Cultural Warring in the Schools

SURVEYS REPEATEDLY INDICATE that we the American people, including and especially parents, overwhelmingly approve, by a margin of four to one, of the nation's public school system just the way it is, which means, progressive. Most Americans corrrectly believe that most American teachers at all levels do not need to be told by legislation whether and when to allow comments or material realting to sexual orientation. Most American paresnts are perfectly happy ot trust the judgment of the teachers and school administrations. A huage majority of the American peope strongly believe that it is vitally important to teach the truth about history, American history in particular, including the part about slavery, discrimination, and racism, regardless of who or who might not be offended and enotionally hurt by the information. The American people, by a large majprity, do not approve of the recent outburst of state laws passed by conservatives in about half the states intended to deny the existence, in public schools. of gay and transgender people, and systemic racism in American history and society. The American people overwhelmingly do not approve of censorship of any sort, particualrly banning books in public schools. Conservative politicians all across America's fruited plain are passing laws banning books in school libraries which speak favorably about gay and transgender people, and which speak honestly, which is negatively, about American slavery ad racism. A majroity of the American people do not disapprove of gay and trsnsgender on moral or religious grounds, like conservatives tend to. A large majority of the Amerian people believe in inclusion, acceptance, and equality for folks of all sexual orientations. The "Culture War" is a seminal feature of the so called "Great Divide" in America, and is the focus of the far right right now, as midterm elections approach. The Democrats, the progressive community in general, need to emphasize teh message thar most Americans support progressive social values, the progressive agenda, rather than the conservative one, in the "culture war". Most Americans want to accept LGBTQ folk as equal. Most Americans want the nightmarish truth about the African-American question, past and present. If research constantly repeated shows the same results, over and over again, such as enduring ubiquitous systemic American racism, which it in fact does, we the American people want to know about it, and need to know about it. We don't want to pass laws censoring truth out of our system, simply because we hate truth and prefer fantasy. History is not for the faint of heart. Neither is education.

Reconciling

IN THE UNITED STATES it often seems that the msot fervant, zealous, devout Christians are also the most fervant, zealous, devout conservative Republicans, and worst of all, Trump supporters. It sometimes almost seems as if there is a societal marriage of sorts between fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity and political, economic, and social conservatism, and, especially now, between evangelical Christianity and the Trump movement, of which many of its members are idneed evangelicals. Social conservatism; limitations on various forms of pleasure, seems somewhat compatibale with the message of Jesus Christ, who preached devotion to God rather than to things of the flesh or material wealth. Aligning modern American political and economic conservatism with the basie, widely understood ideology espoused by Jesus is arguably a much more difficult, even impossible undertaking; that Christianity and conservatism are, in fact incompatible. Modern American conservatism embraces capitalism of the purest kind, with as little government involvement and regulation of it as possible. The wealthy become wealthy with God's approval. Jesus, however, in all his comments, was very obviously a hard core advocate for redistributing wealth, from the wealthy to the poor. He also famously told people to pay their taxes, and quit complaining about it. Taxing the ridh, redistirbuiting teh wealth by assistance for the poor are all liberal, progressive policies, not conservative. It seems quite a stretch of logic and imagination to construe that the teachings of Jesus are favorable to corporate capitalism, but not democratic socialism. He seems, in fact, to strongly encourage voluntary personal poverty. Or at least a mdoest standard lf living. For the walthy to enter into heaven, Jesus warns, is essentially impossible. The Bible says nothing about many of our most controversial political issues of today, including climate change, racism, economic equality and inequality, and abortion. We must extrapolate, trying to match the general intent of Jesus's teachings with our modern circumstances. Somehow, intuitively, one is impelled to sense that nurturing the child in the womb unto its birth day and beyond seems much more in the spirit of Jesus than willfully aborting a fetus. The solution to the abortion issue is neither liberal nor conservative politics, but rather, safe, effective, accessible contraception. Ultimately, all our global concerns have solutions, and the Christian message can be a worthy guide in decision making. Ignoring or distorting this message in pursuit of personal gain and for personal convenience can result in abominations and harmful contradictions such as "Christian conservatism".

Identifying Traitors

CALLING AN AMERICAN CITIZEN a "traitor" is serious business, will almost always get you into a fight, and therefore demands proof. Knowingly, deliberately attacking and harming your country makes you a traitor. If the Confederate States of America were not the ultimate traitors, then the United States of America, eighty five years prior to The Civil War, certainly were. Both abandoned and made war against their own government. To identify traitors, you take into consideration the words and actions of people towards their own government and country. If the president of the United States refuses to acknowledge and accept his defeat for reelection in a fair and free election, she becomes a traitor, at least to the democratic process upon which the U.S.A. is founded, if not to the U.S.A...If everybody refused to accept election results, democracy couldn't exist. One must never accuse anyone of fraud in a free and fair democratic election without first providing proof. President Trump, with two weeks remaining in office, assembled and motivated a crowd to anger, then told it to "go to the Capitol and fight", his exact words. It did just that. It became a violent mob, and tried, very hard, to violently overturn the election results, and thus to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States, indisputably. Trump and his supporters still largely have the same attitude abput their treason as many southern sympathizers still do about the Confederacy: that their violent treasonous traitorous behavior against the United States was a just and noble cause, which, tragically, failed. They are mostly the same people. The folks who proudly fly the confederate flag invariably still support Trump, and his insurrrection attempt, a noble attempt in their twisted minds to restore justice and democracy to America by defetaing the people who they falsely accuse of stealing the election, whoever they were, Joe Biden, the Democrats, liberals, the Chinese, whomever, it matters not who, anybody will do. Traitors twice over. These people, Trump and his followers, tried to steal the election from Joe Biden, using lies, the court system, violence; any means possible. Nothing was beneath them. it is easy to determine the patriots from the traitors, the good people from the bad, in this surreal scenario. Now, Trump seems to be planning on running again in 2024, and seems to have the full support of his followers, perhaps somewhoat reduced in size, but not necessarily. The Trump movement, incredibly, remains alive and well in America. Accusing seventy five million Americans of being traitors is a strange position to be in. But, unfortunately, it is appropriate, according to simple, unassailable facts. The fact that no matter what Trump does his followers continue to support him as strongly as ever if not more so demonstrates that the Trump movement is more of a "cult" than political movement. To paraphrse Barry Goldwater, extreme opposition to traitors who are seeking political power is no vice.

Saving Orangutans

I WAS SHOCKED when I heard on the radio an advertisement which said that the world's orangutan population was dwindling, by something horrible like twenty per day, and that drastic effert will be required to save the species. As I recall the ad made an appeal for donations, and gave the info needed to donate. I hope they receive massive assistance. Never before have I ever been anywhere near this shocked to hear about another endangered species. Why? Because, quite simply, this is the first time a primate of any sort has ever become endangered, threatened with extinction, and, we humans are primates. More specifically, we are chimpanzees. For those who have difficulty understanding and accepting this, ask any high school biology teacher, or any college science professor of any sort, or check out a book titled "The Third Chimpanzee" by Jared Diamond. Chimps and humans are closer genetically, ninety eight percent identical, than chimps and gorillas are to each other. I have stood next to cages containg chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas at zoos, and each time it was perfectly obviously to me that I was looking at and interacting with creatures very much like myself, my close relatives, cousins, if you will. The intelligence of them is monifest, merely by looking in their eyes. Engaging them in conversation by using gentures and body language is usually very easy, and fun. Human behavior needs to change drasticallly, immediately, in terms of burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees and forests and polluting the land and water, and so forth, all those things the liberal mob rants so incessantly about. And thank God for teh liberal mob, and may it defeat and destroy the conservative mob on the democratic field of battle, in the arena of ideas. Climate change denial, still very much with us, is purely a conservative position, and is more idiotic by the hour. The Earth's forests and pristine wilderness wilderness must be restored. At least half the planet must be wilderness preserve off limits to humans, and if this sounds extreme to anyone, think again. future human material prosperity and economic growth must be organized, planned, cooperative, controlled, with a reasonable distribution of wealthand standard of living for all and no negative impact on the Earth's ecosystem. Obvioiusly, we've a long wayy to go before achieving all that, but, make no mistake, it must be achieved. This chaotic, barbaric, dog eat dog neo-liberal economic system which has doinated the world until now is what has brought us to where we are now: in desperate trouble, threatened with our own self imposed extinction. So. Save the orangutans! Donate today! Or, if not that, at least convert to sanity, if you are still a climate change denier, and accept reality, and, instead of hindering our efforts and chances, start to help us.

Joining

I BEGAN TO RECEIVE invitations to join AARP when I was forty nine. I declined, seeing as how I wasn't retired. The invitations kept a comin' for the next seventeen years, and finally, at sixty six, having been retired for six years, I joined. The price is right, and I like the magazine, and the benefits, although I haven't yet taken advantage of any of them. About fifteen years ago conservatives, convinced that AARP is too liberal, and thus evil, established a conservative version of a nationwide organization for older citizens, the name of which is something like "The Associasion of Mature American Citizens", which claims two point four million members. I got a copy of their latest magaine, the March-april 2022 edition, and compared it to the AARP publication. In the AARP mag, I could not and still cannot find a trace of information which indidates that AARP is "liberal", or that it embraces any political ideology at all. Nothing of a partisan political nature: nothing. In fact AARP does not endorse any political party or political ideology, and welcomes all members, liberal and conservative. I scanned each page closely, and found only some ads, and a fair amount of information which might be useful to senior citizens. The AMAC magazine I found to be, essentially, a diatribe against liberalism. Liberals want to either run the country or ruin the country, that sort of thing. Liberals have the audacity to want to eliminate the electoral college! The magazine, to a large extent, appears to essentially be a propaganda campaign against liberalism. This raises the question: How, exactly, does a political propaganda publication actually serve the needs of America's seniors? Trump's picture appears, at least once, one in which he and the director of AMAC are standing shoulder to shoulder, smiling. There are more words expressing hatred toward progressives than all other material combined. My question becomes: exactly how does this serve or provide assistance to older Americans? The AARP magazine provides information about how to better manage finances late in life, ideas for making the home a safer place, suggestions for healthy eating and fun forms of healthy exercise for older folks, all of which older folks would doubtless find helpful. In the AMAC mag? Only hatred of the radical left, by which it means, people who are not conservative. The definition of the "radical left" seems to be, among conservatives: "anyone who is not conservative". Donald Trump refused to accept his defeat for reelection, organized a violent mob in a fortunately failed attempt to overthrow the American government - and yet - remains the most popular politician among American conservatives and a potential Republican candidate for president in 2024. The AMAC, like the Republican party, is an organization of traitors.

Religion, Rising, and Falling In Politics

A YEAR AND A HALF has passed since the last presidential election, and surveys indicate that the dishonest people who claimed that the election was stolen from Trump are making the same claim, and that they will never stop doing so. If they were decent people, they would be now have acknowledged that Biden won fair and square, and that that Trump's big lie was and remains a big lie. If they, the seventy five million or so who embrace the lie, were decent people, they never would have embraced Trump's traitorous lie to begin with. An important fact merits consideration. Nobody, but nobody has ever suggested the possibility that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. Approximately seventy five million Americans, however, have indicated with dead set certainty that the election was indeed stolen, no question. What that tells you is that the big lie is spoken out of a sense of irrational religious devotion, purely emotional based, unsupported by fact of evidence, similar to the manner in which zealously religious people express with absolute surety that their religion and their religion alone is the true religion, for themsleves, and for everyone else. Doubt is an unpleasant state of mind, thus people substitute certainty where certainly belongs not. Indications are that Trump will run again, and that he will use fidelity to his lie as a litmus test for the loyalty of his supprters. This will place the other Republican presidential candidates in the primary season to decide whether to rebuke Trump, or accede to his perfidy. "we are never deceived, we only deceive ourselves" said Goethe. Those lying for Trump have brainwashed themselves. In his seminal monograph "American Theocracy", Kevin Philips demonstrates how the Republican party has been coopted by the extreme religious right, the first religious political party in American history. Philips reminds us that widespread religious fanaticism, along with out of control public and private debt, military over extension, and depletion of natural resources have all contributed to the decline of civilizations, world wide. The United States is victimized by them all. Of these alarming trends, the rise of political right wing religious zealotry is perhaps the most destructive, because it underpins and reinforces all the others. It may be that the election of Jimmy Carter engendered within American political conservatism the idea that politics and Christian fervor could be conjoined to produce a political coalition which could become a dominant force in Amercan society and culture; hence, the rise of the "moral majority" in the late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties, and Ronald Reagan, a converted Democrat. The Republican party is the current incarnation of this movement, a movement which has now irretrievably attached itself to Donald Trump, an attachment which may prove to be more harmful then beneficial to its future. The degree to which Trump's evangelical Republican suport base refuses to relenquish its embrace of the big election lie may determine the future of this seemingly contradictory ideology.

Bugging Out

I AM TEMPTED, when my door bell rings, to peak between the slats to get a quick preview, for preparation. We are admonished by venetian blind people to never split the slats apart with one's fingers, but rather, to turn the crank. That spares the blinds, but surrenders the advantage of undetection. Usually, I abandon the scheme and go straight to the door, ready for whatever. Curiosity prevents me from ignroing the door bell. A doorbell is like a telephone, no matter when you knock, when you call, or when somebody knocks or calls, something is being interrupted, if only navel gazing. Technically, it is impossible to do nothing,, anytime, anywhere. We exist, therefore we ceaselessly do something, or other. This time, it was right smack dab in the middle of one of my favorite soap operas, and the drama was at a denouement. Growling, I opened the front door. There stood a pleasant, well dressed young man, who introduced himself, not by name, but by profession. I instantly thought him cool because he was rolling, door to door, on a skateboard. He had come to offer me the opportunity to live in an insect free world, inside my house, and throughout my yard. He explained the process articulately, while I tried to listen with one ear, and to Luke and Laura with the other. (they were fighting, again.) He would "treat" inside my house, and would go below the foundation outside, covering with effective bug killing substances all surfaces, inside and out. Even the grass itself would cease to be a haven for tiny invaders. I would never see another bug again. In retrospect, it still surprises me how close I came to accepting his offer, partly because it was a one time offer, now or never, at a great discount, now's your chance. I have a friend who says that you can sell anything, if you sell yourself. I fully agree. I told him that at the end of the day, as we like to way, I relly had nothing aginst insects, in or out of my house, that I accepted and welcomed tham as part of the overall nature-thing, and neither found them to anything more than a mild nuisance, that I am one of these people who traps flies and spiders and releases them into the wild, and that, therefore, thanks, but no thanks. Two or three times, I forget the exact number, he informed me that many people feel differently, and wish to be rid of all insect life, as if he were educating me. I acknowledged this, thinking, but not saying, "so what?" To each her own, as we say. I could have said a lot more, but didn't, and I am proud of myself. If I had, I feared that he might induce that I was inpugning his profession, which was not at all my intent. Bottom line: there are way too many human manufactured poisonous chemicals in the world, ambient in the evironment, and not nearly enough insects. Insects, in fact, are rapidly going extinct, due to, you guessed it, homo sapien sapiens. For verification, ask any entymologist. Truthfully, I wanted to tell him, I would rather live in a world bereft of ambient chemicals, and replete with insects, just the way God, or whomever, intended, than a world made more barren daily by human intervention for the sake of human comfort and convenience. When he walked away, I had nearly resolved to turn my yard, which is rather large, into an "insect reserve", of the sort which are beginning to "spring up" all over the word, due to desperation. If nobody pollinates plants, we don't eat, nor do other animals. Inside my house will remain, technically, a kill free zone, with exceptions. I asked him for his business care - just in case. He told me he would be in town for, oh, another couple of days, and that if I changed my mind, please call. He seemed satisfied with this arrangement. I never did.

Seeing the Stars

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, the largest, most powerful telescope ever built was luanched into space, and several weeks later, settled into place at precisely its intended location, one million miles, give or take a few feet, from Earth. The 'scope is now undergoing the process of precise positioning, and by this summer will begin providing amazingly clear images of stars and galaxiex amazingly far from us. The Hubble telescope has been in service for nearly thirty years, hard to believe, and has performed so admirably, after undergoing early repairs to corect imperfections in the optics, that an even larger instrument was conceived as soon as the Hubble telescope went into service, because not only did Hubble produce astounding results, it inspired scientists to imagine how much more they could do with an even larger version. Hence, the Webb telescope, named after a prominent NASA administrator. When the pictures start coming in in several weeks, the astronomical community will doubtless wax as wonder struck as it was when Hubble first began its work. Among humankind's greatest achievements the Webb miracle must be considered. Among humanity's greatest, most sublime creations are art and science. The written and spoken word, civilization.....take your pick. In a world dominated by horrible wars and a once every century deadly plague, it becomes easy to overlook the positive. Art and science stand above all the rest. Carl Sagan once said: "I don't want to believe. I want to know". Sagan was keenly aware that the quest for knowledge and understand using the human intellect and powers of observation was the most noble endeavor of our species. The earliest, most primitive people were able to understand that the world is an amazingly wondrous, complicated creation, and to help explain it, to satisfy the natural curiosity of intelligent creatures, religion was invented, all over the world. Without science, people were forced to invent their own versiion of how anything and everything came into existence. It became the work of supremely intelligent and powerful beings who lived in the sky - where else? - and these powerful anthropomorphic beings needed to eat, so ancient primitive cultures invented a system in which human sacrifices wre made to appease those in power, in the hope that the gods might reciprocate by bringing rain, that their human creations might not starve. Religion has long since served its purpose, and has become an anachronism in a world in which true understanding, science, has reached a higher level of understanding. Religion endures, but is losing popularity in a world explained so eloquently and elegantly by direct observation, science. That we have found a better way to understand ourselves and the unviese does not preclude mystery. Science willl probably never provide all the answers, but will at least ask the right questions. On the wall of his office at The Institute for Advanced Study, Einstein put a sign which read: "Not everythig that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted". That may be be both the most scientific and the most religious remark ever made.

Trumping, Again

EACH DAY it seems increasingly likely that Donald Trump will indeed run for president in twenty four, base mainly on his own behavior; giving speeches, having rallies, endorsing candidates in G.O.P. primaries, generally staying in the spotlight. By the time the presidential campaign season gets here, Trump may well be facing federal indictments, for example, from the D.O.J., for incitement to seditious insurrection, January 6, 2021. That will matter neither to Trump nor to his supporters, if recent history is any indication. They'll simpley, as always, deny any accusations of wrong doing against their icon as fake news, partly because he will assure them that it indeed is. then too, there is no law preventing an indicted nor indeed a convicted felon from running for and serving as president of these U.S...Trimp's participation might be a blesing for Democrats, including Biden. Trump is obviously the sinlge most pupular and powerful Republican, but his support has slipped a bit, according to surveys. Otehr Republicans, probably many other Republcians, will run for president in twenty four, including running against Trump in the primaries. This will be interesting, to say the least, and could result in division and fragmentation of the republican party. It also appears that Donald Trump intends to expect all his supporters to continue to buy and sell his great election lie, to not drop it, or move one, but rather, to continue to emphasize it, and embraceit as a litnus test of loyalty. That makes the situation even crazier, and perhaps damages the Trump movement and the G.O.P. generally. Pushing back againsts big lie becomes easier over time, as not a shred of evidenc surfaces to support it. Biden's unpopularity will likely motivate many Republicans to run, forcing a reckoning for the Trump movement. Trump's long history of ass kissing, support of, and similarity to Vladimir Putin will continue to cost Trump and the Trump movement, many members of which actually like and support Vladimir Putin and the Russians in their war against Ukraine. It is too late for Trump to separate himself from Vladimir Putin. Just recently he called Putin "a genius, a very savvy man." Trump and his supporters will have to live with, and defend, that. Biden can argue that only things beyond his or any president's control have gone badly, that he and his administration have done all that they possibly could to assist the economy, fight the pandemic, and to model classy behavior, without constant lies, all in stark contrats to Trump. I actualy heard a stong Trump supporter criticize Biden for allegedly lying. That's rich. What a hoot. From teh beginning claimed that if he lost the election, it would only be becuase it was stolen from him. The lie was, and has always been transparently obvious. That is why it is so terribly shocking and disappointing that tens of millions of presumed intelligent, honorable Americans decided to believe it, and still believe it. Knowing full well that it is a lie, they choose to believe it, because soothing their emotions is more important to them than upholding intellectual and moral integrity. What are the Trump supports capable of next? Massing, armed to the teeth, in Washington D.C. and in every other city in America on election day, and electing Trump in twenty twenty four at gunpoint? It isn't all that far fetched sounding, alarmingly.

Accepting Facts

LET'S BEGIN WITH a few irrefutable facts. The agriculture industry, specifically the cattle industry, generates, more green house emissions every year than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes in the world combined. Shocking though it seems, this is a fact, not debatable. Its really very easy to measure, and to prove, and has been and continues to be measured and proven daily, which means that conservatives double down on refusing to believe it, calling it, along with climate change, "a hoax". Whatever contradicts their ideology, like elections results and environmental devastation, conservatives can be counted on to refuse to accept, preferring to live in their self made fantasy worlds, including a fantasy world in which we can "bring back coal" without harm. Tragic, but true. The fecal waste and flatulance from cattle produce at least thirty two million tons of carbon dioxide per year, or fifty one percent of global CO2 emissions. Cattle also produce sixty five percent of the world's nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas hundreds times more powerful thatn carbon dioxide. More than half the water used in the United States every year is used to grow feed to feed live stock. Eighty percent of the world's soy bean crop is used to feed ivestock, and the Amazon rain forest is being rapidly destroyed to clear land to grow soy beans to feed cattle. Why not simply eat the soy beans ourselves? By growing soy beans on land presently used to raise cattle, we could easily feed the entire world, and let the world's rain forests thrive, untouched by humanity. Forty five percent of the world's land mass is used specifically to raise cattle. That seems like a bit much, eh? In the United States seventy percent of the grain we grow is used to feed cattle for human consumption, even while more than six million children starve to death every year world wide. Disastrous human economic inefficiency, resulting from and bad policies stemming from harmful cultural values, such as the American cultural proclivity for eating beef. The natural resources used to make animal products, including food, cannot be economically or morally justified in our time of climate change and scarcity. therefore humanity, especially American humanity, must continue the fledgling trend towards vegeterianism, including artificial meat substitutes. If not everyone, a huge percentage of people who try a vegetarian product called "Impossible burger", for example, love it, because it tastes for all the world like the best black angus beef around. "Ipossible Burger" may be gotten at the big corporationn called "Burger King", and at the even larger corporation called "Wal Mart". The trick is to get all of humanity hooked on foods like "Impossible Burger" while simultaneously creating a society and economy in which the working people have power, not our current oligarchy of big corporations, but, as they say, that's another story. The real sotry is that we humans must change our habits, fast.

Censoring

MORE THAN ONE THOUSANDS BOOKS have been censored in the U.S. since last summer a seemingly and trully incredible total for a nation supposedly dedicated to free speech, an alarming indication of cultural drift twoards far right fascism, political and religious. The censors are Christian conservative parents and school board members. The victims are school children. Most of the banned books are children's fiction, written by seemingly progressive writers attempting to convey a message of acceptance of LGBTQ folks, and even more controversial messages, messages about LGBTQ folks being good people, worthy of basic human equality. This good Christian message of love is of course detested by the christian right, which considers "alternative" sexual orientations sick and sinful or both, something which must be corrected by eliminating them, by legislation if necessary. The religious devotion of far religious right seems to deepen and harden their political conservatism, which of course contradicts the basic Christian message, and becomes increasingly dangerous and harmful to society. To the conservative christian coalition, teaching children that LGBTQ people are fine just the way they are is heresy...blasphemy...they seem to prefer that everyone despise the LGBTQ community, as they do. Why else woul dany sane, sensible person want to pass laws making it a serious crime for doctors to asknowledge that transgender patients are transgender, except hatred? Ultimately, our Christian conservative communtiy must accept the reality that LGBTQ people exist in rather large numbers, that they are here to stay, and that they insist, with the full support of a large majority of society, upon nothing more or less than complete acceptance and equality. Capiche? Savvy? The sooner right wing America accepts reality, and stops trying to twist and turn by law our public education system to support their false, twisted reality...the better. Again, most Americans want acceptance and equality, not discrimination, marginalization, and persecution...for everyone. Gender affirming health care is a basic human right. Gay and transgender people exist, despite the best wishes of America's religious far right. Why not treat them like humans? The "Maral Majority" remains, as always, neither moral nor a majority, but its "Trumpification" in recent years is nonetheless, harmful and dangerous. The trumpification of America's religious right has been and continues to be a spectacle almost too horrible to contemplate, much less observe in the real world. But, as they say, it is what it is. Censorship of any sort is harmful and dangerous, aside from the fact that it never, ever works, especially in these United States of Anti-Authority. I am still grateful to the school board in the town where I went to high school for inspiring me, albeit unintentionally, to read the great American novel "The Catcher In the Rye",merely by baning it, and thus "piquing" my interest.

Opposing Madness

MOST PEOPLE probably do not know a lot of diffeent doctors other than their own, and often, since healthy people don't need to see their doctor very often. Folks who are lucky enough to have a doctor don't even know their own doctor very well. One might notice that doctors in general tend to have certain things in common, which tends to be true in all profressions. Their intelligence, education, and scientific, logical way of thinking come to mind, when talking avout medical professionals. Getting to know a few doctors helps people to realize that, by and large, medical decisions, including decisions concerning accepted medical practices, policies, and legalities, should be made by members of the medical profression, by doctors and nurses, by organizations like the AMA. Certainly not by biased, extremist politicians or judges appointed to the bench because of their political orientation, such as Supreme Court members. For instance, who in his or her right mind could reasonabley disagree that the legality of abortion should probably be determined in concert by the medical profession and society's women of child bearning age, than than a handful of judges or state legislatures? Extremist conservative state legislatures are passing laws making it a crime for doctors to give medical treatment to a transgender child unless the doctor does so while pretending that the patient is not transgender. For a doctor to accept and treat a transgender patient becomes a crime, supposedly child abuse, landing the doctor in prison for a minimum of ten years. Other laws being passed permit-require the state to investigate the parents of all transgender children, for possible child abuse, defined as allowing your child to be transgender and supporting his or her decision to so be. This should sound crazy, hard to believe, because it is. The insanity of these laws is that if allowed to take effect and remain in place for very long, they will do irepairable harm, physically and emotionally, to countless people, will, in fact, cost lives, probably many. The already high rate of suicide among gay and transgender people stemming from societal rejection and torment will only increase. Christian conservative America simply must, for the sake of American society, get it through its arguably thick skull that sexual orientation is not a personal choice, a crime, nor a sin, but rather, nothing other than heredity, genetic predisposition, like hair and eye color. Its been proven, repeatedly. These stupid, cruel laws, which legislate and create rather than reduce or eliminate child abuse, are without question largely a result of religion doctrine, and indoctrination of the worst kind, one of many examples of the harmful impact of primitive, outdate religious dogma forced upon the modern world, needlessly. Predictably, revealingly, thankfully, the AMA is dead set against these insane laws, as of course is the LGBTQ community, and most of America. In at least one instance, a federal court has put a "stay" on such a law, delaying its implementation until challenges to its constitutionailty are worked out in the court system, which, if custom holds, might take a long time. Presumably, the issue will end up in the Supreme court, which causes concern, because of the current far right wing make up of the court. Until rather recently, Roe v. Wade seemed untouchable; now, it almost seems doomed, by the Supreme Court. Just as every high school biology teacher in America will tell you that climate change is real and urgent, every doctor in the United States is going to tell you that these laws persecuting transgender people are insane. The persecution consists in legislating them, (transgenders) out of existence. All this madness, this persuction of the LGTBQ community by the evangalical Trump right wing, is merely another manifestation of the hatred and anger which motivates and infuses the entire contemporary Christian conservative community, and must, by any and all means, be oppsoed, defeated and destroyed.

Teaching the Right Stuff

"SAVING PRIVATE RYAN" is a very good movie, very well made, historically accurate, educational, shocking, eye opening as well. Thus, artistically successful. But I don't know that I'd want my, say, six year old to see it. Way too much graphic violence for a first grader, methinks. The question what to teach children at what age remains unanswered, largely a mere matter of opinion. By the time people get to middle school, junior high, or high school, take your pick, its time to acquaint them with the true horrors of human and American hisotry, correct? Children, meaning all of us, must be taught, or rather, must be allowed to and assisted to learn the truth about life, the American experience, and the human experience, correct? surely no one would argue. Or would it be better to just forget about that human and American history is nothing other than a glorious narrative leading by design to its greatest glory of all, precieslty to....you? Really? In fact, history no more led inexorably to us that we can ever hope to know the full impact and effects of our actions. we do, however, know that history did indeed lead to us, and we know that everything we do has an effect, however minor, on the world, is only beuase of its impact on ourselves. The moral life thus consists of choosing one's actions so as to have the most likely best consewuences for the future, for ourselves and for the entire world. Our personal interests as individuals, and the interests of the world in general, we might be surprised to find, are connected, interrelated, usually if not always aligned. For this to happen we all need education, and a moral ethic based upon always seeking truth. Bertrand Russell said that nobody should ever be prevented from learning whatever they want to learn. Its hard to disagree. Learning should be available to all, and each individual should for the most part have a choice in deciding what to learn, with help, support, and assistance from parents and teachers and community. regarding Christian theology, such as the belief that it is a wonderful and glorious opportunity, indeed an aurgent necessity, for anyone to have their sins washed away by the blood of Christ, but only by worshiping Christ when, precisely, should kids learn about this? Maybe, just maybe..when they ask about it. Let the kids decide for themselves when to learn about religion, perhaps. And also, about sex and history, and racism in America, past and present. Most important of all, al lchildren should be allowed and encouraged to decide for themselves whether to embrace the christain religion, or any religion, without interference, assistance, advice, help...from anybody. Its their choice, and no one else's. Religious indoctrination of children of any sort is a form of brainwashing, and a form of child abuse, both of which there are innumerable types. All children should be given a chance to find out anything they want to aboub teligon or about any religion, and left to determine for themselves their attitude about particular religions, and religion in general. For some people, maybe its best to have no interest in religion at all. Arguing about putting "God" "back" in the classroom is needless, nonsensical, idiotic. Since God is everywhere, or nowhere, God can be found anywhere. This recent spate of laws in conservative states mandating what public schools do and do not tach kids about racism, sexual orientation, and religion are harmful to education, and thus deplorable. None of these idiotic laws are needed. Teachers know what and when to teach, without legislative interference. We must teach people how to think, not what to think, and truth, not nonsense.

Enumerating Eternal Verities

SOME MEDIEVAL SCHOLAR become Christian apologist wrote a book called "The Eternal Verities of the Christian Faith", of which there are but few. Of the vast number of truths inherent in a vast universe there are three which are especially relevant to contemporary American society. All three must be accepted and embraced by everyone, sooner or later, one way or another. There is no other real choice. Here they are: 1) humn evolution by natural selection is indisputable fact. 2) Manmade climate change is real. 3)The presidential election of 2020 was not stolen. Certainly, reality is replete with articulatable truths, trillions. But the three just named are the ones we must focus on, laregly because they are not only of fundamental importance, but also, that they are so widely rejected. The verifiable fact that a majority of American consrvativese reject all three reflects horribly on contemporary American conservatism, and its desperate need to change and improve. Refusing to believe in climate change and refusal to accept Trump's election defeat are both maliciously false beliefs, concocted for nefarious reasons, both of which have the potential to destroy the United States, and, in the case of climate change, the world's ecosystem, and all life on Earth. The right wing indulges in both these delusons for the reason best expressed in a quote by Goethe: "We resist the truth only because we fear that we might perish if we accept it." If the election wasn't stolen, then Trump lost fair and square, and most of America rejects Trump, which to the far right, meaning almot all the American conservative communitiiy, simply cannot accept or abide, for its too painful. Same with climate change. To accept that human activity cause climate change means accepting that human activity , bevavior, economc andpolitical systems must be changed fundamentally, drastically, immediately, an idea so repugnat to tradition oriented conservatives as to be unthinkable, unacceptable. If climate change and a fair election are reailty, then the liberals are right, the conservatives are wrong, which to conservatives, is a thought too horrible to contemplate. Nevertheless, they must be forced to not only contemplate, but completely accept these facts. The future of the United States and the world are at stake. The indisputable fact is that none of the three eternal great truths discussed here are in any sense a matter of opinion. They are not opinion, but absolute truth. Denial of evolution, climate change, and election results are all three idiotic, and deadly harmful. We the human race are not taking urgently needed action to reverse climate change only because of the millions of powerful people who refuse to accpet the necessity. Thus, the Earth's planetary ecosystem is in deadly peril, dying right before our very eyes. A democracy can sustain only if and when the generla population supports and sustains it by believing in it. This crazy Trump election denial is doing horrible damage to our precious beautiful American democracy, even as we speak, and must be stopped. Refusing to believe in the reality and truth of modern scence because of blind allegience to a primitive religion with outdated beliefs is highly detrimental to progress and improvement of human civilization. Consider, for instance, the Taliban. I rest my case. throughout Christian history devout christians have conisdered it crucial to not only defend bu to spread and promote their so called "eternal truths", most of which is not all of which are false. Sane scientific sober minded senisible people must begin to do the same with scientific reality. Our very lives depend on it.

Qualifying Mercy

WHEN JOSHUA BEN JOSEPH, who was later misnamed "Jesus" by the Latin speaking world, manufactured and handed out fish and bread to hungry people, he did so not because of any special, omniscient powers, but because he was reqonably observant, knew hungry people when he saw them, and had a heart. According to the Bible, he did this with no strings attached, as we like to say. According to the modern evangelical conservative Christian Republican version, he first required that recipients of free food submit to drug tests. Anyone found to have drugs in his or her body was immediately disqualifed from assistance obviously being unworthy of help of any kind. He carefully made note of who had recieved food, in oder to ensure that there were no "double dippers". Upon distributing the food, he reminded the hungry that they must learn how to support themselves, and must not continue to rely on handouts. Reliance on government assistance, he said, was the worst possible circumstance, for doing so raised the terrible specter of "socialism", which destroys individual initiative - government must be involved as little as possible. Jesus, above all, was a free market capitalisit, determined to maintain a society in which everyone worked first and foremost on behalf of their own personal interests, and accepted the outcome, whatever it might be. He made clear that taxing the wealthy to support subsistance living for the poor amounted to unfair confiscation of wealth, a great sin, since wealthy people ought to be allowed to keep the rewards for their own hard work, and should be required to "render unto Caesar" hardly at all, because allowing the wealthy to retain their hard earned riches will result in wealth being "trickled down" to the poor, much preferrable to government involvement and control. "Go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor", basically meant that when one gives unto the poor, one does so once and once only, to guarantee that the poor overcome their laziness and lack of skills, and get to work. Welcome to twenty first century evangelical Christian conservative American theology, according to which Jesus is a free market capitalist, and the gospel of wealth dictates that the wealthy have earned their rewards here on Earth by their devotion to the render unto Caesar give unto the poor message of Christ, and Donald Trump is elevated to the position of "defender of the faith".

Picturing Lunch

IN 1975, WHEN I WAS TWENTY, I predicted that eventually the average American household would come complete with a flat screen built into the wall, living room, bedroom, or both, and that the screen would be comprehenisve in its functions. It would serve at once as a television, a video telephone, and a computer; choose your function, flip your switch. The person to whom I confided this was a worse prognosticator than I. His prediction was that fifty years in the future, nobody would much remember "The Beatles"; maybe only a handful of songs, but that's about it. He allowed as to how the beautiful song "Yesterday" might be remembered, but that most of their opus would have been relegated to the trash bin. He still has three years left for the fab four to descend into obscurity, but time is running out. The upshot is, my friend was dead, dog dumb wrong. I thought he would be wrong, even as he made this ridiculous prediction in 1975. Didn't he realize that good music, good art of any sort, endures? Seemingly not. I think I did better than he. True, flatscreens tend to not be built into walls; that would make upgrading a hassle; that I hadn't thought of. Instead, we hang them on walls temporarily, until our next upgrade. And then too, notwithstanding video conferencing and all, telephones tend to be located in people's pockets, not on their walls. The demand for telephonic portability I couldn't conceive of, but then, neither could anybody else. I have yet to unearth any science fiction or science prediction from the fifties, sixties, or seventies in which the characters used cell phones: they fly around the galaxy at warp speed, traveling through time and what not, but, other than Kirk - Spock Star Trek, they all had to go running to find a telephone. And, in fact, the gentleman who is credited for having "invented" the cell phone attested that he got the idea from, you guesed it, watching Star Trek. But the general idea, that television would merge with computers, I got right. Problem is, in 1975 I had no idea exactly what computers would vbe used for, other than performing mathematical calculations, which they were already doing anyway, being called "calculators". But, again, nobody else had any real idea in 1975 what computers would be used for in two thousand and twenty two either. I know of no one who uses a laptop or a cell phone to do math. I do recall that my mother gave me a calculator for Christmas along about 1975, when I was in college, she apparently thinking I might need one in my future career in science - but she gave it to me at about the same time that I switched my major - to history. Social media? Who woulda thunk it? I can readily attest that in 1975 I had no idea that forty seven years hence your average American would be taking pictures of his or her lunch, posting it on Facebook, and reading posts in resposne to the photo, that we would call photographs "pics", nor that every response would be the same: "yummy". I chose, and choose, not to take picutes of anything and post them on Facebook. NObody seems to mind. People show pictures of their lunch, but never pictures of their hosues, for fear of paint guns, or something worse. I know someone on Facebook who makes damned sure that we all see her swimming pool, her flower garden, and her lunch and cocktails; but never, never, her house. Mayvbe she's smart, and wants to avoid having two billion Facebook users show up at her lovely abode at the same time. Or maybe she pitches a tent next to the pool, while having lunch. All I know is; you'll never catch me photographing my lunch with a smart phone, and showing it to the world, or at least my "Facebook Friends" list. My facebook skills may be a bit spartan, and my lunches are nothing to photograph or write home about, but; at least I have the good sense to ask myself: "who gives a damn"?, and, to arrive at the correct answer.

Praying Out Loud

THE ISLAMIC RELIGION has not, historically, been welcome in these United States. That assesssment seems indisputable, considering verifiable reality in the land of religious freedom and tolerance. Muslims, Moslems, regardless of spelling, have traditionally been crowded together by choice and by social circumstances in northern American cities, and almost entirely absent in the southern part of the country. In the United States, any ethnicity and religiosity other than W.A.S.P. has found it difficult to participate in mainstream culture without suffering rejection, exclusion, and often persecution, so, the fact that members of the Islamic faith have often considered themselves safest and happiest within their cloistered demographic, seperated from the mainstream, is easy to explain. The United States is a minority rich country, but not an especiallly minority friendly culture. Non Christians, or even nonconformist cristians, such as Mormons, have been victimized by white protestant rejection more often than not. One of the largest Islamic communities in America is in Minneapolis, and traditionally the call to prayer, an event which occurs five times a day, has in the city been rather subdued, quietened down, confined to the actual house of worship. Until now. Now, the call to prayer, that eery, hauting, evocative, alluringly transcendant sound is being heard widely throughout the city, and, unsurprisingly, not everyone is happy about it. The unhappy consist largely, again unsurprisingly, of W.A.S.P. conservatives, who traditionally and currently, in many cases, consider alternative forms of religiosity to protestant Christianity undesirable. Those of a certain age can remember when John F. Kennedy was burdened by his Catholicism when running for president, to the extent that he felt forced to assure the American people that if elected, he would not be taking orders from the Vatican. Minneapolis, like all American cities up north, are famouslly liberal and thus accepting of religious non conformity; one might have to strain to hear a "call to prayer" in, say, Ft. Worth, Texas. Nobody knows for sure exactly how many different religions there are in the world, but everyone knows, or should know, that the number is in the thousands. Within the Christian faith itself there are hundreds of denominations, more coming into existence constantly, as churches fragment and new ministers hang out their shingle. Is there any reasonable alternative to societal acceptance of all religious belief? Is it even unreasonable to make any conclusion other than that the actual number of religios in the world is exactly equal to the number of humans, since, at bottom, everyone has his own religious beliefs? Goethe said it best: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine." That Muslims in Mineapolis at long last feel sufficient self confidence to allow their beautiful call to prayer to echo across many neighborhoods in the city five times a day can be seen as a positive sign, a sign of enhanced religious toleration in a culture whose founders insisted on it, but has not normally demonstrated it.

Taking Better Care

I HAVE A good friend who lives in an assisted living facility. He's ninety five, and in excellent health, and needs very little assistance. Thus he lives in a facility which offers whatever is needed, which for him isn't much. Its a very nice "high end" facility, with nice apartments, etc. His wife lives in another assisted living facility in another town, a facility which provides more direct, extensive care to patients wih compromised health. The two places are a good ten miles apart. He gets a ride and goes to visit her twice a week, which, ostensibly, works well for them. However, just recently his visits have decreased in frequency to one per week, due to what he says is his inability to get a ride, and that's a definite concern. Neither of them drive. He's too healthy to live where she does, and she's not in good enough health to live where he does, according to the system, long story short. To me, this situation seems crazy, tragic, avoidable. To me, this situation is one of many probable examples indicating that the system we have for providing care to elderly citizens in America is inadequate. These two beautiful people, with successful lives as community leaders and controibutors to their credit, should have had, and should have, a whole lot less difficult time finding a way to live together, should be able to easily find a way to live together, within the system, it seems to me. One might hope that it seems that way to everyone. We in America, by extension, should develop much better ways of taking care of everyone, it seems to me. Conservatives have for years touted the American health care system as the best in the world, capitalistic and all, and resisted and stopped all attempts to reform and improve it. Conservatives also have often said that we Americans do not want to do things the way they do, for instance, in Europe, what with Europe's more comprehsensive, sweeping socialism, for instance. The problem with American conservatives, of course, is their seeming lack of intellectual abilities. Case in point, seventy percent of American conservatives, at least, fail to comprehend the obvious reality that there is no way in heaven or hell that the election was stolen from Trump; to steal it would be too massive an undertaking to go undetected. But, as they say, I digress... They (conservatives) also fail to grasp that strong healthy capitalism will flourish much better if everyone in the country has basic health care, and a decent, living income. You put some spendable, disposable money in the hands of millions of previously poor peope, and watch out! Demand goes through the roof, demand being the only thing that stimulates supply, aka production, sales, distribution, ergo widespread wealth, which, if memory serves, is the prsumed end of free market capitalism, correct? Capitalism and socialism go hand in hand, work beautifully together. Hint: maybe if we turned the "assisted living industry" into a bit less of an "industry", into a bit less of a free market, profit seeking business, and more into a public duty, responsibility, and concern, we would all pitch in, build a better system, and all be happier.