Katinas Organize ’Hope For Samoa’ Benefit Concert to Aid Disaster Ravaged Homeland Natalie Grant, Melinda Doolittle, Among Artists to Highlight October 7 Benefit Concert

Credit: ASSIST News Service (ANS) – PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA

Thursday, October 1, 2009
Katinas Organize ’Hope For Samoa’ Benefit Concert to Aid Disaster Ravaged Homeland Natalie Grant, Melinda Doolittle, Among Artists to Highlight October 7 Benefit Concert

By Michael Ireland

Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) — One of Christian music’s most celebrated groups, The Katinas, located in Nashville, TN, is feeling the aftereffects of the recent Tsunami that swamped their native Samoa half a world away earlier this week. They lost both friends and family in the disaster.

Local Christians Get in the Picture in Chester, England

The effects of the 8.2 magnitude earthquake and resultant walls of 15-20 foot high tsunami waves that ravaged Samoa this past Tuesday, Sept. 29, were personally felt by the group in Nashville, TN, who can claim Samoa as their native homeland.

In the wake of waves of death and destruction that surged more than a mile inland on the tiny island nation, the band is already organizing a relief effort for their homeland — a ‘Hope For Samoa Benefit Concert’ to be held next Wednesday, October 7 at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, Tennessee — just outside of Nashville. The church is located at 1210 Franklin Road in Brentwood.

Among the famous friends in music already set to join them: GMA Female Vocalist of the Year, Natalie Grant and American Idol’s Melinda Doolittle.

Nationally known radio personalities, Doug & Kim, from Salem Broadcasting’s popular ‘Doug & Kim in the Morning’ will emcee the event.

Salem’s Nashville anchor station has also denoted free radio spots for the event. The benefit concert is scheduled for 7:00 P.M. with additional artists to be set.

In an open letter on Wednesday, the Katinas noted:

“As most of you know by now, an earthquake that registered at 8.2 on the Richter scale and tsunami that hit yesterday morning has devastated our homeland of Samoa. Our Dad, 4 sisters, brother and 2 nephews that live there are okay. However, some of our friends and close family members are still missing.

“We have confirmed news that one of our cousins from the village of Leone (our Mother’s birthplace and place where our Dad pastors) died yesterday in the aftermath of the tsunami. The latest death toll has surpassed 100 and many are still unaccounted for.”

The Katinas said they have been planning their 3rd annual missions’ trip to Samoa this November.

“Yesterday’s events have made us even more passionate to go and help our people,” they wrote..

“Samoa is dear to our hearts. Growing up there prepared us for what we’ve been doing for the last 20 years. We have been blessed to travel the world and minister the message of Jesus through music. Now we are blessed to give back to the very place we come from.

“We need your help. We have set up a ‘Samoa Relief’ fund to assist with some of the immediate and long term needs on the island. We are still gathering information on what those needs are. However in the meantime we are doing whatever we can to help.

“Here’s how you can help:

**Pray for the comfort of our people. Pray for the search of those who are still missing. Pray that God would heal our people both spiritually and physically.

**You can go to our website at www.katinamissions.org and make a monetary donation. All donations are tax deductable.

“Thank you so much for your time and love for Samoa.”

The letter is signed by Sam, Joe, James, John and Jesse Katina.

_______________________________________________

For additional benefit concert information, and for interviews with the Katinas contact:

Dianne Rogers
Brimstone Services
Phone: (615) 941-8207
E-mail: dianne@brimstoneservices.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/youredge

This area is a village in Apia where public’s servants and volunteers had just completed searching for survivors by removing all the rubble from homes that had been decimated by the tsunami’s terrible power. ABC news had reported that some villagers had been seen gathering fish after the first and second waves had hit. Not fully realizing that a third and fourth wave was already on its way to the island, watchers reported that villagers were gathering fish when the third and fourth waves hit the island. This is why officials are uncertain of what the actual death toll we actually reach.

There was an announcement that the local government would be providing twenty mass graves for the ever-growing number of dead. Ceremonially to the citizens of both Western and American Samoans this is distressing. As tribal funerals are very traditional and is probably best described by a friend of mine as follows.

Samoan Funeral
Firstly, it has been my experience that whenever I participate in any Samoan cultural event I miss countless subtle details and very rarely have a good idea about what is going on, so please keep in mind that this experience is being told from my point of view and there probably are several points which have been missed or misinterpreted.

The mother of my vice principal passed away and so a few of the teachers at my school, the principal, and some of the village matai (chiefs) prepared to go visit the family to represent the village and the school. They decided to bring me so that I might experience more Samoan tradition.

We piled into two trucks along with about fifteen fine mats, a bolt of lace, a bolt of fabric and a huge wreath of flowers painted gold. We all wore traditional Samoan clothes: puletasi for the woman and ie faitaga for the men. When we got to the house we formed a procession. I was put in front, holding the wreath. Behind me, the others held out the fabric and the lace in a long line like a train. We waited for our turn. Important members of the family are entombed on the family’s property. Some tombs are rather grand in scale but most are a few slabs of concrete layered on top of one another pyramid-like. The tomb was open in front of the house and the inside lined with lace.

We entered the house and laid our gifts around the pusa oti (coffin). We then went back outside to sit facing the family. Here we presented our gifts of money and fine mats. In return we were presented with gifts of fine mats, tinned fish, money, fabric and a cooked pig. This exchange of gifts is very important and this procedure is followed by each family or group that visits the family of the deceased. There are church services in addition to this custom we just weren’t involved with it.

Everyone there (a good fifty people) thought it was quite hilarious watching a palagi (outsider) participate but, as always, they were extremely grateful that I was making the effort to understand the Samoan customs.

Once we returned to the village there is a consulting with the matai about how the gifts we were given should be split up. The Samoan culture is all about service to one another. You give and you receive. Everything you have you share. You always take care of your family and your village because they will always take care of you. The matai themselves are granted their title after proving service to their community. For large events such as weddings, funerals, and births families and friends give greatly to one another. The term for this is fa’alavelave (which also, funnily enough is the word for trouble).

Told to wait, a Marine dies

By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff | February 11, 2007

STEWART, Minn. — It took two years of hell to convince him, but finally Jonathan Schulze was ready.

On the morning of Jan. 11, Jonathan, an Iraq war veteran with two Purple Hearts, neatly packed his US Marine Corps duffel bag with his sharply creased clothes, a framed photo of his new baby girl, and a leather-bound Bible and headed out from the family farm for a 75-mile drive to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in St. Cloud, Minn.

Family and friends had convinced him at last that the devastating mental wounds he brought home from war, wounds that triggered severe depression, violent outbursts, and eventually an uncontrollable desire to kill himself, could not be drowned in alcohol or treated with the array of antianxiety drugs he’d been prescribed.

And so, with his father and stepmother at his side, he confessed to an intake counselor that he was suicidal. He wanted to be admitted to a psychiatric ward.

But, instead, he was told that the clinician who prescreened cases like his was unavailable. Go home and wait for a phone call tomorrow, the counselor said, as Marianne Schulze, his stepmother, describes it.

When a clinical social worker called the next day, Jonathan, 25, told again of his suicidal thoughts and other symptoms. And then, with his stepmother listening in, he learned that he was 26th on the waiting list for one of the 12 beds in the center’s ward for post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers.

Four days later, on Jan. 16, he wrapped a household extension cord around his neck, tied it to a beam in the basement, and hanged himself.

In life, Jonathan Schulze didn’t get nearly what he needed. But in death, this tough and troubled Marine may help get something critical done.

The apparent failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer him timely and necessary care has electrified the debate on the blogs and websites that connect an increasingly networked and angry veterans community. It has triggered an internal investigation by the VA into how a serviceman with such obvious symptoms faced a wait for hospital care.

And it is being cited by veterans’ advocates and their allies in Congress as a searing symbol of a system that they say is vastly unprepared and under funded to handle the onslaught of 1.5 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who are returning home, an estimated one in five of them with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. One in three Iraq war veterans is seeking mental health services, according to a report by an Army panel of experts last year.

The death of Jonathan also raises questions, among veterans and in Washington, about how far the military culture still has to go in dealing with the stigma often attached to cases of mental illness. Marines, especially, just aren’t supposed to cry out for help.

“My feeling is no veteran should be turned away, and definitely not a veteran who is openly saying he needs help and that he feels like taking his life,” said Jonathan ’s father, James, who is a Vietnam War veteran and comes from a family with a long tradition of military service.

“My son did his duty, he risked his life for his country, and he came home a broken person. And then the VA failed in its duty to care for him,” he said, sitting in the family home in front of a coffee table transformed into a shrine for his son, with framed photos and, folded in a neat triangle, the flag that draped his coffin.

Across the country, there are stories of veterans suffering with combat stress and PTSD, who are struggling to find help at VA facilities to deal with the problems they face, according to Steve Robinson, director of veterans affairs for the Washington-based Veterans for America, an advocacy group.

“Sadly, there are a lot of Jonathan Schulzes out there,” said Robinson, a veteran of the Gulf War who investigates cases all over the country of service members suffering from mental illness and other injuries who are struggling to get the care they deserve.

A plea for help

Jonathan’s case has prompted the US Department of Veterans Affairs , with 235,000 employees at a network of medical centers for servicemen and women, to launch an ongoing internal investigation into the details surrounding Jonathan’s death, according to Phil Budahn , a VA spokesman in Washington.

But beyond that, Budahn could say little. All patient files are confidential, he said, declining comment on any of the specifics of Jonathan’s case.

But VA officials have released 400 pages of documents on the case to the Schulze family. One document from that file showed that the VA clinical social worker, Daniel Ludderman, with whom Jonathan spoke by phone on Jan. 12 did not indicate in his notes that Jonathan had expressed suicidal thoughts.

A VA spokesman told local news organizations that there were emergency beds available in a psychiatric hold unit throughout January. But the VA has not responded to questions about why, if that was the case, Jonathan was not placed in one. Another looming question in the VA investigation is why there are only 12 beds for in-patient PTSD treatment in Minnesota. That number has remained unchanged for a decade, former state VA officials say, even as the nation has engaged in two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the past five years.

James and Marianne insist they both heard Jonathan clearly state that he was suicidal on Jan. 11. Marianne says she heard it again when Jonathan was speaking with the VA’s Ludderman on the phone the next day.

James believes the VA response thus far indicates that officials are worried more about protecting the VA’s image than in meeting the overwhelming need for more and better PTSD counseling for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I heard what Jon said. They can doctor the records all they want; it is not going to change what I heard,” he said.

Major Cynthia Rasmussen, who worked for 18 years as a psychiatric nurse at the VA and who now runs the Army Reserve Combat Operational Stress Control Program at Minnesota’s Fort Snelling, said, “Jonathan’s case is classic and classically tragic.”

Rasmussen said that there are many excellent programs and treatment centers within the VA, but that effective delivery of service is spotty and inconsistent and that problems of poor communication between the military and the VA are thwarting attempts by service providers to treat those veterans who need help.

“That is what happened to Jonathan, and there are just hundreds of cases like this across the country. We are seeing them every day,” she added.

Descent into mental illness

Behind the stark details of the case is a more complex and nuanced picture of Jonathan’s descent into mental illness.

He arrived home last fall after a hellish tour of duty with Second Battalion, Fourth Marines in the Ramadi/Fallujah area of Iraq, where fighting was particularly intense in the spring of 2004. In letters home, Jonathan had described the combat deaths of 16 men he called friends. He himself was wounded by shrapnel twice.

In his neat grammar-school cursive, Jonathan described the death and danger that confronted his unit daily. He made it very clear: He was terrified.

“My heart is filled with sadness. And I ask God why,” he wrote on May 13, 2004, the day after two close friends were killed. “I pray so much and ask God to keep me out of harm’s way and get me back in one piece.”

One of his fellow Marines in the Fallujah area was 25-year-old Eric Satersmoen, who knew Jonathan from local bars in the Minneapolis area where Jonathan had worked as a bouncer. They traded news about mutual friends and the Vikings and the Minnesota Wild hockey team, and they vowed to stay in touch when they got back home.

When they did return, in the winter of 2005, they found they shared some other things: persistent nightmares, sleeplessness, anxiety, anger, and a tendency to use alcohol to numb themselves to all that.

But their experiences diverged in a critical way that underscores how the VA system sometimes succeeds and why it so often falls devastatingly short — right from the moment demobilized troops get ready to go home.

Returning Marines and soldiers are routinely asked to fill out a form in which they are told to self-evaluate their own mental health on a questionnaire about nightmares, anxiety, aggression, and suicidal thoughts.

The military says the forms are a way to highlight problems early. But veterans advocates say that all too often servicemen, eager to reunite with family and friends, give the forms short shrift . They simply check “no” to every question because they do not want to be delayed at the base with mental health appointments.

That’s what Jonathan told friends and family he did. And that’s also what his close friend Eric had done after his first tour, but was determined not to repeat this second time around.

This time he knew he had a problem. He checked “yes” to the boxes that asked about nightmares, anxiety, and violent outbursts. He was given a schedule of appointments and began to enter a long process of counseling that has allowed him to slowly heal and eventually to have in-patient treatment at the Minneapolis VA where he was given a bed in the PTSD ward.

Jonathan, meanwhile, returned home for 30 days’ leave. His family immediately saw that he was depressed and anxious. They heard him thrashing and yelling in his sleep. He was not the big, fun-loving young man he was before he went off to war, they said.

The family doctor, William Phillips, saw him and wrote a report that Jonathan appeared to be suffering classic symptoms of PTS D . He prescribed Valium and encouraged Jonathan to seek help when he returned to Camp Pendleton.

“I told him that when I came home from Vietnam, I just closed up and hardened my shell. It hurt me in life. I was a pole cat to live with, and I wanted to be sure he didn’t make the same mistake,” said his father.

After his 30 days’ home leave, Jonathan returned to Pendleton for 90 days before his final discharge notice would be given. That was when he really went off the rails. He was drinking heavily and getting in violent confrontations at local bars off the base and even with his own Marines. He had nightmares of firefights in which comrades died and civilians were caught in the crossfire. He refused to admit he suffered mental problems

“Marines don’t do weakness,” said his older brother Travis, 27, a Marine who also joined up straight out of high school. Travis served in Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 during the US-led military response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “That’s the attitude, and Jon was caught up in that world,” said Travis.

Jonathan was completely out of control. In the fall of 2004, he brutally beat a fellow Marine. He also threw a 200-pound potted tree through a plate glass window during a bar fight. He ended up spending one month in the brig. Military Police searched his locker and found steroids — he was an obsessive body builder. He was busted in rank from lance corporal to private and given a “general” rather than an “honorable” discharge.

Drinking and self-loathing
These kinds of discharges are on the rise among returning veterans, particularly among those suffering from mental trauma who veer into violence and substance abuse, according to Lieutenant Colonel Colby Vokey, who supervises the legal defense of Marines at Camp Pendleton.

For Jonathan, the “general” discharge status meant that he was ineligible for GI Bill benefits, including assistance for college tuition, and it was technically up to the discretion of the VA whether he would receive medical treatment.

The VA did accept Jonathan for treatment of his shrapnel wounds and back pain. Eric, his Marine buddy, tried to help him get assistance for his mental health issues as well. They sometimes waited the entire day for appointments and group counseling.

Through it all, Jonathan never stopped drinking. Friends and family say that every night he drank his trusted Wild Turkey by the shot glass and one beer after another to chase it down. When he was tired, he drank “Jager-bombs,” a mix of the potent German liqueur Jagermeister mixed with the energy drink Red Bull.

His friend Eric drank with him. It was not easy for either one of them when they talked about the war. Eric lost control sometimes, but nothing compared with the bouts of anger and depression and violence that he watched Jonathan go through. “Crazy Jonny,” as he called him, was on a different path.

Jonathan was wracked with feelings of self-loathing about his demotion in rank, his tainted discharge, and what he felt was a failure on his part to save his friends, several of whom were killed right by his side in Iraq. The obsession with lifting and steroids, Eric believes, were an expression of low self-esteem.

“He just never could be big enough and bad enough . . . It was like he was going to drink and lift his way through the mess,” Eric said.

Then at 8:35 p.m. on Jan. 16, Eric, who was in Florida on business, received a phone call from Jonathan, who was staying in an apartment in New Prague, Minn., that Eric owned and where he gave Jonathan a room.

Jonathan told Eric he was in the basement standing on a stool and tying a noose around his neck with an extension cord. A bottle of Captain Morgan rum, three-quarters’ full, was at his side, and he was slurring .

“I tried to stall him by being nice, and then I tried getting mad at him, telling him he was taking the easy way out. I told him, ‘What about your faith?’ I was doing everything I could,” said Eric.

“He said: ‘ The hell with it all, the Marines, the VA, the hell with religion. The hell with it all. I am doing it,’ ” said Eric.

Then, Eric said, he heard the phone fall to the floor.

A family mourns
Last week, it was 10 below zero with the windchill factor in the farming town of Stewart . Before his shift at a nearby dairy plant, Jonathan’s father crunched through dry, drifting snow toward the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church cemetery to visit his son’s grave .

Dead flowers from the funeral and a small American flag that marked the grave were disappearing beneath the drifting snow.

“This never should have happened,” said James, tears welling behind a pair of sunglasses.
“This country should have taken better care of one of its sons. They owed that to Jon.”

Charles Sennott can be reached at sennott@globe.com.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Charter’s New Package Deal or Dud?

The first day I turned my xbox and immediately hosted three hours of “ground war” a very difficult task for most host. This lasted about a week but hen I received a call telling me they would send someone out immediately. I told the the young lady I was going to try and reboot the modem and she said she would “hit my ip address” was she saw I was back online.

She was hoping that would solve the problem tonight I came into the livingroom as my back was killing and was looking on the internet about the earleist I could take a dose of a different medicine.

My connection was running or should I say walking so I went through all the steps when they helped me get my router hooked up and running. The the router is awesome it is the Belkin N+ Storage Gigabit Networking Router or model number Belkin 5EE6D0. Once I set my security up and put the system on N+ only the results began getting better. More to come this post will continue through the weekend.

Issues though the ethernet plugs do not work to my HP Pavilion dv9000 so I am desperately trying to find a driver to correct this issue. Naturally Belkin blames it on my cable that I can plug into my xbox and Acer back up laptop and everything works great. So later today after some sleep I will convey the issue to HP that they require drivers so their Pc’s and Laptops can receive and use the N+ Wireless Channel. Yes when tested on the xbox and the Acer it received the N+ signal and worked but it’s a no go for my HP and Docking station.

I pay for 20 megs download and 5 megs up so I should not experience yellow bars in any room let alone I cannot host “ground war” like I did the very first day the system was hooked up. This Belkin N+ router has allowed me to go to the pool with the Acer which is running Windows 7 RC. Which is about 800 feet from the router Belkin claims it will go as far as 1200 feet I plan to test that out in the evening this weekend.
Time  (last 24 hours) Test Results.. Comment..
download upload Server Your Domain

23-07-2009 07:57 AM flash speedtest 2597 Kbps 637 Kbps TekSavvy Solutions Inc (Toronto ON) charter.com more hmmm…..
23-07-2009 07:49 AM java speedtest 7616 Kbps 2076 Kbps California, USA charter.com more Just after Charter chat TTD Is
23-07-2009 07:34 AM Line quality target IP does not respond to ICMP ping more to after 24 hour Line Quality Test.
23-07-2009 06:13 AM java speedtest 11617 Kbps 2100 Kbps California, USA charter.com more Still working on the head end
15-07-2009 02:48 AM flash speedtest 7294 Kbps 1670 Kbps NAC (Parsippany NJ) charter.com more After reseting the modem for t
15-07-2009 02:44 AM java speedtest 11235 Kbps 2089 Kbps California, USA charter.com more Charter are you still working
10-07-2009 12:28 PM java speedtest 9347 Kbps 2096 Kbps California, USA charter.com more
10-07-2009 12:50 AM java speedtest 5695 Kbps 2089 Kbps California, USA charter.com more The television is also saying
10-07-2009 12:44 AM java speedtest 4430 Kbps 2032 Kbps California, USA charter.com more Charter is still working on th
08-07-2009 01:13 AM java speedtest 7355 Kbps 2059 Kbps California, USA charter.com more Charter working on headend
07-07-2009 10:04 PM java speedtest 300 Kbps 2034 Kbps New Jersey, USA charter.com more
07-07-2009 10:00 AM java speedtest 7979 Kbps 2066 Kbps California, USA charter.com more
27-06-2009 08:27 AM java speedtest 9834 Kbps 2087 Kbps California, USA charter.com more
27-06-2009 07:39 AM java speedtest 11138 Kbps 2099 Kbps California, USA charter.com more
27-06-2009 06:58 AM flash speedtest 12260 Kbps 12619 Kbps TekSavvy Solutions Inc (Toronto ON) charter.com more
27-06-2009 06:52 AM java speedtest 578 Kbps 2043 Kbps New Jersey, USA charter.com more
24-06-2009 01:45 AM flash speedtest 6794 Kbps 1593 Kbps Sprint (Chicago IL) charter.com more

So my query to any Charter Cable users out there do you experience the same type of issues without resolve? Please reply if so because for what was offered as a $69 package is now $200 a month some is there just an isuue in my area or others?

Leo Laporte Blows up at Mike Arrington on the Gillmor Gang – June 6, 2009

My Rant

Please note that there are curse words in the playing of this video but I think it is important to note what a newbie blogger is willing to do to get his name out there. Challenge a 30 year member of the media on the reasons why he has a seven day test unit. ANSWER: He is respected and has earned his credentials and that is enough said for that alone. But Leo Laporte for whatever reason has always purchased his own test units and I always wondered why before and here comes along my asnwer. Some freshmen blogger with a stick up his rectum is pissed because he was unable to get a unit. Leo Laporte has many times said that Sprint’s services are limited and has even told possible users to wait until Verizon brings the unit out in November or January.

Leo Laporte had every reason to jump Mike Arrington because though he runs a very popular blog site he has taken products and reviewed them eight to ten hours after using them. I don’t care where a reporter or tech analysts get’s their limited use products from. Which Leo Laporte very clearly said Mike Arrington continues to have this small-penis envy thing going because he is considered to some not considered a “real journalist”.

On his site he tweeted about a product I also had been signed up on the product as a beta tester as well. I was barely into testing the item with three other people independently when he released the most incompetent eight hour review I have ever seen. As a member of his blog and Twitter list of friends I tweeted and posted a comment on his website and on purpose I did it at 3:31 a.m. so that there would be time for other to see it. By noon the next day I could no longer access his site I called my daughter had her bring up the site it was functional she found the article and noted my comment was not there but did say some of the comments after my time stamped post noted others agreed that less than a day to review a product of anytime was ludicrous. So the result was Mike Arrington had banned my internet protocol address and was no longer a member. So I checked my Twitter friends list I was removed as a friend as well so I called my ISP paid $50 for a new static IP Address got a friend to give me an invite to gmail and re-registered with a slightly altered name removing only letters and I have been since, I also sent the new name to Twitter and imagine that I was accepted back and considered a friend?

I am right there with Mr. Laporte if Arrington wants to get some clout make those questions on the side it is very well known that reporters and analyst’s do so. My experience is with pre-releases of games so I will not go much further for fear I will not be able to patrol Mr. Arrington’s flakey responses on Twitter and every other web 2.0 applications out there. Example his “Twitter” pieces if one was to read without trying Twitter you would never try it, yet it is his number one way of getting people to his out dated looking website. If you’re going to run with the BIG boy’s Mike grow a pair and earn your respect.

Xbox 360 Project Natal: Full-Body Motion Control One-Ups the Wii

There is just to much information to import so go to the following link http://gizmodo.com/5274319/xbox-360-full+body-controllerless-motion-control-is-here-project-natal

As rumored, Microsoft unveiled its newest control scheme today: full-body motion control that doesn’t require a controller of any kind called Project Natal. Forgive my excitement, but on first glance this thing looks amazing. Nintendo should watch out.Update: Video after jump.

Fishing Out of Your Comfort Zone

Original Post: www.bigfish.com 

Article: http://www.bigfishtackle.com/articles/fishing/freshwater/freshwater29.html

By: James Bess

Recently, I revisited the memory of my very first fishing trip with my parents as the fourth of July holiday marked the first trip I had ever taken or at least could remember some thirty-one years ago. My mother had told me that I had been fishing when I was only two in the Overton Arm of Lake Mead fishing for Blue Gills and Crappie. She must be right, since she was there and maintains better recall than I do in those early formative years. Yet, the one trip I remember was when I was seven scurrying down a trail

near the lake to get to a point where my father was already fishing. With my rod in hand, donning a night crawler and roughly four feet of slack line from the rod tip. Even as I sit typing this paragraph the memory comes back so vivid it like I am back in time doing it again. See, I was convinced that to keep my worm alive he needed to remain cool, so I was dragging him along the surface of the water making my way to the point to go fishing with my Father. In an instance I recall turning my head to see an image darting, then crashing the night crawler. All I could do was hold on for dear life as the fish crashed back and forth, in then out of the water along the steep rocky crag. The gypsum rock cove had slabs of rock that looked like cut marble falling off into ten feet of water. Fighting the fish for what seemed an eternity giving more drag than cranking, the fish tore away from the shoreline it then got off my hook. There I was just standing, looking at the water as though some predator had taken the mighty green fish from my hand. For three additional trips I remember the following two things, the first, asking my dad to teach me how to use a level wind reel because I remembered turning the crank on my Zebco reel and it never took back line. The second was trying to replicate the very same situation by dragging the worm along the surface up and down the bank line until I had worn ruts into the soft gypsum rock. Perhaps that is why many of us as anglers get caught up in doing the same old tactics and methods of fishing over and over again.

Imagine, at seven I was already establishing patterns and developing a comfort zone in a particular method and technique. This has always been the underlying problem most anglers maintain while making their way up the ladder of success when it comes to fishing. To many anglers, find themselves staying with what is comfortable for them to fish. That s not a bad thing until a method or technique becomes stale or completely unsuccessful.

To memory, my son-in-law Kirk is perhaps my best example just after he married my daughter. During the summer months I broke him in on bass fishing with the reliable Berkeley Power Worm in the ever-popular color of purple. Texas Rigged or Split shot he had become quite consistent with both methods. When November arrived we were still fishing about four or five times a week. For me I had already broke into my fall and winter pattern options. Custom tied Brown with Copper Mylar 3/8-ounce Jig and Pork combination with matching 1-ounce Spinnerbaits in the same color. Quickly, I got on a hot streak but my son-in-law kept saying nope I am staying with my confidence bait. His confidence bait was getting him skunked just about every day we went out. Nevertheless, he would occasionally try a jig, but it would not last for long. Even as I was pulling in solid fish he still stayed with his worm.

Realizing that his unwillingness to changeover was directly controlled by the readiness to change back to a lure technique that simply was not working. To eliminate this particular situation I laid down some ground rules. First, I needed to redirect his attention taking him to a rock jetty and searching for crawfish in the rocks. He knew previously that I had several times went out to perform this task prior to getting jigs made in colors that replicated the actual forage in lakes we were fishing. In November, I waited for a cloudy and rainy day to go out foraging for crawfish. The areas we would pick to locate our crawfish would be very different as Kirk chose to work the shallow rocks and for me I donned a snorkel and mask and worked water fifteen to twenty-foot deep. For the effort we both as a team came up with an assortment of different colored crawfish. Kirk while foraging the shallower rocks came up with two very definite colored patterned crawfish. The first was a variety of crawfish that had very little claws and were primarily pumpkin seed colored with their shells shimmering between green and red. Commonly, known as Christmas tree pattern color used by many lure manufacturers in the west. The second colored crawdad he located while working and turning darker colored rocks in the bay was a crawdad that was typical as most you would see in a variety of areas with the exception that upon first observation it looked completely black. Later when we took several of the crawdads home and placed in a prepared freshwater tank we noticed a very interesting point. This crawdad that appeared black when dowsed with brighter light the shell gave off a purple to greenish shimmer (perhaps June bug?). The crawdads I found remained the colors I had found the previous year when we replicated in Brown Round Rubber with Copper Mylar, Brown Rubber with a Dark Red Mylar. It did not take much time to figure out it was time to visit one of my lure sponsors and good friend get some newly developed jigs.

Several days later I took him with me to see my good friend, William (Billy) Jones, a gentleman that tied custom jigs for me in colors, I personally found colors for Colorado River Chain of Lakes I was fishing. As we looked over numbers of round and flat colored rubber we quickly picked the colors that would best represent the crawdads we had video taped just after returning home several days before. Over a period of five days the crawdads began altering the color we had originally found them in making the videotape was essential. On to Mylar selection, which did not take very long as Billy kept a wide variety of Mylar in many different colors and styles. Once the colors had been determined Billy recommended something a little different this year. In the past I had all my jigs tied with round rubber, which had been very productive for me. This year he recommended that we mix both flat and round rubber in the jigs. He had been testing this technique and was very excited about the action he was getting in his pool. With nothing to loose we agreed on quantities and made our way home.

Suddenly, the King of Berkeley Power Worms was making a conscious change before my eyes. Talking about areas that we could immediately start fishing the new jigs once there were finished. Pointing out different types of pork trailers and fall rates of such trailers. Asking questions about pork or rubber trailers which is best in certain water temperature zones and depths of water. Jig, jig and more jig talk would accompany our fishing trips over the next few days while waiting for the new jigs to be completed. With all the excitement I realized it was time to seal the deal . Since my jigs were covered within my sponsorship and Kirk s were not and offered to pay for his under certain conditions. If we went fishing only jigs and jig trailers would accompany our trips exclusively. He quickly and aggressively agreed and continued on with his questions of whether to trim, or not to trim the skirt.

Two days later I had determined that we would go fish some water that we could get to quickly and was very near to the area that we had previously located the crawfish. Additional limitations called the Rule of Two s were set on the trip, two rods only, two colored jigs and two colored trailers. Kirks excitement based on my experience would have been concentrating more on colors and trailers than touch, feel and line watching. He was dieing to get out and try jig fishing with his newfound enthusiasm so he would have agreed to anything. Finally, the trip would be from the bank and stay as such until he became accustomed to fishing the jig from a solid and stable station.

While Fishing Out of Your Comfort Zone you find your mind racing about many different factors and situations. Arriving to the location we immediately started fishing a steep wall of broken rock and boulders. The water was crashing against the rocky shoreline making line-watching imperative. Starting about thirty feet apart I could still see quite clearly and could not help yelling to him are you going to let that fish swim to me before you set the hook? Looking up he then saw that his line was skimming across the surface and set the hook. That smile, whether he had been ten or twenty years old it was worth it or least till the fish shook off at the bank. That deflated look was worth it too!

Nevertheless, my young companion soon realized that it was going to be necessary to watch the line and pay close attention to where and when that little piece of line jumped. Personally, the bite was awesome as the fish were quite aggressive that day. A typical late fall storm was brewing and the weather was turning fairly abrasive. As the rain started to fall, it was like being stoned by some mid-evil crowd with chards of glass as we stood patiently watching our lines. The payoff was worth enduring the wind, rain and cold as we both reeled in fish about every ten or twenty feet as we made our way down the shoreline. Kirk had now pulled in five or six fish not counting the quite large fish he lost at the bank earlier. Surely, the newly found jig would soon replace the confidence bait he gripped so tightly just a week before he found religion.

Every fall he still brings up that trip much like mine that I mentioned in the beginning of this article. Comfort is what one makes it whether it be fishing, eating or living out our daily tribulations. Perhaps, we find ourselves practicing our lives in that comfort zone because it is simply easier than challenging ourselves daily with little result. Kirk learned that you sometimes have to think outside the box, or perhaps color outside the lines to make yourself a better angler. For me, I realized that continued learning, teaching and sharing was my way to stay tittering in and out of my own comfort zones. Before moving to the Great State of Texas. Soft Plastic Jerk baits were a lure that never ever made it s way out of my tackle box. Now, whether its June, November or even January it is always tied on and used, and is in most cases productive. Even I practiced the Rule of Two s only two rods, two colored soft plastic jerk baits, and two different manufacturers using two different retrieves. Again, as I sit typing, I am already thinking of what will be my next experiment? Swimming Bitsy Bug Jigs or Ripping Sassy Shad type lures through the grass. If life and work were as easy to change, things would be much easier and COMFORTABLE?

Who should doctors let die in a pandemic?

Which color gets stuck on your paperwork?

Published on May 5th, 2008

Posted by Eideard in General

Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won’t get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn’t be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia…

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also “a political minefield and a legal minefield.”

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

Who should MDs let die in a pandemic? Report offers answers

By LINDSEY TANNER – 22 hours ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won’t get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster. The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn’t be treated. They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies. They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals “so that everybody will be thinking in the same way” when pandemic flu or another widespread health care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux. She is a critical care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task force report.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

“If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing,” the report states.

To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the Godlike task of deciding who will and who won’t get lifesaving care, the task force wrote. Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

_People older than 85.

_Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

_Severely burned patients older than 60.

_Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

_Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force. He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also “a political minefield and a legal minefield.”

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, “there are some real ethical concerns here.”

James Bentley, a senior vice president at American Hospital Association, said the report will give guidance to hospitals in shaping their own preparedness plans even if they don’t follow all the suggestions.

He said the proposals resemble a battlefield approach in which limited health care resources are reserved for those most likely to survive.

Bentley said it’s not the first time this type of approach has been recommended for a catastrophic pandemic, but that “this is the most detailed one I have seen from a professional group.”

While the notion of rationing health care is unpleasant, the report could help the public understand that it will be necessary, Bentley said.

Devereaux said compiling the list “was emotionally difficult for everyone.”

That’s partly because members believe it’s just a matter of time before such a health care disaster hits, she said.

“You never know,” Devereaux said. “SARS took a lot of folks by surprise. We didn’t even know it existed.”