Saturday, December 4, 2010

Teens. The Inspiring. The Troubling.

The answer to yesterday's Who Are We was the Hello Girls. You can read all about them in an essay written by one of their daughters:

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/signal.html

What a shame it is that it not only did it take almost sixty years for them to get their honorable discharges but that they aren't taught in history in schools. We should know about women like this. I found their story very inspirational.

Speaking of inspirational could there be a more inspirational story then the one that follows:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/46915/

She wanted to finish for her coach who suffers from a terminal disease. She did. With the drive that the young woman has, she is going to be an amazing success.

There are good kids accomplishing amazing feats like Holland Reynolds helping her team win the championship and then there are teens that are doing things that are really disturbing:

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/mexico-arrests-el-ponchis-american-boy-alleged-to-be-drug-cartel-hit-man/19745575?icid=main%7Chp-laptop%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk1%7C188128

Can you believe it? Where in the world were the boys parents? Boggles the mind.

Short day today. Oregon is playing Oregon State in football with the kickoff at 12:36PDT and that is a game for the ages here in Oregon. If Oregon wins they get to play for the national championship. If Oregon State wins they get to claim the state and head to a bowl game. I'm rooting for Oregon simply because I think it would be great for the State of Oregon if a school from our great state played for the championship. January 10, 2011, every TV in the state would be turned to the championship game if it included Oregon.

Your comments about anything, everything, anytime and anywhere are appreciated.

5 comments:

Pat said...

I had seen that crawl across the finish line on the news, but didn't know the story. How great for her and her coach that it gave her team the win!

The other story is horrifying. Mexico is totally going to hell these days, and using 11 to 14 year-olds as assassins is just the absolute bottom of the barrel. Just to belabor a point, if we in the US were not such good drug customers, maybe none of this stuff would be happening.

William J. said...

Hi James

Tracy must be a great coach to inspire such courage and loyalty in his students.

I checked out the web page and it was interesting.

Bill

William J. said...

hI Pat

I didn't know the story either because everyone just showed the video, which became an Internet sensation, without telling the story. After I looked I heard some of the story on the news I looked up the story.

Using 11 to 14 year-olds as assassins in my opinion would have to improve to reach the bottom of the barrel.

Bill

Lady DR said...

Welcome, James. I don't recall seeing you here before. Can you add some information - does Holland have medical problems, that caused her collapse? I didn't see that in the story. I think it's amazing that she managed to finish the race and help gain the championship. I'll be going to the link you provided - thanks for the info.

Bill thanks for sharing the story - your inspirational articles always brighten my days. And you're right - how come we never learned about the "Hello Girls" in history? As we've noted before, we learned a lot about men, but darned little about women who were so instrumental in victories in various wars, let alone "domestic" issues on the home front.

I found the story about the teenager appalling but, unfortunately, not too surprising. Mexico seems to be following the lead of so many countries - Irag, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China - where life has little value, of any, when one gets in the way of greed, ambition and power. Pat made a good point - if we weren't such good customers, would this be happening in Mexico? If we weren't such good customers for other items, would it be happening elsewhere in the world? Who knows?

William J. said...

Hi DR

James is new hear. He came from a search for the name Holland Reynolds. My understanding is that she didn't have medical problems. She cramped up during the race and then had dehydration.

I love inspirational stories, they keep me grounded and lead to me not giving up on several things.

I wish someone out there would trash the current history books used in high schools and go with ones that are inclusive of the history of all genders.

If we weren't good customers the drug lords would just find other countries that would step up and buy their products. I think it is more the case of security than legalization.

Bill