Jerry Hinkle Program Episode 5: Jerry is Settling Up

Jerry Hinkle Program Episode 4-Jerry is Cutting it Short

Jerry Hinkle Program Episode 3-Jerry is up Early

Jerry Hinkle Program Episode 2-Jerry is Back

The Jerry Hinkle Program: Episode 1

Poetry Corner

We might never meet again
This might be the last time
Kiss me like the world will end
Press your lips right up my spine
Pull that shirt, I'll pull the shade
Dirty secrets, dirty lies
You can be my last regret
My last regret

Brandy Bambas

Conference Call on Ebola reveals domestic policy

    State and Local Elected Officials were invited to a Conference call with President Obama along with several employees from cabinet level offices to discuss the USA's response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Despite short notice of the call, elected officials from Kornfield County were in attendance.
     The President said that he was confident that Ebola wouldn't become a domestic issue because of the healthcare apparatus that is in place here at home. Confidence appears to be justified because of the many people from other places that have travelled to the US only one person (that we know of) has shown symptoms of the disease.
     So far the only countries with an Ebola outbreak are the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. the first step, that the US is taking is to control it at the source.
     To that end 5 major airports in the US: JFK, Newark, DFW, O'Hare, and Atlanta will implement entry screenings in which travelers will be visually inspected, required to fill out a health questionnaire, called a Traveler Health Declaration, and have their temperature taken. Travelers who show signs of Ebola will  be isolated for further medical screening, courtesy of the Medical Coastguard. It takes 21 days to be cleared of this disease.
     It is important to remember that Ebola is spread through direct contact, and as far as can be determined is not airborne as of yet. Someone who has Ebola, but not showing symptoms can not effect other people

All About That Personality

Bring On The Road

Sen. Larry Pressler: Independent Honesty

Poetry Corner

The following untitled verse was submitted to us from Tyler Barker of Salem Oregon:

 

Love can be as painful as fire or can snap like thin ice,

Some can love,

Some can hate,

But nothing can match how painful love can be,

Everyday is another step towards a painful era,

Cause love can be as painful as fire or can snap like thin ice,

I sit and wait for day to end,

And night to come,

So i can sleep this pain away,

Oldest Marine survivor recalls Iwo Jima by Jill Callison of the Argus Leader

To his squad's younger members, Cpl. Don Hinkle was known as "Pops." After all, at 28, he was about 10 years older than most of his fellow Marines.
But when the 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima ended, the South Dakota native felt much older than 28, especially as he considered the casualty list of 5,823 Americans who died on the island's black sands.
As the 70th anniversary of Iwo Jima approaches in 2015, Hinkle, 98, has been recognized as the oldest living survivor of the battle that also claimed about 22,000 Japanese. He recently participated in a Marine Corps reunion, where he wore his old uniform and danced once again with his wife of 70 years.
The Hinkles live in Bonita, Calif., but their roots are deep in South Dakota. Don Hinkle was born in Brookings and raised near Highmore. His wife, LaRayne, considers Onida home. Her brother, Howard Brown, farms there, while Don Hinkle's nephew, Harold, remains on the Highmore farm.
Her father's stories about his experiences as a Marine paratrooper in the South Pacific have slowed in recent years, says the Hinkles' daughter, Patricia Gailband. She was about a year old when her father first met his oldest child. Alarmed by the stranger, she protectively tried to stand between her mother and him.
His experiences haven't been lost, however. His youngest daughter, who retired from Army service, took an oral history that was transcribed into writing.
Today, Hinkle says of his 36 days on Iwo Jima, "I didn't have much fun there that I remember." (The fun he does remember came on trips to New Zealand, where girls were attracted to the young man in paratrooper boots.)
For years, he carried a scar on his right thigh, etched into the skin by a sniper's bullet that proved fatal to a first lieutenant. According to a 2006 story in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Hinkle had tried to warn the officer that hidden Japanese assassins would consider him a desirable target.
That wound entitled Hinkle to a Purple Heart. He refused to apply for it, however, because he didn't want his pregnant wife to learn about his injury and worry.
Iwo Jima wasn't Hinkle's only battle. The list includes Choiseul Island, where Marines were rescued by a PT boat, and the land battle at Vella Lavella. At Choiseul, he served directly under Charles Krulak, later Marine Corps commander. The Marines had been put on the island as bait to draw Japanese attention from other battle sites, youngest son Jauhn Hinkle says.
When the Japanese discovered the Marines weren't part of an entire division, it was time to retreat, and the men raced to board PT boats. Don Hinkle headed for one. When a coxswain told him it was too full, a young captain with a Boston accent intervened. He reprimanded the coxswain, then according to family lore, told Don Hinkle, "You better get your arse on her now, leatherneck, or you'll be fighting the Japs alone in about 15 minutes."
The captain's name: John F. Kennedy, commanding the PT-59.
Iwo Jima remains the best-known conflict of those that Hinkle faced. A photograph of the flag raising remains an iconic image of the war.
"He was there when they raised the flag at Iwo Jima," Gailband says. "The guy who took the picture gave him an original photograph, but he doesn't know what happened to it."
His father had been assigned to H company because of previous experience as a scout, or a messenger between officers, when radio contact was unauthorized or dangerous. Hinkle was standing outside a tent when wallet-sized prints were distributed and a young photographer was autographing them. He took one, although photographer Joe Rosenthal was unknown to him.
Hinkle does remember his thoughts when he saw the flag being raised over the island after more than a month of fighting: "I thought I was going to go home," he says. "I thought everything was over. But it wasn't quite over yet."
In fact, Hinkle's service wouldn't end until 1946 because he had enlisted for longer than the war's duration, he was that committed. It was typical of a youngster who had started at Highmore High School but left when his family needed help during the Depression. He worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public work relief program, then returned to raise sheep with his family.
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hinkle traveled to Pierre to enlist for a four-year tour. He chose the Marines, he says, because he thought that military branch was the best.
After the fighting ended, Hinkle became part of the occupational force in Japan, where he lived with a local family. When his service ended, the Hinkle family returned to South Dakota.
They farmed near Highmore and North Dakota for a time, then ran a small gas station near Wolsey.
A daughter had contracted rheumatic fever and that, along with memories of San Diego's pleasant climate, sent the family back to California in the 1950s. Hinkle worked with the fire department, becoming assistant chief at a helicopter base in Imperial Beach.
Hinkle returned once to Iwo Jima for a reunion, accompanied by the youngest of his six children, Jauhn. His experience as a Marine paratrooper gave him a special distinction; the parachute regiment had grown out of a training school in 1940. It was disbanded in 1944, and Hinkle received a ground troop assignment. That brought him to Iwo Jima.
He passed on his experiences as a paratrooper to his children, and not only in words.

"When my dad would be in charge of us and Mom not there, he would teach us things," Gailband says. "He would roll the piano stool to the top and teach us to parachute. When we jumped off, we had to tuck and roll. We got pretty good at that

Four Pound Sausage

Second Act by Jauhn Hinkle

     It's said that "in America there are no second acts" And It'd be easy to wrap up this guy's birthday on Memorial Day as "oldest living veteran of Iwo Jima." But it would be coloring a man with only 1 of the crayons in a box that clearly had 64. He was first a "failed rancher/farmer" during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Although he'd probably say that that was nothing compared to surviving the Spanish Flu that killed more Americans by 1918 than WW1. He would casually discount his multiple engagements in the Pacific Theater with "have you ever met a Marine who landed on Tarawa? Me neither."

     For the next 22 years after the war he walked through fire like a Tin foil wrapped Vulcan as a firefighter. Twenty foot flames around engine 54 and his crew on flash practices... Quite a site. Then as a retiree when many of his colleagues went to golf or fish, dad started preparing a nest egg for his 6 kids by rehabbing "fixer uppers," which were plentiful in the 70s of Imperial Beach.

     He was conservative with his money but liberal with his love. He rarely gave me what I wanted: name brand jeans and shoes, but he always gave me what I needed... An iron clad work ethic, an education, RV travels across this great continent and at least once we ate "mutton" under the branches where a kookaburra sang. This time of year I see a lot of selfie college grad photos. And that is AWESOME! 

     But it's important to keep a perspective on the whole journey and remember that none of us pulls ourselves up entirely by our own boot straps. Everything I've ever accomplished was done by squarely standing on the shoulders of a man who dropped out of junior high sometime around the grade where "long division stopped and they started putting Xs in the Mathematics." He gives me hope as a dad because he WASN'T a perfect man and he never stopped evolving and improving himself and the world around him. Happy Birthday Dad. Your life will always be your greatest Memorial

Two Women, Two Paths

Going Back to 5th Grade by Jerry Hinkle

     I was quite shocked to hear that the Miller, South Dakota School Board's decision to allow the men of Gideons International to distribute New Testament Bibles to 5th graders in their school has been as newsworthy as social media is making it. Perhaps it's because the ACLU is protesting the decision. I don't know. I've heard that the Gideons distributed these same Bibles at Georgia Morse Middle school earlier this year, but have heard no official confirmation of the same!

     One of my hobbies is playing "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" on Facebook. A good deal of the time, I am in fact smarter, other days, not so much. I can tell you one thing. Today's 5th Grader is expected to know all matter of things. From the Dewey Decimal system to the biology that I was struggling with in High School.

     They also have a subject that I never did during my 5th grade term, a subject called "Cultural Studies". This subject covers a lot of ground, from fairy tales, and Mythology from the Ancient Greek, Norse, and Egyptian cultures. They study Hinduism and Buddhism as well. American Religion is still of limits to them. Why is that?

     Some say it's because of a Constitutional separation of Church and State. Funny thing about that is that I've read the Constitution and that phrase never comes up-not once. It seems that the Supreme Court had to go outside the Constitution to a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote referring to a "wall of separation" between church and state. This wall was created, not to keep religion out of the state, however, but to keep the state out of religion.

     It seems to me if the school can teach them how the rest of the world worships, or used to worship, the least they could do is is include the Jewish-Christian God for comparison sake. Of course since I have not been blessed with children of my own, I'll just sit back and pray that the right thing is done by the children of this nation. The ACLU may not like the decision of the Miller School Board, but unless they have a child in that district, they need to let it be. If the parents have a problem, they are quite capable of going to the School Board on their own behalf. Perhaps the ACLU and other like minded groups could have someone passing out a booklet on their beliefs right beside the Gideons. Instead of censoring free speech, they need to join in the discussion-respectfully.

 God be with you and do the best you can!

Miller School Board Approves Gideons Bible

     A Mind of the World staff member found this report on the Black Hills FOX News Facebook page. The little town of Miller, South Dakota, with a population of about 1489 people has a lot of people talking about Bibles in School. Opponents of the move cite Separation of Church and State, while the people in favor compare this to the distribution of condoms. Whether or not the Miller School District does, in fact distribute condoms is unknown!
    " The school board in Miller, South Dakota has voted to allow Gideons International to distribute pocket-sized New Testaments to fifth graders in the district. The South Dakota ACLU has sent a letter to the district protesting that move." 
     This could be a story with legs, and if it moves, you can count on the Mind of the World to follow wherever it leads!

Porn in the USA by Jerald E Hinkle

    Pornography in America has been a big issue ever since the Pilgrims tried to ban it in 1620. OK, I could be wrong, but it's been around a while. One of the problems is that nobody can successfully define what pornography is. The best definition I've ever heard came from the man (I assume) who said "I know it when I see it."

     Because of this, and many other factors, any attempt to ban pornography will be about as successful as alcohol prohibition or the "war on drugs" The real answer people gotta censor themselves, and leave everyone else alone. When I was growing up, pornography took the form of photos in magazines, books, and movies. Now it can be found, if you know where to look, on the computer, possibly even a cell phone. Also depending on the your own definition, you can find it on your own TV set.

     Not everyone sees pornography as a problem. With the passage of time, it's becoming more accepted and part of the mainstream of entertainment. No more plain brown wrappers anymore! There are places where pornography is not accepted, like the workplace and public places, and so forth, but the fact still remains that anyone so inclined can get an eyeful at any time. And it's easier now than ever before.

     Is that a good or bad thing? I don't know for sure. I just know that as far as I go, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I sure don't go out of my way to find it. In my younger days, I was curious about such things. Now, I know all I need to! Some have told me that it's "normal" to look for that kind of stimulation, and perhaps it is. I want something better than normal! I call myself to live under a higher set of principles. The temptation to treat the opposite gender as objects of lust is strong. It's a struggle, but one I take on willingly. Part of being human is struggling with our imperfection.

 

God be with you and do the best you can!

When is liking really liking? by Jerald E Hinkle

     Since the advent of Facebook and similar social media, the meaning of some words have changed. Does anyone actually make "friends" the old fashioned way anymore? How closely do we "follow" someone on Twitter? To some people of a certain age, like myself, this can be confusing, but one word above all others has really taken on new meaning:like!
     I came across this phenomenon when my grandma died. My brother informed his "friends" on Facebook, and quite a few of them "liked" the post. It shocked my sensibilities! Early Monday morning a plane crashed in Hyde County, killing all 4 people aboard. When people started to "like" the Keloland article on Facebook, one person spoke up about it.
     I have found myself used to it by now. People use the like button to acknowledge that they read whatever was posted, even if what they read was not truly liked. Those who like an article keep it in circulation, which is good if it is something that people should know about, even if it's bad news!

     How do you use the like button? Be sure to comment on this article with your answer. You can also like or comment on the post asking how you use the like button on the Facebook page of our brother blog, Holabird Advocate! You can also join the Mind of the World Facebook group for further discussion! and of course, drop us a Gmail at publisher@gmail.com

 

God be with you and do the best you can!

Breakfast at Taco Bell?

     Ever since Taco Bell announced that they would be serving up morning vittles, there has been a lot of chatter about it online, most of it in a negatively humorous vein. We here at Mind of the World have decided to ignore all the chatter and find out for ourselves just what kind of breakfast one gets when he or she runs for the border.
     In the interest of full disclosure, our Publisher/Managing Editor works for Pizza Hut. He also holds shares in Yum Brands, the parent company of both the Hut and Taco Bell.
     Getting to the Taco Bell at 7:50 am was no easy task, as rush hour traffic from the MTI students caused our reviewer to employ more caution than usual. Once there, he wondered if the place was open. Upon entering he saw 4 employees, three of which were clocked in. There was nobody else in the building, but the remaining 3 were bust attending to something else until the employee who was waiting for her shift to start called our reviewers presence to someone's attention. This lack of attention worked in their favor, because it gave time for this reviewer to formulate his order.

     Our reviewer ordered the steak and cheese burrito combo, also known as  the #16. This consisted of a steak and cheese burrito (no kidding?), a choice of either hash browns or a Cinnabon Delight, and a drink. The reviewer chose regular coffee and a Cinnabon Delight. At most breakfast places, the coffee is done before the rest of the meal, but the exact opposite happened here. The coffee was hot when it arrived, which is just what one looks for. The burrito was cooked to perfection, and he salsa was not too hot or spicy. In fact, it was barely noticeable. The Cinnabon Delight lived up to it's name and beyond. The Delight is a pastry resembling a donut hole filled with Cinnabon frosting and rolled in cinnamon.

     The reviewers needs were consistently addressed, sometimes before they arose. Electrical outlets for computers and other such devices were readily available, but our reviewer was only able to use Ruby Tuesday's wireless Internet, which was spotty from this location.

     Bottom line, Taco Bell is a great place to have breakfast, and while it may not yet be better that McDonald's, with time, it, and they, may catch on! We give the Taco Bell breakfast 4 forks, even though no silverware was used during the meal!

"God's not Dead" Review

     I've seen several Christian movies in my time. Most of them, to be honest had the same plot. "God's Not Dead", which I watched last night was somewhat different. I heard a lot about it, but didn't know what to expect, I got more than I bargained for!

     As I watched the credits, I noticed that Kevin Sorbo and Dean Cain were listed. Any Christian movie with Hercules and Superman has got to be good!  As it happens there were others in this movie that were less interesting, and I dozed off a few times!

     There are several seemingly unconnected story lines in this film, the main story being that of a college freshman who refuses to admit that "God is dead" and is challenged by his professor (played by Sorbo) to prove to the class that He is not. Also featured are the professors girlfriend, who is a Christian as well. She and her brother (played by Cain) deal with their mother, who has dementia. The brothers girlfriend is a blogger who questions Christianity and soon discovers she has cancer. Rounding out the cast are a man from Communist China who observes the "God is dead" debate, a new Christain who must deal with her Muslim family, as well as a minister who has Christian rock group who sing the movie's musical theme.

I recommend this movie with a rating of 4 popcorn boxes! If you would like to submit a review write our Publisher at publisher@gmail.com

Welcome to the World

When I started blogging 12 years ago, I was a simple country boy who couldn't see past my own Holabird existence. Then I went to DWU, and eventually became a staff writer for the Phreno Cosmian, the Phreno for short. Of all the things I did at DWU, being part of the Phreno was the most fun of all.
Since leaving DWU, I've my life has not been nearly as fun. As it happens the Phreno Cosmian is defunct now! I've been toying with the idea of reviving it in a cost effective format, like I did with the Holabird Advocate. I decided to launch this blog on April Fools Day, because it does seem foolish. That's ok by me though! It will be challenging, but I'm sure it will be fun. I loved the thrill of trying to meet the deadlines at the paper. We'll see if I can do that again!