{"id":1165,"date":"2014-04-02T19:47:48","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T19:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1165"},"modified":"2014-04-02T19:47:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T19:47:48","slug":"honor-people-when-they-are-alive-and-the-supremes-just-began-our-countrys-descent-into-dark-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1165","title":{"rendered":"Honor people when they are alive, and the Supremes just began our country’s descent into dark years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Terry<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes \u2013 no, often \u2013 I feel like I\u2019m on the wrong side of things. I try to be positive, but I also am a realist and see things as they are and not what others wish I was seeing. As such, I\u2019m always in trouble, it seems.<\/p>\n

But here is the deal today. I think it\u2019s great that we honor people in the community who have done good things with their lives. I just wish we would do it while they are alive.<\/p>\n

We did that with Les Eathorne, although I think it was done backwards, when the Bremerton High School Gym was named after him. He was still alive when it was done and I know he was taken there and had a chance to see his name in big letters on the outside of the gym.<\/p>\n

So that was good.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, as I have written before, I would have named the gym after Eathorne\u2019s mentor, Ken Wills, and named the floor after Les. As it is, the floor was named after Wills. But when you have been dead for 50 years, as Wills was, you don\u2019t have a good chance to have a say in such things.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m a little upset at today and, again, I\u2019m on the wrong side of things here, is that they are now going to name the baseball field at South Kitsap for Elton Goodwin. That is a good thing. But why do we have to wait until he has a heart attack and dies before we do it? Why didn\u2019t it get named after him several years ago? After all we all know how good he was as a coach (500-plus wins, three state baseball championships) and as a person (there will never be another like him, I\u2019m convinced), so that should have been an easy decision.<\/p>\n

But, no, we have to wait until he dies. Wouldn\u2019t it have been great if Elton would have been able to get in his truck and drive to the baseball field that had his name on it? He likely would have been embarrassed and humbled, but also proud, because let\u2019s face it, Elton you did good.<\/p>\n

Now we have another member of our local sports community who is dying. Pat Westhoff has cancer and is fading. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m saying anything that I shouldn\u2019t. It\u2019s been all over Facebook. He called one of his daughters back from California last Saturday because he knows his time is very short.<\/p>\n

\"Pat<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PAT WESTHOFF<\/p>\n

I did a long story on Pat in 2006 after he suffered a heart attack and lost the function of half of his heart. I can\u2019t find that story now, but you know his story \u2013 recreational director for the BremertonParks and Recreational Department, longtime fastpitch softball player, then worked for the City of Bremerton as its go-between for Gold Mountain Golf Complex, keeping an eye on things.<\/p>\n

Pat is a little guy \u2013 maybe five-foot-five at the most \u2013 but tough as nails. And even now in the shadow of death he flashes that big smile of his as family and friends rally to him. I mean, how can you not like Pat Westhoff?<\/p>\n

But years ago one of the playing fields at LionsPark or PendergastRegionalPark should have been named after him. I mean, c\u2019mon. Just you wait, Pat will die sometime soon and there will be a push to name something after him. That is good. But why not now?<\/p>\n

C\u2019mon.<\/p>\n

I know none of this will change the way things are done. I\u2019m whistling into a stiff wind. We humans don\u2019t really rally to get things done that should be done until there is a disaster or until somebody we love dies. That is just human nature. It is the way it is.<\/p>\n

Still, can\u2019t we be different? Can\u2019t we honor those who have honored us with their presence before they die?<\/p>\n

On another sad note \u2013 sad for me, at least \u2013 is the Supreme Court today, on the heels of its decision in Citizen United two years ago, now saying unlimited campaign finance is legal for everybody.<\/p>\n

Man, what a disaster this is going to cause.<\/p>\n

It used to be in this country there was at least the pretense that we voters had the final says in who was elected. Campaign financing was limited and some candidates actually could win without spending millions more than his\/her opponent.<\/p>\n

Not anymore.<\/p>\n

With this new ruling, it opens the door for people of money to get behind their man\/woman and spend the heck out of a campaign to get there person in office. It widens the gap between the super rich and the poor and further diminishes the middle class.<\/p>\n

Republicans \u2013 the party of big business (read money) \u2013 loves the ruling and the Democrats are looking for the biggest foxhole to duck for cover.<\/p>\n

Wow, this is bad for our country.<\/p>\n

As I have written before, at some future point this county will have a revolution. The poor and the middle class will eventually rise up against the Plutocracy that is being created and that will be the end of one of the greatest powers in history of this planet.<\/p>\n

Until then, the rich will get richer and will gain more and more power. It was Lord Acton in 1887 who wrote, \u201cPower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is absolutely true.<\/p>\n

Then there is Niccolo Machiavelli, the man whose name lives on in the word \u201cMachiavellianism\u201d<\/p>\n

Machiavelli wrote in \u201cThe Prince\u201d that people generally use cunning and duplicity in achieving their aims. And if I give you carte blanche, as the Supremes did today, people with the means \u2013 money \u2013 will use all their Machiavellianism means to achieve absolute power, which of course leads to absolute corruption.<\/p>\n

So beware all of us. We are now going to head into some of our country\u2019s worse dark years. Grab a potato sack and head for the woods.<\/p>\n

If you can, be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER   Sometimes \u2013 no, often \u2013 I feel like I\u2019m on the wrong side of things. I try…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","category-mosher","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1165\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}