Living History

I recently attended a meeting of the Freedom Committee of Orange County, www.fc-oc.org/. This group of Orange County Veterans meet every month to discuss their service years, but their main reason for existing is to bring living history to local schools as speakers of freedom. At the meeting in February, there were 3 members who had served in WW2, Korea a

nd Vietnam, and there were 3 members who were at Pearl Harbor during the

bombing. The 3 Pearl Harbor survivors were all the their nineties, 92, 96 and 97 respectively.

I later got a picture with Jonathan and Jack Hammett, 92, at another event showing a B-17 Bomber at a museum near by. What an honor to be in the room with some true heroes of freedom.

Abuse On The Rise With Bad Economy

"There is absolutely no doubt that since the economy started getting worse, the number of reports to child abuse hotlines has gone up and the severity injuries has increased as has the number of kids who end up in the hospital due to child abuse," Lambert said. Earlier identification of at-risk families may help stem some of the violence, he said.

The onus is on everyone in society to help buck this disturbing trend, Amaranth said. "Speak up in a very loud and clear voice because a lot of these children don't have the voice to speak for themselves," she said. "If you feel that a child is being harmed in some way, you have to call it in." Every state has a child abuse hotline.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/kids-health/0206/thousands-of-us-kids-hospitalized-for-abuse.aspx?xid=aol_eh-news_1_20120206_&aolcat=HLT&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl11|sec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D133127

Mother Abandons Two Children on Conrner

A woman dropped her two children off on a street corner and then just drove away. They were unharmed, but totally abandoned. Now they will be in Foster Care. They might be better off, and they might not be. Should they be returned to a mother who abandons them to the street?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/dalisha-adams-arrested-fo_n_1241442.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl7|sec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D131203

Volunteerism Drops as Governments Raise Social Spending

“An increase in governmental spending on social benefits by 1 percentage point of GDP decreases an individual's likelihood of volunteering for religious, sports, arts, or any other kind of organization by about 2 percentage points, say Franz Hackl, Martin Halla, and Gerald J. Pruckner of the University of Linz in Austria. Another factor that diminishes volunteerism is the population's confidence in its elected officials. Among the countries with the smallest proportions of adults doing unpaid work are Hungary, Japan, and Spain, at 16%; at the other end of the spectrum are Sweden, the Slovak Republic, and the U.S., with volunteer rates of 56%, 54%, and 50%, respectively.”
Source: Volunteering and the state

So the more government pitches in to pay, the less likely that people will volunteer?

Videos About RFK

Here are a couple of links to videos showing and telling the story about what happens at a Royal Family KIDS Camp. Enjoy.

Rewrite Their Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QjG9bFQZSE

Concord CA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy3zo5RPfv0&feature=related

Colorado
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riU2oMvWWDM&feature=related

FIVE REGRETS OF THE DYING

Below is an condensed article by Bronnie Ware about regrets of the dying. I think it is pretty sobering to read and should help each of us plan some better goals for next year. For the full article, see her site at http://www.inspirationandchai.com/Regrets-of-the-Dying.html.

REGRETS OF THE DYING - BY BRONNIE WARE

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.
This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Often they would not truly realize the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realize until the end that happiness is a choice. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness.

More family photos

If you received our Christmas Newsletter you'll notice some of the photos were pretty small. Here are some larger versions.

Summer Training Report

4 Directors’ Training Institutes
• 45 Trainees
• 8 Trainers
• 3 Host Couples
• 2 Child Abuse Specialists
• 4 Host camps:
Omaha, NE, Kearney, NE, Bellingham, WA & Madison, AL
• 11 NEW camps trained from:
Nebraska (2), Colorado (2), Minnesota, Georgia, Wisconsin,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indianapolis and Idaho.

2 Passing the Scepter classes
• 38 Trainees
• 3 Trainers
• 1 Host Couple
• 2 Host Camps:
Norman, OK & Costa Mesa, CA
• 20 Current camps represented

Family Time

At the end of a busy summer, we finally got a chance to get away as a family up to the San Bernardino Mountains. On the trip, we visited Lake Gregory, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. We did some hiking, kayaking, shopping, games and lots of quality family time. As you can see from the photos, I also made some new friends. I’m hoping they will become future donors, but you know, it’s a tough economy right now.
















Here are some potential new donors I met on vacation!!!

Three WWII Encounters

Some of you know that I am a fan of WWII history. There are so many amazing stories and conflicts, heroes and villains. The devastating part of WWII is that 55 – 60 million people died in the war. But heroes emerged and I love to read their stories.


1. On Memorial Day weekend, we visited a local church that had a guest speaker and WWII veteran and hero, Louie Zamperini. He spoke briefly of being shot down over the ocean, floating helplessly for over 40 days, and then becoming a Japanese prisoner for 2 ½ years. His story is chronicled in two amazing books, “Devil at My Heels” and “Unbroken” (see Book review on the side bar).


2. In June, our family was visiting a local site and there was a couple dressed in WWII uniforms sitting in a totally refurbished WWII jeep. Well I couldn’t pass this up, so I stopped and talked to the man and found out he runs a non-profit organization called Noble Cause Foundation in Costa Mesa refurbishing WWII vehicles and telling the heroic stories of WWII. He was a boy in Romania, and was a survivor of the Ploesti oil refinery bombing raids by the allies. Many American Airman were shot down over Romania and Yugoslavia, and were hidden by the locals at great risk to their own lives. I had just finished reading about this story in a book titled, “The Forgotten 500”. It was great to meet someone who was actually there and could tell the stories first-hand. I appreciate all that he and his family sacrificed for the airman they rescued.


3. While at the Singing Flag in Concord on July 4th, they announced there was a Veteran from the Bataan Death March attending the show. Well, there aren’t too many survivors left from the Bataan Death March, so I wanted to meet him. I caught his attention right after the show and we spoke briefly. His daughters helped him do most of the communicating because of his advanced age. I was able to get my picture taken with him, and obtained a copy of his short book. He too, spent 2 ½ years as a Japanese prisoner and his book chronicles his life prior to WWI and during WWII. He is another great American hero.


There are few people I’m interested in getting my picture taken with, few autographs I’m willing to seek, and few people whose lives were interesting to me 60 years ago. But these gentlemen have all done some remarkable things. They are heroes to me, and I will always appreciate who they are, and what they have done.

Family Update July 2011

Busy times for everyone.
Judy finished her first year of school and had a great time.
Jonathan finished his first year of Little League baseball and his team took first place.
Janae Graduated from 8th and will head to high school next year with Jessica.
Jessica finished her sophomore year and her first job as a little league Jr. Umpire.
Good times for all and let the summer begin.

A Revelation About Revelation

I’m on my last class for my Ministers License and it’s on Eschatology, the study of end times. It’s very interesting to get a little in depth study going on the book of Revelation. The book had this chart which I found very useful when reading about all the events happening in the book. I thought it might be helpful for other people to see the chart as a better way to understand the last day’s time lines. Just a thought. The book is tilted; Eschatology: A Study of Things To Come by Zenas Bicket.