AM I worth it?

Every day, men and women in the miltary put their lives on the line to keep this country safe. Because of the situation in the Iraq and Afganistan, on most days one or more of those lives are lost. On this day, when we honor those who have given their lives to keep the rest of us safe, each of us needs to ask ourself a simple question; “What have I done to make this country, this world, a better place?”

Many, if not most of us, live our lives in relative comfort, taking for granted the lifestyle, safety and freedom that this country offers us. While not everyone has what it takes to fight this country’s battles, everyone has the ability to contribute in some way. The needs are seemingly endless, and the ways in which to help are just as great, and limited only by the imagination. Whether it involves joining an existing group to tackle a big problem or taking it upon ones self to deal with a smaller one, the efforts add up, and if everyone did a little the results would be great.

Plenty of Americans volunteer on a regular basis to help in ways they consider to be important. The new president is a supporter of public service to the nation and is calling for more volunteerism to help make this country a better place. Many young people are answering the call and looking for ways in which to contribute, and it would be great if we all did.

For over 200 years, members of the military services have gone overseas to fight our country’s enemies and keep the rest of us safe at home. We at home need to ask ouselves whether, with other Americans putting their lives on the line to keep us safe, have we done everything we can to make the country they are defending a better place for them to come home to.

Each of us should think about it and then ask ourselves -

“Am I worth dying for?”

I’m beginning to think that I’m not the kid I used to be. One sure indication of that is the realization that I don’t really like to sleep on the ground any more. Over the years I’ve slept on the ground in more places than most people have been. The year after I got out of the army was spent kicking around Europe in a VW Beetle I bought in Germany, along with a pup tent from the PX and a sleeping bag and air mattress that the army was nice enough to lose track of. I didn’t live in the tent, but I had a limited amount of money, and when it was gone I was going home, so I wanted to make it last. Camping was a good way to do that, especially at the beaches, where you could camp right by the water, and you could meet a lot more people in a campground than you ever could at a hotel. During the two summers I spent experiencing Europe I stayed at beaches on the Mediterranean from Greece to Gibraltar, and all the way to Denmark on the North Sea, staying in campgrounds by the beach for much of the time. I met and made friends with people from all over the continent and many of them invited me to visit and stay with them if I came to their city or town. I took a lot of them up on it. All in all, it was a great year. I got to see Europe in a way I never could as a tourist and got to know a lot of great people along the way, and stayed in touch with many of them for years.

When I came home I still had the travel bug, only now I wanted to see this country. In Europe the most impressive sites are the cities or other man-made structures. In America the most impressive sites are the natural wonders that nature has provided us with, and I wanted to see it all. Europe has the Alps, and they are really something to see. I still remember my first look at them; we were driving down from Munich, and we came around a bend and there was the Zugspitz, the highest peak in Germany. It was December and it was covered in snow; it was quite a sight. I think everyone remembers the first look at the Alps. But we have the Grand Tetons, a smaller version of the Alps, as well as Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and so many more incredible natural wonders, and I wanted to see them all. And I wanted the photographs to remember them by. Many of those photos adorn my walls today.

Most people see these sites from a scenic overlook set up by the park service and never get more than a few feet from their car. To really experience these places you have to get into the back country to see the out of the way sites most people never see. That was where I wanted to be. To get there you need to put everything you need in a backpack and start walking. It is worth the effort to get to these places that few even know about.

I guess my favorite place to explore is the Grand Canyon. It is so big and varied and rich with the history of time that you cannot help but be awestruck every time you see it. The view changes constantly as you descend from the rim, with each turn of the trail revealing a new and more impressive view of the Canyon that you could never see from the top. All around you the canyon walls reveal hundreds of millions of years of the geological history of the planet.

On a moonless night the canyon walls block any light from the rim. You can lie on the ground in your bag in almost total darkness and look up through the clearest air at a sky filled with more stars than you have ever seen. Light from the sun coming from the far side of the planet reflects off the skin of satellites far out in space, allowing you to watch them as they travel across the sky.

I haven’t slept on the ground in years. I still keep a backpack equipped with everything I need for a short trip, but it hasn’t been used in awhile. These days, after a day of trekking around the mountains with my dog, I like to come back to a room or cabin with a soft bed, a hot shower, A/C in the summer and heat in the winter, and a TV, preferably with cable. But most of all, I’m hungry, and for me nothing tops off a day of enjoying the great outdoors like a pizza, fresh from the oven and delivered to my room. I have eaten a lot of different foods after a day in the woods, and to be honest they all taste good when you are hungry, but nothing tastes as good as a fresh hot pizza.

I’ll use that backpack again. There are still places I haven’t been that I want to see and experience; places where you can get away from the crowd and go where most people never go, where you can enjoy the quiet and solitude and relax and reflect. And when I return I know that the two things I want most will be a cold beer and a hot pizza.

You hear so many stories about animals being abused or neglected that you want to tune them out and not hear any more, but they just keep coming. Some are so obviously intentional and malicious that you know instinctively that the person or persons responsible need to be locked up. The Michael Vick case is the one most people around here think of first, but there are plenty of worse cases, some involving torture and mutilation, that make what Vick and his friends did pale in comparison.

Then you have the case of the puppy mill in Pennsylvania that was cited by inspectors for the poor conditions the dogs were living in, and given two weeks to make improvements and get medical care for those that needed it. The two brothers who owned the business looked at the cost involved for the improvements and vet care and decided that it was more than they wanted to spend, considering that no one was buying their dogs anyway. So they shot all 75 dogs and buried them in a mass grave. When the inspectors returned for a follow-up look, the brothers told them what they had done and showed them the grave. It turned out that they had not broken any law. Pennsylvania law included shooting as a legal form of euthanasia. That this law had probably been on the books for over 100 years and was meant as a way to put a sick cow or an injured horse out of its suffering did not matter. The brothers paid fines for the original violations and lost their kennel license, which they didn’t want anymore, and walked away.

The incident so outraged the people of the state, from the governor on down, that the legislature passed strict new animal abuse laws during its next session. Although it was too late to help those 75 dogs, maybe some good did come from it, and other animals will benefit from what happened to them.

Cases like these are so egregious that they cry out for punishment. Then there are the ones that just boggle the mind and leave you wondering how something so awful could happen, even though the reason is almost always the same. It begins with someone trying to help or do the right thing and results in greater suffering than in most intentional cases.

The most recent case in the Atlanta area involves a woman who kept 21 dogs confined in a boarded up house with no heat, air-conditioning, light or ventilation for possibly eighteen months. Six or seven of the dogs were kept in a disabled van in the back yard, and it is thought that none of the dogs had been outside in that time. The woman’s mother had died in January 2008, and the house and dogs belonged to the mother. It is uncertain how many dogs the daughter started with since, as she told authorities, they kept multiplying, but she decided to “care for them” in her mother’s house. She claimed to have brought them food every day, but as the number of dogs increased, the cost went up and less food was brought.

When Cherokee County authorities arrived after receiving a tip, they were driven back by the overpowering stench of ammonia from the urine inside the house. They had to come back the next day with protective clothing and breathing apparatus. Most, if not all, of the dogs were euthanized due to their poor health and other problems. The woman who had been “caring for” the dogs seemed to have no idea that she had done anything wrong, believing that she had been taking care of the dogs she had inherited to the best of her abilities.

Another case of neglect/abuse in the Atlanta area occurred in Alpharetta in 2005, where 134 dead cats were found in a house in a nice middle class subdivision, along with 26 other cats in very bad condition. It was estimated that some of the cats had been dead for six months, and all were thought to have died of starvation or dehydration. What makes this case even more disturbing is that this woman wasn’t some lone nutcase who collected every stray she saw until she was overrun with animals. This was a responsible Arescue groups in the area for years and was well known and respected in the rescue community. She adopted cats from these groups and also provided a foster home for rescue cats.

Rescue groups that use foster homes to house any of the animals they take in are required by law to inspect these homes every six months to ensure that the living conditions are up to code. Apparently no one ever inspected this woman’s home, or this situation would never have been allowed to get so out of hand.

As this woman continued to adopt and provide foster care for more and more cats, no one seemed to notice that she was taking in a lot of cats for one person, or that no one ever saw these cats again. The system failed these cats and it cost them dearly.

At some point, the burden of the enormous responsibility she had taken on became too much for her and she just shut down. Rather than ask for help, which people in this situation rarely do, whether out of shame or fear of getting in trouble, she just walked away from it. She left home and didn’t come back.

Only the number of animals involved separates this incident from so many others that take place all the time. People want to help, and they do at first, but then they take on more than they can handle, and it all goes wrong. That is what makes it so sad. People like this want to help and do the right thing, and end up doing more harm than the real criminals.

I know, you don’t really. Some people hate them. That’s a little extreme. We really need to save that hate stuff for something important, or not use it at all. It would sure be a lot nicer world to live in if so many people didn’t hate the person or group they disagree with and would just choose to disagree. But ,of course, I’m off topic already.

Back to PETA. I have mixed feelings about them, much like everything else. They mean well and they do a lot of good, but they tend to get carried away at times. And they get hysterical over the strangest things. And they are at it again. Today they are calling the president an animal abuser because - hold on folks, this is a big one - he swatted a fly that was bothering him. No kidding, I saw it on TV, and it was a vicious attack.

In an attempt to limit house fly abuse in the White House, PETA is sending Obama a device he can use to capture the flies and release them outdoors. Really.

Now it doesn’t matter whether you voted for him or not, or whether you think he is doing a good job or not, he is the president of the United States and he better have a lot more important things to do than chase flies around the White House with a net so he can then set them free to bother someone else.

Like I said, ya gotta love ‘em.

The controversy over remarks David Letterman made on his show about Sarah Palins daughter continues and intensifies daily. In comments about Palin’s trip to New York and attendance at a Yankee game with her 14 year old daughter Willow, Letterman stated that during the seventh inning stretch, Palin’s daughter got knocked up by Alex Rodreguez. Even though he was referring to Palin’s other daughter Bristol, the attempt at humor was not only not funny, but was way out of line. Whether Letterman wants to believe it or not, kids are off limits when it comes to these insulting remarks.

Bristol is 18 now, and in Letterman’s mind that makes her fair game, but he is wrong. During the recent presidential campaign she was a 17 year old high school kid, pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby. They planned to get married and she had the baby out of wedlock. Then the boyfriend got cold feet and backed off, leaving her with a baby and no husband. Is this a reason to portray her as someone who would go down into the lockerroom between innings and have sex with a ball player? No, it isn’t. She’s just a kid; a kid who made a mistake, like a lot of kids do, and found out the hard way that sex is a little more complicated than just scratching an itch.

I’m a big David Letterman fan, but in this case he is wrong. He is a nice guy with a zany sense of humor, but his humor can be edgy and sometimes it can go over the edge. This is one of those times. The thing is, those probably aren’t even his own words. He has a team of writers who write his material and wrote those comments for him. That doesn’t excuse him from blame. He is the final editor and censor, and he should have seen that this was over the line and removed it before it ever got on the air.

A lot of people think that this is being used by the adults to promote themselves. Letterman is in a ratings battle with Conan O’Brien and may feel that this media attention will draw viewers to his show. Palin is thought to be interested in her party’s nomination for president in 2012, and might feel that this can help her image. That would be a shame because this is not about them; it is about two young girls who should have been left alone. Letterman and Palin need to bring this to a close, and it has to be them because the media will continue to keep this going as long as they can. Sarah Palin needs to shut up and David Letterman needs to stand up.

Letterman needs to be a man and admit that what he said was out of line and apologize to the Palin girls and to their family. He will look better for it and this incident will fade away. He might even get Sarah to come on his show and make amends in person. Of course, asking Sarah Palin to come on the show to bury the hatchet might not work out as planned.

One more reason to drink bottled water—

The water supply for the city of Atlanta springs from the ground clear and pure in the mountains about eighty miles north of town. What happens to it on the way to your tap is enough to make anyone vomit, and now it gets worse just before it starts toward your home.

That pure mountain spring water forms brooks that become streams that eventually form the Chestatee and Chatahoochee Rivers which flow into Lake Lanier, the source of Atlanta’s water supply. That is where the problem begins. Cities and counties around the lake are permitted to dump treated sewage into the lake. Sometimes it is treated, sometimes not so treated. In addition, the chicken farms and processing plants produce a lot of manure and waste product that is supposed to be kept away from the lake, but it has been documented that a lot of it finds its way into the water supply.

Recently Gwinnett County was given permission to dump millions of gallons of treated sewage into Lake Lanier right at Buford Dam, where the water leaves the lake to travel down the Chattahoochee River to Atlanta. This is the river that had to be listed as unsafe for swimming not long ago because it was so polluted. This is the water Atlanta drinks. As if that was not enough, it gets worse.

Water is pumped from the river to the reservoir on Howell Mill Road, where it is treated with enough chemicals to kill whatever is in it and sent on its way to your faucet. But recently a new ingredient has been added. A flock of 60-70 Canada geese has decided to take up residence in the reservoir. Now geese are beautiful birds, graceful swimmers and all that. But they like to eat, and that is where the problem begins. A single goose can produce a pound or more of poop each day, as much as a large dog. And these geese are leaving it in the drinking water, or on the grass around the reservoir, where rain can wash it into the drinking water. Still thirsty?

The geese like the reservoir, and why not? It is a great place to live. A fence keeps out any predators, there is plenty of grass to eat and water to drink, so why leave? In an effort to convince the unwanted guests that they might like someplace else better, the city has contracted to bring in a team of border collies to keep the geese off the grass. The dogs come by a few times a week and spend the day making things uncomfortable for the geese. They have to fly away or stay in the water, and since there is nothing to eat in the water, eventually they get hungry and take of for greener pastures, so to speak.

Many of them will probably fly north and land on the river, where they can find food and poop in the water, so that it can travel downstream and get pumped into the reservoir.

So, which brand looks good today?

Michael Vick will be getting out of jail soon, and that will upset a lot of people. Emotions run high on this issue, with many animal lovers feeling he got off too easy and should have spent a lot more time in jail. On the other side are Vick fans and supporters who believe he did nothing wrong and got a raw deal. We will be hearing from both sides soon enough.

It is hard to feel anything but anger and disgust toward Vick for the things he did, and sympathy is too much to expect, but when Michael Vick gets out of prison he deserves a second chance. The court determined his sentence and he will have completed it; now he should be given the opportunity to get on with his life. It’s not like it is going to be a cakewalk; he will be on parole with a suspended sentence hanging over his head. One mis-step and he will be back behind bars. He will be subject to frequent random tests for drugs and alcohol, and a positive test would violate his parole and he would be back in jail. He has no choice but to walk the straight and narrow.

The time Vick spent in prison is the least of his punishment, although having almost two years of your life taken away from you is no slap on the wrist. Then again, playing quarterback for both offensive units on the prison football team is not what most people think of as hard time. But for someone who had it made and threw it all away, living inside concrete walls and viewing your world through bars leaves plenty of time to reflect on how badly you blew it.

Michael Vick’s real punishment came in many forms, starting with the discovery that his celebrity sports hero status, his imaginary “gangsta” persona, or his disdain and disregard for the law didn’t impress the feds, who saw just another punk lawbreaker they were going to take down.

Next came the shock of having his closest buddies,guys who claim to live by the “no snitch” code, informing on him to lessen their own sentences. When faced with the reality of the federal justice system, it didn’t take long for these “bad dogs” to roll over and pee on themselves.

It got worse. Ratted out by his best friends, Vick now had totaccept and come to terms with the enormity of his screw-up. In front of him was a prison term of unknown length. Behind him was everything else. He had it made and threw it all away, and for what? Some gambling money to be made from a lowlife criminal operation? It might have seemed like a lot of money to his friends, but for Vick it was chump change. He had a chance to bring his friends along, help raise them above the place they began, get an education, learn a tradeor start a business, or separate himself from them if they didn’t want to come along. Instead he sank back down to their level and it cost him everything.

Perhaps the worst part of the whole mess for Vick was the knowledge that the man who had given him everything he had now wanted nothing to do with him. Arthur Blank, one of the richest and most decent men on the planet, had taken him in and treated him like a son. It was he who had given Vick the $130 million contract that was now gone. Blank would probably have helped Vick in any way he could to make something of his life when his football career was over. Instead he gave his loyalty to his lowlife friends and they helped put him in jail.

When Vick finishes serving his time he will have paid his debt to society and will deserve a chance to get on with his life.A lot of people will disagree with that, believing that the punishment was not severe enough, and they will try to make his life as difficult as possible. They have that right, but is it really the best choice.

It all depends on Michael Vick himself. If he has learned anything from this lesson and understands that what he did was wrong, if he wants to atone for what he did and make amends, he deserves the opportunity to be a force for good. There is much he can do to offset what he did before. If, on the other hand, he comes out of prison with a chip on his shoulder, believing that he did nothing wrong and got screwed by the system, he could be starting down the wrong path.

Michael Vick is not someone who can fake sincerity, and if he tries to pretend he has changed people will see right through it. Why not wait and see whether a new version of Vick emerges from behind bars, or just the old one, and go from there.