An Honor Well Deserved

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Aloha    

Click for Kahului, Hawaii ForecastMother’s Day
Day 132 of 2008
234 days left in this year


HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY —  Koa: Brave
PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY—  Mami: Mother
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY
“The night has taken all but this one.”
HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —  Courage is resistance to fear, not absence of fear.” (Mark Twain)

WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — BioWillie.com
WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Always on My Mind
PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Peace Research Institute
BLOG OF THE WEEK — Willie’s God!  (Texas Monthly Feature - May, 2008)

TODAY, May 11, 2008: MOTHER’S DAY - The U.S.celebrates Mother’s Day annually on the second Sunday in May. It was initially inspired by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War, who intended it as a call to unite women against war.  In 1870, she wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament, but failed  in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. In 1905,  Anna Jarvis, carrying on the efforts of her mother Ann Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first Mother’s Day service was finally celebrated on May 10, 1908, in St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, WV, the same church, where her mother had taught Sunday School.  Anna chose  Mother’s Day to be a Sunday because she intended it be commemorated as a Holy Day.


Daniel Inouye, soldier in WWIIMay 11th, 2000:
Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye joins nine other Hawaiians in receiving the Medal of Honor from President Bill Clinton. Clinton upgraded awards to 22 Asian-American heroes of various battles. The senator lost his right arm during World War II. In typically understated fashion, Inouye puts forth this decription of what happened on his site:In Italy, the 442nd (Inouye’s division) was assaulting a heavily defended hill in the closing months of the war when he was hit in his abdomen by a bullet which came out his back, barely missing his spine. He continued to lead the platoon and advanced alone against a machine gun nest which had his men pinned down. He tossed two hand grenades with devastating effect before his right arm was shattered by a German rifle grenade at close range. Inouye threw his last grenade with his left hand, attacked with a submachine gun and was finally knocked down the hill by a bullet in the leg. He spent 20 months in hospitals, and returned realizing that his dream of becoming a surgeon was gone. He became the first representative from Hawaii when it became a state, and has served in the Senate for 43 years. Truly a hero in so many ways.


HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 11th

  • 330: Constantinople is founded 
  • 1792: Columbia River is “discovered” & named by U.S. Capt Robert Gray 
  • 1858: Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state 
  • 1910: Glacier National Park is established 
  • 1916: Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity is first presented 
  • 1947: B.F. Goodrich announces the manufacture of the first tubeless tire (Akron, OH) 
  • 1960: Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires 
  • 1991: Reggae artist Bob Marley dieS in a Miami hospital at age 36 
  • 1997: The “Deep Blue” IBM computer bests Grandmaster Garry Kasparov
  • 1998: The first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro, are minted (France)
  • 2007: North and South Korea adopted a military agreement, enabling the first train crossing of their border in more than half a century.

BORN ON THIS DAY — May 11th

  • 1888: Irving Berlin, composer
  • 1894: Martha Graham, Pitts, dance teacher
  • 1901: Mari Sandoz, author (Cheyene Autumn)
  • 1904: Salvador Dali, surrealist painter    
  • 1912: Phil Silvers, , comedian
  • 1920: Denver Pyle,  actor
  • 1927: Mort Sahl, comedian/political satirist
  • 1933: Louis Farrakhan, leader of the black Islam nation
  • 1941: Eric Burdon, rocker
  • 1956: Mark Herndon, rock drummer
  • 1959: Martha Quinn,  actress/MTV VJ

Right-Wing Noxious Gasbags

Raphael O'Suna No Comments

If the people can be preoccupied with inessentials, the essentials can be controlled by the few. If the people can be preoccupied with the inessential differences among them, they will be further removed from their collective power.

Those in power have mastered the arts of diversion, division and the diffusion of the people’s awareness. They quickly define, defame, diminish, denounce and demean all those who threaten their power and position. Hamper-rummagers control right-wing radio.

To these spiritually challenged buffoons the appearance and personality of the messenger is all-important. They are incapable of seeing the soul or the quality of the message. Focussed on the chip of the lip of the cup, they cannot appreciate the beverage within. The true destiny of America is nowhere to be seen or heard in Republican politics.

Mischief and minutiae are constantly spewed out like a noxious gas, both engaging and fogging the critical mind of the electorate.

It is an unfortunate condition of this universe that black holes devour light.

– Raphael O’Suna, Haiku