DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite places to visit is the Four Corners Monument, located on Navajo land at the confluence of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, near Shiprock and Teec Nos Pos.


Not Quite

But now it turns out that this may all be an elaborate sham, fooling yours truly not once, but twice!

Marker was off, but Four Corners monument legit
By ELIZABETH WHITE – 3 hours ago
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Many a family touring the Southwest has made a stop in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado — all at the same time.
Or have they?
News reports this week that the site of the Four Corners monument was off by a whopping 2 1/2 miles drummed up some concern that anyone who ever got down on their hands and knees to touch four states at once had lived a bit of a lie.
Not to worry, government officials say. The marker is indeed the only place where four U.S. states meet, even though surveyors were a little off when they set the marker in 1875.
The marker is 1,807.14 feet east of where it should have been placed, said Dave Doyle, chief geodetic surveyor for the National Geodetic Survey, which defines and manages a national coordinate system. That's about the length of six football fields, but Doyle calls the measurement a "home run" given the limited tools surveyors had to work with back then.

Close, but not close enough--it cost me $3 to get to the monument (at least it did the second time, I snuck on the first time), and now I want my money back.


The Navajo owe me $3

"Their ability to replicate that exact point — what they did was phenomenal, what they did was spot on," Doyle said. "(They) nailed it."
There would be about a 2.5-mile discrepancy had the monument been measured to the 109th meridian west of the Prime Meridian passing through Greenwich, England, but Doyle said that isn't what happened. The statute creating Colorado's western boundary mandated measurement from the Washington Meridian, which passes through the old Naval Observatory in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
In any case, the measurement differences don't matter anymore, Doyle said, because "the monument controls."
"Where the marker is now is accepted," Doyle said. "Even if it's 10 miles off, once it's adopted by the states, which it has been, the numerical errors are irrelevant. It becomes the legal definition" of the Four Corners. (link)

Like Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember x 2

RIP Tony Hillerman

Morganobrien.com was said to learn of the passing of best-selling author Tony Hillerman last weekend in Albuquerque. The war hero former newspaperman, college professor and champion of the Navajo people was 83.

I regret never having the opportunity to meet Mr. Hillerman while we were neighbors in the Land of Enchantment, and am upset that I never went to a reading of his while I was there. While his ability to craft a heck of a mystery is unchallenged, Mr. Hillerman's personal story is every bit as compelling. Rather than memorialize him and come up short, I'll defer to the NY Times, which did its typical phenomenal job (I've linked it below).

I love that he was a war hero that came home, got into newspapers and didn't begin writing books until later on in life. It's refreshing to see people don't need to find their niche by 30.

I also love how he viewed the Native American people, specifically the Navajo. During a ceremony where the tribe honored one of their own returning from war, Hillerman was mesmerized by their warrior ethos and sense of community and took it upon himself to celebrate these forgotten people in his work.

Tony Hillerman, Novelist, Dies at 83
By MARILYN STASIO
Published: October 28, 2008
Mr. Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers.
(link)

Morgan O'Brien's WiGO 10.22.08

Sam Bradford: He's no Sonny Sixkiller

Native American Athlete Update

Had the chance to read another great article on a Native American athlete starring on the national level, this time Oklahoma stud soph QB Sam Bradford is in the spotlight, and is proving to be a huge hit within the Cherokee community:

Sooners’ Bradford Is Accidental Cherokee Hero
By THAYER EVANS
Published: October 11, 2008
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford, who is one-sixteenth Cherokee, is at the forefront of the Heisman Trophy conversation, but he finds his role as the tribe’s hero somewhat awkward.

It looks like Nassau may have to halt the Wall of Shame:

Nassau removes Wall of Shame, Suozzi vows to appeal
BY ANN GIVENS | ann.givens@newsday.com
9:49 PM EDT, October 21, 2008
Nassau County took down its online "Wall of Shame" Tuesday, and from now on will post only the names and photos of those who are convicted of drunken driving, said County Executive Thomas Suozzi.

That's probably fair, considering the whole innocent until proven guitly thing the nation's built upon. I had a feeling that this was coming because 'Wall of Shame' + the name of the lady taking up the case was gettin a ton of hits on morganobrien.com. I figure council was doing research to see how her name was being used in light of her posting on the Wall.


I Hate Your Guts, Jim Norton

I'm excited about Jimmy Norton's new book, I Hate Your Guts, due out Election Day, Nov. Jimmy is an incredible comedian and was very gracious when he met me and Officer O'Brien after we caught a set at the Comedy Cellar. If I can find it, I'll post the photo he took with us.


In closing, a couple of notes for the dogs:

'Walter Reed' for combat dogs opens at Texas base
By MICHELLE ROBERTS – 10 hours ago

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A new $15 million veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

And then there's this: further proof that when the chain of command fails, there's always the power of the press:

Sunday: Minnesota soldier's dog headed here from Iraq
Ratchet is finally headed to Spring Lake Park after three attempts to spring him from Iraq. Army Specialist Gwen Beberg found the mutt in a trash heap there in May.

We should give them Homer as a fair trade

And of course this, my favorite Web video of all time. Apparently, this is the welcome home received by a Tech. Sgt. who just spent the last fourteen months deployed:



As always,
With my greatest respect,
Morgan

Come on, Joba!

Considering how hard Morganobrien.com is on drunk drivers, I was troubled by reading of this news about one of my favorite Yanks today:

Yankees' pitcher Joba Chamberlain arrested in Nebraska on DUI charge
BY DORIAN BLOCK
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Gutierrez/AP

Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain was arrested early Saturday morning in Nebraska for driving under the influence of alcohol, the state patrol said.

The 23-year-old starter - with a wholesome reputation - was driving southbound on Highway 77 in Lincoln, Neb., his hometown, at 1 a.m. when a trooper pulled over his dark-colored 2006 BMW for speeding, said Deb Collins, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol.

Before I go on: he's innocent until proven guilty, but it is noteworthy that he's already apologized for his error in judgment.

Moreso than his beloved status as an on-field standout for the pinstripes, I admire Joba as a role model for the Native American community.

Native Americans are an incredibly underrepresented--damn near forgotten--ethnic group. For every success story coming out of the reservations, there seems to be dozens of tales of woe and misery.

The hardscrabble lifestyle that comes with tribal life is only underscored by the challenges of alcohol that American Indians face. Just this summer, USA Today reported that nearly 12 percent of Indian deaths are alcohol related. Compare that to about 3.3 percent of all Americans. While there is no evidence of a universal genetic predisposition of American Indians to alcoholism, there at least exists some significant research into the the issue.

In recent years, prominent Native Americans like Chamberlain, Boston Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and golfer Notah Begay have earned a national profile thanks to their respective athletic prowess. Begay and now Joba have both run afould of the law thanks to alcohol-related incidents, with Begay serving significant jail time as a consequence.

And if you don't think that American Indians can use role models, take a look at this profile about Ellsbury's heroic return home after winning a world championship with the Sawx in 2007:

Ellsbury, widely believed to be the first Navajo player in major league history, was born and raised in this small farming town in the Oregon high desert. His mother, Marjorie Ellsbury, moved here from her home in Arizona to become a special education teacher for the nearby Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs.

Here she met Jim Ellsbury, a forester for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and they raised four sons, of which Jacoby is the oldest. He is an enrolled member of the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Arizona.



"I'm really proud of Jacoby, coming out of the Navajo Nation," said Ken Man, a member of the Warm Springs tribes who called the radio play-by-play of Ellsbury's high school basketball games. "He could have been in the NBA, too, he's that good." (more)

Charles Barkley talked about never asking to be a role model, and in the vein, Joba may not have asked for that status, but he's inextricably tied to his heritage (any Yankee fan worth their salt can tell you about Joba's dad, Harlan and the tough road he's hoed). And while he's in his early 20's (23) and bound to commit typical youthful transgressions, here's hoping that he can find the silver lining from this experience and use his example so that others--specifically those that look up to him--don't fall down this path.


Joba and dad, Harlan
The New York Times did a nice piece on this very issue, highlighting what Joba means to his fellow Winnebagos:

In his flat-billed Yankees cap that always seems a half size too big, with an arm already rated somewhere between fable and holy, Joba Chamberlain has all but passed through a dream catcher. In essence, he is a dream come true for American Indians who have been forever marginalized by cultural fatalism and outside bias, forever freighted by historic atrocities and benign neglect.

To watch Chamberlain is to spy on hope, to witness a revolution in belief among his Winnebago tribe.

“I think he shows that everyone can do it — even if you’re from around here,” said Aaron Lapointe, 16, a high school sophomore on the reservation. “It’s good just to see that he is a Native American, that he is the same as me(emphasis mine).”

In light of his arrest, Joba's boss Hank Steinbrenner has offered to provide any support that Joba needs. Lord knows that there are too many other Native Americans without the benefit of the same benefactor. By shining light on this, Joba's terrible error in judgment might have a silver lining and benefit a community terribly in need of a high-profile champion of this issue.