Express Supports Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund

To follow up on my post from this past summer, Military Appreciation Night at The Dell Diamond:

Since the Pacific Coast League season has been over for a while, I haven't been visiting the Round Rock Express website regularly. I popped in this evening, just to see what was there. I missed this article from October 26th.

In a continual effort to help show support for the country’s Armed Forces, the Round Rock Express recently raised more than $10,000 for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

The Express donned special patriotic jerseys as part of Round Rock’s Military Appreciation Night on June 23. Those jerseys were then autographed and auctioned off to the public with all of the proceeds going directly to the fund.

With the auction’s close, fans helped to raise $10,626.21 for the fund marking the most successful online auction to date for the Express, which began offering online auctions during the 2007 season.

Project VALOUR-IT 2007 Fundraiser

Project VALOUR-IT helps to provide voice-activated laptops to severely injured troops who wouldn't otherwise be able to communicate with family and friends using a computer.

Voice-Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops

In memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss

"At that time I had no use of either hand. I know how humbling it is, how humiliating it feels. And I know how much better I felt, how amazingly more functional I felt, after Soldiers' Angels provided me with a laptop and a loyal reader provided me with the software. I can't wait to do the same, to give that feeling to another soldier at Walter Reed."

--CPT Chuck Ziegenfuss, on the inspiration for Valour-IT

It's that time of year again - time to raise money for Project VALOUR-IT. I've signed up with the Army Team. First team to raise $60,000 wins bragging rights until next year's competition.



Want to sign up to help with the fundraising? Go here.

In addition to making a donation, there is also an auction set up to benefit this project.

Pepper's Purple Heart: A Veterans Day Story

Pepper's Purple Heart: A Veterans Day Story was the first of Heather French Henry's books I bought and was the first of Mrs. Henry's books to be published. I was in the children's section at Barnes & Noble just looking to see what was there when I found it.

Claire wakes up to sunshine and puppy kisses. Then, her best friend, Robbie, wearing his dad's Army helmet and a camouflage t-shirt, knocks on her window and urges her to get out of bed. With a stick propped against his shoulder, he marches through the yard. Mom comments she doesn't like it when they play soldiers, but Claire reminds her, "Did you forget, Mom? We're going to march in a parade for soldiers. It's Veterans Day."

Claire comments that Pepper will march in the parade, too, but first, she and Robbie will rescue Pepper "from the enemy - like Robbie's dad did with real soldiers in Viet-raq." Mom clarifies: "He was in Iraq, not Vietnam. They are different countries, dear."

Claire dresses herself, and gives Pepper a "uniform" of an olive drab bandana. They join Robbie outside. After Pepper is tied up to the picnic table, the children decide their mission will be in Vietnam, not Iraq, since the yard has lots of bushes, more like the jungles of Vietnam than the deserts of Iraq. In the process of completing their "rescue mission", Pepper gets loose and runs out the gate the children left open while they were playing Army. Before Claire can tell Mom what happened, Pepper is hit by a car.

The neighbor, Mr. Jones agrees to watch the "little soldiers" while Mom takes Pepper to the vet to get patched up. Mr. Jones says he knows "all about soldiers." Over milk and cookies, Claire confesses to Mr. Jones that Pepper got hurt because she didn't make sure the gate was closed, like Mom told her. Mr. Jones reassures her: "Rescue missions are always dangerous. Let's wait and see what the medic says about that leg."

Mr. Jones then tells the children that he was a Marine (I'll forgive the "m" in the text...) in Vietnam and had been a prisoner of war. He also lets them know that not all veterans fight in wars, but everyone who serves in the military is considered a veteran. Robbie inquires about the cane Mr. Jones uses when he walks. "I got wounded in the leg, just like Sergeant Pepper."

A part of the book that was very refreshing to read:

"I'm going to be a soldier, too." Robbie tapped his helmet.

"It's important to serve your country, Robbie. But you have to be very alert," warned Mr. Jones.

Robbie teetered on one foot and spun around on the cane. Tumbling off the bottom step, he landed in a heap on the grass. His shirtsleeve had ripped at the seam. "I guess I'm not quite ready to be a soldier."

Mr. Jones laughed and said, "First, you have to go through Basic Training, Private Robbie."

Claire doesn't think she can be a soldier because she's a girl. Mr. Jones sets her straight: when he got out of the prison camp, he went to an Army hospital, where an Army nurse took care of him, and he married that nurse! Robbie says women are always nurses, but Mr. Jones sets him straight, too: his daughter served in Iraq, and she's now a sergeant, and she trains soldiers.

Mom returns with a patched up Sergeant Pepper. It's time to get ready to go to the parade, and the children are still in their dirty and torn play clothes. Mr. Jones comes to the rescue, and lets the children wear some of his old fatigue blouses from Vietnam. Mr. Jones had also changed into what he would wear to the parade: he's in a fancy blue uniform with 4 stars on the epaulettes. It's supposed to be an Army uniform because Mr. Jones was in the Army after the Marine Corps, but it looks more like a Marine evening dress uniform than an Army mess uniform... Mr. Jones then shows the children his medals: a Vietnam service medal, a Prisoner of War Medal, and the third, he lets Pepper wear: "Every wounded soldier gets a Purple Heart."

Robbie knows he isn't ready to be a soldier yet, but he wants to "do something to serve our country." General Jones invites the children to come with him when he visits the VA hospital - he goes twice a week to serve meals, and he says the soldiers would love to met them. After that, it's time to go for the parade. The final illustration shows General Jones, Claire's parents, Robbie's dad and the children marching in the Veterans Day parade. As with the other two books in the Claire's Holiday Adventure Series, Mrs. Henry includes "A Brief History of Veterans Day" on the last page.

As with the other books in this series, this one is recommended for children ages 5 to 9. Unlike America's White Table, this book about Veterans Day may be much better suited to younger readers who aren't yet mature enough to comprehend some of the harsh realities of war, such as those who do not return from it. Pepper's Purple Heart: A Veterans Day Story would be a lovely addition to any children's library, and helps to connect children with an important American holiday.

Lakeway Patriot Committee Supports Our Troops

I was watching the Red Sox beat the crap out of the Indians (unfortunately...) tonight in Game 6 of the ALCS. When the game was over, I didn't get around to changing the channel. The local news came on after all the post-game hoo-ha. A story about the Lakeway Patriot Committee and their Patriot Fest held this weekend caught my attention. I invite you to watch the story for yourself.

Some idiot professor thinks we should scrap the Constitution and start over...

Ran across this article over at Townhall.com this evening. Matt Mayer's "Larry Sabato Doesn’t Understand the Constitution" is an interesting read. For anyone a little rusty on their Constitution (I know I'm more rusty than I should be, although I am, sadly, much less rusty than the average American...) or ignorant of some particular historical perspective, it's a good review, and an intelligent dissecting of Sabato's foolish arguments:

In support of his call to redo the Constitution, Sabato trots out a quote from Thomas Jefferson positing that a constitution is only good for nineteen years. The quote comes from a letter Jefferson sent to James Madison on September 6, 1789. In his response, Madison raised several fundamental flaws to Jefferson’s (and Sabato’s) reasoning. The one most applicable to our times is this one: “Would not such a periodical revision engender pernicious factions that might not otherwise come into existence, and agitate the public mind more frequently and more violently than might be expedient?” Does Sabato really believe that in 50-50 America, we would have any chance at compromising on a new constitution? After all, each side will try to inject its own solution to the “intractable challenges” that Sabato laments.

You think Washington is in a sorry state of affairs now? Just imagine the mess we'd be in if, in addition to fighting Islamofascists, and a Democrat-controlled Congress seemingly intent on legislating defeat in Iraq for their own political gain, we were also in the middle of a very messy, extremely partisan Constitutional Convention? Go read the whole thing.

ASP reports: Mending Owwies

CJ over at A Soldier's Perspective posts a wonderful photo and the story behind it. The little girl wouldn't let go of the captain who picked her up after she'd been knocked down by a crowd. Go check it out.

Home of the Brave

When Home of the Brave: Honoring the Unsung Heroes in the War on Terror by Caspar W. Weinberger and Wynton C. Hall was released in May 2006, I bought a copy for my father for his birthday. It being bad form to read the book before giving it as a gift, I only just recently read it (after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a couple of months ago). I've been busy with other things, so I only just finished reading it today. If you aren't already familiar with it, here's the synopsis from the book jacket:

They are nineteen of the most highly decorated soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in the United States military, and yet most Americans don’t even know their names. In this riveting, intimate account, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Wynton C. Hall tell stories of jaw-dropping heroism and hope in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Based on candid personal interviews, and other sources, Home of the Brave takes readers beyond the bullets and battles and into the hearts and minds of the husbands, fathers, and brothers who are fighting terrorists overseas so that America doesn’t have to fight them at home. These are the powerful, true-life stories of the hopes, fears, and triumphs these men and women experienced fighting the War on Terror. But more than that, these are the stories of soldiers who risked everything to save lives and defend freedom.

*Lieutenant Colonel Mark Mitchell, the Green Beret leader whose fifteen-man Special Forces team took five hundred Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, and posthumously repatriated the body of the first American to die in combat in the War on Terror, CIA agent Johnny “Mike” Spann.

*Army National Guard Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester, the first woman ever to be awarded the Silver Star for combat, whose sharp-shooting and bravery played an enormous role in fighting off over fifty Iraqi insurgents while her ten-person squad protected a convoy of supplies on the way to fellow soldiers.

*Sergeant Rafael Peralta, a Mexican immigrant, enlisted in the Marines the same day he received his green card. Wounded from enemy fire, Peralta used his body to smother the blast of an enemy grenade and gave his life so that his marine brothers could live.

These real-life heroes remind us of American history’s most enduring lesson: Ours would not be the land of the free if it were not also the home of the brave.

This book attempts to help fill the void left by mainstream media reporting: for the most part, the MSM doesn't tell the stories of these heroes unless those same heroes can be portrayed as victims. Also, Mr. Weinberger and Mr. Hall give a shout-out to milblogs, specifically Blackfive and Mudville Gazette, among others. I can't get close to doing this book justice. All I can do is highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Writing my Senators: The Law of the Sea Treaty

Here's my letter to my two senators, in regard to the "Law of the Sea Treaty":

Senator:

I am very concerned the Senate with ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) this fall. Everything I have read about it tells me ratification would subjugate the United States Constitution as being the supreme law of the land. Ratification would make the United States no longer a sovereign nation. I urge you, and all senators, to vote against ratification of this disastrous treaty. Reagan was against this treaty in 1984. It was rejected again in 1994. This treaty would be detrimental to the United States' security and sovereignty. You have no choice to vote against it if you are truly doing what is best for the citizens of Texas and the rest of America.

Sincerely,

Miss Ladybug

For more information, you can read here or here or here or here.

Campy: The Story of Roy Campanella

All I really knew about Roy Campanella was that he was on a U.S. Postal Service commemorative
"Baseball Sluggers" stamp along with Hank Greenberg, Mickey Mantle and Mel Ott.

Then, I found Campy: The Story of Roy Campanella written by David A. Adler and illustrated by Gordon C. James. As I almost always do before purchasing a new picture book, I'll read it in the store to decide whether or not I think it's a keeper. Before reading this book, I had just assumed that Ray Campanella was Italian American. I was only half right...

The book begins with the L.A. Dodgers game on May 7, 1959, when each ticket proclaimed "I was there the night they honored Campy."

For Roy Campanella, their beloved "Campy", it was a long journey to that night of tribute..

We learn that Roy was born in 1921 in Homestead, Pennsylvania to an Italian American father and an African American mother. In 1928, the family of six moved to the Niceville area in Philadelphia, which, in the segregated 1920s was actually "a mixed community, a comfortable place for the Campanellas." Mr. Campanella was a produce vendor, and Roy would help his father, even after getting a job, at age twelve, delivering milk.

Roy liked to play stickball with his friends after school, and he would sometimes get to watch the Philadelphia Athletics from the roof of a house outside the ballpark. Roy decorated his room with pictures of his baseball heroes, including Josh Gibson, "the black Babe Ruth".

Roy played baseball on a boys' team sponsored by a local newspaper, and eventually began playing on men's teams - he was, after all, "big for his age and a good athlete." Roy was a catcher, just like his hero, Gibson.

Campy reminds us that baseball was a segregated sport in the 1930s. Roy joined the Baltimore Elite Giants, part of the Negro Leagues, in 1937 at the age of 15. He lived baseball the entire summer, playing "as many as four games a day" and living on the team bus. The day after his 16th birthday, on November 27th, Campy quit school.

"To do that," he later wrote, he knew he "should at least be grown-up enough to go into the world and earn his way." Campanella felt he could do this, as a full-time professional baseball player.

He played over the next several years on the Elite Giants, and on teams in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba.

Then:

After the 1945 season, Roy Campanella met with Branch Rickey, president of the all-white Brooklyn Dodgers system. "Your record is good...a hard worker who loves baseball, a man who gets along well with people," he told Campanella. "Play for me."

Campanella thought he was talking about creating a new Dodgers team in the Negro Leagues, but he wasn't. He meant one of the many white Dodgers teams in the Minor Leagues, maybe even its top team, the Major League Brooklyn Dodgers.

One week earlier Branch Riley had signed another African American, Jackie Robinson. Rickey wanted to get the best players he could for the Dodgers, no matter what their race. And he wanted to end the segregation of baseball.

In March 1946, Campanella signed with the Dodgers.

One of the Minor League teams refused to take him because of his race.

But the one in Nashua, New Hampshire, was glad to have him.

Roy Campanella love baseball. He didn't pay attention to the ugly racial shouts from players on other teams or from people in the stands. Words didn't upset him. He just enjoyed the game. But physical attacks did bother him. When one player threw dirt in his face, Campy warned him to stop or "I'll beat you to a pulp."

The following season, in 1947, Jackie Robinson was promoted from the Dodgers' Minor League team in Montreal to the Major League Dodgers in Brooklyn. Campy was promoted to the Montreal team.

In 1948, Campanella began the season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, but was moved to a Minor League team in the American Association, to break the color barrier. Later that season, he was sent back to Brooklyn. At that time, in July, the Dodgers weren't doing well. But Campy played well, the team began winning and finished third. In 1949, they came in first in the NL.

Campy was a great player on one of baseball's very best teams.

He was chosen the league's all-star catcher eight years in a row. In 1951, 1953, and 1955, he was chosen as the league's Most Valuable Player. In five of the ten years Campy played for the Dodgers, the team finished first in the National League. Each time they faced the New York Yankees in the World Series.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to play ball forever, Campy made plans to support his family after baseball by opening "a wine and liquor store in New York City" in 1951. In the early hours of January 28, 1958, tragedy struck.

"I was tired and it was cold and late, but I drove carefully," he later wrote. "There were big patches of ice in the road....I suddenly lost control. The car wouldn't behave....I fought the wheel. The brakes were useless....I saw this telephone pole right where I was headed....I just did hit it....The car bounced off and turned completely over, landing on its right side."

He viewed those days immediately after the accident as the worst of his life, and he thought he "was a goner."

He couldn't walk or hold a ball, and at first, he didn't want to see anyone, not even his children. Soon, though, his attitude changed. He compared the fight ahead to baseball. "When you're in a slump, you don't feel sorry for yourself...You don't quit."

Campy never walked again, but he still loved baseball. He was able to watch TV from his bed. He watched the Dodgers. He called Charlie Neal, a friend and former teammate, and gave him batting tips. Neal listened and starting hitting better. Campy had a new job: as a spring training coach for the Dodgers.

Even though Campanella was confined to a wheelchair, that didn't stop him from living a full life.

He had a radio program, Campy's Corner, and his own television show, and he held baseball clinics for teenagers.

"He was still Campy," Yankees catcher Yogi Berra later said, "still a special person. He'd always have that big smile despite what happened to him."

Roy was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. He became a role model for how he dealt with his disabilities. He wrote he had "a life such as few people have been fortunate enough to live."

One of his legacies is the Roy and Roxie Campanella Physical Therapy Scholarship Foundation, which he set up with his third wife. "It provides equipment, support, and encouragement for people with disabilities like Campy's and help for people studying to work with the disabled."

Roy passed away on June 26, 1993. At his funeral, Tom Bradley, the Mayor of Los Angeles, said "He had the force of personality to influence us all. Each of us will be bigger, stand taller, reach a little higher because we knew Roy Campanella."

The back of the book contains important dates in Roy's history, as well as citations for the quotes included in the book and a list of suggested reading about Campanella.

Campy is recommended for children ages 6 to 9. While this book does address some of the racial injustices he faced, unlike Jackie's Bat, that is not the primary focus of the story. Through Campy's life story, children can see how the disabled are capable of living full and rewarding lives. Even if you're not a baseball fan, this would be a nice addition to your children's book library.

Why the Rockies should win the World Series

I mentioned in my post last night that my family is rooting for the Rockies. Good news now is they are up two games to none against the Phillies in their first playoff series. Then, I get an email from my sister with the subject line "Another reason to like the Rockies". It was a link to this article at MLB.com.

Manager Clint Hurdle revealed Thursday that the team [ed. - as in the players, not management] last week voted a full playoff share to Amanda Coolbaugh, whose husband, Mike Coolbaugh, was killed when hit by a foul ball while coaching first base for the Rockies' Double-A Tulsa squad on July 22.

I'm not completely sure what a "playoff share" is - I assume it's whatever "bonus money" goes to the players for reaching each separate post-season playoff series. Assuming this, it is very generous to remember Coolie's family, and to help them out in this way.

Update 10/8/07:

The Colorado Rockies remembered Mike Coolbaugh at Game 3 of the NLDS on Saturday, October 6th. Mike's brother, Scott, accompanied his nephews to throw out a first pitch before the game.

Updated 10/28/07:

Change of Seasons Mandy Coolbaugh used to look forward to October. Then her husband, former Express star Mike Coolbaugh, was killed last summer on the baseball field. (Austin American-Statesman 10/27/07)

Related:

In memoriam: Mike Coolbaugh (7/23/07)
Mike Coolbaugh: The Tributes (8/11/07)
Round Rock Express' Tribute to Mike Coolbaugh (8/26/07)

Jackie's Bat

Since it is October, and the playoff have begun (our house is rooting for the Rockies, since they have several former Express/Astros players that my sisters also know), I thought I'd do reviews on a couple more baseball books. The first one is Jackie's Bat by Marybeth Lorbiecki and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.

Jackie's Bat is the story of Robinson's first season, in 1947, with the Brooklyn Dodgers through the eyes of a fictional bat boy in the Dodgers' clubhouse. This book doesn't speak today's PC language - I think it stays true to what it was like back then, long before the term "African-American" was conceived.

A new player comes in.
I ain't ever seen him play,
but I've heard all about him.
He's Jackie Robinson.
He looks around for a locker,
but there aren't any more.
I do what the manager told me
and point to a folding chair and a nail on the wall.
I don't think any other player had to start with a nail.
But Robinson ain't like any other player-
not in either of the leagues.
He's colored.
In spring training, a bunch of the guys on the team
said they didn't want to play with him.
But old "Leo the Lion" Durocher
just chewed their rear ends
and said Robinson was staying.
Anyone who didn't like it could leave.
No one did.

I ain't leaving either.

Robinson looks at me.
"Hey kid," he says, all smiles and friendly-like.
I don't know what to say.
Pops says it ain't right,
a white boy serving a black man.
So I turn and get to work.

The bat boy admits he cleans all the players cleats until they shine. "All except for number 42's." Before Jackie plays in his first game, the bat boy sees "a mob of colored fans waiting for Robinson", and he seems surprised because "He hasn't even done anything yet!"

Jackie asks the bat boy his name and then asks for a pen, but a fan offers one up while the Joey pretends not to hear the request. He goes about helping the other players but avoids Robinson.

The players are announced and the fans all cheer.

But when Robinson's name
comes over the loudspeaker,
the Negroes jump to their feet,
waving signs like crazy.
You'd think President Roosevelt
came back from the dead.
But they're not the only ones excited.
Everybody wants to see
if Robinson can really play ball in
the big leagues.
Even Pops!

After the game, Jackie speaks to Joey, first commenting that Joey missed his cleats... Then:

"You know, Joey," he says, putting a foot on the bench,
there's people out there who don't
treat me as a man 'cause my skin is black."
His voice is strong, like a line drive.
I don't say nothing.
My eyes are looking at everything but his eyes.
"You know what I've found out about them?"
he asks, almost like I was a friend
he was telling a secret to.

"No," I say.
Normally I'd say "No, sir" to a player.
I couldn't say it now, but I do look up.
I expect his eyes to be angry.
He just looks tired and sort of let down.
"They don't know what a man is," he says.
Then he pulls himself tall and walks away.

Joey worries Jackie will tell the manager he hasn't been doing his job, and he'll get fired, so he cleans the cleats, "but they don't shine."

Jackie gets 5 hits and a home run against the New York Giants, and even Joey cheers. Robinson gets fan mail, but Pops tells Joey that Jackie won't make in "the big leagues," but Joey's not so sure about that.

On the road, Jackie is the target of derogatory comments from the players on other teams:

"Why don't you go back to the cotton fields?"
"They're waiting for you in the jungles, black boy."
A bunch of the players aim their bats at him like guns
and shout the n-word.

I can't believe it!
This is baseball, for crying out loud.

Through it all, Jackie just plays ball, but he makes his first error. The next game, it continues.

But then, at the start of the third game,
our second baseman, Eddie Stanky,
stands and roars, "You yellow-bellied cowards, why don't you yell at somebody who can answer back?"
Everybody knows Robinson promised
he won't make no trouble-no matter what.
Then another Dodger hollers, "If you guys played
as well as you talked, you'd win some games!"

"Yeah!" I shout like the rest. "Shut your faces!"

Jackie suffers a batting slump. On the first of May, he gets a hit. After the game, Joey congratulates Jackie, but feels like Jackie looks at him like he's one of the hecklers.

Jackie isn't living on easy street yet.
Pitchers aim for him-he gets hit six times.
Runners slide into first and try to spike him.
On the road, he can't stay
at the same hotel as the rest of us,
or eat with us, or use the swimming pool.
Letters start coming in so full of hate
the police have to guard him.

If Joey weren't seeing it all for himself, he wouldn't believe it. Jackie gets on a streak, with doubles and homers, and stealing bases so much the pitchers can't pitch for trying to watch him. Joey is doing his best for Jackie, "but I still feel like we're in two different dugouts, and I'm the one who put us there."

The season takes the Dodgers to St. Louis, with the Cardinals only four and a half games back. The Cards resort to dirty tricks to try to get to Jackie.

It's the eighth inning of the last game.
One of the Cardinals hits a foul.
Jackie leaps from first to catch it.
Jumping Jehoshaphat, he's going to crash
into the dugout!
Then suddenly Ralph Branca, our pitcher that day,
is in the air like Superman.
As Jackie catches the ball, Ralph catches Jackie!
Holy Joe! A white man holding a black man!
That takes the gobble out of the Cardinals' turkeys!
The batter's out,
and we go on to win the game 8-7.

The Dodgers win the Pennant, "and Jackie is the first ever Rookie of the Year! September 23, 1947, is Jackie Robinson Day at Ebbets Field."

Joey gets there early because he wants to speak to Jackie before going to sit with Pops.

A bunch of colored boys yell to me from the fence:
"Could you give something to Jackie for us, please?"
A boy about my age hands me a package
and a homemade card.
Jealousy rips through me.
I wish the present was mine.

Joey gets up the courage to interrupt Jackie with all the reporters and gives him the gift. Jackie opens is to find a Louisville Slugger with a wood-burn that reads "OUR MAN JACK". Jackie tells him thanks. Joey wants to take credit, and to apologize for how he's acted.

But then the words come tumbling out:
"It's not from me, Mr. Robinson. I wish it was."
I'm so nervous I think I'm going to pee.
"It's from some other boys," I add.
"Here's their card."

My eyes go to the floor.
I want to melt into the floor like the witch in Wizard of Oz.
"I don't have any bat to give you," I mumble,
"but I want you to know
I got what you mean about what a man is."

Jackie then tells Joey he looks good because he maintained his composure and the Dodgers won the pennant, but someday he's not going to play well, and he'll start defending himself from the hecklers: "What'll you think of me then?"

It's a test, Joey realizes, and he knows it's deserved: "Well, you didn't take nothing from me before," I say, "and slumps and Dodgers go together-they don't mean nothing."

A laugh erupts from him at that,
and I can see in his eyes
that I just grew a few feet.
He offers me his hand to shake-
one Dodger to another.
When I grab it,
I feel the tight grip of a friend.

The Afterword gives more details about Jackie Robinson's life. There is also a Note from the Author, noting that while Joey is fictional, the things he sees and hears are true. "These descriptions and quotations are all based on historical accounts." On the back cover, Rachel Robinson, Jackie's wife, has a note which concludes "Congratulations... for celebrating Jackie's life and legacy so beautifully."

While the book is recommended for ages 5 to 8, because of the sensitive topics addressed in the book, you should make the judgement about whether or not your kids (either your children or your students) are mature enough to deal with them. Beyond the portrait of life for a black man in pre-Civil Rights era America, this book can be used to teach other life lessons: how should you treat someone that you've just me and decided you don't like? what is it like when you are confronted with your own wrong-doing? if you realize you have treated someone poorly when they haven't deserved it, what should you do? I think this is a great book, and would be a wonderful addition to your children's book library, especially if there are baseball fans around.

Too ironic...

H/T Instapundit

From Talking Points Memo:

Rep. Darrell Issa went on CSPAN's Washington Journal this morning and had this to say about the House oversight committee's investigation of Blackwater (via Atrios):

If Henry Waxman today wants to go to Iraq and do an investigation, Blackwater will be his support team. His protection team. Do you think he really wants to investigate directly?

They've got accompanying video.

Are pundits wrongly writing off Fred Thompson?

I was looking over items at Instapundit (again, for items for The Victory Caucus) and came across an item at American Thinker. Near the end of the piece:

After a recent Thompson speech in Iowa a member of the audience called out: "Kill the terrorists, secure the border, and give me back my freedom." Thompson replied "you just summed up my whole speech."

No other candidate could have carried off that quip because no other candidate is capable of delivering a convincing speech focused on those powerful themes.

I have not yet made a decision about who I will vote for in the primary - just those I know I won't vote for - so I try to learn as much about the other candidates as I can. I recommend you do the same. Go read the whole thing.

My connection to the Battle of Iwo Jima

I posted about my grandfather, Ensign C.A. Carpenter, last fall. I've not gotten anything new from my grandmother, but I did unearth my copy of a copy of my grandfather's WWII diary this evening. I'm in the process of making notes about when and where he was, and as things make me particularly curious, I'm doing a quick bit of research. I've learned my grandfather, while on the USS Essex, was part of VF-4 and flew in support of the invasion of Iwo Jima. However, they were grounded several days because of the weather or were not able to reach the target. The diary begins on January 1, 1945 and I'm only to February 22, but his diary goes until July 10, so I've got a ways to go yet. I've come across some things I don't understand/can't decipher right now, but I think I'll wait until I've got all my notes typed up before I do significant research.

Michael Medved: Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery

Once again, in doing some of my volunteer work for The Victory Caucus, I came across an interesting article unrelated to that cause. Being a bit of a history buff, Six inconvenient truths about the U.S. and slavery by Michael Medved [caught my eye]. I'd had a conversation a while back with my dad (now a high school history teacher) about slavery in The New World, and how many have distorted views of who were the worst offenders when it came to trafficking in African slaves. I recommend reading the whole thing, but here are Medved's bullet points:

1. Slavery was an ancient and universal institution, not a distinctively American innovation.
2. Slavery existed only briefly, and in limited locales, in the history of the republic – involveing only a tiny percentage of the ancestors of today's Americans.
3. Though brutal, slavery wasn't genocidal: live slaves were valuable but dead captives brought no profit.
4. It’s not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: the most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves.
5. While America deserces no unique blame for the existence of slavery, the United States merits special credit for its rapid abolition.
6. There is no reason to believe that today's African-Americans would be better off if their ancestors had remained behind in Africa.

Hillary's plan for universal health care

I haven't studied Hillary Clinton's just-announced plan for universal health care - I've just heard the short reports about it on cable news. I hear her requirement that EVERYONE have health insurance being equated to people being required to have car insurance. One problem with that analogy - the requirement for me (or any car owner) to have car insurance isn't designed to so much protect ME in the event I am in a car accident as to protect others, particularly if I am at fault. State minimum requirements (at least in Texas) only require I carry liability insurance - not coverage that protects me for injury to myself or damage to my vehicle. Currently, I am uninsured. I'm under employed, since I don't have a full-time teaching job after graduating with my M.Ed and earning my teaching certificate, and the group student health insurance I had (which I had paid for myself) recently lapsed, as I am no longer eligible to renew it. A couple of weeks ago, I had a sore throat that wasn't getting better. I didn't go to the emergency room to get it taken care of, so I am no drain on the American taxpayer - I went to a local walk-in clinic, paid for my clinic visit when I left, and told the doctor I preferred the generic version of the antibiotic. I took my prescription to the pharmacy at my neighborhood grocery store and had it filled, and paid for it myself. At this point, paying for that kind of thing out-of-pocket is cheaper than paying a monthly individual health insurance premium...

I don't want universal healthcare mandated by the government. When I went to the walk-in clinic, I was in and out in less than an hour. If we had a system like Canada or Britain, how long would I have had to wait to see a doctor? In that situation, I might not have been out the doctor's fee and the cost of the prescription, but I don't think I would have received the same level of care.

I also know that not every "uninsured" person is uninsured because they cannot afford it. Some make the decision, after weighing the pros and cons, to not carry health insurance. A few years ago, I got back in touch with an old friend from junior high school who happens to live in town. He explained to me that he and his wife (both self-employed) don't have health insurance. They take the money they would ordinarily pay for health insurance premiums and put that into a medical savings account. Not an unreasonable decision when you and your family are healthy, and your premium goes "wasted" because you have not had to go to the doctor.

So, for the 15% that are uninsured, and the smaller percentage that truly "can't afford" health insurance, if you need to go to the hospital, you aren't going to be turned away. But why screw the 85% who are insured to "fix" that problem, and in the process create a new, huge government bureacracy that will not be run as efficiently or as effectively as it would be if it were a private enterprise? And I also can't help but think how many of those "uninsured Americans" aren't actually American, and of those non-American "Americans", how many shouldn't even be in this country...

The Longest Season: The Story of the Orioles' 1988 Losing Streak

If you've followed this blog, you've probably figured out that I enjoy going to baseball games. I'm not as fanatical about baseball as my sisters, but since being close to a nice minor league ballpark, I've become a fan. I wasn't always interested in baseball, but I knew some of the names. One of those names is Cal Ripken, Jr. I didn't really follow him, but I remember hearing the news reports when he broke the record for the number of consecutive-games-played (2,632). In baseball, that is quite a feat, since teams play practically every day from early April through at least September, except for a few days off for the All-Star break. He is a player I can respect for how he played the game. Unlike some sports stars today, Cal Ripken, Jr., is someone I would have no problem with children viewing as a role model.

So, one day this past summer, I was once again looking for new or interesting picture books at the local Barnes & Noble. What I found was The Longest Season by Cal Ripken, Jr., and illustrated by Ron Mazellan. Not having been a follower of baseball back then (I was a senior in high school living overseas when the season started, and I was a college freshman back in the States when the season ended), I was not familiar with the beginning of the Baltimore Orioles' season that year. I quickly read the book in the store and decided it was a keeper - I like the message it teaches to children.

I guess I never realized that Cal Ripken, Jr. comes from a family of baseball players. In 1988, Cal would begin the season with his father, Senior, as his manager and his brother, Bill, as a teammate. "1988 was supposed to be a fun year." However, it didn't turn out that way. They lost their season opener, at home, to the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 12-0.

The next day, the team is still optimistic: there are still 161 games to be played. However, the Orioles lose to the Brewers again, 3-1. Next, the Orioles go on the road to play the Cleveland Indians. They lose again:

We all hate losing, every one of us. Especially Senior, who as manager feels most responsible. I'm not about to let my father down.

They drop the entire series to the Indians:

0-6
The worst day of the season. The Orioles lose again to the Indians, 7-2, but this loss hurts more than the others. After the game, Senior is fired as manager despite the fact that not one of these losses was his fault.

I've let my father down. We all did.

Yet it's not as though we haven't been trying. No one likes to lose, especially not me. Especially not when my father is the one who pays the price.

Now I'm angry. It is the only time in my career when I consider not being an Oriole.

The Orioles record stands at 0-12:

The season is only two weeks old, and already the dream has turned into a nightmare. But still, we go out there every game and give it our best.

The record is now 0-18:

The losing continues. Three more losses against Milwaukee and then three more against Kansas City. The entire country is now following the Orioles for all the wrong reasons. Each new loss makes national news, and the once-proud Orioles are the laughingstock of baseball.

Still more losses:

0-21
Twenty-one consecutive losses. The team has been on the road for ten straight days and we can't wait to get home, see our families and forget about losing.

But not yet. We have one more series to play on the road, against the Chicago White Sox. In the meantime, the Orioles have become a family of our own. When it feels like everyone is against you, it's good to have teammates.

Then:

Game 22. I hit a home run and score three runs. Our pitching is on target today.

Could it be?...

The streak is over!

I can't remember a better feeling win.

And the lesson I like so much from this book?

There is a lot I will remember about playing for the Orioles. The world championship in '83. Two MVP awards and being voted to play in nineteen All-Star Games. Over 400 home runs and 3,000 hits. And of course, the consecutive-games-played streak.

Yet the 0-21 losing streak would be the one thing I wouldn't mind forgetting, were it not for what I learned. Winning is easy on a person, but you learn more from losing. You learn to keep trying, each day a little harder than the day before. You learn how to be a better teammate, and how much you need one another to play well as a team. You even learn how to win.

The Orioles may have finished in last place in 1988, but the following year we started fresh and played together as a team the whole season. Even though we had the same team that lost twenty-one straight games the season before, we fought our way back to become winners. The 1989 season came down to the final games against the Toronto Blue Jays, with the winner taking the division title. We didn't win that series, but we fought hard - and finishing second sure beats finishing last.

I would highly recommend The Longest Season for any children's library (although it is specifically recommended for ages 7 to 11). It's message of perseverance when faced with adversity is one every child should hear, as well as the lesson that sometimes, you are going to lose. I also like Mazellan's illustrations - the focus and detail is on the primary subject of his painting, with the rest of the background painted with a kind of soft-focus lens.

Six years later

The flag which hung from the side of the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks, as displayed in the American History Museum of the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. (May 2003)

I awoke today not really thinking about the day's date. Until I saw my father leaving for school. In his Class A uniform, with the jacket still on a hanger. I have only ever known him to wear his uniform to school (he's now a high school history teacher) for Veterans' Day observances. He had said nothing about what they might be doing to commemorate this date. I'll have to ask him about it when he gets home.

I had to get up for school, too. I was subbing again at the same school I was at yesterday. I got to thinking about it, and even the oldest students, the fifth graders, would have been but 4 years old when planes flew into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. With the sub assignment I had, I was not in the cafeteria this morning for the morning assembly, which normally includes the usual announcements, pep talk from the principal and the Pledge of Allegiance and the Texas Pledge, so I don't know what, if any, commemoration was made - most students would be too young to really have a grasp on the concept.

I, thankfully, was not directly affected by the attacks. No one I knew personally was in New York or at the Pentagon or flying that day. None of my family are still in the military. I've had pen pals since this all began, but for one person (now retired Navy), I've met none of them, and they have all come home safely (but shame on Major Pain for not informing his pen pals from his deployment to Afghanistan that he was shipping off to Iraq before he went - he just showed back up on AnySoldier.com). I don't live in a military town anymore, although I'm not unreasonably far from some. I was surprised this morning to see a man in the new digitized camo bringing his little one to school, especially given the neighborhood the school was located in (I confess I was very curious of his rank, but with the rank being in located in the middle of the chest instead of on the collar like they used to be, I couldn't see what with the child in the way; I did say "good morning",though).

Here's what I had to say about 9/11 in response to a post about that day a friend of mine wrote back in May 2006:

9/11/01 was the last morning I just listened to the radio in the morning while getting ready to go to work. That morning, I was going into work late because I had to take my car in to get payment for repairs arranged after I had been rear-ended in my new car. I always just had the radio on as part of my alarm clock, and it would turn off an hour after my alarm. The radio had turned off before I left for the insurance office.

When I arrived at the insurance office, the agent I was dealing with (the agent for the guy who rear-ended me) asked if I had been watching or listening to the news. I told him no, and he informed me that a jet had hit the World Trade Center. At first, I thought small jet, not commercial airliner. While he was looking at the damage on my car, the Pentagon had been hit. I immediately thought Bin Laden. I went home before going into the office. I called in to see if they knew yet - yes, they did. I had turned the TV on when I got home, and I watched as the first tower collapsed. I knew that about 50,000 people worked in the towers, and I anticipated a death toll far more horrifying than it was, although nearly 3000 dead is horrifying enough.

At the time, I was part of a small church group at my parish in Fayetteville, and we had our regular weekly meeting that night. Instead of what we originally had scheduled, we went into the church and prayed the Rosary.

Since that day, I am even more of a news-junkie than I was before. I kept the TV on all the time when I was home, even overnight, watching nothing but news for days on end. I kept hoping for survivors. To this day, I often sleep with the TV on FoxNews channel.

Sadly, the deaths resulting from that attack didn't all occur on that day, or as a result of physical injuries received that day. Another friend of mine has a boyfriend who had a brother who had recently moved to Virginia and worked at the Pentagon. Stephen was a helicopter pilot. He had been part off Dust-Off during the Vietnam War. I'm not sure what Dust-Off was - I'd have to do a bit of research [ed. - DUSTOFF is "Dedicated Unhesitating Service To Our Fighting Forces". They are the Army aeromedical evacuation people.]. Anyway, Stephen was at the Pentagon that day. Apparently, he was often in the part of the building that was hit and he lost people he knew. I'm not sure, but I think he was involved in either rescuing or dealing with the people who were pulled from the building that first day. Stephen later commited suicide. My friend and I surmised that what Stephen saw that day brought back the traumatic memories of the Vietnam War, and did not seek help in dealing with what he was going through. Stephen in buried at Arlington National Cemetry. My friend accompanied her boyfriend to the funeral. Stephen's wife moved away from there - I think she had been home when Stephen killed himself there. I happened to have a business trip to DC in May 2003, after Stephen's funeral over the winter. I was able to find Stephen's grave and photograph the headstone, since it was not in place yet at the time of the funeral. I'm sure Stephen's wife was still visiting - there were small stones placed on the top of the headstone. I don't remember the significance of that gesture.

We will never know the true toll of people whose lives will end as a direct result of the attacks. I'm sure Stephen's was not the only suicide of a survivor or a family member of those killed, and there are also those who are now getting sick and dying from illnesses connected to working at Ground Zero....

How I wish I could snap my fingers and make this all go away - to make al Qaeda not be a threat, to make it so our fighting men and women no longer have to risk life and limb in foreign lands, far from loved ones, in order to keep us safe. Alas, the world does not work that way, and I fear we will be fighting this war against those who wish our submission to their radical religious ideology or our complete and utter destruction. I may not be at the point end of the spear, but I try to do my own tiny part in this war from here at home. I will not submit.

Rick Rescorla and the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Found out about this from Blackfive.

If you don't know who Rick Rescorla is already, you need to go find out about him. Quite a while back, before I found milblogs, I read about him. He's the soldier on the cover of We Were Soldiers Once... And Young by General Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway. On 9/11, Rick was in charge of security for Morgan Stanley in the World Trade Center. When the north tower was struck, he ignored the "stay where you are" messages coming over the loudspeakers in the south tower. Morgan Stanley lost only six of their 2700 employees that day. Rick Rescorla is responsible for that miracle. After getting the people from Morgan Stanley out, he and three of his deputies when back up, looking for others that might need help getting out. He and his men were still in the tower when it collapsed. I know some news magazine did a story on him after he died - I wish I could recall which one. He is definitely someone you should know.

Anyhow, there is now a petition asking the President to award Rescorla the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

To: United States

A PETITION TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH TO AWARD THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM TO C.R.”RICK” RESCORLA FOR HEROISM AND GALLANTRY BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY ON SEPTEMBER 11,2001.

MR. RESCORLA CAME TO THIS COUNTRY AS AN IMMIGRANT TO BECOME AN OFFICER IN THE ARMY. MR RESCORLA SERVED WITH SUCH DISTINCTION AS AN OFFICER IN VIET NAM THAT ALL WHO SERVED WITH HIM CONSIDER HIM THE BRAVEST MAN WE HAVE EVER KNOWN. HE WAS HIGHLY DECORATED FOR HIS BRAVERY AND LEADERSHIP IN COMBAT. HE BECAME A US CITIZEN AND SOUGHT A HIGHER EDUCATION OBTAINING A BACHELOR AND MASTERS DEGREE AT UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA AND FURTHER OBTAINING A LAW DEGREE BEFORE SERVING A AS TEACHER AT USC LAW SCHOOL BEFORE BEING LURED TO THE WORLD OF COMMERCIAL BANKING. MR. RESCORLA’S SPECIALTY WAS SECURITY AND SECURITY LAW. IN 1993 HE WAS THE LAST MAN OUT OF THE TRADE TOWERS AFTER EVACUATING EVERYONE. ON SEPT.11TH IN SPITE OF BEING TOLD HIS BUILDING WAS NOT IN DANGER, HE IMPLEMENTED THE EVACUATION PLAN HE HAD DEVELOPED FOR HIS FIRM, MORGAN STANLEY. AS A DIRECT RESULT OF HIS EFFORTS THAT DAY AND HIS QUICK ACTION, OVER 2600 EMPLOYEES WERE SAVED. MR RESCORLA WAS LAST SEEN GOING UP TO RESCUE PEOPLE WHO WERE UNABLE TO GET DOWN. HIS ACTIONS REFLECT THE VERY BEST ABOUT AMERICA, ITS CITIZENS AND ITS DREAMS.

THE UNDERSIGNED URGE YOU TO RECOGNIZE MR RESCORLA BY BESTOWING THIS HIGHEST HONOR TO THIS MOST DESERVING MAN.

Go sign the petition. Let others know about it: link to it, email it. Rick Rescorla deserves this recognition for his lifetime of service and his ultimate sacrifice.

Not sure what to think about this...

After logging out of my hotmail account a while ago, I saw a link titled Why We Need a Draft: A Marine’s Lament.

This opinion piece is written by one Marine Corporal Mark Finelli, who on 9/11 worked for Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center. He thinks we need to have a draft like in WWII, not like the one during Vietnam. Not knowing my draft history, I don't know if he's accurate in stating that in WWII, the children of the elites couldn't avoid it as he perceives happened with the Vietnam draft. He thinks that if the children of the wealthy and the political elites were forced to serve, the military would be better funded.

According to the Pentagon, no service personnel have died in an MRAP. So why isn’t every Marine or soldier in Iraq riding in one? Simple economics. An MRAP costs five times more than even the most up-armored Humvee. People need a personal, vested, blood-or-money interest to maximize potential. That is why capitalism has trumped communism time and again, but it is also why private contractors in Iraq have MRAPs while Marines don’t. Because in actuality, America isn’t practicing the basic tenet of capitalism on the battlefield with an all-volunteer military, and won’t be until the reinstitution of the draft. Because until the wealthy have that vested interest, until it’s the sons of senators and the wealthy upper classes sitting in those trucks—it takes more than the McCain boy or the son of Sen. Jim Webb—the best gear won’t get paid for on an infantryman’s timetable. Eighteen months after the Marines first asked for the MRAP, it’s finally being delivered. Though not nearly at the rate that’s needed. By the end of the year, only 1,500 will have been delivered, less than half the 3,900 the Pentagon had initially promised.

He also seems to be saying the military is only getting the dregs of society, not the "best and brightest":

The real failure of this war, the mistake that has led to all the malaise of Operation Iraqi Freedom, was the failure to not reinstitute the draft on Sept. 12, 2001—something I certainly believed would happen after running down 61 flights of the South Tower, dodging the carnage as I made my way to the Hudson River [I worked at the World Trade Center as an investment adviser for Morgan Stanley at the time]. But President Bush was determined to keep the lives of nonuniformed America—the wealthiest Americans, like himself—uninterrupted by the war. Consequently, we have a severe talent deficiency in the military, which the draft would remedy immediately. While America’s bravest are in the military, America’s brightest are not. Allow me to build a squad of the five brightest students from MIT and Caltech and promise them patrols on the highways connecting Baghdad and Fallujah, and I’ll bet that in six months they could render IED’s about as effective as a “Just Say No” campaign at a Grateful Dead show.

Who says "the brightest" can only come from America's wealthy and elite? I just don't buy that. Kind of sounds like Kerry's "you'll get stuck in Iraq" "joke"...

I don't think he's looking at this quite right. During WWII, the vast majority of the American public supported the war effort. It was a war between nation-states between large armies and navies with tanks, artillery, ships and uniforms. Today's war is not against any nation-state, but the ideology of a death cult called radical Islam who don't have the large armies and navies with the tanks, artillery, ships and uniforms we have traditionally faced on the battlefield.

Today, far too many people do not believe there is anything truly worth fighting and dying for, or who do not believe we are really engaged in a war with persons who wish nothing but either our submission to their will or our utter destruction. I never considered joining the military, although I grew up as an Army brat. I never thought I had what it would take to do well in the military - it was not because I thought I was too good for it. Not everyone belongs in the military, and I really don't think we want people in the military who do not want to be there and don't really believe in what it is our military is asked to fight for, regardless of wanting to make everyone, including the elites of this nation, have a "blood-or-money interest" in this fight.

I know our military has been taxed by current military operations around the world, most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I also know I've heard that you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want. After the Cold War, some in power in the United States thought we would no longer need the military we had acquired during the conflict. Our military was cut drastically, and now we, or more accurately, our military and their families, are paying the price for that naïveté about future military needs and the nature of future military conflicts. Yes, we need to expand our military forces. Yes, we need to provide our military with the proper equipment and other resources. However, fixing these problems isn't going to happen overnight. It takes time to recruit and train new soldiers, sailors and Marines. I can only think we want those new recruits to actually want to be there - if they don't want to be there, are they going to do want needs to be done, or are they going to get their comrades in arms killed on the battlefield because they have been forced onto the battlefield instead of having arrived there willingly?

As for getting our military the funding that would be required to keep them properly outfitted, Washington has lots of competing interests for the tax dollars that are collected. How many say we already spend too much on the military? Look at the numbers, as a percentage of the federal budget. In 1956, we spent 57% of out federal budget on Defense. In 2006, it's just 19% of the budget, while Social Security and "other payments to individuals" (can we say "the welfare state"?) is now 59% of the budget. Just forcing the political elites' children into the military isn't going to have a drastic effect on the federal budget - politicians have too many constituencies to pay off with our tax dollars.

Bottom line, I can't agree with Cpl. Finelli's conclusion that a military draft will fix the problems with military funding, and I can't see that forcing someone who doesn't want to be in the military to do it anyway is going to get us "the brightest" in the service. Also, how big does he think our military needs to be? To have military service effect this nation's wealthy and elite and others who seem to be removed from any connection to the cost, in blood, of this war against radical Islam, I think we'd have a military far larger than what we truly need.

Round Rock Express' Tribute to Mike Coolbaugh

The Express are on the road right now, and I had been listening to the broadcast of tonight's doubleheader in Omaha via the internet. Only problem was, Gameday wasn't functioning for the second game, so I was keeping track of the score with the PCL scoreboard page. When the game was over, and I was about to close out the Express webpage, I noticed a new link for "Mike Coolbaugh". There's a nice write-up about him and his career.

They have also posted the video tribute shared with fans after the August 3rd game against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. It captures his personality. Coolie with his wife & kids, helping his oldest (about 3 at the time) run the bases. Goofing off outside the dugout after a rain delay. Coolie with his teammates and fans. 2005 "shirt off the back night" and his broken wrist that prevented him from being a September call-up to the Astros. Coolie playing ball: hitting a home into the bullpen, and making a throw to first for the out.

Related posts:
In memoriam: Mike Coolbaugh
Mike Coolbaugh: The Tributes
Why the Rockies should win the World Series (10/4/07)

USS Grunion found

This article caught my eye.

From FoxNews.com/AP:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The mangled remains of a vessel found in the Bering Sea are likely those of a World War II submarine that disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska.

The discovery of the USS Grunion on Wednesday night culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may finally shine a light on the mysterious last moments of the doomed vessel.

BadA$$ Marine

If you haven't seen the video yet, you should take the time to watch it. This unknown Marine SSgt Lawrence E. Dean II speaks with great passion.



Here are his words:

Free She Called

and She called...
Blacks, Whites...wait
African Americans and Caucasians, Asians, excuse me.
Vietnamese, Philippines, Koreans and Jamaicans or Haitians, waitin' Hispanics y'all.

Please be patient
Mexican, Puerto Ricans, Venezuelan, Cuban, Dominican, Panamanian Democrats
I beg your pardon, you partied with the late, great Reagan?
Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters, Hindu, Sunni Muslim,
Brothers and Sisters who never seen the New York city skyline when the twin towers still existed.
But still She called.

From the bowels of Ground Zero she sent this 9-1-1 distress signal.
Because She was in desperate need of a hero,
and didn't have time to decipher what to call 'em,
so she called 'em all Her children.
The children of the stars and bars who needed to know nothing more than the fact that she called.
The fact that someone attempted to harm this daughter that covered us all with her loving arms.
And now these arms are sprawled across New York City streets.
A smoke filled lung, a silt covered faced, and a solitary tear parted her cheek.
Her singed garments carpets Pennsylvania Avenue and the Pentagon was under her feet.
As she began to talk, she began to cough up small particles of debris
and said, "I am America, and I'm calling on the land of the free."
So they answered.

All personal differences set to the side
because right now there was no time to decide which state building the Confederate flag should fly over,
and which trimester the embryo is considered alive,
or on our monetary units, and which God should we confide.
You see, someone attempted to choke the voice
of the one who gave us the right for choice,
and now she was callin'.
And somebody had to answer.
Who was going to answer?

So they did.
Stern faces and chiseled chins.
Devoted women and disciplined men, who rose from the ashes like a phoenix
and said "don't worry, we'll stand in your defense."
They tightened up their bootlaces and said goodbye to loved ones, family and friends.
They tried to bombard them with the "hold on", "wait-a-minute's", and "what-if's".
And "Daddy, where you goin'?".
And, "Mommy, why you leavin'?".
And they merely kissed them on their foreheads and said "Don't worry, I have my reasons.
You see, to this country I pledged my allegiance to defend it against all enemies foreign and domestic.
So as long as I'm breathin', I'll run though hell-fire,
meet the enemy on the front lines, look him directly in his face,
stare directly in his eyes and scream,
"I AM AMERICA! WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED!
WE WILL NOT BE TERRORIZED!
I REFUSE TO BE AFRAID!
I'LL FIGHT YOU ANY COUNTRY, ANY CONTINENT, ANY TERRAIN.
I'LL FIGHT TO MY LAST BREATH!"

And if by chance death is my fate, pin my medals upon my chest, and throw Old Glory on my grave.
But, don't y'all cry for me.
You see, my Father's prepared a place.
I'll be a part of his Holy army standing a watch at the Pearly Gates.
Because freedom was never free.
POW's, and fallen soldiers all paid the ultimate sacrifice along side veterans who put themselves in harm's way.
Risking their lives and limbs just to hold up democracy's weight, but still standing on them broken appendages anytime the National Anthem was played.
You see, these were the brave warriors that gave me the right to say that I'm Black. Or white.

Or

African American or Caucasian,
I'm Asian, excuse me.
I'm Vietnamese, Philippine, Korean, or Jamaican.
I'm Haitian, Hispanic

Y'all, Please be patient.
I'm Mexican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Cuban,
Dominican, Panamanian, Democrat
I beg your pardon, you see I partied with the late, great Reagan.
I'm Republican, Independent, Christian, Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, 7th Day Adventist, 5 Percenters,
Hindu, Sunni Muslim,

Brothers and Sisters We're just Americans.
So with that I say
"Thank You" to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines,
for preserving my rights
to live and die for this life
and paying the ultimate price for me to be...FREE!

Update:

Turns out he wrote it to help explain to his grandmother why he is willing to go to war.

I went to the movies today

School hasn't started yet. I wasn't scheduled to work either of my part-time jobs today. So, I was able to take the time to see The Bourne Ultimatum this afternoon. As expected, it was an awesome action flick. I love the character of Jason Bourne - he's intelligent, resourceful, only kills when he has to, does his best to protect the innocent and he can kick some serious a$$. I won't spoil what happens in the movie, but I highly recommend it. And I might have found more reading I will want to do, too.

Anyhow, while sitting through the previews, a trailer came on for The Kingdom. I'm interested to see how they handle this "ripped from the headlines" story: a Western housing compound is attacked by terrorists, and an FBI team goes to investigate. Not having heard anything about this movie, I wonder if the writers will let the terrorists be actual Islamic militants. Only time will tell. The movie opens September 28th.

East German Border Guards Had 'Shoot-to-Kill' Orders to Stop Defections to West

Foxnews.com has this article from The Times (UK):

Researchers have discovered a Cold War “shoot-to-kill” order in what amounts to the clearest evidence yet that East German troops were given a licence to fire on people fleeing to the West, the Times of London reported.

The written order, issued to Stasi secret service agents, states: “Don’t hesitate to use your weapon even when border breaches happen with women and children, which traitors have often exploited in the past.”

It's something I've known in my heart for a long time.

Dragon Rider

I picked up Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke (translated by Anthea Bell) (recommended for children ages 9 to 12) after running across it in the children's literature section. Thought I'd check out a new author of a children's fantasy, since the story blurb on the back cover seemed interesting:

With Ben and Sorrel on board, Firedrake sets out in search of the mythical place where dragons can live in peace forever. Along the way, the three friends encounter fantastic creatures, surprising courage - and one ruthless villian determined to end their quest. Only a secret destiny can save the dragons in this enchanting adventure about the true meaning of home.

Unfortunately, from the beginning, humans are the bad guys, as we learn in Chapter 1, "Bad News". Rat tells Firedrake humans are coming to the place where the dragons live. In Chapter 2, "A Meeting in the Rain", Firedrake takes Rat to tell Slatebeard, a dragon elder, the news. Slatebeard has Rat tell everyone what she saw and heard:

"Humans are coming!" she cried. "They've woken their machines and fed them and sent them on their way. They're already eating a path through the mountains only two days' journey from here. The fairies will hold them at bay for a while, but they'll get here some time or other - because it's this valley of yours they're heading toward." (pp. 8-9)

Later in the same chapter:

"Why would they want to come here? Surely they have all they want where they are."

"Humans never have all they want," replied Rat. (p. 10)

And some more:

"For some of you," the old dragon continued, "it will be the first time, but many of us have had to flee from human beings before. Although now it will be extremely difficult to find a place that doesn't belong to them." Slatebeard shook his head sadly. "It seems to me there are more and more humans with every new moon."

"Yes, they're all over the place," said the dragon who had been mocking Sorrel a moment ago. "It's only when I fly over the sea that I don't see their lights beneath me."

"Then we must just try living in harmony with them," suggested another dragon.

But Slatebeard shook his head. "No," he said. "No one can live in harmony with human beings." (p.13)

I could pick out more quotes from Chapter 2, but I think you can get the point with these selections...

In Chapter 4, "A Big City and a Small Human Being", at the beginning of the journey to find the place where the dragons can live safe from humans, Firedrake and Sorrel are looking for Rat's cousin, but come across a small human boy named Ben, first. They find Rat's cousin, Gilbert, in Chapter 5, "Gilbert the Ship's Rat". Gilbert provides a map to help them on the journey. He also gives them a bit of advice on how to proceed:

Gilbert Graytail leaned forward and traced an invisible line on the globe. "By my reckoning you journey out to go something like this: a fair stretch south first, then turn east." He scratched his ear. "Yes. Yes, that's it. I think the southern route is best. The humans are at war with one another again in the north [ed. - is this a fictional war, or is it supposed to be a real one? Since Gilbert the Ship's Rat uses a laptop, it's not a historic conflict...]. And I've heard some very nasty stories about a giant." (p. 41)

Ignoring the "humans are violent and bad" overtones, the basic storyline is fine for a children's book, but the story seemed to drag along - usually, I would have flown through a children's book of 523 pages (like I just did recently with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that weighs in at 784 pages), but I sometimes felt very unmotivated to continue reading - I finally finished it because I knew I was soon to get my copy of Harry Potter 7 in the mail... The language doesn't seem to flow nicely and seems awkward at times, but that, I'm sure, has to do with the translation into English from German. I don't care for a couple of the characters. They are rude and resort to frequent name-calling ("dimwit", "fat little ratty bum", "stuck-up rat", "revolting stinkhorns", "fur-face", "little titch", "stupid creature"). That's not the kind of example I want set for students - "good guy" characters resorting to calling names instead of getting at the source of a disagreement through honest debate.

When our adventurers are close to their goal, they meet another brownie, except, unlike Sorrel, this one has four arms, not two. When relating his quest to this new brownie, the author lets Firedrake get in one more jab at humans, saying:

"We come from a valley faraway to the northwest, a place where my kind went many hundreds of years ago when human beings were beginning to take over the world. Now they are reaching out their greedy hands to steal our valley, too, and we must find a new home."

Overall, I cannot recommend Dragon Rider, and although I purchased this book, I won't be using it for a read-aloud, and I won't be putting it out in a classroom library - I might just sell it to a used book store and be done with it (although I don't like this book, I have a problem with throwing books away...)

Mike Coolbaugh: The Tributes

Image from www.roundrockexpress.com

It's been longer than I wanted it to take to follow up on Mike Coolbaugh's untimely death.

Mike Coolbaugh didn't give up on his dream to play professional baseball. From an article in the Houston Chronicle:

Coolbaugh had felt the chill of chasing a big league dream in places like Medicine Hat, Canada, where summer game-time temperatures often were in the 30s.

He had been to 18 professional baseball towns in three countries, places with names that seemed to come from some kind of fiction tale, Harry Potter-esque places like Hagerstown, St. Catharines and the Doosan Bears of South Korea.

He even was among the finalists who just missed making the roster for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, at which USA Baseball won the gold medal. Along the way, he kept loving the game. Nothing could end the dream.

"He was going to do it for a living," said Astros second baseman Chris Burke, who became friends with Coolbaugh at then-Class AA Round Rock. "If there was a place to play, he was going to play. He was going to play until you took the uniform off his back."

From the same Chronicle article:

"The game humbles you and teaches you a lot of lessons," Purpura said. "He lived that."

So let's make it clear: Baseball and the Astros have lost one of their true greats.

Coolbaugh wasn't a great player, but he was the kind of professional who appreciated the game more, worked more, dreamed more.

If it's true the greatest stories are not about the destination but the journey, few would parallel or inspire more than Coolbaugh.

The article concludes:

"He was the first guy that I met that had the attitude of, 'Listen, I'm going to play ball no matter what,' " Burke said. "No matter where, he was going to play professional baseball.

"He had some bad-break stories, but he loved the life. He was committed to playing the game. Baseball is what he did."

His was among the greatest success stories in the game. The story of never giving up.

Strangely, the Drillers were back in North Little Rock for another series against the Arkansas Travelers - the same ballpark where Mike Coolbaugh was struck by the line drive foul ball that claimed his life just four days earlier. At that game, the Travelers wore ribbons in Drillers team colors on their caps, the flag was at half mast, and the fans, quietly at first, began to applaud as the Drillers took the field in the bottom of the first, "until almost everyone was on his feet at Dickey-Stephens Park, cheering the Drillers for simply having the will to play a baseball game Thursday night."

Coolbaugh was honored with a pregame moment of silence, accompanying video board images and a tribute read by public address announcer Kevin Cruise. It was originally planned that the teams would line up before the game as a mixed group, but Tulsa Manager Stu Cole changed his mind because he felt the moment might be too emotional.

“I think it’s brought us closer together,” Cole said of the national support the Drillers have seen. “Because with everything that’s going on we know we have the support from everybody in baseball. Baseball is a fraternity and you really find that out when things like this happen. It’s a benefit to us to know that so many people care.”

Drillers players wore Coolbaugh’s initials and his jersey No. 29 on their caps, Coolbaugh’s jersey hung in the Drillers dugout and Tulsa left the first base coaches area open in the first inning as a tribute. Pitcher Jon Asahina, who was hit in the head by a line drive at Dickey-Stephens Park in April, took over first in the second inning.

...

Travelers utility man Ryan Leahy appeared at one of the donation tables [ed. - for fans to contribute to the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial Fund] in full uniform, the Tulsa ribbon pinned to his cap, to trade autographs for donations. Leahy said a few hit batsmen and some bad blood between the Drillers and Travs early in the season did nothing to diminish Arkansas’ support for the guys in the visitors dugout.

“It’s hard to put into words, but anything these guys need we’re willing to help them out right now,” Leahy said.

Mike Coolbaugh's funeral was in San Antonio on Monday, July 30. The Travelers moved game time for the Sunday, July 29 game up to allow the team the time they would need to travel to San Antonio to attend the funeral.

From MySA.com/San Antonio Express-News, this breaks my heart to read:

As Mike Coolbaugh's pregnant widow sobbed uncontrollably and his two young sons gently laid red roses into their father's casket, his friends attempted to put the ballplayer's tragic and untimely death into perspective Monday.

"In my eyes and the eyes of others, it's all still very surreal," said Brooks Kieschnick, a former baseball teammate of Coolbaugh's in the minor leagues. "You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than what happened to Mike."

Fighting back tears, Kieschnick paused to collect himself [ed. - I was told that other former teammates who attended the funeral were in no position to speak to press, so great was their grief].

"He's going to be deeply, deeply missed," he said.

Father John Wagener offered Coolie's family and friends these thoughts (from the same Express-News article):

"But I do have one answer I'd like to propose [ed. - in trying to explain the "possible meaning" behind Mike's death]," Wagener said. "Mike played by the rules in every way. He's not in the Hall of Fame; he didn't have the most RBIs. Maybe God is saying, 'See? See what one of you can do in life?'

"Saints don't think about themselves, they think about God. Mike was one of those (saints)," he said.

Again, everything I hear people saying about Mike is about the great guy he was:

He [ed. - Marty Shaughnessy, former high school football coach of Mike's] recalled Coolbaugh as an honor student, a fine athlete and an even better person.

"He was one of those pleasure-to-see-every-day kids," Shaughnessy said. "This was such a freak thing, a terrible, terrible tragedy. It's hard to put into words."

...

But as successful as Coolbaugh was as an athlete, it was his strength of character that made him special, a pallbearer and former teammate said.

"He was a great friend," said Mike Frank, who roomed with Coolbaugh at Columbus, Ohio, and Memphis, Tenn., in the minor leagues. "He was always thinking of other people. I loved him like a brother."

Coolie graduated from Roosevelt High School in the city of Windcrest. Windcrest has a water tower they decorate as a candle - I remember it from when we would drive the residential streets of Windcrest during the Christmas holidays to see all the light displays when my dad was stationed in San Antonio. The "candle" was lit in Mike's honor from sunset the day of the funeral until dawn the following morning. The "candle" can be seen from the I-35/Loop 410 interchange.

At Tulsa's first home game since Coolie's death, his Number 29 jersey was retired and placed on display in the stadium. "During the game, fans participated in raffles and auctions of autographed items that helped to raise over $10,000 for the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial Fund that will benefit his family."

The game was played entirely without first base coaches. The Drillers had decided to play the game without a coach to pay tribute to Coolbaugh. The Wranglers also elected to honor him by playing the entire nine innings without a first base coach.

Tulsa also displayed a special number 29 patch on its uniforms for the first time. The patch is located below the left shoulder of the jerseys and will be in place on both the home and road uniforms for the remainder of the season.

The Wichita pitcher, Dusty Hughes, from that first game back in Tulsa, had been Coolbaugh's roommate last year for three weeks when they were both rehabbing in extended spring training.

"During that time, Hughes and his wife often talked to Coolbaugh's wife, Mandy, on the phone, asking her questions about pregnancy. The Hughes were expecting their first child. The Coolbaughs have two children (another is expected in October.)

"That was a big help and now our daughter, Kaylen, is 8 -1/2 months old," Hughes said.

Hughes wrote Coolbaugh's uniform number, 29, which was retired by the Drillers before the game, on his cap and also on the mound."

This story brought tears to my eyes.

"My dad and I were at a Redbirds game and I was trying to get autographs from the players," Joe said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "I hollered 'Hey, No. 29, can I have your autograph?' He turned looked at me and said, 'My name is Mike.' "

An instant friendship started.

The Benafields sat close to the Redbirds dugout and Joe would cheer loudest for Mike.

"One night Mike looked up and asked if we could stay after the game for a few minutes," Dale said.

Coolbaugh presented his young fan with his personal bat that he had cracked that evening.

"You should have seen Joe afterward," Dale said. "He skipped all the way to the truck."

Joe said his objective in giving up the bat is to let Coolbaugh's young sons know just what type of father they had.

"Maybe this is a way his sons will remember him," Joe said. "They're pretty young and I thought this was a good way for them to know their dad."

That's a very thoughtful and generous 13-year-old.

On Friday, August 3, the Express were playing the Rockies' Triple-A affliliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, in Round Rock. With the rain-out at the last game on the previous home stand, just the day after Coolie's death, this game was selected to hold the tribute. Round Rock's uniforms now have a small black patch on the front right with the letters "MC" and the number "32", Coolbaugh's number when he was with Round Rock in 2005. Before the game started, there was a memorial pitch which ended out in left field with Barry Wesson, who walked the ball to third base. Brooks Conrad joined Wesson at third to remove the special base, marked with "32" on each side. The ball and the base are to be presented to Coolbaugh's family. A member of the grounds crew replaced third base so the game could begin. Fans were reminded that all home run dollars will go to the Mike Coolbaugh Memorial Fund for the remainder of the season. During the 7th inning stretch, a moment of silence was observed, and the Booster Club began passing the helmet for fans who wished to make a donation to Mike's family. After the game, the announcer, "Grubby", played the video he had prepared with clips from Mike's time with the Express, to include footage of his wife, Mandy, and his little boys. It was set to the song One More Day by Diamond Rio.

One more day, one more time
One more sunset maybe I'll be satisfied
But then again I know what it would do
Leave me wishing still for one more day with you

I'm sure there was hardly a dry eye in the entire ballpark. I know my sisters were a mess, and I wasn't much better.

The next day, I overheard one of the season ticket holders telling someone that Mandy and her sister had been at that game, up in the suite level with Jay Miller, the GM.

At Monday's game, the Express announced that over $14,000 had been donated at the ballpark for Mandy and the children. Since then, there were two more home games and more home runs. The Express are on the road until August 18th. There are twelve more home games for the rest of the regular season. Nothing will make the pain of losing a husband and father go away, but the donations fans here and elsewhere have made to the Coolbaugh family will at least ease one burden

Other resources:

Mike Coolbaugh's obituary at MySA.com
Drillers to retire No. 29 at Tulsa World (7/31)
Don's Extra Point: In Memory of Mike Coolbaugh (7/25)
Lessening the family's burden at Tulsa World (8/1)
Fans pay tribute at Tulsa World (8/1)

Related post 8/26/07:

Round Rock Express' Tribute to Mike Coolbaugh
Related post 10/4/07:
Why the Rockies should win the World Series