Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
Life is Energy: In honor of Jason Ritchie & His Family
A very special weekend has just been experienced here in north central Massachusetts: The dedication at The Winchendon School of their ice arena in honor of former student and Winchendon hockey player Jason Ritchie, Class of 2005.
This event reminds me that life is fragile, bad things happen to good people, and something good can come out of the bad.
After graduating from The Winchendon School Jason went on to college and continued his interest in hockey. Tragically, a motor vehicle accident claimed his young life. As his parents, Bob and Donna, and his brother Jon, dealt with their grief they also sought to find a way to honor Jason by helping other young men and women get a good education and learn to play hockey, especially those who otherwise would be unable to do so.
Their commitment resulted in the formation of The Ritchie Hockey Foundation, which will provide financial assistance to youngsters who love the sport, and need some help with the hefty costs of both an education and of playing hockey.
The Ritchie family returned to Winchendon a year ago to name the boys’ home locker room in honor of their son. From that visit grew a bigger idea: why not name the entire ice arena for their son and create a vision for all who play hockey there that a young alumnus’ interest in the sport combined with the love and forward thinking of his family, resulted in a partnership that will help hundreds of youngsters, in his name, as the years march by.
This large financial commitment on the part of the Ritchies was celebrated along with the good that it will do this past Saturday when Craig Patrick, one of the coaches of the famous Olympic Miracle on Ice team (when the U.S. defeated the Russians for Olympic Gold), came to speak at the dedication. Patrick is a Hall of Famer and coached and managed many NHL teams in his career.
Motivational speaker and entertainer Paul Cardall came from Utah to join in the dedication and to provide encouragement and entertainment to those gathered to honor Jason.
People from around the country traveled to Massachusetts to be part of this special day. The event “sold out” days before it took place. Members of the town’s Board of Selectmen, the school’s Board of Trustees, Representative Bastien and Senator Brewer and so many others came to share in the celebration.
Long after all of us have passed away the name of Jason Ritchie will stand as a daily reminder to those who pass through the front door of the ice arena that while life is fleeting, and often all too short, the impact a person can have on the future is unlimited.
Jason, who believed life is energy, will forever be associated with an ice arena where not only Winchendon School students learn and grow but the people of surrounding communities also.
The Jason Ritchie ’05 Ice Arena will stand as a beacon to the life of a wonderful young man and the magnificent heart of his family.
Life is short.
Bad things do happen to good people.
BUT
A short life can have an eternal message of faith and hope and be an inspiration to others.
AND
Bad things can be used to bring about an endless promise for the future when good people simply refuse to let fate vanquish them.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Six Observations
Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
SIX OBSERVATIONS
Has it seemed to you lately that someone has hit “cruise control” and the world is just driving down the cosmic highway without paying much attention to the “warning signs” that alert us to slippery pavement, curves ahead, uneven roads, road- side rest stops, or even “dead ends?”
It seems that way to me.
We used to look for a balance of power in the Middle East. This was accomplished through successive Democrat and Republican presidents refusing to permit the State of Israel to be pushed around while trying to find a common ground with the other nations of that area by trading, diplomacy and mutual agreement on common goals.
Now I read that our government is planning to rebuke Israel at the United Nations. I read about our abandoning long time allies. I read about applauding the birth of democratic movements in countries historically so far removed from democracy of any kind that it boggles the mind to even contemplate such a thing could be believed.
What is the bottom line?
We might all have different answers to that. But here are mine.
1. By abandoning Hosni Mubarak we sent a signal to any leader who has considered us a “friend” that our friendship is nothing solid.
2. By supporting Hosni Mubarak we told the young idealists in Egypt that the US just pays lip service to freedoms.
(Since we are viewed throughout the world as having done both of these things, everyone is now angry with us. If we keep practicing this kind of diplomacy and international relations it will be more than our economic future that will be dim.)
3. The Jewish lobby in America has always been engaged and strong. Ever since the Holocaust American Jews have properly valued the importance of engagement in politics and in providing support to those in national office who will protect the State of Israel. What can a president be thinking when the headlines suggest that he is backing away from those assurances, or at least rethinking them, and that long term kinship with the young country that was put down in the middle of her historic enemies might be on the table for revision.
4. We are seriously cutting our efforts to explore space. Since it was a program that provided pride to America, enabled us to better understand the future possibilities of space travel and potential life on other planets, and was our nation’s answer to continuing the noble history of the wonderfully brave men we study from the age of exploration, as well as all the other heroes of our history books who set out to explore and conquer the unknown, what exactly does this step back say about America?
5. Our national argument is today over the subject of health care. Specifically, it is over a Bill that was passed by the previous Congress when all the major reputable opinion polls indicated the people did not want what the Bill was to provide. Today, the Congress is deeply divided over specific items of the Bill. The earlier passage is in jeopardy and so attention, time and money continues to be given to an issue we thought had been resolved. Not a very good business or “PR” practice.
6. We needed stimulus money so badly that the Congress stayed into session late into the night to pass the Bill. Years later much of the money has not been distributed, let alone spent, and the expected “outcomes” of applying the stimulus are still being sought. A fiasco? Who is held responsible?
My goal is to encourage people to think about these things.
Reasonable people can arrive at different evaluations about most issues. These six seem to me to suggest we are not doing very well as a nation at the moment and we must continue to look for, to demand, better leadership in Washington, and to make the same demands of people who want us to elect them to whatever office they seek.
We as citizens need to set the standard much higher for those who wish to represent us. Are your elected officials adequately representing your views?
If not, there is a remedy.
Create your own list of observations and then visit it regularly throughout the coming weeks. Keep abreast of decisions that are being taken on your behalf. When you next go to the polls on Election Day you will feel that your support of, or objection to, the candidate is based in factual information about tangible decisions taken or proposed to be on your behalf.
…Jack Blair
SIX OBSERVATIONS
Has it seemed to you lately that someone has hit “cruise control” and the world is just driving down the cosmic highway without paying much attention to the “warning signs” that alert us to slippery pavement, curves ahead, uneven roads, road- side rest stops, or even “dead ends?”
It seems that way to me.
We used to look for a balance of power in the Middle East. This was accomplished through successive Democrat and Republican presidents refusing to permit the State of Israel to be pushed around while trying to find a common ground with the other nations of that area by trading, diplomacy and mutual agreement on common goals.
Now I read that our government is planning to rebuke Israel at the United Nations. I read about our abandoning long time allies. I read about applauding the birth of democratic movements in countries historically so far removed from democracy of any kind that it boggles the mind to even contemplate such a thing could be believed.
What is the bottom line?
We might all have different answers to that. But here are mine.
1. By abandoning Hosni Mubarak we sent a signal to any leader who has considered us a “friend” that our friendship is nothing solid.
2. By supporting Hosni Mubarak we told the young idealists in Egypt that the US just pays lip service to freedoms.
(Since we are viewed throughout the world as having done both of these things, everyone is now angry with us. If we keep practicing this kind of diplomacy and international relations it will be more than our economic future that will be dim.)
3. The Jewish lobby in America has always been engaged and strong. Ever since the Holocaust American Jews have properly valued the importance of engagement in politics and in providing support to those in national office who will protect the State of Israel. What can a president be thinking when the headlines suggest that he is backing away from those assurances, or at least rethinking them, and that long term kinship with the young country that was put down in the middle of her historic enemies might be on the table for revision.
4. We are seriously cutting our efforts to explore space. Since it was a program that provided pride to America, enabled us to better understand the future possibilities of space travel and potential life on other planets, and was our nation’s answer to continuing the noble history of the wonderfully brave men we study from the age of exploration, as well as all the other heroes of our history books who set out to explore and conquer the unknown, what exactly does this step back say about America?
5. Our national argument is today over the subject of health care. Specifically, it is over a Bill that was passed by the previous Congress when all the major reputable opinion polls indicated the people did not want what the Bill was to provide. Today, the Congress is deeply divided over specific items of the Bill. The earlier passage is in jeopardy and so attention, time and money continues to be given to an issue we thought had been resolved. Not a very good business or “PR” practice.
6. We needed stimulus money so badly that the Congress stayed into session late into the night to pass the Bill. Years later much of the money has not been distributed, let alone spent, and the expected “outcomes” of applying the stimulus are still being sought. A fiasco? Who is held responsible?
My goal is to encourage people to think about these things.
Reasonable people can arrive at different evaluations about most issues. These six seem to me to suggest we are not doing very well as a nation at the moment and we must continue to look for, to demand, better leadership in Washington, and to make the same demands of people who want us to elect them to whatever office they seek.
We as citizens need to set the standard much higher for those who wish to represent us. Are your elected officials adequately representing your views?
If not, there is a remedy.
Create your own list of observations and then visit it regularly throughout the coming weeks. Keep abreast of decisions that are being taken on your behalf. When you next go to the polls on Election Day you will feel that your support of, or objection to, the candidate is based in factual information about tangible decisions taken or proposed to be on your behalf.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Speed the Plow!
Notes of Concern…
… Jack Blair
THANKS TO THE PLOW
I was thinking of snow and that made me think of plows which raised in my consciousness the idea of the plowman. Mixed in there somewhere was the Broadway show called “Speed the Plow” by David Mamet but I digress.
There is no need to spend a lot of time talking about what we have already experienced this winter. Unlike my fellow columnist Jerry Carton, I actually like winter and I love snow.
Enough already!
I had to pay a very nice fellow to clear my roof so I could avoid arguments down the road with my insurance company over natural disasters. There just was no choice. Not this winter
The fellow who plows my driveway, and a right fine man he is, has been very inventive in finding new places to pile the snow at my house. His ingenuity deserves a rave review
That said, come spring when my wife is looking at how many areas of lawn require leveling and seeding he will go quickly from a “Knight in Shining Armor” to “The Fiend from Hell.”
Seriously, all of us have had to rely on the folks who watch the weather forecasts, stay up all night and work while we are asleep in our warm beds, ensuring that we will awake to passable roads that permit us to reach our destinations.
All of this requires coordination and planning and, most importantly, execution. These folks come in the middle of the night, just like Santa, and do their thing. We get up in the morning and head out to the daily grind.
How many businesses depend on the roads being clear so that not only their customers can get to them but their employees as well.
How many families where both spouses are in the work force are grateful that Schools are open and the kids do not have to miss out on their continuing education.
How many of you have occasion to be grateful that an ambulance could get to your home and subsequently arrive safely at the hospital.
The list could go on and on and on.
So a “thank you” goes out to all the people who operate the plows, push the shovels, and make certain we are as safe as we can be to go about our lives each and every day.
If anyone asks me what fuels America, this week I would have to say the snowplow drivers.
Hang in there friends. Spring, they tell me, is just around the corner.
… Jack Blair
THANKS TO THE PLOW
I was thinking of snow and that made me think of plows which raised in my consciousness the idea of the plowman. Mixed in there somewhere was the Broadway show called “Speed the Plow” by David Mamet but I digress.
There is no need to spend a lot of time talking about what we have already experienced this winter. Unlike my fellow columnist Jerry Carton, I actually like winter and I love snow.
Enough already!
I had to pay a very nice fellow to clear my roof so I could avoid arguments down the road with my insurance company over natural disasters. There just was no choice. Not this winter
The fellow who plows my driveway, and a right fine man he is, has been very inventive in finding new places to pile the snow at my house. His ingenuity deserves a rave review
That said, come spring when my wife is looking at how many areas of lawn require leveling and seeding he will go quickly from a “Knight in Shining Armor” to “The Fiend from Hell.”
Seriously, all of us have had to rely on the folks who watch the weather forecasts, stay up all night and work while we are asleep in our warm beds, ensuring that we will awake to passable roads that permit us to reach our destinations.
All of this requires coordination and planning and, most importantly, execution. These folks come in the middle of the night, just like Santa, and do their thing. We get up in the morning and head out to the daily grind.
How many businesses depend on the roads being clear so that not only their customers can get to them but their employees as well.
How many families where both spouses are in the work force are grateful that Schools are open and the kids do not have to miss out on their continuing education.
How many of you have occasion to be grateful that an ambulance could get to your home and subsequently arrive safely at the hospital.
The list could go on and on and on.
So a “thank you” goes out to all the people who operate the plows, push the shovels, and make certain we are as safe as we can be to go about our lives each and every day.
If anyone asks me what fuels America, this week I would have to say the snowplow drivers.
Hang in there friends. Spring, they tell me, is just around the corner.
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