Posts Tagged ‘BobGaydos’

Julian, Jackie, Jesse and Jimmy Lee

Wednesday, February 5th, 2025

By Bob Gaydos

E6FA23C5-876B-4C22-B8DC-C239F7BEC568One of the perks of being a journalist is the possibility of encountering history anytime you’re on the job. The recent White House confusion over whether or not to recognize Black History Month (the defense secretary says no, Trump says yes) prompted me to look back at my 40-plus years with daily newspapers to see if I had had the good fortune to personally bump into any of it.

I had. Several times.

    As a young reporter covering government and politics for The Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., in the late 1960’s early ‘70’s, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a young crusader for civil rights argue his case on the steps of the Brooke County courthouse. Julian Bond was eloquent and forceful as ever.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center, headquartered in Montgomery, Ala., was founded in 1971 with Bond as its first president. Its purpose, as its web site declares: “To ensure that the promise of the Civil Rights movement became a reality for everyone.” It is still waging that battle.

   I also was fortunate enough to be assigned to cover one of the many civil rights marches in Washington, D.C, at the time, riding on one of the buses from Binghamton.

     My next encounter with Black History was brief and totally unexpected and one for which I am forever grateful. Still in Binghamton, I was filling in as a sports writer covering some kind of special event whose details escape me. Except for one.

    Half listening to a speech from the podium, my eyes wandered around the crowd and suddenly stopped on a figure leaning casually against a sidewall. Couldn’t be. But …

    Another thing about working as a journalist — you learn to not worry about asking “embarrassing” questions. In this case, no need to be embarrassed. I was right.

    I got up, walked right over, stuck out my hand and said, “A privilege to meet you, Mr. Robinson.”

    “Thank you. Nice to meet you.” Soft-spoken as always.

     Then I went back to my seat, having shook the hand of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. He was signed by Branch Rickey and started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, ending racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.

   Robinson enjoyed a sometimes tumultuous but  successful 10-year Hall of Fame career with the Dodgers, whom I hated as a lifelong Yankees fan. To honor his memory, on April 15 each year, all players in the major leagues wear Robinson’s number 42, which has been retired for all of baseball.

     My next brush with Black History came more than a decade later, in Charleston, S.C., where I was attending a conference of editorial writers.

     Jesse Jackson was one of the speakers. The outspoken minister/politician began his seven-decades long career as a civil rights leader as a protege of Martin Luther King Jr., eventually seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination twice and serving seven years as the District of Columbia’s shadow senator in Congress. He was always a force to be reckoned with.

   Again: “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Jackson” and a handshake with history.

                                 ***

    I had one other connection with Black History, which was less celebratory and more personal. Jimmy Lee Bruce died in the back of a patrol car near Middletown, N.Y., on Dec. 13, 1986. He was 20 years old. He and a group of friends from Ellenville, N.Y., had gone to a movie theater in a mall outside Middletown. The group became rowdy. There was drinking involved. Off-duty Middletown police officers acting as security guards, escorted the group out of the theater, where a scuffle ensued. An officer applied the choke hold to Bruce and tossed him in the back of a police car, which had brought two on-duty Town of Wallkill police officers to the scene.

    The police then drove around for 7 ½ minutes looking for Bruce’s friends. When they returned to the theater, a state trooper, who had also arrived on the scene, shined a flashlight in the back of the patrol car and noticed the young man was not responding to the light. Police rushed him to a nearby hospital, but attempts to revive him failed. 

     Bruce was black, the officers white. A grand jury refused to indict the police for the death because they had never been trained in the use of the hold, which was actually banned. No one’s fault.

   I wrote an editorial on the incident for the Middletown Times Herald-Record at the time criticizing police for not properly training officers to handle such situations. It concluded: “For relatives and friends of Jimmy Lee Bruce there can be only frustration and anger. But then, put yourself in their place and read a grand jury report that says your son is dead because no one knew what they were doing, but no one is responsible. Then tell them the system worked.
    Maude Bruce, Jimmy Lee’s mother, was president of the nearby Ellenville NAACP at the time of his death. She still is. Last year, she was awarded the Ulster County School Boards Association Distinguished Friend of Education Award. The annual award recognizes residents from the county’s school districts and Ulster BOCES for their dedication and commitment to students and schools.

Maude Bruce

Maude Bruce

  The announcement read:  “As president of the Ellenville NAACP, Bruce initiated a school supply distribution event that ensures all students begin the year with the tools they need. She is a constant and welcome presence on campus, inspiring voter registration and civic engagement, hosting Black History Month assemblies, and presenting student awards. Bruce also sponsors the annual Jimmy Lee Bruce, Jr. Memorial Award, named for her son, which is given to a senior who has distinguished themselves as an advocate for equality, social justice and community service.”

     Yes, Black History Month needs to be recognized. 

                                   ***

(Note: Congressman Matthew F. McHugh, a Democrat from Ithaca, who represented the Middletown area in Congress in the 1980’s, was gracious enough to read my editorial on Jimmy Lee Bruce on the floor of the House of Representatives on March 25, 1987. That entered it into the Congressional Record and makes it part of black history.) 

     

 

Not quite a fortnight … whew!

Friday, January 31st, 2025

By Bob Gaydos

First responders with part of wreckage American Airlines Flight 5342 in the Potomac River.

First responders with part of wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 in the Potomac River.

   Since there are thousands of concerned citizens monitoring and reporting on the daily doings of Trump 2: The Revenge, I thought I’d give the White House crew a chance to get their feet re-wet (is that a word?) before checking in and issuing a report. Also, it helps preserve my sanity.

   In any event, here’s a quick summary of Team Trump’s nearly a fortnight back in business:

   — Ukraine. The war is still raging despite Trump’s boast he would end it the day he got elected.

  — The price of eggs. Rather than falling, as Trump promised voters, they have risen. No sign of falling. Gas prices are up, too. Fruits and vegetables are likely to follow with the promised mass deportation of migrant farm workers.

  — Deportations. ICE agents arrested some American citizens and non-criminal immigrants in initial efforts of the pledge to detain and deport criminal undocumented immigrants. Without warrants in some cases. Mexico refused to allow a U. S. military plane carrying undocumented immigrants to land. Inappropriate, its president said. So did Colombia, but its president agreed when Trump agreed not to use military planes, only after his threat of tariffs on Colombian goods failed. Trump said he would use Guantanamo as a mass holding facility (concentration camp) for undocumented immigrants.

  — The budget. An executive order to freeze virtually all federal funding already approved by Congress caused mass confusion nationwide, besides being illegal. Congress was flooded with calls. Lawsuits were filed. Non-profits scrambled. The order was rescinded the next day over the protests of Trump advisor Stephen Miller.

  — Greenland. Denmark says it’s still not for sale.

  — Cabinet. Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to approve TV personality Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, despite reports of his drinking, womanizing and lack of experience for the position. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health secretary, displayed no knowledge of how Medicare and Medicaid work. And his cousin, Caroline, called him a predator who has consistently sought to profit from the assassinations of his father and uncle.

  — Condoms. Trump’s new press secretary said her boss’s new quasi Department of Government Efficiency had stopped the shipment of $50 million in condoms to Gaza, which Fox News said were to be used by Hamas to make mini-bombs. This never happened. Government accountants said $50 million would buy one billion condoms.

  — Pardons. Three insurrectionists were re-arrested two days after their release from prison. Two others refused the pardons, saying we saw what we saw on television.

   — DEI, staffing, etc. Trump fired the female head of the Coast Guard, the FAA director, froze hiring of air traffic controllers, disbanded the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee, illegally fired all inspectors general and encouraged all federal employees to consider retirement or a job buyout, similar to the one his buddy/advisor/neo-nazi Elon Musk offered and reneged on at Twitter/X.

   — DEI, part 2. An army helicopter collided late at night with a passenger jet on path to land at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C. The two aircraft landed in the Potomac River. The FAA said 67 people were killed, the largest air traffic fatality in the country in 16 years. Trump (see above firings, etc.), without proof, blamed the crash on DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) policies in the Biden administration that allowed hiring of “those who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions,” including people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.” Questioned repeatedly for specific roof of these allegations by reporters, he said he based his opinion on “common sense.”

   — DEI, part 3.  The FAA said staffing at the air traffic control tower was “not normal.” One controller was handling the job of two and the helicopter was off course.

  —  DEI, etc. While Trump blamed Biden, the nation mourned.

  Can’t wait for the next nearly a fortnight.                                    




The Dumbest Thing in My Lifetime: II

Saturday, January 25th, 2025


By Bob Gaydos

The highlight of Inauguration Week 2.

The highlight of Inauguration Week 2.

    I spent a good deal of “Inauguration Day 2: The Revenge,” trying to recall how I reacted to “Inauguration Day 1, The Bad Joke.” I kept drawing a blank. Was I angry (likely), depressed (probably), disappointed (undoubtedly)?

      Then I had a clever thought: Why not see what you wrote?

       Turns out, I didn’t. Write, that is. I didn’t write anything on Jan. 20, 2017 or, for that matter, the whole month of January. (In fact, from Christmas Day, 2016, to Feb. 24, 2017, my pen was silent. My blog was blank.

        Oh, right, I suddenly  remembered. From Dec. 26, 2016 and most of January, 2017, I was a guest of Garnet Medical Center, just outside of Middletown, N.Y. Not by choice. By chance and another driver whose car wound up sliding on ice and hitting mine head-on. I guess you don’t forget, but you don’t rush to remember.

        So, no, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Trump pre-inauguration hoopla or the day itself. I had doctors dealing with a fractured right wrist, a detached left patella tendon, eight broken ribs, a deflated lung and a bump on the head. The car was in worse shape.

        But the doctors did their jobs and I survived to get a second shot at a Trump inaugural. No, I didn’t watch. Instead, I checked what I wrote on Christmas Day, 2016. 

    The first paragraph: “I have been in a funk since Nov. 9. That’s the day I woke up with the realization that millions of Americans had lost their minds, if not their souls, and elected a man who is morally, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually unfit to be their president. The dumbest thing that has happened in my lifetime.”

      Well, turns out the 2016 election was only the second dumbest thing that has happened in my lifetime. The dumbest thing was electing him again.

      But I did discover something interesting about myself in this research. That Christmas column was all about my not writing for a while, and, instead, returning to reading. Funny about that, but that’s exactly what I did this time around.

     One of the books mentioned in the 2016 column was “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” by Tom Wolfe. Before becoming a prolific author, Wolfe was a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune.

   As serendipity would have it, one of the books I recently mentioned that I need to get back to and finish is “The Paper: The life and death of The New York Herald Tribune.”

    In that 2016 Christmas column I turned to sports to get me back in the writing groove by adapting the philosophy of former NBA star, Reggie Miller, who gave Knicks fans nightmares. Miller, a great shooter, said the only way to get out of a shooting funk was to keep shooting. Eventually, the shots start falling again.

    Also coincidentally, the other book I recently said I need to finish, is sports-related: “Satchel,” a biography of the legendary pitcher, Satchel Paige.

    I’ve long ago discovered that this “coincidence” stuff happens all the time if you only pay attention.

     So, here we are again. Shock and awe, lies and misdirection, bigotry and bluster and a profound display of cowardice and hypocrisy by the onetime party of Lincoln.

     But enough of the predictable. The highlight of Inauguration Week 2 for me, since I had no excuse not to watch this time, was watching an Episcopalian minister, like those doctors back in 2017, doing her job.

  That was Episcopal Bishop, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde speaking directly to Trump, seated nearby, at a service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

   “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She also asked him to find compassion for those who fled their homelands to find safety 

in America.

      Mercy and compassion. What else would one expect to be encouraged in a church?

      The man who didn’t put his hand on the Bible at his inauguration asked for an apology.

       None was forthcoming. To which I say, amen.

      

Is Drinking an Issue for You?

Monday, December 30th, 2024

Addiction and Recovery


By Bob Gaydos

no bar


Thanksgiving ushered in the triple-threat season, so-called by many people in recovery because of the heavy emphasis on celebration … and drinking. It’s a time for extra caution and heightened awareness of the easy access and, sometimes, emphasis on alcohol in order to protect one’s recovery.

    But it’s also a time when people not in recovery often find out, often from friends or family, that their drinking is not normal. It’s problematic. Possibly dangerous. 

   With New Year’s revelry upon us, it may be a good time for anyone wondering about his or her drinking behavior to take a self-assessment.

There are a few tests available and I’ve offered a couple previously in this column, but in the interests of time I’m presenting the shortest one here. It’s the AUDIT, offered by The World Health Organization and is the most widely used alcohol use assessment tool in the world. AUDIT stands for alcohol use disorders identification test. As always, be honest for the best result.

The AUDIT questionnaire:

Please circle the answer that is correct for you

  1. How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?
  • Never
  • Monthly or less
  • 2-4 times a month
  • 2-3 times a week
  • 4 or more times a week
  1. How many standard drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when drinking?
  • 1or2
  • 3or4
  • 5or6
  • 7to9
  • 10 or more
  1. How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. During the past year, how often have you found that you were not able to stop drinking once you had started?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. During the past year, how often have you failed to do what was normally expected of you because of drinking?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. During the past year, how often have you needed a drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. During the past year, how often have you had a feeling of guilt or remorse after drinking?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. During the past year, have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?
  • Never
  • Less than monthly
  • Monthly
  • Weekly
  • Daily or almost daily
  1. Have you or someone else been injured as a result of your drinking?
  • No
  • Yes, but not in the past year
  • Yes, during the past year
  1. Has a relative or friend, doctor or other health worker been concerned about your drinking or suggested you cut down?
  • No
  • Yes, but not in the past year
  • Yes, during the past year

Scoring the audit

Scores for each question range from 0 to 4, with the first response for each question (eg never) scoring 0, the second (eg less than monthly) scoring 1, the third (eg monthly) scoring 2, the fourth (eg weekly) scoring 3, and the last response (eg. daily or almost daily) scoring 4. For questions 9 and 10, which only have three responses, the scoring is 0, 2 and 4.

Scoring the AUDIT

The range of possible scores is from 0 to 40, with 0 indicating an abstainer who has never had any problems from alcohol. A score of 1 to 7 suggests low-risk consumptions, according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Scores from 8 to 14 suggest hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption and a score of 15 or more indicates the likelihood of alcohol dependence (moderate-severe alcohol use disorder).

If your score concerns you, there is help available. Talk with your primary care doctor. Call an Alcoholics Anonymous hotline in your area. Call a mental health crisis hotline if one is available.

Excessive alcohol use is now classified as a mental disorder by health officials, somewhat in response to the stigma attached to the word “alcoholic.”  However, most recovering members of Alcoholics Anonymous have no problem with identifying as such. In any case, it is not a moral failing. It can be treated. First, it has to be acknowledged.

Again, be honest. And have a safe and sober new year.

rjgaydos@gmail.com

Where are the Protest Songs?

Friday, December 27th, 2024

By Bob Gaydos5AA96136-DC69-49A7-BE37-92B4F3CA531B

    While I’ve been spending the holidays toning up my chopsticks skills (Tuesday-Korean; Wednesday-Japanese; Thursday-Chinese vegan), the rest of the world has apparently been going to hell in a handbasket.

      Let’s see if I can catch up. Elon Musk, the president-non-elect, learned that even the richest man in the world can’t force a few hundred career politicians to shut down the United States government over the holidays. His sidekick and ceremonial president, Donald Trump, learned that those same politicians wouldn’t give him a free credit card by suspending the debt ceiling in order to keep the government open. Worthwhile lessons for all involved, including the American people who would have suffered the most.

     Not to be distracted by reality, Trump also fantasized about annexing Canada as the 51st state, seizing the Panama Canal from China and buying Greenland from Denmark. Canada, Panama, China and Denmark were not amused. The Danes, in fact, wondered what the going price might be on a somewhat worn U.S. democracy. The Mexican president had already told Trump to cool it on the tariff talk.

    Meanwhile, Russian president, Vladimir Putin ignored Trump’s election campaign claim that he’d end the war in Ukraine as soon as he was elected, never mind got sworn in. Didn’t happen. In fact, North Korea sent in some troops to help Russia fight its increasingly costly war and Putin, struggling with losses in Ukraine, abandoned his buddy Assad in Syria and let rebel forces take over the government there virtually overnight.

    Meanwhile, the other Korea, the supposedly Democratic one, saw its president declare martial law, then back down swiftly after massive demonstrations, broke out in the streets, only to eventually be impeached. But wait, there’s more. The acting president appointed to bring order from the chaos refused to appoint judges to overhear the impeachment proceedings against the martial law president. So the acting president was impeached. I have no idea where this is going, and I’m not sure the Koreans do either.

     Meanwhile, Russia’s not-nearly-as-efficient-as -everyone-thought military machine was suspected in the downing of an Azerbaijan  passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan, killing 38 people on board. Analysts suggested a missile from Russia’s air defense system struck the plane.

     Those Russian missiles had been used to shoot down drones flown from Ukraine. There was no word on whether the Russians were suspected in the sudden disappearance of all those hundreds of drones that were mysteriously flying over New Jersey for the past couple of weeks. And our government still wasn’t saying anything at all about them — the drones, not the Russians — except that we shouldn’t worry.

     So I’m going to try not to.        

     At least I don’t live in Mozambique where more than 6,000 prisoners, including Isis terrorists, escaped from prison as part of nationwide civil unrest over widespread voting irregularities in the country’s recent presidential election. And boy doesn’t that sound familiar?

       France avoided the bloodshed, but after a vote of no confidence removed the prime minister, a new prime minister has named a new government, fate as yet to be determined.

     So these are apparently the times that try our souls, people. But I wonder, where are the songs of protest? We Shall Overcome! Never mind where all the flowers have gone, where are the Woody Guthries, Pete Seegers, the Bob Dylans for Pete’s sake! 

     Tik-tok and Beyoncé and Taylor Swift don’t cover all the disharmony.

      President Joe Biden just formally recognized the bald eagle as the official national bird. Long overdue, I’d say,  and fitting. But that proud, beautiful bird needs a new “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” one for the 21st-century. Please!

       Meanwhile, I’m going to keep working out with my chopsticks.

Donnie and the Jets: Same Playbook?

Saturday, November 23rd, 2024

By Bob Gaydos

 Aaron Rodgers and Donald Trump, birds of a feather?

Aaron Rodgers and Donald Trump, birds of a feather?

     Sometimes you can’t win for trying.

      If you’re a regular reader of my column (and thank you for that), you probably noticed I’ve taken a break from politics the last few posts. It was deliberate. A need to get centered and focused on what’s important in life before engaging, slowly, with the current … umm reality.

      But wouldn’t you know it, just as I decided it was time to tackle the litany of “in your face” spite appointments emanating from Mar-a-Lago, one of the most gratuitous Trump insults to the rule of law and the Constitution decided for himself (maybe) that there’s such a thing as being too cocky. Especially when there’s mounting evidence that you participated in a large sex trafficking ring, which apparently included an underage female and you also happen to be a member of Congress.

    Matt Gaetz will not be the next attorney general of the United States of America. He withdrew his name from consideration for the post, even though Republicans on the House Ethics Committee tried to keep him in the game by refusing to release their report on Gaetz’s activities.

      The stuff will all come out, but Gaetz, thankfully, is gone from Congress, having resigned soon after Trump named him as Attorney General pick. It was probably just a way to kill the report, but, also good news, too many Senate Republicans were having trouble swallowing Gaetz, even for their exalted leader. Checks and balances, anyone?

     So, good riddance to Gaetz and thank you for unintended consequences.

     This, of course, leaves a spoiled fish stew of other appointments and nominations announced by Team Trump to help run the country for four years without running it into bankruptcy or court, like virtually all other activities involving Trump.

       Bubbling to the top of this pot are worm brain, anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be Health Secretary and TV crackpot Dr. Mehmet Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid.

  Close behind is Fox TV personality Pete Hegseth, as Defense Secretary, apparently because he once served in the military and stands accused of doping a woman’s drink to have sex with her (some call this rape), which refers back to the Gaetz qualifications for Trump’s Cabinet.

    Toss in a fracking company exec for Energy Secretary and a drill baby drill guy for Interior and you know where this is going. Lots of back-scratching and little concern for the future of the planet or the people.

      For now, also throw in a choice for Education Secretary who said she was a teacher, but wasn’t, but did run a professional wrestling business and donated millions to Trump’s campaign and a U.N. Ambassador who has no diplomatic experience but totally switched her political philosophy when Trump hijacked the GOP.

      It remains to be seen where Republicans in the Senate draw the line on Trump’s choices, if anywhere, but I’m hopeful that MAGA’s history of incompetence holds true and becomes evident to a lot more Americans.

     As a former sports editor, one of the things I turned to in my brief hiatus was the NFL season, such as it is in New York. If you want a non-political example of MAGA incompetence, take the New York Jets. Please, as Henny Youngman used to say.

      Their owner, Woody Johnson (Johnson & Johnson) is a big Trumper. He was rewarded with the ambassadorship to the United Kingdom in Trump’s first term and is looking for a repeat. Maybe he just wants to get out of town.

      Johnson thought he would improve his football team by insisting on paying big money to hire Aaron Rodgers, a 40-year-old quarterback who refused to be vaccinated against Covid, doubted the Sandy Hook School shootings and 9/11 attacks were truthfully reported and felt strongly both ways on abortion. He was critical of Trump, but questioned the results of the 2020 election and had the same Trumpian tendency to make stuff up. RFK Jr. considered Rodgers as a vice presidential running mate before jumping to Trump.

      Well, Jets fans know how that Rodgers decision worked out. In a disastrous season, Johnson fired the coach and general manager because, well, quarterback Rodgers may have shared some political views with Johnson, but he couldn’t connect often enough with his receivers. Out of touch and out of step. Time for a new quarterback. 

     If that’s a metaphor for MAGA, I hope all the rest of us USA fans can simply survive through a losing season and, like Jets fans, let ‘em know it’s time to draft a new quarterback.

      Heck, maybe everything is politics.