Goodbye Hoss

This afternoon my Friend Hoss Warner moved on to what ever comes next after this life. He fought a battle with leukemia that would have killed anyone else long ago. He did well. But sometimes the cure is worse then the disease. Doctors blew out his immune system to allow for a bone marrow transplant. The transplant was successful and the leukemia in full remission.

But without an immune system, his body was repeatedly infected from many sources. The last time was just too much. His organs shut down.

I got to know Hoss better after he got sick. He and his mother displayed an amazing amount of courage in the face of overwhelming odds. Every time I stopped by to see him, he was always making jokes and smiling. Even when covered head to toe in an itchy rash, he found something about it to poke fun at.

Lesser men would have rolled over and died. Hoss kept up on the business through trade journals and talked eagerly about getting back to the work he loved.

Goodbye Hoss. I hope the other side is peaceful. You certainly earned some rest after the rough ride you drew in this life.

-30-

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Under the bus

This weekend I learned:

• Always check your sources. It doesn't matter how well you know and trust the source. The fact is they may not check their sources. The wall in the Chicago News Bureau used to read, "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out." I need to adopt that way of thinking, even in my personal life.  
• The last couple generations have no concept of what freedom means in this country. Nor do they even remotely grasp dangers of forcing people into silence when their words do not toe the politically correct line. To the last couple of generations these are all concepts adjustable to fit the current circumstances. I attribute this to the fact these last few generations have never been in any real danger of loosing any of those freedoms. Most of these are the same people that believe the constitution is a living document.
  
• The politically correct crowd hijacked the word "lynch", limiting its use to racial attacks only. Merriam is going to need to update her dictionary.
  
• I really need to get over the personality defect that compels me to jump in with both feet, ready to go to war whenever and where ever I think someone is being bullied. This is doubly so when someone I care about is the apparent victim.
  
• No good deed goes unpunished.

In the mean time, if anyone needs me I can be found under the back wheels of the bus.

- 30 -

In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.
- Martin Niemöller