June 2013

ALL THINGS SHINING: READING THE WESTERN CLASSICS TO FIND MEANING IN A SECULAR AGE

By Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly

Reviewed by Dennis Bianchi

SIX YEARS

By Harlen Coben
Reviewed by Dennis Bianchi

By Russ Gordon

Welcome back everyone.  I hope that all is well with you and your family and friends.  I would like to thank everyone who is sending me the incident reports and Captain’s Complimentary memos that drive the content of this column. Without the documentation of the dedication, daily acts of heroism, and diligence, I would have nothing to write here.  As it is, I could fill up the entire Journal on a monthly basis with all of your hard work.

We saw the end of an era this month with the retirement of POA President Gary Delagnes. Gary spent 34+ years in service to the citizens of San Francisco, and to the men and women of the SFPD. I met Gary Delagnes in 1981 at Central Station. When I met him, I was just out of the Academy. Our hourly rate of pay was $11.21 an hour, and I was happy to get it. New San Francisco police officers make just a bit better than that now. In fact, many things have changed since the fall of 1981. Here is a sampling of what the SFPD offered in the way of pay and benefits 32 years ago:

As a young schoolboy learning the history of the United States of America, I often went and asked questions of my mother. Although my father had a keen knowledge of U.S history, he was born and raised in Ireland and did not experience being brought up as an American kid. My mom, on the other hand, was born and raised in San Francisco during the depression and World War II.