Saturday, December 14, 2002
FALSENESS
How can some people pretend to be someone other than who they really are?
It happens all the time, it seems, especially in the area of politics. So many leaders of the people come to feel they are, indeed something special, even unique. They forget to represent us and instead come to rule over us. We pretend we don' t know that as long as it seems to serve our advantage.
If, then, anyone is to be chastised for any such infringement upon the rights of others, it should be, logically, those of us who permit our politicians to waver and to become subservient to the rigors of one of the most difficult occupations in all of mankind's many tasks - that of ruling over others.
Those who stay with it often do so by default.
I seldom come across a “dedicated” statesman in my reading. They are there, to start with, for the purpose of survival. Of having a job, bringing in the where-with-all for family and or a special way of life which seem,for a time, to meet their needs. Many drop by the wayside. A few are wise enough to get out before they becoming steeped in the enticing brew of potential gain they think they see ahead. Far more of them become underlings in the elaborate organization it takes to keep such a system going. A few stay on because the picking seems easy and they can do it effortlessly. They seek ways and means to keep it that way.. Who wants to give up such a comfortable situation?
..
I keep thinking of one young man, in particular, whom I admire to this day because he had the courage to get out when he realize the Eden-like garden of political life was anything but what the school textbooks had said it was supposed to be. He found it to be, in reality, entirely different! He entered state wide politics and did well from the start, but he did not have to be there very long to realize that the textbook version of political life and what it actually proved to be were different things entirely. .He quickly came to know what we call “back scratching” was fundamental. You favor my action and I'll favor yours. Multiply such little favors by the hundreds and merely merely trying to remember them becomes impossible.. To honor them becomes a burden; a pagan site upon which a politician offers his soul.
Our best leaders, you see, might well be those very people who have stayed out of the political areas or, perhaps, those few who left it purposely. It is ironic, I suppose, at we have come to view these truths as being self-evident. We know many of the things which are wrong about our political system as it exists today, and yet we do not have the courage to try doing anything really constructive about changing it ...if we knew how. I wonder too if, in a political sense, we can anticipate a time when we might have “A Great Awakening” experience era?
Much depends on what we really want, of course.
We are not to sure on that score. The present system gives us what we think we want which, at times, discourages definition. We are proud of what it has been on some occasions and there are far less commendable systems running rampant in the world about us.
Let's not knock it, I say, but let's try to keep it fairly clean and reasonably honest. If you consider all politicians as puppets on a stage remember you are back stage pulling the strings.
A L M. December 13, 2002 [c618wds]
Friday, December 13, 2002
MY WAY
It is often true that some of the likes and dislikes we claim to be basic in our lives are flawed.
We might agree as to surface qualities we deem just and good, and fair and right according to generalized religious or social principles we have had patiently dinned into our heads from childhood. Sooner or later, however, we find that some disagreement will arise because all of us did not listen uniformly to parental instructions along such lines. Some individuals, at this point, henceforth to be designated as “they”, are sure we were the ones who “did not get it” years ago. We, of course, know we did listen well and gained an understand of basic rules of social order.
Being mutually assured of being right, “we” and “they” graciously step aside, on many such occsions, and each seems to allows the other to have his or her own way.
Blessed, indeed, is the family in which such give-and-take is actually practiced as the path to peace.
It doesn't always work out that well, of course.
I'm certain you know, as I do, of families in which such petty bickering over minor differences have disturbed the family for many years. In the worst cases, we could even cite situations in which brothers and sisters – or other family pairs – including husbands and wives, mothers and sons or daughters - have refused to even speak with each other for years, even though they shared the same living areas. I have seen that horrible situation exist between brother and sister, husband and wife, two sisters, two brothers and other such combinations, including third-party complications and, after many years of suffering such a blight, neither one of the parties could really say what had been wrong for so long a time. The division had, usually, come about through some minor problem which, once formed, gained new growth with every change of season until it became an unrecognizable mass of everything and nothing held together by non-existent ties, hooks locks and knotted strings of malicious words and thoughtless accusations.
It would seem silly to say that we can think along such lines in regard to world wide “peace”. But, after all, what are we other than a large family, growing, contending, changing group of people. As with most of the “worst cases” I have know, it was – in truth - “too late”. They have gone too far. That is something to ponder when we take on world-wide peace problems, but that does not permit us to continue working on the world “peace” problems by keeping in touch with our own friends and neighbors.
That's where it all starts, really!
A trite thought? Yes. Tiresomely so, because it is being said over and over again, at many levels. Until we, as individual citizens of nations, can get along with each other, there can be little hope for Peace on Earth
At this precise moment, what petty little different lets you think you are different, even “better than” someone else? Such a handicap can exist without our being aware of it at all.
You work on yours and I'll work on mine, then we can get together again some time. Best make some notes, too, because we might not remember what our differences used to be.
A.L.M. December 12, 2002 [c563wds]
Thursday, December 12, 2002
LULL
In general, we may think things have settled down somewhat in the Holy Land. During these pre-holiday weeks we are, understandable, occupied with other concerns. The years between 1917 and 1921 were deceptively quiet as well.
It was a confusing time in the Holy Land and part of the reason why that seems to be so is that the area was controlled by the Ottoman Turks during much of this period and many Jews actually left the Holy Land area..
British public opinion had put the Balfour project on the back burner for a time until a Jewish politician by the name of Herbert Samuel, formerly a liberal cabinet member minister, was named as High Commissioner.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Britain had been mandated to govern what is now Israel, the Occupied Territories and Jordon. The Balfour declaration, you will recall, required Britain to implement civil power which would “facilitate Jewish immigration” under conditions which would encourage them to settle in the land.
The Jewish population of the area had actually shrunk to about 60-thousand during the final years of Turkish rule. The post war years had seen increased immigration from Europe and America in 1919 through 1923, and it became a cause of alarm to the Arabic nations indicating to them that the Zionist Movement had grown a set of teeth. In 1920 an armed Jewish protective league or militia was formed called the Haganah.
1922 saw some changes in the British attitude. A so called White Paper on Palestine, was issued which divided the area into two administrative districts. The larger, Eastern portion of the mandated territory was called Transjordan, which I recall seeing on maps of the area for the next decade. This sector was given a measure of self-rule under its new Hashermite emir, Abdullah, who had been expelled from Saudi Arabia. The reasons for this expulsion are, only now, becoming obvious. Zionists were very upset with this specification since the British dictated that Jews were not to settle therein. They were to settle only west of the Jordon valley rift And, this restriction is held to be be valid today. Now, jump to 1929 when the Great Depression got off to with a dramatic crash on Wall Street in New York. Jewish immigration rose quickly in the Holy Land and Arabic authorities become concerned. Rioting resulted and more than one hundred and thirty Jews were killed. These riots came to a peak in 1936 having become more bloody all during the Depression era. It was in 1936 that Arab and Jewish paramilitary groups clashed for the first time. The Jewish armed forces were aided to victory by a fanatical Christian named Orde Wingate, who was a Zionist officer. Then, in the midst of a general Palestinian uprising, the British set forth another document known as the Peel Commission Report which suggested that the Holy Land be divided into two parts - one to be Jewish and the other to be solely Arabic.
At that time, in 1938, Kristalnacht, Germany, took place. This pogram of the Jews in Germany changed the world-wide Jewish homeland movement markedly in the war and post-war years.
It remains fresh in memories which determine daily events today in the Middle East. But our concerns have veered heavily toward the Iraq problem the Al Qaeda and the Terrorist threats. It would prove to be very poor judgment for us to to think that the Middle East cauldron has cooled.
A.L.M. December 11, 2002 [c570wds]
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
3:16 AM
If you are awake at 3:16 in the morning having aroused from an active dream session that makes you seek comfort “back among the living”... what do you do? You do what you must and in my case that means I light a lamp, reach for a clipboard and start to write. That's “normal” for me.
I’ve been told I should write of my dreams and make a fortune selling them, but I’d much rather just be away from their confusion and frustrations. Certainly it doesn’t make good sense to write about the fantasy that’s been with me for- - well, it seems like “hours” but the dream authorities tell me it all happened few moment before I awakened.
I don’t know that I subscribe to that sort of theory-think or not, but they know more about dreams than I do so their word for it ought to be respected.
I do a lot of traveling in my dreams, and I would imagine those experts can explain that easily enough as unrequited wish fulfillment which has been with me all the days of my life. My travels in dreams,however,are far more complicated and cumbersome than anything I could possibly get mixed up with in real life.
Anyway, at three 3-something in the morning it is nice to gather a coverlet or robe over my shoulders to ward off the chilly night air and to simply sit here and write about anything that comes to mind.
This morning my thoughts turned to something my grandfathr did many years ago. Why I should think of that subject at three-something in the morning,I do not know. It was the time he told us about wanting certain letters engaved on his tombstone when it came his turn to die. He said he had discussed it with my grandmother - all ninety-three pounds of her - and that she approved.
“Yes," he told us quite seriously,"Idee,(her name was Ida but he called her “Idee”.) listened to me and she agrees the letters should be there. B T N G R - right after my name.” Without a word spoken from either one of us, we knew grandchildren would be joking even as he held forth profoundly as if reading from the stone itself.
We, of course, waited to see what he letter might stand for and Grandaddy delayed telling us. Eventually the clarificaton was made:
As if reading from the stone once more: "The capital letters: B...T...N...G...R!" following the name John Loeffert - "Born Tired, Never Got Rested!”
I went back to sleep and slept well until morning.
A.L.M. December 11, 2002 [c562wds]
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
PLUMP?
Pre-holiday studies available show that one-third of the American
populace is now officially listed as “obese”.
This trend has been becoming more and more apparent in recent years especially among young boys and girls.
The fact that we are a fat nation is evident every time you see a street seen pictured on TV or in print, people of all types rushing back and forth and not realizing they are being photographed. The boobs and butts are bouncing; hips are leaping and hitting other hips and widely spread and heavily clad feet are balancing a load of lard that make them both wary and weary of any movement. Pot bellies are prominent and belts and pants bandsare fighting a one-front war are not winning.
The walking we do is limited.It’s a necessity required to move us from on place to anoher for sitting. For older people, that is one of the problems, not enough walking or exercise of any kind. For youngsters, the culprit most frequently named is too much television watching. The term “couch potato” is now a part of our language and the lack of exercise is telling on our youth in rather costly ways. Fast food consumption comes in as a close runner-up with both young and old alike.
The fact that fat has become so visible should, one would think, be alarm enough to alert all of us to the process which is leading to untold amounts of medical expense and physical suffering in the years to come. Overeating is at the stage where it is very much the same as having a disease of some sort.
We eat too much and too often. We feel we must snack when we are reading, watching TV, at the computer, driving, arriving at almost any location where vending machines are nearby and loaded with chips, candy, peanuts and other such lures. It takes a twelve-ounce bottle of any soft drink to wash it all down, too. Better get two. You’ll need one in the car as you ride along.
We are making food choice largely by habit or visual examination but seldom pay any attention to the nutritional qualities of the foods we buy or prepare. Since we are also a nation led by fads and fantasies there is a marked tendency to do whatever seems to be in fashion at the moment...if a new form of Taco is available eat it often if only to show our are hip to the times and right among the doers of this nation.
Much of the fat being produced in abundance now is being created in the educational areas of the county. Not only do schools operate “cafeterias” and “lunch rooms”, but they have set up a network of vending machines to feed the elementary-high school-and college kids between classes or on any absence from a class. The unit they study each year on nutrition and healthful foods and eat habit is far too short to meet the need for guidance in food choices. Cooks and other kitchen workers have been handicapped for years in being required to make use of government surplus food shipments in tiresome duplications. They give up seeking new ways to prepare such foods and the children get tired of having the same things again and again.
We foster glossy studies on types of fat and other features of foods and engage in multi-million dollar weight reduction plans and schemes by the score or more. The effort is on the wrong end of things, you might say. We are exerting ourselves at spending our money to get rid of extra weight while failing to address the basic causes of the continual increase in poundage.
If we, as adults, continue this trend we are remiss in caring for our offspring to the best of our abilities. We are asking for trouble on all sides by continuing to be lax in our own diet control and in that of our children. It is past time to wake up when we are being warned by what we see...one third of us now classed as "obese" to put it nicely. Fat, that is
F-A-T..."fat."
A.L.M. December 10, 2002 [c720wds]
Monday, December 09, 2002
BUTT RUNNING
Remember reading about when the days and nights when “Rum Running" made the headlines?
There have been several times in our national history when it became profitable to move quantities of spiritus frumenti from one location to another and it proved especially profitable if one could effect the exchange without the payment of taxes normally associated with such a transaction.
It is closely akin to “smuggling” in a very real sense and remarkably ingenious schemes have been worked out in detail by some really talented individuals to bring about such mercantile movements in order to increase one's wealth appreciably.
Rum Running was literally the running of the product rum - and kindred brews - either from the place of manufacturer or from stocks secreted at various locations “over the waters”. The concept is not new, yet it is not “old” either. We still have rum running , now blottered as “bootlegging”, a designation it picked up during the era of national prohibition. Some police jurisdictions have regular offenders ....entire families, as a matter of fact, who still insist on running a car full of plastic milk containers with their home-made brew contained therein to metro districts for SWAT - “Sales Without Any Taxes”
Our current problem in Virginia, however, is not rum running. Today it is the clandestine movement of ever increasing stocks of Virginia cigarettes north on Interstate 81 and Interstate 95. This has come to be a viable but illegal “business” largely because New York and Connecticutt have a tax of $l.50 on a pack of cigarettes and Virginia has such a tax set at 2.5-cents per pack. I have seen it estimated that one can load up a semi and realize a profit of around $25,000 per load. Run four trucks and get rich.
I have heard this bogus business called: “Butt Running” and those persons engaged in it speak of each other as “Kicking butt up I-81 or I-95!”
Dreamers and others who think there is an easy solution to this growing problem, ask why we allow it to continue. No legislator, including the ones I voted for and will continue to vote for, wants to touch the problem with a the proverbial ten foot - or longer - pole. Tobacco farming is a major crop in Virginia, tobacco processing is a major industry - domestic and foreign, as well - and the industry supports the government and, as good back scratching technique goes, the government, then, supports the industry. Simple logic.
Right now, with stringent budget cuts being made Virginia and with more on the way, many critics are saying: “Up the cigarette tax!” Some are yelling the suggestion and I have been amazed at the verbal dexterity with which some of my favorite political persons have gracefully sidestepped the mire for the moment.
A compromise of some sort?
Maybe later, when the New Year is here, but as for right now - not a chance! Any bill to raise the “sin tax” on cigs would melt away into nothingness before it hit the floor. I would sooner place my wager on the celebrated “snowball in Hell” premise
December 9, 2002 [c529wds]
Sunday, December 08, 2002
TOMORROW'S SPORTS?
What do you think will be America's favorite sports activity a generation from now?
We do change our favorites. We have shifted considerably in my time and, in general, things seem to move along faster today than they did then, so we will certainly see some radical changes in the future. Such changes evolve rather slowly as one generation ages and fades away and youth takes over as the control points for sports concerns. They, in turn, will give way to others who develop fan status - an entirely new set of admirers.
Two general classifications exist at all times: those who are content simply to watch sports being played - the spectator types -
and those who actually take a physical part in the game in either an amateur or professional basis. The divisions seem to find themselves in disagreement quite often. That is true, it seems, especially in regard to minor points concerning how the game is to be played and never the twain shall meet, it seems, on some common ground to decide which sport is superior to all others and why. Watching it played and playing are divergent views of the same subject, but so often incompatible. Much of that is due to the realistic fact that the actual player is limited in the number of years he can fully participate whereas the sitter-watcher-commentator endures into octo-years and becomes more and more of an authority on the finer points of the game which does not encourage durable decades of friendship and camaradarie.
I can't claim that I actually remember John L. Sullivan being the first Heavyweight Champion of the boxing world. He was long gone before I saw the light of day. My grandfather, however, spoke of them and of James Corbett, Jim Jeffries and Jess Willard with respect verging on awe which told me he, too, had, at one time, been a sports fan himself even though I never thought I never thought of him in that role. They were “real men”, “fine fighters”, bestial and bare-knuckled.
Pro boxing was the big sport then. I followed it all the way through the Jack Dempsey era, who, suppose, was my first boxer. Then, we had Gene Tunney, who was somewhat different and not quite so “primitive” as were the usual candidates for the Heavyweight crown. There was Max Schmeling to add a Tutonic touch, Max Baer, too - later on, with an Italian influence when Primo Carnera moved in for a short stay and , then, who was it? - Jack Sharkey, whatever lineage he might have been, James Braddock, then along came Joe Louis - 1937 to 1949.
Joe Louis,The Brown Bomber, was almost a venerable personality with many. In fact, he was so popular that I find myself sitting here wondering who followed Joe Louis. He seems to have eclipsed those who followed him in my sports memories. Joe Louis was in the newspaper, the magazines, on radio, in the Newsreels at the movie houses and in filmed specials which followed every major fight in the '30's and '40's.
I remember one special recognition of Joe Louis when he became Heavyweight Champion of the World. The newspaper “The Afro-Amercian” published, I think, in Baltimore at that time, ran a picture of Joe Louis that was unforgetabe.. The paper was printed in a large 11-12 column format and they used the large center folder full signature to picture victorious Joe Louis in what passed for color photograhy in those days - the centerfold spread was almost life-sized. I can still see one of those newsprint poster sheets taped to the glass window of the barber shop downtown and half a dozen other places big enough to hold it.
We were boxing fans. We actually boxed in gym classes at school. I remember being paired up with - or, rather - “against” - a hulk of a guy named Strawn which experience effectively cured me of any fisticuff ambitions I might have had at that point. It think we had “three-minute round”, and those where the longest three minutes I ever spent in all my life.
Football was not too big then, except the annual classic of VPI meeting VMI in Roanoke, Va. On Thanksgiving Day. Baseball was in an October event with the World Series games. Basketball - high school games. The America' s Cup yatch races; The “Indy 500” and speed racing trials on the salt flats out west or at Daytona Beach in Florida. The horse races and sulky cart runs at the fair grounds - those were our sports favorites, but it was not “organized” to anything like the extent we see it today.
Think about sports maybe just a decade from now! What'll it be like, I wonder!
a.l.m. December 7, 2002 [c807wds]
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