Has your life ever inspired you to write? Then come to check out the Gulf Coast Writers Association. Our guest speaker DL Havlin, will be letting us in on how he weaves reality into a world of fiction. The meeting will be held Saturday, June 16 at Zion Lutheran Church, Fort Myers 33919. First time guests are free. If you want more info please call 770-906-7885 or go to gulfwriters.org.
I quote Santa Anna – “He who chooses to ignore history is doomed to live it again.” I believe we can learn so much from things we have done right and from our failures.
This day is one of those days that we should look back and listen to what history is screaming. Look at the pictures on this blog and understand what they mean. Each body lying on the beach was someone’s loved one. That corpse gave its life for all of us. It did this so we can have the freedoms we should enjoy and savor. They were purchased at such a high cost.
Today, there are many humans that do not value the sacrifices made and are perfectly willing to sacrifice freedoms for their particular political thought. Inflexibility and ignorance and siblings and some see their view of the world as the only correct one. How sad. If something doesn’t affect them in the here and now they devalue it.
Let’s see if we can add that worth back. Look at the picture below. It’s the body of a brave man who died alone. In all probability his death was painful. No one was there to comfort him. Now, look at him a little differently. His unseen face is your brother, your son, your uncle, your father. The price of his sacrifice has just gone up. We should accord all those nameless, faceless heroes the same honor and esteem we would for those of our blood.
Today, June 6th, 2018, say a prayer and give thanks to all those who fought, who fought and died, and who fought and were forever changed. In actuality, they are all our blood relatives.
If you wondered why I suddenly stopped posting on this blog, the answer is simple. I couldn’t gain access to my own blog! The worst thing is we can’t get in touch with anybody to find out if it’s us or them. I don’t have the slightest. Mr. WordPress, can you please provide some reasonable and understandable way of contacting you for help? I guess you can chalk this post up to venting. It’s kind of like barking at the moon. You do it. You know it’s foolish and will accomplish nothing. But, you do it anyway. We’re back posting, but in a tortuous, round-about method.
Venting over! Many things are going on. My newest mystery/suspense book, “Turtle Point” is released. It is available on Amazon and Kindle. Pub folks always preach you should be able to describe your book in 20 words or less. Okay, here goes. “Can a good man literally bury a bad past event in his life?” Count them, that’s thirteen! #Turtle Point is set in Southwest Florida’s barrier islands, contains a lot of info about sea turtles, and introduces the heroine of my “Iron Lady” series, Harper Sturgis. (No shrinking violet she!)
For the many who have attended my historical presentations and bug me about the “Clayton’s Chronicles” series (Florida’s history in novel form – think “A Land Remembered”) the first book is complete, it’s edited, and it’s ready for the publisher. Fall of this year? Hopefully.
I’ll end with some TRULY GREAT NEWS for authors, writers, and writer-want-to-be’s in the southwest Florida area (That area from Sarasota to Marco Island and inland across the state.). ABC Books 4 Children and Adults is sponsoring a full-scale writers conference in April 2019 (Saturday the 13th). It’s titled, “The Hudson comes to the Peace” (Referring to rivers in each area) and will feature 16 of New York’s top agents and editors. The theme is “Possibilities”. That’s all the many ways you can improve your writing talent by working with newspapers, magazines, TV, electronic media and many more. It’s a full day of education that is available at a fraction of the cost of equivalent events in other venues.
I was watching a national TV news program two nights ago. It was a channel I normally watch. The volume of inflammatory rhetoric got to the point I flipped the channel … Guess what … I got more of the same. After repeating the process several more times, I decided I’d go to a local channel to avoid the garbage. Oh, contraire … I was still in the truck, bouncing my way to the landfill.
At that moment, an advertisement for a car dealership came on. It was a relief from what had been insulting my eyes and ears moments before. You know … what falls on the barn floor. The man mentioned his stupendous, unbelievable, special would be available to his customers through Memorial Day.
Memorial Day! A day to honor all those who fought to provide us with the freedoms and lives we enjoy daily. I wondered … what would those who fought … bled … and died think about the two sides in this country trying their best to destroy all that those brave men and women fought to preserve.
I understand one of those rights is the freedom of expression. I also understand abusing a right is a sure way to lose it. In my opinion, today’s’ media sources … both sides … are so corrupt they are valueless. Happily or unhappily, this is an opinion shared by … in excess of 80% of our citizenry … not just me. Watching, listening, and reading the filth makes me disgusted and angry. It is an affront to those who fought and died for this country.
Criticizing, moaning … those things do no good. I want to do something. So … I’m going to ask that for one week … the Memorial Day week … the media return their manure to the cesspool. Eliminate all opinion of ANY KIND! One week! Just, one little week.
I’m going to send my request to as many national and local media as I can. TV … radio … newspapers … magazines … anywhere I see the stench of agenda over substance. Will it do any good … I don’t know. I do know my conscience will have some comfort. At least I’ve tried to do something to end the madness.
It might help … how sweet. It might … if I can get people to join me. If you agree … join me in sending this message.
I’m sick of it!
Both sides!
Stop indoctrinating and return to informing.
For the Memorial Day week, put your agenda aside.
Don’t broadcast or print opinion for those 7 days.
For one week, stop waging war on this country and its people.
If you decide to send this message, encourage others to do the same. The more voices that make noise, the harder it is to ignore for those who cavalierly go about destroying this country.
DL Havlin
The key I most frequently use
This has been an especially busy winter season for me. Most have been very good. Some … Well, there’s always some rain to make you appreciate beautiful sunny days.
As has to be apparent, one of those rainy day events has been my inability to post to this and my other blogs. To compound the problem, I found in the six week period of time between posts, WordPress decided to make everything I knew about getting into to post obsolete. It was changed, or gone, or I simply don’t know. I’m still not able to post, but this will be my first one when I finally can get some help from this organization.
Technology is a good thing? Certainly … in many respects it is. But, I sometimes wonder if many changes in technology are made for that sake alone. Some require us all to relearn what we do when the changes are unwanted and in lots of cases less than useless to many users. Hopefully this post will find its way to the I-net sooner than later.
As a friend once said, “Oh, I long for the days of the slate, chisel, and hammer.”
Hi all! I hope to get back to posting soon.
I’ll be at the Fort Myers Beach Public Library Thursday, 4/05, at 10:30 AM to discuss “Why we get along…or don’t!” It is an introduction to acquiring human relations skills.
That’s where I’ll be this weekend. The #Crowley Museum is one of those places that few folks know about and that lots of people should. It’s a living photo of history within a two-and-a-half hour drive for those living in communities from Marco Island to Clearwater and into the center of south Florida.
One of the structures at the Crowley Museum
The Crowley is a late 1800’s frontier town that’s been restored to preserve the area’s heritage. It even has some of the cattle breed the Spanish brought with them in the 1500s that was the foundation for Florida’s first important industry, “ranch herding.”
The event for this weekend is the Southwest Florida Heritage Festival. There will be all kinds of demonstrations like squeezing sugar cane and making syrup from the juice just like Florida Crackers did using draft animals and wood fires. Other exhibitions include spinning, whip making, bee keeping, noodle making, pioneer cooking and more! Here are a few pictures.
Museum Exhibit – Whip that gave birth to the term “Cracker.”
Transportation – 1880’s Florida style. One of a multitude of exhibits (as they were) at the Crowley Museum.
Sugar Cane Press
A place to think and stink back in the day.
Irma was rough on this wonderful example of Florida history. It has just recently been reopened after the extensive work done to put it back as it was! I highly recommend you stop by and see this fascinating bit of Americana. I’ll be presenting two historical talks at the Crowley Learning Center. “The Loyal 14th Colony: Florida in the Revolutionary War” will presented Saturday (2/24) at 11:00 AM. I’ll talk about “Florida: The Forgotten Years – 1865 to 1920” on Sunday (2/25) also at 11:00 AM. Both presentations have power point programs with them and I’ll stick around to answer questions and chat afterwards. In fact, I’ll be there both days open to close. Instructions to get to the Learning Center are available on line and will be at the event.
The Crowley Museum is located very near Sarasota. Exit I-75 on to Fruitville Road East. Fruitville dead ends into Myakka Road. Turn right. The road twists and turns for a few miles to 16405 Myakka. That’s about 13 miles from the #210 exit off I-75. It’s on the left side of the road traveling east. There is a website with more info. It’s http://www.crowleyfl.org . GPS should get you there. Come see me this weekend!
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