Uncle Frank

In Loving Memory of Frank I. Yerks ~January 3, 1924 - June 12, 2012, ~

Frank Yerks was a Son, Brother, Soldier, Husband, Father, Uncle, Grandfather, Great-Grandfather, Friend, and for most of his 88 years, an outspoken American Patriot. He proudly served his country in the Army during WWII and continued to defend freedom for the rest of his days. I will always remember his mischievous smile, and his contagious laughter will echo down the halls of my memory as long as I live. I called him the "Prince of Pun" because he was always quick with a good one. The world turns a little slower today because he has left us. He is one of those remarkable people whose shoulders I proudly stand today. Thank you Uncle Frank for everything, especially for the example of a man you lived before me and the best friend and brother you were to my Dad.

Memorial Day 2012

“Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13 (New King James Version)

Memorial Day, is a Federal Holiday that annually sets aside the last Monday of May to honor the men and women who have died in all of America’s wars. Originally known as Decoration Day after the Civil War to honor and decorate the graves of the fallen Union Soldiers.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives so that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

To the brave men and women that so proudly and honorably served under the colors of The United States Armed Forces, I honor you, I salute you, but most of all, I THANK YOU! Without your sacrifice and that of the brave souls that never made it home, I would not have the blessing-filled life I enjoy, with all guaranteed liberty, and the full pursuit of happiness constitutionally afforded me.


Time and time again throughout America’s illustrious 236-year history, it has been the blood sweat, and tears, and all too often the very lives of the American Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, and Marine, to answer the call to raise up a standard against those that would threaten to destroy our way of life. Today we proudly stand on their honored shoulders. I pray for America’s resolve to remain vigilant and strong, under the call of building upon the rock-solid foundation toiled and tooled for us. We must stand as stalwart examples for those who will continue the fight, emboldening them to stave off any adversary opposed to America’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Freedom is never free; thousands died to gain it, millions have died to keep it, and one willingly died to offer it!

God Bless America!

Hurt And Anger...You Can't Have One Without The Other

Anger, it can motivate you, it can trip you up, or even kill you. Sometimes it is justified, but we are never justified to harbor it in our hearts. Anger comes from deep-seated hurt stuffed into the recesses of our soul, a soul that is meant to be free, free to express and shine forth the person we truly are from the inside out. I see hurt as that dirty closet somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of the house where we hoard all the negative and unkind words and deeds said and done over the years. They rapidly change appearance with every hurtful addition heaped onto the pile. The original article no longer has its own identity, merely an amalgamation of hideous words and deeds, fermented and putrefied over the ticking of time. The poisons of hurt and anger are subtle, taking their time over time to infiltrate and corrupt everything good and worth having in our lives. Life is seen through the poisonous cloud of our anger, causing our wounds to fester and callus. Every new event tears and reopens the old issue to make it today’s problem all over again. The vicious cycle continues until the door of the closet is about to come unhinged. I am on a journey of sorts to clean my closets. It is said that you don’t truly realize how much stuff you have until you go to move. So it is with the soul of man. Attempt to make an internal move forward, and see just how much junk falls on you when you open that cluttered old closet. The good thing about having the contents hit you right between the eyes is that you are forced to deal with them head-on. Plus once exposed to the light, they are no longer as dark and fearful. We all have issues that we harbor within, be honest as you muster up the courage to look. Forgive the person that hurt you long ago or just yesterday. Refuse to allow that junk to clutter your closet one day more. You will find in time, that the once dark spaces will be bathed in the light of peace. Make no mistake, the process is difficult and quite painful at times. It’s not easy to find that balance of forgiving and forgetting. Clara Barton, Founder of the Red Cross was once approached by a friend that reminded her of a cruel incident that had happened years before. “Don’t you remember the wrong that was done?” said the friend. “No,” Clara said matter of factly, “I distinctly remember forgetting about that.” Barton was able to accomplish great things in her life because she refused to carry the exhausting burden of hurt, anger, and resentment around like a knapsack full of bricks. That is the lesson for you and me, let it go, forgive yourself and others, and live in peace with others whenever possible. At the end of the day, true freedom (like a dream) starts from within. We’ll all be better at it!

Contemplate

Recently I heard an interview with Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the British Rock Band The Who. He talked about technology as it pertains to sports, pointing out the horrible referee calls in the 2010 World Cup. His thought was that technology is needed to correct the blatant errors the referees inflicted that possibly cost vital games, and possibly even the cup for the American soccer team. On the other hand, he warned of the effects technology is having on our society at large. We may not truly see the effects for twenty or thirty years, but the effects will be felt. Roger opines that in these days of megabytes, gigabytes, and nanoseconds, people have forgotten how to contemplate. Everything in today’s life is so fast that we basically make quick assessments of information or events, and make nanosecond decisions. Contemplation is a good way to get our heads around an issue and truly understand it. Without contemplation, the information literally goes in one ear and out the other. Life is too short as it is to not fully understand and enjoy what’s around us. Take the test. When you click on a website and it takes more than three seconds, do you start to tap your foot and check your watch? Three seconds and we feel the whole world is passing us by. I can remember as a kid waiting for the picture tube on our television to seemingly take forever to warm up, but we were excited to see what picture would pop up. And then when we got a color TV in the late 60s, talk about anticipation…WOW! Heaven forbid if we ever have to wait at that endless red light, or in a long line at the grocery store, or stare at the bumper of a slow car ahead of us when we’re in a big hurry. We just don’t have the patience to wait for anything anymore. We used to fill our time with thoughts of the future, or what we were going to do with our friends next weekend. Families spent more time together before iPods, iPads, and endless channels of High Definition Television at our fingertips. Cashiers don’t even have to know how to make change anymore. How many times have you noticed the person at the register waiting for the change back to be displayed before delving into the tray to “count-up” your change? I guess it goes to show that the more we try to make our lives easier, the more complicated they become. Technology is an incredible thing for sure. My wife and I just purchased iPhones with a million Apps that do a million things. We never have to worry about locking the keys in the car, yep there is an App that will summon a satellite to pop the doors open. Never again will I have to wait in line to buy movie tickets, not with my trusty iPhone! Heck, I can even deposit a check without leaving the comforts of my home. With all this time I’m saving, why do I feel just as busy and tired as always? I don’t really have the answers, maybe I should take some time to contemplate for a while, and then I’ll get back to you…

50

Turning fifty has a very peculiar feel to it. Well past middle age unless you are blessed to stick around to hit the century mark, yet young enough to remember the previous years leading up to this half-century milestone. In my case anyway, synchronicity seems to be a casualty in the battle of time passage, the mind refuses to age at the same pace as the rest of the structural framework. So many times I have unwisely thought to make a time-saving jump down off an elevated surface only to have my brain remind my good-intentioned inner-child that I would most likely land on my iPhone, break my hip or something, and not be able to call for an ambulance. I think of that lady’s refrain from the commercials, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Seriously, it’s pretty funny how the mind works. It’s strange to be at an age that you can remember your parents being, and you thought they were getting pretty old. Aging is uncharted territory for us even though others have gone before. Everyone’s journey is a solo flight that we hope is filled with excitement and grace. Like anything unknown, the future has its share of anxiety and stress. But if we dwell too much on what could happen in the future, we will surely miss all that is potentially good surrounding us at the moment before us. So for my next 50 years, I want to make it a point to anticipate less and participate more in what life has to offer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jumping out of any perfectly good airplanes anytime soon, but within reason, I want to take some risks. I want to feel less encumbered by my fears, and perceptions, and stop listening to the unkind voices from the past that occasionally echo from a deep and dimly lit recess within my mind. I want to smile more than I do every day, and I want to recognize and seek out the people and things that make me smile. I want to love more things about my life, my country, and my world. And even though life is a continuous process of learning and growing, I want to be able to allow myself from time to time to say “You’ve made it to this point kid, use what you’ve learned so far…and go for it!” I want to play more and not worry about the consequences my muscles may pay the next day. I want to be more thankful for what I have had the privilege to experience in this life so far. I am thankful for the eyes that I have been given for which to see the world around me, whether they are through mine, or clarity revealed through the eyes of a loved one. So today I will lace up my hockey skates, or slide down an icy hill with my wife gripping our brand new super-duper sled. Tonight we go to my favorite BBQ Restaurant (which is a risk in itself for me, but worth taking) I just hope I will be fully functional and upright tomorrow…but hey, I’ll concern myself with that tomorrow!

Dealey Plaza

On January 22, 1999, I spent six hours walking every inch of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. It was a pilgrimage of sorts, for as long as I could remember, I obsessively absorbed all the information I could get my hands on about the assassination of the 35th President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

I toured the 6th Floor Museum located in the former School Book Depository Building, as well as a ride in a replica of the Presidential Limousine through the crowded streets of Dallas. Complete with animated narration and synchronized gunshot sound effects blasting over an onboard speaker system while traveling down Elm Street, and passing the infamous Grassy-Knoll. A bit morbid I admit, but it was educational just the same. I was really amazed to see how close everything was there in the plaza, especially where several witnesses had their views along Elm Street.

I thought of Mary Moorman, armed with her Polaroid camera as I stood where she and her friend Jean Hill stood that day on the inside of Elm St. looking directly at President Kennedy with the Grassy-Knoll in the background. Her photo supposedly shows a blurry “Badge Man” standing in the bushes of the Grassy-Knoll. It’s hard to say if it is real or not, but it is interesting if, in fact, it is an actual muzzle blast puffing from the picture. I stood where Bill Newman stood with his wife and small children as the shots rang out. I could picture him forcing his family to hit the turf as total chaos unfolded around them. I stood where Orville Nix recorded his film from the grass near Main Street. And of course, I perched myself on the concrete structure where Abraham Zapruder documented history with his 8 mm Bell & Howell movie camera.

There is no question in my mind that anyone trained in firearms could have assassinated President Kennedy that day. The question is the cover-up. Too many people had to remain silent or be silenced for that matter, for the mystery to continue to this day. I believe Vice-President Lyndon Baines Johnson was involved; it was well known that he hated his “Harvard Boy” boss. He and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover shared a mutual disdain for Bobby Kennedy. CIA Director Allen Dulles was fired by Kennedy over the “Bay of Pigs” incident. The CIA was its own autonomous entity back then that would never stand for a presidential insurrection of that magnitude. John Kennedy was known to have extra-marital affairs with “ladies” supplied in part by underworld boss Sam Giancana. Yet Attorney General Robert Kennedy continued ferociously to curtail all mob activity. The Industrial Military Complex wanted a war in Vietnam, but Kennedy was reluctant to send further troops and escalate the United States into a war in South-East Asia. Reportedly, LBJ told the Joint Chiefs of Staff in December of 1963: “…Just let me get elected, and then you can have your war…” Was everyone going to wait until 1968 when Kennedy would be term-limited out or was Kennedy an obstacle that needed to go away? LBJ certainly had the motive to remove President Kennedy, as well as all the other groups I mentioned. A note of interest was an Executive Order President Kennedy signed in the summer of 1963 that was basically putting the nails in the coffin of the Federal Reserve. Forty-Seven years after the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the Federal Reserve is alive and well.
So in conclusion, do I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone? No, I don’t, he could have pulled the trigger but there were far too many people that wanted President Kennedy dead, and too many people within our government that had to sell the lone radical communist sympathizer theory to make it even somewhat palatable to the average, trusting American. The Warren Commission was put into place to comfort a grieving nation. Their mission was not to search for the truth, they actually defined the truth. The Single Bullet Theory holds about as much water as a bucket with no bottom. Wasn’t there a conflict of interest to have former (and disgraced I might add) CIA Director Allen Dulles sitting on a Commission that could potentially uncover any possible smoking guns leading to the CIA or any other government entity? Too many conflicts of information make it impossible to ever resolve this mystery or dissipate the cloud that surrounds it. The waters were deliberately stirred and muddied from John Kennedy’s last breath that November day, that they remain just as murky today.

In his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961, President Kennedy said: “… the energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world…” How ironic to have his light that briefly flickered so brightly, snuffed out in an instant by the evil cross-hairs of war.

Ukraine

This ninth-floor window is my view of this piece of the Ukraine. I look out at rundown buildings that house those displaced by Chornobyl’s nuclear reactor disaster. In the quadrangle, is what’s left of a children’s playground long neglected, reflecting the sadness felt and seen here. It is a playground for drinking parties now, and the occasional gathering of old ladies to gossip and catch up on the day's events. I watch from my high perch as their arms flail and gesture like animated robots to stress their points. This is a sad place where my wife grew up. It was once a place where children played, oblivious to the economic concerns their parents had to shoulder. I would suspect that times are even harder now with people out of work, and prices continuing to rise. As an American observing the economic situation on the ground level and not just as a tourist, I wonder how people can actually make ends meet and enjoy life at all. Shopping at local markets I was astonished to look at the prices of everyday necessities. Many things that we take for granted here in America are huge luxury items in Ukraine. The official currency of Ukraine is the Hryvnia. As a reference point, $1.00 (USD) can be converted into ₴8.00 (Ukrainian) Can you imagine having to make ₴600.00 a month in retirement payments stretch in an economy where a can of coke is ₴5.00. I was amazed to see instant coffee locked up under the glass. I couldn’t understand why until I asked my wife. She said it is a big item that people steal. I would imagine there is a lot of theft here, but I would never think that coffee would be that high on the list. This is also an alcoholics' dream world. Everywhere you turn, every street corner it seems is a kiosk where beer is available. It is difficult to ride public transportation with all the smells of alcohol and body odor that are so prevalent. You can see the hopelessness in the eyes of the people on the street as they pass by staring into empty space, and rushing to where ever it is they are going. With all the negativity that hovers over this part of Ukraine like a grey cloudy day, you would think my time there was a waste of money and time. This was my first adventure into the world outside the United States. I am so glad I went to see firsthand a culture different from my own. It has certainly given me a different perspective on life in America, and in the world in general. So many things that I had taken for granted here, like people simply engaging with those around them in public places. Here in America when you hold a door for someone, nine times out of ten people will acknowledge the gesture with a nod of the head, a smile, or even a big fat thank you. Not in Ukraine, people will bowl you over to get where they want to go, and leave to hold the door for the throngs of people that file behind like lemmings. Veronika’s family does not fit the mold of the people-at-large I have encountered. They are very warm people who welcomed me into their family with open arms. I really enjoyed being with them even though my Russian is as good as their English. In both cases, not very good I’m afraid. My poor wife worked harder than an interpreter at the United Nations to keep us all on the same page. I think she needs some time off just for herself after ten days of duty. It seems a bit ironic for such good and decent people to live amongst such hardship and hopelessness. It makes me wonder if more people in Ukraine have the same giving heart as they do, and are afraid to show any kind of character for fear of having it ripped away from them. I look forward to future trips to visit my new family halfway around the world. They are in my heart now, as is this new country my wife is from. I will be back with my eyes wide open to learn what it is for me to learn about myself, my country, and those very different from me. I said to Veronika many times on our visit that we may not be able to change a whole country, but we can certainly make a difference in one family. For now, we’ll start with ours, and then see where we will go from there. It’s exciting to see where life will take us. There is excitement in the unknown challenges that lie ahead for us in Ukraine and beyond.