Johnnie Felix Klimkowski
GREER - Johnnie Felix Klimkowski, 82, of Greer, passed away Saturday, February 20, 2021.
Born in Oklahoma City, OK, he was a son of the late Felix Klimkowski and Helen Kosinski Klimkowski, of Harrah, OK.
After attending Oklahoma State University, Johnnie proudly served in the US Navy attaining the rank of Captain. During his career, he made contributions as President of the North Carolina Hospital Engineers Association and as a board member to the American Society of Hospital Engineers.
Retirement included collecting recipes and baking, especially cookies with the grandkids. Johnnie was a member of the local “Big Dogs” Bridge club. He enjoyed gardening, photographing flowers, and nature. He started each day taking in the quiet of the dawn.
He is survived by his 102-year old Aunt Elenora, sister Mary, sister-in-law Sue, brother Daniel (Nancy). He is also survived by Eileen (married for 19 years, but remained friends for over 55 years) and his children Karen (Steve), Kenneth, David and Susan ( Jim). His beloved family extends to 9 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren and numerous cousins.
He was preceded in death by his brother Leonard and brother-in-law Jim Roller.
Services will be private. Family will receive visitors from 3:oo pm until 6:00 pm on Monday, March 8, 2021, at Mackey Funerals and Cremations at Century Drive in Greenville, SC. Johnnie will be laid to rest with military honors at Western Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Black Mountain, NC.
Online tributes may be made at MackeyCenturyDrive.com
A new dawn arises as the ship’s bell has tolled. Our hearts go with you and the legacy you leave will be remembered! Forever grateful for your love of life, country and family! Fair winds and following seas, Captain!
Greater Orlando, Florida, hosts several of the most visited theme parks in the world. At the Magic Kingdom you can dress up like a princess, pretend you're a pirate or just act like you're a kid again. Universal's Islands of Adventure lets diehard Harry Potter fans pretend they're students at Hogwarts. At Epcot you can visit Future World or the make-believe re-creations of other countries.
So, it's somewhat fitting that the Conservative Political Action Conference decamped down to Orlando this past weekend. The official motto of the confab was “America Uncanceled.” But if you actually followed the conversations, the real theme was the stuff of make-believe: imagining a world where Donald Trump really had won the 2020 election.
On the official agenda there were seven separate “Protecting Elections” panels and two “Save Our Elections Call Center” sessions. Other panels included: “Shining a Light on the Left's 2020 Shadow Campaign,” “Fraudulent Elections in South Korea and the United States — Lessons Learned and Warnings for the Future,” and “The Voter Files: The Truth Is Out There: Ask Your Questions to the Election Lawyers.”
Needless to say, the question for this audience wasn't whether the election was stolen, but what to do about the fact that it was — and where to place the blame for the cover-up.
The one thing Trump and his biggest fans will not stomach is the suggestion that he's a loser. Moreover, as Andrew Egger notes at The Dispatch, “there's ostensibly nothing modern conservatives hate more than a loser.
The combined need to salve egos and protect the new CPAC business model made questioning Trump's “victory” as productive as telling the Harry Potter fans down the road that their $55 magic wands aren't really magic.
To this crowd, Trump won and anyone who says otherwise is peddling fake news. The real fake news, however, is the idea that the CPAC crowd is actually opposed to cancel culture. They oppose — often with good reason — left-wing cancel culture. But Trump himself is among America's foremost would-be cancelers. And pro-Trump cancel culture is alive and well.
Matt Schlapp, the leader of CPAC, often says things like, “Open discussion of legitimate points of view is what separates conservatives from the left in America.” But he saw no reason to acknowledge Trump's defeat, never mind that Trump shouldn't define conservatism or the Republican Party. And conservatives who might speak up on the alternative facts — the truth in this case — weren't technically “canceled,” they simply were not invited.
In his closing peroration before the faithful, Trump ran through many of his greatest hits and recycled the usual fake evidence that he won, except for claims about Dominion voting machines being rigged. Apparently losing an election isn't nearly so reality-affirming as a potential billion-dollar lawsuit.
Speaking for many, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared, “Donald Trump isn't going anywhere.” He's right, of course. As always, Cruz would rather bend the knee to the man who attacked his wife and accused his father of being involved in President Kennedy's assassination than stand and fight.