Saturday, October 12, 2002
WANTED: GOOD READERS
Hindsight enables us to think wonderfully clear about things which were happening all around us years ago..
Now that the Soviet Union has broken up and other regimes of a like nature show some signs of doing the same thing, we realize we should have anticipated such things happening long before we did so.
When any state begins a series of repressive measures within its own area designed to strengthen their hold upon the people, we should look at such campaigns as an indication of doubts, as an improper assessment of our own actions, and a sign of weakness within the governing force of the nation. They are showing doubts by insisting on purification of basic tenets by which they hold power.
Such flaws can be seen in the current situations we now face, and, if we examine them carefully we can find out where the often “hairline” cracks exist and have a better idea of what the future might hold. Some of it is apparent on our side, too. Right now, we would be doing ourselves a favor if we would stop being impressed by watching both Bin Laden and Saddam Hiessen firing rifles and automatic weapons Those same two shots have been running on our TV screens for years and we have failed to see that the shooters are expressing bragadoccio. Neither shooter hits anything. Saddam fires at random into the air after having a few seconds of trouble finding the trigger, while Bin bangs away at unseen targets while onlookers show approval. Those two propaganda film excerpts are for their own people trying to depict their leaders as warriors of consequence.
Back in 1979-80, when Kosygin was Premier of the Soviet Union, he ranted at some length on how improvements could only be brought about by a more more diligent adherence to the, even then, old, threadbare Marxist-Lenin package. Later, Leonid Brezhnev was quite ill for a time and the power struggle taking place within the Kremlin at that time should been a textbook urging a closer look a the discontent among the populace as well.
I like to think two things took place at those times: One that our communications systems helped to make the people more aware of actual conditions within he Soviet Union.
The other is feeling is that I think we had some good , capable, qualified “Russia readers” in our State Department and other governmental agencies who were heard and respected by political persons who, far too often ignore this vital factor.
My fear, now, is that we either do not have capable, trained, experienced and fearless “readers” of Iraq, Iran, Arabic nations, and the Muslim world, or that their voices are being obscured or ignored because of narrow party-politics ploys.
A.L.M. October 11, 2002 [c470wds]
Friday, October 11, 2002
MAKE A KID LAUGH!
Maybe it helps if he is your grandson, but to see and hear a child really enjoy a good laugh, and a continued one, is a special joy for an oldster such as I.
Well over a year go ,when we were visiting the Crawford branch of our grandsons in Hampton, Va., William – the middle one of the three boys – about four years of age, I think, at the time, asked me to tell him a story.
One came to mind and, even as I started, I wondered that it might be too advanced for the kid. I’d best be ready, I thought, to explain it.
“Living here on the coast, as you do you see great many gulls flying about over the boats and the water’s edge, don‘t you?
They all look pretty much alike, don’t they?
But, they’re not. Long ago, thousands of them ...maybe more’n that gathered in a big cloud of gulls up over Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey and flew round and round being joined by more and more birds, ‘till it looked like the sky was getting too full. The Chief Gull, told them to divide into two groups and which they did instantly .You know how fast gulls can move don’t you? And – when they did there was a huge fluttery sound: ‘Bah-rrooom!’ Oh, I tell you it must have been heard all, well most everywhere!
Now, when he told hem to fly south – half of them were to fly way out over the sea - the big. roomy Atlantic Ocean. The other flock was to fly all the way down over the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
Half of them are called “sea gulls” - the ones that flew out over the open sea! And the other who flew down the Chesapeake Bay are what we call “ bay-gulls!”
Which do you like best “Seagulls” or “Bay gulls?”
Grandson William was right there with it and laughing up a storm: “You wanted me to think you were talking about gulls that fly and you were really talking about ones we eat! Bay-gull! ” (And, he seemed to pause and listen to the sound of the word as he repeated it )”...bay-gulls - bay-gulls - ba-gels!'
Don't underrate the kids! They know more than our might think they do. Just the other day, while visiting us here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia – asked me, and I could see the teasing, giggle-glint in his eyes, if I knew where bagels came from.
We both had a good laugh together all over again, a full year after the foolish fact. Oh, its good to hear a kid laugh! It's good for an old man to laugh, too, along with the youngster. We will each live longer, and better because of it.
A.L.M. October 10, 2002 [c483wds]
Thursday, October 10, 2002
STEP TWO
Re: Israel vs Palestine. The last time we talked about this continuing confrontation we mentioned the Allya of 1881, a time when there was a noticable movement of Jewish people from three places, in particular: Russia, Romania and Yemen to the area we refer to as the Holy Land. We have all had time to read up on that subject a bit so we have some basis for such a remarkable change.
My special thanks to Katie M., Los Angeles,CA for her prompt reply in suggesting a book which would offer an outline of events on the Palestinian side for essentially the same time periods about which will be talking.
Today, briefly, we move to 1892. That is year of publication of Judenstadt (The Jewish State) by Theodor Herzi. It is said to have founded The Zionist Movement . The idea met with mixed reactions at the time and was ridiculed by some. Those Jews residing in the western nations of Europe thought little of the idea and even ridiculed it. Those who lived who in the Eastern European nations were more serious and lived under outward manifestations of hatred and vilification.
The First Zionist Conference was held at Basel, Switzerland. Delegates attended from many areas and they left convinced that such a new Jewish state was essential.
It took years and it was not until 1916 that the pact called the Sykes-Picot Agreement was put together by France and Great Britain. That
was during he serious times of the first World War when there was a tremendous toll offdd human life The so-called “empire nature”of the two large powers urged them to make preparations for the future. They agreed on the establishment of a pattern for dividing the entire Middle East between them when the conflict ended. They set up zones of influence. It may seem heartless to us today to see them doing this when a war was in progress but it would not take affect until later, of course. This plan affected the Jewish homeland dream in the years which followed.
One year later came The Balfour Declaration which has been called “ a masterpiece of political obfuscation”. That document was written by the British Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothchild of the World Zionist Organization. Balfour has been accused of “offering all things to all men” in the declaration. We would, even today, be advised to re-read the paper with special care.
He said: “His majesty's government view the establishment in in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish and will use their best endeavors
to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil rights of existing non – Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
Whew! Quite a diplomatic mouthful! Right? Small wonder, isn't it, that many people have taken exception to the Jewish state in recent years.
Next time, we will examine the “Fermentation Years”- 1917-1921.
A. L. M. October 9, 2002 [c556wds]
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
CAN WE TAKE CARE OF US?
I wonder at times, if we are as self-sufficient as we think ourselves to be.
The current strike clogging west coast ports will bring results in limited quantities and high prices of scores of products made in Asia. That covers a multitude of articles, too because our import status has changed radically in recent years. The elimination of shipments from China alone would be felt in every element of American society.
Even a short, local strike or works stoppage of any kind in our area can cause a shortages of many items in are stores. I have heard it said that we would be out of most food supplies within thirty days. I would imagine such a figure would vary a great deal in different sections of the country, with some suffering severe shortages in less than a month; others more.
We are far more dependent on our trucking industry and our highway network than we admit. With any delay or stoppage in the flow of food and medical supplies citizens become handicapped in performing their work. We are in need of a system – to be set up now, before an actual emergency need – which will alleviate some of the pressure. I think many of us would be taken aback if told how far away our points of supply are today. We fail to realize how trucks bring such supplies extremely long distances.
Isn't it about time we developed a network of distribution points which are closer to the centers of use for those essential handled by those points? Savings obtained by shipping directly from the point of manufacture
fade away quickly with any interruption in the sequence of supply. Replenishment stocks need to be closer to the point of retail sales to assure a steady supply being available in critical areas.
If we cannot fed ourselves are we as self-sufficient as we claim to be? And, what about our transportation needs? Gasoline and oil supplies, while see seem to have many stations nearby as well as sub-stations with additional supplies, it would be interesting if someone would figure out just how long out local supplies would last if the source was supply was cut off entirely for two or three weeks. And, what about our fuel oil supplies for home and workplaces, if such a need developed in mid-winter?
Especially in view of more terrorist attacks with more complex time problems, is it not time for us to consider new national programs of supply? Studies of essential food requirement should be made to determine which foods should be stockpiled and where to best serve major metropolitan areas, potentially targeted coastal cities, areas in which defense plants are located as well as military installations.
I would hope this is going to be one of a job to be undertaken by the new Department of Home Defense. Certainly it can be considered to be as important as inspected little old ladies for bombs at our airports. That new office has suffered a badly warped PR relationship in that the general public think that's all they are supposed to do.
Think about it, especially, if you are itching to “get on with it!”.
Can we take care of us?
A. L. M. October 7, 2002 [c556wds]
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
LABELS
Some noteworthy changes have taken place in recent years concerning the packaging of foods. One more is needed.
I can sing praises for most of them, but there's one general feature which leaves me wondering. How did they manage to make a small package of six peanut butter or cheese crackers so difficult to open? It used to be that I could get into them easily and some even had a little colored strip one pulled which opened on side of the see-through packet. No more, or maybe I have switched brands without knowing it. Now, they have sealed ends, and they are impossible to tear off, or to tear in two from the edge. scissors are the best and quickest remedy for the problem. If you are, by profession, a tailor or seamstress,and keep a pair of such occupational blades handy at all times for sniping wayward threads and performing other such sartorial maneuvers, you are home free. If not, I have found a good, sharp pencil will do. Insert the graphite point where you think the wrapper may be at its weakest and stab through the clear, plastic covering. Oops! I should have warned you first shouldn't I? That 's right. Never keep your finger behind the focal point of our stab effort. Sorry about that. A Band Aid will help and we can re-sharpen the pencil later. For now, tear the cracker package open and - as it is said: “Enjoy!
I think all the health statistics now required to be printed on the cartons are good features, too, and I also find them good reading, as well.
Line up the boxes of the various dry cereals you like best – your absolute favorite, among them and while you are munching away at a large bowl of our first and only choice, read the charts and compare the values. I don't know how they work it, but our favorite always comes out as he poorest choice of all! Than will be especially true if you are reporting aloud to the family.
Seriously, the facts required on food products we use are a good feature. There is one feature missing which I would like to see included some day in the future when the lawmakers find themselves with nothing to do one afternoon.
I would like to know – or, at least, be given a code which will let me find out, who actually makes the food I'm consuming. It's nice, perhaps, to know who distributes a particular food, but I want know made it; where it came from for them to be able to distribute it. It is not a trade secret trade that food manufacturers, like the makers of other products, manufacture huge quantities of he name brand products, under different or packaging.
Some makers of well-known products make as much profit on
making their product for others to sell. They have no advertising costs, no distribution costs and they realize other savings as well as being able to process a larger volume of the products with increased economy.
It can be in fine print, or available, only through their dot-com address only but it would be helpful if I could know where the food I'm eating was made rather than who distributed it.
A.L.M. October 7, 2002 [c557wds]
Monday, October 07, 2002
BUILDING BRIDGES
We have a ceramic hot mat on the table where we have lunch each day and thereon a simple green-blue and white expanse of evenly waved, stylized water with a single, white seagull riding an updraft over the expanse of blue water. Across the top and bottom of the tile one reads: ”Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Opened April 15, 1964.”
The plate is , to us, more than just another souvenir piece, and it is seldom that we use it without thinking of Lloyd B. Rogers, my wife's uncle, who worked supervising a construction crew on that tremendous project for several years.
I had some interesting talks with Uncle Lloyd over about bridge and tunnel building and while he was with us, and I miss those talks. His memory lives on through his three sons who are also close to us in many ways. We see the Chesapeake Bay and Tunnel as a bit of Uncle Lloyd's life even though he was one of many worked to make it a reality.
I don't know when I first heard of a plan to build such a bridge-tunnel. It must have been about forty years ago because the project is now thirty-eight years of age, and doing very well, thank you. When we first heard of such a project we thought it was an impossible task. As young boys, my brother and I, had traveled the the ferry across Hampton Roads from Norfolk to the Hampton-Fortress Monroe area quite often. We traveled that route one year, I remember, in stormy weather following a hurricane which had hit the East coast.. The choppy waters instilled within me a new respect for the vastness and power of the sea and of Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay, in particular. I suppose I thought of it as being much larger and deeper than it was or is, but it is large enough to make any bridge builders or tunnel diggers some second thoughts and the realization that such a thing was not just another trivial pursuit.
The project spans 17.6 miles from shore to shore and it is supported by five thousand piers. Four artificial islands were built, each with about ten acres of surface, to house the portals of the tunnel where the roadway dips beneath the water. The overall length is 89,760 feet;; the bridge portions are 79,200 feet of steel and concrete. The cost of this engineering marvel seems small today at $200 million.
It is a good for a man, or woman, to leave behind some such great work of engineering or art by which family and friends will remember him. All of us leave such a mark even though it may not be quite as large or impressive. That's what makes the doing of whatever we do so important .Not only are we getting a job done but we are building a memorial that will, some day, mark our having been here one Earth. We will be remembered by what we did well.
A.L.M. October 6, 2002 [c515wds]
Sunday, October 06, 2002
October 6, 2002
H-TWO
I find it odd that we fear one element as being the potential killer of us all, and, yet, at the same time, consider it to be the possible savior of our way of life?
Isn't that the way we double-think hydrogen?
A great deal of the manner in which we think about the element today, was determined for us by the film depicting the demise of a German dirigible "The Hindenburg" at Lakehurst, New Jersey - how long ago was that? 1936, I think, and that newsreel clip which shows the huge structure of the amazing craft being consumed rapidly by moving lines of fire, is one that seems to be unforgetable. A few minutes, and it lies a crushed hulk of girders on the ground and we have vivid memories of a few desperate humans attempting to run from the burning prye.
Several theories have been evolved as to the exact cause of the disaster, but, in the puiblic mind only one culprit has long-since been established.- hydrogen.
The :"Hindenburg", on its trips from Germany to the Americas, was levitated by hydrogen gas pumped into it's fabric containers. On extended flights or in flying back to Germany a less volaitile gas - Helium - was added.
That disaster, understandably, established a public fear and distrust of hydrogen which endures to this day.
As we come more and more to need a new source of energy to keep our poliferating numbers of mechanisms going into the centuries ahead, we are increasingly turning to studies involving hydrogen - especially plans to extract such enegry from the tremendous fund of sea water available in all parts of the world.. Many see our future based on the development of ways to extract this tremendous source of enegry and to adapt it to the use of our systems.
We have a new generaton of scientists now, men and women who can work toward such a goal without such a fear of hydorgen. They have new understandings of its dangers and benefits which have been developed over the half-century or so since the violent few minutes at Lakehurst. We also have a new generaion of young people, too,.who will be faced with energy needs and who will have no strong memory of past disasters.. Many of the objections which people of my generation would deem to be worthy of special prfecautioin, are no longer valid.
The time has arrived for us to step into the future with positive plans to extract energy from seawater or from some other source of hydrogen. No doubt, our present involvments in war will affect plans for such egenry studies, but , remember, too, that major developments have come about in war time which would have been considered as impossible in times of peace and contentment.
Now may be the moment for action.
A.L.M. October 6, 2002 [c589wds]
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