Saturday, June 05, 2004
ON BEING CHEATED
I feel it, and I wonder if you do so as well.
I feel, in some strange way, the stupid, obscene actions of a few individuals in the current prison scandals in Iraq and, vaguely, are of more concern to me than I like for them to be. After all, those individuals represent us as a nation to millions of people around the world. They conducts reflects upon us.
In this past few weeks, I have had this feeling of having been, both cheated and humiliated by the thoughtless actions of these few people many of whom wear the uniform which marks them as being one of us - a guise I would gladly wear again if the occasion demanded that I do so. Their strangely immature and evil-oriented conduct leaves me with a teasing idea that we at home might have found some way to have prevented such a lapse of basic morality rules as the prison excesses bring so vividly into our daily lives.
A great many Americans have a somewhat odd concept of patriotism. It is not to be noised about with horns or cymbals and paraded on display for others to see. It is aroused only when America is made to appear be weak, irresolute, unsteady, or ruthless. One of the better ways to arouse patriotic feeling in the Punted States is to make the nation appear to be potential subject for ridicule or satire.
Do not feel any guilt because of this feeling that the lewd conduct of those charged with guarding the captives. I realize there are plenty of people around who still think it logical to exact information by the use of threats of physical violence. - some or them severe and permanent. When information is extracted through violent threats and torture, it is, far too often, inaccurate because victims will say anything they feel they think are they are expected to say. It is a losing proposition regardless of how elaborate cover-up schemes may be devised. I have heard this view expressed often in recent weeks and it seems valid to me.
We might, as some suggest, contend that we all share some of the reponsability for such conditions because we have opposed or failed to support various portions of our defense budgets which you widely educated the mass of the national military-age population. One of the common criticisms of the National Selective Service idea was that it drew up the so=-called Ã?ƒ‚“dregsÃ?ƒ‚” of our society in so faeducaionalal averages were concerned.. That resulted in a military force which was markedly ignorant. The present system of depending on volunteers and on National Guard systems as the sole source of replacements should be somewhat higher educational levels.
If we bear any blame for such weaknesses it appears to all such educational insufficiencies. Take that thinking a bit deeper and we become someone to blame for all sorts of meanness and depravity. That portion of blame we might be said to share all started back way back in our neglect of general educational needs for all citizens many years ago. It is not of recent vintage.
It, perhaps,, may well be that we need a brisk kick in the pants from time-to-time just to remind us that such unseemly conduct is a part of civilian life may well seep into military as well.
a.l.m. June 4, 2004 [c573wds]
Friday, June 04, 2004
CELL TAX
It may not be a common occurrence, but it is possible to say: Â?GoodbyeÂ? on a cell phone.
The usual television commercial shows people saying Â?HelloÂ? and seemingly amazed that they are in touch with each other at all!
We see doubtful users asking:Â?Can you hear me now?Â? as they wander about for just a few feet. Novelty is still there when using any using any thing wireless, it seems. The confused situation is now being cloud by the fact that civic leaders are finding cell phone to be a new source of tax revenue. This threaten the innovation seriously.
Now that we are finally catching up with European natTheys. who have been using the cell phones widely for years, it seems that our governmental bodies are now discovering the cell phone is taxable. One small city nearby us has just this week announced a forthcoming new tax of $l.25 per phone. I assume that's per month, but I haven't seen that in print. When cellphones are mixed with increasing taxation some users as talking about going back to blanket-made smoke signals to keep in touch with friends. Others are signing up for Â?tom-tom thumpingÂ? training.
With the arrival of this anticipated tax. We can expect a nasty cloud of static from phone owners, but the Â?tax everythingÂ? idea is here,and doing well.
The cell phone was slow to catch on here in the United States and part of the delay may have been due to the opposition which did very well waving a Grim Reaper banner protesting the use of wireless gadgetry. They were said to be dangerous and users would go deaf or sort-of X-ray the other side of their brain by holding the transmitter too close to their jaw. Now, just a few year later, millions of people are talking and staying alive. The former critics have good jobs selling cell phones or service systems contracts. Yesterday's serious warnings are being ignored or ridiculed. Notice the number of motorists who now use their cars as telephone booths where driving is a secondary obligation. You see others talking feverishly on their c-phone while pumping gas at the self-service stall as if their home town petrol point is going to continue to be there forever and not blown up.
Other forces are working against the use of the cell phone. It has come about largely because of indiscriminate use, perhaps. And has become a social problem in some areas. You may disagree,but there are now people who feel that talking on one's cell phone while in church is not permissible. Other think it to be impolite to engage in conversation while waiting in line at the supermarket, or watching for a load to finish at the coin operated laundry. Others think it improper for you to cell talk on elevators, or while watching a movie at the theater even if you keep it under the popcorn munching level. Some don't like to see them at sports events and other objects to phoners who watch TV shows with friends at one ear or the other. Fewer people now watch television show alone.
Be warned ahead of time. Next tax time you may see a new item on your Tax Bill: so much per cell phone in your household.
Very convenient,too., You can call someone to complain about it right there beside your mail box .
A.L.M June 3, 2004 [c577wds].
Thursday, June 03, 2004
BRIDGE BUILDERS
When you look at magnificent bridge you wonder, I'm sure. You see the overwhelming immensity of the task and of the mighty stress exerted upon the supporting pillars or that massive collection of cables holding it all securely aloft, and you wonder how it ever became the reality you are observing. How did such a fantasy become real? What brings to physical manifestation a man's dreamed-of accomplishments?
I have known men who were bridge builders by occupation, and they have
been an interesting lot to me , indeed, in special ways.
They strike me as being rather independent people. From the very start, they have a feeling, it seems, that they are questing for a distant goal; seeking to hone in on a special gleam they alone can see, which demands that they be attentive to that which will take place in the future rather than the moment. That one thing makes them want to build ways of arriving at special, far-off goals through devising the means of getting there, The bridge they have in mind will enable them, and others, to cross over into a braver, newer and perhaps, better world. With such strong, positive goals always in mind, true bridge builders are not an easily discouraged lot.
The very nature of such men may, at times, seems to set them at odds with members of their own families, but such has not been the cases I have known. It is not the question which come, quite naturally, to the surface of family life, when the father is absent for long periods of time....”Away from home “- apart from them all – and, some say, thinking only of the new bridge itself. He thinks of it as their bridge, not just his. This is the bridge which will, through the money it brings to them and through the new, oft refreshing opportunities received by those to arrive arrival at the other side . Children of bridge building fathers are eager to see a bridge completed,; to see another started... especailly against unusually severe natural conditions. The future is always new. Their bridge-building father is not a routine nine- to-fiver at an office. He works with tomorrow in mind; with his and their futures.
These men have a special type of co-worker relationships, too. They have second-family ties in a sense; often younger hands, newer at the job and in the extra moments of real danger they become aware of working as a team. Very often, I find, it is the very same qualities which make for good work which
engenders deeply held concepts of brotherhood . If one of them should fall– not a totally unanticipated hazard of the trade which does happen when bridges are built. Bereavement among bridge workers is deep seated, long-lasting and very personal.. The recall previous comrades who suffered death or bone-crushing injuries in falls from the advancing span. They remember co-workers up and down the labor listings,.as a special fellowship without grades, classifications and other such artificial designations. All were simply bridge builders.
The very nature of the work undertaken is a stern challenge to a young man. The workers come to share special, complex dangers and they are aware of it every time they step out on a cable, or when the when they are at work underground in the sweltering caverns in which the roots of the bridge are “planted” to support the towering weight above. Both men and women, working under such compelling pressures, feeling all of the harshness of Nature often working against them. Bridges are in constant battle with the elements. They are not just long strands of masonry artfully cast across from one shore to another, but ,once built, a portion of the Earth about them.
Mankind took many years observing Nature before he learned to build a span across a stream so he could walk, run or ride to the other side. He learned, too, that bridge building is not as simple seem to be to many. Bridge builders are dreamers. A bridge across a body of water was, or a deep canyon or chasm is flexible - responsive to Natures worst storms. It is not a static thing at all. In one sense is can be said to “live”.
We have come a long way since primitive man found he could crawl or walk across a tree which the passing storm had left athwart a stream of rushing water.
A.L.M. June 2, 2004 [c752ds]
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
NOW, BUTT OUT!
Our time is now!
The rather sudden appearance of the group who are to be the new government of the re-constituted nation of Iraq sets the natural point at which the United States might - and should - withdraw.
It presents the best opportunity we will ever have of getting our military might out of Iraq and it will fulfill our announced intention of withdrawing when a new government is ready to take over the reigns of ruling..
Perfection is not expected. There will be some snarls in the skein as the lengths of individual colors are placed in their proper position to bring about the intended pattern after much warping and woofing thereof. Do not on hold out for your favorite little political, social, religious or busy-body quirk. Refrain from being too aggressive in your individual desires. Such aggressive actions lead to needless acrumoiny and backlash.
There will be understandably, opposition to much that the new government favors.
That is par for the oriental course of events. Some opposition will come from within Iraq where pockets of die-hard religious divisions continue to plague the populace. There will be some holdovers from the former government and there will be, sadly enough, open opposition to the re-born nation here in the United States which will hamper the growth of the new nation.
Not only will there be petty political party opposition to the new government here at home, but our media still needs to learn lessons from its recent experiences concerning taking sides in disagreements. A biased report is a weapon used to benefit the enemy. Exaggeration breeds vilification; lies - more lies.
We hold the key to starting the new governmental machine working to the betterment of the Iraqi people. If we let our own narrow animosity encumber their already tedious path to a better life, we are contributing to our own downfall as the future pages of history will record.
A.L.M. June 1, 2004 [c423wds]
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
IN TOUCH
For many good, sound, sensible reasons our modern
society makes up quite a package of points detailing why it is of vital
importance for us to "keep in touch" with each other at all times.
Along with such logical reason, we are now gathering
gangs of not-so-vital "why's" for wiring everything within sight for some
sort of sound, even as we burn the midnight oil trying to learn how to make
all such things wireless. The maze of communication gear into which we
have ensnared is, in itself, sufficient cause for wonder.
Are we "in touch" with our fellow humans? Are we over
doing it correctly" Are we, becoming involved in things which are none of
our business? Are we "in control" of others, or are we being held in hand
to do as others wish us to do? Over the recent holiday week-end ( I left
that hanging their unidentified so you can switch it to your favorite days
off time.) Maybe you can check yours out as I did: I made a survey of
our facilities for keeping in touch with each other.
I was led to question the validity of our enhanced
communications abilities. Are we up to date, or are we lagging behind
other nations which had the foresight to start making and using cell
phones years ago. We are just catching with the others and it has already
become a burden to many. Do we want to be ahead?
I think most U.S.citizens will agree that we have
lagged behind much of the world in this concept of cell phone usage and
with HDTV, as well..Finland, Denmark, and other nations have been well
ahead of us. You are old-fashioned if you do not have a Made in Finland
cell phone for steady use - or ringing away lustily wherever you left it.
The situation in our house surprised me in several
ways. Look around your family digs and let me know if we are
"average"."Typical" or whatever.
At our house we have four television sets - all color,
three with VCR add-add ons - and they are located on the average of about
twelve feet of each other with remote bars at hand. No walking required.
Radio - said to be from a by-gone era - runs about the
same. Three bedside radios plus a stereo set-up next to one of the TV sets.
duplicates in the family cars, too. along with three tape players and
recorders.
We have two standard phones, two cordless sets, and
two cell phones in family. I don' t have one yet, and, at times, I feel
slighted and I am driven to pick up any remote device lying nearby; hold it
to my ear and talk away so I won't appear to be the odd one in our family.
As a truly mod family, we, We have two old-fashioned 35-mm cameras, I
think. We have one good set of binoculars form keeping in touch with
Mother Nature, the mountains in the distance and the planes taking off and
landing at the nearby airport.
We have TV cable service featuring seventy-plus stations. We
have two computers ten-feet from each other and make good use of the
Internet.
We have outdoor motion-activated lights on a shed to keep in
touch with any invited or uninvited guests by night. They also come on
from raindrops in front of them; birds, bugs, bees and beasts of any kind
both day and night.
I'd probably find some others if I could think of them.
How does that compare to "in touch" mechanisms which clutter
your house?
a.l.m. May 31, 2004 [c577wds]
Monday, May 31, 2004
QUIZ QUIZ
A great many of us have come to think we are pretty good at problem solving, and we are very often the last to becoma aware of the fact that we didn't know the true nature of the problem at all, had we done so, we may not have taken such a puzzle at all.
Some puzzles come to us in the form of games. Others are of a much more serious nature, such as the one which confonts us right now, as a nation, to help the newly re-constitued state of Iraq to determine what a proper goverment might be to see them into a new era of prosperity and security.
There is a geographical quiz I find to be helpful: Can your name the six state captials which are located west of Los Angeles, California?
Let's see, now...two of them come to you right away as “freebies”, don’t they? Of of course, Hawaii that would be Honolulu. Then. the other is Alaska, and that’s Anchorage, Fairbanks or, certainly not Nome!. Could it be Sitka? Or, Juneau, of course, but some puzzlers might stumble around a bit making that choice.
So far. Not bad at all. Just four more to go.
Let's think"north" because the United States coastline sorta juts out into the Pacific ,doesn't it? One has to be Washington a state capital located further west than L.A and that would...er...that would be - uh Spokane, to far east, maybe?, Seattle, Tacoma? Given time you might think of Olympia.
Next, Oregon, just to the south seems to be logical choice. That, then, would be What? Portland? Eugene? Sooner or later someone will whisper,"Salem", as if not too sure, and be right.
At this point someone will risk all and go far out to choose Carson City, Nevada
wisely avoiding Reno, and Vegas. Then, the real puzzler of 'em all - the capital of the Golden State - Sacramento. No one said L.A. was a captial city if you think you have already accounted for that state.
Tally them up: Hawaii - Honolulu; Alaska -_Juneau; Washington - Olympia;
Oregon - Salem; Nevada - Carson City, and , finally, California - Sacramento. Was it as easy as you thought it was going to be?
Apply this same sort of gaming procedure to your ideas about choosing a proper government for the people of Iraq. Do we know enough about the who, where, what and why aspects of the people concerned, to make such a vital choicie on their behalf? I think not. Just because a specific form of government has served us well, does not mean it will work for them at all.
Our past records of achievement on successful govermental map-making has not been an impressive one. We have see partitioning of such nations as Poland tried, we have witnessed land handouts such as the Balfour readjustments which have resulted in our present-day Palestinianan-Israeli conflicts. We have seen many such arrangements as urged by indivudals; by states or group of states as well as the League of Nations and the present United Nation's polyglot political attempts to do so.
I read a quote form some Iraqi lesser-known official just this week who seemed to feel that the new goverment that will be best for Iraq's people will be a renovation and renewel rather than a totally new one. The best we can hope for is that some democratic principles might be incorprated within the new government.
A.L.M. May 31, 2004 [c558wds].
Sunday, May 30, 2004
HOPE REKINDLED
In recent years,I have become increasingly fearful that the enjoyment of the genteel art of fine music was disappearing from our culture.
I have lamented the strange mutations which have been taking place relentlessly in our musical heritage. I have, at times, stepping to, I'm sure, the very edge of overdoing it in these pages and elsewhere. Music is of special importance to me because I have been a part of the world of music since I was a youngster.
There are million of you out there who actually like the popular songs of today and there are those of us who are sure we remember when "it was better". That's keeping the situation on a friendly, civilized basis, and it has interested me because I have always been a part of the musical side of living since I was youngster.
In truth, I never knew any other way of life. I learned to read music before I could read regular books. Nothing fancy, of course, "elemertary Dr. Watson ", but, from the start I have been appreciative of many kinds of music. Grades..Levels..Specific types such as marches and massive presentations by brass bands of by massive pipe organs. Then, there would be ethnic variations- many of the very same songs in ethnic settings and instrumentals. Hula stuff, Latin-American,Russian, Hungarian, everybody's folk, C&W. swampy ,music from down river, plain old Hillbilly and on the present ear-span we have heard jazz give way to big band treatments, to glitzy,odd-titled groups spun off from the big bands, video versions and it oozed into the culturally surfaced forms called "rock" - some good, some otherwise...And yet, in my book all had purpose and intent...Something worthy. All,forms had value and purpose. I can't say "good" reasons - not that kind of purpose at all, but rather a sign of regeneration and growth from primitive basics.
A musical note in the news this very day from Dumbarton, Scotland has heartened me no end and given me a needed assurance that all is not lost and that, indeed music will endure for the foreseeable future. All is well with the general scope of musical talent world-wide as is evidenced by accounts of the latest Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Championship competitions there last week. Bagpipers came in droves to drone and chant and And fill the Scottish air with sterling scurlings playing the only musical instrument I know of ever tob e declared illegal as a weapon of war. It waa forbidden after the Battle of Culloden.
The Scottish Bagpipe, an essential part of my musical heritage, does not stand forth as one of my prime favorites. I say that if people are flocking to pipe playing places in such impressive numbers - both oldsters and youthful newcomers - the general world of music is well off To those who, today, are saying that rock and rap have their place and the farther away the better; bagpipers have been accused of always walking as they play. Scoffers say it's because they are always trying to get away from all the noise.
So, we laugh at bagpipers; we scorn rap artists and acid rock groups...others,too...but the sounds from Scotland are signs for all of us to have healthy hopes for future harmony among our many factions.
A.L.M. May 29, 2004 [c540wds]
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