By

Andrew DeMarco

 

This past Memorial Day I was watching as President Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. The simplicity of a wreath laying ceremony makes it even more moving and it got me thinking how, and this may sound strange, Arlington is one of my favorite places in the D.C. area and whenever I am in the area it is a must see.

In addition to the solemnity of the Tomb of the Unknowns you have the vista of the Kennedy Grave site looking back at Washington D.C. and the Maine Memorial with the original mast from the Maine Battleship, the graves of Audie Murphy and Joe Louis and all the other stones in perfect rows.

I was still watching the ceremony with the President when of one of the reporters made the following comment. “Presently less than one percent of the population of the United States serves in the military.”  Imagine less than one percent, talk about the few and the proud.

This reminded me of one very proud tomb stone at Arlington which always stood out to me and which simply reads:

POTTER STEWART

Lt JG.  U.S. Navy

Jan.23 1915 – Dec.7 1985

Dearly Loved and Loving

Husband, Father and Grandfather

You might ask, “What is so special about this tombstone why does it stand out?” Well if the name Potter Stewart doesn’t ring a bell let me explain. Potter Stewart was an Associated Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1959 to 1981.  So to Potter Stewart one of the most important titles he held in life was not that of a Supreme Court Justice, but rather Lt JG in the Navy and a family man and obviously very proud of both titles.

Now more about the few: when I heard that less than one percent presently serve it reminded me of other percentages that were tossed around a few summers ago. It brought me back to Zuccotti Park and the Occupy Wall Street movement and all the talk of the greedy 1%, being unjust to the 99%.  Now no matter where you stand on that debate, just remember for these people to freely protest, assemble, and make as much money as they can, the less than 1% are making it possible for them and doing it proudly. Now I know these numbers will not add up but for all the talk about the 1% or the 99% the most important number to them and any of us should be the less than 1%.

 I know it is a cliché that is tossed around how those who serve protect our most important rights such as freedom of speech, religion and the right to bear arms, when you look at it in the context that less than one percent protects these sacred rights for the billions of us they are the ones that deserve the attention not the one or ninety-nine. In fact it is estimated that since the founding of our country 237 years ago only 6-8% of our total population during all that time have served in the military.  This is a remarkably low percentage considering a Civil War and two World Wars as well as the drafts that were in place then.

So while watching the ceremony I got lost in my thoughts. Having gone to school in the 60s and 70s I had a different view of military service. The Vietnam War was at its peak and the military was looked at as evil.  Then I thought about my father who came from Italy in his teens and ended up becoming a citizen during WWII while in service to his adopted country in what was then the Territory of Alaska. I remembered my conversations with my uncles who were members of the “Greatest Generation” as well as with my cousins and older friends who served in Vietnam and the one thing that stands out was how proud and modest they were about their service.

As I have gotten older I have a whole different perspective about the military and those who have served and more importantly the Less than One Percent who serve us now. I know I will get in trouble for this with the Marines, but their slogan The Few, the Proud, the Marines should be adopted by all the service branches and should read, “The Few, the Proud the United States Military!”  So I will look forward to our next holiday that honors, these men and women, Veteran’s Day and I know that when I look at both Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day these holidays and our service men and women both past and present it will give me that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…Rosy Glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 By

 

Andrew DeMarco

Just last month we celebrated what has become an annual event since 1970, “Earth Day.”  Founded as a day of education about environmental issues, Earth Day is now a globally celebrated holiday that is often extended for a whole week.  It was the brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to raise public awareness of air and water pollution and to bring environmental causes to the national spotlight.  While much has changed in regard to the way we handle pollution and conservation since the first Earth Day, much was made last month of some of the original predictions made for our world on that day 43 years ago.

Here are some of those predictions:

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something,” ecologist Kenneth Watt declared to a Swarthmore College audience on April 19, 1970.

Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich: “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make.” “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.” “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day, in the Spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.

Other predictions called for both global warming and global cooling along with the rising of sea levels. (I guess they weren’t quite sure which would win out.)  There were warnings of the world running out of oil and other fuels and air pollution levels would be so intolerable that most of us would not be able to breathe.

Well here we are in 2013, and while we now have the benefit of hind sight many of these originally predictions seem like gloom and doom and very farfetched.  Some would say that it was a typical overreaction by “tree huggers” and none of it was ever real.  While this might be true, I prefer to look at it another way.  Maybe these predictions would have come true if not for good old ingenuity.

For example, when confronted with a challenge, it seems that humankind will always find a way to overcome it.  Just look back to that day in 1961 when President Kennedy issued a challenge to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade and by July of 1969 we had accomplished this.  I remember my grandfather marveling at this accomplishment because as he said it didn’t seem that long ago for him that he was marveling about the Wright Brothers.  So maybe just maybe it was again when faced with a challenge we can come through.

Advances in agriculture have increased crop production, and although 100 million have died in ten years from famine, which still is far too many, it is a far cry from the 100 to 200 million a year that was predicted.  Some will say genetic altering of crops is harmful, I say saving lives through this innovation is more important.

Energy shortages which were predicted did not come to pass, due to a number of factors.  First legislation, and although I am not a fan of big government too many regulations in this case may be working.  When faced with increasing mileage standards, car makers always seem to manage to come through using technology to get better mileage out of their cars.  Also, whether you are a fan of fossil fuels or not, advances in the extraction of oil and coal have also contributed to this prediction falling flat.  Again the legislation of clean air standards has led to the advances in the cleaner burning of these fuels improving air quality and thus another prediction has not come true.

I also believe that human ingenuity will lead to further advances in the development of ways to make even nuclear energy cleaner and safer and the development of alternative energies such as wind and solar more practical. 

So whether you believe in global warming or cooling, alternative energy or fossil fuels, looking at Earth Day one could say it has been a success not in its predictions but in educating us about our environment and providing us with an incentive to make improvements through technology and innovation.  I look forward to human ingenuity to continue to be challenged and overcome obstacles. (I hope they are working on that asteroid deflector right now.) Knowing that we can make this world a better place when challenged fills me with that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that …. Rosy Glow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By

Bob LaTorre

 

I walked out of the house the other night and it was difficult to decide if it was a spring night or a winter night. The wind had a defiant winter chill to it but in between gusts the air had a distinct feeling of spring. These late winter early spring days come about each year and I have grown to call them the in between day. They come about at each change of season.

In the fall they cause us to try to hang on to the fading days of summer, while we can see the leaves changing color and the nights are no longer sultry. We also resist the change from fall to winter. Look at how many of us are still wearing light weight clothing after winter winds make them uncomfortable.

It is very human to resist change and the resistance to seasonal change is also very human. It is also bad for our psyche. Many people still believe that the change of seasons is the time for the greatest number of common colds. People with ulcers often equate their attacks to seasonal changes. Our moods tend to be the lowest at these in between season moments and now as I wait impatiently for spring I find my glow at its lowest point.

But it was after all, the optimists, who invented the clock and calendar. We know that each season has built with it the promise of the future.

Those promises are what keep us going. It is the promises of better things to come which is the basis of all faith. Christian teachings tell us that this world is merely a preparation for the longer, better life to come. The trials of this world like the between season times are merely a test period.

The basic psychology of humans is designed to take us through the transition times. What was it that Scarlet O’Hara said at the end of “Gone With the Wind”   “I won’t think about it today I’ll wait until tomorrow.”  More recently our hero little orphan Annie Sang about “Tomorrow…Tomorrow, I love you tomorrow you are always a day away.”

In our own lives, in addition to our impatience with the change of season we continue to run into transition periods which seen interminable. Waiting for Christmas and summer vacation as a child, the last days of high school and college and the final days before a wedding seemed to go on forever. All of these between days tend to cause that high anxiety of waiting for a change.

At my age, while not anxious for it to happen I can feel myself beginning to slip into those days between maturity and “Old Age.” Just as I could feel the hint of spring in the air of a winter night I can surely feel the hint of age in my body and more importantly in my mind. While this is not a change which I look forward to, it is one which will come.

Perhaps what I am feeling is my mind and body getting ready for my next season. Just as the weather gives us some hints to get us ready for a seasonal change it may be that we are programmed to make change of mental clothing. Our minds and bodies are saying to us you are entering a new time in life. Well ready or not here it comes. I will get old just as sure as the next few weeks will bring spring.

I guess I can’t be too old if I can still look forward to spring and summer as I do.

Old or young when that first real spring day comes I will be in a shirt sleeve mood one filled with a …rosy glow.

Rosy Glow – Baseball

By
Andrew DeMarco

With the beginning of the new baseball season I was reminded of an event that happened a while ago. Two years ago I learned something about my wife that needed to be remedied. I found out that she had never been to a professional baseball game. I learned about this when someone at her office offered her two tickets to a Yankee game and she wanted to go. I found this strange since I went to my first game at the tender age of five.

I thought it was about time that she experienced the thrill of our national pastime, so I agreed to meet her that Friday night after work and help her scratch another item off her bucket list.

It should be noted that at one time I would have jumped at the opportunity to go to a game, whether baseball, football, or hockey, you name it I was there. However I found that as I get older going to a game is more of a chore than enjoyment. I am not good with huge crowds anymore and although a diehard Yankee fan I do not like the new stadium, to me it is a monument to one man’s ego where the old stadium was a monument to the team, however I went nonetheless.

After having a bite to eat we found our seats which I felt were overpriced but decent enough, especially for a first game. My wife was taking in all the sights and sounds before the game and we both realized that it was one of those hot and humid summer nights. Right after the National Anthem the public address announcer made the following announcement. “The New York Yankees would like to announce that at the outset of tonight’s game it is the hottest game time starting temperature in the history of the Yankees 102 degrees!” I am thinking it is 7:00pm and 102, I really don’t need this. So the game commences and to make matters worse the Yankees and A’s score 14 runs between them in just the first 3 innings. We have been here about 2 hours and the game is just a third over.

So now I am longing for home and my Lazy Boy in the air conditioning with “cold beer” and not paying outrageous prices for warm beer. Then I notice the kids in front of us who are oblivious to the heat and humidity and at the edge of their seats hanging on every pitch. I look at my wife and she is really enjoying all this, she is like the little kids in front of us rooting on the Yankees, and becoming the head cheerleader for the kids. My wife is also making friends with everyone sitting around us and they are all getting a kick out of her enthusiasm.

Suddenly the heat and humidity got the best of me and my mind became foggy, and things changed, I was not longer in the bazaar that is the New Yankee Stadium, but I was across 161ST Street in the original Stadium, with its columns and façade. I was with my father and at my first ball game in 1960. I am seeing the Tigers playing the Yankees in one of those Sunday doubleheaders which were the norm. The first game ended in the bottom of the 10th inning when Bill “Moose” Skowron hit a three run homer. I was with my father the following year for my first night game, against the Indians. I was there with my father, Uncle Cappy and Cousin Louis for an old timer’s game and seeing Joe D, Don Larson, and Johnny Mize to name a few.

Next stop was in the updated Stadium at the” Pine Tar” game sitting in the “good seats” (three rows back at the first base end of the Yankee dugout) with George Brett running out of the Royals dugout and right at me and my buddies Dean and Rich. I was remembering all the games we use to go to and the premier parking thanks to some old friends and high school buddies who were now New York’s Finest. I remember when I was older reversing the roles by taking my father to a game on Father’s Day, and telling him not to eat too many hog dogs or drink too much beer because if he gets sick my mother would yell at me.

The next thing I know it was an hour later and I am back in the Bazaar and it is just the sixth inning. It was at this point that my wife told me she had experienced enough, I guess the kid in her was getting tired and she wanted to go. It should be noted that the little guys in front of us were still going strong, although I could not say the same for their parents. So we make our way to the train and settle in for our ride home. My wife is going on about how she enjoyed the game, and the crowd, sounds and excitement of the game. So even though the heat and humidity had provided an uncomfortable feeling, watching my wife and those kids along with my heat induced flashback provided me with what Cousin Bob would call that Rosy Glow.

 

 

Rosy Glow – Longevity

By

Bob La Torre

 

My good friend the minister recently returned from a trip to Africa and reported that, although only in his early 50s, he was considered an old man by his hosts. What startled his African friends even more was his report that both of his parents still lived. Their reaction was that must be astoundingly old.

Longevity is one of those things we tend to take for granted in America today. In our county alone, which is a popular retirement locale, there are more than 100,000 retired people – about one-third of the population. What is more many of them came here after retirement (age 65), more than 20 years ago.

I love it when I speak at one of the retirement clubs and they announce birthdays. They begin with the 90 year-old celebrants and com up to the bids of 60 years of age or less. Living long is a way of life for us. Many people spend most of their time working for 25 years, while planning for all of the things they will do in retirement.

A look at our obituary pages shows that few people under 60 years of age die in our area. None of this is true in most places outside of the United States. So it is no wonder that the African host of my friend were so impressed with his age. We do live longer and what is more we live more rewarding and productive lives in old age that ever in the history of the human race.

In the natural state man was lucky to have a lifespan much past40 years of age. Men and women who lived until the age of 50 were considered ancient. What confuses us about age is that when we see photographs of “old people” in other cultures, they look much older than they really are.

A combination of good diet, good medical care, and a better lifestyle has allowed us to not only live longer, but look younger.

As a grandparent, I am sometimes amused by commercials that attempt to depict a grandchild with a grandparent. The people, costumes, and lifestyles are more like those of my grandparents and certainly not like ours.

One of the reasons for this inconsistency is that grandma is far more likely to be found today on the tennis court than in the kitchen.

Those who long for the good old days either have short memories or are very young. All but one of my grandparents were dead before I was born. And that was more the norm at the time.

The Lesson for those of us who are reaching old age is that instead of complaining about a little bit of arthritis or lack of stamina, we should be tickled that we will be around to have these “old age” complaints. After 50 years, these are no natural warranties on our bodies. Each year of the good life is more a product of science and technology than of nature.

As far as the condition of these old skin and bones, well that really is up to the individual I have observed men and women in their 60s who are in excellent physical shape, but that too dies not happen naturally. It takes a lot of hard work, but we that option –an option not open to very many people on the planet.

Next time you find yourself complaining about some aches and pains when you first wake up, remember what George Burns said when he was asked how it felt to wake up at 90: “Considering the alternative, it feels quite good.”

That of course is the key to optimism…. No matter how bad things may seem…..considering the alternative…..this is better. At any age just waking up should start our day with that feeling-you know the one. I like to call it…a rosy glow.