Tag: Independence Week

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Via Happy News, 26 heroes have been recognized by the Carnegie Hero Fund.  The fund, set of by Andrew Carnegie in 1904, honors people annually who have gone past the call of duty to save people from life threatening situations.

This year’s recipients include Marc Patterson, who forced a cougar to let go of a 12-year-old; Deborah Chiborak and Gerard Beernaerts, who rescued 89-year-old Winifred M. Lindsa after she was trapped beneath her scooter near train tracks, facing an oncoming train; Curtis Dawson, 47, of Astoria, Ore., who helped rescue a tugboat captain from drowning in the Columbia River; Dennis H. Morton, 38, of Prineville, Ore., who helped rescue Oma D. Pratt, 54, from her burning mobile home; and Samara Marie White, 15, of Davison, Mich., who died trying to save her 4-year-old sister from their burning home

Everybody who did this deserves to be recognized for their efforts.  I applaud you all!

Just a quick programming note: Tomorrow will be my yearly “why I love American” post.  Those who gag at overt expressions of patriotism need not read it.

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Today’s Independence Week post is dedicated to an actor who played a character who ensured Earth’s own freedom for seven years, Don S. Davis.

Gateworld reported two days ago that veteran actor Don S. Davis died Sunday of a heart attack.  Davis played Major General/Lieutenant General George Hammond on Stargate SG-1 for seven years.  Expecting retirement, Hammond found himself in command of several “SG teams,” whose mission was to go to other worlds to procure technology that would serve in the defense of Earth, and to make friendly contact with the natives.  Hammond was replaced with civilian expert treaty negotiator Elizabeth Weir (who would go on to be a central character in Stargate Atlantis) at the end of Season 7.  In real life, Davis left the show to deal with medical issues.  He reprised the character several times throughout the rest of the series’ run, and will appear in the upcoming Stargate: Continuum.

Davis also played Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks, and was a stunt double for MacGuyver actor Dana Elcar, which is where he met Richard Dean Anderson.

I posted this as today’s IW entry, as it was partly due to Davis’ portrayal of General Hammond (along with the rest of the actors’ respective characters) that led the U.S. military to praise the show due to its relatively positive portrayal of the military.

More shows and movies could do with this kind of attitude.

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Independence Week just wouldn’t be complete without celebrating the attempts of some group tryng to attain their freedom.  Well, a group of circus camels and zebras tried just that today.  From the AP via HappyNews:

Amsterdam police say 15 camels, two zebras and an undetermined number of llamas and potbellied swine briefly escaped from a traveling Dutch circus after a giraffe kicked a hole in their cage.

They were obviously protesting their status as second-class citizens!

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The first of this week’s Independence Week articles shows that the U.S. military isn’t completely defined by pre-emptive strikes against other countries.

Happy News has been reporting for some time now Operation Smile.  The group itself isn’t part of the military, but a non-profit charity that aim to repair cleft lips and palates in children from countries like Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea.

The latest news about OS is that they’re teaming up with the USNS Mercy for deployment to Southeast Asia.  They have already performed 350 operations on children from the four countries listed above, and have recently moved on to Nha Trang, Vietnam.  The ship’s partnership with OS is a small portion of their bigger 2008 Summer Deployment, where they perform operations around the world for those in need.

It makes me very happy to know that despite all the bad press the military has gotten in recent years that it is doing some good in the world.  It is doing more things like shows that the U.S. really isn’t that bad of a country as some might think.  So kudos to the USNS Mercy and ships/crews like it who are spreading some goodwill to those in need!  People like you are what Independence Week is about.

To read about the continuing mission of the Mercy, hop on over to the blog of her captain Bob Wiley here.

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With all that’s gone on this weekend, I plum nearly forgot that Friday is Independence Day.  Thus, today will be the start of Independence Week!

For those who are new, I feel that the world is so full of bad news.  War, crashes, natural diasters death, all that.  And the media tends to pick up more on that, but not on the good, happy, or funny news.

Well, Independence Week changes all that.  For one whole week (that’s 7 days!) here at Dymersion, I like to buck the trend and link to and comment on that good, happy, or funny news.  Make people feel good.

So, I’ll make the first post later.