Saturday, April 01, 2006
HAD YOUR FLU SHOT?
It disturbs me when I find sol many people taking the threat so lightly. It is not that I think we ought to be complaining of symptoms or putting on sad faces and mope around worried worthless about possible epidemics striking at any moment. I do not see any reason or stay in a constant state of emergency, but I do think we ought to know the facts - that ,for instance, it has been influenza which has killed more than anything else. It has happened in relatively modern times, too. In 1918 and part of 1919 - twenty months more or less - 675,000 American citizens died of flu infection. We were lucky. World wide estimates show that in that in that same period about one-sixth of the total population of planet Earth died of influenza; between fifty-one and one hundred million people died. Figure have to be pretty much guesswork in China, much of Africa, India and other heavily populated areas. The total killed here in the United States was large enough to actually shortened our national life span by ten per cent or or more because the killer disease chose victims between twenty and forty years of age. The first suggestion that a potential epidemic might be underway came from Kansas where a U. S. Army installation reported more than usual number of cases of a flu-like nature and a rising death toll because of it. A quick survey of other military installations around the nation showed that such an epidemic was, indeed, underway. The disease spread rapid and troops shipping out for overseas took it with them. The virus in which the 1918 attack was set was isolated and treatment devised but not quickly enough to forestall numerous deaths in many lands. Many people today are familiar with the symptoms of the malady we rather lightly call "the flu bug." We even use a saying 1918 survivors said: "I felt like somebody had beat me all over with a big board" . We also hear people say "Oh, he's o.k! He had touch of the flu." We should remember that the 1918 never did find out what caused the flare up at that time. They now know that the virus which caused the earlier trouble is not all that different from those causing "Avian Flu" today. We seem to have "Killer Flu" on Death Row. But, how securely? A.L. M. April 1, 2006 [c417wds]
Friday, March 31, 2006
RETIRED
It may well be that you are a retired person without knowing you have made it to that much yearned for pinnacle of American work-think reasoning. You may be in the position of the tramp, bum, hobo, vagrant, or just incorrigible work-shy individual who used to be in old minstrel show skits as well as vaudeville sketches, and burlesque routines. He had a concocted reason for his permanent state of unemployment which made sense - not good sense, unnecessarily, but seemed to be accurate enough to make one think about retirement years ahead. We all had strong feelings about the task we faced year of working well and loyally for an employer, then being "turned out to pasture". In the skit years ago, the conventional man delivered a fine lecture pointing out to the non-working man that by working hard he could look forward to a blessed time when he could stop working and do absolutely nothing what-so-ever! The major enjoyment we used to get from such minstrel performances, burlesque shows and variety theater pieces was based on the acknowledged fact that all plot twists, gags and action was to be telegraphed to the members of the audience just a tense moment before that action took place on the stage. Because we were quick enough to "see it coming" we enjoyed it all the more. As expected the tramp, hobo, bum, idler would look at the speaker and with a puzzled twang in his voice say exactly the words we expected him to say: "But, boss, that's exactly what I'm doing now!" We can learn several worthy points about retirement from this character. Initially, you give up any notions you may have developed which predict retirement to be a time of extended leisure. Far from it. Most retired persons find it difficult to find enough time to try to do even a few of those things they have always dreamed of doing if they ever had the time... like hang-gliding, sky-diving or snorkeling the length of the Great Barrier Reef. Second point. Don't get too cozy with the idea that you have some sort of right or special permit which qualifies you to take it easy-easy. If your general physical health is good - not exceptional one way or another - and, mentally, if your elevator still goes all the way to the top floor when you think - you are subject to whatever folks around you seem think they know what a retiree ought to be doing with all that extra time. "I'll be my own boss." Ha! A.L.M. March 31, 2006 [c445wds]
Thursday, March 30, 2006
SPRUNG SPRING Spring cannot be said to a have "sprung" this year. It has more or less "oozed up" during these mid-March days. it was forced to do so through some rather heavy crusts of frost, too, but the Sun knew what time of the year it was and came and it came rolling across the Blue Ridge mountains to the east of us; hooked the edges of that shadow-like sheet of frost and shook all that rime in the river - the lakes and a ponds and just a scattered, damped-down hint of it appears on moving waters. Jack Frost still seems to thinks he can stop Spring from returning one of these years. He keeps trying. I see on TV that the Japanese Cherry Trees have blossomed pretty much as scheduled again this year to keep the Cherry Blossom Festival legal. What a beautiful sight! What a wonderful way to celebrate friendship and understanding!" There are elements of frost to be felt there, too, because each year when I see the Tidal Basin so vigorously resplendent and bloom beyond imagination I still feel the horror of symbolic Pearl Harbor and all of the sorry, pain, suffering, want and degradation brought so needlessly upon millions of humans in many places across the charred, battered body of our mutual world...including those of the"Land of the Rising Sun" Perhaps that same sun, shining now on both nations living in prosperity and harmony will engender the enduring wealth of dedicated friendship akin to oneness. Just by seeing seeing these flowers blooming constantly and so colorfully we might come to know the heart and mind other men and women who are ,have been or will be willing and eager to share such beauty at all times in all climes. A.L.M. March 30, 2006 [c310wds]
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
TO THE STREETS ! If you are in favor of just about anything and things are not, for some unknown reason, going exactly your way, there remains just one thing which can and must be done – that is to take it “to the streets!” That's what several hundred thousand of the good people of Paris, France are doing this evening - having a jolly old rioting time of it eagerly going against all who would oppose them, out to have a fine time running madly through the streets seeking out anyone who will try to stop them, crowding in to public places, loitering in historic squares and visiting walled courtyards usually forbidden. Water hoses, mounted on large trucks stand ready to douse any rioters ahead of them and when they do, spilling them over each other for twenty feet or more. Policemen dressed in bulky combat gear for as a shell of sorts with their long body shields and advance, looking for all the world like a giant armadillo nosing its way into a patch of swamp grass. There is something in their movements which reminds us of day when Roman soldiers went against foes in much the same fashion. It seems that those students, teachers, rioters, who are captured are well-trained in putting on a creditable dramatic with much cowering against imagined blows, twisting, falling, screaming, calling out, cringing, writhing in imagined pain, and generally contorting freakishly for any TV camera which may be clicking away nearby. After all, that is the main reason why a riot is still best taken “to the streets !” That's where the TV cameras are thicker. We had our own street gathering of disturbed citizens early in the week. They were upset over pending migration legislation. They were much better behaved than the Paris paraders who, the papers said “got a bit out-of-hand.” A.L.M. March 28, 2006 [c317wds]
Monday, March 27, 2006
MIGRATION PROBLEMS I wonder at times, if it might be that we are living on the tail end of one age and nipping at the edge of another era. We are not the only nation with serious problems concerned with the movement of large masses of people from one area to another. This is not a new problem with us, but, rather, one which we have - again-and-again - refused to face. The time is now. We have put it off for far too many years and for anyone interested in doing a sort of autopsy examination of the structural damages done by the delay will find plenty of material with which to work in showing how we miss-managed our responsibilities. Ours is a problem made worse by our having tried to by-pass its con sequences in our economy. Every since I was a kid Mexicans have been moving north into the United States. They readily found work in our border state and grew to be a worthy and an important segment of our southwestern area of our nation. They became essential to the far-west economy. Essentially, they were of a family -oriented people and as one group prospered others followed. They came in steady streams and few here noticed that more of them were not Mexican at all but from other Central American nations. As we procrastinated and fumbled with temporary rules and regulations "foreign worker" became numerous in various areas all over the country. I remember when the first came to this Valley of Virginia in large numbers. At first I recall them as migratory harvesters of the apple and peach crops of the Shenandoah Valley area. They, however, became firmly set in the Valley's poultry industry and local people began to notice that the so-called "Mexican worker" was so called because he came through Mexico - not, of necessity, from Mexico. From time-to-time busloads of them were hauled "back to Mexico" as illegal aliens. Their local Landlords and Landladies in nearby towns didn't even try to close up or re-rent their rooms knowing full-well that-after a weeks vacation - the same worker would be back at his job eviscerating chickens and doing other unpleasant "wet work." The problem might well have been made less threatening years ago if existing laws concerning the employment of alien workers had been enforced. We are now confronted by illegal migration dangers of far greater import on all of our borders - including those with Canada. A.L.M. March 27, 2006 [c436wds]
Sunday, March 26, 2006
90TH BIRTHDAY! My problem: How do I go about saying "Thank You" to even part of the many people who helped make my recent "90th Birthday Celebration" something best described by a word today's young people use - "awesome!" I cannot think of it all without that reverential aura of awe. The miracle of family was there - kinfolks, too, the extended and still-growing family of friends many of whom I have known for many years and others I am meeting for the first time. The party was held at Hermitage Presbyterian Church near Waynesboro,Va. It was at that site largely because Dan and Janet Arndt, Vivian's brother, I think among those instigators who dreamed all of this up. .They had both worked hard on finishing off the new hall and our gathering was, I understand, the first non-church activity in the new facility. It proved to be ideal for us in every way. Everything, including excellent food and fine service was right where it should be. The large hall had, perhaps ten or twelve large, round tables and each was held in place by colorful inflated balloons. The ones at the table at which Vivian and I were were seated had "90" emblazoned on them. They were bigger and fancier. Cameras were plentiful and much of the afternoon was concerned with the taking of both formal and informal shots. TV cameras were on, as well and if there remains enough development and printing stuff available we ought to be wading through a small sea of pictures about a month from now. Granddaughter Frannie Fulk had a large table filled with eight or ten large photograph albums - big, looseleaf binder types - which she has been editing and re-mounting. She has done a remarkable job of restoring the old books to prime condition and a great many guests enjoyed looking a the weddings, homes, people. Frannie also plans to add incoming flood of 90th bd-pix to the books as well. She has done a fantastic job and it shows through, too as a labor of love. Just before we let our house in Brendan Lane, Weyers Cave to drive to Hermitage Church, the days mail was delivered. There was a large cardboard envelope, from Helga and Brian Thomson. They are Julian Tompson, Granddaughter Annette's husbands parents. The large piece is made of real, live clover leaves, tipped with a subtle touch of color and pressed in some mysterious fashion into the very surface the board or whatever - smooth touch - with lettering wishing me a Happy 90th! Once more: "Awesome!" A.L.M. March 2, 2006 [c443wds]
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