Remembering

I was fortunate enough to be able to make it to the memorial ceremony in Weymouth for former Emerson Wrestling Coach Jim Peckham last summer. I was pleased, but hardly surprised by the large turnout. The funeral home was overflowing with people wishing to celebrate a most extraordinary life.

There were certainly tears shed by most in attendance, but there were many more smiles and nodding of heads as a steady stream of people stepped to the front of the main room to share remembrances of a man who had touched their lives. There were former student-athletes from Emerson, people from the college who had worked with him, and people who knew him as Coach, Dad, Grampa or friend.
Most of the stories and anecdotes had memories of his humor, philosophy, but most importantly, his humanity. He was a man of immense humanity. There were stories of how he invited people into his home, gave them money, even if he had little more than they did, or simply listened to them with a keen and sincere interest in whatever it was they had to say.
The stories offered by former wrestlers that day contained the same themes, but more importantly, the same beliefs and principles taught by Coach Peckham, as he was teaching arm bars and half nelsons. He spoke with knowledge, and eloquence of the Greeks and Romans and often used examples from those civilizations in his pre-match talks to his wrestling teams. He seldom raised his voice, and never motivated with stock phrases. Instead, he used stories of the ancients, and those not so ancient, to inspire us to believe in ourselves and strive to achieve beyond what we thought was possible for each of us.
The stories always had a moral and enforced his strong beliefs in the virtues of commitment, sacrifice, loyalty and respect. He taught us all the importance of respect. Respect for your opponent, and others you encounter, and respect for yourself.
Emerson has certainly produced many outstanding Alumni and has been home to brilliant and accomplished permanent and visiting members of the faculty. Jim Peckham was as accomplished and as highly acclaimed in his field as any member of the Emerson family. His influence upon generations of Emersonians and those we will encounter and influence will be his most lasting legacy and something to be celebrated by the college and all those who knew him.

If you look hard enough, you can find good in almost anyone and sometimes you find greatness right in front of you.

You Got Some Splaining To Do Bernie

Okay, so now Syracuse University Head Basketball Coach Jim Boeheim has to backpedal, eat his words and reluctantly admit that his long-time friend and assistant Bernie Fine may have done some nasty things and then let Boeheim look bad in public with some strong statements in favor of Fine when the news first became public.

So far this does not appear to be a cover-up as was the case at Penn State, but only time will tell. Boeheim’s initial comments in support of Fine when the story first broke appear to be a case of a friend and colleague supporting someone he felt was being wrongly accused. It now appears that Fine may be guilty of at least some of the acts alleged by more than one person. A taped phone call believed to have been between Fine’s wife and one of the alleged victims seems to support allegations of abuse. If true, you have to feel even more disgusted with Fine for letting his friend stick his neck out with some strong statements when the allegations first broke.

Are there more shoes ready to drop at SU and elsewhere? Let’s hope not. Can it get any uglier? Don't answer that; please.

Woe is Us

Senator Pat Toomey, from Pennsylvania was on CBS’s Sunday Morning yesterday and he showed why this Congress and it’s Super Committee are jokes and have to go. It is time to vote them all out and bring in anyone, and I mean anyone, that will begin to work towards reforming the rule of the elite we now have. Just look at the Republican field of presidential candidates. If you can raise enough money, anyone can get in the race and be a factor; at least temporarily.

Senator Toomey reflects the feelings of most of the members of the Super Committee. Do nothing and the cuts in spending will automatically take effect in 2013. That gives them plenty of time to change the balance of the plan. It was supposed to be 50% defense cuts and 50% to discretionary expenditures. Senator Toomey, and others trying to protect the defense contractors, have already begun talking about changing the formula of the agreement so that the defense budget would not be severely impacted. Stay tuned and you can see how this is going to develop.

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have lined up against the other side and do not want to listen. This Super committee didn’t even meet in the same room. The Dems met in one room and the Republicans in another. They hammered out some proposals they know the other side couldn’t accept and then had them delivered by some junior staffer running back and forth between the rooms. Neither side wants an agreement.

The Nough Boys in the GOP are afraid of the far right fringe and their big-money supporters so they won’t even consider a fair and balanced approach to solving the crisis and keeping the country sane and the economy afloat. The Democrats have already made significant concessions and feel that they can’t move any more, at least until the Republicans give in at least a little, or they will piss of their supporters.  Both are rigging the argument. It’s all about spin and blaming the other side right now.

The bottom line is, most people in this country know that there has to be a reasonable accommodation between the two extremes that requires cuts and new revenues. Most of the politicians have not come around to that realization yet. Why are they always behind us? They are more afraid of losing their job than actually governing, that’s why.

Though they blame it on the Democrats, it is the wacko right of the Tea Party, and the talk radio zombies that have created the current state of what they like to call class warfare. This Occupy (plug in a city) movement is not well organized or particularly effective at doing anything other than getting people arrested right now, but if we don’t get some kind on sanity and leadership out of Washington soon that could change. If the elite well-heeled class thinks that it can win a protracted class war, they may want to read a little history. Look what happened in France in the late 18^th century, Russia in 1917 and the Arab world this year. I don’t care how much money you have or how strong you build the walls around your castle; 99% against 1% wins every time, if the 99% get hungry enough. I don’t even want to think about where an escalation of the bickering and posturing we have now could lead us.

Money is the Root of All

This relates to my previous post. It's all about keeping the money flowing in.

Gillibrand's Food Fight

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand blasted fellow lawmakers yesterday for blocking the Department of Agriculture's plan to increase the number of fruits and vegetables served with school lunches. The proposal would have cost the federal government $6.8 billion over five years. “This is just ridiculous, period,” said Gillibrand, who has fought for healthier food choices in public schools. “When we should be taking steps forward to combat the childhood obesity epidemic, Congress just took a step backwards.” Coca-Cola, the National Potato Council and the American Frozen Food Institute opposed the proposal.

McCain Slaps Fellow GOPers

Hooray for John McCain. The Arizona Senator took some of his own party’s presidential candidates to task for endorsing waterboarding and saying that it is not torture. McCain said unequivocally that it is torture; it doesn’t work; and it is morally and legally wrong. Seems pretty simple, straightforward and right.

Then why are so many of these wackos and dipshits running for president being given so much credence? I wish I knew, but suspect that it is due to all the money pumped into these campaigns along with the lack of attention paid to the process by the general electorate. It's all about winning so you can help those who finance your campaign. The hell with effective governing.
Too many people on both ends of the political spectrum listen only to others who think, and I use that term very loosely here, like they do. There is very little give and take on ideas and policies.  It seems to be just people shouting back and forth and accomplishing nothing. The country is going to hell, and nobody has the balls to reach out and try to find solutions. At least John McCain provided us with one very brief peek at what political sanity looks like.
In light (or is it lite?) of all this, Aintgotnoband is officially endorsing Kinky Friedman for President of the United States. If we can't have sanity in our national politics, we can at least have some fun and make some people very uncomfortable. :0

Fish or Cut Bait

Both the Senecas and the Mohawks have stopped paying gambling proceed payments claiming that their exclusivity protections have been violated. - From the article at the link below.

How can New York State violate the exclusivity clause of any agreement with the Senecas? The Seneca Tribe claims to be an independent nation. New York does not plan to open any casinos on Tribal Lands. The State would like to operate gambling facilities on land belonging to the State.

The Seneca nation wants it both ways. They are sovereign and independent when it suits them and they are part of the state when that is beneficial. New York should tell them to make a choice. If you are an independent nation we will treat you like our friends in Canada. There will be free trade, border crossing checks, etc. You can run your own country any way you see fit. We will not, however, provide any government services. You are now and forever sovereign, independent and on your own. We will have ambassadors and consulates and all the other stuff of international relationships, and we will be friends. Open all the casinos you want. Sell cigarettes for 12 cents a pack if you want, but build your own government, educate your own kids. You would likely do a much better job than the poorly funded public schools most of your kids currently attend now.

Let's end this constant battle that drains money and attention from other problems in New York. New York and the Seneca Nation need to decide once and for all, is the tribe part of New York and the United States or are they a separate nation. The situation is ridiculous, for both sides. If they must remain sovereign by federal treaty, then build the border barriers, cut off all government services and open an embassy in Salamanca. What we have now does not work; for either side.


http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/85834/senecas-hold-off-on-sharing-casino-proceeds-for-cities/

Getting Ready To Fire The Coach

Most of us having been watching the growing "Occupy Wall Street" movement the past few weeks. It is a lose-knit group of people mainly venting the frustration felt by the majority of Americans concerned about the inability of our financial and public institutions to solve the economic problems that have put millions out of work and sapped our savings and even our will to believe in the American Dream.

The protesters, and many other American across the country, are frustrated and angry. We are frustrated and angry over the lack of any real solutions, but I don't think that alone is fueling the protests in Manhattan and other American cities. What has finally gotten the great silent majority (Remember that term?) of Americans to take notice and raise their voices is the disconnect between the general population and the people in Washington, New York and our state capitals.

Even President Obama doesn't get it. He has made attempts to make us think he understands, but it is all too obvious that he doesn't. He is busy campaigning for his take-it-or-leave-it "jobs bill" when what most of us want is for him to find a way to work with the Nough Boys in the Republican Congress.

The Republicans want to continue the status quo for Big Business, while Obama says he wants to use a balanced approach of budget cuts and new taxes to try to dig us out of the current jobs and financial disaster. That makes sense to many of us. The problem is, he is not addressing the issues many of us see as critical to regaining the support and trust of what the protesters refer to as "The 99%."

Many of the financial problems seem to stem from the melt down of the housing market caused by the deregulation of the banking and financial industries started by Bill Clinton and continued under the Bush Administration. Obama continues to employ several of the same people who helped strip away many of the regulations that protected the middle class. This has allowed big banks and financial firms to bilk millions of Americans out of their homes and retirement savings with reckless, immoral and illegal schemes.

We have the fox guarding the hen house. He needs to clean house and get some new faces with new ideas into his inner circle. Next, he needs to demand that the institutions that we bailed out with our tax dollars stop doing business the same way. The people who caused the problems continue to make big profits, pay big bonuses to their executives and sit on large amounts of cash while the rest of us struggle or even sink into the financial abyss. The President and Congress do nothing to right this wrong. We wonder why nobody has been put on trial for this huge immoral transfer of funds from the masses to the corporate robbers. The president says most of what they did was not illegal. That means he believes that some of it was illegal. Go after those who committed the crimes you think you can prove; put them in jail and take back the looted funds. How hard is that to understand?

Mr. President, it is time to shake things up. You are a sports fan and understand that if the team is not achieving its potential you have to make changes. Fire the assistant coaches, or we, the owners of this country, will fire you. We believe that the game is rigged and is working in favor of the new Robber Barons.

This is becoming class warfare, but it is a war being created by the business elite and their cronies in government. They claim that we want to steal from the rich and give their hard-earned money to the rest of the people. That is, of course, not true. We want to stop giving billions of dollars to major corporations and make them stand on their own. The business and government elites don't understand this. They yell class warfare, when all we want is a square deal.

The politicians are only trying to maintain their status and their place in the food chain, and the place of those who keep them well-fed and in office. We want a fair economy; capitalism not cronyism. Don't believe the robbers who say that we can't take the advantages from the "job creators." We have been funding them for decades. Where are the jobs? They are sitting on the cash they got from our taxes and living the high life, while much of the rest of the country struggles to stay afloat. That's not fair and the American people are starting to figure that out.

Beware awakening the sleeping dog. It's bite can be very painful, just ask the former leaders of Egypt.