Category: Life

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Where is our Apollo program for energy independence?

In the early 1960’s America was in crises.

The Soviets was beating us in the space race having put up Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, and the government worried they would win the so-called space race.

President John Kennedy proposed a massive undertaking so that the US could put be first to put a man on the Moon, which was seen as a national security issue.

In an address to Congress he said:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs

And in a speech at Rice Stadium in 1962 he said:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Rice Stadium Sept 12 1962

The goal of being first to the Moon led to a massive national project involving thousands of people and billions of dollars and on July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong officially made the US the winner of the Space Race.

The Apollo project wasn’t the first national project to develop something new in the interests of national security.

During World War II, the federal government hired thousands of people and spent billions of dollars and came up with the Atom bomb within 3 years. While the use of the bomb is debatable, the point is a massive effort led by the government help address an immediate problem.

Starting in the 1950’s, massive federal spending created the Interstate Highway System that was not only for economic development but also seen as having national security implications.

Why can’t we do the same for the dependence on foreign oil?

I’m not talking about welfare for oil companies or more drilling, but a massive research and development program to come up with a host of alternative energy systems for transportation, home, and business use.

The US uses 26% of the world’s oil production and it is much higher than it was during the gas crises of the 1970’s.

It has to stop and it can be stopped if we want to protect our country from our enemies.

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4th of July Diminished

The 4th of July use to be one of my favorite holidays when I was younger. Back in Findlay, the holiday was a community event. Some years there would be kid games and BBQ at Riverside Park. Along with the cascade of flags and a parade it was a fun time. Other years my Uncle Bob would have a shindig at his place which ended with shooting off the illegal fireworks he had bought during the year. Other years we would drive over to the Fort Findlay Mall parking lot and watch the firework show sponsored by the old Hill’s Department Store.

Much like the discount retailer, the show was low brow. It seemed they could only afford one fire tube so we would have to wait minutes for a shell to go up. Then more often than not it was dud – with the loud *BOOM* but no works. Later when I moved to Columbus, their Red White and Boom show blew me away and I knew I could never watch a show like the one at Hill’s again.

In recent years, my fondness for the 4th of July has diminished.

I think it has all to do with our principles and the lack of acting on those principles and in some cases doing the complete opposite.

My disillusionment started when learning that even though the founding fathers said at the start of the United States Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That it wasn’t until the mid 1960’s that a majority of people were finally treated as equal humans. But even today there are still segments of citizens, such as homosexual and atheists, who are still treated unequally.

While the United States Constitution had a Bill of Rights, those rights didn’t start being applied equally until after the Civil War and again there are segments of society who don’t enjoy all of those rights today.

Then there was the government supporting dictators in other countries as long as they were anti-communists. This was done with money or training death squads at US bases like the School of the Americas. In some cases the CIA would encourage and finance dissent groups who would overthrow an unfriendly leader like Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953.

Then there was using the FBI to infiltrate and disrupt so-called dissent groups in the US under the COINTELPRO project from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. As stated in the article linked to here:

In the Final Report of the Select Committee COINTELPRO was castigated in no uncertain terms:

“Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that…the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.”

The Church Committee documented a history of FBI directors’ using the agency for purposes of political repression as far back as World War I, through the 1920s, when they were charged with rounding up “anarchists and revolutionaries” for deportation, and then building from 1936 through 1976.

And today we have a President who doesn’t think twice to using warrantless wiretaps and inhumane interrogation techniques along with a a compliant Congress to further gut our basic principles of democracy and freedoms.

To me, the 4th of July is mere symbolism and until we return to the principles that led to the Declaration of Independence we are just a large body of hypocrisy.

In an illustration of the difference is this quote I heard during the recent HBO series John Adams. Adams is arguing for the passage of the resolution that would lead to our Declaration of Independence. He says to the Congress:

I believe sirs the hour has come… My judgement approves this measure and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life I am now ready to stake upon it. While I now live, let me have a country. A free country.

Adams and the other men gathered in Philadelphia during that hot summer were ready to die for the principles spelled out in the Declaration. King George III had already proclaimed that if the colonists insisted on their course of action they would be tried for treason and hanged.

Today I don’t see men or women with that kind of principle. Too many politicians are worried about being re-elected and too many people take their rights for granted or don’t think giving them up will harm them in the long run. It seems there are few if any people willing to stand up for what our country is suppose to stand for.

Until I see a return to our founding principles, the 4th of July means nothing other than a day off of work.

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Plagiarizing valedictorian learns nothing

There is a common value shared by many people that one should take responsibility for their own actions. That you should “own” all your actions or decisions – good or bad – the results of them.

Our legal system is based on that value that if you step over the line – whatever line it is – you should held accountable. Except if you are President George Bush – but that’s another story…

If you make a mistake there should be some negative result to you if it was your fault. If you drive drunk you should lose your licence. If you jay walk you should get a ticket. If you cheat you shouldn’t be rewarded. And on and on it goes….

There was a story in the news a couple of weeks ago where a local high school valedictorian was forced to give up his award because he plagiarized the speech he gave at graduation.

Melanio C. Acosta IV, the Circleville (Ohio) High School valedictorian, surrendered the title after admitting that most of his commencement address on June 1 came from a video called “The Perfect Beatles Graduation Speech”, a collage of song lyrics, that had been posted on the video site YouTube.

I remember saying to myself at the time “Good. He learned a valuable lesson. Take someone else’s words or ideas and there is a penalty to pay.”

Well, not so fast. It seems the real lesson he learned is that your parents will bail you out at anytime and you lose nothing.

The Circleville High School valedictorian who surrendered the title after admitting to lifting two-thirds of his commencement speech from a YouTube video won the honor of co-valedictorian today in a settlement with the school district.

Acosta’s 4.5 grade-point average ranks him first in his graduating class of 138. He relinquished his valedictorian title and wrote district officials an apology letter June 4 after admitting that he took most of his commencement address June 1 from a video called The Perfect Beatles Graduation Speech, a collage of song lyrics.

The parents of the 18-year-old, though, maintained that district officials had coerced him to write the letter and had told him what to say. They hired Lancaster lawyer D. Joe Griffith, who argued last week that Acosta had not committed plagiarism because he had credited the Beatles as the authors in his speech.

The agreement averts a lawsuit alleging slander, invasion of privacy and other claims against the district that Griffith had said he planned to file this week in Pickaway County Common Pleas Court.

Settlement restores Circleville valedictorian

Most dictionaries define plagiarism as the act of wrongfully taking another’s words, ideas, or the like, and representing them as one’s own. Acosta’s speech did credit The Beatles for the song lyrics but the person – Cassandra Malloy – who is thought to be the first who gave a speech called “The Perfect Beatles Graduation Speech” – had the idea to use the lyrics in the format presented. Acosta admitted to cribbing 2/3 from a 2nd version by another student also posted on YouTube. But it still sounds like plagiarism to me.

But this is not the first instance of parents bailing out a child who, in fact, did something wrong.

One school district had a run in with the parents of a high school student who had violated the school system’s “zero tolerance” policy. He was involved in a fight at school with another student. The boy didn’t start the fight but he was fighting – violating the rules. Both were given 10 day out of school suspensions.

His parents raised a big stink – including attending several school board meetings – to have the transgression expunged and their child allowed back in school. The school board caved.

I remember from my school days how a parent should support their child. They should take the good with the bad in the hopes the child learns a valuable lesson and becomes a better person.

I was in 3rd grade and got into yet another fight with my nemesis Brad S. Once again he pushed all my buttons and we ended up rolling around in the snow at recess and were then sent to the principals office.

Mr. Winemuller was very upset with me. He had warned me about fighting. He had reached the end of his patience. He told me that if I got into another fight he would need to use the paddle on me (this was the late 70’s when corporal punishment was still allowed). He brought out a huge wooden paddle with large holes to reduce air resistance – causing greater pain with less effort.

He sat the paddle on his desk and I remember it went *THUNK*. I gulped and promised I would never get into another fight. He accepted my plea, banned me from recess for two weeks, then let me out of the office.

When my Mom got home from work I told her the whole story. She was mad me for getting into trouble – again – and mad at the school. She took time off work to visit the school and talk to the principal. Later she said, “he’s not going to paddle you unless I am there to witness it…”

I gulped again.

She knew and accepted I was wrong and should be punished but loved me enough to make sure they wouldn’t take advantage of the trust school administrators get for being “in loco parentis“. Which is a Latin term for a legal concept that the school is allowed to act in the best interests of the students as they see fit “in place of the parents.”

I think parents should be supportive of their children and not except the actions of a school toward their child without careful examination but if the kid did something wrong then they shouldn’t try to cover for the child by using threats of legal suits or raising a big stink. Johnny or Suzy isn’t always right just as the school isn’t always right.

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Blizzard of ’78 – 30th Anniversary

In the early morning hours of January 26th 1978, thunder woke me up. Rain was hitting our trailer hard. We lived on Trenton Ave. where the Wal-Mart store is now, at the intersection of US 224 and I-75.

At the time I was 10 years old and afraid of thunderstorms so I did my usual run to mom’s room and I crawled into bed with her. I fell asleep soon after.

That didn’t last long.

Just before dawn the roar of the wind woke both of us up. The wind banged the various loose metal pieces and trim around our windows. My mom turned on the radio and WFIN was broadcasting about a blizzard hitting Findlay. It wasn’t even 5 am and Findlay City Schools closed for the day. In fact all the schools in the county closed.

We laid there in the morning gloom listening to the radio until the power went out. Not only was the radio off but so was our propane furnace. Mom got up and filled a bucket and some empty milk jugs with water. She told me to put on some extra clothes to guard against the cold.

The roar of the wind didn’t stop. I looked out the window and saw nothing but sheets of snow.

The Great Blizzard of 1978 had arrived in Findlay.

That first day was an adventure. Mom got out our camping gear and setup the Sterno stove so she could have some coffee. We had little food in the house as the storm caught us off guard. Later in the day, when we tried to open our front door to let the dog out to pee, it was frozen shut. The rain the night before froze on the metal frame. My poor dog couldn’t go outside even if she wanted to. It took about a half hour and a butter knife to get it open. The dog went to the open door, sniffed around, and refused to go out in the wind and snow.

I had to lift her down onto the stoop and as she went into the drift around the door I only saw her snout. She was gone for only a minute and slowly made her way up the stoop. I had to reach out and lift her back into the house.

Being 10, I started to complain about being cold. Even cuddling with Mom on the couch under every blanket we owned I was still cold. Mom told me to stop thinking about it. But I couldn’t. She got up and poured me a shot of whiskey and said that it would make me feel warm. It made me sleepy. We both got into my bed and pretty much slept the rest of the day away.

The next day the power came back on so life returned to some what normal. We needed some food and the radio said that Great Scot down the road would be open for a few hours. I got out my sled and we started out for the store. Before we left the trailer park we stopped off to see our neighbors, the elderly couple Pert and Lou and found out they had a wood stove and were fine. We asked if they needed any food and Pert said he needed toilet paper for sure.

My mom and I walked the mile or so to the store. Driving was banned so dozens of people were walking to the store like we were. Some used cross country skis. There were some snowmobiles and a few 4 wheel drive trucks. The only clear spot was the middle of Broad Avenue. The store had plenty of can goods but no bread or milk. I was just happy to be out of the house.

On the way back we looked down on I-75 and there were cars and trucks abandoned on the highway. The drivers had been rescued the day before.

It took a few days and front end loaders from the National Guard before they allowed people to drive again. We were out of school for a week and I remember burning out on sledding down the hill of the US 224 I-75 interchange. I also spent a lot of time digging our car out.

The next weekend we went to McComb to visit my grandparents and the drifts along the roads were huge. At one point it was like driving through a tunnel as banks of snow towered over our car and the road.

The one thing we learned during that Blizzard was not be unprepared again. For years we stocked up on can goods during the winter months and if a storm was coming we bought extra bread and milk just in case. We also made a Blizzard box with extra blankets, candle, more Sterno, and a battery operated radio.

Toledo TV station WTOL has posted video of their newscasts on January 26th and 27th 1978 so you can see what it was like back then. The ironic thing is since our power was out we never got to see the shows when they first aired.

Blizzard of ’78 – 30th Anniversary

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