Far From Home

To a young man, far from home, making his way in a troubled world:

The world is often a harsh and troubled place.  At times humanity is depressingly short of our hopes and even our expectations.  It should not surprise anyone who knows me that five of my favorite authors are Swift, Twain, Kafka, Pratchett, and Vonnegut.  All take a sharp and even harsh view of humanity.  

It is easy to become depressed and despair of our species.  But recall that we are one with not only the crude and hateful, the bullying and the crass, but with the kind and wise, the creative and the loving. 

More importantly, consider the history of humanity. We have come a very long way from our roots. Casual cruelty, torture, rape, murder, slavery... the list of things which were once considered normal,  but which are now considered terrible, is very long.  We do progress. We do become a better species. It is slow and difficult road, but one which we have taken throughout our history, and are continuing to take now.

As hard it is for you at the moment, I recommend that you consider looking at things in a different way. You have referred to your feeling that you have a calling. Perhaps your calling is to be a better person yourself, and through the rest of your life, to help others to be better than they are today. It behooves each one of us, each and every day, to do what we can to make the world a better place than it was when we woke up that morning. It may seem at times as if we are struggling to create a huge cathedral one single stone at a time. But then again, given enough time and enough people making the effort, such cathedrals will rise.

After all, think about the progress we have made. Cathedrals have risen. There is much work to do, and is discouraging see how slowly and erratically the work goes, but it does go on.  The progress is painfully difficult and gains are often lost or at least eroded, yet we do not slip completely back into savagery at every opportunity.  In the long run, we advance.

I am reminded of an African story and an American one.  The African story was told on a television show I cannot recall.  The American one at a conference for school administrators.

The jungle had caught fire. A small group of varied animals who had escaped gathered on a hillside down which ran a stream and watched the destruction of their home.  A hummingbird, it's iridescent feathers flashing In the flickering light of the fire, began flying to the stream, sucking up as much water as it's tiny body could hold, then flying back to edge of the burning jungle, and squirting out the liquid in a vain attempt to slow the flames.

"You're wasting your efforts" said the elephant. 

"Yes," answered the exhausted hummingbird, "but at least I'm MAKING the effort."

Following a hurricane in Florida, a man was walking along a devastated beach. He was shaking his head at the terrible distress of the many thousands of sea urchins, sea stars, and starfish which had been washed ashore and were dying in the hot sun.  He met a little boy who was carefully picking up the animals one by one, and placing them back in the ocean.

"Don't waste your time, Kid," said the man.  He waved his hand at the disaster spread across the sands, "There's just too many of them. You can't make a difference."

The boy carefully picked up a red starfish, carried it to the waves, and dropped it in. He and the man watched it begin to stir and slowly start to crawl away. At that point the boy said, "Made a difference to that one."

I should end on that note, it feels right strictly from an authorial viewpoint.  However, I need to go on and make an additional point. Looking at the whole thing from a different angle, I must say that for all the difficulties that they are inflicting upon you, these are our fellow human beings. I was a quiet, intellectual kid, so I suffered my share of bullying in school. I understand your feeling of frustration and anger, because I've been there and I've done that. But I have also learned that human beings are very complex creatures. 

While it is true that many of us engage in reprehensible behavior...you need only look at Rush Limbaugh's recent excursion into filth and the degradation of American women, to see that even the powerful and wealthy are often vicious bullies...it is nevertheless also true that, with a few exceptions, there is a decent side even to those who are the most offensive.  I have, as an educator, worked with roughnecks, I have raised roughneck or two, and I have to say that not all rough-and-tumble dialogue is bullying or is even intended to be harmful. Much of it is intended as humor, as a bonding technique, and even as a cover for the tenderness which a roughneck can find confusing in himself.

Also remember that we gentle folk, we who prefer things smooth and easy, depend very heavily upon roughnecks for the safety of our existence:

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. --George Orwell

Your chosen profession places you in the company of rough men. I'm not excusing everything all that they do and say. I am sure there are excesses and that at times they're entirely out of line. On the other hand, you are working with rough men. I think it is reasonable to expect them, from time to time, to be rough.  In other words, sometimes their behavior is just the habitual way which they have. Sometimes it is malicious, but try to remember that it isn't always malicious. Sometimes it's just...well, being rough.

So, although it isn't fair, since you are the thoughtful and reasonable one, it follows that it is up to you be thoughtful and reasonable.

If you do remain in this profession for your entire career, I can easily see you as the one who is regarded as "the old man". The thoughtful, steady hand which is key to a unit functioning smoothly. It's a position well-known and well respected in the Armed Forces. It may not be an  official assignment, but, believe me, it is an essential one.

I have a new TwinTurbo WaterPik shower massage. This is a direct result of my Moen  showerhead finally falling apart. Considering that it wasn't new when I moved here, and I moved here 12 years ago, I can't really complain. When I first used the new showerhead, I was pleased to find that it gave me the strongest massage yet.  I depend upon that due to my arthritis and general muscle aches and pains. My big complaint has always been, why isn't this shower massage stronger? 

When I first used the new unit, I was pleased, it was stronger than any I had used  before. But it still wasn't strong enough. Then I realized that there was a leak in the hose connection.It turned out at the washer was damaged. A quick trip to Walmart and that was corrected.  With the leak blocked, the massage spray was much more powerful.  

To all of you It may not matter. But I am happy!

From a Facebook comment on Republican attacks on Obama for apologizing to the Islamic world for the accidental mistreatment of the Koran by US forces:

Message to the Republican Party:

 A manly apology is not a weakness. It is a strength. An adult, secure in his position, confident in his masculinity, is not afraid to apologize. This, of course, is also true of an adult woman who is self confident and self-assured. The insecure, the frightened, those lacking in self-respect, these are the ones who are afraid to make a sincere honest, apology when an error has occurred.

As a retired elementary school teacher and principal I am quite familiar with this particular problem. Actually, I think every parent is quite familiar with this particular problem. Every kindergartner needs to learn, if their parents have not already taught them this essential fact, that throwing a temper tantrum, hissing and shrieking, and flatly refusing to apologize to everyone who dares to disagree with you is not actually the way to appear to the world to be a big boy or a big girl. The simple fact is, grown-ups apologize.

It does not hurt them to apologize. It does not weaken them to apologize. It shows that they are polite, self-assured, and secure.  It bears repeating, grown-ups apologize. Spoiled little children do not.

From the LA Times today. :

'We have a biology for reciprocation. I call oxytocin "the moral molecule." It's a chemical that motivates us to engage and care about others — and that's the basis for moral behavior. '
Yes, but there is much more to the story!   The chemical has a dark side:
http://www.ibcsr.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=287:connor-wood&catid=3:newsflash&Itemid=61
'Oxytocin, a hormone produced in the brain during bonding activities such as breastfeeding, childbirth, and sex, helps humans to relax, trust one another, and feel comfortable with others. Its pleasant effects are so well-known that it's often referred to as the "love hormone." But researchers at the University of Amsterdam have recently uncovered a dark secret: oxytocin appears to prime humans to prioritize in-group members over out-group persons, prompting questions of whether oxytocin is the key ingredient of ethnocentrism and prejudice.'

Scientists should know better than to oversimplify.  Flattered by the attention, honest scientists simplify and "clarify" complex data.  The popular press seizes on such carelessness, and later, when the full facts come out, the public assumes that science is untrustworthy and is constantly changing it's view of reality.  Not true, but it looks so to careless and poorly informed minds.  Minds that vote.

Errata:
Bobby, back in the days of the Philosophy Club, I once made point about humans as biochemical robots.  I pointed out that naked mole rats made lousy fathers and unfaithful mates, until dosed with oxytocin.  Then they became nurturing fathers and stayed loyal to one mate.  I have since discovered that the actual research was done on prairie voles.  In my defense, a story about prairie voles' sexual conduct has less amusement value than one about naked mole rats...you know, like Rush Limbaigh, the nakedest mole rat ever to insult American women.

Stop and Frisk, aka, Walking While Black or Brown

According to Vanguard on Current TV, more people are being arrested for marijuana possession in New York City than at any other place or time in history. The great majority of these arrests, in fact almost all of them, are being made for minor possession. This is happening because of a policy which is called stop and frisk. Tens of thousands were arrested for minor marijuana possession last year. That's right, in one year.

The stop and frisk system allows police to stop anyone an officer decides is suspicious. The person is not accused of any crime. All that needs to occur is that a policeman decides that that individual is suspicious. Having stopped that individual for no discernible reason, the policeman then has the right to frisk them. In case you think I'm exaggerating, according to the records of the New York Police Department, yes that's right, the NYPD themselves-they made over 600,000 such stops last year alone! 

If we are to believe the NYPD, the fact that almost 90% of these 600,000 who were stopped were either Black or Hispanic was not a result of blatant racism. That means the Black and Hispanic people in New York City somehow managed to behave in a suspicious manner nine times more frequently than the White people in New York City, and that's ignoring demographics and assuming there are equal numbers of White citizens and Black and Hispanic citizens.

Included in the criteria for suspicious behavior are two very interesting items. One is furtive behavior. This is, of course, means anything the policemen doesn't like about you. Another item is the clothing being worn by an individual. That's right, if the NYPD doesn't like the way you walk, talk, look, or act or if it feels that the fashion choices you have made are unacceptable, they can stop and frisk you.  No other requirement is needed.

Unsurprisingly, the NYPD refused to discuss the matter with the reporter. A prosecutor did agree to be interviewed. She said the stop and frisk policy was to protect people from the danger of guns. Of course, almost no guns are actually found during the searches. The math works out to about one gun found in every 700 stops. What's found most commonly is small amounts of marijuana. It is also interesting to wonder why the NYPD thinks that Blacks and Hispanics are nine times more likely than whites to be carrying a gun. It is an interesting question, isn't it?

How many arrests for small quantities of marijuana being possessed have been made? About 50,000 a year. Please remember, that whatever your position on the possession of marijuana, these are individuals with small amounts of the drug clearly intended for their own personal use. These are not dealers. These are not drug lords.  These are ordinary citizens who were doing the equivalent of caring around a bottle of beer or a pint of whiskey.

But those are legal, you say? Okay then, this is the equivalent of an 20 year old carrying around a bottle of beer or a pint of whiskey. Should such an 20 -year-old be arrested or have the bottle confiscated and be given a citation? That's a fair comparison.

But wait! There's more! In New York City possession of small amounts of marijuana should get you only the equivalent of a traffic ticket. So why are these people being arrested? The answer is that while you are allowed to have a small amount of marijuana for personal use in your possession, you may not have it in public view.  That is grounds for arrest. So how do the police justify an arrest? You won't believe this, but this is the truth. They order the individual they have stopped because he's suspicious or they don't like the clothes he is wearing to empty his pockets.  When he obeys that order and takes the marijuana out of his pocket, it is suddenly in public view! This is the excuse for an arrest.

In other words, the individual is being arrested because he complied with a police order. Of course, if he refuses to empty his pockets, he would then be arrested for refusing to comply with a police order.

The result of this is almost 400,000 arrests for marijuana possession in public view in the last nine years.

Not everyone arrested is formally charged. However, merely being arrested gives you a record. This can lead to a number of consequences including eviction from your apartment, especially of you have had a prior arrest on any charge.

The cost of all of this to the city is $75 million a year. That's just the cost of the prosecutions. The cost of police time, especially considering that most of these arrests result in a release rather than prosecution, must be enormous by comparison.

It's hard to believe that things can be even worse, but they are. A local politician sponsoring legislation to stop these abuses points out the NYPD's own statistics demonstrate that 9 out of 10 of the people stopped are immediately released, on the spot, because they have committed no offense whatsoever. 9 out of 10.

Please remember that all this is taking place in a system which is overloaded with serious cases. The court dockets in New York City are full of robberies, rapes, murders, and other serious crimes. But huge amounts of court time is being spent on charging people with having a small amount of marijuana in public view, after, of course, complying with the police order to put it in public view.

The prosecutor who agreed to be interviewed refused to believe that policemen were ordering people to empty their pockets and then arresting them for having marijuana in public view. This is unsurprising, since if she did believe it, it would be her job to seek the arrest and prosecution of those policeman as such an act would, in fact, be false arrest.

I strongly support effective and fair law enforcement.  I also strongly condemn breaking the law under the color of authority and racism.  In fairness to the NYPD, these stop and frisk abuses can also be interpreted as as much anti poor as anti minority.  Virtually no one is ever stopped and frisked in wealthy or even middle class areas of the city; it's all happening in poverty stricken neighborhoods.  But outright racism or prejudice against the poor, it's still prejudice and it's still an abuse of the police authority of the government--being under the color of authority only makes it worse.

We all know about Rush Limbaugh's smear of American women. We know he wants to enjoy seeing our wives and daughters having sex for his enjoyment. I must comment.

The bottom line is that Limbaugh had insulted every American woman who has ever used contraceptives covered by thier health care insurance.  He not only calls them sluts and prostitutes, he says they should post videos of thier sex acts for him to enjoy.  Millions of American men should be defending the honor of their wives and daughters.  Of course, some of us are American males and some of us are American men.  Limbaugh has made it easy to differentiate.

Let me add that free contraceptives are not at issue.    Contrary to the hysterical men like Limbaugh, the contraceptives in question were either covered by the University's health plan or not covered.  That was the issue.  Since health insurance is never free in this country, no ones' precious money was being given away.

  I suppose a wealthy donor to Georgetown University might make a contorted argument that some of his donation might be used to help insure women's health (what a waste of precious money!), but everyone else should shut up, until and unless they donate a large sum to the university.

I also answer the "Why should I pay for it," crowd by asking, why should I for your being saved by a fire department or police department or military paid for with my money?  We live in a society.  We work together to make it better.  This is being human.

Don't want to do your share? Drop out and live alone in the mountains without any help and without any of society's benefits, like roads, electricity, stores, doctors, and so on.  Have fun, rugged individualist

The Yellow Rose of Texas

Long time gone! I'm banking on the success of my IPad in other areas by moving my blog access here. We will see if this is more effective. First post using the pad is a reprint from my Facebook account to a friend regarding the Aamo and ultimate Texican victory.

Two interesting points on the whole Alamo/Mexican-American war situation. Point one: isn't it interesting that throughout American history slaveholders often screamed and shrieked and pontificated on the desperate need to fight for their rights; and when pressed on the point, would loudly and proudly declare that meant the right to enslave other human beings? Point 2: as the son of a Texan, I am well aware of certain folklore elements regarding Santa Anna's ultimate defeat.  Many Texans to this day insist that the true story of that "siesta" is that the famous Yellow Rose of Texas seduced Santa Anna in order to distract him from the business at hand, thus giving the Texicans a great advantage. And that is why she is memorialized forever in the Texas national anthem, "The Yellow Rose of Texas". A strange irony for a slaveholding state, since the term, "Yellow Rose", referred to a certain skin tone in a black woman.

The song is grossly racist, of course. Nevertheless, it is so strange to think that one of the most fervent slaveholding states, as part of it's origin myth, regards a black woman as key to their victory.