RAFTING LAKE SUPERIOR


By
John B. Whitmore

The setting: Summer, 1933 on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Munising, Michigan.

BACKGROUND : Little Johnny Whitmore, age 8, had just witnessed the exciting arrival of a raft of pulp logs into Munising Bay, where they’d be converted into fine writing paper at the mill on the SE shore of the bay. Johnny, always curious, asked many questions about this exciting event, & learned that the large tugboat had towed the huge log raft 240 miles across Lake Superior from Port Arthur, Canada, & its speed was only one mile per hour. Johnny knew that one mile per hour was slow, but without much knowledge of mathematics, he did not realize that the trip had taken ten full days of steady going, day & night, good weather & bad.

THE PLAN: Johnny, always the dreamer, envisioned an exciting voyage across the big lake, & began to plan an adventure. An old road map showed Lake Superior, with Port Arthur on the opposite side from Munising, & it did not seem very far. There was a small raft made from three lightweight cedar railroad ties & weathered boards on the shore behind the sawmill, where Johnny & friends had been poling themselves along the beach for the last few summers. It seemed reasonable to Johnny that a strong south wind would blow the raft to Port Arthur… he had seen boats carried along by the wind many times, even without sails. He was now encouraged & committed!

PREPARATIONS: To push the raft away from shore where the wind would be strong, Johnny knew he’d need a much longer pole, so he “salvaged” a 16 ft. trimming from the sawmill. He also thought he would need provisions, so he snitched a can of Campbell’s pork & beans from the pantry, & what was left of a loaf of bread. He stashed these away for later pick-up on the morning of his departure. Everything was set to go; all Johnny needed now was a south wind!

SETTING SAIL: Each morning, Johnny looked out at the bay to check wind conditions. He knew that the wind usually picked-up around 10 AM when the weather was clear. Finally, there it was! A south wind & a cloudless sky! This was it! He raced outside after his oatmeal breakfast, hearing the screen door slam, & hurried to the raft with the beans & bread. In his excitement, he had overlooked the need for a can opener & spoon. Arriving at the raft, Johnny placed his provisions aboard, took off his worn Keds & placed them with his provisions. Dragging alternate corners of the raft toward the water, Johnny finally managed to wiggle the raft free of the beach! He hopped aboard & felt the warm velvety-soft texture of the deck on his feet. Grabbing the long pole, he began to turn the raft north toward Canada! Life was good!

As the raft moved into deeper water, Johnny became excited at seeing the darker waters ahead where the freshening wind was creating ripples. Soon, he would be sailing with the wind! However, there was a sudden uneasiness… the push-pole was barely reaching the bottom! Johnny had never been this far from shore before, & the deep cold waters of Superior suddenly took on an ominous frigid gloom…Lake Superior, he had heard, seldom got above 50 degrees. Away from the shore, the air was now getting cold, & waves were beginning to lap onto the once warm friendly deck. Johnny, dressed in only a T-shirt & jeans, was getting chilled & uneasy. This was not in the plan! He had pictured a warm sunny trip, but now things had become uncomfortable!

The waves were getting much higher now, the deck was wet & cold, the wind had blown the bread into the water where it sailed away, the push-pole was laying on the deck & being pushed around by the waves, knocking the bean can over & causing it to roll off the deck & into the frigid depths! He rescued his sneakers, but Johnny’s hopes were now replaced with fear! He was drifting rapidly into the North Channel without control in a brisk cold wind & mounting seas! He did not panic, but his mind raced to think of ways to improve his frightening situation.

THE RESCUE: Suddenly, there was the Coast Guard Cutter alongside the raft! Two strong arms plucked Johnny off the raft & into the cutter’s protective stern deck. There were no words spoken by either of the two Guardsmen, & Johnny offered none of his own, as the cutter sliced through the cold waves, back toward Munising’s city dock. Johnny was very worried about the raft… it had not been taken in tow, & would likely never be seen again. He realized now, that nothing remained of his adventure but his shivering, his wet sneakers & jeans! Johnny was disappointed, but glad to be headed for home. At the city dock, the Guardsman deftly lifted Johnny by his ribcage & plopped him firmly on the dock…again, without a word. Johnny didn’t even look back at the departing cutter; he was anxious to get home, get warm, & have lunch.

Johnny didn’t tell anyone of his foiled adventure until many years later… it would not feel good to admit defeat, & he didn’t want to cause a fuss at home.

THE QUESTION: At age 78, Johnny still wonders what had motivated him, nearly 70 years ago, to undertake such an adventure. Even more puzzling, what made him think he could possibly succeed?

After mulling these questions over the many years, he thinks the need for exploration & challenges is primal. Without these drives, how else could young humans (& animals) learn about their environment? Johnny bases this theory on his countless observations of the young of both animals & humans earnestly & endlessly seeking-out & examining new places & things.

However, the question of why he expected to succeed is more challenging. Even a hasty review of the map shows many barriers to success, none of which received any critical consideration by this eager but inexperienced optimist. After wondering about this riddle from time-to-time, “Old” Johnny feels there are a number of possible factors:

1. Unless one has known failure, it is difficult for young minds to perceive.

2. Children, whose needs & wants are satisfied by others, expect success.

3. To plan effectively, one needs to be fully aware of all factors & consequences.

4. Young inexperienced children are essentially unaware of consequences.

5. Without an awareness of possible consequences, anticipated fear is unlikely.

Eight-year-old Johnny had plenty of self-esteem & confidence… perhaps too much. He was in charge of all fires at home, in both the kitchen range & the chunk heater in the living room, as well as maintaining the woodshed & wood boxes when his trapper dad was away. Johnny hauled the wood & ashes, built & banked the fires, & was trusted fully with matches & all cutting tools including axes & knives. He also helped in the vegetable garden & brought his freshly caught yellow perch & brook trout home for the family larder. He felt very good about contributing to his family’s comfort & diet, & he knew his family appreciated his contributions. Perhaps all that self-esteem & confidence misled Johnny into his first big failure, which he has yet to forget! Johnny learned that failures are very important…they teach much, but only if one is thoughtful!

- END-

by
John B. Whitmore

INTRODUCTION: Following is a brief summary of my observations, analyses, and conclusions regarding youth issues and related social factors of the past 17 years. My interest in children’s issues was peaked in the mid 80’s when street gangs and irrational drive-by shootings gained wide public attention, but which seemed to defy public attempts to understand and prevent. Most readers will view this summary as politically incorrect. Indeed, many will consider it a personal attack on their work and/or values. However, my sole intent is to bring public focus to the plight of our children who are exploited by business, and largely neglected by an over-indulged society.

SYMPTOMS: Although we view youth violence, abuse of alcohol, drugs, weapons, and even food as problems, a careful analysis shows them all to be merely symptoms of deeper social ills.
Less noticeable symptoms are kids who lack conscience, empathy, respect, self-discipline, and other desirable personality traits. We have tens of thousands of kids prescribed Ritalin because they were never taught self-discipline and 30-year-old “kids” who are still dependent. Kids who are undisciplined and disinterested in learning are the major cause of 50% of new teachers leaving the profession within five years, and causing many valued older teachers to retire early.

THE DEEPER PROBLEM: A great many of today’s children lack socially acceptable values which are normally acquired during the early child/parent bonding process. This bonding instills a sense of trust in the child, along with a conscience. But many, if not most, of today’s kids were watching TV or otherwise abandoned during much of their critical bonding “window of opportunity”, and failed to acquire adequate bonding. Without an adequate bond, children often become fearful, insecure, and even enraged. The 1987 book “High Risk” by Dr. Ken Magid clearly explains the bonding process, and warns of the serious dangers and high costs to society from both children and adults who lack adequate bonding and the accompanying conscience.
A glut of parenting literature has appeared in all the media, but it fails to compete with the more seductive diversions of the marketplace. Parents are in fanatical denial of any parental laxity, and society supports this denial for fear of losing parent’s political and financial support.

FAILED FIXES: Although thousands of programs have been implemented to correct the “problems” (actually symptoms) exhibited by our errant youth, I found no notable successes except one: The Head Start program has been recently reported to return $7 in law enforcement savings for each $1 invested. Following are programs of note, but of unproven value.

¨ America’s Drug War has been raging for decades at huge cost, 80% of those polled consider the program a complete failure. Kids make or buy easily obtainable hallucinogens. Our prisons are glutted with troubled youth untrained in avoiding the lure of drugs.
¨ Gun Controls have added to the thousands of weapons laws already on the books, but arson, clubs, knives, guns, bombs, and even automobiles are still used to kill and maim.
¨ Michigan State University launched an impressive program in 1998 to build awareness of children’s developmental needs, but failed to capture a busy public’s interest.
¨ Michigan proclaims March as “Parenting Awareness Month” (PAM), when numerous groups and agencies join in a campaign to build awareness of parental responsibilities.
¨ Michigan Dept. of Community Health is using a radio blitz to warn of various risks to kids.

ROADBLOCKS: All five programs cited above have high cost/benefit ratios and are therefore of low value. There are two major reasons for the low value of these programs: First, they fail to focus directly on the very young who acquire lasting values most efficiently. Second, they fail to acknowledge and address the following social roadblocks to effective parenting:

Ø Many studies show America is in deep denial of the true causes of our troubled youth.
Ø The “Nature/Nurture debate still rages in spite of conclusive scientific evidence showing the critical importance of early nurturing which instills essential character traits.
Ø Both business and governments “cover” for parents (the new “Untouchables”) in diverting responsibility to others; they fear losing parent’s votes and trade.
Ø Kindergarten teachers are known to have the ability to identify troubled children (potential criminals) among new students, but by age five, little can be done to correct the damage.

Clearly, until we can muster the will to address and overcome these obstacles, we cannot expect to quell the current cancer-like destruction of America’s social fabric. Nor can we afford to waste more resources on failed fixes while we wring our hands, struggling to find more much-needed funds for our faltering education and health care programs.

A NEW APPROACH: The focus on parenting issues must be shifted from the present “correction mode” involving disinterested parents and errant youth, to a “prevention mode” involving infants and qualified nurturers. Funding may come from existing ineffective programs.

ü Establish public preschools for all infants ages 0 to 5, drawing on Head Start models.
ü Trained nurturers must provide emotional needs as well as physical care.
ü Curriculum must provide for optimal brain development and values acquisition.
ü Just as arithmetic is a prerequisite to algebra, preschool must precede kindergarten.

While the above approach may seem extreme, it has several important advantages:

§ Head Start programs are already proven effective and are excellent investments.
§ Recent polls have shown most parents already favor the teaching of values in school.
§ Many preschools and daycare centers are already in place, requiring only standardization.
§ Costs can be greatly reduced by offering apprentice opportunities to older students.
§ Learning efficiencies in public schools will be greatly enhanced, and at lower cost.
§ The present teacher “burnout” and turnover rates will virtually disappear.
§ As preschool graduates mature, crime costs will drop and public safety will increase.


A FINAL NOTE: We have always greatly underestimated the capacity of our newborns to learn and do. A newborn child is not simply a noisy, smelly, uncoordinated blob of protoplasm. Rather, it is the most powerful learning machine known! Half of its learning takes place the first year! By age three, its brain is consuming energy at the same rate as adults, and by age 5, its life-knowledge is nearly complete. Why, then, do we wait until age five to begin its “education”? By then, its life-values are already in place, and will determine its potential either as a contributing member of society, or as a costly life-long destructive dependent. To ignore the vast potential of any newborn is an affront to not only the child, but to God, Nature, and humankind.


John Whitmore is a WWII veteran, grandfather, retired engineer, teacher, troubleshooter, inventor, and product developer specializing in value analysis and cost reduction. His experience includes technical management in the production of ballistic missile systems, re-entry space vehicles, transportation equipment, and solar space heating systems. Since retiring in 1985, he has studied youth issues, creating an innovative program to help break the cycle of deficient parenting. To date, he has failed to find an audience for his program due to the various social factors described in this summary.

The Old Man and the Rose

When the Ole Cowboy and I got married, over 25 yrs. ago, we lived in his rental house for a few months. I considered it a firetrap and started looking for a new place to rent.

I found a beautiful old house in the historic North End of Boise. It had been built in the 1920's and had been lovingly restored by the current owner. She had since been transferred to the midwest and didn't want to sell, so she rented it for $300.00 a month.

It was a beautiful two bedroom, one bath home with hardwood floors, big airy windows, a fireplace and a small but nice remodeled kitchen. It had an unfinished basement with a big coal burning furnace.

The only drawback was that the yard, on a large corner lot, had been terribly neglected. It had a large rose garden, with antique roses and, as spring progressed, we found literally hundreds of tulips and daffodils struggling through weeds and grass. Crocus bloomed in the front yard.

After settling in, we spent the spring on the yard, cleaning flower beds and pruning and feeding the neglected roses. It seemed every day brought new discoveries. Someone had dearly loved this old house, once, but it had fallen on hard times as a rental.

Our neighbors told us we were crazy to spend so much time on property that wasn't ours. We didn't care, because we loved that house, even if we didn't own it. That year, the yard bloomed, not well, because it would take time for it to recover from it's abuse, but we were proud of what we had done so far.

Then, that first year, in June, with the roses were blooming beautifully, I noticed a thin, elderly man, dressed in his Sunday best, just standing quietly on the sidewalk. I saw a very young man in a car parked by the curb, reading a magazine. The old man stood there until my curiosity got the best of me and I went out and greeted him.

He apologized for bothering me, but he explained–he and his wife had owned the house for many years. It was his wife who had planted and cherished the roses. He gravely thanked me for taking care of the roses.

His wife had died that winter and that day was their anniversary. His grandson had promised to drive him to the cemetery and the old gentleman asked him to come by my place to see how her beloved roses were.

While we talked, he never took his eyes from the roses. He seemed to want to ask me something, but he hesitated, perhaps afraid I would not agree.

Finally, he seemed to make up his mind. Shyly, he asked if he might take one rose with him to the cemetery for his wife.

His simple request moved me deeply and I said, "Of course. Take as many as you want."

"No," he said firmly, "Just one perfect rose."

Only then did he step onto the lawn that he had cared for a half century. He spent a long time looking at each bloom. He finally selected a large white rose, creamy as ivory with a tinge of faint pink at the heart, with a perfume to lift the heart.

He thanked me gravely and got into his grandson's car. They drove away. I looked for him the next June, but he never showed up.

I hope he has joined his wife and that there is a place where he can find one perfect rose to give his beloved.

I am a Moderate who has been misled by those no-good Liberals. I now see that everything you have done is for the good of the people that you love so much.

Before you took office, my husband had a job that paid very well. Now he has taken a job at less than three-fourths his original pay. His Reserve weekends are now not just something he wants to do, it’s something he needs to do. Thank you for showing us we didn’t need all that food on the table after all. Now we don’t really need a table. I think we’ll sell it at a yard sale.

Before you took office, our son was secure in the fact that his parents had enough income to send him to college if he worked part time.

Thank you for forcing him to get a backbreaking full-time job that pays next to nothing and is a one-hour drive across town. He enjoys the scenic freeway view. He especially loves spending so much of his income on gas. He’s so busy driving slowly through traffic jams that he wouldn’t have time for school anyway.

Before you took office, our daughter was a proud soldier in the US Army. We as her parents were secure in the knowledge that should she ever have to go to war it would be under orders of her Commander-in-Chief and it would be to protect the people of the United States.

Thank you for giving her the opportunity to fight for the profit of big businesses and for the control of Iraq’s oil. She made a lot of friends in her carefree year in beautiful, breathtaking Baghdad. The fact that she will never see some of them again builds her character.

Before you took office, we knew that if our daughter ever became medically unfit to serve, she would have been medically discharged from the Army instead of being sent into a war zone. Yes, her superiors felt forced to deny medical treatment to her for the entire year that she was in Baghdad while her condition worsened, but she was getting paid.

Thank you for allowing her to keep her job after she re-developed a 40-degree curve and pain in her spine that she had as a child.

Before you took office, I remember a time when your friend Zell would step in and help a soldier who was in need as our daughter was. He would have recognized that someone in her condition could hinder the mission and possibly put other soldier’s lives in danger.

Thank you for showing us that despite all my begging and pleading, we can’t count on Zell for compassion anymore. I can tell my friends not to waste their time. You made us realize how much we miss that other deceitful war veteran, Max Cleland (John McCain and John Kerry are the first two as you know very well). Max did spoil us when he responded to our letters.

Before you took office, we had health insurance. Since I have health problems, I visited my doctor regularly. We still have health insurance. It costs us more than $300 a month now, but we have it! I just can’t go to the doctor as often since the premiums are so high.

Thank you for teaching us how to live on the edge.

Before you took office, I was so superficially happy. I had a job that paid very well, now I have been unemployed for nearly two years.

Thank you for giving me all the time off I need so I can write you this THANK YOU letter. No one deserves it more than you, George.

Denise Thomas
Military Families Speak Out
Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition

My Dad, in his late 40's.
Everyone called him R.T.,
or "Fess" for Professor

My Mom, in
her thirties. "Bea"

I don’t like statements like "poor White trash" or "cops are pigs" or "Jews are stingy" or "the French are cowards" or the favorite of the moment, "Muslims are terrorists". There are a few people in these groups who are all of those things. Yes, then there are SEVERAL insulting stereotypes about those "stupid Black people". I'm a poor Black who sees other poor Blacks trying to make it. We won't give up. Why is it that America cannot exist without putting some group or another down?? For some reason when there's money involved, people tend to look much better. I've never heard of "rich White trash". Do you think that if "poor Blacks" had money, any behavioral problems would look much more attractive?

My son has been stopped 150+ times by the police in the nearly 4 years that we have been in metro Atlanta. He's large, young, and Black, he's a rapper (and dresses like one), he drives a red sports car (old and falling apart), and he goes to most of his shows late at night. I have no doubt that many of the police who have stopped him have done so for superficial reasons. They are victims of stereotyping and negative generalities that have been drummed into their heads all of their lives. I tell my son to let them do their jobs. If my son refuses to cooperate, he could be shot and killed by a frightened officer. He'd go down in police statistics as another violent rapper, and the police officer would be known to the Black community as another "murdering pig". That would impact on the next police officer and the next Black rapper who crossed paths. It's a vicious circle that causes mistrust on both sides, and it starts with those seemingly innocent blanket statements.

My son,"Ness Lee".
He never knew his grandfather.

My Dad in the
Middle East, about 1949