Saturday, November 02, 2002
HATE
What one thing do your dislike more than any other? Could you call that your pet “hate?” Or, would you rather think you can' t truly hate anything or anybody?
Many of us, with our religious background - tend to equate hatred with evil. We often fail to realize that in order to oppose that which is wrong in our society we must, logically, feel sentiments of hatefulness toward all evil as such. We must constantly hate and despise all that are evil about us and attempt to do something about it including taking steps to be taken which will, in time, enlighten us and changes in our thinking which will change even that distrust and hatefulness to some form of Love and understanding.
Make certain your hatred is curbed by proper restraints and limitiatons, however. Far too often, we allow our displeasure with circumstances which annoy us to flow over into other aspects of our lives and this can lead only to ruin. You hate the circumstance but do not actually hate the perpertrator...not in the same sense, at least. You may distrust that person , you may think that person to be beyond redemption, but there is - in our religious concepts - always a chance he or she can be reclaimed and we owe them that chance - however slight it might, in our mind, seem to be.
Next Tuesday happens to be Election Day in our community, and I will go to the polls as is my right and duty as a citizen. I will vote according to my personal feelings, but I cannot , as so many seem to do, hate and despise people who happen to want to vote otherwise from my choices. There is, probably, no one place in which we see wrongful hatred is displayed
than in the area of political affairs and that factor, I think, is a main barrier preventing many people from participating in the democratic rites of their own government.
We must learn to condemn wrong when we see it, but to be compassionate with worthy wrongdoers.
It is, oddly enough, a reciprocal arrangement; a two-way street, because the person we deem to be taking wrongful actions is, in all likelihood, seeing us doing much the same thing. In our mutual ignorance, we often commit crimes of misjudgment against each other and these, most often, petty differences, can grow to be major complications to the ultimate ruin of both groups. In such situations there a no lasting victories.
We cannot rule hate out of our lives completely. It is a human quality which will manifest itself at times, just as Hunger, Thirst and the need for Sleep do, but we can learn to accommodate our lives to make use of its power, drive, and special capabilities to drive Evil from our midst.
A. L. M.. November 1, 2002 [c483wds]
Friday, November 01, 2002
PEACE RECIPIENTS
I feel it to be most unfortunate that some people chose to express chagrin because former President Jimmy Carter was designated to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize. To do so, and to make a public show of the act, is an affront to good taste and common sense.
The very nature of the Nobel Peace award, the only one awarded from Norway, has made it one of the most coveted of all and one taking with it much more than the monetary portion of the honor. The Peace Prize is truly international and we , as a nation, should be grateful that the award came to one of our own. To quibble over others who might have been selected can be an embarrassment to Jimmy Carter and an affront to others considered in deciding the awards.
Yes, there are others who merit consideration. Their time may well come. The Nobel prize is not a glittering bauble to be treated casually nor is it awarded, as a rule for a single peaceful action, but an extended aura of benevolent understanding and the gradual building of new, unifying bridges.
We should been encouraged to find that the judges deemed the continued work a former President Jimmy Carter as being worthy of such recognition. We should be appreciate the fact that he did so without fanfare and exhibitionist excess which is noticeable in so many would be nominees.Some other work eagerly, hoping to increase their chances; Jimmy Carter simply lived it. His basic insistence on more attention to “human rights” is indicative of the unchangeable certainty of spirit which guided his steady quest.
It my well the true that the Nobel Peace prize has yet to be awarded to a “most” qualified person. I have an idea that person might well prove to be a woman; someone who has never given a thought to winning such an honor. Is there a young woman somewhere, possibly a mother, who this very day, is nourishing a young man or young woman by example and by teaching, cajoling, urging, demanding and building character in those young minds and bodies fitting them for leadership. They might grow up to rule with greater wisdom and expertize than anyone before them ever has before. Though they rule with the Peace and Purity of angelic hosts, the prize would go, not to either one of them, but to their mentor, mother, and guiding, and guiding force.
There was a pop song lyric years ago which seems to apply. Very
ungrammatically it pointed out :
“It ain't what you do; it's the way that you do it!”
A.L.M. October 31, 2002 [c448ws]
Thursday, October 31, 2002
SOUP WX
The return of cold weather to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia calls for soup in thick, stay-hot bowls. That's been the bell-weather choice for the season here at our house for many years. Soup signals the formal start of the new, winter season. Low temperature readings are used for conversation starters and good soups are an overture for a medley of fine gastronomic expectations to come with the advent of winter-time, indoor living.
The featured soup yesterday evening was potato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches. Oh, yes there is always something “with” the soup be it saltine crackers – today's super-market variations are reminiscent of the larger, thicker, tastier soda crackers we used to enjoy as children -. or, our cook – who also serves as wife, mother, stepmother, grandmother, great-grandmother as well as baker, candlestick maker and putter-on of Band-Aid patches as needed – adds such enhancements. She has a fantastic of cornbread repertoire - including my favorite which brings into our presence a platter of butter-eager corn sticks fresh from the iron griddle forms. Oh, yes there was a light skim of parsley, dill weed and maybe some basil floating mysteriously on the steaming surface, as if it were needed to augment it.
This soup season usually hits during Halloween week in October although it sometimes holds off into November just before Turkey takes the stage for few weeks.
This year, the Drought of '02 has been an exceptional. We have not had the overwhelming influx of fresh vegetable we usually find on our tables, on back porch and the garage floor at this time of year. Even though we have abandoned trying to “out out” a garden as we grow older and inept at all but eating, we still have friends, neighbors and relatives aplenty to bring in all of their “extra” or “overrun” garden vegetables, corn, beans, tomatoes, squash, cabbage, onion, okra, turnips, and other goodies unknown to all expect the rural-oriented segment of the hungry human race – such as a few rutabaga, some salsify or eggplant.
Some years ago, I personally, found a way to deal with that sudden surge each fall. I washed, sliced, peeled as need be, and otherwise prepared the harvest. I boiled them a bit and put the result into cartons and stashed them away in our freezer. The rather ignoble looking product became known as “Andy's Slurry”. It became the base for soup all winter and often into the spring simply by adding whatever was available. Due to the drought this year, I will have to forgo this facet of good living for a time.
I wonder if there is a federal government program taking care of such drought “losses.” Farmers are receiving such payments. Perhaps? No, they wouldn't do a thing, would they? Any way, it's too late to ask. Election day is next week; not enough time left to work up any political promises on the premise, is there?
I , for one, will remember the Great Drought of “02 and what it did to the soup tradition at our table.
A.L.M. October 30, 2002 [c525wds]
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
SLEEPERS AMONG US
It seems impossible for a person simply to willfully disappear these days.
I can understand how it could have happened in days long gone, before we were encased in a maze of electronic gadgetry and all sorts of equipment which could seek us out wherever we might hide.
Yet, individuals do so, it seems. Criminals escape the confines of prison and wander about the country side for many years without being apprehended even though searches are underway from the start. Other individuals can, it seems, for one reason or another, simply decide to withdraw from society as they know it and start all over again. They do it. They do so apparently with ease, too. How?
I would imagine it would be very difficult to cut of all communications with those you might have known.. You can't just walk out entirely on all that your have known and, perhaps, loved. To leave treasures behind is illogical. In the new locale one is sure to have some qualms and some painful reminders of what has been real before. Is there anyone, I wonder, who has not loved some one in their life ...who could pull up and leave everyone and everything?
If so, he or she must have a flawed character. People who have criminal records can move around the country live in towns and cities and do pretty much what they've been doing before. The recent serial killers in the D.C. Area were shown to have lived in Tacoma,WA, Montgomery, AL and other areas without a lurid past being suspected. Even with hindsight, some former neighbors find it difficult to see them as criminals.
It makes us wonder, doesn't it, who our next door neighbors might have been at one time. And, they might be wondering the same things about you. If a newcomer to town having lived a criminal life elsewhere, how would our recognize that fact?
The lessons we have learned from this sniper case, are, perhaps indicative of a problem we will face in the future. One of the most insidious ways in which our nation might become divided is suggested in the slow evolution of this sniper case.
We are a trusting lot, I suppose. We tend to accept people for what they say they are and actually seem to be. But we can be divided and made suspicious of each other in many ways.
We read and hear about unusual cases but they are rare. Most or us can live close to each other with understanding and compassion, but those who seek to divide us can do so easier than one might think. Special care must be taken to retool the old maxim: ”Love Thy Neighbor.”
Niches of religious variations, racial backgrounds, conditions of birth, comparative wealth, and cultural attainments can all be used – falsely and out -of- context, along with other factors, as means a means of division.
Divided, we can fall.
A.L.M. October 30, 2002 [c500wds]
Tuesday, October 29, 2002
TV OR NOT TO TV.
And now, a commercial break!” What do you think when you hear those words?
Do you groan? Or are you among those who say: “Well, it's about time!”
When a commercial intrusion becomes something special to anticipate and enjoy it suggests that something may be lacking in the program itself.
The very nature of the “commercial break” has changed over the years. It has changed in position, frequency, relation to the program content materials, length, complexities, cost and in it's intended purposes.
The term itself has a “plural” atmosphere about it, too. It has many parts now and it is now positioned much more freely. Older regulations required that the product or service be “mentioned” in a short opening and closing announcement of the program period. Two one-minute “messages” were allowed within each fifteen minute segment. That had been the pattern in radio and TV followed obediently since we were, very often, the same people doing both.
Radio, itself, underwent serious alterations when TV came into the entertainment scene. Network and local programming as such, ceased to be and the juke box mode took over in one manner or another - some even automatic – while others worked their way into highly successful all-news or all-talk stations,sometimes blended with sports emphasis or other specific turn.
At the same time innovations were taking place in the taping aspects in both radio and TV, evident in the switch from live studio work to radio and TV augmented. In radio it was evident in the switch from live, to reel,-to- reel taped spots, then, cassettes. Program content could be varied with many voices, with music as decoration, sound effects and more dimensions than it had ever had before.
No one, it appears, is ready to admit who started it, but commercials began he heard in packages. A bundle of them... or, a series “seeded” with bits of music, transitional bits on the weather, the time, road announcements, public service spots, chit-chat by personalities or, at times, a humorous item from the news machine. It became common practice to play a cassette commercial after every record played; do an intro for the next tune “coming up after this word!” Zing! Another message!
Be picky, if you like. Count the commercials. I've tallied up a dozen several times. Seven commercials mixed with promo spots and public service announcements is not unusual.
I am quite comfortable with it all as it is. It doesn't bother me too much because I was on other end for so many years and I see it working. It is by far, the best system evolved as yet when compared to foreign operations.
TV enjoyment, radio, for that matter, is a matter of individual selection.
Yes, I will agree. Some commercials are better than some programs. More money for production! All kinds of talent from the shows! But, I do wish they would not run the same ones so often.
And, stop complaining please, about the length of old movies shown. They might well have been new when the show started.
A.L.M. October 28, 2002 [c524wds]
Monday, October 28, 2002
A PHASE OF FORCE
We are currently dealing with a situation, as nation, which we have never faced before.
The reasons for our special concern are quite different from those met with in the past, hence our actions in response to them must also also be unusual.
In the past we have dealt with a visible enemy. We contended with many such enemies from time to time – the native American Indians, and the British, of course, several times. The French in the earlier days of our nation's becoming. We fought each other in our Civil War; Spain once more in the Spanish-American War , then Mexico. A major conflict was termed World War I,, when Kaiser Bill and German Imperialism upset everything; and that resulted, in time, in th rise of Adolph Hitler's threat to world order which brought a second war with Germany, Italy and a war apart with the Japanese. There was Korea and the Chinese, the North Koreans. There was Viet Nam. In our short history we have had a varied chronology of war. All, those and a number of others, as well. We have had minor skirmishes from time-to-time with petty dictators and chronic trouble-makers such as those in Cuba, Libya and various African nations. Most have been obvious enemies, real in appearance and with known objectives and methods of operation. Our military establishment has been styled to fit such needs as we have known in the past.
Suddenly much that we have is obsolete in the face o fa totally new type of warfare which does not abide by accepted rules. Mankind has taken sharp turn in uncharted regions situated beyond the bounds of reason and regulation.
Suddenly, we find ourselves in opposition to forces operating outside the usual conventions accorded international groups concerning fairness and reason. The usual methods prove to be inadequate. We are opposed and thwarted at every turn even by International tribunals formed to help reach solutions in such matters. We find ourselves opposed by ill-defined powers and forces of one type or another.
A main one is that which is called “Al Quida.”..which is the Arabic word for The Family” not unlike the Sicilian “Mafia” which also dealt in terrorist tactics. We are very much like British General Burgoyne marching against American Indians many years ago at that moment when he found that his enemy fired from concealment rather than in formal ranks. Everything had changed – suddenly - and completely The Jihad element is new to us as well ..a “holy war” which could pit us against the Islamic world.
We must have learned some lessons from the recent series of senseless murders in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. There are disturbing Muslim undercurrents therein which are going to prove to be even more puzzling as time goes on. Our enemy is unseen.
The almost inevitable conclusion insists that we must prepare for war. How? In what new ways?
How soon will it come? Who can say, for it does not follow conventional patterns. We must plan accordingly.
A.L.M. October 28, 2002 [c522wds]
Sunday, October 27, 2002
PILL PRICING
Certainly, some government agencies must have become mixed in recent times. It seems as if NASA is pricing pharmaceutical products these days and coming up with some fantastic, barrier busting prices, too.
Well, maybe not NASA . There is much more common sense and acceptable reasoning in what they do, than in this matter of deciding how much drugs are to cost those in need.
If you wish to consider the matter honestly and fairly, you will not be crowded in doing so because not too many people seem to be at that location at the moment. Far to many of those who are interested have private axes to grind, too. We hear words of condemnations between election times from political voices which fade off into the distance when positive reductions in drug prices are considered. Critics will say that is because they are being lead around in obedient PAC packs. The leashes are, for the most part, often difficult to see in the overall picture.
How are drug prices fixed? It may be that I chose a faulty word there - “fixed” - but, on second thought, I'm not going to change it even though it does contain a slight suggestion that some hanky-panky - some “rigging” is going on somewhere when the prices are set on the drugs we have to pay for one way or another. The latest study I have read indicates that average - the “average” price, mind you, of a prescription is seventy-three dollars!
I've been through this oh-so-proper and business-like, price-setting routine myself – and I learned long ago not to put much trust in such business conclaves. We were dealing with a manufactured item and the actual cost of production was known to a fairly accurate degree. I would assume in the making of medicines it would also be possible to ascertain what materials used actually cost, as well. As rule those who, in any way dealt with the product, were called together in the General Manager's office. Such meetings were usually made up of twosomes; head of each department and an underling, male or female, who actually knew what was going on and could provide numbers and dates required. Such meetings were often called for “first thing in he morning”, coffee cups in hand , or just before quitting time in afternoon, again with sustaining coffee cups in hand. After hearing the reports of several of the departments concerning actual costs - their portion of it - repetitive dullness became apparent and the tally being kept on the budget easel up front was climbing rapidly. Discussion became the mode, and someone who had grown tired of the whole procedure did what I never dared do – and made a motion that “we price the item a few dollars over the price being asked by our competitors if we felt we could get away with it” price it a few dollar under the competitive price if we were not too sure of the quality or its marketing potential. The price decided upon had little or nothing whatever to do with the actual manufacturing cost. I'm afraid that' s pretty much the way drug prices are being set - with the accent on the “how much can we get away with”side.
The departmental envy problem was apparent in such sessions and that precluded any realistic price being set. A step-by-step analysis of actual costs is essential if prices are to be set at levels commensurate with assuring the drug companies of a reasonable profit and better prices to consumers.Drastic changes are needed in determining the extent of exclusive rights to product before it becomes generic in nature. Public awareness of the true situation must be strengthened, as well, because far too many people think that if insurance in some form “takes care of it” - even part of it – they are “home free”. In time, they pay for it in higher insurance rates and other ways of shifting costs around until the user meets the supposed cost thereof.
Profiteering pill pricing is a prime peril! And, the longer we wait to take corrective measures the worse it is going to become! We cannot expect the ill to continue to use over half of their monthly income to pay for prescription drugs.
A.L.M. October 26, 2002 [c727wds]
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