Saturday, July 24, 2004
THE MELDING
You can hear it in the music of our time; see it in the appearance of those persons who write and perform the music. You can sense this strange power music has over mankind when you see others transported, as it were, by the subtle, . unseen fiber of sounds arranged to form the sequences we call music. It is an art form, and like all such patterns, it is constantly changing. Why can't we, then accept the idea that the music that satisfies one generation is, quite often, is not easily accepted by another. It is a continuing blend of that which has been, what is in existence at the moment and hints of what it might become in the future. It is a melding phase in our artistic nature.
Among the arts, music remains among the portion of our lives in which mankind has been, and continues to be more and more narrow-minded. We seem to decide what is to be excluded and what is to be retained more more readily, and more adamantly, than we do in the other art forms we enjoy. We, rather arbitrarily decide, as individuals, what we like best and usually exclude all that does not seem to meet “right now” requirements center “right now”needs, and, as a result we often miss out on worthy treasures others see in their true light and which they truly appreciate and enjoy. And, there is nothing that tells more about who and what an individual really is than the manner in which he or she sees the world of music in their lives or, tragically, ignore it.
Each generation modifies its music. Some of it cannot be changed, but most of it can be and it moves with our minds and actions and all such changes come about gradually. The mutations are often brought about by snobbishness by the individual's feeling that he ,and he alone, has the correct pattern. Far too often such a person reaches a cetainratin point beyond which he or she cannot go and that is where the narrow-minded-0mided concept of music become ingrained.
I like all kinds of music. True, I accept some toga larger degree than others and there are some modes which I simply do not comprehend and probably never will, such as today's chase ably never will such as present day ”rap” and much of today' heavy metal and acid rock. It will be some time before I can respond to either of those, I am afraid. That, of course, marks me as “narrow” in the judgment of those who say they do fine redeeming values; in such incuch co perhaps hammered o rlap dulcimers.
Much of such delineation come about because of the instrumentation available to perform various typoes of music,. Folk music, of the people ethnic groups, is usually confined to the fiddle, guitar, five-string claw hammer banjo, and possible a lap or hammered dulcimer, a mandolin and string bass.. Newer groups have electrified and added Dobro and arrays of guitar necks piled together and other such gadgetry. The established style has come to be called ”Bluegrass”. Other types of music evolved through multi-language and cultural aberrations, built on that basic sense of deep need of such expression with a host of variations. I have performed in various types from across the spectrum and in each of them it is possible to find some satisfaction as well as in specialized field such as church music and longhair classics. I played hillbilly. I played jazz of the New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis blues and Bayou weepers. I thought that Jazz phase was it,for a time, but big bands came along and changed the national music picture forever. There was tremendous variety of instrumentation which reflected different values in that era and crossovers and odd amalgamations which held for a time and prospered in a money-making, life-sustaining way. They toppled from within economically and became smaller groups.. .trios , quartets, quin-sex-sept and other "tets", doing nostalgia for the most part , then moved into rock . We went through a long phase of show tunes for a time and a star system build on a flood releases and later, albums and personalized CD's became the standard criteria for most music which came to be a blend of recent types.
That's about where we stand at the moment, on the fading edge the star album system a free-for time which has decried melody, meaning or motivation in music.
We will survive it all, however. Much of it is not as bad as it sounds.
A.L.M. July 23, 2004 [c774wds]
Friday, July 23, 2004
> FER TH' LAN' S SAKE When Spain went that-a-way after terrorists bombed their railway terminal area in Madrid, they dishonored those who died in the cowardly attack. They gave in right away and withdrew their, more or less, token troops from the conflict in Iraq. I don't think the move came as much of a surprise to anyone, including the bulk of the Spanish people and their rulers. Few people thought of their move of three hundred armed men as being sufficient to influence the affairs of the world. It had served rulers well as a valued purpose when they had joined. It was good politics in Spain to sign up with the winner of the Gulf War and to associate with the major nations concerning potential rewards which may accrue to those gathered together firmly in the future. With the first opposition the same Spanish leaders saw it as time to use withdrawal to political advantage, as well. The civic cycle is complete and the only ones who were hurt were the Spanish people. They were hurt far worst than they realized and that moment of troop withdrawal of troops from Iraq. For the first time in many decades it appeared from the people of Spain finally had rulers who had ideals and sincerely wanted to be active citizens with a hand in world affairs, however small. It proved to be more dangerous than anticipated, and when the enemy hit in Madrid it was to home-town political advantage to switch sides. I am reminded of an old Appalachain hillbilly chief's words spoken within my hearing: “In you ain't fer me; you aire agin' me! Don't 'xpect no favors!” In the Terrorist Wars of our time, there can be no neutrals.
The government of Spain has doomed its citizens to be outside and undeserving of any of the larger work Mutual advantages are now all suspect which thus places the nation under increased danger.. The Phillipines now think that same to be a valid one as well, and are in the process of withdrawing their handful of troops from Iraq as well. They are doing so because one of their number was kidnapped and beheaded by Iraqi criminals. On the positive side it appears that several other small nations who are supporting the coalition in Iraq by their steadfast, and firm resolve to stay for the duration of the need. We should be especially thankful for such support from smaller nations and stand ready to assist them in their needs for standing fast as friends in our time of need. Bulgaria, Poland and others are with us in a sincere resolve to sustain the proudly held seeds of greatness in their own lands. a.l.m. July 23, 2004 [c462wds]
Thursday, July 22, 2004
A BIG 'N! Dumb old me. I've always thought tidal waves had something to do with the ocean's tides. Simply “a big 'un” sweeping in over land. Now, I find they don't fit that simplified definition at all, in spite of the fact that I was not the only dummy on the beach to think it was accurate. I find a great many other people still think so. That is especially true of those of us who now live inland and at high elevations and consider tidal waves a problem for low country dwellers, dike builders, sand-pounders and flat landers alone. They have another think coming if they have a lake nearby. I've learned a lot recently. I now know that tidal waves, so called by some for reasons now best forgotten, who made the same assumption I did. They are really caused by earthquake activities of several sorts. And don' t get all too sure of yourself by saying how few earthquakes we have. Statistics show we have several thousand quakes per day, not big ones, mind you, but ”quakes”, none the less. The are the result of chunks and piece of our planet rearranging themselves below below the crust of top of which we live. The natural result of such shifts is some shaking and rearrangements of contours and placement of crust materials.
<> Since more surface of our Earth is covered with water than visible land it is logical that many such quakes will occur in the huge mountain ranges, canyons and depths of the sea - in some places as deep as about six miles. The water above such lands exerts tremendous pressure on the all below and when the base moves, so does the water above it. If the underlying surface rises , for instance, from internal volcanic eruptions the water is force upward and forms a wall of water high in the air. It rushes in all directions as a high wave of water often at speeds of over two hundred miles per hour depending on the velocity of the upward surge. That, then, is what we call a “tidal wave”. If the undersea rupture causes an area of the bottom to fall, the covering of water follows it and leaves a high wall of water above which rushed off in the direction of least resistance. That, too, become a tidal wave and it may seek and find a landfall far off and at high speed. There are countless example of such monstrous waves striking coastal area often with great loss of human life and of geographic features. Entire landscapes have been changed radically by such attacks and often in the most unlikely places. No area is completely immune, it seem, although there are some which have a combination of conditions which incite volcanic activity and, hence, a increased chances of such upheavals. There is, probably, no better way for any of us to convince ourselves of the indomitable power of Nature than to study the effects of water on the site where we happen to live to live. It is not a localized thing, either. I have been surprised to learn just recently that geologists working in the Grand Canyon have come upon sediment materials found only in the Appalachain Mountains here in the Eastern section of the continent. Read the facts about such events as the explosion of Santorini around at about 1500 B.C. to see how repeated waves hundreds of feet high swept over Crete and other isles, roared well up the Egyptian Delta, plummeted Syria and desolated much of the known world at that time and changing the coastlines dramatically. Or you can turn closer to our time in 1893 when Krakatowa let loose in Java. High waves are not uncommon in some areas.. .as much as thirty feet on the north side of the Hawaiian islands and predictable and fine setting for water sports enthusiasts. There is, however, no sporting element if a would be there an Alaskan earthquake that could send a real wall of water southward. The Galveston, Texas disaster in l903 was a terrifying example with hundred foot waves moving at a hundred miles an hour. Don't underestimate tidal waves.
A.L.M. July 22, 2004 [c711wds]
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
POLITICAL GAMES
I have been taken to taken on to task on two occasions recently for making reference to political activities of our time as “games.”
I think it quite proper to equate the various elements of political
realities with other forms of competitive action. The political “game” involves organized teams competing in actions which are intended to be detrimental to the success of the opposition, or, at least, not helpful.
My one questioner want to know what I hoped to achieve by “cheapening” the entire process of our national election of a President of the
United States of America by likening the serious procedure of doing so to a common board game in which chance played a great part in making the final choice. The word ”cheapening” was accented, as you might imagine, and this particular individual seemed to have at her command a fund of information all the way back to Colonial Days dwelt on supposed perfection in politics. Whatever it was I was supposed to have said seems to have infringed somewhat on set, historical precedent. My presentation was said to have been “seriously lacking in the qualities of dignity one should adhere to when discussing our elected leaders.”
The very next day I was taken to task a second time by a gentleman who accused me of “ridiculing the Sports Heroes of our time - now and historical by comparing what they did with a bunch of cheap politicians who would lie, cheat and steal for votes ...men who had not the slightest idea of good sportsmanship might be....”
I have decided that if I can keep those two extremes excited, I'm at just about the right place in talking abut the current political scene. After all, I could have called it a “circus”, a “zoo”, or other such deriding names may of which fit segments of the body politic at times.
To some extent they are both right, but it also points to the seriousness of an accusation that is being made more and more about American voters. That is the contention which insists that,at least, half of us are not at all qualified to be deciding most of the issues which are handed down to us. Our opinion in the form of a “vote”is not always as well founded as we would like people to think it is. We are, to a large extent – some say over fifty percent - functionally illiterate concerning the actual issues which face our nation at any given time.
I have a fear lurking in the back of my head which suggests the percentage chosen might even be a bit too generous. The average American citizen has only a vague idea of everything which underlies the many complex issues facing the nation today. What a comparatively few read and that information another segment of the population sees and hears on radio and TV, films or on the Internet is, at best, sketchy and inadequate as a [primary source of information required by the citizen if he or she is to vote with serious intent.
Those avenues of information provide a guide line. That is true, but just as many who travel find that the destination can often prove to be far different form the paradise promised in the brochure which helped them make the choice.
We worry a great deal about the future of our nation, and it seems right to do so, but unless we start giving more detailed attention to the comparative study of various phases in our national history at all educational levels, we are doomed.
Far too many voters will go to the voting booth in November, in the same attitude they might visit a sales point for lottery tickets. A few of us will make a choice with special care and attention to mathematical averages, the vast majority will call on the political “machine” to make the choices on their behalf, because they don't know how to do it, and another segment of us will mark the ballots, punch chards, pull levers, press buttons, or simply touch pictures of the favorites of the moment as means leading to an end..
To speak of the process as a “game” strikes me as being a rather tame treatment.
A.L.M. July 19, 2004. [c720wds]
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
BAR NONE Starting January1st you will find a change taking place in the appearance of the bar code diagram who get with about everything you buy. It will become larger. Just a tad, however, so don't fret about it. Thirty year ago we had organized groups fighting the advent of the tiny mark, but common sense won out, in our view, at least, and what has since become well known as “the American Universal Bar Code” was developed along with computers and associated software required. It has been going along well since 1970 at which time the Europeans decided they wanted to emulate it. Since that time,when European nations planning a sort of European Union insisted that a new line must be be added to the code diagram and modifications made to handle it in related computers and software. I think, perhaps, our use of the word “Universal” in the original name irked Europeans a little bit - sounding somewhat of world-wide application -and much of the bickering reminds us of our own strange abberations during the frightful days of the “Y2K” era as we approached the dreaded new century in which we now live rather comfortably.. Since its inception the code has been, more or less, there ...present all the time all the time, keeping our grocer's shelves stocked and making prices more uniform, but largely ignored by shoppers. There has been a running battle of a sort ever since 1977 when the European nations gathering together to form a European Union, set up a system based on ours but insisting that an additional bar be added to the diagram. They wanted a line to tell from which of the countries represented the product originated. The idea made sense from the start, but we have been against acceptance since 1977. Last month Europe won. Rightfully so, too, and starting January lst the bar code with tell you where the product originated. “The European Article Numbering Code” will be our standard, Ours was not so “universal” after all. The new bar is already in use in most foreign countries and all new an scanners must read the13-bar code. It does not call for any immediate change in existing codes on shelves, because the new 13-bar scanners can read the old fashioned 12 bar code imprints. This relatively small gimmick has been of major importance to our commercial world and has heled us attain capabilities in supplying the needs of our enlarged economy with new efficiency and speed. Doesn't it strike you as being odd that any suggestions of such changes so often meet with opposition - this one a “Thirty Years War of Words” about adding a beneficial bar?. It may be that is one way of “testing” the actual validity of a suggested idea, but it sure slows us all up in the long haul. A.L.M. July 19, 2004 [c488wds]
Monday, July 19, 2004
THINGS TO DO WITHOUT The only way you can rid yourself of unwanted encumbrances is to find ways to erase them from your daily routine. That is a not so easy to, in spite of the advice you so frequently come across saying how easy it is to change such things. It takes some real work and a measure of self-discipline which is often the basic cause of it all.
It is right in tune with one of the latest television fads: “Makeovers.”Change things you don't like; modify those things you feel are cluttering your life Tired of shoveling snow in winter and cutting too much grass in summer? Consider downsizing your home. Thousands of couples do it every year and find they can rid themselves of scores of those pesky little chores have been performing with almost religious intensity in exchange for the privilege of maintaining rooms they haven't needed since the kids grew up and left and Aunt Sophie, who used to “visit” for a month at a time, ran off to Florida. That's an accepted way to get rid of your local problems , if you have money to do so ...move to Florida, Haw ii or a mountain peak somewhere far, far away and start over again.. To me it would be too rapid. I'm a home-body and take part of it with me wherever I go. I'd like to have TV programming without so many commercials. I see in the latest statistics that one group of stations, considering shortening their commercial load, admit they have been doing twenty minutes of ads in one hour of air time. If they admit to one hour we can estimate the time spent might actually be more (“We can't baby-sit local times sales!”}. We forget that the commonly accepted amount of commercial time in radio for years was three minutes at the max . For a fifteen minute show thirty-second commercial openings and closings were allowed plus two. one-minute commercials. That came to an end as pro programming gave way to cheaper disk-jockey laxity then with radios talk show it became even more difficult to tell when progamming ended and commercials began. If over-commercialization bugs you, don't watch those shows which offend you. If you can't bring yourself to be one of the first persons ever to do that, at least, don't complain about it. Your voiced disapproval, or worse, your written disapproval, only makes the matter worse because it shows, without proof of contradiction, that you,indeed, do watch the show regularly. It is,on that basis renewals are inked ...telling how many watched it- not how many liked it. We are beset with a problem very much the same as that we face in choosing the “best” movie. The proper standard of judgment is not how money people paid to see the movie, but how many people went to see it.. The more money that comes in makes the picture get better and better under the present plan. And, be honest with yourself. You may say you hate commercial telephone calls at meal time. Tally up the score. How many such calls have you answered this past week? How, about the past two weeks, or the entire month? If it is still a big round “o” you a typical of people who make this complaint which allows them make use of a long word them have come to know - “telemarketers”. So much misery is make believe. What them don't like about calls at that specific time - usually they say as ”dinner”time, which is called “supper” in many average homes which occurs at times when some members of the family eat their evening meal together by chance. What is being interrupted by such telemarketers calls in not dinner – but the fact that the family members are watching Vanna White touch letters and solve puzzles while they happen to be eating. Another favorite this we say we'd like to do without is ever-rising debt. It can be cut way down, if you throw away, burn or shred all of your credit cards. One by one, you can get any of them under control but you have to work at it. “Abbracadabba” no longer suffices. A.L.M. July 18, 2004 [c713wds]
Sunday, July 18, 2004
> NEW WAY OF WORK I find it difficult to equate readily with the apparent desperate plight in which many people seem to think they are in this general matter of what they call “the economy”. The vast majority seem to feel themselves to be underpaid. Now, during Election Time, they blame it on whomever happens to be President. The point which always comes through clean and clear to me is that, in the vast majority of cases which are detailed in all their misery for me to read and to sympathize with, I suppose, are actually getting at least twice as much per pay period than I ever received. Time-after-time, their minimum per week pay is more than I was paid per month. You can say: “Well, these are different times!” The two eras are not that different. In terms of specific salary amounts, you'll have to admit that the man who makes eleven dollars an hour as a security guard in not too put upon; or what about the case of the young girl, getting a bit less per hour, who finds it woefully difficult to keep up with her debts which, after have made every budgetary cut she can possibly be expected to make, includes her being four months in arrears in an 8-thousand dollar credit card debt accumulation. There are both union workers, by the way, so that knocks that handy and over-used argument in the head. The guard has not had a raise in three years but no one says he deserves one, either. The girl needs some financial guidance at the most elementary level, it would appear . To see such cases touted in our media as being the fault of our President is disgraceful and disquieting. Occasionally we see genuine humor in an advertising ploy. One, which I understand is being prepared at the agency level at this moment, consists of providing the celebrated “Maytag Serviceman” with a helper. The somewhat unique plight of this under-worked technician is that he finds himself ministering unto a product line which never fails and does not require such repair services. He has a job doing nothing which is chronicled on the TV spot series by “Maytag.” I like the series and it is very interesting to hear that the agency handling the production of those TV spots is, at the present time, adding an apprentice. The serviceman will now undertake to to train an apprentice to take over his job. “Maytag” has touched on a sensitive nerve in our national system with this do-less worker being given a helper... someone to take over such duties as he has had all these years. No doubt the idea came from the furor created by Donald Trump's noisy entrance into TV programming last year. Teaching someone else how to do nothing well is quite a challenge. I sorry I do not, know the real names of the two actors who have filled the role thus far - the original who was a minor film star of yesterday, I'm sure, and the relatively new one who has been doing the job well. They deserve praise and recognition for depicting a character who is all too common among us. It is made to seem comical in the commercial application, but, in real life non-working job holder are far from being funny. In the labor field we have too many titles left over from a previous economic era. Such established “slots”are filled rather than staffed. The nature of the work to be done has changed radically over the past decade or so. The very nature of jobs now being done have mutated with the computerized regeneration of the business and commercial world. Old standard of what a person's “worth”on the labor market might be are totally skewed and, in many cases, unresolved as the very nature of the work to be done is changing. Our educational system, unfortunately, has not kept pace with technical change. We have been training young people for work which no longer exists. We are rapidly learning the value of replacing anew rather than repairing, patching, re-painting or laminating concepts, ideas and basis principles. The nature of work changes. The work ethic remains constant. A.L.M. July 17, 2004 [c713wds]
Saturday, July 17, 2004
>
July 17, 2004
GOING NOWHERE
We cannot expect to see any improvements in the quality of movies and related forms of
entertainment as long as we continue to accept the antiquated, grossly inaccurate and highly mailable system of merit we are stuck with today.
Profitable production of good motion pictures is still possible – and with firm standards of quality maintained to actually can bring about an increase in the actual number of person- the young, not-so-young and oldsters – who would attend movies with regularity and not only on the basis of shock pre-view enticements.
Unless such action is taken seriously, we can expect in a short time, the total demise of an industry which has been an intimate part of our American culture for many decades. Entire generations of movie goers have served well as good citizens of our nation and few families are without the influence of the good movies its members have shared. Such values can live once more.
At the moment, there seems to be very little enthusiasm for change on either side of the controversy which has, with media attention, been relegated largely to community bickering and a sporadic sounds of cash registers zinging fitfully when the ”newest” films are marketed in barn-like, big-box, multiple-screened wholesale sites.
<> Present day movie producers, actually growing in number and daring-do, business persons are entering the lucrative field and they are, at their very best, almost totally devoid of any pretense that they intend to produce artistically worthy films of real merit. By this time cadres of technically efficient young people have been recruited who now provide a firm, more workable basis for a profitable and growing business venture.
<> We have been blessed in recent years by the instructional capability which has maintained the ability to make movies of quality and enduring vitality. The knowledge gathered in the
past has been retained from the Golden Age of filmdom's finest, and it has, furthermore, been engendered with new potentials by the most modern communications techniques known to
to Mankind. There is no better moment than now to make an attempt to regain firmness in the creation of good, quality movies - far better than the past, due to technical advancements and and the presence of an indomitable, creatively ambitious and artistically adventurous element of Youth. Little remains of any old-fogey holdovers from a dead entity. This is not a “revival”,
a “re-make”, or a "modification."
<> One great wrong persists! And, you can do something about changing it!
<> We must change our method determining what movies are best.
Examine the present system and see the damage it
is doing!
<> Our aim is simple and straightforward. At the present time the “best” movie is judged
by the total monetary value of all tickets of admission used in all exhibit locations in the nation. The cost of admission varies from a“few” dollars to “many” dollars. To quote them seems almost obscene, but the amount of money laid-down by such lookers actually determines what they make to seem to be “the best” movie made. The more they spend, the better the film
becomes.
<> Change is urgent! The average one of us, through the Media (which is till worthy and reliable in many ways, in spite of its occasional eccentricities) can change it all by insisting that films be judged on the basis of the actual number of paid admissions by people to see the film.
Think about that simple, direct solution. As such - it is in danger of being overlooked by the very people who can best bring about the change!
Get with it! Now!
A.L.M. July 16, 2004 [c603wds]
Friday, July 16, 2004
July 16, 2004
THE COTTON FAMINE
After World War II we started using the term ”global war”, and we often overlooked the fact that sometimes we fail to realize how a conflict within any nation affects the course of world history. Here in the United States many citizens are still fighting a “local war” albeit it, most of the time in re-enactments, which took place from in 1861 to 1865. It was our “Civil War” - about as local as a war could be – and we have often failed to mark the suffering which that war cause in other parts of the world.
No war is a “local” war. You realize that anew when you study the events called “The Cotton Famine” - 1861-1865 in England.
It happened in Lancashire where England's cotton manufacturing industry was then concentrated. At that time, until 1861, eighty-five percent of the cotton used in the manufacture of finished goods in those mills came from the southern portion of the United States of America. With the start of the American Civil War that supply was cut abruptly.
The years of 1859 and 1860 had been years of tremendous prosperity for the English cotton trade. They imported tremendous stocks of raw cotton and the inventories of manufactured goods were unusually high - yard goods and fine fabrics. Economists viewing their years of success with the benefit of hindsight pointed out that the cotton market was due for a sudden drop off anyway - a logical period of market depression resulting from over production.
Because of this exceptionally wide stock the Federal blockade of the Southern ports - underway effectively in July 1861, caused no particular hardship right away. It was effective when it was started in July 1861 but it was not until the early days of 1862 that the pinch was really felt in Lancashire. The cotton trade suffered for a while from lack of demand, but wartime changes, caused such demands to quicken and stocks were rapidly depleted. The need for new supplies became pressing and there were no raw materials available to keep the Lancaster mills going.
Mammoth relief schemes came into being. Various relief committees distributed ever one million 750- thousand Pounds (roughly three to four million dollars by monetary values at the time). Company systems poured an additional 112 thousand Pounds into the fund that year and around two million Pounds a year after that crisis time. The total loss – estimated, of course, reflecting loss of wages, profits and other elements of economy ...has been set at around thirty million Pounds – well over thirty million Dollars.
That came about all because of a “local” war taking place far off across the Atlantic Ocean in America. One other reason for the severity of the Cotton Famine in England was due to the business practice of trans-shipment of English raw material stocks to the United States where there was also a strong demand for bales from the Southern States. Suppositions have been made which suggest that British financial interests felt the war would be short-lived and sold some stocks while prices were to their marked advantage. Then too, India had become a cotton-growing country once again as had Australia, Brazil, and Turkey and, in particular, Egypt - but the total amount from all those sources – much of very poor quality with the exception of that from Egypt - never was enough to keep the mills of Lancashire running on even a half-time basis.
During that period the price of cotton ranged from 7-pence in the early months to 32-pence 1864. Fast blockade runners were built but never available in sufficient number to make any real difference. Even with return of peace in America it was a long time before the devastated lands of the south could raise enough cotton to meet their own needs much less those of foreign markets.
Perhaps we would be wise, today, when we use the term ”global” in relation to wars, rumors thereof, and Terrorist attacks we, we should reflect on “The Cotton Famine” as one instance – and history has scores of them - in which thousands of people thousands of people,;living thousnds of miles away suffered great loss and deprivation because of a ”local” war.
Conflict today is of global concern. The textile workers of Lancashire, England could have told us all something about such loss.
Now, more than ever before, we are never alone.
A.L.M. July 13, 2004 [c745wds]
Thursday, July 15, 2004
POLITICAL FABLE
NOTE: I write this to be set aside for someone to read, perhaps fifty years or so from now, so they may marvel at the strange things people thought about and said in the year 2004 when the century was young.
It will not go away!
Ever since the present political current got to running seriously to place Senator John Kerry in the White House, rumors have been ebbing and flowing rather freely at various levels, saying that Senator Hillary Clinton was less than enthusiastic about the idea.
The background for such opposition was said to be founded in the idea that Hillary Clinton has plans to occupy that office herself, not right away, of course, but in time...soon. The plan called for the Clintons, as the team they have always been and are in political planning, to support a Democrat they really didn't think could win against incumbent chair-owners in the White House. Those who felt they were on to something, predicted that, at the last minute the Democratic Convention in Boston assembled might even turn from old-hat, Viet Nam war hero Kerry to now-power Hillary Clinton. Even now there are some writers of this devious bit of scheming who say it is not too late for to still happen. If in the final hours of pre-convention, rush strange things might happen.
Regardless of how it goes, this will remain a topic of serious discussion with political historians. This week I have read news reports saying Hillary Clinton will be among the speakers at the Democratic Convention, but the media is now wondering why she is not disturbed by the fact that she has been excluded - the exact word has been used - from the official list of speakers. Husband Bill will speak, not fellow book-writer Hillary.
Is it all too fantastic? Are undercurrents spinning far faster than many think? The media today is talking about an undercurrent become a torrent now that the John Edwards enthusiasm has been added to the campaign. He poses a direct threat to Hillary's ambition to run as a Democrat against a Republication president in the next national election. Win or lose this time, Edwards remains a potential barrier to her dream.
Leading conservative radio talk shows have, in many cases, bought into the idea and a few still think of it as valid and possible, .even if not in immediate consequences. Other have seen humor in the all, and ridiculed the entire concept as a piece of marketable tale of make believe.
Something is going-on, and it is certainly more involved that the Clintons selling their new books.
It is puzzle and it will interesting to see how it all works out.
Imagine talking about such a scheme decades from now and wondering that you were actually a part of it all.
A.L.M. July 4, 2004 [c482wds]
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
BOTTLE BATTLE
Because it is in a colorfully labeled bottle, water is thought to be much better for drinking purposes is thought, by many people tolday, to be the very best..It is, when so packaged, said to be better than water anywhere in anything, or flowing free from a pristine spring or fountain in a woodland far removed from all human contamination. Even under such perfect conditions, it can't be that good.
Citizens who used to take great civic pride in their efficient city water system, now find it better to buy all their drinking water in neat little plastic bottles than to drinking commonly from a tap or public water fountain. People spout endless aphorism about ?purity?, ?maintaining good health, and do lengthy condemantions of ?contaminants? of many kinds and their levels of viciousness. And they work at such studies until they arrive at some point which seems to justify buying and selling water in a glittering array of plastic containers as a special advantages. It didn't take long for some enterprisng individuals to discover that they could make a better living selling water than they could selling food. Soft drink distributors found it to be worth their while to send delivery trucks along their soda beverage routes for those drinkers who now consume bought supplies of bottled water without any foreseeable limit
.
One trucking company, which was having a difficult time making a living hauling freight commercially, also had trouble with a spring flooding their parking lot. They started bottling the overflow of the offending tar-covered wellspring until health officials questioned the source of their ?sweet, pure water from natural springs? and put out a ?cease and no-no? order which turned their bottled water source off. By that time, they were well established, it is said, and contracted for water supplies from various other sources .- all. ?springs?, of course, and all ?natural? and from other locations than under their parking area.
The local city water supply system delivers water to their homes through a modern system of secure pipes and they treat the water with purifying chlorine to kill and disease bearing microorganisms, fluoride to prevent dental problems and water softeners to reduce hardness to less than one hundred parts per million. All of that can be important to those persons who - young or old ? are in any way immuno-compromised by such maladies as cancer, treated with chemotherapy; people who have HIV/AIDS and other such immune systems disorders, old or young alike, anyone at risk from infections.
If you should need it your water supply system has cryptosporidium and other such microbials available for you. They are health providers in the total sense of the term rather than mere bottlers of water.
I suppose we ought to be thankful as a nation that the craze has centered on aqua pura rather on one of the fermented liquids.
If you find yourself being excluded socially because you are not sipping on a colorful bottle, buy a few and keep them filled with tap water.
You would find that's what more and more of your in-style friends are already doing.
A.L.M. July 11, 2004 [c533wds]
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
NEW WORD
I have, just recently learned the meaning of the word “capsulotomy” and it has given me, quite realistically, some new insights. I learned about it the easy way,having been warned in advance that he removal cataracts quite often results in a new for laser surgery to remove what is common referred to as s :scar tissue;from the cataract removal process.
It did not come as a surprise to find that I was among the thirty to forty per cent of cataract removal patients who need additional attention after a year or so to remove what is referred to as “scar tissue” from the actual correction of the cataract problem. Very often it frightens some patients who have e not been told, when they find they are in need of "laser" surgery. The use of that term frightens some people because they associate the word “laser” with death-beam ray guns, planet- powdering space cannons and other such warlike applications. I found the rather fearsome medical routine to be anything but frightening or harsh.
The treatment is an in-office” routine procedure without any hospital equipment other than a chin brace to hold you head steady as you stare into a reddish light ahead. I was reminded of a TV game the children played at home which provided them with ray gun of a sort which hey used to fire away at a duck leaping up form the b rush on screen. They hit the duck and it went to a million pieces.
On my case the doctor had the:gun:L in hand an d he fired away at the masses of fiber and related m mish-mash on my eye surface. His sots reslted in a total break up of the total breakup for such masses and after a few minutes attention to each eye – removing “the motes in a B Biblical sense ,perhaps,- he was finished. The laser routine was over and it was a success. The offending fragments were gone, and other than few floaters which drifted cross my line of vision for a week or two after the operation, all went well.
That “floater” phase is normal, too. All went well, and I will now, with my new glasses, be restored to “20-20 “ vision status once again. My spell-checker on the com pouter will be e pleased with that chance,I am sure and I will e paying a more confident visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles examinations room soon, too..
The word is “cap-se-lot-o-me” and it is usually it is qualified as a rule with the word “posterior:” designating the back area of the eye on which the procedure is applied. It is absolutely painless, in case you are wondering, unless you have trouble with just having drops put in your eyes or with looking intently into a binocular arrangement. You will want to wear sunglasses for a few hours after the operation, if it is a bright, sunny day. And you can get some fun out to that by “playing that Hollywood role” with friends, family and gawking tourists. Be ready to sign any proffered autograph books, too, if requested to do so.
Andy Worhal promised each of us our “fifteen minutes of fame” so you will want to make the most of being a ”laser surgery”survivor. Such a simple treatment can enhance your appreciation of color in everything you see and bring the true joy of living to a new high point. I say, go with it.
A.L.M. July 12, 2004 [c588wds]
Monday, July 12, 2004
SPECIAL PLACE
It may be that you are among those old enough to remember when many homes had a room called a “parlor”?
There was also a living room, and they were pretty much the same with the parlor little bit fancier, perhaps, and quite different because no one went into the parlor unless there was special company. It also took on special meaning for state affairs of the family such as weddings and funerals.
The parlor was kept closed, “shut up” was the term so often applied,and it was kept dark and shaded most of the time. Heavy drapes were drawn because sunlight faded the colors in upholstery, rugs and coverings. If the house had outside shutters they, too, were kept closed to tempt early morning coolness to remain in the parlor sanctuary. It was very often musty and many
parlor fireplace mantels had little cast-iron, oriental-like incense burners to counteract that natural tendency for a place so set apart and sealed.
The other “everyday” parlor - called The Living Room – was used a great deal more depending on the weather conditions outside. A dependable fireplace or stove was necessary, in most cases, too. It was intended to be a place for relaxation and comfort and the chairs were much less formal and much more sittable than in the formal parlor. In truth, most of the family's real day-to-day living was done in the kitchen and dining room . A long, stretch-out sofa was usually a standard part of a room intended for living rather than show, several deep chairs. It was, as the years moved along, invaded by a “gramophone”, card and game tables,. then “radio”, and, in time, TV.
These encroachments on Living Room comfort eventually saw the formal parlor in our house and others mutated into a Rec Room oror Den with stereo, TV, VCR, tape recorders, computers, electronic games an other alphabecially identified units were added as the came in to being. The parlor as such , ceased to be, on the whole, I think that has been an improvement especially for Mom ,or whoever was charged with maintaining the monster . When the preacher called, for example, Mom had to rush ahead in to the parlor to let in just enough light to keep the accumulated dust hidden a bit. She dusted the family Bible with quick swipe of a cloth or handy, real-feather dust brush keep nearby for just that purpose.
House-living has changed a great deal in recent decades with more emphasis on visiting rather than staying. So many home today are, quite logically, coming to be places of visiting rather than staying. The very design of smaller homes has changed. Look down the street in your development and notice how many homes consist of a two-car garage sticking out toward curb side along the street like piglets at a trough, with rooms appended above or in back of the garage. Real estate dealers, not too proud of this typical home they are selling so well, when conversing with one another , call them “snouthouses.”
Not a parlor in sight anywhere, and you will also find it difficult to locate what used to be called a “Living Room” which is on the way out. Snouthouse living calls for a large, fully-equipped g/p-room behind the two-stall car enclosure with beds/baths attached all-round. Gone forever are such isolated, inefficient divisions such as the Living Rooms and Parlors.
Practical. Home discrete home.
A.L.M. July 9, 2004 [c566wds]
Friday, July 09, 2004
TWO WORDS OR LESS
Take time to say "Thank you."
Isn't it odd that such an easy, pleasant thing to do has been allowed to become distasteful chore with so many of us? Notice how infrequently some people actually express their appreciation for what others do for them. They seem to have an idea that you are, in some strange way, privileged to wait upon their needs. And, by not failing to express any gratitude or favors done, that "I'm special!" attitude seems to take deep roots and grows to a point where such attentions cease and they wonder why. Check it out. Are you keeping your membership card in society valid and up to date by saying "Thank you" for the good things other add to your enjoyment of daily living?
Your greatest wealth is to be found, I think, in all those little things people do for you. Often it can be a trade-off.
Just this past week I was entering a doctor's office and ahead of me another tottering old man with a cane in hand, held the outside door open for me to enter. I did so while he held the door and then I held the inner door open for him. We smiled at each other ; each said "Thank you, sir." and both experienced a good feeling about a passer-by whom we will never see or hear about in all that remains of our lives. We had shared a tiny moment of living.
On the morning of July 4th, just past, I read a humor column in the pages of the Hampton Roads,Virginia DAILY PRESS, in which writer Tony Gabriele granted unto the founding fathers of our nation and "F" grade on Spelling. It was a imagined conversation with Tom Jefferson, John Adams and Ben Franklin discussing the fact that the lower case printed letter "s" looked like our lower case letter "f". John Adams was having trouble with Tom's line concerning ?the purfuit of happineff? and even worried about Abe Lincoln facing trouble a few hundred years from their time writing his "Gettysburg Adreff."
When I read a choice morsel such as that, I have an urge to thank the writer. I did so with an e-mail note to Tony Gabriele awarding him an "S+" for a satisfactory-and-more treatment of the 4th of July.
Two other "thank you" incidents while I am on the subject: Several years ago I chanced to meet my old High School principal, and we ,naturally, spoke of teachers I had known. I inquired about one particular teacher has meant so much to me over the years. It was because she once took time to read and talk to me about a poem I h ad written. She particularly liked the part where told of standing on a high hill and watching " a plowman weaving patterns on the rich, dark river bottom land below. The unusual thing was that the principal asked if I would permit him to call her that night, retired now and living alone, he knew. He would tell her I said ?Thank you? for a comment made many years before. He wanted to do so because I was the first student he could remember who had ever asked about her in all the years we had been out of school.
I have, in my files, a prized letter from the Russian historian Maurice Hindus who, many years ago during the short post Stalin defreeze era, returned briefly to his native Russia from his home here in America. He wrote a book about the visit. Most people do not realize it is about Soviet Russia because of it's title. It's is called "House Without A Roof" alluding to the fact that the Soviets built many walls but never quite completed any of them to a point where a protective roof could be applied. I liked his book and wrote a short note to him in care of the publishers. Months later I was pleased to have a long, chatty letter from Maurice Hindus, thanking me for my thank you note.
Treasures are made of such trivia. Say "Thank you" more often and watch your wealth grow.
A.L.M. June 8, 2004 [ c710wds]
Thursday, July 08, 2004
TIGHT ROPE WALK
The current sweep of criticism which is giving the new media a rather close look is, not doubt, a good thing in that it seeks to protect the validity of the news we are reading, hearing and seeing.
New charges of intentional malpractice are being launched every day, it seems, and our rights and our responsibilities concerning this vital part of our cultural situation is being examined. The examination comes close to being inquisitional in nature far too often and that is a point we must watch with special care and apply common sense elements and sound reasoning to such tests concerning validity lest we lead the parade to our own ruin.
We are walking a tight rope over a chasm of unknown depth and content. If we, in checking out the overall rig, loosen the right bindings too much or those pinning it to the left phylum are tweaked too avidly, it may become increasingly more and more and more difficult to balance upon it. The rope must be rigid but, at the same time, have a degree of flexibility which can absorb tensions exerted against it's firmness.
Are you disturbed by the current actions of what we loosely call ?the media? Obviously, some people are very much much aroused because criticism continues and mounts in intensity with almost any news event of consequence. Are you confident concerning the truth of the?news? reports which come into your life? Do you feel the facts are honestly sought, arrived at and presented? Do you agree with those who insist the much of the news is being consistently ?slanted? by large sections of the communications elements of the media to suit their political or social preferences? Doubters are in a growth phase.
Few American, however, can define what they mean by ?news?. How does legitimate news differ from purposely patterned propaganda? How accurate are the news reports that come to you in your particular location? Have you every felt you have been duped, fooled, ignored or wrongly informed? Just last week a leading daily newspaper in New York City headlined the supposed fact that Richard Gephardt, of Missouri, had been chosen as John Kerry's running. It was explained away that the story was based on an overhead phone call to Gephart from Kerry at one-thirty or so in the morning -just before press time. How much of the news we are fed is based on such in-depth effort?
This, too, shall pass. The best thing to try to do is to keep your own nose and noggin clean. Read carefully and be careful what you choose to read. All that is printed is not true; all that is said is not true,nor is all that you see faultlessly factual at all times. And, don't get all up-tight and bent out of your obese shape when others disagree with you.
Lighten up a bit, too. Think of it this way: When Old Noah was building his gigantic ark he hired thousands of workers who had not the slightest idea that an all-consuming flood was imminent. They did good work anyway.
A.L.M. July 7, 2004 [c525wds]
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
HIGHER! HIGHER!
We appear to be slow learners.
The official ceremony marking the laying of the cornerstone for the new structure which is to rise on the Â?Ground ZeroÂ? site in New York was held this past week. It was revealed, once again, that what we are to see in place of the tragically destroyed World Trade Center Towers, will be our latest entry in the international competition to see who can erect the world's tallest building.
I had hoped it might be a true memorial; a monument done in remembrance of the thousands of victims of that fated day in September of 2001. I think survivors and families of the victims of that cowardly attack might think,too, of such a building primarily as a token rising as a tribute to honor those who died or were injured in the attack. Many families hold that day as a special moment of deep loss and to see the memorial structure designed to mark that loss be first and foremost known as Â?the tallest building in the world.Â? leave their hopes as a secondary meaning. The world-wide contest to see who can build the tallest building has haunted Mankind since the Â?Tower of BabelÂ? days. It a few years, whatever is erected, will be excelled before too long and its distinction lost. Then, possible a decade later, I suppose, it will be considered to became a tribute to those who died September 11, 2001.
This fascination we have with building the world's tallest seems to have no end. We lost the Â?titleÂ? years ago to Indonesia. We have refrained from mentioning the subject during the interim years. Taiwan will take over soon and other nations are competing, as well. I hear mentions quite often which insist we are Â?tempting the terroristsÂ? to do it all over again when we construct new skyscrapers of increasingly higher skyscrapers, provide targets for more disaster.
There are, of course , other sides to such a discussion.
Some would contend and with reasonable logic, that it is far better to build enduring memorials which have some practical use and utilitarian purpose. That, they insist, is far better than to rear chunks of stone or metal for pigeons to decorate and other men to desecrate. Some even see humor in the present construction. Upper upper floors of the new building will support the content-winning communications towers which add whatever extension needed to be a contest winner. Those upper floors are open-sided and do not house offices, but, rather, large rotors, wind driven to create electrical power. Scoffers say that if an erratic wind comes up and all the rotors spin at one time they will shake the stuck-up structure to pieces and save the terrorists time, money and effort. Or, who knows? With a steady, prevailing wind we might have a new and higher Â?Leaning TowerÂ? to show to tourists from all over the world.
A.L.M. July 6, 2004 [c496wds]
Monday, July 05, 2004
THIS OLD PLACE
I live on land which, at one time, served as a working plantation which was used a rather unusual way from others we read of in the Old South.
The house large brick house was bulldozed a few years ago to make room for the housing development in which we now live. The original, red brick, L-shaped house, was twenty to fourteen rooms, depending on how you chose to count them. I knew the house well because my first wife lived there ? was born there, in fact, as was her father. The back portion of the L-shaped house was built in 1844. The larger front section was finished the next year. It so happens that our present house is located down the slop of a gentle hill the old brick house named by the original owners - the Weller Family as ?Lofton?,on the edge of the area where out-sized bricks where sun-dried for the building of the big house.
There were slave quarters buildings along the edge of the ridge just behind and to the south of the big house. Foundation stones remaining to my time indicate there were at least three such cabin-like structures of ?shotgunned? style with doors at each end and a limestone, cook-in size fireplace mid-way on the south side of east side of each of them.
Activities continued year-round at ?Lofton?. As did, most farms in the area they raised grain crops for feed and fodder, pasturing by processing leather. They raised hogs and took in hides and pelt from wilderness hunters and trappers which they put on barges from a primitive warehouse on the banks of North River just below the sand pit area which exists to this day. I have heard several versions of the business transactions which followed. Some say the Weller family barged the materials downriver to Port Republic where they sold them to ?gondalow? brokers. Other accounts suggest the Weller family might have been, at least for a time, associated with the building of the those huge produce barges which were built to ship produce and products - including pig iron from local furnaces - to the Chesapeake Bay market.
There are many other stories concerning the old house and acreage. We will get to the telling of some of those stories, in time, but for now, let's take a moment to think of ?Lofton? plantation as having been a novel economic factor which was important to residents of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
A.L.M. July 4, 2004 [c442wds]
Sunday, July 04, 2004
THE BIGGER BANG
Each year, as we celebrate this nationally important date of July 4th, there seems to be a continuing growth in a civic competition in which localities try to outdo each other by setting forth bigger, brighter and louder fireworks displays than anyone else.
It is a costly event and many civic budgets are badly bent each year b y the rising costs of such displays to brighten the skies, and bedazzle the ear drums of citizens within within many miles. Dogs, cats, other pets and rats all take to cover and cringe until the human fun is played out. Many badly bent civic budgets for such needs as education public health, highways, social services quake - or whatever equivalent term might be thought to apply, when displays of such a nature take place even while their needs are being denied or cut for economic reasons.
One Virginia town, which will go unmentioned here by name because some people will call the city government tightwads, unpatriotic troublemakers, and worse for refusing to anti up money for a fireworks display this year. The money, they felt was far more useful elsewhere in meeting the towns budgeted needs. They are to be praised, I would say. For having the courage to declare their independence of the mania for more massive and costly 4t of July fireworks displays. Their action took political courage and there has been criticism and “get even” threats at the ballot boxes.
Some citizens are ashamed that their small town cannot compete with the larger cities and commercial units nearby who will be filling their portion of the sky aglow and banging a billion baffled birds into flight nation wide. One city has proudly promised it will fire a thousand units in the last thirty seconds of their display .
It is time we consider the serious meanings of July 4th for our nation and for citizens of the world at large. The trappings of self-celebration are a enjoyable thing as far as they go, but they are feeble compared to the true meanings of independence such as that we have known for a few hundred years in this nation. We should be illustrating and teaching the fundamentals of freedom rather than competing to see who can put the most fire and noise into our little portion of the sky which covers all of us.
Each year people lose their lives or suffer injury because of amateur handling of at- home on a me-too basis. Others, in far greater numbers, are injured in such mishaps, oddly enough mostly in states which prohibit the sale of fireworks entirely.
Other small cities and towns may do well to think about emulating the example set by that small governing body in Virginia. The vast majority of towns setting off such cloud busting displays do “poorly” at it, too. Fireworks displaying is not a professional fields of specialized work; best set up and shot off by experts who do nothing else. They perform that civic function far better than local talent and they are fully equipped and experienced in doing their work well ... far better than any random, sandlot shooters.
And, strangely enough, the people who used to make it a point to go to see the fireworks display now watch on TV at home where they can compare what other cities are doing -or did – at about at the same time to provide their version of a few frantic, ear splitting moments. In our family usually have a family meal that night and from a hill top homestead we watch a score or more public and private displays in the horizon about us.
We enjoy 4th of July fireworks from afar. It is good that we can have them, but they have “priced themselves out of the market” in several ways – money which is more urgently needed elsewhere in most towns and because of loss of life and limb, as well.
A.L.M. July 3, 2004 [c669wds]
Saturday, July 03, 2004
REUNIONS
I attended a Family Reunion this past week and it reminded me that I am not getting any younger.
I expected that, just as I have during most recent annual gatherings.
The years seem to go by faster as I get older and after the eighty-year mark, I haven't let it bother me. I am glad to be among my own and, even though I'm an bit slower as the years add , the memories still pile up. The odd thing about that point is that they are new memories – not old ones. I am now building a structure
made up of young people, primarily, and their growing families.
It is proper that they think of themselves as being ”young”, but I, having been there and done that myself at one time, they are really older than they think themselves. I look at the young couples I have know since their birth. I remember them as being small, sometimes as mischevious little brats and others as pretty packets with saintly tendencies. Now, I am always pleased and sometimes amazed at what they have grown up to become.
They have every right to think of themselves as being “young”, but the actual facts of the matter tell me that the couple at the next table with their three children couple at the next table with three children are actually half my own age and well on their way to that “hill” they will soon be said to “go over”. They remain young in spirit even if the years are creeping upon them, and that is the soul of the basic enthusiasm for life which they pass along to their children in a loving manner. To do so reminds them that a function of being a family is to continue those traditions which set them apart.
Special care must be kept in mind to keep family reunions young in attitude. The oldsters are going to leave and it is the young member coming on who will keep the affair alive and functioning . I was especially pleased to find that this recent reunion approved and acted upon a suggestion which, I understand, came from one of the more youthful members regarding the established routine of taking pictures.
An established part of every reunion, the taking of pictures has become a deadly routine resulting in annual pictures of each family. The way was done at this particular reunion of '04 provide each family with photographs of the larger family divisions - not by families - but by generations. For the first time a member comes to find where they fit in the overall structure of the family when they look a these photographs.
The procedure starts the the founding family the husband and wife upon which the present family founded, being remembered.. If any of their sisters, brothers and their spouses are living they form the initial picture. The children of that first couple and their spouses are next; followed by the children of each of those children from those belonging to the oldest through to the youngest... .also with their spouses .You can see how the steps progress in order to a few great-greats at the end.
The pictures we will get from this “Reunion '04” will be more valued. They will provide a means of each member being able to ascertain where he or she fits into the wide family group Generational impetus will be formed as each group gets to know who else belongs in that same area.
Reunions are for old-timers in one sense, but they endure because of the youthful elements being accented. One young person's suggestion about how we ought to be taking our annual photographs is an example of how - when their interest and concern is aroused - youth can participate and move it all forward to an even better future for the family.
A.L.M. July 2, 2004 [c659wds]
Friday, July 02, 2004
IF IT AIN'T BROKE....
You, of course, know the full text: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
I don't know who first compounded that bit of ethnic advice. It is heard in a varied group of linguistic patterns and it makes good common sense in most cases. I qualify it with "most" because I feel there are times when you can fix a malfunctioning gizmo just before you know it is going to conk out and save yourself a lot of effort, worry, care and cash.
I have found it helpful to think of that old grammar-killin' adage when contemplating the state of our economy.
It helps explain the how, why and wherefore of the obvious fact that you economy seems to be suffering from a case of overseas emigration many of ourjobs. We keep demanding that our political craftsmen "fix" the problem, and it is becoming increasingly evident day-by-day that most of them have not the slightest of how to go about starting to do anything meaningful about the problem.
To make it still more complicated, many of the trained and experienced economists, not so common among us , tell us we should not be worrying about "our jobs going overseas" suggestions. It is the fancy term they use they say jobs migrate to other countries where the demands of labor are are not quite so heavy. They insist it is the natural thing for our jobs to migrate to other counties where labor is less demanding and the product can be manufactured better with less cost involved.
The vast majority of the voices I hear among workers and used-to-be workers speak rather sharply of the departure of American jobs for overseas sites. They object loudly to all that has happened . They speak out rather strongly against firms which have have moved production to Mexico, Thialand, Tiawan, South Korea, Latin America,Asia,and to China, in particular. They refuse to hear any contention that the movement might be a good thing rather than a bad one. They think it can be fixed by stretching some of the existing laws which encumber the plethora of such already in the books and already resident in Washinggnton, D.C.
They refuse to accept the idea that our economy, while badly bent in recent years, is not "broken." Ask anyone who was deeply associated with the era called The Great Depression and their feeling might well serve as a valuable norm in deciding the actual condition of our present day economy as it steadily improves. It is not dying or defunct as some critics would have us believe.
We work, play, live and die within economic systems. We always have and always will. Certainly many of the older members of the complaint corps are old enough to remember when we lived in what we now call a "Local" economy. The farmer raised the foods and city folks put together the gizmo, do-dads and gadgets they could sell to rural citizens and pass back and forth among themselves through local markets. Those centers for the exchange of goods were locally owned and operated and they served us well.
When they grew too large or cumbersome to work to the max, they changed to larger Area District or State markets. The change was gradual but after it caught on and covered larger areas, jobs changed as well. Local markets had to start advertising and reaching out to get new customers. Suddenly the area was larger in which people worked, lived, borrowed from and conned from each other. The things they sold had to be transpired longer distances by rail or truck. Exclusive markets such as those for Tobacco, Hogs, Cattle, Produce, came into being with many changes in the nature of jobs. Series of stores were set up throughout the area to meet increased demand.
With continued growth in the transportation fields and - particularly during several major wars when urgency made such changes more acceptable. We lived for a time in a crisis economy, and found ourselves to be world citizen involved a living in a world-wide marketing system. Now, in this World Market economic system, the farmer, the craftsmen, the craftsmen, artisans and others engaged in the making of products are re-cast in severely modified roles. Such work is now being done mainly in those areas where it can be done at less expense, faster and better. There are political, social, ethnic and other problems manifestations aplenty because the potential number of doers varies in different sections of the world as we work to sell the things we market to each other. Many prove to be recipients of better jobs where political and social adjustments are solved.
That which has been pending has already taken place to a large extent. We are now living and working within a World Economy. It is a natural, normal, continuing time of change and readjustment. My mother had a relative who operated a store Aspenwall, Pennsylvania years ago buying and selling local produce and manufactured goods an selling them to natives. There, in that Pittsburgh area, he had one supplier who called weekly to restock supplies of his bottled pickles on the shelves Â? a young man named Heinz Â? one name which remains among the many that made it all the way from Local, to State, to National and, now, into the World Economy.
It's here. We are part of it - like it or not. Go with it.
A.L.M. July 2, 2004 [c920wds]
Thursday, July 01, 2004
DOWNSIZING
If you have ever moved from a large house which you have occupied for a decade or two, to a smaller home, you know a thing or two about the condition known as “downsizing”.
It is widely touted in some circles as being a beneficial thing enabling us to rid our ourselves of useless encumbrances which we have accumulated though years of senseless slavery to your idea of what the so-called work ethic might be.
In truth, when economic or social makes it necessary that we effectively destroy the patina which has been forming on and within our accomplishments. Living a life well is a work of art.
I can tell you some of the things you will miss after you have downsized your life by physical relocation in smaller quarters. I cannot set up a rating system which might determine which seems to be the worst, or most missed. They have different levels of intensity at various times.
Near the top of such a list I would place the item: books.
In truth I don' really know how many books we had accumulated. I do remember that years ago a carpenter asked me how many selves we needed to hold our books at that when we were up sizing homes. He seemed shocked when I said: “about thirty-five or forty feet”. He did a good job of transforming the room with shelves deep enough to hold two layers of books plus cabinets underneath to house out-sized items, maps, scrapbooks, newspapers, art work, and other such specialized items. Our old walnut, glass enclosed Globe -Wernicke bookcases were isolated upstairs to cover one wall of a bedroom. with books. They stood four high on end platform drawers and three in the center. On the walls were paintings my wife had done - my second treasure missed now that we have downsized two times.
A few remain in our house now, yet in our form of down-sizing they aren't really gone in many cases. We invited all of the children in the family to take what they wanted from the books, the art work and other possessions and we were pleased that so much of what we held dear and worthy was deemed to be of special value to our children, grandchildren and our great-greats through their parent's selections. Rather than downsizing, we avoided negative connotations as we broadened the setting in which our treasures from yesterday may be better displayed and best used to the advantage by our greatest of all items of true wealth - our children, and by their loved ones in turn.
We have haven' really downsized - we have simply moved much of it around to a broader family base. To see them enjoying the items they chose is a special value in itself which can in be gained in no other way.
A.L.M. June 30, 2004 [c484wds]
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