High Gear Bulletin

President Phil Siegle called the meeting to order. He then asked Paul Watermulder to do double duty. Paul first led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He then returned to the podium to deliver the Invocation. Paul’s words were election themed.

What can a retired protestant minister say to his fellow Rotarians in this week of hopes and dreams, this week of half-truths, chaos, the frivolous being taken for fact, and oh, a national election?!

We could start with what we say about each other. Do you recall this little piece of doggerel:

There is so much good in the worst of us,
and so much bad in the best of us,
that it hardly behooves any of us
to talk about the rest of us.

Or we could go to our country’s history and remember William Penn’s writing, “People must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants.” When we vote we each can put our mind to work on what we believe and how that best translates into our vote. We each have the chance to make up our mind free of the pressures of a religious institution or a political party.

Back in 1948, Peter Marshall was chaplain to the U.S. Senate and offered these words to the Senators on the cusp of a presidential election: We ask God to guide the people of this nation as they exercise their dearly bought privilege of franchise. May it neither be ignored unthinkingly nor undertaken lightly. As citizens all over this land go to the ballot boxes, give to them a sense of high privilege and joyous responsibility.

If those words are good enough for the Senate, then I suspect they are good enough for us today. May we enjoy our luncheon conversation, our food, and our program.

Amen!

Phil reclaimed the mic and informed us that he and Paul were born in the same town in New Jersey, in the same hospital in the same year. Amazing!!

We then moved on to visiting Rotarians and guests. Jennifer Pence introduced Jill Chan who is attending her second meeting.

Jennifer announced that the Club is repeating the AVID Career Talks at BHS. AVID students are first generation high schoolers. Jennifer invited Rotarians to again join in on Tuesday, November 12^th to share our career experiences with these students.

The Sunshine Report was delivered by Jennifer, as well. Karina and Raul were able to purchase their first house. The bad news is that it is in Brentwood. The good news is that they will continue their membership in our Rotary Club and will make the hour plus drive once a month to attend the meetings. Congratulations!

William Li gave some updates on Interact activities. The BHS Interactors will be helping out at a Senior Dance held here at the BCC. In November they will be running a canned food drive. More information will be shared so that Rotarians can participate with the donations.

Marilyn Orr encouraged Rotarians to sign up for our 100^th Anniversary Gala in January. It will be here before you know it! As a number of former Rotarians are planning to attend, it will be a fun evening and an opportunity to renew old acquaintances.

MyEventRunner - Event Public Fill

It was time for some frivolity. Jennifer asked “Father” Fritz Brauner to join her at the podium. She then invited all who were in costume to come to the front of the room. It was quite an array of bedecked Rotarians. Each member was asked to explain their costumes.

Bobba Venkatadri noted that Diwali falls on Halloween this year. As such, he had lovely gifts to present. The beautiful Indian shawls were graciously received by Jennifer Pence, Marilyn Orr, and Fritz Brauner. (I assume Fritz’s will be regifted to his lovely wife, Sue)

Program:

Our meeting was turned over to our speaker who was coming to us from Peterson SFB in Colorado via Zoom. Chris Coury introduced himself. He had transferred over from the Air Force to Space Force. He is part of the Space Systems Command which develops, acquires, equips, fields, and sustains lethal and resilient space capabilities.

Chris gave us a rather in-depth talk on this newest branch of the United States Armed Services.

The United States Space Force (USSF) is the United States Armed Forces' space service and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is one of two independent space forces in the world. The Space Force was established on 20 December 2019.
Chris informed us that there are Space Force bases throughout the country and internationally.

The Space Force is organized as part of the Department of the Air Force alongside the U.S. Air Force. It breaks down its mission into three core functions, which align directly to its mission statement to "secure our Nation's interests in, from, and to space:" Space Superiority (in space), Global Mission Operations (from space), Assured Space Access (to space).

Space Force was developed to counter the real threat that exists from space. The danger is increasing day by day. We need to protect the resources we have put into space and rely on.

Chris delved into many more aspects and functions of Space Force and how critical it is to our daily lives. There were a number of very thoughtful questions from the audience.
We noticed that he had the current RI banner hanging on the wall behind him. He explained that his wife is actually co-president of the Lahaina Sunrise Rotary Club. Chris used to be based in Hawaii.

I suggest that those who missed this program take time to watch the Zoom recording.

Zoom Recording

Wednesday, October 30, 2024