Puffs

Every so often a person reads, or hears, or sees something that strikes him in a particular way. It may be humorous, serious, or just plain interesting.

A couple of items caught my attention this past weekend which I’d like to pass on. You may think uninteresting, or silly, or just wonder if I don’t have something better to write about.

Basketball . . . A sport that maybe doesn’t have as much interest as football, but a sport I enjoy watching.

High school and college versions of this game is what I enjoy and this year’s Nebraska Cornhusker Men’s team has a player from Japan that I love to watch.

His name is Keisei Tominaga and is a starting guard on the team. He is a good “3-pt.” shooter, but what I like about his play is that he seems to be really enjoying playing the game. He has fun.

His antics after a good play are not ‘self-serving’ like so many players in the pro’s or in college. He just seems to enjoy playing with the team with smiles and actions of enjoyment.

I’m happy there are many of the Husker basketball games on TV and I watch as many as I can.

Also with basketball. Last weekend was something of an ‘alumni’ weekend. They brought former Husker basketball coach, Danny Nee, back for the weekend along with many of the players from that era. It had to be a fun weekend for the basketball alumni, players, fans and everyone else.

Football . . . I don’t watch a lot of professional football . . . unless I have a good reason. Well, last weekend the Green Bay Packers were playing a playoff game and since we have a lot of relation living in that great state of Wisconsin, I have an interest in the Packer Playoff games. (I might get kicked out of the family if I don’t.)

However, the Packers lost the game and I think I know why. The way the Packer defensive players were tackling kind of reminded me of the Nebraska Cornhuskers defense in recent years. Many times, a Packer defender did make contact with the offensive runner, but just did not secure the tackle by wrapping his arms around the legs of the runner. He would bounce off.

. . . Just like many defenders on the recent Cornhusker football teams.

No need to say more.

A O

One other item that made me smile last weekend.

I am presently reading a book about Cuba. The first quarter, or third, of the book gives a nice history of the island from about the 1850s to the present. Of course a lot of the history is about Fidel Castro.

Fidel was raised ‘Catholic’ but like most all of his predecessors, he reneged on most all of his promises made on the way to becoming the leader of the nation.

As you know, here in the U. S. enough lawyers are of questionable standards that they stain the reputation of the many that are good and quality men or women.

The line that caught my attention and made me smile came about when the author was talking about Fidel’s college years. He had a good memory and could recite books almost word for words. However, he did not like to work all that hard in school. He did not attend classes, but did earn his lawyer’s degree.

Later, he said of his school years: “Those of us with nothing to do went to law school.”

I found that an interesting comment and tells me a lot about Mr. Castro. Those few words casts’ aspersions on all lawyers, most of whom do not deserve it.

A O

With 2024 being an election year, there will be many ‘twists and turns’ in the national news media and it has started already.

Just a few weeks ago there were many Republicans wanting the job as president. Now, we’re down to two.

There will also be many more changes in the weeks . . . months to come. You will hear some in the media proclaim this is the most important election our nation has ever had . . . just like they did four years ago, and eight years ago and 12 years . . . etc.

What I am most concerned about this election cycle is our country’s history of being better than many (if not most) countries today and throughout history.

We have had plenty of examples of dishonest and deceitful people in the U. S. government to date and we’ve survived them. However, I’m really concerned about how we’re going to move forward from here on.

I’m talking about our culture. Basically, how we live our everyday lives and who do we elect to govern our country and see that it is operating as we would like it to. Our daily lives are so much influenced by the national media which seems to have turned much of our history on its ear.

It wasn’t all that long ago when the media (and nation) certainly did not attempt to obtain “sympathy” for a lady wanting to kill her unborn child via an abortion.

However, did you notice that a woman in Texas wanted to kill her unborn baby because the baby had what was called ‘trisomy 18.’ Babies with this ailment would likely not survive more than a couple of weeks after birth.

The woman happened to live in Texas which has severely limited access to abortions and could not obtain an abortion there. The national news media made a big deal out of this fact and that the women had to travel to another state . . . just to kill her baby.

Have we changed so much that this type of behavior is acceptable to the average person in America?

I’m concerned about what our future will be if we continue to elect people to governmental offices that see nothing wrong in killing unborn children. This change in our culture is nothing new and has slowly changed over the past one hundred years or so. In fact, Mr. Alton Pelowski, editor of the Columbian magazine wrote a little piece that identifies when it started and one of the major players in starting it.

A piece of what he wrote goes like this: “In her 1920 book ‘Women and the New Race,’ Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, asserted, “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Sanger’s eugenic slogan “Birth Control: To create a Race of Thoroughbreds” gave way to the more palatable “Every Child a Wanted Child” – which sounds innocuous, but fails to acknowledge that an unborn baby is already a unique, living human being – and if unwanted, perhaps the defect is not with the child.”

There are many reasons a person may not want another child, but after the child’s life is started . . . it’s a little late to be concerned about those reasons. It’s a whole new ball game.

The national media made sure we knew about the women from Texas, but earlier in 2023, Indiana University Health published an article about a lady whose unborn child was diagnosed with trisomy 18. In her case, the family joyfully welcomed a daughter into the world for a few brief days and later started a nonprofit to encourage others facing similar diagnoses.

The national media made sure they tried to find sympathy and support for the woman who wanted to kill her child. The lady who gave birth to a child with a similar diagnoses . . . we never heard about.

Please don’t just cover your head and say “the election is just too confusing, I’m not taking part by voting.”

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to know who wants to kill unborn children and who doesn’t. Please find out what your favorite political candidate wants, and vote for him, or her.

A O