Saturday, September 11, 2004
DIP DOINGS
Ever and always here is, it seems, we find more excuses enabling us to avoid making use of established diplomatic principles in attempting to find solutions for our many international problems.
Political pressures narrow the perspective too much, and the problems take on escapist and make-do qualities which delude those undertaking negotiations for either , or both, sides. Good diplomacy transcends political cant.
We now have the capability of making use of these basic principles once more. In recent years their use has been out of fashion and inhibited by various points of non-alignment between our Executive and State Departments, but Secretary of State Colin Powell is , obviously, moving into new and promising areas of diplomacy which full accord of the Presidential office and staff.
This is a refreshing . Once more the channel through which many feel we might, at last, seek that way to peace and updated understandings which have long eluded us is open.. Capable individuals who have held the main position at “State”but have not always been accorded freedom needed to fashion agreements, to make concessions or adjustments to engender hopes of lasting peace.
This past week we have heard a well-oriented, sensitive and sensible report by Secretary of State Colin Powell concerning the pitiable situation in the Sudan. That which happens far away in Africa's Khartoum is among our vital concerns in spite of the fact that it is, at the moment, overshadowed and upstaged by our war against terrorism in other areas. Those who find it politically difficult, o support fully our present war situation, might well expend some of their protesting energies and funds by earnestly doing what they can to relive the needs of men, women and children suffering terror in the Sudan; genocide, murder and organized rape of wealth and sustenance supplies.
Secretary Powell has set forth the requirements for such service andit remains for resposive individuals and groups here at home to respond to the need insofar as they find it possible. Now that we have a man of such sterling character and purpose at the head of our State Department, we can, once again that area of peacemaking in which diplomacy is the “big stick” rather than force. The Secretary faces a battle on The Hill because there are still liberal lovers of power by purchase up there, well placed, and trying, at every turn, to control such situations to their own political advantage here at home.
We, as a nation, need to earnestly seek to try to pay more attention to the diplomatic resurgence which seems to be underway. All war are settled,
eventually by diplomacy, which is what “peace conferences” are all about when they are, at last, called.
A..L.M. September 11, 2004 [c463wds]
Friday, September 10, 2004
TIED DOWN
When you are required to wear an oxygen tube to supply or augment your need, you will learn what it means to be restricted – many would say “like a dog on a leash.”
There is one army experience I can equate with the feeling which crept over and through me the first time I was required to breath through a gas mask in a gas-filled chamber. Both actions, you see, were for my ultimate good. They each had some element of choice, I suppose, but one would be foolish to refuse to try them as potential pathways to desired physical ease and very existence.
No hurry, you say. That will never happen to me. I used to say that. A hard-talking man wearing three strips of authority on his uniform sleeve told me to enter the gas chamber, so I did it. Decades later, a man a wearing white coat prescribed a regular supply of adequate oxygen. I agreed.
You quickly learn to modify your life style to suit your capabilities.
Much of the change which will take place depends on the nature of your handicap. Mine involves the use of wheel chair for more involved or extended mobility requirements. That means, in transit, I can make use of a seven-pound tank which is attached to the back of the chair. Among improvement in that area: my tank exudes oxygen only on demand from my breathing. A supply lasts longer for new economy. My in-house installation consists of a unit which “makes oxygen” - don't ask me how, but it does – and that is connected to me by small, plastic tubing line -a twenty- five foot length plus a seven foot length which, with the production unit gives me a travel range to suit my daily work routine. The tubing will be a headache for some . It has built-in tendency to tangle and to catch on the oddest little projections. If you have a cat or dog it can drive them wacko with movement from no apparent cause. Some like to chew them.
Don't-do's include. Don't place your oxygen production unit under the heat activated sprinkler system thing. Ours went off in the middle of the night and the system is connected so every unit in the entire house was set a-dinging!
A second don't. When you move the unit away from the alarm, don't set in the next room just around the corner near the thermostat on the wall., or your air-conditioning system will run day and night and day and night and day and - so on!
I'm still working on finding something to keep my ears from getting sore. They have little pads and big, pencil-sized, cottony pads to tape around tubing but they move up and down, knot-up, slide and tear. They don't seem to like being there any more than we do.
On the whole, however, it's a good life ...an extension of what you have found to have been good for you in the past. Cheer up. Your later life is largely what you choose to make it.
A.L.M. September 10, 2004 [c523wds]
Thursday, September 09, 2004
FRIENDS, HUH!
Who are our international friends?
Speaking with the name of the government, can we, in view
of recent revelations and vague memories of other such infractions of common rules of conduct, how can we call some nations our “allies”in our present war against terrorism?
The subject surfaces somewhere in our media every few months . How can some of our “allies” be called friends when they have profited from selling firearms to our enemies? The term firearms is usually used to mean all sorts of modern weaponry as well as suitable ammunition.. Such trade commitments to nation which offer havens of refuge and assistance to terrorist groups influence the degree of participation of certain nations when called upon to help us in tracking down suspected terrorist leaders. Small wonder, then, that the politicians of nations so compromised have been, and one might suppose remain, hesitant in giving sincere support to United States.
The allegations being spread around in recent weeks hold that France and Russia, in particular, have been selling munitions to Iraq and other nations and other nations harboring terrorists. Firearms of all sizes and types found in Iraq and Afghanistan, killing fields prove to be of French or Russia manufacture. There can be small wonder that politicians of nations so compromised by such double dealing might be hesitant, and continue to be so, when asked to cooperate with American efforts to quell terrorist ravages of more and more nation.
There is nothing new about these allegations. It has been evident for many years that what happens in the Mid-East is, directly or indirectly, financed in the West. That was estab lished;Lishe decades ago and our military and governmental people are aware of what has been business as usual . They are experienced in knowing what influence such conditons may have on our own policies. If figure concerning the movement of illicit arms aroud the world were made pub,a gret many Americans would be shocked. There are munitions sales-persons engaged in selling arms and supplies for waging war. They work in strange system involving graft, corruption, blackmail and deceit. Some of their firms have names you would probably recall without too much trouble. .
The real danger in this for all of us,is that we may be led to misjudge the sincereity the other nations who are sincerely and energetically, supporting the war on terrorism. We should be thankful for the dependable ones helping us! I have, purposely,not m,mentioned any of them this time,but get to know them and express your appreciation in any way you can.
We are also called upon to forgive the few “bad apples”in the barrel. Before these terror times are ended, .we are going to have to work together in ways we have never done before. More and more we are becoming nations without borders.
A.L.M. September 8, 2004 [c483wds]
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
NEXT!
Quite suddenly, without warning, the Mioian civilization on the island of Crete in the Mediterreanean Sea ceased to be. We have learned much concerning those advanced people of long ago by studying artifacts which remained after erratic series of tidal waves swept over the area. Those waves were caused by a volcano erupting seventy miles away in the Age an Sea on an island know, then, as Thira. Today the fragment of the island remaining is called Santorini and is a favorite site visited by tours of Greece and the Age an Isles, who, by means of donkey ride, climb the ragged wall of the sea- filled crater caused by the historical blast which caused so much horror and destruction so far away...
I think of the situation there centuries ago, and marvel at the fact that, even as I write many existing nations are threatened by others located just a scant few miles away, who seek to harm them, wish them no good will.
Even now another hurricane is sweeping across Cuba, just ninety miles from our southern shores, and we ignore it. We see very little of he storm, in Cuba. The pictures we are shown on TV are mainly from other islands - he Bahamas, The Leewards, and some this morning from Granada,. But none for the largest island of them all - Cuba. That island and the people there have been held hostage by Dictator Fidel Castro for many years and in time, there may well be a test of strength to see how the governmental ideas and ideals of communism and those of our own, capitalist society evolve when they face each other.
V. Putin, in Russia, is at a most critical time in his task of attempt to get rid of the problems caused by tiny but troublesome acreage of Chechen holdings in the southeast section of his economically bled nation. The situation has been made even more this past week by the massacre of hundreds of Russian school children. For doing so Vladimir Putin brands them as being ”terrorists” while our own media continues to call the “political activists”
Other nations see nearby pocket of enmity at work. In Iraq's northern area there are many Kurds who do not see things the same way as the new government. The Kurds of east Turkey bordering on those in Iraq. have long been at odds with Turkish authority. North Korea holds such a threat, but on a larger scale.. Lebanon longs to be freed from twenty-eight years of domination by Syria. One wonders which of these smoldering hotbeds will burst into flame at any moment.
We have more warnings today that did the people of Crete for they had no word that a walls of sea water would sweep them out of the pages of active history and drop, them withered and sere, into annals of archelogical data.
There is are some little bursts of sunlight from-time-to-time, such as a the sudden turn-around by Moomar Quadafe who has decided that he will forego trying to match nuclear war weaponry by agreeing to destroy his nuclear-war capabilities. Fidel could go out of history smelling like the rose he isn't he could bring himself to – like Moormar is doing in Lybia - switch from changing hating to loving America. That's a situation which illustrates so well the deep trouble they are in. Castro is not about to make such regenerative confession any more than others are ready to disavow war to gain their supposed ends. We have no idea from which direction the next attempts to harm us might come.
At the moment, many of our leaders are on the fence regarding V.Putin's strong words. Few are willing to endorse his statement about the need to become more firm dealing with “terrorists”. He may well have set some some new standards for all of us by doing what our old folks used to call - “by calling a spade a spade.”
A.L.M. September 7, 2004 [c673wds]
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
“Y'KNOW?”
I am disturbed by two numbers.
The first one designates the growing number of people I hear using “Y'know?” just about every time they open their mouths to say anything. Secondly, I wonder about the rate of increase this commonly-used evidence of ignorance and lack of training among those who know better but don't seem to care.
It has become common in average speech, that people no longer think there is anything wrong with such usage. Every one does it. That, to some people, makes it right, correct, worthy, commendable and even welcome in our daily speech – casual or formal – “to brighten up context or “to allow the hearer to participate in the thoughts being processed and transferred”.
It is unfair to point out several instances where the use of “y'know” has reached a condition of epidemic saturation. The term has develop meanings of it's own according to the punctuation marks required if it is written. The term ”y'know” can mean that the speaker is underlining what he has just said to be sure you understood it. He is either admitting he didn't say it very well, or that he doubts if you, in your retarded state, understood what he think he said at all. The same speaker may use the term “Y'know!” - with an exclamation point – to overlay text with a stroke of very yellow crayon goo to show you what has just been said was important. When used followed by a question mark , he is checking to see if you are still listening. If it has no markings, “y'know” it means anything either of you wish it mean and it is a good time to decide what is going to be said next. This is a point at which another expression is very often interposed -: “See what I mean?”
One of the most common location to see and hear “y'know” routine being done live is the usual spur-of- the-moment sport star interview when an announcer calls a player side to get his personal, sweaty opinions as to the progress or direction of the game in progress. At time, it becomes a duet performance with both speakers dropping in ”y'knows” to keep listeners and viewers informed to the max. Fortunately, these are short features but in longer, formal interviews and discussions such as performance can be deadly. The worst usage of “y'know” occurs on reports of the latest news.
I speak from personal experience in all of this. As a kid, - in the 6th or 7th grade, I think – I was walking to school one morning when my co-walker turned on me as I talked. “No, “ he scoffed I do not see what you mean!” He unloaded his disgust on me and told me I said it too often. I remember that reprimand because he said it loudly and in the presence of three of the prettiest girls in our school.
I haven't forgotten that dressing down by a classmate, y'know.
It has meant a lot to me. See what I mean?
A.L.M. September 6, 2004 [c521wds]
Monday, September 06, 2004
SELF STORAGE
Ironically, some of the costliest, most elaborate Egyptian burial systems have yielded very little information concerning the life and death of the ancients. The rich and the powerful were buried with big, extended pomp and huge monuments were erected to mark, and to protect the site. There are those who hold we have learned more from the common graves of the poor people of the civilization which populated the Nile River's length for many centuries of human development.
It has been my rather strange experience to have been concerned both in both military circumstances and, in early retirement years, with civilian funeral work, and the Egyptian methods are of special interest to me. I have assisted in embalming and crematory procedures and that phase of ”somebody-has- to-do-it” employment. There is nothing pretty about any of them, yet they touch our individual lives at one point without exception.
The Egyptian way of enabling their departed ones to enter the next life was done by attempting to restore the finest times and utmost signs of attained wealth that person knew to equip them for the journey to a better life. They devised methods of ”preserving ” many physical features to take with them into the mysterious realm where unto Death had mysteriously transformed them.
The basic materials seem to have made use of two forms of nitrate common to most kitchens today, a variety of fragrances and favorite perfumes of the populace over the centuries. Two other materials were needed - formaldehyde -still in use today – and miles of pure linen cloth -literally miles of it.,he estimate thousand feet in length a line wrapping for average mummies would to run to about eight-thousand feet in length. All internal organs known were taken out and wrapped individually either for return to the torso cavity or to be entombed in a separate chest nearby. The heart - considered to be the center of all life, thought and he center for all actions of the entire body, was never taken out.
Much of this did help the physical remains to keep some semblance of their previous reality. A big error in the system was to entomb valuables, often within the wrappings of the mummy itself. Each tomb became a treasure house of tempting riches and just about all of them - save for a few “lost”ones - were pillaged, robbed, vandalized and often emptied. Mummies were unwrapped, rob bed of their special holdings of jewels and small items, and sometimes crudely re-wrapped. On the average it took about as seventy days to prepare a body for entombment. Much of it was a natural, slow process.
By contrast, those poor people who were given a somewhat casual dusting of nitrate powders; wrapped in a light cloth and buried, as a rule, it seems, in shallow graves about four feet deep, have proved to be more reliable specimens for study than the finely entombed monied mummies.. The natural process of the body drying out in the sand under intense heat, shrank the body, but, in many cases, did so rather quickly and features, tissues, hair, nails, teeth, ligaments and small bones remained intact.
Fine tombs do not a mummy make, it seems.
You might want to think about all that from time to time as you grow older, but I doubt if you will feel the urge very often.
A.L.M. September 5, 2004 [c574wds]
Sunday, September 05, 2004
“BYE BYE”, OLD POL
When is “enough” too much?
Some individual politicians can't seem to bring themselves to understand when it is time to step down from the pedestal on which they have studiously perched and preened themselves for so many years.
Nationally, where they are easier to spot, we have several politicians who are continuing endlessly at their designated posts in spite of visual evidence that indicates they should retire. Very often such successful servants bring their careers to a noble closure with a well-worded withdrawal from what has become a tedious tenure.
Television has done more to help the citizenry become aware of the fact that the when their chosen official's best days are in the past. When signs of aging appear when dotage and hints of hesitations creep into the home-viewed picture, it should serve as a recommendation that the admired winner needs to be pastured. We can, and often, do selfishly ride a good to steed to death.
On the national scene, where they are easier to spot it would seem than the voters of Connecticut and of West Virginia might want to express their gratitude to Teddy Kennedy and to Robert Byrd for all they have done for their states. You may have seen others in the same stage of attainment. The longer the voters put it off the more their states will lose in the development of new avenues of leadership and power in the legislative bodies. Delay may be deadly.
The critical area is not, however in Washington. The legislatures of the various states are home to ”dead wood” which should be “harvested” for whatever values are obtainable and young people brought in – eager,alert ,capable in modern terms, and in need of nurturing only experience only years of legislative hall experience can provide. That is out main source of tomorrow's national -and international leaders. Check out the tenure pattern in the legislature in your state and see how many members have become little more that living items of furniture in august Halls. You can tell if it is time to organize a “garage sale of seasoned salons” and to refurnish our legislative halls state-by-state.
A few will worry about “kicking the old-timers out of their jobs”.
Not to worry - as New Yorkers say.
Robert Byrd, is an accomplished fiddle player and he might can look forward to a totally new career making CD's and Video-tapes as the “Mountain State's” emblematic folk music star. Teddy Kennedy might do well giving swimming lessons.
A.L.M. September 4, 2004 [c430wds]
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