Saturday, March 6, 2004 | 1:58 a.m.
For 25 years Mike O'Callaghan shared his knowledge and life's experiences in the Las Vegas Sun's "Where I Stand" column. Here are a few excerpts:
On the Southern Nevada Children's Home, Dec. 13, 1997:
" 'This is an outdated method of caring for neglected and abused children. Foster homes is the modern way to help them,' was heard time and time again from state administrators and legislators eager to close the Southern Nevada Children's Home. ... So they closed down the home in Boulder City as they had, a few years earlier, closed the home in Carson City. Then they passed around $30 million of pork for questionable projects that will help them get returned to office."
On homeless people, March 28, 2002:
"Running the homeless from place to place, in and out of the city, is not only wrong, it could be considered a crime. Certainly this is not appropriate treatment of fellow human beings. ... For several years I had the privilege to know homeless people fed by the Catholic Workers. They weren't just a bunch of bums. Many would ask to be fed early so they could get picked up for a job that day. Some would work several hours in the heat or cold and still not make enough money to rent a room for the night. ... No, they aren't all just misfits or lazy, but they are all human beings."
On terror in Israel, March 14, 2003:
"ASHDOD, Israel -- Just another day at school for the children of Israel and the United States. This thought ran through my mind as I watched local youngsters with their backpacks climb aboard a bus. As the bus pulled away from the curb, I saw a mother, waving goodbye to a child on the bus. Was she thinking about what she would be preparing for the evening meal or was her mind clouded with the fear this would be the last time she would see her child alive? Would she be hearing the sirens of ambulances and be called to identify her child's body or would the rescue workers find only a bloody and tattered backpack and sneakers. Too often this scene has been repeated in Israel during the past few years."
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2003:
"Veterans Day, known as Armistice Day when I was a kid, has several meanings and stirs different memories in many Americans. For my father, a veteran of both the U.S. and Canadian armies during World War I, it reminded him of peace. Also at school we would all stand silent by our desks at 11 a.m. to recall the signing of the armistice that ended that war on Nov. 11, 1918. Following World War II and the Korean War, we changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day to salute even more veterans. Time will be found today to call a dwindling number of friends who I served with in the military. Their friendship has a special meaning to me but each year there are fewer phone calls to make."
On nurses, Dec. 19, 2003:
"Nurses have played an important role in my life since undergoing some rather serious surgery at a field hospital unit in early 1953. That was only the beginning of several hospital experiences for me during the next 50 years. All of them were made more comfortable and healing because of nurses. Doctors make it possible to live. Nurses make you want to live."
On family, Dec. 24, 2003:
"The greatest gift many of us have is our family. Last week we received a Christmas card from my brother-in-law in California. It was signed Harry, not Harry and Rilla as it has been for 50 years because my younger sister died last summer. Just looking at that card gave me a hollow feeling and made my mind race back over the years. Our days on the farm working in the fields, her wedding announcement arriving during my last tour of duty overseas and her Harry leaving for his second tour of duty in Vietnam all came back into focus. This year he will be having Christmas dinner with their children and grandchildren. He is among the fortunate people having a family to be with today. Some people don't have that good fortune."
On the price of drugs, Jan. 30, 2004:
"Last month this column gave the AARP full credit for a flawed health bill promoted by President George W. Bush and passed by Congress. It is now a law that insurance companies, health care providers and the drug industry love. The close ties the AARP has with insurance companies raised more than a few eyebrows. ... Evidently the president and legislators believe it is OK to pay whatever the drug companies demand because it's only tax dollars or from the pockets of those who don't make big campaign contributions. A government agency purchasing several hundred cars gets a reduced price, but the same type of shopping isn't appropriate when buying drugs? Why not?"
archive
