I am not the most social person. I have a tendency to sneak out of parties when no one is looking. I struggle with what to say particularly if I am sober and surrounded by people I don't know. Nowadays, it is worse than ever. There are so many words I can't say anymore. I have to scan the room to figure out which ones are off limits. My vocabulary depends largely on the race, age and gender of the crowd. The C word is out, N word is out, F word is out. Not that I want to use these words, but hey, I'd like the option of choosing my own words. I've been doing so since I was a child and I am good at it. And if I wanted to talk about these words, perhaps about their histories or if I quoted someone that actually used these words ... no, not even that is allowed. I used to enjoy my freedom of speech.
I can't use the R word, especially if there are any mentally challenge people around. Context doesn't matter. If I were to say to someone that "the growth of the economy has been retarded by foreign imports" ... I am fairly certain I would get dirty looks. I said the R word and that's all that matters. I must be the scum of the Earth.
I have a friend that hates the word "sucks" which really sucks for me because I love this word. Before I talk, I have to make sure she is not around, because I don't want to deal with that. Believe me, I am so afraid to say the wrong word, I feel like I need to bring a checklist with me when I leave the house. I'd call "sucks" the S word, but I hear that there already is an S word and that it is really stupid.
Now I just learned that I cannot say the word "bossy." It is banned. Specifically, you can't call little girls the B word. Not that B word! Okay, I guess we can't say either of them to little girls. What if I want to read Bossy Pants to a little girl? Okay, not a good idea either. I don't think I have ever called a little girl bossy, but I hear it is common in school. Girls get called "bossy" when they are being assertive. Boys get called "aggressive" or "bullies," apparently that is okay. No need to ban those.
The fear is that we are squashing assertiveness in girls, while boys have a lot of other venues to promote assertiveness. Our double standards hold girls down. Promoting assertiveness in girls is a good goal. I have no issues with that. I am not sure banning the word "bossy" will do much for this. The attitude needs to change, not our vocabularies. People will just use another word. If banning the word changes the attitude that girls shouldn't be assertive, I'm all for it but I seriously doubt if it will do that. All banning words does is shut down discourse. It is better to say nothing at all for fear of social isolation. A person can't be shunned for saying nothing, right?
For one, the behavior that produces the "bossy" comments is not assertiveness. The best bosses I have had (both male and female) were not bossy but were assertive. They were diplomatic. Bossiness is not good behavior. Assertiveness yes, bossiness no. So if people are using the word "bossy" when a girl is being assertive that is bad. So don't ban the word, just use a more positive word to promote assertiveness. But if a little girl is being bossy, (aka a jerk, aggressive or a bully) but all means use it. Use these other words as well. If you ban "bossy" what are you going to say to her instead? Just let her be bossy. If a boy does this behavior, we have a ton of words to stop him. Apparently, we have one for girls. Shouldn't we be more concerned that people aren't treating them the same. Instead of banning a word, shouldn't we be promoting equal treatment. Shouldn't we be calling boys "bossy" when they are being bossy and call girls "aggressive" when they are being aggressive?
Another approach would be to turn it around to something positive. When I was a kid being called a "nerd" or "geek" wasn't a compliment. You were considered a weirdo that couldn't get dates and probably read a lot of science fiction. You were on A.V. Club, the Chess club and played Dungeons and Dragons. After years of seeing "nerds" and "geeks" taking over the world ... suddenly, it is not so bad to be called these words. It has become a badge of honor. Instead of preventing people from using a word ... take it back. "You are bossy, girl!"
The one good thing that Ban Bossy movement has done is that it has gotten people to talk about the double standards on how we treat boys and girls. Their web site has a lot of good suggestions on promoting assertiveness for girls that have nothing to do with this word. Also, the Girl Scouts have been doing this sort of stuff for years. A lot of them are really awesome. Not sure why banning another word has become a thing. But hey, if it is easier for you take away another word from my vocabulary, I guess I will have to deal with it. Pile it on. I will walk around in a state of complete anxiety fearing the use of the wrong word. It will be another reason not to reach out to people for random conversations. The more you attempt to homogenize a diverse world, the less we will mix.
I am slowly becoming less upset with other people choosing my words for me. I am starting to feel liberated. With other people choosing my words, I have no responsibility for what I say anymore. That means eventually I will be able to say anything and I am not to blame, the crowd is.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Perfection is the Enemy of Progress
Joseph Grand is a character in Albert Camus's great novel, The Plague. He is a minor character but is perhaps the most profound. Grand is a city clerk but in his spare time, he claims to be a writer. He is writing a novel but is stuck on the first sentence because he wants it be perfect. So much so that he spends a week deciding which conjunction to use. Finally, midway through The Plague, he reveals his sentence and it doesn't even have a conjunction:
Completion is a difficult thing for an artist. When I was younger, I lingered on poems and pieces of fiction leaning on the trope "nothing is ever complete." They hung around on my hard drive for years being "perfected." When I read this Camus book, perhaps twenty years ago, I recognized this for what it was. I believe it helped me get over this. Perfection indeed is the enemy of progress. We need to move on. Perfection will never happened. I have heard interviews with creative people like Woody Allen and musician Joe Jackson where they say, they can't even look at or listen to their old work. All they see it the imperfections. I am grateful that neither one of them had Grand's problem for the world would be lacking.
Larry Heinemann, one of my writing teachers, used to say "edit is where the money is." His approach is to overwrite to get your manuscript done and then fix it while editing ... then edit .... then edit. When he wrote his most famous novel, Paco's Story, he was stuck on a plot point where Paco was reading a female character's diary and didn't know where to go with it. To solve this he wrote the entire diary as a separate project just to get into the head of the character. He was then able to get over the hump of the novel. He only included a few lines from the diary in the novel ... hence overwrite and edit.
It seems that the axiom of "Perfection is the Enemy of Progress" works not only in writing but with the rest of life as well. As a software engineer I understand that I should be aiming for perfection, I turn projects over to testers and hope they catch any mistakes I made in coding. It is a humbling process. But I also understand, that there is no such thing as bug free software. If I were to wait for perfection, nothing would ever get completed and turned over to the users of the software. It seems that this could be applied to anything like social movements, government, household planning, etc. A few years ago, the US government rolled out a huge healthcare bill that was by no means perfect. The web site didn't even work and it wasn't even funded. I am not talking about The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) but of Medicare Part D which was rolled out in January 2006 under President George W. Bush. Its roll out was just as bad, full of imperfections that was eventually fixed and people seem happy with it now. The difference of course is that Bush didn't budget for it and it only affected senior citizens. Not sure why the talking heads on Fox News didn't freak about it and call it Socialism ... oh wait. ... I do know why... it was rolled out by a Republican white guy. I realize that neither of these programs was even close to perfection when they rolled them out but at a certain point, especially in government, you got to say "this is done" and "I will fix it on the back end" which is what I am going to do now with this blog post.
"One fine morning in the month of May an elegant young horsewoman might have been riding a handsome sorrel mare along the flowery avenues of the Bois de Boulogne."By the end of the novel he is nowhere closer to finishing the novel. His only achievement is 50 pages comprised of variations of this "horsewoman" sentence.
Completion is a difficult thing for an artist. When I was younger, I lingered on poems and pieces of fiction leaning on the trope "nothing is ever complete." They hung around on my hard drive for years being "perfected." When I read this Camus book, perhaps twenty years ago, I recognized this for what it was. I believe it helped me get over this. Perfection indeed is the enemy of progress. We need to move on. Perfection will never happened. I have heard interviews with creative people like Woody Allen and musician Joe Jackson where they say, they can't even look at or listen to their old work. All they see it the imperfections. I am grateful that neither one of them had Grand's problem for the world would be lacking.
Larry Heinemann, one of my writing teachers, used to say "edit is where the money is." His approach is to overwrite to get your manuscript done and then fix it while editing ... then edit .... then edit. When he wrote his most famous novel, Paco's Story, he was stuck on a plot point where Paco was reading a female character's diary and didn't know where to go with it. To solve this he wrote the entire diary as a separate project just to get into the head of the character. He was then able to get over the hump of the novel. He only included a few lines from the diary in the novel ... hence overwrite and edit.
It seems that the axiom of "Perfection is the Enemy of Progress" works not only in writing but with the rest of life as well. As a software engineer I understand that I should be aiming for perfection, I turn projects over to testers and hope they catch any mistakes I made in coding. It is a humbling process. But I also understand, that there is no such thing as bug free software. If I were to wait for perfection, nothing would ever get completed and turned over to the users of the software. It seems that this could be applied to anything like social movements, government, household planning, etc. A few years ago, the US government rolled out a huge healthcare bill that was by no means perfect. The web site didn't even work and it wasn't even funded. I am not talking about The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) but of Medicare Part D which was rolled out in January 2006 under President George W. Bush. Its roll out was just as bad, full of imperfections that was eventually fixed and people seem happy with it now. The difference of course is that Bush didn't budget for it and it only affected senior citizens. Not sure why the talking heads on Fox News didn't freak about it and call it Socialism ... oh wait. ... I do know why... it was rolled out by a Republican white guy. I realize that neither of these programs was even close to perfection when they rolled them out but at a certain point, especially in government, you got to say "this is done" and "I will fix it on the back end" which is what I am going to do now with this blog post.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Road Tripping to Georgia
The winters in Vermont are harsh. Not only are they very cold, windy and full of snow, but they are dark. The days are short and cloudy. Other than the Great Northwest, the Champlain Valley area where I live, is the most cloudy area in the United States. Because of this, I try to get away each year to some place sunny and warm. Last year we visited Hawaii, but I can't always afford such a large trip. I also like to drive during these vacations so that I can take my dogs. The Georgia coast is one of our favorite destinations, it is usually warm but lacks the traffic, attitude and general craziness of Florida. It is also very dog friendly. My dogs are geriatric now so I don't like to leave them with a sitter.
The route we take from our home in Vermont is not a direct one. Some huge cities stand between us and Tybee Island. We have found a great route that avoids New York City, all of New Jersey and Philadelphia. It may add a couple hours to the trip, but considering the congestion in these areas, maybe not. Also, when we stop half way, the lodging is much cheaper in Hazelton Pennsylvania than anywhere off the Jersey Pike. This year's trip was similar to others. It takes a long time to get to the New York interstates from our home because not only are there no east/west interstates in northern New England but there is a huge lake, Champlain, in our way. We like to take the ferry over the lake but in February or March, the lake is frozen so this is not an option. We have to take a bridge which is a longer drive and not as fun. It takes about three hours of small highways to get to interstate 87. For this, good weather is essential because about half of this is driving through the Adirondack Mountains. It is lovely but treacherous in bad weather.
New York: We take 87 south to the Albany area where we connect with Interstate 90 for about eight miles to Interstate 88 southwest down to Binghamton which is near the Pennsylvania border. NY interstates are usually fairly bumpy, one lanes always rumbles more than another. This year it was worse than ever. I am guessing there are some fiscal problems in NY State because we noticed a lot of other problems with the Interstate. The reflectors on the road signs weren't there half the time making them difficult to read in the evening. Also, most of the rest rooms at the rest areas were closed. I think we noticed one rest area that had working rest rooms. On 87, I couldn't wait, so I went behind one of the buildings (one of the advantages of being male). Apparently, I wasn't alone because it smelled of urine and I noticed a small amount of toilet paper on the ground as well. This was gross and unsanitary. Traveling through NY state is usually much more pleasant.
Pennsylvania: At Binghamton NY, we changed to Interstate 81 and headed southeast shortly crossing the PA border north of Scranton. On 81, in between Wilkes-Barre and the state capital Harrisburg, we found a dog friendly Best Western motel that had reasonable rates. We stayed there on both legs of our trip. In Harrisburg, we headed south through York into Maryland. My complaint about PA is always the same. The amount of billboards in this state is atrocious. I have a headache after driving through it. Perhaps my perception is jilted by the fact that I live in a state without billboards. It is too bad because this is a beautiful state. They don't show it off opting to cover it in advertising. Usually, I can't wait to get out of there. This trip was no exception.
Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina: These states do seem to have their act together, at least when it comes to their interstates. Other than the traffic on the beltway around DC, it would be flawless. I don't know how people live with this kind of traffic. On the way home it was around 6pm on a Saturday, bumper to bumper traffic ... no accident causing it, no bad weather, just too many people on the road. If you don't think there are too many people on this planet, take a drive through a major city on a Saturday night some day. You might change your mind. I can understand traffic jams during rush hour on a weekday, but Saturdays! That shouldn't be happening. We need to find a route around DC that doesn't involve the beltway. After the beltway, we took Interstate 95 south for several hours.
South Carolina: Like NC, SC is gorgeous. That is until you get off the Interstate. Our route took us to one of the last exits on 95. The litter in rural SC is horrendous. The gutters along the roads are like mini-land fills. I don't think I have ever seen litter like this in a rural area before. My experience is not good in SC. I spent a week in Myrtle Beach once which I didn't like at all. Conservation doesn't seem to be a thing in SC. Every mile or so of Myrtle Beach was a new mini-golf cluttered near t-shirt shops and crap stores. They even charged a dollar to walk on the boardwalk. The problem with the litter seemed to go away once we crossed the line into Georgia which is near a fairly large city, Savannah. So you would expect the litter to be worse there but this is not so. SC won't be getting any more of my tourist dollars if I can help it.
Georgia: We stayed on Tybee Island which is a short drive from Savannah. It used to be named Savannah Beach which is what it actually is. There is not much on the island other than a bunch of homes, a few restaurants and three beaches. It is a lovely place. Unfortunately, we had only a day and half of good weather. It was sunny Sunday and the morning of Monday with 70 degree F until the rain came. Then the temperature dropped into the 40's. It was still about 30 degrees warmer than home but it still wasn't pleasant. We rented a home from the Homeaway web site. The owner, Mark, has five bulldogs so he lets vacationers take their dogs. This place was perfect for us. It was a short walk to the beach and to a great breakfast place, the Breakfast Club, that is owned by Cubs fans. We ate there three times playing cribbage and tanking up on a lot of coffee. What is nice about renting the home, rather than a room, is that it comes with a kitchen with everything you would need to cook. We shopped at Whole Foods and stocked the kitchen for the week. This kept financing of our vacation down.
Savannah is a lovely city. Due to the bad weather, we spent more time in the city than we had planned. We did several walking tours around town. We did some shopping, took in a movie and visited some historic sites. The Spanish moss working in tandem with the Southern architecture makes for a gorgeous walk. People are friendly and very accepting of dogs. You see dog bowls on the sidewalks in front of businesses and you are allowed to bring your dog into many of them. This is why we pick Georgia when we go south. I was in a personal quandary about visiting Georgia this year because of the anti-gay discrimination bill that they were considering. Luckily they came to their senses and have tabled the bill so we didn't have to reschedule our visit. I am not gay. I just don't want to support anywhere that discriminates against their citizens ... particularly if they do so for religious reasons.
Obviously we would have preferred good weather. Here are two surprises that we found that we enjoyed very much that we may not have discovered if not for the rain:
The Wormsloe Historic Site was a surprise. We were just looking for a nice place to walk during a cold and breezy day with a drizzle. The appeal of this walk were the oaks creating a blanket over the walkway which would be good cover on a rainy day. It is only eight miles outside of Savannah on the Isle of Hope.
It is an historic site of the second settlement in Georgia. It was the home of Noble Jones, who like Roger Williams, left the original settlement in bad terms. I plan to blog about him in the future. The grounds have the ruins of the original house's foundation as well as replicas of some of the original buildings. It is a nice spot to spend an afternoon.
The other pleasant surprise was the StopOver Music Festival in Savannah. The reason why it is called Stopover is because a lot of musicians stop in Savannah on their way to the more famous and larger South By Southwest Festival (aka SXSW) in Austin, TX. Savannah is at the intersection of Interstate 16 (that leads to Atlanta and connects with 20 West into Texas) and Interstate 95 (which leads down the entire east coast). It makes for a good stopover for any band on the east coast heading to Austin. While SXSW is 27 years old and isn't just for emerging artists anymore, Stopover is only four years old and has only lesser known artists.
We went Thursday night, the first band we saw was called Good Graeff and they were my favorite of the night. They are fronted by twins sisters from Sarasota FL, one on guitar and vocals, the other on cello and vocals. I've had never seen the cello rock before. I bought a CD and I am listening right now. I love it.
After them came, St. Paul and the Broken Bones from Birmingham, AL. They could really rock and the lead singer was quite a performer, but not quite as soulful as he seemed to think he was. He reminded me more of a Southern preacher than a rock and roll singer.
We walked across town to another venue and caught The Silver Palms. These guys are so young, I couldn't believe they were allowed in a bar. They hail from Camden, GA, but sounded like a New York band. They had a Velvet Underground or Feelies sound which I enjoyed very much.
Last up, before this old guy needed to get back to bed, was The Black Cadillacs, a damn good garage band from Knoxville TN. These guys were tight and they could jam.
We ended up leaving Georgia a day early. The weather report wasn't good for Friday but Saturday was beautiful, so we drove on the bad weather day. We visited Charlottesville VA to see Thomas Jefferson's Monticello which is again, a subject for another blog post because this one is getting too long.
We made it home on Sunday in time to see Cosmos.
The route we take from our home in Vermont is not a direct one. Some huge cities stand between us and Tybee Island. We have found a great route that avoids New York City, all of New Jersey and Philadelphia. It may add a couple hours to the trip, but considering the congestion in these areas, maybe not. Also, when we stop half way, the lodging is much cheaper in Hazelton Pennsylvania than anywhere off the Jersey Pike. This year's trip was similar to others. It takes a long time to get to the New York interstates from our home because not only are there no east/west interstates in northern New England but there is a huge lake, Champlain, in our way. We like to take the ferry over the lake but in February or March, the lake is frozen so this is not an option. We have to take a bridge which is a longer drive and not as fun. It takes about three hours of small highways to get to interstate 87. For this, good weather is essential because about half of this is driving through the Adirondack Mountains. It is lovely but treacherous in bad weather.
New York: We take 87 south to the Albany area where we connect with Interstate 90 for about eight miles to Interstate 88 southwest down to Binghamton which is near the Pennsylvania border. NY interstates are usually fairly bumpy, one lanes always rumbles more than another. This year it was worse than ever. I am guessing there are some fiscal problems in NY State because we noticed a lot of other problems with the Interstate. The reflectors on the road signs weren't there half the time making them difficult to read in the evening. Also, most of the rest rooms at the rest areas were closed. I think we noticed one rest area that had working rest rooms. On 87, I couldn't wait, so I went behind one of the buildings (one of the advantages of being male). Apparently, I wasn't alone because it smelled of urine and I noticed a small amount of toilet paper on the ground as well. This was gross and unsanitary. Traveling through NY state is usually much more pleasant.
Pennsylvania: At Binghamton NY, we changed to Interstate 81 and headed southeast shortly crossing the PA border north of Scranton. On 81, in between Wilkes-Barre and the state capital Harrisburg, we found a dog friendly Best Western motel that had reasonable rates. We stayed there on both legs of our trip. In Harrisburg, we headed south through York into Maryland. My complaint about PA is always the same. The amount of billboards in this state is atrocious. I have a headache after driving through it. Perhaps my perception is jilted by the fact that I live in a state without billboards. It is too bad because this is a beautiful state. They don't show it off opting to cover it in advertising. Usually, I can't wait to get out of there. This trip was no exception.
Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina: These states do seem to have their act together, at least when it comes to their interstates. Other than the traffic on the beltway around DC, it would be flawless. I don't know how people live with this kind of traffic. On the way home it was around 6pm on a Saturday, bumper to bumper traffic ... no accident causing it, no bad weather, just too many people on the road. If you don't think there are too many people on this planet, take a drive through a major city on a Saturday night some day. You might change your mind. I can understand traffic jams during rush hour on a weekday, but Saturdays! That shouldn't be happening. We need to find a route around DC that doesn't involve the beltway. After the beltway, we took Interstate 95 south for several hours.
South Carolina: Like NC, SC is gorgeous. That is until you get off the Interstate. Our route took us to one of the last exits on 95. The litter in rural SC is horrendous. The gutters along the roads are like mini-land fills. I don't think I have ever seen litter like this in a rural area before. My experience is not good in SC. I spent a week in Myrtle Beach once which I didn't like at all. Conservation doesn't seem to be a thing in SC. Every mile or so of Myrtle Beach was a new mini-golf cluttered near t-shirt shops and crap stores. They even charged a dollar to walk on the boardwalk. The problem with the litter seemed to go away once we crossed the line into Georgia which is near a fairly large city, Savannah. So you would expect the litter to be worse there but this is not so. SC won't be getting any more of my tourist dollars if I can help it.
Georgia: We stayed on Tybee Island which is a short drive from Savannah. It used to be named Savannah Beach which is what it actually is. There is not much on the island other than a bunch of homes, a few restaurants and three beaches. It is a lovely place. Unfortunately, we had only a day and half of good weather. It was sunny Sunday and the morning of Monday with 70 degree F until the rain came. Then the temperature dropped into the 40's. It was still about 30 degrees warmer than home but it still wasn't pleasant. We rented a home from the Homeaway web site. The owner, Mark, has five bulldogs so he lets vacationers take their dogs. This place was perfect for us. It was a short walk to the beach and to a great breakfast place, the Breakfast Club, that is owned by Cubs fans. We ate there three times playing cribbage and tanking up on a lot of coffee. What is nice about renting the home, rather than a room, is that it comes with a kitchen with everything you would need to cook. We shopped at Whole Foods and stocked the kitchen for the week. This kept financing of our vacation down.
Savannah is a lovely city. Due to the bad weather, we spent more time in the city than we had planned. We did several walking tours around town. We did some shopping, took in a movie and visited some historic sites. The Spanish moss working in tandem with the Southern architecture makes for a gorgeous walk. People are friendly and very accepting of dogs. You see dog bowls on the sidewalks in front of businesses and you are allowed to bring your dog into many of them. This is why we pick Georgia when we go south. I was in a personal quandary about visiting Georgia this year because of the anti-gay discrimination bill that they were considering. Luckily they came to their senses and have tabled the bill so we didn't have to reschedule our visit. I am not gay. I just don't want to support anywhere that discriminates against their citizens ... particularly if they do so for religious reasons.
Obviously we would have preferred good weather. Here are two surprises that we found that we enjoyed very much that we may not have discovered if not for the rain:
The Wormsloe Historic Site was a surprise. We were just looking for a nice place to walk during a cold and breezy day with a drizzle. The appeal of this walk were the oaks creating a blanket over the walkway which would be good cover on a rainy day. It is only eight miles outside of Savannah on the Isle of Hope.
The other pleasant surprise was the StopOver Music Festival in Savannah. The reason why it is called Stopover is because a lot of musicians stop in Savannah on their way to the more famous and larger South By Southwest Festival (aka SXSW) in Austin, TX. Savannah is at the intersection of Interstate 16 (that leads to Atlanta and connects with 20 West into Texas) and Interstate 95 (which leads down the entire east coast). It makes for a good stopover for any band on the east coast heading to Austin. While SXSW is 27 years old and isn't just for emerging artists anymore, Stopover is only four years old and has only lesser known artists.
We went Thursday night, the first band we saw was called Good Graeff and they were my favorite of the night. They are fronted by twins sisters from Sarasota FL, one on guitar and vocals, the other on cello and vocals. I've had never seen the cello rock before. I bought a CD and I am listening right now. I love it.
Last up, before this old guy needed to get back to bed, was The Black Cadillacs, a damn good garage band from Knoxville TN. These guys were tight and they could jam.
We ended up leaving Georgia a day early. The weather report wasn't good for Friday but Saturday was beautiful, so we drove on the bad weather day. We visited Charlottesville VA to see Thomas Jefferson's Monticello which is again, a subject for another blog post because this one is getting too long.
We made it home on Sunday in time to see Cosmos.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Roger Williams
As a native Rhode Islander, the name Roger Williams conjures up many images for me, most of them involving the park in Providence. Roger Williams Park is home to the zoo where my family went to visit at least once a summer when I was a kid. It is also a great place to bike or to have a barbecue or see an occasional concert. I have fond memories of it. He also lends his name to Roger Williams University with its beautiful 160 acre campus on Narragansett Bay in Bristol. Other than that, his name didn't mean much to me. I knew he founded Rhode Island under the auspice of religious tolerance after being thrown out of Massachusetts, but that is about it.
His big concern were the first four commandments, the ones dealing with God. They were a matter for the church and not for the state. These were sins not crimes. The church dealt with sin, the state dealt with crime. This is a radical idea, one that we would refer to these days as the separation of church and state. He pissed off so many people so they sent him packing. He went to Plymouth but apparently, they weren't as separatist as he thought they should be. He preached against corporeal punishment for non-believers and thought that their punishment would come after death in hell. He thought we should punish them by preaching and trying to convert them. I think this idea persists today. I can tell by observing the crazies that come to my door with a big black book in their hands and keep returning no matter how rude I am to them. Eh! I guess it beats corporal punishment. Thomas Jefferson became famous for this idea, but it probably came to him from the same source material as it did to Williams. One of Williams' mentors, Edward Coke, was one the most important English lawyer of his day and defender of the Magna Carta. Coke's legal textbook, Institute of the Lawes of England, was used for at least 100 years and read by a young Thomas Jefferson. While Jefferson believed that government needed to be protected from religion, Williams believed the opposite, religion needed to be protected from government.
Williams also believed that Plymouth colony was illegitimate because they didn't get the land deed from the Indians but from the King. He believed that England stole the land from the natives. This is widely believed today. I believe this. When he settled in Rhode Island, he befriended the natives and was one of the first Europeans to publish a translation of their language.
The state of Rhode Island was the first colony to declare its independence from England but the last of the original 13 to ratify the US Constitution, not because they were slow, but because they demanded a Bill of Rights. Even though this happened over 100 years after Williams was dead, his influence is all over this. They rejected the Constitution in 1788, only to ratify it in 1790, basically because they were threatened with being treated as a foreign government. It was ratified with a margin of two votes, the smallest margin of all the colonies.
I don't know how religious tolerant Rhode Island is today, but I know the United States is still one of the most (if not the most) religiously tolerant places on the planet. I know we are not perfect. Some times we look to Europe as examples of progressive thinking. But not on this issue. While France has a ban on burqas in public places and Switzerland has a ban on minarets on Mosques, we have nothing of the sort ... at least on the Federal level. It is difficult to know what Roger Williams would think of us if he magically appeared. Perhaps he'd be proud. Personally, I think he'd freaked out by car and planes but that is another story.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
The Almost Boycott of 1968 Olympics
As a student of history, I have to admit that I have been enjoying watching the television show Madmen not just for the drama but for the history. The attention to detail is impeccable. When they turn on their black and white television sets, with the rabbit ear antennae, that white dot slowly comes on the screen and takes a few seconds for the picture to appear. I love it. As I watch season six, with the storyline based in 1968 (one of the US's most turbulent years), I observe some the best television characters ever created reflect on their current events: assassinations, violence at the Democratic convention, the Vietnam war and pot smoking in the office. I was three years old when this unfolded, but I feel like I am sharing the experience now. If the novel is the great art form of the 20th Century, then surely television will be the 21st Century's. Don Draper is our Gatsby, as complex and as relevant our era as any Fitzgerald, Hemingway or Salinger character.
With the Winter Olympic in Sochi starting tomorrow, I have to wonder, will the events of 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City be mentioned on Madmen. Don't tell me, I plan to watch it as soon as my wife gets home. The Olympic Project for Human Rights was founded by UC Berkley sociology professor Harry Edwards. Its intention were to organize the American black athletes to boycott the Olympics. The most famous of them was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (named Lew Alcindor at the time), but they were supported by Jesses Owens, Jackie Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The five demands were: 1) the removal of racist IOC president Avery Brondage, 2) a retraction of Rhodesia and South Africa invitation to the games, 3) reinstating of Muhammed Ali's boxing title, 4) hiring more African-American coaches and 5) ending the "whites only" policy at the New York Athletic Club. South Africa and Rhodesia were disinvited but that had happened before the demands were made. None of the others were met and the athletes went anyway. They were urged to find some individual gestures of protest. In this video King mentions six demands but I could only find five.
The US received 45 gold medals in that Olympics, ten of them were by black athletes setting seven world records (including the famous Bob Beamon long jump). The only protesters were Tommie Smith and John Carlos who placed first and third in the 200 meter run. Smith wore a black glove on his right hand, Carlos on his left. They raised their hands with the Black Power symbol. They also wore no shoes to symbolize poverty, they wore beads to protest lynchings and an Olympics Projects for Human Rights button. Instead of looking at the flag while the national anthem played, they bowed their heads. They were suspended from the team, thrown out of Olympic Village and had to go home but could keep their medals because the US wanted to count them in the medal count.
The reaction from home is what you'd expect, America hasn't changed much. The worst thing that was said in the media was by sport broadcaster, Brent Musburger, called them a pair "dark skinned storm troopers." This was before Star Wars, so storm trooper was still associated with German soldiers. They received tons of hate mail and death threats. Tons of problems followed including social isolation and loss of employment bottoming out with Carlos' wife's suicide in 1977.
The reaction from home is what you'd expect, America hasn't changed much. The worst thing that was said in the media was by sport broadcaster, Brent Musburger, called them a pair "dark skinned storm troopers." This was before Star Wars, so storm trooper was still associated with German soldiers. They received tons of hate mail and death threats. Tons of problems followed including social isolation and loss of employment bottoming out with Carlos' wife's suicide in 1977.
I don't know if this is a big enough event to appear in Madmen, but it is just a reminder that I am glad I am not old enough to remember 1968.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Ownership versus Stewardship
The oldest known tree in the world is in California and it is over 5,000 years old. Are trees immortal or do they have a lifespan? Do any of them die of natural causes or of old age ... or do they just die from humans or other mammals cutting them down, from insect infestations, erosion or wind? This is something that I asked my wife recently (who seems to know everything) and she didn't know either. What I discovered, from an afternoon of doing one of my favorite exercises (Googling), they are not immortal. They have lifespans but vary tremendously by species. Like mammals, they really don't die of old age, but when they get older they become weaker and more susceptible to disease and infection. Unlike mammals, trees don't have a central nervous system nor are they controlled by a central agent like our brain. When our brain dies, we die. Tree's systems are decentralized so large parts of them can die and they can still live. They are brainless. The University of Virginia has a chart that shows the average and maximum lifespans of some North American trees. None of my trees on my land in Vermont have been around since before Christ but maybe some of them were here when the Pilgrims or Columbus landed. None of them seem big enough for that. Since they are so old, are they really my trees? How much hubris do we have to think that we can own something that predates our grandparents' grandparents? And the land, that the trees are planted in, is a millions of years older than the trees? I can own the home, but I can never really own the land. I can be a steward of the land. I hate to sound like a bumper sticker, but here we go: "we don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, but borrow it from our children". Since I don't have any children and don't believe in God, who the hell did I borrow it from?
Recently, I received a letter from my home insurance company about the moss (aka "organic growth") on my roof that needed to be removed before my policy could be renewed. This was just a stark reminder to me that I really don't own my home. A bank owns my home. I'm just the douche that makes the mortgage payments for the next decade or so. Obviously, I have difficulty with the concept of ownership. It seems more like an illusion the more I think of it. I understand how I own my stereo, my computer or my car. But what about my dogs. Do I own them? They are more like good friends that I have volunteered to take responsibility for. That relationship is more of a steward than of an owner. If I mistreat them, they will be taken away. But if I took a sledge hammer to my stereo, well, no one would really care other than myself and my wife.
I have met a few land rights activists. They always seem so nutty and extreme. Somehow they think that no one should be able to tell them what they can do with their land. Since all land is connected, as is water, there are some restrictions to their usage. Collective ownership does exist on some level. If I were to pour something into the ground polluting my neighbor's well water, I would expect he'd have something to say about it. If I had a child, I assume I'd feel the same way about the child. I'd expect everyone in my life to help me raise the child in some way or another. Yet most people don't refer to children as being owned. Hillary Clinton popularized the term, "it takes a village to raise a child," in the 1990's when she was the First Lady. Not a new idea. Collective stewardship of children has been around for a long time. I remember when the school shooting happened in Columbine High School, I offensively quipped that "it takes a child to raze a village." I remember it didn't go over very well. "TOO SOON!" The point of this comment was that the village didn't take care of their children and they payed for it. It is not just the parent's job to raise their children but their extended family, neighbors, teachers and church members ... society in general. We look out for each other. We do it for children, our pets and our land.
Collective stewardship of land isn't a new idea either. Not a communistic idea. One of the US founding fathers, Thomas Paine, believed in collective ownership. This is from Agrarian Justice:
Here is a short video I made of one of my trees over a years (thanks to the iMovie and Everyday apps to used to make this):
Recently, I received a letter from my home insurance company about the moss (aka "organic growth") on my roof that needed to be removed before my policy could be renewed. This was just a stark reminder to me that I really don't own my home. A bank owns my home. I'm just the douche that makes the mortgage payments for the next decade or so. Obviously, I have difficulty with the concept of ownership. It seems more like an illusion the more I think of it. I understand how I own my stereo, my computer or my car. But what about my dogs. Do I own them? They are more like good friends that I have volunteered to take responsibility for. That relationship is more of a steward than of an owner. If I mistreat them, they will be taken away. But if I took a sledge hammer to my stereo, well, no one would really care other than myself and my wife.
I have met a few land rights activists. They always seem so nutty and extreme. Somehow they think that no one should be able to tell them what they can do with their land. Since all land is connected, as is water, there are some restrictions to their usage. Collective ownership does exist on some level. If I were to pour something into the ground polluting my neighbor's well water, I would expect he'd have something to say about it. If I had a child, I assume I'd feel the same way about the child. I'd expect everyone in my life to help me raise the child in some way or another. Yet most people don't refer to children as being owned. Hillary Clinton popularized the term, "it takes a village to raise a child," in the 1990's when she was the First Lady. Not a new idea. Collective stewardship of children has been around for a long time. I remember when the school shooting happened in Columbine High School, I offensively quipped that "it takes a child to raze a village." I remember it didn't go over very well. "TOO SOON!" The point of this comment was that the village didn't take care of their children and they payed for it. It is not just the parent's job to raise their children but their extended family, neighbors, teachers and church members ... society in general. We look out for each other. We do it for children, our pets and our land.
Collective stewardship of land isn't a new idea either. Not a communistic idea. One of the US founding fathers, Thomas Paine, believed in collective ownership. This is from Agrarian Justice:
"Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally.That's right. "You didn't build that." This is, of course, is our most liberal founding father. You don't hear him quoted on Fox News much. He supported a huge tax on land to fund such things as care for the elderly and the disabled. He also supported a stipend to be paid to every citizen when they turned 21 to help them get a start. To him land was "the common property of the human race." My feeling almost seems opposite to his. I don't think the land belongs to everyone, but no one. The deer who poop in my yard own my land. I'm just the douche that steps on it in the Spring. Other owners: the owl I see in the old sugar maple, the blue jays and chickadees that come to my feeder, and critters the burrow in my lawn. Their families have been here longer than mine or any other human. They own this land, not me.
Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."
Here is a short video I made of one of my trees over a years (thanks to the iMovie and Everyday apps to used to make this):
Saturday, January 11, 2014
The Coming World War I Anniversaries
The year 1914, a hundred years ago, started optimistically. A new nation, Nigeria, was formed by the merging of two British colonies, one Muslim and one Christian (the Northern and Southern Protectorates respectively). The first passenger flight ever took place on New Years Day. Also, early that year Ford Motor company announced the eight hour workday and minimum wage while women suffragettes were marching toward the vote. This would be the year that Charlie Chaplin and Babe Ruth made their debuts. The first blood transfusion took place. If not for the assassin's bullet that struck Austrian prince, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28th, the 20th century might have been quite peaceful. Sure, there was bickering, a ten year revolution was brewing in Mexico, but the world had not seen a war that they'd refer at as a World War yet. It would change everything.
With the 100 year anniversary of the assassination coming up this year, I feel woefully unprepared for it. I know so little about this war. I don't want to feel like one of those people that Jay Leno interviews on the streets of LA that don't know shit about anything. I have to double check who was at war with whom in this war. I know so much more about the sequel. Perhaps it is because WW II is more recent and even bloodier or because I know people who were in WW II, like my dad, or that there are a lot more Hollywood movies about it ... probably a combination of them all. Regardless, I need to learn more.
June 28th marks the date that the assassination happen which was followed by a bunch of bad decisions based on bad information fueled by bravado and a bunch of poorly designed treaties. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, then Germany declares war on France, Germany on France, Germany on Belgium, the UK on Germany ... yada yada yada. With the UK getting involved, at the time being the largest empire ever in the history of the world, this makes it huge almost immediately. By the time the US gets involved in 1917, the war had spread to every continent (sans Antarctica).
The question for the Americans is what side to join if join they must. England was a long time enemy while Germany had little military contact with us. Both countries owed the US so much money that it was a loss either way. The current tension between the US and England were due to English persistence over the border of Venezuela and Guyana. We may have joined the Central powers along with Germany if Germany hadn't made two mistakes: (1) they declared they would sink any neutral ships anywhere on the globe and then proceeded to do so, (2) and they sent an infamous telegram to Mexico, the Zimmerman telegram, urging them to join the Central Powers against the US to get back the land that the we stole (aka Texas). When the RMS Lusitania, an ocean liner carrying English munitions in its secret compartment, was sunk by a Germany U-boat on May 7 1915 killing over 100 American citizens, public opinion started turning against Germany and toward the UK. In my faulty memory, I always think of the sinking of Lusitania as the Pearl Harbor of the first World War, but of course, this is not correct because it took the US another year and a half to declare war against Germany. Public opinion certainly swayed against Germany but the US citizenry was still very much isolationist.
In March 1916, Germany did it again. They sunk the SS Sussex, an unarmed French passenger ferry in the English Channel. President Wilson threatened to cut off all diplomatic contact if this continued so Germany agreed to stop sinking non-military crafts. The agreement came to be known as the "Sussex Pledge" forged in May. By January of the next year Germany had decided to break the pledge believing that by continuing unrestricted submarine activity it would end the war in five months. They believed by time the US got into the war, Germany would be victorious. News travelled slowly. By February this brought Wilson to Congress just to inform them that he severed diplomatic ties with Germany. Throughout February and March, German continued to sink American ships. It wasn't until the Zimmerman telegram that the US declared war. If you are looking for a Pearl Harbor type of event, the telegram was it, not the Lusitania. But there really isn't one. America's greatest contribution to the war was man power. By the summer of 1918, an average of 10,000 US service men were landing in France everyday. This was enough to tip the war toward England.
Science fiction fans often talk about going back in time and changing history at key moments in time. One favorite is preventing the assassination of Kennedy, another is killing Hitler while he was a boy or preventing his birth. For the most impact, the logical choice would be preventing the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and hopefully preventing the war. Most of the 20th century problems seem to have started from this war. The biggest and most obvious problem it caused is the next World War. England and France were incredibly unfair to Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, making recovery from the war difficult and creating an environment where radical movements like Nazi could thrive. It was stripped of its military, its monarchy, its flag, its international rights and its dignity. Its economy was also in shambles. Luckily, we learned from this mistake when WW II ended, the Marshal Plan was less punitive and Germany is the amazing nation it is today because of it.
There are less obvious problems caused by WW I. Some were inevitable, like the mechanization of war. This was the first war that planes, submarines and tanks were used. All wars from here on end would be mechanical. The cavalry was done. Some of the other problems are less obvious. The devastation of the war caused the fall of the house of Romanov in Russia giving the Bolsheviks power over the czars. They eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. If not for the WW I, the cold war might never have happened. Also, the war was financially costly even for the victors. European countries could no longer afford to maintain their empires. Colonialism around the world began to collapse with independent nations sprouting up for the next 50 years. The sun was setting on the British Empire. This was good for many reasons but this meant a lot of change and instability happening all over the world. New nations formed like India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines among many others. Perhaps the biggest collapse was the Ottoman Empire in 1922. It may have been able to maintain its cohesion if it wasn't so busy with the Middle Eastern front of WW I. It had been shrinking for the past four hundred years, WW I was its death toll with Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq forming from its ashes.
This is what I have learned from just poking around on the net. Now I feel more prepared when those 100th anniversaries start popping up.
With the 100 year anniversary of the assassination coming up this year, I feel woefully unprepared for it. I know so little about this war. I don't want to feel like one of those people that Jay Leno interviews on the streets of LA that don't know shit about anything. I have to double check who was at war with whom in this war. I know so much more about the sequel. Perhaps it is because WW II is more recent and even bloodier or because I know people who were in WW II, like my dad, or that there are a lot more Hollywood movies about it ... probably a combination of them all. Regardless, I need to learn more.
June 28th marks the date that the assassination happen which was followed by a bunch of bad decisions based on bad information fueled by bravado and a bunch of poorly designed treaties. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, then Germany declares war on France, Germany on France, Germany on Belgium, the UK on Germany ... yada yada yada. With the UK getting involved, at the time being the largest empire ever in the history of the world, this makes it huge almost immediately. By the time the US gets involved in 1917, the war had spread to every continent (sans Antarctica).
The question for the Americans is what side to join if join they must. England was a long time enemy while Germany had little military contact with us. Both countries owed the US so much money that it was a loss either way. The current tension between the US and England were due to English persistence over the border of Venezuela and Guyana. We may have joined the Central powers along with Germany if Germany hadn't made two mistakes: (1) they declared they would sink any neutral ships anywhere on the globe and then proceeded to do so, (2) and they sent an infamous telegram to Mexico, the Zimmerman telegram, urging them to join the Central Powers against the US to get back the land that the we stole (aka Texas). When the RMS Lusitania, an ocean liner carrying English munitions in its secret compartment, was sunk by a Germany U-boat on May 7 1915 killing over 100 American citizens, public opinion started turning against Germany and toward the UK. In my faulty memory, I always think of the sinking of Lusitania as the Pearl Harbor of the first World War, but of course, this is not correct because it took the US another year and a half to declare war against Germany. Public opinion certainly swayed against Germany but the US citizenry was still very much isolationist.
In March 1916, Germany did it again. They sunk the SS Sussex, an unarmed French passenger ferry in the English Channel. President Wilson threatened to cut off all diplomatic contact if this continued so Germany agreed to stop sinking non-military crafts. The agreement came to be known as the "Sussex Pledge" forged in May. By January of the next year Germany had decided to break the pledge believing that by continuing unrestricted submarine activity it would end the war in five months. They believed by time the US got into the war, Germany would be victorious. News travelled slowly. By February this brought Wilson to Congress just to inform them that he severed diplomatic ties with Germany. Throughout February and March, German continued to sink American ships. It wasn't until the Zimmerman telegram that the US declared war. If you are looking for a Pearl Harbor type of event, the telegram was it, not the Lusitania. But there really isn't one. America's greatest contribution to the war was man power. By the summer of 1918, an average of 10,000 US service men were landing in France everyday. This was enough to tip the war toward England.
Science fiction fans often talk about going back in time and changing history at key moments in time. One favorite is preventing the assassination of Kennedy, another is killing Hitler while he was a boy or preventing his birth. For the most impact, the logical choice would be preventing the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and hopefully preventing the war. Most of the 20th century problems seem to have started from this war. The biggest and most obvious problem it caused is the next World War. England and France were incredibly unfair to Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, making recovery from the war difficult and creating an environment where radical movements like Nazi could thrive. It was stripped of its military, its monarchy, its flag, its international rights and its dignity. Its economy was also in shambles. Luckily, we learned from this mistake when WW II ended, the Marshal Plan was less punitive and Germany is the amazing nation it is today because of it.
There are less obvious problems caused by WW I. Some were inevitable, like the mechanization of war. This was the first war that planes, submarines and tanks were used. All wars from here on end would be mechanical. The cavalry was done. Some of the other problems are less obvious. The devastation of the war caused the fall of the house of Romanov in Russia giving the Bolsheviks power over the czars. They eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. If not for the WW I, the cold war might never have happened. Also, the war was financially costly even for the victors. European countries could no longer afford to maintain their empires. Colonialism around the world began to collapse with independent nations sprouting up for the next 50 years. The sun was setting on the British Empire. This was good for many reasons but this meant a lot of change and instability happening all over the world. New nations formed like India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines among many others. Perhaps the biggest collapse was the Ottoman Empire in 1922. It may have been able to maintain its cohesion if it wasn't so busy with the Middle Eastern front of WW I. It had been shrinking for the past four hundred years, WW I was its death toll with Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq forming from its ashes.
This is what I have learned from just poking around on the net. Now I feel more prepared when those 100th anniversaries start popping up.
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