Sunday, October 31, 2004
Time to Decide: Part Two
On the other end of the left, we have the Democrats who have, for the past few decades, tried to socialize our country. With a big heart and a sincere desire to raise the standards of living for all Americans, presidents like JFK and LBJ laid the foundations of a true socialistic welfare state. But instead of helping, they interfered with the natural order of work and earn and gain the rewards for one’s labor. They interfered with a person’s feeling of self-worth. They created a generation of people that believed what the government told them--that they were incapable: they could not work or learn or even feed themselves. And in this Socialist State, work or not, everyone gets fed–as long as you keep those self-proclaimed saviors in power. The Blacks were especially vulnerable to this ideology having just survived the "Jim Crow" laws. They turned from the Eisenhower republicans (Eisenhower was the first president to put black people in positions of power) to the democrats who offered lip service to equality and free lunch to anyone who claimed to need it. And since so many Americans were told they were not good enough to drink from the same water fountain, they certainly were not good enough to provide their own lunch.
Unlike the Commies, the Socialists want everyone in the community to partake of everything, equally, earned or not earned. Everyone eats. Everyone has health care. Everyone lives in little apartments (they don’t need big apartments because pregnancies are terminated). Everyone goes to public schools. Everyone owns everything. And for those few people who would rather work anyway–well–look at England. 32% of a Brit’s paycheck goes to income tax, and that does not begin to include property taxes, sales taxes, and everything-else taxes just to support socialized medicine and socialized welfare. Do we really want to break the backs of a few workers to provide mediocre benefits for all? I had a British friend that had to wait 18 months to have her appendix out. I, an American, waited 18 hours to have mine removed. The problem with socialism is that it doesn’t work very well! Instead of all people having a higher standard of living, most people have a much lower standard of living, except, of course, for the leaders and enforcers who live in the castles high above the rest of us.
England is my mother (she gave birth to my nation) and Russia is my father (he gave birth to my grandparents). There comes a time when all the mother lands and fatherlands must be forgot.
WE are Americans now. We are the entrepreneurs and settlers and we fought for our independence – so let us be independent. We don’t need to follow the old country ideas of government. We have done just fine discovering our own identity. Let us all be men. Let us work. Let us support our families and ourselves. Let us nurture a country where working for a living is considered the norm, not where a few unfortunate workers slave to provide for the many.
Let us each with our own guile use whatever skills and talents we were blessed with to earn our way, whether it be academic, economic, scientific, religious, manufacturing or farming, or even if we want to collect cans on the side of the highways and live off the land. And, let us choose for ourselves how much we want to give and who we want to help. We are a generous moral people. Look at how we love to give.
No, I will not vote for a Democratic candidate for President of the United States this year. I will not vote for Kerry. I don’t want my country to keep bending in that direction. I really really don’t want a socialist state in my future.
On the other end of the left, we have the Democrats who have, for the past few decades, tried to socialize our country. With a big heart and a sincere desire to raise the standards of living for all Americans, presidents like JFK and LBJ laid the foundations of a true socialistic welfare state. But instead of helping, they interfered with the natural order of work and earn and gain the rewards for one’s labor. They interfered with a person’s feeling of self-worth. They created a generation of people that believed what the government told them--that they were incapable: they could not work or learn or even feed themselves. And in this Socialist State, work or not, everyone gets fed–as long as you keep those self-proclaimed saviors in power. The Blacks were especially vulnerable to this ideology having just survived the "Jim Crow" laws. They turned from the Eisenhower republicans (Eisenhower was the first president to put black people in positions of power) to the democrats who offered lip service to equality and free lunch to anyone who claimed to need it. And since so many Americans were told they were not good enough to drink from the same water fountain, they certainly were not good enough to provide their own lunch.
Unlike the Commies, the Socialists want everyone in the community to partake of everything, equally, earned or not earned. Everyone eats. Everyone has health care. Everyone lives in little apartments (they don’t need big apartments because pregnancies are terminated). Everyone goes to public schools. Everyone owns everything. And for those few people who would rather work anyway–well–look at England. 32% of a Brit’s paycheck goes to income tax, and that does not begin to include property taxes, sales taxes, and everything-else taxes just to support socialized medicine and socialized welfare. Do we really want to break the backs of a few workers to provide mediocre benefits for all? I had a British friend that had to wait 18 months to have her appendix out. I, an American, waited 18 hours to have mine removed. The problem with socialism is that it doesn’t work very well! Instead of all people having a higher standard of living, most people have a much lower standard of living, except, of course, for the leaders and enforcers who live in the castles high above the rest of us.
England is my mother (she gave birth to my nation) and Russia is my father (he gave birth to my grandparents). There comes a time when all the mother lands and fatherlands must be forgot.
WE are Americans now. We are the entrepreneurs and settlers and we fought for our independence – so let us be independent. We don’t need to follow the old country ideas of government. We have done just fine discovering our own identity. Let us all be men. Let us work. Let us support our families and ourselves. Let us nurture a country where working for a living is considered the norm, not where a few unfortunate workers slave to provide for the many.
Let us each with our own guile use whatever skills and talents we were blessed with to earn our way, whether it be academic, economic, scientific, religious, manufacturing or farming, or even if we want to collect cans on the side of the highways and live off the land. And, let us choose for ourselves how much we want to give and who we want to help. We are a generous moral people. Look at how we love to give.
No, I will not vote for a Democratic candidate for President of the United States this year. I will not vote for Kerry. I don’t want my country to keep bending in that direction. I really really don’t want a socialist state in my future.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Time to Decide: Part One
As much as I would love to have a viable third party, this is not the election.
True, Ralph Nader fights the good fight. He strives to protect us from corporate greed. That is an important fight in a capitalist country, but it is a fight that is not meant to be won. The battle is crucial. Not the victory. A compromise here, and backdown there. That is what gave us strong unions, a strong economy, a strong labor force. But to elect Ralph Nader is to succumb to the Workers-of-the-World-Unite mentality and to lose the private business sector we rely upon so heavily because business is what supports us all.
I had a conversation with some communists who were trying to unionize a small factory in a small town. The workers needed a union: they had unsafe working conditions – fatal industrial accidents were an annual event; unhealthy working conditions – long time workers ended up reliant on oxygen and hearing aides; low paid workers – who could not afford to purchase the very products their sweat had made. The people who actually produced did not share in the wealth.
I learned an important lesson that day. The longer I let them talk, the more I learned about the depths of their beliefs. It is amazing how much you can learn with your mouth shut and your ears open. The more they explained their goals, the more bizarre their ideal world became until all peoples were workers and all workers worked eight hours a day. Doctors, artists, teachers, scientists were not defined as workers; they were hobbyists. To earn the right to food and shelter, everyone must work eight hours a day with their hands to produce, make, create, or farm something tangible. They deemed everything else frivolity. Anything spiritual or intellectual or philanthropic had no value.
For the communal good, of course.
That is a very interesting goal for the world. All proletariat serving one massive machine. Till we die.
Sigh. As much as I like Nader, he does not get my vote this year. Part One is an easy chapter.
As much as I would love to have a viable third party, this is not the election.
True, Ralph Nader fights the good fight. He strives to protect us from corporate greed. That is an important fight in a capitalist country, but it is a fight that is not meant to be won. The battle is crucial. Not the victory. A compromise here, and backdown there. That is what gave us strong unions, a strong economy, a strong labor force. But to elect Ralph Nader is to succumb to the Workers-of-the-World-Unite mentality and to lose the private business sector we rely upon so heavily because business is what supports us all.
I had a conversation with some communists who were trying to unionize a small factory in a small town. The workers needed a union: they had unsafe working conditions – fatal industrial accidents were an annual event; unhealthy working conditions – long time workers ended up reliant on oxygen and hearing aides; low paid workers – who could not afford to purchase the very products their sweat had made. The people who actually produced did not share in the wealth.
I learned an important lesson that day. The longer I let them talk, the more I learned about the depths of their beliefs. It is amazing how much you can learn with your mouth shut and your ears open. The more they explained their goals, the more bizarre their ideal world became until all peoples were workers and all workers worked eight hours a day. Doctors, artists, teachers, scientists were not defined as workers; they were hobbyists. To earn the right to food and shelter, everyone must work eight hours a day with their hands to produce, make, create, or farm something tangible. They deemed everything else frivolity. Anything spiritual or intellectual or philanthropic had no value.
For the communal good, of course.
That is a very interesting goal for the world. All proletariat serving one massive machine. Till we die.
Sigh. As much as I like Nader, he does not get my vote this year. Part One is an easy chapter.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Osama
Okay. Let's work through this.
Mass-murdering terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has released his first tape in over a year, addressed directly to the American people, just days before our Presidential election. (For the sake of this discussion, let's assume it's not a hoax, and that the video will be authenticated.)
Why would he do this? There are three possibilities. 1) Osama, as he claims, genuinely doesn't care who's in office, and is just trying to scare us before Halloween. 2) Osama is hoping to sway the election to help Bush. 3) Osama is hoping to sway the election to help Kerry.
The first possibility is the easiest to discount, due to the timing of the broadcast. You wouldn't choose your first message in over thirteen months to be days before the election, with a topic about the election, addressed directly to the American people, if you weren't trying to sway the outcome. Period.
The second possibility is laughable to all but the most maniacal conspiracy buffs. Although he claims it wouldn't matter if Kerry or Bush proves the victor, the tape looks like it was scripted by Michael Moore. From the transcript:
So, we can conclude with certainty that Osama bin Laden is trying to sway the election for Kerry. Any other interpretation is illogical.
Why would he do this? Well, I suppose I can insert the typical "because they know he'll be soft on terror" talking points, but really, I don't know. And, at least when it comes to making a decision on election day, I don't care. Osama bin Laden just got on international television and told us two things: 1) There will be more attacks on your country no matter who's elected, and 2) I'd really really really like it if you elected John Kerry.
Gee, I wonder which way we should vote.
(also posted to defeatjohnjohn.com)
Okay. Let's work through this.
Mass-murdering terror mastermind Osama bin Laden has released his first tape in over a year, addressed directly to the American people, just days before our Presidential election. (For the sake of this discussion, let's assume it's not a hoax, and that the video will be authenticated.)
Why would he do this? There are three possibilities. 1) Osama, as he claims, genuinely doesn't care who's in office, and is just trying to scare us before Halloween. 2) Osama is hoping to sway the election to help Bush. 3) Osama is hoping to sway the election to help Kerry.
The first possibility is the easiest to discount, due to the timing of the broadcast. You wouldn't choose your first message in over thirteen months to be days before the election, with a topic about the election, addressed directly to the American people, if you weren't trying to sway the outcome. Period.
The second possibility is laughable to all but the most maniacal conspiracy buffs. Although he claims it wouldn't matter if Kerry or Bush proves the victor, the tape looks like it was scripted by Michael Moore. From the transcript:
"It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone. It appeared to him that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God."There is no way, with passages like that, that this could be some kind of bizarre Karl Rove conspiracy to scare people into voting for Bush. If Osama or a fake Osama wanted Bush to remain in office, they'd simply say "we're going to attack you soon" (or, attack us). Instead, Osama quotes from Farhenheit 9/11? No rational person can view this tape and deduce it's meant to help the President.
So, we can conclude with certainty that Osama bin Laden is trying to sway the election for Kerry. Any other interpretation is illogical.
Why would he do this? Well, I suppose I can insert the typical "because they know he'll be soft on terror" talking points, but really, I don't know. And, at least when it comes to making a decision on election day, I don't care. Osama bin Laden just got on international television and told us two things: 1) There will be more attacks on your country no matter who's elected, and 2) I'd really really really like it if you elected John Kerry.
Gee, I wonder which way we should vote.
(also posted to defeatjohnjohn.com)
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
A Brief Respite
This is so exciting. So momentous. Huge.
More important then the brief fling of one candidate or another as he stops in at the White House, hopefully to leave a positive image in the history books, but more than likely to just sit as another pawn of the political puppeteers.
What is more important? A new species has been discovered.
A new species of homo erectus.
Humans that would have been shaped like Hobbits but with little tiny brains to match their little tiny bodies. They lived in little tiny caves on little tiny islands just north west of Australia. They made little tiny tools and even hunted little tiny elephants. They were maybe three feet tall–fully grown.
The discovering archeologists are excited because these little hominins lived along side modern humans a relatively short 12,000 years ago. The juxtaposition of two species of human ancestors living side by side is a great new image. But even better . . .
What if next year, while searching the caves for more remains of these little H Floresiensis, the archeologists find evidence of one being alive today.
Could the Littles be a true story. Are there really Leprechauns? All I know is, I want one!
This is so exciting. So momentous. Huge.
More important then the brief fling of one candidate or another as he stops in at the White House, hopefully to leave a positive image in the history books, but more than likely to just sit as another pawn of the political puppeteers.
What is more important? A new species has been discovered.
A new species of homo erectus.
Humans that would have been shaped like Hobbits but with little tiny brains to match their little tiny bodies. They lived in little tiny caves on little tiny islands just north west of Australia. They made little tiny tools and even hunted little tiny elephants. They were maybe three feet tall–fully grown.
The discovering archeologists are excited because these little hominins lived along side modern humans a relatively short 12,000 years ago. The juxtaposition of two species of human ancestors living side by side is a great new image. But even better . . .
What if next year, while searching the caves for more remains of these little H Floresiensis, the archeologists find evidence of one being alive today.
Could the Littles be a true story. Are there really Leprechauns? All I know is, I want one!
Thursday, October 21, 2004
This is Going to be Rough
There is a new documentary (or political ad, depending on your point of view) similar to Fahrenheit 9/11, coming just before the presidential election. Of course, the Democrats are desperately fighting to block its release. What a thing to have to say. The Democrats are actually fighting to block the release of a movie, and as of this writing, appear to have succeeded. Gives one the shudders doesn't it? I thought Nixon was bad with his zero tolerance for dissenting views. Kerry's Democrats have done everything in their power to silence all opposition, including Ralph Nader's right to be a candidate, Vietnam Vets who differ on their recollections of the swift boat campaigns, and now, this movie that will expose the possible damage John Kerry did as a Vietnam Vet Against the War.
My heart aches.
"Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal" is a testimony of real vets and real prisoners of war that suffered horribly in the hands of the Viet Cong. They claim that John Kerry's 1971 testimony to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee was the direct cause of additional brutalities imposed against them. These vets say they endured retaliations for the atrocities Americans committed and that Kerry reported publicly to that committee. Just because after the My Lai massacre, soldiers were prohibited from taking cameras into action and therefore photos are rare, doesn't mean the atrocities stopped.
Nor does Kerry's testimony mean war crimes started with Vietnam. And I don't mean only the Nazis against the Jews, or the Japanese against the Chinese, or some Indian tribe against another, or an African tribe against another, or an Asian tribe against another, or whites against blacks, or Europeans against Native Americans, or GI Joe against German soldiers, or any preindustrialized clan against any other preindustrialized clan. Read the Bible. Or read about the Crusades. We haven't even started talking about victors taking slaves and raising villages. Do you really think the rapes and murders of the Czar's little girls by the Bolsheviks were the only such rapes and murders of children? War is Hell. Did you get that?
War IS Hell.
I can sit here all day gazing into my Dell monitor and telling myself that I am still 20 and look'n good. Nevertheless, sometime or other, I am going to have to walk past a mirror. I am not 20. I am not look'n good. So I take water aerobic classes three times a week and at least I can feel good.
We Americans strive so hard to think of ourselves as near perfect that we have no energy left to put in the work it requires to become near perfect. Fooling ourselves is not the same as being what we expect ourselves to be. The first step to becoming the Americans we think we are is to look into the mirror. Deep into the mirror. And then we need to start demanding a higher level of behavior.
Take it apart. What the creators of "Stolen Honor" are saying is that by reporting the truth about war, the anti-war movement made war even more atrocious. To me, that is like saying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was responsible for the beatings, rapes, and lynchings during the Civil Rights movement. Or, like publicizing truths and lies about nicotine causes lung cancer. Or, like saying by exposing corporate greed's lack of concern for customer safety, Ralph Nader caused the death and maiming of auto accident victims.
Hate-mongers and sadists and the avaricious will always take advantage of situations. It's what they do. Social change is always a struggle. It's why you should pick your battles carefully. Be sure you are right. Many people will be hurt in a war. Personally, I always admired the Vietnam Vets Against the War. I always felt they were fine young men that believed in a Better America then what they found, and then actually worked hard to try to make the Better America a reality. I am sorry John Kerry is not proud of his stance against savagery.
There is a new documentary (or political ad, depending on your point of view) similar to Fahrenheit 9/11, coming just before the presidential election. Of course, the Democrats are desperately fighting to block its release. What a thing to have to say. The Democrats are actually fighting to block the release of a movie, and as of this writing, appear to have succeeded. Gives one the shudders doesn't it? I thought Nixon was bad with his zero tolerance for dissenting views. Kerry's Democrats have done everything in their power to silence all opposition, including Ralph Nader's right to be a candidate, Vietnam Vets who differ on their recollections of the swift boat campaigns, and now, this movie that will expose the possible damage John Kerry did as a Vietnam Vet Against the War.
My heart aches.
"Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal" is a testimony of real vets and real prisoners of war that suffered horribly in the hands of the Viet Cong. They claim that John Kerry's 1971 testimony to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee was the direct cause of additional brutalities imposed against them. These vets say they endured retaliations for the atrocities Americans committed and that Kerry reported publicly to that committee. Just because after the My Lai massacre, soldiers were prohibited from taking cameras into action and therefore photos are rare, doesn't mean the atrocities stopped.
Nor does Kerry's testimony mean war crimes started with Vietnam. And I don't mean only the Nazis against the Jews, or the Japanese against the Chinese, or some Indian tribe against another, or an African tribe against another, or an Asian tribe against another, or whites against blacks, or Europeans against Native Americans, or GI Joe against German soldiers, or any preindustrialized clan against any other preindustrialized clan. Read the Bible. Or read about the Crusades. We haven't even started talking about victors taking slaves and raising villages. Do you really think the rapes and murders of the Czar's little girls by the Bolsheviks were the only such rapes and murders of children? War is Hell. Did you get that?
War IS Hell.
I can sit here all day gazing into my Dell monitor and telling myself that I am still 20 and look'n good. Nevertheless, sometime or other, I am going to have to walk past a mirror. I am not 20. I am not look'n good. So I take water aerobic classes three times a week and at least I can feel good.
We Americans strive so hard to think of ourselves as near perfect that we have no energy left to put in the work it requires to become near perfect. Fooling ourselves is not the same as being what we expect ourselves to be. The first step to becoming the Americans we think we are is to look into the mirror. Deep into the mirror. And then we need to start demanding a higher level of behavior.
Take it apart. What the creators of "Stolen Honor" are saying is that by reporting the truth about war, the anti-war movement made war even more atrocious. To me, that is like saying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was responsible for the beatings, rapes, and lynchings during the Civil Rights movement. Or, like publicizing truths and lies about nicotine causes lung cancer. Or, like saying by exposing corporate greed's lack of concern for customer safety, Ralph Nader caused the death and maiming of auto accident victims.
Hate-mongers and sadists and the avaricious will always take advantage of situations. It's what they do. Social change is always a struggle. It's why you should pick your battles carefully. Be sure you are right. Many people will be hurt in a war. Personally, I always admired the Vietnam Vets Against the War. I always felt they were fine young men that believed in a Better America then what they found, and then actually worked hard to try to make the Better America a reality. I am sorry John Kerry is not proud of his stance against savagery.
Friday, October 15, 2004
A Minor Oversight
Not one question. Four debates, three of which had questions concerning domestic issues, and not a single question directly related to education. I don't know, maybe I missed it. But for all of the prattling about that goes on from the candidates, and the several times that they both (and their running mates) mentioned that they looked forward to the education questions to come, not a single one ever arose. Oh, we got the question, "What have you learned most from your strong willed wife?" along with the requisite questions on Homeland Security, Roe v. Wade (which Bush never actually answered…), and Health Care. But no direct questions on education. All four of the debate participants mentioned No School Left Standing, er, No Child Left Behind in one way or another, but apparently education is not important to our esteemed moderators. Heck, Bush could barely shut up about how great No School Left Standing is -– most of what he said was false, misleading and/or bad policy, but that doesn't seem to matter -– and yet, no questions. No follow up. No discussion. Nothing.
Education is the silver bullet. It is the solution to so many of the nation's problems and yet the rhetoric that is spewed about is full of platitude and empty promises. It can solve poverty, outsourcing, crime... you name it, education can help. We have a long way to go to make education as important as it needs to be in this country. No Child Left Behind is a start. There are some very good things about that law, but by and large it is a poorly written law (its central theme being: "The problem with American education is that teachers aren't trying hard enough") and needs revision. Every study shows that early childhood education significantly increases a child's chances at long term academic success, and yet Bush and the recently-and-finally-dubbed-ethically-challenged Tom DeLay led the charge to cut funding for programs like Head Start and Americorps reading programs. Teachers are routinely touted as professionals and great Americans (usually about this time of year every 2-4 years) yet we don't treat them as such on a day-to-day basis (like the Secretary of Education referring to our union as a "terrorist organization" or the fact that I earn less today than four years ago). We need to stop punishing schools for things that are beyond their control and start giving them the resources they need to make students successful. We need to have real incentives for teachers to excel. And we need to elect people who understand all of this, who listen to professional educators (who have SPENT A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME ACTUALLY TEACHING IN A CLASSROOM) and who care about the welfare of our children and the future of the country.
But how will we ever know if they don't get the question? How will Joe Average Voter know what I know about educational policy and the ripple effect that it has on our society if they don't have the opportunity to let our presidential and vice presidential candidates tell us in their own, often convoluted, way? Why must we allow a few media elite dictate the topics for which these men speak to if they are not going to represent all of our concerns? The truth is that there is too much on the line in this election to ignore the "secondary issues" that will ultimately lead our country in the future. Instead, in all of the debates, we got nothing.
Not one question. Four debates, three of which had questions concerning domestic issues, and not a single question directly related to education. I don't know, maybe I missed it. But for all of the prattling about that goes on from the candidates, and the several times that they both (and their running mates) mentioned that they looked forward to the education questions to come, not a single one ever arose. Oh, we got the question, "What have you learned most from your strong willed wife?" along with the requisite questions on Homeland Security, Roe v. Wade (which Bush never actually answered…), and Health Care. But no direct questions on education. All four of the debate participants mentioned No School Left Standing, er, No Child Left Behind in one way or another, but apparently education is not important to our esteemed moderators. Heck, Bush could barely shut up about how great No School Left Standing is -– most of what he said was false, misleading and/or bad policy, but that doesn't seem to matter -– and yet, no questions. No follow up. No discussion. Nothing.
Education is the silver bullet. It is the solution to so many of the nation's problems and yet the rhetoric that is spewed about is full of platitude and empty promises. It can solve poverty, outsourcing, crime... you name it, education can help. We have a long way to go to make education as important as it needs to be in this country. No Child Left Behind is a start. There are some very good things about that law, but by and large it is a poorly written law (its central theme being: "The problem with American education is that teachers aren't trying hard enough") and needs revision. Every study shows that early childhood education significantly increases a child's chances at long term academic success, and yet Bush and the recently-and-finally-dubbed-ethically-challenged Tom DeLay led the charge to cut funding for programs like Head Start and Americorps reading programs. Teachers are routinely touted as professionals and great Americans (usually about this time of year every 2-4 years) yet we don't treat them as such on a day-to-day basis (like the Secretary of Education referring to our union as a "terrorist organization" or the fact that I earn less today than four years ago). We need to stop punishing schools for things that are beyond their control and start giving them the resources they need to make students successful. We need to have real incentives for teachers to excel. And we need to elect people who understand all of this, who listen to professional educators (who have SPENT A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TIME ACTUALLY TEACHING IN A CLASSROOM) and who care about the welfare of our children and the future of the country.
But how will we ever know if they don't get the question? How will Joe Average Voter know what I know about educational policy and the ripple effect that it has on our society if they don't have the opportunity to let our presidential and vice presidential candidates tell us in their own, often convoluted, way? Why must we allow a few media elite dictate the topics for which these men speak to if they are not going to represent all of our concerns? The truth is that there is too much on the line in this election to ignore the "secondary issues" that will ultimately lead our country in the future. Instead, in all of the debates, we got nothing.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
The Late Great Sixty-Eight vs Oh-Oh-Four
Some Random Thoughts:
1968 -- Dr Benjamin Spock, one of the first celebrities to publicly oppose the Vietnam war, was convicted of conspiring to encourage draft evasion. Dr Spock, THE definitive Guru of parenting the Baby Boomers with his book "Baby and Child Care" was held responsible for the rebelliousness of the youth by such political leaders as Vice Pres Spiro Agnew, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and religious leader Norman Vincent Peale. They blamed the undisciplined youth on Spock because he replaced "spare the rod and spoil the child" with "be natural and comfortable and enjoy your baby." Upon the death of Dr Spock, President Clinton said, "Dr. Spock . . . taught all of us the importance of respecting children. He was a tireless advocate, devoting himself to the cause of improving the lives of children."
2004 -– Martha Stewart, The Domestic Diva, was convicted of conspiring with her stock broker to lie to federal investigators about why she dumped stock just before prices plunged. Stewart (who used to be a stock broker herself), made her fame by giving a sense of style to home making, gardening, entertaining; inspiring people to add graciousness and style to everyday living. And that was a good thing.
1968 -– The North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, a massive organized attack of over a hundred South Vietnam cities, discrediting General Westmoreland who had convinced the Congress and the American people that the "Vietnam Conflict" was going well. Nightly newscasts were, by this time, able to show actual footage of the "conflict" in their nightly reports and the Tet Offensive offered lots of graphic visuals of the "conflict." Then "conflict" correspondent Walter Cronkite said, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of evidence the optimist that have been wrong in the past. To say we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion. It seems increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."
2004 -– Iraq: We were told that our Shock & Awe offense was a successful military operation and that Iraq had been rescued. But nightly news reports offer an opposite view. Perhaps we need to negotiate as an honorable people??? Naw–those terrorists have no political middle ground. They have one goal and one goal only: Kill all non-Muslims and then kill all broad-minded Muslims and then kill everyone that is not "me" whoever the last "me" will be. This is a very tough problem. We can look at Vietnam and ask–is their country better off today without the foreign interference?
1968 –- Charlie Company slaughtered over 500 civilians (infants to elderly) at My Lai in Vietnam. After the three hour killing spree, approximately 30 were charged, but only Lt William Calley was convicted. The indicted were charged with crimes including murder, rape (gang rape), sodomy, maiming, torturing, assault of civilians. One positive thing came from all this–it reiterated the obligation of subordinates to take responsibility for their own actions even when clearly ordered to commit crimes or atrocities.
2004 -– Abu Ghraib: well, we will see how many convictions and how severe the sentences.
1968 –- Dr Martin Luther King, Jr (a leader of equality-for-all which spawned countless civil rights movements) was assassinated – Major cities across the united states broke out in race riots. In Detroit, the Tigers won the World Series and whites and blacks broke out in dance and celebration--together. (To be honest, the Detroit race riots had already taken place the previous year.)
2004 –- Thank God, no comparable death. But the North Koreans and South Koreans marched together under the Korean Unification Flag in the 2004 Summer Olympics :)
1968 –- Robert Kennedy, Democratic candidate for President of the United States, was assassinated.
2004 -– Thank God, no comparable event.
1968 -– Abbie Hoffman urged "Yippies" (Hippies who ask the political question "why?") to go to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Peaceful demonstrations, picnics, parades, turned into a bloody Police Riot under the direction of Mayor Daley. The carnage occurred while "the Whole World’s Watching." Young middle-class whites were brutally beaten on live TV and suddenly there was a face to the troublemakers–and the face looked just like White America’s own children. Suddenly, white and black Americans both knew the brutality inflicted upon dissenting opinions in a country that had boasted of freedom of speech.
2004 -– City of Boston successfully kept a myriad, a menagerie, of protesters to the Democratic National Convention confined to a fenced-in area away from tv cameras and delegates.
1968 -– During a demonstration, a Women’s Liberation group threw traditional "trappings" of subjugation into a symbolic trash can--Thus giving rise to the term "Bra-burning."
2004 –- Although most American women enjoy much greater freedom then their mothers and grandmothers, many many women throughout the world are not so lucky. I did, however, see a great photograph of veiled Afghanistani women standing in line to vote and read some charming quotes shared here which was reminiscent of our fights for rights here in US of A.
1968 -– President Johnson decided not to run for re-election due to his unpopular stance on Vietnam and a growing anti-war movement in his own party. Vice President Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination but lost to Republican Richard Nixon who ran on a "law and order" and "promise to end the war" campaign (although Nixon later ordered US troops into Cambodia thus expanding the war and setting off nationwide student riots including the Kent State demonstration/massacre). Nixon’s Vice Pres was Spiro Agnew, speaker of such great phrases as nattering nabobs of negativism, effete corps of impudent snobs, pusillanimous pussyfoots, and hopeless hysterical hypochondriacs of history.
2004 -– Republican President Bush is running for a 2nd term and is keeping Dick Cheney as Vice Pres. Democratic candidate John Kerry is running not exactly on an anti-war slate, but more of a I’ll-do-it-better-then-he-did-‘cause he has messed it up soooooo badly campaign with a we-never-should-have-gotten-into-this-war-in-the-first-place slant.
1968 -– Apollo 8 orbited the moon
2004 -– Internet Bloggers challenged the traditional media with a demand for accuracy and accountability. Maybe Bloggers who ask the political question "Why?" should also be renamed to Ploggers ????
2004 isn’t over. We will have to revisit the comparison as the year winds down.
Some Random Thoughts:
1968 -- Dr Benjamin Spock, one of the first celebrities to publicly oppose the Vietnam war, was convicted of conspiring to encourage draft evasion. Dr Spock, THE definitive Guru of parenting the Baby Boomers with his book "Baby and Child Care" was held responsible for the rebelliousness of the youth by such political leaders as Vice Pres Spiro Agnew, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and religious leader Norman Vincent Peale. They blamed the undisciplined youth on Spock because he replaced "spare the rod and spoil the child" with "be natural and comfortable and enjoy your baby." Upon the death of Dr Spock, President Clinton said, "Dr. Spock . . . taught all of us the importance of respecting children. He was a tireless advocate, devoting himself to the cause of improving the lives of children."
2004 -– Martha Stewart, The Domestic Diva, was convicted of conspiring with her stock broker to lie to federal investigators about why she dumped stock just before prices plunged. Stewart (who used to be a stock broker herself), made her fame by giving a sense of style to home making, gardening, entertaining; inspiring people to add graciousness and style to everyday living. And that was a good thing.
1968 -– The North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, a massive organized attack of over a hundred South Vietnam cities, discrediting General Westmoreland who had convinced the Congress and the American people that the "Vietnam Conflict" was going well. Nightly newscasts were, by this time, able to show actual footage of the "conflict" in their nightly reports and the Tet Offensive offered lots of graphic visuals of the "conflict." Then "conflict" correspondent Walter Cronkite said, "To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe in the face of evidence the optimist that have been wrong in the past. To say we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion. It seems increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."
2004 -– Iraq: We were told that our Shock & Awe offense was a successful military operation and that Iraq had been rescued. But nightly news reports offer an opposite view. Perhaps we need to negotiate as an honorable people??? Naw–those terrorists have no political middle ground. They have one goal and one goal only: Kill all non-Muslims and then kill all broad-minded Muslims and then kill everyone that is not "me" whoever the last "me" will be. This is a very tough problem. We can look at Vietnam and ask–is their country better off today without the foreign interference?
1968 –- Charlie Company slaughtered over 500 civilians (infants to elderly) at My Lai in Vietnam. After the three hour killing spree, approximately 30 were charged, but only Lt William Calley was convicted. The indicted were charged with crimes including murder, rape (gang rape), sodomy, maiming, torturing, assault of civilians. One positive thing came from all this–it reiterated the obligation of subordinates to take responsibility for their own actions even when clearly ordered to commit crimes or atrocities.
2004 -– Abu Ghraib: well, we will see how many convictions and how severe the sentences.
1968 –- Dr Martin Luther King, Jr (a leader of equality-for-all which spawned countless civil rights movements) was assassinated – Major cities across the united states broke out in race riots. In Detroit, the Tigers won the World Series and whites and blacks broke out in dance and celebration--together. (To be honest, the Detroit race riots had already taken place the previous year.)
2004 –- Thank God, no comparable death. But the North Koreans and South Koreans marched together under the Korean Unification Flag in the 2004 Summer Olympics :)
1968 –- Robert Kennedy, Democratic candidate for President of the United States, was assassinated.
2004 -– Thank God, no comparable event.
1968 -– Abbie Hoffman urged "Yippies" (Hippies who ask the political question "why?") to go to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Peaceful demonstrations, picnics, parades, turned into a bloody Police Riot under the direction of Mayor Daley. The carnage occurred while "the Whole World’s Watching." Young middle-class whites were brutally beaten on live TV and suddenly there was a face to the troublemakers–and the face looked just like White America’s own children. Suddenly, white and black Americans both knew the brutality inflicted upon dissenting opinions in a country that had boasted of freedom of speech.
2004 -– City of Boston successfully kept a myriad, a menagerie, of protesters to the Democratic National Convention confined to a fenced-in area away from tv cameras and delegates.
1968 -– During a demonstration, a Women’s Liberation group threw traditional "trappings" of subjugation into a symbolic trash can--Thus giving rise to the term "Bra-burning."
2004 –- Although most American women enjoy much greater freedom then their mothers and grandmothers, many many women throughout the world are not so lucky. I did, however, see a great photograph of veiled Afghanistani women standing in line to vote and read some charming quotes shared here which was reminiscent of our fights for rights here in US of A.
1968 -– President Johnson decided not to run for re-election due to his unpopular stance on Vietnam and a growing anti-war movement in his own party. Vice President Hubert Humphrey won the Democratic nomination but lost to Republican Richard Nixon who ran on a "law and order" and "promise to end the war" campaign (although Nixon later ordered US troops into Cambodia thus expanding the war and setting off nationwide student riots including the Kent State demonstration/massacre). Nixon’s Vice Pres was Spiro Agnew, speaker of such great phrases as nattering nabobs of negativism, effete corps of impudent snobs, pusillanimous pussyfoots, and hopeless hysterical hypochondriacs of history.
2004 -– Republican President Bush is running for a 2nd term and is keeping Dick Cheney as Vice Pres. Democratic candidate John Kerry is running not exactly on an anti-war slate, but more of a I’ll-do-it-better-then-he-did-‘cause he has messed it up soooooo badly campaign with a we-never-should-have-gotten-into-this-war-in-the-first-place slant.
1968 -– Apollo 8 orbited the moon
2004 -– Internet Bloggers challenged the traditional media with a demand for accuracy and accountability. Maybe Bloggers who ask the political question "Why?" should also be renamed to Ploggers ????
2004 isn’t over. We will have to revisit the comparison as the year winds down.
Friday, October 08, 2004
Respect
Charles Gibson didn't stand.
Co-host of ABC's Good Morning America.
Supposedly a fair-minded journalist of such respect he was chosen moderator of the Second Presidential Debate of 2004.
Didn't he watch NBC's West Wing?
I realize he loved Clinton. I realize he is part of the "anyone but Bush" league. But ever since that great Dan Rather/Bush Memo fiasco, aren't all newsmen supposed to strive to show a professional non-biased face?
But he, Charles Gibson, didn't stand. The President (not president) of the United States of America walked onto the stage and Charles Gibson did not stand. Every other person in that room stood.
Who does Charles Gibson think he is?
What is wrong with the American Press that it thinks it is above the President of the United States? The arrogance of it! The indignity of it! The degradation of our leader (whether you voted for him or not)! I feel so embarrassed for all well-bred journalists everywhere.
Well! It may be a re-run, but I think I'll just change channels and watch Monk. These questions seem to be a little same-old same-old anyway.
Charles Gibson didn't stand.
Co-host of ABC's Good Morning America.
Supposedly a fair-minded journalist of such respect he was chosen moderator of the Second Presidential Debate of 2004.
Didn't he watch NBC's West Wing?
I realize he loved Clinton. I realize he is part of the "anyone but Bush" league. But ever since that great Dan Rather/Bush Memo fiasco, aren't all newsmen supposed to strive to show a professional non-biased face?
But he, Charles Gibson, didn't stand. The President (not president) of the United States of America walked onto the stage and Charles Gibson did not stand. Every other person in that room stood.
Who does Charles Gibson think he is?
What is wrong with the American Press that it thinks it is above the President of the United States? The arrogance of it! The indignity of it! The degradation of our leader (whether you voted for him or not)! I feel so embarrassed for all well-bred journalists everywhere.
Well! It may be a re-run, but I think I'll just change channels and watch Monk. These questions seem to be a little same-old same-old anyway.
Friday, October 01, 2004
"He Drew a Circle..."
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
-- "Outwitted" by Edwin Markham
Lessons of Columbine are still not heeded by schools, parents, kids, communities. The result is Andrew Osantowski, 17 yrs old, currently held on charges that include threatening to kill witnesses (a police officer), concealing stolen firearms, making a terrorism threat, using a computer to commit a crime. Osantowski was planning to attack teachers and fellow students at Chippewa Valley High School, just down the street from me. He wanted to commit a massacre. And he detailed his weaponry, hiding places, and planned killing spree online in a music chat room with a girl three time zones away. Thank God. The young woman was alert enough to tell her university policeman father of the plans that Osantowski bragged about.
One sick psychopath off the streets. One down –- how many more to go?
The local residents can’t show enough gratitude. They want parades and honors bestowed upon the young woman and her father. I think if they were smart they would take an oath to stop the hatred that breeds terrorists.
A police search of Osantowski’s home resulted in the confiscation of numerous stolen weapons including high power hunting rifles, an AK47 assault rifle, long knives, hundreds of pounds of ammunition, pipe bombs already made, misc. bomb making instructions and paraphernalia, aluminum nitrate and other chemicals. Most telling were boxes of white supremacy and Nazi literature, and a Nazi flag. (His mother says he was brainwashed from all those Nazi TV shows on the History Channel–kind of reminds me of an old neighbor who was furious with the f–ing teacher who kept putting her f-ing kids in detention for cussing when they f-ing learned that language in the f-ing schools in the first f-ing place ‘cause she never f-ing talked like that in the f-ing house she said.) Evidently, Osantowski even tried to join a white supremacy group but was denied membership because he wasn’t 18 yet.
Columbine, all over again. Here we have a young man, disenfranchised, a loner, bright enough but different. He couldn’t make it in the area Catholic High Schools (believe me–they are vicious to non-jocks but so are many public high schools). By the time he was enrolled at Chippewa Valley HS just a few weeks ago, he had already been molded into a hate-filled young man. Bigot, racist, antisemitic. He was cognizant to the world he knew–a world that relishes conformity and holds uniqueness as repugnant. He was outcast among his peers . Ridiculed by teachers who function best in a room of clones.
He is the result of the world we created -- a world of judgmental buffoons who sincerely believe humiliating others elevates themselves.
Take a bright young man, ostracize him, and end up alienating him. When you alienate him, you give him only two choices. To be forever doomed to the status of oddity, bitter, unable to live or function normally -- another soul lost. Or to take on the superiority complex of one who is above the rest, a demigod who feels no more empathy for fellow humans then we might feel for the ants we sweep off the walk–a monster -- a Hitler, a Hussein, a bin Ladin.
We live in a world where there are no duplications. Not even two snowflakes can ever be the same. No two people can be in the same place, can have the same DNA, fingerprints, ear shapes, nor life experiences. In a world where we are all different, why are some people isolated? Why can’t we relish all their differences? Include everyone. Appreciate every one. Each person is a neighbor, a member of our team, a value.
In a world with complex problems, wouldn’t it be nice to have a diverse pool of ideas and perspectives to work on solutions? We need every type of person created. We need the meek and the strong, the demure and the confident, we need people who function on intelligence, on heart, on spirit, on sensation. It is no accident that we are each different. Why do we fight so hard against the very attributes that will save our world?
My dad is a retired coach so let me put it in his way. What would happen if everyone on the squad was a quarterback? What kind of team would you have then?
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
-- "Outwitted" by Edwin Markham
Lessons of Columbine are still not heeded by schools, parents, kids, communities. The result is Andrew Osantowski, 17 yrs old, currently held on charges that include threatening to kill witnesses (a police officer), concealing stolen firearms, making a terrorism threat, using a computer to commit a crime. Osantowski was planning to attack teachers and fellow students at Chippewa Valley High School, just down the street from me. He wanted to commit a massacre. And he detailed his weaponry, hiding places, and planned killing spree online in a music chat room with a girl three time zones away. Thank God. The young woman was alert enough to tell her university policeman father of the plans that Osantowski bragged about.
One sick psychopath off the streets. One down –- how many more to go?
The local residents can’t show enough gratitude. They want parades and honors bestowed upon the young woman and her father. I think if they were smart they would take an oath to stop the hatred that breeds terrorists.
A police search of Osantowski’s home resulted in the confiscation of numerous stolen weapons including high power hunting rifles, an AK47 assault rifle, long knives, hundreds of pounds of ammunition, pipe bombs already made, misc. bomb making instructions and paraphernalia, aluminum nitrate and other chemicals. Most telling were boxes of white supremacy and Nazi literature, and a Nazi flag. (His mother says he was brainwashed from all those Nazi TV shows on the History Channel–kind of reminds me of an old neighbor who was furious with the f–ing teacher who kept putting her f-ing kids in detention for cussing when they f-ing learned that language in the f-ing schools in the first f-ing place ‘cause she never f-ing talked like that in the f-ing house she said.) Evidently, Osantowski even tried to join a white supremacy group but was denied membership because he wasn’t 18 yet.
Columbine, all over again. Here we have a young man, disenfranchised, a loner, bright enough but different. He couldn’t make it in the area Catholic High Schools (believe me–they are vicious to non-jocks but so are many public high schools). By the time he was enrolled at Chippewa Valley HS just a few weeks ago, he had already been molded into a hate-filled young man. Bigot, racist, antisemitic. He was cognizant to the world he knew–a world that relishes conformity and holds uniqueness as repugnant. He was outcast among his peers . Ridiculed by teachers who function best in a room of clones.
He is the result of the world we created -- a world of judgmental buffoons who sincerely believe humiliating others elevates themselves.
Take a bright young man, ostracize him, and end up alienating him. When you alienate him, you give him only two choices. To be forever doomed to the status of oddity, bitter, unable to live or function normally -- another soul lost. Or to take on the superiority complex of one who is above the rest, a demigod who feels no more empathy for fellow humans then we might feel for the ants we sweep off the walk–a monster -- a Hitler, a Hussein, a bin Ladin.
We live in a world where there are no duplications. Not even two snowflakes can ever be the same. No two people can be in the same place, can have the same DNA, fingerprints, ear shapes, nor life experiences. In a world where we are all different, why are some people isolated? Why can’t we relish all their differences? Include everyone. Appreciate every one. Each person is a neighbor, a member of our team, a value.
In a world with complex problems, wouldn’t it be nice to have a diverse pool of ideas and perspectives to work on solutions? We need every type of person created. We need the meek and the strong, the demure and the confident, we need people who function on intelligence, on heart, on spirit, on sensation. It is no accident that we are each different. Why do we fight so hard against the very attributes that will save our world?
My dad is a retired coach so let me put it in his way. What would happen if everyone on the squad was a quarterback? What kind of team would you have then?
