Update 8-31-17

Hi,

Now how did we get to the end of August already?

First, from Robert Fiveson: I have to respond to Melody Myles Eckhart's amazing reminiscence last week of working with the Karen. It brought back some bittersweet memories for me, as I have been not only among the Karen, but to the very place described. In my career doing documentaries, I had the privilege of working for four years for the world's second largest private relief organization. If you remember "We Are The World," you have seen my fundraising documentaries. I not only have been to the place described, but I survived a plane crash on a commercial prop commuter Thai Airways flight on my way there -- which resulted in our driving to Mae Sot and allowing me to see the countryside close up.
The Karen are virtually slaves in what used to be called Burma. As the largest indigenous ethnic group, they have been under a repressive Marxist regime for 25+ years. I was the guest of the Karen government-in-exile in a camp in an active war zone on the Thai- Burma border in 1981. At that time, I was shown a piece of a US helicopter that was downed by them. I was asked how it was that a Marxist government was repressing a majority with US-made and supplied equipment and arms (I was traveling as a Canadian, so the question was more intriguing than insulting). The answer was that this area of the world is known as the "Golden Triangle" -- famous for its poppy fields and the resultant heroin. As long as the Burmese pledged to "fight drugs," they were well supplied by the United States. The thing is though, that it is the Burmese themselves who are controlling the flow of opium poppies and garnering the cash. Thus you have a convenient source of money and weapons for a repressive government that has no interest in stopping drugs as it funds its war with the Karen!
I was asked to take the story back to the mainstream media and expose this injustice. They could not have cared less. They had Nicaragua and the Contras on their radar, and that was good enough. (There's another group I was able to spend time with, but that's a story for a different day.)
As I write this, I have a round "coolie" hat made of banana leaves in my office at home. It was given to me by the woman who made the hat. I tried to adopt a child from there, as I was continually surrounded by hundreds of gorgeous kids who had (have) nothing whatsoever. Unfortunately my marriage wasn't strong, and it snapped before that could occur.
The idea that one person can make a difference is more true than any of us can ever imagine.

More from Melody after I forwarded Robert's letter: That was so cool. I really appreciated reading it. He sounds like a wonderful person. When he was there, most of the people I was working with weren't even born, and to think that a whole new generation has come into the world and grown up in the same conditions. I am just sorry that I have opened my eyes so late in my life. There is so much injustice out there, and so many people caught in its ugly web. I just can't understand why it seems so easy to do evil and so hard to do good. And the evil attracts crowds and makes such a noise, while the good attracts a dozen people, and whispers.

On a very different subject, from Thomas Romano: In reply to Allen Moss's comments on Mr. Seaman -- I was wondering when the subject of Mr. Seaman, also known as "The Mongoose," would come up. I believe it was Robert Friedman, also known as "The Bone," who came up with that nickname. (Perhaps we can get some verification of that?) We were absolutely relentless in our persecution of this man. I am not sure I know how it got started, although I suspect I was partially, or largely, to blame. Surprisingly, I actually learned a fair amount of Chemistry that year, which certainly kept me in good stead for my pre-med classes. Anyway, as a class, we should offer this teacher some sort of a belated apology. I am absolutely certain that he thanked God when we graduated!

Something that was supposed to be in last week's newsletter, but got overlooked, from Zelda White Nichols: Just got back from helping my mom celebrate her 90th birthday in Pompano Beach, Florida. Pompano had some trees downed and the cars under them sustained some damage during the hurricane. Fortunately, that was the only damage in the area I was in, and we had no rain. My heart goes out to all the hurricane victims. It's the same type of devastation that we had in California during the fires last October. Whole towns and neighborhoods were wiped out, and it's the same helplessness and shock.
Someone passed these words of wisdom on to me, and I'm sending them on:
Don't Be Afraid to Fail.
You failed many times, although you may not remember.
You fell down the first time you tried to walk.
You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim, didn't you?
Did you hit the ball the first time you swung a bat?
Heavy hitters, the ones who hit the most home runs, also strike out a lot.
R.H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on.
English novelist John Creasey got 735 rejection slips before he published 564 books.
Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs.
Don't worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

Finally, from The Associated Press, August 26, 2004: The town of Hempstead, New York has a message for Georgia's Gwinnett County school administrators -- before you target a student wearing a Hempstead shirt, look at a map. Terrell Jones, a student in Gwinnett County's Grayson High School, was weeded out of a classroom by a school administrator because he wore a shirt that read: "Hempstead, NY 516,'' a reference to the Long Island town and its telephone area code. According to Jones' family, which moved from Hempstead to the Atlanta suburb, the school thought the shirt referred to marijuana. Jones wasn't allowed to return to class until he persuaded school officials to search the Internet for the town name. 

Rich