Category Archives: Social

Phil Heard Sweet Music

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Posted by on in Community, Education, Historical, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 2, 2021- In my mind, as Punxsutawney Phil, the random ground hog who comes out of his (her) hole, each February 2, to be greeted by a troupe of older men dressed in tuxedos and top hats, made this year’s prognostication, the shadow was seen. I also thought of Black History, which transcends the month that has been “granted” for its study.

The story of African-Americans is, of course, far greater and more consequential, than a twenty-eight day period can possibly encapsule. No one ethnic or continental element of our population can be contained by a period of time.

I also wish to devote several posts, henceforth, and at least three days a week, to cultural aspects of a given community. As Punxsutawney is relatively close to Pittsburgh, which has a vibrant Black community, I share the story of the Iron City’s Afro- American Music Institute.

Getting Past Anecdotes

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

February 1, 2021-

In explaining both conspiracy theory and compliance theory, there is a tendency to rely upon anecdotes, strung together, to form a pattern. Some of the anecdotes are true; others have tendrils of truth that are mixed with the worst of people’s fears. For example, it is true that a wealthy entrepreneur, who has controlling interest in a railroad, contributed to Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, and very likely made his thoughts about the XL Pipeline ( a competitor to the railroad) very clear to his beneficiary. It is also true that, BEFORE the contribution was made, both Mr. Biden and Kamala Harris made their opposition to the Pipeline known, and that this was largely based on what was going on at Standing Rock Reservation, in North and South Dakota-as well as on the opposition of several farmers and ranchers in Nebraska’s Sand Hills region. The truth, in most controversial matters, is complicated.

The truth in other matters is less so. For example, there is no question that it is ALWAYS wrong to expect sexual favours from an underage child. The corrupt and emotionally immature, among us, offer excuses for such behaviour, though, and cry out for “understanding” towards abusers. In my humble opinion, it is a hollow cry-to the extent that it negates or minimizes the harm done to the child victim. Yes, there is a common thread of truth to the notion that molested children can become child molesters. This happens when the cult of secrecy has kept them from getting proper help and treatment-as soon after the assault as possible. As a fractured bone, that is not properly set, will heal in a contorted manner, so does a fractured psyche find its own wayward path- often mimicking the very behaviour which led to its trauma.

There is the twisted feature of being stuck in denial, at the news of something seemingly too horrific to process. Thus, there are still those who sincerely believe that no child has been killed by gunfire at a school, since Jonesboro and Columbine- over two decades ago. Their denial, which ought to have been processed, and from which they should have moved on, remains because it is being nurtured and validated, by persons whose interests lie at the very fringes of the public weal.

As someone said, earlier today, in another context. follow the money. Good research never relies totally, or much at all, on anecdotes.

One Spirit

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Assistance, collaborating, Historical, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 30, 2021-

I have an independent mind, the expression of which has left several people around here, and elsewhere, who I fairly trusted, responding with “LOL”, or with sullen silence. The thing that I find funny is that several of them pride themselves on being people of faith. The belief that there is One God, Who created all life, is as central to their pronounced faith, as it is to mine.

So, it is incredulous to me that people can even distinguish between human beings, as to who deserves to live. It befuddles me, that there are at least two classes of people, and this distinction is a point of pride, a cornerstone of belief.

There is, by my reckoning, One Creator, One Spirit, One Universe, One Planet Earth and One Human Race. I have differences of opinion with many, AND that does not diminish their humanity-as far as I am concerned. For saying this, however, I have lost several friends, at least one extended family member and a few members of my own Faith, for not adhering to an orthodoxy that claims to be fighting for freedom-but is rooted in fear.

Let’s look at a few matters, more closely:

  1. Human Rights- I hear the First National Youth Poet Laureate say that the mind of a child is paramount. This same person also says that medical professionals should be allowed to put unborn children to death. What happens to the mind of a child who is not even allowed to be born? I hear some of the same people who espouse abortion, as a routine practice, voice opposition to the Death Penalty, even for the most heinous of murders.
  2. Nationalism- I see and hear people of various backgrounds, some with medical degrees and some with law degrees, saying that America should be a White, Christian nation-exclusively. What, exactly, is a White Nation? The continent of Europe, alone, is home to seventy different ethnicities. Jesus loved people of all the known nations of His time-and loves everyone, the world over, now. The first Christians, outside of a smattering of Jews in the Holy Land and a handful of Greeks, were Ethiopians, South Asians and Turkic people in Central Asia. The majority of Christians today are People of Colour.
  3. Wealth- Yesterday, a wealthy investor took to social media to furiously denounce those who have actively engaged in buying inexpensive stocks, offered by companies which produce goods and services in which they have a common interest. His basic point was that there was a move to destroy our economic system. That this participation will actually strengthen the nation’s economy, in the long run, is willfully ignored by those who favour keeping things as they historically have been. There is no club. There is no exclusive society that deserves preference over all other human beings. The very use of the prefix “non-“, with reference to people outside one’s own circle, is odious and needs to be discarded. The selectivity which is promoted by so many leaders of groups may be temporarily necessary, in terms of how each of us structures our time, our attention and our energy-but for it to be a permanent psychological, emotional and legal barrier to seeing the humanity in everyone and the sentience of all beings, is treacherous to those whose rights are debarred- and to one’s own humanity. The concept of any human being superior to the next, even by dint of the preponderance of one’s demonstrated character, is in the long run, an abomination. We are each here to grow, to learn and to become one. There is, in the entire Universe, one Creator and one Spirit animating all life. All distinction is a matter of mental construct. All prejudice and hatred are little more than byproducts of unfaced fear.

Keeping the Fire

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

January 29, 2021- One of the things about the pandemic is that those of us who are officially retired from work are still needed in our professions. This is the sort of thing which happens, especially to nurses and physicians, but also to teachers, EMTs and a variety of people in supporting roles. So, I have gone in, to cover for those sidelined by COVID-19, those who have pandemic-related medical appointments and a few other situations.

One of the features of working with children, in the present environment particularly, is what I see as the need to encourage young people to stand their ground, to speak their truth clearly and not be cowed by any attempts, by ANYONE, to intimidate them into letting go of what they know is deserved. This does not mean that a child should be taught to act in an unbridled and irresponsible manner.

When a person, of any age, does speak the truth to a situation, it is the mark of authenticity, for anyone who hears that truth, to have the speaker’s back. In this school, particularly, those who have stood up and insisted, properly, that matters be handled a certain way have been my greatest allies and have made all the difference between the good days I have had and days that might have gone off the rails.

Even in the rough-edged years, of the 2000s, I still recall those forthright children whose outspoken and compassionate manners bridged the gap between my shakiness and being able to pull things together , not wasting the class’s time. With all to which this generation of students is being asked to endure, that forthrightness, that fortitude that flame, needs to be enkindled more than ever before.

I remain on call, for this, and other acts of community service.

Great Responsibility

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Education, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 28, 2021-

There is a hue and cry going up, all over, about the plethora of Executive Orders coming from the White House, these past eight days. None of them surprise me, many of them are reflective of a long view and some are just plain expedient. Whether one agrees with some of them, or any of them at all, depends on your view of government, view of who ought to have what sort of freedom and whether it is recognized that consequences deserve consideration before action, as in “Be careful of what you want……”.

I don’t have a problem with all that many, PROVIDED that what is being taken from people (i.e. oil and gas jobs) is indeed being replaced by something as good or better (i.e. renewable energy jobs, which deserve full government support-especially if their predecessors are going to be phased out faster.)

As you might imagine, I do have a problem with the force of government being put behind the abortion industry (and when we are talking about organ harvesting, it is an industry, where profits can replace the earnest desire to help women, and the use of force is all too easy). The key, to women exercising their GOD-GIVEN right to decide what happens with their bodies, is education. The full impact of terminating a life, on the mother, on the father, on the extended family and on many of those performing that termination, has to be horrendous and it plays out over many years. Then, too, is the question of the re-emergence of Eugenics. I shudder at the prospect of any government becoming inured to unprincipled elitists deciding which children (which PEOPLE) should live and which should be killed. Bottom line: Scars don’t heal, unless the wounded are enveloped in love.

The same is true with people who have their gender re-assigned. It is not something that anyone of us who hasn’t experienced such a transformation can ever comprehend, totally. This is why a full education-not conversion therapy, but education as to all that might lie ahead-throughout the person’s life- needs to be in place. That education should include the impact on organized athletics, as both the transgender person AND those who are cisgender, whether gay or straight, have the right to compete on a level playing field, no pun intended. How long does it take, for a person to lose the unfair advantage of residue from their former gender? This is not something that an Executive Order is going to resolve. Scars don’t heal, unless the wounded are enveloped in love.

There is much that needs to be corrected, and much that needs to be avoided. I pray the new Administration can make a clear distinction, as to which is which.

Never Doomed

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Posted by on in Assistance, collaborating, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social

January 27, 2021-

It never fails that, after a day of struggle, there is a burst of communal energy and much is accomplished. So it was today, that my quad mates joined in the shoveling effort, and we got the driveway cleared in less than an hour. I will need to do a bit more, tomorrow, in order to get the car turned around, without backing clear down to the street, but that will be a small project.

It takes a lot of positive energy, and sometimes, extreme patience-but I have never felt the need to reduce myself to a puddle of doom and gloom. Life is never perfect, yet whether it is due to age or to a simple realization that what is meant to work out, will, I have found myself increasingly calm in the midst of whatever storms-literal and figurative- have come this way.

There has been a solution to all that I have encountered, over the past ten years, and whether it is an answer I have devised myself or an insight from those around me, is inconsequential. The problem is resolved, the learning has taken place and life continues much the better.

Old habits are sometimes set aside, in light of novel situations. So, instead of celebrating the passing of the storm and the return of beautiful weather-if only for a short time-by heading downtown to a restaurant, I walked two blocks to the meat market and got the fixings for a meatball and past meal, which worked just fine.

There is always a common sense solution.

The Big Snow

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Posted by on in collaborating, Community, Hiking and Nature, impediments, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

January 25, 2021- The heaviest snow we have seen, since 12/24/2018, arrived late last night, and has continued for most of today. It is expected to go on, until about Noon, tomorrow. As I write this, the white stuff is indeed coming down, in robust fashion.

I grew up, in eastern Massachusetts, with snow being a staple of our winter experience, from mid-December to early March. As with many people, I recall snowdrifts being as tall as, or taller than, my ten-and eleven-year-old self.

I recall reading about the Great Blizzard of 1967, when President Johnson sent military food and fodder drops to the Navajo, Ute and Hopi Nations-and the Southwest was blanketed with snow for days. In 1978, I lived in Bangor, Maine and experienced the three-day blizzard, when it was possible, for those so inclined, to cross-country ski in downtown. I also found myself stuck in Skowhegan, Maine, one snowy February night, and blew off the early morning alarm, only to wake to clear blue skies and scrambling to call in “sick” to my workplace, some thirty miles away. In the mid-1980s, setting out in light snow, from the Navajo community of Tuba City, the storm followed three of us, clear to Tucson, with snow even on the streets of downtown Phoenix. In December, 2000, Aram and I were pursued by a snowstorm, from Roanoke, VA to El Paso, as we took a route across the Deep South, with a view towards avoiding winter weather.

Snow can be fickle, but it also can be intense-and so it is, this evening-with accumulation in even lower-elevation areas of Yavapai County. I was to have gone in to two different COVID-relief school assignments, but Mother Nature simply said “Enough!” Instead, I went out, twice, and did some shoveling, as will likely be on the agenda tomorrow. That, too, is something that was a staple of my childhood-and Mom didn’t even need to ask- we just put on our boots and winter garments, and did it.

It is nice, for now, to have a throwback. Prayers, though, go to those who may have lost power, however temporarily, or who had to find shelter, rather quickly.

Master Plans

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Posted by on in collaborating, impediments, Personal Values, Social, Striving

January 24, 2021-

Quite a bit has been made,

in the Sour Grapes Society,

of the fact that none

of the major issues

confronting our country

have been solved,

when the new President has had

five whole days to get ‘er done.

I’d love to see one of these geniuses

solve even ONE of the issues

facing us as a nation,

in even five YEARS.

I know it is above my pay grade

to ever serve at anywhere

near the level of the Presidency.

So, I wish him the best,

and hold no grudges

that my third party candidate

of choice did not win.

Our country is far bigger

than any one man.

This is something

that his on-fire critics,

a good many of whom are immigrants,

would do well to remember.

Otherwise, submit YOUR Master Plan.

Sharpening the Double-Edged Sword

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Posted by on in Community, impediments, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, Social, Striving

January 22, 2021-

I have a long, and strangely satisfying, history of talking back to and ignoring people who a) deem themselves above the masses or b) regard their cause as so sacrosanct that they can do whatever they wish, harm whoever they want and claim it in the interests of the “greater good”.

It does my heart good to see the course of the investigations into the January 6 invasion of the United States Capitol. I am pleased that the investigators are not fabricating any charges, that they are taking their time and not leaving any stone unturned. I am also pleased that the impeachment trial of Donald Trump is following due process, and is most likely waiting until the second week of February, in order to proceed. Justice will be served to those who reject the legitimate rights of people of colour, of women and people of faiths other than that of the dominant culture.

Justice also should be served to those who, by their own admission, are committed to burning the cities of Portland and Seattle. Hiding behind an amorphous and rootless organization, which has no charter and no philosophy, other than wanton mayhem, is a tactic that serves no good. Denying the duly elected and installed President of the United States is reprehensible, whether the terrorism comes from the alt-Right, as on January 6 or from the unhinged Left, as is being done, to scant resistance, in the cities of the Pacific Northwest. Both fringes will try to advance their unprincipled, nihilistic agendas-the Right, by going so far as to attempt to lead Texas, and possibly other states, to secede from the Union and the Left, by just burning everything to the ground, with no real plan for rebuilding.

At my age, 70, I am not concerned with upsetting those who view themselves as being in some sort of driver’s seat. Having been dismissed from positions, for not kowtowing to powerful individuals, when their actions have been questionable, the last thing with which I will ever be concerned is retribution/revenge. Both fringes have forfeited their rights to free speech, by their actions and attempts to intimidate good-hearted, thoughtful citizens and visitors, who are themselves occupying all points along the political spectrum.

Joe Biden was not my choice for President; nor was Donald Trump. I wish the former a successful term in office and the latter a fair trial. I wish all my decent and law-abiding friends, from Right to Left, safety, good health and all the freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. I will never bow to authoritarianism or tyranny, regardless of the point from which it emanates.

I hope that neither will you.

Walk Forward; Love All Life

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, children, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Spiritual, Striving

January 20, 2021- In the end, there were no Cabal Trials-and most likely, there is no Cabal, at least not the widespread, nefarious and nearly impregnable network. In the end, the 45th President of the United States took his ball, his fig leaf and whatever memorabilia he chose to bring with him, made two fairly benign speeches and left what his successor described as a “generous” letter, before taking what is likely his final ride on Air Force One, going to his rest haven in Florida.

The transition was well-guarded and peaceful. There was a gentle Inaugural Address from the 46th President, not rambling and with only a few stumbles in pronunciation. I doubt I’ve have done any better. It was essentially what the nation and the world needed to hear. There were heartfelt, well-delivered prayers. A widely popular Country & Western singer offered “Amazing Grace”. An equally popular Pop singer served up “This Land Is Your Land” and “America the Beautiful”. A gifted singer, who once opted for the outrageous in her performances, gave a stellar rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The youngest prominent American poet in decades, gave a heartfelt recitation, as our first National Poet Laureate.

What does not change is the need to examine major issues facing the country from all legitimate angles. The environment is not immune from human influence. Some aspects of climate change are cyclical and would be catastrophic, regardless of the levels of pollution and wanton degradation. There is, however, much that we can, and should, do to safeguard our planet-and by extension, our solar system. Personal attention to conservation begins, as the late John McCain once said, at home. Recycling, in an era of concern for its cost, is tricky, but still must be consistently endeavoured. Water is an essential part of any community development, and requires careful usage, particularly in areas beset by drought. Air quality is likewise a key concern.

Our dietary health is essential. Despite claims from large corporations involved in genetic modification of foods, and their pop culture shills on television and social media outlets, human beings are not meant to subsist on a diet of monocultural crops, nor are such commodities helpful in soil conservation. A wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices, consumed with or without a modest amount of meat, and preferably grown organically, represent the best regimen for disease-free living.

No human being capable of thought and reason deserves to be deprived of the right to make decisions which affect life and well-being. Women inherently have the right to decide what happens with their bodies. The issue can, and does, get messy when it comes to matters of sexuality and procreation. Education is the only path to informed choice, when it comes to abortion and the practice of circumcision (genital mutillation).

Each of the above issues has become fuzzy, due to the influence of deep-pocketed economic interests. Large corporations, such as Monsanto, and financially-driven nonprofits, such as Planned Parenthood, have exercised their influence, in promoting practices that are not necessarily carried out with the interests of individual human beings, including pre-born children, in mind. So, it falls to a widely-based coalition of citizens to build and carry out education programs that can counteract the propaganda of monetized interests.

The current administration has already shown concern for the environment. Its positions on the other two issues are less clear, thus pointing to the need for truly extending its path forward towards consideration for holistic health and the promotion of strong, healthy parents, children and families.