Straight From The Hart

  I’m sure most of us who read the Lebanon newspaper on a daily basis are appalled at the number of drug stops, domestic abuse, and break-ins that take place in Lebanon every day. I often wonder how our law enforcement men and women keep a straight face at the stupid statements made by the people they encounter during these incidents. We sometimes have to laugh, wondering how dumb these people think our officers are. But we become very serious when we think of so many drug and alcohol impaired drivers being out on the roads and highways at the same time we are transporting our loved ones back and forth over those same roads. And we must never forget that every one of those traffic stops, domestic disturbance calls and other 911 calls puts those officers at tremendous risk of serious injury or the loss of their own lives, even when the situation appears to be routine and mundane. Such was the case on December 9, 1991 when Deputy Sheriff Leslie Roark went to the home of James R. Johnson

  In the early morning hours of June 17, the USS Fitzgerald collided with a heavily laden Philippine cargo vessel about 56 miles off the coast of Japan. Most of the crew were asleep in the berths below. The Fitzgerald took a direct hit below the water line. The cargo ship’s bow punctured the steel armor of the destroyer, opening a hole in the quarters where more than 100 sailors were sleeping. Fire Controlman 1st Class Gary Leo Rehm, Jr. immediately went into action. Although he was safe where he was, he began going down to the sleeping berths and rescuing his shipmates, helping them to get to safety. There wasn’t a lot of time as the ship began taking on water, and the crew was finally faced with making the difficult decision to close the hatch. Rehm was sealed in with six other sailors. They all perished in that watery grave. Rehm's family was told by the Navy that his efforts saved at least 20 sailors, according to WBNS-10TV in Columbus, Ohio. “He entered a flooded berth

Remember back in the late eighties when everybody was looking for Waldo?  The little guy with the red and white striped shirt and the big black rimmed glasses was always hiding somewhere, and children, teens and even adults would buy puzzles and pictures and look on the back of cereal boxes among what appeared to be hundreds of people to find the elusive Waldo. Well, now we have the 2014 - 2015 version but it’s not Waldo we are looking for, it is President Obama. People all over the world were looking for him last Sunday in the crowd of millions which gathered in Paris for a unity rally.  We all thought he would be in the first row of marchers, along with  French President François Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel ,Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Even Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was there marchi