Striper on the Little Miami River

Haven't posted in quite awhile. I have quite a few things to post, maybe I will have time to get to them.
Today me and my significant other went fishing down by the 275 bridge on the Little Miami. I had been up all night before this researching the various river fishing methods and tackle rigs, thinking that all these years there must be a trick to it. So I meticulously planned the outing with dreams of smallmouth and channel cat, hurrying to my set up, sticking their fish noses up at inferior river fishers that might have past their way. So during the hottest muggiest time of the day, we trudged down to the sandbar and began to fish. Nightcrawlers and drift rig. Apparently while I slept the river rose about two feet. So I blame the Cincinnati 'weather that makes no sense' on that. After a few casts, and no hits, I began the tried and true rooster tail. With sweat pouring into my eyes as I tried to knot the line, I was finally able to get it set up. First cast, wide arc, straight to the overhanging sycamore branch. I was able to free it as it was my favorite new red rooster tail. A few more casts and a hit. Not able to set the hook, I kept casting. Finally caught a small striper. Encouraged, we stayed about another hour until an urban mammal called the 'loud ATV riding jackass' decided to run us off by continually riding past the area we were fishing, revving his non-baffled out of tune noise maker. At least I caught a fish, and was out in nature for awhile. So a decidedly good day for the record.

Freedom's cost, personal and global.

Today is Veteran's Day. My thoughts are for all of the American men and women around the world that are protecting the freedoms that we hold so close and dear to our hearts. My prayers for their protection and for them to return safely to their families.

I think of my co-workers who have served. For their part that they had in this world being the safe place that it is. I have the utmost respect for them. I am glad that they made it home. That they are able to have been and are my friends. Those same friends now back me up when danger lurks in the shadows. I feel secure in that knowledge.

For generations, I have found that my family has served and some have perished so that I could make it to where I am. All the way back to the Revolutionary War, the first seed of freedom, when men and women decided that it was worth more to have liberty than to live under oppression. To the point that the first American blood soaked our soil.

For my Grandfather, who served in the Army Air Corps in World War II. His two brothers also served. He has shared with me some of the many stories of he and his buddies during the war. The times they spent in North Africa, England, and Italy. He spoke of the little shack they built to live in during the time in Italy. How when in the winter they kept it warm by dripping diesel fuel into a sand catch that they kept lit. He laughed about what they went through to 'procure' this precious fuel. He spent just over 4 years overseas. That was the longest deployment up until this current war.

He told me of the time he was on a ship in Hawaii. About how one morning the ship was being moved out of the harbor for some unknown reason. By God's grace, that movement kept he and his buddies alive as Pearl Harbor was attacked that day. He let me read his journal he kept during the war.

This small 3 inch by 2 inch journal brought the pain and anguish our soldiers have suffered, home to me. He wrote about the days, the weather, what was happening around the base. Then one entry the joy he had when he turned around and saw that his brother had recently been assigned to his unit. His brother was on a B-17 crew that had many combat missions under its belt and was due to de-activate soon. Just a few short days later, that brother went on a bombing mission to Turin, Italy and was hit by enemy fire. They were already past the point of no return and had to bail out of the craft. The MACR had reports from other B-17 crews that said that every crewman's parachutes were deployed. All of them were seen splashing into the cold ocean waters that morning. The other crews circled them as long as they could, helpless as they saw their brothers in arms in the water, circled together holding each other arm in arm. The anguish of having to leave them when fuel reserves were too low, knowing no air/sea rescue was in this area.

My Grandfather's journal entry that day was, Earl left this morning on a mission. Later that day, Received news that Earl's plane was shot down, no news about Earl. For several days after that every entry consisted of 'no new news about Earl'. Then the entries stopped.

They never found Earl or any of his crewmates' bodies. He is remembered on a memorial in Florence, Italy. http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/fl.php Earl Service. My Grandfather has never been to see this memorial.

I leave you with this quote from Colin Powell. I have borrowed this from the website : http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-colin-powell.htm It is often misquoted, but here it is in part: "And when all those conflicts were over, what did we do? Did we stay and conquer? Did we say, "Okay, we defeated Germany. Now Germany belongs to us? We defeated Japan, so Japan belongs to us"? No. What did we do? We built them up. We gave them democratic systems which they have embraced totally to their soul. And did we ask for any land? No, the only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead. And that is the kind of nation we are."


Freedom what does it mean to you? I know what it means to me, I have tried to share a part of this with you today. Do I want you to thank a veteran today? Yes. But more importantly, contemplate on just what it is to you, this cost of freedom.

BECOME THE THORN IN THE SIDE OF THE COMPLACENT!

Jeff

It can happen anywhere

Here's the thing, if it can happen at a military base, it can happen anywhere. Parents, you need to get involved and make sure your kid's schools are ACTIVELY working with the local police department on plans to not only deal with potential shooter incidents, but to identify and counteract potential shooters BEFORE it happens. You should DEMAND it. How do you do this? Attend the school board meetings and bring up the issue, speak with your local police department of your concerns. Even if you don't have much time, use the power of e-mail. E-mail your local school boards and police departments and other parents. Get involved, you owe it to your community and more importantly your kids.

If you don't think this could happen in your town just look into this yourself. Google the West Nickel Mines Amish school shooting, or other school shootings. Compare the neighborhoods and the people to your town. If you want to get an idea of how many school shootings or incidents actually occur in this country...Go to this site: Google Alert and enter the term school shooting and your e-mail address. This site will then search news from all over the country and send news stories to your e-mail that match your search. I did it awhile back and there were about 1 or 2 school incidents every few weeks!

Another good source of information about trying to identify children by behavioral indicators who could potentially turn to violence in schools would be the FBI's School Shooter Threat Assessment. This has excellent information from studies of past shooters and behavioral analysis of the incidents. Its goal is to try to identify and intervene with these children before they turn to violence. The biggest part of it is that parents, students, police AND the schools must work together and COMMUNICATE with each other all in the spirit of safety.

BECOME THE THORN IN THE SIDE OF THE COMPLACENT!!!!

Jeff