Wanderings – Page 45 – The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

My Grandfather

joe December 10, 2008 Family

That picture a few days ago prompted some emails to my brother John Dean. What I found out was that my grandfather was living and working in Cushing, OK. He had a ruptured appendix, and when my grandmother took him to the hospital, they would not admit or take him because they "didn't take negroes." My grandmother tried to get him to Guthrie (45 miles away), but did not make it. End of story from my past. That is how it was years ago – sometimes even in "liberated" northern or western states.

I'm old enough to remember that often when traveling, we had to use the outhouse, even though there was a bathroom at a service station. We chose our restaurants with caution – pick the wrong one, and you had to eat outside. Choose a "colored" restaurant and you could sit inside and enjoy your meal. Trips were planned well, with nights spent with relatives because there were few hotels for black people.

People do change – some faster than others, but failing to learn from our history will only mean that at some point, we will repeat our failures.

Who’s Yer Daddy?

joe December 10, 2008 Faith

Whoever he is will make a difference in you – male or female, we are each influenced by our dad. I don't remember much about my father before I was a teenager, since my mom and dad got a divorce when I was a little guy under 5. Once I became a teenager, my dad did not seem much different than my step-dad. While my dad seemed more open (party loving) and humorous (more like he was enjoying life more), my step-dad was quieter and deep in thought – he'd think about things before acting. Maybe it was the occupations too – carpenters work in crews (my dad) and mechanics (my step-dad) work alone under cars.

Other kids I ran around with seemed more like their dads too.

That is part of the point that John makes in chapter 3 of First John.He does not "ask" us to act a certain way. Rather he tells us that as "children of God" we cannot see what we will be, but we will be like Him (Jesus). I like John's words "if your hope is fixed on Him" you will be different.

I remember talking to some farmers about how they got those straight rows in their fields. Asking them how they accomplished that, their response was "when you sit at the wheel, pick a spot at the other end and keep the tractor pointed at that spot." Never got a chance to try it, but continued to look across acres of corn, soybeans or wheat.

Keep your eyes fixed on the goal. If you don't have one, you will wander.

The Recount Goes On and On

joe December 9, 2008 Political

There's just something about that Minnesota recount (and others as well) that continues to amaze me. They keep finding votes for one person or the other, but apparently the votes on nothing else is changing. How can that be. If you are doing a recount, and have the ballots and you end up with a different total for the two candidates, why doesn't the vote change on anything else?

This is worse than the "hanging chad" in Florida. The Democrats say that if the Republican doesn't win by enough votes, they will challenge the count. They have been present while the ballots have been retabulated, and they have been right there recounting along with the election workers.[more]

Then, there were the missing 133 ballots that apparently were counted at the precinct on election night, but cannot now be found for the recount. Apparently they were Franken votes. This one should be easy – see if the ballots you do have equal or match the count you got on other issues. If they do, then the "protested" 133 votes were pure fiction to begin with, and someone should be arrested. Period.

Oh well, we'll stay tuned to see who finally wins.