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Showing posts from May, 2018
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Memorial Day, the Flag and the NFL By Hank Silverberg        I put the flag up on the pole outside my home this Memorial Day weekend. I don’t fly the flag every day, just on significant holidays like Memorial Day, Veterans Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Election Day.   (My flagpole)               It is not the flag that I am honoring right now, though. It’s the thousands of men and women who gave what Lincoln called their “last full measure of devotion” for what the flag stands for—Freedom.              M emorial Day honors combat war dead, from Robert Munroe, one of eight who died at the Battle of Lexington in 1775, to 22-year-old Army Specialist Gabriel Conde of Loveland, Colorado, who was killed last month in Afghanistan. As Lincoln said at Gettysburg when dedicating the 1863 battlefield, “it is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”          The flag is, though, just a piece of cloth. The republic for which it stands is one of the greatest endeavors
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     A Nation of Immigrants                                 By Hank Silverberg       Once again, the ugliness of racism, bigotry and ignorance has found its way into the ongoing debate over immigration laws. The catalyst this time was a comment from President Trump that was widely quoted out of context.   Answering a question about MS -13, the violent street gang that has infested Latin America and many American cities large and small, the President called them “animals.”           R eaction to that comment brought out the ugliness. It was mis-interpreted by many as a reference to Hispanic immigrants in general, and for once the President had a legitimate beef.   That’s not what he said.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aib5Ts2cDI8&feature=youtu.be      A few news organizations pointed out the error. Others did not. The reaction was swift, negative and predictable because of Mr Trump's history on the issue. He has called immigrants, es
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Gee I’m glad I WAS a Boy Scout By Hank Silverberg       A boy scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent, and now sometimes -- a GIRL. I’m not sure about obedient and reverent anymore, but I retain a lot of the things I learned in four years of Boy Scouts. It was a good experience. I have never used semaphore, but I have tied an occasional slip knot over the last 50 years. I still love canoeing and though I have never had the occasion to do so, I still remember how to turn my pants into a floatation device if need be.  (My Order of the Arrow Sash)                         I never made Eagle Scout. I quit after reaching the rank of Star Scout and right after being sworn into the “Order of the Arrow.” (I won’t tell you the Order’s cool initiation ritual; I took an oath 50 years ago not to reveal it.)   Somehow at age 14, competitive baseball was more important than scouting, and at times I h
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Sleeping Watchdogs By Hank Silverberg             (Stakeout at the  Richmond, VA courthouse)         Journalists are supposed to be watchdogs, protecting the general public from government excess, corporate greed, and individual scallywags. That’s what our founding fathers had in mind, but these days the watchdogs seem to be lost in the deep woods. So, there’s a message I want to send to all those men and women who practice journalism: stop whining! The American public really doesn’t care about your comfort level, your ego or your Q score from your employer’s latest focus group.      It is time for reporters, producers and editors to return their attention to getting stories right, and producing stories that really matter. They should pay less attention to the minute details inside politics that drive cable pundits wild and drive TV viewers to Netflix, cat videos on YouTube or the latest so-called “Reality Show”.      W hile everyone has been focusing on the move

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