WITHOUT WARNING

Well over a hundred thousand people have died during the last few day of this year. The tsunami caused by the eruption of a volcano under the Indian Ocean brought death and destruction through a series of water which swept into eleven different nations without warning in most areas.

Certainly this disaster will bring about some changes in our ways of predicting the course of such unusual storms. Our weather people do a fine
job as it is in forecasting the usual storms and changes in weather conditions, but this situation involves a combination of detailed knowledge about vulcanology as well as some very special combinations of fine-tuning and logistics for it to be effective within the short span of warning time available.

We have facilities for doing such a job quickly and efficiently. Using the present system of seismographic images we can pinpoint the epicenter of the quake, and within moments, have either manned or unmanned aircraft over the site taking photographs TV footage and gathering statistical aids such a temperatures, wind directions, and make some judgments as to the velocity the storm will have. Waves were estimated moving at around six hundred mile per hour in this week tsunami and few coastal town are not constructed to take that sort of punishment. Such information can be instantly transmitted to ships at sea in the area as well as to coastal installations.

Lest you get the idea all of this is something for people who live afar off, may I remind you that reputable geologists tell us that a major - they have used the term "gigantic" - geological fault is located just a hundred or so miles off the coast of Virginia.

Imagine what it might be like if such a fault should shift suddenly. Fatal wave could sweep[p on Hampton Roads and destroy everything in sight; they could billow up and crossover low-lying Eastern Shore in to the Chesapeake Bay and come to roiling halt in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The Northern Neck of the Old Dominion would be radically changed; Richmond would seem odd as coastal port for time; and to the south the Outer Banks would be stripped, torn apart and scattered over Charlemagne Sound. The Great Dismal Swamp would become an inland salt sea.

Thus far, we haven't even touched on the number of human lives place in peril! Whatever you write down about such a day it is going to read like a kindergarten exercise some day.

What do you know about such a fault in the Atlantic waters just off of our shores? Shouldn't we be told? What about early warning plans, if needed? Better yet, will a complete study of the alleged fault show it be benign and harmless? Why not make that a special wish for our New Year of 2005!

A.L.M. December 31, 2004 [c484wds]

 
FEAR LIST

I have never been one to make a long list of New Year's Resolution promises which I know perfectly well I am not going to keep.

You may be one who tabulates them carefully every year, but it strikes me that we have enough concern for our own well-being that, if we really want to, we can do those things anyway. Most of them are common sense precautions we take to avoid stumbling over our own stupidity.

You may be one who needs to write them down, but I don' t et that far. Most such resolutions say I am going to change my way about tending to my health I'd say that was the subject for most with older people, but young persons feel a more general air permanency while oldsters look forward to that inevitable end. The longer we can put it off, it seem, the better. One can resolve that pleasant circumstances and beneficial patterns for the coming year and though out a brighter, happier and a more responsive life. That's all commendable, and wise. If I had keep a childhood resolution to brush my teeth, I would have to spend far less time cleaning my dentures today.

Many have financial wishes. Those thinking along social lines wish for a bit of an increase their activity along social lines.. They are keeping up with the Jones' and don't realize that the Jones' are keeping up with the Smith's who are following the Rocker fellers and Microsoft millionaires..

Many have other worries and care, I suppose, and so many of them deal with fantasy life styles, too. We live a- la-Disney now-a-days so potentially exciting event in our future - such as being at home when the Publishers Clearing House van shows up at our house.

The worst fear, it seems, are the loss old family and friends, perhaps, though social differences or through some strange erosion of religious certainties.

We quote Emerson as have said: "What I have seen readies me for those things I have not seen." Our proper point, then for judging the future, must be to study our past ...appreciate it and grow our better future upon its merits.

A.L.M. December 29, 2004 [c423wds]

 
TOMORROW'S VIEWING

As television matures is becoming more-and-more of an "on order" programming service for individual subscribers, elements of the system now in use as "channels" will be available for other uses. and one has to wonder how they may best be made useful for the public good - if that term is to keep it's intended meaning.

One such possibility comes to mind at once. Seek ways to use the channels to beef up our national home defense plans. That, in itself. could take multiple paths dealing with flying, for instance, the protection of our natural resources and utilities, overseeing large gatherings of people, and a host of other dangers which face us with enemies such as we have today.
a way to

It ,my well be that some business-minded entrepreneur will find a way to make such channels commercially viable. We would be wise to set aside some of them for, let's, a viable tsunami alert system in certain, high-risk areas.

The devastation we are viewing this very morning from eleven different nations in the Indian Ocean area should be enough to alert us to the potential dangers we face in other seas. It now appears hat the list of dead will exceed one hundred thousand as reports "continue to filter through crippled communications systems".

When will all of this channel changing come about? No one knows ,for sure, but you can watch for specialized channels in present use to go through the usual pattern of consolidation with stronger units buying up the less prosperous ones; the strong buying out weaker units. This a sure sign that they are on the wane. We have,in many areas, specialized ourselves right of of business. In an area where you can count on a million or so people having kindred preferences and "all anything" stations still makes sense but many areas are at risk.

TV has weathered some rather violent changes since the early days of sardine can-sized screens; cameras the size of a delivery van, and jittery cartoon characters which could appear and disappear by mechanical magic of some strange sort.This change is a cosmetic one for TV, not a live-threatening change. TV,in its rapid growth, left behind armies of fine technicians who are now more or less hanging on and wondered where the whole thing is going. We must not make the mistake of thinking TV has gone as far as it is going. It is still, very much, in progress toward a goal far beyond our expectations.

What idea do you have ready to launch when this change in TV's structure may make it possible?

A.L.M. December 29, 2004 [c480wds]

 
ENDANGERED SPECIES

Our unit is called the “dollar” and it ain't what it used to be.

It has been a trustworthy standard for several hundreds of years now and has served us well and been a useful guide and protector for money systems in other lands, as well.

The values of currency, of course, vary all over the world and may be related to all sorts of conditions both man made and otherwise. The devastating tsunami flood conditions which are this very morning killing thousands of people in six different nations around or in the Indian Ocean, is a prime example of the extreme conditions in which a money system must adjust itself. There are times when even the best of money systems will be dependent on others.

The death statistics are,of course, far from being complete and shows about 44,600 dead at the moment. The figure will climb and so will the millions of dollars worth of property damage in the stricken areas climb to new totals for the stricken areas. I International aid programs are all ready in action, and radical changes can be expected in money markets around the world because of this sudden, extreme pressure.

That care has part of our system since it was started and it has worked well. Some adjustments have been required during times of recession, depression war and economic doldrums. The unit has even changed in physical appearance and is currently much more colorful, about two-thirds the size it was when I was a youngster ear earning my first dollars.

It has held the international spotlight for many years, but there have been times when others dominated the world's markets ...the British “pound”, for instance. France's “franc” and monies from Spain, Holland, Portugal, Greece and Rome. Each has held sway for many years in various areas and coins of China, Japan, Egypt and many other nations as well. Prior to time on the start of our dollar system we used a polyglot collection of coins from other lands.. .mainly n English, Spanish, French and Dutch.

Why do I say it is being “threatened”...“endangered”?

By the manner in which it is currently being used.

More and more the American worker is being paid - not with bills and coin - but electronically by the transfer funds from the employer's account to that of the worker. The worker, then, in paying his bills, hands the merchant or service attendant a plastic card which enables him to receive another transfer of such funds as are needed to settle his account. No one touches printed dollar bills of minted coins.

They are of use in machines which accept dollars bills of coins in exchange for products or services. The Treasury Department doesn't print anything higher than one hundred dollars. Counterfeiters can do better faking credit cards than paper money and coins.

Think about it. Other than for coin operated machines, door-to- door sales persons, Salvation Army bell ringer's pots and church collection plates, how often do you actually handle “real” money?


A.L.M. December 28, 2004 [c517wds]

 
..THINE ENEMIES.


I have mixed feelings when I see the current most-used photograph of Saddam resilient on TV.

The crumpled, sad looking man sitting there behind the bar reminds you of the active ruler of Iraq but you wonder if he could now lift a rifle – much less fire a charge into the air one handedly as was his usual mode of showing power and leadership qualities.

Now we see a crumpled little man who still has an ability to contend and he will most likely explain his actions at length in the forthcoming trials wherever and whenever they take place.

The somber man we see sitting there appears more or less as the shell of the man we once viewed as a active person, somewhat brash and he perhaps lacking in some of the finer, more diplomatic stances usually found in many rulers of his type. Whatever he had in power, prestige, wealth and a following came to a sudden end, I think, when he chose to be hidden away in a narrow, little hole in the ground instead of engaging in a showy last stand action – either genuine or faked – against his encroaching enemies.

To b e dragged from such a petty hiding place marks the change which had come over man when he agreed to such confinement. He chose to go out as a whimper albeit a live one. He Iraqi people were content to tear down statues of their former dictator which I count as a mark in their favor – far better than the actions of an Italian mob who beat and battered Il Duce and his mistress naked and upside down from the beams of an auto service station by the Italian roadside.

In the months ahead we , or someone, will be holding do with the prisoner. It has not yet been been decided if it is something the newly constituted Iraqi courts should decide or if we ought to undertake such a task. It is not going to be an easy task for either party. Saddam himself must be wondering if he will be judged by people from a Christian country or his own land. He certainly must be weighing possibilities either way. “Love thine enemies” is not a teaching of his cultural background and may seem, to him, the ultimate in stupidity, but he is, I should think pondering that point day upon day. He could be exiled rather than executed, but where does one send an exiled man today?

I have a strong feeling we will be better off if we insist that the Iraqi people decide what the future of their deposed ruler is to be.

A.L.M. December 27, 2004 (c454wds]

 
ON TRANSITION

I sense a strange feeling anticipation or movement in our national self at the moment, as if we are waiting for something to happen.

It is natural, I think, for us to think it might it has something to do with our 9-11 tragedies. That may well have some merit because we do wonder what the next attack may be - when and where, in particular.

It is good that we are aware of the fact that such a thing might well occur in our future but, by and large, we are not a worry-wart type of people. We have some individuals who will dwell on worst case examples but most of us are willing to prepare for whatever seem possible with the best defense arrangement we can make.

On the whole Christmas shopping was down this year and that is viewed by some as indication of a lack of confidence in our future. Could be, but it could also mean the we're making preparations for the future far more seriously than we may have in past years. We have just come through an election cycle in which almost half of the population was evidently led to accept the politically pontificated idea that we were a nation on the very edge of financial ruin and likely not to outlast the year. If it could be shown on a graph we would see such a loss of direction following most national elections which dwell to party-rigidly on a poor economy. We are, on might say, in that doldrum of post-election droop during which people have to regain confidence in their nations money.

The recent clearing of the decks for Term Two with new members of the President's cabinet being put in place is indicative of the transitions taking place all around. Advisers, remember, come in various types. There are some who are especially fitting for take-over and start-up times; but there are others better qualified to deal with continuing relationships.

There is a positive fact or associated with the choice in the Department of State, where Rice will continue and augment that Powell helped to put in place. She has analytical expertize he did not count among his many talents. Those talent he does possess will be used elsewhere and his work will be nourished, sustained and brought to maturity. Defense has had to defend itself, which is not all that unusual after of our wars. Ashcroft remains, however and that is a firm choice.

You see, we are, indeed, “in transition”, with even the usually cocksure media attempting to define what it is the ought to be, wants to be or will have to be to survive. It is almost as if we have suddenly realized that the “terrorist” threat is not the only one that places our future in hazard, but the inept ways in which we have dealt with our problems in recent decades.

Religious groups, business establishments, social organizations,recreational havens and many individuals are in self-study state right now. Many of us are making plans to ensure the future will be better. They will be expressed verbally as we arrive at the happy new year marked “2005!”

A. L. M. December 26, 2004 [c549wds]

 
PEOPLE MAKER

Charles Dicken's probably can be readily credited, I'd say, with having created more characters than any other literary people-maker.

So many of them are loveable characters and we like to think we have some of the qualities they show, but there are some first-class villians among them, too.

Chief among them, to many people, has old Ebenezer Scrooge, but he reforms completely in "A Christmas Carol" and rejoins the human race just in time. Now, take another of Dicken's nasties - Uziah Heep, and Fawkes was it not in the "Oliver Twist" story? They, and some others, start nasty and stay nasty for the duration of the story and a few pages longer.

We like to think we have some of the finer qualities of Charles Dickens' most loveable characters in our way of living, compassion, understanding, respect for the rights of others, as well as a firm dedication to the ideals of hard work and absolute confidence in the ideals orf astrict work ethic and a dedeication to work with definite aims in mind for a future brighter and more satisfying for ourselves and those we love

. Few of us would ever think of admitting that we, from time,to time, might also show some of the less admirable traits which Dickens caused his Heeps, Scrooges and other depicable characters to perform. "That's fiction," we say as an excuse, and life is real. It is, however, true that these lesser qualities can, and do, creep into, our lives without our being aware of it happening. Now, at the beginning of a New Year is the traditional time to resolve to eliminate quesitonable elements from our lives, and Christmas is a time for ethical purification which should make us
want to do better in the future The timing is perfect.

Think about it. If there is even a slight hint of "envy" in your thinking - deal with it now. Drive it out and along with it any taints of vainness, distrust, hatred or other such clouds shadowing your life and preventing the sunlight of happiness from getting to you in full measure.

Hell, it has been said, is the repeated remembence of all of the little things we have done about which we have any regrets. Why run the heat up higher? Certainly we can see evidences of that in Dickens' people and we can pick out ones we admire and try to emulate the general restraints they used to void the very same hazards we are still contending with today.

Right now...on this special day.. TinyTim's words fit our mood - a very merry Christmas to all!

A.L.M. December 25, 2004 [c402wds]

 
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I'm tempted to write the words “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, or simply “Noel” and call that today's column . That's the a way and we have all used it one year or another, but the right way is far safer.

I say “safer” because this year we have segments of our society who are taking affront with the wording of greetings for this special time of the year. There is a faction who, trying hard to appear to be be especially tolerant and liberal but eliminating any and all references in holiday greetings which might suggest a religious connection. The others - louder, perhaps, than usual this year because of trends indicated in our recent political elections. They insist that the opposition is seeking “to take Christ out of Christmas.” We are in a strange mood following our political phase of name-calling and condemnations en masse.

We are in a “home defense” stance, it appears. Anyone who looks to tradition as a standard is viewed by those who do not wish to be curbed as blockheads of the worst order.

The rest of the years these same people seem to get along reasonably well, but when the season of showing special love, understanding and compassion is promoted they become outspoken enemies. The ruckus is sharper this year than usual. In years past criticism has been limited to complaints about over-commercialization of Christmas weeks and, close to that itchy irk there was the use of “Xmas” -literally taking Christ out of the word “Christmas.” That was bad enough but now it is being urged that any and all reference to the Christian faith must the exorcised.

Anyone would would think that such a change could be effected other than by force and, even then, just on the surface, has to be confused on his or her holidays. They have confused December 25th with April 1st.

People who are intensely home defense oriented may even view this “attack on Americanism” as being part of one of the ever-present conspiracies which seem to exist to manage such underhanded things. Get the Christian terms out and insert Muslim equivalents in their places.

For my part - I'm still saying “Merry Christmas”. If it bothers you in any way feel free to say it anyway you like. Let such freedom be a part of our holiday time together. It's no skim off my glow.


A.L.M. December 24, 2004 [c409wds]

 
SAYING THANKS

It happened to us years when our second son was just a little kid.

We were having a stuffed chair redone and we received a penny post card from the small shop saying it would be ready to pick up. My wife Irma and with second son David did a pick-up ride to Grottoes, Virginia where the man had shop as part of his small home. He knew when we had arrived by the changes in the shadows his shop as we drove into his driveway.

We knew the old man was deaf; had been since infancy, and communication might be hindered a bit. When we arrived in his house he indicated for us to follow him into the next room and there we found a large white sheet covering what we assumed was our reconditioned. The old man more or less ignored my wife and I and motioned for the boy to help him remove the sheet. He made sure the boy had a firm grasp on the edge of the covering and ,in that special way they seemed to understand each other, he let the boy do the major effort at tugging the drape away to reveal our chair to us.

The cooperative tug was quick and there it was - a beautiful chair re-created. The broken leg was mended, the upholstery was bright and tough looking; the springs had e,obviously been replaced or repositioned. There was small paper pinned to the chair back and the old man unpinned it an indicated he boy was to take it to his mother. He did so without hesitation. His mother glanced at the paper bearing our name and the amount agreed upon for the chair repairs. She opened the bag she carried and handed the boy the folded bills when he returned to the craftsman standing beside our chair.

All of that happened rather quickly and was not quite ready for the next step which was “fixed” I must admit. Irma, was a teacher at The Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Staunton, Virginia, and she had prepared our son for the visit to the chair-maker's shop. He stood there admiring the chair then turned to the old man and signed: “Very pretty! Very Pretty! Thank you! Thank you very much!” He seemed to say it in italics and underlined.

I don't know signing but I realized what he had “said” by the almost tearfully happy pleasure instantly evident in the old man's eyes. He helped us load the chair on our truck and as we pulled away he waved “Goodbye” to us,it seemed, and he stood there and signed to our son: “Thank you! Thank You! Thank you!”

A.L.M. December 23, 2004 [c462wds]

 
NOT QUITE THERE

The term “human rights” has not yet earned for level which will permit us to call it “universal.”

We use the term, however, and that's a good thing on me that in that it suggests an ideal - a time of maturity for the concept. it is not a new term; not an aged in either. Eleanor Roosevelt, while First Lady of the Land, used the term “Universal Human Rights” when she was active in the work of the United Nations efforts to establish a world-wide protective system to preserve and propagate human rights for all Mankind.

The UN Charter had, from the first days, assigned a respectable place to the idea of human rights. Eleanor Roosevelt gave that start a good push forward. She worked at the job for three years as chair-person of the “UN Commission of Human Rights” and, then, presented a strong case to the General Assembly following those three years of intense study and evaluation. The vote in the UN was a divided, of course. Forty-eight states “favored” the declaration. Eight states “abstained.” That was the Soviet bloc of nations, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Two were reported “absent.”

As a direct result of report,the United Nations issued a “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. It did so, too, without, “a single dissenting vote.”- technically. There other such legalistic shadows throughout many UN procedures, but, on the whole, that document gave Human Rights a strong mark of approval putting it on a firm legal footing and and enabling the concept to prosper.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the key to so much human rights advancements of those years. I never got to see her on any of her numerous trips to Southwest Virginia where she attended folk music gatherings. I remember, even then, of having a feeling she was really here to check on our human rights status as dwellers in the Appalachians area. She was a person who saw elements of worth in all people if they were given a chance to grow. The process is still going; still growing, but far from being “universal”


A.L.M. December 22, 2004 [c374wds]

 
SELF STUDY

Don't sell yourself short where it comes to being a salesperson.

You probably do a far better job than you realize. You have been on the buyers side of things most of your life , so you could anyone expect you to do well at it without training.

But it is not the seller of goods and services; tangible goods and and substances sold by the pound, dozen or gross of which we are
concerned. The one thing you want to promote more is yourself; your distinct personality and that which you have which no one else has in exactly the the same way and to such perfection.

Think back over the holiday shopping you might have done in recent weeks. What caused you to buy those items you selected? It was not, I would suggest, as much a “spur of the moment thing”. You had been prepared to make such a purchase for someone you love or admire. We often plan ahead to a far greater extent than we might realize we do.

We, here in America, are, probably, among the most heavily sales burdened people in the world. We see any item in print as a photograph or descriptive words exhibited to lure us into wishing that we, too, could obtain such an item for out personal use or - at the Christmas Season of the year - a special thing to give to someone we admire or to someone we love.

I doing so we are really selling a far greater and less tangible entity without realizing we are doing so. A physical gift at Christmas time or for someones birthday date or anniversary is in truth a token of your hope that the love and admiration known may continue to be strong and meaningful for both.

Too often, throughout the work year, we tend to sell ourselves short. Deep down, God made very few duds. Each of us is a special work of art the quality of our lives is an insult to the artist. This coming year look for the positive aspects in everything you want to accomplish. Don't even consider ideas which say you “can't do it”. You can do it but it is easier to do so if you have taken the time formulate a resume of your life and become aware of your worth and of your proper place in society.

Far too often today our lives become so cluttered that the difficult part of trip is finding space; a proper place to unfold the road map. Get it all unfolded, uncreased and oriented properly toward the guiding North Star of honesty and truth, and you are well on your way.

You are Captain and Navigator. of our life. Many other lives depend on what you do. Your having attained to those two titles is proof enough that you can do whatever becomes necessity.

A.L.M. December 21. 2004 [c489wds]

 
TWO-FOLD GIFT

Christmas Day less than a week a way!

It seems impossible! It can't be true, and yet event indicate that it coming along anyway – ready or not!

The City of Harrisonburg, Virginia –“home town” for those of us who dwell at The Cave – received two fine Christmas presents this week. Added to the list of things Harrisonburg citizens and James Madison University students will be two brightly wrapped gifts they will share in years to come.

At Chattanooga, TN on Friday, December 18th, the JMU “Dukes” Football team won over the “Grizzlies” of Montana to become National Champions, NCAA Division 1-AA Football! The game was on TV 's ESPN2 nationwide and Mike Shickman, (WSVA) the regular radio voice of JMU, did play-by-play on the JMU Radio Network. The field is one every one who saw the games will remember, too – with tossed turf from the initial plays and bundles of it lying loose across the field like non-tumbling tumbleweed. The Montana teams set a fast pace and took to the air as much as possible. They scored first and when their pace paused the JMU moving wall made steady inroads with a 41-21 score as their reward. It was JMU's first try at a national slot; the fifth try for the Montana team. The poor field condition are said to have worked in favor of JMU who played the previous week defeating William and Mary College under muddy conditions.

Such a win can mean a lot to the University and to the Harrisonburg area where Coach Mickey Matthews is now an established hero-type college coach. In many ways this is his win, but it means a lot to all of us.

The Second Gift for the community this week was an announcement made at about the same time of the championship game which set forth plan to built a totally new Rockingham
Memorial Hospital! The present fifteen acre location in the city will be replaced with a completely new installation on a 254-acre site on the northeast edge of the city at Reservoir Street and Port Republic Road. It should be ready for use by 2009. The present hospital with his multi-storied parking decks will become part of ...guess what! Right! James Madison University just across a narrow street which now divides the two.


Both JMU and RMH are important to all of us. In a geographic sense the City of Harrisonburg and the growing village community called Weyers Cave are day-by-day, week-by-week become one and the same., soon to join add-on towns named Dayton, Bridgewater , Mt. Crawford, and Penn Laird, Virginia.

Two gifts in one week! A very Merry Christmas struck a week or so early in the year 2004.

A.L.M. December 20, 2004 [c475wds]

 
'NUTHIN T'DO”

I often meet with a confused mixture of amazement and disappointment when I hear people say: ”I have nothing to do!”

How can such a situation come about? Is it possible for a person to live a life totally apart from inventiveness, ambition and a willingness to improve one's lot – even to a minimal standard? How can anyone - young or old – arrive at a state in which they feel that everything that can be done has been accomplished?

One might expect to hear a young child make such a claim and we would try to suggest something to challenge such a child. We lead them to think of another game they might want to try and the momentary lapse of interest. Young people adults are supposed to outgrow such self-pity demonstrations.

The person who can say “I have nothing to do.” is seeking help in some cases, but, more often,they don't realize they are really confessing a weakness of character. By merely being in your presence, they are obligated to undertake whatever is needed to meet your needs. They have an automatic requirement to be pleasant in your company; or, if the situation demands it, to be as combative and physically active as combative as possible.. If another person is nearby, you have something to do. We are community creatures and our actions affect others about us. A do-less individual can be the proverbial “bad apple” which spoils the barrel of good fruit.

To shut oneself off from others is a self-sustained form of punishment and we need to make sure we are not, perhaps unwittingly, building such a self-imposed, self-administered form of self-punishment. Years ago the advertising world tried to convinced us that we could fit in anywhere if we learned to play piano, then, someone realized that the letters “B” and “O” could be combined to form something called “Body Odor”, and powders, pastes, pellets, patches, potents, poultices - in an unending accumulation of aberrations have followed in efforts to avoid such a condition.st l
If you find yourself tempted to give voice to the sentiment “I have nothing to do!” you are not only hurting yourself but you are insulting anyone else you know. You are, in fact, saying that you find them to be less than nothing - real duds, who do not inspire you at all by their being present.

A.L.M. December 19, 2004 [c409wds]

 
DYING ROW

The leading cause of death, a federal prison authority is being quoted as saying recently when speaking of “Death Row” inmates, is old age.

I don't know that such a statement would strike anyone as much of a surprise today with the growing “Death Row” population growing ever larger as the kaleidoscopic system of appeal, potential pardons, unfair trials, confessions, mistakes on all sides and other such niceties such as DNA evidence we didn't know about that long ago – continue endlessly.

The good warden's comment answers two sides of a question equally well. Those y citizen who hold that capital punishment is a good thing ad should,be kept in place for capital crimes, as well as those who oppose it who usually fade away a bit before election times and pipe up loudly when they can't find anything else to advocate. I often wonder just how sincere either side might be. Too often ,the capital punishment idea is just the stone they used to put a sharp edge on any other weapons they have at hand and hope to use, perhaps often, for unrelated causes. Budget balancers used to point out some years ago that it costs at least $32,000 a year just to keep a DR cell current occupant alive and in fair health. That price has probably gone up a bit, just as the cost of expanding old prisons or building new ones to house newcomers has taken a billion dollar bound or two. The Chair or lethal injections are a better money-wise choice. And, of course both sides still talk about cruel and inhuman ways to kill people as if there was some other way.

Some would contend that the entire concept of Capital Punishment has become a political football. Let's see now, Canada does not have it; England does not have it. Who does ? Or, does it make any difference as long as a large number of government on Earth in recent, current and future times have not, do not, and will not offer any real choices.

Recent murder trials, far too numerous to mention here, have run far too long, been extended, dramatized, delayed, moved about, modified or started over again so much that a middle aged murder-”ers” or “eese” might be drawing security payments by the time a judgement is made as to his or her final place.

I remember when “Capital Punishment - Yea or Nay” used to be among the main topics for High School Debate Teams to mouth about.
We didn't decide a thing with all our talking, and continued talk today makes about the same amount of progress toward either goal. Our basic religious nature opposes Capital Punishment, but not always. I doubt if we will ever decide one way or the other. In the meantime, dying from Old Age will continue to be the way to go if the “Death Row” name says you've got to do so.

A.L.M. December 18, 2004 [c502wds]

 
UNITY

Around this Yuletide time of each year we tend to think a great deal about something we call “international”, “religious” or “racial” unity. We are emboldened with the Christmas-time fervor of Love-all-around and we think of how it might solve so many of our problems. It hides away in a corner of our Christmas wish box, or perhaps we make it a spoken part of our New Year hopes that something might come along which would bring about unity for all of Mankind- enabling us to live in peace.

Many years ago, I read a science-fiction piece which attempted to reach a solution for the problem. You may have read the same story. I think it was in the magazine called “Blue Book”- a rather long thing in the days when our magazines started setting forth “novellas”, as they were called. I don't remember the writer's name but he wrote a great deal of materials lot of the “pulp fiction”. If I had to guess it would be “H. Bedford-Jones”. It was in the mid 1930's and it had the somewhat unpleasant sounding title of “ The Gray Sickness”.

Scientists had found a strange silvery, metallic ball which had seemingly landed in our western desert regions. They took it under special care, thinking it to be something sent to us from outer space.
Wisely, they did not try to open it. Other such mysterious spheres were found and no one seems to know which might have in some way, shattered or opened one of them and released on Earth a fungus type dust, according to the news media of the time. Years went by and the sensational item fell out of the news awareness of Americans - like the Roswell, New Mexico, alien visitations did year's later to city a more recent on oncident, you may remember.

Gradually people came to be aware of the fact that newborn children were of a gray hue and that anyone who have suffered and had recovered turned gray. It soon became obvious that in the areas where the strange spheres had been opened – everyone was becoming gray. The theory of the story was that if we could eliminate the barrier of color we could live in absolute peace and unity. The scientists who had retained the first sphere by careful procedure, withdrew a portion of the contents of that ball and it was found that and advanced civilization far away in space, viewing our warlike self-deconstruction sent the continers of grey fungus to us with their best wishes for peace. Forget about color. Live as one and enjoy peace. It did not work.

The plan did not suceed as the space super nation though it would. In fact, we went to the extreme opposites quickly. New hatred, division; large segments of each color setting up protective enclaves, putting up walls to protect their culture - that sort of thing. I don't remember if scientists saved us all from destruction by created a anti-something substance, but the story was a thriller.

Isn't it odd how, even today, that when anyone brings forth an idea whereby we might find unity in the manner in which we live, that the very people who say they seek it readily are among the first to oppose it, by being unwilling to work together.

How sincerely do you really want and seek genuine, enduring Peace? There's a great deal more to it than simply going marching along waving a banner and screaming vocal tokens of your cupidity.


A.L.M. December 17, 2004 [c602wds]

 
UPCOMING CRISIS

It isn't even New Year's time yet and time to start have special worries about the coming year.

Among such problems will be one which stays with us year-after-year and is usually just after a major election day or just before one. Citizens, who haven' t thought of it for months, feel a sudden concern for their political party and lament loudly over the number of qualified people who are non-voters. On an average we do well to get a bit over one half of eligible voters to actually do so in our elections.

If we were serious and completely honest with ourselves we would concede that this could be one of the flaws non-Democracy-minded peoples say make out system weak and worthless. The problm deserves study and re-evaluation. If not, we can expect it to become a crisis of out future.

It is an obvious flaw in our government structure. If we are to remain a republic, we had best remember the observation of Benjamin Franklin, who when asked what type of government we had just instituted said:..'we have republic, if we can hold on to "it", or words to that Colonial-times extent. We, the people of the new nation - must be more than casually concerned about the running of our government.

We are commongly told that many voters have been turned off". I think that sort of reasoning comes from the more liberal side of things who seem to accept the idea that voters can,indeed, be switched "on" or "off" by political, economic, or social pressures of one sort or another. Moderate and Conservatives allow more freedom in some ways, yet they do embody some qualities which could curb elements of creative innovation among voters. Much depends on the manner in which "statesmen" set forth their plans. Many politicians, fearful of not drawing enough votes, use the quality of fear to arouse interest.

What is the basis for this underlying strata of distrust?

We tend to seek learned and rather lumpy ingredients, in need of prcessing to help us mix up a potion which might help us counteract such a socio-politcal ailment. We look on the right area, but in the wrong direction when we turn to Acadamia. The reasons are plural, complicated and, oddly enough, recent as well.

We have, for the 2nd half of the past century, at least, failed to teach our children the basis of American history and its relationship to that of the world's other nations. In the l930's when we diminished the name "History" ; started calling it "Civics" and became guilty of feeding the eager minds of our youngsters fragment in what were called "Units of Study". Geography had all but disappeared at about the same time and that meant the end of regional and geographically- oriented literature and science attainment as well.

Think about those radical years of academic change! That's where we will find the causes of the current lack of interest in and concern for our national well-being.

A.L.M. December 16, 2004 [c449wds]

 
FORGOTTEN UNITS

It is un-intentional and nothing much can be done about it, but each time we celebrate days in memory of veterans of our various wars of various wars, we skip certain of our armed forces - ignoring their fine work.

In World War II, for example, today's youngsters might get the idea it consisted of two sites - the ETO and the South Pacific.

Thousands of men and a few women who can attest to the fact that there were other “theaters of operations” worthy of remembering and honoring.

Among such groups you seldom hear about you find some of the most unusual aspects of the war in relation to various peoples and cultures with which we seldom meet.

I know just a few veterans who were, for example, members of military units who served in the area known letter-ly as “the CBI”. Translated, that works out as having made reference to the thousands of our troops we had in the China, Burma and Indian sectors during World War II. Many young people today are taken by surprise when they find we had a viable presence in such places at all. Older people do not always remember the CBI, North Africa, Aleutian Islands, and a score of other such sites.

One GI I know who served in the China-Burma-India sphere does not fly to this day commercially. He feels that “catlike”, he used up the major portion of his “nine lives” during several years of service as a member of a crew who's assignment was to fly fifty-five gallon drums of gasoline across the “Hump” dividing Indian and Burma above other G.I. persons trucking such supplies below them on the the celebrated and dangerous “Burma Road.” His name was Owen and he remembers quite often - about every time he fills his car's fuel tank today, - how the metal barrels, worn and used to near-extinction, would crack and develop obvious leaks at high altitudes above the Himalayan range. Patch with pitch and pray was the only actions to be taken.

Take Bob's experiences, as an army cook in India. Bob died recently and his widow passes along to me copies of a fine, little monthly magazine edited by Dwight O. King of Newport Beach, CA. -just as Bob added copies to my reading over the last decade or two. His army years in India were less rigorous than Owen's in some ways but being so far from home and family in New Jersey among people who's culture was almost primitive despite its age and history was a disturbing Bob had to force himself to “get used to.” The magazine ”Ex-CBI Roundup” for December of is year has a letter in it from John Beaudoin II, of Wakefield, KS who has a memory a lot like Owen's gas cans. He flew out of Bangladesh as it is now called, placing river mines from the air. In preparation for an early morning mission, their B-24 had been loaded then night before. During the night they had a heavy rain. The B-24 was not designed to stay dry when rain falls. The ship was awash with water around the base of the mines and it was too late to unload and re-load so they took off any way. The interesting factor John remembers so well, was the fact that the particular type of mine they carried that morning was activated when block of salt melted in the water and a lever was released which armed the bomb to explode.

There was humor on the CBI front, as well. One trio of muleskinners in the land army gave their mules names. One rugged little stead was called “Loco” because he seemed to be just that. When three new skinners were assigned mules to care for and tend, they named them: “Wine”,“Women” and “Song”.

The CBI was a big part of The War and next Veteran's Day- - don't you forget that. Get a copy of “Ex-CBI Roundup” and learn much of their war.

A.L.M. December 15, 2004 [c687wds]

 
SEVEN POINTS

I certainly hope that none of you take this as an open invitation to rush to your kitchen and throw together a special Yuletide salad of poinsettias! I have just become aware of the fact that the Poinsettia is not a poisonous plant. It is non-toxic.

What a bum rap that beautiful plant has have to suffer for the past hundred years or so. It seem I’ve been hearing that scary charge at least that long – give or take a few years.

Every time Christmas came around and the poinsettia became the favorite flower around our home we were warned and double-warned not to place them down low where the children and pets could die a horrible death because of their being there. We have a cat named “Angel” who likes to nibble on pretty flowers anyway and we had a family [photograph taken a few days ago, and we received a live poinsettia plant for being the umpteenth customer's or something. We brought the potted plant home and put it “way up high on a china press to keep the cat cat from eating it”. Until last week, you see, we though she might be doing harp exercises by now living up to her heavenly name on cloud-something or other in cat paradise. ”We gotta keep the cat away from it! It’ll kill her! I'll kill her dead!” And. double-said like that, it sounded even worse.

That statement is not true. It is not worth the letters it is written with!
The American Society of Florists have looked into the matter and they found that the “poinsettias kills” thing got started started in 1929 when the two-year old daughter of and some busy-brain lolling nearby noticed she had been chewing on poinsettia portions. Research at Ohio State University indicates that a fifty-pound child would have to consume somewhere between five hundred and six hundred poinsettia leaves - about one and a quarter pounds - to equal the amount given in their tests. Because of the longevity of the rumor, the American Society of Florists points out that the poinsettia has been tested and re-tested more than any than any other flower. The toxicity rate is so low that the ASPCA – The Animal Poison Center, Urbana,Illinois does not even recommend decontamination of animals which have eaten of the happy holidays flower. The American Veterinary Association has charts of poisonous as well as toxic plants and the poinsettia does not appear on any of them.

During the holiday weeks of the year 2000 The Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University Hospital found that nearly 23,000 cases of “poinsettia exposure”, as they list it, were reported to our nation's Poison Control Centers.

This Christmas Season give your poinsettia the place of honor. They deserve being featured fragrantly in the festive surroundings. Don't shunt them off to a high corner because of their alleged toxic nature.

A.L.M. December 14, 2004 (c502wds]

 
PERSONAL ARMOR

A question remains in the back of our mental agenda right now which will be widely discussed many years from now.

Who is responsible, we seem to want to think we want to determine, for allowing our armed forces to have fallen into such a condition as that which inspires some of them to pass along seemingly legitimate complaints concerning the quality of the “standard” protective gear provided for their use in combat zones.

One strongly considered reason suggests that, perhaps, many years ago something went amiss which allowed a human misjudgment to be accepted as being valid. A some time or another personal well-being during combat conditions became a political “card” to be played for campaign advantage, with little or no concern for individual bodies in such combat situations as are common in today's war-making complexities.

It can be that we would be founding the base of yet another wrong if we center our attention on who might have been “to blame”. Who might have played careless card years is of minor importance now and does little so meet present needs. That one person or those persons who, for political advantage either allowed or purposely caused our protective military shell to decay from within , must know who they are, or were and that is punishment enough for the time being.


Two areas of consideration come, immediately, to mind.

As the outward form of military equipment changes suited to the technical knowledge available, certain things about their use hold steady. Trucks are supply and personnel carriers, by and large, whereas a tank and some other heavily armored vehicles are used in a more aggressive sense to attack the enemy or meet his thrusts. The use of “trucks” where “tanks” were needed seems to be at the bottom of so many of the recent equipment complaints. The cartoon-like misuse of equipment is an invitation to possible disaster. Being school to expect transport vehicles to fulfill the protective efficiency of heavier units might best be called a training and preparations error than a battlefield error. The solution lies more with logistics of supplying sufficient numbers of each type of vehicles required to accomplish the task at hand.
At the opposite extreme, we must also accept the reality of our time which has been in place for several decades at least which plainly indicates that the unit which is demonstrated at the munitions proving ground or other such testing for approval location, is not the identical unit which will then we find coming from the nation assembly lines. There is a great deal of leeway between the cup of creation and the lip of actual use. It is entirely possible that the unit created by “experts”and accepted for specific usage by other “experts” can become a variable dud under our strange sopho-moronic system of “controls ” so often associated with the word “quality. Too often it becomes “cost” control. In military hardware: cutting corners kills.

It has long been true and will continue to be so, that some individual are born complainers ... often at odds with authority of any kind. The current spate of critical comments seems to coming from from a broader base than habitual faultfinders. It deserve serious attention by Congressional Oversight persons.

Now! Not “next year.”

A.L.M. December 13, 2004 [c560wds]

 
IN A STORM

I cannot explain it. But, there is a lesson in it for each of us.

From my place as a “crew member”, I do not question why my Captain has, apparently, decided to support Secretary-General Anan in his present difficulties of being involved in United Nations in-fighting.

To my rather limited scope of awareness, it seems that the Secretary General has knowingly, or thorough neglect, allowed the occurrences of a highly improper exchange of funds designated to be spent in oil-for-food relief work in Iraq. Payments have gone to individuals rather than to the Iraqi people as planned. Lists of such who gained in personal wealth from the UN project include the name of the Secretary General's son as a recently- hired employee of the French-associated banking firm which handled the actual exchanges. I, along with many others who kept seeing and hearing such allegations came to believe there had a measure of hanky-panky along the way. Poppa was amazed, shocked at first, but the more it was said he knew when his son had been selected to fill the rather obscure post, the less convincing his words became. Nothing has been done about it so far.

Our Ship of State has only recently departed on another four year voyage into the unknown and this is no time for any of us to be rocking the boat. We have had subjects aplenty with which we can be occupied such as the re-alignment of efficiency for all those cabinet positions now under new departmental heads. In fact, the emergence of this Anan business serves as somewhat of a relief from the resignation of cabinet secretaries with some, I'm sure.

For the common citizens among us, all these changes are expected and should be accepted in the sense that something is being done. Anything, I suppose, can be said to be better than nothing.

It will be interesting in the future to see how this acceptance of works out in the long run. It maybe that President Bush has chosen well in supporting the Secretary-General at time when the UN is not the most popular American idol by any rating. The UN needs our continued support if it is to endure; be modified along lines of common fairness and equity for all rather than being destroyed because of dishonest activity by some.


It may yet be that the United Nation will develop some worthwhile teeth, talons and stamina of its own but it can't if it is killed. Right now, within out own country we have political factions waiting for some signal for them to dismantled the entire UN. That would be a sad occasion, but those of us who saw the ideals of the old League of Nations vilified know it can happen. Dropping Anan right now could be seen as such a sign.


A.L.M. December 12, 2004 [c492wds]

 
DE FRAG

There can be little doubt that in recent decades one of the biggest divisive factors working against the unity of our nation has been Immigration.

The irony of it all strikes us particularly hard because we have always been proud of the fact that our nation was founded on the concept of immigration of souls from Europe into the New World. The growing nation depended on oncoming people from all cultures. Now, it is obvious, we need some controls on such a flow.

The need is not new one. We have faced up to that problem in the past especially in relation to the exclusion of specific types. We have tired various ways of doing so by the use of quotas and allotments and percentage charts,and ignored any which did not produce the results we expected. Even when it was obviously not working as planned, we took a certain pride in “protecting:” our shores from less admirable aim migrants.

Since the 1970's it has been increasingly obvious that our national visage was changing dramatically with the steady influx of increasing numbers of Hispanic and Asian immigrants - both legal and illegal. The Los Angeles county area, in California is one which is most often cited statistically because such numbers can be startling. In the 1980's the Hispanic population of that LA area alone increased by 1,300,000 people! Try to imagine that: a new city of one-and-a- third-million citizens dumped into one area many with little or no knowledge of the language and with little, or less, prospects of gainful employment.

There are other causes of division in our country, of course. They became obvious during the recent presidential election and we will face it every time we choose official in the future. We were extremely lucky this time, but cannot afford to ignore our immigration problems much longer without inviting future disaster. Other include marked changes in our moral standards and relationships God and religious beliefs. The are economic problems which must be solved- especially those related to equality of opportunity around the world. We have been torn apart in many ways by the unrelenting demands of technology which insists that we discard or refashion traditional ways and means of doing things. The fermentation of knowledge has created a bulk far in excess of our ability to handle it. The machine has become an essential to our way of life instead of an addition thereunto.
i
A.L.M. December 11, 2004 [c422wds]

 
EXTREMES AGAIN

When is enough “enough?”

We have seen quite extensive efforts by certain individuals and groups who are seeking to eliminate any mention of the word “God” from every aspect of our national life.

The movement has taken many forms including warped readings of the governmental documents which they mis-quote in attempting to start such an idea or to sustain what they seem to think they have created.

Every time we get a re-run of such talk in the various levels of the media, I am reminded of those literary lunkheads who occur with regularity who feel it is necessary they write a novel without using the letter “e”. It can be done. It has been done. At the end, such authors have had only a book of words they called a novel which did not make use of the letter “e”. I have suggested, in the past, that such “no-e” writers should try something more difficult such as writing a review of their “no-e” novel and of its ultimate purpose without using the personal pronoun “I”.

Eliminating God from our lives would also be an ego thing.

We have, I feel, been blessed by having lived in a nation in which the founder opposed the concept of an official state church. I can't find any convincing statements,or even half-statements or random, out-of-context references which any of them said they favored total elimination of religious faith.

Far too often, those who argue either side of the current “discussion “are either ignorant of the opinion of the founders or they are ignoring its true content.

We are a nation given to the use of labels, too, which complicates the problem. We have a set of people we call “Liberals” and another set we call “Conservatives”. In theory each is separate for the other, but in actual practice, there is a gray area between the two in which individuals control the degree to which they support or demean the labeled guidelines. Far to often these in-between sentiments are ignored by the rabid individuals who are usually self-designated spokespersons for either the Liberal and Conservative groups. We do not get a true report of what the bulk of the people really believe. That shows when the issue comes to a vote of some type ...each side complains of poor support from the rest of us. Too often it is the leadership which is Liberal or Conservative in a strict sense.

Semantic problems exist. If the Conservative sees all Liberals as God-less persons he or she is making a sad error. It is not true that all Liberals are, then, automatically atheists or agnostics. And, for the Liberal person to assume that every Conservative is a Bible-thumbing/pounder hillbilly or desert-rat type is the victim of wrongful thinking. Politicians, wisely, walk with special care on any sure religious areas subject to such unmarked quicksands, swamps, chasms, winds of wild change, torrential storms and life-sapping drought as well.

We need to reform our views, redefine our objectives so we can, at least, meet and talk about them. To continue to stand apart and yell insults at each other is not solving the problem at all.

A.L.M. December 10, 2004 [c553wds]

 
RAH FOR HAKLUYT!!!

Let's hear a three-fold cheer for Richard Hakluyt!

Or, perhaps, you'd rather not raise a ruckus on behalf of someone you don't know; possibly never heard about. That's good logic. He certainly hasn't been in the news recently; has run for office, robbed a pizza shop, or been accused of murdering rock concert fans.

You are not alone if you don't recognize the signature of Richard Hakluyt. Like Smucker's fine collection of caloric products he has to have been good with a name like the one. To remember the name just misspell “hack” as “hak” and then append your very best misspelling of “lute” as “luyt.” There! Got it? He was originally from Hereforshire – originally of Welsh background - where he was said to be one of those “Hack-loot” boys.

He was an historical figure.

Because Richard Hakluyt lived back in the time of discovery and early settlement of the new world area. He was the one person who did the most to bring the varied assortment of information available to the attention of the Royal family of England and to the merchants, bankers, and others able to participate in developing commerce with a “new”England he envisioned to be an urgent project. He urged Royal concern for the planned colonial plans which Sir Walter Raleigh, had hoped to establish. Richard Hakluyt, who had worked in Paris for half a decade, was aware of the plans of both the not-so-secret plans by Spanish and French governments to exclude England from the development of the new world.

In 1584 Hakluyt placed before Queen Elizabeth I a copy of his “Discourse” outlining the entire project. He discussed the discovery rights The British held to great expanses the New World and gave basically a twenty-three point analysis of the reasons for undertaking settlement of the new world promptly. One of the maps placed before the Queen was the first in which the name "Virginia" appeared, ...probably intended to met the eye of the “Virgin Queen”. Hakluyt, received a vacant “living”in Bristol in l586, which he held with several other preferments until his death in 1616. It i interesting to note that, so firm was his belief that the colonies in the New World that he, in 1605, applied for and received the prospective living set to become available when James Town became the capital of the new colony in Virginia. The benefice was supplied, too, in 1607 when he appointed one Robert Hunt as Curator at that post.

We owe a great debt to Richard Hakluyt in so many ways. He compiled the information gained by scores of not too thoughtful and methodically-minded explorers, adventurers. fisherman, and a few egotist-mariners among them, as well... and placed the information they had gathered in a useful form before the right people.

Without Richard Hakluyt the French and Spanish intentions may well have taken over the area and we would not be here in Virginia today. He died in 1616 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. In his lifetime, due to the numerous prebendary and living posts he held, Hakluyt died a “wealthy man”. He build a fortune and his son squandered it all. We, probably can be said to squander the wealth of the fine heritage he left to us, as well, by not remembering all that he did on our behalf.


A.L.M. December 8, 2004 [c575wds]

 
ARABIC YOUTH

Do you sometimes get the feeling that the population group we call “Youth” does not exist in Arabic lands?

Our young people form natural levels largely due, I suppose, to a large degree by our system of education by class divisions, determined by the intensity in learning.

As I see children depicted on television and in the media, in general, I find one level we have in abundance - people in the Youth classification but they seem to be missing in Arabic lands.

We have “youths” in this country who are citizens at an in-between, formative stage. Some are still attending High School, some are in a college setting of one type or another, while others in the age group are in business, commerce and industry as learners, beginners, ,and in the jargon of fast food industry, in particular, some are called “management trainees". Some, too, are in the armed forces of nation. Some are married and have children . The age span may run from the late teens, then, into the mid-twenties. They speak and think of themselves as being the “Youth” of America. They can show am amazing control of major sections our economy by their purchases; they can influence the popular view of all aspects of living in the world today, by their sometimes ,outspoken even belligerents voices they can cause a teetering in upper social levels.. They are sensational statistics at times in fanciful charts claiming to show what might become of us as a nation in the future. This vibrant segment of our population may also be said to have been “high-teched” to a point which some critics think is “a bit much”. The youth of our nation is schooled and, by training and experience to use of the Media for a myriad number of purposes many of which are being formulated as they go along to whatever conditions make them viable.

Don't you agree that we do, indeed, have such a group in our society? I can find in other nations as well, but “youth”, per se, seems to be absent in Arabic. Our method of study is television and that may hinder us from seeing all that is to be seen. We see the skinny kids throwing rocks and anything and everything they consider to be hostile. Others, also thin and seemingly undernourished, stand mute and motionless watching bombed-out cars burn. A lanky boy might toss a piece of rubbish on the pyre as if to keep it going and shake his fist gingerly in the air - at whom we dare not guess. All these are urchins, kids, kindergarten and early graders in any school system. You will, occasionally, see a few older boys in the street crowds, milling about, and in groups weaving their arms when told to do so. Since reforms, we now see some young teen-age girls in the schoolrooms scenes but not elsewhere.

I think the male youths of the land - aged late teens to the mid-twenties – are hidden in the crowds of older men. It seems that the young boy, once he begins to grow a more than few hairs his face, abruptly become a full-grown man. He is in those crowds we see - young in enthusiasm but old in appearance. They remain largely arm wavers, stampers, jumpers as they applaud the actions of older, or hairier, men among them.. as hey are more active - firing guns into the air; brandishing weapons and screaming insults at anyone opposite them. Whom ever the older men hate the less hairy will hate as well. One gets the feeling the are managed by oldsters ...puppets.

We look to our youth as tomorrows leaders. I don't see such potential in the hirsute hero of Arabian lands.

A.L.M. December 8, 2004 [c638wds]

 
THE DAY THAT LIVES

Our President Franklin D. Roosevelt told us it would “live in infamy - the day of December 1941.

And it has done so, I think, to a remarkable extent.

I spent most of the day today in rather strange location for the observance of Pearl Harbor Day but very fitting in many ways It happened to be the date of one of my periodic visits to the Veteran's Hospital facility in Salem, Virginia. Yet, walking through - and wheel-chairing, at times - in some of the old buildings there on that spread-out, campus-style installation, I did find myself “remembering” Pearl Harbor – the Day - the sneak attack brought deaths to thousands, injuries of many people in so many tragic ways – and the day which set a pattern which changed the rest of my life and the lives of those I loved, continue to love and will love. It changed everything I ever did.

I noticed on the way into the grounds that one of the major buildings had a banner above the door proclaiming seventy years of service and that's why I spoke of the building as being “old”. I remember when the site was what we called a “flying field” I don't think we ever called “Cook's Field” an “airport” It was simply a field reasonably flat and clear or trees, from which a farmer had evicted his cattle and which visiting airmen used as a place to base their planes with hobby or profit plans in mind. I always assumed the farmer's name had been Cook.

Why should any or all of that mean something to me on Pearl Harbor Day? I suppose it is called “specific reference”; or “association”. I was just a kid and one Sunday afternoon I saw a young man jump from a small bi-plane roaring high above the field and fall to his death on the fare edge of the field. His case was a suicide, and that doesn't “count” for much in my book, but because of Pearl Harbor day in 1941 I have since felt the effect of flying deaths multiplied many times over.

We have yet to solve the complex background which led to the attack on Pearl Harbor, but we have all felt the after-effects deeper than we dare to imagine. Prior to that day, I, for one, was not eager to join, but after Pearl Harbor it was a set thing which was sure to happen and I welcomed it when it came to me. I went where the sent; asked no favors, did as I was told drilled, marched, hiked, underwent thirteen weeks of infantry basic training in swampland with bugs and by some strange quirk I was suddenly - with my entire outfit – into the, then, U.S .Army Air Force. All in all, when I got out I had spent, or mis-spent four or five years in the military mode – more than precise enlistment time, because a civilian could not get a good job if he was “going” and he had to take what he could get when he got back. Mine was an odd military career and we will look at particular aspects in the future, perhaps. but for the moment let me say that the Veteran's Hospital routines remind me, in so many ways, of life in the army. The “hurry-up and wait” element is still alive and well. “Sick Call” is still sick.”

This “infamy” idea F.D.R. used so well. He chose exactly the right word and if you look it us in the dictionary or the thesaurus to see all of the subtle meaning of the term. You will see his choice was a wise one and accurate.

The American people need some reminders. I find young people today who do not respond at all to any mention of December 7th ,or of “Pearl Harbor”, for that matter.

We can't point fingers to establish “fault, either.

This, and other related lapses, are no ones specific fault. It's a collective thing concerning a loss of values with which we are dealing in so much of living today. It is, I fear, a major problem of our era.


A.L.M. December 7, 2004 [c707wds]

 
EXCESS

People of other nations, so often, seem to see Americans as being a people of excess in almost everything we undertake.

We do a TV special which wraps up a major story in a “complete, finished for all time package”. We tell everything we know about a subject, a scandal, a battle, or a display of pomp and pretense by someone in the public eye. A recent attempt brought the Princess Diane story to the forefront after it had been covered more than adequately not too long ago. Gossipy tid-bits of information surfaced from some crevice which had been missed before – or considered to be reliable or even untrue.

I saw promotional spots about the program but didn’t actually get to see it. I had no desire to do so, to tell the truth, because I felt the story about the Princess and her unfortunate experiences had been given more than full treatment not too long ago. We, as we so often seem to do, went completely overboard with details about the princess and her friends and associates, to put any genuine credence in materials dealing with an alleged indiscretions during her later days. I suddenly realized this morning that I have not heard from a single soul who actually saw “the startling, new revelations.

We are mis-using war stories from Iraq and Afghanistan by repeating them for so many days and nights. This lapse of creativity by TV personnel does the nation a disservice by repeated such stories some the men and women who are on the sites on our behalf. You have no doubt that is is good advice that we refrain from showing our small children the pictures of the Trade Towers being destroyed. Children seeing those photograph and think it is all happening again! They do not see it as something that took place a year at one time – but as another such incident happening at that moment before them! They wonder why we can't stop the enemy form burning out tall building! You have to be automotive expert to be able to identify the vehicle you see burning on the roadside in Iraq. Often it is the same one you saw burning yesterday and the day before. The audio portion of the item doesn't tell you that is the same one you have seen burst into flame dozen times or more! Most adults who see it opt in favor of a new vehicle. “Why can't the marines stop those roadside bombings on that mile-and- a half of highway!” You too may have heard those very words spoken on TV as I have when such a shot was repeated.

Recently deceased Yasher Arafat was an expert at use excess to advantage. I knew two American tourists who were in Arafat-land year ago,who were pleased with his actions. Their tour groups were each was treated to a special, “secret” audience with Arafat. Their travel groups were taken by car through the streets to the leader's “secret hiding place”. He moved freely among them and my two friends were very much impressed with his views and friendly attitude. They were in his presence over one year apart but he presented each with slides of a Palestinian widow picking though stones of her blasted home; two children sobbing at her side. The tourists each told me the pictures had been taken “that very morning” - of the same woman children a full year apart.
Go to excess in the celebration of Christmas, if you must – but let's try to to keep our misery within sensible bounds. Listen carefully to that which you hear; look carefully at that which you see.

A.L.M. December 6, 2004 [c624wds]

 
PRESENT TENSE

I sometimes question that which seems me to be a rather shallow “futuristic” attitude concerning the way we live. We become far too much and much too readily concerned about “the way things are going to be tomorrow” and overlook the opportunity we have at hand in the present and often tense moments our lives today.

I mention it now because I also get a kindred feeling that at the same time, we are, thus complicating and weakening our nation.

The present – tense or sedate – is an active one. It builds constantly and it builds on firm foundations and not on the fickle, shifting sands of popular opinion, whims or styles. It is a good thing, perhaps, to keep some ideas of what future living might involve, but to jump over existing barriers thinking that puts us in closer contact with tomorrow, is a false view. The very promise of a bright tomorrow means we must find solutions to problems which make it unlikely to be in sync with our natural dreams of the paradise it might become.

“Now” is here. You can work with it to make “then“ even better.

Make clean break with misdeeds and mistakes of the past and take a firm step upon firmer land for tomorrow. Do those things which need to be done today. Do them now. Don't wait for some indefinite time in the years ahead ...near or far.

Glance at the burgeoning pages of “Help Wanted” advertisements in the newspapers of the land, and in the slick pages of the technical journals as well form all over the world. Rid yourself of silly fears about recessions and depressions by driving among the thousands of developments where new homes or all types and sizes are being constructed throughout our nation! Or, push yourself and shopping cart into the streaming throngs of buyers at your local Mall or Shopping Center. Or, take the whole family and enjoy the day at a leading stock car race; a major league baseball game or some other sport you enjoy! Be an active citizen in your area and you will see Americans “living it up” both at work and at play.

Become part of Now.

Do that and the Future will be secured. “Now” will become the “Past” - a time you will honor and respect because you helped build it.

A. L. M. [c402wds] December 5, 2004

 
CIVIC CENTERS

There was a time, not too many years ago, when the local barber shop filled the communities need for, well ...a civic center even though limited largely to talk rather than do. Civic improvements were usually well discussed in the barber shops before being taken before the town council. The hair-cuttery was a good source of news of the day factual or otherwise, true blended with wishful thinking and a bit of down right lying. It could be a place of entertainment. Some barbers had a special knack for remembering the jokes and stories they heard and of repeating them often for days on end.

There were few natural comedians among them, but barbers often developed set routines re-telling the jokes, stories, gossip, rumors, and - no doubt a few downright fabrications they had picked up along their scissoring way. It was a good thing for the hair-cut business, too. It made for extra visits even if a man didn't need a haircut or a shave. Barbers, as a rule, learned to talk almost endlessly about things that filled a primary need within the customer's own little world. Barbers, by and large, were a serious lot, now that I think of it, am while they did a great deal of talking but said very little which was their very own. Now and then, however one came up with a gem of an idea. One, whom I recall, that our town could, if it wished to do so, revive the old community band it had, at one time, sported. He, after all, talked regularly with many of the band's former members. It was not too difficult for him to get them excited about restarting the town band. His name was Byron and he played clarinet. It was not uncommon to find him seated in the shop's sole barbering chair; head against the padded rest; eyes closed as if he were watching the flawless panorama which, illogically, always seemed to go with the re-playing of a memorized tune from long ago. Single handedly, Byron, the barber, got the old town band going again by shaming the oldsters and by teasing and urging youngsters such as my brother and I to join on trombone and cornet.

The local barber shop was often a source of strength and inspiration to men. It was a “Men Only” domain as a rule. The only time you saw women in the town barber show was Saturday morning when they herded reluctant children forward to mount the high barbering chair with about as much enthusiasm as they might show at the dentist's office.. Some children had to be held down for their first hair-cut while others accepted it as one of the fearful moments a child must face as they advanced in years. Saturday morning was deemed to be the proper proper time for children's hair-cutting expeditions and barbers feared them as one of the occupational hazards they had to learn to face. Saturday afternoon barber shop activities turned to sports such as hunting and fishing and Saturday night until a vague “closing time” - the subject was politics – all male.

It was quite an asset to the community, at least, from a male perspective, and the traditional barber shop ceased to exist when the first radio was taken into such a shop. That fantastic, high-tech, electronic, blue-toothed gizmo of our time sealed the fate of the barber shop as we once knew it to be.

I can't say that I miss it, but it is good for us to remember – at times – how it used to be.
A.L.M. December 4, 2004 [c616wds]

 
2092 AD

Are we about to rediscover America?

We may not be aware of the entirely possible change of time in which we are currently living.

These early years of the 21st Century A.D. are extremely variable and it may well prove to be that the distant future will be called, perhaps : “The Age of Re-determination”, or some newly tricked-out term which will delineate the close-cut details in each fabulous facet of our civilization at that time and place.

Right now, during these early years of our time span we label as “The 21st Century”, and we are marking the very time the first English settlements were made in the “New World”. About four hundred years ago, a new era came to be reality for thousands of people who undertook to move westward for several thousand miles. They covered sea and soil. We, in our time, are now “covering” space and infinites of unknown dimensions and potentials - both good and perhaps evil, who knows?

Yet, looking into that which is beyond the beyond of our conscious awareness, we realize again-and-again, through an endless series of wars and on conflicts of ideas and ideals we are aware of the accusative fact that we live in a warped world. For our new era to come alive, active and aggressive we need to find a new, firmer, more reasonable sense of international unity.

We agree we need such a time. After a major war at the start of the 20th Century a “League of Nations” was founded seeking world-wide peace and cooperation. We did not, as a nation, take an official role in that dream concept, wisely so considering the sands on which it was fabricated. In the middle years of the same century the same nations formed the same sort of wishful arrangement by starting a group which they was named United Nations. It was semantically imperiled from the start because it was far too easy for handlers to reverse the letters “i” and “t” to their selfish advantage.

The key word for our future is consolidation ...union ...oneness.

` Just this past week our President spent several days in Canada, Anglo-French nation to the north across the ”longest unfortified national boundary on Earth.” He wisely chose to speak in Nova Scotia where anti-war demonstrators were less numerous. FDR paid a tea-time drop-in years ago, but we have been noticeably absent from Maple Leaf land for decades of decaying diplomacy. President Fox in Mexico used to sell Coca-Cola which marks him as pro-American. At this moment few of us can comfortably conceive of a time when those nations and the Central American states will be part of a larger, unified body as well. Vancouver, B. C. will be the Hong Kong and financial of the Pacific Rim. The unification will start with the grain farmers on western Canada who are, in an economic sense, already a part of the American markets. Bi-lingual Quebec will continue to be a problem.

World-wide, South America will become more of a united living area by adapting some of the positive elements of Pan American projects of the past. The Euro nations will go along with more than just their money. Africa can become such a unit. Even wildly diversified Asia can, in time, find greater unity. Don't overlook Down Under either incorporating Pacific Islands not a part of the main land or coastal islands.

Like it or not, we are blending. Our nearby town has thirty-eight-eight per of its school children learning English as a second language. Church services are held in Spanish, Korean and Russian - and others I dare say. Stores and TV display bi-lingual signs.

Chris Colombo sailed in 1492. Who will be sailing what when 2092 A.D comes barrelling in? Think about it! You will want your grandchildren to be ready for whatever it might prove to be.

A.L.M. December 3, 2004 [c659wds]

 
FUNNY STUFF?

I've seen a good many pratfalls in my time; taken a few myself, and I can't seem to get myself into a mood which automatically thinks of all of them as being funny. Dumb? Yes. Embarrassing? Yes. Painful? Sometimes, and they can also be dangerous. I fail to see any of them as being “funny”and yet producers of TV family-type fun shows see to think everyone sees a bad tumbles as the main in ingredient of funny bone stuff.

So many of these potential side-splitter gags are supposed to be videotapes which the sender – en en entirely by chance - “happened to catch on film”. The featured falls are made to appear to have been accidental but you don't have to be a film critic or an award winning cinematographer to realize they are produced, premeditated and some faked.

I suppose some viewer think anything that seems to happening to someone else might think of it as being funny. These sudden falls are crude and violate the usual purist rules about mistreating men,women, children and animals. I am supposed to think it is funny when a little girl falls a throne, six-foot bush. A kitten falling all over itself in an automatic driver is not high on my fun card. You can see why pratfalls by old people -long, slithering slides before they hit the icy pavement, would not inspire laughter in me and other older viewers.

The viewer contributed video shows are, perhaps, the main offenders. I hate to see some really decent emcee talent being cheapened and killed by such mundane burlesque humor. On such host called his routine a “crotch and cleavage ” series. Every time you see him usher his kids into the back yard with baseball bats in hand you know what is going to be featured for the next five minutes. It will all fade away when either a well-aimed ball or a flying bat hits pop – and we take impromptu and painful leave of the sports milieu as Dad bends over in agony and a commercial begins to brings us temporary relief.

There is a positive side at times, when something really funny creeps into the shows format and those, as a rule, strike me as being more genuine. It is difficult to set up enough cameras to catch all possible angles, and then to sit there and try to think of something funny to film. Humor seldom works that way.

Fortunately, some genuine humor creeps into the format now and then, which, perhaps, saves the shows when renewal time comes due. They make profitable re-run and cable packages, and the payment for such material high which that the commercial success of the original series must have been substantial They can be useful, too, in the sense that if you can look at them and you find yourself laughing at situations which are not at all funny - then you might consider ...well, think about some changes.

You don't want your entire life to be one of “tune in next week for more of the same.”

A.L.M. December 2, 2004 [c527wds]

 
TRUST

One thing keeps coming up these days which causes me to have moments of worry. I find more and more people who are expressing doubts about our political future.

The one key word which is to be found at the root of much of the trouble we know today around the world, I think, is the term “apathy”. We no longer seem to believe firmly in basic principles by which we must live in order to get along with others for mutual survival.

We keep finding areas in which we seem to have deliberately disconnected our living from our heritage. We have worked hard in recent decades to rid ourselves of concern for basic principles.

Much of our distrust of governmental bodies and processes stems from such aberrations as Watergate, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, Protestant TV evangelist's romance revelations, Catholic priesthood's erratic interest in youthful males, and even older organizations such as the Society of the White Camellia and the Silver Shirt troops we have all but forgotten from World War II days. We lost our trust in organizations along the way and government it was a logical victim sooner or later.

What are we doing about it all? We are still enacting advanced postage rates to slow down the distribution of information. We are making a money game by steadily increasing the cost of Internet connections for our computers.

Our common way to meet such problems ,it seems, is to concentrate all of the many information dissemination methods we have mastered and talk ...talk ...talk them to death. We drive them away by overkill. We talk about them until we are sick and tired of hearing anything more about them. We, for a time, accept such freedom as if it was a solution, and then we wonder why the problem returns worse than it was before.

Our information age living has become more tedious as it has grow more and more varied. “Google” has come to be the poor man's accepted University, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, EB, Farmer's Almanac, news stand and novelty shoppe.

We are deceiving ourselves. There are people who delight in saying Thomas Jefferson did not go back far enough when urging the public having information abundantly available.

He was speaking of acquiring “knowledge.”

We need to tap our ancient heritage of “wisdom”, the deeper facets of edification, so we can learn to handle that which we have been allowed to learn.

A.L.M. December 1, 2004 [c418wds]

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