"No Service, To Secret Service, Then Silent Service!"

Gazebo Gazette Volume 5, Issue 16 Dated April 14, 2009

Speaking before members of the Marianna Optimist Club last week, was Postal Service Inspector, Michael Mulder, who works out of the Tallahassee Office. Mulder, however, who resides in Marianna where he grew-up and graduated from Marianna High school, and Chipola College. He went to the university at Alabama, and Florida State, earning his Masters Degree.
After completing his formal education, he tried his hand at construction work for a season, working for his father, Richard Mulder. Finding the construction work rather mundane, as a young man, he decided to move on to something a little more adventurous and found employment with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) at the Pensacola Office under President Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill Grant, "Cops on the Beat."
Following his service with Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement, he obtained a position with the U.S. Secret Service Department, and subsequently was assigned to their Jacksonville Office. Although the work was similar in nature, it did, finally, provide the opportunity to travel, and travel he did in spades. The Secret Service has the duel roll of safeguarding the nation’s financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserving the integrity of the economy, and the protection of national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated sites and National Special Security Events. As a special agent, Mulder carried out assignments in both areas of investigation, and protection. While performing these duties, he frequently found himself standing on the virtual threshold of history, and in many exotic places around the globe.
As stated earlier, Mulder currently works for the United States Postal Inspection Service, otherwise known as, "The Silent Service." The USPIS is primarily an investigative agency comprised of plain-clothed federal criminal investigators referred to as "Postal Inspectors" whose primary mission is "to protect the U.S. Postal Service, its employees and its customers from criminal attack, and protect the nation’s mail system from criminal misuse." As a result, Mulder has investigated mail bombs, mail fraud, and ID theft.
Because most identity theft involves the U.S. Mail, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has become a lead agency in investigating these crimes. Postal Inspectors have jurisdiction to investigate and enforce more than 200 federal statutes involving the U.S. Mail. To protect yourself: (1) Deposit outgoing mail at the Post Office, or blue U.S. Postal Service collection box, or give it directly to your letter carrier. (2) Shred or tear up unwanted documents that contain personal information before discarding them. (3) Request from the local credit bureau your entitled, free Annual Credit Report, and review it for false accounts. (4) Never give personal Information over the telephone. (5) Report ID theft online with the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, or call 1-877-IDTHEFT

“Why Humans Monkey With Their Blood!”

Gazebo Gazette Volume 5, Issue 15 Dated April 14, 2009

Amanda Cowart, wife of Optimist Member, James Cowart, spoke at last week’s breakfast meeting. Amanda and Jim have been married for about eleven years, and have two school aged children; a boy and a girl.

Amanda and James Cowart work in the related field of bio medicine. However, they work from two different perspectives. Where James maintains and services bio medical equipment, Amanda uses the equipment to analyze blood. She is a Certified Laboratory Technician, specializing in the field of Hematology, or blood analysis.

As demonstrated by the large number of questions from the audience following her presentation, life carrying blood remains a mystery to the average citizen, and is a subject most have little concern for. That is, until the situation arises where they may need it in an emergency for a transfusion in order to save their life.

Despite all efforts to synthesize it, there are no permanent blood substitutes. Amanda herself, has found it necessary to receive blood from a donor, and knows first hand how important to her survival it was to be able to have her blood type available at that critical moment in time. There are four general categories of blood types: A, B, O, and AB. But each blood type is further labeled as positive or negative which is a reference to the Rhesus factor of the blood. To prevent rejection and potential life threatening diseases, individuals must receive their own blood type, and Amanda’s job is to analyze donated blood prior to its use, to determine type compatibility, and to screen for the Rh Antibodies, as well as any possible blood born diseases.

The Rhesus factor, also known as the Rh factor, gets its name from experiments conducted in 1937 by scientists Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Weiner. These experiments rabbits which, when injected with the Rhesus monkey’s red blood cells, produced an antibody, afterwards referred to as the Rh, or Rhesus factor. Approximately 85 % of the world’s population has the Rh Positive factor, indicated with their blood type followed by the plus sign (O+), or followed by the negative sign (O-) if they don’t have it.

Amanda, when asked what blood type is most rare, said it was probably type AB-. However, she claimed that the blood type most in demand is type O- because it is the universal blood type for all recipients, regardless of their own blood type, or Rh factor. For that reason, those with type O- blood types are sought out by blood banks, and asked to become regular blood donors. However, because whole blood has a short shelf life of only ninety days, there are not nearly enough volunteers and, therefore, there always exists a shortage of this life saving blood type on hand.

If an individual is un-aware of their blood type and Rh factor, a good way to find out is to donate blood. If the individual is found to have the critically needed type O- blood, it is advisable for them to donate their blood so that there will be a sufficient quantity on hand to save lives, keeping in mind that the life they save could be their own. If an individual is found not to have the type O- blood, donate anyway, it could still save one’s own life. Also, the various blood constituents, such as, plasma, and blood platelets can be used to help a patient survive until their blood type can be found.

Optimist-Outlook

Marianna Optimist Club Activities - By Don Jones
"Justice Denied Too Long"

Gazebo Gazette Volume 5, Issue 14 Dated April 7, 2009
Jim Dalafave, a member of the Marianna Optimist Club, and well known, life-long citizen of Marianna where he continues to reside with his wife Joan, however, unknown by most is that Dalafave was born to a full blood Cherokee Mother, and a Father having slightly less than full blood Cherokee, with the balance of his heritage being of Irish extraction.
Both birth parents were members of a small band of Cherokee Indians living on a reservation in Missouri, at the time of his birth. Therefore, he was given the Indian name of, "Little Crow." Then, later he was given the Christian name, "James G. Dalafave," by his adoptive parents at the tender age of one month.
Although his adoptive parents were not Native Americans, they have never tried to hide, or demean his Native American heritage in any way. Therefore, Dalafave has taken every opportunity possible to stay in touch with his Native American roots, trying to learn as much as he possibly could about his native born heritage over his lifetime, afforded him a great deal of knowledge, which he was kind enough to share, just a small amount of, with his fellow Optimist at last week’s Optimist Meeting.
Dalafave’s birth parents loved him very much, but as many Native Americans have done in the past, they wanted their son to have a better life than they could afford for him on the reservation, and gave him up for adoption while quite young. However, as they say, "Blood is thicker than water." and Dalafave has always maintained a deep love and respect for the native people that gave him life, and in truth, they, also, helped the European Settlers survive in the new world wilderness of North America, giving them life, as well.
Sadly, the truth of the matter is that this favor by the Native Americans has never been reciprocated by the European Settlers, who instead repaid the natives by taking their lands, and destroying their wild game stock that they depended upon for thousands of years as a way of life, and means of their very survival. Today, after five hundred years of occupation by the Europeans, Native Americans are yet relegated to live on reservations, where they fight a constant battle against idleness among their youth, while living meaningless, non-productive lives, with some notable exceptions.
As terrible as the Native Americans were treated, and still are to some extent today, this was not the crux of Dalafave’s talk; he spoke in terms of how the natives of North America are referred to as, "Indians." They are not, "Indians." Columbus mistakenly called them Indians because, when his ship landed on the Eastern Coast of North America in the year 1492, he thought he had found a western route to the continent of India. Therefore, the American Natives should, more accurately be called, "Native Americans," which they are.
The only other thing that seemed to bother him, and the rest of the population of Native Americans today, is the destructive effects that alcohol and illegal drugs continue to have on their health and ability to live productive lives. The American Natives had not been exposed to the effects of alcohol and drugs for thousands of years, as their European counterparts have, and therefore had not gained the same degree of immunity to the side effects of these powerful drugs, as their European counterparts seem to have. This fact, alone, has been the single most devastating weapon used against them by European Settlers in the past. This weakness enabled the occupying Europeans to more easily rob the Native Americans of their lands, and to make unfavorable treaties. Although, there is no more to be gained today from these tribes, alcohol continues to be a major curse within the individual Native American families, and their culture as a whole today.
Surviving today in the Southeastern United States, there exist the Miccosukee Indians who were originally part of the Creek Nation, which were an association of clan villages that inhabited the areas now known as Alabama and Georgia. Currently, this Tribe has four distinct reservation areas in the State of Florida: Tamiami Trail, Alligator Alley and two at Krome Avenue and U.S. 41. Unlike most reservation natives, they are self reliant and very industrious. In their distant past they survived by repairing and building horse drawn and mule drawn wagons. However, today they are better known for the manufacture of the very successful Winnebago Recreational Vehicle.