What Would Jimmy Do?

Thirty years ago today sometime close to noon I was in my office when Linda St. John burst through the door screaming that it had just blown up and they didn’t even know where they were…
The incident that Linda (a co-worker) was rightly upset about was the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

The project that I was heavily involved with at the time was dependent on the use of the space shuttle. We had become so complacent about going into space that the launches weren’t even broadcast on TV most of the time. However, this one was a little different — on board was the first “civilian” — a teacher (Christa McAuliffe.) We had somehow convinced ourselves that space missions were now routine enough to invite the public along….
Of course, that all changed 73 seconds after the shuttle lifted off from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986. President Reagan spoke to the Nation later that day and I remember his speech as being very consolatory and saying something about the risks of space exploration and the pioneering spirit and that we’ll continue to take risks and life will go on. I’m sure the words came from speech writers, but Reagan had a way of delivering messages that made people feel better.

I’ve lived long enough to have experienced a number of truly historic events — when all is told years from now, how they’ll stack up against the historical events of all time I have no idea. But I do know that these events that take place in our lifetime are more important to us because we were “there.” It’s fine to read about these things in textbooks, but the emotions experienced at they time they occurred just don’t come across on a printed page.

Shortly after the Challenger accident, my boss told me that our jobs just became a lot harder. I guess that was somewhat true, but what about those people whose lives became a lot harder…..
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Last week after church I wished a friend a belated happy birthday. Her birthday was during the week and I obviously hadn’t spoken with her, or sent her a card, on her birthday. Later I got to thinking about that phrase that most of us use fairly often — “belated happy birthday.”

If you think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense. A person’s birthday, or any other event, cannot be belated since it’s already happened. Seems to me that when you say belated happy birthday, you’re wishing someone to have a good day that is already in the past…
A birthday simply cannot be belated, or postponed, because a birthday is when it is — the celebration may be postponed, but not the birthday.
Oh well, I guess there are more important things to worry about — but with over 40 inches of snow on the ground, I’ve got a lot more time for these mental exercises….
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We’ve just gone through a pretty big snow storm here in Shepherdstown. The “official” total for Shepherdstown was 40.3 inches. It fell (continuously) from about 1:00 pm Friday until sometime early Sunday morning.

A lot of people made extensive preparations for the storm, many bought multiple snow shovels, bread, milk, toilet paper and just about anything else left on the shelves. We didn’t make a lot of preparations — we are always stocked for emergencies and we just went to our stash and weathered the storm very well, thank you.

So next time your are faced with an emergency situation — just follow our advice….
You don’t need a lot of “stuff.” Wine gets you through most emergencies just fine — but drink the good stuff. Now after the snow melts, we just have to re-stock for the next emergency.
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Today (January 23) is Handwriting Day. It’s celebrated every year on the 23rd — not coincidently, it also happens to be John Hancock’s birthday. His prominent signature on the Declaration of Independence has become synonymous with signatures in general. How often have you said, or been told, “put you John Hancock here?” Of course everyone knows that statement means to sign your name.

Another old saying, “the pen is mightier than the sword” may not be so true in today’s modern technology world, but its original meaning still holds today. The origin of the phrase may have been that no matter how strong and powerful a knight became, they could be “fired” by their king through nothing more than a piece of paper with the king’s signature (and probably his seal.)

Handwriting and/or penmanship were required subjects when I went to school and it was necessary because a lot, if not most, written communication was accomplished by hand-written documents. If the handwriting wasn’t legible, the document was pretty much useless. But neither of our kids were taught penmanship when they were in school and now there is a move afoot to abolish cursive writing all together.

Handwriting is unique to each person — much like fingerprints. No two people write exactly alike. Because it is unique, handwriting can be used to identify a documents’ writer. That’s one reason you see ransom notes made up of letters cut out of a magazine or newspaper.
Except for doctors, today penmanship has almost no bearing on job performance. Doctors supposedly have terrible handwriting. According to Time magazine, doctors’ sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people every year. Most of us write very little by hand. I usually wind up taking notes on my phone if I’m out and need to remember something — or — just tell Siri to remind me….

Throughout the years many have thought that there would be no need for handwriting — when the typewriter came along, the computer, fax machine and e-mails and texting would be the end of hand written communications. But so far writing by hand hasn’t been killed off. I think knowing how to write is important — for the same reason than you should know how to add, subtract and multiply and divide… What happens if your batteries run down or the power goes out?
Someone once said that handwriting enables civilization. Well, maybe not quite so much today, but it’s still important. Happy Handwriting Day….
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While sitting here waiting for the big blizzard to hit — and the blizzard is obviously the big news, I checked our local news sources and discovered that besides the blizzard there are other important issues to be worked. The following is a direct quote.

“Morgan County/Traffic Hazard/Cows in the roadway/Henry W Miller Blvd near the Potomac river bridge. Caller advising cows are in the roadway licking salt off the roadway will not move…..”

I am not making this up — Washington may have its share of problems, but we have our own difficulties here in West Virginia. Everyone hunker down and stay warm.
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I’ve been a registered voter for more than 55 years and until this week, never been called for jury duty. I was selected to serve as a Grand Juror for the Jefferson County Circuit Court in West Virginia. For some reason it never occurred to me that I would be selected for Grand Jury duty.
I was aware that there were grand juries and petit, or trial, juries but I learned some interesting things about both this week.

Grand juries are required by the US federal government for “capital or infamous cases” by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Not all states employ the grand jury process, but West Virginia is one of those that do.
I mentioned earlier a trial, or petit jury — petit is an old-fashioned name for a jury that hears a lawsuit or criminal prosecution. Petit is a French word meaning “small,” to distinguish it from a “grand” jury that performs other duties such as determining to return an indictment or not.

In general…..
A petit jury decides whether a defendant committed a crime as charged in a criminal case, or whether the defendant injured the plaintive in a civil case. A petit jury may consist of 6 to 12 people. The trials are generally public, but jury deliberations are always private. Defendants have the right to appear, testify, and call witnesses on their behalf. The final outcome is a verdict — in favor of the plaintiff or defendant in a civil case, or guilty or not guilty in criminal case.
A grand jury is presented with evidence from the prosecutor. The grand jury determines whether there is “probably cause” to believe the individual has committed a crime and should stand trial. If the grand jury determines there is enough evidence, an indictment will be issued against the defendant. A grand jury consists of 16 to 23 people. Grand jury proceedings are not open to the public. Defendants and/or their attorneys do not have the right to appear before the grand jury.

Petit juries hear cases that are criminal or civil. Criminal trials involve felonies (a more serious crime.) The law requires twelve jurors to be seated in any criminal trial — only eight jurors are required in a civil trial.  Jurors in criminal cases must find a defendant guilty or not guilty by a unanimous vote. Only three fourths of the jury must agree on a verdict in civil cases.
A grand jury hears evidence about crimes and decides whether or not a person should be indicted, or tried for committing a crime. A grand jury does not decide guilt or innocence.
All, or most, petit trials is open to the public. A grand jury is closed to the public.

Grand juries in the various states seat anywhere from twelve to twenty-three jurors. West Virginia seats sixteen — fifteen being the number required for a forum and twelve must concur for an indictment. The grand jury hears only the State’s evidence and witnesses. If an indictment is issued, the defense gets its opportunity to present it’s evidence and witnesses at the petit trial.

Someone once said that a jury consists of twelve people chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. and Groucho Marx said he was married by a judge, but thinks he should have asked for a jury.

But jury duty is one of the great things about our system of democracy. When you are called to jury duty, you shouldn’t look at it as a duty you have to perform — it should be an honor and a privilege.
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Tomorrow is the start of the first long weekend of the year. The first Federal holiday after New Year’s Day is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The holiday is observed on the third Monday in January. Much of the time we lived in Virginia, the holiday was known as Lee-Jackson-King Day. Here’s how all that came about, as I understand it.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has been celebrating the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson since 1889 — well actually Lee’s birthday since then; Jackson’s name was added to the holiday in 1904. In 1983 Congress declared a January event to be a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Virginia merged the new Federal holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with their holiday — Lee-Jackson Day and observed the day as Lee-Jackson-King Day. So the holiday we celebrate on the third Monday in January was referred to as Lee-Jackson-King Day in Virginia from 1984 to 2000. In 2000, Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore proposed splitting  Lee-Jackson-King Day into two separate holidays. Many were of the opinion that a holiday that celebrated both the lives of Confederate generals and a civil rights icon didn’t seem right. Lee-Jackson Day is now celebrated in Virginia on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Since 2000, some Virginia localities like Richmond, Fairfax, Lynchburg, Norfolk, and others have chosen not to observe Lee-Jackson Day.

So now you know “the rest of the story.” There used to be an old joke that a lot of Virginians thought there really was a person named Lee Jackson King. As I mentioned earlier, when the practice of combining the two holidays began in 1984, a lot of people thought it was strange, if not offensive, to have a single holiday that honored two Confederate generals and one of the greatest American civil rights leaders of the 20th century. I honestly never gave it much thought, but thinking back, if handled correctly, it might have been an opportunity to celebrate both while reflecting on human differences that have always existed and celebrate the fact that some, even if not enough, progress has been made in the civil rights area. Maybe it could have been a day to think about courage and sacrifice and reconciliation.

Obviously the movement to split Lee-Jackson-King Day was based on the idea that Martin Luther King deserves his own day — that combining two Civil War leaders and a civil rights leader is just wrong. I don’t know that I necessarily disagree with that, I just think if the two holidays had remained joined, it could have presented a unique opportunity to talk, learn and think about where we’ve been, where we are and what it means to be an American.
So happy Lee-Jackson Day and happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. They all made sacrifices for our Country and they were all Americans….
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Recently a number of conversations with various people have at least touched on the subject of age. It’s always a little disturbing to learn that you are older than someone’s mother or father — especially if you thought that person was close to your age. Anyhow, that got me to thinking about age and aging. Actually, I don’t think about my age until the subject is brought up by someone else. I got to wondering what my age would be if I didn’t know how old I really was. I think I’d pick 33. If you’ve read this blog before, you know I like 33. I admit I can’t do everything I could at 33, but I’d like to think that I still think like I’m 33 (only smarter.)

I guess all my life I’ve picked a number that sounded old. When I was a kid, 20 sounded old to me. But of course as I approached my current “old” number, I picked a new one. When I was 20, 30 sounded old. But as I passed these “old” ages, it never occurred to me that I was now old — or even getting older. Throughout my life, the only age that ever bothered me was 50! I don’t know why, but when I turned 50 I decided that I was — suddenly — old. But after I got past the fact that I was 50 and moved on, none of the other numbers I’ve passed has mattered much to me.
Sixty-five has always been a mile marker – it’s when you’re supposed to retire and bask in the glow of a well-spent life. Sixty-five came and went with barely a notice — just another number.
I’ve decided that a good attitude is to push “old age” out about 10 years older than your present age. I don’t necessarily want to grow up — I think I’ll just stick with aging. I’d write more on this subject, but I’m starting to forget why I started it in the first place….
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Well, there’s now less than 9 hours left in 2015. Just like every year of my life, it’s been a good year. Obviously some years are better than others for everyone, but If you’re celebrating, or just “here” and choosing not to celebrate — it’s been a good year.

Since I’ve given up wishing for a new Ferrari, or even that Segway, I truly do wish for more peace, freedom, understanding and forgiveness for everyone — around the world. I wish 2016 could be a year without wars, misery, injustice and inequality. I wish the new year could arrive and find us all more humane.

Mother Teresa said, “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” I guess that would work for years, too. 2015 is gone, and 2017 is a year away. So it’s 2016 — Let’s begin.
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Well, there’s only a couple of days left in this year, so it’s about time for the annual ritual of making New Year’s Resolutions. Both the faithful readers of this blog, know that I usually make resolutions and like most people, I don’t keep them…. But this year is going to be different.

Before I get too far into this, I’ll pass on a bit of advice to my two faithful readers, who for some reason or another seem to have become infatuated with exercise. Anyhow, here’s my advice — if you’re considering buying any workout equipment, wait until about March and then check the classifieds. You’ll see tons of equipment being sold with the absolutely true claim that it’s “like new” or “used rarely.” You can pick up some good bargains.

But, back to my resolutions for the coming year…
• I will learn to recite the alphabet backwards in less than 10 seconds.
• I will break a record (not sure which one yet, it may be a personal record or maybe even a world record of some sort. I’m very excited about this one.)
• I will make a new friend every month.
• I will do something that I normally do, differently at least once a week. (For instance I usually order an Oreo Blizzard at Dairy Queen — maybe I’ll order an M&M Blizzard instead. I’m also very excited about this one.)
• I will not singlehandedly cause global warming.
• I will try to do something nice for someone every week.
• I also resolve to be less than perfect.
So there you have it — a new year, new beginning and new resolutions.

I mentioned earlier that most people, including me, don’t keep their resolutions. So why bother? Someone said that New Year’s resolutions are a triumph of hope over experience. They are a means of cataloguing personal dissatisfactions and a method of erasing errors of the past year. I guess that’s true — New Year’s resolutions are about hope.

But then again, who says I need to change, anyway? Even though I don’t think so, I may be just perfect the way I am. Maybe all my quirks aren’t things that need to be fixed, but things to be celebrated as unique to my personality and life. Maybe this year I’ll just focus on the things I like about myself and leave this year’s improvement plan for another year. I haven’t decided — check back in March and I’ll let you know which course I chose for 2016.

Happy New Year to all…..
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