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MEMBER DIRECTORY
Bulletin Editor
Anne LeClair

North Korea, Nukes and I’ll
MISS-ile You All!

 

In his infinite wisdom, the clever Don Shoecraft gave me this final Spinnings Assignment (Showed up, didn't you? — Ed). It is with great sadness that I write my last newsletter, but I’ll play cub reporter before getting to the sappy stuff.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prez Beanstalk called the meeting to order and Marion Brown led us in the Pledge.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ray Iverson read Rod Linhares’ great thought of the day, discussing the origin of Memorial Day.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prez Bruce shared that our long time member John Kelly, who did so much good in his life for so many, had passed away.
(A memorial service has been scheduled for 2 p.m.  June 15 at San Mateo High School, 451 W. 20th Ave.)
 
 
 
I did a terrible job of tracking guests’ names — what are you going to do, fire me? — but Walt McCullough had three: Don, Merrill and Bob. Mike Peterson brought Jed, Mitch Williams brought two Home Helpers owners from SoCal, Sue Lempert brought Mayor Diane Papan and Dick DeLuna brought the sweet, long-suffering Matilda.  It was their 55th anniversary, so Dick told Matilda to eat whatever she wanted from the buffet, and to take home a doggie bag so she wouldn’t have to cook dinner for them that night. (HAHAHA  J/K)
 
Walt McCullough then introduced our speaker, Siegfried Hecker, who was so knowledgeable that he started with Q&A and his responses were riveting.  Hecker is a Stanford professor in the Management Science and Engineering Department and a Senior Fellow at CISAC (Center for Int’l Security and Cooperation) and FSI, the Freeman, Spogli Institute for Int’l Studies, Stanford’s premier research institute for foreign affairs. Hecker’s research interests include plutonium science, nuclear weapons policy and int’l security, nuclear security and cooperative nuclear threat reduction.  His current focus is on the challenges of nuclear India, Pakistan, North Korea and the nuclear aspirations of Iran.
Among the Questions and Answers:
Q: Is there any chance that North Korea can survive economically and join South Korea?
A: Not anytime soon. 
Q: How sophisticated is their nuclear weapons program?
A: From an engineering standpoint, they’re really good, but we’re not sure how many bombs they’ve made.  They have fuel and the ability to design and test missiles, and they know how to DELIVER the bombs, but testing missiles in the ground and launching missiles via ICBMs are two different things. (Hecker’s view is that they can probably reach South Korea and Japan with their bombs, but not the US.)
 Q: What is to prevent a stealth bomb from being launched at one of our ships?
A: They don’t want to do that, because if they did, it would be suicide.
 
Among Hecker’s other points:
  • The US needs to look beyond the missiles and focus on what needs to happen in the longer term.  The Chinese are North Korea’s only allies, but the North Koreans hate them. 
  • Sanctions have become the US’s weapons of choice but the sanctioning and squeezing of the North Koreans only drives them more and more to China, where “they don’t want to be”. 
  • We need to look at Asia and look at getting closer to North Korea.
Great talk—fascinating.
 

I Should Have Known…

 
When Marie Ivich (my friend of 34 years) was waiting for me at the meeting, saying she came by because she knew it would be my last meeting, my antenna went up.
 
I thought it meant Prez Bruce or another would say something at the end of the meeting. Little did I know that Kitty Lopez had spearheaded a roast/goodbye for me, in cahoots with past presidents Dick DeLuna and Bill Kenney, my best pal of 35 years Barbara Evers, Don Shoecraft and my old buddies Oscar Lopez and Sue Lempert.
 
Many half-truths were shared (and there was no time for rebuttal), but I was presented with gifts that I’ll cherish forever.
 
A tall trophy from Bill and Dick, with a plaque congratulating me on having achieved a D&B rating of “3rd Best SM Rotary President”, a real looking photo of Trump holding a special resolution for me from
 
Don Shoecraft, a Poplar Creek spoon from Sue Lempert, retrieved from her purse and engraved with my name, funny proclamations from Diane Papan and our club, a gorgeous glass bowl from Kitty (who was, no doubt, trying to avoid retaliation in the future by giving me something so beautiful from the
 
club), roses from Prez Beanie, and a note sent by Barbara Evers for Kitty to read in her place.  (Luckily, Oscar Lopez- Guerra was out with a cold and unable to roast!)
Also presented was a gorgeous State Legislature commendation, signed by Jerry Hill.
 
 
In the two minutes I had at the mike, I shared the time I sold Dick DeLuna a basketball autographed by “Charles Brockley” for $200 and Sue Lempert’s forgery of SF Business Times Publisher Mary Huss’s signature and message on an invitation sent to me, only to have me show up at the paper’s event and say I was supposed to be comped.  (I still owe you for that one, Sue!)

On a More Serious Note….

It is incredibly difficult and emotional to leave all of you wonderful friends of so many years here. While we’re off to start a new chapter, we’re leaving behind love-rich chapters.  Our club is one of a kind.  The love and support our members give their fellow members in the best and worst of times is incredible. In our darkest days, coming to a meeting and having a few laughs with friends gives us an amazing lift. (For those of you who haven’t made a meeting in a while—please come back soon and don’t feel funny for having missed.  You’ll quickly remember the amazing great feeling our meetings give to all of us.
 
You can be so proud of all of the good things our club had achieved and continues to achieve, thanks to all of you.
I love you and I’ll miss you, but I’ll be back to visit and haunt you again soon, I’m sure!
Thank you for over 32 years of friendship through the club and 35 years of support in the community. Jim and I hope you’ll all make it to Austin—just not all at the same time! Please let us know if you plan a trip.
 
My personal email is: Annehall.leclair@gmail.com and I’ll be dying to hear from you — we’ll be lonely!
 
And please remember that no one is safe. Practical jokes may be played from anywhere in the world.
Let me sign off by reminding all of the lyrics to the old song we sang in grade school:
 
Make new friends, but keep the old…
One is sliver and the other’s gold.
 
You’re all solid gold.
XXXOOO
Anne
 

President Bruce Bean
 
 
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