Soot, Smog, and radioactive fallout

Once upon a time, nobody worried about the earth.  The natural world was this sturdy thing, made by GOD for our use.  FOR OUR USE!
And we have used the crap out of it.  We have traveled 10,000 years, doing what we do best---looking at things and coming up with new ways to use them and new things we could make to use and new things to want if we could figure out how to make them.  
One of the first things we made---after our very first weapon, was fire---not an invention as such, but a very valuable discovery capable of helping us with  the first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy,  which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.  
We have found many ways to change energy in the last 10,000 years.  And while some of the newer ones have little by-products, a lot of the older ones have a decidedly large impact on whatever they are around.

Soot---a black, carbonaceous substance produced during incomplete combustion of coal, wood, oil, etc., rising in fine particles and adhering to the sides of the chimney or pipe conveying the smoke: also conveyed in the atmosphere to other locations. verb (used with object) 2. to mark, cover, or treat with soot.

My parents knew soot, as did their parents and their parents,parents,parents.  Medieval knights knew soot and ancient Greeks knew soot and cavemen knew soot.  

It was coating the inside of my chimney and coated London in 1952. Soot used to be ubiquitous.  Rock and brick buildings used to look quite grim and gray, as did the skies of cities with large populations in areas that heated and cooked with coal, peat, and wood fires.

As we became more ingenious, we developed ways to do more than just heat and cook, and created engines and factories that not only used wood and soot, but also that burned petroleum products to give those new machines their power.  Fifty years after the automobile, that rich man's play-toy and newest pride-maker, became the standard method of travel, instead of just soot, we were facing a black/gray fog of chemicals that made skies hard to see far and eyes burn and noses wrinkle in distaste.  

We creative and amazing humans had created smog.

 

Smog is a kind of air pollution, originally named for the mixture of smoke and fog in the air.

Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area and is caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide.
In the 1950s a new type of smog, known as Photochemical Smog, was first described.
Smog is a problem in a number of cities and continues to harm human health.
Ground-level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide are especially harmful for senior citizens, children, and people with heart and lung conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma.
Hospital admissions and respiratory deaths often increase during periods when ozone levels are high.
 https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/smog.htm

When I came home from grade school talking about smog, my parents had never heard of it.  But as a truck driver, my father had seen it.  It's why we went to the mountains or forests on vacation.  It's why I was 50 the first time I saw Chicago.

Chicago's sky looked pretty good in 2007.  Like something had gotten rid of all that smog I heard about when I was a child.  (back then)>>>>><<<<<now)  Of course, those beautiful sunrises and sunsets are related to particles in the air, but the air is no longer so thick that light can't pass.

The worst of them, and last on the table at our poisonous party, made possible by our big brains and tendency to turn every bit of new and amazing information into a weapon first and a money-maker next was radioactive fallout--Fallout is the radioactive particles that fall to earth as a result of a nuclear explosion. It consists of weapon debris, fission products, and, in the case of a ground burst, radiated soil.
It was another thing I heard about in school.  We did a few drills, and talked about going into fallout shelters and even heard the sirens that were supposed to tell us it was time to do that.
It was terrifying.


Fallout, as in "fallout shelters".  Our neighbor had a fallout shelter.  It always had water puddled in the bottom, and was only used for tornado warnings, but we all knew about "fallout".
Sort of knew.  Kind of knew.  Thought we knew.

We had no clue what nuclear fallout actually meant--we just thought someone in a WWII bomber plane was going to drop something on us.   The idea that the very air was about to become a weapon was so far beyond our little minds.......

The people of Hiroshima and  Nagasaki actually knew.  Or rather, the people that were not in Hiroshima and Nagasaki until after the bomb, knew.
       https://www.nap.edu/read/11282/chapter/ 

The one thing all three of these have in common is human's caused them.  (ok, a lightning-caused forest fire was not human caused, but soot is much more common that that.)  So, we humans caused them.  They are bad for us in the long, and even short run.  And because their poisonous nature is related to our livelihood, our finances, and our sense of power, we forgive them far too often--forgive them to the point we avoid trading them for things that are less harmful.

We act like clean energy is a nasty word.  But windmills (as far back as 1000 b.c.e. in Persia) and water mills (40 AD Rome) used to power various common machines  such as well pumps and grain grinding mills.  But if the source was there and the machine could be configured, other things as well.

And things like the Clean Air Act of 1970, cleared the air above such monstrously smoggy cities as Los Angeles and New York City.  The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, was born about the same time.  Since the birth of the industrial age and the age of cars and the population of the world in 1900 being only 1.6 to it's current 6 billion, our human ability to poison ourselves and every thing around us, has grown significantly.  
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/population.html 

So now that we are officially an Oligarchy, owned and run by those bigger than life corporations that not only have the rights we fought to gain for ourselves but also get the lion's share of governmental financial and legal support, all those agencies that were born to protect our air, water, and soil are going away.  All those laws aimed at maintaining our right to live in a world with breathable air, potable water and fertile soil are ending, as they interfere with the ability of big business to make a profit for their shareholders and bonuses for their C-suite power-mongers.

And---a quarter of us can't see we are in danger.  They keep thinking that the only problem is immigrants coming to steal their jobs and rape their women.  They believe that someone made those businesses move their factories to places that didn't have a minimum wage.  They believe that their little town's patron saint of endowments is the only thing standing between them and all the horrors of the world.  Not once asking---how did that family come to own everything worth owning in this place?

The factories complain about having to pay people minimum wage and people that can barely find a place to rent or buy food to feed their family decide that the minimum wage is the enemy.  While across town, the wealthy factory owners, CEOs and those that consider golfing with their banker to actually be their work, throw out enough food at every meal to feed a family of four--good food, organic, we aren't talking about boxes of bacon that smells of antibiotics and iceberg lettuce and bread so infused with preservatives that a loaf never goes bad.

The business owners complain about having to meet standards for dumping their by-products into the water, air and soil, and complain about the cost.  And the people living by those factories, drinking from the water supply closest to those factories, building schools and playgrounds for their children on the land nearest the factories, believe that is why they are struggling.  If the owners weren't trying to meet silly standards, they would pay them more.  

But before there were standards, they didn't pay more.

Being rich is not about sharing.  
Being rich is about winning.
And those people working in those factories and business are so far away from the people owning the businesses, the factories, the corporations, as to be seen as less than human.

We complain about hoarders, viewing them as mentally ill.
We complain about criminals, viewing them as a pox on the arse of society.
But how different from those 2 groups are those that can never have enough money and power;
how different, with their tax-shelters and efforts to avoid following rules about pollution and methods to avoid paying those that work for them a living wage, are they really?  
Sounds like a hoarder.  
Sounds like a criminal.
We have the knowledge to keep from poisoning the earth.
We have the ability to keep from poisoning the earth.
What are we waiting for? 
(and no, the rich will not get on this bandwagon until they can't buy a place where their own lungs don't hurt when they breathe---maybe not even then)










                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

understanding all those new words(or old words used weird ways)

The last little while has seen a rise in words that are not always easy to define.  They are loaded words.  Words with opposing meaning depending on the population.  Words without meaning unless the context is clear.

It is my goal to round them up and try to make sense of some of them.

NeoCon.  or Neoconservatism  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism,
or in plain language, when talking crap about a anti-soviet social democrat. (good article with link but other than the crap-talking, I don't see an actual group of people being described)

NeoLiberal--relating to a modified form of liberalism tending to favor free-market capitalism.  http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp
so, referring to a wallstreet democrat, also best for putting someone down and talking crap.

Both Neo's seem to be pretty old so more political psychobabble or politobabble than meaningful categories.

snowflake--obviously being used as an insult, although unique and cold would have been my guess at meaning, it is apparently a generation (?)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Snowflake 
that has reached adulthood after 2010 (I'm pretty sure people are using this insult for anyone that isn't a Trump supporter) meaning delicate and melts on contact.

troll--One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.  More closely related to a fisherman trolling for fish than the mythic creatures in legends but just as annoying.

Internet troll - Wikipedia 

white nationalist--White nationalism is a type of nationalism or pan-nationalism which holds the belief that white people are a race and seeks to develop and maintain a white national identity. Its proponents identify with and are attached to the concept of a white nation.  Closely related to White Supremacy Groups, and NeoNazi Groups which share similar beliefs.  Other countries have movements including many in Europe right now. 

oligarchy--

1.   government by the few The corporation is ruled by oligarchy.
2. 2 :  a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes a military oligarchy was established in the country; also :  a group exercising such control An oligarchy ruled the nation.
3. 3 :  an organization under oligarchic control That country is an oligarchy.

corporatocracy  is defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary as “a society…that is governed or controlled by corporations.
 http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/04/bernie-sanders-vs-the-corporatocracy/

theocracy-- government of a state by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.  Included would be ancient Egypt, North Korea, Ancient Israel and Judah, The Holy Roman Empire, etc, etc. (no, we don't want to go back to that)

Plutocracy --

1. government by the wealthy.

   • a country or society governed by the wealthy.

     plural noun: plutocracies
   • an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

     (hmmm, sounds familiar, I think I have seen this somewhere before in real life)

democrat--a person that belongs to the democratic party.  (I have no idea what that says about them as far as values, beliefs, preferences, or anything else, it's a lot like TEAM-DONKEY)

democratic-- relating to or supporting democracy or its principles.

synonyms:

elected, representative, popular, parliamentary; egalitarian, classless; self-governing, autonomous,

democracy--a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.  Government by the people; especially : rule of the majority: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.  (what we all thought we were, but never were)

republic--A republic (Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter" – not the private concern or property of the rulers – and where offices of state are elected or appointed, rather than inherited. (Ancient Greece)

GOP-- Grand Old Party-- refers to the republican party. (Has a real mid-19th century sound to it)

Republican--belonging to, or characteristic of a republic. 
a person advocating or supporting republican government.  
 And these days, a member or supporter of the Republican Party, TEAM ELEPHANT

Libertarian--is a collection of political philosophies that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and freedom of choice, emphasizing political freedom, voluntary association, and the importance of individual judgment. ( I love the sound of this, but the party has turned it into guns and weed, guns and weed and no taxes or laws) 

Independent--free from outside control; not depending on another's authority.  People that self identify as independent tend to not like labels and see themselves as not just joiners and cheerleaders but as free-thinkers that make their choices based on specific circumstances. ( in other words, "Those stinking people responsible for losing the election for Hillary")

Socialist--a person who advocates or practices socialism. (a dirty red commie)

Socialism a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. (The USSR and Red China consider(ed)  themselves socialist nations)

Democratic socialism--Democratic socialism is a political ideology that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, often with an emphasis on democratic management of enterprises within a socialist economic system. Northern Europe and Bernie Sanders.)

Social--relating to society or its organization,
gregarious; breeding or nesting in colonies  (ok, that supposed to be birds, but very interesting, right?)
an informal social gathering, especially one organized by the members of a particular club or group--so our political parties are social (jk).

Communist--a person who supports or believes in the principles of communism

Communism-- An economic and social system envisioned by the nineteenth-century German scholar Karl Marx. In theory, under communism, all means of production are owned in common, rather than by individuals (see Marxism and Marxism-Leninism). In practice, a single authoritarian party controls both the political and economic systems.

Unitarianism (I just threw this in to see who was paying attention)

capitalism--an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.  This is the form of economy that came to exist at the end of feudalism.

freedom--the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint,
absence of subjugation to foreign domination or despotic government,
the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved

liberty--in philosophy, involves free will as contrasted with determinism. In politics, liberty consists of the social and political freedoms to which all community members are entitled. In theology, liberty is freedom from the effects of "sin, spiritual servitude, [or] worldly ties. 
freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint:   the state or condition of people who are able to act and speak freely

rights--Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory.

righteous--(of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous.

right--correct (or these days, what everyone thinks they are)

religion--the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods,  a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance, a particular system of faith and worship. 

separation of church and state--is a phrase used by Thomas Jefferson and others expressing an understanding of the intent and function of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States, 
 People that don't follow the majority religion in this country are very fond of this right.

choice--an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more possibilities.

pro-choice, the belief it is a woman's right to choose whether she has an abortion or not.  In contrast to not having a choice, so that she either has to have an abortion or she has to give birth.

pro-life--the belief that if a woman gets herself in a family way, she must have the baby (amazingly, this belief has nothing to do with the life of either the new baby or of anyone else, it is not anti-war or anti-death penalty or pro-education for all or pro nutrition for preschool and is frequently endorsed with an attitude of punitiveness toward women that have sex but don't want to be mothers at that time.

life--The definition of life is controversial. The current definition ^{[according to whom?]} is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce.  I guess if we were really pro-life we would have a hard time eating, killing trees for wood.......

value--the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something,  a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life, .(noun),consider (someone or something) to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of,  estimate the monetary worth of (something).

values--Your values are the things that you believe are important in the way you live and work.
They (should) determine your priorities, and, deep down, they're probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you want it to.
When the things that you do and the way you behave match your values, life is usually good – you're satisfied and content. But when these don't align with your personal values, that's when things feel... wrong. This can be a real source of unhappiness.

human--relating to or characteristic of people or human beings.  A human being, especially a person as distinguished from an animal or (in science fiction) an alien.  (notice the use of the word in the definition, I couldn't find a definition that didn't do that unless I got into evolution, and only scientific thinkers like that)

humane--having or showing compassion or benevolence,  characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed

humanity--the human race; human beings collectively, humaneness; benevolence.

Genocide--the term 
did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group.
 http://www.genocidewatch.org/aboutgenocide/8stagesofgenocide.html

Rhetoric is the art of discourse, wherein a writer or speaker strives to inform, persuade or motivate particular audiences in specific situations.  These days, it's what You are saying in response to my facts.

Fact--a thing that is indisputably the case, a piece of information used as evidence or as part of a report or news article, something that has actual existence, a piece of information presented as having objective reality, something that truly exists or happens : something that has actual existence,
a true piece of information

alternate fact--a lie, an untruth, a fib, a whopper, a story,...... (it is possible that something that is an opinion can be presented as a fact, and that alternate opinions exist, making neither fact, in fact, a fact, and we all have opinions and....nevermind)
 
allegations--a claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof

deflection--:  a turning aside or off course  (as in, the finger was pointing at me, but by my amazing abilities of deflection it seemed to be pointing a completely different direction)

denial---refusal to satisfy a request or desire

refusal to admit the truth or reality (as of a statement or charge) :  assertion that an allegation is false, refusal to acknowledge a person or a thing,

the opposing by the defendant of an allegation of the opposite party in a lawsuit

psychology :  a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality 

corruption--dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (as government officials or police officers,inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery, favors, jobs, deals,

incompetence--lack of the ability to do something well :

competence the quality or state of  being competent,
a sufficiency of means for the necessities and conveniences of life,
the knowledge that enables a person to speak and understand a language,the ability to do something well, the quality or state of being capable,
the quality or state of being functionally adequate

coup--a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government, 
a notable or successful stroke or move

controversy--disagreement, typically when prolonged, public, and heated (notice, this definition has nothing about facts or right/wrong.

wrong--not correct or true, in an unsuitable or undesirable manner or direction, an unjust, dishonest, or immoral action

moral-- concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.  holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct,
a person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do

ethical--relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these, 
Equitable, fair, and just dealing with people that, although pragmatically flexible according to the situation and times, conforms to self-imposed high standards of public conduct

propaganda--information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.  (see alternative facts)

I sincerely hope that this is useful the next time a troll attacks you on Social media, spewing the propaganda,  and trying to use their rhetoric for deflection away from alternative facts creating controversy in hopes of a coup.

Now, off to another wonderful Sunday of doing whatever I want--am I a Libertarian? or an Independent?  
Does it matter?--enjoy.

Who's your daddy, who's your momma.

I once knew a man with 8 children, and periodically he would disappear from his family because no one had called him anything but daddy or grandpa for so long he was forgetting who he was.  He wanted to hear someone call him by his name.
That is what he told me.
That is what he was afraid of---losing himself in a single role.  No one remembering anything about him except in the context of his role of father.
While I suspected at the time there was more to this than just identity loss, I did understand.

I have worked in a few nursing homes where women carried baby dolls and only answered to "granny" or "ma".  They were suffering from dementia and had truly lost all of themselves except for this one role.

As an older person with children, I do recognize the possibility of losing parts of myself.  My world becomes more about family and the work part and friends part shrinks and falls away as the job changes, retirement looms and friends go through the same.

I know that my own parents experienced some of this.  In the last 10 years I heard about parts of their lives I hadn't known existed.

As a geneology/history lover, I enjoyed the stories, but as a daughter, I always wondered about the depth of our relationship.  I never doubted the love or support, but while we talked--a lot, and shared time--a lot, they had lived over 30 years when I was born.  They also lived over 20 years after I was grown, and while I was probably around more days than was necessary for any of our sanity, there was a lot of time in which I have no idea what they were doing.  I definitely didn't know what they were thinking or talking about with their friends and each other.

I just assumed they spent all their time being my parents.
Kids don't stop being egocentric just because they pass toddlerhood.

Now my own children are grown.
I'm pretty open about who I am now.
I tend not to talk about the past unless a particular thing is pertinant to a current topic of conversation.  (past life experience makes excellent illustrative examples in conversation)  I tend to be a good listener and a minimal talker in the small talk social setting.

I know who I am.
I am not at all sure my children know who I am.
I'm not sure any of us really know who our parents are.

So, if I were to go back in a time machine, these are the questions I would like to answer.
Mom?  Dad?
Who were you?
Did you have a life goal?
Did you have a bucket list?
What was your all time favorite movie?
Who was your best friend in all your life?
What place did you most like to visit?
What was your favorite color and why?
What did you think was the most important part of living?
Did you consider yourself a good person?
Did you consider yourself successful?
What did you want to do that you never really got to do?
Do you have regrets?
Did you have a good childhood?
Did you daydream?
Did you have hopes and fears?
Did you really know your parents as people?
What else would you have talked to them about?

Are we all just doomed by the very age differences and developmental stage differences  to a relationship in which we only know each other through our roles.

I thought I knew my parents fairly well, but everytime they rolled out a story I had never heard before, it was a shock.
A shock that there was more about them than I knew.
A shock that I had not recognized that, while they were huge in my life, bigger than life for half my life, they were mostly 2 dimensional characters in my life.
I knew them through a relationship.
I knew them through a role.

Maybe that is just the way that is supposed to be.

But please don't ever let me forget the sound of my own name.

Time

 When I was 7, I would go to bed after being tucked in and having a story read, after requesting a drink and getting a goodnight kiss, and cry.

For some reason that year brought with it a terrible realization.

Time. 

Time was not kind. 

Time stops for no one. 

Time changes us all and kills us all and takes us all away from the people we love.

That was not the first time anyone had died in my family.  It was not the first time a pet had died or, for the rude kindness of it all---disappeared.

It was not after the teacher had a class about telling time or after my first watch or after some time bandit TV show.

I did lose an uncle. A Great Uncle or a great-great uncle more specifically.  And he was like a grandfather to me after my grandfather had passed when I was 2.
 I went to the funeral instead of staying at the house with the other little kids for the first time. 
But I think the time obsession started before that.

Time, it was going to kill my dog and make my parents old and eventually die and make me old and eventually die.  It had made every little child that was ever born grow up and get old and die.  Or worse, they had not gotten to grow old.

It had made my father's parents gone long before I was born.

It had filled cemeteries and leveled houses and seen the end of endless animals.

It was relentless.

I cried about buffalo who were then going extinct and about dodo birds.  I cried about lions and tigers and bears.  I cried about the deer and cows and rabbits they ate. 

I cried.

It was all so sad and hopeless.

Eventually I learned to not think about time passing and taking everything with it just before I fell asleep.  Eventually I learned to avoid thinking about time---most of the time.

Then, I learned about geologic time.  And astronomic time.  And Eternity.

But, eventually I learned to see time--not as the enemy but as a gift.  It's what I have.  It's what I get to spend.  And while I don't know when my time ends, I know I have right now.

I do think that I'm recognizing with each passing year that my time is becoming more valuable to me, and more valued.  I don't want to sleep in very often and never till noon.  I don't want to spend too much time on things I hate doing or with people that aren't really my people--unless they are new, then the newness, the discovery time can be fun and educational.  I definitely don't want to just waste time.

But in the general scheme of things, in geologic time or on the space-time continuum, every second I have lived may have been like nothing. I'm not going to become a fossil unless I'm killed in some bizarre situation that prevents my cremation when I die (hopefully at home, in bed, totally unexpectedly).  I have not changed the world in any way that can be seen.  My children or great great great grandchildren may not significantly change the world.

But time, my time, is more important to me than money or souvenirs of life or fancy cars and houses that mark  so many as important.
I can't buy my time.
I can't guarantee my time.
All I can do is try to use every moment to the best of my ability--not just for productivity.  We humans might just be more productive than was ever good for the world.
Not for the betterment of the world or for mankind or for the glory of god, but because, when I got here, a squalling, naked girl child, all I had was time.  An unknown amount of hard to describe stuff that can not be given to anyone else, cannot be sold in a way that gives another more, and even in the wasting--can be enjoyed.
Now, I'm going to go have a day. Hopefully, we will all have one and enjoy every loud or quiet, long or rapid, soft or energetic moment.

Wandering

One of the things that cause me to exercise (It is not my habit although I know it's good for me) is a wooded path.
The longer and more twisted the path, the better.  And the first time is always the best, but I'm not above trying a path a few times in case I missed something the other times.  Truly, I would probably try it many times, because every time is an adventure.  There is always something different, a spider's web, a snake hole a strange lichen on the side of a downed tree.  And every trip is also dependent on who is with you.
I've gone alone with a camera and alone with nothing.  I've gone with other adults and with children of various ages.  Each change of companion changes the trip.  And season causes changes and weather causes changes and every changes makes the trip unique.
But the best thing, the very best part, is when i see nothing more intrusively human than a worn path in the forest floor.
No human activity.
No sounds but birds and insects and wind and rustling leaves from feet of whatever size.
No smells but forest smells.
No sights of buildings or cars or utility poles; just greens and browns interspersed with bright birds and pastel flowers and glittering rocks for miles.
After that, is the time, for time is a part of any trip.
And while I walk and listen, while I look and wonder, the problems and duties and conflicts and worries slowly fall from me, shed like my own old fall leaves.
Time cures all ills, and wandering forest path time is the most healthful of all in my neck of the woods.
I strongly suggest a wandering walk for today.
May the weather be with you.

IMAGINE

I have always been told I have too much imagination.  I am not realistic.

According to these people, we live in a democracy.  Democracies are always capitalistic.  Supply and demand should always be allowed to control everything--it will keep things fair and real.  Good people always come out ahead in the end.  Bad people always get their comeuppance.  Hard work always pays off.  Honesty is the best policy.  Poor people are just lazy.  We live in the best country in the world.  People in our state are the salt of the earth.  There is only one true religion--that is why they follow it.  And last but far from least--quit rocking the boat.

I have, at one time or another thrown serious questions at every one of those truths.
I might be a boat rocker.

I thought as I got older I would realize that the real world would take over my world view--maybe even had to.  I expected to come to agree with those people that constantly explained so patiently what was wrong with my imaginings about a better world---a better system of human governance.

I'm older.

It didn't happen.

The world is full of different ways of doing things. It has always been full of different ways of doing things.   As a child, I loved history--history movies, family history, history classes--but only later, when I went from the required American history class to those odd  history classes that were elective unless you actually had a history major--did I get to see behind the curtain.  Our official history is not very similar to every other place, culture, people, religion and country's history.  To understand a single war you must read many books from many perspectives and even then, you must be aware that its a book and does not cover everything.
The same is true of every leader's record and every religion's story.  To think you can memorize some dates and the names of some wars and presidents and know what happened, what was real, what caused what---ridiculous.  There is always more.  And in that more, there are people, millions of people, diverse people, rich and poor people,  all kinds of people with all kinds of imaginings.

The world is full of people that would love it if the world was more peaceful, more equal, slower paced, more cooperative.  Those people would be happier with sharing what they have more of than they need in exchange for what we have more of than we need.  They would be happy to show us their customs, their cooking, their clothing and jewelry designs and in exchange, we could show them ours.

We teach toddlers to share.  Sharing is not oppositional to our humanness.

I used to tell my parents that if we all had a job we liked, one we felt good about:  that used our strengths without being too boring or too unchallenging or too stressful.  And because all any of us really have is time--and not a known endless supply of that, we could all make the same amount of money for the time we do for our job. Because aren't we just trading our time for money?

Oh--the warnings I received.  The horrors described to me.  The awful people that would want to do easy work they weren't suited to and the lazy people that would do jobs too easy for them and---how would we know who was successful?

I argued, and explained, but ultimately the response was that without competition, no one would actually accomplish anything.  No one would strive.  Nothing new would ever be created.

Kind of funny, as my father created new things all the time, for free, because he needed something that did something and either no such tool was for sale or it was way too expensive.   Sometimes he made stuff for no other reason than he was bored.

He was terrible at business and hated working for other people because they wanted him to build things the way they said--even when it wouldn't work as well.   He spent his life doing work that was both boring and hateful to him and only at retirement did he get to do what he wanted.  He worked everyday after he retired at 63 until he was 76.   Then he focused on gardening until his health gave out entirely.

So many years doing what he hated then 13 years he loved.

I fear I follow in his footsteps.

I am capable of doing many things I enjoy.
They pay less than my bills each month.
So I do whatever job I can find that does not make me dread every day so I can pay my bills and dream of retiring--to the work I want to do.

I imagine a world in which every life is valuable enough to not be wasted in such a way.  A world in which those things that are doable by most people but held in low regard and given low pay will allow everyone to do what they love some of the time and allow those that actually like that work to make a living at it.

We hold our reality too close.  We lose sight of potentials that are not impossible--just not currently the way we do things.  We stop people with imagination from helping to make the world a much better place.

We are governed by sheepherders that don't like sheep.

The world can be better.  Most of us believe that.  Most of us have to believe that to keep going.

Just imagine a world doing what you love---every day--with people you love--every day.

No more losers that day--every day a special day worth living.

Just imagine....




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_YXSHkAahE

Reality Check

Extremism makes people think in extremes.  Polarization is another word for extremism.  Thinking in extremes is both dramatic and scary---but not necessarily reality based.

Reality has been taking a hit what with alternative facts and such.  But is still where most of us are trying to live.

Reality is--I'm sitting in a comfortably warm room with sufficient lighting and writing on my computer.  I'm not in hiding from a fascist regime out to get me (picture the diary of Ann Frank).  I'm not walking toward the border trying to escape a civil war that has destroyed my house and my neighbors houses (think Syrian refugees trying to get away from the fighting and find a place to raise their families).  I'm not stuck in a tiny cabin with inadequate food watching those around me be beaten or misused because I was sold into slavery and bought by a people that thought owning other people was OK (think American slavery).

I am not being forced into a marriage with someone I don't love or being left on the prairie in winter because I'm old.  I am not being burned for practicing herbal medicine or refusing to go to the approved church.  I am not being denied a job because of the color of my skin or the language I speak.  I am not being taxed at such a high rate I can't afford the basics necessary to life.  I am not refused emergency medical care because I don't have the money to pay for care.  I am not being stoned for a romantic tryst.  I am not being put in an orphanage for being born female.  I can still go to school if I have the money, and I went for free as a child.

My life could be much worse.  There are people whose lives were much worse.  There are people whose lives are still much worse.  And while many of those people are in other parts of the world or in other times, many are also in this country--now.

I am lucky.

There is sex trafficking in my town, both of adults from other countries and children from here and other countries.
There are people wrapped in garbage bags and newspaper trying to sleep out in the cold.
There are people that can tell me where the best dumpsters for edible food are and when is the best time to get to them.  They can also tell me what businesses pour bleach on their old food and take box knives to the clothing and shoes that go to the dumpster.
There are people locked in dormitories brought to this country for good jobs that are not allowed to leave and are charged all of that "good  money" for the crappy food they are allowed to eat and for the cot in an unheated warehouse they get to sleep.
There are old men and women whose utilities are off because they are buying their very expensive medications.
There are mentally ill people that are fighting internal monsters while the people running their boardinghouse keep the money and treat them badly and don't give them their medications.

I am independent, free to use my money as I wish, and capable of choosing how to spend my time.

I am lucky.

So when I hear about a wall going up, I think about the amazing great wall of china which no longer separates 2 kingdoms but serves as a tourist attraction and the Berlin Wall which was so despised--a symbol of what was wrong in the world and the great joy when it fell.  I have never been to Mexico.  I don't know anyone in Mexico at this time.  This wall will not affect me personally.

I am lucky.

When I hear about a ban on Syrian refugees and no more Muslim immigrants.  I'm not Muslim or even religious.  I have never been to Syria.  I don't know anyone from Syria.  This change will not affect me.

I am lucky.

When I hear the war against abortion rights and women's rights to choose about their bodies is being attacked--again, I don't like it, because I'm a woman.  But this will not affect me personally.

I am Lucky.

When I hear about a hiring freeze on federal employees, I realize that Veteran's just lost the availability of a lot of good jobs that they would have normally had a good shot at and that Veterans Healthcare, currently actively seeking both physicians and workers, will just have to continue limping along understaffed.  I realize that the Post Office may really go away.  But I am not a Veteran.

I am Lucky.

When I hear about getting rid of 75% of government regulations, I'm afraid that will mean environmental protection--stopping waste, toxins, poisons, being dumped into our water or released into our air so that the corporations that were spending money to keep their factories from endangering us all can make more money.  That will affect me.  But I am old so it will probably only shorten my live slightly.

I am lucky.

When I hear about us returning to a full-fledged coal and oil dependency in the name of our coal and oil workers and coal and oil barons, I'm disturbed.  But I have a Prius.  And I don't use coal.  And while I would love to see the skies continue to clear and waters to be spring-like, I am old--it will be alright.  My child-bearing days are over.  I will not have to see my descendants choked by the air or their babies malformed from drinking water contaminated not only with petroleum but with  benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene and other chemicals used to force the oil from the earth.  All I have to worry about is the multiple earthquakes that shake my house everyday and threaten to drop my bedroom down a floor or wedge my doors shut.  There are worse ways to die than in an earthquake.

I am lucky.

When I hear about denial of climate change, by men that profit from not believing in climate change, I am curious about those minds that can so lie to themselves that they endanger all those species--including our own.  But while I have never seen weather like this, the changes were already starting when I was a child.  It is obviously speeding up, and I will have to die before my statistically promised life expectancy is reached or move further north soon, if I would survive summers.  I fear I cannot afford to move.  I hear that while hyperthermia is not a pleasant death, it is relatively quick.

I am lucky.

I hope the changes don't get worse than this.  I fear my lucky streak may end.

What is fascism, really?

definitions:
a political philosophy, movement, or regime  that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.

an authoritarian form of government, although not all authoritarian regimes are fascist.

(Originally, "fascism" referred to a political movement that was linked with corporatism )
 
fascism, especially once in power, has historically attacked communism, conservatism and liberalism, attracting support primarily from what in a classical sense is called the "far right" or "extreme right"

the dictatorship of the most reactionary elements of financial capitalism.--Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital... Fascism is neither the government beyond classes nor the government of the petty bourgeois or the lumpen-proletariat over the financial capital. Fascism is the government of the financial capital itself. It is an organized massacre of the working class and the revolutionary slice of peasantry and intelligentsia. Fascism in its foreign policy is the most brutal kind of chauvinism, which cultivates zoological hatred against other peoples.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

Perhaps, its like pornography--"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"

 "At rallies—surrounded by supporters wearing black shirts—_________ caught the imagination of the crowds. His physique was impressive, and his style of oratory, staccato and repetitive, was superb. His attitudes were highly theatrical, his opinions were contradictory, his facts were often wrong, and his attacks were frequently malicious and misdirected; but his words were so dramatic, his metaphors so apt and striking, his vigorous, repetitive gestures so extraordinarily effective, that he rarely failed to impose his mood."

If you thought I was describing Donald Trump, Surprise!  This is a description of Benito Mussolini and his rise to power--Officially the first fascist leader at the beginning of a fascist rise that covered most of Europe and much of the American continent during the 1920's to as late as the mid-1970's.

The current rise of the ALT RIGHT, is a blatant attempt to resurrect the Nazi Party of Germany.  Adoph Hitler, a man of similar beliefs and oratory abilities to Benito Mussolini, raised the Nazi Party to a power which endangered the entire world--unless you were one of them.

That is the thing that doesn't seem to catch the people currently loving our latest rise of Fascism.  It is only great to White Men.  Their children and wives seem to be on board, but the females are not in line for any perks except not being threatened as long as one of the white males is protecting them, supporting them, and not tired of them.

Amazingly, fascism is not about  anything but money and power.  Deciding who has it.  Deciding who doesn't.  It is all about putting the power of the money in the hands of white men, and keeping it there--by any means necessary.

Fascism is about Business over individuals.
Fascism is about Caucasian over any other race.
Fascism is about Male over female and heterosexual over any other choices.

But the thing to remember, the most important thing to remember, is that all those fascist regimes, all those dictators, all those government changes were made through the normal election processes of the nations that became fascist.

They were voted in or appointed using the current government laws and rules; then all the checks and balances, all the individual protections of the people were removed by the new governing party using those same rules that changed such things as the tax rate and the budget.  All the opportunities for bettering yourself, your life, your family's lives, became dependent upon:
being white
being male
being a member of the fascist party.

If I were a billionaire white male with a tendency toward white supremecy (say, my father was arrested in 1927 at a KKK rally in Queens, New York), and favored women from parts of the world that had to use their beauty and bodies to obtain a man that could keep them in the manner they preferred, I might prefer it if my country was fascist.  I might even love knowing that in a fascist nation, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

The rest of us need to stay more alert than the world did in the 1930's when fascism caused World War II.

There were a lot of loser's in that one--on a personal level.   And a lot of them were white men with a soul.

nobody's wingman

The real definition of a wingman is a pilot whose aircraft is positioned behind and outside the leading aircraft in a formation.  I knew this definition from old war movies.  The hero was never the wingman.

 Modern definition of a Wingman (this was borrowed from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wingman  because it is great  )

A Wingman is a guy you bring along with you on singles
outings (like to bars) that helps you out with the women.

Typically in these ways :
• The Wingman will always be there to “occupy” least
attractive girl of the pair so that you may engage in the “hotty”
• Often, when an attractive girl is out with an ugly friend, she often feels restricted to not leave that ugly friend alone, thus making the hot girl, un-touchable.
• When the wingman technique is used, both girls are
approached by the men, and the Wingman automatically
engages in conversation with the ugly girl.
• Now that the hot friend sees that the ugly girl has finally found a man, she is now free to start scouting.
• This is where you come in “unexpectidly” and “accidentaly”, and begin catching up on “old times” with the Wingman.
• The Wingman then offers the ugly girl to dance, (which
rarely happens to her) so she wont be able to resist.

The wingman in this definition is also never the hero.

(this concept is repulsive on soooo mannnny levels)

I have noticed that many people allow themselves to be permanently cast in the wingman role.  Empty nester's, political wives, maybe all wives, single parents without partners, grandparents, roommates, you know---the beta wolves in the many relationships that make up our lives.

There is nothing wrong with being a beta, or being a caregiver, or being anything in a relationship unless we loose our selves without the role telling us who we are.

We all need to be---really be--without some other being telling us who we are.

If you have seen a widow that can't redefine herself except as a wife, a mother whose child is killed or merely grows up to be a successful and independent person, a divorcee that immediately starts hunting for a replacement spouse, a grandparent that has traded parenting for grandparenting with equal zeal, or worse the person that suddenly need pills and alcohol to fill the void.

They feel like they have lost someone.

They have.

They have lost themselves.

None of us are here just to be someone else's wingman.  We are all the hero's of our own stories, even if we make the story dark or tragic or pathetically shallow and superficial.

I am making my story, you are making your story.  And while you might have relationships, in fact you will have relationships---we are all in some sort of relationship with everyone else that crosses the path that is our life, we are not JUST the relationship.  We are not defined by our relationships, no matter how much we love--or hate, no matter how much we give--or take.  We define ourselves.

No one should think of themselves as just the wingman for someone else's success in life.

Live your whole life.
Be your whole self.
There are endless adventures for us all, at all ages.
Enjoy.

predictions for 2017

I've never really done predictions but thought this year would be a good year to try to predict what will, or better yet, what will not happen.

• President Trump will NOT start a nuclear war.  (maybe 2018 or 2019, but not 2017)
• We are going to have trade wars with China,  (China's exports to the US amounted to $502.7 billion or 21.8% of its overall imports.  America's exports to China amounted to
  $116.2 billion or 7.7% of its overall exports)
• There is going to be an increase in police/minority hostilities.
• There is going to be an increase in protests about minimum wage and about the environment; they will become longer and more violent.
• Next school year, we will be looking at a problem with decreasing teacher pay and more states going with vouchers so that parents can find their own schools.  With the government out of the education business, college entrance exams will be the only way to tell how the schools are doing.  College expenses will continue up, the only ones applying for those will be those with some means, so we will not know how many poor students are being uneducated.  (This is actually the goal.)
• Abortion will go to the supreme court again after the new Judge is confirmed--and  it will lose.  We will start seeing the old back alley deaths among the poor and desperate again.
• While taxes will go down, it won't happen in 2017 and only the top 5% of earners will see it.  
• The national deficit will go up as corporations are given more perks for doing their business here.
• A few factories will return, and will hire their new workers at minimum wage.  
• A new political party will start that is neither republican or democrat, but rather progressive.
• There will be a rise in hate crimes.
• There will be a decrease in people trying to enter this country legally or illegally.
• There will be a new US/Russian Alliance that is focused on trade and defense.
• The stock market is going to take a turn for the worst after the inauguration causing a return of recession.
• There will be an increase in air pollution and water pollution and health issues will increase.  Masks will be as popular here as they are in china.
• The ACA will be repealed and nothing will replace it although several bills will be started that focus on making states solely accountable for their poor people's health.
• There will be no state of union addresses, but there will be frequent tweets of the union.  All the news will be limited to 140 characters.

A war on poverty versus a war against the poor.

I keep seeing spikes in places homeless people used to sleep and police taking the belongings of transients and people arrested for feeding homeless people.  I hear coworkers griping about welfare queens like the Clinton Presidency didn't stop that in the 1990's.  I hear nurses griping about poor people abusing the emergency room because they are not having a real emergency while living in a state that didn't expand medicaid--thus millions still without health coverage have no choice but the ER.  I see people griping about people in dirty clothes and stinking when they walk past them on the street and trying to figure out how to remove those awful people from the scenery.

America HATES poor people.

We have a choice to make.  Do we fight poverty, or more specifically, decrease income inequality and improve opportunities for those not born into wealthy families, or do we just keep treating poor people like the enemy and fighting a war against their right to exist.

Being poor should not be a crime (unless it is a crime committed by the state).  Creating and maintaining poor people via institutionalized inequities should be.



Tenement housing in the United States started soon after the revolution.  In the very early 1800's,  New York City  began replacing single family residences with multistory (low to us now) multi unit dwellings.  Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City’s population) were living in tenement housing.  While the wealthy didn't live there, immigrants and eventually freedmen moved there.  It was the original melting pot--a place where a few found ways out and many drowned in crime and poverty.

The idea of keeping all the less desireables in one area quickly caught on and every large city developed their own tenement areas.  Smaller towns had to satisfy this need to not see, hear, or touch the ostracized--the American version of the "Untouchables" with railroad tracks.  Thus all those people that were born on the wrong side of the tracks.

The above pictures are government housing projects.  People with minimal money packed tightly together.  Inevitably the projects are placed in places that no one cares about--many relatively low-incomed have fought them being built in their area and won.  So a city will have one or two or three areas that get the projects.  Those areas are never the ones that the old money is in.  And they are not the areas that the new and developing businesses are buying in.  They put them where the old, culturally diverse, struggling to make it people are.

The places rapidly fill up with those with individuals that gained the least from their local schools.  They provide no mentors for the young as those people are not living in these places.  They are frequently in food deserts.  They are under served by public transportation.  They provide all the children raised in them with a first row seat to despair, poverty, hopelessness, chemical dependency, violence and death.  They are their own kind of public education system.

People that can, avoid ever going near them.  They are dangerous.

Babies and toddlers and little old ladies live in them.  Frequently for their entire lives.

Why do we concentrate all that horribleness?  Why fix it where those without can never know anyone, see anyone, meet anyone in their neighborhood but other people that have no hope but for a  life of crime, addiction or violence?

Drug lords and organized crime become the modern version of RobinHood.

Sports, Music, and Acting become a possible  way to fame and fortune with the expectation that the lucky young man or woman will pull the whole family out of the place they are mired in.

Before Social Security (1935), the poor house or poor farm was where the disabled, elderly, sickly and mentally ill would end up if they didn't have family that could afford to care for them.  The poorhouse was more institutional and until recently, many elderly associated them with Nursing Homes (having visited a few of the poorer versions of the nursing home, I can't even imagine them
when they were poorhouses and unmonitored for abuse and neglect)

Poor farms, which would take whole families at times, resembled prison farms and were not for those that were physically disabled.  They were not better than the poorhouses, but at least there was exercise and fresh air.   Both the poorhouse and the poorfarm had virtually disappeared by 1950 in the US.

Anti-loitering laws were originally to prevent homeless people from sitting in public areas, begging in public areas, and sleeping in public areas.  (then they were altered in the 1990's to stop gangs)

Public urination laws used to be about preventing people that weren't allowed to use public restrooms from urinating in alleys and parks.  (I wonder when and who that was directed at)  These days, the same laws are aimed at intoxicated people, homeless people and those that like to expose themselves.  To think that a homeless person could get on the sexual predator list for having to go #1 is rather interesting.  As every 3 year old knows, we all have to go.

• Citywide bans on camping in public have increased by 60 percent.




Citywide bans on begging have increased by 25 percent.




Citywide bans on loitering, loafing, and vagrancy have increased by 35 percent.




Citywide bans on sitting or lying down in particular public places have increased by 43 percent.
• Bans on sleeping in vehicles have increased by 119 percent. 

But to stop the war, we must stop the hate.
Why do those that aren't poor hate those that are?
Why do we assume that they would be fine if they had worked hard in school, listened to their parents, respected their elders, obeyed the law and gone to church.
Why do we assume that the kids made it to school daily or that their school was teaching them what they needed and not just trying to deal with the effects of a couple hundred poor kids a day--hungry, sick, malnourished, heavy-metal poisoned, PTSD'd kids.  Kids that watched their grandma get beaten, their father shoot up, their mother supplementing her income as a sex worker in a one room apartment, the attendant raping the kid in the next bed of the shelter, the foster dad selling kiddy porn.
And this is where the middle says--"see, I don't want my kid exposed to that, those people, those people..........."

Those people that are living in concentrated abuse and neglect with no way out, no helping hands, no mentors, no hope.  We have created concentration camps for our poor people so that not just one man or one family is degraded, but so that everyone is exposed to everyone else's trauma, abuse, neglect, and insanity.

We have created hell on earth.
Then we hate them for their lack of courage, their inability to rise above it, their moral failures and their ultimate passing on of the legacy of poverty.

My family passed along a love of fried food (yes, you can fry everything, anything and everything), cookies and gardening.  I have friends that's families love beer and football.  I have met people that have reunions to celebrate every graduation from the family university.  We all love to pass along family traditions.  But no one wants to admit their family has pedophiles or alcoholics or gambler's that can't quite quit.  Those get passed along also unless something or someone stops the cycle.  Picture growing up seeing all of the above and more on a daily basis.  And no one ever breaking any cycle.

Why would anyone question 200+ years of desperation, hunger and need leading to a family where every one does time in prison for trying to make some money they only way they have been taught.

Poor people need the same thing everyone else needs to succeed:

• role models that they know well and see daily succeeding
• early access to good learning opportunities--4 years old is too late
• someone to help them process those things they see that scare and terrify them (and not to live in a place where scary and terrifying things happen daily)
• a safe environment that is neither too cold or too hot, too crowded or too empty of stimuli
• healthy food and clean water
• a variety of people to interact with so they can see that there is more than one possible direction to go in their life.
• an understanding of their roots--and an ability to feel pride in those roots
• an understanding of their own possibilities in which they see enough people succeed that they believe they can also.

Everyone doesn't need to be rich.  Everyone doesn't need a couple of vacation homes and a 5 car garage.  But no one should be homeless, hungry, sick without healthcare options,  cold at home, and worst of all--hopeless for their own future.

Poor people aren't the enemy.  Poverty is.  And income inequality is making this worse.  We need to change the "survival of the fittest" mentality to one of cooperation and collaboration to make our country a good home for all its citizens.

The problem is only insurmountable when we keep doing everything the same as we did in the middle ages.