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8 - Orono Weekly Times Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Basic Black by Arthur Black Wheelbarrows and chickens There's a famous poem called 'The Red Wheelbarrow' by William Carlos Williams. It goes: So much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. The poem is famous, I think, because in just 16 words, it sums up the ineffable magic of the Here and Now. I like .to think of Williams - he was a country doctor in New Jersey as well as a poet -- walking across a farmyard one morning, black bag in hand, perhaps after assisting at a childbirth or sewing up some hired hand's cut leg, coming around the corner of a chicken coop, seeing the wheelbarrow, the chickens and being transfixed transfixed by the...perfection of it all. It is a poet's gift - and task - to discover the magnificent in the mundane. For most of us it takes a bigger jolt than the sight of a wheelbarrow and a clutch of chickens to be reminded of the preciousness of each moment. But the world is still brimming with strange and miraculous happenings happenings that ought to take our breath away if we're paying attention. Consider the story of an unusual six-year-old boy named James Leininger of Lafayetteville, Louisiana. James loves airplanes - particularly particularly World War Two airplanes. airplanes. Always has. Once when he was out shopping with his mother, he pointed at a toy airplane. His mother remembers: "I said to him, 'Look, it has a bomb on the bottom' and he told me, 'That's not a bomb, it's a drop tank.' I had no idea what a drop tank was." James Leininger did. He was 2 and a half years old at the time. James's fascination with airplanes continued. He played with nothing but toy airplanes and even dreamed about them. Then the dreams became nightmares. "I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming," his mother recalled. "I'd ask him what he was dreaming about and he'd say "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out." Gradually, the little boy's memories became more specific. specific. He 'remembered' that he flew a plane called a Corsair. "They used to get flat tires all the time," he said. He 'remembered' that his pilot name was also James. Once his mother asked him what happened to him in the Corsair. "Got shot," he said. Where? "Engine." Where did it crash? "Water". Who did it? "Japanese." How did he know? "The red sun on the plane." One day his mother made meat loaf for dinner - something something she hadn't made since before James was born. Little James look at his plate and said "Meat loaf. I haven't had this since I was on the Natoma." Natoma? Neither parent had ever been involved in the military or aviation. The only aviation-related items in their house were James's toy planes. Where was the kid picking up this stuff?. His father Bruce began to investigate. investigate. He searched the Internet, combed through military military records and discovered that during the Second World War there was a U.S. aircraft carrier called The Natoma Bay, stationed in the South Pacific. Twenty-one of its crew died during the Battle of Iwo Jima, including a Corsair pilot named James Huston. On the afternoon of May 3, 1945, witnesses saw Huston's plane take a Japanese hit to the enginé. It crashed into the sea and sank. Young James doesn't have the nightmares anymore and his memories are fading as he grows older. But the story isn't fading, it's growing. Bruce Leininger contacted the families of the 21 crew members members who died in the Battle of Iwo Jima. All of them spoke of 'a spirit' visiting them in the years since the war. And they all want to meet young James Leininger. This year, his parents plan to take him to the Natoma Bay veteran's veteran's reunion. So is it a crock? I suppose it could be. Professor Paul Kurtz, a paranormal investigator investigator at State University in New York thinks so. He says the parents are "self-deceived". "They're fascinated by the mysterious and they've built up this fairy tale," he says. Could be. And perhaps a red wheelbarrow is just a red wheelbarrow. Women in Abusive Relationships For help please call: "The Denise House" for Women & Children Toll Free 1-800-263-3725 or 905-728-7311 Confidentiality Assured Clurington Leading the Way C/ CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON COMMUNITY NOTICE www.muiiiclpBllty.clerlngton.on.ca COMING EVENTS • Village Concerts - Newcastle Parkette 7:00 PM bring your own lawn chair June 29 Bonnie & Friends July 6 Oshawa Horseless Carriagemen July 13 The Mountaineers July 20 Janette Desousa July 27 Johnny Burke • Canada Day @ the Kendal Community Centre July 1 at 8:00 PM "FIREWORKS" • Kendal Day July 24 @ the Kendal Community Centre 11:30 AM - Bike parade, pony rides, pig roast, games and entertainment all day and into the night. Students grade party platforms OTTAWA, June 10/CNW/ - The two parties leading in the polls need to hit the books, according to the Report Card on Education published by the Canadian Federation of Students. The Report Card, released today, provides an overview and analysis of the post-secondary post-secondary education platforms of the three major pan-Canadian political parties. Key issues include federal funding, student student aid, tuition fees, research and development, and overall vision for education. The governing governing Liberals' record was also taken into consideration. The New Democratic Party (NDP) comes out on the top with an "A." The Liberal Party posted a "C" largely due to research funding, and the Conservative Party gets a failing failing grade, with an "F". "The Conservative Party chose aircraft carriers over access to education, which was reason enough to be issued and 'F'," said Ian Boyko, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. "Regressive loan schemes and increased student debt left us no choice but to fail them." The Liberals failed to include any new education policy proposals in their platform, platform, so they were largely judged on their record for the past 11 years. Tuition fees at a 60-year high, $25,000 student debt, and a patchwork system of student financial assistance nearly resulted in a failing grade for the Liberals. "Minimal grants and university university research support prevented prevented the Liberals from failing, failing, but there is nothing that they are proposing to undo damage done in the past 11 years," said Boyko. The NDP platform made important commitments on both tuition fees and student aid. "The New Democrats' platform has made access to post-secondary education a top priority," concluded Boyko. 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