The Commencement speech heard around the world

I've read excerpts of Harrison Butker's speech at Benedictine College by journalists who have sliced and diced it from the left and right, without reading or listening, but finally listened to the whole thing. https://youtu.be/-JS7RIKSaCc?si=IoYc4Bscv7PbhYGV It was not what I expected. Remember--he is talking to college graduates about to go out and face the world! He spoke personally about vocation--his as a husband and father, and his wife's, whom he met in middle school, as a wife and mother. He attends the TLM, Traditional Latin Mass, and encouraged the graduates to choose a city not just for the career opportunities but for the availability of a believing, serving church. I've heard a lot of speeches over the years, but never heard that one! He did lay the responsibility for many of society's ills on emasculated men. He said to live in the post-God world one needs to "do small things well" and to choose friends carefully as they leave the bubble of campus life. But before he talked about his own life as a Christian father, he really took the bishops and priests to the wood shed for their failures, particularly during the Covid lockdown.

Butker is kicking butt and making Leftists furious

Harrison Butker's graduation address at a small Catholic college laying out the truth of the swamp in DC and our culture has apparently shocked some on the Left. How dare he? A football player lecturing us? I rarely watch ABC--it's background for breakfast because the kitchen table TV is not with cable, just babble. It's so difficult for Democrats to be really informed--I hear it all the time, about Covid, about climate, about the Biden laptop, the Biden crimes--they are incredibly uninformed so they will vote for good old Joe. But this speech is getting around if for no reason other than to criticize him. Hope he can keep his job. NYT, Wapo, HuffPo, LAT, etc. are enraged by his bigotry. Imagine. Telling the truth about DEI, Biden, killing the unborn etc. The 1% against the 99%. Conservatives must be completely silenced!!! (Hear the heels clicking?)

NFL Pushes Back On Harrison Butker's Bigoted Graduation Speech (msn.com)

Why the Speech by Kansas City Chiefs Kicker Was Embraced at Benedictine College's Commencement (usnews.com)

Chiefs Kicker Butker Congratulates Graduating Women, but Says Most Are More Excited About Motherhood (usnews.com)

Kansas City Chiefs Star's Biden Remarks Spark Debate (msn.com)

A busy May season

We've had a "busy" social spring--at least for us. On May 3 we went with our neighbors and friends Jerry and Joan, and Bill and Joyce to the "new" Old Bag of Nails." It's a restaurant we used to go to that has now moved to a new location--on the first floor of a retirement home! The food and atmosphere were about the same, even the prices didn't seem that bad, but it seems an odd location. Parking was bad. There's a lot going on in that area with the new city community center.  I wrote about it here, Collecting My Thoughts: Friday Night Date and a Derby Party on Saturday  

Then the next night we were at a Kentucky Derby party, at the Hahms.  Bob's horse won $4 so that means the evening was even, since mine West Saratoga didn't place.  He is a pretty horse with a good story which is why I chose him.  On Sunday morning we drove to Lakeside and ate a packed lunch on a picnic table near the lake.  But not too close--it was a little windy.  We spent the night at the Idlewyld B & B so we could greet the class Bob used to teach. This year he recruited Kevin Buckland because it's hard for Bob to be that long on his feet. We had a great time with Kevin and his wife Pertain and went to the Que (BBQ) for dinner on Saturday evening.  We had a room on the porch and Kevin set up a movie screen and we watched YouTube videos of other art shows.  

Then on Friday the 10th our condo association had a drive-way gathering BYOB and lawn chair. It was fun to see everyone. There's a new couple--haven't moved in yet but they came--probably 60-ish. That's usually the age. Kids grown, house is too big. Their house hasn't sold yet, so the price is probably too high because everyone is looking and can't find anything. Saturday we again went out with Jerry and Joan, and Bill and Joyce because the Sloughs are leaving today for Lake Erie and will be gone until Fall. 

  

On Sunday we went out to eat for Mother's Day with Phoebe and Mark to a restaurant "The Avenue" in Dublin, a suburb northwest of us. When we moved here over 50 years ago, Dublin was a sleepy little town of 19th century houses, and now it's booming. It was a lovely day and everything was delightful. Then Monday and lunch with Ron for his 90th birthday--and boom--by Tuesday we had this terrible cough caused I think from the mold and dust from cleaning the deck.

On May 15, 2012

 

  

Bob and Phil went to Lakeside for Spring clean up and stopped for a milkshake in Bucyrus

John Kasich is hard of hearing?

I just glanced at a quote by Ohio's John Kasich (former governor) that Biden wasn't a good communicator. Really? I understand him when he talks. He wants abortion legal to the day of birth. It's only about 10,000 viable infants who will die each year. He wants millions to come through our borders unscathed with no consequences. Some seek asylum, some wealth, some destruction of our country. He wants Israel to fail in wiping out Hamas. What country could possibly trust this guy? He wants Ukraine to win in its civil war against Russia with no options for negotiation. He wants me to drive an electric car at great expense and inconvenience. He wants girls to share locker rooms with boys and be beaten in athletic events. He wants the USA to go deeper in debt. No, John, I'm hearing him loud and clear. But sometimes Republicans are as hard of hearing as Democrats.

Getting ready for summer

 We've uncovered the deck furniture and washed off the tabletop and chair webbing. Today we enjoyed an early birthday celebration with a friend.  His 90th. His children are throwing a party in June, but it will be the first day of our vacation, so we won't be in town.  The guys met at church in 1967, so that's about 57 years of friendship with Ron. He and his wife whom he met at Upper Arlington high school died four years ago. Dinner was grilled salmon, steamed cauliflower and asparagus, mixed fresh fruit and Key Lime Pie. We actually ate inside because there was a very noisy machine spewing ear splitting sounds across the creek, then after it quieted down we went outside to enjoy the lovely spring weather.

Biggest Week in American Birding

Yesterday I wore my green-gray BSBO t-shirt to the gym. Black Swamp Bird Observatory. Today is the last day of "The Biggest Week in American Birding" hosted by BSBO and last weekend we were in Lakeside for an art workshop (observing, not teaching) and some of the activities were there. I picked up a visitor's guide and could spend a month perusing it. https://www.facebook.com/bsbobird/ or BSBO - HOME

Here's just one useful article: How you can help birds. Keep cats indoors. Don't release balloons. Discard used fishing line. Take a beginner birding. Drink Bird-friendly shade-grown coffee. Protect windows from collisions.

Cats kill an estimated 2.4 billion birds every year. Birders don't like wind turbines or giant glass windows on buildings, but they don't kill as many birds as cats.

I'm not a birder, and I can probably only identify 25 birds, and mostly I learned those names when I was a child. Not sure how, perhaps my mom or my teachers. Here at my living room window at my computer I see herons and mallards, owls and woodpeckers, hawks and crows, cardinals, robins, wrens and doves. Some get on the windowsill and look at me! And of course, when we were up on Lake Erie we saw many species not common around here. More than 3 dozen species of warblers pass through northwest Ohio and the BSBO tracks them.

Mother's Day Painting

 

  

On the lakefront by the Hotel Lakeside

Tip your server and other nice things to do

This is a very nice message. My friend Arlene sent it. However, that's not all there is to changing the world. I know many Democrats who do all of these, yet they support abortion, don't care about 7 million invading the U.S. through the open Biden borders, think Hamas means Palestinians, don't care about the issues of the Russia-Ukraine war, watch the terrible misinformation that spews from the Democrat controlled media like CNN, NPR and MSNBC, contribute to their alma mater despite the raging anti-Semitism embedded there, believe men can become women through magical thinking, and believe what they are doing to President Trump through the "just -us" system is OK. Think before you vote. That's how we change things in this country, assuming no one has stolen it through a Soros funded scheme.