When does it start?

The Early Years; I am not sure if this is the correct use of the phrase for this book. I wanted to impress upon the reader that the time prior to present is something more than just the past.
I have always been enthralled with history. Now as I count the years between my current age of 52 and the birth of my parents, the distance between us is not so great. Then I begin to count the years between my birth and other significant events. The Korean War in which my father fought just 6 years before my birth is like a shadow looming over my conception. Word War II, 15 years earlier, has come to be somewhat of an introduction to my existence. My father was 16 when it ended. Mother was 13.
When the Viet Nam War ended, I was 12. I sat in front of the television set watching the flag draped caskets of the soldiers coming home. I was mesmerized. I have no idea why. I just remember watching. Sitting in my mother’s rocking chair, squeezing a rubber ball like Bronson squeezed the wax in The Mechanic. I remember Lieutenant Calley. Even at the age of 12 I felt disgust. I was nauseated by what I read and heard in the media. I could barely think, why was this happening. How could our country treat Calley like a criminal? He was at war. The USA was at war. We were at war. Even a 12 year old knew that.
I believe that was the moment I began to doubt my country. When it was easier to hang a member of our military out to dry; a person who was doing a job they were told to do, rather than adress the hierarchy who developed the policy…how could I support hypocrisy? Years later I would learn that we were supposed to hold the individual German troops responsible for killing the Jews and other ethnic groups. I was told that each member of the military has to decide when orders are morally and ethically acceptable. I was being told the military is under no obligation to follow inhumane orders and each soldier has to stand up for what is right. And I wanted to believe this. I even repeated this mantra over the newt 5 years like it was gospel hand to me by the Lord Himself.
Then I realized, what if the troops decided ALL killing was inhumane? What if soldiers around the world all accepted war as being morally and ethically wrong? Of course this reasons that killing can be correct and acceptable at some point. How long would it take for a soldier refusing to carry out an order they deemed morally and ethically wrong to be executed on site and made an example of? At what point will we accept the soldier truly had no choice? Are we to hold the person responsible for carrying out orders in lieu of being put to death? At some point self-preservation has to be an acceptable defense. We have to move farther up the ladder to where the directive originated and ask why they were permitted to issue such a command…

SKYPING WITH THE FAM

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

Ever since we upgraded our internet service provider at clearwirelessinternet.com, I have been a lot more connected with friend and family in Florida. We moved away for my husband’s job only two years ago, but it feels like it has been forever! Of course we stayed in touch through e-mail and telephone convos, but now that our internet speed is quick, we can stay in touch with everyone through Skype. I had no idea what Skype was until my kids showed me one day. They were talking with their cousins that live in Orlando. I was totally in awe that you could see and talk to people that far away in real time. The picture is actually really clear. It is like you are all hanging out together in one place when you are really so far away. I wish that I had known about this when we moved to years ago. I would have gotten an internet speed that was much faster sooner. I feel like I am home when I am really so far away!

Ready to pen – waiting to speak freely

Imagine there’s no difference. Imagine there were no fear. A thought beyond comprehension without fear.
Discrimination does not live without fear, intolerance has no reign without fear, prejudice dies a pointless death. Albeit unnoticed by humanity. Without fear there is no wealth, without fear there is no disparity, without fear there is no status. Could fear be the commonality that drives civilization into a frenzy? Is fear the one underlying element that causes society to demand justice? Looking for the one thread. When it is removed undoes every pre-conceived fallacy. Couldn’t it be fear?
Once that is removed what have we to fear? Is every decision we make simply based on fear of what if we chose an alternative? Worst-case scenario – unacceptable. Fear dictates thinking and influences patterns. Fear over rules sensibility and creates it’s own reality. Fear allows us to be content, find comfort in avoidance and accept status quo.

Fear rules and will never relinquish control freely – until we demand it be executed and ignored – until then we will always be submissive.

The victim is always guilty

There seems to be an outbreak of contrary opinions being posted on various internet forums. People are logging into various sites and posting opposing conservative opinions without any support or evidence to their statement. When other refute their statements, they merely say the others are wrong and they are correct—end of discussion. Ignoring all evidence to the contrary, they continue condemning opposing ideas, claiming the opposition is just unwilling to educate themselves as to the truth and are being misled by ungodly liberals. Perhaps they feel that by not listing their evidence and calling for others to present theirs, will persuade others that those who fight, or can be made to sound angry, have to be wrong. After all, a logical and rational person with science on their side has little need to argue. We as a society have been exposed to training to prepare us to accept the illogical based simply on form of argument. Common sense has been given a bad name. We are being molded to accept the strength of a debate simply by the presenter’s attitude and poise? Redaction has been presented as necessary for security and as a tool for clarification. We are led to believe those in power know best and others are not able to share the same space with the mighty minds oppression. The fact that the oppressed are viewed as the oppressors and tyrants should be a red flag. The oppressors have been successful in making the oppressed look like they have the power? That it is actually the capitalist (oppressors) fighting for the dreams of the working class. The capitalists’ success in destroying the unions has been phenomenal. Having convinced the working class that the unions have prevented them from their birthright is nothing short of heresy and really should be applauded. While it is true some of the allegations lean towards the truth, the unions and the wage-slaves have allowed the image to be perpetuated. By allowing incompetence to reign with in the rank and file in favor of perks, the union has provided a foundation on which all other corpses have been laid. Which raises the all too obvious question— ARE WE ACTUALLY PREPARED TO ACCEPT THOSE WHO WRITE HISTORY TO BE OBJECTIVE AND FORTHCOMING WITH THE TRUTH?

Historical insight

So I picked up a book I have been hauling around the country for the past 4 years. I acquired the book at Boysville when we were cleaning out closets. The title is DETROIT IS MY OWN HOMETOWN written by Malcolm Bingay. This is the 1st edition published in 1946. Misspellings and grammar issues galore. Malcolm was a writer for the Detroit News from 1921 as a reporter at 17 until 1928 when he was fired as managing editor. After a year of doing other work, Malcolm found a position at the Detroit Free Press in 1930. Malcolm's book tells the industrial history of Detroit. The time when Detroit could and would do anything better than anyplace in the world. As I read the history thus far (I am at the point in history when Walter Chrysler has taken control of Dodge) I am feeling both awe and frustration for a city that now sits solidly at the bottom of US cities in every category except crime. To read how John Dodge told the secretary of defense to sit down and shut up, just let Detroit do what it does best is inspiring to say the least. In those days Detroit just needed a blueprint of something and their engineers and craftsman could reproduce a identical copy. Now the city can barely create a viable economy. It is caught up in political infighting, playing the race card and sharing the wealth amongst a select few in politics and business cronies at the expense of the citizens who so badly need to believe in someone.

Just another Brick in the Wall...

I suppose it is the thing to do during Christmas. We all learned our lesson after watching Dickens A Christmas Carol and being a Scrooge, we all get uppity about helping others during the holiday season.
We all run out to stuff the Salvation Army kettles, drop a few dollars on St. Jude, and even manage to send in a contribution to a rescue shelter or two. We sit around watching TV shows that make us feel warm and fuzzy, and may be even a tear or two. My wife and I watched the Mitch Albom made for TV show Have a Little Faith on the Lifetime Channel. It is a real tear-jerker about learing the meaning of who is our neighbor. It ends with a lesson learned, the passing of an icon, and finding that something within our hearts to forgive and accept people can and want to change. Then the holiday season ends like it usually does--there are still thousands of people who need help and we get on with our everyday living.
I have been posting on the City Data forum lately on the education board. I have been discussing the impact poverty has on the education of our children. I say "our" because whatever community you live in, the children are indeed OUR responsibility--at least so far as watching over them and keeping them safe by providing for their education and having services /programs available to assist them in the transition from adolescence towards adulthood.
As a teacher, I have seen severe deficiencies in bother services to and programs for children living in less than stellar conditions. All these children live in an environment that is beyond their control. Many no longer have parents around and are being raised by relatives; typically a grandmother serves as the single parent. The last thing children who are living for the moment want to do is school. Especially a school where they are less a person because they come from a home where there is no support or encouragement. The schools and their communities all too quickly adopt the attitude if mom and dad do not care, why should we or anyone else?
Children from lower income settings tend to perform lower than their peers academically and socially. Not that this is a surprise—if it is YOU need to get out of your cave more often—but what is a surprise is that these children are slowly and systematically being denied educational opportunities. But you say:
They are going to school!
They are in the classroom!
They even get FREE breakfast and food!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARE BEING DENIED? They get more than my kids do…
While most of these points may be true, the poverty class student still lags behind their peer. Sure some of the blame belongs to their domestic situation. But an even larger part of the blame belongs to the educational system. The system has realigned itself to create a world where the poor / poverty child will be left behind.

We will not cry

You don't miss what you had, until it is taken from you. Yada, yada, yada...we hear this from such an early age and it is repeated throughout our life. We allow ourselves to become callus so that the pain cannot touch us. It starts with our first experience with death. If we have any thing in common, it is our first taste of death. This is usually when our pet dies.

Until that moment, we really have no concept of dying. We find ourselves crying for our pet, but never really knowing why. If we were to completely understand the situation, we cry because we no longer possess the beloved pet. Which in itself is a from of loss, but death itself remains an abstract notion for years to come. In the mean time, it was just a stupid animal afterall.

It is then that we begin to demonize other life forms to justify our callousness. We erect the wall around our heart. We fear the pain associated with loss. To better avoid this fear, we justify our cruelty by making everything an inanimate object. When anything is stripped of its value, we are able to dispose of it without a second though or a moment of regret.