Category: Newsletter

  • Longfellows by Art Fettig

    Poetry - Writing Quill

    I’m a poet, my feet show it. They’re Longfellows.

    I’ve been called a lot of strange things in my career but not since high school has anyone referred to me as a poet. Not so lately. Last Saturday I attended a meeting of our local Orange Dog Poets. Tuesday I went to the Nash Street Tavern open mike session and read some of my poetry. Early Wednesday morning I read some of my poetry on a local radio show that can be heard worldwide on the net. Thursday we picked up yesterday’s mail and the local News of Orange Newspaper, and in the Poets Corner they published my poem on Loving America.  Friday I will be including some of my poetry in a presentation I’ll be making at our Senior Center.  I have been including my poems in most of my presentations nearly all of my career as a professional speaker, that being for the past 45 years. I’ve considered myself a lot of things but never really a “poet.”  I think most real poets will agree that I am not really a “poet.”  I’m more of a rhymer who works with rhythm. Early this morning the thought hit me that “A poet can write anything he wants to.  There are no rules.”

    The power of that statement nearly floored me. I went on to say
    Oh, a poet could write most anything she wants to.
    Foolish, schoolish, unsound….profound
    And the words of her selection, might sway a close election
    Or cause an insurrection
    A phrase unfurled, might change the world.
    That’s enough on the subject. (Applause)

    References:

  • Say Something Good – Meetings

    By Art Fettig

    Meetings

    Meetings. Attending the Trade Show of the AENC this week at the fabulous new Raleigh Convention Center, I met with perhaps a couple of hundred people who are involved in creating Association meetings that make a difference in their particular field. It started me thinking about the conferences and conventions I had attended in my earlier career. The first one was in Texas and I had won an Assoc. of American Railroad’s Award for an article I had written. My wife and I were treated almost like celebrities and somehow it made all of that extra work I had done in writing such articles worthwhile. My horizons expanded all the way from Michigan to Texas. I learned more attending sessions at that meeting than I had learned in my entire career as a claim agent for the railroad. It was like being exposed to a big, new, wonderful world.  I know, like me, you have attended far too many disorganized, unprepared meetings than one should endure in one’s lifetime, still, it was exciting to be exposed to all of these wonderful people who are so totally dedicated to make their meetings and conventions really have a positive impact on their attendees and their profession..  May God bless America and keep our troops from harm. 

    Form Art Fettig’s Newsletter – December 14, 2009

  • I love A Parade

    By Art Fettig

    Art Fettig
    Art Fettig laughing while sitting in his “borrowed” Lamborghini – The seat is almost on the floor…

    No, I didn’t ride in that beautiful red Lamborghini.  The seat is almost on the floor of that beautiful car and I figured it would take a crane at least to get me out of it. One strong man managed the job. Instead. I rode in the annual Mt. Airy, NC Christmas parade in a 1938 Chevrolet coupe and it was a real thrill. The sign on our vehicle read, “Almost  Andy…Art Fettig” I couldn’t resist the temptation to get out and walk and I must have walked half way from here to eternity before the parade was over. My new business card reads, “Almost Andy,  Close enough for most.”  No matter how many times I told greeters that I was not Andy Griffith the more they went right on telling me how they loved the TV show and how they had seen every program. Some families told how they taped the program every day and watched it at 5 PM every day as a family. At least a dozen individuals told me how happy they were to finally have an Andy Griffith look-alike that really looked like Andy. I hope I didn’t deceive anyone unintentionally.

    Seeing all of those smiling faces I hope that I brought a little joy into the lives of those hundreds of people watching the parade. Meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus was the most fun of all.  It’s great to be eighty and I sure do love a parade. I do. 

    From Art Fettig’s Newsletter – December 14, 2009

  • When Does Life Being?

    A Jewish Perspective

    Baby Finger

    “Nineteen hundred years ago when Caesar Anthony asked this question of Rabbi Yehudah Ha’Nasee, the rabbi replied: “From the moment the fetus emerges from the womb” (Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 34:10). The 11th-century Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) explained: “for the fetus in the womb is not considered a person until it is born” (Talmud Bav’li, Sanhedrin 72b). Earlier rabbinic codes clearly place the welfare of the mother first, and “if a woman experiences difficulty in childbirth, the fetus is dismembered within her, limb by limb, because her life takes precedence” (Mishnah Ohalot 7:6 and Talmud Yerushalmi, Sanhedrin, end of Ch. 8).

    Not only her life, later rabbis added, but her emotional well-being. “While woman is biologically equipped to bear children,” writes Rav Yeruchem Perilman (19th century), “she is nevertheless not as a clump of earth, and is therefore not obliged to nurture seed implanted within her against her will” (in Ohr Gadol No. 31).

    Classical Jewish rulings concerning abortion rely primarily on the woman’s instinct, and they respect that until the fetus emerges from the womb, it remains an integral part of the woman’s body alone.

    Rabbi Gershon Winkler
    Walking Stick Foundation
    Thousand Oaks, CA”

    References:

  • Arizona City Make Safe Places for LGBTQ People

    Gay Globe

    Glendale on Tuesday became the third metro Phoenix city to add protections for LGBTQ people in the past two months. The Glendale City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that prohibits discrimination in public places, housing and many workplaces, and extends the protections to the LGBTQ community. Mesa and Scottsdale passed ordinances in March and April, respectively. 1