Obama Did It - Regardless of Race

It's no surprise to me that Obama will be the next president of the United States.

He is respected by many in his home state and he grew up like the rest of us common folk.

As the election polls were closing, it was quite apparent that Obama had a considerable lead over McCain.

I, like millions of other Americans, voted for Obama because we as a nation needed a change. A very big change.

The media outlets continuously reminded the world how historic this election was; Obama would be the first African-American president. Is this historic? Of course it is. Do you need to broadcast it for days on end? No.

While many African-Americans voted for Obama, a majority of all other races did as well. Obama was elected by the majority vote of this nation, regardless of race.

It would be a shame if African-Americans see hope for our future only now, because we have an African-American president in office. The fact is, the majority of the nation now has hope because we have a better person in office, regardless of race.

I've learned a lot from my parents. They successfully raised seven children, and we still all love each other. What I value most however, is my dad's humility, his honesty and how everyone I know has a profound respect for him. I once heard my mother speaking to someone on the phone. She commented that she had never heard anyone ever say anything negative about my dad.

I have always tried to live my life the way my dad is living his. Wherever I go,
whatever I do, I walk away hoping people will not have a bad thing to say about me. I was born to be a people-pleaser. I must get it from my dad. I can't be satisfied with life unless I make someone's job or life easier. It's just my nature.

I see some of my dad in Obama. I believe he has integrity. I believe he has the desire to help people. Others in his place, seemed to only want to help the rich.
Obama has felt the pinch of poverty, something millions of Americans live with every day of their lives.

So while this whole election thing may very well be historic, lets get over it and understand the real reason why Obama made it to the White House. We as a nation need a change. If we continue down the path we've been going for the past several years, this country will no longer be a place people will seek refuge. It will be a place people seek to escape from.

Copyright 2008 kalyhan All Rights Reserved

You Know, It Wouldn't Hurt to Make a Phone Call

One of my biggest pet peeves is interacting with someone who lacks common sense or common courtesy. We are a nation short on both. Apparently, we’re not teaching it to our children either. How many times in a week do you hear on the phone, “That’s not my area, you need to speak with so and so.” The person you need may very well be sitting next to the person making that statement, but if you don’t quickly ask to be transferred, you’ll hear a dead phone line in a heartbeat.

I encounter very few people willing to offer assistance or go out of their way to save you a step or two in life. We’ve all been there. You call some office. You need to speak with a particular person. You’re told that person is out to lunch. You’re asked to call back later. Can the person you have on the phone assist you? No. They only handle people whose last name begins with “D”. OK, can the person whom you are speaking to, take a message? No. You’re told it would be better to call after 2:00 PM. You ask if the person you need has voice mail. To which you get the reply, “Um-m-m, yeah, they have voice mail.” So you ask to be transferred to voice mail, to which you hear “Sure, but if I lose you, call back after 2:00.”

You literally have to work the service from many customer service reps today. Frankly, you have to work the service out of many people in society today. So many people cling rigidly to their work instructions or job description in the workplace. If you’re not careful how these documents are written, your employee will be just like their instructions - flat, uneventful and unable to take any initiative, should unexpected situations arise.

Too much time is wasted when you assume others around you will do either what they said they would do, or do something they ought to do, if they had any shred of common decency in their bones. Nobody wants to lift a finger to help anyone out these days, unless they’re confronted face to face. They choose not to deviate from their programming or work instruction.

I’m sure most of the country has heard of the Bonny and Clyde type crime recently committed at the courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee. George and Jennifer Hyatte were arrested last Wednesday for the murder of corrections officer Wayne Morgan.

After having plead guilty to robbery charges, George Hyatte was being led from the Kingston Courthouse by two correction officers. George’s wife, Jennifer Hyatte, reportedly ambushed the corrections officers.

Wayne Morgan died as a result of that ambush. He was a decorated Vietnam Veteran and buried with full military honors in Tennessee. More than 1,000 people attended his funeral. He was a well respected member of society. Wayne Morgan was remembered as a Sunday School teacher and a Deacon at Meadowview Baptist Church. He often ministered to patients in the local nursing home and to prisoners in the town jail.

Wayne Morgan’s death could have been prevented.

Floyd Forsyth is the father of Jennifer Hyatte. Based on his daughter’s strange questioning prior to the ambush, Floyd Forsyth believed his daughter was planning to help free her husband from custody. Floyd asked a probation officer in Utah, where he resides, to alert authorities.

The AP reported that the Utah Department of Corrections officials acknowledged receiving information from Floyd Forsyth regarding the possibility of a prisoner escape. According to the Department of Corrections, an officer planned to contact his counterparts in Tennessee on Tuesday, which happened to be the day of the shooting. In hindsight, the department should have acted sooner, department spokesman Jack Ford said, but the information didn't appear to raise any "red flags" at the time.

Utah should not have been given the choice to determine if the threat was real or not, when it had nothing to do with their state. With the technology we have in this country today, Utah could have simply sent an email to authorities in Tennessee that stated “For what it’s worth, we have been contacted by ….”. It would have taken all of two minutes. Let Tennessee determine if red flags should be raised.

Sorry, Utah. You just cost someone their life because you seem to lack a simple thing called common courtesy. Would it have killed you to send a quick email or made a quick phone call?

I’m especially bent on this pet peeve of mine today. I recently read some of the 911 Commission Report, detailing the horrors of the Twin Towers attack. Pages ten and eleven of the report highlight when the doomed AA and UA flights departed and when they were hijacked. These pages also reflect the confusion between the airlines and the FAA when it comes to determining who is “responsible” for alerting airborne aircraft in emergencies.

According to the report, several FAA officials advised that it was the air carrier’s responsibility to notify aircraft of security problems. The report also states that this statement doesn’t reflect an “adequate appreciation” of the FAA responsibility for the safety and security of civil aviation.

I could not agree more. FAA, you are supposed to be the utmost authority in airline security. You should have alerted all aircraft in the air, as well as on the ground. The airlines should have also taken the initiative to alert it’s flights.

The report shows that air traffic controllers in Boston received a message transmitted from AA flight 11, just before 8:25 AM, that the hijackers had “some planes”.

The report states that the FAA was aware that multiple aircraft were involved in the attacks on the 11th, by 9:00 AM. AA issued a ground stop between 9:05 and 9:10 AM, followed by UA’s ground stop order.

Although the commission report states that FAA controllers in Boston requested that the Herndon Command Center get messages to all airborne aircraft to increase cockpit security, there was no evidence this was done.

Apparently, no one believes in follow-up these days either.

It was one UA flight dispatcher, Ed Ballinger, who took the initiative to begin transmitting warnings to his transcontinental flights at 9:19 AM, on the 11th. Yeah, Ed Ballinger! Why can’t a lot of others operate like you?

While the FAA and the airlines played finger-pointing games determining who is responsible for alerting other aircraft during a crisis, Ed actually started alerting others to the situation. Ed Ballinger was responsible for many flights that morning. Because of this, his transmission to UA 93 was not sent until 9:23 AM. Tragically, this left only 4 minutes from the time the captain received Ed’s message, until the hijacker’s overtook the aircraft.

We have more technology and communication than ever before. Would it be such a big deal to notify first? Determining if a real threat exists can be done after appropriate individuals are notified. In this article alone, we’re talking about law officials and airline captains. Certainly these people are trained to the point where we don’t have to worry about undue hysteria by simply alerting them of a situation. They are professionals. At the very least, let them know. Whether the threat is real or not, let them make that call. We, as receivers of knowledge to potential threats, should just pass on the info as a common courtesy.

The way I see it, people need to learn how to take the initiative. If you see or hear of something that could potentially harm others, pick up the phone and make a call or send an email to alert concerned parties. It should be that easy.

© 2005 kalyhan All Rights Reserved

It Was Just an Accident

I’m sure we all remember the tragic accident that occurred recently in Camden, NJ. Three young boys, ages 5, 6 and 11, suffocated in a car trunk. Having a daughter myself, I’d rather not try to imagine what it was like for one of the boys’ father, when he discovered the three friends in the trunk of an unused car. The three had already died.

It now comes as no surprise that one of the victim’s mother has sought legal counsel in a possible suit against the local police department. I’m not certain if the victim’s mother actually sought counsel, or counsel sought her.

In any event, counsel for the one of the victim’s family claim that the responsibility for the tragic deaths, lies with the police department. Counsel claims that the boys were probably alive while local police conducted their search for the boys, yet they failed to open the trunk of an unused car. Counsel apparently feels that if the police had checked the trunk, the boys would be alive today.

Here is where I for one, would like to step in and smack this lawyer upside the head. Is it me, or is this guy nuts? Yes, we live in a sue-happy country, don’t we?

Not to put the parents involved in this tragedy through any more grief, but why didn’t they check the car trunk?

I wonder if council ever thought to ask the family this question. Are the police responsible for checking a family member’s car trunk when children show up missing?

I think the police have more than enough to do when a child is missing. They cannot be held accountable for looking under every bed, in every trunk and up every tree. No, they don’t have x-ray vision yet. They simply cannot look everywhere. I’m sure they try, especially when children are involved.

We face an age where untold horrors occur when a child is missing. The sickest possible scenarios happen on a daily basis to our kids. I would imagine when police are called out because a child is missing these days, they instantly go into super-hero mode, knowing very well what could happen to that missing child.

Trust me, if my child had ever turned up missing, I would like to think the Police will check the woods, check the park, check the neighbors. I would not expect the Police to check my car trunk, for crying out loud. My car, my trunk. Even if there was an abandoned car in the neighbor's yard, I would not sue the police if the trunk of that car was never searched.

If complaints are actually filed in this case, I can only hope the judge tosses the case out, without giving it any air time. The police cannot be held accountable when we fail to check our own trunk.

It was simply a tragic accident. No, it should have never happened, and no one should be held accountable.

© 2005 kalyhan All Rights Reserved

Death Sentence Overturned For Stupidity

Am I the only one who believes our judicial powers-that-be, have too much power? For as long as I can remember, I have wondered why we lack uniformity in our court system.

I am amazed that someone in this country can either get the death sentence in one state for brutally murdering someone, while in another state, someone committing a similar crime might get a life sentence. What's worse, how does a life sentence equate to 6 or 8 years in other states?

While I don’t know all the ins and outs of U.S. law and probably don’t need to, to make this point.

Let’s say a murderer confesses to a crime and all the hard evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt, this person murdered someone in cold blood. It was no accident, and we’re not talking about abuse cases where the victim fights back. We’re talking about people that break into homes, searching for anything of value to steal, and stumble upon the residents of that home. We’re talking about those individuals who feel it is necessary to murder an innocent convenience store clerk over a few bucks in the cash register. How about the car-jacker who takes your relative for a ride in their own car and then murders them? Why on earth should this person’s sentence be different from state to state? Why on earth would a Supreme Court in Georgia overturn a death sentence for a murderer of this caliber? For stupidity, that’s why.

A recent AP story detailed how the Supreme Court in Georgia overturned the death sentence given to a man who committed such a murder. He was convicted of beating and murdering an 81 year old woman after breaking into her house to steal a television. Not only was he convicted of beating and murdering this defenseless elderly woman, the creep was also convicted of beating and raping the woman’s 60 year old daughter, who was also in the home.

It’s criminals like this, that make me wish society could just walk up to, after the conviction, and put a bullet through their head. They are disgusting individuals. Now remember, we are not throwing cases in here where there is any doubt to the crime whatsoever.

It’s cases like this that make me want to cheer for the death penalty - without the several-years-worth of petitions made after the sentencing. I do however, try my best to be against the death penalty, because ideally, that decision should be left up to God. But honestly, when you have a true gutless individual like this Georgia guy and good solid evidence, then why waste the taxpayer's money - end it quickly.

So why did the Supreme Court throw out the death penalty in this particular case?

Because the attorneys for the defendant found a newspaper article printed two years prior, spotlighting the defendant for being a “Good Samaritan” after saving two
lives (one co-worker and one hospital patient he happened to be passing by).

Where does the stupidity come in? The defense team knew about the “Good Samaritan” article before the trial began, but failed to verify the story or find the survivors or their relatives.

The “Good Samaritan” acts were probably acts that almost any human would do. For the first “act”, the defendant kicked the ladder out from under his co-worker to save him from being electrocuted. For the second “act”, the defendant and his brother helped rescue a disturbed hospital patient while the defendant was visiting his co-worker.

The Georgia Supreme Court apparently thinks the jury should know that the defendant was a “Good Samaritan” before he traumatized and beat up his two innocent victims, murdering one then raping the other.

The “Good Samaritan” plea would look good in a case where a homeowner kills an intruder. It helps to show that the homeowner is a nice person all around.

The “Good Samaritan” plea should have no bearing whatsoever in a case so heinous as the one in Georgia. Sorry Georgia, a real "Good Samaritan" would never commit such a crime.

If the jury must re-evaluate the case in light of the “Good Samaritan” plea and alter their sentence because of this, then I vote to line the jury up in front of a firing squad.

© 2005 kalyhan All Rights Reserved.

Give Me A Break

It comes as no surprise that McDonald’s Corporation was recently hit with a lawsuit because they failed to reduce the fat in their cooking oil.

For starters, the fast-food giant pledged to switch to a lower-fat oil by February, 2003. Look around you, suit-seekers and lawyers-who-apparently-have-nothing-better-to-do. How many times do people or corporations pledge to do something or give something by a particular date. I have yet to see in my short life, any pledges come to fruition by the given date - never, not once. Well, unless you count the times I’ve pledged money to a telethon.

We’re getting a new library in town just a few miles from where I live. I am so looking forward to the opening. Did the library open in the Spring of 2004, like they said it would? Of course not! Did I expect the new library to open like they said they would? Not at chance! At best guess, the library will open in the Spring of 2005, maybe. Should I call my lawyer? File a suit? Why, I’m certain there are others who have suffered some sort of emotional stress over this.

What has this world come to? I can only imagine what I’d be like if I ever made it through law school. If someone came to me with dreams in their head of suing a major corporation or anyone else for that matter, over some stupid little thing like “Oh, they promised to reduce the fat” or “I burned myself with their coffee, because like a fool, I used my legs as a drink holder”, I believe I would look them straight in the eye and politely ask “Are you nuts?”. I think most people around the globe know that coffee is hot, it’s just a fact of life. I believe I drink more coffee than anyone I know. I would never, ever put a cup of coffee between my legs while driving, I was raised to be a bit smarter that that. I also believe that most people with an average IQ realize that reducing the fat content in burgers and fries will not make these food staples healthy, just less tasty.

What’s the matter with these people? I don’t know if I feel sorry more for the people bringing these suits to lawyers or the lawyers actually filing paperwork in court for these cases. If you people have that much free time on your hands, how about helping out the poor men and women in sweat-shop plants around the country who work ten-hour days. These guys show up to work everyday, many with a hot cup of coffee in their hands, only to make a measly $7.00 an hour. Can’t you do anything with big business or the courts to ensure all adult workers having a dangerous job in a 98 degree plant, earn more than $7.00 an hour? These workers have families to support.

If someone is appalled at the fat content in McDonald’s French fries, then don’t eat them. A fast food joint should not be required to supply health food, unless they advertise it. I for one, would take a Yogurt Parfait over the French fries any day. It is not the job of McDonald’s or any other food chain to ensure you don’t gain weight or you don’t die from clogged arteries.

I absolutely love fast food. Do I eat fast food on a regular basis? No! It’s not good for me. I believe I’ve ordered fast food fries maybe twice in the past year. Come to think of it, it’s been a couple of years since I had a fast food burger. I better stop now, I’m feel a French fry attack coming on.

© 2004 kalyhan All rights reserved

Court Room Wall of Shame

What do you call a Lawyer gone bad?

First blog out, and I have to start with the legal system in this country. Is it me, or are we seemingly plagued by a slew of bad judges, making up the rules as they go along?

I could be politically correct and say perhaps, we are plagued by a slew of judges making poor judicial rulings within our court system, but I didn't want to.

I have nothing personal against judges or even lawyers for that matter. It just irks me when I see all kinds of garbage hitting the court system these days. Most of the time, it's either a judge making a poor assumption or a lawyer just doing what he's paid so well to do.

This is where I get to vent over what I feel are some really stupid court cases that make the headlines. I cannot be the only one in the country who feels justice is either grossly cheated in certain cases, or time and a great deal of money is being wasted over really stupid cases.

Depending on the nature of the case, or my given mood at that moment, the blame will be dumped in the lap of either the judge, lawyer, plaintiff, defendant - anyone and everyone is an open target around here.

If we start getting enough reads here, then maybe readers can vote in each week to determine who's name should be scribbled on the "Court Room Wall of Shame".

If anyone knows of a really stupid, legitimate legal case going on, let me know. I might just write about it here. Although I couldn't possibly afford to pay you a cent for the lead, I would be more than happy to mention your name or username, unless you say not to.
© 2004 kalyhan All rights reserved

The Bald Frog With The Wig Question...

For those who caught the profile, you are given a random question or task to respond to, upon blog sign-up. Your reply then becomes part of your profile. My question or task actually, was to respond to the following statement. "The children are waiting! Please tell them the story about the bald frog with the wig." After writing my reply, I learned that the system limits you to only a few words.

How on earth is anyone supposed to tell a story about a bald frog with a wig, using only a couple of words?? They could have told me that long before writing enough material for an entire children's book.

Instead of posting the story on the profile page, I copied it here, as stupid as it may be. I will probably regret it, because this story may just come back to haunt me when I'm older.


"Ok, Ok, Ok. Once upon a time there was this tiny, little frog named Franklin, who desperately wanted to meet the Princess. The Princess however, was going through this groupie-phase thing and would not give poor Franklin the time of day.

The Princess made plans with her friends to secretly skip the ball at the castle and head downtown to catch this new rock band.

Franklin begged Sam, the King's gardener, to take him to the show. Franklin just knew this would be the day he would win the affection of his one true love.

Well sure enough, Franklin and Sam made it to the show later that evening. Sam pushed and elbowed his way through the crowd until he stood right next to the stage. Sam reached into his vest pocket and scooped out tiny, little Franklin. Sam reached into the other pocket on his vest and pulled out a tiny, little wig. He centered it on Franklin's little, bald head. Sam lifted Franklin high into the air and Franklin leapt towards the stage, landing right smack on the piano keys.

Franklin - the Rock Star, was born. The Princess of course, fell head over heels in love with Franklin.

Yep, they lived happily-ever-after, when Franklin wasn't on the road touring, anyway."

© 2004 kalyhan All Rights Reserved.