TERRY MOSHER
It time again to get rid of all the stuff that has my mine on overload. My mind is like a steam kettle and sometimes I have to open the valve and let it flow, no matter what comes out. So today, I’m in the Boneyard allowing all my thoughts to spell out.
Adam Silver is being praised today for his decision yesterday to cut Donald Sterling loose for his racial insensitive remarks. As he should be. As Sterling should be. But this whole mess does not surprise me. Sterling has shown his ugly side for many years, and has consistently gotten away with it because of his money, power and his ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth. It finally caught up with him.
It also is not surprising to me that racism has surfaced once again. I don’t really think it has gone away. Look at the U.S. map and break down laws that are blatant attempts to silence the minority population and you will realize the South is again rising from its pre-Civil War days.
And if you look around, you will see subtle hints of it ‑ sometimes not too subtle ‑ right in your own community. Sure its better, especially on the surface, but beneath the surface tensions still boil. A lot of racial stuff has been swept under the rug, but it still exists. It’s just hidden under that rug, and erupts anytime somebody like Sterling opens his mouth and it’s fed to the public.
You don’t erase racial tensions just by saying it’s done because there are people old enough to remember the injustices they endured and regardless of how it appears they have not forgotten those injustices.
Horrific crimes whites did to blacks – and still do on some levels ‑ may never be erased from our social consciousness, just as many will never be able to forget the Holocaust.
It’s difficult for me to find joy in watching the NBA playoffs. I gave up watching regular season games a long time ago, and now it’s affecting my ability to watch the post-season. I still watch, but most of the time I just got the games on for background noise. When they do grab my total attention, I look for match-ups and the game strategy that evolves from game-to-game. That prevents me from going into snooze mode.
I do find it amusing that the Thunder is in deep trouble. Our teenage son loves Kevin Durant and the Thunder and I used to get very annoyed with his constant updates – “Durant has 40 points and the Thunder are winning” – because I dislike the Thunder very much, just because of the Oklahoma Cowboy who owns them, having stolen from them us. Durant is probably a great guy, but he is playing for the wrong owner, and for that I can’t like the Thunder.
You are seeing a new addition to fighting wars by what is going on in Ukraine. Warfare is constantly being adjusted for changing times and the U.S. has downsized its World War II battle mode for a smaller, quicker attack force that fits with today’s world of localized terrorist using small units to kill and maim.
Now there is the Russian game-changer. In this one the big meanie sends in disguised Special Forces labeled as separatists to disrupt and demand a separation vote once there is disunity and the rule of law has been destroyed.
It’s killing by creeping cancer. Make the body sick and then bring in the big bad doctor to fix things so that the big meanie is in total control.
If we had done that in Iraq, our losses and our costs would have been cut dramatically.
The big trouble the West has with what Putin is doing is nobody can pretend to know where he will stop. Once he has Ukraine – and he will get it ‑ will he move on to bordering countries like Moldova, Belarus and Slovakia? Poland and Hungary, also bordering countries, have already asked for and received military aid from NATO and from us.
I hate what is happening in Ukraine. I have dreams in which every Russian Special Forces member is shot dead and the 40,000 troops Putin is using as intimidation get smashed with all their military equipment once they set foot on Ukraine territory
It’s nice to have good dreams, once in a while.
A basketball coaching vacancy at Bremerton will present a difficult choice for the coaching selection committee. That is my guess, anyway. The reason I say that is just a hunch. But I believe Miah Davis, who I hear is slated to be a volunteer basketball coach this next season at Central Kitsap High School, and Jeff Gallagher, two former basketball players for Bremerton, may be gunning for the position.
I wouldn’t want to be on the committee, if that is going to be the case. Davis has played successfully overseas for years since graduating from University of The Pacific, where he starred. He has always come home in the off-season and held basketball camps at the school. He is well-loved in the Bremerton basketball community.
Gallagher went on to play at Skagit Valley and Pacific University in Oregon, coached for years at Valley Catholic in Beaverton (also the athletic director) and this past winter finished his second year as head coach of Black Hills High School in the Tumwater School District.
His dad, Larry, is his assistant. Larry was a longtime Bremerton basketball coach and athletic director, and can be found weekends back in Bremerton helping out his mother. When he’s not back in Bremerton, Larry lives with Jeff in Olympia.
As a side note, I was Larry Gallagher’s varsity assistant basketball coach one year at Bremerton.
Now, if former East Bremerton High School star Rick Walker throws his hat into the selection process, we would then have a three-ring circus with the selection committee. Walker, though, is unlikely to do so. I’m just saying.
It’s been fun watching Klahowya baseball surge from 8th (next to last) to second in the Olympic League with a seven-game winning streak. The Eagles were voted in the pre-season to finish 8th (Port Townsend, which is last, was voted the last spot.
The Eagles are doing it with solid pitching and timely hitting (I hate that phrase; it probably should be situational hitting). I would say there are no stars on the team, just a bunch of kids who have come together under coach Dan Zuber.
This winning streak started after Klahowya committed 12 errors (yes, the Sun’s report only credited the Eagles with seven, but I was there and there were 12) in a 14-4 wrecking handed to them by Bremerton in five innings. They play Bremerton Friday at The Swamp (the Klahowya diamond) and a win there and a win Friday against OL-leading North Kitsap (also at The Swamp) could give them the No. 1 seed into district, if North loses another game.
To grab the No. 1 spot would be fittingly way to end their 2A classification (next year the Eagles will be a 1A school): smallest OL school becomes a giant-killer.
Speaking of giant-killers, last Sunday at the New Life church service at Klahowya a packed school gym heard Bob Goff speak. It was inspirational, to say the lease. To spare time, I’m transferring what it says on Goff’s Website to here:
“Bob Goff is the New York Times Best-Selling Author of Love Does, as well as an attorney who founded Restore International, a nonprofit human rights organization operating in Uganda, India and Somalia. Bob is a sought after speaker for leadership, church and university events, inspiring current and future influencers to get to the”do” part of life. Choosing to live audaciously, Bob connects to audiences in a powerfully inspirational, yet down to earth manner.
Bob has pioneered the vision of Restore International to fight for freedom and human rights, working to improve educational opportunities and to be helpful to those in need of a voice and a friend. Restore has worked with Uganda’s judiciary in bringing over 200 cases to trial, as well as pursuing justice, intervention and education for at risk women and children in Uganda, India and Somalia. Restore Leadership Academy in Northern Unda educates over 300 students with a focus on character and leadership development. Because of Bob’s vision and the work of Restore International, he serves as the Hon. Consul for the Republic of Uganda to the United States.
Bob continues to be inspired by friendships he’s developed with others around the world who live their lives pursuing strategic ways to help others. As an attorney, Bob shares leadership in a Washington law firm, Goff & DeWalt. He is also an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Law School where he teaches Nonprofit Law, and Point Loma Nazarene University, where he teaches Business Law.”
Goff bought to justice the most feared witch doctor in Uganda, and put him in jail for life for the practice of sacrificing young kids in the course of his practice. He also adopted a young boy who had his private parts carved up by the witch doctor, got the kid to American and eventually a doctor put the boy together again. It’s an amazing story of love and courage.
Another courageous effort is under way by people world-wide to blunt the sex-slavery trade that ensnarls young girls. It’s called Freedom Rescue and the non-profit aims to save these girls (and their mothers) and get them educated.
Local New life TV Church led by lead pastor Wes Davis, recently visited Indian and met with 42 of these women and young girls who they are trying to save. Davis figured $30,000 would be a good starting point to help out and lo and behold one day after he announced that goal a person arrived at his office and handed him a $30,000 check.
Donations to help out can be given at the church Website at newlife.tv.
This is a crazy world, folks, as if you didn’t know. It’s a mixing pot of weirdness and demented people along with the good guys like Goff and Davis, who also is a basketball coach at Central Kitsap High School.
Maybe one day the murderous rampage of Putin will be stopped and he will suffered the consequences. Until then, we just have to hold our collective breath and hope for the best.
As for me, I’m getting closer to the end then the beginning. Tomorrow I go in and see a doctor to find out how close I am to the end at my age of 107.
Strangely, I feel at peace. If its God will that I come home, there isn’t much I can do about it. I hope I stay around for a few more years to see our two young kids get a good start on their adult life. And my wife is cringing. She doesn’t want me to leave first (I don’t want her to leave first, either).
All good things have to end sometime, though.
As for you,
Be well pal
Be careful out there
Have a great day
You are loved.