THE EASTSIDE ROTARY TRADITION
May 15, 2012
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AROUND THE TABLES
Paul Young was back with
us on his in-migration from Florida and Hod Symes announced he
would be in Vermont till Fall. Chad Higdon was a visitor from
Southside, but with no agenda; “Just making up”. Jerry Yurth brought
Josh Middendorf who took over Jerry’s practice. Josh is a native of the
Hannibal area and trained in St.Louis, but his wife is a Saint Joe girl
and that was all it took to put him in NW Mo. Susie was this week’s
birthday girl (see photo in hat)
Jess Mattsen has wound up the Orphan shoe collection and gives a
special thanks to Payless Shoes. The district will send a truck through
this weekend to pick up the shoes And of course, we will continue our
major shoes project with Royal Family Kids Camp.
Eastside’s Anniversary Dinner takes off next Thursday May 24
with a 5:30 social hour. We will eat at the Remington Nature Center
dining room and the food will be catered by J.C Wyatt. If you haven’t
already booked your seat, contact Amy Ryan IMMEDIATELY. Also
she needs to know who wants wine and who wants beer since these are
being provided by the club. Then there are us schmo’s who have to ask
for diet cola.
Two fine members have had to resign for work reasons and they
will be missed—Mark Trullson and Tom Roetto. Tom’s position as
president-elect has been filled by the Board, subject to membership
approval. Susie will present the new leadership next Wednesday.
Eastside bought a table for the Empty Bowls hunger lunch May 31
at Wyatt Park Baptist Church. There are still a couple spaces left;
contact Susie if you want to go.
Sherri Hahn was the secret sergeant this week and recognized Ed
Gorsky in the best-dressed category where he’s frequently found. She
called his shirt “pink”; it looked to me more like “salmon” and Ed
declined to color it further. Whatever, he always looks good.
By-laws notice #1: Dan Hausman and Josh Middendorf have been
approved for membership.
Our rained-out work session at Family Alliance is now re-scheduled
for this coming Saturday, May 19, at 9 a.m. Assembly of the
playground equipment will involve lots of bolting, so bring cordless
drills and socket sets and ratchet wrenches.. Also general use tools like
pliers, crescent wrenches and hammers.
Very important—work
gloves; these wooden beams can be splinter makers.
Eastside Finances: Dave has issued your bills for Jan-Mar. 2012.
Pay up quickly because you’ll be getting your 2nd quarter bill in about
six weeks, and paying them close together might create your own cash
crunch. You don’t want to wake up with that “JPMorgan” feeling in
the morning!
You “over sixties” take note that the shingles vaccine is back in
the news. Pfizer has opened a new production facility , making
Zovirax easier to obtain and maybe a bit cheaper. They are starting to
run ads showing shingles victims giving personal misery testimonials,
rather like our old ROTC sergeant gave in his VD lecture—“It’s hell.
Don’t get it!” Watch for vaccine “specials” at your chain pharmacies.
Read at the Library
Among the many
problems she confronts as a library executive, Barb Read (see photo)
must deal with people who want to censor the shelves. Books intended
for adult reader are usually selected from the New York Times bestseller lists. This resulted in Madonna’s book, “Sex”, being purchased
and there was lots of demand for it. Since it was very graphic and they
did have protests, they kept it in the safe and delivered it directly to new
borrowers from lock and key. Thus no kids could accidentally take it
off the shelf. This protection meant that it took years to get the book to
all who had wanted it. Now much censorship emphasis is directed
against childrens’ literature, sometimes because of the plot but often
because of just one phrase or sentence. Over half those who protest
have to admit that they have not seen the book, much less read it.
(Evidently they pick up the title at Sunday school and go from there.)
Quite often though the librarians can explain away the objection of a
single protestor. Barb’s most notable experience dealt with a book,
“Tango Makes Three” in which a penguin egg is hatched by two
“bachelor” birds. There were folks who thought it encouraged
homosexuality. In fact the book remained in the library after Barb had
a hearing at which they explained that the circumstances are based on
actual penguin behavior. Unfortunately for her, the headline writer at
our local press did not read his reporter’s coverage and reported exactly
the opposite of what happened. This resulted in Barb being spread
across Associated Press and all other news media (including some
overseas) as the lady who banned the penguin book. She has not yet
lived that down, although she didn’t do it in the first place. Some
censors don’t bother with filing a letter of protest—they may just go
through the art book section with a razor and cut out the pages that
show Venus de Milo or other explicit illustrations. Or they may check
out all the books they object to and never return them. It is impossible
to justify censorship. Barb asked the club if any of us could name one
person he or she would trust to be appointed as a personal censor of
his/her reading. You can’t do it.
COMING PROGRAMS May 23 Bob Slater, on Saint Joe History; May 30
Barb Read on Rolling Hills’ Bookmobile.
The Tradition is the weekly news bulletin of The Rotary Club of Saint
Joseph, East. Eastside meets every Wednesday at noon, at the Albrecht
Gallery, St.Joseph, Missouri. Officers for the 2011-2012 Rotary year are:
Susan Campbell, President; Heather Shearin, President-elect; Shawn
Drew, Past President; Tom Roetto, Vice-President; Dave Richmond,
Treasurer; Jeanne Chavez, Secretary; Director, Club Service: Amy Ryan;
Director, Community Service, Mark Trullson; Director, Vocational
Service, Lynette Saxton; Director, International Service, Sjoert
Zuidhof;Membership Chairman, Jane Graves; Rotary Foundation
Chairman, Jim Fitzgerald; Public Relations Chairman Alan VanZant;
Senior Advisors: Ron Auxier, Ken Hamlin ..