SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
February 1, 2009
Sullivan’s Salvos 1/27/09
I have written before about my frustration with our collective lack of historical perspective. Unfortunately, this is on display constantly. One incident that hit home with me occurred at a recent Iowa Wrestling meet.
Iowa was wrestling Wisconsin. Wisconsin is coached by Barry Davis. Barry and I knew each other in college and for a few years after; this explains why I am stewing over the issue. He’s a local guy, from the Swisher area. There is no finer human being out there. I’d be willing to bet he has never lied, cheated, or stolen. (Or bet, for that matter!) He is a good coach – his teams are always in the top twenty in the country.
What’s more, Barry Davis is one of the top ten greatest athletes ever to come from the State of Iowa and/or University of Iowa. At the time of his graduation, he was arguably the most successful wrestler in UI history. State champ, National champ, World champ, Olympic Silver Medalist… he did it all, and did it with style. Fans adored him, as well they should.
So when Coach Davis returns to Carver Hawkeye Arena and starts arguing with Iowa Coach Tom Brands, the Iowa crowd boos. Booing Barry Davis? I think back 25 years, and this scenario is unimaginable.
Is this a big deal? Of course not. The unfortunate thing is that our lack of historical perspective goes beyond sports to more important endeavors, like family, friends, economics, and government. The wrestling incident simply serves as one more example of the way we live in the moment, with no historical perspective.
Bowl for Kid’s Sake is happening again Saturday the 21st and Sunday the 22nd. This event raises money for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Johnson County, one of the worthiest organizations you will ever find. (For more on BBBS, see: http://www.bbbsjc.org.)
As always, there will be a Sullivan for Supervisor team participating again this year. (We bowl on Saturday.) I hope you get your own team and compete. If not, we welcome your pledges… if you are kind enough to sponsor us, checks can be made out to “BBBS”, and mailed to:
Sullivan for Supervisor
2326 E. Court St.
Iowa City, IA 52245
Or pledge online by visiting our site at BBBS: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=296576&lis=0&kntae296576=F5B5E92A4F3D4D8B8FC0D1E490AA49F9
We are not great bowlers, but we are better than President Obama! We promise to try to make you proud! Thanks in advance for your support of this very worthy cause!
Johnson County is once again providing free tax help! You Earned It, Now Claim It! will provide at least 36 separate opportunities for people who earned under $40,000 to get their taxes done for free.
This free help is available at several locations throughout the county, and translators are available at several sites. And all this takes virtually zero in terms of County tax dollars! For more information, see
http://www.johnson-county.com/socialServices/tax_services.shtml.
The Press Citizen recently identified “mental health” as one of the unmet needs of the community. We can assist toward this unmet need by spreading the word about the upcoming "Family to Family" class that is starting February 1st (Sunday) from 5:30-8:00, to be held at the Iowa Realtor's Assoc. Education Conference Center, on Hwy 1, (in the strip mall by Paul's Discount Store).
This is a 12 week class that is free...taught by trained volunteer family members, using a structured and scripted manual. The class is based upon theories of stress, coping, adaptation and family outcomes. It is being taught in all 50 states...families teaching families.
Mental illnesses are REAL, and they are largely treatable. Rehabilitation and recovery are the goals of all who live with and love a person who is coping with illnesses such as major depression, panic disorder and OCD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorders and disabling PTSD.
These are medical conditions... Check your insurance to make sure you are covered for these illnesses to the same extent as any other medical/physical/neurobiological disorder. With easy access to medical help, with informed family members...life with major mental illness is comparative to life with any other chronic medical condition.
For more info, contact the NAMI trained teachers: Marva Abel, 319-321-1383 or June Judge, 1-319-351-8694.
I strongly encourage you to try to attend the few remaining Iowa Women’s Basketball games. The coaches and players are wonderful people. The team is not only good, but exciting! And the price is extremely reasonable. This squad and these people have earned our support.
The schedule can be found at: http://hawkeyesports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/sched/iowa-w-baskbl-sched.html.
I wrote a while ago about my frustration with people using “an historic.” Here is another grammatical pet peeve:
We seem to be inventing new plurals. I often hear “persons” used as a plural for person, and “monies” used as a plural for money. The correct plural words are, of course, “people” and “money”.
If you ever (or always) catch something in Salvos that does not seem to fit the rules of grammar and usage, please let me know!
DID YOU KNOW? Johnson County has planted more than 153 memorial trees in county parks since the inception of the memorial tree program.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
www.johnson-county.com.
"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.
If you do NOT want the weekly E-mail, simply reply to this message, and type "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
If you know anyone else who might be interested, just forward this message. They can E-mail me at rodsullivan@mchsi.com with "subscribe" in the subject line.
As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan@mchsi.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 12:37 PM
1 Comments:
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wrestling
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