Simple Thnigs Are Best

I am having an appreciation moment. I better type quickly before all the aggravating moments society shoots at us pop back into my mind. I do believe the old adage that the simpler things in life are most important to keeping us sane. Even if you suspect my insanity disproves that, I will remind you that I would be more of a raving lunatic without the simple to soothe me. Do we not retreat into simplicity when things go sour for us?

I was reminded of the simple is good philosophy as I watered my front lawn this morning, in cool, sunny beauty. Portland has had one brief sprinkle of rain the past 59 days. My lawn is thirsty, my garden begging for a drink. I have a sprinkler system that waters but I have it set for every other day. Too much water can make a lawn pee like a child who drinks too much before bed time. When I water myself I can regulate the flow better and commiserate with nature at the same time. For me, watering the lawn on a cool morning is like baking cookies. It relaxes me.

Each of us has our own list of simple but great. Besides the watering and baking I naps, reading, my favorite pair of lounging shorts (No worry. I won't show you a picture of me in them...it's not pretty), my morning coffee, something said with humor by a stranger, un crowded grocery stores at 7 am, a smile from a child, a reprieve from political talking points by people I do not trust, dessert and...well..I am a man..donuts, fetching my morning newspaper from my well-watered lawn at 6 am, domestic tranquility, a once a month splurge for a Carl's Jr., hamburger, being asked to help someone I care for who needs the help, bakeries and old fashioned diners, unexpected thrift store bargains, nostalgia, retirement from work and the freedom to be a bum without being classified as one, watching my favorite team play a football game, and looking at the landscape and realizing how lucky it is so beautiful and unspoiled.

Those are a few of the simple things that keep me going, putting my right foot in front of my left so I can walk through life in peace and ignore the maddening crowd.

On Tearing Down Statues

There is a movement in this country among the extreme left, and not so extreme left sheep who imitate all the left creates in its agendas, to tear down statues erected long ago by people they admired in the day. The wanted who  to honor the face on the statue, not to make a social statement about any matter in this age. Many leftists today want to erase that history as quickly as ISIS or Al Quida does the same when it enters and occupies an area. Tearing down statues to remove history that offends current sensibilities is the trendy social media cause of the day. But the reality is that tearing down history to soothe a current social agenda is idiotic and destructive to a society.

The recent frenzy, largely the result of politicians seeing votes in doing so and a media driven cause celeb to do it, has sparked a rash of take me down behavior, both legal and anarchical tear downs.  But if a society removes its outmoded memorials because of today's views, is it guilty of erasing its past? Is it fair to judge our once heroes by today's ethical standards? Or should we see these excisions as necessary to the nation's survival?  Never mind answering. Most answers are fueled by hate and frenzy, on both sides of the equation.

Today's villainous statue was yesterday's sacred one, and  and if left will be tomorrow's anything. When we remove a current historical monument because a single behavior of the hero at the time it honors is now regarded differently, negatively indicates we have lost faith in our ability to interpret history and apply it. instead we eliminate that which offends us, sort of a modern day book banning to "protect" society. 

Rewriting history is not new here or anywhere for that matter. Tearing down the statues of heroes of a past legacy, that a segment of the society sees as still a threat to its new agenda. From Roman statues being pulled by "liberated' populations" centuries ago, to as recently as the fall of the Soviet Union empire we saw the new wave remove the heroes of the old, pulling down statues on impulse or via a planned conspiracy, all in an attempt to say "We are in charge now and will determine what is history". It may not be democratic, but it seems to be a way for the new to erase the old before beginning the new era.

Removing statues to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington because they were both slave holders, the norm of the day everywhere in the world, would be like removing the statues to Martin Luther King because he had a proclivity to "dehumanize" women by patronizing prostitutes. Only the ignorant or fanatical judge the past by a current social norm. The worst of humanity is that segment that acts as moral judge and jury of the past in order to impose political correctness today. What is disheartening is not that there are haters of our civilization out there, the leftist statue removers, but that there seem to be fewer defenders of or cultural ideals.

The generous of statue removal is political correctness, a media that cheering the removals and sells more because of it and the lack of education of the populace. Those three drive the dictatorship of the few (the left) while the rest of us are silenced by threats to brand us as "haters" "racists" or "fascists". Language is beautiful when used properly and with a judicious agenda. When used to coerce and push hate, as the statue movement does, it is a threat to the society's health and welfare.

In a democratic republic, statues that offend or are outdated are removed because the collective wants them to be replace. It is done by the majority in the community, often by vote, not by a tyranny of the few. Today, liberal tyranny reflects how much society has degraded and how defenseless it is when those who oppose statue removals or any other of leftist hate agenda becomes a feel good cause that we shrug and accept because we fear the liberal scarlet letter, H (Hater). The canary in the mine today is mindless leftist hate such as we see in the tearing down history in order to more easily impose a bigoted agenda.

Ideally, a vote by the community would satisfy all parties. But today the extreme right and extreme left are like unsupervised children, demanding their way is the right way, and they will settle for nothing less that what they decide is right. In former times the extremists would eventually disappear due a lack of substance, but today a dishonest and empty media and the platform of the internet assures us that a small minority of haters will decide our culture. It's sad. Someone should build a statue to democracy before we forget complete what it is.

Jerry Lewis

An icon of comedy, 91 year old Jerry Lewis, has died of natural causes. A part of laughter surely departs with him. As a child I grew up loving those wacky Jerry Lewis movies so the death of one of the last great old style comics hurts a little. I can't image many people not knowing who Jerry Lewis is or having never seen one of his many classic movies, made mostly in the 50's and 60's. They were slapstick, what some people say is crude comedy. But comedians say that doing that kind of physical comedy is the most difficult thing a comic can do, and Lewis did it better than any human who ever lived.

The critics always hated Lewis. But most people loved his work. It was old fashioned funny without ever getting cheap laughs with jokes about sex or violence. Maybe the most damaging thing done to disparage Jerry Lewis was that the nation of France presented him with a Merit of Legion  award for his comedy. The French and I agree on only one thing, that Jerry Lewis is one of the funniest people to ever appear before a camera. Here is clip of a scene from 'The Bell Boy', which shows Jerry Lewis' timing and brilliance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK_jXwP8M_s&ytbChannel=VintageComedyClips

This is not eulogy. Lewis is still with us in his films that will run incessantly I always said that when Jerry Lewis when he does die, I will be impacted. I was right. My childhood was filled with many Jerry Lewis movies. I remember them vividly, and I remember how I laughed then and still laugh now when one appears on TV and I happen to see it.

But Jerry Lewis will be remembered as well for those MD telethons in which he raised over 2 billion dollars for research. Lewis always said that the one thing that would make his life complete was finding a cure for muscular dystrophy. I think his attempts to help find that cure made his life more complete than he realized.

Dull Boring And Bland

One of my favorite named towns in Oregon continues t make news because of its name. That would be Boring, Oregon. Boring is about 15 minutes from my own city here and is noted for the rich farm land that produces wonderful fruit. In summer many Portland area residents pick strawberries, blueberries, raspberries etc.. on Boring U Pick farms. For about half the price of grocery store fruit and veggies one can pick fresh ones.

Boring is also on the way (another 25 minutes) to Mount Hood, the highest mountain in the U.S. and to my kind of pilgrimage, Joe's Donuts. in adjacent Sandy, Oregon. For many years in succession, Joe's has been awarded the title of best donuts in Oregon. They are old style, hand made donuts worth a drive to get. Hmmm Maybe I should build a shrine to Joe's donuts on the top of Mt. Hood.

I am off topic. Anyway, Boring was in the news for adding a third member to the triad of sister cities. In addition to Dull, a village in Scotland, a third sister city tie was announced . Bland, Australia has joined forces wit the other tow dreary places to promote themselves to tourists as places to see when in the area. Dull and Boring became sister communities in 2012, after a Scottish woman passed through the U.S. town on a cycling holiday. That tie  has boosted the profile of both places. So Dull officials just hosted the mayor of the region of Bland, New South Wales, at a reception to celebrate the third member of a club self labeled as the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'.

I am not sure they are extraordinary. Boring does have quite a few antique shops of interest and a finny named bar in the center of the place (It takes about 5 minutes to drive the length of Boring). The Bar is named 'The Most Boring Bar', but I have not been inside to verify that. If not exciting, the most interesting thing about those three dreary cites is their names. Bland  and Boring are both named after early residents, William Bland and William Boring, while Dull’s name may come from a Gaelic word for meadow. Boring has a population of about 10,000, which makes it the big city among the three. Bland has about 6,000 people and Dull has a population of 84 Dull residents.

But Wait! That's not the whole story. The three sister cities have bigger plans to put us all to sleep.  They've found Ordinary and Dreary, both in the U.S., and think they could soon be part of the 'League of Extraordinary Communities'. Why, I am almost excited about that!

Pointing In The Wrong Direction

When protesters use inappropriate language or hand gestures to police officers is at least vulgar and disrespectful to society. But are they committing a felony or are they being simply disrespectful?  Because the U.S. is a democracy with individual rights guaranteed, there is no law against being disrespectful. There is a law against making a threat, but pointing the middle finger at a police officer is not threatening him or her.
As much as I hate vulgarity and disrespect, I am grateful to have free speech rights, and that they are protected by the courts her. That concept will be tested in Louisiana after a "finger protest" there got the pointer a citation for threatening a police officer. The pointer's lawyer and the ACLU say that Louisiana State Police troopers violated the Constitutional rights of their client after they arrested him for giving the police "the finger," this the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana said in a letter to Louisiana police Superintendent Col. Kevin Reeves.
"A Louisiana State trooper took retaliatory action against a driver who engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment," said  ACL Executive Director Marjorie Esman. "We appreciate that the job of policing in the 21^st century can be difficult, and we hope your officers will focus on more serious and legitimate threats to public safety." State Police spokeswoman Trooper First Class Melissa Matey said, "The Louisiana State Police has tremendous respect for the First Amendment even when the citizens we serve choose to be vulgar and disrespectful. This was an unfortunate incident which will be used as a training opportunity."
Hmmm They seem to agree that the police were excessive in citing the vulgar finger pointer. I agree, but the larger issue is why so many, and many are doing it, stoop to vulgarity like the finger pointer. It may reflect the vulgar culture in which we live today, and that is a crime bigger than all the finger pointer incidents out there. The pointing incident happened Dec. 28, 2016 when a man driving on Interstate 20 near Rayville gave "the finger" to a trooper he passed. The trooper then pulled the driver over and issued a citation for "public intimidation," a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $1,000 fine. Wow! That's a pretty stiff penalty.
Public intimidation in Louisiana is defined as "the use of violence, force, or threats upon (a public officer or public employee) with the intent to influence his conduct in relation to his position, employment, or duty," according to Louisiana law. "The driver used no violence, force, or threat on the trooper, and there is no evidence of intent to influence the trooper's official conduct," said the ACL. "His gesture does not fit the statutory definition of 'public intimidation,' and it was not a crime."The trooper engaged in "illegal First Amendment retaliation," she said. Among the freedoms this country provides is the right to criticize the government and public officials, including police officers".
I have to agree that people have the right to be idiots, including making vulgar gestures when frustrated. But I sure wish the world was a nicer, more tolerant place.

Group Think

In this age of  instant and consuming communication technology  have we moved into a new era of group think? You know group think. It's the state in which everyone seems to believe the same thing, largely because society coerces the individual to do so. How ironic we have group think at the same time that information is available more than ever. In medieval times there was one narrative and once source of information, churches and rulers of the area.  But now we have multitude of sources. Problem is, they are all in "agreement", all repeating the same narratives.

In the United States the group think narrative is overwhelmingly liberal, leftist scripted. That's largely because the media sources here are also overwhelmingly left, so there is little push back when the leftist group think script is promoted. It explains sudden shifts in public opinion, as in the case of transgender being a "third sex" or claims that Republicans are "racist" because they believe in tradition. The definition of group think is the practice of approaching problems or issues as matters that are best dealt with by consensus of a group rather than by individuals acting independently. And that is anathema to a democracy.

To identify group think one need only look at any of the progressive liberal groups that push an agenda. Look at 'Black Lives Matter' for example and you'll see many symptoms of group think. These include unquestioned belief in which BLM members  ignore possible moral problems and ignore consequences of individual and group actions., their violence when protesting for example.

A second symptom is he BLM rationalization of every point the group claims to be true. This prevents their members from reconsidering their beliefs and causes them to ignore warning signs about what they pro port is true but may not be. Thirdly is the stereotyping by BLM members. This leads members of the group to ignore or even demonize out group members who may oppose or challenge the groups ideas. Thus the "Black Lives Matter" (but other lives apparently not as much) scenario.

A fourth symptom that BLM is a group think mess is that the group and other liberal or conservative group thinkers, pretend to be mind guards who act as self appointed censors to hide problematic information from members of the group. One way is by the use of slogans that are oversimplifications or untruths. The classic one for the BLM group is that "police are hunting blacks".

A fifth characteristic is that of  holding the belief that everyone should or does agree with the narrative of the group think organization. This lead members to believe that everyone is or should be in agreement with them. An example of this is "the system is rigged against minorities."

A fifth symptom is that there is great pressure for BLM members to conform. Pressure is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous. It's why BLM uses hate rhetoric against any black who does not support the group.

The group think phenomenon is a growing one as we deaden our brains with superficial communication technology and tend to be herded to one group think or another. It is a threat to human freedom and individual thought.

Then And Now

As I am an old man now I was thinking the other day (old timers think allot and do little) about whether life is better for we who are breathing today than it was for the ones that we  visit in the cemetery. I have not quite come to a conclusion, so since I am confused let me confuse you as well by making a case for both views. Case one is that life is better for us than the last three generations. The explosion of invention and new technology makes it far more comfortable for us. When we are sick we receive better treatment and recover. Our technology makes life less boring today.

We have more free time to do more interesting things and we are less tired due to having to do strenuous labor (like tilling the farm fields). Medicine helps us live longer and feel better more often than those earlier generations. We have more opportunity today. We can travel more easily and more often and can be lazy without worrying about things get done because our machines do so much of what we used to do. All the modern inventions have made life better, proving that "the good old days" were really not so good.

Case two says we are worse off today. Life is more stressful and less meaningful. Instead of talking to each other, eating diner together and conversing about important things, we instead chat or post idiocy on cell phones. We are more informed on triviality, like actors and movies and trends and the reality world, but uninformed on the cerebral and what really should matter to us. We have closets of clothes, but dress poorly compared to the earlier times when a suit and tie was standard wear, even at sporting events.

We don't know our children as well because we don't relate to them anymore. Our kids are parented more by their technology than by their parents. Quantity has replaced quality. In those earlier times we knew what we believed. Our religion guided our life. Today our celebrity tweets enlighten us. Our technology is better today, but we are less free because of it. It enslaves us.

Maybe it' not fair to compare times because can only live in one. But those who do question probably do so because they feel some discomfort with or estrangement from our lives today. But perhaps those earlier generations felt the same way about their own lives. What do you think?