Si, Se Puede

Today is Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday, if you live in California, Colorado, or Texas. It is Cesar Chavez’ birthday, and he would have been 87 years old. His dedication, as a nonviolent civil rights activist, to the lives and labors of farm workers changed forever their working and living conditions. Wages, housing, toilet facilities in the […]

Last Full Measure Of Devotion

March 29, 1973 Tan Son Nhut Airport, Saigon Under the terms of the negotiated peace agreement with North Vietnam, all U.S. combat troops leave Vietnam. U.S. troops filed into a C-130; Army Master Sergeant Max Beilke was the last in line to board the aircraft. Colonel Bui Tin, head of the North Vietnamese observer team, […]

Mahalo Steve McGarrett

On September 20, 1968, the television show I had been most eagerly waiting for premiered on CBS. Hawaii Five-0. I will never forget the awe-inspiring ocean wave in the opening sequence, brief shots of Hawaiian scenery, pretty people running on the beach, and hula dancing; all the main cast introduced in zoom-in close ups, with […]

I Wear Xtratufs, Swallows Do Not

St. Joseph’s Day came and went. Not as big a celebration day as St. Patrick’s; but important, nonetheless, to fathers, carpenters, Sicilians, and fava bean farmers. Joseph was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, making him stepfather to Jesus. He was a carpenter, and tradition says he saved Sicilians from starvation during a […]

‘Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Because I am of Irish descent, and love a good book, a good song, a good cry, and a pint of Guinness; I wish to share my favorite Irish authors, with quote, who have inspired me along the way… Jonathan Swift: Books, the children of the brain. Bram Stoker: We learn […]