Jack’s Winning Words 10/5/22 “The honor of success is increased by the obstacles which are to be surmounted.”  (Rutherford B Hayes)  If you think that the last presidential election was controversial, go back to 1876 when neither candidate received enough electoral college votes to be elected and Hayes was declared the winner after some “backroom politics.”  Hayes took on the unenviable obstacle of leading a country still divided by issues that led to the Civil War.  “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” is true, and not only in baseball.  I wonder if the “Reconstruction Period” is still going on?  The Confederate flag is still flown by some as a sign of protest.  Today, think in your mind of people who have overcome obstacles to become successful.  Name one.  ;-)  Jack FROM ER IN SJ:  Haven't we all, on our own personal levels, overcome obstacles to find successes in our lives? I know that you have. I also know that I have. We all measure success by our own scales. Does "famous" = "successful". I would tend to argue.===JACK:  Success is where you find it.  On a certain level I might be described by others as successful.  In my own mind I see my failure, and so I feel the need to "confess" my sins (failures) to God and ask for forgiveness.  God forgives, but sometimes we're not as kind as He is.===JACK:  History often reads as we choose to read it.  "If we knew then what we know now...."  I read that Hayes was wounded five times in the war.  I think that it was difficult to be a leader during the reconstruction.  Hayes was also a staunch abolitionist, and I give him credit for that.   FROM WILLMAR REV:  Jesus of Nazareth comes readily to mind!! 0;-) ===JACK:  How about Jesus oif Willmar?  Is He living in your community today?===REV:   I see His fingerprints on others all over town . . . even feeling Him nudging me along faithfully as well, while carrying a relationship with Him as He did His Father in Heaven! 0;-)===JACK:  Do you remember the song that was once popular....Put your hand in the hand of the man Who stilled the water  Put your hand in the hand of the man  Who calmed the sea  Take a look at yourself  And you can look at others differently  Put your hand in the hand of the man  From Galilee===REV:  I do and sang along on many occasions. 0;-)===JACK:  Music is a great gift...You, especially have been bledded by God and are using that talent. FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  Another Yankee manager.  Billy Martin whose biggest obstacle seems to have been himself.  Paul Christ, another recently fired coach, former Wisconsin QB, just created his own obstacle.  Will be interesting to see where and how he ends up. Likable Wisconsin guy who in my view was fired because of a first time ever Wisconsin 5 star QB recruit who has never materialized yet to his perceived potential.  For better or worse I think the two of them will be forever linked.===JACK:  The Big Ten seems to have filtered down to Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan.  I don't see that adding UCLA and SoCal will make that much of a difference.  O liked it better when there was parity.  BTW, I believe that the Cleveland Indians were given their name to honor Jim Thorpe.  When they changed their name, they should have been called, The Thorpedos. FROM SR RD:  You, Jack.===JACK:  I am truly humbled. FROM CPA MIKE:    I do not say this in a  facetious manner  but Trump faced enormous obstacles in his pursuit of the presidency which we have to acknowledge as the ultimate success. Like it or not. Media, deep state, democrats and elements of the republican party did everything they could to defeat him yet he prevailed.    If I fly a Dixie flag and wear a M.A.G.A. hat or if you fly a Gay Pride flag and wear a BLM tee it's all OK. There should be no conflict unless one treads on the rights of others. ===JACK:  ...unless you are breaking a law (just or unjust).  Then you must be willing to face the consequences as MLK Jr and John Lewis did.  I miss the good old days when we could fly the American flag proudly and as a sign of unity. FROM DAZ IN COLORADO:  A good book about the election of 1876 is  - To Rescue the Republic, Ulysses S Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876.   Catharine Whitney and Bret Baier. There also is info on the reconstruction situation and what was going on in the South during that period which was bad. ===JACK:  "My learning" seemed to stop with the ending of the Civil War.  I get disgusted with those who don't want teachers to teach. ===D:    I’ve read a lot about post reconstruction and the rise Jim Crow and it was very disgusting.===JACK:  In a way...just as in our own live.  If there were do-overs, we could do better.  In our country we seem to be slow learners.   FROM SHALOM JAN:  Barbara Andrews, the first woman ordained in The American Lutheran Church, was a wheelchair user because she had Cerebral Palsy.  She was an inspiration to me.===JACK:  Was she able to take an "ordinary" call, or was hers a call to special ministry?  Did you meet her personally?===JAN:    Yes and yes. One of my friends in Peace Lutheran, Southfield, congregation had been at St. Olaf University with Barbara and invited her to come to her house after worship that Barbara led one Sunday as supply in the absence of our pastor, Ed Brown.  This was in the mid 70s, I believe.  Barbara's first call was to her home congregation in MN, where the building was appropriately constructed to be open for wheelchair users, perhaps because B. had been a member there since birth, if I'm not mistaken.  Her second call was as Chaplain at the old Luther Haven in downtown Detroit, where those who were similarly disabled by age, for example, were thrilled to have Barbara "roll in for a visit".  She lived in her own apartment, however; and, LSSM released her due to financial difficulties. She died in an apartment fire caused by faulty lamp wiring in her apartment, just after she had to dismiss her attendant because she no longer had a regular salary stream, Palm Sunday, 1978.===JACK:  Yes, there are all kinds of stories out there.  Stories that are sad.  Some that are inspiring.  We can play the "blame game" if we want to....but even the one about Jesus on the cross has a happy ending.  Just remember that there's more to come after this life comes to an end.  I've found that bad things turn into good when you look at them using the right glasses.  FROM THE FISH IN NOVA SCOTIA:             this is a tangent, but you might be interested in the Confederate Battle Flag ("Stars and Bars") I saw on the wall of my late father's (now late) half-sister.  I saw it a couple of times when I was in my birthplace, Western North Carolina, first with my Dad and later on another visit. The flag was not discussed, but in later years I learned its history.  I knew that my ancestor, John Fisher, died in 1862. He was a volunteer and was not a slave owner (although I have later learned that my ancestors include some slave owners). His widow never found out what happened to him, but asked one of my late cousins who became a legislator to keep searching and if possible bring his body home. He was successful 90 years after his death, and John was brought home to Transylvania County (no Halloween jokes, now) and buried with full (Confederate) honors, and the flag that draped his coffin was returned to my late cousin. I am not aware if the flag was returned in what is now a typical US folded triangle, but would not be surprised.  On another tangent , here in lovely but historically bloody and tragic Annapolis Royal, the Brits and the French were engaged in protracted wars which finally ended in the capture of what's now called Fort Anne (after Queen Anne), but was the location of various fortifications including that of the Scots who acquired Nova Scotia by British declaration around 1622. NS was originally called New Scotland, but the charter was written in Latin and it was the Latin transcription that has survived.  Maybe 1993 or so, a visitor to Fort Anne noticed a bone sticking out of the shoreline in front of the Sally Port. It turned out to be a skeleton of a British soldier, I think identified by buttons from the 40th of Foot. The remains were buried with full military honors in the adjacent cemetery which has received both French and British inputs over the year. Later, archaeologists indicated they suspected the soldier had been executed and deliberately buried in unconsecrated land. If so, that soldier would have been amazed to be re-buried later with full military honors.  You and your wife should come visit us sometime, and we would highly recommend the weekly Graveyard Tour (benefitting the HIstorical Association), where among others you will hear about Ramona. The Duke of Wellington discovered her as a camp follower and fell deeply in love with her. The Throne was not amused, and offered an army captain a promotion to Major if he would marry her and move to Nova Scotia and never come back. She outlived him by many years, and was not believed when she told townspeople that she was the Duke's mistress. However, when she died someone went through her belongings and discovered love letters from the Duke.  How's that for serial wanderings off the official subject?===JACK:  You never cease to amaze me.  You are on the most unusual I have ever met....and you can play the piano, too.  (Your wife is not far behind...if not ahead!)      ===FROM DAZ IN COLRADO:     Interesting story about that flag. I've read in my Civil War magazine about reburials like that before, but never knew anyone involved.  I've seen cemeteries in the South probably like the one he is reburied in. Some kept up, some are not .Those reburials with honor usually included some reenactors marching and firing a volley during the program.  The story about the Duke of Wellington is something. Don't know much about the Duke . I knew he got around , but that story may have been embellished. He spent time in India, Spain and finally defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.