A: Rick Monday was a baseball player who did the right thing at the right time.

Today virtually everything we once considered worthy, or traditional, is under attack: Our religious values, our established laws, our borders, and of course any of the symbols that have helped to unify our country into a great nation.

Those who like to trash our country find no greater delight than in ridiculing our symbols.

Rick Monday was a successful baseball player who played 19 years in the major leagues for several teams. His lifetime batting average was .264. He hit 241 homeruns, and drove in 775 runs -- hardly Hall of Fame statistics, but still substantial enough to cap-off an excellent career.

On April 25, 1976, Rick Monday and the Chicago Cubs were in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. It was a time when America was still reeling from our humiliating defeat in Vietnam. We had left Vietnam in haste, leaving some of those who supported us to the mercy of communist forces. Morale was at a desperate low.

During the course of the game two loony-birds jumped on the field and ran just beyond second base. They had with them an American flag, which they dumped on the ground, and were proceeding to set it afire with lighter fluid. Rick Monday saw what was happening and sprinted in to stop them.

Coming from another direction was Dodger manager, Tommy Lasorda, who was in a kill mood. Luckily, Rick Monday got there first and grabbed the flag away from the two protesters. Monday took the flag off the field, and the miscreants were arrested.

After the Dodger crowd realized what had happened, a strange thing began to happen: The fans began softly singing, "God Bless America." The scoreboard at Dodger Stadium flashed across this message: "Rick Monday, you made a great save!"

What Rick Monday did was a heroic action. Heroic because when you are dealing with loony-birds you are possibly dealing with people who may have guns, knives, acid -- anything to further dramatize their action. Rick Monday didn't thing about these things. He just took the flag away from them.

From that day on Rick Monday became a popular favorite with Dodger fans, and eventually became a Dodger himself, playing several years with them. He is now a broadcaster of Dodger baseball.

There were many who defended the two loonies for having a perfect right to burn the United States flag. (Dismissing the fact that they were unlawfully on the field for a sanctioned event, and a disruptive public nuisance.)

For well over 50 years now we have become accustomed to wild-eyed zealots from the Middle East who burn our flag in a frenzy of excitement. It would be comical -- a sort of jihad weenie roast -- except we know they would like to murder us, right down to the last infant.

It's the sight of an American citizen burning the flag that stimulates an attack of acid indigestion, (Where is a jihad beheader when he could be doing something constructive?)

Maybe these idiots don't know it, or maybe they just don't care, but the flag they burn is the very symbol of their right to burn it.

One thing is for sure: We need more Rick Mondays!

Q: Is the Battleship Arizona still leaking oil?

A: Yes it is.

Bud Hunt, in his "View from the Square" column for June 4-5, 2006, wrote an interesting travelogue on a trip to Hawaii's Oahu.

Oahu is the place to go for your first trip to the Hawaiian Islands. There is ample natural beauty, the famous Waikiki Beach, the city of Honolulu, and historic Pearl Harbor.

A telephone call to Bud confirmed that the Battleship Arizona is still leaking oil to the surface.

The Arizona was sunk at Pearl Harbor 65 years ago by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes. The continuous iridescent oil slick from the battleship is a constant reminder of the 1,177 United States sailors who went down with the ship.

Bud's relates an amusing tale of he and Lee's trek around the volcano, Diamond Head.

Diamond Head is an awesome sight from a distance, or up close. A dissent into the volcano is another matter. The first thing you may see is a pro golfer giving some tourist a lesson. There is plenty of grass, a few buildings, and some automobiles parked around. Diamond Head -- after all -- is an extinct volcano.

Shakespeare's Falstaff said it best: "Discretion is the better part of valor."

A trip into the bowels of a dead volcano may be less than impressive. But it sure beats the hell out of descending into a live one!