August | Definition of August by Merriam-Webster www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/august August comes from the Latin word augustus, meaning “consecrated” or “venerable,” which in … Middle English speakers inherited the name of the month of August, … ODE TO AUGUST THE 8TH MONTH, LATIN WORD AUGUSTUS, MEANING CONSECRATED OR VENERABLE
Well August is rapidly getting us into the changes that are upon us.
As bright and sunny as August appears, we know from the “dog days of summer,” we are in the grips of apprehension and fears.
Especially students who are starting a New Year in school’s here and there. Me too, I’m a substitute teacher and writer; it will bring new experiences to share.
As well as embarking on my new book; “It worked 4 me,” gosh darn I wish I could spell. But equally important for all of us in our mundane existence we need to focus on where we’re going, (hope not to hell)
hope we can tell. Not only in our day-to-day trials but what will happen in the next month or two or three. Decisions to be made that will steer this country back to the cause of why we are free.
Where we are and why we’re looked up to as a beacon of light. Matters of tribulations, of truthfulness and trials NOT trite, will steer us on course as well as voting our right,
As a free democratic nation that is looked upon as guiding us all through the darkening night. So, August as we hover around you, a month with no holidays, we will deal kindly with the fact that we will celebrate in our own ways,
And those of you who can vote in primaries, will do so as a responsibility of your birthright and the groundwork for upcoming election days.
Make it a mandatory decision to Vote or you may find there’s little left to say; or DO!! – Will S.
HOLD THE PRESSES HOLD THE PRESSES HOLD THE PRESSES – PLEASE!!
I’ve been wondering why I couldn’t finalize this August newsletter. There was enough good material and I did manage to get some inspirational signals sent to get it done – already. I was ready to send it out Monday afternoon evening and needed to upload some more appropriate pictures that I like to include in the newsletter. And then the Announcement came through, our most esteemed Sen. John McCain succumbed to cancer. I knew what a great American he is and was. He fought the great causes of this beloved nation. It is with great admiration and love and sadness that I’m sharing his words that appear in his final letter. And although I did not vote for him in his national campaign, I have already read it again and again through his message for hope and for this country that he dearly loved and showed us how to be a great American. In reverence for this wonderful and dedicated human being please take a few minutes and read through this. He served us well and it’s the minimal of what we can do to thank him.
Read John McCain’s final farewell letter:
My fellow Americans, whom I have gratefully served for 60 years, and especially my fellow Arizonans, Thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life of service in uniform and service in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for America will be weighed favorably against them. I’ve often observed that I’m the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the end of my life. I’ve loved my life, all of it. I’ve had experiences, adventures, friendships enough for 10 satisfying lives, and I am so thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anybody else’s. I owe this satisfaction to the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures.
Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves. ‘Fellow Americans’ — that association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history.
We have acquired great wealth and great power in the process. We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they’ve always been.
We are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country, we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them stronger than before. We always do. Ten years ago, I had the privilege to concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening.
I feel it powerfully still. Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans. God bless you and God bless America.
Senator John McCain, RIP
With that being said!! (This was initially being applied to the August versus but still should appear). Need to get focused on some important things that have transpired over the past month or so. We’re in the throes of a major midterm primary that will set in motion the process for the midterm elections. This is probably the most important midterm election of our time. I voted early, and I wish I could vote often but I least I’m trying to get others equally motivated.
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As I was writing my August versus, something came back to me that I would like to share with you. It is almost 2 years ago. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016 and I happened to take a teaching assignment, a substitute teaching assignment at an elementary school in North Pinellas County, Florida. It was rather an uneventful day although the children in the kindergarten class were very intriguing and interested. I was trying to make a difference as substitute teachers would normally do. It was towards the end of the day and as this happened to be Election Day, so I gathered the children around the front of the class on a circular rug that they usually sit on. It seemed appropriate to embark on a little bit of the history lesson about the election discussion and voting. Most likely that their parents would be going to vote. I gave them some background as far as the presidency, the vice president and other elected officials. What happened next really set me back. I would get a sense of what was going through the minds of these children, young kids and how they were responding to all the election jargon. I was really shocked to hear their responses. I will never forget this is; how these young people, five years old, mouthed what was becoming the rhetoric of the day. I was shocked to hear them very vocal. In the group of 15 or 20 kids, may be six or seven shouted out: “Lock her up; She’s a crook, Trump is going to win.” As I said I was really surprised as you might expect from these kids echoing what evidently their parents, family had instilled in them.
Little did I know that when I returned to my house and turned on the television as most Americans; a majority of Americans were shocked to find out that, that repetitive staccato chant echoed through many precincts, election districts and States. Fast forward to this past February and my 2018 February Newsletter, when the White House started comparing the immigrants coming in from Haiti and Africa as sh-tholes and I’m very careful in choosing my words. I responded to reverting back to my immigrant ancestry from Greece and Russia.
But now the thing that comes to mind is the biblical story of Jephthah, an important judge of Israel in biblical times. Jephthah led the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, in exchange for defeating the Ammonites, made a Vow to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. When his daughter was the first to come out of the house, he immediately regretted the vow.
The other more biblically known story of saying something that comes back to haunt you was determining the 10th plague that rained down as part of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. After the nine plagues and pharaoh’s intent on keeping the Jews as slaves and changing his mind on a number of occasions, Moses confronts Pharaoh after this latest reneging. Pharaoh in his arrogance, issued his harsh pronouncement, “that the first-born male of the Israelites would be killed.” This was a revisiting of a similar edict 80 years earlier and was part of the beginning of how Moses would survive this sentence being carried out. Upon Pharaoh’s indictment, Moses purportedly issued his forceful vendetta that pharaoh’s utterance would be the 10th plague that will be carried out about the killing of the firstborn male Egyptians.
Not to dwell on this too much but I find it rather telling that demonstrative gestures that was initially part of Trump’s campaign rhetoric and his diatribe mantra for the Trump administration might very well come back and bite him. That utterance that came out of his mouth could determine his fate. Maybe, just maybe, we are seeing this as we witness what’s unfolding in our country. It looks like what senior Trump said may very well be pointing to the one being locked up. And as we watch at what has transpired in the White House; it is in a shambles of what was a prestigious argumentatively a pillar of Democracy. What he uttered out of his mouth about these other countries and their people, ironically, could find its mark from whence it came. The White House is becoming with all the philandering and greed and lying which to me epitomizes what he’s spewed out of his mouth and come back to haunt him and G-d forbid, us.
Especially when it was revealed that the mastermind behind his immigration policy owed his roots to his family being given a safe-haven to enter the U.S as how Stephen Miller’s story became public.
The White House adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of some of President Trump’s most controversial anti-immigration policies, has been assailed by critics who are quick to point out that Miller himself is a grandchild of refugees. Now Miller’s own uncle is joining the outcry. In an essay published by Politico on Monday, David Glosser, a retired neuropsychologist and brother of Miller’s mother, Miriam, calls his nephew an “immigration hypocrite.” “I have watched with dismay and increasing horror as my nephew, who is an educated man and well aware of his heritage, has become the architect of immigration policies that repudiate the very foundation of our family’s life in this country,” Glosser writes. He relays the story of how Wolf-Leib Glosser, his own great grandfather and Miller’s great-great grandfather on his mother’s side, fled anti-Jewish violence in what is now Belarus, and arrived in the United States in 1903 “with $8 to his name.” Wolf-Leib was “fluent in Polish, Russian and Yiddish,” Glosser writes.” but “understood no English” when he landed on Ellis Island. Miller has said the administration favors immigrants who speak English. And Miller’s great grandfather on his father’s side, Nison Miller, failed his naturalization test in 1932 due to “Ignorance,” according to court documents that surfaced last year in the wake Trump’s brazen immigration actions. (Eventually he retook the test and became a citizen.)
As we get ready for the primaries and other amazing developments that in my wildest experiences growing up in New York, living in Washington, D.C. would never have expected this unfolding our eyes; so hard to conceive. We pray for guidance and patience and as we weathered many storms and crises that would have shaken our Republic: we came out of it hopefully stronger. I pray for just such an outcome, results. These are the times that try men’s souls.
We must look very deep in our souls and hopefully come up with answers.
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It’s been quite a summer which takes me to my song of the month Jimmy Buffett’s Come Monday, “Yes it’s been quite a summer Rent-A-Car and west-bound trains.” Not so much Rent-A-Car’s but Rent-A-Bus and east-bound planes; my trip to Israel and Spain were amazing. And then the second refrain instead of heading up to San Francisco, “I’ll be heading up to Orlando coincidently for the Labor Day weekend show; I got my Hush Puppies, guess I never was meant for glitter rock ‘n’ roll.” We’ll leave it at that.
Jimmy Buffet’s YouTube version of “Come Monday”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0—Q97pG4
Come Monday
Headin` up to San Francisco
For the Labor Day week-end show
I`ve got my hush-puppies on
I guess I never was meant for glitter rock and roll
And Honey I didn`t know
That I`d be missin` you so
Chorus:
Come Monday, it`ll be all right
Come Monday, I`ll be holdin` you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side
Yes, it`s been quite a summer
Rent-a-cars and west-bound trains
And now you`re off on vacation
Something you tried to explain
And Darlin` it`s I love you so
That`s the reason I just let you go
Come Monday, it`ll be all right
Come Monday, I`ll be holdin` you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side
I can`t help it honey You`re that much a part of me now
Remember that night in Montana
When we said there`d be no room for doubt
I hope you`re enjoyin` the scen`ry
I know that it`s pretty up there
We can go hikin` on Tuesday
With you I`d walk anywhere.
California has worn me quite thin
I just can`t wait to see you again
Come Monday, it`ll be all right
Come Monday, I`ll be holdin` you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side.
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It just so happened my cousin Pam daughter, Jessica was having her Bat (Bar) Mitzvah (when a young Jewish girl (Boy) turns 13 and takes on adult responsibilities in the Jewish faith). It was to take place in Spain on the weekend of June 28. It was amazing that I was able to work out arrangements with Gate 1 Travel which were the Tour people from 14-day tour of Israel; a life-changer, very memorable. And I was even able to take to 2 ½ day hiatus. When I arrived in Madrid to go to Majorca, a resort in southern Spain where my tennis hero Rafael Nadal, one of the best tennis players of all times resided. However, the best part was my visit with Pam and her family. Her wonderful husband, Ramon, a very dear man. Pam and Ramon were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. Their marriage produced among other things, three (3) beautiful children. Their oldest, Rebecca, 19 years it is attending, University of Florida. Their son, Jake (15) who I took and his buddy Max to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game about three years ago and they still remembered it. Their youngest as mentioned, Jessica the Bat Mitzvah girl.
I have marvelous pictures and memories. I’ll just share a little bit. One of the memorable highlights is that my cousin Pam is a journalist and writer in her own right. A graduate of University of Florida and Brandeis, she is the Washington Post’s correspondent for Spain and any of the newsworthy items Pam is sure to be writing about it and having it appear in the Washington Post. It just so happened on July 3. I was taking advantage of my down time before flying back to the States the next day and writing my June/July Newsletter. Pam was interested in my writings and my poem that I have fun with each month which appears on something relevant to the month and the time. She was very attentive and interested in assisting in changes to the poem about July 4. I want to share this with my readers and I’m sure she will be available in future endeavors. But it was very, very special for her to make her necessary input. I also want to alert you to the 10 postings of my trip to Israel that appear on my Facebook site William.Sefekar.com
Sea of Galilee
Putting a message of Hope in Western Wall
Spectacular Light and Sound Show
ICON LOVE SYMBOLS FROM THE HIRSHHORN THE M– USEUM OF ISRAEL, M– USEUM IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AND JERUSALEM
Dead Sea Scrolls
KING DAVID’S TOMB
UN Peace-keeping force Golan Heights
UN Peace-keeping Mile Post
Camel Rider
Floating in the Dead Sea
Tramway up to Masada
Excavations in Jerusalem
Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
Cousin Pam and family: Jake, Jessica, Ramon, Rebecca, Pam
Bat Mitzvah Party
With my wonderful host and family
Mallorca Resort, Spain
MORE PICTURES TO FOLLOW
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I might add that I espouse a lot of the liberal causes and work to keep the forces of good intact as opposed to the forces of evil. I’m active with the antipollution and Earth Day measures and attended the March for Our Lives in Washington addressing these matters on my blog post “Joe’s Lifelong Legacy” as well as my new venture most likely to become my third book work; “It worked 4 me.” I’m trying to practice what I preach, knowing that it’s not business as usual we will need to commandeer the beachheads in the next few months and few years.
Excerpts from February 2018 Newsletter. Back in February, I ran some of his current statements of former CIA director John Brennan. It certainly has gotten worse and maybe my security clearance could be reneged also. I believe what he saying is a lot more truthful than what’s coming out of Trump’s mouth.
This is a statement that was in the news by former FBI official John Brennan 
Ex-CIA chief John Brennan to Trump: ‘America will triumph over you’ Sean Rossman, USA TODAY Published 1:11 p.m. ET March 17, 2018 | Updated 3:36 p.m. ET March 17, 2018 Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly kept memos regarding President Donald Trump. USA TODAY The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in a venomous tweet Saturday, accused President Trump of political corruption and warned, “America will triumph over you.” John Brennan’s biting two-sentence statement came in response to a Friday evening tweet in which the president celebrated the ouster of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Former CIA director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in 2016. Brennan, in a Saturday tweet, accused President Trump of political corruption. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
“When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history,” he wrote. “You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but will not destroy America… America will triumph over you.” McCabe’s firing: FBI’s Andrew McCabe fired days before retirement; Trump applauds Sessions’ move More on McCabe: In war of words with Trump, fired FBI’s McCabe says he will no longer be silent More: Retired four-star Army general: Trump, ‘under the sway of Putin,’ threatens national security Brennan served under former president Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017. Since he left his post, he’s been critical of the president on his response to the hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico and on his recent decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel, among other decisions. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who often is at odds with Trump, fired McCabe amid a review of the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was secretary of state. Trump called McCabe’s firing a “great day for the hardworking men and women of the FBI.” McCabe, the president claimed, “knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” Brennan tweets sparingly and usually only to make a statement about current affairs. After Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Brennan issued another abrasive tweet.
“You show an amazing albeit unsurprising ignorance of how technology, automation, and the attendant evolution of economics and societies have transformed the world,” he said in response to a Trump tweet on March 7. “Your simple minded policies — imposition of tariffs — have the potential to seriously damage our future prosperity.”
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Getting back to: “It worked 4 me.” I will have some pictures of how my car would appear in the parking lot in the mall or whatever and it’s readily picked up as I said, this is something I’ve done for many, many, many years; at least 15 to 20 years. My car bears the American flag, not the Tampa Bay Rays or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Although, I imagine it would certainly have the same effect. I will also share with you as long as we’re talking about the motor vehicle, that I found this has been a very important way of minimizing back problems and in my case, luckily has been usually nonexistent, thank G-d. But having a cushion to sit on literally and figuratively and a back, lumbar support also helps. Not all cars are equipped with lumbar adjustment. These minimal additions worked exceptionally well but equally important is a lifetime of a continuous exercise regiment; doing push-ups and sit-ups, running and tennis, etc., has been a major factor, contributing to averting major health infirmities. I’ll being share some of this with you in later episodes.
Keep those Flags flying
Driver’s seat cushion and Lumbar support, save the back
============================================================== Thanks again for your interest and wishing you all a special autumnal season with colorful, vibrant and tranquil time of the year, especially those dealing with possible weather related turbulence.
Copyright 2018 © by William Sefek
