Gone, But Not Forgotten

Today's Sunday Times had some great obituaries. I'm not a big fan of obits, but having lived in Seattle off and on for 25 years, you never know whose name you might find in paper!

The first obit that stood out was for a man who had a Ph.D from an Ivy League college and who was an educator and a scholar. His obit had a great quote from Mark Twain which is, "Never let your schooling interfere with your education." Boy, I think that quote should be in every classroom in the world!

At the end of his obit it denoted , "No flowers, please. Sol would rather you voted or protested. Or put $2 on a long shot." Guess Sol was a fan of the racetrack and civil liberties!

Another good obit was for a Japanese-American who was aeronautical engineer who "died dancing in his beloved cowboy boots!" It must have been a long road for him from his birth in a Japanese internment camp to being an aeronautical engineer who also just happened to be an "amateur Elvis impersonator."

My final favorite obit from today's paper was for a man, who although terminally ill from lung cancer, "proudly cast his final presidential ballot for Barack Obama." I hope his vote was not in vain!

All of the above obits came from the October 26, 2008, Seattle Times obit section. I am pretty sure all the loved ones of the above men have LOTS of happy memories of these extraordinary men.

Jesus Was a Community Organizer-Mother Teresa Was Too!

I avoided watching the Republican convention as 8 years of listening to Republicans lie through their teeth to the American public and the world has been quite enough for me, thank you very much! However, I did see the sound-byte of former NYC mayor Giuliani make incredibly inane remarks belittling Barak Omaba's community service work. What an ass! Where would New York City be without community organizers? Huh, dumbass!??

Let's see, wasn't Jesus Christ was a community worker? So was Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Jane Hull, Cesar Chavez, JFK, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, and gee, I don't know, about a million other really outstanding people who made a BIG difference for millions of people all over the world!

Ya know, if that's the best the Republicans can come up with to belittle their opponent, well, that's pretty pathetic. How come Republicans always make me fear for the future???????????