Letters to the editor by RTD readers have urged Virginia Republicans to “don’t worry – be happy” regarding the Old Dominion becoming a “Blue State”. The Democrat party, that will soon assume complete control of virtually all state government functions, bears no reflection to conservative southern democrats that dominated state government for decades in the 20th century.
The outcome of the recent election is largely the result of demographics trends sweeping the country. An example of these demographic changes is a statistic reported recently by media outlets that most Millennials prefer socialism. Regardless of the social revolution of the sixties, Baby Boomers eventually settled down and adopted much of the values of our parents in the Greatest Generation. Yet, Boomer’s political influence has already begun to significantly wane.
This prospect is very disconcerting to many who love this state. Many Virginians regard the conservative fiscal management, pro-business posture, commitment to quality education and respect for all pillars of the Bill of Rights by government officials as sound reasons to make Virginia home. This coming “blue wave” should be regarded as more of a blue tsunami that will wipe the country clean of what we have known, draw it all out to sea, and deliver a clean landscape for the pro-socialism Democrat party to remake as they choose.
As the American electorate becomes increasingly blue, the greater the likelihood pro-socialism leaders, federal, state and local, will be elected. Even though free market democratic capitalism has created the greatest living standard the world has ever witnessed, the “blue” tsunami will cast it aside in exchange for iron-fisted government control and unprecedented wealth transfer. Those among us who believe in self-reliance and hard work must prepare for historic change.
If it is the will of the majority, then it is inevitable.
All of this focus on Donald Trump is a tempest in a teapot while the truly important matters facing this nation, and the world, are either ignored or shelved in favor of the politics of the day. Megalomaniacal personalities like Trump, Pelosi, Schumer, Biden and Clinton expend tremendous energies angling for who will rule the roost. When in fact, the roost is already undergoing seismic changes below our feet.
First, the American political landscape is about to take an initial gentle left turn. Demographic trends, toward a more liberal American electorate, already show a growing majority of voters supporting social justice causes and candidates. This trend will accelerate over the next decade culminating in the Democrat party dominating every facet of government; executive, legislative, and judicial.
Conservative elected officials, and their electorate, will be completely and totally marginalized possessing no meaningful power to shape policy nor law. The United States will become a single party nation no different than The People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation. In time, as “Democratic” Socialists solidify their total control, constitutional changes will follow ensuring enduring domination and removing the means of peaceful power change exemplified by term limits. The Bill of Rights will be “adjusted” eliminating potentially troublesome means of dissent like peaceful assembly and gun ownership.
These changes will be accompanied by unprecedented use of technology to control the population. Every street and building will be under video surveillance. Video images will be analyzed by AI-based systems designed to detect crime (the public premise for its existence) as well gauging the populations mood while identifying individuals (with facial recognition technology) who may represent a threat as a seditionist. These possible seditionists will be monitored on a 24/7 basis to determine whether more direct and forceful action by “authorities” will be required. Those deemed a threat to single party domination will be whisked off to “reeducation camps” likely to never be seen again.
By the time many of the independents and liberally minded citizens (more democratic than socialist), who initially lent their support to the social justice cause, realize it has gone too far, the opportunity to pull back will have passed. The People’s Republic of America (PRA) will be firmly and permanently in place. Military strategy will be “adjusted” to ensure no possible domestic threats to authoritarian control will have the opportunity to materialize into a credible threat. Especially once guns have been removed from the citizenry the ability to rise up against tyranny will be gone forever.
All sound familiar? How about when the socialists took complete control in Germany in the 1930s? Then it was Jews, gypsies and “enemies of the state” carted off to “labor” camps. And who would stop them? Who would be there to stop the PRA from sending those with “impure thoughts” (democracy, capitalism, individual rights to peaceful assembly, and so on) to euphemistically named “re-education” (prison) camps with no due process?
Cannot happen here some will say. I am certain many in Germany in the 30’s said the same or were not fully aware. There are reportedly a million people in Chinese “re-education” camps placed there with no due process quite possibly because AI-based systems and facial recognition technology deemed them a political threat, or their theology was deemed threatening. Precisely the same thing here, and worse, is possible with a single party totalitarian regime controlling the U.S.
And who would challenge the PRA? In Europe in the 1940’s it was the U.S. who came to the world’s rescue. If we had not intervened the Russian totalitarian forces would have defeated Germany and taken most of Europe for themselves. But who would come to our rescue? Not China, not Russia, who then with any hope of success? The answer is no one would take the risk.
And with guns now only in the hands of the government (and criminals) the possibility of a democratic advocate uprising would not be impossible. Some gun control zealots would argue that a few handguns and rifles would be no match for a modern American military. Isn’t that what the British thought of the American colonists? That they couldn’t possibly win against the British imperial army and navy, the greatest military force in the world at the time.
Do you believe democracy will be allowed to spring up in Hong Kong? The demonstrators have certainly made a lot of noise. But quietly, carefully, this uprising too will be crushed. And nothing will be done about it.
So, for those who say it cannot happen again, it would not take much thought to remember how history has repeated itself over and over. And never say never. When the two-party system fails in this country and absolute power is held by the socialists (in Germany, NAZI’s were the National Socialist German Workers Party), the unimaginable will certainly be possible.
Is this the beginning of the end for the American “Empire”? Not an empire in the historically traditional
sense i.e., Roman Empire, British Empire, but one where the presence of supremacy
over other sovereign nations was the direct result of the global extension of economic
and military power, not colonization. This extension of power was accompanied
by a projection of the notion that a democratic republic offered societal
supremacy. The notion that a people representative
government, a democracy, combined with free market capitalism, could create the
most powerful nation on earth. The
notion has become fact.
The next question is, will the American “Empire” meet a similar end as its predecessors in history? Or, will the American “Empire” endure and overcome the failings of previous imperial regimes because its global influence is not one characterized by oppression and colonization? Is it the right time in history, as well as the right combination of political and economic systems, that will allow the United States of America to escape the failings that led to previous imperial declines? Further, has the American democratic, capitalistic system empowered it to build military technology that enables the ability to exert power and control without colonization? The answer is clearly yes. Has the American system become an engine of economic power and wealth creation that will allow it to continue to dominate the world stage? Again, yes. Have we evolved enough to allow American global dominance to continue, or will our demise be of our own making? This is the central question.
Reflecting briefly on previous imperial failures, first from Rome…
The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians mention factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the Emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse (editor’s note:does all of this sound eerily familiar to you?). The reasons for the collapse are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.[1][2]1
…then London….
Where most accounts of British imperial collapse concentrate
on the 20th century…. [the] story [begins] on the battlefield of Yorktown, in
1781. It was there that Britain suffered its first major anti-colonial defeat,
when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, effectively conceding
American independence. Rather than portraying Yorktown and subsequent setbacks
as anomalies in an arc of imperial ascent, Brendon uses this novel point of
entry to reinterpret the British empire as an enterprise whose validity was
persistently challenged, from within and without.2
….and finally, in the micro sense, with the NETFLIX TV
series continuing these themes, placed in Birmingham England, the “Peaky
Blinders” context.
The series revolves around the notion of social classes and
empires, and how they rise and fall with a startling sort of predictability. As
the show suggests, over time, empires become too big, too corrupt, and too
complicated to sustain themselves and eventually, they collapse. …[T]he series
expresses its fears of expansion by teaching Tommy a powerful lesson about the
other sharks skulking around in criminal waters – especially when those
criminals are the ones involved in governmental plots with massive geopolitical
implications. Essentially, Peaky Blinders embarked on a fish out of water story
by moving outside its own comfort zone and taking the risk of expanding too
much and too quickly. There are times when that risk appears to have paid off[.]
[10]3
Wars have been won and lost but the global expansion of various forms of market-driven, capitalistic economies continue to emerge and thrive. The former Soviet republics, Viet Nam, and China are prime examples. In some cases, national governments provide macro market control, but private enterprise is the heart of the system.
Aside from the recent parody of expansionism experienced with Denmark’s “refusal” to sell Greenland to the U.S., this country’s consistent attempts to exert influence politically, by deploying military resources to “hot zones”, has largely been deployed physically from one of the fifty states or a few bases on friendly foreign soil. Those on friendly foreign soil are typically under mutually beneficial defense agreements with fully sovereign nations and these have become fewer over the years since WWII.
Given the desired U.S. global persona is one of respect and
decency, with no stated or unstated intentions of imperial colonization, U.S. military
personnel or assets visit many foreign nations each year for largely benign
reasons. Yet, these all send a message
that should hostilities be deemed necessary between the U.S. and a foreign
entity (sovereign nation or amorphous political or religious group) the U.S. is
the nation with the greatest ability to project its military might to anywhere
in the world with significant speed and firepower.
Should early signs of difficulty between the US, or our
allies, and a foreign power become known, the U.S. diplomatic corps, with
stations in virtually every nation, will lead efforts to find a peaceful
solution. The U.S. Department of State holds
a position of tremendous strength and importance, with virtually limitless
resources (financial resources, military power, intelligence assets among
others), to address any concern or threat.
Unlike in the Roman or British case, where communication and central control became a primary causes of failure, today communication and central control is virtually instantaneous from Washington. Our resources can be deployed from seconds to hours not weeks and months during which the situation could morph several times.
Yet what about the internal causes for failure? In the past, opposing political forces eventually found compromise in order to achieve the best outcome for the country and the world. Today the divides are so deep and visceral. Compromise doesn’t appear to be on anyone’s mind. The strategy appears to be to wait for absolute domination to strike and achieve one-sided goals.
The demographic trends point to increasing voter strength for liberal causes with clear intent to enact socialist policy. Some would point to nations like France and Great Britain whose world influence has considerably waned as more and more of their financial resources are diverted to pay for internal social welfare programs limiting the funds for military strength or to support foreign policy initiatives; even straining funds for internal security forces to battle terrorism at home. France has openly declared it does not have enough resources to track all internal terrorism threats. Despite more and more socialistic spending, the French people have protested almost daily the inadequacy of the social programs to help them meet basic daily needs for life.
One could easily see that occurring in the United States. The current president is often derided for his isolationist policy pulling back on military intervention across the planet. Once socialism is in power here, and decisions must be made for either “guns or butter”, funding for the military and foreign influence will most certainly face major reductions. Our ability to address foreign threats on foreign soil will be vastly diminished. As the French have discovered, the foreign battlefield has been exchanged for one at home though open borders, massive social spending and inadequate homeland security resources. Since 9/11, no other western nation has experienced more significant and bloody terrorist-led attacks.
The path American Socialists will take us down will be no different. Under the weight of increasingly heavy government social program spending, taxes will rise dramatically. And not just on the “rich”; President Obama declared that any family making $150,000 per year in income must be considered “wealthy”. The Green New Deal will triple utility rates and fuel prices for decades waiting for the promise of carbonless renewable energy to meet the demand. “Free” healthcare for all, “free” college for all would bring tax increases of 25%, or likely more, for virtually all taxpayers (including the middle class with the promise of “free” government services as justification). The strain will bring the economy to a crawl, funding for innovation and entrepreneurism will dry up. Over regulation and high taxes will drag us into recession. When recession inescapably occurs, tax revenues will trend much lower, so tax rates must rise again just to remain status quo. This cycle will repeat itself until the weight of taxes and regulation collapse the economy. Taxes will cause an innovation drought. Job creators, left with no investment incentive, will withdraw to protect what wealth they have left. Markets will collapse as joblessness, homelessness and hunger grow on an exponential scale. Federal program funding runs dry and the U.S.’s ability to borrow reaches an end. The American dream and American global leadership will become a fond memory.
The people who support liberal political organizations, and
especially their leadership, are very, very angry. They are infuriated because President Trump
won the election. With that result the
Trump administration has maintained a conservative, constructionist leaning
Supreme Court, signed tax relief legislation, dismantled the intricate web of burdensome
government regulation instituted over eight years by the Obama Administration
(that which combined with reducing the tax burden on small business has boosted
the economy to great new heights), disengaged from Obama era signature foreign
policy “achievements” like the Iran Nuclear Arms deal, the list could go on.
However, should the truth be known, they are very secretly, deep in their hearts, furious with themselves. The DNC (led by DNC Chair Donna Brazile) with the admittedly rigged nomination of Hilary Clinton, as well as Hilary herself for handing part of the typical democrat constituency over to Trump with her ignoring of rust belt states, lack of empathy for blue collar workers (thanks in part to President Obama’s submission “that those jobs are gone forever”), and Clinton’s “deplorables” blunder, essentially gifted the election to Trump.
Think about it, when your own blunders, or blunders by your
team, cause catastrophic political failure, who typically gets the blame? The other guy of course! He cheated, he lied, he broke the law (he
outsmarted us….oh wait, no not that one – scratch it!), he engaged in treason
with the Russians. So far none of these
have stuck.
And very clearly President Trump is among his own worst
enemies. Do you know anyone….anyone who
thinks his overall pattern of behavior is either statesman-like or
presidential? Regardless, he is the President,
duly and fairly elected by the system designed by our founding fathers that has
endured successfully for centuries producing many peaceful transitions of
power.
It takes an enlightened and fully self-aware person to accept blame for failures by you or your team. It takes strength and character to focus on the real problems. The democrat leadership, having none of that, are focusing both barrels on Trump in an attempt to erase their mistakes by delegitimizing his presidency. First unsuccessfully through the Mueller investigation, and now the impeachment process. We’ll see where that takes us. Clearly, if impeachment fails as well, the process will be stretched and carried on until just about this time next year.
There is nothing anyone can do about it. We are going to have endure this spectacle of egos and sound bites for quite a bit longer. Many just wish the democrats had just owned up to their blunders, vowed to fix them and set about in congress to actually do good things for the country. That should have been complimented by a concerted effort to build a party platform that will attract the most voters with its originality, balanced fiscal approach, and a promise to pursue the ideals that would serve to unite most commonsense, liberally minded voters. With the demographic trends what they are, this would almost certainly deliver democrat success in 2020.
What makes the anti-immunization forces believe they have the right to re-introduce pestilence into this country? A country that suffered for decades, possibly centuries, and spent billions of dollars to eradicate these medical nightmares. What self-serving arrogance! If they are opposed to the advanced use of medical science to reduce suffering let them move to another country where these diseases and endless suffering are still readily available to them.
Do people really want to bring back the good old days of deadly diseases? Do these people think they know more about medicine and public health than the overwhelming majority of doctors, scientists, immunologists, and every major health organization across the entire planet? They are a particularly toxic sort of narcissist who places their own beliefs over the welfare of their own children and that of the general population. Obviously these people lack the critical thinking skills necessary to separate real science from pseudoscience.
Bad Packaging Design
For all of our fellow capitalists who completely comprehend the notion of cost savings being vital to corporate longevity; the American public, your customers, are asking you to combine cost savings with consumer-friendly packaging. So many have complained of having wounds, sometimes severe, inflicted by sharp edges of packaging created while attempting to find some means to crack it open. When we say consumer friendly we include environmentally neutral, as well as, easy and safe to open.
Distracted Driving
For those of you who believe you are safely driving while speaking on the phone with one hand completely occupied holding the phone to your ear, shame, shame on you! There are many things vitally wrong with that picture but the primary transgression being you are utterly distracted. Almost as egregious is you’ve given up one hand to manage your vehicle’s behavior when your distractedness inevitably causes you to create a dangerous situation for you and those around you. Get Bluetooth and stop being an idiot. Or, wait for it, pull over, complete your call and then drive on. This mobile phone behavior will eventually become illegal everywhere so you might as well wise up now and join the twenty first century.
The Mueller Report
Some are angry that Mueller’s Report did not recommend charging President Trump with obstruction of justice; or even better, treason. How could we have 200 plus investigators and spend over $20 million and not find something to impeach him?
For others, its anger for different reasons. Why have we wasted $20 million dollars and spent over two years to find nothing on Trump but, more egregious, where is the investigation into the sinister basis for the fruitless witch hunt?
So….everyone is angry about this one.
Hand Dryers
Have you ever wondered why healthcare facilities do not install electric fan hand dryers? It is because studies have found they contribute to hospital-acquired infection. In fact, the scrubbing action of towel use is critically important to the removal of pathogens from your hands.
In 2014, a team of researchers from the University of Leeds
dropped a disturbing truth bomb on the public by announcing that the no-touch
jet-air dryers in public restrooms are anything but sanitary. They found that
these increasingly popular devices blast bacteria from people’s poorly washed
hands (most people don’t wash their hands correctly) into the air and onto
nearby surfaces in disturbing quantities, increasing the likelihood that you’ll
walk out of the bathroom covered in other people’s germs.
In lab-based experiments recreating a public washroom,
jet-air dryers introduced 27 times more bacteria into the air than
good-old-fashioned paper towels, and these microbes circulated for 15 minutes
afterward.
Now, the authors are back with even more evidence against
hand dryers, this time from real-world experiments.
As reported in the Journal of Hospital Infection, Professor
Mark Wilcox and his colleagues set out to examine how hand drying methods
affect bacterial spread in hospital bathrooms – an important issue because many
serious and antibiotic-resistant infections are known to circulate in clinical
settings.
The investigation was conducted in hospitals in three cities
– Leeds, Paris, and Udine, Italy – over a 12-week period. For each location,
two restrooms used by patients, staff, and visitors were selected, and each was
set up to offer only a jet dryer or paper towels. Samples of the air and swabs
of restroom surfaces were taken every day for four weeks, then, after a
two-week pause in collections, each restroom switched to offer the alternate
drying method. This process was then repeated a third time.
Cultures from these samples revealed that the total amount
of bacteria in the air and on surfaces was consistently much higher in all
restrooms when jet dryers were being used. The most dramatic differences were
seen between the surface of the jet dryer itself and the surface of the paper
towel dispenser: In Udine, the dryer was covered in 100 times more bacteria, in
Paris it was 33-fold higher, and in Leeds it was 22-fold.
In the UK restrooms, the notorious methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium was found three times more frequently
during jet dryer usage periods than paper towel periods. Bacterial species
resistant to both penicillin and cephalosporins (known as ESBL-producing
organisms) and species of pathogenic enterococci – a difficult-to-treat group –
were found in significantly higher frequency and counts during these periods as
well.
In the Parisian and Italian hospitals, few pathogenic or
drug-resistant bacteria were encountered during either hand drying set-up.
“Consequently, we believe that electric hand dryers are not suited to clinical settings, and, as such, existing (e.g. NHS) infection control building guidance needs to be amended and strengthened,” Wilcox’s team wrote, adding that there is little justification for their use in any public setting given the risks they present.1
Environmental effects may tip a tiny bit to the dryer. There appears to be a case that energy necessary to completely dry your hands is many times that needed to produce a paper towel. Think about the environmental impact to burn the coal or the natural gas necessary to run the dryer for a couple minutes versus the energy needed to produce a single paper towel in a highly efficient factory producing millions a day.
For anyone whose had a hospital stay lately, the war on hospital-acquired infections is evident everywhere. These infections are killers. If hospitals fear hand dryers that much, why would you want to use one anywhere?
There are so many excuses available for people to be mean. The excuses include a myriad of types of trauma; depression or mental illness; merely living in the greater D.C. Area (nowhere else in the world are there that many outright mean and nasty individuals) or other environmental causes.
So why must they spew their hatefulness upon everyone including those of us whose primary style is kindness and generosity? Apparently their sad existence causes them to wish to extinguish any joy and happiness around them.
Their meanness is a highly contagious and dangerous societal pathogen. Fortunately some people, not exposed to the pathogen with any frequency, are able to shrug it off and return to their better nature. But if one is exposed to it often enough, their defenses are sufficiently weakened as to succumb to the gravitational pull of the black hole of mean.
Left Lane Cruisers
Does it appear to you as though there are more left lane cruisers now than ever? Is it the aging population or is it just self-serving arrogance? Some observe that this menace to safe navigation of our highways come in many varieties; the young and old, male and female, the dingleberries and the dimwits.
Regardless, they are creating danger for everyone around them, especially those cruisers who travel at a speed less than the prevailing general speed of the surrounding traffic. These slower cruisers, combined with the witless wonders who will do anything, no matter how crowded the roadways are, to go around them while frightening everyone with their recklessness, make highway driving miserable. This self-serving behavior makes highway travel far more dangerous than it should be.
In Virginia left lane cruising is illegal as it is in several other states. Yet you see it endlessly on our highways. Why? Primarily because there are insufficient police patrols to cite them and deter the behavior. Secondarily they are either witless in their knowledge of the law (not an acceptable excuse), or they are arrogantly disregarding the law thus creating a severe hazard for others.
Why don’t they just move to the right lane for their cruising? Well, in the right lane they may be “inconvenienced”
by entering and departing traffic. Or, by
other drivers driving slower than they are.
By cruising in the far-left lane they experience none of these “problems”.
So, just something else to both aggravate you and frighten
you with no solution in sight.
Impatient People
Impatience is one of seven basic character flaws or “dark” personality traits. We all have the potential for impatient tendencies, but in people with a strong fear of missing out, impatience can become a dominant pattern.
To be impatient is to feel and show hostility towards (or at
least about) things which obstruct, frustrate or delay [achieving] one’s goals.
Impatient people resent being held up, whether intentionally by another person
or just accidentally in the normal course of events.
Impatience has some similarity to the emotion of anger.
Animals and people alike become enraged in response to deliberate outside threats
to their well-being, or the well-being of their loved ones. The anger is partly
an expression of the fear that comes from being threatened, invaded or
mistreated, and partly a sort of warning shot, a firm “No!” to deter the
outside threat from going any further.
Impatience is also somewhat different from anger, however,
in that the impatient person is predisposed to perceive virtually all
situations as threatening—not to their survival per se but to [achieving] their
goals. More exactly, it is as if their survival depends upon the accomplishment
of as many goals as possible as quickly as possible.1
When observing impatience, it can sometimes appear almost viral in its occurrence and frequency. Obstacles (mainly us, the non-impatient people), regardless of the circumstance i.e. difficult traffic situations, or, long lines of people waiting for some service to be performed, become the objects of their outrage. The lengthier the delay or the more frustrating the “obstacle” becomes, the angrier, more frustrated and aggressive the impatient ones become. Sometimes they attack each other but mostly their rage is focused on the innocent obstacles.
So, it takes a great deal of patience and maturity to attempt
to ignore the impatient ones and their foolishness. Short of a life-threatening situation, how
important can the goal be relative to treating everyone around you (the “obstacles”)
as sub-human.
So, how many American citizens expect our leaders to be
perfect? There are many with palpable
zeal. A visceral desire for their chosen
one to be pure and flawless in every way.
The proverbial blind eye squeezes out the few perceived flaws as
unimportant to the mission.
Rule#1: My chosen
leader is perfect.
Rule#2: If imperfections are found, refer to rule#1.
Thus, any material flaws are cast aside as lies and innuendo.
The fact is they are ALL flawed. Their humanity virtually guarantees it. Equally obvious, some have had greater flaws
then others. Crystal clear flaws like the willingness to engage in illegal
conduct. President Nixon comes to mind
but there have been others.
Then there are the gray matters. Conduct unbecoming an elected official that doesn’t quite cross the line, or, when it does cross the line, the cover up is successful. Nothing fires-up social media and the mainstream media more. All of this wide-open protestation of love, of hate and of angst plastered everywhere you look, its all a fairly recent phenomenon. This is basically all since the John F. Kennedy administration. For JFK, and those earlier presidencies as well as those in positions of power almost anywhere, the press had taken the high road especially when the offense was more personal in nature, like infidelity.
Going back a hundred plus years before Nixon to the times of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Stephen Douglas, they all had their flaws or weaknesses. Lincoln was probably the closest to freedom from major flaws. His wit, intellect, deft political skill and grasp on the meaning of humanity crafted him into a leader any nation would rise up to exult. Certainly among the greatest if not the greatest political leader in modern history. Sherman, one the fiercest and most brutal warrior leaders of his time, was actually a bit of a pacifist. Yet he spent his entire career in the military. Grant, the brilliant military architect of Civil War victory for the Unionists, should have taken the Sherman route on politics exemplified by Sherman’s famous quote “if nominated I will not run and if elected I will not serve”. Grant’s time as president was not a happy one for him nor the nation. Douglas chose to become a politician in the northern free state of Illinois, even though he owned a plantation with many slaves in Mississippi. Regardless, he chose to run for the Illinois United States Senate seat against Lincoln in 1858 and won. Well, Illinois Senators are chosen by the General Assembly and Mr. Douglas’ party won the majority in the General Assembly in 1858. In 1860 Lincoln won the presidential election against a four-man field that included Stephen Douglas. 1n 1864 Lincoln defeated former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 221-21 electoral votes. Although there was worry at the White House that Lincoln’s actions, of continuing to fully prosecute the war and refusing to accept compromise, would lead to his defeat, he won a landslide victory. Many historians would agree that William Tecumseh Sherman’s victory in the siege of Atlanta in the Fall of 1864 sealed successful re-election for Lincoln.
With the possible exception of Douglas, none of these
leaders seemed to have much difficulty delineating between right and
wrong. They chose a righteous path; even
if some of those around them did not.
Not so different from our current lot of politicians. During those intervening one hundred years
only two presidents deserve greatness ascribed to them, FDR and Ronald
Reagan. Both war time presidents not
surprisingly (FDR for our greatest war time victory in WWII and Reagan for the
Cold War victory he won without a shot fired).
So, is our expectation that our leaders will strive with every
cell in their being to be perfect expecting too much? Are these expectations unrealistic for our
church leaders, the school principal or the chief of police? Sadly, we are more likely to experience painful
disappointment when church, school or police officials fail our expectations
then when we learn of presidential failings (or those of presidential
candidates). Are there degrees of failure
or disappointment? Is the line they must
cross, to go from support to abandonment, the same for all? By design these are all decisions we alone must
make in declaring our support for specific leaders. Our founding fathers knew quite well these
decisions would be difficult and burdened with abundant complexity. The absolute brilliance of the design is that
each American citizen has the opportunity, the right, to make that choice
regardless of perceived flaws.
There is of course then, “my flawed leaders is less flawed
then yours”. Or, your leader’s flaws are
ghastlier and more repugnant then those you accuse my leader of possessing. The old “throw out all the bums…except my
bum”.
So, what if we suddenly became as tolerant of the failings of our leaders as we are of our brother or brother-in-law? Or even our spouse or our children? What if we focused our entire attention to strictly policy differences? Would that even work? There are many who believe we should try. The question then becomes can we collectively look beyond characteristics like religious affiliation, marital fidelity, or even ethic origin? Others believe that society is so fragmented that this sort of altruism is virtually impossible save but by a few. The altruistic among us represent so few in number as to be statistically meaningless.
How sad are we? That
we first look for the worst in others.
How sad are we that our friends, family and colleagues, who, in every
day circumstances lead with kindness, become ferocious beasts when anything
negative is said about a politician they support. Their ears close and their fangs lengthen hungry
for blood.
Unfortunately, this disease-like state has spread to those with
whom we held final hope for a bit of altruism and compromise. That four years
is not too long to do nothing waiting for that next opportunity when all the
political stars align once again and the need for compromise has passed. That the political hopes and desires of half
the populous can be crushed with domination.
How sad are we.
Finally, finally, a sliver of a ray of light from above for
the Catholic Church. The Church is considering,
considering, allowing married men to receive “priestly ordination” in the
remotest regions of the Amazon river.
Some would call this astonishingly progressive. Some would call it a crack in the proverbial
wall of “the gift of celibacy”. So which
is it? Is it the Church taking priestly ordination
of married men “for a test drive”? Or is
it the course of last resort for the Church having exhausted all other possible
sources of priests who could function at a minimally acceptable level in this
one of the remotest regions in the world?
It appears quite likely that it could be both.
Aside from the challenges the Church faced in the early
centuries of its existence, the current crisis centers around unthinkable acts
by priests. This, combined with a severe
shortage of priests, is shaking this religious juggernaut from its parishioner core
to its leadership in the Vatican. The crisis
reverberations, mostly surrounding the priest as a sexual predator, are causing
geological fault lines between the Church and many of the Catholic faithful. Evidence suggests that even some of the most
fervent supporters, given the apparently lack of effective and widespread
action by Church leadership, are allowing these seismic schisms to fully
separate them from any church related activity.
With their faith completely shaken, they are also closing their pocketbooks
effectively creating a third crisis. The army of God is having its supply lines
so effectively reduced as to create new struggles for the Church in its fight against
evil.
Not to suggest that Catholics, or even Christianity, represent the entirety of the legions of God. It is striking to anyone who takes a moment to ponder it, that virtually all “religions” worship a supreme being. It’s truly remarkable that these God-centered religious factions have occurred spontaneously around the world in some cases independent of one another.
Some have stated that these religions are artifacts of a
time when science could not explain certain phenomena. These phenomena were then attributed to the
work of a God. A notion the people could
comprehend. A notion that gave rise to
God worship in the hope that these actions would bring God’s favor to
them. The fearing and worshiping of a God
removed the fear of a chaotic world where actions beyond one’s control were perceived
as completely arbitrary.
For many Catholics, who choose to think more logically about why the Church is good for the people and what the Church must do to remain relevant in a modern world, tough choices must be made quickly. Especially in a world where everything finds its way to the web instantly.
Married men are not free of sin, nor are celibate priests, so the time has come to set aside “the gift of celibacy”. The Church should ordain married men, shed the Church of the predators, and you solve two enormous obstacles to the long-term success. Then, and only then, can the process of healing the deep, hideous wounds begin in earnest.
Obviously much easier said than done. Yet time is of the essence. The Catholic Church is on course to lose
almost an entire generation, possibly two or more, of parishioners. Often change within the Church doctrine or
dogma has taken decades. The Church must
move much more quickly. Otherwise the number
of engaged parishioners will shrink, the treasury will shrink, and the Church’s
relevance will diminish.
This would not be a good thing for the world. If you believe evil exists, and we see evidence of it every day in a world of global instant communication, then religions that promote Judeo-Christian like principals of peace, love, charity, family must be preserved to combat theses forces. The Catholic Church has done so much good in this world over two millennia. Its charitable acts around the world, with ministries like free or low cost healthcare, are remarkable. The Catholic Church has erred egregiously for centuries perpetuating this notion of “the gift of celibacy”. It may yet be the source of its downfall.
Many who know more about the generation that gave birth to
the “Baby Boomers” will call them “The Greatest Generation”. The generation that survived the Great Depression,
that won World War II and enabled this country to emerge on the global stage as
the greatest nation on earth. These are,
in fact, undeniable accomplishments of that “Greatest Generation”.
No amount of words can fairly represent the many unspeakable
sacrifices willingly endured by this generation of Americans during World War
II. The debt owed to them by all Americans, and the world, for our freedom from
oppression is incalculable. And because
it deserves to be said one more time, the accomplishments of this generation of
heroes evokes only one description, The Greatest!
We, in the Baby Boomers, are so incredibly proud of our
fathers and mothers and uncles and their friends and relatives, many who are
the descendants of immigrants who came here to be a part of this miracle of
American democracy and capitalism. They
built and manufactured and governed with the single-minded goal of being a part
of the American dream. And they were
incredibly successful.
The enormity of the pressure that success put on the Boomers
was expressed in more than the usual ways.
The sixties and its counterculture revolution were a huge expression of
pressure avoidance. Although many, many Boomers chose the traditional path, and
quite successfully took the proverbial baton, the war in Viet Nam and how it
was portrayed in the media, led many to an alternate path.
For many of us this war, the war in Viet Nam, was a very
different and multi-faceted experience compared to WWII. No one should diminish the sacrifices made in
the name of freedom during the war in Viet Nam.
And although many, God bless them, chose to volunteer for military duty,
many more, because of how the war was portrayed, took our chances with the
selective service draft. And there were
a significant number, because of the attitudes about the war, that attempted to
evade the draft and military service by moving to Canada or elsewhere. Those of us that “lucked out” with the draft
system, we were able to carry on with our own chosen path be it college, a
trade, full time work of some kind, or, to just “drop out” and drift with the
winds of the counterculture movement.
When we look back at the sixties and seventies, we Boomers are
old enough to have enjoyed those times and look back with a big smile. Those were absolutely the coolest times ever. Saying societal norms experienced a significant
loosening would be an understatement.
The music of the sixties was by far the greatest musical
decade. The list of world-class, genre-creating artists is enormous! Here are just some of them.
Aretha Franklin
The Beatles
The Dave Clark Five
The Buckinghams
The Chi-lites
The Rolling Stones
Dusty Springfield
The Four Seasons
The Four Tops
Gary Puckett & the Union Gap
The Guess Who
The Ojays
Jay & the Americans
Little Anthony & the Imperials
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas
Marvin Gaye
Tommy James & the Shondells
The Zombies
The Young Rascals
The Beach Boys
The Ronettes
Barbara Lewis
The Supremes
The Righteous Brothers
The Del-Vikings
The Grass Roots
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
The Vogues
Jimi Hendricks
Dionne Warwick
The Temptations
Fats Domino
Strawberry Alarm Clock
The Doors
Creedance Clearwater Revival
The Hollies
The Drifters
Joan Baez
Blood Seat & Tears
The Isley Brothers
The Mamas & the Papas
Ike & Tina Turner
Buffalo Springfield
The Animals
Stevie Wonder
Neil Diamond
The Yardbirds
Grateful Dead
Jefferson Airplane
Pink Floyd
The Moody Blues
Van Morrison
The Band
Crosby, Stills & Nash
B.B. King
Janis Joplin
The Miracles
Roy Orbison
Simon & Garfunkel
The Kinks
The Byrds
Cream
Led Zeppelin
Sam Cooke
Elvis Presley
James Brown
The Who
Ray Charles
Bob Dylan
Sly & the Family Stone
The Velvet Underground
Jefferson Airplane
Chuck Berry
Wilson Pickett
The Monkees
Herman’s Hermits
The Lovin’ Spoonful
Jackie Wilson
Traffic
Dion
Donovan
Joni Mitchell
David Bowie
Otis Redding
Johnny Rivers
Petula Clark
Peter & Gordon
Jan & Dean
Gladys Knight & the Pips
The Drifters
There are many more wonderful artists of the sixties, and,
frankly, the early seventies, not mentioned here. This list is an assemblage of the greatest
icons in modern musical history. Although
this was not intended to be an all-inclusive list, it is a demonstration of the
marvelous strength of the creativity and virtuosity of so many artists in a
single decade. Unquestionably
unsurpassed!
The impact these artists had on a generation, a culture, a
nation was the most profound in the history of any nation. Never have musical artists had such an impact
on the style, language, the fashion, and lifestyle of an entire generation as
the artists of the sixties have had on the Boomers. From the early 60s rock and R&B through
to the culmination of its affect in the 1969 event heard around the world,
Woodstock.
And not just in the United States. So Many artists from the United Kingdom, that
honed their craft across Europe, often used the music created by American Blues
artists as a creative platform for their inspiration. With great triumph in Europe, they brought
their brand of Rock’n Roll to the U.S. to smashing success with this new generation
ready for this new messaging and new freedoms of expression. As much of this new music emanated from
nightclubs across Europe, much of the influence on style and fashion in the
sixties and early seventies also emanated from Europe in places like London’s Carnaby
Street.
Here in the U.S., one geographic location represented the cultural
and generational attitudes more than any other; the Haight-Ashbury district in
the City of San Francisco. This bohemian community, populated early in
the sixties by the so-called Beat Movement, became the cultural high ground of the
counterculture movement dubbed “Hippies” for their clear turn away from
tradition in attitude, lifestyle, fashion and even language.
The War in Viet Nam was a potent ingredient in this sixty’s cultural
cauldron as the anti-war activists were a glove fit to the themes adopted by
the counterculture movement. Peace, free
love, the brotherhood of man populated the banners and placards carried by
anti-war protestors. The country was in
crisis.
Despite this turmoil and political strife, the peace and free
love generation had a hell of a lot of fun in the sixties and seventies before,
for the most part, settling down and pursuing a more traditional American
lifestyle. For the coolest generation, the sixties and
the seventies represented extended “recess” in a giant American playground. Some had jobs, some began careers, some just chose
to turn on, tune out, and stayed out for decades. A luxury afforded to them by the changes in
American society and success of the American economy.
But for most of the Boomers, a more traditional way of life eventually
called. Those of us who decided they
wanted a family of our own, to own a home, raise children well and send them to
college, knew this required a regular, substantial income. Time to put away childish things and don the
harness. There were many Boomers who
never strayed from the traditional path, but, for us late bloomer Boomers, the
opportunity was there to have that life.
Hard work; LOTS of hard work lay ahead, and it was all worth it.
The Richmond Virginia community has so much to
celebrate. The Richmond Times Dispatch
(RTD) exclaimed, in a January 16, 2019 editorial titled “We’re No. 100”, the
many virtues of our city. “In 2017
Richmond was ranked as one of the nation’s top five hipster paradises. Ultra-artsy VCU, the Fan district, plentiful
(widely celebrated) restaurants, and great breweries all helped to make
Richmond one of America’s hippest cities, according to rankings by MovieHub. The plentiful thrifts shops, tattoo parlors and
vegan options throughout the area also helped win us that ranking on the ‘US
Hipster Index’. “
“In 2018, Forbes magazine named RVA one of the country’s top
10 coolest cities. Once again, some of
the reasons for that ranking included the vibrant craft beer scene and the multitude
of great places to eat.”
“Also in 2018, a travel-guide book publisher, rated River
City as one of the top 10 ‘underrated, rejuvenated and out-of-this-world’
places to visit. The company said it traveled
around the globe to find the world’s best cities. Again, Richmond made this list in part because
of its ‘microbreweries, cideries, and buzzworthy restaurant’.”
In another exclamation of the City’s virtues, RTD’s May 14,
2019 story about a start-up credit card company (Petal) choosing RVA (in this
case selecting a location in Chesterfield county) over Austin Texas and Salt Lake
City Utah. Petal, choosing RVA to locate
its first offices outside NYC and committing to hire 80 people over the next
three years, said this. “We chose Richmond after looking at a number of other
locations around the country.” “We
looked at the depth and richness of the labor pool, affordability of living and
the proximity of colleges.” Also stating
“Richmond was an easy choice….and it is a very livable city”.
These accolades only scratch the surface of what makes our
community great with wonderful architecture, history, museums and natural resources
galore. This list of the area’s riches can go on and on. So what is holding this obviously very
attractive community back from greatness?
City government is at the core of the remaining detractors facing
this community. The city’s inability to
effectively and efficiently govern are the hands pulling back the reins on a
galloping city appearing destined for greatness.
The city’s schools are a continuing embarrassment with a majority of schools failing to be accredited and a majority of third graders unable to read at grade level. Crumbling roads and bridges cast a pall on the city’s appearance and resident safety. City leaders appear unable to restrain cost while consistently seeking additional sources of revenue. Yet, reaching many important goals remain elusive year after year.
Its elected governing body, the City Council, is under constant pressure to address rising cost while attempting to protect its citizens from the burden of new requests for additional tax revenue. All while the city’s schools and infrastructure crumble beneath them.
To achieve the greatness this city has strived for, city
leadership must find the strength and wisdom necessary to dig deeply into the
core issues of effectiveness and efficiency.
They must face the final obstacles to greatness and transform agencies
of city government into the paragons of cost management and service delivery so
often found in surrounding local government, as well as the private sector, right
here in our community.
In fact, if our Commonwealth’s own Joint Legislative Audit
and Review Committee’s (JLARC) charter could be altered to include exercising
its powers on behalf of City Council, for say a single biennium, then possibly
much good could be accomplished. JLARC
is credited with assisting the Commonwealth in its recognition for being among
the most well-run states in the union.
Having personally observed JLARC in action, the city would be well
served to have this level of independent review by such a prestigious body.
For many years Richmond has been regarded as a poorly
managed city. All of Richmond’s
citizens, and those of the affected surrounding communities, deserve better.
Who wouldn’t want a cushy life? This is not a description of the life of the rich
and famous, cushy as it may appear. That life is one you are born into, or,
having the ability (as well as the grit and good fortune) to turn a bit of brilliance
into the American dream. No, this is not
about that.
This is more about that other American dream. The one where you work hard. Not just at your job but the harder work of
making a better life. It starts early in
life with good parental guidance. Working
hard at school to have a shot. Working hard
on becoming a better person. Working hard,
really hard, on life skills to give yourself the tiniest of openings.
And let’s say you, with great tenacity and decent intellect,
manage to squeeze through that crack. Well
that’s not the end, its just the beginning!
Even with a decent start, and an amazing spouse/life partner by your
side, the slaps in the face and the gut punches just keep coming. The tests of your character, intestinal fortitude,
integrity, physical stamina and intelligence are one tsunami after another the
rest of the way……..until your eyes close for the last time.
In this following excerpt of the script from the television
series “Deadwood” Season 2 episode 19, one of these tsunami-like challenges has
come the way of the owner of the camp’s newspaper The Pioneer. In raw, Americana
Shakespearean prose the last paragraph crystalizes this notion most succinctly.
(Early morning at the
camp, we see Al open a door…)
Al: Did you know this fucking walkway
connected us?
Merrick: (Sitting below, at his desk at the Pioneer) Several
of your patrons, in different stages of undress, have illuminated me.
Al: (Closes door) What happened there? (Walks downstairs)
Merrick: Not only was my press disabled, but my office was ransacked
and feces mounded in the corner. A
message of objection to my handling of Yankton’s notice on the claims.
Al: Posting
rather than publishing, huh?
Merrick: The camp’s new school teacher, a lovely woman, was so
traumatized by what happened that she left!
Al: Cy
Tolliver.
Merrick: Who didn’t even trouble, when confronted, to deny it.
Al: (Sits, lets out a sigh) Why ain’t you up
and running again?
Merrick: I’m in despair. The
physical damage is repairable, but the psychic wound may be permanent.
Al: (Leans forward, concern on his face.) You
ever been beaten, Merrick?
Merrick: (Rolls his eyes) Once,
when I thought I had the smallpox, Doc Cochran slapped me in the face. (Al slaps him quickly) Ah! (He stares at Al, touching his cheek – he
leans forward) Stop it, Al.
Al: Are
you dead?
Merrick: Well, (touches cheek) I’m
in pain, but no, I’m obviously not dead.
Al: And
obviously you didn’t fucking die when the Doc slapped you.
Merrick: No.
Al: So
including last night, that’s three fucking damage incidents that didn’t kill
you. Pain or damage don’t end the world,
or despair or fuckin’ beatin’s. The
world ends when you’re dead. Until then,
you got more punishment in store. Stand
it like a man—and give some back.1
Besides the brilliance of the writing, acting and production
design of Deadwood, it brings a wide-eyed, lucid parable to the screen about
truth. Deadwood is both a wistful window
and a harsh portrait that Shakespeare would find admirable. Its most prophetic message
is about the truth. The truth that “free”
is more than a myth, it’s a dangerous lie of evil origin. Only hard work, risk-taking (amid many imminent
potentially “deadly” dangers), some good fortune, an ability to ride the many
ups-and-downs, and an impenetrable resolve to succeed brings the mere
possibility of survival and a good life.
Anyone……anyone…..politician, parent, professor, priest, rabbi, Imam, et al, who promises anything but a life mostly filled with struggle, especially in America (despite the delusional impression widely held outside this country, “easy street” it aint), is betraying whatever trust may exist with the person at hand. Preparation for that struggle, physically, psychologically, educationally only affords you a shot at squeezing through that crack. Then its all uphill from there……
The Willow 