This is a picture taken on 9/11/01 from the International Space Station borrowed from an MSN article here. Wow!
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Patriot Day – In Remembrance of 9/11
Patriot Day, not to be confused with Patriots’ Day commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord, was created by Congress in October of 2001 and signed into law by President Bush on December 18, 2001 in remembrance of the 2,977 people that perished in the Terrorist Attack on September 11, 2001. This is a solemn day of reflection on the lives lost, rather than a holiday to be celebrated. Flags are to be flown at half staff across the nation.It is hard to believe that we’re eleven years past that fateful day. It is unfortunate that so many of our troops have perished bringing those responsible to justice, but we should all be proud of their efforts and sacrifice. It makes me cringe that one of those accomplishments has been reduced to a bumper sticker slogan in the current election campaign. It strikes me as disrespectful… Necessary and Just, but not something to boast about.
I have a nephew that has served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past six years. My college roommate recently retired from the Army and was also involved there. They are among many that we all know who have served our Country and moved the conflict overseas and away from our shores. They all deserve our thanks on this day as well as every day. Flying flags at half staff is a simple way to show that we remember their sacrifice.
In doing a little research today, I ran across this site: Half Staff American Flag Notifications It has a widget to display the American flag and will show it at half staff with the explanation of why it is at half staff if you want to add it to your website.
I also found this site: What on Earth is that Flag? It’s where I borrowed the picture in the upper left from. It is in a blog format and has lots of different flag information, not only about about the American flag, but State flags, other country’s flags and common flags such as the Olympics’ flag as well.
Take time to think about those that lost there lives this day eleven years ago and how that event has changed all of our lives to this day. Please lower your flag in respect.
Euel Birge 1933-2012
Picture borrowed from the Rochester Sentinal
Euel Birge was a long time Easterday Construction Co., Inc. employee, working with us from 1968 until his retirement in 1999. Thirty one years with our company is something we’re proud of. Hopefully he was as well. Unfortunately Euel passed away last Saturday. There will be visitation from 5-8pm this evening at Zimmerman Bros. Funeral Home in Rochester. Services will be at the funeral home Thursday, September 6th at 10:00 am. Friends may visit 1 hour before the services as well. Memorial contributions may be made to Hope Hospice of Fulton County. His obituary can be found at The Rochester Sentinal here.
I personally worked with Euel on job sites during summers and holidays when I was home from college. He had a quiet sense of humor and was always caring and helpful. I remember working with him at the Kingsford Waste Water Treatment Plant uncrating equipment when an overly tight piece of metal banding broke loose, slicing my hand quite badly. I still remember his concern with getting me proper first aid quickly.
Years ago, before I started this blog, I wrote a company newsletter, The Easterday Parade. Below is a reprint of an article that I wrote on Euel back in 1991.
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Euel Birge was hired by Everett Easterday to be a machine operator for Russell L. Easterday Construction & Supply Co. in February of 1968. Euel was our main operator for our crane, Sandford, when we had it, and our various backhoes and front-end loaders over the years. He has a talent for handling equipment, which makes it look much easier than it is.
When he isn’t running equipment, Euel has utilized other talents as a skilled laborer and a carpenter. With the exception of the “Kangaroo Incident” at CMA, he has always been a reliable worker…
As the story goes, Euel was using the Trojan Backhoe on a project at the Academy when he spotted a kangaroo. Euel gave chase, but the Trojan, not being a piece of equipment known for stealth, scared the ‘roo away. Unfortunately, no corroborating witnesses to this sighting were available.
Euel was born in Glasgow, KY and moved to Frankfort, IN at the age of 4. He grew up in a family of 11 children. He spent two years in the Army (1953-54), and married Pat, also from Frankfort, on August 11, 1956. Euel and Pat have two children, Kevin and Dan, and five grandchildren.
Euel and Pat live on a small farm and raise grass. The kind you mow, not the kind you harvest! (But honestly, doesn’t this make you wonder about that Kangaroo story?) Euel spends most of his free time on his riding mower. Otherwise, his main hobby is woodworking.
Euel plans to continue woodworking and watching the grass grow when he retires. After 23 years with ECC, he has become someone we rely on. Thanks, Euel, for all your efforts.
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Follow up 9-6-12: I attended the funeral with my father today. It was a nice service. His time at Easterday Construction was mentioned and I learned that Euel’s son, Kevin, also worked for Easterday’s for a short time. It was interesting to hear the stories the family shared of his life outside of the company as well as his life in retirement. Euel was always fairly quiet, so it was good to hear what was shared.
Easterday Construction was apparently well represented as Leroy Bean, Norm Coby, Dave Osborn, all of them Easterday Construction retirees, were at the funeral or the visitation. Current employee, John Singleton, also attended the visitation last night. We all wish Euel’s family the best in their time of grief.
VTAC
I had the opportunity last Tuesday night to visit some of the founding members of VTAC, Veterans Therapeutic Art Center. I sat down with Larry, Terry, Richie, and Dan at the MoonTree Studios facility (MoonTree Community Studios is a Ministry of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ) where they have been allowed to use the woodworking shop as a start up location. The organization is going to cover a seven county area serving veterans and their families. Their information shows that there are over 50,000 veterans in this area and they are conservatively estimating a clientele of around 150,000 when they include families. These four men are all veterans and they shared with me some of the struggles in coming back and reintegrating into society. They explained that many veterans tend to pull into a shell, never leaving home, and often end up resorting to the bottle to cope. The organization is very young and just recently received their 501(c)3 designation. Despite this they are already working in multiple venues beyond the woodworking, providing culinary arts, an art studio, music studio, multimedia computer lab, photography studio and metal sculpturing. Currently experts in these fields are volunteering their time to provide these services. They have hopes of expanding into auto mechanics and other hands-on fields as well.
Picture borrowed from MoonTree Studios blog
They are hoping to set up facilities throughout their territory with various opportunities to draw out the veterans. Their feeling is that by including families, family involvement will encourage the veterans themselves to participate. They know that veterans are very independent and often introspective. In many cases they have skills that are valuable but they have issues that prevent them from integrating into a regular workplace. One of their other plans is to form a barter system where veterans can share their skills on a peer to peer basis. For example they discussed the possibility of being able to have a veteran electrician do work at a home in exchange for something like accounting services if the recipient has those types of skills. The possibilities are somewhat unlimited with that type of program so it could be a huge resource. This is also another way to get the veterans involved in a sub-community, if not the greater community at this point, and should help them integrate back into society. As the organization is young they do not know exactly what they will morph into but their long range plan is to expand the group into additional 7 to 8 county hubs throughout the region and eventually nationally.
They discussed with me the problems with the current veteran programs that are out there. These programs often are available, but they are not run by veterans, so there is no connection of shared experience. They surprised me when they told me that in these programs, even including the VA (U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs ), the personnel are rarely veterans. Often the programs are known, but the details on how to access them are vague. Not only will VTAC be providing their in-house services, but they also hope to be a clearing house where a veteran can come and find out about other services. VTAC will try and connect them to someone who has been through the paperwork and other requirements to apply for help.
They showed amazing enthusiasm and energy for getting this project off the ground. It truly looks like they have found a need that can be answered and they have found a unique way to address it. It will be interesting to follow their progress. I want to wish them every success!
They are having a silent auction and open house event October 20th from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM at MoonTree Studios. They are hoping that this will be a way to bring veterans together and inform the community about their programs. The auction will then be a fundraiser for the program and will include some of the furniture pieces that they have refurbished in their woodworking shop. Mark your calendars to be there!
RAGBRAI ’12 Wrap-up
RAGBRAI ’12 has wrapped up for Becky without incident. That’s if you don’t count temperatures as high as 112, 20 mph headwinds, campsite storm evacuations, heat rash, sore knees, etc. They were off the bikes and on the road home by about 4:30 and made pretty good time, getting home about 9:00pm.
Thanks to everyone that showed their support!