The Elite Elected "Representatives - A Check Up on an Old Chess Friend

As most of you may know, I lived in the beautiful state of Idaho from 1995 to 1997. But as they say is in the eyes of the beholder as some say. What really should have been a memorable time for me was really hell. Hell can even be a place of beauty.

I was assigned to one of the highest ops tempo units in the Air Force and we were woefully undermanned, thanks to President Clinton. It was bad in many ways, because when you are on call (we call it Worldwide Mobility) for twenty plus years, you can sometimes forget a normal life. It got so bad on the base that many of the personnel were placed on meds to keep them going and deal with depression. The airplanes had jet fuel and personnel had meds. I'm talking about high leadership positions too. Sometimes to deal with the constant deployments, you just "leave yourself at the door" and pretend you are someone else. You leave the "black and white" world we live in and enter a zone filled full of "gray areas" and you wonder when you are coming back. (I just thought I would give you a glimpse into the military life.)

Now a look into my short visit in Idaho when I was not deployed. Although I played chess since 1979, I could be considered an inactive player. In 1996, I was invited to a chess tournament. In one of my games I played the future National Junior Champion. He was a child then and we were both rated around 1000 I belive. My chess was horrible but I won and I remember that kid just pouring tears at the board.

During the week I would meet with two friends: Christopher Pentico and Robert "Bob" Oliver for coffee at a local coffee shop in Mountain Home, Idaho. We had some fun, competitive games and I enjoyed their friendship. Christopher was one of the most polite persons I've ever known. Not only that he was a gifted tactical player with a college education. Bob was stationed in Alaska for over 20 years and was retiring soon, intending to move to Lubbock, Texas.

Over the years I wondered what happened to these guys. A few guys from Lubbock, playing at the National Open told me that Bob was doing fine. According to them, he dropped out of chess to take up poker. No big surprise to me. Recently, I checked up on Christopher only to be shocked. What following is the real story of this blog:

From accounts I received Christopher visited the state governor's office with video camera in hand in to review his court file and deliver a protest letter. First, Chris was told he could not review his file. Second, he was informed that only his attorney or a member of Congress could review it. Shortly afterwards the courthouse security team "gestapos" insisted that he erase his recordings.

. First, Pentico was told he can't look at his file; only his attorney or a member of Congress could, Pentico said he was told. Second, courthouse officials refused to allow video recording of Pentico's courthouse adventure. In fact, we've been told that several members of the courthouse security team descended onto the person doing the video recording and insisted that he erase his recordings. Shortly afterwards he was charged with tresspassing. The tresspassing charge was dropped in court and he was given a 30-day probation period. Funny to mention how many people in court mentioned Chris' politeness and good behavior. Also, the authorities' desire to put Chris in jail was also dropped.

Let me just state that Chris is not the only victim here. Several other people were banned only for asking questions and not being disruptive.

So, if you think for a moment you are truly free and that you're elected representatives are their to serve your interests then you better think again!