Culver Citizen article announcing Francis Ellert's candidacy 12-10-09
I had lunch with Francis last Friday. I’ve been friends with Francis for more than a decade now. We met when we served on the Culver Chamber of Commerce Board together. He is someone I respect and we meet on occasion to attempt to solve the world’s problems… or at least to discuss how they’re currently affecting us.
Well, Francis has stepped up and is taking it to the next level. He has made the choice to get politically involved and actually do something about it. He has announced that he is running for the District 17 State Representative position. Not that he hasn’t been involved before now. He has served on many boards such as the Chamber Board where I met him. He’s well known in the community and I think he has an excellent shot at this.
I’m pretty stoked about the possibility of having someone of Francis’s quality representing us in the General Assembly. He has a good head on his shoulders and and he’s not afraid to take on a challenge. Plus, the main thing I like about Francis is that I know he will listen. I am constantly frustrated by politicians that make decisions for us without understanding the issues. How hard is it to ask those that it will affect? I trust Francis to make informed decisions. I also trust him to have the humility to accept it when I bust his chops if he slips up on this! Ha!
Best wishes for a successful campaign, Francis! I think we would all benefit from your success in this endeavor.
++++++++++++++++++
Update: WTCA Radio has some good background information on Francis on a web page here.
Last week Becky and I took some time off and went south. The 5 degree temperatures this morning made us wonder why we came back!
We spent some time in Atlanta with friends and one of the things we did was visit the Georgia Guidestones. The Guidestones are in Elbert County, Georgia, east of Atlanta. They’re on a hilltop out in the country and a little difficult to find. I had read about them in a newspaper article a while back and we’re always looking for interesting things to do while we’re there. This was a nice drive and an interesting display.
The stones have a sort of manifesto inscribed on them, which appears to be a blueprint for a new civilization after some catastrophic event. It is carved into the stones in eight different languages. They read as follows:
Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
Unite humanity with a living new language.
Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Balance personal rights with social duties.
Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.
They have several precise cuts in the stones that have astronomical significance, such as a hole through which the North Star can be seen and and an aperture in the capstone that allows a ray of sunlight to shine through at noon each day. One of the other interesting things is that there is a time capsule and some inscriptions that remain unfinished, even though, by all accounts, the work was completed per specifications.
It’s unfortunate that some individuals have taken it upon themselves to deface them. Whatever their intent, the Guidestones are an interesting feature on the landscape. It’s probably not something I would make another trip to see, but it was worth one visit.
Wikipedia has an entry on the Georgia Guidestones here. More of the story about how the Guidestones came to be can be found at the Wired Magazine site here.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-S.C): Can you give me a case in United States history where a enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?
ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don’t know. I’d have to look at that. I think that, you know, the determination I’ve made —
GRAHAM: We’re making history here, Mr. Attorney General. I’ll answer it for you. The answer is no.
HOLDER: Well, I think —
GRAHAM: The Ghailani case — he was indicted for the Cole bombing before 9/11. And I didn’t object to it going into federal court. But I’m telling you right now. We’re making history and we’re making bad history. And let me tell you why.
—————-
GRAHAM: If bin Laden were caught tomorrow, would it be the position of this administration that he would be brought to justice?
HOLDER: He would certainly be brought to justice, absolutely.
GRAHAM: Where would you try him?
HOLDER: Well, we’d go through our protocol. And we’d make the determination about where he should appropriately be tried. […]
GRAHAM: If we captured bin Laden tomorrow, would he be entitled to Miranda warnings at the moment of capture?
HOLDER: Again I’m not — that all depends. I mean, the notion that we —
GRAHAM: Well, it does not depend. If you’re going to prosecute anybody in civilian court, our law is clear that the moment custodial interrogation occurs the defendant, the criminal defendant, is entitled to a lawyer and to be informed of their right to remain silent.
The big problem I have is that you’re criminalizing the war, that if we caught bin Laden tomorrow, we’d have mixed theories and we couldn’t turn him over — to the CIA, the FBI or military intelligence — for an interrogation on the battlefield, because now we’re saying that he is subject to criminal court in the United States. And you’re confusing the people fighting this war.
Watch the an extended clip of this exchange on YouTube here.
Aunt Lana in the middle. My Aunt Jeanette and my father on either side.
My Aunt Lana passed away this past April. She lived in Aurora, CO. She had no children and I was the oldest of her nieces and nephews. A couple of years back she asked me if I would assume her various Power of Attorney responsibilities including the position of Co-Personal Representative for the execution of her will. I had a little trepidation in accepting this responsibility, but decided to take it as an honor that she trusted me with her affairs and potentially with her life decisions. Besides, there would be no need for this until some far off date! At that time she was only 63…
Aunt Lana as a teenager
Aunt Lana was diagnosed with possible kidney cancer early this Spring. She had various tests and went into the hospital for a biopsy and hopefully to have the cancer removed. To the best of my knowledge, everything went well with the surgery. They removed the cancer and she was released to return home. The Doctor deemed the surgery successful. She complained of some pain, but that was expected. She passed away just a few days later on April 9th, just four days before her 65th birthday.
Aunt Lana, "Hahahahahaha...."
I have several reasons for sharing this. First and foremost is to tell you that Aunt Lana was a lurker on this blog. She never posted a comment, but she generally sent me emails with comments on what I had written. They were always positive and often tinged with her signature humor and her standard sign-off, “Hahahahahahahahaha…” I miss hearing from her.
Aunt Lana's Yearbook Picture
My second reason is to explain to any other lurkers and clients that might peruse this blog, why I’ve been a bit distracted lately. Posts here have slipped as well as other things, both personal and professional, as I’ve dealt with this. As you may well guess, there are emotional issues from the unexpected loss, issues with responsibilities of being her Personal Representative and the physical issues of trips to her home in Colorado and dealing with the personal things she left behind. Colorado requires that a Personal Representative on a will be a resident, so I am Co-Personal Representative with her friend Peter, in Aurora. Peter has been extremely helpful. He obviously was a good friend of Lana’s and I think I can count on him being a personal friend when this is over. My parents have also been helpful, making two trips to Aurora to help sort and pack her things. The rest of the family has been supportive in various ways as well. I have heard many horror stories about these things and I have been pleased that my family has not given me any of those to tell… so far… (And I can hear Aunt Lana, “Hahahahahahahaha…”)
Aunt Lana and "The Boys". Her dogs were her life.
And lastly, some tips. Aunt Lana lived alone with her dogs. Those dogs were her life. In the end she failed to make arrangements for the pets that meant so much to her. While she left me with some instructions regarding her personal things, they were not extensive. If you don’t have a will, consider that this is something better done sooner rather than later. Aunt Lana left me with some tough decisions to make. I am doing my best to follow what I would believe to be her wishes, but I am guessing at best.
As I mentioned previously, Aunt Lana had named me as her Power of Attorney. One of the responsibilities included administering her Living Will. Fortunately I did not have to exercise those powers. If you don’t have a Living Will, you should have one. If you do have one, you know that the document is somewhat vague. Lana’s Attorney provided her with a Living Will Value Assessment that allowed her to answer questions based on various health scenarios. While it wouldn’t make the task easy and it can’t cover every possible scenario, it gave me a lot of insight into her thinking and would have made the difficult decisions easier. (I have it in a PDF file if anyone is interested. Contact me with an email address and I will send it out. I still haven’t figured out how to link things other than pictures to the posts! <sigh!>)
I’ve also learned a few things about Life Insurance. Aunt Lana took out a policy that named me as beneficiary. It was taken out at about the same time that I was named as P.A., so I assume that she did this in order to make sure I had some money for expenses. Life insurance is outside the estate and can be paid in as little as 10 days from when the company receives the death certificate, while it took nearly 8 weeks to gain access to the accounts due to various filings with the State. It was only a $5,000 policy, but it would have covered some of the immediate expenses. Unfortunately there was fine print with the contract. Since she passed away within 24 months of starting the policy, all the policy would do would be to return the premiums paid. In reading the terms of the policy, I was quite surprised that she would have paid more than the $5,000 value within 6 or 7 years, but the policy would not mature for 30 years! Not the best value! It was particularly interesting that this was a policy endorsed by AARP.
This is a learning experience for me. I’ve learned things about my Aunt that I didn’t know. I am learning about the process of tying up the loose ends of one’s physical life. I would hesitate before accepting this responsibility from someone in the future and I would definitely quiz the individual before hand. I am already pestering people that have asked me to serve as their Medical Power of Attorney to fill out the Value Assessment. Hopefully all this will help me leave a more organized estate, but you never know. Procrastination is very convenient when dealing with decisions about your death. It’s not like it’s going to happen tomorrow… right? Right???
