John Leonard

Very interesting conversation.  

In fact Highline HS started a Civics Class some two years ago which is a semester long required course.   Among other things it covers The Constitution, Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights.    Also,  according to the History Department Head,  the teacher are doing a bang up job.

Gregg Wilson

That is the best possible news you could give. Re-education in constitution, limited government, and individual rights is the most important subject in high school. There is no second place. Re-education in this subject can only come from the ground up. It will never come from the top down

Individual rights are ours by our nature. They are not given or granted. The only thing the government can do is take them away by force or not do so.

Our founding fathers were intellectual giants. Today we have moral idiots.

It is very enlightening that George Washington unilaterally surrendered his sword to congress and ceased to be commander of the Continental Army. He then refused to be king but would only accept the position of president for two terms. He then insisted on becoming a private citizen.

Name any other person in world history who has done that.

Today, we have one candidate who has the slogan "We are stronger together". That is not preserving and protecting the Constitution. That is mob rule.

The other candidate says "We will make America great again". Hell. Hitler said that.

Claudine Dehlinger (Hundhausen)

Thank you, John Leonard, for your voice of reason.  I would hate to think of our school as disfunctional.  We had many fine instructors and administrators when we attended classes at Highline!

Their voices still speak to me about dedication, persistance, responsibility...  I can still hear our English teacher reading to us, our shorthand teacher talking about "black chickens coming home to roost."  :-)   Science and math training has stood me in good stead.  I was not much of a student then, but the foundation was laid for continued lifelong learning.  Today I support schools with my time, and at the ballot box!

Money is not necessarily the answer to all the problems regarding education.  Children must go to school in comfortable clothes that are not statements for attention and status.  They must be rested, properly nourished and prepared to learn.  Parents must recognize their own importance and particpate in the process.  We were very, very lucky in those days. There was a strong middle class and that, no doubt, was an important component.

Al Peffley

"We are Stronger Together", the forward arrow symbol and the term "Forward" used in modern political propaganda, and the term "policial correctness" are all Marxist follower inventions; research it.

I would not compare either candidate with Hitler. Ronald Reagan (a former loyal Democrat Party member) used the slogan "Make America Great Again" in his presidential campaign. Not a bad role model to copy in my view.

I would compare many of the current-generation leaders (from both parties) in Congress and the EPA/DoI with Hitler's Nazi domestic control administrators and SS materland policing agents. I don't think Trump is a member of the "Shadow Party", but he could be identified as a third party candidate running as a GOP (there appears to be many of those type candidates in this federal & local elections cycle.) The people who God enabled to be rulers in the Old Testament Book of Judges were not all saints or even strong believers, but they got the job done. We need someone to get the job done, not a saint who is politically correct to career politicians, in my view as an elected Cowlitz County PCO.

You can thank Congress and give them complete responsibilty for giving almost unlimited dictatorial powers to the existing President and his (mostly-corrupt) Administration. They refuse to cut off the purse strings from the Middle East Assylum Immigration Program that is predjudicial against persecuted Christians being enslaved, slaughtered and raped by ISIS.

The Senate now has more power than the House of Representatives to control federal government funding. This change of the "balance of power" did not happen over night, but was initiated during the Woodrow Wilson Administration (even my parents, who were both Democrats, thought Woodrow Wilson was destroying the Democratic Party and America's Constitution -- and they turned out to be correct!) We are being transfomed by those who want total central government power over the people of the United States. The frog is almost dead in the final boiling process. Congress leadership of both parties is responsible,not just the elected Presidents.

Gregg Wilson

Trump might be a good choice but I would not bet any money on it. If he is power mad, then we still have a problem.

Sue Lowe (Morris)

Thank you, Claudine, for your thoughtful non-partisan comments. It seems that during presidential election years, people are more inclined to blame every problem on big government (some are justified), rather than focusing their time, effort and money on local issues that they can change. If our school district has suffered during the 50 years since we graduated, there are ways for us to help. Donate. Volunteer. Speak up as some of you have already done. Listen to the teachers and staff.

Ken Becker

Superintendent Enfield is having an open forum Monday, Sept. 19, at 6 - 7P, in the Highline High library. Perhaps our class could appoint a representative (Greg) to get the actual facts on how in-school suspension is working & report back.

Al Peffley

Hello Ken,

Your suggestion of having a non-involved representative of our concerned class members at the Highline School District's (HSD) meeting sounds like a good idea. It would be great if we can encourage a classmate still living in the Burien area to attend the HSD Superintendent's town meeting just to hear the school district's side of the subject. I would be interested to hear what the HSD leadership thinks about solving any issues or concerns about HHS curriculum and daily operations.

Our voice is important at all levels of government activities and can help make a difference in the district with the right cover letter feedback, and possibly some future request for action petition inputs. The kids' quality of education and safety should be focus, not political agendas and throwing more money at any student body  discipline or teaching issues. We were hardly "angels" in our time there - LOL! We were fortunate to not have as many racial division issues to deal with as a mid-1960's student body.

Best Regards,

Al

Gregg Wilson

Ken

If you are suggesting me, I live 7 miles East of Mt. Vernon. I'm not a likely representative.

Diane Paulson

“For those who have been waiting for the great Vietnamese American Vietnam War novel, this is it. More to the point: This is a great American Vietnam War novel. . . . It is the last word (I hope) on the horrors of the Vietnamese re-education camps that our allies were sentenced to when we left them swinging in the wind.”—Vietnam Veterans of America

Gregg Wilson

Excuse me for living but I won't be reading that.

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Probably be a pretty hard read for those that had to live through or lost loves ones to the horrors of that war. Many of our classmates ended up in Vietnam,  Some did not come home. War is devasting to all.

Al Peffley

I have worked with and made friends with many legal immigrants from South Vietnam. They are all hard-working folks with very good attitudes about family and community, and being thankful to have escaped the Chinese communist war machine in South Asia. They know what it's like to be controlled by a totalitarian government and subjected to central committee mandates on religion (none), schooling (central government-controlled), rationing, and freedom of speech oppression. They don't like socialism and welfare states. They melded well into America and don't complain about other folks. They earned their position in life by working and not complaining about their surroundings and new life style in freedom.

It is not the "American" Vietnam War, it was a coalition of nations (even Turkey) that assisted South Vietnam in fighting communism. Vietnam was fighting a civil war fueled by globalists' greed for controlling their natural resources (rubber, rice, etc.) South Vietnam was a regional hindrance to communist China. Vietnam was a battleground for testing Cold War ground and air tactics, just short of nuclear winter. It was the last politically run, Napoleanic style war to be fought by the United States.

The Vietnam War addicted the American public to Asian-grown drugs and served as continued communist propaganda campaign in America after Korea. It gave the communists an enduring foothold in central California (the Bay area) and other "flower child" regions to change America towards communism. Young Army and Marine Corps officers, who were constrained and forced to follow rediculous rules of battle and engagement in Vietnam by the US Administration, won the Desert Storm battles in Iraq. They never forgot the failed leadership and corrupt policies of the Linden B. Johnson Administration. I worked with them during the Blackhawk Down era (another era of failed government foreign policies and leadership.)

I served during the Vietnam War in a Naval Air ASW squadron. I served in a Cold War Strategic Defense mission organization (a nuclear war response squadron) and did not have the opportunity or honor to serve in Vietnam with my brave friends. The two VP squadrons they sent over before our turn to deploy did not survive the Chinese-supplied, surface-to-air, land-based interceptor missile attacks from North Vietnam. Marines Jim Pollard & Craig Mulford are buried at the Willamette National Cemetary in Portland (may they RIP). To all who survived the Vietnam War battlefront, I salute you for your service to our country. You are great Americans.

Diane Paulson

I know it's a difficult topic, even 40 years later. As a female I didn't have to confront it as directly as say, my brother, who was in the Navy. But now I am trying to understand and I think the views of this author are valid, even the Vietnam Veterans of America gave it a positive review. So glad we have the freedom of opinion and speech here in the USA.

For what it's worth, the Vietnamese won't be reading the book (The Sympathizer) either, according to this interview with the author (Viet Thanh Nguyen):

Nguyen’s favourite reviews aren’t from exalted critics but from readers online, especially those who have lived in Vietnam. He knows that under the current regime there, The Sympathizer will never be published officially, so he hopes to commission his own translation and distribute it freely via the Web: “I’m not interested in making money in Vietnam; I want them to read the book.”

Gregg Wilson

I am perplexed that there is a "Big Picture" or "Total Concept" of the Viet Nam War. It was insanity from first day to last. There was no declaration of war. There was no definition or plan for victory. What is victory in an Asian land war?

The only reality is what each soldier went through. I was drafted in early 1968. By that time the Army and USMC had reached the bottom of the barrel for new "men". In my boot camp platoon there were:

• A few persons who could not speak English.
• A few persons who were less than five feet tall (they were small!)
• More than half were physically unfit.
• Several - by physical appearence and behavior - were apparently 13 years old. I kid you not.
• IQ was not our strong suit.
• Maturity? - nonexistent.

Their performance in infantry training was laughable. When I went to Forward Observer School, I ended up as an instructor for four months. Huh?

In training, when a recruit was supposed to figure out where he was on the map, he was playing with a mouse or bunny or whatever. Is this the recruit you want calling in artillery?

When I got to the 1st Battalion, 12th Artillery Regiment, it was frightening. Morale was not zero; it was non-existent. I never met a Marine who took the war seriously. We were just trying to survive. Our equipment (artillery, trucks, etc) was entirely World War II - except for our rifles, which were M14s.

We had a battery captain (LeFavor) who flew off to Australia every Friday afternoon and returned on Tuesday. The general apparently had no experience running an artillery battery.

We had children!

When I got out, I went back to the UW. When asked if I wanted to demonstrate on the freeway - no, nevermind, the whole idiot thing was behind me.

Oh guess why we lost the war (which fact we must not mention)? The Administration, Congress and the Pentagon were simply dabbling in war or whatever. Who knows. No Big Picture.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

My mother and father lived through all the bombings in England during WWII.  I would often ask, how did you survive and go on with your day to day routine.  My mother said, "because we were all in it together."  That goes back to great leadership.  We need to be together in all of this, regardless of our personal, religious and political beliefs.

Gregg Wilson

Hi Virginia,

What your parents went through must have been terrible and about 4-1/2 years long. Yes, the people of Great Britian were certainly as one. Along with the only political hero of the war - Winston Churchill.

I assume your parents came stateside at the end of the war. My grandparents came "across the pond" in 1903. Damn pity. They missed out on The Great War.

I wonder if your ancestry is from France.

Dee Morrison (Cappelletti)

Hi Virginia, I don't often comment here, but I need to say how wonderful your parents were, all the years we grew up together, your mom and mine being best friends and so close, it was really a special time in our lives.  I love all the memories or our parents,  your dad and mine working at Boeing, your mom and mine to wrapped up in our church in Burien... they really are some of my best childhood memories!!!  For you too, I'm sure!!!  I've been Dee for so many years I forget about Dottie...  Take care!!!  Dottie Morrison/Dee Cappelletti

Gregg Wilson

"And Now For Something Completely Different" - ala Monty Python.

Based on seven years academic education and 45 years practice as a chemical engineer, I have written a "book" about cosmology, astronomy, physics and chemistry.

It is titled "From Gravitons to Galaxies" and is located at www.nuclearpyramid.com

It is written for the reasonably educated person on the street.

It is free; there is no charge.

If you think it is a re-hash of the conventional knowledge of these subjects - guess again.

Consider it the "hissy fit" of my career.

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Dorothy, thanks for the kind words about my parents.  I do remember your mother because she made the best banana bread.  After church service there would be coffee hour and your mother always had wonderful banana bread (with real butter).  I think both of our father's counted the money from the offertory plates.  Goodness, we are almost dating ourselves here, but we are so lucky to have those kind of memories. My mother is still with us....96 now.  Please stay in touch.

Dennis Morse

Every week I go to Bremerton from my home in Puyallup to babysit my two grandkids for a few days. I  travel on Highway 16 and it is a beautiful drive in the fall with many of the trees changing colors.  Last week I got to thinking about these trees and also how I have lived my life.  Have I lived my life any better than a brainless tree?   On whole, probably not.  Just think of what things a tree does in its life and what humans do in their lives.

This is my list of what a tree does.

     !. It is of course a thing of beauty. 2.It recycles the air, taking in CO2 and emitting oxygen. 3. Its provides food for humans and other animals. 4. It provides a home to many animals and even other plants. 5.When it sheds its foilage it fertilizes the soil. 6.It gives us building material. 7.Its roots hold the soil together. 8. It is a windbreak to further protect the soil. 9. It produces countless offspring that will repeat these benefits. 10. And when it does finally die it will continue to nuture the soil and provide food and shelter to many different forms of life

Maybe you can add other things to this list.

My question for you is, "As we look back on our lives, has your life been as productive as a tree?"

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

Highway 16 is a beautiful highway to travel, and due to the lack of the frustating 'Seattle stop and go' it gives time to ponder more important things.

Our lives do resemble the life of trees.  We are all beautiful creations of God.  We provide nourishment, not only our own, but also for animals, birds and those around us in need.  We nurture our families by caring for them, building roots to instill the basics to cope and live a fulfilling and moral life.  We protect our offspring, our parents, siblings and friends.  And the most we can hope for is that when we have passed on we will leave good memories and an example as to how to live life well.

Shirley Widerski (Miller)

Beautifully said, Linda

Gary Ohrt

Sad to inform you all of another classmate that we lost.  Ron Woodward passed away last Sunday, October 23rd, after a 6-month battle with Cancer.  There will be a memorial service at Saint Philomena Catholic Church in Des Moines on Wednesday November 9th at 3:30.  I met Ron in the 9th grade and was a casual friend of his through HHS.  About 15 years later, our daughters went to pre-school together and we renewed our friendship and have been great friends since. He left us too soon.  May he RIP.

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

A big thank you to whoever is bringing our In 'Memory Page' up to date with those that have previously passed on.

THANK YOU!