Louis Roney: Just thoughts

• Restaurants in Winter Park have generally proved to be worthwhile to our Tuesday Evening Eating Meeting Group. However, recently our little band of hopeful gourmets struck out: b.w. and I could not go past the first bite of our Paella entree. Our companions also reported thumbs-down on a dinner that was medium-high priced. Someone had recommended the restaurant, but I have amicably forgotten who it was.

• Martha Washington, whose birthday was June 2, remarked, “I am determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” Amen!

• Peace is wonderful, and a peaceful atmosphere in sunny Winter Park has drawn people here for generations. As a kid, I longed for excitement, and was surprised that it was “peace” that brought the rich in droves from up north to our amiable little town. After leaving Winter Park at 18, I lived in Boston, New York, London, Paris, Milano, Florence, Vienna, Frankfurt-am-Mein, Berlin, Zürich, Basil, among others. But at the end of the line, I was drawn back to Winter Park with my b.w., and we both celebrate the day!

• The long-term effects of football’s head injuries become ever more evident. Football is a game I played, and is a game I love, but I remember receiving a blow to my head in a night game once, that knocked me out for several minutes. That kind of blow is, of course, a concussion. And, too many of these can endanger a person’s brain, and whole lifetime. Helmets have been greatly improved and rules have been made to protect the players’ heads as much as possible. But the very concept of football is a rough game with violent contact, and will always carry with it the threat of serious injury.

• Just a thought: How often are we Americans constantly warned that next year, in five years, in 10 years, yesterday, tomorrow, Social Security will run out of money? But we never hear that welfare or food stamps are or will be out of money. The Social Security group worked for that money, the others didn’t. Just asking!

• Musing upon the fact that a letter to Canada costs $1.10, up from a recent 89 cents, I deduce that e-mail is the guilty party—I, myself e-mail almost all my personal correspondence. I hope that the government doesn’t change its e-mail policy to make up for its lost shekels—but I suppose it’s just a matter of time!

• It’s a hard world to manage yourself in. Your strongest instincts may derive from self-preservation. But just wait until all the others ask you to help them do the same. You will be accused of doing wrong, but it will be the same wrong all the others are doing at the same time. Of course, people are not perfect, but the model by which they judge all other human beings is that of absolute perfection. The few possible imperfections in their mates are usually not worth quibbling about. If my b.w. has imperfections, they are too minor for me to notice— while I do notice a few faults in myself that I may try to better. I don’t want to be a “goodie, goodie” but I wouldn’t mind being “better, better.”

• Bill Ayers is no Robin Hood. Reading of the life and activities of Ayers, I wonder at the way well-meaning people so often promulgate bad guys, and allow them to memorialize themselves after they have done their dirty work. Ayers is a villainous co-founder of the Weather Underground, a Communist subversive organization that bombed the Pentagon, police stations, office buildings, etc. He surely remains a villain in the eyes of those who know his unsavory history.

•“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished in public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people in order to betray them.” —Joseph Story, “Commentaries on the Constitution,” 1833

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”— Thomas Paine