Saturday, March 27, 2004
THE CHANGES OF TIME
Times do change and people need to change with them or risk being inundated with cumbersome leftovers from the past.
There is no need to carry excessive baggage if you wish to continue the journey as comfortably as possible. I think we have all done enough traveling to have learned that one travels best when one travels light., and with a sincere willingness to leave some of ;conveniences behind. Luggage which does not conform to the set requirements of the airline or these set by the designer of the family car, automatically, become “excess” and can be eliminated without serious inconveniences or discomfort.
I sometimes feel that things go along with greater speed now than they did a few years ago.. Fads are no more than introduced before they are declared to be “old hat” by some other segments of our rather complex social scheme. Young people seem to be on a constant treadmill of change even though it may well be a return to something they used to feel was different and, therefore, good. Changes come more quickly than before.
The extension of our capacity for conceptual planning should bring about some changes to better our way of living. Our record of using our discoveries wisely may not be the best, but there could be a chance that we may use this tremendous sweep of technical advances - once cw come to comprehend what it really encompasses - may, perhaps, learn how to better govern ourselves and to dwell in peace with others about us
One of the prime attributes of our present governing system is that it, too, is subject to change.. The modifications may no be imposing and may even go undetected but our government structure changes with each national election we hold.. Some such shifts, however small, will result in the relationship between authority and citizenship by the actions we favor.
common people of the nation to be drawn together for the common good.
We need to become more aware of the responsibilitywe hold. Can we bring about that strength which is found in unity?
We need to be aware of of aware that change will evolve. We align our lives with many change which take place in our work-place. We can't simply stand still there and progress. We have to go with the changes and see how they can best work for us. We should be ammendable to worthy changee, but not charmed by it into hasty acceptance of plans which are not examined with care. There are subtle things about the way we look at things from generation to generation, and some will differ with principles we have known for many years. There will be such changes in the future and we have to learn to see each as it is and follow the barriers of awareness as they are pushed forward. We need to be aware, too, that not all chance is presented in its true light.. Move toward change willingly, but wish extreme caution. Some “changers”,.remember, have not changed. Beware of that which does not change.
A.L..M. March 26. 2004 [c544wds]
Friday, March 26, 2004
ANYONE FOR “ MUMBLY PEG?”
Young children, boys, in particular, used to enjoy playing a game called :”Mumbly Peg” Remember?
I had forgotten about it, until just the other day I chanced upon a mention of the rather odd name and much of it came flooding back to me.
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I say “much” because, in our family, at least, the game of mumbly-peg was not on the parentally approved list of past times suitable for play by young boys. Sometimes it was more “tolerated'” than recommended largely because neither of us - parents or children -were really aware of the actual rules of the game which was, at one time played extensively..
The negative votes usually came from the simple fact that parents did not like tube idea of their children tossing sharp knives around, which is .pretty much, what mumbly peg was very much about. As I remember it seemed to occur mostly shortly after Christmas as a way to show off how skilled we had become in the use of the new pocket knives so many of us got for gifts - oddly enough, often from our parents ..Some parents reacted strongly. Others watched the Display of such skills and, yet, could simply walk away while saying :“Boys will be boys!”or some other such evasive statement to remove themselves from any possible responsibility hook.
We played a cut-down version.. Actually, the game called for twenty-four different positions from which a knife must be thrown so that it dug in - point first - in a sod target of well-trimmed grass flat on the ground near the thrower's feet. At best, we used, perhaps, five or six of the suggested positions. The simple truth was we were afraid to try some of them and it also presented a wonderful opportunity to show how ignorance can, indeed, be used as an excuse.
No one for mumbly peg? Good.
A.L.M. March 15. 2004 [c326wds}
Thursday, March 25, 2004
POLITICAL TEMPO
For several weeks I have been wondering about the current presidential election campaign. I’ve had a strange feeling of concern about something being amiss, or of a change that is taking place of which we are not yet fully aware..
I have come to feel, more and more, that it has to do with the timing of the events sol the campaign. I was not the first to question how it came to be that the candidates are using materials which have been, traditionally, retained for use in the final days and hours of the confrontation when there is insufficient time for rebuttal against some of the campaign charges and counter-claims. Issues a personal nature are usually withheld until the late hours of the campaign, but Kerry; questioning George Bush's presence at his National Guard post during the Viet Nam war. Bush set forth official papers including medical reports, and Kerry has yet to do so concerning his wartime activities. He did this far too early in the sequence of planned events, some seem to think. It appears that Kerry’s post-participation in public activism with anti-war groups might well be held for use later on. To embark on that phase of the plans too soon would be risky and it would lose much of its potential value for the GOP.
Why would the campaign seem to get ahead of itself in this manner?
It is, I think, something which runs deeper in our society than the surface of political activities. It is affecting other segments of our national life, and we find ourselves beset with social issues such as “gay marriage laws” and “Under God” motto restrictions. We went at them without definitive investigation and such under study results have been “mixed” at best. It seems, to me, to be connected to with our exceptionally strong advances in the art of communications.
Television, alone. Has revolutionized our political life beyond our ability function well within the old tried-and-true – and often narrow – confines with which we currently have to deal. The use of television in our political campaign has made it totally meaningless for us to have more than a year ahead of the actual Election Day devoted to campaigning. Political actions are faster today.. Where candidates used to require months to get speak to even a small portion of the populace, he can now do in days. By cutting the excessive length of our election time we can avoid voter burn-out which has occurred this year with many voters turning their attention to other concerns such as the War Against Terrorism. Shortening the campaigning period could also help the media do an even more commedable job of reporting. The present elongated system encouyages repetition and the media has been awash in a sea of re-writes, re-runs and deadly use of the same old film clips and snippets.
Our national well being could be even more enhanced if we could be a assured of in depth reforms of our educational system to re-instate the teaching of the history of the United States of America. To secure our future we must have a new generation of qualified, youthful voters being prepared to be better citizens than many of us have been.
We have been alerting to our need for reform by a series of events taking place all around us.
How much longer do we dare wait?
A. L. M. March 24, 2004 [c586wds]
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
AS WE LIKE IT
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So many people seem to be disappointed with TV shows these days. There are more complaints than compliments, and that is exactly the reverse of what it must become if we are to expect improvement..
So many people seem to think the best way to go about it is to attack. You peck at your keyboard and bat out a scathing letter to let them know how you feel - as if they cared.. To let them know you are disturbed by their actions; or irritated by some small detail that went against your beliefs., .What you have written is better known as a “hate letter” which usually contains a threat that you are not going to listen to or watch that show from that time or that you are canceling your subscription to the offending publication. You let 'em have it with both barrels, and you think you feel better having “done something about it.”
The letter gets to the address you selected`. It is then passed around and parts of it read aloud to show what “this nut said.”.They get your letter but you can't hear them laughing ,and :at “you - not “with” you, as they pass your:”hot”latter around as they make various comments on your mental state “Boy! , we really touched a nerve there,,didn't we!” “ Great stuffe. If one guy out there hates us that much, everyone who has not written must have liked what we did!”
I have worked on the other side I have witnessed just this sort of reversed situation in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV work places. Jobs in those fields are thought o be wrapped in an aura of glamor, but it doesn't take long to observe that such a thin veneer fades away and you have to face
reality.
First, to whom are you addressing your harangue? Certainly not to the star of the show, who is a hireling at best,as a rule. And not to station carrying the offending show. That's their living and very often they have to go with materials Th real, far-off owners make available to them, Why should they forward your nasty letter to wherever the main office might be? If you address your insults to any individuals you have whittled your point down to a tiny potentially legalistic danger point. The agency? The producers?
All of these are tuned to compliments, not to criticism. They will read your letter, laugh about it and say (whole searching for any punctuation or grammar error) “ Boyer really got his attention, didn't we!?” That which you intended to be an insult is a compliment in their eyes, because you have shown your weakness as one, lone individual who did not like what you did.”
A far better way to help control the waste of TV programming time by so many new production is to totally ignore them.
It is not easy to do so.
It is a small beginning. Watch diligently for something you do like on your TV screen. There must be something. If there is nothing, you are watching far too much TV and had better turn to some other facet of the media where you can waste your time just as well. Select something you like/ It may be just a feature within a larger show. Talk it up wish friends and family until you become committed. to what you are saying.. Then, write. If you do so,keep it honest and accurate. Keep it direct in a type fan club impoliticly and start by thanking the person for doing it.. It may take months for such a note to get to where it is intended but when it does arrive
it will be respected and appreciated..
Praise what you like. Modestly. Don't overdo it.
Ignore that which does not meet your standards.
If you like it, say so.
A.L.M March 23, 2004 [c659wds]
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
R R SMALLTIME
I once knew an old lady who used to proudly display a stock certificate in a railroad that never ran because it was never built .
Her father had owned the piece of paper in the fall of 1916. I remember that date because I came into being the same year and share the years with that little railroad that never got on the ground.
It was an interesting undertaking. It had the interest of a great many residents of the area but it seems to have been short-lived. It was named The “Radford, Willis and Southern Railroad:” It was to run from Radford, Virginia all the way to Willis, a total of, perhaps twenty-some miles. The word “Southern” was used because Th founders envisioned a time when it would be extended into the Carolinas. .
We can only guess at how the tiny railroad boom ended. Th half dozen men who set out to build the RW&S^Railway apparently had to face up to the financial realities of their time, but the lady who held the worthless bond and associated clippings form the Bradford “Record and Advance: cherished the dream they had set forth. She saw they as being the vanguard
of the hosts of great railroad men who were to expand their dreams to help make our nation the leading industrial; and commercial force the world had ever known.
Long before I became qualified by year to be an old person, I too became a collector of valuable papers. Just because something does not appear to have intrinsic value does not mean it cannot contain wealth as well. .Just because an item does not appear to have intrinsic value does not mean it cannot hold a treasury of memories and aspirations of these persons who ventured beyond the ordinary bounds of their time
A.L.M. March 22, 2004 [c338wds]
Monday, March 22, 2004
TWO PLACED
Have you ever had an interest in bilocation?
It may not rank very high in the world's list of most talked about subjects, but you and I have both wished, at one time or another, to be in two places at the same time.
That's what bilocation is all about. It has also been called “bi-polarization” but some dedicated bi-doers insist that term be reserved to mean one possible method of getting oneself into such a state of physical duplicity.
Sir Robert Peel and a friend were walking in the streets of London one aftenoon when they chanced to meet the poet Lord:Byron. They chatted and agreed to meet that evening. Lord Byron, at that time, however, was at that time far away in Patras, Greece and lying abed, seriously ill.
In 1896 in the city of New York, a man by the name of William MacDonald was being tried for burglary. When he was hiding his loot at a house on Second Avenue, he was apprehend by six witnesses. He put up a fight and, in the confusion of six men trying at get at him, he escaped capture. He disappeared into the darkness of the night.
The six witnesses testified in court that he was the man they had seen.. Each of them swore they had a good look at the man and they named William McDonald as the burglar.
The defense lawyers met the six witnesses with some of their own. Defense argued that the man before them had, at th established time of the crime and under a porphyritic spell cast by Professor Wein on stage at a Brooklyn theater, five miles from the site of the alleged crime. People who has seen him on stage at theater as well as those on stage with him at the time. They attested to the fact that said William McDonald was with them throughout the time designated.
Professor Wien was called to the stand. He testified that he had, indeed, hypnotized MacDonald as a part of his vaudeville act. He also voiced his opinion that it might be possible for a man to be in two places at the same time..
The jury did not accept the added comment by the Professor and acquitted McDonald of all charges.. They seemed to feel that all witness in the case had been speaking the truth a. When it was all over and MacDonald was free, someone asked him where he had been. He said he had not the slightest idea of where he might have been.
Now, there's a twist our modern courts have missed. Bilocation - a handy little factor to keep in mind. Don't knock it. You may need it some day.
A. L.M. March 21, 2004 [c469wds]
Sunday, March 21, 2004
CONFUSED?
I should think that, by this time, everyone must have heard what frontiersmen Daniel Boone is supposed to have replied when someone asked him if he had ever been lost in the woods.
He denied it, of course, but confessed that there had been times for “several days at a time” when he had been “a mite confused.”
Y Young people today respond to that incident, I find. They like his sense of humor and admire his obvious ability to talk his way around a thing to make it appear to have been something entirely different. It is too bad they do not know who he was and what he did in our nation's early history.
Oh, yes, they will know the name, however, based on a fund of knowledge it will all appear to be romantic and sketchy. The source of their learning our history is based almost entirely on versions set forth by Golden's Books, Walt Disney productions, and kinetic constrictions which make up the work of the thousand-and- three creators and copiers of vaguely related drawings, re- creations and photographers. That is not an exaggerator's . If you check around a bit, even among some the people with whom you grew up, you will find it true in many cases that they haven't read a book for years. Some ,however, sincerely believe they have read specific books and know about our nation's great men and women. Or the most part , cal; to often. It becomes evident that their background came from watching tabloid treatments of the story in films, comic books and other such tabloid treatments of the story on film, in garishly colored “comics” and in other production areas. Seeing the film and TV versions, or, at best, reading the quick-time, condensed books version, which may give a withered view of the subject.
It gets a bit scary when you realize that the same young people and grown ups so nourished in the culture and affairs of our nation, are gong to be voting for future leaders of our nation this fall.. Those whose knowledge is questionable in both quantity and quality; people who don't
know Daniel Boone from Icabod Crane are going to decide who head our nation.. Most of them would seek and easy way out if asked about their voting presences. Few will admit having been a “mite confused” at any point when making their decision.
We need to re-tool our quest for knowledge to include the classic literature, history and human conduct. A well-known educator - Robert J. Hutchins – who was pushing the “100 Best Books” project at the time many years ago, said:
To destroy the Western tradition of independent thought it is not necessary to burn the books. All we need do is to leave them unread for a couple of generations.”
What time is it now?
A.L.M. March 20, 2004 [c489wds]
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