Falls Coming!
Summer is tired and worn
Hot and humidity forlorn
Boring, little relief, rerun groans
Thankful for summer Game of Thrones
Our team’s boringly out of the race
Since All-star game, they’ve been off the pace
Football excitement coming soon
Weekends busy all thru an afternoon
Tired of wet and summer’s evergreen
Color our fall memories we have seen
Coolness and hopeful dry
With beautiful and clear sky
Come-on fall, drive away summer’s swoon
I’m sure we’ll call on spring sometime soon!
I fear history will think of us as an aberration, as we lost opportunity to advance enlightenment ideals of our patriot fathers, of the republic that so many generations built, of the battle for civil rights, of the generations that fought to raise our country up to be the shining example on the hill, including the prior generation that fought and beat the fascist and racist ideals of Nazi Germany. Yet we have allowed as a generation to see a degradation of political and democratic ideals of compromise and progress. We have allowed through ignorance of history and poor judgement the election of a president that degrades our nation and ideals. What will history think of us? Sure, not all of us have voted for this president. Not all of us own the results of an unproductive congress for the last decade… or do we? We fail to communicate. We fail in our values, and we fail to counter in our communities, schools, and our society the uneducated, unenlightened and ignorant expressions and votes of our fellow citizens. How will history judge us?
Will we continue to rationalize, continue to apologize for hate and say its not us, when evidently it keeps rising to challenge the peace of our cities, and our society? We cannot look to our president for moral authority, he doesn’t have it, so why do we look? I submit we look for what he’ll say because it’s like watching a wreck on the highway. We cannot help but look. We allow those that express amoral and unenlightened views more air time than those that offer solutions. We need to change how we educate, how we speak to each other and we need to call out racism and hate with reason. Think about this, no person is born as a racist or bigot, it must be a learned trait, and therefore it can be unlearned through education and reason. Andrew Young, Civil rights leader, reminded us today that the civil rights movement did show that by addressing the priorities of war, racism and poverty in a peaceful, reasoned way could be successful, but it must be continued and not lost in message by all the noise that is Donald Trump, and his alignment with the Alt-Right!
How will history judge this generation, for what we have done, or what we have failed to do?
To be judged as we really wish to be judged, we must change. Its up to us to change the trajectory of our country and generation, we are responsible for knowing and learning the lessons of history, we are responsible for listening and believing when someone tells us who they are. When a politician tells us with clarity that he is a racist and misogynist, we should accept him at his word and not expect his behavior will improve in power. We need to stop making excuses for our generation, our fellow citizens, and our representatives in government. We need to hold our leaders to the standard of enlightenment and reason, including: … “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Off to School
Off to school when first you know
It’s beyond the home you really grow
A story has so many points of view
Every book and every chapter’s new
Each year a story is added for you
Maybe crayon in finger paint when two
Soon pages turn ever faster
As life stories and plots we master
We build the stories that we live
Learning, loving, taking and we give
A chapter turns, and our story is clearer
Career, college and tests are nearer
No longer does someone read to you
You are responsible for your own point of view
Into the next chapter future burning
Pages written and more rapidly turning
Careers and life and loves are like blowing winds
Driving where and how the next chapter begins
Your children off to school, at various ages
You find consuming story as you help turn their pages
Before too long you are reading grandkids stories
Your book, their book, in chapters you revel in all their glories
So, it’s back to school this time of year
So, write your grand story, bold, happy and without fear!
The Next Day
It’s bright, it’s beautiful and clear
Tide is up, waves sending up a cheer
It was desolate just yesterday
It is nearly crowded today
Step is lighter and mood bright
Everything seems suddenly right
A difference a day can make
A difference a mind can’t shake
The foulest of gray thought of a day
The next day bright will wash it away
Loved ones in heart and mind
Fresh and bright with day aligned
A day like the next appreciated best
Like in life when compared with the rest
Let your every gray day end at night
There will be a next day shiny and bright
By the Long Island Sound
Yesterday’s sky was gloomy and gray
The ocean whipped by wind did spray
Birds treaded water in the sky
Screamed at the wind by and by
Walk was chilly, wind whipped my ears
Even my eyes bring some tears
Weather forcing some gloomy thought
Gray and foreboding ideas brought
Another soul on the beach, a photographer
Capturing birds on shore or floating in the air
At least it did seem someone else cared
For this morning and beach to be shared
Looking forward to vacation by the bay
Hope this works as a pleasant place to stay
Sure, it will clear up and happy we will be
For the next day, maybe brighter by the sea
We find ourselves in a digital age that includes the instantaneous capture of imagery and video in exquisite detail and clarity, in unprecedented quantities for ubiquitous viewing. Remarkable. In a not too distant past an artist would capture in pencil or paint images that would present a picture to a reader or if reprinted, maybe viewed by many others at a postal delivered date, or newspaper, and possibly for kept for posterity. Images were for capturing a moment, capturing an idea and capturing a personality and they were precious to certainly a few, and in rare cases to the many. Later with the advent of photography, we still relied on an artist to accomplish in less time than one could sketch or paint to capture imagery, but the intent was still to ensure the moment, the memory, and personalities were captured mostly for prosperity, possibly for communication, and even entertainment. In most recent history, we were blessed with photography and cinematography that could be made available by both the professional as well as the amateur for the enjoyment and benefit of masses of people through replication, and through analog communication technologies, such as television. Overall remarkable progress in less than 200 years. However, in the last decade we’ve enjoyed digital cameras built into smart phones, we’ve seen digital storage means and social communication forums that extend not just the professional, but all amateurs, the right and privilege of mass communication.
Wonderful technology. Grandparents can see distant grandchildren as they grow. Ideas can be illustrated and communicated for the purpose of learning. Millions are entertained, with little effort, even going to the movies is not necessary, they come to you. Distant relationships can be maintained, loved-ones are always virtually connected. Yet do we value this technology and capability in the same way we did when it wasn’t so easy to wait for film to develop, when it meant something to see another’s photo album, when pictures in the mail were a special treat?
How about the joy of a postcard from faraway, with precious few handwritten words to read of some loved-one’s travels? Some of you who read this won’t remember those days, and may never then appreciate the convenience of the technology at your figure-tips. But then you will never have the same level of appreciation for how much effort others went through to capture images and thoughts, and ideas to share. How much more intimate is a letter and a photograph in the mail versus a pic and a note on Facebook? One took hours and some expense to express, the other a few seconds and much less than a penny. Well then again maybe not. Maybe because we now have hundreds, even thousands of pictures from our ever-present camera phones to sift through. Consider the energy and time to pick the right ones for sharing. Consider the pressure of constant sharing, because it’s supposed to be easy is a similar expression of consideration and even love, but is it personal? It seems quite anti-personal communication. Yet us viewers have the social obligation to at least hit the “like” button!
Recently I was looking through some photos my Mom found in an old trunk she had. That trunk may have been 200 years old, but the photos were of her, her Mom and Dad and other family members. Beautiful to see perfect glossy, artful pictures of my grandparents when they were very young, and my Mom as a child. Even a letter from my Grandfather to my Grandmother from 1944, during a period of separation. Worry about her working in a munitions factory, missing her, encouraging her to get a new record by Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots, ‘I’m Making Believe’. Interesting insights to the people they were, the times, with even a view to handwriting and evident emotions. I wonder if someday in the future will it be possible to stumble on to the digital version of a trunk of pictures, of words, ideas and emotions. Will it be possible to find in the billions of terabytes those insights, pictures, maybe even this blog? Well at least if we can discover there is a reason for interest, we can even listen to Ella and the Ink Spots version of ‘I’m Making Believe’ from 1944 preserved digitally! And we can even “Like” it!
This last week Miosotis Familia, 48-year-old mother of 3, and herself the youngest of 10 children from a Dominican Republic family that immigrated to New York was killed, assassinated, because she was a police officer working in the Bronx. There is significant danger for those that choose an occupation with the intent to protect us, the public, and to ensure our nation is a nation of laws and civility, we should be forever grateful to all those who risk their lives to protect us.
In Honor of Miosotis Familia
Love, laughter, a family, a future
She dreamt and worked to ensure
And to a higher commitment of a civil cause
Never expecting glory, recognition or applause
A commitment to another family of blue
With oath of service, keeping the peace for me and you
Knowing danger, knowing pain
Out there, in snow, heat or rain
Risking daily for our safety and peace
Fear, tension that can never cease
You who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice
Who’ve given more than anyone could ask
For you and your family we do pray
As well your family of blue still in danger every day!
I had a debate recently with a newly minted doctor about healthcare and healthcare insurance. He was incredibly excited about the prospects for medical improvements due to research and the application of technology, sometimes called smart medicine. It was his belief that these advancements will bring down the cost of healthcare over time as well as dramatically improve efficacy. His argument is that capitalism in the healthcare markets allows for these advancements, and that a national healthcare system would certainly curtail these investments. I was making the case for a government sponsored/payer system. That insurance companies could compete to provide local or regional administration of healthcare, thereby ensuring some competition for renewable delivery contracts as is common in large federal contracting today. I think there is room for both capitalism as well as socialism in healthcare. Yes I know many will read socialism as a bad word, but truly health insurance has a good for society component. Some element of basic care will always be guaranteed simply because to not do so would jeopardize the social fabric. There will always be individuals that will risk not having healthcare due to financial imperatives of the now that outweigh the future, and then they’ll show up at emergency rooms looking for care. We cannot turn them away because our social constructs will not allow for it, we are not a people without compassion. So it was my argument, that we have a certain basic health care that is guaranteed for by our federal government and that supplemental insurance that co-exists to provide a capitalism component. Yes, it will be difficult to define what is “guaranteed” in healthcare, and what would be supplemental, but that is a healthy debate to have. Healthcare insurance as someone recently said is complicated. It seems to me that we need to set our priorities and then have the debates needed to arrive at a solution. Our country has tackled complex problems successfully many times in the past. Together, bridging the divides with vigorous debate is the way forward. And to my young doctor friend, keep fighting to ensure that advancement in medicine will be part of the future!
The magazine website: www.words-matter.net will be presenting several articles in the coming weeks on health care, and I’ll be contributing. Please give it look!
Patriots Ideals
Ideals defined by thought and design
Those words become one with us
Forever fair and free in heart and mind
Committed complete and with resolve
To share, care, protect and nurture
Never weak or slow to problem-solve
With higher purpose and with pride
Protecting our freedoms, doing what’s right
Onto the challenge, into the fire we do ride
Whenever wherever those colors do fly
There too are the thoughts and words
Meaning and purpose no one can deny
Through this creation of freedom air
Our patriot’s words and deeds ensure
A nation, a people beyond compare
Our united ideals were always right
Learning, welcoming, understanding
America’s past, present and future’s bright!
Last night we went to a Salute to America Concert at Greenfield Village, Dearborn MI. This concert has been presented every year for 25 years. It featured the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and The US Army Jazz Band in accompaniment. It was a beautiful evening, and the concert was great and so too were the fireworks!. The 1812 Overture at the end with cannon accompaniment was extraordinary, and made everyone jump! I don’t know if I’ll ever listen to symphonic music on a regular basis, but sometimes it is so uplifting as it demonstrates what we as humans can collectively create through so many separate efforts. So many instruments combined into beautiful music that inspires. The passion of an individual artist is amazing to see, and sometimes when you focus on a single artist perform you come away with a great sense of their soul as it is exposed through music. However, 50 people all playing their part with passion rises up to an unassailable force and wall of passion and sound. I’m sure you know the experience and understand it if not exactly in these words, then in that feeling in your chest that rises up into a sensory explosion as the mind tries to follow the flow of the music, even individual notes, it’s ebb of emotions with quiet sounds of few instruments, and rising crescendos of all musicians expressions and play, wow!
The Army Jazz band in accompaniment and solo performances were great too, they mixed in some Jazz and Swing as well. The Army Band also played a Jazzy version of each of the Armed Services songs, they asked all the veterans and current military to stand when they hear their service’s song. My dad looked so absolutely proud to be standing during the Navy’s Anchors Away song… he seemed to stand a little taller and straighter than usual on this his 83rd birthday!