Monthly Archives: August 2015

Shooter Kills (Fill In Number) Again

by Woody

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Shooter Kills (Fill In The Number) Again

In the 1920s, the “Golden Age of Sports,” tennis legend William “Big Bill” Tilden defeated his rival William “Little Bill” Johnston so frequently in major matches that newspapers were said to keep a headline set in hot-lead type:

Tilden Beats Johnston Again

In this computer age, it seems American newspapers could save time by programming a save-get key with a different, somber headline:

Shooter Kills (Fill In The Number) Again1gunviolence

Fill in the number is wrong. Fill in the names. Fill in the faces, the individuals, the loved ones, the friends, the co-workers, the fellow citizens. Fill in the “There but for the grace of God go I.”

Wednesday, once again a headline needed to be filled in: Shooter Kills 2, Wounds 1 on live TV in Virginia.

Television reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, were gunned down in cold blood by a madman. Vicki Gardner, who was being interviewed, was critically wounded. Before taking his own life, the maniac posted video of his heinous act on Twitter and Facebook.

Words fail me. But I will still try. This is a column I could write once a month. No, weekly. Shooter Kills (Fill In The Number) Again.

Shooter Kills 5, Wounds 2 at military recruitment center in Chattanooga

Shooter Kills 9, Wounds 1 in a Church in Charleston

Shooter Kills 5, Wounds 1 at Marysville-Pilchunck High School

Shooter Kills 13, Wounds 8 at Washington Navy Yard

Shooter Kills 20 Children And 6 Adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School

Shooter Kills 12, Wounds 58 at Aurora Movie Theater

This is just a short list of mass shootings in America in the last three years. Mass shootings make headlines, but according to the CDC all shooting-related deaths – homicides, suicides and unintentional – combined total more than 30,000 annually in the U.S.

In other words, the number of civilians killed by guns on U.S. soil in one year alone surpasses the 2,996 casualties suffered in the 9/11 terrorist attacks tenfold. As Pogo cartoonist Walt Kelly wrote: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

If that doesn’t numb you, those 30,000-plus annual gun-related deaths average out to about 82 lives lost each day, day after day ad nauseam.

No other country comes close to our killing fields, killing streets, killing movie theaters and killing schools.

I know this column will anger many of my readers, maybe even lose some of them. So be it. The NRA and its hard-line supporters have long been controlling the issue of gun control, derailing meaningful compromise and progress. Their thwarting all new measures has not helped thwart the shooting violence.

When our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, it took 30 seconds to reload a gun to get off a second shot. Today, in those 30 seconds a madman can squeeze off enough bullets – including bullets designed to pierce armor – to cause the headline: Shooter Kills 50.

Guns are designed to kill – animals of game, yes, but also people. Handguns are designed especially to kill people. And semi-automatic guns are designed to kill a lot of people, quickly.

Polls show the vast majority of Americans want gun-control legislation increased, but our lawmakers ignore us and kowtow to the powerful gun lobby. Since they refuse to listen to the public they serve, it is long past time to replace them with leaders who do hear us.

I don’t know about you, but henceforth my No. 1 issue when voting for any politician, from local supervisor to congressman to president, will be their stance on guns. All candidates aim to strengthening our economy and ensure national security; I want ones who don’t shoot down legislation aimed at lessening future shootings.

Democrat, Republican, Independent, if someone seriously and believably makes gun control his or her top priority at the risk of becoming an enemy of rich lobbyists, they have my vote.

We have a Constitutional right to bear arms, yes, but how many more “Shooter Kills (Fill In The Number of Lives Not To Be Fully Lived) Again” headlines must we bear to read?

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

Back-to-School Good Samaritan

by Woody

 Woody’s acclaimed memoir

WOODEN & ME is available HERE at Amazon

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Back-to-School Good Samaritan

Too often a story becomes news because someone is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

David Pichon is the flip side of the coin.

“I just happened to be in the right place, at the right time,” David shares, adding an all-important third element, “in the right frame of mind.”1schoolsupplies

The right place was Walmart in Camarillo. The right time was mid-afternoon two Mondays past. The right frame of mind is something David, now 50, learned as a boy from his father: “If you can, you should.”

So when David, who stands 6-foot-4, was milling around waiting for a cashier’s check to be printed so he could pay his rent, saw 5-foot-2 Maya Geisler struggling to reach notebooks on the top shelf, he stepped in to help.

Realizing Maya had forgotten to get a shopping cart, David next went to retrieve one while she counted out notebooks for her incoming class of 24 second-graders at Somis Elementary School.

“I thought that was so nice,” Maya recalls.

The kindness was only beginning.

If you can, you should. On his way to see if his cashier’s check was ready, David asked a store clerk to let him know when Maya got in line for the register.

When she did, David appeared. Doing some second-grade math in his head, he quickly figured there weren’t enough supplies for a full classroom of students. He rushed back to the back-to-school aisle and loaded up a second shopping cart with more sets of crayons, pencils, and a full box of notebooks.

He then paid for the entire bounty.

“I just couldn’t believe how generous this stranger was,” Maya rejoins. “I started crying a bit.”

More tears flowed when David pushed the cart to her car and helped load the largess into the trunk.

“You’re never going to miss a few dollars spent helping someone else,” David says, understating his generosity. “Really, what I did wasn’t a big deal.”

Maya disagrees. A single mother with two boys, she admits money is “super tight.” To her, David’s deed was a very big deal.

Knowing only the first name of the Back-To-School Good Samaritan, Maya posted a brief summary of the random act of kindness on her Facebook page and mentioned the business van David drove off in: Sound Doctor 911. Sure enough, someone recognized her hero as the owner of the Camarillo store that installs automotive stereo systems.

Maya’s heartfelt 164-word message on Facebook struck a chord and quickly went viral. In just days it was shared 7,000 times.

“Teachers are contacting me full of love and genuine thanks,” David allows, noting he has received more than 2,000 emails. “I’ve heard from people in Australia, Thailand, Africa, and all across the U.S. The beautiful part is the way others are responding by paying it forward because they were inspired by me.”

David pauses for a moment, collecting his thoughts, and adds sincerely: “The attention I’m getting is really undeserved. I didn’t pull someone from a burning building.”

No, but he did step forward to help a teacher during these times of burning school budgets.

Maya, now in her 11th year as an educator after previously working in banking and nursing, estimates she spends about $600 out of her own pocket each year on supplies for her students and classroom.

“We do it because we love our jobs and our students,” says Maya.

She is the norm, not the exception.

His act of kindness for Maya was not the exception for David, either. He is a loyal supporter of Casa Pacifica and the Boys & Girls Club, and also donates blood regularly.

To be sure, he has a remarkable heart – all the more so when you learn that this father of four, and grandfather of one, has survived two heart attacks in the past 22 months.

“I think I’m still here so I can do more,” David allows. “None of us can fix the world, but we can all help fix our own neighborhood. Like I said, my father taught me, ‘If you can, you should.’ ”

He could, he did.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

 

Embracing Challenges, Kid-Style

by Woody

 My new memoir WOODEN & ME is available here at Amazon

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Embracing New Challenges, Kid-Style

The late, great Chuck Thomas, one of my dear mentors and my predecessor in this space, advised: “Never write a bad column when you can steal a good one.”

1scarepicWith that wisdom in mind, along with the thought that as adults we have a lot to learn from kids, I hereby share some sagacity from my daughter, who recently finished leading her eighth annual youth summer writing seminar. Her lessons and observations apply to life, not just writing.

Dallas shares . . .

One of my favorite things is teaching a writing camp in my hometown for kids and teenagers. For a couple hours over back-to-back weekends, we all sit together in a purple-walled conference room and write. A few use laptops and iPads, but most opt for old-school notebooks and pens.

I put a prompt on the whiteboard, turn on some Norah Jones or Jack Johnson or Miles Davis, and they are off and running – rather, writing.

It’s nothing short of magic, being in that room. It’s calm, peaceful, with a quiet energy fairly making the air molecules dance. You can practically hear the ideas whirring around the room as surely as you can hear the pencils scratching across sheets of paper. You can almost feel the ideas swirling.

My writing campers inspire me in numerous ways. They are passionate, driven, unabashedly enthusiastic. They are creative and ambitious. (Do you know any 9-year-olds writing 300-page novels? I do!) They are well-read, and perceptive, and supportive of each other.

Perhaps most of all, these young people inspire me with the way they eagerly embrace new challenges and take risks in order to push themselves to grow. I teach writing classes for adults as well, and always need to plough through much more resistance before getting down to business.

As adults, we too often become set in our ways. We become afraid to try something new because we might not do it the “right” way. We worry we will make mistakes. We fear stumbling through a learning curve.

Kids, in my experience, seem much less concerned about stumbling. They are focused on flying!

Time and again, I present to my young writers an utterly new idea or wacky concept, intended specifically to push them outside their comfort zones. Do they balk? No, they dive right in and embrace the new challenge! My writing campers are adventurers. They explore. They grow.

These kids are role models for us adults.

One small example is an activity relating to structuring a short story. My only guideline is for the girls and boys to try something they have never before attempted. Write a story in reverse chronological order, from ending to beginning; write with alternating perspectives of two characters; write from the perspective of an animal, insect or inanimate object; write a story in poetic verse.

These amazing kids try it all with joyful abandon. Their bravery is inspiring. They eagerly raise their hands to read aloud their just-birthed fragile words, unselfconscious and unselfish in their sharing. They are generous, both in confidence and in spirit.

When do we lose these wonderful traits as grown-ups? When do we cross that threshold and become shy and stifled? Why are we so terrified of looking foolish that we stop daring to try – and stop trying to dare?

Fundamentally, these kids live Eleanor Roosevelt’s prescription: “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

Except they turn the word “scares” into “thrills.”

We all, old and young, have the capacity to create our own stories and our own magic. You don’t need to be a writing camper to do so. You don’t need anyone’s permission. All you need is a pinch of bravery and a dash of willingness to try, and try again, and always try something new.

I don’t know about you, but I’m going to figuratively open a fresh page in my writer’s notebook, put on some Norah Jones, and get to work creating a life story that matters to me. I’m going to follow my young campers’ fearless example and do one new thing every day that thrills me.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

Thoughts On This And That

by Woody

 My new memoir WOODEN & ME is available here at Amazon

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Some thoughts, both Fair and foul

Fair warning: some of these thoughts and observations may make your head spin like a ride on the Twirl-A-Whirl . . .

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Nobody asked me, but one of the very best things about the Ventura County Fair, which runs through Aug. 16, is the Ventura County Star’s intrepid writer – and George Plimpton-like “participatory” journalist – Tom Kisken sharing his A-to-Z fairground experiences.1Fair poster

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This year’s theme, “A County Fair With Ocean Air,” would not have been fitting the year one of Kisken’s experiences was cleaning out a Porta Potty.

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We have bus stations and train stations, as well as gas stations, so why aren’t airports instead called “plane stations”?

Or else why not “busports” and “trainports” to go with carports (a covered open-air garage) and seaports? Just wondering.

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Overrated: Fair rides, except for the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.

Underrated: Fair photography and craft exhibits.

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The view from the London Eye on the bank of the River Thames takes the backseat to the panoramic vision from atop the Ventura County Fair’s giant Ferris wheel along the beach of the Pacific Ocean. Just saying.

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Just asking: Who gets more depressed by the back-to-school TV commercials and print ads – kids enjoying their summer break or teachers?

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I wonder what Kisken’s cholesterol levels are before the Fair and right after his 12-day binge on Everything Bacon, Fried, And Chocolate?

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Love this wisdom from the Dalai Lama, which applies to summer as well as the school year, weekends as well as workdays: “There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. Today is the right day.”

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More inspiration, from his holiness James Bond: “I don’t stop when I am tired, I stop when I am done.”

Sounds like Kisken around Day 007 of the Fair.

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According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average 8- to 10-year-old spends nearly eight hours dialy on TV, video games, computers and smartphones. For older children and teenagers it tops 11 hours a day.

Experts contend that excessive screen time can have significant negative effects on behavior, school performance and health . . .

. . . and also on 3-point shooting!

Matt Bonner, a sharpshooter for the San Antonio Spurs, had his worst season from 3-point range last season and recently explained why: tennis elbow – aka cellphone-itis.

“When the new iPhone came out it was way bigger than the last one,” Bonner said. “And I think because I got that new phone it was a strain to use it, you have to stretch further to hit the buttons, and I honestly think that’s how I ended up developing it.”

Reaction I: Parents should take notice.

Reaction II: The Lakers should send Stephen Curry and Chris Paul each a new iPhone.

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Speaking of children, my much-better-half – either mistakenly or perhaps on purpose because she often says I act like a 10-year-old – bought me adult multivitamins that are “Gummies” instead of tablets.

Initial reaction: Seriously?

Second reaction: Seriously yummy!

Final thought: I wish “Gummies” vitamins had been around when I was 10.

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More food for thought: Kudos to local chef Tim Kilcoyne and his Ventura-based food truck Scratch – as well as McGrath Family Farm of Camarillo and Tamai Family Farms of Oxnard that provided produce – for helping feed 5,000 athletes and guests at the recent Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles.

I have no connection to Kilcoyne – although, full disclosure, I might harbor a hidden agenda in dreaming of one day having a food truck or restaurant name a sandwich of my design “The Woody” – but his burgers are second to none and signature “Scratch Ketchup” is the best I’ve ever tasted.

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“A County Fair With Ocean Air” didn’t ask me, but it should add a healthy item to its menu this year. I’m thinking a “Gummies” multivitamin wrapped in bacon, stuffed inside a deep-fried Twinkie and then covered with chocolate.

I bet Tom Kisken would try it.

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.

Wooden-&-Me-cover-mock-upCheck out my new memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece”

 

Tree-mendous emails

by Woody

Aussie emails are Tree-mendous

Trees have inspired much superb writing, such as Joyce Kilmer’s beautiful poem “Trees” that begins, “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree” and ends, “Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree.”

Also in stanza, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned: “I hear the wind among the trees / Playing the celestial symphonies;

“I see the branches downward bent, / Like keys of some great instrument.”1Tree

John Muir, among volumes on the subject, wrote: “It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree.”

While writing about trees is a familiar age-old practice, what about writing to a tree?

This is actually happening in Melbourne, Australia, where the city has assigned ID numbers and email addresses to its trees so that citizens can easily report problems such as dangerous dangling branches.

A tree-mendous thing followed: people began writing love-letter emails –and you just know trees, unlike people, greatly prefer emails over handwritten notes on, egads!, paper – by the thousands, to their favorite trees.

“My dearest Ulmus,” began one love note to a green-leaf elm. “As I was leaving St. Mary’s College today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time. You’re such an attractive tree.”

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Here is another. “To: Algerian Oak, Tree ID 1032705

“Dear Algerian Oak,

“Thank you for giving us oxygen. Thank you for being so pretty. I don’t know where I’d be without you to extract my carbon dioxide. Stay strong; stand tall amongst the crowd. You are the gift that keeps on giving. Hopefully one day our environment will be our priority.”

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From a student. “To: Green Leaf Elm, Tree ID 1022165  

“Dear Green Leaf Elm,

“I hope you like living at St. Mary’s. Most of the time I like it too. I have exams coming up and I should be busy studying. You do not have exams because you are a tree. I don’t think that there is much more to talk about as we don’t have a lot in common, you being a tree and such. But I’m glad we’re in this together.

“Cheers, F.”

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I especially like this sweet note from an admirer of a golden elm.

“Dear 1037148,

“You deserve to be known by more than a number. I love you. Always and forever.”

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Like Tree-No.1037148-Hugger, I have loved always and forever many trees in my life. If they had their own email addresses, here are some notes I would like to send them.

Dear Evergreen Beside My Boyhood Home Driveway,

Do you remember when I was small how I used to pretend you were a basketball defender and I would hoist shots over you with all my little-boy might? I imagine you are so tall now there is not a shooter alive whose shot you cannot block!

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Dear My Favorite Majestic Tree in Ojai’s Libbey Park,

Thank you for the cool shade you have provided me over the decades during the Ojai Tennis Tournament.

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Dear Mariposa Grove Sequoia Sempervirens,

I had never before seen trees like you / Tall as skyscrapers from a sidewalk’s view

Oxygen you give and my breath you take / Awesomeness like thee only God could make

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Dear “Two Trees”,

Thank you, thank you for your aesthetic beauty and for holding vigilant twin sentinel over Ventura.

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Dear Mighty Oak In My Grade School Friend Jim’s Backyard,

Thank you for so perfectly holding up the best tree house I have ever been in.

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Dear Birch In My Front Yard,

You stand a little bent and crooked, like an elderly woman in need of a cane, and yet you are still lovely and strong and I love the way your leaves filter the evening sunlight before it comes through the window. I look forward to hearing the wind play celestial symphonies on your downward branches for decades to come.

With love,

Woody

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