Remembering John Lennon

Reminiscing about a geeky, smart-alecky, somewhat immature John Lennon can’t help but warp us to his ‘Beatles are more popular than Jesus’ comment or his admitted jealously of Paul McCartney or his nutsy, wtf affair with May Pang and, of course, let’s not forget his cringe-worthy, mid-performance mock of a developmentally delayed person; yet, the mention of John Lennon, for me anyway, brings memories of a man who tried to heal the world and touch humanity and bring us all together with lyrics and actions that were lessons in peace and love and harmony, and a man whose life was cut bitterly and tragically short by a religious fanatic who thought he was an honest-to-gawd, come-to-life version of the fictional protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye. 

The murderer, whose wife knew he was going to murder John Lennon yet did nothing to stop him, was Mark David Chapman, and he still sits in a prison cell and applies for parole every two years as law allows with his requests for freedom being denied (so far) and Yoko Ono voicing her opposition each time. 

Photo: Annie Leibovitz

 

Right after firing five bullets into Lennon’s back, Chapman sat down on the curbstone, pulled out a copy of The Catcher in the Rye and started reading. The killer -- not running or hiding -- instead sat in plain view, listening to the panicked screams of onlookers, watching people administer aid to Lennon, watching Yoko watching her husband die before her eyes -- his apathy making the whole scene even more savage, more cruel, more raw.

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980, the same night that photographer Annie Liebovitz did a photo shoot with John and Yoko and created a beautiful photo that showed us a timid Yoko who didn't take her clothes off and a carefree John who bared all.

Howard Cosell was the first to publicly announce Lennon’s death, right in the middle of a New England Patriots football game broadcast. John Lennon was only 40. He left behind a wife and two children who loved him, fans who adored him, and a whole world who wanted to hear more of him.

Source: Wikipedia

YouTube Video Credit: Aviv Ben Israel

Don't Be Afraid To Help Someone

Beyond words. This woman pulled over on the side of the road and saved her nephew's life by doing CPR. This is a scary thing to do - even for experienced medical personnel - but, she tried and single-handedly got the baby breathing again. She's a real hero.

This woman was trained in CPR several years before this incident but for anyone not trained in CPR, most doctors agree that you should try to do something to help someone who is unconscious and not breathing. Fear stops people from acting, and waiting for paramedics to arrive usually proves fatal for victims.

So, people should at least try to do compressions on adult victims and try to give rescue breaths to children and infants (if people are unconscious and not breathing). You can't harm an unconscious and non-breathing person because they are already dead, and they lose all chance of being revived if you don't at least try.

I've included a few links to help laypeople with no training. You won't make things worse, everything you do may help save a life. Always yell out for someone to call 911, then get to work doing whatever you can:

If you're afraid to do compressions on a baby, just give rescue breaths.
http://www.parents.com/baby/care/american-baby-how-tos/give-baby-cpr/

If you're afraid to give breaths to an adult, just do compressions.
http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/pocket.html

(Al Diaz/The Miami Herald/AP Photo)

Shirley Temple Black

Shirley Temple died yesterday and, while I have great respect for the accomplishments of the adult Shirley Temple Black, I do and always have found the Shirley Temple movies that frequented the much-limited and purportedly family-oriented television channels that I watched during my childhood to be distressing and uncomfortable to view. Watching a little girl wearing a super-tiny dress, while singing and dancing in front of the groups of middle-aged, ogling men who were consistently her co-stars always left me with an unsettled "something's not right" feeling in my gut ... even as a child.

And as an adult looking back at clips of Shirley Temple movies, I realize that my childhood instincts were correct. It was odd and totally unacceptable, to say the least, that the male-dominated movie industry saw fit to cast a little girl who conveyed the persona of an adult woman as the star of over 40 movies. The cutesy little girl always seemed to be without a home and without any women to care for her, leaving her to be adopted, housed, fed, led by the hand or, in one way or another, accommodated by adult male characters who always seemed just a bit too enamored and intrigued and delighted to be in the company of a little girl. Men who held her hand a little too much and watched her sing and dance just a little too closely.

Plot summaries of a few randomly chosen Shirley Temple movies show a little girl who was tended to by men, men and more men in every movie. I find this eerie and disturbing, which by no means is meant to insult the honor of the late Shirley Temple Black, but does make me question the motives of parents who sat back and saw nothing perverse in what Hollywood did to their daughter. Memories of Jon Benet Ramsey come to mind as she was another beautiful little girl who was taught to assume an adult persona and entertain ogling adult audiences.

Here are the movie descriptions that I wrote using info. from Wikipedia. (Thank you Wikipedia).

Curly Top – Here, the curly-haired, mischievous, adorable little Shirley Temple has no parents and lives in an orphanage. The trustees come to visit and one of the wealthy, male trustees is so enamored with the little girl that he decides to adopt her (along with her sister) and brings them home to live with him. The wealthy trustee eventually marries Shirley Temple’s sister, Mary.  

Bright Eyes – Shirley Temple’s father is dead. Her and her mother live in a mansion where Temple’s mother works as a maid for room and board. When Shirley Temple’s mother dies, the wealthy family wants to send Shirley Temple away, but the crotchety old wheelchair-bound grandfather is so fond of the little girl that he nicknames her ‘Bright Eyes’ and insists that she stay at the house to keep him company.

Dimples – Shirley Temple plays a little girl named Dimples who sings in the streets to make money with her thieving grandfather, with whom she lives. They perform at a wealthy woman’s party, and the wealthy woman’s nephew takes Dimples to live with him and perform in a Broadway show that he is producing.

Little Miss Marker – Shirley Temple plays a little girl named Marky who lives with her father. Marky’s father gives her to a group of gangsters as collateral for a gambling debt he owes them. Shirley Temple then lives with a group of men who are gangsters, bookies and thieves for the rest of the movie.  

Wee Willie Winkie – Here, Shirley Temple and her mother are brought to a British military base. Little Shirley spends all her time befriending and entertaining the male officers and soldiers. She also visits an imprisoned officer to cheer him up.    

I am still bothered when I see movie clips of Shirley Temple's movies as I view her as a child victim.