Saturday, August 12, 2006
HOPE FOR PEACE I opened a notebook which I “kept” in 1933-34 and, for some strange reason my attention snagged at the very bottom of page 59. It was from a newspaper, rather than a magazine. A penciled note by it: “Sept.11”. It read: “When dynamite was invented, its inventor Dr. Alfred Nobel, donor of the Nobel Peace Prize, really thought that war was thenceforward impossible, since man would cease to fight when such a terrible force was in the hands of his enemies as well as his own hands.” Beside the item I penned a note, probably that same year. It reads” “Idea will work again and again with each new dealing device invented or discovered.” I disagreed with Nobel's rather childish view about peace but I must have been impressed with either his or someone else's use of the “thenceforward” which was different. I don't think I ever had manner. Has poetic grandeur about it. This way to peace by way of enhanced horror and suffering is unworthy of man's ability to think. Many of living today remember when friends of ours did the same sickly routine every we were told we had a newly-lettered bomb...”A”..”H...”V1”...”V2” and variations from that point on – or “thenceforward”, perhaps. Fission...fusion.. we have an endless variety! Each of them is bad and getting worse. One of these days we are going to come up with a substance which will dissolve anything and everything - every material, every substance. Then, ,and only then, we will wonder: what shall we keep it in? Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-12-06 [c302wds]
Friday, August 11, 2006
THE RIGHT PATH Are we on the right path as a nation? Many Americans are asking themselves that important question right now in preparation for the forthcoming election of a President. Some individuals bear a burden which makes them feel guilty of breaking a vow they feel they made when a our sitting president was chosen by a binding majority of the nation's voters. That, in their individual view means that he is my president as well as yours even if we are of opposing political parties. We have sworn to support the leader whom majority opinion has named as our leader. He is our Commander-in-Chief and we are bound to do bidding. How secure is such an attachment? Some simply ignore the entire idea and freely, openly and even violently in as few cases resulting in assassinations which have been few in our national history. Most of, without even thinking about it as a problem, simply disregard any such impediment by observing that we never had a totally democratic election in our country yet! Think about it. We cannot have true election until all eligible voters have cast their ballots. The path remains, then, in question as long as such technical nicietes are in a state of being bickered about rather than solved or set aside by restrictive wording in proper documents. I have a feeling that questioning a president's chosen “path” is valid as long as critical comments are honest and “above board”. Both parties have responsibilities for their plans or proposals, not just the party personality in he driver's seat at the time. Of importance, too is that such drivers of national vehicles are , far too often, attentive to “Back Seat Drivers” supplying guidance and destinations and there may well be more than a few of them seeking help from afar on their cell phone. Study “pathways” with special care. There are often many tempting side roads' crossroads were decisions must be made, and driving conditions far beyond your worst estimates. Say a path is wrong if you wish, but be sure you have a better one ready for use in its place. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-11-06 [c377wds]
Thursday, August 10, 2006
AUGUST TENTH. Did the news which came your way last night or early this morning about the foiled Terrorist plot upset you? Some people seem to have been taken by surprise but most seemed to indicate that they had “expected something like that to happen” and they were pleased with their foresight. “It just seemed to me,” one said, “that they'd be getting something bad ready for us for the anniversary of “Sept.11th”. Many comments seemed to have an undertone of gratitude for the British who were sufficiently aware of reality so they could stop the plot while it was still in its less advanced, formative stages. This is not a good time to spend a great amount of time and effort polishing up the old trophies each of us has for display purposes as needed. This is not a time in which we brag about things we may each accomplished as individual forces. We have done well in the past - each in his own way. We are now working together to despoil a common enemy. Recent events indicate that our enemy uses London as a pathway. New York has faced tremendous trials, as well. Just where and when our enemy might think it to his advantage to attack is a mystery that will remain with us as long as our foe is allowed to remain active. We are dealing with some problem which have haunted Mankind's various civilizations for centuries. It is highly unlikely we will be able to “solve” such ancient disagreements between antagonists who no longer even exist. Who is “native” to what part and portions of land is an elusive puzzle, for instance. So, even more so, is the choice of an ideal for Man to revere as his God. It has seemed logical to many people that our antagonists might well be planning a devious deed marking the day of the anniversary date of the destruction of the World Towers in New York City, damage to the Pentagon Building in Washington, D. C. and the loss of thousands of lives, countless injured in body and in mind and financial loss beyond estimates affect thousands of people of every race and creed around the world. That date, like “Pearl Harbor Day” also “lives in infamy”. The horrors of that segment of time can never be erased from lives of countless men, women and children. The future generations people will look back on our times and, perhaps, wonder what we did about it all! Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-10-06 [c432wds]
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
“GRAND OLD LADY” I have never worked up a plan whereby I might have reason to spend a night or two at Hotel Roanoke in the Virginia with that name. The fine old railroad inn was one of the first “big” hotels I remember seeing a kid. In the 1920's it was a long barn-like structure atop a good sized,grassy knoll overlooking the N&W Railway tracks. I suppose the hill itself must have eroded away a bit over the years and the track area became a RR Yard a large station building was inserted and the edge of the city it served pushed in next to it all. The city had been called “Big Lick for many years because it was the site of natural salty deposits the deer and other forest critters plus the early settler's cattle ,sheep ,goats and horses needed. The site was selected by an enterprising railroad magnate of that day named Frederick J. Kimble to become a major railroad juncture. It was common in those days for railroad firms to build hotels at such locations to provide travelers with a restful haven after a trying trip on the railroad trains which laid no special claim to being a comfort provider. You can still see a smaller version of that sort of business at Pulaski, Virginia with the restful name of “The Maple Shade Inn.” Hotel Roanoke was never “small”. When the first part was built in 1882 there was “a rambling frame structure” reports indicate with,let's say, about thirty rooms or so. As the town grew the hotel did, as well. New additions were appended and in 1931 – even in “Depression Years” - the place prospered and a 75-room L-wing off to the west side and a 60-car garage. The new rooms also had circulating iced water, telephone which could be moved about and electric fans. It was in 1937-38, however, that the hotel was given the distinctive ”Queen Anne” appearance. Around 1989, the Norfolk Southern Corporation, descendant of Frederick Kimball's Norfolk and Western Railway decided that being in the transportation business did not include ownership and management of hotels. So - they closed the Hotel and after 107 years of operation – and gave it to the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation. The Hotel was closed for about four years, then in 1993, a multi-million dollar restoration project funded by public and private financing in conjunction with the City of Roanoke and Virginia Tech. Hotel Roanoke – known by some as “the Grand Old Lady” - lives on. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-9-06 [c445wds]
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
THOSE TWO LINERS It seem to me that many people enjoy the short,two-line poems which were once so popular. Many of them are humorous and some are inspirational, even . We find ways to work them into our conversations and we rarely, if ever, give credit for these gems, largely because we don't know who wrote them. We attribute them to our “Granddaddy”, “Aunt Minnie”, “they”,“someone”, or “a poet.” Take one of the favorites - which is also said to be the shortest poem in the English language. The title is longer than the poem itself. “On the Antiquity of Microbes Adam had 'em.” Now, that just has to be by Ogden Nash, doesn't it? Or, Richard Armour, maybe? Or, how about Arthur Counterman? Nope prong-wrong-wrong! It was written by a poet named Strickland Gillilan. His name comes up around Mother's day because he wrote a poem about his mother taking time to read to him as a child. Gillilan,(1869-1956) a newspaperman in Washington, D.C .also head-man of the American Newspaper Humorists Society. That poem, by the way, has also been published with a newer title: “Flees” and attributed to Ogden Nash. Ben Franklin did some, as well: “Here Skugg lies snug As a bug in a rug.” David McCord's...”On a Waiter” “By and by God caught his eye.” Many such poems are laid at the feet of “Anonymous”. This one called: “A Dentist. Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity.” “The Humorist He must not laugh at his own wheeze: A snuff box has no right to sneeze.” - Keith Preston “How Are You? Don't tell your friends about your indigestion: 'How are you!' is greeting, not a question. By Arthur Guiterman Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-8-06 [c306wds]
Monday, August 07, 2006
HELPING Every place, I suppose, has it's own memories for each of us us. No two of us, I dare say,will remember a place, a person, an event, or even a feeling we once had in exactly the same way. Individuals may vary, as well, I suppose, in the way he or she recalls a moment held in memory. Events of a long time ago, I suppose may be colored, modified, even altered by that which we have have experienced in the intervening years since the moment was real and happening. I was think of all this morning as I watched Israel and Lebanon as I saw the men and women and their young ones on TV involved in the terrible business of trying to hold together scattered fragments of their lives. Persons who have not seen situations in which living in threatened by war or by the forces of Nature sometimes have difficulties in equating with the silent level of misery such victims sometime suffer. Those of us who have encountered such suffering in a second-hand manner should be thankful for our deliverance from such horrors and do all we can to alleviate the suffering now being created by a phase of war once more. One thing can be done which will be helpful in most cases. That is simply to show interest and concern wihout, in any way blaming them for the condition in which they happen to be at the moment. They have known finer days for the most part and they have memories they cherish and hold dear. Try always to meet their needs for a friendly presence among them - not a critic, or pious do-gooder playing a saintly role. Your short-term visit - and it should be that, to, rather than an open-end guardianship. The sooner they can get back on their own - the better. It is best, too for you to get away from the scene for a time, as well. Keep your own life on course, too, and be alert for new ideas about how to provide your new friends with permanent values which will create a sense of achievment in their re-started lives. Encourage a smile at every opportunity, too. We do not have to be comedians to enjoy laughter, and it is an amazing feature of even such circumstances as often are present in such areas. Prisoners in dire conditons maintain their sanity, we are told, by reflecting on their plight with a subtle sense of humor.rThe inconsistencies of such moments can seem ridiculous and see in them in such a light seems to lessen the load somewhat. Prayer is a vital part of it all, too. Any reference to a religious background in such times invites criticism these days in the United States, but your new friends may have such feelings and, as a general rule, one must be ready, willing and able to complement any such sense of higher power being very much a part of their survival, rebirth and growth. To be assured of fine memories of these years make yourself useful those in need where ever they may be. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-7-06 [c540wds]
Sunday, August 06, 2006
OUR PLACEOurs is not the neat,orderly,considerate and compassionate nation we like to think of our being at times. Many times. Far,too many times. During moments of threatened wartime we are more prone to accept on-the-edge social and political terms as correct,sensible,and acceptable which in peaceful times we would question – even reject as being improper – a bit below the standards we have set for ourselves. When dangers threaten from outside sources even though not aimed at us directly, we feel a need for a protective shield to guard us from encroachments. When sabers rattle afar and new to have evolved in other nations,we begin to wonder just how safe we are. This can be a good,nation-sustaining attitude unless it is overdone. If sudden changes are seen to affect our sense of security precautions are welcome, but not restrictions placing unnecessary restraints on some of our basic freedoms.Some citizens of other nations, with whom I have talked, seem to feel we have a rather relaxed collection. We face life, they say, with an easy-like feeling that is Good Fairy Queen is doing right by us. They consider our view to be too youthful, too juvenile at times. Notice how We “demonstrate” our displeasure. We ob tin permist to do so.We march. We carry posters insulting our opponents and praising our own views. Other protesters pour madly into the streets and milling around in small globs,yelling,thrusting their gnarled fists into the air, stomping and jumping up and down, leaping wildly on each other. They keep a constant din of screams going,and some wave weapons,as well. Some throw rocks,glass or anything from the streets they yell constantly and raise a din of wild words,.and if its in their way destroy property. Our best chances for secure future is going to be found in our ability to have and to hold such diplomats as Dr. Condoleezza Rice. I listened to her speak this morning on TV concerning the potential ceasefire agreement. Her sound,sensible assurances did me more good than hours of demonstrations. Our best hope for a peaceful future lies in our ability to find and to hold on to such competent leaders as Dr. Rice. And I might just as well add that which I am thiking as I write this: in whatever title capacity which best suits the needs of our nation at that time. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-6-06 [c424wds]
|
