I was born in Tennessee and everyone in Tennessee knows the name of Alvin York. Above is a clip about his accomplishments in War World I.
Cara Gist of Shannon Hills tells me that her grandfather Herbert S. Apple of Salado, Arkansas (near Batesville) fought in World War I. He served in France and fought in the trenches. Apple was actually a victim of a mustard gas attack by the Germans. Also he was wounded by machine gun fire in both the hip and back and stayed in a military hospital in New Mexico for two years. He later went back to his farm and raised chickens until his death while in his seventies.
Cara’s husband Alan said his father served in World War II. Charles E. Gist was born on January 7, 1919 in Solgahachia, Arkansas. He served in the US Army, 65th Bombardment Squadron, 43 rd Bombardment Group. At one point the plane he was traveling in was shot down and had to make an emergency landing. He was honorably discharged on July 22, 1945 at Camp Chafee, and later he married and went to work at Little Air Force Base in Jacksonville.
The Background Facts of The Black Hawk Down (1/7) Uploaded by WarDocumentary on Feb 14, 2011 The movie Black Hawk Down was based on an actual event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. This documentary explains the event. _______________________________ On October 3, 2003 my son played quarterback at the Arkansas Baptist High School Football game […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Part 1 – HD Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 2 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 3 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the […]
Leon McDaniel’s picture Okinawa – At the Emperor’s Doorstep” episode from “WWII: GI Diary”….. This old 1978 TV docu-drama was narrated by Lloyd Bridges and told the stories of real soldiers/sailors/pilots and their first-hand experiences in battle. Archival footage and good background music really made the stories come alive…..about 25 episodes were made. Video converted […]
President Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater present the fourth star to General Jimmy Doolittle during a White House ceremony in the Indian Treaty room, OEOB. 6/20/85. I love the movie “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck and it tells the story of Jimmy Doolittle. He was born in 1896 and died in 1993. He is pictured […]
My son Wilson predicts that Slovenia will have an early lead against the States and it will be a tough time, especially since the game is held in Slovenia. It will be 1-0 at half. The Stars and Stripes will score near the very end and the final score will be 1-1 draw.
CHICAGO (Oct. 18, 2011) – The U.S. Men’s National Team will face Slovenia in a rematch of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Group C game on Nov. 15 at Stozice Stadium in Ljubljana. The USA’s first trip to Slovenia will be broadcast live on ESPN2, ESPN3 and Galavision. Kickoff time for the match is still to be determined. Fans can also follow the match live on ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and on Twitter @ussoccer.
The game against Slovenia will represent the latter part of a double international fixture date, giving Klinsmann the ability to call in a full selection of players. The USA will travel east to Slovenia after it faces France on Nov. 11 in Paris.
“Slovenia is a small nation that has achieved big results,” said U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. “For them to have qualified for two World Cups in such a short time is an incredible achievement. I have seen them play in qualifying and the last World Cup, and I was very impressed. This game is another good opportunity for our players to build on what we have been working on for the last few months.”
The U.S. and Slovenia have met only once before, contesting one of the most thrilling matches in recent team history. In their second Group C game at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the USA fell behind to two first-half goals from Slovenia at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. The second half was a different story, and the U.S. fought back with goals from Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, before a late goal from Maurice Edu was controversially disallowed to deny the USA a deserved three points.
The tie was enough to keep U.S. hopes alive at the World Cup, setting the stage for the famous 1-0 victory against Algeria that pushed the team through to the knockout round as group winners for the first time in 80 years.
Slovenia, ranked No. 33 in the world, was eliminated from Euro 2012 after failing to navigate one of the trickiest qualifying groups. In a tight tussle for second place, Slovenia came up just short behind Serbia and surprise package Estonia, who eventually secured the playoff spot.
Despite missing out on next year’s continental championship, Slovenia still maintain an impressive record of qualifying for major tournaments. The nation of just more than two million have qualified for Euro 2000 as well as World Cups in 2002 and 2010 since playing their first match as an independent nation in 1992
University of Georgia running back Herschel Walker announces his presence to the world on Sept. 6, 1980 as he absolutely demolishes and demoralizes All-SEC safety Bill Bates from Tennessee, and pretty much the rest of the Volunteer team. With UGA trailing 15-2 at halftime, Coach Vince Dooley inserted the true freshman Walker into the lineup for the first time and as they say, the rest is history! Dawgs upset the Vols in Knoxville, 16-15, and a Legend is born. Georgia went on to win the 1980 National Championship by beating Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Walker won the Heisman Trophy his Junior year, 1982.
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Johnny Majors spoke at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on November 7, 2011. Last year Bill Bates spoke to us and he told us the funny story about Georgia running back Herschel Walker running over him in Georgia’s 16-15 victory over the Vols in 1980. Bates decided to go to church the next day and everyone had seen the picture in the paper showing Walker stepping on Bates.
Bates of course later became a great NFL player for the Dallas Cowboys. Another great NFL player that Majors got to coach was Reggie White. Below is an article about him:
Hall recall: Reggie White
By Gil Brandt, NFL.com Senior Analyst Special to Profootballhof.com
Legendary coach John Majors and I always have had a great relationship. When he was coaching at Tennessee, I planned one trip each season to see him and scout their talent.
Our annual tradition was to go to “The Orangery,” a great restaurant in Knoxville, the night before the game. It was at one of these dinners where I first heard about Reggie White.
Coach Majors hadn’t seen this young recruit from Chattanooga play football in high school, but he had recently witnessed him on the basketball court. Majors referred to him as a “man among boys” in that game and determined that he probably could have had an NBA career if that had been the direction he pursued. Fortunately for coach Majors and football fans everywhere, White chose the pigskin.
White was a larger-than-life person, who had been recruited to Tennessee by Bobby Jackson, who now is an NFL assistant. Majors recalled White, a very religious person who became an ordained minister at age 17, asking him regularly to hold a team prayer on the field before practice started. He was able to use his wit and personality to mock those he played against on the field, as well as those around him in everyday life.
Majors recounted a story to me once that typified White’s persona. The hot walk from practice to the locker rooms at Tennessee was a little under 10 minutes. Majors decided to forego the walk and ride as a passenger in a car up the hill. As he tried to get out of the car, he found a dog snarling, yelping and attacking his leg. It wasn’t any normal dog, though. White had snuck up behind the car and put on a show that left the rest of his teammates howling with laughter. That was White — always the life of the party.
White put on one of the most remarkable individual performances I ever witnessed as a scout, in a night game in 1983 against LSU in Knoxville. He started the game playing straight up against tackle Lance Smith, who was a talented player. He was no match for White, though, and neither was anyone else on the field that night. LSU tried to double- and triple-team him — and even chip him with the tight end — all to no avail.
White and the Vols held a very talented Tigers offense that featured future second-round picks Dalton Hilliard and Gary James to only 170 yards and won 20-6. White finished the game with a sack and six solo tackles, three of which went for a combined total of 19 yards lost. But the stats didn’t even come close to telling the story. The only other comparable performance I every saw was Randy White’s final game as a senior for Maryland in the Liberty Bowl. These were two future Hall of Famers playing to their capacity.
Following his senior year, White was one of the three players I had been assigned by the NFL to usher through the predraft process. The USFL had been formed and was on the warpath to sign as many of the seniors coming out of college as they could.
The day he flew back from the Japan Bowl — and was named the game’s MVP — I met his plane at Los Angeles International Airport and took him to the Sheraton Hotel to have dinner and explain all the pros and cons of signing with the NFL vs. the USFL. But a lot of owners in the upstart league were offering millions in deferred payments to players — most of which the players unfortunately never saw.
White played for the Memphis Showboats in 1984-85. In between those two seasons, on June 5, 1984, the Eagles selected him with the fourth pick overall in the supplemental draft. After the USFL played its final game in 1985, White joined the Eagles.
Since he was in our division, we got familiar with White’s abilities at the pro level. Two games every year taught us quickly how the “Minister of Defense” got his nickname.
White went on to an NFL career that included 13 Pro Bowls, two Super Bowls and 198 sacks in 232 games. He is one of a handful of players to make two different NFL All-Decade Teams (1980s and 1990s). The Eagles and Packers retired his familiar number “92” last year, making White the only player in NFL history to be so honored by two teams. The University of Tennessee also retired his number.
My last fond personal memory of White was during Media Day on the Tuesday before Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans. He was sitting on the ground in the Superdome playfully answering reporters’ questions when he called me over to needle me about something that had been on his mind. He wanted to get his point across that a merchandise company I had been affiliated with should allow him to sell its hats and shirts in his Green Bay retail store. Then he gave me that huge smile.
That Super Bowl victory was his crowning moment, and his induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame will cap an outstanding athletic career for one of the most unbelievable people I’ve ever known in sports.
Did You Know The nickname “Minister of Defense” was given to him by University of Tennessee public relations men Bud Ford and Haywood Harris before the 1983 season. He sacked 75 different quarterbacks during his NFL career, including Troy Aikman (seven) and Warren Moon (five). He became the first big-name player to switch teams in the era of unrestricted free agency in 1993 when he signed with Green Bay. His nine consecutive seasons with 10 or more sacks is an NFL record. In 1980, as a high school senior, he was named the nation’s top two-sport athlete. He finished ahead of Patrick Ewing.
For those who really understand this college football rivalry, there’s little more that needs to be said.
I realize that I have an inherent bias. I grew up with the Battle of the Ravine as an important part of my life. In my family, the day when Ouachita played Henderson was about as big as Christmas and far bigger than New Year’s Day. We could walk to either stadium from our house, though the Henderson stadium was a bit more of a hike.
The two Arkadelphia schools first played each other in football in 1895. The series was suspended from 1951 until 1963 due to excessive vandalism.
Consider these facts:
– It’s the only college football game in America in which the visiting team walks to a road game. That’s because only U.S. Highway 67 separates Ouachita’s A.U. Williams Field from Henderson’s Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.
– They’ve played 83 times through the years, and the series is almost dead even. Ouachita has won 39 times. Henderson has won 38 times. There have been six ties.
– Of the 83 meetings between Henderson and Ouachita, the game has been decided by a touchdown or less 37 times with Ouachita holding a 19-12-6 advantage in those close games.
Ouachita won one of the greatest games in the history of the series two years ago at Carpenter-Haygood Stadium, 43-36. The Tigers came from 13 points down in the fourth quarter to end the season with five consecutive victories. Last year at A.U. Williams Field, Ouachita jumped out to a big lead early and held on to win, 35-28. As noted, those seven-point margins of the past two seasons are the norm rather than the exception.
And wouldn’t you know that Henderson and Ouachita come into Saturday’s game with the top two scoring offenses in the Gulf South Conference, which generally is recognized as the toughest conference in all of NCAA Division II. The game, which begins at 1 p.m. at Henderson’s stadium, has all the makings of another classic.
The weather forecast looks good. You really ought to consider going to Arkadelphia if, for nothing else, than to say you’ve experienced a Battle of the Ravine. There will be a giant tailgate party adjacent to the stadium beginning at 10 a.m. with free hot dogs. The 1 p.m. kickoff means the game will end about 4 p.m., giving those of you who live in the Little Rock area plenty of time to return home before the Hogs come on television at 6 p.m.
Here’s what Troy Mitchell, Henderson’s talented sports information director, wrote: “There’s the Battle for the Little Brown Jug (Michigan vs. Minnesota), the Egg Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss) and the Iron Bowl (Alabama vs. Auburn). But the oldest rivalry in Division II football is the Coleman Dairy Battle of the Ravine. … It has been said so many times it is almost trite, but it still bears repeating one more time: For sheer excitement, for dramatic finishes and for almost unbearable tension, few things in sports can be compared to a Henderson State-Ouachita Baptist football game.”
When I lived in Washington, D.C., I missed the Battle of the Ravine from 1985-87. I flew back for the 1988 game and moved back to Arkansas just before the 1989 game. Other than those three years, I’ve been at every Battle of the Ravine since the series resumed in 1963 (I was 4 then). I’ve also had the pleasure of attending the Iron Bowl four times. Ask me the greatest rivalries in college football, and I’ll tell you it’s Ouachita vs. Henderson at the small college level and Alabama vs. Auburn at the major college level.
For many years, the Battle of the Ravine was played on Thanksgiving. That first game in 1895 was on Thanksgiving as Ouachita defeated what was then Arkadelphia Methodist College by a score of 8-0.
You want to hear about some of the classic games in the series?
How about 1914 when Ouachita beat both Arkansas and Ole Miss but could only manage a scoreless tie with Henderson?
How about 1926, at the new A.U. Williams Field, when Hardy Winburn broke loose for a 35-yard score in the rain to give Ouachita a 14-7 victory?
How about 1949, when Ouachita trailed with seven minutes left by a score of 14-0? The late Ike Sharp successfully executed three onside kicks for Ouachita in those final seven minutes and Otis Turner, known as the Magic Toe, kicked the field goal that gave the Tigers a 17-14 victory.
How about 1950 when more than 8,000 people turned out to watch the Reddies avenge the previous season’s loss with a 7-0 win over Ouachita? It would be 13 years before they would play again.
How about 1963 as the series resumed with a 28-13 Henderson win at Haygood Stadium, allowing the Reddies to claim a share of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship?
How about 1969 when the great Henderson quarterback Tommy Hart led the Reddies back from a 17-7 second-half deficit? The Reddies ended up winning 23-17 and captured the AIC title in the process.
How about 1972 when Ouachita used a 47-yard touchdown run by hometown freshman sensation Luther Guinn with 2:23 to play to pull within one point at 14-13? Legendary Ouachita Coach Buddy Benson decided to go for two, and it paid off as quarterback Mike Carroll hit Danny Jack Winston to give Ouachita a 15-14 victory.
How about 1975, which I will tell you is the greatest college football game I’ve ever seen at any level? Henderson was undefeated coming into the final game of the regular season. Ouachita was 8-1. Trailing 20-14 with time running out, Ouachita faced a fourth-and 25. Quarterback Bill Vining Jr., the son of the Ouachita head basketball coach and athletic director, completed a pass to Gary Reese for 25 yards. The chains came out, and Ouachita had the first down by an inch. Two plays later, Vining hit Ken Stuckey for the touchdown, and Russell Daniel kicked the extra point to give the Tigers a 21-20 win. Ouachita and Henderson tied for the AIC championship. Ouachita was one of four teams selected for the NAIA playoffs. Henderson went to the Bicentennial Bowl at War Memorial Stadium.
How about 1978 when Coach Benson decided to go for two late in the game, just as he had done in 1972 at Haygood Stadium? Ouachita trailed 7-6 with 1:21 remaining after a Neal Turner touchdown pass to Jimmy Cornwell. Turner threw a pass to William Miller on the two-point conversion attempt, but Ned Parette knocked the ball away. It was my first year to do Ouachita games on the radio. By the way, it was a pass interference that was never called (now my Ouachita bias is showing).
How about 1982 when Ouachita drove the length of the field for a late touchdown to win 19-18 and capture the AIC championship?
How about 1988 when the game was called off due to flooding (much of the field was under water) at halftime with the score tied at 3-3?
How about 2008 when Ouachita scored 27 fourth-quarter points to rally from a 29-16 deficit? In one of the greatest individual performances I’ve ever seen, Tiger receiver Julio Pruitt had 10 receptions for 250 yards and four touchdowns. One of his touchdown catches was shown on ESPN’s top plays of the day that evening.
The best three Battles of the Ravine I’ve seen are (in order from No. 1) the 1975, 1982 and 2008 games.
Sometimes, ESPN takes its “College GameDay” show to a smaller college.
One of these years, the network should do the show from Arkadelphia on the day of the Battle of the Ravine. People across the country need to know about this unique rivalry.
Hopefully, many of you will find your way to Carpenter-Haygood Stadium on Saturday. I promise that you will enjoy yourself.
The federal government is spending like a drunk sailor (my apologies to sailors in this comparison) and you knew the tax increases were coming at some point.
In a recent tax planning meeting with one of our clients, we shocked them with what their income tax future looked like for 2013 if Congress continues to do nothing to provide a long-term permanent set of tax laws (and it looks as if lawmakers are headed down this track).
They had no idea what tax breaks were expiring this year and next year, and how much it would cost them personally in extra income tax. But they aren’t alone, many Americans and even tax professionals aren’t aware that their tax bill could rise dramatically next year.
These clients are your average American family and their situation is a good example of the law changes that will affect all of us. Here’s their tax situation with a table summarizing the expiring tax laws that are scheduled to occur in 2011 and 2012.
Meet the Smiths: 26-year-olds Bill and Joan have been married for five years and have two young children. Bill earns about $65,000 a year in sales and Joan has gone back to work and earns about $35,000 annually. Bill owes quite a bit on his college student loans and will pay about $3,000 in interest on them in 2013. With Joan working again, they are paying $3,000 for year-round child care. Joan inherited some AT&T stock from her grandmother, which pays her $1,000 in dividends every year. Finally, counting home mortgage interest, they have about $20,000 in itemized deductions.
The first big change affecting the Smiths will be a combined increase in income tax rates, and a tightening of tax brackets as a result of the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. We estimate this will cost them $960 in 2013.
Bill will lose the complete deduction of his student loan interest in 2013, costing about $840. The pair’s allowable deduction for child care will drop to $2,400 from $3,000, and they will also see their credit for children drop in half, costing another $1,000.
The marriage tax penalty will come roaring back to hit the Smiths in 2013, costing an estimated $500. The tax on their dividend income will go increase to $280 from $150, adding another $130. Finally, although we did not calculate the effect, without Congressional action to once again “fix” the alternative minimum tax, the Smiths could owe this ugly tax as well!
Luckily for the Smiths — but not for many Americans — other major changes for 2013, which do not personally affect them, include a phase out of itemized deductions and personal exemptions if their income starts to climb.
In summary, because of tax laws expiring this year and next, we estimate that the Smiths will owe $3,598 more in income tax in 2013 than in 2011 with no change in their income.
Major Individual Income Tax Benefits Expiring 12/31/2011:
• Personal tax credits applied against income tax no longer apply
• Higher alternative minimum tax exemptions revert back to extraordinarily-low thresholds
• $250 school teacher expense deduction ends
• Mortgage insurance premium deduction expires
• State and local sales tax deductions expire
• Tuition and related fees deduction end
• IRA to charity tax-free transfers stop
• 2% Social Security tax reduction ends
Major Individual Income Tax Benefits Expiring 12/31/2012:
• Marriage penalty equalization ends
• Dividends taxed at capital gains rates removed, taxed at regular rates now
• Capital gains low tax rates expires
• Removal of itemized deduction phase out for higher income Americans
• Removal of personal exemption phase out for higher income Americans
• Child care deduction limit of $3,000 reverts to $2,400
• Child credit reduces from $1,000 per child to $500 per child
• Low 10% tax bracket for low income Americans is eliminated
• Lower income tax rates and smaller brackets expires
• Refundable adoption credit and reduced deduction
• American Opportunity college education credit expires
• Major reduction in earned income credits and refunds
• Income tax exemption for debt forgiven on home foreclosures and repossessions
• Deduction for student loan interest ends
• Education IRA limit drops from $2,000 to $500
Bob Jennings is a CPA, EA and CFP and author of “Understanding Social Security & Medicare.”
Taxes per Household Have Risen Dramatically
Though the economic downturn has temporarily lowered overall tax revenues, the tax burden on Americans is still high.
INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS (2010)
Download
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and White House Office of Management and Budget.
The charts in this book are based primarily on data available as of March 2011 from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The charts using OMB data display the historical growth of the federal government to 2010 while the charts using CBO data display both historical and projected growth from as early as 1940 to 2084. Projections based on OMB data are taken from the White House Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The charts provide data on an annual basis except… Read More
Authors
Emily GoffResearch Assistant
Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy StudiesKathryn NixPolicy Analyst
Center for Health Policy StudiesJohn FlemingSenior Data Graphics Editor
Milton Friedman – Do-Gooders And Special Interest Uploaded by LibertyPen on Nov 4, 2011 An effective alliance to grow government. http://www.LibertyPen ___________________________ Great article that quotes Milton Friedman: ‘Government Efficiency’: Trying to Turn Cats into Dogs Posted by Tad DeHaven I’ll have more to say later on Mitt Romney’s speech on federal spending, but his […]
Taxes per Household Have Risen Dramatically Though the economic downturn has temporarily lowered overall tax revenues, the tax burden on Americans is still high. INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS (2010) Download Source: U.S. Census Bureau and White House Office of Management and Budget. Chart 12 of 42 Runaway Spending, Not Inadequate Tax Revenue, Is Responsible for Future Deficits The Top […]
President Obama and other politicians are advocating higher taxes, with a particular emphasis on class-warfare taxes targeting the so-called rich. This Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation video explains why fiscal policy based on hate and envy is fundamentally misguided. For more information please visit our web page: www.freedomandprosperity.org. _________________ President Obama really does stick to […]
1 Of 5 / The Bible’s Influence In America / American Heritage Series / David Barton David Barton has some great insights on this. http://www.wallbuilders.com/sIFR/font140.swf David Barton – 04/27/2006 Capital Gains Taxes The Capital Gains Tax, which is a tax on profits, actually penalizes a person for success the more profit you make the […]
I recently read an article by Steve Brawner concerning Warren Buffett. Here is part of the article: [John Boozman] says that Buffett is being hypocritical to support Obama’s proposed tax increases because they wouldn’t solve the problem and wouldn’t affect him. In fact, he says, Obama’s bill might raise the secretary’s taxes if she and her […]
The federal government loves to eat up more and more of our money. Back in the first few years of the 20th century our federal government usually spent about 3% of our money per year unless we were involved in a war, but now the percentage of GDP is up to almost 25%. It reminds […]
I really like to read Dan Mitchell’s opinions. Grading Perry’s Flat Tax: Some Missing Homework, but a Solid B+ Posted by Daniel J. Mitchell Governor Rick Perry of Texas has announced a plan, which he outlines in the Wall Street Journal, to replace the corrupt and inefficient internal revenue code with a flat tax. Let’s […]
Cato Institute looks at Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan pt 4 pt 5 Herman Cain has a lot to say about his 9-9-9 plan as do others in the debate above. I also enjoyed Cain’s comments on the Occupy Wall Street crowd in the clips above. Below is closer look at it. Cain 9-9-9: Huge Tax […]
Obama: Raise Taxes, Capital Gains – “For Purposes of Fairness” Everyone knows that if you eliminate the capital gains tax then those who are wealthy will put more money into creating jobs. However, Mitt Romney feels so guilty about being wealthy that he has proposed eliminating the capital gains for everyone except for those making […]
Cato Institute: Government spending is 41% of GDP I love the Cato Institute because they give us the facts that liberals just can’t refute. Instead of trying to raise our taxes, President Obama should be cutting spending. American Government Spending: 41% of GDP Posted by Chris Edwards My good friend Kathy Ruffing at CBPP takes […]
My longtime friend Craig Carney is originally from Jacksonville, and he told me a couple of years ago about a friend of his parents from Jacksonville, Arkansas named Silas Legrow. Legrow was going to speak at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History on April 17, 2008 about his experience in the March of 1942 when he and his unit were forced to participate in what became known as the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. My 11 year old son Wilson and I went to hear him speak that night and were able to get a front row seat.
Legrow started off his talk that evening by stating, “I want to tell you that prayer and faith meant a lot to me during those 39 months. Each day on the march, we plodded along like zombies.Words can’t explain the mental and physical abuse your body takes when you go without food and water.”
Legrow said he weighed 175 pounds at the beginning of the march, and 110 when the 10-day trek was over. About 100,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to march about 60 miles with no food and little water from the Bataan Peninsula to prison camps. Over 10% of that number died during the march.
“Many died, many lived, and only a few of us are alive today to tell the story,” Legrow said. “I feel both blessed and grateful to be one of those few.”
After the talk was over I got to visit personally with Mr Legrow (who was 85 yrs old at the time) and he thanked us for coming. I told him that his talk seemed only a few moments long since it was so interesting. In fact, you could have heard a pin drop during his talk because of the respect the people had for Mr. Legrow.
I have known Steve and Debbie Staples of Little Rock for years but just a few weeks ago I learned that Debbie’s father Cletis Overton of Malvern was also a survivor of the Bataan Death March. I spoke to Cletis and his wife Adrian on the phone recently and they sent me a copy of the book The Lord Is Our Shepherd: The story of Former Prisoner of War Sgt Cletis Overton and Maxine Overton written by Bryant’s own Steve Brawner. The Benton Library has a copy of it in the Arkansas Room.
Not only did Cletis survive the Bataan Death March but in 1944, he was one of 750 prisoners in the hull of a Japanese ship, the Shinyo Maru, that was headed for Japan. However, it was sunk by an American submarine and all but 83 drowned. Cletis was one of the few that was able to swim to shore. What an amazing story and earlier this year he turned 90 yrs old while still living in Malvern.
The Background Facts of The Black Hawk Down (1/7) Uploaded by WarDocumentary on Feb 14, 2011 The movie Black Hawk Down was based on an actual event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. This documentary explains the event. _______________________________ On October 3, 2003 my son played quarterback at the Arkansas Baptist High School Football game […]
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Part 1 – HD Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 2 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 3 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the […]
Leon McDaniel’s picture Okinawa – At the Emperor’s Doorstep” episode from “WWII: GI Diary”….. This old 1978 TV docu-drama was narrated by Lloyd Bridges and told the stories of real soldiers/sailors/pilots and their first-hand experiences in battle. Archival footage and good background music really made the stories come alive…..about 25 episodes were made. Video converted […]
President Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater present the fourth star to General Jimmy Doolittle during a White House ceremony in the Indian Treaty room, OEOB. 6/20/85. I love the movie “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck and it tells the story of Jimmy Doolittle. He was born in 1896 and died in 1993. He is pictured […]
Here is the video clip and transcript of the film series FREE TO CHOOSE episode “What is wrong with our schools?” Part 2 of 6.
Volume 6 – What’s Wrong with our Schools
Transcript:
Groups of concerned parents and teachers decided to do something about it. They used private funds to take over empty stores and they set up what became known as store front schools. One of the first and most successful was Harlem Prep. It was designed to cater to students for whom conventional education had failed. Many of the teachers didn’t have the right pieces of paper to qualify for employment in public schools. That didn’t stop them from doing a good job here. A lot of the students had been misfits and dropouts. Here they found the sort of teaching they wanted. After all, they had made a deliberate choice to come to Harlem Prep. It was a very successful school. Many students went on to college and some to leading colleges.
But after some years, the school ran short of cash. The board of education offered Ed Carpenter, the head of the school and one of its founders, tax money, provided he would conform to their regulations. After a long battle to preserve independence, he finally gave in. The school was taken over by bureaucrats.
Ed Carpenter, Former Principal, Harlem Preparatory School: I felt that a school like Harlem Prep would certainly die and not prosper under the rigid bureaucracy of a board of education. We had to see what was going to happen. I didn’t believe it was going to be good. I am right. What has happened since we have come to the board of education is not all good __ it is not all bad __ but it is more bad than good.
Friedman: The school may not look different yet, but 30 of the former teachers have gone. Ed Carpenter has resigned. The school is being moved to a traditional school building. No one, except maybe the bureaucrats, is very optimistic about its future.
Unfortunately, the strangling of successful experiments by bureaucrats is not unusual. The same thing happened in California, at a place called Alum Rock. For three years parents at this school could choose to send their children to any of several specially created mini-schools, each with a different curriculum. The experiment was designed to restore a choice to those who were most closely involved, the parents and the teachers.
Don Ayers, Former Principal, Millard McCollam Elementary School: Probably the most significant thing that happened was that the teachers, for the first time, had some power and they were able to build the curriculum to fit the needs of the children as they saw it. The state and local school board did not dictate the kind of curriculum that was used in the McCollam School. The parents became more involved in this school. They attended more meetings. They also had a power to pull their child out of that particular mini-school if they chose another mini-school
Friedman: Giving parents greater choice had a dramatic effect on educational quality. In terms of test scores, this school went from 13th to 2nd place among the schools in its district, but the experiment is now over. When school resumed after the summer vacation, this was just another public school, back in the hands of the bureaucrats.
Giving parents a choice is a good idea, yet it always meets with opposition from the educational establishment. This is Ashford, a town in the south of England. For four years, there have been efforts here to introduce an experiment in greater parental choice. Parents would be given vouchers covering the cost of schooling. They could use the voucher to send their child to any school of their choice. I have long believed that children, teachers, all of us, would benefit from a voucher system. But the head master here, who happens also to be secretary of the local teacher’s union, has very different views about introducing vouchers.
Mr. Dennis Gee, Headmaster, Newtown Primary School: We see this as a barrier between us and the parent. This sticky little piece of paper in their hand, coming in and under due writ you will do this or else. We make our judgment because we believe it is in the best interest of every Willy and every little Johnny that we have got, and not because someone is going to say, if you don’t do it, we will do that. It is this sort of philosophy of the marketplace that we object to.
Friedman: In other words, Mr. Gee objects to giving the customer, in this case the parent, anything to say about the kind of schooling his child gets. Instead, the bureaucrats should decide.
Mr. Gee: We are answerable to parents and to our government bodies, through the inspectorate of the county council and through her Majesty’s inspectorate to the secretary of state. These are professionals who are able to make professional judgments.
Friedman: But things look very different from the point of view of parents. Jason Walton’s parents had to fight the bureaucracy, the professionals, for a year before they could get him into the school that they thought was best suited to his needs.
Maurice Walton, Parent: As the present system stands, I think virtually parents have got no freedom of choice whatsoever. They are told what is good for them by the teachers and are told that the teachers are doing a great job, and I just got no sign at all. If the voucher system were introduced, I think it would bring teachers and parents together, I think closer. A parent that is worried about his child would remove their child from the school that wasn’t giving a good service and take it to one that was. And if a school is going to crumble because it’s got nothing but vandalism, it is generally slack on discipline, and the children aren’t learning well, then it is a good thing from my point of view.
Friedman: Even good schools like this would benefit from a voucher system. From having to shape up or see parents take children elsewhere, but that is not how it looks to the head master.
Gee: I am not sure that parents know what is best educationally for their children. They know what is best for them to eat, they know the best environment they can provide at home, but we’ve been trained to ascertain the problems of children, to detect their weaknesses, and put light in things that need putting light, and we want to do this freely, with the cooperation of parents, and not under any undue strains.
Walton: I can understand the teacher saying yes, it is a gun at my head, but they have got the same gun at the parents’ head at the moment. The parent goes up to the teacher and says, well I am not satisfied with what you are doing, and the teacher can say, well tough, you can’t take him away, you can’t remove him, you can’t do what you like so go away and stop bothering me. That can be the attitude of some teachers today __ it often is. But now that the positions are being reversed and the roles are changed, I can only say tough on the teachers __ let them pull their socks up and give us a better deal and let us participate more.
Friedman: In America there is one part of education where the market has had extensive scope, that is higher education. These students attend Dartmouth College, a private school founded in 1769. The college is supported entirely by private donations, income from endowment, and student fees. It has a high reputation and a fine record. Ninety-five percent of the students who enroll here complete their undergraduate course and get a degree.
The students here pay high fees, fees which cover most of the cost of the schooling which they get. Most of them get the money from their parents, but some are on scholarships provided either by Dartmouth or by outside sources. Still others take out loans to pay the costs of schooling, loans which they will have to pay back years later. Still others work either during the school year or during the summer to pay the costs. Many students work in the college’s own hotel. This girl is helping to pay her own way which is pretty good evidence that she is serious about getting an education.
Parents of perspective students come here on shopping expeditions to check out the product before they buy.
What you have here is a private market in education and the college is selling schooling. The students are buying schooling. And as in most such markets, both sides have a strong incentive to serve one another.
For the college, it has a strong incentive to provide the kind of schooling that its students want.
Liberals like President Obama want to shoot for an equality of outcome. That system does not work. In fact, our free society allows for the closest gap between the wealthy and the poor. Unlike other countries where free enterprise and other freedoms are not present. This is a seven part series.
Created Equal [7/7]. Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose (1980)
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PIVEN: __ because of the free enterprise system.
FRIEDMAN: Excuse me. You’ve got to compare __
MCKENZIE: Milton.
FRIEDMAN: __ you’ve got to compare something with something. Will you tell me the alternative which has improved the lot of the ordinary people? What is the system which in your mind has been successful? Most people through most history have lived in tyranny and misery. It’s only a very tiny minority, at any time, that have been able to escape from it. That’s the real beauty. That’s the real achievement. Now will you tell me what the alternative system is which has achieved __
PIVEN: You say that’s an achievement, though, of the free enterprise system and I say that __
FRIEDMAN: Excuse me.
PIVEN: __ elsewhere in the world__
SOWELL: What is the alternative?
FRIEDMAN: What’s the alternative? What’s the alternative? What’s your alternative?
PIVEN: The free enterprise system is of itself not an alternative because as you agree it does not exist. We are arguing really to defend those interventions which have been made by government on the behalf of people in an effort to reduce inequality in an effort to reduce oppression.
FRIEDMAN: And tell me which of those __
PIVEN: We are arguing to defend __
FRIEDMAN: __ which of those are you defending in which of these countries where those interventions have benefited the masses. In most of the countries where you have departed from the free enterprise system. You have had a small class benefited at the expense of the masses. If you take the African countries, which have become one-party dictatorships, are you going to tell me they have benefited the masses?
SOWELL: I’m astounded by the examples of the third world that are brought into here. Those parts of the noncapitalist world in which the capitalist system has penetrated are typically higher income places than those parts where they haven’t. Are you talking any kind of testable hypothesis or it’s just axiomatic that it’s so. Because the studies that I’ve seen indicate that those countries where capitalists have never gone near them are poorer than they’ve ever been. They were poor before the capitalists got there; they were poor while the capitalists were there and they are poor after capitalists have left.
PIVEN: Your measures of wealth are not measures __
SOWELL: I haven’t __
PIVEN: __ of the wealth of a people. They are measures, rather, of gross national product __
SOWELL: Give me your measures then.
PIVEN: __ which reflect, as in the case of Chile which you don’t want to discuss, which reflect the great advances that have been made by the middle classes and the upper classes in Chile as of this date, at the expense of the sharp decline in the income of working people. The catholic church __
FRIEDMAN: Those are not the facts.
JAY: But I still think Milton has not told us the answer to the question, “what is he saying?” And it’s very important we should know what he’s saying. It seems to that he should accept the fact that nobody is arguing for absolute equality and disregarding all other social and human objectives. He should accept that it is perfectly reasonable, widely endorsed and perfectly logical for people to say, amongst other social, political objectives reducing inequality is a perfectly sensible one and that in those cases where you can show that you can get a big gain in equality for only a very small loss in freedom or only a very small loss in efficiency. That is a sensible and legitimate thing to do and if it involves government actions by, for example, income tax or negative income tax that is a perfectly proper and sensible thing to do. And if he’s denying that then I still say he has given us no moral or ethical arguments to explain why he is denying that then I still say he has given us no moral or ethical arguments to explain why he is denying that perfectly proper concern with equality along with freedom, efficiency and other human objectives.
FRIEDMAN: The answer to that is that you can only serve one God. And that stating that there is __
JAY: You have lots of objectives in you life.
FRIEDMAN: __ excuse me. Stating that there are many, many of these objectives is evading the fundamental issue. In addition__
JAY: Common sense.
FRIEDMAN: __ as an empirical matter, the attempts to achieve equality along you line to lessen inequality have generally backfired. They have generally reduced freedom without in fact __
JAY: In Germany?
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
JAY: In Japan?
FRIEDMAN: Yes.
JAY: In France?
FRIEDMAN: Take the Japanese case which is a marvelous case, not now, but 1867 after the major restoration.
JAY: No right now, right now. Hell with 1867.
FRIEDMAN: Well, the reason for taking it then is because you had a far greater measure of free enterprise then than you have had more recently.
JAY: That’s my point.
FRIEDMAN: In almost all cases the way to promote equality is the same as the way to promote __ as an outcome __ is the same as the way to promote freedom. If you promote freedom, if you remove arbitrary obstacles, you open the way for people to use their resources. You will end up, in my opinion, and I think the empirical evidence is overwhelmingly on this side, you will end up with both more freedom, more prosperity and more equality.
JAY: You’re a closet egalitarian. You’re a closet egalitarian, really, then. You __
FRIEDMAN: I am not.
JAY: __ you support the objective the.
FRIEDMAN: I would like __ there’s an enormous difference between liking to see a result and being in favor of a particular method of achieving that result.
JAY: You’re willing to__
FRIEDMAN: Because if I were wrong, if freedom led to wider inequality, I would prefer that to a world in which I got artificial equality at the expense of freedom. My objective, my god, if you want, is freedom. The freedom of human beings and the individuals to pursue their own values. That will also generally be the result __
MCKENZIE: Well, there we leave this discussion at the University of Chicago. I hope you’ll join us for another edition of Free to Choose.
The movie Black Hawk Down was based on an actual event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia. This documentary explains the event.
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On October 3, 2003 my son played quarterback at the Arkansas Baptist High School Football game that night. However, I can not remember how he performed that night, but I vividly remember the singing of the national anthem. That is because his fellow student Jordan Briley sang the national anthem on the 10th anniversary of the day her father Donavan “Bull” Briley gave his life for his country.
CW3 Donavan “Bull” Briley grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas.He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in action during combat operations in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993 in operation Gothic Serpent. His actions as the pilot of an assault into a highly contested urban objective were heroic. After a brilliant assault of the objective, he held his position and fought to support the ground forces during their actions. His “Black Hawk” aircraft was subsequently downed by enemy fire and, through his exceptional skill, the passengers’ lives were saved. The movie Black Hawk Down (2001) directed by Ridley Scott shows his heroic actions.
Below I have the story of Joe Speaks who fought in Europe and was captured twice by the Germans. Photo by Associated Press American GI’s clamber into a landing craft as they prepare to hit the beaches along France’s Normandy coast in June 1944. The World War II operation was part of the massive Allied […]
Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Part 1 – HD Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 2 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan – Omaha Beach Scene Part 3 – Super High Quality Saving Private Ryan opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the […]
Leon McDaniel’s picture Okinawa – At the Emperor’s Doorstep” episode from “WWII: GI Diary”….. This old 1978 TV docu-drama was narrated by Lloyd Bridges and told the stories of real soldiers/sailors/pilots and their first-hand experiences in battle. Archival footage and good background music really made the stories come alive…..about 25 episodes were made. Video converted […]
President Reagan and Senator Barry Goldwater present the fourth star to General Jimmy Doolittle during a White House ceremony in the Indian Treaty room, OEOB. 6/20/85. I love the movie “Pearl Harbor” with Ben Affleck and it tells the story of Jimmy Doolittle. He was born in 1896 and died in 1993. He is pictured […]
Lacewell, who went on to coach at Arkansas State, was in the audience Monday. Majors took the opportunity to needle him a bit.
“Larry Lacewell, Jimmy Johnson and Jackie Sherrill were on my first staff up there. Man, they had all the answers,” he said with a touch of sarcasm.
Majors went to Pitt in 1973, taking over a team that had won one game the previous season and eventually winning a national title. After a 16-year stay at Tennessee, he went back to coach the Panthers, trying to resurrect the program for a second time. But he went 11-32 in his second stint and retired at the end of the 1996 season.
Courtesy: Athletics Communications http://www.cyclones.com/
Johnny Majors – Hall of Fame Class of 1999
Johnny Majors, who was an All-American for Tennessee while finishing second to Paul Hornung in the balloting for the 1956 Heisman Trophy, was hired by Iowa State athletic director Clay Stapleton as ISU’s head coach in 1967.
Majors started 16 sophomores in his first season as head coach in 1968, winning three games to start his rebuilding efforts. Majors’ 1968 staff included football legends Jimmy Johnson and Jackie Sherrill.
The 1971 ISU football squad earned the first bowl berth in school history with an 8-4 mark. All of the Cyclones’ defeats came to ranked opponents, including No. 5 Colorado, No. 2 Oklahoma, and No. 1 Nebraska. ISU played Louisiana State in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, losing 33-15 to the No. 11 Tigers.
The following season, Majors’ squad returned to a bowl game. After being ranked throughout much of the season, Iowa State was invited to play in the Liberty Bowl. Georgia Tech defeated the Cyclones, 31-30. Following the Liberty Bowl, Majors announced he accepted the head coaching job at Pittsburgh, where he captured the 1976 national championship.
Rex Nelson, one of the weekly presenters of the Little Rock Touchdown Club program each week, rattled off a series of state college football scores that sounded more suitable for a basketball result. Around the country the past few years, it’s nothing to see 50 or more points put up by offenses in a game — sometimes by both teams. This isn’t your dad’s or grandad’s colllege football anymore, at least not on the defensive side.
Larry Lacewell, one of the preeminent defensive minds as a coordinator at Oklahoma during the Sooners’ 1970s heyday and at Tennessee during back-to-back Southeastern Conference title runs in the early 1990s, has noticed the difference from the way defenses are playing now to how it was when he was roaming the sidelines.
“It’s a combination of things,” Lacewell said. “I think maybe the passing game has evolved so well because these high school kids get this seven-on-seven, as I understand it, these camps in the summertime and throwing the football. Also, I don’t think any of these kids want to be cornerbacks anymore. I don’t. I think these 6-foot-2, -3 guys, they all want to be receivers. I’ve never seen so many tall good receivers and I think that has something to do with it.
“And I think that AAU basketball has taken over in your large cities so much that these kids that are in the sixth grade, seventh grade, that are 6-2, 6-3 that go on up to 6-4 and 6-5, they don’t play football. They play basketball. So I think you lose a group of people there.
“Having said all that, maybe they just don’t have great defensive coaches like I was.”
That’s Lacewell, ever the sardonic, ego-driven guy who draws a lot of laughs when he speaks. He can blend enough seriousness to keep you spellbound, then lay it on thick reminding you (almost) tongue in cheek that he was pretty good at what he did.
The former Fordyce Chigger junior high runt who reached the pinnacle of football as a player personnel director with the Dallas Cowboys during their 1990s Super Bowl runs entertained a large Embassy Suites ballroom crowd Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club. It was his first trip back in more than four years to speak with the club.
“I talked about Arkansas playing Arkansas State for 30 minutes the last time and y’all wouldn’t have me back,” he half-joked.
Remembering what an old Fordyce acquaintance said years ago, he said he wouldn’t go there again, at least not in depth. “Don’t step in a cow patty on a hot day.”
Lacewell’s appearance brought out some other fabled Arkansas-connected coaches of the past, including Forrest City’s Bill Shimek, who was an assistant coach and a top recruiter at both Okahoma and Oklahoma State. Bill Atkinson, a top Fordyce athlete of the past, was on hand. Lacewell went back and forth as to who really was the better star from Fordyce. “Bill was the high school valedictorian. I passed my classes.”
Lacewell went through his career, which is a pretty amazing one considering his roots. No one in his family had gone to college, his father had died when Lacewell was very young. Yet, at only about 5-foot-6, Lacewell became a pretty good Redbug and earned a spot at then Arkansas A&M in Monticello playing for Jimmy “Red” Parker. It set him off on a coaching career that took him to the top of both college and pro football.
Along the way, he worked for Bear Bryant, Chuck Fairbanks, Barry Switzer, Johnny Majors and Jerry Jones. He worked side-by-side with the likes of Switzer, Jimmy Johnson and Jackie Sherrill. He was a success as a head coach leading Arkansas State to its best run of success, during the 1980s, when the program was a Division I-AA team.
It’s been as though Lacewell was a college football version of Forrest Gump, only a heckuva lot keener. He was everywhere a championship program was being formed.
He made sure to show off his replica Super Bowl trophies, three of them, as well as his cluster of championship rings accumulated over the years. Many of those were obtained back-to-back, which like good defense these days is almost unheard of.
Arkansas’ defense hasn’t awakened for nearly a half in its last three games, all wins that the Hogs managed to pull out with second-half offense. Lacewell saw the Arkansas-Ole Miss game on Saturday in person in Oxford. He says he’s a big fan of Bobby Petrino and the Razorbacks, but he’s like the rest of us in trying to figure out why the Hogs’ defense starts so slowly.
“Well, it’s kinda strange performances,” Lacewell said in assessing the UA defense. “I don’t know what it is, but fortunately they play well in the second half of every game. I don’t know enough about what happens in that situation, but maybe they thought the game was at 1 o’clock. They play awfully well in the second half.”
Meanwhile, the soon-to-turn-75 Lacewell lives at Jonesboro and watches as the ASU program soars this year under first-year head coach Hugh Freeze. ASU is 5-2 and 3-0 in the Sun Belt Conference after a nationally televised 34-16 win over Florida International.
“It’s the best team that’s been up there in a long, long time,” he told a gathering of media after the luncheon. “They’ve got an awful good quarterback [Ryan Aplin]. When you’ve got a quarterback — anywhere and particularly at that level — you’re going to play pretty good. And I think [Dave] Wommack, he’s an experienced old defensive coordinator and he knows how to call ’em. And it’s obvious to me [Hugh] Freeze knows what he’s doing. He’s the offensive guru. They get in situations … they had a tight, tight ball game the other night and they turned that thing around in the second half. I think that’s coaching. I think there’s a whole lot of good coaching going up on there.”
Freeze has captured Lacewell’s attention along with the rest of Jonesboro and the ASU fan base.
“Whatever IT is, he’s got IT,” Lacewell said. “Somebody said he’s the best BS’er since me. He’s a movie star, he can talk. But he can flat coach. I like the way he handles his players, I like the way he’s handling the public. I think it’s a great, great hire for Arkansas State.”
Championships, Lacewell argues, will still come down to the “same ol’ things” in this age of prolific, explosive passing offenses — and that’s good defense, the kind his Oklahoma Sooners played in winning the 1974-75 titles.
“I do know Alabama and LSU are sitting on top and they are two great defensive teams,” Lacewell said. “The great thing about defense is, if you’re great on defense you don’t hardly have a bad day. You can catch a windy day throwing the ball, a wet ball, but the great defensive teams, they’re going to survive those things.”
Award-winning columnist Jim Harris wasn’t around when Hugo Bezdek named the Razorbacks, it only seems that way. His acumen for UA football history is renowned and he has covered the Hogs and the state sports scene since 1976. He knows his way around music and food, too. Email: jharris@abpg.com, and follow Jim on Twitter @jimharris360
Coach Majors hadn’t seen this young recruit from Chattanooga play football in high school, but he had recently witnessed him on the basketball court. Majors referred to him as a “man among boys” in that game and determined that he probably could have had an NBA career if that had been the direction he pursued. Fortunately for coach Majors and football fans everywhere, White chose the pigskin.
White played for the Memphis Showboats in 1984-85. In between those two seasons, on June 5, 1984, the Eagles selected him with the fourth pick overall in the supplemental draft. After the USFL played its final game in 1985, White joined the Eagles.
The nickname “Minister of Defense” was given to him by University of Tennessee public relations men Bud Ford and Haywood Harris before the 1983 season.
Runaway Spending, Not Inadequate Tax Revenue, Is Responsible for Future Deficits
The Top 10 Percent of Earners Paid 70 Percent of Federal Income Taxes
