Musings of the Great Gonzo

Time has winked by; and in so doing, it leaves me wondering how you have come to be the man you are. Only a few days ago you were just a boy. Nineteen years have passed and, to me, it feels as though a moment. How odd it is that when I was young, I could not wait for time to pass and now that I am older, I begrudge the passing. How I wish for those days back! There is still so much to tell you. There is still so much preparation to do. The real world is descending upon you; the carefree days of childhood are gone. Now you must lay the foundation from which to build the rest of your life. There are things you must do, and things I must tell you. To survive in this world you must prepare. You must take the time to give yourself the best chance for success. It will be difficult, as I have always promised you. Nevertheless, the foundation you lay now will support the structures you erect in the future. The blocks of this foundation are deceptively simple; complete your educat...

Its 4:00 a.m. in the tiny Midwestern suburb, the air is cool and still outside when a siren pierces the silence. The young boy wakes to the sound, he can tell the difference between the police siren and the fire truck siren. This siren is definitely the fire truck’s. The boy knows his father is on duty and on his way to another fire or accident. He knows that that means his father is in danger again. Children of first responders – firefighters, police officers, and EMTs -- often live in fear for the safety of their parents. Some even develop symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In a study by Christiane Duarte and associates, published April 2006 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, it is concluded that, “Children in close contact with traumatized first responders may develop posttraumatic symptomatology.” The study goes on to report, “exposure to trauma is common among first responders, and if such exposure has considerable impact on their children, then we would expect th...

Just when you thought someone had come to their senses, idiocy rears its ugly head again. Time magazine has posted an article on its website today reporting that the despicable O.J. Simpson book, If I Did It… may yet appear on bookshelves albeit overseas. Publishers abroad are stepping all over each other to get the rights to the controversial book in which Simpson tells how he might have committed the crime. Let’s review here for those who may have missed the hoopla last month: O.J. Simpson, after being acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole and her lover Ron Goldman, some years ago and then subsequently losing the civil suit brought against him by the family of said ex-wife, thought it might be fun to hypothesize about how he might have carried off the deed – if he actually did do it. He wrote down this hypothesis in a book titled cleverly, If I Did It… much to the distress of the family and most of the American public. The only thing that might be tackier than this book is a ...