Singing (or Trying to) with John Andretti

So John Andretti died today. Very sad. I have a John Andretti story that spans 20 years...

Many years ago during the month of May in Indiana… in my karaoke DJ years in the 1990’s, my best DJ buddy and I were hired by a local radio station to run karaoke for a 500 driver’s signing party being held at an Indy car dealership. As it was, they set up our stage right next to the table where John Andretti was sitting to sign autographs for the patrons. There were a dozen or so drivers there that night — some heavyweights with the names of Foyt, Bettenhausen, Unser, and of course, Andretti.

We tried like crazy all night to get any driver to get up and sing a song and were unsuccessful except for Raul Boesel, who, despite a very thick Brazillian accent while speaking, sang the Beatles Yellow Submarine with almost perfect English dialect. It was weird, but I digress.

We were particularly ruthless and annoying in our pursuit of John Andretti, who put up with our relentless attack like a champ, mostly because he had no choice, being right next to our stage and all. My friend and I were renown for stopping at virtually nothing to coax someone into singing a song, and we really let John have it all night long. Afterward we thanked John for being such a sport and we all went our way.

Flash forward to over a year later. At the time, I also owned and operated a karaoke/recording shop in Union Station in downtown Indy. One afternoon, a local news station was doing a live broadcast from the entertainment stage in the food court. My shop was located in the food court, and I was working the shop that day. Just so happened that John Andretti was one of the featured guests on the news broadcast. I decided to mosey on over and see if I could tease John — if he even remembered me — into coming into the shop and recording a song. After the broadcast, he was talking with another person and I walked up and waited my turn beside them as they finished their conversation. They finished up, John turned and looked at me, and before I could say a word, he exclaimed, “I’M NOT SINGING A SONG!”

I laughed and said, “You remembered!” And we both shared a chuckle and chatted for a few moments and that was that. He wouldn’t come and record a song, needless to say.

Flash forward many years to 2011. I was asked by a friend to volunteer at a charity event downtown at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse that featured race drivers from all different genres racing against each other in go-karts. There were Indy Car guys and Nascar guys and Truck Series guys and Dirt Track guys all battling out against each other. Again, names like Tony Stewart, Austin Dillon, Josef Newgarden, and Ed Carpenter, and yes, John Andretti battled it out with Stewart winning the event.

I had the fortune of working in the driver’s hospitality room, meeting the guys and escorting them back and forth from that room to the pit area. Several years had gone by and I was fairly certain John wouldn’t recognize me. He was putting on his driver’s suit when I said, “you may not remember this, but I ran a karaoke stage many years ago next to you at a driver’s event.” He looked at me and said, “I’m still not singing a song!”

Again we laughed. He admitted he didn’t recognize me, but said he clearly remembered that night and how much a “pain in the ass” we’d been. I again thanked him for being such a sport, and he kindly chatted with me each time we had a chance the rest of the day.

John didn’t get the press his cousin and uncle did, but he was every bit the gentlemen, race driver, fierce competitor, and ambassador for the sport they are, and just an all around heck of a nice guy. Every time I hear his name, or see him on TV, I’m reminded of the fond memories.

I’m bummed he’s no longer with us.

Save the Whales! (Or the Possums.) EDITED!

Back when I was in high school, I had the fortune of attending a Christian youth event at which the featured speaker of the week was a gentleman named Dave Busby.

Listening to him speak changed my life.

Actually, I should clarify a bit and say that a dear friend of mine had attended an event some months before at which Busby spoke, purchased cassette recordings of those talks, and let me listen to them. I'd never heard of Dave Busby to that point, and hearing those tapes inspired me to attend the event at which I could hear him speak in person.

Dave Busby, God bless him, passed away many years ago. If you know who he was, then you know the life force for God he was. If you never had the honor of hearing him speak, simply put, you missed out. Fortunately, his family and friends have a website in his honor, where you can learn about Dave's life, and still hear his dynamic messages. Run -- don't walk -- there now and check him out.

Busby had polio as a child, and a myriad of other diseases as he grew older. Doctors had predicted he wouldn't live much past his adolescent years. Despite the daily struggle of his health issues, he lived into his 40's.

I only tell you this because the words I heard him speak all those years ago still resonate with me today. He challenged me with Godly principles I still try to live by even now. During that weeklong event, not only did I get to hear him speak multiple times, but one afternoon, I got to have lunch with him and talk to him, one on one. For an 18-year old boy still trying to find my way in life, it was an experience that will last with me a lifetime.

One particular topic Dave touched on during those talks 30 years ago was in a story he shared. He mentioned he had been following a car one day while he was out driving and happened to notice a bumper sticker on that car in front of him. It read, "Save the Whales."

Dave mentioned that while he in no way condoned the senseless killing of innocent animals, he nevertheless had this to say, and I remember it verbatim. He exclaimed, "I don't give a rip about whales! I hope that when I die, they put something more important on my tombstone than, 'He saved whales.'"

That has stuck with me for 30 years. The concept that we should be focusing our lives and energies and passions on things that actually matter. Things that have Kingdom consequences. Things that positively make peoples lives better.

Again, understanding that we're not for killing off whales just for the sake of killing off whales, saving whales is way down on my list of causes to support when I think of the literally thousands of things more important than that in our everyday lives.

I'm reminded of that because of something that's happened here in Hilton Head over the past couple weeks. Some golfers on some golf course here locally encountered a small possum on the golf course some days ago. Unfortunately, they chose to bash it with a golf club, and rather than killing it, they rendered it severely injured and blind. Now, I'm not sure at all how that story made it's way into the news, but it did, and now the whole island is up in arms about it.

They're calling for the golfers to be prosecuted, if anyone can identify who they are. Some are calling for the course itself to be held responsible. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the possum's vet bills, even though it appears the bills have already been taken care of. The whole vibe of the island has been shifted off it's axis.

For a possum.

A possum.

A teenage boy was murdered in his car in the parking lot of a church here in Bluffton a few days before Christmas. While it certainly made the news, I can say without equivocation that I've seen almost 10 times the amount of social media posts concerning the possum than the murdered teenager.

I looked for a GoFundMe account for the murdered teenager this morning. I didn't find one. If there's a memorial fund set up for him, I'm not aware of it.

Last night, a post was made on our local Ask and Answer Facebook page of a Change.org campaign that's been set up, where one can sign a petition that the responsible parties be prosecuted for the crime.

For the possum.

For animal cruelty, to be precise. Golfers, in the middle of the day, beat what they likely suspected was a rabid, wild possum with a golf club, and there's a Change.org petition you can sign to support animal cruelty charges against them. As if a Change.org petition has any legal weight at all.

I've seen no Change.org petition set up for the killers of the young, local teenager. Nothing.

I commented on the Ask and Answer post last night. Here was my comment:

"I’m not at all for hurting animals senselessly, but I hope that when I die, I will be known for more important things than signing petitions to save possums."

For that, I was called both a DB (which I assume means "douchebag") multiple times, and a Putz. Here's a couple of the other responses, verbatim, (I fixed no grammar, punctuation, or spelling) just so you can see for yourselves the well thought out, reasonable, educated responses:

Paul Uhls maybe you Conan be known for being kind:)

Paul Uhls hey you senseless person. It’s about the abuse the cruelty the beating what these horrible beings did to a animal which by the way was created by god. And your sick if you had to post this
Leave this group. We don’t want You posting

I know, of course, what they're trying to say, even if in their anger they haven't quite grasped the nuances of writing a coherent sentence. They're passionate about animals. I'm OK with that.

I'm not trying to embarrass anyone. I'm also not begrudging anyone their love of animals and nature. Anyone who knows me knows my love for animals. I'm the proud owner of two small dogs, and have been a pet lover and owner my whole life. I'm not a hunter. Not my thing.

I also desperately hope that when I die, I'm known for something bigger, better, greater, more important, and more life-changing than saving possums, or whales, or dolphins, or dogs, or gorillas, or any other animal you can think of. (Sloths, maybe.)

For every person who thinks I'm a DB (their words) for not caring about a wild possum, I hope another family knows that I cared about their murdered child, their drug-addled teen, or their aborted baby, or their lost loved-one.

I hope I'm known for telling people about Jesus, and how He can change their lives if they'll only let Him. I hope I'm known for not being afraid to stand up for what I believe in, and that those causes for which I do stand actually make a difference in people's lives. Things like speaking out against those who support killing babies, and trying to encourage others to vote for people who feel the same, elected officials who actually have the power to stop the murders.

Not for signing meaningless petitions to save a possum.

Three months from now, no one -- no one -- will be talking about this little possum. A year from now no one will remember the story.

I want to be known for caring about things that will last for eternity. For putting my time, energy, and passion into things that make a difference in people's lives forever. For caring about causes people will be talking about centuries from now.

If that makes me a Putz, then I'm a Putz.

P.S. Evidence is still coming out that many of the details in this story as it has been reported are pure speculation. There's no hard evidence at this point that the possum was even found at a golf course, let alone that golfers were responsible for the beating. Don't believe everything the media feeds ya, kiddos.