Heads Up, Writers!

Heads up, Writers! 

It’s time to save the world! We need a Charles Dickens, to show us what the census numbers really look like walking; we need a Thomas Paine to tell us just what might really work; we need a Rachel Carson to bring us to our senses; we need a Martin Luther, to bring us back to God.

We’ve had plenty of minor players.  Who’s going to write the story that brings us fully back to center?

People who are great in their various professions, skills, and callings think profoundly but narrowly.

Only writers think of all the connections and the what-ifs; and some of you must wrap your imaginations around all our ideas, events, and characters, and write the words that will save the world.

You know who you are.  Heads up!

Speaking for the Disenfranchised

I hope that I am old enough, and that society has become tolerant enough, that it will not adversely affect my father and my mother for me to publicly confess that I was born illegitimate.  As a 1952 unplanned pregnancy to an unwed mother, before Roe v. Wade, I would like to speak for the unplanned children of today, please, if I may.

To quote my grandmother (she told me this is what she told my mother):

"You made one mistake.  Now don't make another one."

I realize that abortion is now legal.  Before it was legal, it was available, and it was dangerous to the mother.  It has always been dangerous to the child.  Legalized abortion has not changed that fact.  Abortion is dangerous to the child.  Her life is snatched before a breath is drawn.  Her voice will never be heard.  She cannot do any evil.  She cannot do any good.

My new president, for whom I voted, and in whose vision I see hope, has made two bold acts during his first days in office, to reverse the decisions of our former president.

He has ordered the closing of Guantanamo within a year, and ordered the trials be stopped for 90 days so he can review the situation.

I wish he would have attached a 90 day window to his decision to lift the ban on embryonic stem cell research.  Polarizing voices of the pro-life movement have never, to my knowledge, bothered to table their passion long enough to persuade as though they expected the so-called pro-abortion camp to be open to reason.

I believe, and am convinced, that the "liberal" people I know personally are open to reason.  Have some respect, my conservative friends, and talk without acting all injured self-righteous.  Get your pious pride out of the way of actually making a difference.  There is fresh air blowing.  Add your breath to it.  If you'd get the chip off your shoulder, you might be surprised to discover real human beings who are willing to listen to your reasons for believing embryonic stem cell research is a bad choice.

The same ethics that demand legal advocacy for our presumed enemies, demand a voice for the unborn. 

I'd just like to quote from David McCullough's 2001 biography of John Adams, and then open the floor for discussion.

" 'Do you expect he should behave like a stoic philosopher, lost in apathy?' Adams asked.  Self-defense was the primary canon of the law of nature.  Better that many guilty persons escape unpunished than one innocent person should be punished.  'The reason is, because it's of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.'

" 'Facts are stubborn things,' he told the jury, 'and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.'"

 

Neurons, Synapses, Economics, and Life

Kira is out of her blue funk, and is aptly leading a Library group here on Multiply.  She receives no pay for this.  It is excellent work.

Here on Multiply, and lots of other places on the Web, people are blogging away about all sorts of things.  Mostly we don't get paid.  We share ideas.  We expand each other's horizons.  The world has never been like this.  Or has it?

I read Ben Franklin's autobiography a few years ago.  He told me what it was like at the dawn of American history.  A few weeks ago I also read A History of the American People, by British author Paul Johnson.  He told me some very insightful things about the philosophical background of America, from a European perspective.

Barack Obama is our new president.  This man's greatest gift to us, from my perspective, is his motivational speaking.  He pulls together all our collective angst and rekindles our faintly remembered hopes, and helps us to believe we just might, collectively, be able to make sense of life on earth, and order it in such a way that everyone gets what they need.

Because of the Book Reviews posted on Kira's Library group, I made a trip to one of our local libraries today.  (Thank you, Ben Franklin, that we have public libraries in America.)  Besides the books I went there to fetch, I discovered, by browsing, another book that I just started to read tonight: Mirroring People, by Marco Iacoboni.  It's a neuroscience book, published in 2008.  It's subtitle is, "The New Science of How We Connect With Others."  To me, it is fascinating and exciting to read.  My own neurons are firing so rapidly as I read it ... I am having so many "Eureka" moments as I process and connect all that has entered my stream of consciousness these past couple of months. 

I am not sure that I am able, tonight, to write for you a full description of the path my thoughts have journeyed; but write I must nonetheless, because I've perceived some things that I just must share.

In our brains, our neurons fire, and we have billions of them.  Synapses are the connections between the neurons.  The more synapses, the more creative we are able to be.  Currently the phrase often used for creativity is "thinking outside the box."  That phrase simply means being able to have a fresh perspective on an old problem, such that you might actually increase the likelihood of solving the problem.  In other words, not being so wary of "reinventing the wheel" that you fail to consider that there may be an alternative to the wheel when it comes to efficient travel and/or portage.

I am coming back to the internet, and then moving on to the economy, so bear with me please.

This socio-political experiment called America was precipitated by intense exchange of ideas after the invention of the printing press.  America has just this year shaken off some things that bogged us down, caused a civil war, in fact.  We thought we were doomed to division because ideology was our only unity, and that ideology turned out to be diverse, and comprised of many cultures.  What's the same about Americans?  Is anything the same on a genetic level (as it probably is for, say, Italians)?

I think something IS the same about us genetically.  Be we Native Americans or any other cultural race by DNA, all of us here sprang from people who MIGRATED to a different place, BELIEVING LIFE COULD BE BETTER.

I postulate that some genetic marker remains in all Americans which gives us a propensity to believe that life can be better.  We've got a gene, I think, that makes us people who will TRY, people who will SEARCH, people who will -- dare I say it -- HOPE.

In fact, history, I think, has shown, that the darker the days, the more likely Americans are to rise to the occasion.  They used to call it "Yankee Ingenuity."  Whatever you call it, throw us into adversity and our genetic code kicks in, despite our present paradigms, and we work together and figure things out and end up better as a whole than even we think is possible.

So what have we here?  A massive exchange of ideas on the world-wide-web!  It was not thought spawned on American soil that spawned America, you know.  We stood on the shoulders of giants (to loosely quote from a movie, and I don't remember which one ... maybe it was Jurassic Park).  I think that what's happening here does not affect just us, but our little experiment affects all of humanity.

For the most part, there is no money changing hands as we all blog our little hearts out, and read each other's thoughts, and make our sundry neuro-connections, then go about our business.  But we sure do spark each other, don't we?

I just want to share with you my excitement about that fact.  I think good stuff is gonna come of all this sparking, kids.

As an aside (but a brief one) a commentator on election night observed that we'd had two baby boom presidents -- Bill Clinton and George W (now I thought George W was born during WWII, which makes him not technically a boomer, but I could be wrong about that).  The commentator went on to remark how the boomers were supposed to "change the world," and then he implied that they didn't, and then he said that Barack is a subsequent generation.

I just want to say that the boomers did change the world.  The paradigm shift that brought the seeds of an internet that is (at least presently) FREE, is Woodstock Generation through and through.

Okay, enough about that.  Now the ECONOMY.

What has value?  Well, what do we NEED?  What is ESSENTIAL?

We must all eat and drink.  We must all have coverings and shelters against the elements.

Because of those needs, certain things have REAL value.  Food has real value.  Food springs from the earth, because of the sun, and water.  Land is called "real estate" because it has real value.  The dollar equivalent of its value may change with so-called economic fluctuations, but even so, the land itself is what is truly of value -- particularly if the land is fertile and well-watered and in a favorable climate for production of food.  Or if the land contains other "natural resources" useful for the maintenance of life and health (timber, for instance, to name but one).

Another aside here -- haven't you noticed, kids, that the water we need FALLS FROM THE SKY, the food we need SPRINGS FROM THE GROUND ... I could go on an on, but ISN'T THAT COOL?  Was that by design?  DESIGN?  If you think not, I betcha you think a bunch of other goofy things too.  But enough preaching.  Back to the economy.

We are in a TERRIBLE recession.  World-wide, no less.  Why?  Has the earth decreased it's production of food? (No.)  Has the land disappeared? (No.)  Has the sun exploded? (No.)  Has the rain stopped falling? (No.)  Are there still sufficient resources to maintain life on this planet?  Um, Yes.

Do we all still want to work to harvest the things that need harvesting and convert the things that need converting to make them more useful or pleasing?  (Um, yes -- we need MORE JOBS as a matter of fact.)

Do we all still want to BUY food and other stuff?  ABSOLUTELY!

Are we willing to trade with each other?  We sure are.  Heck, we'll even do the types of things that most interest us free-for-nothing, so long as our basic needs are met.  (Like blog, for instance.)  We'll even share our food and other resources, expecting nothing in return but hoping only for respect or affection, on our more magnanimous days.

So what's the matter with our economy?  Oh, some of us (maybe a bunch of us) thought it might be fun to trade things that are not real.  Let's bet money on the future value of, oh, say "real estate."  Let's buy land and sell it, just to make money on the increase in it's perceived value (rather than to use it for the sustenance of life).

We built a house of cards, and eventually it collapsed.  If we took high school economics, we should have seen this coming.

Okay, the inflated speculative value has collapsed, and it's not going back up, either.  Some gamblers lost a mess of money.  Losses hurt.  Okay.  Get up and build something that's real.

I think that's what Barack Obama and our "leaders" are about to do with us.  We're going to provide "jobs" building some real and decent things that will benefit our children and grandchildren down the road, and pay the family grocery bills in the meantime.  Every little household gets the chance (I hope) to say about unnecessary debt, "Whew!  I won't do THAT again.  Too scary how it can bite you in the butt."  We might not get to do the jobs we thought were our birthright, but we will be productive again, and pretty soon our economy will have a positive "gross national PRODUCT," and everyone who wants a job will be able to have a job, and since we're basically a decent bunch of people, we'll provide for the people who cannot work, and probably even for the people who simply will not work.

I wish I was more eloquent, but this may be the best I can do.  I'm writing my ideas anyway, hoping I might "spark" a few of you who turn a phrase better than I do, or who are able to neuro-connect on a higher level than what I do.  I'm adding my little spark to humanity, I hope; and I'm giving it free-for-nothing, and I do not care if anybody ever remembers my name.  Since we are five degrees connected to each other (or whatever that idea was a few years ago ... maybe it was eight ... it doesn't matter) I'm hoping that somewhere down the line enough common sense and realistic optimism shines from my little synapses that a bunch of families benefit for generations to come.

The Words My Mama Taught Me and The Songs My Grandma Sang

Music is an outstanding gift of God and next to theology ... I would not give up my slight knowledge of music for a great consideration ... and youth should be taught this art ... for it makes fine skillful people ... I would certainly like to praise music with all my heart as the excellent gift of God which it is and to commend it to everyone.

-- Martin Luther

I woke up this morning to the music in my memory:

My mommy told me something
A little girl should know
It's all about the devil and I've learned to hate him so
He'll only give you trouble if you let him in the room
He will never, ever leave you if your heart is filled with gloom, so:

Let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Smilers never lose
And frowners never win

So let the sun shine in
Face it with a grin
Open up your heart and let the sun shine in

Does anybody else know this to be the first verse to Rock-a-bye Baby? --

Rock a bye baby, your cradle is green
Daddy's a nobleman, Mommy's a queen
Sister's a young lady who wears a gold ring
And Johnny's a drummer who drums for the king

Rock a bye baby
In the tree top
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all

In adulthood, I heard that some think that cradle falls and crashes to the ground, injuring or killing the baby ... but by the time I heard that interpretation it was too late to stick that ugly picture in my memory because I already saw it floating gently to the softest of landings on the notes my grandma sang to me as she rocked me in her arms.

Remember to sing to your children

Have a joyful day, my friends!

More on Albert and Jay

Here's Albert and Jay in 1901, with their sisters.  The oldest sister is my great-grandma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another of their military photos:

Kep, this one may be of some interest to you.

 

And here's their daddy's (and my great-great grandpa's) military headstone.  My grandpa Charles served in the Civil War.

 

For those of you who do genealogy research, please appreciate the difficulty of researching the last name of White!  As they say about Pokemon, "Gotta catch 'em all!"

I have, in fact, collected data on nearly every White family in the counties and states where my own ancestors lived in the 17 & 18 hundreds.

Veterans

These are my uncles, Albert and Jay.  Photo was taken in 1907.  They enlisted together.  However, Albert was told that he could not enlist with his brother.  So he left the line of volunteers, and rejoined the line at the rear, and used the last name of some family friends instead of his own last name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some photos of my uncles' military days:

 

My mom used to say ...

"If you don't bother to vote, then you aren't allowed to gripe."

My dad used to say ...

"I may not agree with a word that you say ... but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

(He was probably quoting somebody else, but it had a big impact on me as a child.)

Thanks, Dad!

Entry for October 24, 2007

"Well done is better than well said." -- Ben Franklin, from Poor Richard's Almanac

Mayflower Connection

I drew this picture in 1973 when I was 20 years old and working as a secretary at a downtown mission.

It just seemed a lonely spot, and for some reason it drew my attention.

What I did not know when I drew the picture ...

Did not find out until I was doing genealogy research at the public library in 2006 ...

Is that this is where my mother's father fell to his death from a scaffolding ... many, many long years before I was even born.

He was an artist, I've been told.

His father was a preacher.

His 9th great-grandfather was William Brewster -- the man who wrote the Mayflower Compact.

God bless you, Grandpa

What makes the United States American?

 

A fellow in the UK whose blog I like to read, recently asked his readers to comment what makes Great Britain British. He was hoping each comment would list about 3 things, although he allowed fewer or more.

 

This morning, I was thinking about what, in my opinion, makes the United States American. Here's my quick answers. Let me know what you think.

 

1. Yankee Ingenuity
2. A Nation of Immigrants
3. A great Constitution/Bill of Rights
4. And let's not forget the "Watchdog Press"

Debate

"He was naturally more eloquent, had a ready plenty of words, and sometimes, as I thought, bore me down more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Entry for December 31, 2006

"Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

-- John Adams

Entry for December 30, 2006

"If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions; modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error."

-- Benjamin Franklin (1771)