Opinion

In defense of nurture

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

I read with interest the nominations of two young men to service academies in last Thursday and Friday issues of the Gazette. Eli and Gideon Fink, twins, from Stratton seniors at Dundy County Stratton High School. Gideon was familiar to us because he brought items for Grannie Annie to send to “her soldiers” in her Adopt a Chaplain program. Read carefully the young men have nominations to attend and yet they still will be competing with an unknown number of nominees for the coveted appointment to one academy or another. Nevertheless, it is a giant first step. Not a bad milestone for two young men born into poverty in the troubled nation of Guatemala. We all can wish them good luck in achieving their goal of the actual appointment.

Now a parallel story of success. He came to my mother as a four-year-old refugee from a hippy commune in California. His mother was in jail for attempting to sell shoplifted clothing back to the store where her hippy brethren had stolen them. His grandmother was occupied with other things so she put the tyke on an airliner and shipped him to Nebraska.

When the poor introverted little guy arrived at my folk’s farm home to he had to be shown how to eat with fork and spoon. Evidently, the flower children dined by opening a can and fishing the contents out with their hands. Quite a life.

My mother, his great-grandmother, gained legal custody and made a home for the young man. As he grew he attended our rural school through the 8th grade then Junior and Senior High in McCook. For college, he wrangled a scholarship through the Veteran’s Administration (VA) in physical therapy. Payback was an internship and work at the VA facility in Dayton, Ohio.

Eventually, Karl decided that he could put himself through medical school and earned a degree as an orthopedic surgeon. Not too bad a track record of personal achievement through perseverance and hard work.

A year or so ago Grannie Annie and I were in the neighborhood of Cooperstown, New York where Dr. Karl was practicing. Cooperstown the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and host of innumerable youth baseball tournaments each year. Not a bad place for an expert on broken bones as a result of hard play to practice medicine. We called and he invited us out to his very upscale home. For the first time, we met his delightful RN wife and his, spittin'-image of his dad, four-year-old son. Ah, good times and wonderful memories we enjoyed sharing as we caught up on so many years apart.

Next morning driving through the real rural farming country that is Upstate New York a sign beckoning “Farmer’s Market’ drew us off the road. A double row of tents with entrepreneurs, mostly mom and pop country folk, displaying their wares of baked good, fresh apples, assorted garden produce and more beckoned. As soon as we opened our mouths to speak we stood out as our accent marked us strangers among the usual customers. Grannie in her gregarious way visited with a gent selling his large selection of apples who was a bit intrigued with us strangers and asked: “What in the world brought us his way?” “Cooperstown where we visited with a grandnephew who is an orthopedic surgeon there” her reply. “What is his name?” and she spoke Dr. Karl’s full name. “Well yes, I know him. He did a total knee replacement on me about six months ago” said the farmer. Further conversation revealed that the former patient was very well satisfied with his new knee and that he had enjoyed visiting with Karl about his growing up on a farm in Nebraska. A small world it is and quite a positive testimony.

For this old retired former military guy and a USAF Academy graduate myself, it will be quite interesting to follow the twin Fink brothers if and when they receive their appointments to one or the other of the Academies. The “free” education comes with a commitment to serve in the military so we will also be following their careers in service. I’ve shared above what a young man who had come from a liberal rat hole in California has done with his life. These two young men were able to escape dire circumstances in their life start in Guatemala. Kudo’s to their parents Renee and Kevin who in the twin’s words “Taught us discipline, morals and ethics.” Definitely deserve a Well Done. Nurture from loving parents and an excellent school system in Southwestern Nebraska has again overcome a bad start in life.

That is how I saw it.

Dick Trail.

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