Day 11 International Lions Conventaion Chicago 2007

Day 11 (Friday 6 July 2007):

We left the hotel at about 6:25 am and when we got to the McCormick Center, Kathie realized she had left her "permission to vote" form at the hotel. So, she took a taxi back to the hotel and then the bus to the McCormick Plaza to vote. She voted and it was a straight "soviet ballot". That is, each office had one candidate and each amendment sounds very good. It was a "easy kill" for those running…

I got to the United Center and sat by myself at one end. I got tired of this as the doors were not opened and motored back to where the other "wheelies" were. There, I hear a horror story.

A horror story because I've been afraid of falling off the lift when going to or from the bus. One fellow, "Bill from Nebraska" fell off the back of the lift as he was being lowered to the ground. Bill was facing towards the bus and pulled the "go backwards" lever and powered his way over the safety ramp. He fell straight backward and slammed into the ground. He obviously hit his head very hard.

The bus driver was the first to reach Bill and the wife of another scooter bound Lion reached Bill almost immediately. Bill didn't know where he was, what had happened, couldn't remember his birthday and barely could remember his name. Prima faci evidence that poor Bill has suffered a severe head trauma (concussion). He slide off of his scooter and we feared he may have suffered spinal damage.

He didn't come with a wife or other companion so I'll have to ask our State Secretary (Linda McCormick) to ask the Nebraska State Secretary for one on this fine Lion and fine man.

I would like to learn why he hit the power but it is very unlikely he'll remember. As I recall, Bill is the one who lost part of one leg to diabetics and was in the chair (scoter actually) due to this. I'm thinking this happened very early in the morning and Bill may have had a severe case of hypoglycemia. It is a hypothesis anyway.

Kathie got back just before the last official session started. We had speeches and the wonderful address by Past District Governor, former President Lion James E. Carter. Lion Jimmy gave a very nice speech that talked of the good deeds that his Carter Center and Lions have done with respect to helping people in poor and developing countries. I hope I can get a DVD copy of Lion Jimmy's speech as it would be something wonderful to show at our Lions Club, at the next Convention and at Zone Meetings.

Lion Jimmy said that in one part of Africa, women were forbidden to "defecate in public". Women in this country had to use the "toilet" at home. Well, Lion Jimmy and his "Carter Center" decided to build 10,000 "outhouses". These outhouses would be distributed widely and people (especially women) could use them away from home.

Well, these African Women declared this to be a "feminist issue" and built (as I recall) over 300,000 "outhouses". Said "outhouses" became very popular.

Lion Jimmy said he had formerly been known as "Former President Carter" and is now known as "The Father Of The Outhouse"! He sounded very amused…

I remember that Tony Snow, the current talking head for the Administration, referred to Lion Jimmy as "increasingly irrelevant". Well, Lion Jimmy is definitely not "prevalent". It looks like yet another Tony Snow job!

Then, there was more speeches, recognition of various officers, the raffle for the "free car" and finally the swearing in of the New International President and the swearing in of the District Governors.

(Sigh) I have a bit of a hassle to deal with. Given that washing a pair of underpants costs US$3.00, when I realized I was a day short on underpants, I decided to hand wash one pair. I'll have to do this shortly...