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Silent Majority …

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What if the silent majority of this country, is not moved by divisive politics, what if the silent majority believes in the ideals of this country, and that All Men Are Created Equal, means that black lives matter too… and that we have been guilty of riding on the shoulders, and labors and suffering of those less fortunate, and what if that silent majority is really about advancing  humanity to a higher purpose and broad inclusion of what it means to be a member of society.  What if silent majority means being Christian in the sense of following Christ’s teachings and loving one another instead of hate and prejudice and abhorrent lack of empathy?  What if being of a silent majority means that we respect and honor those that worship and believe different than we do?  What if the silent majority says that it matters not who you love,  how you love, only that you do not hate.  What if the silent majority is in the streets demonstrating for justice?  What if they are in their homes, rooting for someone to help articulate that we want to be prosperous but not by pushing others down to lift ourselves up, but rather lifting all of us through education, through opportunity, through understanding and empathy.  What if we are no longer silent?

 

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Thoughts on Education

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This is an excerpt from Darkwater,  written by W.E.B. Dubois and published in 1920.   I find it valuable and insightful today.  If we think of the problems of our time, I believe the source of much of our discontent remains, as a cause, inadequate education.   We often see our histories as we want to see them, not as they really are, we see our world as it is and think it has worked for us, why won’t it work for the next generation.  We invest so much into policing, criminal incarceration, and welfare, and other programs. When possibly investments that would better serve our society would improve our children, making them better people.  Improving how they see themselves, how they think and how they can be the source of our future advancement.  Alas however being honest about who we are and what we are doing and where are we going is a necessary first step.

From Darkwater:

“We have a right to assume that hundreds and thousands of boys and girls today are missing the chance of developing unusual talents because the chances have been against them; and that indeed the majority of the children of the world are not being systematically fitted for their life work and for life itself.  Why?

Many seek the reason in the content of the school program. They feverishly argue the relative values of Greek, mathematics, and manual training, but fail with singular unanimity in pointing out the fundamental cause of our failure in human education: That failure is due to the fact that we aim not at the full development of the child, but that the world regards and always has regarded education first as a means of buttressing the established order of things rather than improving it. And this is the real reason why strife, war, and revolution have marked the onward march of humanity instead of reason and sound reform. Instead of seeking to push the coming generation ahead of our pitiful accomplishment, we insist that it march behind. We say, morally, that high character is conformity to present public opinion; we say industrially that the present order is best and that children must be trained to perpetuate it.

But, it is objected, what else can we do? Can we teach Revolution to the inexperienced in hope that they may discern progress? No, but we may teach frankly that this world is not perfection, but development: that the object of education is manhood and womanhood, clear reason, individual talent and genius and the spirit of service and sacrifice, and not simply a frantic effort to avoid change in present institutions; that industry is for man and not man for industry and that while we must have workers to work, the prime object of our training is not the work but the worker—not the maintenance of present industrial caste but the development of human intelligence by which drudgery may be lessened and beauty widened.”

Blog, Poems

Equality for All on Flag Day 2020…

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I just came from posting the flag on the front of the house, I saluted it as I should for it is our flag day.  Commemorating the act of a continental congress to define a union of colonies, now states that will build a great nation with ideals that all men are created equal and none should be above the law.  On June 14, 1777, this congress decided that the equality of these colonies shall be represented in thirteen stripes, and the original thirteen stars on a blue field, a field with room for many more, many that will be welcomed to this land, this nation, and with reverence we’ll abide by the principles put forth by men who risked their lives to sign for independence and fairness and opportunity for the pursuit of happiness… and yet the pursuit of equality under the law continues.  Today I read a poem, that asks for forgiveness for our lack of generosity, for our thrashing of this dream of equality as we have practiced in these last so many centuries.  We know better now we think, yet read this poem from 1920, and ask if it is no different today than 100 years ago?    I had to find out what Darkwater was, and through the Gutenberg Project https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15210/15210-h/15210-h.htm
I found the book published in 1920. Called Darkwater by W.E.B Du Bois.   It is amazing… I included a poem from the end of Darkwater below…

 

After a Reading of “Darkwater”

By Elizabeth Curtis Holman

about

I did not think… I did not know… 
    What pale excuse is this I make
In answer to my brother’s woe, 
Age-long, for deep injustice sake!

Across his mute and patient soul, 
   While I have gone my heedless way,
The shadows of a fate might roll
   That deepened night and darkened day.

But I have read a burning page,
  That glowed with white and soul-wrung fire,
And now no more I may engage
    My conscience with a feeble hire. 

For all the wrong I did not heed, 
   Chance-born in happier paths to live,
I cry unto my brother’s need
  One word of love and shame… forgive!

 

At the end of Black Water is the following Poem By W.E.B Du Bois: 

A Hymn to the Peoples

O Truce of God!
And primal meeting of the Sons of Man,
Foreshadowing the union of the World!
From all the ends of earth we come!
Old Night, the elder sister of the Day,
Mother of Dawn in the golden East,
Meets in the misty twilight with her brood,
Pale and black, tawny, red and brown,
The mighty human rainbow of the world,
Spanning its wilderness of storm.
Softly in sympathy the sunlight falls,
Rare is the radiance of the moon;
And on the darkest midnight blaze the stars—
The far-flown shadows of whose brilliance
Drop like a dream on the dim shores of Time,
Forecasting Days that are to these
As day to night.
So sit we all as one.
So, gloomed in tall and stone-swathed groves,
The Buddha walks with Christ!
And Al-Koran and Bible both be holy!
Almighty Word!
In this Thine awful sanctuary,
First and flame-haunted City of the Widened World,
Assoil us, Lord of Lands and Seas!
We are but weak and wayward men,
Distraught alike with hatred and vainglory;
Prone to despise the Soul that breathes within—
High visioned hordes that lie and steal and kill,
Sinning the sin each separate heart disclaims,
Clambering upon our riven, writhing selves,
Besieging Heaven by trampling men to Hell!
We be blood-guilty!
Lo, our hands be red!
Not one may blame the other in this sin!
But here—here in the white
Silence of the Dawn,
Before the Womb of Time,
With bowed hearts all flame and shame,
We face the birth-pangs of a world:
We hear the stifled cry of Nations all but born—
The wail of women ravished of their stunted brood!
We see the nakedness of
Toil, the poverty of Wealth,
We know the Anarchy of Empire, and doleful Death of Life!
And hearing, seeing, knowing all, we cry:
Save us, World-Spirit, from our lesser selves!
Grant us that war and hatred cease,
Reveal our souls in every race and hue!
Help us, O Human God, in this Thy Truce,
To make Humanity divine!
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The Question of Institutional Racism…

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Yesterday I was sent an article from a friend.  The article was from National Review, this is a right wing (right of right) news/commentary outlet that I’ve never seen before.  The article, very well written, uses data in a way to convince the reader that racism is not institutionalized in the police and justice system in our country.  He asked what I think.   The word institutionalized is critical.   Per Merriam-Webster dictionary, the applicable definition is: established as a common and accepted part of a system or culture…  So, we can examine if the “system” has features that promotes or allows racism and or a “culture” that promotes or allows racism?   Also, we could ask if other systems that interact with the system at question has a way of influencing the Institutions of law enforcement and judicial or criminal system.   For example, education, economic, and even healthcare systems.

There is a classic argument those on the left make vs. those on the right.  The right says, if you have equal opportunity, there is no racism.  The left says, if the results on a large sample size show great disparity, then there is not equal opportunity, and therefore there is racism.  As measuring opportunity and how it’s presented to people is extraordinarily difficult, requiring sampling through control groups, the statistical results associated with outcomes are more indicative of assessing if there is racism.   But even if the numbers show extraordinary bias, such as 3x the number of blacks died from COVID-19, 2x die from interacting with police, 3x are unemployed, and 3x more likely large company “C” positions are white, 3x blacks over whites are incarcerated, etc.  This does not mean the racism is systemic, it can mean that the system is designed to be fair, but the people in the system that make the day-to-day decisions are racists, i.e. it is part of the culture that allows it to be accepted.

The issue is complex, but the data is overwhelming that there is a problem.  My theory is that in all cases except maybe professional sports (NFL, NBA) the numbers indicate a profound racism is prevalent in our society.  As I have witnessed it myself, and so many others have testified to it and are protesting it, I know it is there.  I believe there are also changes in the system that could be made to better hold racists that operate in our systems accountable.  Remove them before they do harm, or hold them accountable per the law in a way that is just and timely.  Given the low rate of conviction for police that kill civilians (black as well as white) I believe that the criminal justice system is too cozy with law enforcement, and there is insufficient oversight.  Within such a system, racists cannot just exist, but do outsized damage to our society.  I’m confident that most police are good and are not racists, but if there is limited oversight, and a too cozy relationship with prosecutors then racists can operate with relative impunity within the context of this system.

I also think that we who have lived with the privilege of being white should help move the understanding and conversation toward resolving the issue of racism and grievances of 13% of the population that are black, as well as the approximately 17% of the population that are brown, because it is right and Christian to do so, and because it is in our best interest to have a society that lives and functions in harmony rather than discord.  Destruction of property, destruction of our economy, threats to our infrastructure, are all the things that can and will happen as a society tumbles into chaos because we cannot see, hear and empathize with those that are hurting.  We can help leave the world a better place or make it worse, this is the choice of this time and this generation.  I know what my choice is.

With regard to the article I read, I felt as if it was using data and clever encapsulation of the issue into narrow enough bounds to make a case that racism is not the problem that “the liberal media” is making it… the article and approach is misleading, and can even be dangerous.

 

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Geological time

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Why is it that you can go back in time as you go deeper in the Earth? Where do all the layers of dirt and rock come from? Is the earth getting bigger?  We live in the Holocene era.  This era of time is near the surface.  But millions of years in the future someone will be digging down to our time, to see what we were like, what refuge we left behind, what records of our primitive behaviors, our wars, our industry, our pollution, and our lives and entertainment.

But back to the question, does the Earth get fatter?  Well not really, the Earth is recycling, it brings it’s core through volcanic action lava and ash to layer over the surface.  Water crushes rock and deposits it from rivers and glaciers move boulders, and rock and dirt is displaced, and continents move, creating mountain ranges that give us majestic views.  The layering of one continent over another drives them to grand heights and layers of earth below.  Our planet is living and breathing at a metabolism much lower than we can sometimes comprehend.  But it is alive and it will have its say about our era, and sometime in its lifetime it will bury us deep, deep enough that we will start over and find our way towards a new era, billions of years from now.

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An unbelievable scene…

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Last night I was watching the news and saw the federal police use horses to push peaceful demonstrators off the streets in front of the white house, they used rubber bullets and tear gas as well as their horses and batons to move people, so that the president could speak on the lawn and tell the states to get their act together, to beat up and rough up the protesters, or he would send in the military, and he was doing this to protect our rights to have guns (2nd Amendment) and law and order. … the guns-right thing could only be to send a message to his right wing-nuts that they could carry guns into state capitols and intimidate others to get the country open and protect their businesses literally and figuratively.  And he made no mention of the tragic killing of yet another black man at the hands of criminal police that need to be justly arrested, tried and convicted, a right they denied George Floyd… then it became clearer why the streets were cleared of protesters, as he walked across the street for a photo-op in front of St. John’s church that was boarded up because of previous night damage during protesting turned violent.  People were hurt and treated roughly so he could go for a photo-op holding a bible, initially upside down until one of his sycophants corrected the pose.  Protesters were wrong to do damage to property and hurt others, including police, and the president is wrong to stoke divides in this country.
My God, what evil has been unleashed on our country by our own people, by our votes that said we don’t care what kind of person he is, just tear down the (deep) state… the mechanisms of government that protected us for years and still work despite his drive toward authoritative rule …. we are descending into a hell of our own making… rather than taking the opportunities to address the sins of our past and present with just changes and understanding and sympathy for others.   Donald, just go to your bunker and stay there locked away with your fear and go ahead and spin your narcissistic stories of greatness, but keep it to yourself, your form of help is not needed anymore.

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If Mark Twain was here

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I was watching a biography by Ken Burns on Samuel L Clemmons, better known as Mark Twain.  He was a fascinating humorist, wit, and world traveler, as well as the defining American author.  Mark Twain made wonderful observations of the human condition.  I wonder what he would be saying about our world today… here are some thoughts.  He would be 185 this year.

If the man wants to put his name on everything, including stimulus checks, then let this be known as the Trump virus.

With all this wonderful new technology, planes and such, we can travel so much faster today, but we cannot seem to travel faster than a virus.

I found that through paper I could get any fool idea to millions of people in a few months, now I can get any fool thought to billions of people in less time than I finished this thought.

In my day I, saw the ravages of slavery and racism, but also the willingness of Finn to go to hell to save Jim… Today he might be providing food and medicine to the deserts of poverty, and still willing to go to the hell prescribed by those still waving a flag for a war they lost when I was just 30 years old.

I’ve been watching our President now for a long time, tell me first not to worry, it’s all going to go away, that it is a hoax, that we will do better than any nation, that we are prepared, that anyone who wants a test will get a test, and they are beautiful… We loved to be entertained when the carnival barker came to town, now he’s here every day, and the only entertainment is that we now are willing to believe the huckster!

There is something about writing a book, something about telling a story, where lies can be woven together with truths so that we are moved toward a higher thought, or enjoy a laugh with each other.  Seems to me tweets are a poor substitute, and only purpose is to enjoy a laugh at each other instead of with each other.

If this virus gave us dysentery, I wonder if all the Kleenex would be off the shelves at the market?

There are 450 channels on TV and nothing to watch… It’s like being at a library and all the books have nothing in them.

You know shaking hands can tell you a lot about a man, now if you see it happen, it can tell you even more about both of them.

I saw a politician go into a hospital without a mask to meet with pandemic patients, doctors and nurses, and shake their hands, my gosh they don’t make them any smarter today than they did when I was young.

Mark Twain (imagined)

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Transformational Times and Easter Sunday

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Every few generations, every 50 or 70 years, the world seems to present a seminal event that transforms who we are, that brings about the creativity and the initiative that is needed to move humanity toward a better future.  These seminal events always are painful, with great suffering, then we rise above it.  Jesus showed us the way two millennial ago, when he overcame great suffering and death to rise again and to teach us.  We are still commemorating this transformational gift to humanity today, even this very day!

So too, it is right for us to reflect on what presents as challenges today.  The suffering must change all of us.  These times present an opportunity to our next generation to bring science, math, testing, service, sacrifice, compassion, even humor in a creative and innovative way to problems we have previously ignored.  Problems with poverty, social/economic divides, politics, mythologies that affect the very survival and health of humanity.   We don’t know what the changes will be, but there will be change.  We don’t know what the lasting effects will be, but they will be there and they will be the legacy of the generation that is learning today about what things we must value.  Education, health, science of testing, of data, of modeling, and how and who pays to reconstruct our economies.  Maybe universal healthcare will be viewed differently when the bills come due for the battle being fought.  Maybe we’ll have a different understanding of the impact of improper nutrition and inadequate education on the communities that will pay the highest price in this pandemic.  Maybe we’ll value frontline warriors currently in this fight more generously.  Maybe those that are homeschooling will value anew the educators in our society.  Possibly we’ll have a renewed sense of what is important in our lives as we socialize at a distance.

But for sure we will change.  For sure our next generation will bring forth ideas and creativity and purpose and they will do it with more compassion and more love than some of us that came before.

Yes, there are profiteers, and scammers and others that evilly take advantage of this situation, just as there were soldiers casting lots for the garments of Jesus… but they will not fare well in the coming world and coming times.

I put my faith in the resurrection of humanity led by a new generation that is coming into awareness at this time.  A new generation that will transform our world in ways hard for us to imagine today.  But it will happen.  It must, for it is the history and legacy of humanity.  For every tragedy there is a response, an advancement, and I for one have great hope in humanity and our young adults that are truly amazing.

Happy Easter!

 

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Hope…

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This is a crazy time, and to feel the stress and worry is normal, I certainly have experienced stress. But there is always hope.  There’s always hope in each other.

My mind is bouncing around today.  In part because I was thinking of all the changes we’ll experience in the world going forward, it is mind boggling.   I just read a part of an article about how things will change culturally, post pandemic, how much travel might change, for example.  It caused me to remember how much travel has changed in the last 40 years.  The early days of travel for me was very different than what we have experienced recently.  Then it was as if I was leaving planet home.  Calls were hotel room calls, that were expensive, there were no cell phones.  I remember that more than a couple of bucks of calls and you’d get called out by your boss for travel expenses.  I remember a boss telling me that he cannot understand how we could possibly spend more than $25 a day in meals… this was when we were traveling in the LA area.  All reservations, and ticketing and even maps were paper.  Do you know how to read a map, let alone fold a map?  I always had a file with me of stuff I might need.  Traveler Checks were even a thing.  Travel agents, their phone number and always some change for pay phones were vital if something went wrong. Now everything has been made easy, fluid, and connected.  We like to explore, and we can.  But will we after this? How long will it take for us to forget, to let our guard down?  We went from traveling half-way around the world on a whim, to not being able to visit friends for dinner at the restaurant on the corner.  What a crazy time.

But back to hope… It is what we must always keep, and hold precious.   Yes, everything changes, and certainly our world has changed more quickly than ever before.  But it is our option to look forward with hope.  Emily Dickinson was an amazing poet of the 19th century.  I read this poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers” and thought it is great, and we could all use a little more hope.  That little bird hope, that chirps in our souls and keeps us going at all times, keeping us positive.  It asks so little of us, and gives so much!

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – (314)

By Emily Dickinson

 “Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm – 

I’ve heard it in the chilliest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

 

Blog, Poems

Virtually Exploring Art Museums…

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This morning, I’ve been thinking about, actually I’ve been exploring art and art museums virtually.  Clearly there is no possibility of travel, even to the local St. Petersburg museum of fine art, or others that are local such as the Ringling Art museum, and Dali Art museum.  However, there is amazing fine art to be viewed and museums with tours.  Some of the site’s I’ve visited this morning include https://artsandculture.google.com/project/art-camera

A google project that includes high resolution photos of paintings with an explanation of the approach that the artist was taking, and the spirit of the painting.  There is the cave art, the earliest art by man, explored and viewed at Chauvet, https://artsandculture.google.com/story/sgUB9Mfa0DpmPA

There are virtual tours also using the google street map technology, I found however that some of that was tedious and difficult to navigate, but I admire the intent and ambition to allow us to wander and browse from our couches.

David Morgan of CBS news posted a guide to museum virtual tours that I’ve done some exploring with. https://news.yahoo.com/virtual-museum-going-guide-socially-102021811.html

As I clicked thru on to the MET from this article, I found myself looking at the sculpture tour, called body language.  On the ‘Vine’ I found the video of an interpretive dance reflective of the statue, as well as description of the art.  Very interesting. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/viewpoints/the-vine

A painting featured here is a photo I took at the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art.

Painted in the 1830’s it is a pre-impressionist (like I really know what that means) piece that is brilliant, colorful, and even though it is not realistic, it seems to be alive.  This little girl of maybe five, alive forever, anxious to go play, but obedient to the artist, thinking not of any great future, but of only the moment, and the inspiration, or instinct for the next moment.  Bright and buoyant, captured forever, just at this moment.

Bright and Buoyant

My silent protest, I’m alive
Sitting for a moment I’m told
But I want to play, I’m five
Holding flowers, I’m bold
Of color, from the fire glow
Forever, I’ll be bright, and five
Forever here, I couldn’t know
Bright and buoyant and alive
Beyond this I’ll never show
A life beyond the age of five