig Harbor on our boat Lita Theresa. She is a 2006 39' Grand Banks Eastbay style. A very nice size boat with a beam of 13.3 feet that draws only 3' of water. With twin Yanmar disel engines it has a top speed of 30 knots and cruises very comfortably. We were cruising along in warm weather and flat seas thinking what a pleasure it is to be on the salt water. But,…
The Industrial Workers of the World, the IWW, also known as the "Wobblies" were a militant labor organization during a time when industry used goons, a willing police force or private guards to violently stop labor organizations. Beatings, shootings and arrests of union workers was common place. The IWW had some 100,000 members at its peak in 1923. They advocated a socialistic or communist ideology and had a reputation for sabotage and violence against industry to achieve labor demands. In Washington State the…
St. Mary’s Catholic church is celebrating its 100th year anniversary this year. I was baptized in the original church building located at the corner of 7th& N Avenue in Anacortes and served Mass as an altar boy when growing up. In fact, when the original church building was closed and the church moved to a new structure, I bought two stained glass windows from the closed church building. One is installed in our Gig Harbor home with a back light…
Johann Hari wrote a compelling post on work conditions in China earlier this month. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/and-the-most-inspiring-go_b_672993.html. His report includes such facts as the estimate that as many as 600,000 people are killed as a result of their work or work conditions in China each year. He describes the typical working situation as giant factory-cities from which the people rarely leave. Work hours average from 7:45 am to 11:00 pm. They are required to buy from the company canteen. At the same…
Lita and I are in Hawaii. We flew to Honolulu a couple of days ago and then flew on to Kauai to attend the annual Inner Circle of Advocates convention. The weather on Saturday, when we arrived, was nice but on the muggy side. Our hotel is the St Regis at Princeville. The location is beautiful with a large bay and we look across to the green and uninhabited other side. The drive was 45 minutes from the airport. We learned…
My mother in law, Betty Barnett loved poetry. I have a wonderful, old poetry book with her name written in the front that she must have given her daughter Lita. My wife Lita re-intoduced me to enjoying poetry which I frequently read. I have any number of poetry books, but last night I was reading the book that beloged to Betty. Inside were some poems in her hand writing. This is one of them. Whether she wrote it or not I have…
I was reading that President Franklin D. Roosevelt used to tell this story often when disputes arose in his administration: Two Chinese coolies were arguing. The were loud and very angry in their dispute on a busy street. After watching them for awhile, a tourist said to the tour guide he was surprised no blows had been delivered given the intensity of their dispute. The guide replied: "That's because he who strikes the first blow is admitting that he has…
