Storyteller, Gloria Piper Roberson, wrote nine monologues about relationships with fathers, and recruited readers from elementary school to retirement age to share them at our church’s Father’s Day service. Her words fit my relationship with my father, so she graciously encouraged me to rewrite it. I embraced him more lovingly in the process, even though he died when I was nineteen.
    Here’s my story.
    My dad was a shot-put district champion and college wrestler who towered over me at 6’ 4”, and 225 pounds. But he died after leukemia ravaged his body into a helpless 90 pounds. Even as he was dying, I pushed him away, rejecting his manhood, while I searched for mine. Consequently, my relationship with him is a vast, mostly empty, space inside. I wish the void had more of his great stories, like fighting Chinese bandits; and a friendship nurtured over fifty years of Father’s Days.
    He shared little about his faith, even though he spent his last two days at home listening over and over to Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it, Jesus is my plea.
I treasure his stories, especially his last. He promised my sister he’d live long enough to give her away on her wedding day. He made it, but spoke from a wheelchair in the back of the chapel so no one saw his gaunt condition. Immediately afterward, everyone headed for the reception while Dad headed back to the hospital in an ambulance. He’d conquered his toughest challenge, but sat alone, strapped in a wheelchair, exhausted from the struggle, and confronted by grim surrender.
    At that moment, the driver, a stranger I deeply appreciated all these years, asked, “What do you think Mr. Russell, should we turn on the siren?”
    “Yes,” said Dad, who was a Fire Commissioner and knew sirens were forbidden except in emergencies.
    He told family and nurses that last story, chuckling about cars scattered on the side of the road as he triumphantly passed through.
    Of course he never embraced Karen, our children, or their children. Or me, for example when I was inducted into my college’s athletic Hall of Fame.  
    Honestly, I never embraced him. Somewhere, I hope we’ll have a closer walk and embrace each other. I’ll tell him, “I love you, Dad.”
    Several readers shared our experiences. A man said his dialogue matched his relationship with his father whom he hadn’t talked to in years, and admitted he had forgiven him to heal himself. A mother was moved to tears because her monologue fit her wonderful relationship with her father. Amazingly, Roberson wrote the nine scripts based on her relationship with her father during nine stages of her life.
    Other people thanking us convinced me that we all have powerful emotions about our fathers. Father’s Day should be about honoring our relationships because we honor the person we are in the process. Just as our fathers gave birth to us, that relationship gives life to who we are.

My Peoria Central High School's class is holding its fiftieth reunion. It’s the first reunion it’s held, so I’m curious about my classmates’ post-graduate lives. I never regretted never holding reunions. I do regret wasting my high school years. I matured late physically and emotionally, dated infrequently and awkwardly, and behaved clownishly and mischievously. Although I earned a letter in swimming, I never won a race. I’ve attended Karen’s reunions at Ottawa Hills in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was a cheerleader, member of senior national honor society, and queen of service through her ultra-cool social clique. She always had an adoring boyfriend. Girls like her flabbergasted me. Understandably I haven’t enjoyed hearing her classmates reminisce, but I have enjoyed getting to know three of her girlfriends and their husbands. In July she’ll attend her fiftieth reunion. She marvels about revelations in emails on her class distribution list. She said, “I was so naïve. I had no idea about the stuff guys were doing.” She’ll find out about stuff at my reunion, because she is chaperoning me. My shenanigans may show up in emails because they showed up in my yearbook, The Crest. << MORE >>

The performance of East Wenatchee council members on June 9 deserved applause, particularly in contrast to other local governments that are discovering $17 million in-kind obligations, or suddenly freezing hiring. But spectators remained silent because East Wenatchee’s meeting was routine, even boring. Nick Gerde, the City’s treasurer summarized the budget by saying current revenues and expenditures are reasonably close to forecasts. Accurate forecasts make for boring reports and silent spectators. << MORE >>

The military struggles with the ethical question: Do we want our servicemembers to be morally responsible, or do we want them to do as they are told? For voters the ethical question is: Do we want our public officials in administration and the Pentagon to be morally responsible, or do we want them to do as they are told? Currently debate rages about investigating public officials regarding their actions in the use of torture since 911. We have already investigated servicemembers in the military police at Abu Ghraid prison in Iraq. How can we not investigate our public officials and hold them to the same standards? Here are the facts and standards from Abu Ghraid in the case study written by Capt. Rick Rubel, USN-Ret., distinguished Professor of Ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy, and published by the Military Officers Association of America. << MORE >>

Our State government passed a payday-lending bill that has fractured the foundation of Washington’s $1.5 billion payday lending industry. Proponents see the bill as a triumph for economic justice for working people. In the wake of that justice, borrowers may be worse off, lenders may shutter offices, and employees may lose jobs. Let’s remember to serve them. I supported that bill. Based on the latest Department of Financial Industries Payday Report, borrowers paid an average 252 percent interest for a 19-day loan. Social workers have told me their clients got caught in a cycle of these loans and lost pensions and health care. << MORE >>

The Fair Loan Act of 2009 (Bill 1709), which Governor Gregoire may either sign into law in its entirety or veto certain sections as early as Friday May 19, could dramatically improve payday-lending terms for the approximately 8,500 borrowers and lenders in the greater Wenatchee area. Support the bill in its entirety. << MORE >>

Mothers Day’s passed last Sunday, not well at our household. Men, seriously honor mothers, whether they are your mothers, wives, or daughters. It’s important. I muffed it on Saturday, but made things worse after our minister admitted she dislikes Mother’s Day. She is not close to her mother and said her family consists of those who share the values of her ministry. Karen and I agreed she gave a great sermon. I was close to my mother, willingly caring for her through her Alzheimer’s. I honored her on Mother’s Day, I think, with cards on time, flowers, and a phone call. However, I don’t like Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day. They are business schemes to promote flower and gift sales. How can you fulfill on one day the commandment to honor thy father and thy mother? Either it is unnecessary because you regularly do, or it is a farce because you rarely do. << MORE >>

Chrysler’s filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors is good news for those of us who want leaders to solve problems and a warning for people who want to obstruct for principal or greed. It’s a fascinating story. Creditors are owed money by Chrysler. Creditors with the highest priority have debt secured by assets. Next are creditors owed money on a contract, such as UAW workers and suppliers. Last are unsecured creditors such as non-contractual suppliers and employees. The priorities mean investors whose pension hedge fund paid $700,000 for $1 million of Chrysler secured bonds last fall have the right to sell assets and eliminate the job of an employee who has worked there for 30 years. That’s as unfair as someone cutting in front of me to take the last dessert at a church supper. << MORE >>

Families with college bound students compare college reputations, faculty, locations, size, and campus atmosphere. Give highest priority to plans where students graduate with the lowest student debt, preferably zero. Higher tuition, lower grant awards, devastated 529 savings plans, and steep student loan debt make college degrees so expensive that their economic value is barely marginal in today’s economy. Obama’s administration may increase grants aid, but the other three are getting worse. Cost estimates should include tuition, room and board, textbooks, materials, time-in-school (graduates take an average of five years), and interest costs. Costs vary by school. For example, MIT offers 85 percent of their course material online, saving students thousands of dollars in textbook costs. Of course students pay MIT plenty, but individual faculty at other schools are doing the same. << MORE >>

Based on what I saw at the last East Wenatchee Water District meetings and what I later learned from participants, mistrust between EWWD commissioners Michael McCourt and John Sterk and EWWD attorney Michael Arch on the one side, and activist Fred Wiltse and former commissioner candidates Jim C. Davis and G. Brian Egan. I think the mistrust will continue through the elections, but perhaps politics could lead to easing the mistrust. << MORE >>