A Class Ring Story

I never wanted a class ring.

My mother wanted me to have one when I graduated from high school and I said no. In my senior year of high school I was focused on getting ready for college. I figured a high school ring wouldn’t mean much to the girls, excuse me, women, I was going to meet at college in Texas. And, I didn’t want to worry about losing it. All of that money for something that I would probably lose just didn’t seem worth it. We were a modest family, money was not scarce, nor was it abundant. Money was supposed to buy things that were important and necessary, not luxury items or fluff.

As I approached college graduation my mother asked again and I said no. I really didn’t want a ring. I don’t wear jewelry. But mom was so proud of her only child graduating college, she simply had to get me a ring. It sealed the deal for her in a tangible way. She insisted and I capitulated. She even offered to pay for it. So, due to the price of gold in 1988, I got a pinkie ring instead of a big traditional ring. It still cost more than $500, and mom was damned proud to write the check for it.

About two years later I wore the ring to an all day judging session for the annual high school All-State auditions. This is the last time I remember having it. It was gone. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

I was crushed. I grew to like my unique ring. I grew to appreciate the hard work and accomplishment that it symbolized. I grew to appreciate my mother’s stubborn dedication to her hard headed son. And I lost the damned ring.

Of course, there’s no way I was going to tell mom about this. Or dad. He would have had a shit fit if he learned that I lost a $500 ring that he probably protested the purchase of to begin with. I visited every pawn shop near the area I last remembered having the ring. They were a real help. One guy even said that he usually melts down class rings since they don’t sell well. I visited the school where I adjudicated the All-State auditions to see if anyone turned it in. Nothing.

So, in the spring of 1991 I began living a tiny but occasionally inconvenient lie. I’d claim that I forgot to pack the ring those few times I flew home for visits. I’d smoothly change the subject if class ring talk came up. It became second nature. Eventually I actually forgot about the ring. Life was maintaining an ironclad grip on my attention. I was now working for a major consulting firm, then I was engaged, then married in 1993. Then I was in grad school. Then thanks to some luck and good timing we bought our first home. We found a wonderful starter home with a great view in a nice neighborhood, and the initial buyer’s financing fell through so we grabbed it. My life seemed to be going in the right direction.

Fast forward to 1998. I received a call at work from my dad. He asked me, “did you lose your class ring?” What? How did he know? Remember, my parents had no idea that the ring had been missing for seven years. I said yes and he then told me that some woman called claiming that she had my ring. He gave me her number and I of course called her right away. (I don’t remember her name, let’s call her Sally.) I asked her to describe the ring and right away I knew she had my ring. I then asked for directions to where she was and Sally gave me her address. I had to wait a few more hours before I could leave work and make the 30 mile drive to the gym where she worked.

Before I left the office I called the gym to verify the location. This time I man answered and when I asked for Sally he said “nobody named Sally works here.” What? My mind started racing: Is this some sort of sick joke? What do you mean you don’t know who she is?

So, not knowing if my ring was really there I headed out at peak rush hour to drive from north Plano to south Arlington. NOT a fun drive at any time, never mind rush hour. I found the gym, walked up to the receptionist and asked for Sally. The woman behind the counter said “We don’t have a Sally here.” Aaaaargh!!! This is insane! I explained my situation and asked for the manager. He came out and said “Oh, Sally. Yeah, she’s new here and works in the day care down the hall.” Apparently the front desk staff didn’t know the name of the new part-time daycare worker.

I walked down to the kid and called Sally over. She came over and I introduced myself. She went into her purse and puled out my ring. Holy crap… there it was! It was dirty, but it was my ring. I asked where she found it and she said that her brother Jason (his real name) found it a few years ago and she didn’t know the details. She was able to track me down because my name was inscribed inside the ring, and my last name is somewhat unique in Texas. They called information and got my dad on the first try. Now the story gets interesting.

It turns out that in 1991 when we moved out of our rental house on Oakwood Lane in Denton to move closer to Dallas, Jason is the guy that moved in. He had recently moved to Texas from Connecticut which, coincidentally, is where I am from. All Sally could tell me is that he found the ring while living there. He was now living with Sally in an apartment. I asked for their address so I could send them a reward for their honesty. She gave it to me, I profusely thanked her again and then headed home. That night I wrote a letter to these fine people thanking them for their honesty and for making the effort to find me. I never spoke to Jason during this entire affair.

Now for a seemingly unrelated tangent.

On the corner of the street near our house near a light post there was a puzzling inscription in one of the sidewalk squares. It said “JD 95.” Our neighborhood was small, we lived on a small block and all of the neighbors knew each other. Nobody on our block had the initials JD, and since we were all the first owners of our homes in this new neighborhood we knew that it wasn’t a previous resident. We wrote it off as graffiti from a passing teen that found some moist cement when the streets were being paved.

Now back to our story.

My neighbor Dirk was the resident social coordinator. He would host block parties across the street from our house during most major holidays and whenever else the mood hit him. One warm April weekend we were gathering in his driveway enjoying a cool beverage when we saw a beat up compact car zip into the neighborhood and turn quickly into my driveway. That’s weird, I thought. I had never seen that car before, what is this guy doing in my driveway? I thought it might be a lost pizza delivery guy. When I saw the driver get out of the car and head for my front door I walked across the street to see what he wanted.

He said, “Are you Paul?” I said yes and he said, “walk with me for a second.” I start thinking, this is weird, but if I’m gonna get capped by a mobster or something at least I’ve got a driveway full of friends that can help me out if needed. It turns out that this person was Jason, the guy that found my ring. He said that he found the ring one day when he was looking out of the bedroom window into the backyard. He looked down and caught a brief glimpse of something shiny. He went outside to see what it was, and buried in the dirt was my ring. (apparently the ring must have fallen off of my hand when I was mowing the lawn or something.) As I was thanking him for his efforts he walked me to the street corner and pointed at the inscription in the sidewalk. “See those initials? They are mine. I wrote that two years ago.”

Wait. It gets better.

Jason then tells me that he was the original buyer of the house that we owned. He is the person who’s financing fell through thus enabling s to buy our first home. He lived in our former residence, and he tried to buy the house that we ended up buying. This is really weird.

It gets even better. Jason then pulled out my thank you letter and told me an interesting story.

The reason Jason left Connecticut was to get away from a horrible life of substance abuse. He was an alcoholic and a coke addict. He hung around with a bad crowd and it nearly killed him. He would steal from friends and family to support his habit. He decided to escape to Texas, a place very far away and very different from Connecticut. And he quit drugs cold turkey. Not long after he moved into the house on Oakwood he found my ring. As Jason tells it, he could have sold the ring for cash and bought some drugs. But he resisted the urge; he kept the ring. He kept it for several years and got clean. Eventually he decided to find the ring’s owner and was successful.

Pretty cool story, huh? There’s still more. My favorite part.

Jason keeps my hand written thank you letter in his pocket all of the time. He uses it as proof that he beat his addiction. He told me that he went back to Connecticut once to take care of some personal business and he saw some old ‘friends.’ When he told them the ring story and how he quit, they called bull on him. He then pulled out my letter to prove it. He won his battle and my letter was proof positive. Jason told me that this was a pivotal moment of closure in his life. He showed his cohorts that he was better than his former self. He then left Connecticut again and continued his new life.

And to think that I never wanted a class ring. I got the ring, but Jason got so much more.

Bailing out home owners is a stupid idea

Hillary Clinton wants to take tax payer money and bail out home owners in this interesting housing market. Specifically, she said “we need to help those facing the pain of foreclosure.” How democratic of her.

Let me get this straight. In the past decade or so during a booming housing market and stock market lots of people took advantage of very low mortgage rates and bought houses that they really couldn’t afford. Maybe it was a teaser rate of 1% for the first twenty four months, maybe it was an interest-only note. The bottom line is that lots of people willingly entered into financial arrangements that were beyond their means. Now that they are entering the next tier of their ‘agreement’ their payments are going up and suddenly these people can’t afford their home. So, like an NFL athlete they think that the contract isn’t really a contract and want out. Now Hillary wants to spend a billion dollars to get these people off the hook.

Here’s a better idea. Let the people that have enjoyed living in a great house at a great rate find a new place to live. Let them move. Repo men earn their living by reclaiming property that was purchased on credit and then not paid for. Why is this any different than a house? Most rational people understand that if you can’t make the payments, you probably shouldn’t have made the purchase. And most people understand that it is not a crime for property owners to reclaim their goods. Banks lend money with the expectation that they get it back along with some interest. When payments fall through, they don’t get their money. If too much of this happens banks get in trouble. Remember the Savings & Loan bailout in the 80s? It could happen all over again.

So what the hell is Hillary thinking? What happened to personal responsibility? Oh, thats right. Hillary is a Democrat… they look to others to make their decisions for them. Maybe these people that overextended themselves need to learn a lesson about financial accountability, take their licks and start life anew. A bailout will only encourage this sort of behavior to continue. It’s the same as threatening a child with a punishment and then not following through. The child learns that your threats are hollow and that you never follow through. Or, a child throws a tantrum if she doesn’t get her way and the parent then caves in to her demands. The child then learns that all she has to do is freak out and mommy will save her again. Think of these home owners as screaming children that want their way. Maybe they aren’t screaming, they are trying the puppy dog eyes/crying tactic, but it’s the same thing.

Suck it up and find a place to live that you can afford. Thank the bank for letting you use their money to live in a place you truly couldn’t afford. Move on. Learn.

Career over: What is poor Vick supposed to do now?

I am so sick and tired of people defending criminals solely based on their skin color. It happened during the O.J. trial and the Michael Vick story is stirring it all up again. Logic departs the world and all some people can see is skin color. You hear it on the radio, you see it on the news, you read it in the paper. Race card. Victim mentality. The Man vs. The Oppressed.

My rant is based on some of the viewer comments I’ve seen on ESPN in support of Vick. One said something like “the man made a mistake, but he doesn’t deserve to have his career ruined over it.”

What? Let’s look at some facts.

Vick’s career is that of a star NFL quarterback. He left Virginia Tech after just two years as the top pick overall in the NFL draft and signed the largest rookie contract in sports history at the time: six years, $62 million. This included a guaranteed $15.3M in the first three years. For 99.999% of Americans this would be a dream and certainly enough money to live on for the rest of their days. But Vick is flashy and he has a great agent. So, halfway through his contract he renegotiated and signed a $130M contract with a $37M signing bonus. Yes. A $37M signing bonus.

I haven’t even factored in various endorsement revenues, but my point has already been made: The man is rich beyond belief. And you know what? Damned good for him. If someone can ask for that kind of money and find someone to pay it, way to friggin’ go. More power to you. Seriously. Ditto for A-Rod and Beckham. God Bless America. Capitalism rocks.

But I have to ask all of the Vick supporters: Where am I supposed to find sympathy for a man worth roughly $100M? He has played in the NFL for six years, a dream in and of itself for many men. If he stayed healthy and avoided injury (tough for someone as mobile as he is) he would probably play another 6-8 years. In other words, he’s about halfway through his career already and he’s only 27 years old.

Cry me a friggin’ river. He has committed several crimes and was able to plea out of most of them. (and don’t get me started with that whole “allegedly” crap… he took the plea for a reason. He’s guilty.) Vick will serve a couple of years (maybe) and then have to suffer the fate of returning to his mansion and living off of his seven-figure annual interest payments for the rest of his life.

He had a shot. He was successful. And like his dumb-ass brother, he blew it. At least Michael was able to cash in first.

So shut up Vick supporters… there are bigger things in the world to complain about.

Illegal Alien Murders and Spiderman

You’ve surely seen the movie Spiderman. A pivotal point is Spidey’s life happens when young Peter Parker lets a thief escape after robbing a wrestling promoter. This same robber later murders Peters uncle, whom he was living with. The rest of his life is shrouded in guilt; “if only I had stopped that thug, Uncle Ben would still be alive.”

If the criminal had been stopped, a life would have been spared.

Back to reality: Geraldo is race baiting again by claiming that the triple murder committed by Jose Carranza, an illegal alien in New Jersey, should not be receiving so much attention. He points out that 60 homicides occurred across the river in New York but none of them are getting any airplay. His point: to single out this particular crime is racist.

Geraldo has completely lost his grasp on reality. He has become as relevant as OJ Simpson. YES, murders take place all of the time. YES, they are all tragic. But this triple murder is just one of many murders that should not have happened. The murderer should not have been in America in the first place. He entered the country illegally (strike one). He had a lengthy criminal record (strike two). And he killed three people (strike three).

Had authorities contacted federal immigration officials after Carranza’s first felony indictment last year he would have been deported. Instead Carranza was released on bail, despite being charged with raping a 5-year-old girl, aggravated assault and weapons violations. Apparently these authorities draw the line at murder and they finally exerted the Herculean effort required to pick up the phone and called federal immigration officials. Talk about too little, too late.

Let’s rub some more salt into this wound. Newark is an official illegal immigrant “Sanctuary City.” This means that police can’t ask a suspect about his immigration status. In other words, police can’t use their instincts, or common sense for that matter, to deal with illegal aliens. By ignoring the law, the leaders of these cities (Newark, Detroit, New Haven, San Francisco, Seattle and Houston) are aiding and abetting known criminals. (click here for just one sample of a sanctuary city tragedy).

People have sued for far less and won their cases. Why haven’t the families of illegal alien murder victims sued these judges and/or mayors? Because US Citizens cannot sue the government. (side note: illegal aliens can sue governments apparently. This recently happened in Pennsylvania after a mayor made it illegal to rent to known illegals; he was sued and lost. None of the illegals were mentioned by name or had to appear in court. How convenient.)

• Bartenders have been sued for liability in alcohol-related deaths.
• McDonalds has been sued for making kids fat.
• Why the hell can’t families sue negligent judges and law-breaking city leaders?

Our police forces are underpaid and overworked. They have enough trouble trying to keep up the criminals that we raise on our own in America. Why is it so hard to understand that a secure border and an honest attempt at enforcing current immigration laws will save lives?

• In 2006, twelve Americans are murdered every day by illegal aliens (4,380 in 2006). (source)
• Thirteen Americans were killed every day by drunk illegal alien drivers (4,745 in 2006) (source)
• Eight American children were victims of sexual abuse by illegal aliens every day (2,920 in 2006) (source)
• There are about 240,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders in the United States who have had an average of four victims each. (source)

Maybe Geraldo doesn’t think that we are being fair to Mr. Carranza. Maybe he shouldn’t be singled out because he is here illegally. I wonder what Geraldo would say to the families of the 9,125 people killed in 2006 by illegal immigrants? What about the nearly one million victims of sex crimes perpetrated by illegal aliens? And please remember that this isn’t anti-Latino article. Approximately 25% of all illegal visitors are not from Mexico, Central or South America. Only 50% are from Mexico.

This passionate issue is about crime, not race.

This is about security, not separatism.

Our citizens deserve better than this. Until we get serious about border security and we start enforcing the immigration laws already on the books (including any one of the nine guest worker programs that exist) thousands of Americans will be killed or victimized by people that should not be here to begin with. Not even Spiderman can save us from this problem.

Al Qaeda IS in Iran and Iraq. Quit fooling yourself, lefty!

A coworker today made the statement that Al Qaeda is not in Iran or Iraq. Can you guess his political leaning? Let me shine some light on the subject.

A recent NY Sun article outlined several scary facts about Iran and Al Qaeda:

• A June 2007 report by counter-terrorism experts at West Point suggests that, between 2001 and 2005, Iran harbored Al Qaeda’s third-ranking official and director of military operations, and that he could still be operating there today.
• In 2003, Iran offered a swap of the senior leaders in exchange for members of an Iranian opposition group on America’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, the People’s Mujahadin. That deal was scuttled after signal intercepts proved, according to American intelligence officials, that Mr. Adel was in contact with an Al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia.
• The link between Iran and Al Qaeda is not new, in some cases. The bipartisan September 11 commission report, for example, concluded: “There is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of Al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.” According to the commission, a senior Al Qaeda coordinator, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, said eight of the September 11 hijackers went through Iran on their way to and from Afghanistan.
  

Here are some bullets from a July 24, 2007 White House press release:

• The Al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy that attacked the United States On 9/11, and they still intend to attack us at home. While there is a debate in Washington about al Qaeda’s role in Iraq, the facts are that al Qaeda in Iraq is an organization founded by foreign terrorists, led largely by foreign terrorists, and loyal to Osama bin Laden.
• The recent capture of Al Qaeda in Iraq’s most senior Iraqi official reveals that the group is led by foreigners who are trying to deceive others into thinking they are Iraqis. On July 4, Coalition forces captured a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader named Khalid Abdul Fattah Da’ud Mahmoud al-Mashadani, the highest ranking Iraqi in the organization.
• Al Qaeda in Iraq, more than any other group, is behind most of the spectacular, high-casualty attacks seen on TV. Our military estimates that between 80 and 90 percent of suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by foreign-born al Qaeda terrorists brought into the country for the sole purpose of blowing themselves up and killing innocent Iraq civilians.

And some miscellaneous nuggets:

• The leader of an Al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq, who was thought to have beeen killed by US forces, has threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shias in Iraq within two months. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State in Iraq, said his Sunni fighters have been preparing to wage a battle against Shia-dominated Iran. (source)
• Recent attacks on Iraqis celebrating a soccer victory are classic terrorist events. Al Qaeda piggybacked off of a rare moment of national unity and grabbed the media headlines by turning a positive story into one of despair. The two suicide bombs sat in parked cars, instead of detonating their bombs remotely. Al Qaeda wanted to put its signature on this attack. Also, al Qaeda in Iraq demonstrated that while its capacity for large strikes may have diminished, it still possesses the ability to attack inside Baghdad. (source)
• April 2007: An Iraqi suspected of being a senior al-Qaida commander has been captured and is now in U.S. custody at Guantanamo, the Pentagon said Friday. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the captive is Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, adding that he was caught as he tried to return to Iraq. U.S. intelligence sources told NBC News that al-Hadi was taken into custody in late 2006 and has provided the CIA with hundreds of leads into al-Qaida operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Whitman said that “Abd al-Hadi was trying to return to his native country, Iraq, to manage al-Qaida’s affairs and possibly focus on operations outside Iraq against Western targets.” He added that the terror suspect also met with al-Qaida members in Iran. (source)

To suggest that Al Qaeda is not in Iran or Iraq is ignorant. Stop listening to liberals blinded by their hatred for the President and their unwillingness to acknowledge the facts and reality of the war we are fighting. Terrorists want to kill us, here and abroad. Wake up lefty.