Saturday, March 26, 2005
HARVEST AT RANDOM I don't know what the connection might be, but since we have been involved in the Terri Schiavo story, I have been led to think again-and-again of a novel I read many years ago. I remember where I was living at the time so it has to have been in 1941 – probably some month shortly before “Pearl Harbor Day” in December which was an event which reshaped our futures in so many ways. The title was “ Random Harvest” and author James Hilton had , at that time, given us “Lost Horizons” and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.” Both of those became films of note, but I can't recall a movie of “Random Harvest”. The plot was somewhat quirky. It was sentimental,too, and I see now why I think of it in relation to the Schiavo story. The hero of the novel was just at the age when he was going off to Cambridge University when he was a drafted into the British Army and sent to the continent. Hilton put him through a series quickly-paced wartime experiences to show the Englishman's attitude toward war as he accepted commands and did things he would not, ordinarily, never have done. He did not like his life in the army; but he saw it all from almost a humorous viewpoint. I have an idea this view and sentiments expressed were largely those of Hilton telling this story from a rather strange angle as an observer of sorts including a climatic one said to be suicidal These were the years between the two great wars, remember - not exactly the steadiest of times for any of any of us. As reader's we met the hero as a half-alive person seated on a lonely park bench in Liverpool, England. He sits there alone and desperately tries to remember anything. He recalls what he wanted to do before the totally blank portion of his wartime years. He remembers nothing whatever of that phase of his life yet wants to know! He will never stop attempting to bring in the random harvest of his lost week, months or years. Events coming to an end today? ...tomorow? in Florida, will haunt us for many years to come... as a random harvest of ideals gone awry in ways we never expected could happen. A.L.M. March 26, 2005 [c396wds]
Friday, March 25, 2005
IT IS NOT THE SAME Every time our military forces are put to use they change. It is, at times, a call for improvement and it seems to come about when new troops are deployed to active areas of conflict. We have become aware from actual combat experience, for example, that many of our units were too large. This has made transport aircraft our main need all others. Forces, when requested, must arrive promptly and be line-ready; fully operative for immediate action - not dependent on any “to follow” materials or personnel. I think we all recall when we suddenly started hearing about American soldiers requesting more “body armor”. The Idea was misused by some politicians. Such requests were often vilified and set aside as complaints from poorly-trained, somewhat sissified soldiers who seemed to want an electronic “coat-of-arms” to wear when enemy fire started. It was, however, a sensible suggestion from people who, in actual experience, found the metal sheets making up the skin of their Jeeps, Humbees, weapons carriers and other such people movers had to be made thicker. Smaller windshields and bullet-proof glass would help, too. In the actual war, enemy forces were focusing anti-tank weaponry on such carriers and using anti-personnel bombs along roadway edges. There never was a person who flew in B-24's and B-17's during WW II who has not held a fifty caliber shell, in hand and compared its size to the thickness - or thinness - of the fuselage shell surrounding him for protection. In short, our vehicles are out-dated; our combat units as worn. They need re-designing and replacement. In Desert Storm, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, our mobile forces were required to move faster, farther and under the most unfavorable conditions. They are worn out. The entire nature of war - making has, has changed and our situation is further complicated by the fact that there are now some legitimate questions as to the availability of adequate manufacturing facilities needed to re-fashion our military might. It remains to be determined if we have retained enough of our manufacturing capabilities needed to re-build our defense force, at least It will soon become a major concern and most of the industrial plants which could be converted - are gone. My carbine in WW II was manufactured by the Underwood Typewriter Company The foot lockers at Ft. Meade, Maryland were made at the Basic-Witz Furniture plant at Staunton,Virginia The vehicles we drove were put together at assembly plants with parts and pieces from our own foundry sites - most of which longer exist. The Pentagon seems to be aware of the impending time of need. The media has not, as yet, been able to get with it. You can expect it to do so at any moment now. After their steady diet of Jackson, Peterson, Schiavo, Stewart and other star distractions, you can prepare yourself for a fantastic fact-finding frenzy generously salted with numerous “I told you so!” interludes concerning the present offshore nature of our manufacturing capabilities. A.L.M. March 25, 2005 [c524wds]
Thursday, March 24, 2005
THE AFTER MATH When we get around to figuring out all that is now happening to us concerning our current dilemma concerning how best to deal with the problem of life or death for one Terri Schiavo, a Florida citizen. By and large, in spite of some fifteen years of illness of an unusual nature, she was virtually unknown to millions of people who now take every moment of her continuing tenuous hold on life. The terrible decision to be made if that of depriving another person of life itself by starvation and dehydration. An even as authorities, many of whom we elect and view as our voice in the matter, and now being called upon to either restore the nutritionally loaded tubes to the patient's stomach so she may live.. She has been without such nutritive help for over six days. Just a few days ago we were being told she might last as much a week. A few minutes ago, I now hear, the last resort action has now proved to have failed. The Governor of Florida has hoped he could get approval for assuming state custody of the patient; restore the tubes and more totally new evaluations of the case including new diagnostic ventures of her maladies and present condition. When it is all over - and I fear it will be shortly, even as I type this foolish and find myself wondering what my part has been in it all ...it could be ended. After it is history we all have to deal with the math which always comes after such events. We must work with sets of accumulated facts and figures to come up with two answers - not one, but two. One will be: “Why? How did we allow all this to take place?” Second: “How can we prevent it from happening again? I hope we can earnestly try to avoid merely working to place blame. There are political, social, religious and ethnic questions which can cause such studies to go awry. I was tempted to include “occupational”, because it has become fashionable to blame the media for all such mis-steps. So much of the criticism of television coverage, in particular is unfair. Critics, so often, fail to realize that TV provides what people say they want. Only one minor point bothered me in the TV's treatment of this story and that was the heavy use of film clips showing the patient's “actual” physical condition often without dimly visible dates printed in the upper right side of some of the the pictures. Those dates - still being run in today's (March 24th)2005 newscasts - were made August of'01,'02 and '03. This miss-use of material designed to give a boost to hopes of recovery made the case a battle ground by building factions among viewers. The use of vaguely dated and weakly identified film clips built false hopes among many viewers and their use will,I think, be a major focal point in any serious studies of what went wrong. A.L.M. March 24, 2005 [c512wds]
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
NICKNAMES Nicknames, those terse, verbal caricatures which symbolize our personality as we are viewed to be by other people, come in a wide variety. Much depends on what part of the country you are in at the moment the tag is placed upon you. Genuine nicknames are indelible, too. I find that, once applied, they are next impossible to get rid of. They seem to endure just as body tattoo artwork does. When I first came to his Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I found that a great many people gave their children names which duplicated those of others with kindred surnames so many turned to the use of nicknames to avoid confusion everyday living, turned to the use of nicknames to avoid confusion in daily living. Many families shared common ethnic or religious backgrounds and each set forth a stock of folk heroes names which were passed on to the following generations. It was not uncommon to find grown men still being called b y their toddler titles. “Lil' Bro”, or the full “Little Brother” was applied to men six feet tall and weighing double that of the person calling them by that name. Others in that group might be called “Runt”, “Littl'un”, “Chip”, “Nipper”,”Shorty”... even “Tiny”. Others called their children by the first two initials of their real name. We had a “JW” nearby. “EC” was our rural mail delivery man for many years; retired now, and a ham radio operator known as “EC”. There was one ”OK” and “OB” owned the the farm just north of my father-in-law's family farm known as “ID's”. Years earlier I knew a family in Norfolk, Va in which both the mother and father hated the names their parents had given them. The chose to name all their children w with just two initials - our playmates - for later use. The plan was for them to attain legal age at which time they could chose any names they liked starting with those two designated letters. Those initialed people have all, by this time, worked their way through the Social Security System - initials only - and found stones in some local cemetery - still as initials. I vaguely recall having written on this topic many years ago. I have a feeling that I,digressed at this point to remembering nicknames but I think I will be content just remembering people's names which have meant a great deal to me. When you start listing the names the memories flow back and you begin to understand how those people it into your ...into my life .There have been hosts of Ozzies, Bessies, Dukes, Lonnies, Myrt, Ruffeys, Buds,Tiddy-Wa's, Bevs, Woodies, Bill's, Skeeters, Flattops, - hundreds of them! These people who come back most easily through the nicknames by which you knew them are probably more important to you than you realize. You knew them beyond their solid selves – perhaps touching on the edge of make-believe. A.L.M. March 23, 2005 [c498wds]
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
SCHIAVO QUESTION
All too often events, while important in themselves, trigger the massive change which mark an era. The current concern for retaining a comatose patient on life support systems in spite of her husband's insistent that she would have wanted it to be disconnected. However, however, think otherwise and they have supported keeping her alive artificially since suffered a stroke fifteen years ago. They insist she has a chance for recovery. Far too many facts about this case which has taken it before countless judges in Florida - some say eighteen – and caused it to become a topic for discussion for the nation. I hear constant reference to one point - cost. One news source suggested that it was too expensive to keep her alive in the manner which is now sustaining her. They mentioned a cost of “thousands of dollars per month's “ and lamented the fact that her husband could ill afford to have such expense for another fifteen years or more. One such account I heard simple let it be thought that the parents are absorbing the cost. One newscast bluntly said we cannot afford to keep her alive and longer “at public expense”. In spite of recently oft-stated political desires “to protect the sanctity of marriage”, I have heard no one question the right of the parents of this young lady to go against her husband's to withdraw life support because that was what she would have wanted. What about parent's “rights” at such a time? When, in the marriage ceremony it is said the bride leaves her parental home and “cleaves unto her husband” doesn't that transfer responsibility for the young bride to the husband? Until such time when we can answer that question with straightforward honesty, the entire sequence of cruel actions brought upon the victim and her friends and family are moot. Let's save the First and Fourteenth amendments for other uses . Go to any accepted version of the marriage ceremony, and it will hand you a key to the solution of the problem. Read that ceremony. Think about it. Is it not made clear that, at the time of marriage, a women is clearly told to leave her mother and father and then , to cleave ever unto the man chosen to be her husband? Had the plain directive been respected, we would not have this social blot on our memory, a time of our ignorance causing uncalled for suffering an distress. A.L.M. March 22, 2005 [415wds]
Monday, March 21, 2005
PEOPLE AT PLAY Most persons tend to self-sort themselves when at play. Even though the actual, immediate reward may be small, we strive all the harder to win at play, it seems, than when at work. So many of us refuse to think of leisure time activities as being merely a “game” set apart from the more serious, income producing aspect of living. We take our play quite seriously and with some justification, I think. The diminutive tone in which the word “game” is so often voiced can be deceptive, too, activating an illusion which suggests the participant thinks of it as an extracurricular activity, an unessential addition which while it is to be enjoyed, is not required activity. short, many “players” do so strictly for enjoyment, pleasure and for esoteric enhancements. Watch people as they play In so doing, you will learn a thing or two about the real person you thought you knew. It starts early, too. The small boy or girl who, playing at Hop Scotch, for example, who, knowingly breaks stated, basic rules concerning his jumps to advance his score will, later on, try the same tactics in business deals. Quite often, playing against younger, less experienced competitors, he will seem to be successful by using such actions. We must realize early life that the games we play,, be they vocational or avocational... work or hobby ...are all set to operate best by firmly set rules and modifying regulations. There are always those who have previous of gamesmanship who monitor what we are doing and try to set us on the right path. A child who ignore such guidance in early life, who is kept from given such authority due respect by jealous or otherwise unreliable parents or, in some cases, appointed administrative guardians such as baby-sitters and pliant grandparents, invites failure. There is, we are told, honor even among thieves and, in a real sense, that is true. Part of the punishment for having chosen the wrong way of life is a constant, unending awareness that you are to suffer for our poor judgments and your choice of desire over need. Courage is often founded in fear – of consequences if one departs for the set rules. All participants in any game exercise expertise which is all is own. In a baseball game, a batter stands tense with anticipation of what the next pitch coming his way might be. Suddenly there it is! It is moving toward him at just under one hundred miles per hour and it is a few feet away!The batter reacts to rules of game and does what is required to the best of his ability, not to a series of cogitative thoughts about what might be done. On the mound the pitcher is wondering how well he has followed the game's rules. He will know in a fraction of a second if he had made proper. Sound alone would tell him if he had achieved his mark or merely had another learning experience. He thought over the manner in which he had laced his long finger around the ball; where he had applied pressure; where he had lightened it; the tiny twist of the wrist delivery. “Strike!” Good. What is your game? If you don't have one ...get one! Learn it well and people will be watching you some day. A. L.M March 21, 2005 [c571wds]
Sunday, March 20, 2005
THEY SAY Perhaps I ought to have put that title in quotes, because I want to talk with you about the steady increase in the number of times the expression “they say” is used in our daily conversational exchanges. It is spelled “On Dit” in French. I discovered that that years ago when I visited New Orleans. I didn't even realize the expression was being used in the French Quarter because those sometime rather strange people down there insist it be pronounced “ong de” with a long “e”', mind you. Got it? They say “ong de” when when we would be saying “they say”. It doesn't take long to pick up on the local lingo down there. After all two Virginians, they say, who were as you-all as they come, they say, bought that whole end the country without writing a book about it in French on dit. Scholarly people often dress it up a bit and say: “...is reported.” and some credit at least three authorities: “Fingleberg, Wesson and Kernestgauffel tell us that... The rest of us seldom even try to identify who the “they” might be in the expressions we use in everyday talk. You choose the authority you respect the most at the moment. If you like, you may say : “lawyers say... or Indian chiefs, pizza lovers or trombone players. The idea is to lend authority and to add a gentry tone to whatever you are saying. The majority of the time the statement parrots something you heard on radio or television when they said what they said because some said they pay them if they said it. If at all possible, try to shift previous credit or blame to someone else know simply as “they”. Many people are unaware they are using the expression at all - much less too much.”They say” has worked its way into the American type of English to the point where it just happens without effort, purpose, intent or meaning. It takes on deceptive disguises, too.- such as, they tell me, adding suggests, concedes, and other such terms – disguised by being surrounded by a welter of words which have actual meaning. It is best done with the brain in neutral while the speaking mechanism in on the way to other such means of trashing out our verbal heritage y'know” they tell me, is becoming more evident. They say, y'know is taking over, at least, that's what they're sayin', y'know. It has joined the pack of verbal wolves chewing away at our linguistic heritage. Sports interviews on radio and TV will surely contain “y'know”, by both or all members of any group. Combine such uses with “localisms” such as “see what I mean?”, or “like what it is” and “Man, Oh Man!” and you might well think you have dropped in on a foreign language auction of some sort. A.L.M. March 20, 2005 [c486wds]
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