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…
I suspect very few young people of today have ever heard Jim Thorpe who died in 1953. Thorpe, whose real name was Jacobus Franciscus Thorpe, was regarded as the athlete of the century and the greatest American football player of his time. He was the most famous American athlete of his time and was selected by the nation’s press in 1950 as the most outstanding athlete of the twentieth century. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame…
Maybe it's my age, but I seem to be reporting on a lot of people who have died over the past few weeks. Today I'd like to share information about my maternal grandmother Marija Babarovich who died on August 5th, 1953 and whose anniversary of death is a few days away. She died the year I graduated from high school in Anacortes, Washington.Her life story is one of great courage and sacrifice involving immigration to America while not being able to speak English….
I've just returned from teaching at Gerry Spence's trial college in Wyoming only to have two people I've known throughout my adult life die within a week of each other. Stan Bruhn was my law partner for many years and David Welts and I began the practice of law in Mount Vernon at the same time. Stan was my law partner with Harwood "Bill" Bannister. Our firm, Bannister, Bruhn and Luvera was established in 1962. That was the year Stan and Bill approached me with…
I was reading obituaries in my home town newspaper, The Anacortes American, for names I might recognize. There was an entry about Nora Elizabeth Hinkley that said that after school she worked as an usherette at the Empire Theater escorting patrons to their seats using a flash light. That certainly brought back memories to me about this historic Anacortes movie theater. I thought of the ticket booth with the young woman behind the glass where you bought tickets, the users…
I laughed at something I read in the sports page of the Seattle Times. It said: "The late Les Earthorne, to the Kitsap Sun, on his early struggles as basketball coach at Camas High School en route to a hall of fame career at Bremerton: 'By the time the cheerleaders could spell out Papermakers, we were already down twenty points.' It reminded me of a quote from some professional player talking about a losing season. He said: "We couldn't win…
If you review the history of any nation where the state controls the people you will always find secrecy. Evil deeds are done in the dark – in secret. In any dictatorship the press and media are controlled by the state in order to conceal the truth. Arrests by the SS in Nazi Germany were always made at night under the cover of darkness. In our own country trying to find out the truth about government is often clouded in secrecy….
The New York Times sports section noted that July 4thwas the one hundred year anniversary of the famous Johnson vs Jeffries heavy weight fight held in Reno, Nevada on July 4, 1910. Called "The fight of the century" by the media some 20,000 people watched a black man, Jack Johnson fight the former heavyweight champion of the world, James J. Jeffries, billed as the "great white hope." Johnson had angered the white establishment by simply refusing to conduct himself the…
William Barclay was a Biblical scholar and professor in Scotland who published extensively. One of his books is Day by Day published in 2003 by Hendrickson’s Publishers. One of his short articles deals with the idea of authority. He asks "Where, for the Christian does authority lie?" He examines the question of whether it lies in the church and notes that given the human conduct of the Christian church over history it is unlikely to be there. He notes that…
Ten years ago, on an early Friday morning, July 7th2000, my mother Mary Thelma Babarovich, died in her sleep at the San Juan Care Center. Her death was not unexpected. After all, she was born on December 28, 1905 and was ninety four years old when she died. She had been in failing health for some time. Her passing was, in fact, a personal blessing to her as she had been ready to meet her maker for some time. My sisters,…
