A Christmas Carol

In the mood for a little holiday cheer? Our theatre group, Evergreen Family theatre will present the Dickens Classic, "A Christmas Carol," December 2-12 at the Redwood Family Church in Redmond.

I've spent a good part of my life in community theatre and always wanted to play Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, so this year I'm doing it. We've got a wonderful cast of local actors and we're committed to presenting a show that'll make you smile when you might need it the most.

Our show is "schedule and family friendly," in that we're doing it in one 90 minute act with no intermission. Curtain for our evening shows is at 7 p.m. the children can get home on school nights and the parents can just get home. We'll do matinee performances on both Saturdays December 5th and 12th along with evening shows. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children and seniors and are available at brownpapertickets.com. Look for A Christmas Carol by John Jakes in Redmond.

Spewing the Spittle of Suspicion

Thanks to our wonderful United States Constitution fear and hate mongers like Glenn Beck get to spew the spittle of suspicion across our land every day. Thanks also to our U.S. Constitution true patriots such as the people who build our country instead of breaking it down, have the right to ignore or at least filter out every negative morsel exiting the mouths Beck and his comrades.

Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reily and the rest of their gang are described as "entertainers" by the network for which they work. What did I miss here? I consider the great actors, comedians , singers and musicians of my time and yours to be the real entertainers.

I'll take an evening of Elvis music anytime over 5 seconds of Beck babble. Let me hear Johnny Cash sing about "A Boy Named Sue," over Rush's constant notes of negitivism about everything President Obama says and does.

Entertainment should make us laugh, cry or at least feel some emotion designed to allow the mind and body to recover "reality" we're bombarded with every day.

All Beck and Rush and Bill do is make their closest followers feel even more bitter, cast blame on everyone but themselves and continue to erode our trust in the basic values of the democratic system of government.

Good government in America comes from well informed, selfless people who are not afraid to get involved with positive ideas and solutions to difficult problems.

Beck and his gang of "entertainers" have every right to do what they do and say what they say. We as a free people have every right to filter out what they say and base our own opinions and actions on research and common sense.

Hold Them Accountable

It has never been more important to know the names and contact information of all of your local, state and U.S. representitives. The radio talk show babble will bring no results. Only your direct emails and letters to your public officials will bring results. On the health care issue we should all be writing our U.S. House of Representives members and our U.S. Senators with our opions and ideas. The time has come to stop letting the loudest voices of our society make the rules. Whether you support President Obamas health care reform ideas, which I do, or any of the other options, you must speak out now.

Every member of the U.S. House is up for re-election in 2010. Put the pressure on them now to let you know where they stand. Do not let them politicize or bash the opposition. Demand to hear their ideas for a solution. We live in a great nation but it loses some of it's greatness if we stand by and let a few loud voices on both sides of the political isle sway our own thinking. According to the U.S. Constitution our government only works if "we the people" speak our piece. We cannot be lazy and let the talk shows do our thinking for us. Check the facts, form your opinion based on the facts and contact your public servants to let them know how you feel.

Fear, Hate & Mis-information

I have just named my "All hate and fear" team for the 2009 season and I'm happy to say Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck have made the roster.

Palin makes it for writing on her face book page about the mythical "death panel" in President Obama's health care proposal. Her party used the term death effectively a few times when opposing "estate taxes" over the years. They called them "death taxes." What they really are is a fair way to spread the tax burden equally throughout our society.

Back to the "death panel" for a minute. There is no such thing, never was, never will be. Palin is a "fear monger" of the highest order and should ne ignored.

Glen Beck has used his spewing of fear and hatred as a road to radio talk show success. He is profiting from the mysery of others. On September 26th he'll be presented with the key to the city of Mt. Vernon , Wa. his home town. This might be a good chance for people to let Mr. Beck know what they think of his dangerous hate filled commentaries.

Sean Hannity recently targeted Obama "green jobs" expert Van Jones and has now forced a good man to resign using the same hate and fear tactics of the others.

Thank God we have freedom of speech in America. It is a double edged sword but I wouldn't have it any other way. Hannity, Palin and Beck have every right to spread fear, hatred and lies across this great land of ours but by the same token we have the right to call them out for what they are. They are self profiting entertainers spewing verbal garbage across our landscape for the rest of us to pick up and put into the trash can.

Ted Kennedy

I made the mistake of listening to a few minutes of talk radio Wednesday, the day after the death of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. It never ceases to amaze me how people are so willing to speak out on topics they know nothing about. Ted Kennedy was one of the most effective United States Senators in our history. Was he the best ever? Probably not, but he was one of the best at crossing the ever widening isle between liberal and conservative. Kennedy never wavered on his mission or his beliefs. He was not afraid to call himself "liberal." He worked for the rights of women, seniors, immigrants, the poor and the un insured. In 1969 a horrible error in judgement caused the death of a young campaign volunteer. Kennedy made serious errors in judgement 40 years ago on the island of Chappaquidick. He and his female companion were coming from a re union of Robert Kennedy staffers, both were drinking and Kennedy was driving. There were rumors that they were having an affair or at least a one night stand. While I will not attempt to justify either of those possibilities I will say this. Both Kennedy and his companion were distraught over the death of RFK. It is quite likely and not that unusual that in the heat of that emotional turmoil excessive drinking and a "one night stand" may have occured. Why is this such a shock to people? It happens and it probably happened that night, but to continue to condemn a person for stupid actions 40 years ago seems crazy to me. Especially when that person tried and succeeded in turning his life around and focusing on inproving the lives of un told millions of others in his career. Ted Kennedy was born wealthy, he could have spent his money and life on trivial things as many rich people do. Instead he chose to use public service to help others. He was simply a man with some flaws and some natural gifts. He managed his flws and used his gifts to help others for 47 of his 77 years. Not a bad legacy.

Recipe for Disaster

In early 2000 the dot com bust was big news followed last year by the real estate bust and the bank bust. Let's face it busts are busting out all over.

It doesn't take a business expert to figure out why the busts happened. Values were inflated, people got greedy and everyone paid the price.

Recently most of the players picked in April's NFL draft signed their contracts. They all got huge signing bonues and "life time" pay packages. A few days ago baseball had it's draft. Same result. The top pick pitcher Stephan Strassburg signed with the Washington Nationals for 15.67 million dollars over four years including a 7.5 million dollar signing bonus. The second pick, pitcher Dustin Askley signed with the Seattle Mariners for 7.5 million and the third pick signed with San Diego for 6.25 million.

These are all fine college pitchers but do they really deserve this kind of money before throwing one pitch in a professional baseball game?

The idea of paying young people to play a sport is not new in America but it has gotten completely out of hand and I honestly don't know how much longer it can last at this level.

How much longer can television contracts and ticket sales sustain this kind of pressure? Is the bust just around the corner and if it is why don't the owners see it?

Recently at the University of Washington a beloved athletic department staff member was handed his walking papers as a "budget cut" just months after the new football coaching staff was handed a bag of money to rescue the dismal football program.

Am I the only one who sees a problem with this pattern? Maybe I am. I guess as long as people show up to the ticket window, purchase the game jerseys and the products they see on television game broadcasts everything will be fine. On the other hand if there's ever a dramatic slow down in the revenue flow professional sports franchises could be in for a rude awakening.

I just finished reading a baseball book called, "I would have played for nothing." In the case of some of the players in the book they practically did play for nothing. On top of that many of them served in the military at the height of their careers. Stars like Ted Williams, Joe Dimaggio and Joe Louis spent time in the service during WWII and the Korean War. They worked in the off season to make ends meet and ordinary people could easily identify with them.

I loved the games back then and I love them now I'm just worried that all this money up front for un proven players is a recipe for financial disaster.

Organized Murder

Harry Patch died last week. So who is Harry Patch? He was one of the last surviving British soldiers to have fought in World War I. Patch was 111 years old. Born in 1898 he was drafted into the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwell's light infantry. He spent four months in Flanders in France but never killed a German. He shot at their legs to wound them. He spent weeks in mud filled trenches going without a bath and wearing the same clothes. He endured lice and rats as big as cats.

He was once quoted as saying, "war is nothing more than organized murder.

Patches death leaves Claude Choules as Great Britain's last World War I veteran. Choules is 108. There are still two other WWI vets alive, one in Canada and one in the United States.