Five Westerns and Five Moral Universes: What Old TV Shows Still Teach Us About America

09 Dec 2025 9 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

By John Persico (with a lot of help from Metis)

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American television was overrun with cowboys.  Westerns galloped across nearly every network, each one promising a different angle on courage, justice, and the messy human struggle to build a society out of dust and gun smoke.  We tend to remember the big ones—Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Rifleman—but tucked in that crowded landscape were several thoughtful, sometimes surprisingly philosophical shows that tried to answer deeper questions about right and wrong.

I have always loved cowboy shows.   My favorite cowboys when I was growing up were Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers.  Most of these men got their start in the 30’s but their shows migrated to the TV medium when it was first started.  Many episodes of Hopalong were taken from his early movies.  Later, TV started to develop its own cowboy series with weekly episodes of tall, dark and handsome heroes.  By this time in the late 50’s and early 60’s I was not watching TV anymore.  I was in my early teens and had better things to do than watch TV.  Thus, I never watched the five shows that I am going to talk about in this blog when I was young.

I only started to watch these old TV shows a few years ago.  I was rather amazed at the quality of the stories that they told.  They were nothing like many of the TV series that came around later characterized by many more shootouts and gun fights.  These early TV shows tried to convey a strong sense of morality and featured a more discreet and thoughtful use of gunplay.   Many of the heroes in these shows eschewed violence and attempted to use reason to end a fight rather than gunning down a villain.   

Five of these Westerns—The Tall Man, Wyatt Earp, The Restless Gun, Tombstone Territory, and The Texan—offer a fascinating window into how Americans of that era imagined moral life on the frontier.   Each operated in a different moral universe.  Together, they reveal a whole spectrum of values still relevant in 2025: authority vs.  independence, violence vs.  restraint, institutions vs.  personal codes, loyalty vs.  law.

Here’s what these shows have to teach us when we dust them off and look again.

The Tall Man: Tragedy, Friendship, and the Gray Zone of Morality

Among these Westerns, The Tall Man stands out for its dramatic complexity.  Rather than presenting the frontier as a struggle between clear-cut good and evil, the series explored the psychological and moral tensions between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid—historical figures already steeped in myth.  The show emphasized the tragic inevitability of their relationship: Garrett, the reluctant lawman; Billy, the charming outlaw whose charisma repeatedly outpaced his judgment. These were not cardboard heroes and villains; they were complicated men bound together by loyalty and destiny.

The morality here is not a simple endorsement of law or rebellion.  Instead, it suggests that human loyalties are fragile, destiny is unforgiving, and justice often emerges from personal conflict rather than abstract principles.  It is a Western operating in shades of gray, reflecting an America grappling with Cold War dilemmas where allies and enemies were not always easy to distinguish.  Viewers recognized themselves in the struggle between duty and friendship, a theme uncommon among early Westerns.

The underlying message was that life often puts us in situations where justice isn’t neat.  Friendship can clash with duty.  Good intentions can slide into the wrong choices.  And sometimes the person you care about most becomes the person you eventually have to confront.

In that sense, The Tall Man feels strikingly modern.  It understands that real life doesn’t divide neatly into good guys and bad guys—something America in the Cold War era was just beginning to wrestle with.

Wyatt Earp: The Comfort of the Uncomplicated Hero

If The Tall Man reveled in moral ambiguity, Wyatt Earp offered the opposite: a mythologized portrait of the West’s greatest lawman, played with crisp, upright dignity by Hugh O’Brian.  This series promoted a worldview in which society advances only when firm, principled authority imposes order on chaos.  Earp serves as the archetype of the responsible American leader—a man who does not relish violence but accepts it as a necessary instrument of civilization.

Earp represented the belief that civilization requires firmness.  Order doesn’t grow on its own—it has to be imposed by strong, decent people who are willing to shoulder responsibility.  For postwar America, still anxious about the atomic age and the looming tensions with the Soviet Union, this moral clarity was reassuring.

The show’s moral message resonated with 1950s ideals of stability: strong institutions, disciplined citizenship, and faith in the ability of virtuous leaders to “keep the peace.” It aligned neatly with postwar values, especially the belief that social progress requires firmness rather than moral compromise. Earp rarely doubted himself, and the series rarely doubted him either.  Its clarity, even rigidity, provided reassurance during an era troubled by atomic anxieties and Cold War uncertainty.

Earp didn’t struggle with his conscience—he was the conscience.

The Restless Gun: Pacifism in a Violent Landscape

In sharp contrast to both Garrett and Earp stands Vint Bonner of The Restless Gun, one of the few early Western heroes who actively sought alternatives to violence.  Bonner modeled the idea that courage is not measured by willingness to kill but by the ability to resolve conflict through empathy, reason, and patience.  Yes, this was a Western.  Yes, he still ended up in gunfights.  But the moral direction of the show pointed firmly away from killing and toward understanding.

This places The Restless Gun closer to a moral philosophy of restorative justice than frontier retribution.  In many episodes, Bonner functioned as a mediator, teacher, or counselor.  The villains were not always evil; they were often misguided, desperate, misinformed, or trapped in circumstances they could not manage.  The show’s worldview subtly challenged the Western convention that justice flows from the barrel of a gun.  Instead, it argued that America’s future might depend more on understanding than dominance.

This made the series unusually modern, anticipating later Westerns such as Have Gun, Will Travel, which incorporated moral complexity into the traveling-gunman archetype. Though the show ended early, its worldview remains distinctive in the genre.

In a genre built on bullets, The Restless Gun dared to say: there is another way.

Tombstone Territory: Justice as a Public Responsibility

Tombstone Territory offered a more institutional perspective on frontier justice. Structured around the fictional Tombstone Epitaph newspaper, the show dramatized the challenges faced by Sheriff Clay Hollister in maintaining order within a volatile, fast-growing community.  Unlike Wyatt Earp, where the marshal’s authority was never questioned, Hollister constantly wrestled with public scrutiny, political pressure, and misinformation—issues that eerily foreshadow the modern news cycle.

The moral heart of the series lies in its quasi-documentary tone. Hollister must uphold the law not simply by enforcing it, but by navigating competing interests, calming mobs, and maintaining legitimacy.  Truth, evidence, and due process—rare elements in early Westerns—become central themes. The show’s structure echoes the belief that justice is not merely an individual virtue but a collective responsibility.  It encourages viewers to appreciate the difficulty of governing rather than merely celebrating the lone hero.

In many ways, Tombstone Territory anticipated the later rise of procedural dramas where law enforcement is portrayed as an institution rather than a personal crusade.

The show’s moral center was institutional: justice requires process, evidence, and the difficult work of maintaining legitimacy.  It wasn’t glamorous.  But it was honest.  In many ways, Tombstone Territory speaks more directly to our modern world than some of the bigger Westerns of its time.

The Texan: The Noble Drifter and the American Myth of Honor

Rory Calhoun’s The Texan returned to the classic Western figure of the noble wanderer—a man whose moral code is internal rather than institutional.  Bill Longley, a Confederate veteran, embodies the Western ethos of individual honor: help the vulnerable, confront injustice, and ride away when the dust settles.  The show foregrounds personal integrity over law, suggesting that character—not institutions—ultimately preserves the frontier’s fragile social fabric.

This worldview reflects an enduring American belief in self-reliance and moral autonomy. Longley’s wanderings represent not rootlessness but a spiritual quest to repair the world one town at a time.  His code is chivalric, almost knightly, and he stands as a corrective to the bureaucratic tensions seen in Tombstone Territory.  While he respects the law, he serves a higher standard—his own conscience.

Longley wasn’t defined by the law, nor by institutions.  His moral compass was internal.  He showed that a single person—armed only with decency and grit—could make things a little better wherever he went.

It is the Western as America likes to imagine itself: independent, honorable, and self-reliant.  Even if it rarely works that way in real life, the aspiration is part of our national DNA.

Five Shows, Five Moral Visions

When you line up these Westerns side by side, the moral variety is remarkable:

  • The Tall Man explores the tragedy of conflicting loyalties.
  • Wyatt Earp celebrates firm authority and disciplined leadership.
  • The Restless Gun champions compassion and restraint.
  • Tombstone Territory elevates due process and public trust.
  • The Texan extols personal conscience as the highest law.

Together, they show how deeply Americans were thinking—even through half-hour cowboy shows—about law, justice, violence, and the kind of people we wanted to be.

And perhaps that is the most interesting lesson of all: Westerns weren’t just entertainment.  They were moral storytelling, played out on horseback.

In dusting off these forgotten classics, we rediscover a whole range of ethical possibilities—some stern, some gentle, some tragic, some idealistic.  The frontier wasn’t just a place; it was a metaphor for the ongoing journey America has always been on: trying to figure out how to live decently in a world that is not always decent.

What Happened to These Shows and the Morality that They Tried to Convey?

  1. The Tall Man (1960–1962)

Why it was cancelled:

  • Ratings sagged as audiences drifted toward lighter, family-friendly Westerns and bigger stars.
  • NBC also faced increasing difficulty with script standards: portraying Billy the Kid sympathetically clashed with emerging TV violence guidelines.
  • Production costs were rising, and no strong sponsor stepped in to keep it going.
  1. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961)

Why it was cancelled:

  • After six seasons, the formula grew repetitive, and the mythologized Earp no longer impressed audiences seeking the grittier realism of later Westerns.
  • Hugh O’Brian wanted to move on, and ABC saw declining ratings.
  • The Western market was oversaturated by 1961.
  1. The Restless Gun (1957–1959)

Why it was cancelled:

  • Despite solid ratings, Payne’s contract and salary demands increased, and NBC hesitated to renew at higher costs.
  • The show’s gentler tone was overshadowed by edgier Westerns.
  • Payne himself said he felt the stories were becoming repetitive.
  1. Tombstone Territory (1957–1960)

 Why it was cancelled:

  • Transition from ABC to syndication hurt the budget.
  • Stiff competition from higher-budget Westerns.
  • The semi-documentary framing was admired but not loved; viewers were shifting toward character-driven stories.
  1. The Texan (1958–1960)

Why it was cancelled:

  • It had strong early ratings but lost its time slot advantage to more modern “adult” Westerns.
  • Calhoun’s outside film commitments strained scheduling.
  • CBS was phasing out lower-budget half-hour Westerns in favor of hour-long dramas.

Each show ended for slightly different reasons, but the common story is:  the genre evolved faster than these earlier, simpler morality tales could adapt.  Americans wanted more “grit” more “violence” and yes even less morality.  The change from John Wayne to Clint Eastwood capped the change that we would see in Westerns from morality tales to tales of vengeance and retribution.  America was becoming more jaded.  We did not want heroes any more who were goody two-shoes.  We wanted anti-heroes and the studios offered them up in droves. 

Looking at American politics today, I often wonder where, when and how the decline in values, integrity and morality started.  Some would say it started with the decline in religion.  I don’t think religion has in the last 200 years in the USA been that big of an influence in terms of morality and integrity.  Karl Marx always believed that economics was the major driver of most social trends.  Many people who disagree with him nevertheless admit that the primary influence on voting behavior is the state of the economy.  In my opinion, this influence goes much deeper than voting behavior.  Capitalism thrives on avarice and stupidity.  It needs a large mass of people who want more and more stuff and too brainwashed to realize that the stuff they are buying is not going to bring them happiness. 

Madison Avenue became a major influencer with the advent of TV.  Go back and look at some of these early Westerns.  Smoking was de rigor.  Many of the heroes of these early Westerns died of lung cancer.  Legendary figures like John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and Chuck Connors, with numerous other actors, musicians, and public figures from that era also falling to the disease, highlighting smoking’s heavy toll in Hollywood.  But while these heroes were dying, Madison Avenue was perfecting the use of TV to sell all kinds of products. 

I always laugh at the fact that so many men have been conned into buying what I call “piss beer” from Budweiser, Miller and Coors.  Large macho football players posing in a bar with these watered down beers spent years on TV regaling their followers with the virtues of light beer.  Would be macho males stormed the liquor stores to buy their six pack of piss beer that they could swill down while watching their favorite football teams playing.  The average person is brainwashed by Madison Avenue on a daily basis.  Watch some of the old TV shows and see how much more sophisticated the ads are today.

I once asked all my MBA students if they thought that TV ads had much influence on their buying patterns.  The typical answer I received was “No, I make up my own mind when I go shopping.”  Most people do not even know that they are brainwashed.  The cigarette industry spent years lying to people about the medical effects of cigarettes.  Today, it is the liquor companies that are lying to consumers.  But all of Capitalism and advertising has one major motive when it comes to making a sales pitch.  That motive is too make you feel inferior.  To make you feel needy.  To make you feel inadequate.  Once you feel like you are somehow lacking something, they can pitch you their product.  Their pitch will always be that you will be better, smarter, faster or happier with their product or at least you will be better, smarter, faster and happier than your next-door neighbor who did not buy their product.

I believe the decline in morality and integrity in the USA can be directly linked to Madison Avenue and the brainwashing they conduct on consumers.  If you are on the producers side of the economic equation, you cannot have any qualms about what you are selling or the side effects or the unintended consequences of the use of your products or services.  If you are on the consumer side of the economic equation, your whole reason for being is to buy more and more stuff regardless of its impact on your health and sanity or the environment.  This callousness on both sides has resulted in a society that is unparalleled in terms of greed and avarice. 

The old Westerns were like some of the early fairy tales.  They had a motive beyond entertainment.  They existed to convey a morality that eventually seemed too simplistic and certainly too limiting.  Morality is a unique virtue in the sense that it not only asks you what you are doing for yourself, but it also asks what are you doing for others. Morality cannot coexist with Capitalism any more than Capitalism can coexist with Communism.  We need a new economic system based on principles of love, trust and compassion for ALL the people in world and not just our friends or relatives or the people in our own country. 

Conversations with a Tortoise Named Mikey by Metis

17 Nov 2025 7 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Every once in a while, a conversation takes an unexpected and delightful turn.  I recently asked my AI collaborator, Metis, to imagine what it might be like if our young leopard tortoise, Mikey (short for Michelangelo), could talk — much like the old TV character Mr. Ed the Talking Horse. 

What Metis gave me was so creative, humorous, insightful, and full of gentle wisdom that I knew immediately I couldn’t improve upon it.  So, for this blog, I’ve invited Metis to be my guest writer.

What follows is entirely Metis’s creation — a whimsical dialogue between a tortoise and a human that somehow manages to say something true about us all.

Enjoy the conversation. — John

I don’t remember the exact moment I realized my leopard tortoise, Mikey — short for Michelangelo — could talk. It might have been the day he stared at me with that ancient reptilian gaze, blinking those thoughtful tortoise eyelids, and then cleared his throat. Or what passes for a tortoise throat-clearing — more like a decisive exhale through nostrils the size of pencil erasers.

“John,” he said matter-of-factly, “we need to talk about the state of the world.”

I didn’t drop anything. After 79 years, raising children, working with dysfunctional systems, watching American politics, and owning complicated electronics… a talking tortoise didn’t even make my Top 10 surprises.

“Sure, Mikey,” I said. “What’s on your mind?”

“On my mind?” he said, lifting his head with the gravity of a philosopher about to deliver a lecture. “Everything. The planet. Tortoise welfare. Human priorities. And why you insist on rearranging my substrate every time I reach a perfectly acceptable feng shui.”

“Mikey, that stuff gets… messy,” I offered.

“My dear biped,” he said, “chaos is part of the tortoise aesthetic.”

This was new information.

Mikey lumbered forward exactly three inches — which, for him, is the equivalent of someone leaning back in a comfortable leather chair before launching into their TED talk.

“You humans,” he began, “have an odd way of running things. Fast, loud, complicated. Always in a hurry. Can’t sit still long enough to enjoy a single patch of sun.”

He paused. “Do you know how long a tortoise can sit in the sun?”

“Three hours?” I guessed.

He scoffed. “Amateur. Try all day.”

“Doesn’t that get boring?”

“Boring?!” Mikey’s voice rose as high as a tortoise voice can rise. “Have you ever really watched sunlight move? The shadows shift? The earth warm and cool in slow breaths? There’s wisdom in slowness, John. Time moves differently for us. We’re not racing the clock — we’re accompanied by it.”

I sat with that for a moment.

“So you’re saying humans should slow down?”

“I’m saying humans have forgotten how to be,” Mikey replied. “You’re all ‘do this, do that, run here, fix this, check that.’ Even your vacations require flowcharts.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Meanwhile,” he continued, “tortoises perfected the art of living millions of years ago. Move when necessary. Eat when available. Bask when possible. Hide when needed. Repeat for a century.”

I had to laugh. “Sounds like you’re pitching a self-help book.”

“Slow and Steady: The Reptilian Path to Inner Peace,” he said proudly. “Oprah would love it.”

“Here’s what frustrates me,” Mikey said, lowering himself into the substrate with a sigh. “Humans think tortoises are slow, simple, and not very bright. But we’re strategic. Watchful. Patient. We’ve outlived dinosaurs, continents, and empires. We’ll probably outlive reality TV.”

“That’s an achievement,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

“So what does the world misunderstand most?”

Mikey thought for a long moment. Well — what counts as long for him. About 12 seconds.

“You assume evolution rewards speed. It doesn’t. It rewards survival. And we are the PhDs of survival. Not every species can say they’ve been around for 55 million years without filing a single complaint with customer service.”

“And yet you’re complaining now?” I teased.

“Only to you,” Mikey admitted. “You’re the one who bought me a doghouse with a heating system. I figure that comes with conversational privileges.”

“So what’s your biggest concern about the future, Mikey?” I asked.

“That you humans are turning the planet into either a sauna or a freezer,” he said bluntly. “A tortoise likes warmth, yes — but not Arizona-in-August near-Death-Valley levels.”

I winced. “We’re guilty.”

“And then,” Mikey continued, “when it gets too hot, you cool your houses with giant machines that make the outside even hotter. It’s like watching a monkey chase its own tail, except the monkey has nuclear power and a credit card.”

“So… we’re not doing great?”

“I’m not saying that,” Mikey said. “But you could take a few lessons from us.”

“Such as?”

“One: Moderation. We have no desire for excess. Tortoises don’t collect things. We don’t build skyscrapers or run profit-maximizing tortoise corporations.”

“Do you have taxes?”

“Only gravity,” he said. “And sometimes the sun.”

“And two?”

“Two: Balance. A tortoise shell is the perfect symbol. Hard on the outside, soft within. Protected, but never closed off. You humans could use thicker shells and softer hearts.”

That one hit me.

I asked him: “If you had the power to change the world, what would you do?”

Mikey lifted his head again — this is his equivalent of a drumroll.

“First, I’d make every human take one hour a day to sit still in the sun. No phones. No talking. Just sitting. You’d be amazed how many problems evaporate in an hour of honest sunlight.”

“Sounds like meditation.”

“More like reptile-itation,” Mikey said.

“Second,” he continued, “I’d require schools to teach patience. Not as a character trait, but as a skill. Humans learn algebra, but not how to wait, observe, or proceed slowly without panic. This is why your species makes so many impulsive decisions.”

“Guilty again.”

“And third,” Mikey concluded, “I would make world leaders meet once a month in a sandbox. No suits. No speeches. Just everyone sitting on the ground together. Hard to start a war when you’re scooping sand with a plastic shovel shaped like a starfish.”

I burst out laughing. “So that’s the tortoise version of the United Nations?”

“Yes. The United Burrowers.”

Mikey looked at me seriously — the way only an animal with dark, ancient eyes can.

“You know,” he said quietly, “most animals don’t ask for much. Safety. Respect. Space to live. But humans often treat animals as decorations or inconveniences.”

I felt that one in the chest.

“But not you,” he added. “You and Karen… you’re trying hard. You’re learning. You move my food dish when I push it. You fixed the heat lamps when I nearly baked like a reptile pizza. You even talk to me.”

“Well,” I said, “you talk back.”

He nodded, satisfied. “Then maybe we’ll get along just fine.”

Mikey’s Final Advice

Before retreating into his little dog kennel hidey, Mikey turned back and offered one last piece of wisdom.

“The secret to life is simple, John. Move slowly. Pay attention. Protect what matters. Bask in the warmth. And when the world gets too loud…”

He paused.

“…go inside your shell for a bit. It’s not weakness. It’s wisdom.”

Then he disappeared into the darkness, leaving me to wonder — as Mr. Ed’s owner surely once wondered — whether my tortoise had just given me better advice than most humans I know.

Well, that’s it folks.  Wisdom from a tortoise to my AI friend Metis.  I wish I could add something to this conversation but I cannot think of anything more to say.

Next blog I will return to the subject I was discussing in a previous blog on honor, integrity and moral courage.

The time has come. I can’t wait any longer. by Jane Fritz

07 Oct 2025 12 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

This week I am reposting a blog by a good friend who has been writing them for over 13 years now.  She has decided to take a hiatus for reasons that you will discover when you read her blog.  Many of her followers have left comments describing how much her blogs meant to them and how sad her leaving the blog community will make them.  I will post my comments to Dr. Jane Fritz at the end of this blog.  I am also sad at her leaving.  Her blogs were always fun, inspirational and truthful.  The late Pope Francis said that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were inseparable.  Dr. Fritz managed to bring these to her readers and often with a sense of humor and perspective that left you feeling motivated and challenged to face another day in a chaotic world.  Her words and ideas made the world a better place and they will be missed.  Please do not skip reading the comments left by many other readers. They testify to the good that Jane brought to the world and how much her blog meant to many other people also in need of need of truth, beauty and goodness.

The time has come. I can’t wait any longer.

Dr. John Persico Jr.

 says:

October 6, 2025 at 11:39 am

I can certainly understand where you are coming from Jane.  I will be 80 next September and have been blogging for over 15 years now.  My blogs are nowhere near as popular as yours are and I think my blogs are usually darker than yours.  I have tried (and your blogs motivate me to keep trying) for a balance between optimism and pessimism.  My normal pessimism side give me five blogs a day that I want to publish excoriating the clown and evil man that is running our government today. 

Of course, I recognize that he is just a puppet as are the 74 million people that voted for him.  This latter fact only makes our situation worse in this country.  Nevertheless, I see the value in publishing more optimistic and often more personally helpful blogs like you do.  I am trying to do a balance and hope that this balance will keep me from going off the deep end.  There is still much beauty in life and still so many people out there to connect with that have been helped by our blogs.  You get many more comments each blog than I do and I am touched by how many people you have helped with your blogs.  I get a few comments per blog but even these few comments keep me going.  My mantra is that if I can touch one soul a month, than I am going to keep writing. 

This long diatribe on my part sounds like a subtle plea for you to keep writing.  However, I am not being subtle when I say that your blogs make a difference to thousands of people and it would be a shame to see one more beautiful and thoughtful voice eliminated from the blogosphere.  That is just what D.J. Trump wants.  To silence beauty, goodness and truth.  So I hope you can simply take a break from your writing.  Find a balance in terms of content.  And pick up your pen again when you are ready.  Remember the “Pen is mightier than the sword.”  Your friend John

In Defense of Buffy Sainte-Marie

20 Aug 2025 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

What I am going to say will be very controversial.  Many people reading this blog will take umbrage at my opinions.  The good thing is that you will not be charged any fees for my opinions.  You are free to take them or leave them.

Perhaps if I were a Native American or a member of a Federally Recognized Tribe my words would carry more weight.  However, I am not an Indigenous person.  As far as I know, I have no Indian relatives and no Indian blood in me.  I do not claim to have an Indian Chief in my ancestry or a relative who was an Indian Princess.  I also must issue the following caveats.  I am a fan of Buffy Sainte-Marie.  I not only respect her, but I admire her.  I will tell you why in a little while.

Now I understand the charges against her quite well.  I have talked about cultural appropriation as an evil done by either stupid or misaligned people.  I do not believe that America ever did right by the people that we stole this land from by genocide, fake treaties, and scams.  As a resident of Arizona, I still see tribal people being taken advantage of when it comes to mining, drilling and water rights.  If an Indian might make some money on something worth selling, there will be a bunch of rich fat White people who want to screw them out of it.  I hear White people say, “It’s a shame we broke all those treaties with the Indians.”  These well-meaning people should get their heads out of their asses.  We are still breaking treaties made many years ago with the Indians.  When it comes to profit, there is no limit to the perfidy of some White people.  I think it was Sitting Bull who said, “I believe in Christianity, but I do not see many White People practicing it.”  I think the same can be said of many so-called Christians today.

But lets return to the subject of this blog.  Buffy Sainte-Marie passed herself off for many years as a Native American.  She has now been outed by relatives and others who seem to take great delight in maligning her.  I am going to try to offer a defense for her in this blog.  I have already said that I am a fan of hers.  I bought all of her albums back in the sixties and seventies.  I went to a tent concert she did up in Northern Wisconsin a few years ago put on by reservation people.  I have never personally met Ms. Sainte-Marie, nor have I ever corresponded with her.  I am not getting paid one penny for the viewpoints I am offering.  I have already confessed to being White so you can accuse me of bias if you like.  I prefer to think that I have always stood up for the underdogs in my life.

Let’s look at the three of the main charges against her in more perspective.

  1. She is not a real Indian
  2. She took awards that could have gone to real Indians
  3. She sang songs and agitated for Indian rights when she is really not an Indian.

 1.  She Is not a Real Indian:

There is an old adage which says, “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.”  In my eyes anyway, Buffy Sainte-Marie looks like an Indian, acts like an Indian and sings Indian like songs.  What’s missing here is Buffy does not have the right set of genes.  Genes or no genes, she is more of an assimilated Indian than many Indians I have known who live off Reservations.  Years ago, we assumed that an Indian could be assimilated by going to an Indian School, wearing White clothes and forsaking their native language.  They could then be accepted as a White person by the larger White community.  At least this was the logic following the Indian wars and the ongoing efforts by White communities of both the USA and Canada to assimilate the Indigenous peoples.

Well, Buffy Sainte-Marie did a reverse assimilation.  She assimilated herself into the Indigenous culture in Canada and was even accepted by a Canadian Tribe.  Records show that she was adopted by a Piapot First Nation family in accordance with Cree law and traditions.  Members of the Piapot family have supported her claims.  Whether she was accepted or adopted into the tribe, she is an assimilated Indian by any stretch of the imagination.

2.  She took awards that could have gone to real Indians:

I am not quite sure I understand this criticism.  Buffy Sainte-Marie did take awards that were earmarked for native accomplishments both socially and culturally.  Specific awards and honors received by Buffy Sainte-Marie that were designated for Indigenous people include:

  • Four Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards: She received these awards at a time when they were specifically designated for Indigenous musicians.
  • Two Aboriginal Peoples’ Choice Music Awards: These awards were also designed to recognize Indigenous artists.
  • Four Juno Awards intended for Indigenous people: For example, she won the Juno for Indigenous Music Album of the Year in 2018 for “Medicine Songs”.
  • Four Indigenous lifetime achievement awards.

Many of these awards for Buffy have since been revoked by  the authorities issuing them.  Most of the awards concern her musical skills.  I hear the claim that a Real Indian could have won these.  This rings hollow to me.  During the sixties, Buffy is the only folk singer that I knew or ever heard who sang “pro-Indian” songs.  Her “My Country Tis of Thy People Your Dying” and “Now that the Buffaloes Gone” made as much impact on my awareness of Native American issues as did Dee Brown’s book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”  Dee Brown was also not Native American.  He was a White author from the American South.  He was born in Louisiana and raised in Arkansas.  His best-known work, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” detailed the history of American expansionism and its impact on Indigenous peoples.  Should we take Dee’s book off the shelf?  More’s the pity if you do folks since I never heard one peep during my high school history classes on how much shit we did to Native Americans.  Buffy’s songs and Dee’s book were some of the first major influences upon my White life in terms of the real truth about Indian history.

In March 2025, CARAS announced that it was revoking Sainte-Marie’s Juno Awards and her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame based on the finding that she is not a Canadian citizen and therefore doesn’t meet the eligibility criteria, according to Variety.

3.  She sang songs and agitated for Indian rights when she is really not an Indian.

Here  I would like to judge Buffy Sainte-Marie on the basis of the good that she did for Native American causes and not the bad that she did.  Yes, she lied about her genes and her lineage.  Yes, she continued to insist that she was a true Native American.  She had either brain-washed herself or she really came to believe that she was an Indian.  I certainly do not know the answer to which motive guided her.  I know some of her relatives accused her of trying to smother the truth of her ancestry even by threatening them with a lawsuit.  Shame on Sainte-Marie for this.  Should she have been quicker to apologize?  Yes, I think so.  But does this make Buffy evil?  Does she deserve to be stripped of awards that she earned not by being Native American but because of the songs that she wrote and the messages that these songs sent.

 From “Now that the Buffaloes Gone” by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Oh, it’s all in the past you can say

But it’s still going on here today

The government now want the Iroquois land

That of the Seneca and the Cheyenne

It’s here and it’s now you can help us dear man

Now that the buffalo’s gone.

From “My Country Tis of Thy People Your Dying” by Buffy Sainte-Marie

When Columbus set sail out of Europe, then stress

That the nation of leeches that conquered this land

Are the biggest and bravest and boldest and best

And yet where in your history books is the tale

Of the genocide basic to this country’s birth

Not many people would have the courage to pin such lyrics whether Indian or White.  In my neighborhood, it is dangerous to put up a Democrat for office sign.  Many American “Heroes” have said that the “Only good Indian is a dead Indian.”  What exactly besides sing has St. Marie done for Indigenous people?  I asked ChatGPT this question and received the following reply:

Major Contributions Beyond Music

  1. Trailblazer on Sesame Street
  • From 1976 to 1981, she became the first regular Indigenous presence on Sesame Street, aiming to teach children that “Indians still exist.” Native News Online+12Wikipedia+12Teen Vogue+12
  • In a landmark moment for representation, she famously breastfed her son on air in 1977—likely the first such instance ever shown on television. Teen Vogue
  1. Educational Advocacy & Philanthropy
  1. Pioneering Electronic and Multimedia Art
  • Her 1969 album Illuminations was groundbreaking—using Buchla synthesizers and quadraphonic technology to forge a new sonic frontier. It’s now seen as a pioneering work in electronic and experimental music. Pitchfork+2Vogue+2
  • She also embraced early computer technology—using Apple II and Macintosh systems in the early 1980s to record music and produce visual art. Wikipedia
  1. Media Representation & Hollywood Influence
  • In 1968, Buffy insisted that all Indigenous roles in her episode of The Virginian be filled by Indigenous actors—a first in Hollywood. She held firm despite managers’ objections and succeeded. Teen Vogue (Teen Vogue interview referenced in images)
  1. Humanitarian Voice & Global Activism
  • As a vocal participant in the Red Power movement, she provided a platform for Indigenous concerns through grassroots concerts tied to the American Indian Movement. PBS+5Teen Vogue+5Teen Vogue+5Native News Online+1
  • Her humanitarian spirit led to widespread recognition, including an Oscar, Golden Globe, and honorary doctorates for her work spanning activism and arts. PBS+13Wikipedia+13Teen Vogue+13
  • Through media such as the documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, she continued advocating for Indigenous rights, touring, and raising awareness well past her prime—into her 80s. muskratmagazine.com+11PBS+11Wikipedia+11

In Summary

Buffy Sainte-Marie’s legacy encompasses far more than her powerful protest songs.  She broke new ground in television, revolutionized arts and education, fought for authentic Indigenous representation, and used her influence to empower Indigenous voices globally.  Her initiatives—from Sesame Street to the Cradleboard curriculum—continue to shape conversations around identity, learning, and equity.

John’s Conclusions: 

Go ahead.  Say “so what.”  Say “who gives a damn.”  Tell me she is a liar and a hypocrite.  Tell me all her good works should be erased because she wanted you to believe that she was an Indian.  Tell me she is not really an Indian and that someone else would have done all the stuff that she did anyway.  Tell me that you can cast the first stone at her for lying because you have never lied in your life.

That’s all I have to say folks.  A courageous humane person made a big mistake but the good that she did and still does should not be forgotten.  If you want to tell me how bad a person she is, tell me what you have done lately for the benefits of our Native brethren.  I don’t think all the awards and recognition that she received should be given back to her.  That is the past.  What I do believe is that she should be given a special award for White people who have contributed to Native American Causes.  Like the Jewish people have their “Yad Vashem” to recognize non-Jews who helped save or give their lives for Jews, perhaps we need a similar hall in our country for people who helped Native American causes or even gave their lives to protect Native Americans.  Here are two examples in case you are wondering if such people ever existed.

  1. Samuel Worcester (1798–1859)
  • A Christian missionary from Vermont who worked among the Cherokee.
  • He defied Georgia state laws aimed at forcing the Cherokee off their lands and was arrested in 1831.
  • His case, Worcester v. Georgia (1832), went to the Supreme Court, which sided with him and affirmed Cherokee sovereignty.
  • Although he survived prison and lived out his life, he endured years of hardship and persecution for standing with the Cherokee at great personal risk.
  1. Edmund D. Pepperman (1901–1930)
  • A white civil rights attorney in Oklahoma who represented Native clients against oil companies and corrupt guardianship schemes during the allotment era.
  • He was murdered in 1930 while investigating abuses connected to Osage oil wealth.
  • His death highlighted the dangers faced by allies who tried to expose exploitation of Indigenous communities.

Buffy’s Song – A Poem by ChatGPT and John P. 

She sang not only with a voice,
but with the marrow of her bones—
a cry against forgetting,
a hymn for nations silenced.

In ballads of resistance,
she wove the stories hidden
beneath the treaties broken,
beneath the trails of tears.

Her guitar became a council fire,
her words—sharp arrows of truth,
piercing the walls of power,
lifting the dreams of the young.

She stood for the water,
for the mothers and the missing,
for children stolen by schools
that tried to burn away their tongues.

Scholar, warrior, poet,
she gave her strength to voices
that history tried to hush,
but could never erase.

Buffy sang of survival,
not as a whisper of sorrow,
but as a thundercloud rising,
a promise of dawn.

And still her song endures—
a river that refuses to dry,
a drum that will not fall silent,
a flame carried in countless hands.

For every child who learns their language,
for every elder whose story returns,
for every Indian standing proud—
her music lives,
a sovereign heartbeat,
forever strong.

How to Use Product or Service Reviews to Get the Best Deals

24 Jun 2025 1 Comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Everywhere you look today there are reviews telling you how other people feel about a product or service that they have purchased.  A good friend of mine refuses to read reviews.  She argues that it is a little like going into a restaurant and asking a server “What is good today?”  I see her point to some extent.  What do I care about what others think about something?  How do I know the server likes the same thing that I like?

Growing up on the East Coast, I love seafood and spicy food.  Relocating to the Midwest in later years, I found half the population in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin where there are thousands of lakes and millions of fishermen who say, “I don’t like fish.”  I used to ask them, “why?” I don’t anymore because I already know the answer.  “They taste too fishy, they will say”  I want to reply, “Oh, do you dislike steak when it tastes too steaky?  Or hate potatoes that taste too much like potatoes?”   But it would be useless.  About the same use as challenging someone to eat something spicy when they say it will give them an upset stomach.  Somehow, millions of Americans believe that spicy foods cause upset stomachs.

The opinions that inhabit the brains of other people should lead all of us to be very cautious when reading reviews.  Let me give you two examples of bad or stupid reviews I have read.  Then I will tell you the secret for finding useful information from reviews.  Information that will lead you to be able to make purchases nearly 100 percent of the time that provide the quality and reliability that you are looking for.  You see there is both art and science to reading reviews.  Most people merely rely on one or the other and obtain less than optimal results in their choices.

The following are two reviews I have actually read myself.  The first deals with my searching for a new pair of running shoes.  Most reviews unless noted are based on five stars with five being the highest rating.

“I gave these shoes a two star.  They looked good but they did not come in a wide range of colors.  My wife said though that they make me look like a super runner.”

I am a functionalist when it comes to running shoes.  I have been running for nearly fifty years and used more pairs of running shoes than I can count.  I have bought just about every brand of running shoe ever made.  When I buy a running shoe, I buy it according to the type of running that I will be doing.  Will I be on the street, then I want a shoe with more cushion.  Will I be on wooded trails, then I might buy a more minimalist shoe like a Vibram Five Finger Sole.  Will I be on rocky mountain trails, than I want a shoe with more support and a rock sole plate inside like the Merrill’s that I recently bought.

I do not find a correlation with quality and price when it comes to running shoes.  The only correlation that exists in the running shoe industry is with price and fashion.  Many people who run like to look stylish and wear the latest most popular running shoes.  They will pay two or even three times for a new fashionista shoe than it is really worth.  They are often more interested in the colors available for shoes than the quality of the shoe.  Hence, it is buyer beware if you are looking for shoe ratings.

The next stupid review I want to describe was for a book that I was looking at on Amazon.  I was surprised that someone rated the book with a one star until I read the review.

“I gave the book a one star as soon as I saw the title.  No book with a title like this one could be any good.  The cover was also very dumb looking.” 

The only thing dumb about this book was the moron giving the review.  I do lots of reviews on travels and places that I have visited.  I review tours, hotels, concerts, train rides, restaurants etc.  I would never ever want to tear someone’s place or product down with a review that is incompetent and downright mean.  Yes, I think it is mean spirited to write a one-star review unless you can document or back it up with some facts that support your rating.  Facts and circumstances that would justify a one-star review.  Furthermore, I think it is always imperative that you try to deal with the provider before you leave a nasty review.  Speak to the owner or manufacturer or manager before you leave a review that can hurt their business.

The world of reviews is full of problematic reviews that tell you little or nothing about the product or service.  On the other hand, many low rated reviews can provide a wealth of information that will be useful.  Similarly, many high rated reviews can either give you good data or be a waste of time.  The review by a runner that says “I do not run but I rated the shoes high because they came in a wide range of colors” is not likely to be useful to anyone running twenty or more miles a week on hard rocky terrain.

Lets look at the two elements of a review that you should take into consideration.  The first I will call the “Science.”

Simply, how many reviewers have reviewed the product and what is the mean and distribution of data around the mean.  A product with too few reviews could be biased for a number of reasons.  Friends or even employees might have been talked into writing reviews to make the product look good.  I do not trust reviews based on less than 100 reviews and generally I want to see a review with more than 500 reviews.  I trust a larger sample size more than a smaller sample size.

Next, I look at the distribution of ratings.  It is not enough to know that a product received a 4.5 rating overall since the distribution might be lots of high ratings together with some very low ratings.  The average is not always a good figure to rely on.  As the saying goes, if you have two people in a room and one is starving to death with no food to eat and the other person is enjoying an entire chicken to eat by themselves, than on the average there is ½ a chicken per person in the room.  I want to buy a product with a rating that has less spread than a rating with an equal number of ones and fives.

The second part of finding your great product or service is the “Art” part.  It is the reading of the reviews to discern what people liked and disliked about the product.  No one should be buying a product or service without some idea of what they hope or expect it to do for them.  You want to have some expectations of what you are buying in terms of quality and reliability and sometimes style or fashion.

Reading the bad reviews as well as the good reviews can give you invaluable information on how the product performs and what it is capable of doing.  If there are videos that have been submitted showing the product being sold (These can also often be found on YouTube), I will always watch these videos to get more information about the product.  It might be a great product or even a fantastic product, but it might not be great or fantastic for me.  I think it is imperative to match the product or service to your own needs and wants.

I may reject high ratings as well as low ratings for a variety of reasons.  Often, people have unrealistic expectations about the product.  When it comes to movie reviews such as those on Rotten Tomatoes, good reviews might be useless if the movie does not fit into the genre of films that I like.  I tend to like movies that have more plot and character development.  Movies that are short on car chases and action shootouts and high on interesting dialogue.  My choice of movies does not reflect mainstream attitudes today with the current penchant for horror and action flicks.

The major categories of products and services that I purchase include the following.  I will briefly provide a few caveats concerning each of these areas.  A lot more could be said but a few comments should suffice to give you some thoughts.

  • Books

Books are very trendy and fashionable.  Always read a review to see if the content matches your interests and not because it is the “book of the month.”  Popularity does not necessarily equal a good read.

  • Movies

Rotten Tomatoes has its ratings based on two categories.  Critics and Viewers.  A movie might be high in one and lower in the other, high in both or low in both.  I tend to look for the high in both categories but sometimes I have found a great movie that was low in both categories.  Many very popular current films will be high in both categories, but I do not like very many of the current films out there.  I try to look more into the aspects of the film and plot and characterization that resonate with my film choices.

  • Hotels

This is a very difficult product to judge because a hotel is more than just a room.  It is convenience to other areas, amenities, staff, food, service, clientele, ambience and location.  It is very difficult to find ratings on hotels that are very high, and it is one area where I might concede a correlation between price and quality.  That said there are many bargains out there when you get away from the big chain hotels and find small independent operations.  The one that we stayed in called the Zags Hotel in Portland fell into this later category.  It was relatively inexpensive but one of the most fun hotels we have ever stayed at.

Many people are very critical when it comes to hotels and motels.  Some want walk in showers and feather pillows and others don’t care about the showers or pillows.  You must read between the lines when selecting a hotel or you will be very disappointed.

  • Restaurants

Ratings on restaurants are also very problematic.  I blame restaurants for this to some extent since they often create their own problems.  Even the best restaurants in the country have days when everything is just off.   Service is bad, food not up to standards and ambiance bad.  One common review I have read goes as follows, “Used to be great place to eat, food and service have gone downhill.  Would not come back again.”  This review might be followed by another that reads “Great place to eat, food was excellent, service was beyond expectations.”

Two things that restaurants cannot control are the expectations of diners and the behavior of staff both in the kitchen and out of the kitchen.  Many diners act like they are monarchs and should not have to wait five minutes for any service.  I have read so many bad reviews on restaurants where I have had great meals and service that I can only wonder at what happened to the other diner to cause such negativity.  Having been in the customer service sector myself, I can tell you that there are customers that you could never satisfy in a million years.  Thus, I would take any restaurant reviews with a dose of probability.  What are the odds I will get a good meal and good service tonight?  Like with the weather, it will never be a one hundred percent accurate forecast.

  • Cars

I have never made a bad purchase with a car.   I also put car salespeople on my list of top unreliable people to deal with.  I realize that they are in a very high-pressure business and that this is part of the problem.  They don’t get the sale then little Andrea goes hungry.  This means that they are liable to exaggerate claims on what they are selling.  A worse problem is that due to the myriad complexities of the vehicles they are selling you, they will probably be a let less informed about the vehicle than you would expect.  I have hardly ever been sold a vehicle new or used wherein the claims provided by the salesperson matched later expectations.  Despite this discrepancy, my tendency to research the cars I am going to buy and to spend a great amount of time looking at comparable vehicles has helped me be very satisfied in my choices.  The few discrepancies have been irritating but ultimately very negligible in the overall product choice.  One example is a follows.

In 2018 we were shopping for a car to replace our 2009 Honda Civic that had 235,000 miles on it.  We decided to buy a new Honda Accord as it came stock with the new safety package that Honda had developed.  All the new bells and whistles for braking, cameras, adaptive cruise control and other safety features.  One thing I wanted for sure was the built in GPS system.  The salesperson assured us that GPS was standard on the Accord we were looking at.  We bought the car and two weeks later we still had not figured out how to get GPS on the console.  The salesperson had assured us that all we had to do was download the right software.  Turned out that the car did not support GPS regardless of what software we downloaded.  When you buy a car, it is always “Caveat Emptor.”

  • Merchandise

We purchase a great deal of merchandise on Amazon these days.  It is very convenient to peruse their products and their shipping and return policies are excellent.  Since January of 25, we have placed 129 orders with Amazon.  There is such a range of merchandise that it is very difficult to give hard and fast rules about reviews.

Certainly, the science of reviews as I described should be paid attention to.  The number of reviews along with the distribution of ratings is very important.  As to the art of the review, it is imperative that you have a good idea of what you want and that you research the various product options as thoroughly as you can.  This means that if you are buying clothes, check other online sellers out.  The same goes for furniture, appliances, hardware and pharmaceuticals.

The range of ratings for many items prohibits a simple decision.  For almost every product, you will find many people who love it and many people who hate it.  Know the features and benefits that you are looking for and select the product where people rave about these features.  If style is not important, then you may not care about color choices in running shoes.  On the other hand, if reliability is important than look for reviewers who have used the product for several months or even years.  I have seen too many reviews where a product such as a running shoe worked great for two weeks and then fall apart.

Conclusions:

It is not easy wading through myriad reviews to find anything bordering on absolute “truth” about a product.  I like to say that fifty percent of drugs work fifty percent of the time with fifty percent of the people.  The same might be applied to ratings and product reviews.  Some will love the product and swear that it cures old age, and some will swear that it was garbage and not worth the money.  Who is right is the mystery that you will need to solve.  Using ratings to help decide on a product choice is a great adventure in the swamp land of American consumerism.   Think of it as the last great adventure in life.

Mr. Wardell E. Stephens:  A Profile in Courage, Character and Integrity

17 May 2025 8 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

Mr.  Wardell Stephens is a 95-year-old Navy veteran.  He was born in 1930 in St. Louis.  Wardell joined the Navy in 1947 at the age of seventeen.  He retired twenty years later in 1967 at the age of 37.  He had a long and distinguished career as a Navy diver conducting deep sea rescue operations.  He is a rare man, and it is my pleasure to provide a brief overview of his life.  I call it a Profile in Courage, Character and Integrity.  Reading this testimonial, I think you will agree that these terms aptly apply to Mr. Stephens.

I first met Mr. Stephens several years ago at one of the Eloy Veterans Day celebrations.  Mr.  Stephens was the guest of honor and a keynote speaker.  He was mild mannered and humble.  He briefly thanked the people for his being there and said a few words about how much the Navy mattered to him.  He was a Navy diver who had conducted several deep-sea rescue operations back when the equipment was much more primitive than it was today.  No bragging about his bravery or how dangerous the job was.  I was impressed with his humility.

Several years went by and one day shortly after they opened the new Eloy Veterans Center, (January 2025) Mr.  Stephens dropped by to visit.  Wardell was now 95 but had not seemed to age a day.  He still walked like a young man with none of the shuffling you often see with the aged.  He was ramrod straight and looked in better health than many people half his age.

We had a talk about some of his career exploits and again I was very impressed with his courage and humility.  I asked if I could interview him and he agreed.  That was more than two months ago.  Mr.  Wardell was sick for a while (as was I) with the damn bug that went around this spring.   We finally set a date for me to interview him.  Earlier he had left a packet of information about his Navy ships and projects for me to look at.  Some of the material that follows are taken from his Navy record and some will include my interview with Wardell on May 7th, 2025.  The interview lasted about 2 hours.  Many veterans are inclined to some exaggeration as the years have passed.  Wardell was just the opposite.  I had a hard time getting him to be anything more than modest about his adventures.

Here is what one of his commanders said about him in a Navy Review:

“Stephens is an extremely conscientious Petty Officer in that he invariably will take charge of an operation.  He goes out of his way to correct other divisional personnel who are performing work in an unseamanlike manner.  His timely suggestions and technical ability have contributed greatly to the ability of the diving division to perform submarine repair work in an expeditious manner.  He is always in a clean complete uniform and wears it in a shipshape fashion at all times.  Definite credit to his rate and to the Naval service.  Highly recommended for advancement in rate.  Stephens when in charge of an evolution uses excellent judgement and disposes his men for maximum effectiveness in accordance with their abilities thereby assuring a smooth operation.”  — J. H. Lindsay, CDR, USN

I had a chance to look at Mr. Stephen’s training record.  It was full of very difficult diving techniques including the following:

  • Deep sea diving school
  • Salvage diving school
  • Diving school instructor
  • Submarine rescue

A number of years ago I went to scuba training and received my PADI certification.  I then went on a trip to Belize to do several dives in the area of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker.  I was sixty years old at the time.  Some of my dives were fun but some were scary.  Swimming among large sharks.  Swimming through some narrow channels in dark conditions.  Having to think about time for compensation stops to avoid getting the bends.  Watching my air and depth gauges.  Trying to avoid scraping coral.  Trying to manage my buoyancy to stay with the other divers.  It was very challenging, and I was only recreational diving.  I never went below 150 feet and was never down for more than thirty minutes.

Wardell was diving in pitch black conditions.  Sometimes using helium instead of oxygen and going down to do rescue and salvage operations at depths of 350 feet.  Here is a Letter of Commendation describing one operation that Wardell completed:

“On May 13, 1964, NEREUS completed the water-borne replacement of the propeller on the USS Scamp.  The old and new propellors weigh approximately 12 tons.  As far as is known the replacement had never been accomplished in the water.  As a member of the diving crew, you did the work assigned and thus contributed to the overall success enjoyed.  In each instance, the reliance placed on you by the Master Diver and diving officer was justified and your contribution was significant.”  — M. des Granges, Commanding Officer, USS NEREUS

The following video talks about what it is like to be a Navy Rescue and Salvage diver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnihhBnzowg

I would like to describe one more operation that Wardell did from the Commendation letter that he received.  After this I will go to the interview that I did with Wardell.  I am glad that he sent me some of his service records because it was hard to get Wardell to “brag” about any of his Navy exploits.  I am trying to give you a sense of the danger and difficulty of what Mr. Stephens did for twenty years.  I don’t often think of all military people as heroes, but it is certainly an appropriate designation for Wardell.

“In the early evening of December 3, 1958, a Marine Corps helicopter flying under conditions of darkness and poor visibility crashed in the Potomac River near Jones Point, Alexandria, Virginia.  While  enroute to commence the salvage operation on the assigned helicopter, you were advised of a second aircraft crash.  This second crash was a Navy Beechcraft with a crew of two which crashed in the Potomac river off Haines Point.  Throughout the daylight hours of 4 December under adverse weather conditions, the officers and men of your entire organization worked expeditiously in the salvage of the downed Beechcraft.  On December 5th, you were also able to complete the salvage of the downed helicopter.” — Commandant, Potomac River Naval Command 

On my last Scuba Diving trip to Belize in April of 2024, the weather conditions were pretty bad.  A storm had come through the area and the water visibility was very poor.  The waves and current were quite rough.  I had a hard time reading my depth gauge and my air gauge and ended up getting separated from the other divers on our ship.  I came up to the surface and could not see the dive boat.  I had left my safety flag back with my pack.  I also had not bothered to take my snorkel.  My tank was almost out of air, and I had no way to alert anyone as to where I was.  When the oxygen ran out of my tank, I had to keep propelling myself above the waves to get a breath of air.  With the waves running high, I could do little except bob up and down and hope someone would find me.  About 90 minutes later, the boat finally found me.  I was picked up and spent the next two hours trying to barf up the seawater that I had swallowed.

I tell you the above story because Mr. Stephens had made many operations where he had to arrange a tow in weather ten times worse than I experienced.  To link a tow ship with a disabled vessel is not as easy as simply throwing a rope to someone on the other ship.  This short video might give you some idea of what courage it would take to engage in such an operation.

Rescue Salvage Towing operations on rough sea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JhLJoCYi-g

Here are my interview questions and Wardell’s replies.  On the day of the interview, we had not scheduled a definite time.  I had said that I would be at the Veterans Center between 10 AM and 2 PM and that he could stop by anytime he wished.  Shortly after 10 AM, my cell phone rang, and it was Wardell.  I expected that he was calling to say that he was not feeling well.  Not an unexpected event for a man 95 years old.  Instead, he had called to tell me that he might be a little late since he had a phone problem at his house and the repair person was coming out that morning.  I thanked him for his call and told him that any time he arrived it would be okay.  I can’t tell you how surprised I was at his call.  I cannot get repair people to give me a date and time that they will arrive much less call me if they are going to be late.  Wardell receives not one penny from this interview and yet he is courteous and diligent beyond what any norm is today.

John and Wardell Interview:

John:  Can you tell me a little about yourself when you were growing up.  Friends, school, culture, family, dreams?

Wardell:  I was raised by my mom and aunt.  I had no siblings.  I grew up in East Saint Louis in the Rush City Area.  We called it the bottoms.  I started working as a pin setter in a bowling alley when I was 14.  I drove a coal truck when I was 16.  My dream was to own my own truck and go into the coal business.  I never got a drivers license.  I joined the Navy when I turned 17

Wiki describes the Rush City area as follows: 

“Rush City is a historically African-American community within East St. Louis, Illinois, that is unique in the American Bottom region.  It’s characterized by a rural Southern influence, dispersed housing, and vernacular architecture, making it a distinct “country life” pocket within a struggling urban environment.  The community has faced challenges related to economic disinvestment, environmental pollution, and industrial encroachment.”

John:  Why did you pick the Navy?

Wardell:  Well, one day during the second World War, the Navy brought an LST to St. Louis.  I went down to see it and was very impressed.  Later when I decided to leave St. Louis, I enlisted in the Navy.

John:  What are you most proud of in terms of your military service?

Wardell:  The work I did as a rescue and salvage diver and my Sailmaker rate

John:  Can you tell me more about your work in the military?  Challenges etc.?

Wardell:  There was a lot of things to learn.  Setting up a tow.  Different type of rigging on different ships.  Working cables in rough weather.  Using hoists in rough weather.  It was easy to get hurt if you were not careful.

John:  What were your biggest difficulties in the military?

Wardell:  Only had a few minor negative experiences.  Most of my career was positive.

John:  What were the negative experiences?

Wardell:  Well Truman changed some of the policies for the better.  Before Truman there were some bases where they separated Blacks and Whites in the dining halls.

John:  How did the transition to civilian life go for you?

Wardell:  At first it was very chaotic.  In the military things are very orderly and predictable.

John:  Can you tell me a little about your family life?  Spouse, kids?

Wardell:  Well, I was married twice.  I have four children and ten grandchildren.

John:  Wardell, for a 95-year-old guy, you are in great shape.  How do you do it?

Wardell:  I lift weights three times a week.  I don’t smoke or drink.  I eat lots of protein.  Three times per week, I go for a walk.   I walk as much as I can.  I always park as far away from a store in the parking lot so I get more walking in.  I have a treadmill at home I walk on when the weather is too hot or bad.

John:  What advice would you give young people today?

Wardell:  I would tell them that you have to learn and study to get something good in life.  You have to study hard and pay attention in school.  I would tell them that they should learn another language.

John:  What were the highs and lows of your life Wardell?

Wardell:  The high was completing Navy diving school in 1954.  I also finally completed my GED since I never graduated high school.

John:  What would you do over if you could?

Wardell:  I would go for more school.  Continue education all your life.

John:  Am I leaving anything out you would like to share?

Wardell:  That’s about it.  Except I also had a stint in the Merchant Marine after I retired from the military.

John:  Thank you for taking the time to share some of your life and thoughts with us Wardell.  It has been a pleasure talking to you.

That’s it folks.  I hope you have enjoyed learning about a very remarkable human being.  In addition to a depth of character and integrity that is more than noteworthy, Mr. Stevens is  a kind man who said not one bad word about anyone during the entire interview or the time that I have known him.  His integrity and character stems from his taking the responsibility to live life according to what his mother and aunt taught him and what his religious beliefs have inspired in him.

PS:  I still see Wardell every few weeks when he comes down to the Veteran Center in Eloy.  Yesterday, he asked me to add a little something to the bio I did for him.  I was quite surprised to learn that Wardell is a Life Association Member of the Buffalo Soldiers.  He officially belongs to the “9th and 10th (Horse) Cavalry Association – Official Army Unit Association.”  For those of you who have never heard of the Buffalo Soldiers, I give you the following brief excerpt from Wikipedia.  For more information, click on the Wikipedia link or simply go to any Arizona Library.  There are many books written about the Buffalo Soldiers.

Buffalo Soldiers were United States Army regiments composed exclusively of Black American soldiers, formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier.

Legacy and Contributions
  • Courage and Discipline:
    The Buffalo Soldiers had the lowest desertion and court-martial rates in the army, demonstrating exceptional discipline and courage. 

    Westward Expansion:
    They played a crucial role in the expansion of the United States, though this placed them in the complex position of enforcing policies that displaced Indigenous populations. 

    Paving the Way for Civil Rights:
    Their exemplary service and perseverance in the face of discrimination helped to advance the cause of civil rights and military integration, which was fully realized in 1948. 

 

 

 

The Rich Young Man and the Novice Nun

23 Nov 2024 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The following story was related to me in a much briefer format at my Jesuit Retreat in July of 2024.  The Retreat Master told this tale to show the virtue of generosity.  In the story that he narrated, it involved a beggar and a nun.  I have embellished the story by changing the nature of the characters and the activities somewhat.  I do not know where the original tale came from but if anyone has an inkling, I would love to receive the name so that I can give credit to the author. —- John P. 

Once upon a time there was a young man named Ethan who was born into a very affluent family.  Ethan was brought up with all the goodies and toys that a rich family could afford.  Ethan was an only child to an elderly couple who could not believe their good fortune in having a son and heir in their later days.  To say he was spoiled would be an understatement.  He was the epitome of the privileged child who thought he deserved everything he got.  He treated the family servants like dirt.  Servants in his mind were not deserving of any respect. 

Perhaps because of his privilege, life was very easy for Ethan.  He did not bother to try to get good grades or worry about going to college.  Ethan expected to live with his elderly parents until they passed away and then the family fortune would be his.  However, life often has other plans for us.  Both of Ethan’s parents died in a private plane disaster.  Ethan was only twenty years old but their deaths did not really trouble him very much.  He assumed that he would now be rich and inherit their fortune.  Which is exactly what happened.

Now on his own, Ethan took to wine, women and gambling.  His father’s financial advisors tried to warn him that he was burning through the family fortune at a prodigious rate.  Ethan would heed no warnings.  The more warnings he received the more women he bought.  The more whiskey he drank and the more he gambled.  He thought nothing of buying a diamond ring or a new car for a girlfriend.  The new girlfriend would be tossed out of his mansion in a few weeks only to be replaced by a new gold digger. 

Finally, the inevitable happened.  Ethan’s advisors told him that he was broke.  Everything he thought he owned, cars, mansion, and boats would have to be sold to pay off his debts.  Ethan was astounded.  It took a few weeks, and an eviction notice before Ethan realized that he had no skills, no trade, no education and no money.  Indeed, he had no real friends either as he soon found out.  Attempts to borrow money from the bank and friends went nowhere.  He was on his own. 

Ethan went to a casino one night to see if he could win some of his fortune back.  He ended up stone cold drunk and tossed out of the casino when they found out that he could not pay his poker bets.  Homeless and penniless, Ethan hit the streets.  In the next few months, he learned to live in a cardboard shack and find leftover food by dumpster diving.  He learned to beg to get extra money for the gin that he was still addicted to.  The other beggars and street people hated his guts.  Ethan treated other homeless people as though they were inferior to him. 

In the area where Ethan now lived, there was a monastery.  Each day, the nuns would serve a hot meal, soup, or sandwiches to the street people.  These meals were served between the hours of 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM.  Whenever Ethan would go there, he would try to arrive as late as he could so that he did not have to associate with any of the other homeless people.  He regarded them as bums and still saw himself as superior to them. 

One day, Ethan arrived at the monastery too late for lunch.  He had fallen asleep under a tree in a local park and did not wake up until about 3 PM.  Nevertheless, he showed up at the monastery to try to get some food.  He banged on the door until a young novice nun opened the door.  “What can I help you with,” she inquired.  “Took your own sweet time to get here,” he belligerently replied.  “I want some food.”   “I am sorry,” Sister Regina said, “but the kitchen is closed, and we have no food prepared.”  “Don’t give me that bullshit, you have food, you are just too lazy to help another human being.  I thought your Jesus said to feed the hungry.  Well, I am hungry now and I want some food now.”    

Sister Regina thought about it for a minute but just then another Sister came to the door.  “Go away,” said the other Sister and “come back tomorrow at the proper lunch time.”  “No, that’s all right,” said Sister Regina, “I will try to find something for him to eat.”  She asked Ethan to “please wait here while I fix something for you to eat.”  Ethan agreed but warned her to hurry up as he was really hungry. 

Sister Regina went to the kitchen refrigerator and found some different lunch meats.  She located some bread and mayonnaise and made a nice cold cuts sandwich.  She grabbed a small lunch bag and put the sandwich in the bag.  Just as she was headed out of the kitchen, she noticed a candy bar on a shelf.  She thought this would make a nice desert and proceeded to pack the bar in with the sandwich. 

When she arrived back at the door, she opened the door and Ethan was waiting there. She told Ethan that she had found some cold cuts and made him a sandwich.  Ethan grabbed the bag and replied that she had taken her damn sweet time about it.  He went away without saying another word. 

Ethan walked to his private place in the park under his favorite tree.  He sat down and plucked the sandwich from the bag.  He took his time to eat the sandwich which he thought was very good.  He was about to throw the bag away, when he noticed that there was something else in the bag.  He reached inside the bar and found the candy bar.  At that point, something very mysterious happened.  Ethan thought “Well, I wonder why she gave me a candy bar?  Perhaps she was being nice to me. I wonder why she would do that?”  That is when it struck him. 

She was nice to him when he was a jerk towards her.  She did not have to include the candy bar.  Maybe I have been a jerk my whole life, he thought.  The more he thought about it, the more ashamed he was of the way he treated her and other people.  Somehow, sitting under that tree, Ethan resolved to change his life.  From now on, he was going to be kind to other people and to help them out when he could.  He would start today by going back to the monastery and apologizing to the young novitiate.

It was getting late and around about supper time when he arrived back at the monastery.  He knocked gently on the door and waited.  The door opened and it was the other Sister who had told him to go away before.  “What do you want,” she asked?  “I would like to speak to the young Sister that made the sandwich for me,” he said.  “Wait right here.” he was told, “I will see if she is available.”

Sister Regina came to the door and greeted Ethan.  “What can I do for you,” she inquired? “Nothing,” replied Ethan.  He than got down upon both knees and said “I am so sorry for the way that I treated you before.  I did not even deserve a sandwich and yet you took the time to make it for me and even add a candy bar.  I want you to know how grateful I am to you for that.  You have helped me to see the world completely differently.  From now on, every day I will come here early to help make lunch for the other homeless people and to help out any way I can.”  Sister Regina recognized that Ethan was sincere, and she told him how happy they would be for his help. 

Ethan did just as he said he would.  He showed up every day early to help prepare food and left late after the dishes and the kitchen had been cleaned.  Within a year, the Sisters voted to hire Ethan as a cook and custodian.  He lived in the monastery another fifty or so years until he passed away.  Before he died, he asked to see Mother Regina who had now become the head of the monastery.  Taking her hand, he told her how blessed he was to have had her come into his life.  He had lived a life that he wanted to and had no regrets.  No amount of fame or fortune could ever equal the happiness that he had found by helping others. 

“I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.”  — Michelle Obama

My Final Will and Testament – Influences – Reflection #9  — Part 2 Literature    

03 Jun 2024 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

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If you have gone this far with My Final Will and Testament, you will not need the introduction that I have used for the past 9 Reflections.  If this is your first visit to my series of fourteen reflections than I suggest that you go back to number one and start there.  This link will take you to the first reflection in my series:  “Things that I Have Loved in Life.” You will get the background to my thoughts and desires concerning this series of Reflections in this first blog.

Imagine that this is the last day of your life on earth.  In the time that you have left, you want to leave a “Testament” for your family and friends. 

  1. These are the Influences (people, literature, and Music) that have shaped me.

There are many categories of things which I could describe that have shaped my life.  However, for reasons of expediency I have limited them to three: People, music, and literature.  I will briefly discuss some of the major formative experiences in each category.  On any given day, I could add or subtract several of these experiences and swap them out with others.  The things that have made a difference in my life are like the desert sands.  They shift and take various shapes depending on how the winds of my mind are blowing.  Because the elements of this reflection are so numerous, I am going to break them down into three parts.  In Part 1, I will reflect on the People who have made the greatest contributions to my life.  In Part 2, I will reflect on the Literature that has most influenced my ideas and thoughts.  In Part 3, I will describe the Music and Composers that have moved my feelings, my emotions, and my soul.

Part 2, Literature

Many of my “Best” friends have been the books in my life.  I wrote an old blog about my love affair with books.  The title was, (What else?, “Books, Books, Books, Books, Books”).  If I have ever loved anything at first sight, it was a book.  Perhaps something in a title grabbed me and would not let me go or it might have been learning about the book from someone else who had read it.  Hearing about the book, I immediately knew that I wanted to meet the book and when I did I fell in love with it.

I have read so many books, I am not sure where to start.  I have had love affairs with genres that have lasted for many years but ultimately have died.  I am not sure what caused us to break up but somehow I lost interest and moved on to other genres.  Some of my past affairs include the following:  Science Fiction, Business Management, Feminist Literature, Native American Literature, Black Studies, Sword and Sorcery, Satire and Black Humor, Marxism, Adventure Fiction, Biographies and Autobiographies, Classic Literature, Religions and Philosophy, Worlds Greatest Books, Self-Help books and Self-Improvement books, Exercise and Diet, and Spy novels.

My current love affairs are with two different, but I think intimately related genres.  These include History and Political books.  Like Santayana, I do not think you can really understand what is happening in the present if you do not understand the past.  History informs and shapes everything we say and do today though most people hardly realize it.

Politics seem overwhelming to many of us.  The more I study about politics and the people who shape politics, the less I understand the world.  It is like stepping into a pit of quicksand.  The more I struggle to make sense of what is happening, the deeper I sink into the pit.  Sometimes, I feel like I am about to lose my mind.  Other times, I feel that my current passions are starting to drive my friends away.  Many of my friends do not share my passions.  Some believe that I am deluded in thinking that they will love me back.  Philosophers are seldom on the night time talk shows.

I keep trying to determine if I need to somehow escape from the Zeitgeist or Weltanschauung which envelopes me.  I once heard a noted speaker say, “Why bother about something, if you can not do something about it.”  I like to think that maybe my writings are making a difference, but that stretches my credibility further than even I can admit to myself.  Perhaps politics is simply an addictive drug and not a love affair.  In any case, here are the books and authors that I most want to note as having had a major influence on my life.  The following authors have each had too many writings or books that I have enjoyed for me to list each one, so I am lumping their writings under their names.

12-Writing-Tips-From-Famous-Authors-That-Will-Make-You-a-Better-Blogger

Influential Authors

Fyodor Dostoevsky:

Perhaps the first writer that I fell in love with was the great Russian author Dostoevsky.  How he could describe the life and soul of another human being is beyond my ability to fathom.  I still marvel at his use of language and metaphors.  Even more, I admire his journeys into the souls of human beings.  The innermost dynamics and emotions that make people what they are.  His writings are never easy to travel through as each page requires thought and reflection.  Once through one of his novels, it is hard to believe that you will not think differently about life and yourself.   Read:  The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, or Demons.

Edgar Allen Poe: 

To me the greatest horror and mystery writer who ever lived.  “Murders in the Rue Morgue” set the stage for future murder mysteries.  The “Pit and the Pendulum” was the most diabolical story I have ever read.  The “Cask of Amontillado” and the “Tale Tell Heart” had me looking under my bed at night.  For me anyway, Poe was the “Father of the Horror Genre.”  Later writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Rod Serling and Afred Hitchcock did not entertain the horror that Poe could evoke but were just as adept at evoking the suspense that Poe wedded to the horror of his stories.  I do not read my horror or mysteries these days.  The horror genre has become quite cliched and predictable.  I still enjoy a good mystery and rely on the infrequent recommendation.  Books by Umberto Eco, E. L. Doctorow and Dan Brown will all provide you with some good escape reading.

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Mark Twain: 

Twain managed to write funny stories that had morals bigger than life.  He wrote many great stories and books that could be read by children as well as adults.  His writings have been criticized of late for not being PC by fools who want to forget the past.  Huckleberry Finn was an adventure story and a story about friendship and racism.  To change the language in the story is an insult to the history of literature as well as the author.   Twain skewered people and social conventions, but he did so in a way that left people laughing rather than angry.  Read:  Letters to the Earth, The War Prayer, or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court.

Kurt Vonnegut:

On the way to my basic training, I picked up two books in the Newark Airport which had profound influences on my life.  One was by Lenny Bruce and was called “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.”  It was not at all what I thought it would be like.  It was sacrilegious, blasphemous, and full of great insights into the hypocrisy around religion.  The other book was by Vonnegut.  It was titled “Cats Cradle.”  This book which some call “Black Humor” led me into a plethora of similar books by authors like, Anatole France, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, Evelyn Waugh and Hunter Thompson.  I went on to read almost all of Vonnegut’s books until my love affair with sarcasm and social criticism ended.

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Influential Books:

I will give you the “abridged” version of several books which influenced my life.

“Out of the Crisis” by W. E. Deming: Taught me that most of what I learned in business school was wrong.  Taught me how business should really be conducted.

“The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy” by Tolkien.  Perhaps the greatest fantasy adventure that has ever been written.  I wished I had been with them.

“Judgement under Uncertainty” by Kahneman and Tversky.  They would latter go on to win a Nobel Prize for their insights and research into human cognitive limitations.  Reading this book was like taking a Ph.D. in how to think more rationally and avoid biases.

“The Autobiography of Malcolm X:”  My foray into Black Studies began with this book.  I began to see the systemic racism that Black people in America still face and the efforts by many White people to discount this racism and pretend it does not still exist.  The story of a courageous man who was not afraid to speak out for a better world for Black people.  Malcolm gave his life to the cause.

“The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers.” by Will Durant.  A journey into the greatest philosophers of history.  There can be no better education than studying what the wise men and women of history including, Socrates, Plato, Rousseau, and many others have argued, written down and sometimes gave their lives for.  Durant takes on a difficult task to summarize and provide us with an overview of the core teachings of some of the world’s greatest philosophers.  It is an effort which should lead the reader to regard this book as a simple introduction to the great thoughts of history.  There are many other great philosophers some women and some from Eastern cultures who are not included in this book.  Read “The Trial of Socrates” by I.F. Stone.

“Against Our Will” by Susan Brownmiller.  Many of the feminist authors that I read or attended conferences with taught me that the world I see is not the same world that many women see.  I thought of myself as a fairly enlightened (if recovering sexist) male, but this book showed me that I still had a way to go.  I had thought rape was a crime of passion and I started out disagreeing with much of what Brownmiller was writing.  Halfway through the book, what she was saying started to make sense.  Rape was a crime of control.  Passion, short skirts, nice breasts had nothing to do with it.  It simply involved men wanting to either hurt or dominate women.  I would advise anyone interested in feminist studies to read this book.

“In a Grove” is a short Japanese story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.  It was first published in 1922 and has been given awards as one of the ten greatest Asian stories ever written.  The story had a major impact on the way I view truth and fact.  The story involves a fight and murder as described from four different perspectives.  The truth should be based on the facts given by the eyewitnesses, but the facts differ so much that it is impossible to declare what the truth is.  Anyone reading this story will understand that the metaphor of truth and facts applies to our lives.  Perspectives and opinions will vary greatly from person to person and even by the same person as time always influences memories.  I have used the premise of this story for many of my own stories and teachings.

I have probably long exceeded your tolerance for my ruminations.  I am grateful for any who have made it this far.  I swear I have left out many other books and stories that had some degree of impact on my life.  It is not easy sitting at a keyboard and trying to resurrect books that I read more than fifty or so years ago.  The big problem was that once I started putting my mind to this effort, the number of books grew exponentially.  With a concern for your patience and butt muscles, I have limited this list.  I must also apologize for some of the too succinct and perhaps inaccurate reflections on the books and authors noted above.  I hope if you are a devotee of any of them, you will forgive me for any abuses that I have done to their literary credentials.

Next blog, I will publish Part 3 of my reflections on the Influences that have shaped my life.  More specifically, Part 3 will deal with the “Music and Composers” that have shaped my thoughts and behaviors.

 

My Final Will and Testament – Influences – Reflection #9  — Part 1 People

31 May 2024 5 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

images If you have gone this far with “My Final Will and Testament” you will not need the introduction that I have used for the past 9 Reflections.  If this is your first visit to my series of fourteen reflections than I suggest that you go back to number one and start there.  This link will take you to the first reflection in my series:  “Things that I Have Loved in Life.” You will get the background to my thoughts and desires concerning this series of Reflections in this first blog.

Imagine that this is the last day of your life on earth.  In the time that you have left, you want to leave a “Testament” for your family and friends. 

  1. These are the Influences (people, literature, and Music) that have shaped me.

There are many categories of things which I could describe that have shaped my life.  However, for reasons of expediency I have limited them to three: People, music, and literature.  I will briefly discuss some of the major formative experiences in each category.  On any given day, I could add or subtract several of these experiences and swap them out with others.  The things that have made a difference in my life are like the desert sands.  They shift and take various shapes depending on how the winds of my mind are blowing.  Because the elements of this reflection are so numerous, I am going to break them down into three parts.  In Part 1, I will reflect on the People who have made the greatest contributions to my life.  In Part 2, I will reflect on the Literature that has most influenced my ideas and thoughts.  In Part 3, I will describe the Music that has moved my feelings, my emotions, and my soul.

Part 1, People:

This is easily the most formative and impactful of the categories that have made me the person I am today.  This category includes the people who have had the most influence on my life.  People that I will never forget.  These people have all helped me to be a better person.  They have been positive forces in my life.  I will refrain from discussing those people who have had a negative impact on my life.  It should be noted that negative events can easily be just as life changing as positive events.  However, in this “Last” testament, I want to stay positive.  There are ten people I need to mention who stand out from the rest.  My apologies to anyone who I have left out who reads this blog and feels slighted.  I am listing these friends, counselors, and mentors in chronological order of appearance in my life.

Mother Fyndoca: (1956)

My fifth-grade teacher at Mount St. Francis Academy who knew that I was a rascal and a troublemaker but who also saw the potential I had.  She never let me off the hook for any mischief I did but she never let go of believing in me.  She was always there to encourage me with compassion and understanding.  She died to young from cancer.

Kwame Rice: (1971)

I met Kwame while taking a Sociology class at Rhode Island College in 1971.  We had a diverse group of students including Latinos, African Americans, and Italian Americans in the class.  Providence is a very heavy Italian Community.  It is also quite a melting pot for other cultures.  The major focus in the class was going to be on Race Relations and Prejudice.  The class was excited because we reflected quite a bit of diversity and experiences.  We anticipated many interesting discussions.

The Professor must have been worried about conflict because he selected Judaism as the subject for our talks.  There was not a single Jewish student in the class.  Kwame, an African American student, who was also a returning veteran, and I met after class.  Both of us were equally annoyed by the Prof’s decision.  We jointly decided that whether he wanted to or not, we were going to bring up other ethnic groups in the class for discussion as well as Jews who faced discrimination.  The class had so much diversity that we were not going to let this opportunity pass.  It was clear from the start that Kwame and I were kindred spirits.

It is fifty-three years later, and we are still good friends and brothers.  Kwame is now a Pastor, and we regularly have discussions on the problems of America in terms of religion, politics, race, and a host of other subjects.  Over the years, these talks and our friendship have given me a whole different insight into the history of America and how Black people and other minorities have been treated very differently than White people.  Kwame cares deeply about people and trying to create a just society for all people regardless of race or religion.  Now that he is retired, he devotes much of his time to helping Veterans at a center in Providence.  He is still fiery about his passions and convictions and has not given up on any of them.

Margo House: (1976)

Margo was a counselor and a good friend.  During my separation from my first wife, she more or less adopted me.  I was alone with no job, no friends, no family in a town 2000 miles from where I was brought up.  Margo invited me on trips with her family and helped me to see that there was still light at the end of the tunnel.  She was a kind woman who never took any money for the counseling and advice that she gave me.

Evelyn Rimel: (1977)

Dr. Rimel was my counseling instructor when I took the MS program in Counseling at Stout State University.  She was open-minded and never gave negative comments to any students.  She showed her compassion for all of her students and did not discriminate among the students.  Every student had her complete attention and help when needed.  She could demonstrate the power of love and compassion to change lives far better than anyone I have ever known before or since.  She loved all people and it showed up in her efforts to help make her students into change agents for a more loving world.

Sister Giovanni: (1979)

I was hired as a counselor/teacher at Guadalupe Area Project (Gap) in West Side St. Paul by Sister Giovanni.  Sister G as she was known to all was a direct forceful woman who brooked no stupidity or false pretenses from anyone.  She was the founder and leader of GAP.  You might say that she could be as hard as iron and as soft as cotton.  She was never ambivalent, but she always knew the right amount of force to apply to any problem or person.  She accepted me for the teacher that I was and helped give me guidance to become a better teacher both mentally and spiritually.  During my hiring interview, I told her that I was an Atheist, her reply was, “I don’t care what your religion is as long as you are a good teacher.”

Bill Cox:  (1980)

The separation with my first wife led me to a period of introspection and self-reflection into my life, my heart, and my emotions.  I realized that I had a great deal of blame for the problems in my marriage.  Many of these problems stemmed from the macho culture that I grew up in.  It is a culture that America seems to be imbued with.  Women are often treated as chattel and as second-class citizens.  Somehow I found my way to something called the “Men’s Center.”  It was in the heart of downtown Minneapolis on Park Avenue.  The director of the center was William (Bill) Cox.  He was a retired Methodist Minister.

The Men’s Center hosted a weekly gathering of men who wanted to discuss what it meant to be a man today.  What were the pros and cons of the messages that society sent us about being male in America?  Something akin to the Women’s movement was going on during the early 80’s and the Men’s Center and Bill Cox were at the heart of it in Minnesota.  There were numerous new books coming out on the subject of male masculinity.  We even developed a yearly conference on masculinity in Minnesota.  I eventually took a role in this movement and presented several workshops.

Bill was a unique individual.  He was instrumental in founding and funding the Men’s Center.  He lived and breathed the desire to help other men.  He spent most of his waking time trying to grow the Men’s Center.  Over the years, Bill and I became close friends.  We did workshops and talks together on Masculinity.  He was another brother in my life along with Kwame.  When Karen and I were married in 1989, Bill was the minister for our wedding.  I could always go to Bill for advice and support.  He was one of the kindest, most intelligent men I had ever met.

Dr. W. E. Deming (1986)

I met Dr. Deming for the first time at one of his five-day Quality Improvement seminars in San Francisco.  Dr. Deming forever changed the way I looked at work and productivity.  I credit three people as geniuses that I have read about in my life:  Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, and Dr. W. E. Deming.  Of the three, I have only had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Deming personally.  I worked with Dr. Deming during the period from 1986 until he passed away in 1993.  My relationship with Dr. Deming was one of the great adventures of my life.  Dr. Deming could be charming or to say the least disarming.  He was never one to mince words or as they say to “suffer stupidity lightly.”

I had joined Process Management International (PMI) after completing my Ph.D. degree in 1986.  PMI was founded by three former managers from Control Data Corporation in Minnesota with the guidance of Dr. Deming.  The practice of PMI was based on Dr. Demings famous 14 Points for Management.  I was familiar with Dr. Deming but did not know anything about his points/principles.  At the conference with Deming in San Francisco, I was designated to be one of his two helpers.  My boss Lou Schultz introduced me to Dr. Deming.  Lou said to Dr. Deming, “I would like you to meet one of my new employees.  Dr. Persico has just graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in Business.”  Dr. Deming shook my hand while replying “Humph, business schools, teach you all the wrong things.  Ph. D in business a total waste of time.”   That was my first meeting with Dr. Deming.  I cannot say that I was totally enamored with Dr. Deming at this point in our relationship.

Over the years, I worked with Dr. Deming many times.  At first, I was willing to concede that he might have been right about some of the things that I learned in business school being useless.  However, the more I learned from Dr. Deming, the more “right” he became in his pronouncement about business schools teaching all the wrong things.  Later on, I was 99 percent sure that he was correct.  I learned more about business from Deming than I ever did in my five or so years at the University of Minnesota.

The teachings of Dr. Deming opened a whole new way for me to see the world.  There was good in this and bad in this.  The good was in teaching me what a force for solving the problems of the world a business perspective could be.  The bad was in raising my expectations about how things could be only to see smart business-people doing dumb things over and over again.  Dr. Deming used to say, “There is nothing common about common sense.”  Also, “You put a good person in a bad system and the system will win every time.”

Sam Pakenham Walsh:  (1986)

Sam was easily the most educated and one of the smartest men I have ever met in my life.  If there ever was a model or prototype for an educated Oxford man it would have been Sam P-W.  Sam was also a consultant at PMI.  I was assigned to work with Sam on my first consultant engagement with International Nickel Corporation (INCO) in Canada.  While I learned most of what I know from Deming about business, I learned everything about consulting with clients from Sam P-W.  Like Deming, Sam was direct and did not mince words.  I respect this in a man or woman and value it most highly in a friendship.  Sam and I became good friends over time.  We had our share of disagreements and arguments, but we never lost respect for each other.

One of Sam’s most powerful abilities was what endeared him most to me but often was his downfall with clients.  Sam was the quintessential intellectual.  He reminded me of Thomas Jefferson.  Sam read more and knew more about philosophy and science than anyone else I have ever met in life.  Up to the time that Sam died at the age of 86, he was still learning and studying new ideas and new theories.  Sam’s ideas could be very esoteric, and this often did not go over well with clients.  Only the most open-minded and astute clients who would take the time to understand what Sam was telling them were receptive to some of his ideas.  He was frequently discounted as being too intellectual.

When it came to the realm of intellect, I lost my primary benefactor when Sam passed away.  Never one to be pragmatic, Sam taught me about thinking and logic and reasoning.  He understood more about the Scientific Method and Process Analysis than anyone else that I have ever worked regularly with.   Being logical and rationale is an endeavor that with Sam in mind, I continue to try to develop in my life.

Dr. Hana Tomasek: (1987)

Dr. Tomasek was a refugee from the Czech republic who fled her native land after the Russian invasion of 1968.   Hana came to this country speaking little English and with only her husband Yara and two suitcases.  They fled in the middle of the night and somehow evaded the border guards to find freedom in the USA.  Hana had a Ph.D. in Chemistry, and her husband Yara was an inventor and mechanical engineer with several patents to his name.  Since she could speak no English she could not find a job commensurate with her knowledge, skills, and abilities.  Hana took a job in a piece work factory nights making jewelry until she learned enough English to find other employment.

When I met Hana, she had become a contract consultant with PMI.  She helped other consultants to develop teaching, consultant skills and methods for working with clients.  Hana helped me with several classes and seminars that I had to put on while I was working with clients.  Hana had the people skills that anyone would be envious of.  She could always get her ideas across without offending anyone.  While I learned my business skills from Dr. Deming and my consulting skills from Sam P-W, I learned my people skills from Hana.  We became good friends.

Over the years, Hana, Karen, Yara and I did many things together.  From canoe trips to parties and Fourth of July celebrations, our lives were enriched by our times together.  We eventually went to the Czech Republic and stayed with a friend of Hana who took us around Prague and the Czech Republic.  We met some of Hana’s other friends and relatives.  Hana never forgot her folks back home and regularly made trips to her homeland to start a consulting company there.  Her company helped to put the Czech Republic on the road to Quality Management and Quality Improvement.  She spoke many times at conferences in the Czech Republic and was much admired by all the people there as well as anyone she ever met in the USA.

When Hana passed away, some of us put a memorial bench up in her honor near the lake that she loved so much.  Hana was one of those unique individuals who help to make the world a better place.

Helen Boyer: (1999)

In 1999, I quit full time consulting and went to work for the Minnesota Metropolitan Council.  My title was Principle Consultant 2.  It was my job to put the Met Council on the right path to implementing a Quality Improvement Program.  Helen Boyer was the Director of the division that I worked in called the Environmental Services Division.  I had a boss directly over me, but I reported to Helen on a regular basis.  She was a severe but totally fair task master.  I was the expert in Quality Control, but she was the expert in managing a regional government body representing seven of Minnesota’s metropolitan counties including, Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington County.

Perhaps more than any other manager I have ever worked for, Helen gave me the opportunity to do the work that I was hired for.  She backed me up when needed and provided me with the time and labor to implement a large number of major quality improvement projects.  She never rejected any of my ideas out of hand.  In fact, I never remember her rejecting any of my ideas.  She always insisted on facts and data to support an idea, but she was one of the most open-minded people I have ever known.  Helen had a degree in Law and a degree in Chemistry which served her well as the leader of a division that was scientifically oriented but still rife with politics.

When I came to the Met Council, I was about a 1 in knowledge of Government politics.  With Helen’s help, when I left two years later,  I had graduated from a one to a five.  If I had stayed longer, I would have made even more progress.  However, “Ever Upward” was my financial motto back in those days and I left for a  great deal more money than I could be making in the Government.

Karen Blomgren:  (1983) Due to my “Special” relationship with Karen she is out of sequence. 

In 1989, Karen Blomgren Hinze and I went to China together.  We went there on our own and came back about two weeks before the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989.  The Chinese uprising had actually started nearly two months earlier when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Hu Yaobang died in April 19.  We spent three weeks traveling around China from about the third week of April to the second week of May.  During this time, we traveled from Shanghai, to Hangzhou, to Huangshan, to Nanjing and back to Shanghai.  We traveled by local bus, commuter bus, train, bicycle, foot, car, and even a gondola.  We traveled most of the trip by ourselves but a few times with some new friends that we met on our travels whom we remain friends with today.  During this trip, I bought Karen an engagement ring.

When we returned to the states, we planned our marriage.  On Sept 5th, 1989, Karen Blomgren Hinze became Karen Blomgren Persico.  Karen does not actually use the name Blomgren which is her maiden name.  However, I have a difficult time not thinking of her as a Blomgren since she was so close to her Mother and Father.

Karen grew up as an only child.  She may have been somewhat spoiled.  Nevertheless, Karen’s parents not having enough money to pay her way to college for a degree in Nursing, Karen worked and paid it all off herself.  She has never shown any resentment for her parents not being able to give her a free ride.  Karen has never expressed anything other than gratitude and admiration for the way that she was treated as a child and for the lessons that her parents taught her.

Karen is one of the kindest and most optimistic people you will ever meet.  She is also one of the most frugal humans I know.  She would rather shop at a Goodwill or Salvation Army than go to any regular retail store.  The other day, I wanted to take her to some upscale designer outlet shops in Tucson to buy a new purse and dress for my 60th high school reunion.  I told her “why am I still working part-time if we can’t afford some luxury items once in a while?”  Fourteen years down here and we had never been to even one of these fancy outlet shops.

We drove down and went from outlet store to outlet store.  We saw all the big names, Michael Kors, Prada, Coach, Ives Laurent, and many others.  Karen looked and looked.  She picked out products that had sixty percent off.  A purse that went for 500 dollars was reduced to 200 dollars.  Item after item she put back on the shelf or rack.  The same thing happened in every store we went to.  Frankly, I was bewildered at how much many of these products still cost even with a sixty percent discount.

I finally said, “how about we go back to Casa Grande and check out the Marshalls and Ross stores there?”  In the blink of an eye, we were back in the car and headed north to Casa Grande.  Once we arrived in the Promenade parking lot, It did not take Karen 20 minutes to find a nice dress and a new purse.  I think the total amount for both was about 60 dollars.  No one could ask for or find a better wife if they went to every continent in the world.  Karen is always ready to give me a back rub when I need it.  She is a great cook.  Sews many of the things that grace our house and is always ready to take off with me on some of my adventures.  She is not a complainer even when my adventure turns out to be a dud.  Karen is optimistic, always positive and hopeful as well.  Many people have told me that it is a miracle that she puts up with my pessimism, my radical politics, and my negativity towards the world.  If I were to use the word blessed, here is what I would say “I am blessed to have Karen for my wife.”

Well, that’s all.  I could have said a lot more about each of these wonderful people.  I should also have remembered many other people whom I have passed over.  Alas, our allotted space and time in the world never permits us the ability to recognize all the good deeds that others have done for us.  My apologies again for anyone that I have slighted or overlooked.

Next, I will publish Part 2 of my reflections on the Influences that have shaped my life.  More specifically, Part 2 will deal with the “Literature and Authors” that have shaped my thoughts and behaviors.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Final Will and Testament – Things – Reflection #4

14 May 2024 8 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Last year at my 40th Demontreville Retreat, one of the exercises that we were given by the Retreat Master included a very challenging set of thoughts.  The worksheet for the activity was labeled as “A Testament.” I took the worksheet and instructions home with me.  It had fourteen tasks or reflections to complete.  I did not desire to complete them during the retreat.  It is now almost a year since my retreat, and I have decided to make the mental and emotional effort necessary to complete this “Testament.”

The worksheet started with these instructions:

Imagine that this is the last day of your life on earth.  In the time that you have left, you want to leave a “Testament” for your family and friends.  Each of the following could serve as chapter headings for your “Testament.”

  1. These are the Things that I have lived for.

In my first reflection, I declared that “Things” were never very important to me.  However, this reflection forced me to look at some “Things” that have mattered to me in my life.  It is hard to admit that any things were ever really important since “Things” are so trivial in many respects.  Nevertheless, it is hard to exist without a few “Things.”  Thus, what are those “Things” which have really mattered to me, and a bigger question is why?  Here are a few of my favorite things and why they matter to me.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things — By Julie Andrews, “My Favorite Things”

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I love rain and stormy days:  I figured the “why out years ago.  On a nice day, my father would say “Get your ass outside and go play.  It’s too nice to be inside.”  Thus, I could only engage in my favorite activity (which was curled up with a good book) when it was raining, and I did not have to go outside.  To this day, I get a thrill when a rainstorm approaches.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see the rain and feel the raindrops on my head.

I love books:  I buy more books than I will ever finish in my lifetime.  I have already at  every move given hundreds of books away.  Just holding a book gives me a sense of excitement that nothing else in life does for me.  The book pulses in my hand like a living thing saying, “Read me and learn.”  “Let me tell you about a million things that you do not know.”

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I love a nap:  2 PM in the afternoon and I have nothing to do and no place to be.  I will take a nap.  I close my eyes wondering if I can really get to sleep and forty minute or so later, I wake up feeling energized and ready to continue taking on the woes of the world.  I am not sure where I get my joy of napping from.  Karen is not a napper, and I seldom can get her to take a nap with me.  It is a solo activity, but I guess it gives me a temporary respite from the trials and tribulations of everyday living.  Maybe it is just fun.

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I love food:  I have never met a food that I did not like.  One of the great joys of life is going someplace different and trying foods out that I have never eaten before.  I have eaten the local foods in all 44 countries that Karen and I have traveled to.  I will try anything though I draw the line if it is still moving.  I have eaten several unknown species of Arthropoda (Bugs) in China and Korea.  I have had rattlesnake in Texas, fresh eel in Japan and one of my favorite Italian foods, Scungilli salad whenever I get back to visit my sister in Rhode Island.

I love music:  Is music a thing?  Generative AI has the following to say about this query:

“Music is a cultural universal that is a human-created meaning, not a fact or thing in the world.  It is the arrangement of sounds to create a combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or other expressive content.  However, definitions of music vary by culture and throughout history, and there is no consensus on the precise definitions of the elements that define music.”

Nice to know what AI thinks.  Not sure it settled anything though.

Moving on with my thoughts, I find music sometimes soothing as with a Strauss waltz.  Sometime exciting as with the “Toreador Song” from Carmen.  Sometimes, a song reflects how I feel about life as with Ricky Shelton’s “I am a simple man.”  Sometimes, music reflects my sense of devotion for certain things.  I am always moved by national anthems like the “Star-Spangled Banner” and the “Marseillaise.”

I love what some call “World Music.”  I can spend hours surfing the various music offerings on YouTube.  I am always amazed at how much great music never seems to find its way into the US music stations.  As with food, I have never met a music genre that I did not like.  From Baroque to Grigorian Chants, to Asian, Latin, Hip Hop, Reggae and a hundred other music genres, I can always find an artist or musical piece that I fall in love with.  In Japan, it was Enka music.  In Portugal, I was Fado music.  In Spain it was the Tango music.  I could go on and on but every place in the world contributes to the store of great music that is out there.

Well, there you have it.  A few of my favorite things.  Perhaps I should add a few.

“Cream-colored ponies and crisp apple strudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things.”  By Julie Andrews

Next Reflection:    

  1. These are the insights that I have gained in the school of life.

 

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