Saturday, July 19, 2003
AM I READY?
Often, I find, people who are complete strangers to me - even on TV - seem to stare at me - right in the eye - and demand of me: “Are You Ready?”
Usually they are reminding me of some novel, quirky gadget of the commercial world which I do not possess, and will never be happy again if I go without one much longer!
Regardless of the intent of the question in today's world, I tend, very often, to hear the expression in a antiquated meaning which offended me as a child. Maybe “scared'” me is a more exact term, because it was used in a religious sense.
We lived in a town in the Appalachian Mountains where there were numerous groups of people fresh out of the more remote areas. Their religious background was nil or, if it existed at all, it was made evident with a brash, evangelistic condition which took over their entire being and made each of them n active disciple of the Lord. Some of them worked at it as if they were on commission. Their favorite expression with strangers - even as an initial greeting - there was that investigative demand: “Are You saved? Or “Are you ready?” Doom was imminent! The final trump was about to be sounded! The time was upon us all They wanted to know if I had prepared myself for the coming events! I never quite what to say. I was a born once Presbyterian, had been all my young life. I went to Sunday School each Sabbath morn, read the Bible and attended church services with my parents unaware that the end of all was so close. I thought, maybe, our minister is out of town and hasn't heard about it yet.
Anyway, that religious overtone was in the words forever afterward and continues to taint the expression today. I time I came to understand what the individuals meant when they repeated the question so often. What so many were doing, I realize now, was that they were trying to convince themselves that they were prepared; that they understood what barriers were involved, In evangelizing others they were seeking proof, .In tell and re-telling “proofs” they could then feel that they were n only prepared but worthy of the blessings to come on the Judgment Day
Politicians use the concept today in suggestions that doom is imminent for other reasons. When I hear the present-day version of the old greeting in the form of a politician crying doom and disaster ...complete failure unless I adhere to his admonitions.
I'm not puzzled at all, not scared, sure, but, I do feel a little bit sick to the stomach if they persist too long
As a Boy Scout many years ago I tried to live with the maxim:”Be Prepared” in mind. To me, that says I am ready ...or, as ready as I am going to be.
a.l.m. July 19, 2003 [c502wds]
Friday, July 18, 2003
REVIVALS
When you bring something “back” you have to be sure it is actually better than it ever was before. It hasn’t changed. But, you have.
You have changed because of what it was to you have grown, matured a bit in some mysterious manner because it nurtured you in some way you may not ever remember that it did so. It can be the same, but you will have changed.
If you plan a revival of anything that gave you enough memories of it to merit a re-run, you must be sure to bring it back better than it ever was in its former life. Any attempt to bring it all back unchanged will not work.
In periods of inactivity things may stay rather constant, but we change and the aura which makes up our sphere of living changes as well. To bring back something which no longer fits the circumstance under which you expect it to take root and thrive, is a futile thing to attempt.
If you are going to revive something, accept it in keeping with them which your present world and you, yourself, have been altered.
There are hosts of examples to illustrate the concept, too.
When it was decided to restore Colonial Williamsburg,Virginia the concept was not one which merely dressed up what was left – a string of rather dismal looking, sagging somewhat ramshackle homes and shops along an narrow street with the Wren Building of W&M college as the keystone of it all at one end. That is not what we revived; not exactly what was brought at all. There was enough of many of the old buildings remaining under the earth in manuscripts forms to suggest – not the way they were, necessarily; not exactly what they were, but what they should have; might have been, and what the could have been at that time when Williamsburg was in its halcyon days. Look at them today and you have to agree that, Williamsburg never looked do good as it does today. At its peak as the Middle Plantation’s gem Williamsburg”s structure were impressive. It was the capital city of the Royal Colony but it never looked as beautiful as it does . The today is open, with wide, expanded streets, trees aplenty, paved walkways, and most impressive of all – the use of – a wide spectrum of colorful, high-quality paints! Unusual talents turned loose with adequate financial backing brought about a magical change,. Special artistic talents. Modern materials, and serious dedication above and beyond the usual calls of employment ...all these and many other sterling qualities transformed the Old into the New; Sores of homes and shops, inns, ordinaries, and a host of artifacts from Colonial times were reclaim. They were improved,to ...not changed,rally,but different ...more like the old timers wanted them to be than they ever were in historical times.
_Other sites have been restored. Much that has fallen into disuse has been revived to live and be again.
And, not just architecture either. Music has the same quality. To revive a musical comedy proves to be a difficult task if one attempst to bring it back as it was in it’s original time. It must be brought back better than it was before. Done in the exact styles pop, popular at the time of its original run will doom it to failure. The" ‘attitude” the “feel” must be retained, but the outward t ouches may well vary because you, the hearers have changed.
To successfully restore and revive an old public building or an historic church, one had best include in the plans a skillfully concealed air-conditioning system and adequate heating. Rest room must be provided. Pews had best be cushioned as well. The new generation may want to remember the way people before them lived but few of them want to live under normal conditions of that by-gone era. Historic structures , too, are best brought back better than they were before.
Right now ,after a long time in recessional business cycles, we are co constantly talking about the revival of prosperity. Far too many people seem to think that means turning back the clock to a time when full-employment. Is thought to have existed. Of course, there never has been such a time. Even in the best of good times we, as a nation, have about five million people who cannot work, choose not to work, don't need to work, or can't decide what they wish to do who remain idle, for a wide variety of so-called reasons.
We are seeking the revival of the spirit of good times times, day to day cares,troubles, worries and concerns. We are the changed factors, not Time or History . We expect things today; we strive for different rewards. We accept assistance in strange ways and look to political parties to solve our personal problems in some miraculous manner. To simply long for “the good ole days which never were” is a futile, foolhardy dream.
Today is different from yesterday. You are different from the person you were an hour ago. Oh, the change may be slight ...so fragile you can't pin it down, but, rest assured it is there. It will always be you - the restorer - who is in absolute charge. Any mistakes will be retained to be dealt with as your responsibility alone. As President Harry S. Truman is said to have said: “If you can't stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen!”
Revival is not for the the namby-pamby novice. On the contrary, it demands creativity of the highest order allied with making man's world what it can and should be rather than what it has been.
A.L.M. July 17, 2003 [c 996wds]
Thursday, July 17, 2003
CLARK BARS
Some time ago, I recall hearing the name Wesley Clark suggested as a possible Democratic candidate for the office of President.
I've heard little from him since that time, but I still see him as an interesting possibility even at this late-date for getting started .
Certainly,with the placing of an authentic General on the ballot might well help overcome the feeling so many voters seem to have which insists that the Democratic party and the military are eternally at odds.
He is from Arkansas. Here's another man with a flair for leadership and with organizational ability proved in his career thus far. His manner suggests action, movement, and he excites his followers to positive manner.
His is a far better picture to place before voters. I think there are factions in the Democratic party who would welcome such an individual with such firm conviction and support him.
His chances of being nominated improve each day the present stable of potential runners engage in their curious contest to see who can raise the most money. By doing so they confirm that which a great many Americans already have come to believe, that the forth coming election is to be bought, rather than earned or merited.
If this is to be what some call a “sacrificial year” for Democrats it is better to take the chance which does exist on someone considered to be an outsider rather than a regular party sequencer.
In light of our increasing involvement in situation in the middle East, it might seem very wise for Democrats at their party might logically set forth a candidate who can, at least, make a convincing showing of militant capabilities. Wesley Clark has the proved ability to accomplish goals the average politician only talks ab out doing. He has not held back in being critical of the way in which the present wars are being waged.
Age is an important factor in this election, too. Think about it. Hillary Clinton, who has many people believing she will wait until the “next time”, will be in her sixties by that time. Others considering an Oval cal Office try will be even older, General Wesley Clark among them. Senator Clinton has not yet said she will not run and alluded to that possibility by saying ”well you never know what might happen” on a British television interview last week. For many this is a “now-or-never” decision.
Now, as mid-July 2003 whizzes past, the situation is, I think, that Hillary Rodham Clinton can have the Democratic Party's nomination if she asks for it, but I see little choice being made from the fund raisers running more or less rump-to-rump in their primaries.
A Wesley Clark ticket with any one of the others deemed to have raised the most money, in the V-P slot, would do well. Very well.
A.L.M. July 16, 2003 [c499wds]
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
LEDGER- DE-MEIN
Let's be careful not to cook the books on this Trade Deficit thing!
I heard an argument this past week which claimed that our un-employment rate has not been, in any way, affected by the steady siphoning of American industrial capabilities to overseas locations. To me, that is same as altering the entries in our book to fulfill wishes rather than economic truths.
That is both dishonest and dangerous.
You will meet with such contentions today in which people claim that we have lost only “unskilled” jobs to overseas firms They hold that the technical expertise jobs are being retained. It is held that the technical expertize jobs are being retained and the only lowly, routine, dull, unpleasant work is going to foreign worker. It is cited as a fact that those foreign works can do the job cheaper, too, because of lower wages scales and poor working conditions. This, to them, at least, seems to indicate that a lower price can be expected on the finished product.
This overly simplistic reasoning complete ignores the fact that these very same people argue that legal and illegal immigration of millions of people Mexico, Latin America and other countries are the one who are filling all these unwanted jobs America are said to refuse to do. They totally ignore the fact that the technical side our economy has, for some years, found it essential to import groups of fifty thousand trained Indian technicians to fill basic jobs in the expanding electronics industries alone. Obviously such advanced techncal jobs are not being being filled with the numbers of American workers supposedly made available by by shipping the their former jobs overseas.
The argument also contents that we are better off, because while the cars and other products are made overseas, we supply the parts with which they are built. We supply some of th e parts, but far from all of them, and in no way can revenue from parts manufacturing to meet overseas needs. It can never compensate for the loss of the original manufacturing facilities. They contend., too that some of the actual assembly plants for cars and other products are, more-and-more, located on the United States.They do not not state that profits from such heavily subsidized operations goes overses. It does no stay in America
My shirts, shorts, sweaters, seats and socks are from Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mexico, and (insert your own list at this point.)
Shoes for all members of the family come mainly from China, with the exception of one of the oldest and most honored brand names of the nation which have been made in India for a decade or more. It's been years since the last TV sets were manufactured in the United States and that applies to radios, many computers, just about all kitchen appliances and other such “non-tech” products.
A child's toy which is not made in China is a distinct rarity in most stores today.
Many of the foods you eat are often come from foreign sources, as well. Very often our much-praised labeling system tells you where the wholesaler might be who distributes the food product, but not where, or by whom, the food itself was grown and processed.
The American public is far from being aware of the fact that the Economic Invasion of American is well under way. It is past time for us to take a straight-forward, honest, non-political view of the situation.
A.L.M. July 14, 2003 [c581wds]
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
SHOE TIE
Is it your ambition to become a writer?
There are so-called “aptitude” tests to show how talented you seem to be - usually bordering on genius levels, as a rule, but you need the writing course they're selling to clinch it all.
There are other ways of determining if you are a “born” writer or that you can learn to become a reasonably good facsimile of one. Try some simple “tellings”. Explain, for instance, how to tie a shoe.
Describe each step in order and with such clarity that children, having your words read to them, can tie a decent bow knot.
No cheating, now! No test runs, to start with!. Tell how it is done straight off the top of your head, then, edit and, you probably will have to untie a shoe and do a trial run to be sure how it is done.
Try it. It may not be as easy as you think. If you do such informational writing quickly, that's a good sign and a good omen favoring a successful writing career - possibly as Technical Writer in a large manufacturing plant.
Another such test. Describe in detail how a man's fore-and-hand necktie is best tied to achieve specific results. Or ,a bow tie from a strip of velvet-like material. For graduate work: lean how to do an authentic turban headdress from a long strip of cloth, one that will fit and stay on securely.
Seek opportunities to write descriptive passages with accuracy and terseness. It one of those things you learn, then discard once the ability to do so becomes second nature with you.
One learns organizational techniques, as well.
Take the end of each shoe string in your right and left hand, holding them loosely between the thumb and forefinger. The plastic tips on each lace are uppermost as you cross one string over the other pull them into a reasonably tight half-knot on top of the shoe. Take the end of one of the strings and make a look by taking the tip down to the half knot. Hold it there and take the other string one full circle around the upright loop. Pull it through and tighten down to the shoe top. Viola!!
Test time. Take a shoe off and have at it. My wife will give it a try and I'm probably going to be back at the drawing board for another try. For one thing, I see it as being too long. It can be done with half that number of words. And - it can always be better, too.
A.L.M. July 13, 2003 [c404wds]
Monday, July 14, 2003
IT STILL HAPPENS
One would think that Man, with all his much-vaunted wisdom, could have solved one simple problem by this time.
It still happens ...wheels go backwards when being filmed
I will admit it has not been a problem as may years as one might think, but it has been a challenge, I would think, ever since we have
had motion pictures.
We have advanced to ”smart” highways and transportation has developed in both speed and efficiency to a degree which we never thought possible. But - when filmed - the wheels still go the wrong way.
Experts, with a look of pity in their eyes and attitude, carefully tell me it’s “an optical illusion”. They seem to think I really do feel the wheels go the wrong way them in some strange way. Everybody knows it is an illusion ...and that the spokes are turning in the right direction.
It was a point of concern for us when, as kids, we witnessed the stage coach rumbled across the sage-strewn hills. The piano player in the theater pit could back its movements with a skillful combination of crushed black and white keys and climaxing with a sharp swirl of musical dust when the stage drew up in front of the unpainted Hotel or Saloon with the brightly painted signs in black and white in generic clarity. The plot started going once more and the show went on its way.
In time, camera people earned to avoid full shots of wheel turning. They can be shown from angles or look down the axle from some impossible perch. Movie and TV crews today, have profited from the experiences of movie makers makers; and treat turning wheel with special care.
They have been aided of course, by the artistic change from wheel with large, obvious spokes, to meshed accumulations of wires or solid discs covering the offending area. If, however, you get a little glob tar or road kill on the surface of the wheel cover what happens? Right. The wheel goes the contrary direction . Or, seems to.
The problem is still with us special can have modern configurations - Vans, SUV's, RV's, OTV's and even re-created convertibles.
What other condition have we brought along with us - perhaps unwittingly? Are there conditions - “evils”, if you see them as such, which exit today which complicate our way of life today?
Foremost among such subjects is our beliefs concerning sexual orientation. We are increasingly being asked to explain why much seems, to so many, are going the wrong way.
A.L.M. July 11, 2003 [c472wds]
Sunday, July 13, 2003
BIG CHANGES AGAIN!
A new planet!.
What will it be called? Is it actually inside our own solar system, or are we thinking and knowing beyond that mark now? This latest discovery of the space-set Hubble Telescope will raise a great many important questions about the Universe and about life.
I have strong memories of being here when they found Pluto, which would have been around 1930, I think. Pluto, a puny planet compared to the new one was announced as Number Nine in counting outward from the Sun.
Textbooks will have to be altered, solar maps redone, all sorts of changes in educational collections around the world and children will now have ten to memorize instead of a mere nine.
A great many questions will be raised once again about the Universe and about life itself. Changes brought about by this new discovery will affect our future in many ways.
What, for instance, happens to the people who write the daily “horror-scopes” in the daily[press and on the Internet?. A question of even greater import: what about the feelings of the millions of people who read and follow those forecasts devotedly concerning coming events in their lives. What happens when a totally new planet - and this time, a really big'un - is plopped down along the edge of their perfect Zodiac charts.
We talk a great deal about space these days, with good reason, too. Then, we contemplate mankind's great discoveries ...entire series of them... and begin to wonder, after a time, if we might be going at it all a bit too fast. We hardly get used to living under one set of beliefs and conditions before they are supplanted by another and, then, on top th of that, additional modifications. We wonder if we have, perhaps, veered too much to one side and are aiming for a vague, questionable destination? You realize you can't always depend on changes in other aspects of life, either, which seem to be affecting the lives of others.
Look at California's political and economic plight, as an example. Right now the state has a real problem with having too many people . They have become a haven for many and are now our most heavily populated state.They are currently in the process of a “recall” to remove their Democratic governor from the office to which they elected him. One cause is said to be the steadily mounting state debt with nothing being done to slow it down. A phenomenal growth in population is another, less discussed factor.
It is now generally agreed that the percentage of foreign born people in California above the thirty percent mark. The figure is being bandied about quite loosely, however, and just yesterday I heard an item on radio by a well-known talk-radio personality which quote that thirty- percent per cent figure. He then said that only ten percent of the citizens of California were born in the United States. He should have said only ten per cent were born in California – as :”native sons”. Even in my miserable mathematics 30% and 10% don't add up to 100 per cent!
These changes snowball. They multiply rapidly, and the discovery of another planet out there among the numberless stars will change many statistical charts and studies concerning the heavens. The population changes in California and “other underdeveloped portions of the earth's surface ( as late night TV comics are almost sure to say several times this week). The population changes are a subject which can be difficult for people living in other less pressured areas to understand.. The public “veto” of the governor is a sort of sign of basic discontent factors which are, perhaps far more widespread than we would like to imagine.
We are living, it seems, in a time of excessive changes. Nothing remains secure. Laws, it seems, at times, are being made with a built-in quality intended to invite evasion. The first thing citizens look for are the loopholes, and they are, assisted often by the very leaders who inserted those possible “outs” in the new legislation.
Time to slow down a bit, I'd say. The roses are still there by the roadside to be smelled. Is there sufficient fold space and pasturage at the end of the path down which we are being led. It may be time for us to curb out curiosity a bit.
A..L.M. July 12, 2003 [c757wds]
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