The Loss of Bill

Bill is a cherished friend. He was the president of a local fly anglers club when I lived in Baltimore. He was one of those fellows with the charisma to get people involved, so I joined the club and eventually served on the board of directors with him. Bill also “drafted” me into serving on the board of directors for the Mid-Atlantic chapter of The Federation of Fly Fishers. He was also active in The Brotherhood of the Junglecock, a national youth organization dedicated to perpetuating the sport of fly-fishing. Bill was an entrepreneur and owned his own business. He retired after 20+ years in the National Guard as a warrant officer, one of those senior non-commissioned officers who knew how to get things done. 

By the late 90’s, Bill’s health was beginning to fail due to diabetes. Eventually, he stopped smoking, but it was too late to prevent his health from deteriorating. The first thing to go, that I remember, was a numb foot that prevented him from wading the rocky-bottomed streams of Maryland and Pennsylvania. After I left the East Coast, I returned a couple times to fish with Bill and some other friends in north central Pennsylvania. The last year that I was able to make the annual trip, Bill was too ill to come. His health was so frail that he was afraid to be far away from a medical facility and the nearest one to our cabin was over 45 miles away, nearly an hour and a half by car in mountainous roads. 

I still am in contact with Bill, occasionally by telephone, but most often through emails. Bill still has his same sense of humor judging by some of the YouTube videos and other stuff he sends to me. Bill has also become a fervent devotee of the Tea Party movement and he frequently “pummels” me with tea party propaganda that he finds on the Internet. 

Sometimes, I scan the material, consider it poking fun at the president (which is a great American pastime protected by the 1st Amendment), grin, and simply delete it. Other times, I go to Snopes.com to qualify the claims. Sometimes I reply to his Tea Party pap with the Snopes link and a subject line that says “The Truth”. I try to strike a balance with this because I do not want to lose a friend over fanatical propaganda.

What increasingly disturbs me are the contemptible, offensive lies being spread by these people. Only 30 seconds of research enlightens me about the unmitigated bile being distributed by Tea Party fanatics. It is my opinion that President Obama and our congress’ efforts are not evil, just sometimes naive, misguided, or poorly implemented … and sometimes they are spot-on. 

Our nation has always overcome naive, misguided policies and poorly implemented ideas. Always. However, the adulterated lies being sent to millions of people via the Internet are truly evil. They defile our great nation and the people that make it great when they are different from themselves. These lies destroy our ability to hold meaningful discourse. Thinking for ourselves is the only weapon we have to defend our nation against the ignoramus’ among us. 

So ignore the Tea Party. Ignore the Republicans. Ignore the Democrats. Consider all political ads as outright lies, because they are. Every single political ad is a lie full of half-truths and innuendos. If you hear something that you do not like, there is no doubt you are hearing a lie.  

Even those ads that do not throw mud at the opponent, hide the shortcomings or the weaknesses of the candidate being supported. If a candidate sounds too good to be true, they are lying to you. Stay informed. No one can defeat an educated, informed populace. 

The last time I spoke with Bill, he was on his Tea Party stump, the gist of which was how President Obama was tearing apart the constitution and turning us into a socialist, if not communist, nation. When I questioned some of his statements or asked for examples, he said I was just “an Obama guy”. 

That seems to be a typical ideologue response these days. When their ideas can’t hold up to valid questions or logic, they label and attack the person. Listen for the attack when someone wants to discuss the issues. 

When I hung up, I had tears in my eyes. I have seen my friend lose his physical health and now … now he has lost the ability to think for himself. 

Royal Dun

Semper Fidelis

By December of 1969, Congress was desperate for more cannon fodder to sacrifice on behalf of Nugyen Van Theiu, the President of Viet Nam. So they instituted a draft lottery and I won third place! My lottery number was three. At the time, I was in college studying sororities and my grades were suffering consequently. I was a prime target for the draft. 

In January of 1970, Uncle Sam let me know that my student deferment was revoked and I was reclassified 1-A. I was going to be in the army in the very near future. The only control I had over the circumstances was to deny Uncle Sam his draft and enlist in another branch of service. Because I was enrolled in college, the Air Force would put me in a deferred enlistment program, allowing me to finish my semester of college and report for duty in August 1970.  I signed up.

Near the end of that semester, one of my fraternity brothers, Kent, returned home on leave from the Marines. As it turned out, his sister was getting married the week after he was to supposed to report back for deployment to Viet Nam. During our discussion, he mentioned that the Marines would extend his leave by one week, if he could recruit another person to sign up. I told Kent I would go sign up for him and I did. The recruiter arranged for Kent's extended leave, and I signed up to be a Marine ... on the delayed enlistment program. 

Kent attended his sister's wedding that summer of 1970. By the time the Marines came looking for me, I was already serving in the U.S. Air Force. Like so many people, I lost touch with most of my college friends. My career took me all over the eastern states. Not long ago, I returned to my home town to settle into retirement. I recently ran into a former fraternity brother and we began thinking about a reunion. That's when I found out, 44 years later, that Kent never made it home from Viet Nam. 

Today is Memorial Day, 2014 and I cried thinking about Kent and the other 58,000+ men and women who died in Viet Nam. However, I have never been more proud of outsmarting Uncle Sam in 1970. 

Semper fidelis, Kent. Semper fidelis.

Royal Dun

A 21-Gun Salute to Our Veterans

Today is Memorial Day, 2014. Across the street from my home, there is a community cemetery, and every year, our township hosts a small parade and ceremony to honor those citizens who have fallen while defending our nation. We sometimes forget that our military is mostly comprised of our youngest and strongest citizens. Our nation's young men stand and take their turn to defend our nation as I did when I was their age. 

This year, the band played the anthems of all the branches of military, the local dignitaries gave their speeches, and someone read President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Finally, a National Guard squad fired off a 21-gun salute. They did not do it properly. 

Very few people, including veterans know how to execute a proper 21-gun salute. We have become accustomed to seven men or women in uniform firing three volleys of seven shots, but a proper 21-gun salute is comprised of four volleys. 

The first volley is a single shot. One rifle firing the first shot of a new nation born in defense of individual freedom. Two volleys of seven shots come next to represent stability and unity of all. The fourth volley of six shots represents the missing man volley in honor of those who gave their lives for us. All together there are 21 shots: 

1 ... 7 ... 7 ... 6

Enjoy your family today. Your freedom to do that has been purchased by many young men and women who will never have the same opportunity.

Royal Dun

Bad News

It happened. I turned 65 years old and went to the doctor for my first Medicare checkup and received some horrible news. I was 10 pounds over the weight limit for my float tube!

Well, I'm working desperately to address that situation, but its going to be very difficult to save enough money for a bigger float tube by opening day.

Royal Dun

Spring's Arrival

Thursday marks the first day of spring, not to  mention my bride and I will celebrate our 43rd anniversary. We have already acquired some spring bulbs and another outdoor wind ornament.

Some years ago, I was told that St. Patrick's day is the time to cut your roses down to 12 inches or so to invigorate them and produce healthy plants. Well, St. Patrick's day was yesterday. Maybe tomorrow I'll dig them out of three feet of snow so I can trim them.

We've been looking for our Crocus' to be popping up, but they're hard to spot under the snowbanks.

May B. Knott ... sitting in for Royal Dun

Brought to You By NAFTA

When the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1993, I never had much opinion about it one way or another. I agreed with its premise of expanding trade between Canada, Mexico, and the United States as I thought it would bring medication prices down, help move labor across borders where it is needed, etc.

Instead, twenty years later, I find it costs me far less for one of my medications if I order it through a Canadian pharmacy (it ships from India). I pay about half the cost (including shipping) for a 90-day supply than it would cost for the generic in my local pharmacy.

It seems like we hear of more cases of contaminated food than before. Although it is difficult to blame it on NAFTA, much of our produce and vegetables are imported, especially during off-seasons.  When I go to the store now, I have to check the expiration date on every single item I buy. On a recent trip to the grocery, I found about 10% of the items sitting on the shelves was expired. One product was outdated by 7 months!

I realize that sub-standard management oversight and training of help, poor attitudes of people stocking the shelves, and labor shortages all contribute to this. Even so, I wonder if NAFTA really means No Aliment Fit To Accept.

Evolution Has a Ways to Go

Prentice N. Largefonte hit 80 last year and we spent several evenings on the river together. He can still out-wade, out-cast, and out-fish me when he's in the mood, but last year was the first time he asked me to tie a fly onto his tippet for him. The light was failing, and his hands were just unsteady enough that his fishing would have been done for the day, had I not been there to help. On another of our evening forays, he commented to me that it is getting difficult for him to cut his toenails. He said "it hurts'. I managed to dodge the topic by mentioning that my hearing was getting worse and worse.

Nature exacts certain tolls for allowing us to age. Things like hair, hearing, flexibility, and sexual prowess diminish and are replaced with bladders and bowels that are more active. We also gain greater awareness of muscle groups that can ache. The other day, as I was getting ready to dress, I realized that I too found the task of trimming toenails more arduous than before. It may have been due to some new muscle group that was announcing its presence or some other muscle group that refused to stretch to accommodate my task.

Nevertheless, I resorted to sitting on the edge of my bed and crossing my leg so that one foot rested on the other knee, in the normal fashion that men sit.
It was then that I noticed a flaw in human evolution. The sole of my foot was facing me and the toenails all faced away from me. In order to trim my nails, I had to twist my foot to an angle I could reach with the clippers. It hurt! It occurred to me that evolution would better serve us if toenails were eliminated from our feet, since we no longer need them as claws. Our species lost that need several millennia ago, so what's the deal? We lost our tails, why not toenails? I suppose its another toll exacted by Nature, just so we remember who's in charge.

Now I'm thinking about camping and fishing with Prentice next summer and I'm wondering what incapacities he will share with me. I'm prepared to tie some more flies on for him but if we're sitting by the campfire and he hauls out a set of nail clippers, my hearing will suffer even more degradation.

Royal Dun