Kiwanis Club of Historic St. Augustine

Newsletter – 20 April 2006

President’s Message:

Your Scholarship Committee met a week ago Monday to begin the screening process. Tom Pace, who is the chair, reported on the progress made. The committee received 14 apps from the three schools we targeted, and had narrowed it down to four at last meeting. They were waiting on some more info from guidance counselors and I hope they can get the job done soon. We have committed three scholarships of $1,000 each. Many thanks too to Judi for the use of The Allegro for the meeting. Lou Nester is chairing the Nominating Committee. We need to fill the VP spot and three Board members. If you have a desire to serve, please let Lou know and you will be advised as to the functions of the office. We have some new members and now is the time to get started learning about Kiwanis. The Board meets once a month, unless a special meeting is called.

We have had a good run on getting new members, but we always want more. In that spirit, we have designated 11 May as Bring-a-Guest Day, our own little membership drive. You have some time, so think about a good candidate, and invite them to come. Oh, by the way, we can induct women into this club now.

As mentioned, Ag Day is gong to be held on 25 April at lunchtime at the Ag Center. We have given them a head count, which means that we are going to pay for that many, but if you decide you want to go, trust me, they will take the extra money for your attendance. They usually have sufficient food for a few more.

Coming Events: [Advise the editor of events of interest at 797-4332]

1 May 2006: Regular monthly board meeting to be held at The Allegro. The meeting will start at 1700 hours. There is much to discuss, so be prompt and be prepared to share some ideas.

5 May 2006: First Friday Art Walk, check out the local galleries and taste the food and wine.

11 May 2006: Bring-a-Guest Day – Art Runk’s idea to help stimulate membership. Bring a prospective member so that more people in the community will know what Kiwanis is all about—and possibly join our curious crue.

Guests: No guests were present, Harry has gone home.

Programs: (Check the website for your speaker assignment date.)

LAST WEEK: Skeeter introduced our Human and Spiritual Values speaker, Ava Glicksteen. She is associated with Learn to Read of St. Johns County, Inc. For those of us that did not go to watch the pig kissing contest, she let us know that Skeeter did not win. However, Gary Bernstein, did as I said I would hope to do, and that was come in second. You raise a lot of money, but don’t have to kiss the pig. Ava gave us a good overview of her organization, which provides a great service.

THIS WEEK: Chief Hedges took Dr. Frank’s spot, since he will be in Hungary this week, and we will also honor our Student of the Month from Nease H.S. this month.

NEXT WEEK: Wayne “On the Waterfront” Howell will enthrall us with his motorcycle exploits or not. He may just decide to introduce a speaker. (Perhaps one from The Hell’s Angels)?

⅓-⅓-⅓ DRAWING WINNERS: Skeeter and Frank Nemec were the winners. Congrats and mix those tickets up better next time. Buy your tickets early and often. (See, sometimes it does pay to introduce the speaker who is also the ticket drawer.)

Late Breaking News:

Our Key Club is going to be involved in a very worthwhile project, Relay for Life. This kicks off at 5:00pm on 5 May and ends at noon on 6 May. They need a tent, and we have managed to get them two tents. One is the homicide tent from SAPD (they promised to get the blood out of it and also to patch the bullet holes) and another from the Florida National Guard. (Your editor thought it would be simpler to have the Guard loan them a pup tent for each member to use.) They are also going to need some food to feed these hungry walkers and the Board agreed to purchase the food. (Boy, I don’t know. I remember how much my kids used to eat, and that was without the forced march.)

I know I mentioned the trial in Arlington, VA last week, and my point is that it is still going on. Can you imagine the time and cost it would take if we put all these bad guys on trial under the civilian system? The guy confessed for crying out loud. Put him away and throw away the key! I still think my pig pal idea would be the best thing for this guy.

Rumsfeld must go, or at least that is what six generals said, and they were quickly joined by Wes Clark, old Wesley-Come-Lately. (I don’t count him, because he is running for President again.) Now, for my take on the situation: First, note that there is neither a Naval officer nor an Air Force officer in the group. The problem goes back to the time when Rummy came into the Pentagon. He irritated the Army from the git-go because he had some major changes in the force that he wanted to make, and he has done most of that. He does not see the need to have huge forces in each deployment, but wants the Army to become a lean, mean, fast-moving, fighting machine. (After all, we don’t have the draft anymore and this is all done by volunteers.) Let’s be honest, we essentially took Afghanistan with about 50 troops. Rummy gleefully showed pictures of the Special Forces guys on horseback.

Secondly, I love this crap about how “mean” and “arrogant” Rummy is. You don’t want tough, hard-nosed, people at the top? Then get out of the military at your earliest convenience. People that know him know that he is an exceptionally bright man, and he doesn’t suffer fools for very long. He does listen to the argument, so you had better make the case, because he will come down hard if you don’t make sense. This is what everyone I’ve read says about him.

Is he perfect? Hardly! No one is. With hindsight, I would say the biggest mistake he made, that we are aware of, was signing off on Paul Bremer’s plan to disband the Iraqi army. With their army disbanded, it left our troops short handed. But I can’t abide these critics that call for immediate pull-out. Look where Iraq has come to and where it came from. How long did it take to get a government set up in Germany after the WW II? How soon after that war did we finally pull our troops out of Germany? Iraq is but one spot over there. The Islamofascists must be defeated, and that will take a while.

Quote(s) of the Week:

"We all know our duty better than we discharge it." —John Randolph