The Flywheel
Archive issue

NEXT MEETING: February 1, 2014

Reflections on San Quentin Prison by a volunteer

Mac Lingo has spent the proverbial 10,000 hours involved with corporate computer  and accounting systems.  He’s also studied at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, spent a lot of time sitting in meditation retreats, and has a been a glider pilot and blue water sailor.

About 6 years ago Mac began volunteering as a  math teacher at the West County (Sheriff’s) Detention Center in Pinole.  He found he had an ability to reach those to whom he was supposed to be teaching math, but on a deeper and more fundamental level. This has has led him into working at San Quentin.  Mac will share some impressions of his time there as a volunteer

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The Rotary Crab Feed on February 8^th at Salesian High School. Get you tickets from Erle Brown and your money ($40 per ticket) to David Brown. Live auction items welcome. Download flyer.
• Director Steve Snyder extended an invitation to dinner with Rotary International President Ron D. Burton. The dinner will be held at the Double Tree Hilton Hotel on March 30th 2014. $55.00 per person. There is a special room rate of $89.00.
• BARSHEEP (the acronym for the 7 clubs scattered across west Contra Costa County) is having a gathering, “Thank Goodness It’s Valentine’s Day”
  on Friday, Febuary 14th 2014. 5-7pm at La Revolucion Bar & Grill (Hilltop Mall).
• District Governor Steve Lack visits our club on Febuary 7th.2014. This should be a good meeting.

MEETING OF January 24th 2014

Welcome

In the absence of our president, Alan Baer presided over the meeting. Our guest speaker did not appear so Alan got to show off his skills as an improviser. Quite good, actually.

Visiting Rotarians and Guests

We again welcomed Jeff Mulvihill, a refugee of the Redding Rotary. We note that Jeff has been to more meetings than some of our members. He better join.

Tom Butt introduced a bevy of guests at his table, and more guests occupied other tables. They included Cheryl Vaughn, Richard Poe, Kun Kun Poe with baby Antoyo, Dana Stoehr, Alonzo Robinson, Clarence Van Hook. We apologize if we missed any one.

Recognitions and Happy/Sad Dollars

• David Brown celebrated a birthday without much enthusiasm.
• George Egan also had a birthday. He and David both donated to the Foundation. Thank you, guys.
• Josh Surowitz celebrated 6 years as a member of the club. He didn’t expect to last this long.
• Stoney was happy—delighted, actually— to have received a cortisone injection that finally relieved the lower back and leg pain resulting from a pinched sciatic nerve.
• Joe Bagley was happy to be in California instead of his birthplace Chicago. We all agree.
• Hank Covell had an unwanted 45 minute phone call with a financial company over an IRA account. He was asked “Did you sign-up on line? “ He told them he opened the account pre internet!
• Jon Lawlis was happy his daughter got a job. But also had sad dollars for John Nicol’s birthday.
• Henry Moe had sad dollars for his mother’s illness. But also had happy dollars for finding a great nursing home.

Norm’s Nonsense

These questions and answers are from the days when Hollywood Squares game show responses were spontaneous.

Q: If you’re going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A: Charley Weaver: “Three days of steady drinking should do it.”

Q: Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A: Marty Allen: “Only after lights out.”

Q: You’ve been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or woman?
A: Don Knotts: “That’s what’s been keeping me awake.

Program

Substituting for our scheduled speaker, Stony stepped up with a brief summary of what is happening in Pakistan.

Three polio workers have been killed in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, a day after authorities began a new vaccination drive. Reports say gunmen opened fire in the Quaymabad area, killing one man and two women who were administering polio drops. The attack is the latest in a series targeting polio teams in the country, which has claimed 32 lives to date. No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban oppose schemes, which they see as a cover for international espionage.

Pakistan is one of only three counties (Nigeria and Afghanistan are the other two) where polio remains endemic and is on the rise, due in part to this militant resistance.

India this month declared itself polio-free, three years after its latest reported case—a landmark in the global battle against the disease. This achievement is largely due to a massive and sustained vaccination campaign.

This latest attack comes one day after the health authorities in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, began to inoculate 7.6 million children as part of a nation wide vaccination campaign

In Stoney’s opinion, the media coverage of the campaign to eradicate polio gives too much credit to the Bill Gates Foundation, and too little to Rotary International, which has raised 1.5 billion dollars. Rotary deserves much better press.

- Alan Blavins, Scribe Manager and Pinch-hitting Scribe