Saturday, March 08, 2003
THIRTY-SIX DAYS
How long is too long?
I have a feeling it should not take a total of thirty-six days for the U.S Postal Service to take a small package from one location on the coast of Virginia, inland to a point perhaps 130 miles westward. That's with Interstate Highway connections, rail service and adequate air connections, as well, had they been needed.
Fortunately, there were not any special requirements concerning the delivery of the particular package, nor were the items of any great intrinsic value. This was a package including operating instructions for an older model sewing machine several household articles and some too-small-for-me clothing items being passed along on the chain of hand-me-downs.. It was not a special parcel and it was, for that reason, not insured or given any special attention . I checked it over carefully when it finally did arrived and it was properly packaged and addressed. It was in excellent condition and showed no markings of any kind which may have indicated why it had been delayed or held for some particular reason.
It proved inconvenient for us not to have the instruction book for the sewing machine. We found that mimeographed copies of the specific book are available for $l5.95 or so a copy. A :”tracer”was placed on the package at the senders end about three weeks of so after mailing date, the package appeared about one week later at our doorstep without any explanation of how it got there, or where it might have been for over a month.
I wonder if this sort of thing is common with mail deliveries in other sections of the nation. If so, there is good reason for the Post Office Department being subject to criticism and being made a thing of ridicule by late night TV funsters. We have come to hear more about the Pony Express days in recent comments on TV than people did when it that horsey-hastened service was functioning.
The Postal Service certainly has enough problems as it is without allowing charges of poor service to arise. On the other hand, we customers should realize that the service operates under condition which are not always of the best. It is very easy to imagine this package of ours being “lost” for a time in a contract-haulers truck. We don't have “public” transportation any more our Post office department has to depend on privately owned trucks to move their tonnage around. From general appearances, I would say this private “fleet”is often inadequate. In all fairness, if we expect top grade service we ought to take some interest in providing the Department with more improved methods of mass movement for milk. The puny “express” I see operating in some areas is no longer adequate.
A.L.M. March 7, 2003 [c470wds]
Friday, March 07, 2003
OF DEATH
At this particular time in our nation's history, when we are on the brink of one, or perhaps two wars, the subject of death is going to find itself in our thinking and talking as a normal reaction to conditions.
I, personally, have never been afraid of dying. I think most people are offended by the circumstances of death as we tend to define them. Most people, dislike the idea of dying because it is disruptive, bloody, associated with broken bones, associated with th decaying matter, corpses and that unique smell that seems to be conjoined with the process of it all happening. This is what, I think, we most hate and fear rather than the progression to another existence. We may not comprehend it all, but we are not fearful of it taking place. We accept dying as a part of living - .the outgoing end of it.
How many will die? Who?
During wartime such figures are formed and they vary greatly. We can expect several million people to die each year on about every fifteen second or so. Sixty of those will be suicides. That's just one estimate from some years ago, and it does very little for us to formulate such approximations. There are far too many variables, and war is just one of them.
There was a time when we accepted the idea that death came when we stopped breathing, but scientific progress has led is to realize that such may not always be the case. Many individuals could be resuscitated from such a condition.. We then came to refer to a person being “brain dead” - at that point where oxygen had been held from the tissues of the brain until they cannot function. Even then, it is indefinite, because a heart may still respond to various restorative measures even though the brain may is not able to respond
We have modified our psychological view of death repeatedly. We have taken verbal liberties as well. There was time when we started referred to death by other names - “passing on”, “leave-taking”, “going to the Lord.”going to the Lord..”going back to whence he or she came”, for example a host of other such expressions. We have even tried humor when facing death with such terms “to kick the bucket”,.”to cash one's chips”, or one could be “deep-nixed” or “bumped off.” We change the term “corpse” to “a loved one”. Such shifting of words seems to help in some cases and not in others.
There's also a “spooky”side to death you can't ignore. The complexities of the human body and of mental processes, in particular are of such myriad dimensions that many people find it necessary to assign what little they know to some weird metaphysical manifestations and find solace and comfort in darkness rather than in light. Tele-logical
tangents are taken and semi-religious attitudes are found connecting to strange realms of magic, chance, secret desires and wishful thinking to comfort the overawing presence of actual death and even deny it.
Those men nd women who have viewed death often - doctors, surgeons, undertakers, some news people and many members of our armed forces, have a comforting feeling in accepting the idea that something departed from the physical body which which, then, became just a mass of chemicals and substances of which the world consists. Both poets and doctors have said that the beginning of death is birth. It seems, too simple, doesn't it, but there is are strong elements of truth therein.. We prepare for death from the moment we are born. The French thinker Pascal, said: :We spend our lives trying to keep our minds from death”: :And here's another such statement from a book listing scores of them. A man we call a “philosopher” said it in his later years. As death came near he is reported to have said: ”But I am just now learning to live!”
We live to die. All of us.
A.L.M. March 4, 2003 [c673wds]
Thursday, March 06, 2003
THE LOT OF WOMEN
I find it difficult at times to realize that so much of what women have gained in the way of freedom and equality with men, has come about in my time - not centuries ago, but in relatively recent years.
John Stuart Mill wrote about the subjugation of women in a book published under that title, The American Edition, here in the United States in 1869. He wrote it in l861, I find, but we were far too busy with our internal affairs to give such a subject much time or attention.
Certainly the harsh trials and and tribulations of those years of such internecine strife caused many people – men and women - to change their views as to what the proper place of women might be in our society – in both the North and the South.
It was not that women were idol by any means. John Stuart Mill stated the situation's 'special bent when he wrote: “Are a woman's occupations, especially her chosen and voluntary ones, are ever regarded as excusing her from any of what are termed the calls of society?”
It must have been a question common to his time. Should women be engaged in any occupation other than the heaven-bestowed ones of being wife and mother and general caretaker of all that was good, natural, wholesome and necessary for the family? The term he used was “:the calls of society” and certainly, the “cause” became more and more apparent to men and women during the Civil War years and the long passage through Reconstruction travails True women had enough to do with what they were destined to care for. Should she engage in other work, as well? The truth of the matter was that they did other work, but were not credited with doing so. In most families it was common knowledge that the women did work which was “a man's job”.That became much more common during the war years. They did it without complaining and they did much of it very well. In some families you could see changes taking place, and not always in a subtle manner, either, which changed much of “man's work” into something which was done very well by women of the family. Milking, chopping and bringing-in wood, being the family doctor, nurse and char woman.
John Stuart Mill observed, furthermore: “She must always be at the beck and call of somebody, generally everybody” She was never to be considered to be in a free-agent classification at all, and was “on call” day or night; winter, summer spring or fall. One wonders today how she survived; how she every got anything done with so many to boss her!
Then, to bring this passage from John Stuart Mill to a climax, see this:
“If, “ he wrote, “she has a study or a pursuit, she must snatch any sort of intervals which accidentally occurs to be employed in it ... truly everything a woman does is done at odd times!”
I find that to be so accurate even today as I watch women at work. Those things which they really want and need to do for their “career” have to be done in those fragments of time allowed between their their “:home” work. When I make myself to be aware of women working in modern times, I am forced to remember how much women have done for me in the past eighty-seven years working in those precious moments they find so well.
Thank you, ladies.
A.L.M. March 5, 2003 [c595wds]
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
TWENTY- FOUR YEARS AGO
About a quarter of a century ago, around 1974 , you were reading news dispatches detailing the execution of the Shah of Persia' ministers for "crimes of state" and "violations of divine in law" in Iran. The new rulers were executing the men who had held their office previously. They thought they were avenging the abuses and mis-uses of power and wanted to get rid of any remembered evils to assure the purity of their own newly acquired powers. And, such a procedure was not evident only in Iran, but in other disturbed nations as well.
We were not, without such feelings ourselves, because it had not been too many years since we executed Nazi criminals after World War II..
Scores of bombings are evident in our time as newcomers seek revenge on the vanquished or on those they, or we, hope to expel. That which we sometime call “murder” is often seen as a practical political tool. But, by ending a life one also puts an end to the search for truth. Justice is abruptly truncated by death, and the framework for suffering by that one so accused is allayed.
As long as individuals and governing bodies tend to think of capital punishment as an acceptable tool of government, they are going to try to find ways in which they can justify its use . Once used, it ceases to be a political tool however. It ceases to be a political matter. The political situation has been truncated. It is not there anymore. It is dead .Gone! But the basic evil on which it lived is still there and very much alive in a new self.
The Iranian political of twenty-some ago, gaining power which enabled him to so, killed the previous office holder, but not the evils of corruption he may have symbolized. He unwittingly took upon himself - directly, or through his appointees - much of the burdensome weight borne by the previous leader, which is not good politics anyway one looks at it.
I find myself wondered about those among us who proclaim loudly that the only way to solve our present situation is to arrange, one way or another - for the prompt death of both Saddam Hussein and Osama Ben Laden as soon as possible by whatever means can be quickly arranged.
Does that really solve the problems? It may be worth some second thoughts if one expect justice to be done.
A.L.M . March 3, 2003 [c419wds]
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
NOT KNOWING
Not knowing is one of man's main cares and concerns these days.
The nature of the enemy which haunts us these days has already manifested itself more than adequately in the costly events of September 11th and constant, although admirably controlled, fears or anxieties concerning the possibility of additional attacks of a like nature are with us each day and night
.
Waiting, and not knowing exactly what to expect or how long it will be, is a terrible thing to face day after day.. .even more, I think, at night.
It is something that affects all peoples, too. Many citizens of foreign lands are concerned. They know, as we do, that the insult and injury sustained by the Unite States in New York City and in northern Virginia at the Pentagon building, cannot be ignored. The perpetrators of such deeds must be sought out and punished, and we all know so little about what is being done We know that is a task we all face,. there are other hot spots which need attention if peace is to be maintained with any hope of even a partial tenure of our affairs for years to come. We, here in America, are worried about what may happen. So are many people overseas, who wonder to what extent we may go to revenge the actions take against us. They question our ability to handle the situation, too.
The situation is such that the facts need to be controlled for a time as governments act and interact trying to trace the criminals involved. This is understandable to many, but not to all. The greatest danger of the moment is that because of this wise need for confidential action, far too many people may be led to question what is taking place. The vacuum left by a lack of information is speedily filled with the greatest danger of all - rumor. That rumor, too, may be exploited by the very people among us who did this to us. I think much of the disagreement we are hearing at the moment comes from groups of people who are so used to the American sense of openness that they rebel at the least pressure being pot upon them to refrain from total revelation of all governmental actions at all times.
I have been reading a series of personal diaries kept by by people during the later days of the American Civil War - 1864 to be exact - when southern cities were changing hands. News was almost totally lacking. The railroads were running only under limited ways, stage facilities were gone, and the only visitors were military stragglers - hardly the best source of news concerning wartime actions taking place in the area. Some keepers of those wartime diaries tended to record all alike be it truth or rumor. We are in a like situation today and rumor plays a far more important part in the formation of our personal opinion that we think it might.
A fact is not necessarily to be taken as Truth simply because it is said on radio, TV or in print. Read some of the older news magazines from years ago and you can see how we have, at times, warped the very events we were living to make them seem to be something else. We applied certain absolutes, to explain away our cares with hopes of a better future. Right now we are debating about allowing the trials of the accused murderers of the recent northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland killings
to be shown on TV for all Americans to witness. We are also wondering if the forthcoming war with Iraq - said to be set to start next week “at the latest” - should be telecast in detail or in a controlled manner. Many say :”Yes” Others say “No”.
How much do we need to know at any given time? When does not knowing become of critical importance?
A.L.M. Mar 3, 2003 [c670wds]
Monday, March 03, 2003
LOCKE STEP
When we look back at some typical reforms in our history we see some of the strange ways we have used to try to make others think as we do. They have amounted to " very little" or"a great deal" depending on whom you ask to make an estimate of their enduring value. That's not an easy thing to do because those who believe other than the way we do, are paid hirelings and lackeys of the very ones doing the oppressing.
I read Charles Kingsley's novel about a fictional reformer named “Alton Locke” in March of l972 and I found there were people who were busy re-organizing the world even then in Victorian times. I remember reading it, because I wrote a page or two for this series concerning how I felt about what I was reading at that time.
As is so often the case it seems logical that Kingsley; as most authors tend to do, the let their hero reformers stand for the same things they espouse, but they can give their fictional; character guts to actually something rather than merely talk about it.
It is best for the reformer to be a person who is constantly, and has always s been, a bit out of step with others in almost identical circumstances, family, friends and selected enemies. It is best to make the character a Liberal in his political views so he has plenty of room to call on a strong, dominant governmental force when all else fails or merely wavers a little. Alton Locke, in the Kingsley novel, looks about him in his well-off world and he sees poverty elsewhere... .gradually he decide is is not right and he looks for someone or something on which he might blame for such evil conditions. There is another per-requisite for today's reformers, as well It is something even the reformer, himself. must not acknowledge or even admit exists.. He or she must be pretty well established financially in his right. That of his family, co-workers or some vague association of some sort which assures him of a regular income and to which he can charge any “expenses”he might incur. He must know how to keep bread on the table, gas in the car, fuel in the flying equipment or money with which to pay for the media attention needed. Alton Locke, together with people whom he ordinarily would not associate, could be, for a time, at least, as one.
He seeks improvement and re-dress for real or imagined wrongs on behalf of the blighted elements of the population as he now sees it.. It is also a part of today's reformation action that the participant have, Locke did from his creator. Kingsley's religious fervor can be seen by some readers as a bias. He was known to be ready to lambaste any work - good or bad - of the Jesuit Order. A. Conan Doyle, as he dragged Sherlock Holmes around so aptly on a literary string, had strong prejudices against the Normans. Such narrowness is valuable to reformers because they have a ready out when cornered or confused. Narrowness caused Kingsley to distrust and detract from his Alton Locke character as being true reformer. Locke blamed the conditions poor, starving underpaid worker on the usual selection of malicious individuals. With his Utopian ideas looking more chaste and pure as he hurries along: the business leaders and big merchants of his homeland were to blame. They ground the poor under their coin-studded boot heels and kept them poor and in virtual slavery creating wealth for themselves or greedy investors. As needed, bakers can be faulted for not providing bread to the needy. Ministers, of whatever faith is questioned at the moment, are also fair game. The Law and those who occupy the courts and administrative offices in all their forms, were to blame. The reformer thinks it is his God-ordained destiny to protest rather than to take an active role in specific forms of suffering. Thinking of “Soup Kitchens” or of clinics to meet health needs, were, to him or her, surrender. While posturing in this manner, a reformer with dreams of Utopian father-figure who would solve it all - a Utopian government which would have as it's ultimate function was to solve it all, but the novel's Alton Locke he gradually came to know that he did not hold the love of the common people he once thought he had. In a prize-winner downbeat ending he admits he no longer loves Lillian, his commoner girl friend.
The newest sure way to success in social action, designed to ridicule any mention of war against Iraq, is already being introduced in several Latin-American countries. It may be expected here in the United States as soon as Spring weather becomes official in just a few weeks. They will demonstrate it by “on the beaches, on the playing fields ”... come warm days. You can expect to see this latest form of protests and calls for reforms as it appears in the buff as of hundreds of totally nude men and women march out and valiantly and lie down, sit or stretch out to spell out the words “Peace!” or “No War!” as half-time entertainment.
Get your suntan lotion and be ready. The media will love it; the people will accept it as being normal... even right.
A.L.M. March 2, 2003 [c905wds]
Sunday, March 02, 2003
DUMB PLUS
I find it amazing that criminals, who should consider themselves to be quicker, smarter and more alert that their victims, can be so stupid in some of the things they do.
In Australia a man who's home had been burglarized decided to leave his PC computer camera on at night, and, sure enough, he had visitors once again who seemed to be intent on picking up things they had missed the previous time, and anything else they fancied.
They had entered by means of prying a glass, sliding door from its gutter with a large screw driver. They proceeded to take whatever software they wanted, a digital camera and other such items they had overlooked without realizing they were on camera in many of their movements about the room. They made no attempt to steal, or even disable, the computer itself which was blinking away at them all the time. They both wore baseball hats - one forward and the other in a reversed style
.
The two have not been apprehended, however. Lighting was poor and must be improved if this is to be a common method of detection. Police felt that the victim outsmarted himself by posting the pictures on the for all to see on the net. With poor lighting the robbers could not be positively identified, and you can be sure they did not wear baseball hats – either coming or going.- for the net few weeks or months. The two had a chance to modify their appearance, and change their facial and hair styles enough to cast doubt upon identification. It's highly unlikely the pilfering twosome would be be ready to co-star in another home movie production any time soon.
Closer to home: two American would-be bank robbers, are reported to have innovated a fiasco all their own. The two erstwhile robbers, intending to rob their local bank, first saturated their faces with concentrated lemon juice. Some had told them that by doing that,it would be impossible for the cameras to take their picture... everything would go fuzzy. So they had been informed – or mis-informed, perhaps - that the way to louse up a camera was to smear your face with lemon juice, and they believed it. Both can now enjoy a cool glass of tea in prison, with sugar, yes - but no lemon, please.
Another dummy-do: a man, in the process of robbing a convenience store clerk by demanding and receiving all the cash from the register drawers, spotted a six-pack of beer on displayed above the cash register.
He demanded that as well. The clerk said he could not let anyone have beer as young as he seemed to be. The masked man held his his ID card up for the clerk to read.- street address, apartment number, telephone and SS# - everything! The police were waiting for him when he got home planning to enjoy his six-pack.
How can it be that, with crooks being so stupid, we can't catch more of them?
A.L.M. February 28, 2003 [c513wds]
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