Do The Right Thing

Thanks to at&t for getting ADSL syncing up again, whatever they did (and to Steve at at&t high-speed Internet customer care this morning for processing the Internet outage credit of $3.80 for this month).

From my father:

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/ODE/KingsportTimesNews/, 13Mar2011, p. 1C.

Brother outlines attorney’s part prosecuting infamous Vietnam rape/murder case

‘I grew up that you do the honorable thing. And I think he did the honorable thing.’

— Ralph Yelton.

By REX BARBER

NET News Service

James Yelton was taught to always do the honorable thing.

He carried that sentiment with him to Vietnam, where he was sent by the Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps in the 1960s. One of the cases he prosecuted as a JAG lawyer there was the basis for a Hollywood movie about the rape and murder of a young Vietnamese woman by U.S. soldiers. That movie, “Casualties of War” starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn, was released in 1989. Hollywood producers came to Yelton’s home to consult with him on the facts of the case.

Yelton died in his sleep at his Kingsport home in late February. He was 76.        James’ brother, 85-year-old Ralph Yelton, a World War II and Korean War veteran who became paralyzed by machine gun fire fighting in Korea and who also went on to serve 14 years in the Tennessee General Assembly, recalled his brother during an interview this past week.

“James was a very interesting person,” Ralph said as he showed various photographs of his brother. “He had a very high IQ. He was smart. He could talk about anything. He had a grasp, you know, of knowledge in a lot of areas of discussion.”

James graduated from Tipton Hill High School in Bakersville, N.C. He went on to get a doctorate of jurisprudence from Wake Forest U n i v e r s i t y.

With his degree in hand, he began practicing law in Burnsville, N.C., for about a year before opening his own practice in Bakersville. Soon James decided to join the Army because positions were open in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

His first assignment as a JAG officer was at   Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. This facility, which is still operational, was opened in World War II to produce munitions.

“He was in charge of all the procurement contracts,” Ralph said of James’ responsibilities at Redstone. “The contracts for all of the material they needed to build those missiles there at Redstone Arsenal.”

James was eventually stationed around the globe, winding up in Vietnam in 1966, where he met a soldier who told him about the infamous kidnapping, rape and murder. Ralph said that soldier’s conscience was weighing heavily on him about the incident. That meeting was depicted in the movie, as Fox’s drunken character confides in a chaplain about the Vietnamese woman’s torture and death.

“They show it in the bar, in the movie, where my brother was talking to (the soldier with a guilty conscience). He could tell that he was really distraught, and James got to talking with him, and he told him what happened,” Ralph said. “He told him every bit of it, exactly what happened.”

Just like in the movie when Fox’s character had trouble getting superiors to act on the rape and murder, so did James, Ralph said.

“Well, James went, you know, to the company commander at first. Company commander said, ‘Shut it up. We don’t need that.’ He went to the battalion commander. … Battalion commander didn’t want it,” Ralph said. “But James went ahead with the case. He said that shouldn’t be. That was a crime that shouldn’t be allowed in the military.”

Four soldiers involved in the crime were sentenced to spend varying lengths of time in prison.

Ralph did not know if his brother ever watched the movie. He knows James did the right thing, though.

“I grew up that you do the honorable thing,” Ralph said. “And I think he did the honorable thing. That’s what we were taught all of our life. And I’m sure he did what he felt was the right thing to do, because in a war or anywhere else that kind of behavior don’t need to be tolerated. It don’t need to be let go on.”

Photo by Ron Campbell [removed from this blog entry]:

Former Tennessee state Rep. Ralph Yelton*  holds a photograph of his brother James Yelton receiving the Legion of Merit award from Lt. Gen. Charles Hall.

* long-time member of Kingsport area Optimist Clubs.

One Force

Rather, make that 14ERS.

A mobile shoutout to Dudley DeVore.

And then there were two.

Smells like team spirit…make some noise…can you stand up for the last minute of the game?

They don’t play a lot of country music at basketball games, do they?

Let’s have a music showdown between the Stillman and UAHuntsville pep bands, with cheerleader/mascot accompaniment.

Technical foul!

Good, ’cause I was about to eat zebra for a midnight snack.

HEADLINER: No. 3, the Stillman Showboater Tiger, vs. no. 2, the UAHuntsville Energizer Charger.

A hearty cheer for the one-hit Wonderboys -you held up well vs. the home team crowd.

Watching these young people – players, cheerleaders, trainers, students, band – I wonder which ones represent future community leadership.

Get your head in the ga…rebound!

How do you assess focus? Energy management?

Dinner at Pizza Hut tonight, Charlie the Team Member serving and Jimmy the Shift Manager managing, after seeing Jana and Brian’s new Corgi, “Duke,” and Jonathan and Tammy’s pics of new house on a road named after a popular beverage.

When the other team has figured out your signals, you change the way you shout out game plans.

Jeff Mikatarian used to be the Charger mascot.

My trifecta dream? UTK men and UTK Lady Vols with UAHuntsville men pulling the brass ring in the same year. If Walters State, Georgia Tech and ETSU won their championships, I’d swear I was in heaven.

But I am in heaven because I see players realise smart clock management and finding the second/third/fourth wind you didn’t know you had in you proves to yourself your dreams are in your control, with plenty of community/family support where you least expect it.

You win because you share your talent and determination with them, not just because the scoreboard said you defeated your competition.

Just like freedom of speech means defending the rights of people with whom you disagree the most, so that you give each other the opportunity to learn something new.

For instance, time/energy management is technical genius, don’t you know?

I want to learn why the UAHuntsville mascot wears no. 23. My wife wants to learn why the cheerleaders don’t combine cheers with dancing/acrobatics when they run onto the basketball court.

With so many films/television shows centering drama/comedy on basketball, creating a new twist is a tinier niche to find and fill, but I’m working on the masterpiece while watching/cheering on many teams right now.

The slim server at Pizza Hut and the blue-eyed vender at Spragins Hall know what I’m going to find irony in, don’t they?

The rest of the phone-texting world will have to wait.

14,299 days to go. I’m easily diverted, happily so.

Life happens – you reason your own reason on your own, TRIPLEL or otherwise. Charge on!

The moment’s all we have so own it.

Right now, I choose Division II. Is that a Saturn-shaped ball logo? Zeus will have to wait.

Final score after 1 OT: 74-71. Ides of March, be prepared.

Mischief Lived Here

Eventually, I’ll combine all my observations of a basketball tournament into an original riff.

For now, one question and one insight.

Question: does your school/university have a reputation for pulling off technical stunts of genius at sporting events and if not, why not? The administration secretly hopes it’ll happen in a fun but not destructively disrupting manner in order to increase the institution’s intellectual reputation. [in other words, a hint about what my comic riff will improv upon]

Insight: as a former higher education student/instructor, I can look into the eyes of most students and figure out which ones have never cheated on an exam or copied someone else’s homework/project assignment. A fact, not a condemnation, about our psychological behaviour.

Wall-Bash Cannonball

First of all, I tip my hat to the Vietnam veteran who sat next to my wife at the basketball game last night – you are not forgotten.

Although my wife does not want this parallel universe of a blog and any effects, real or imagined, it causes to what we call our universe (the superset in which the subset of a parallel universe of a blog that is just another set of states of energy resides), I’ll keep the humour flowing out of this blog and into our lives.

For instance, is de la Mole in “Queen Margot” the inspiration for Will Smith’s role in “Enemy of the State”? Probably not “Six Degrees of Separation” between the two.

Do you have to prove your man/womanhood to yourself or others? Do you laugh at gender roles because you’re comfortable in your essence of self?

Is the universe designed solely for your comfort, in other words?

Does everything that happens to and around you, both in happiness and in pain, benefit you in some way even if it sometimes takes years to see why?

A reader asked how to hack/copy a sim card to turn an iPad into a roving command center. I honestly don’t know how. That’s none of my personal business.

Labels are symbols for comic relief – science, religion, politics, sports, business, academics, life, love, mass media, technology, etc. – that’s truly all I know and the secret of my successful ascension to domination of this blog.

The rest is just random interaction of states of energy that seem to have/seek a patterned purpose at the local, antlike level.

I woke up at five years of age and have been trying to go back to sleep ever since, but the brain has no off switch. Many ways to numb it and only one way to stop it.

I’m happy to let it run until it runs out of steam.

Technology is a means, not a means to an end.

Ants on the window screen and in the house – spring is here! That’s what the blooming Japanese redbud told me, anyway.

I do not presume God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Shiva or a deity/Deity will intercede on my behalf and am constantly learning to accept random incidents, no matter how serendipitous they appear, as if they happen on purpose only through hindsight and without human reason through the big picture view of foresight. God/Deity/deities/universe is greater than me, obviously.

I never assume I know what I’m doing with my imperfect self.

Did I thank Amie at Beauregard’s yesterday? My poor, poor memory – what Am I to do with me/you/us, mon ami?

No drumline tonight

Congrats to UAH for a hard-fought victory over Clark-Atlanta in an NCAA Div II South regional basketball game, 77-63, at Spragins Hall on the UAH campus.

Great fan/student support.

Perfectly planned and implemented show by officials, coaches, players, cheerleaders/mascot, event mgmt, facilities mgmt, venders, ticket sellers, parking attendants, etc.

My wife and I had a great time.

We look forward to another exciting game.

Humour will have to wait a bit longer. An original twist has to brew in my thoughts.

Actually, it’s time for the cat’s pain medication and antibiotics.

Plus, the Kindle locked up and rebooted after I typed a long blog entry – too lazy to reconstruct the “meditation on college life/basketball”entry from memory planned to be titled “Nick Cannon to the rescue.” Quick nod to two names called out in the blog, Joe Smith and Craig Knight, wherever you are.

Jessie at at&t says my ADSL line is now scheduled to be operational by tomorrow. My lost-time refund grows on this month’s bill.

Tout de suite…je te frappe pas! A suivre…

Duty calls.

Ou est le DSLAM?

Kernels of burning clutch smoke cling to my nostrils.

Another list, of last night’s auction winnings: shamrock trio pillowcase set, St. Patrick’s Day party pack (handcrafted St. Patrick’s Day wreath and party supplies, assortment of homemade breads (compliments of UCP special instructor Amelia Hardin) featuring fresh Irish Soda, sourdough, multigrain, and cinnamon roll, case of Killian’s Irish Red beer, 54 images of Ireland playing card set and basket), homemade breads gift set (Katie O’Reilly’s Irish Soda Bread mix, Irish blessing/Celtic cottage bread warmer by Seneca Ceramics, bread by Amelia and basket), Memphis Mania weekend getaway package, Dinner & Dancing Lessons package, carrot cake by Ellen’s Creative Cakes, scripture hand towel set (featuring Joshua 24), and flower pot of blooming shamrocks.

Thanks to the band, Bourbon and Shamrocks, the dancers, Jerry Hayes and others like Casey and Nancy, Holiday Inn veteran of 3 years, and police officers keeping the streets safe for sober drivers (sober than what, I ask).

Humour in another blog soon (behind-the-scenes mishaps at a basketball tournament, perhaps, in the style of Corman/Altman?).

A nod to the Elgars and Ives of the world. A young friend asked, “Why is the leader of France named So-crazy?” Rhetorical, once again! Bars/pubs take bets on the eye action of Pat Sajak. “Shot of Jack when Sajak jacks his chin down.”

What price happiness…

or, never look a pedigreed cat in the mouth.

Let’s tally the cost of real love: comprehensive health exam, plasma biochemistry profile 15, complete blood cell count, electrolyte balance analysis, total T4 thyroid analysis IH, Buprenex injection (analgesic), radiographic exam/interpretation 2, 1 litre IV fluids bag, fluids -administration drip set, infusion pressure pump, catheter-IV setup, Clindamycin injection, hospitalisation < 20 lbs, ear/skin cytology, more injections/monitoring, teeth cleaning ("dental prophylaxis"), canine/double tooth extractions, regional anaesthesia-gingival Bloc, nursing care LVT, surgery supplies, Tramadol TD by syringe, Clindamycin aquadrops, dextrose 50 percent solution injection and two prescriptions = $2065.49.

Now that's love!

Love sits by the window, soaking up the sunshine.

Thanks to Dr. Herring, Dr. Brown, Dr. Serio, Courtney, Joclyn and all the smiling faces at Hampton Cove Animal Hospital for this happy moment.

Thanks to Dominique at at&t for letting me know the ADSL problem in this area will be fixed by 3:43 p.m. or 24-hr refunds start kicking in for all the affected ADSL customers (I added that last part, not her).

Thanks to Amazon Kindle 3G service for Internet access – always reliable, like our Nokia 3120b with at&t mobile phone service.

Happiness not for sale here

Nice thing about hanging [out] with lawyers like Michael, judges like Jim, and psychologists/expert witnesses like Roger is…

Well, for example, out of a sample of 500 people on death row, maybe 5 of them are clinically insane and the rest murdered their victims because they were in the way.

A thanks goes out to Bonnie’s daughter for chairing and coordinating this year’s UCP fun[d]raiser, and a round of appreciative applause to the volunteers, Jackson Center workers, caterers, sponsors and generous supporters, public or private, of UCP.

Cheryl was as gracious as ever.

In the midst of hacking the planet, where states of energy are states of energy, it’s good to remember the wonders that states of energy can perform individually and in groups.

Gary and Michael, let’s put your warfighter support idea into viable action!

Time to resolve an ADSL issue with at&t.

Then support UAH, my final alma mater, as no. 1 seed in the South regional NCAA basketball tourney. Go Chargers!

Light Play

A woodpecker digs at the remains of a wreath of birdseed.

Visited Merlin in the animal hospital after lunch today – he was loving and friendly as ever – his old self still young. The veterinarian showed me his removed teeth – I can put them with the one tooth of mine I saved from the Tooth Fairy’s monetary clutches.

Out of a job because of CG artists, and looking for meaningful work, film set construction crews were hired to build replicas of ice sheets atop Mt. Kilimanjaro that also serve as lodging for adventurous suburban hikers. Financed by movie moguls hoping to attract more stable actors than the current stable of actors under contract.

If converging toward singularity is your dream, do you support algae growing on your back deck?

Who am I? I don’t want to know.

There is no why. There is only here.

You is a word that encompasses all states of energy.

What do you do with power you don’t want but need?

Write love letters long after the need is gone.

You are more intelligent/insightful than you know.

How much killing can one person take if we’re all going to die no matter what?

How do we teach one another common courtesy? May we insist we are a peaceful species, too, despite sorrow and uncertainty?