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As you are aware, it's been a hellish hurricane season for Texas and Florida, as well as for people in states bordering them. I often wonder how those residents are doing today, since Harvey and Irma hit. For several days prior to the hurricanes making landfall, we were inundated with minute-by-minute updates and wind speed and probable paths. Then we were forced to watch weather people with microphones trying to maintain their balance in the windstorms with their jackets and pant legs flapping wildly for hours and they looked ridiculous and I kept thinking, if it's so bad, what are you doing out there! The hurricane season has also been horrific for islands south of Florida. Weather captures our attention, especially when it's catastrophic. And also when it strikes places and paths we have personally crossed. For example, I remember getting a speeding ticket in Corpus Christi, Texas, and we spent a week in San Antonio. One time we visited former Victoria residents Bernie and Dottie Rupp at their home in Tampa Bay, Florida, and in more recent times we visited Marco Island with our daughter and family. Now these places have been visited by hurricanes. We're also familiar with the Caribbean. On a cruise in 1994 we became acquainted with the islands of St. Thomas, Guadalupe, Barbados, Santa Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten, plus San Juan on the island of Puerto Rico. Those islands were badly hurt, especially by Hurricane Maria. We've spent time at Punta Cana, on the east coast of the Dominican Republic, and on the north shore of Jamaica, not far from Ocho Rios. There were many poor people living on those islands and now they are even poorer because of the hurricanes. The Weather Channel has shown us palm trees without leaves, terrible water and wind damage in villages, and the lack of basic necessities. It's very sad. Geraldo Rivera said that utilities in Puerto Rico were in poor repair and unreliable prior to Hurricane Maria. Now they're destroyed. *** In addition to watching the weather these past weeks, we found some movies to watch at the theater. Summer must be over. We enjoyed "Wonder Woman" because we were with Jenny and Addie and it was a wholesome movie. I also liked it because good triumphed over evil. The movie is about a little princess of the Amazon, who grew up to become an amazing warrior. She sees an American pilot crash into the sea and swims out to rescue him in selfless and reckless abandon. She becomes acquainted with life beyond the Amazon and believes it her sacred duty to defend the world from annihilation. We need Wonder Woman in our world today. A couple weeks later we went to see "Dunkirk." I am amazed how long that movie remained at the local theaters. Often when it's good, it's short-lived. Be that as it may, we were lucky to see it just before it went off to DVD Land. I prefer big movies in their prime on big theater screens. When we visited Omaha Beach in Normandy, in northern France, with my parents back in 1997, the name "Dunkirk" hadn't been part of our conversation. It was foreign to me until the movie. I admit that I don't know history very well, and I believe my children know it even less well. I think our grandchildren are learning a false history, one that destroys people like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Robert E. Lee and Father Junipero Serra. Because of the movie, I've learned that Dunkirk is far up the coast of France from Normandy, near the Belgian border. In fact, Dunkirk is not far from our good memories of Brugges, Brussels, and Ghent. "Dunkirk" is amazing, not confusing as some reviews had suggested. It's about the 400,000 Allied troops who were trapped on Dunkirk Beach and couldn't get home -- and so home came for them! Hundreds of small family boats, commandeered by family people, rescued many of the troops. It was an uplifting movie in a world that can be downgrading. Finally, we went to see "American Assassin" last week. Wow! It's based on a 2010 novel by Vince Flynn. Maybe you know that Vince Flynn was born in St. Paul, MN, and he also died there a few years ago, in his prime. The movie is about a young man who proposes to his girlfriend on a beach, when Islamic terrorists show up with machine guns and randomly shoot people. The girlfriend is killed and the young man lives to seek revenge. He trains for the CIA and then goes out to kill the enemy and ends up saving the world from a nuclear bomb. Like Wonder Woman. And so we're not standing on a corner watching all the world go by. But we are watching. |
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From the Editor |
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Dedicated to the sunshine of truth, the moonshine of meeting deadlines, and the starshine of Victoria. |
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The Victoria GAZETTE |
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Sue’s Album A symphony of photos and fewer than a thousand words at www.VictoriaGazette.com |
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September 2017 |
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October 2017 |
