10.1.2025 – how we show respect

how we show respect
leave place better than found it
there’s manners involved

From the article, What does a spotless locker room have to do with success? For these coaches, everything by Rustin Dodd, (New York Times, Sept. 30, 2025), where Mr. Dodd writes:

“We always talk in our program about ‘winning the response,’” Lea said earlier this month. “There’s a respect that we have for all the things we come in contact with, and that certainly includes the spaces where we prepare for our games and execute for our games.

This photo was posted from the custodian crew at Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech saying thank you to the VISITING Vanderbilt team for leaving the locker room clean.

“There’s an appreciation, and we never want to be entitled when it comes to those things. How we show respect is we try to leave a place better than we found it.”

“Everything about our program is centered around that,” Scelfo said. “The way we do small things is the way we do all things. When you go to somebody’s house, you don’t leave it dirty. You clean it. If you finish eating, you pick up your plate. There’s manners involved.”

Hard to believe this article was written in 2025.

Look at the words and phrases used, not written by the writer, but in quoting people involved in sports today.

There’s an appreciation …

We never want to be entitled …

How we show respect …

Leave a place better than we found it …

way we do small things, way we do all things …

You don’t leave it dirty …

You clean it …

If you finish eating, you pick up your plate …

There’s manners involved …

Of course, we are talking about sports.

That such a level of expectations might exist for the political leaders in this country is asking too much, don’t you agree?

I mean, read over that list again.

Did the thought that the writer of the article in question might be writing about our leaders EVER cross your mind.

It is sad really.

It comes to mind what Ben Franklin said about George Washington.

The first man put at the helm will be a good one;

… nobody knows what sort may come afterwards.

Manners involved … indeed.

9.30.2025 – determined Flag be

determined Flag be
recognized throughout World as
symbol of Freedom

We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, Our Flag will be recognized throughout the World as a symbol of Freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.

General of the Army George C. Marshall on May 29, 1942, as quoted in The Papers of George Catlett Marshall: “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941 – May 31, 1943. Vol. 3, edited by Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (for the George C. Marshall Foundation), 1991.

” … done a great deal to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department”.

“No more identity monks, DEI offices, dudes in dresses,” he says. “No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions, no more debris.”

“We are done with that shit.”

Defense Secretary Peter Brian Hegseth speaking at Quantico Marine base on September 30, 2025.

Sometimes, actions speak a lot louder than mere words don’t they.

9.25.2025 – wearing gloves because

wearing gloves because
I don’t want to leave any
fingerprints around

This image was first published in the New Yorker Magazine, 88 years ago today on September 25, 1937.

As I read over my last couple of months of Haiku and posts, I wonder and I worry; have I left too many fingerprints around?

You can peruse almost all of James Thurber’s published drawing online at my Thurber Page, For Muggs and Rex.

Been reading Brendan Gill’s, Here at the New Yorker and its unflattering take on James Thurber.

All I can say is echo EB White’s Obit which began with the line, I am one of the lucky ones; I knew him before blindness hit him, before fame hit him …

As for these posts and thoughts, I am typing with gloves on.

I don’t want to leave any fingerprints.

On the other hand …

In the movie Casablanca, when the Germans enter Paris, Ilsa says, “Richard, if they find out your record. It won’t be safe for you here.”

Richard Blaine responds, “I’m on their blacklist already, their roll of honor.“

Not a bad list to make I guess.

9.24.2025 – hard to obey rules

hard to obey rules,
they mean something, I believe …
I thought you did, too

But the difference is, you see in this world you learn a set of rules, or you don’t learn them.

But assuming you learn them, you stick by them.

They may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.

And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.

It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.

That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.

From A Rage to Live by John O’Hara,(New York : Random House, 1949).

This little passage by the great (just ask him) John O’Hara kinda more or less sums up my feelings on the current crisis in government we are all living with.

Back in the day when those founding fathers were founding this nation and writing out the rules, they KNEW they had a problem.

They designed a pretty good system where, for the most part, people had a voice in the affairs of the nation and it was all laid out in the rules.

Rules so basic, that the they needed little adjustment, some minor, some glaring, since they were written in to the Constitution and Bill of Rights back in 1787.

Still, when it was finished, signed and published, Dr. Benjamin Franklin issued his famous warning that the people now had, A republic, if you can keep it.

IF … you can keep it.

A warning to be sure but why?

Why?

Because it depended on the people playing by the rules.

Both sides.

Yes, yes, yes, there would be a lot of rule bending to be sure but for the most part the rules held.

Because both sides played by the rules.

And I guess here is where I am the most depressed.

Mr. O’Hara gives some leeway in his discourse on rules, saying … in this world you learn a set of rules, or you don’t learn them.

These folks, all of us, KNOW THE RULES.

Boy, Howdy but a great effort in schools was made to make sure we all knew the rules and how those rules made this country different and why there were important.

Now, those rules may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.

And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.

It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.

That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.

That’s where I am with the rules set up by men but I can say the same thing about the rules set up by God.

The rule in the book of Matthew, Chapter 22, verse 39 that states: ‘Love your neighbor’.

More simply, a rule based on the word, love.

Maybe there are those who will say I am taking the rule ‘out of context.’

But I don’t think so.

If fact, I don’t know how you can take Love your neighbor OUT of context, it is that clear and that simple.

You might as well try to take a stop sign out of context.

As David French wrote in his opinion piece, Why MAGA Evangelicals Can Cheer Love and Hate at the Same Time (NYT, 9/24/2025)

If MAGA evangelicals cheer Trump’s hate, if they welcome it, if they adopt it and if they vote for it, then they are responsible for it. His malice becomes theirs.

Love.

Love your neighbor.

Now, this rule may be no damn good, but you’re who you are and what you are because they’re your rules and you stick by them.

And of course when it’s easy to stick by them, that’s no test.

It’s when it’s hard to obey the rules, that’s when they mean something.

That’s what I believe, and I always thought you did too.

9.21.2025 – gallup poll results?

gallup poll results?
half country never even
heard word watergate

You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll?

Half the country never even heard of the word, Watergate.

Nobody gives a shit.

You guys are probably pretty tired, right?

Well, you should be.

Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up… 15 minutes.

Then get your asses back in gear.

We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there.

Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country.

Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I’m going to get mad.

Goodnight.

Jason Robards playing the role of Ben Bradlee in the movie, All the President’s Men.

I was 12 years old in 1972.

I had heard of Watergate.

I have always had a problem with this line in the book and the movie, All the President’s Men.

I find it difficult to believe that 50% of the Country had not heard the word Watergate in 1972.

But there it is.

Today, there are people in the news that capture a world wide discussion that I have never heard of.

But I digress.

Its the Watergate story of Nixon versus the Washington Post that intrigues me.

With the passing of Robert Redford, the movie, All the President’s Men, is getting a lot of air time.

Like so many movies of good versus evil, To Kill a Mockingbird, Casablanca, The Diary of Anne Frank, the Hiding Place, I have to ask, who watches these movies and pulls for the other side, who identifies with the other side.

In this movie, All the President’s Men, are some viewers sad for what happened to Nixon?

Or are they sad that Nixon went down, as I view it today, because he played by the rules, at the least the rules that said what he did was wrong.

Democracy only works if both sides abide by the rules of Democracy.

When Nixon was caught outside the rules, he complied with rule of law and the Constitution and he left.

Who knew back then, All he had to do was ignore the rules and the resignation never had to have taken place.

No Gerald Ford moment.

No Gerald Ford quote, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”

It is my fondest hope that once again and maybe soon we hear those words again:

Our long national nightmare is over.

Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.

Here the people rule.

But ASIDE from all that, are there folks who watch this movie, All the President’s Men, and well …

Or are those folks just smart enough to not watch the movie.

Who wants to waste their time on a happy ending?

BTW – I have more respect in my heart for Corrie Ten Boom than I ever could imagine.