Uncommon Common Sense
Monday February 6th 2012

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A Case of Better Late than Never

The girl was about six­teen and was in Court for a num­ber of offenses, not the least of which was using her par­ents’ credit card to run up a bill of over one thou­sand dol­lars. Of course she had noth­ing to show for the money, since it had all been spent on friends and “hav­ing fun.”

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The Walk on the Moon

Man on the MoonForty years ago Neil Arm­strong and “Buzz” Aldrin walked on the moon.  As they were doing so, I was trudg­ing around another stark land­scape — a fire sup­port base in Viet­nam.  I was one of 125 Amer­i­can Red Cross Donut Dol­lies who were sta­tioned in-Country at the time.  My co-workers and I were sent mostly to for­ward areas, so we got to know the opin­ions of the com­bat troops.  We talked with them enough to hear how they felt about things.  On that par­tic­u­lar day their talk was about the men on the moon.

I’m telling you, I’m just not that impressed,” said one man who had just come in from a long patrol.  Another chimed in.  “Well, yeah, it’s great we put some­body up there, ‘n all, but you can bet they’ll get them home, alright, yet they can’t seem to get me outta here!”  The rest of the men agreed and added their own takes on their sit­u­a­tions, as com­pared to the Astronauts’.

I’ve never for­got­ten those remarks.  In fact, since we had no tele­vised access to what was occur­ring, the Moon Walk, for me, has always been more about those GI’s and their com­ments, rather than a visual mem­ory from see­ing it hap­pen as it occurred.  That doesn’t mean I’m not proud of the accom­plish­ment.  I am proud we made it to the moon, and I’m also proud of those soldiers, the nurses and oth­ers who were doing their stints in Viet­nam at the time.  Most of them, in their long­ing for home, thought they might as well have been on the moon too, that July 20, 1969.

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A Perspective from the Past

My hus­band has come down with a germ and it’s a pretty bad case. Thank good­ness it’s not the Swine Flu, but in some ways it may be worse because there is no end in sight. Some­time dur­ing the past month he was bit­ten by the Geneal­ogy Bug. My sis­ter caught it first and it is spread­ing to the entire fam­ily. My in-laws are already show­ing seri­ous symptoms.

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A News “Flash” – Literally

 Accord­ing to a July 2, 2009 Reuters news release, an air­line has made a record­ing of  its pas­sen­ger safety brief­ing by film­ing a pilot and cabin crew who are wear­ing only body paint on their oth­er­wise nude bod­ies. Call me a fuddy-duddy, call me a Doubt­ing Thomas, call me a cab, but I’m not sure  it will work, at least not to achieve the ends they say they are seeking.

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My Week that Was

This has been a chal­leng­ing week — one for reflect­ing — and the reflec­tions have been good.  

Almost 19 years ago I was allowed to write a col­umn that began as bits of advice to peo­ple who were hav­ing to deal with the jus­tice system.  As time went on I added a few of my per­sonal views, mix­ing in com­men­tary and humor about life, in gen­eral.  Before I knew it the col­umn had mor­phed into a pot­pourri of  infor­ma­tion and opin­ion.  I always tried to make it mean­ing­ful, based in com­mon sense, and wor­thy of the time it took some­one to read it.  For those who spent a few moments each week, explor­ing my thoughts, I am truly grateful.

Now the venue has changed.  Still, I can’t stop writ­ing columns — at least not yet.  So I will con­tinue to sit at this key­board and try to form thoughts, beliefs and feel­ings into mean­ing­ful words and com­pre­hen­sive sentences.  The blog may even include a jour­nal, of sorts.  With each post I look for­ward to real conversation, via your comments.

To my gra­cious sup­port­ers and faith­ful read­ers I say a sin­cere and hum­ble “thank you.”   I would be remiss if I didn’t add, “God bless you all.”

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The Blame Game — In Reverse

I talk a lot about par­ents who don’t give a hoot what their chil­dren are doing, but at the other extreme are the par­ents who can’t imag­ine their chil­dren doing any­thing wrong. They con­sis­tently cover for them, go to their defense or take the blame them­selves, no mat­ter what the evi­dence indi­cates. They should, instead, be hold­ing their chil­dren account­able for their crimes. Yes, they need to stick with them as they go through the process of estab­lish­ing guilt and accept­ing pun­ish­ment, but from enough of a dis­tance that the child is the one pay­ing the price.

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Just a Thought: Greed and the American Dream

iStock_000002036764XSmallWhat, exactly, is greed?  We hear a lot about it these days and I am con­vinced that, in some ways, we are look­ing at it the wrong way ’round.

We now assume that peo­ple who have money, or who own busi­nesses, are just nat­u­rally greedy, par­tic­u­larly if they have “made it.”   But, wait.  Wasn’t that the Amer­i­can dream?  Wasn’t “mak­ing it” the very thing that made peo­ple want to come here?  Has the Amer­i­can Dream become lit­tle more than a hand-out?  If so, who’s pay­ing the bill?

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Parents Should Ask Questions

Dear Pro­ba­tion Officer,

My 14 year old daugh­ter was recently arrested. She says she only admit­ted to the police because she was afraid. She is home now and we’re try­ing to get her life back on track but I’m upset by all of this and we still have to face Court.  I would like to see the charges and ask some ques­tions of my own, espe­cially since she is inno­cent. How can I do that, and what should I be asking?

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Good Casework, or just Dumb Luck?

Dear Pro­ba­tion Officer,

Our son was on pro­ba­tion for a while and we really had our ups and downs with him. The pro­ba­tion offi­cer was very atten­tive, and our son even­tu­ally straight­ened up, but we’re not sure exactly what brought him around. We’ve talked about it a lot and we don’t see where any­body did any­thing mirac­u­lous. Was it just dumb luck? We’d sure like to hear what you would say about that.

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Dealing with a Stepson’s Misbehavior

Dear Pro­ba­tion Officer,

My step­son is becom­ing very dis­obe­di­ent to his mother and me, espe­cially me, and I don’t know what to do.  His father left them when he was still in dia­pers, so he never knew him, but he tells me I’m not really his dad and that I can’t tell him what to do.  I mar­ried his mother about a year ago.  He’s 14 now and we think he needs a firm hand before he gets into seri­ous trou­ble.  Can you give us any advice?

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