Saturday, January 17, 2004
A BOLD MOVE
A leadership group know as The Harvest Foundation, located in Martinsville,.Viirginia - Henry County in Southside Virginia is seeking to have a four-year public college established in their area. They stand ready to back such an effort with a fifty million dollar challenge grant to the commonwealth to get the institution started.
Two Martinsville developers have offered a one-hundred acre site, off Route 58 and the development of such a four-year college and the Foundation is urging the construction as "one of the keys to economic competitiveness in the 2lst century" The general public is supporting the effort more actively since the announcement of the grant, and it is encouraging to see that the members of the Board of Supervisors Henry County have unaimously agreed to support the plan and have set forth a resolution calling for the creation of a university in the area.
It is an encouraging thing to see a community, once again, alert to the potential of the future. To aspire to such a goal seems to have vanished from the American Dream, but it is very much alive, and doing quite well, thank you, in Martinsville, Virgjnia and surroudning Henry County. Their innovative approach to a real need is inspiring and I, for one, believe they will, in time, achieve their goal.
Another key to sucess in the future, should also be considered by these same groups of civic minded individuals. The reaction of Governor Mark Warner and the Commonweath of Virginia was supportive while seeming to be understandably hesitant. The Governor's statement, which he made recently in announcing the fact hat "MasterBrand" Cabinets is to build a new plant in the area, holds another key for Southsiders..Whether it's for a new college, the Govermor said,"or some other new project, until the state gets its finanical house in order, it can't take on new financial commitments." He was right. The members of the Foundation would, I think, realize that, and seek other ways of bringing their dream about.
With that goal in mind, It is time to open Martinsvile and the Henry County area to new business success. It can be done by actively supporting plans build a totally new Piedmont Interstate Highway from the Triangle area of North Carolina, north to Martinsville, Lynchburg and into the Frostburg, Maryland area, Such a highway is urgently needed to take pressures of overuse from Interstates 81 and 95. Now is the time for Southside legislators and leaders to act while temporary modification shemes for I-81 are meeting with renewed opposition from both trucking firm,s and private car owners. The proposed plans call for making Intertate 81 a Toll Road and proposed "improveents" are largely cosmetic in nature such as widening some areas, adding an additonal lane - theoretically for "trucks only", other "make-do" and "fix-it" gimmicks creating safety hazard thus far unknown to the 300-plus mile passageway to northern market areas.
Right now there is an open window of opportunity for the same innovative leaders of Southside who have spoken out so boldly for a college in their area, to actively support a plan for such a new Interstate highway through the area. New economic advantages will come with such a veture and the dramed-of univeristy level school facility will become more feasable and certain.
A.L.M. January 16. 2004 [c460wds]
Friday, January 16, 2004
January 16, 2003
BAN ON BOOZE
One of the great features of our national life when I was a kid was the concept of probibiting the use of alcholic beverages nationwide by setting up legislation which said it was illegal to do so. After surviving such an era, I think I may safely say it did not work.
I do not remember the actual campaign which resulted in the concept being built to such a peak that it became a law. Those were Post War years with "Kaiser Bill" in exile chopping his own firewood. In the "Roaring Twenties,"as those years came to be tagged, the law was ridiculed, disobeyed and questioned. It amazes me, now that I think about it , that it took until 1934, wasn't it, for the law to be repealed.
Our family did not seem to be too concerned about it one way or the other, but I can remember my Grandmother and other famly members talking about the way saloons once did thrive in every block of every city and talk about the terrible miseries of family in which the evil monster of strong drink was a genuine horror. I think we kids agreed that there was a need for reform and not only in that paricuar area of social life pof he early part of the century - new, then, just as our days are for us in the next century.
It was common in those days for residents in rural areas, in particular, to be engaged in other than farming as occuation. Entire areas were given over entirely to the illicit manufacture of any types of which came to be called "moonshine" - used widely as in comedy. The empahsis was, naturally, in isolated, rural areas.but there were functioning distiliing systems in the towns and cities as well. They were constantly being raided and trashed out, but they were back in business within a week. They became more and more complex over the years. but many were quite obvious and even “open”. As a young music dance band musician I worked in so-called “bootleg joints”. One, which was
raided from time to time, had a simple system. The investigators never noticed there was always a happy, black lady was always washing pots and pans. She laughed heartily as she stood there shining a big copper kettle. At the first, which, a the first signs of a raid, its contents had gone down the drain and a suddsy aroma permeated the area. Our family doctor, who served many people living on the mountin ridge above town could, from his porch on Sunday moring, point out scorers of rising [ plumes of smoke each an operating still. Their owners and operators outnumbered those forces working to see the end of such operations.
Today we have serious problems which demand attention and it might a mark of wisdom if we would remember what happened when we decided we could ban booze. It is becoming more plain every day that it is difficult to pass any legislation to control morality and human social conduct. Let’s not be too hasty in total eradication. When a thing is made to be a "no-no", that only spurs many people to seek ways to get around it.
Controls? Yes. Total bans? No.
A.L.M. January 17, 2004 [c423wds]
Thursday, January 15, 2004
OBSTACLE COURSE
I was one of many draftees in the early days of World War II who was assigned to a basic training program which was planned to create Medics specifically for infantry units. We were sent a former WWI camp where barracks from that training period were still in use.
A new obstacle course was built by Quartermaster Corp workmen who had a strange sense of humor, in the construction thereof. It was booby-trapped to make life even more rigorous for the incoming infantry medics who were supposed to be transformed into a new bred of tough, endurance-oriented corpmen to support fast-moving infantry units.
Existing obstacle courses to be used in their training were considered too easy. On the overhead series of ladders above a deep swampy creek the pipes which firmed the rungs were not only spaced at varied distances instead of at rhythmic distances. That was innovation enough, but the real trick was to leave at least two of them loose in their sockets so they would roll instead of hold firm. I discovered them the hard way and waded ashore after the second one.
Once I knew the were there, I changed my grip and had no more trouble.
We did our thirteen weeks of hikes and swamp camping routines. We were put though what I found out later was more rigorous than usual training. There was an entire battalion of us, too - not a small company. At the end of the full thirteen weeks of intensive training, someone discovered there was no need - much less demand - for such medics. The entire battalion was transferred summarily into the United States Army Air Corps.
Even today, people cannot understand how or why I entered the army as “Infantry” and came out as “Air Force.”
Why would I bring all this up today? I do so because in life and living today we come across some situations which make us wonder if anyone knows, for sure, what might be going on about us.
Do you every wonder why our schools continue to teach young people to fill jobs which no longer exist? Why do we build cars designed to do hundreds of miles per hour with no highways on which they could might be run? Or, why do we judge movies by the amount of dollars spent to see them rather than the number of people who do so? Oh, there are hosts of things we do every day which (Quote) “do not make good sense.”(Unquote)
We build and maintain some very tough obstacle courses for each other in things we do or fail to do.
A.L.M. January 14, 2004 [c-451wds]
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
January 14, 2004
THIS IOWA THING
Many people seem to think of the primary being held in Iowa this week as an “election.”
Far from it. There are no voting booths, no chad producing, folded forms, no electronically sustained machines to be accused of malfunction in tallying up votes.
The Iowa system has been devised somewhat haphazardly over the years as a means of making it appear that the nomination of candidates comes from the heart of the people, rather than from a small group of experienced, campaign-hardened politicians in a “back” room , preferable “smoke-filled” - getting together to decide to back the individual they think who can win, rather than be the best man to lead our nation.
The Iowa Primary has often been likened to series of Town Meetings all being held at the same time. Each such caucus of kindred interests selects a candidate from the list presented – and there is a real bevy of them this year; and, after some haggling seeking other caucus groups to favor their choice as well, they put their wishes together to find the chosen one. He or she will be the candidate to whom the state's delegates to the National Democratic Convention will be pledged and obligated.
It Iowa primary has become increasingly important on a national scale largely because it happens to be first. The District of Columbia names its few delegates the same day but that usually goes by virtually ignored. New Hampshire is the next big one a few days later. This gives the media people enough time to pontificate on “the revelations, astounding shifts, puzzling trends and what-if” factors of Iowa and maintain enough momentum to carry them to the promising New Hampshire event. It also provides enough time for them to move their ever-growing caravan of TV tower trucks and personnel vans from corn to granite frequencies.
Entire political careers live or die with this Iowa affair. Some political fires are quenched forever. Others are caused to “s moulder” because of a relatively good showing in Iowa.
There would be a school of thought, I suppose. which would rather be chosen by working politicians in a back room - smoky or not - rather than a varied group of voters who are a very small fraction of the entire number of voters in a state, who think they know what they are doing - however sincere they might be.
A.L.M. January 13, 2004 [c-420wds]
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
OLD ROCKIN CHAIRS
Among a few other useful items, Ben Franklin is generally credited with the invention of the rocking chair.
We have Ben bashers about who insist that is not true.
Like the more modern inventor named Thomas Alva Edison, old Ben was always thinking about things which had not been done, or they both liked to taking \on the creation of things which other people said “could not be done.”
I have an idea a number of eager resters may have put curved boards under the legs of chairs long before Ben did., but they were not inventive and failed to realize that what had been done could be a helpful thing to all mankind - go-go gadget to put movement back in sitting still.
We have just one .so called,“Evans” Rocking Chair remaining in our home right now. Others have been shifted down one generation. “Evans” is a local “brand: here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia - chairs made by Walter Evans, his brother Charlie or by their father who had passed the art of chair making an caning down to his two sons. The Evans mark is just beginning to have real money-meaning at area auction points.
It was my good fortune to know both of the Evan' boys for a decade or so. The name was locally said as “Iv-ens” rather than “Ev-ans” - rhyming with “livings” They made many kinds of chairs under what has to be called primitive conditions. They made everything “from scratch”. All materials they obtained themselves from nearby woodlands. - most of which was owned by my father-in-law Irving Driver. He was very close to the boys in many ways, grew up with them, and never understood why the boys insisted on refusing to allow any electricity on their “places. They used wood stove and fire places small homes they did all of their shop work with all of their “machinery” powered solely by foot-pedals turning cogs overhead by means of leather strap connections.
I have to writ e it as being plural - as “places” - because when I came to know the Evans boys they had not spoken to each other for twenty years or more. It happened right after their Dad died, I understand, and folks al;ways told me that it came to an end “of a sudden” when Charlie, the younger of the two up and got married without consulting Walter. Charlie got himself married and that did it.. He moved, with his bride, to a location six or seven miles east near the town of New Hope, Virginia - booted out of the family homestead which had become ever so humble and run down. Charlie fixed up a small place with a workshop, and it too, like the old one,and the new house how no electric power, no inside bathroom, a small tank cistern but no well for the ground would not perk on the hill.. They hauled their water from a creek good mile away. Like Walter they got about at night with the aid of lamps/.They caned chairs as they have always done, by the fireside light.
There was time when I may have scoffed at people who would say one rocker “sat” better than another. I favor our Evans Rocker over others .It does seem to have a better “sit” to it. I'm comfortable and part of it, I suppose, is thinking about the3 troubles those two boys made for each other until their dying days... and Charlie's wife, too. How could, two people, so miserable with life itself make such comfortable, restful, supportive chairs? It may be that, with every piece of furniture they made, they put their entire world of love and energy in the working thereof, since they were unable to share it with humanity in any other way.
A.L.M. January 12, 2004 [c653wds]
Monday, January 12, 2004
LISTEN CAREFULLY
Are we listening to the right voices today concerning China?
The ancient commercial city of Venice had leaders who did not respond readily to the voices of Marco Polo, his father Nicollo and Uncle Maffio Polo. They had returned from the Orient with news of the riches of Genghis Kahn's then thriving empire the Polo's spoke with authority of their twenty-five year journey. Their words urging the Venetians to engage in trade with the rich oriental people they had come to know went unheeded. Their words were appreciated more as entertainment than as business advice or guidance.
How do we think of that vast area today?
Our views have reversed themselves in recent years. It has not been many years since China was viewed as a potential enemy - a “yellow peril”, It had been branded as such long ago on a basis of questionable thinking in both social studies and in politics. Our subsequent leaders shied away from any dealings with them.
Marco, Papa and Uncle had Silk Road superficial which enabled them to deal, with the fringes of the fabulous Oriental markets. Their discoveries showed the famed merchants of Venice how they could make a killing, but they did not respond as one might expect. Part of the reason they did no do so is to be found in the fact that Marco Polo, the young, energetic spokesman for the threesome and their crew is found to have been too skilled in the telling their story. His manner, his youthful enthusiasm and picturesque way of saying things entertained them but failed to convince them.
Polo painted a picture of great wealth awaiting Europeans in China. Today we have been sold on the idea of extreme poverty and political confusion being the norm in China and we are to see the area as a great potential market for American products. However, the actual evens which have happened are exactly the opposite. Our trade deficit grows daily as we import thousands of products “Made in China” more with each passing year.
It is obvious that we have, in recent decades, listened to and taken the advice of the wrong voices. We may we;ll have been entertained by brighter news from the Orient, but we have. in some way, been mislead or mis-directed. The old merchants of Venice found their place in time, and we may,yet, do so with some prompt attention to the conditions which exist between our nation and the Chinese.
Listen up! We seem to have been paying attention to vibrant, energetic, entertaining Marco when we should have been seeking out the word of his father Niccolo or his Uncle Maffio. Anyway, there is a need for some serious - above and beyond party politics - re-thinking of our trade with China. What was supposed to be the cart is now dragging the horse.
A.L.M. January12, 2004 [c480wds]
Sunday, January 11, 2004
HOW MUCH?
What are our limits? Do we have any bounds beyond which we dare not go?
Again, we are talking seriously about going to Mars. This time we plan o do a stop over at a moon settlement which we establish to give us platform on which to stand in order that we might find it easier to blast off for the Red Planet. That goal is situated a few million miles down, up, over, across, or through the space between the two locations.
Notice, if you will, how non-nonchalantly, how casually we mention that part of the plan which calls for us to put permanent way-station on the surface of Moon .We are, it seems, stating a known fact that we are capable of doing so without a great deal of trouble – except monetary expense, which we minimize enough in the telling, to make it seem that the sooner we get started on the project the better. It has not been too many years ago when we wondered about the possibility of ever doing that sort of thing at all.
That's just one point we had best give some serious consideration if we wish to assure any kind of a future at all for ourselves and our progeny. One of them we attempt to set aside but it is one which grows on you the more it is ignored.. We disguise the simple warning that tells us fat is fatal. We try to ignore it. It grows on you anyway, We are becoming overweight - too much so for our vital organs to properly handle our mass and the relationship is worsening constantly, it seems.
I have no idea who would ever want to figure out but such studies now show that Americans eat about nineteen acres of pizza per day. Not that pizza is an offender to acquiring excess weight, but when it is overdone. That's true pf so many of our favorite foods in each of the food groups. Gluttons get gout, and from steady stomach stuffing by any one of them. So food intake is another area of today's living where we might well learn to apply more common sense,
A third instance among which we tend to go to excessive use in pour present lifestyle is plastic materials present among us in the form of small, printed cards which enable us to buy things as if we had real money in hand. Credit cards, Debit cards, of plastic or fancy cardboard, membership cards which entitle you to benefits not available to others, all such seemingly free passes to pleasure, rove to be painful in time.. Years ago, when Diner's Club introduced the first such card, I remember so well, wanting one, but I never arrived at that point where I could afford to do so. Huge mountains of the family debts are today credit card caused.
We are nation blessed with plenty. And yet, seemingly as a part of our very nature, we want more - or better than we have. That is a good trait in that it keeps us from becoming a nation which complacently accepts conditions as they exist at a given time as being the best, not only for ourselves but for others as well. We go to some curious clothing styles at times, for instance, taking to fashions and styles which a generation look silly. We have been given a sense of humor to deal with such problems of excess. Even now we are just emerging., I feel, from a revolution in our musical life.. Years ago we became so satiated with melody that young blood in times of turmoil and unrest, called for a return to primitive rhythms We are just now showing signs of recovering from this beyond tuneful songs with meaningful lyrics. For that, I give thanks to our Creator. In the era of Acid Rock I had just about given up all hope. That may well be the one point when I feel we came the closest to “too much.”
A.L.M. January10, 2004 [c683wds]
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