Uncle Roscoe’s Apple Tree

The Gloucester Police Department believes it has solved a thir­ty three year old murder with the arrest of two men, Kevin Ireland, 54, and Norman Pike, 52. A third man who was said to be involved in the crime is now dead.

Prosecutors allege that Pike, then an eighteen-year-old drug ad­dict, planned on breaking into his grandfather’s funeral home and robbing the safe. He needed the money because he owed a drug dealer $100. Ireland owed the same drug dealer $25. A third man, “Josh” Kennedy, a drug dealer, agreed to help. Eleanor Wadsworth, a sixty-five-year old employee of the funeral home, happened upon the three and she was killed to silence her.

Think about this. A lady was beaten to death over $125 in money owed for drugs. Just when you think we can sink no lower a story like this comes to the fore. And there are those among us who want to legalize this poison. The case was solved when a fifty-four-year-old lady, a friend of Pike’s, came forward and said she lied to protect him at the time of the murder. Can you imagine living with that lie for all those years? She belongs in jail, too. As we rush headlong towards legalized gambling here in the Commonwealth we might be wise to consider the following infor­mation from our friends in the Nutmeg State (that’s Connecticut, for you Jerry Springer devotees, Oprah fans, and potheads). The two casinos report their slot machine revenues for February dropped dramatically compared to the year before. Foxwoods was down 11%, and Mohegan Sun was down 7.7%. I suppose it’s too much to expect our politicians to look before they leap, so I’m sure they will go full blast anyway after this deflating revenue source, and we’ll take an­other step down the slippery slope towards becoming a Third World country. Has there ever been a more bizarre candidate for governor than Christy Mihos? Now his former campaign manager is suing him for $44,000 in back wages. Before that, political whiz Dick Morris bailed on Mihos for non-payment of wages. Before that, the gaso­line wholesaler who supplies his stores had to bring him to court for not paying for the gas. And this guy is saying he will straighten out the Massachusetts financial mess if he’s elected. What a beauty. We hear our elected officials constantly asking for money for job retraining programs that teach older workers new skills. As a recent article in The Wall Street Journal points out, this is only ef­fective when there are jobs available and companies are hiring. For well over a year now the current administration in Washington led by President Barack Obama has concentrated solely on health care reform and has paid no attention to job creation and reinvigorating our economy. It’s as though they haven’t got a clue. Here’s another huge waste of money by our government. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national health interview survey presents a totally absurd finding. In a survey of 79,000 adults they findour health habits leave a lot to be desired. We only need to examine one example to see how ridiculous this is: they find that 61% of people in the United States drink alcohol. Now get a load of their definition of alcohol users: they are adults who have had more than twelve drinks in their lifetime and at least one drink in the past year. Now not only is that definition absurd, but numerous studies conducted indicate that the healthiest people in the United States have two or three drinks a day. I rest my case. If there was anyone in the Obama Administration with at least a half of a brain, everyone connected with this survey would be fired. Now we have the other extreme. In Papillon, Nebraska, Jason Botos, age thirty, showed up in court too drunk to be functional at his sentencing for his conviction for drunken driving. The judge subsequently sentenced him to one year in prison and deemed him a danger to society.

Just as a coin has two sides, it’s a pleasure to find some good news mixed in with the agony. Patrick Roche, 80, a cofounder of Roche Brothers Supermarkets, is donating $20 million to Boston College toward a program that is working to revitalize the Catho­lic school systems. Roche and his three brothers attended Catho­lic schools and he credits them with providing a critical safety net when his mother died leaving his father with four sons ages six to twelve. At last a decent story to talk about.

Ray Tye died recently. He was the founder and owner of a very successful business and became one of the most beloved philan­thropists in Boston. Kevin Cullen of The Boston Globe wrote a col­umn recently recalling his favorite Ray Tye story:

A few years ago, we were sitting in his office, in a nondescript office park in Braintree, and a portrait of Cardinal Richard Cushing dominated the wall. I asked Ray why, and he said he admired Cushing be­cause Cushing loved the poor, because Cushing loved the disabled, because Cushing loved ordinary people. One day, about 50 years ago, the cardinal called him on the phone. “Raymond,’’ Cushing began, “I’d like you to be the head of Catholic Charities.’’

Ray Tye paused, a bit confused, and replied, “But, Richard, I’m Jewish.’’

This time it was Cushing’s turn to pause. But then the gravelly response came and Cushing boomed, “What the hell has that got to do with it?’’

When you think about these two stories maybe there’s hope af­ter all. Finally, the dictionary defines chutzpah as shameless audacity. I saw a perfect example today at Dunkin’ Donuts. They are selling 60th anniversary T-shirts for $14.95. Imagine that, a T-shirt that costs $2 being sold for $15 with their advertising on it for us to wear. They should be paying us, not us paying them. Shameless indeed!