1. It is Monday April 15, 2019, and that means it is Tax Day! Are your taxes done? After that, adjust your withholding so that you don't have to pay as much.
2. Easter and the beginning of Passover occur during the same period this year. May your thoughts turn to things that are normally outside of our daily experience and give you hope for the future.
3. While visiting wineries yesterday, we discovered a a bucolic scene in northern Loudoun County.
4. It was a rough start for our Under 12 baseball team on Saturday. We dropped our home opener 12-6. But, the game was much closer than the score. A very few small things could have cause the score to be reversed! Next game is Tuesday night!
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Lt Col (ret) Dick Cole |
5. Retired Lt. Col. Dick Cole, the last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders who rallied the nation’s spirit during the darkest days of World War II, has passed away. Cole, who was then-Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot in the No. 1 bomber during the daring 1942 raid to strike Japan, was 103. His passing reminds us of the lopsided struggle against the forces of Imperial Japan during the early days of World War 2 and how this band of 80 men who participated in this spring raid raised the spirits of America and got the country back on the road to eventually triumph against the forces of oppression. Read more in The Air Force Times.
6. I am happy to be back home in Maryland after a week of travel. Maybe I will be caught up by Wednesday.
7. While I am not a fan of rain on the weekends, at least the rain yesterday meant that I did not feel guilty for visiting some wineries instead of working in the yard! I have 15 bags of mulch ready to be places and a lawn that actually needs to be mowed. I believe i will be very busy this evening.
8. Let me wish all of you a Happy Easter and/or a blessed Passover.
9. Today in History. On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number, 42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New York City’s Shea Stadium. Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired by all teams in the league.
Headlines
Tiger Woods, in a Stirring Return to the Top, Captures the Masters at 43 - The New York Times
Is America Becoming an Oligarchy? - The New York Times
Exclusive: U.S. waters down demand China ax subsidies in push for trade deal - sources - Reuters
Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week
A grade school class in Somerville, Massachusetts, recently wrote me to say, ``We studied about countries and found out that each country in our world is beautiful and that we need each other. People may look a little different, but we're still people who need the same things.'' They said, ``We want peace. We want to take care of one another. We want to be able to get along with one another. We want to be able to share. We want freedom and justice. We want to be friends. We want no wars. We want to be able to talk to one another. We want to be able to travel around the world without fear.''
And then they asked, ``Do you think that we can have these things one day?'' Well, I do. I really do. Nearly 2,000 years after the coming of the Prince of Peace, such simple wishes may still seem far from fulfillment. But we can achieve them. We must never stop trying.
The generation of Americans now growing up in schools across our country can make sure the United States will remain a force for good, the champion of peace and freedom, as their parents and grandparents before them have done. And if we live our lives and dedicate our country to truth, to love, and to God, we will be a part of something much stronger and much more enduring than any negative power here on Earth. That's why this weekend is a celebration and why there is hope for us all.
Thanks for listening, and God bless you.
Radio Address to the Nation on the Observance of Easter and Passover, April 2, 1983
-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD