Bequeathing

ELON MUSK, it is extrapolated, will have become the world's first trillionaireby the end of this working day. Rumor has it that he plans to celebrate by putting his dirty, work stained overalls in his washing machine, or taking them to a laundromat, leaving them in the dryer for one of his people to tend to, and reparing to a local pub to stand a few select friends to a round of stout. They're all wealthy, quite. The ultra wealthy tend not to hang out with the unwashed masses,the "hoi polloi". I oncementioned to my father that poor people seem to be more generous than wealthy people, and he agreed "How do you think they got wealthy", he asked, rhetorically. Never lose a friend over a ten dollar bill, he told me. I'm not aware of any charitable foundations underwritten by Musk or for that matter his friend Trump, Surely such things exist. At some point in the eighteen eighties J.D. Rockefeller beame the world's first billionaire. During that time his personal income, from Standard Oil, was estimated to be around one million dollars a day. He was somewhat more generous, and funded education, just as Andrew Carnegie paid for libraries. So did Cornelius Vanderbilt and Leland Stanford, whose eponymous universities bear witness to their philanthropic proclivities. In our present day,, philanthropically, Bill Gates ranks among the best, he having already given away almst all of his formerly vast fortune to various worthy causes. Warren Buffett, who insists tha the has neither the desire nor the intention to establish a legacy in his own name, will bequeath a paltry million dollars or so, maybe less, to each of his children, and donate the rest to charity. Gates and Buffett have teamed up for this purpos, forming the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foudation." My older sister, who has no human children, loves cats and though not especially wealthy is wealthier than I, upper middle class, says that sh eplans to leave her money to the Cornell University School of vetrinary medicine, where ground breaking research is being done, probalby in honor of her beloved bygone pets. (I might suggest another arrangement, but why bother? My house is paid for, I also have no children, I have food on the table, and my cats eat better than I. Sis says that she would love to enjoy the standard of iving of my cats. I decide some years ago to tak eout o reverse mortgage on my house, so I don't have to keep paying the mortgage and can still keep the title in my name. A friend pointed out that this is a complete ripoff. I beg to differ. It would be, if I had children. A recent study revealed that we baby boomers prefer spending our money now, on travel, frivolity, and what not, rather than leaving it to our children. The Gen Exxers, millennials, or whatever generation the scions of baby boomers are, will, it seems, have to get by largely on their own. Wealth and inheritance taxes, so despised by all Americans with any money to speak of, are not currently on the table, but will probably get there within the fairly near future. Goethe said that "We are indeed immortal, made so by the effects of our actions". The atoms which comprise our bodies and brains once circulated through the bloodstream of Julius Caesar. We have existed, in various forms, repeaedly to the point of infinity. Our only true inheritance, ourselves, was forged in the fiery furnaces of dying stars billions of years ago. We, as Carl Sagan said, are star stuff. We have lived as long as the universe has lived, and will die only when the cosmos dies. But it too, we now believe, will be reincarnated, God, for whatever reason, made it hard if not impossible to get rid of anything and everything, including us.

Surviving A Deflating Trump

FIRST, Trump said that the current inflation is a very, very good thing, like, totally terrific. After all, everything is more valuable than it used to be, and how can that not be a good thing? We can all get rich, quick. To his intellectual rescue came some underpaid caregiver, who gently but surely informed the addlepated president that inflation is actually not a very good thing, not at all, and in fact is, like, bad, specially for poor and middle class people, because that means that prices for consumer goods is going up, and that therefore everybody, including the poor,is paying more for everything. Into the fray and to the rescue self inserts Mary Trump, the president's niece, with a doctorate in abnormal psychology, who knows her uncle well, all too well, probably better than she might like to. She confirms our worst suspicions, that of her uncle's narcissistic personality disorder,among his many other mental health maladies. From what she knows, he's been this way his entire life, but with advancing age, left untreated, its getting worse, much worse. Help is available; psychotherapy, oral medication, perhaps a frontal lobotomy or two. A sick person, however, must want and seek help before others can step in, and they must be ready, able, and willing to help themselves. Donald Trump's recent allegation that he is a genius clearly indicates mental illness, the diagnoses being delusions of grandeur, criminal insanity, rampant narcissism, you name it, take your pick. Aside from the fact that true geniuses rarely if ever call themselves "geniuses", Trump, as is evident to everyone even remotely discerning, is clearly not one. Arguably, the word "genius" is meaningless. Compared to slugs and rocks, we are all brilliant. As Goethe said: "When one respects nothing, it is no trick to be brilliant." A couple of times a year Trump's personal physician dutifully pronounces the presidential sex addict and offfender fit as a fiddle, physically, for a man his age. (It might damage the good doctor professionally to do otherwise.). American presidents, like cats, almost always conceal their weaknesses and illnesses. Most people never even knew that FDR was confined to a wheelchair. He was shown on video "walking", bouncing along with a security man on either side, propping him up. Woodrow Wilson lay in bed for two years after having a debiitating stroke. His wife carried on as a behind the scenes first de facto woman president, smooth as silk. Had Lincoln not been shot, he would likely have been dead soon anyway, long before he was due to leave office, his body ravaged by a strange growth related disease. Eisenhower had heart attacks only a few folks knew about. JFK, of course, who really was a near genius, was afflicted by Addison's disease, another weird and rare ailment. We the people really have no need to know the details of Trump's various physical disfunctions. His mental and emotional disabiities are proudly on display, front and center. The problem with Trump, which is everybody's problem, is that not only is he getting noticeably worse, he also has a while longer to be president, and that, in the event of his inability to continue to "serve", his constitutionally mandated replacement is utterly, entirely, unacceptably intolerable. But somehow the ancient Romans survived Nero. Great Britain survived King George III. The Russians made it trhough Ivan the Terrible, even while the troubled tsar clipped the wings of pigeons and tossed them off of the tops of tall buildings. My prescient sister tried to comfort me by assuring me that this too shall pass, that America will survive Trump. I agree, but the question I was and still am afraid to ask is: "In what condition?"

Trump, Disrupting (Finding A True Home)

IN 1969 TEXAS played Arkansas in a December football game in what was then termed "the game of the century". Since then, there have been several such game of the century college football games. More will come.Entering this final week of the season the teams were both undefeated, and were ranked number one and two in the nation. The entier nation watched on televiion. Texas scored a late touchdown and won the game, 15-14. As an avd fourteen year old Arkansas fan I was seriously depressed, aside from the fact that I didn't get to watch the game because at the time I was marching down Main Street in a small town playing my trumpet with my high school band in a Christmas parade, a place where I didn't want to be. At the last moment president Richard M. Nixon decided that he wanted to attend the game in person. The college twon of Fayetteville, Arkansas lacked an airport large enoough to accommodate Air Force One, so Nixon landed iin Little rock and flew in to Fayeteville on a helicopter which landed next to the football stadium, inconveniently for the University, conveniently for Nixon, who cared not a whit about inconveniencing other people. I was excited nonetheless, and all and all I thought the situation was pretty cool, my Razorbacks hitting the big time. I resented missing the game, that is, until I found out the final score. Turns out teh band and parade spared me an even more broken heart, but at the time, I didn't see it that way. My father,a graduate fo he Arkansas law school and avid Razorback fan, didn't think Nixon's behavior was so damned cool. he was angry that Nixon,without prior preparation, had used his power and prestige to not only disrupt local air traffic, ground traffic, the local police and stadiumsecurity, but worst of all, had forced several dozen regular fans out of their usual fifty yard line seats and up into the closely packed quarters of the press box, where thay had to stand behind members of the media, packed together. History never repeats itsef, but it rhymes. Flash forward to 2026. Without adequate planning, into Madison Square Garden strolls Trump like a troll, who just had to watch the Knicks-Spurs game in person. People in position of power, inconveniently ruining the plans for the common people, the little people, the millionaires who should have been there. In a nation wher "all men are created equal", let the big boys stand in line to buy a ticket, like everyone else. I'm pretty sure that my father is turning over in his cremains. He initially attended the University of Missouri law school, but hated it and flunkded out,spending more of his time writing songs and playing keyboard in a college jazz band than hitting the law books. But he transferred to the U.of A. law school, and there he found his true home. He remained closely tied to the school his entire life, and gave money and donated a valuable law library to it. When he died in 1986, I knew what I had to do. I scattered his ashes all over the front lawn of the University of Arkansa law school, where he said he spent the best days of his life. I plead no contest to improperly disposing of ashes, human remains, from an urn. I hope the statute of limitations has run out on that crime. I did my doctoral work at Arkansas, partly because Columbia and Missouri University turned down my application, partly because I inherited my father's love of Arkansas and our beloved Razorbacks. I spent my entire career teaching at Arkansas. Many of us spend a lifetime searching for our true homes, and, if we are fortunate, lord willing and the creek don't rise, we find it, even if it takes a lifetime. Things worked out well for me. People like Trump and Nixon, tragically, deservedly, never seem to find a true home, anywhere.

Becoming Tired

I AM BECOMING Tired of it all; the bitterness, the hatred, the ceaseless acrimony. I refer to the current state of American politics. I for one am willing to set aside my long standing hatred of Trump, and to take a new look,even though there is most certainly a vanishingly small chance that I will find anything new and different, different than the usual pathetic, hateful,snarling liar in chief. I do not expect this new approach to be popular among my fellow anti-Trumpers. Somehow, I'll survive. A good place to start is with the policies of the Trump administration, both foreign and domestic. C Van Woodward, a preeminent historian of the American south (I forget whether the old south or the new, post Civil War south), who began one of his monographs with the sentence "five times during the American experience the celebrated art of compromise has held the union together", paraphrased. When I was in graduate school at a major university, in the doctoral program, eminent historian C. Van Woodward was invited and accepted the invitation to be the guest speaker at te annual end of the year history-fest, or whatever they called it. One of the professors had a big pot luck party in his home, and I recall one of my fellow grad students, going a bit overboard, going from pot to pot,heaping an amount of food on a plate that no three hundred pound athlete nor anyone else could possibly comsume, and handing it to the esteemed scholar.The food eas excellent, and although I had already stuffed myself full of it, I was envious, and would gladly have acepted and devoured the entire plateful. I was not only a lowly graduate student teaching basic freshman history courses to earn my stipend as a doctoral student, I was also an ardent tennis player and exercise enthusiast, in my late twenties, still in possession of a metabolism and appetite worthy of a high school or college athlete... C.Van Woodward was unequal to the task. Although a large man of ample girth who was obviously no stranger to a large plate of food, he seemed overwhelmed, and barely took a bite... Five times...the celebrated art of compromise... His reference was to compromises made at the constitutional convention of 1787, the compromise of 1877 by which the federal occupation of the defeated south was lifted, the Missouri compromise, and so forth. The word "compromise" is apparently lacking not only from our modern political vocabulary and discourse, but also from the American political process itself, at a fundamental level. We now live in an allor nothing world and political climate, or so it seems to this humble observer of contemporary American politics. While all this was happening Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and then as now, the nation was divided, between Reaganites and his opponents, among whom I numbered. Arguably the United States has always been a divided nation, in one way or another; whether or not to separate from Great Britain, whether to join the union or the confederacy, whether to legislate probition, whether to repeal it. The list is long. My strongest memory of a divided nation was the Viet Nam war, when I was a child. When I was twelve years old, in 1967, I had doubts about it, about whether it would ever end, whether the United States could possibly extract from it anything resembling "victory". In January, 1968, when the massive Tet offensive failed miserably and the American military slaughtered the attacking North Vietnamese army and the Viet Cong, although I had not yet turned thirteen, I saw, or thought I saw, the "handwriting on the wall". The failure of the Tet offensive seemd to deter the North not one iota. The Viet Nam war, essentially dating back to the French acquisition of it, who had colonized the Asian country in 1862, and were trying to keep their hard won "possession" trying to keep the colony for which it had sacrificed much to aquire and retain. World War Two spelled the end of the French owned Viet Nam, and of most of their overseas colonial empire. Overseas empires of major western powers are in decline. National self determination is the trend. And so powerful nations, their international influence waning, are forced to look inward, upon themselves. So it is with the American empire, forced to once again look inward at itself, despite its apparent reluctance to do so. Nietsche said it best: "If thou gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into thee." Maybe a bit of fatigue would benefit us all.

Militarizing Religion

THE PENTAGON, I am informed, maintains a list of organized religions which it recognizes as organized religions, an impressive achievement for a five sided edifice. But, I digress. It, the Pentagon, the human beings within the building, most likely a select few people of high military rank, has determined that no fewer than one hundred and eighty of them will be removed from the list. The criteria by which those cast off will be eliminated was not immediately announced; it may be that when a recognized religion dwindles in numbers of votaries below a certain point, it is booted off the list. A military machine, maintaininng a list of religions, and classifying them according to its recognition and approval. Somehow, there is something ironic in that. Ironic, in that, as far as I know, every religion on Earth not only condemns human violence generally and individually, but also, of the organized sort engaged in by military establishments. Might one assume,that according to Christian theology, in order for mankind to live in accordance with the teachings of Christ, that all military institutions, including armies and navies, should not and would not exist if all nations and their citizens fully embraced the teachings of Christ? Arguably, yes. By what reasoning does any military organization involve itself in any religion at all, or acknowledge any? Well, the reasoning is that when most people enter into military service, they bring with thm their religiosity, and do not, and cannot "check it" at the door. But perhaps it would be better if they did or were required to. One possibility would be to establish as official military doctrine that the military is a secular institution, with no formal acknowledgment of any particular religion, or religion in general, but that all military personnel are free to practice their respective religions, off base, and out of uniform? The answer, it would see, is that religiosity is very real, inherent in the human heart, mind, and soul, whether or not one serves in the military, and, again, that nobody suddenly ceases to ambrace or practice one's religion by merely checking it at the door upon entering into military service. Requiring such personal denial of religious faith would further run the risk of demoralizing, in more ways than one, mmilitary service members. In our modern times many people, usually well educated intellectuals, disparage all religion, tending to consider it anachronistic. I am among them. But those of us who share this attitude would do well to remind ourselves that religiosity is a phennomenon fundamental to the human mind, but that it also serves as a solid, firm pillar upon which we support and nurture one of our most fundamental inclinations; to regard ourselves, our lives, and our creator with wonder, reverence, and awe. There may indeed come a time when not only is there no religion in any military institution, and there are no religions, and no military institutions, including huge, well organized militaries, land, sea, and space, permanently in place, ever prepared to engage in organized violence, for reasons which are always justified by those who choose to make war. We appear to be far from perpared to take this culturally evolutionary step foreard. And since we humans remain addicted to our petty, barbaric violence in highly organized form, perhaps we soften the situation a bit by embuing it with the highest form of spiritual nobility at our disposal, our philosophies and our religions.

Civilizing, Slowly

ROBERT HEINLEIN intimated that the degree to which a culture, a society, a civilization is civilized is indicated by the level of cleanliness in its public restrooms. According to that standard, America is in deep doo doo, so to speak. One might suggest other standards of measurement. One possibility is to measure the treatment of the infirm, the poor, tne very young, and the very old. Precisely how do we treat the vulnerable, the least among us? How do we treat animals, including those that we raise in factory farms and slaughter wholesale for our own consumption? Many things can be measured in many different ways. In Islamic countries, cats are considered sacred animals. The prophet Muhammed was in danger of being bitten by a deadly poisonous snake. A cat killed the snake, but not before being bitten itself. The cat died, but not before the prophet stroked its back gently, after which all cats were destined to be beautiful for all time. Henceforth all cats would have a special, priveleged place in Islamic society, to this day. Islamic cities, like all big cities, are filled with stray cats, due to human irresponsibility, and human compassion. But in Musli cities they are not ignored and regarded as nuisances, they are cherished and respected, regarded amost as special heavenly angels. They are cared for by the public in general. Anyone who brings harm to a cat on an Islamic street is in serious trouble. In the USA we don't do quite as well, but are evidently doing a bit bettter. There is a growing movement in America to stop murdering cats systematically because nobody wants to care for them. Why not let the live, free and loose on our streets, having been spayed neutered, and vaccinated? If nothing else, give them a chance to live. Let American culture emulate the nobility of Islamic cat life. At my local senior center I pointed all this out, and for my trouble some self righteous Christian nitwit left on my desk a couple of brochures and pamphlets lecturing me on the unique truth of the Christian faith. Wow. Talk about missing the point. I was talking about culture and cats, not religion, for heaven's sake. We in the United States have a long ways to go, but we can get there. We can become more compassionate towards the vulnerable. We should, arguably, begin to build a better society, one in which stray dogs and cats do not have to get their meals from dumpsters. A society in which all citizens feel not only obligated, but eager to render whatever assistance they can to those in need, including animals. We here in proud, arrogant, individualistic America should, it can be argued, not only do a better job of taking care of each other, but a better job of respecting cats, dogs, and all animals. Anyone who thinks that this is an advocacy for a vegetarian lifestyle is quite correct. Hypocriically, when I dine at the senior center, I eat meat, because meat is served. When in Rome. At home, where I make out the menu, I go vegetarian. Today's meat substitutes are of excellent quality. Albert Einstein was asked to make a contribution to a time capsule, to be opened in one hundred years. His contribution was a message to future generations. Paraphrased, it said: "If you people of my future have not become kinder, more compassionate and tolerant than we were, may the devil take you". Seventy years after Einstein's death, we still have a ways to go. Our progress towards becoming civilized has been, and remains, slow and tortured. But we are trying. Humanity is less violent now than it ever has been in history, hard as that seems to believe. We are evolving upward from savagery, lurching towards civilization. The Ohio Supreme Court recently ruled that stray dogs and cats have the same legal protections as pets. California has passed a law prohibiting the barbaric and cruel practice of declawing of cats. Maybe there will come a day when all animals receive proper, compassionate treatment, and American public restrooms are all spiffy clean. But for now, they, like all of us, like our culture and society, could still stand a bit of sprucing up.

Apologizing, and Forgiving Ourselves

I SUFFER from two mental illnesses,my twin towers of disability. Guilt, and paranoia. My office mate in grad school pointed out wisely that both of these are complete bullshit. I agreed then, and I agree now. My sister, who shares and emmpathizes with our shared guilt, suggested that either we were born into a Catholic family without knowing it, or that we both, over the course of our lives, have "evolved" into Catholics, again, without being aware of it. This, aside from the fact that Catholics formalize and ritualize the expunging of guilt has nothing to do with whether they, as human beings, actually experience more of it thn anyone else. I wish I had started, years ago, to keep track of the number of times I have apologized to people. I recall hitting tennis balls with a friend of mine who, although a good athlete, was not a tennis player. I mentioned to him that if he ever decided to actually become a tennis player, working on his game on a daily basis, that he could become quite good at the sport. I was trying to hit the ball down the middle of the court, right to him, setting him up for easy shots. I was so determined to serve tennis balls to him on a silver platter, that I realized this was as effective a method of working on my game as trying to hit the ball to every corner of the court, and that his errant, unpredictable shots were good practice for me as well, making me scramble all over the court chasing down his wild shots. I felt obligated to feed him easy shots, and everytime I failed to do this, I softly said to him from across the court "I'm sorry". I must have apologized to him for hitting too tough a shot...what... a hundred times? Within a half hour of hitting tennis balls I had racked up dozens of "I'm sorries". As an experienced college level player, I felt obligated to feed his tennis balls suitable for beginners. Finally, after enduring several dozen apologies, he had had enough. Would you effing stop apologizing every damned time you make a mistake?! Even he, a tennis beginner, understood that when you play tennis, you make mistakes, no matter who you are. I recall years ago watchig a tennis match on television which involved my favorite player of all time, Bjorn Borg. Borg, of course, is considered by many to be one of the best if not the very best, the "G'O.A.T., as we like to say these days. In the middle of a very important match, (it may have even been Wimbledon), the great Borg swung at a tennis ball, and missed it entirely. No contact, like some rank green beginner. He was slicing his racket strings across the ball at a steep angle, barely grazing the ball, putting hard spin on it, as was his style, and he simply cut one too close. Borg acted as if nothing had happened, no problem, and got right back on his game for the next point, a real pro. I learned a valuable lesson. If he, perhaps the greatest to ever swing a racket, is capable of making such a mistake, (the match was on clay, and the ball took a bad bounce), then why, in the name of Billy Jean King, should I fret and fume over a few bad shots off my racket? One of my best tennis buddies had the same habit,incessantly apologizing for no real reason, and every time we played tennis together, even while we were warming up, the number of needless apologies issued between us must have climbed into the thousands. The answer, as it so often does for me, comes from Goethe, who said: "Since everyone makes mistakes, since even the greatest among us have made mistakes, we have no reason to regard our own errors as inexcusable." I have another friend who says that apologies are bullshit. That I don't agree with. A sincere, appropriate apology is, to my thinking, among the noblest forms of human behavior. Well intentioned people seem to always be their own harshest critics. And although there is much to be admired in this, this determination to ceaselessly seek self improvement, what benefit do we gain by endlessly chastising ourselves, reminding ourselves or our shortcomings, while failing to give ourselves due credit for the nobility of soul we exhibit when we offer, in sincerity, a heartfelt apology? As Goethe said: "Only by errors which really irk us do we advance". We are taught by Jesus to forgive people, without hesitation. Surely we should not hesitate to forgive ourselves.

Time, Running Out

IN THE "That's hard to believe" department, the "where did all the time go?" category, it has now been twenty years since Al Gore's seminal movie "An Inonvenient Truth" was released. Its likely that many people who had been undecided, "on the fence" about this crucial issue, left the theatre convinced that climate change is indeed very real. The more the merrier. You go Al Gore. Who knows? Perhaps someday future historians will write that the late twentieth century American Vice President Al Gore founded the first effective climate movement which, after much struggle and resistance, at long last grew strong enough to tip the balance away from climate denial and towards climate action, and that the resulting pro climate movement succeeded in electing enough political leaders who finally, after years of struggle, convinced corporate leaders and the corporate investment community that there is money to be made by fighting climate change, even more money than can be made by causing it and ignoring it. As climate change becomes worse, and more people are impacted directly by it, the percentage of "believers" increases, and public policy, driven by public opinion, begins to become more sane, more receptive to reality. The Trump administration is pursuing policies intended to essentially subsidize the dying coal industry, incredibly, almost as if having joined a death cult, bent on human extinction. Climate deniers must bend over backwards denying obvious scientific reality, They refuse to accept the simple reality that when you burn coal,coal dust end up suspended in the atmosphere, mainly carbon, which traps more heat in the atmosphere than does the normal nitrogen oxygen air mix. Its strange to think of people rejecting simple scientific reality, because the truth is that the environmental beliefs and policies of progressive political thought are urgently needed now. Meanwhile, good old conservative coal and oil, which are slowly but steadily killing us, both have full conservative unwittingly suicidal support. Thus the Republican party and the American conservative movement underpinning it is a sort of unwitting death cult. But hope remains. Slowly, all too slowly but inexorably, climate denial seems to be waning. Let us so hope and pray. We reject the truth, accurately said Goethe, only because we fear that accepting it will destroy us. Rejecting the truth about global warming and climate change will indeed destroy us, and in fact is already causing human misery and death at an increasingly alarming pace. The situation regarding the slow huan resposne to climate change makes it increasingly urgent and necessary to "rub it in" to all necessary faces, most notably conservative visages in denial. We must accept reality before we can begin in earnest to save ourselves from it. There will soon come a time when no amouont of human assisted healing of the sick and angry planet Earth will restore its fragile paper thin ecosystem to health. Surely we can all see, looking at pictures of blue planet Earth taken from outer space, that the Earth is a tiny speck of miraculous matter in an inconceivably large universe, and, whetehr or not the universe if full of life of barren of it, is suffficiently miraculous to go to any length necessary to save. Even if the universe is full of life, the millions of species on tiny blue Earth are surely unique in all the cosmos, and that if we indeed commit suicide by poisoning the Earth to death, we will have commited the greatest of all possible crimes, by destroying what the universe created, and what it obviously fully intends to exist, perhaps, as Carl Sagan said, as a way of knowing and understanding itself.

Trump, Keeping Control

YOU CAN watch the news on any given day, and within minutes get some good material to think, talk, or write about. You can turn down the volume, and get your amazement by just reading the headlines. These days, it doesn't take long to become amazed, unless you're one of the lucky ones who has become oblivious to it. "DOJ To Investigate E. Jean Carroll" rolled across the screen and caught my attention this morning. This really shouldn't seem surprising by now, but in a nation with a traditional democracy, its rather hard, as millions have discovered, getting used to having your government taken over by a gang of fascists, through the elecoral process.Many women have accused Trump of raping them, a couple of dozen, if not more. There seems to be a pattern. Most of these alleged victims have been mree inconvneiences rather than problems to Trump ever since, who has apparently spent millions of dollars to pay the ladies off, to keep them quiet, under control. But of course Donald J. Trump has never been one to be content by merely keeping anything or anybody under control. He is much more the dominate and destroy type. So now don the Con, ever ready to exact harsh retirbution for alleged slights, has decided to sic the FBI on the poor hapless lady. She is to be investigated, thoroughly, for nothing and everything in particular; id you dig deep enough, you will either strike pay dirt, or fabricate some. Joseph P. Kennedy allegedly asid about his son Robert F.: "When Bobby hates you, you stay hated." This mafia mentality of revenge and reprisal is at the rotten core of the thoroughly rotten heart and soul of our current chief executive. Trump's had so many people accuse him of doing so many nefarious things, and has accused so many people of nefarious behavior - at one point he was involved in an incredible four thousand law suits, many of them accusing Trump of something, many others in which Trump accuses somebody of something, that one or two lawsuits, more or less, either way, would normally merely blend in with the rest, and og largely unnoticed by the media and general public. Most of them see to linger in abjudication for years, even decades, dragging on. Trump actually seems to be trying to run out the clock on looming potentially unfavorable verdicts. But E. Jean Carroll has been lurking, a thorn in Trump's side for years, the wounded MAGA-Christ, the splinter resistant to extraction. But the don always gets his revenge, and revenge, says an old Spanish proverb, is a dish best served cold. E. Jean Carroll is almost certainly clean, unblemished by personal scandal, with little or no dirt to dig up. Investigations skake up up people's lives, clean or otherwise, by turning the upside down. To be investigated is sometimes the same as being punished, victimized by revenge. Somehow you, and probably she, knew all along that she could not elude the wrath fo the don forever. Her time has come, evidently, to take a hit from the mafia don, the don of dons, as they say. At this point you wouldn't be surprised if she up and vanished altogether, sleeping with the fishes, as they say, with Jimmy Hoffa, at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Trump brings lawsuits for revenge, lawsuits his lawyers know will be thrown out of court by any sane judge. Its comforting to know that E. Jean Carroll is, in our legal system, largely beyond the reach of Trump, or so it seems. If she keeps her mouth sut and quietly goes away, she'll probably be just fine. But if she ever decides to write and publish a book, which is exactly what seems to be happening now, to seek public attention for her history with Trump, don't be surprised if, in the middle of her book tour, she turns up missing, and is never found.

Trump, Taking Advantage

THE EPSTEIN FILES are truly important, to everyone, in that, in theory, they prove that Trump is a criminal and a sexual predator, both of which we already knew, and would have known anyway. What they evidenly clearly demonstrate is that Trump used his wealth, fame, and power to expolit underage girls by exually molesting them when he had the opportunity, of which eh evidently never failed to take advantage. Then too, there is Trump's status as an adjudicated rapist, as established by the federal courts. It is perfectly fair and appropriate for people opposed to Trump politically to point all this out, to force Trump supporters to acknowledge it, and to explain, based on it, their continued support of Trump. Either they pretend its all a hoax, or they ignore it. Both methods are deeply dishonest.It puts them (MAGA) i a potentially uncomfortable position which, one must admit, they generally do an excellent job of avoiding largely by dancing around it. One harkens back to Bill Clinton, and the fact that, like Trump, multiple claims of rape were made against him by multiple women. According to statistics, ninety five percent of the time claims of rape are valid, and that women,relatively rarely fabricate claims of sexual abuse for financial gain or other reasons. Of teh several dozen women who have accused Trump of raping them, all of them seem credible, from people who have given sufficiently consistant and verfiable details to make their versions appear quite genuine, sincere, factual. It is a fact that a very percentage of rape victims never report the crime to law enforcement. Just as many if not most or even all American presidents were guilty of one form of criminal activity or another, wealthy powerful men in general, including those who carefully cultivate a public image of virtue, often succumb to the temptation take advantage of their inherent appeal to women. Wealth, power, an fame are resources, and females are conditioned by nature to seek mates with resources, so called "eligible" men.Men who have wealth, fame, and power, but lack basic decency and morality, are no les harmful to society in general than to the people they exploit.We as a society tend to give power to those who seek it with the highest level of desire. We should probably do the exact opposite. Having enough of a desire to obtain wealth and power by any easn possible or necessary is enough to disquality those from having the power they so deeply desire. Among America's founders it was considerable bad form to openly express a desire for political power, or to go about the business of openly, actively seeking it. This attitude was probably a reaction to the tyranny imposed on early Americans by Great Britain and its king. George Washington accepted a high ranking military command to serve his country, but was extremely reluctant to assume the power of even the new American pesidency, let alone of a king, which many Americans preferred that he become. Arguably, perhaps undeniably, the best, most efficient form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. Problem is, good dictators, willing to serve, are hard to find. It seems that only corrupt people even desire so much personal power. We continue to admire Washington for turning down a chance to be a king. Maybe we would all have been better off if he had accepted the offer, and established a Washington family monarchy. In any event, he ruined any possibility of that, by not having children. We seem to have fallen far. It is almost impossible to even imagine George Washington being involved in anything like our modern scandals. Even if he was, maybe we're better off not knwing about it.

Attending Church, Religiously

WRITING THIS ESSAY will have to serve as a sort of religious service for me this Memorial Day Weekend. I chose not to go to church yesterday. My excuse is that I felt unwell. A flare up of gout which I failed to quench with medication in time. I like going to shucrh, and miss it when I don't go, whether or not I belong there, theoogically. Not only that, but there is more than one single church that I enjoy going to, so, I rotate. I somehow strongly suspect that, it never would nor will it ever really matter to me what if any curch I attend, but I think I know which churh where I truly belong, the Uniterian Universalist (UU) Fellowship. Irmind myself to always keep in mind that there are no bad choices regarding churches, only good ones, excluding the so called Satanic "churches", whatever they are. Hell, I'd be happy to flip a coin, but for the sake of self identification, I call myself a "pantheistic Unitarian" The fact that I miss church when I don't go probably indicates that I should go. I think I would be and wil always be will ready and abel to attend church anywhere, at least once, for the learning experience. To me all churches seem like diferent versions os the same thing, no matter where. And, like everyone else, I pick and choose my religious beliefs, or lack thereof. For instance, I doubt that I would or will ever embrace crucifiction theology, so I choose to essentially ignore it. All of that stuff about Christ dying for my sins is not part of my religiosity. Christ died, it seems to me, because humans are petty, jealous, and fearful. And I accept the reality that the Christian Bible, like the Christian religion, has evolved over the centuries since its inception and inclusion in teh faith,and is still doing so today, like we all are.In a few hundred ore years, the Bible, adn the faith may both be barely recognizable. Supposedly there are several thousand organized religions in the world. Will there be millions more in the future, or only one, or, perhaps, none at all? Maybe future human theology will evolve with human culture into some sort of transcendant, universal religiosity. The one final, ultimate religion. Science seems to be replacing religion, but not without a fight, and maybe, just maybe, religion will never be totally replaced. Even the most enlightened form of religion will likely share with all previous reigons the same fatal flaw; that of having smugly, presumptiously fallen into the trap of declaring itself, in its current form, to be the true and only source of a comprehensive uderstanding and description of the universe. Beware of such claims. No religion on Earth has ever nor will likely ever succeed in doing that. But we humans do have the necessary tools, our collective brains, to understand, if not the entire universe, at least a large enough part of it to justifying our bragging to ourselves that, if nothing else, at least we have made a start on our grand adventure of universal exploration, beginning on a single planet. It will be up to our descandants, and their descandants, to carry on the quest. All we can and must do is bequeath to them as healthy a world and human civilization upon it as possible, and wish them well. This process, and our awarenes of it and participation in it, is worthy of admiration, which is what religion is all about; admiration of the amazing universe in whieh we live, appreciation of the lives we have, and reverence for the the eternal infinitely superior spirit which constructed it all.

Waiting For Maybe A Blue Wave

LESS THAN six months until the election, and most indications remain predicting a blue wave, to one degree or another. Considering the administration and Congress so far, its no wonder why. When you consider that Trump and MAGA are still blaming Biden for everything, and that they are trying to change the subject to a hypothetical arch of triumph near the reflecting pool on the Capitol mall, you realize that Trump and MAGA are doing everything humanly possible to avoid actually discussing Trump, and the performance pf him and his administration.They'll use anythingthat works, whatever it takes. A ball room, an arch, Trump's face added to Mt. Rushmore, anything, whatever works. Whatever succeeds in taking the nation's attention off of the infamous and mysterious Epstein files. "The Epstein files", as they are called, is evidently a massive collection of documented evidence and proof that Donald Trump is indeed a pedophile who acts on his impulses, and is guilty of sexually abusing and raping children. Even if normal, everyday MAGA folk would rather the Epstein file quietly go away, they aren't likely to, at least, not soon. The war against Iran, Turmp's war of choice, is not making anybody, Republicans included, happy, The United States, and we the American people are far from being done with this war of Trump's (our) choice, and we might not be done with it for a lot longer than we now think, as is the case with all wars. It may be that by early November, when election day rolls around, his war against Iran may have become something of an albatross around Trump's fleshy neck. When one further considers how strenuous opposition to Trump has been, remains, and that it seems destined to only increase, and that as of now less than forty percent of the American support either Trump or his various wars of choice,it begins to seem increasingly likely that all this will hurt Republicans and help Democrats in November. But, as always, who knows? Its hard to imagine Trump gaining any new support from here on out. Anybody not on board with him by now most likely never will be. Opposition to Trump, over sixty percent of America, is rock solid, angry, and enthusiastic. So far it shows no sign of being well organized, by anybody, but what relly matters is voter turnout for the midterms. The higher it is, the more it becomes possible for Democrats to take both the House and the Senate, although the Senate will still remain unlikely. There are several ky aspects of this administration, other than the Epstein files and Trump's obvious lifeling immorality and criminality, which engender disapproval from both sides of the isle. Attacking Iran is one of them. All of Trump's nonsense about Canada and Cuba is another. But working against Trump and the Republicans more than anything at the moment is inflation, for which Trump et al will get the blame, as is always the case, depsite their best attempts to deflect it. No president can do much about inflation, which comes in cycles, like most economic phenomena, and must run its course. This is, however, a perfect opportunity for Democrats to pin the blame on Republicans, who, after all, currently have control of all three branches of government, and most state governments. No decent person wants the American people to suffer economically. But if in the coming months they do indeed suffer in the pocketbook, whatever state the economy is in on election day will not be attributed to Democrats, and will be directly attributed to Trump and Republicans.

Preaching

I ATTENDED Presbyterian church this past Sunday,where my dear friend and fellow anti-Trumper, a lawyer turned minister, gave one of his characteristically excellent sermons. It seems a pity that there are usually no more than about ten people in the building when he "preaches", but, so be it.He's good enough to be heard by minions, however many that is.This is all well and good, but I have now missed my beloved Unitarian Universalist service several weeks in a row, and I am becoming rather eager to attend one. The sooner I decide about thsi coming Sunday, the more settled I'll be. I am leaning towards making the twenty mile drive to the UU service. I can certainly understand the need to organize religion. Otherwise, we're jsut a unch of individuals running around, each with our own version of reality, theologically. Scientifically, we can unite, and, ultimately, we must, for there is only one version of natural law. As far as we can tell so far, there is only one universe. Stay tuned. Can you imagine having only a single religion on Earth, a global religion, with all other religions being strictly prohibited? I think I can, and it aint pretty. Such a planetary religion would be well organized, perhaps, but stagnant, monolithic, decaying with age. Its difficult to actually imagine that, because, truth be told, we all have a little bit of Martin Luther in us. We all, ultimately, invent our own religions. We have no other choice. As Goethe said: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion I decided to invent mine." As of now, this moment, I liek my pantheistic, Unitarian semi-Presbyterian Heinz fifty Seven approach, heavy on the Spinoza and Einstein, my religious role models, along with perhaps Jefferson. All religions have antecedents and lifespans. If and when humanity expands human habitat otuward from Earth and into outer space, it will almost certainly take its various religions with it.Perhaps our descendants will engender new religions, to fit their circumstances. One thing we know about Christianity: the Christian messiah appeared at the exact time when it was normal among Jews and throughout the Jewish culture to await and anticipate his arrival, and had been for awhile.This was certainly true of the Jews, and and, to some extent, of the Romans as well, who were as uaual open mnded on te matter, flexible, amenable to religious evolution, quite willing to embrace, to a certain extent, just bout any and every religious bandwagon that came rolling along the Appian Way. The old Roman Gods were losing their power and hold over the vast and varied Roman EMpire. The new Christian God, "the light", was spreading like contagion. Call religion whatever you want. Feel free. I know I do. I have many unflattering opinions about religion in general. So do many people, especially in the "west", where secularism and science are taking over. But it is equally important for everyone to never lose sight of the reality that for billions of human beings, at our current level of spiritual and intellectual evolution, religion plays, demonstrably, indisputably, an indispensable part. I can envisin, vaguely, a future human culture in which the traidtional, ancient, blood sacrificial religions, which evolved from ancient primitive cults, have evolved into a higher level of awareness of reality based on observable reality, which reveals to us a universe of incredible harmonious beauty, more than worthy of admiration and religious veneration.

Keeping Our Brains Honest

THE LADY at the senior center who got caught stealing and got fired spooked me a bit. Not that I'm naive, or anything like that. I certainly shouldn't be, at seventy one years of age. My thinking is: if someone like her, a deeply religious Pentecostal, is doing something like this, then precisely what in hell or on Earth might the rest of of us be doing? I recall reading a stark stat. Your average American and probably average human in general will commit at least one felony during his or her lifetime, many of them unknowingly. Part of that is of course the sheer number of felonies on the books; tens of thousands, available for committing, in our litigious, legalistic American culture. Part of it is human nature. Cheating seems to be a somewhat basic human behavior, intended to provide the cheater a competitive advantage. To keep ourselves honest, we must rely on ourselves, and our received moral standards. One way or another, the criminals are going to get inside our fortress homes, despite all our locks, alarms, and guns. We lock our doors to keep the rest of us, each other, the honest people, honest. In smaller groups mutual monitoring helps keep all members honest. Both honesty and deceit are necessary, it seems, for human survival. And it seems that all of us, in one way or another, are mentally ill, just as arguably nobody experiences perfect physical health all the time. I suffer from paranoia, I think. But of course, we must be careful precisely waht we describe a "ill". Under Stalin, it was considered a mental illness to fail to embrace communism. We must avoid the trap of diagnosing so many types of behaviors as "mentally ill" that we all start taking pills at the slightest provocation which turn us into uniformly mentally stagnant zombies. The first time you look at a Picasso or Dali painting or hear Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", you might be tempted to ascribe to some sort of mental or "artistic illness", as many originally did, rather than, more properly, to artistic creativity and genius. One might wonder how great Beethoven would have been had he not been sick and depressed much of the time, or deaf, with the attendant isolation, depression, and anger. Not worth a plugged nickel, perhaps. The mind must be free to be creative. Sure, let's study technique, let's ahve our do's and don'ts. But above all, let's allow our shining, unique personalities emerge from wthin ourselves, radiate outward, and wash over each other in our unique individual vibrations of joy. I think it was Carl Sagan who said that considering the sheer number of brain cells we all have within our skulls, we should probably never be surprised by anything anyone ever says or does. We also do well to remember that all actons, large and small, engender responses. There isn't the slightest piece of real evidence that there exists anything which might remotely be called "free will". There is a great amount of evidence that every particle of matter and enerty in the universe obeys the laws of nature. Instead of thinking in terms of reward and punishment, praise and blame, it might help to think in terms of cause and effect. If every human being in the world embarked on a project to make better choices and decisions, perhaps the cumulative effect of billions of better decisions, better choices, better thinking, would transform the world, from its current largely undesirable state of affairs, to one much more closely reembling a utopian vision the sort of which most people imagine and desire. As Carl Sagan pointd out, humanity is not afflicted with a shortage of intelligence, but himan intelligence is a tool which can be used either destructively, or productively. We can destroy, but, thank heavens, we can create.

Trump, Visiting China

TRUMP'S VISIT TO CHINA is, for my money, a very good thing, irrespective of my personal opinion of Trump. Any harm he does can be undone, any good he manages to do benefits us all. The older I get the more I come to believe that communication is always beneficial, much better than no communication. A married couple yelling at each other, or two powerful, aggressive nations trying to preserve peach and prevent war, communications yields information, and communication facilitates better decisions and action. We humans can and should celebrate the unique beauty of the individual personality, which freedom of speech enhances, but we must always remain aware of the reality that any individual human, however intelligent and creative, is ultimately no more able to function properly without societal support than your average individual red ant. For Americans, rooting for president Trum, or any president to fail at anything is a no win proposition.While we may hope and work for his legislative an dpoicy agenda to be voted down and replaced by better ones, or at least a halfway decent one, whatever dealings Trump has internationaly on behalf of the United States, whatever actions he takes on our behalf, we must hope for their success, for our own sake. If trickle down economics suddenly, magically begins working well for the working class, although it never has before, all the better, bring it on. Truly, that would be amazing and miraculous to behold.That is precisely the situation we are in, like it or not. It is one thing to hope or work for the cancallation of Trump's ball room,it is quite another to hope that his visit to China fails to achieve positive results, only because it is the despicable Trump who is doing the visiting. Like it or not, everybody's fate is greatly influenced, impacted by in Trump's position, and those os us who despice him personally can root up one side and down the other for Trump to fail, but as long as he is president, his failures for the most part are indeed our failures. Opposing Trump's policies is not the same thing as hoping and working for their failure, for his failure. We must therefore hope that actions we disagree with do less harm and more good than we anticipate. Again,this is precisely the situation we are in, like it or not. His failures, to one extent or another, are our failures as a nation. In this vain, I hope, fore example, that Trump's cutting funds for education and medical research of all kinds helps the country, somehow, hard as it is to see how it possibly can. We can always restore this vital funding later, after Trump is gone, and we are going about the business of cleaning up the messes he has made and undoing what damage we can. If nothing else, surely we can restore our support, as a nation, for the arts and sciences, and education. Federal support for these is crucial for our future as a nation, as a culture. Critics of Trump point out the damage he has done and continues to do to the country in alienating America's traditional allies and hollowing out American culture from within, and in suberting and harming democratic processes. But at least he is visiting China, on behalf of us all, like it or not, and that's not all bad. All of these criticisms are perfectly valid and true, and must receive continued and constant attention. But when you consider how resiliently the United States has recovered from past harm, self inflicted or otherwise, you can almost begin to see the damage to America being done by Trump and MAGA as opportunity, the opportunity to weather the storm, and then, one fine day, to build back better.

Pentecostal Pilfering

The PENTECOSTAL LADY was indeed dismissed from the senior center, maybe a mutual thing. So I'm seventy one years old now and can still be surprised. I'm lucky. Some scientist once said that when you consider the sheer complexity of the human brain and mind, with billions of nerve cells and all, that we should probably never be surprised by anything that anybody ever does.The scientist, I think, was Carl Sagan, and I think he said it in his great book "Broca's Brain". Or maybe we should be surprised by everything that everybody does, or surprised that anybody ever does anything at all. "I'm Amazed I'm Alive", a friend of mine, a singer song writer, titled one of his songs. Since I am retired, live two blocks from the senior center, and go there for lunch five times a week, and pretty much know everyone there, indeed I was and still am surprised at the alleged, evident Pentecostal petty theft, even if, according to logic and common sense, I shouldn't be. Einstein once said that either everything is a miracle, or nothing is. Amazingly, I understand what Einstein meant by that, and I concur wholeheartedly. Why and how does anything exist at all, my father, a lawyer, once asked. Most of us probably ask this same question at one time or another. I certainly hope so. Thinking about the difference between "brain" and "Mind" is interesting, because they should be, must be, essentially the same thing. You begin to understand why some people consider it more valuable to spend their lives meditating in a cave than acdtiviely participating in society. But doesn't it sees as if you could accomplish more in your cave meditations by being well educated, by having studied and learned,and lived many years of life experiences, rather than just entering the cave young and stupid, open mind or not. The truth appears to be that there is no such thing as "free will", that every particle of matter and energy in the universe, ourselves included, obeys the laws of nature, is constrained by and to natural law, and that therefore the human mind, we us, are not the creative free thinking intelligent being we often fancy ourselves, but rather, mere collections of chemicals, obeying, like all matter and energy, the laws of nature. You arrive, don't you, at the conclusion that we must be both, bags of chemicals and creative, intelligent beings, creatures, entities, without the slighets knowledge of how we came into being,and thus limited to our notion of what we call "God". My best effort is to believe that the terms "God", "cosmos", and "universe" are synonimous, regardless of how they are defined in Webster's one millionth edition. Usually, we are surprised by what other people do, but not surprised by what we oursleves think and do. To me, all of my thoughts and actions seem understandable, or so I think. No matter what I do, I think I can, if aked, or if I choose to, explain the reaons for it to somebody else. Of course, I'm deceiving myself. Hell, I don't even know why I exist, let alone something picky like why I like watching "Gunsmoke" or eating tator tots. The fact that life is a complete mystery was a source of inspiration, wonder, and happy rumination for Einstein. He didn't let the fact that he failed to achieve his intended goals in science rain on his parade. For him, it is the process of wonder,thought, and exploration that motivated him, the process itself, rather than outcome. We all need to approve of ourselves, and to live so as to merit our self approval. We are our own ultimate judges. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to be a little less results oriented, and a little bit more amazed and joyful at the process itself.

Having Morals

THE KITCHEN CREW Cooks at the senior center are great, and folks jokingly beg them to never ever leave. However, just yesteday they fired the sixty year old lady who is a a Pentecostal Christian, dresses conservatively, and can be rather quiet. They fired her for allegedly, get this, stealing cash from the donation box, a brown wooden box up front where you pay, if you can, for your lunch.Each day when we seniros enter the building for lunch, we can stick a five or so in the donation box; its suggested, but nto mandatory. Soem of these eol people live on very modest income. The Pentecostal lady, hair in a bun, dressed for the nineteenth century, caught with her hand in teh cookie jar, so to speak. I shouldn't be shocked. My best guess, my intuition, is that petty theft and crime of all kinds is not much less prevelant within the religious community than anywhere else. We tend to have the idea that, to assume that religion improves people, without having the slightest bit of evidence that it actually does. They say that locking our doors doesn't keep out any crooks or prevent them from stealig from you, but that it does keep the rest of uw honest people honest. This I believe. I was taken to church as a young child, pre first grade, and I honestly cant remember whether I was asked whether I really wanted to go. I probably did. I was almost certainly given a choice, throughout my childhood, sixty five years ago. I do know that I stopped going at a very early young age, stopped going to Sunday school and church, at some point before fourth grade. One year, when I was about six or so, I was sent to "Vacation Bible School" as they called it. I had mixed emotions about it, mostly negative, and that didn't last long either. As I made my way through grade school, those explosive growth first through sixth grade years, I knew that I was not becoming religious, even as I was learning more and more about religion, including the Bible. I knew,just as I stillknow, that "religion" per se, was not, is not, for me. Now, at seventy one, I go to church, although I still haven't changed my view of religion; that it has both positive and negative aspects and qualities. But since I seemed to have found an organized religions perfectly suited to me, which still seems amazing to me, my general attitude towars organized religion needs to be, should become, so I believe, more tolerant, expansive, and inclusive than ever before. It wouldn't do well for me to gleefully eter a Uniterian Universalist church every Sunday, which is my intent, while simultaneously disparaging any other, or all other religious faiths and traditions. And if, for example, I happen by virtue of my inner nature to embrace Mark Twain's remark that "The Bible contains some noble poetry, clever fables, a vast quantity of obscenity, and no fewer than one thousand outright lies", well then, so be it. I take my bible to church every Sunday, or grab one already there. I ring the bell to signal church beginning. My attitude is "when in rome". I can certainly accept and respect the religiosity of every one else, while rejoicing in my own, as others seem to. I have no need to nor interest in converting anyone to anything, although I am always willing to teach what little I happen to know. Like everyone else, I make more mistakes before nine o'clock in the morning than....who knows who? Kant said: "I am in awe of two things; the starry heavens above me, an the moral law within me." Perhaps our greatest blessing of all is our awareness of both.

Saving Democracy

THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM is sick as a dog, rotten to the core, all cliches aside, and must be drastically reformed and overhauled if democracy in these United States is to be salvaged. As of now, American democracy appears to be collapsing inward towards the center, congealing, coalsscing within the wealth and purchased political power of the ultra wealthy plutocracy,our wealthy powerful elite "corporate masters", as gore Vidal termed our rulers. The fact that big wealthy corporations own the country and the political system is evidenced by the simple fact that virtually every important political office in freedom's land is bought and paid for by its occupant-owner. Hence, what we have in these United States is government by the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.As Congressman Davy Crockett famouosly said "It is my firm belief that Congress ought to at least occasionally legislate for the poor." Laws limiting political campaign contributions, public funding of political campaigns, regulating political advertising,including bringing back the "Fairness Doctrine", would be instrumental in ending or reducing the corruption. It almost begins to seem as if nobody wants to end it, certainly those who benefit from it. Now that SCOTUS has ruled that gerrymandering is legal, we can expect a veritabel avalanche of it. A nation broken into political enclaves, each enclave doing its very best to preclude the opposition party from having any real participation in governining. In every one fo the fifty nifty, the party in power seems poised to gerrymander and rig elections. Any real resistance to this has either been silenced, or ignored. We seem destined to possess fifty equally corrupt political systems, all adding up to national corruption of gigantic proportions. As we seemingly slide inexorably towards this this undesirable state of affairs, the problem is, or certainly seems to be, that nobody cares. As often happens in these United States of Avoidance, the corruption grows, unchecked, uncontested. Politics at the state level is being bought and paid for by the wealthy elite few. Wherever you live in the U.S., if the other party is perpetually in power,you and your party officially have no voice, no vote, no power. Since the SCOTUS strangely says that money is free speech,we the teeming masses of the wretched poor must, so it seems, fight tooth and nail to invent and install a democracy where it isn't, or at least, isn't always present. We the people must demolish once and for all the absurd, outdated notion that is is some sort of sacred human right to us private money to influence the political process. Without proper,effective constraints on the use of personal wealth for political gain,inevitably super wealthy individuals or groups will use money to keep corrupting our sacred American democracy, such as it is. If and when the people generally lose faith and interest in popular government of, by, and for the people, those who seek to use their personal wealth to purchase political power to estabilish a capitalistic corporate dictatorship in America, which, in any event, is, in our current political environment, far more likely, and far less desirable to the working poor than a socialist democracy, will succeed in completing the work of fully, formally establishing a corporate dictatorship in the United States.Humans are by nature inclined to exploit and dominate one another, even as they simultaneously otherwise cooperate. Democratic government, in order to endure, must be constantly sustained and strengthened by the strongest potential force in human affairs; the will of the people.

Choosing

MY SENIOR YEAR in high school, 1972-73, enthusiastically following the lead of our clique leader, the class president, I supported the reelection of Richard M. Nixon. "Reelect the President" I believe was our slogan, which I take credit for. Quite clever, I thought at the time. Now, mot so much. If nothing else, I can proudly say, or hide behind, that the worst mistake of my political life I made when I was seventeen years old. I felt betrayed by "Watergate", and became a firm, lifelong Democrat.On the other hand, I was twenty five in 1980 whenI voted for John Anderson instead of Carter, and lived to regret it. At the time, Anderson, a Republican, seemed more progressive to me than the safely ensconced centrist Jimmy Carter. Reagan's victory devastated me. It still does. Now Ronald Reagan appears well on his way or safely ensconced among the ranks of America's most beloved presidents, almost Rushmore ready, and yet to this day I still despise him, for his conservatism.This reminds me of the way both of my parents despised and repeaedly voted against my hero Franklin D. Roosevelt, for his liberalism, indeed, for his outright socialism. The generational political opposition of my parents and me had no bearing on our mutually loving relationship, nor should it ever, with anyone. I am embarking on a project which might become my tendency; to offer the following line to anyone and everyone, far and wide: politics is not important, friendship is. In a democracy, or a purported one, personal political opinions are precisely as numerous as rectums, and in many cases are no more pleasant to contemplate at length and share. Just as we humans are far more likely to tolerate bad, ineffective, or oppressive government than to alter and reform it,we are more incinded to toleratedeny, or ignore political corruption than to combat and reform it. I played tennis most of my life, but I never cheated, nor even considered cheating, because I knew in advance that doing so would make the game meaningless for me. I suspect that tennis players who get into the habit of cheatingusually don't continue ennis as a hobby for very long. To elect my favorite political candidate through gerrymandering, cheating,voter fraud, whichever or whatever, would be for me more hollow than, say, your average statement from Donald Trump, and that's goin' some, as they say. My best guess, and my best hope, is that there will eventually emerge from within the great state of Tennessee, and every other state,a growing belief that winning elections or anything else by cheating or rigging the rules aint worth, as Sam Rayburn once said of the Vice Presidency, "a bucket fo warm spit". Winning anthing by rigging the system is pure hollowness,as anyone who tries or does it full well knows. You want to defeat your foes at his best, not beause the system has been rigged against him. Itmay bethat Republicans are not being careful enough about what they are wishing for, and are seeking, with apparent success, to implement in Tennessee and all across the solid conservtive south, one party rule. We Americans are known for being choosy, for wanting and expecting real choices. Voting Republican is one thing. Having no real alternative is quite another. Americans deprived of real choices tend to become restless and angry. Surely to goodness even Republicans want to vote Republican for a better reason than having no other choice.

Building Democracy

IN STATES controlled by Republicans,Republicans are doing everything in their power to make sure that the system is rigged to elect as many Republicans as possible to the U.S. House of Representatives. They are redrawing congressional voting districts, gerrymadering them into truly salamanderian shapes, to achieve political dominance. Democrats are of course doing the exact same thing in states they control.but they seem to control fewer states, and appear to have less to gain by playing this game. But is they don't play it at all if they sit on the sidelines in this sordid activety proclaiming that they are morally superior to such nefarious behavior, they risk falling behnd, being left in the dust, eventual extinction. It is not pleasant trying to imagine an America with only one major political party. We need and must have at least two, and arguably more. It is equally hard to imagine the American people being happy long term with only one major party. So diverse and divisive are we by nature that a single political party could never adequately represent all Americans. But are two enough? A two party system has the advantage of legislative efficiency. There is automatically and always a distinct majority and minority, on every issue, aiding clarity. And yet, European democracies all have more than two parties, anywhere to a handful to an unlimited number. And yet, their democracies seem to function at least as efficiently and effectively as the American version. They compensate for the potential with shifting coalitions, depending on the issue. The added flexibility enhances efficiency and effectiveness. The Democratic party in the U.S., for example, could probabyy be vroken down into five or six smaller parties. It is a big tent which includes both socialists and capitalists, moderates and far left wingers. It is possible to find true Democrats whose viewpoint seems to have little in common with other Democrats. It is hard to find any two Democrats exactly alike, and the moderates and the socialists do indeed seem better suited to different parties. The Republicans,meanwhile, still have some moderate conservatives to balance out the far right wing, the fascists, the folks with full body tattoos, flying confederate flags on their porches, pick ups, and trailors, They like the Third Reich red n black swastika too, but seem to be a bit more discreet about breaking it out for all to see. Whereas as recently as the nineteen seventies party differences were minimized as both parties moved towards and clustered in the political center,we now seem to have opened up a considerable gap between them, as many of their adherents have fled outward, towards the extremist fringes of their party,far left and far right. This polarization of political opinion has the advantage of offering everyone a celar, distinct choice. But unless a large, strong moderate political community thrives,polarization invites conflict and instability. It might behoove us all to seek more balance, and less extremism, in our personal political portfolios. This involves nothing more than the willingness of the individual to open the mind to greater diversity of thought, to "think outside the box", as they say. First, we must build and maintain a fair democracy, without any political party abusing democracy to gain an advantage.To build such parties, parties concerned about real democracy, they must be joined and led by people whose proirity is truly democracy,and not personal or political gain or party advantage. In other words, moral people.

Attending a Very Small Church

YESTERDAY, SUNDAY, I attended a Presbyterian church service, at the quaint little country brick church I have referenced before,the one nearly two hundred years old. I wonder whether there are any ghosts of congregants past watching over us. It would be a great place for ghosts to hang out, what with the old wood work in the floors and pews, the stained glass windows,the whole nineteenth century look of the place. The interior has been carefully, purposefully maintained in its 19h century look for decades. As the decades have gone by, generations of people have evidently all noticed and loved the perfect, quaint, rustic decor, and have over and over again through the decades, resolved not to touch it, not to change it even the tiniest amount. And so, two hundred years after its construction and founding as a formally registered Presbyterian congregation, ti remains as quaint and rustic as ever.We could all rent some nineteenth century clothing from a costume shop or something, all dress up accordingly, and look for all the world like a genuine Civil War era church congregation, in our little brick and wooden church down in the valley, in the woods. The minister, a friend of mine, delivers a progressive sounding sermon, with love and happiness rather than fire and brimstone, and I always leave the service uplifted and happy, ready for a big lunch. Isn't that what religion's all about, or should be? The only problem with going to church there is that it makes it nearly impossible to attend the Uniterian Universalist house of cosmic reverence some miles away, because in order to get there on time, I would have to leave the first church post haste,and drive like a maniac to the second, which I am unwilling to do. This past sunday, if my memory is accurate, there were nine people in the building, including the minister, organist, and "liturgist", who together constitute our version of "the clergy". I always hope for double digits in attendance; no go for this week. Better luck next time. Suddenly, the year two thousand and twenty eight is right around the corner, which'll be the two hundreth anniversary of the church. It must have been built by some of the earliest settlers in the region; avid, fervant Presbyterians who, above all else, above the need even for houses and stores and bars, knew in their hearts that they needed and would have to build a church, first. Of course, in nineteenth century American frontier culture, a single primitive building could and often did serve as church, school, and in many cases temporarly sleeping quarters for new arrivals in the community, while they got their log cabin built. My European friends seem amazed and amused at how recent our history is here in the American frontier 'west". For us, for me (and I am 71 years old) the late nineteenth century, when my grandparents were born, seems like a remote time deep in history; for my ninety two year old friend from Germany,it seems like nothing, like recent history, like just yesterday. She was a teenager in 1945 Germany, remembers Hitler, and warns us about Trump. I consider myself part Unitarian, part Presbyterian (a very small part), and, overwhemlingly, a pantheist, like Spinoza and Einstein. The Unitarian emphasis on the unity of all human religiosity impresses me, and inspires me to feel comfortable in churches of various denominations. I am inclined towards believing that once one has declared one's self a "panthieist", all things are possible, religiously. Our Presbyterian church has about a dozen actual members. I am not one of them. I have no intention of ever joining somebody else's church, but rather, remaining contentedly within mine,and visiting other churches for spiritual and mental growth. Goethe's admonition remains more vital to me than ever: "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine;"

Sharing

IT WAS ONE OF THOSE "leaked" government reports of the usual sort, but indications are that these United States,as always acting ostensibly on behalf of the American people but in actuality acting on behalf of America's corporate owners and masters, has issued what amounts to an ultimatum to the African country of Uganda, threatening to end all Amercan medical and financial assistance for fighting AIDS, unless said U.S. receives in return Uganda's mineral rights to its copper, nickel, and cobalt. For the U.S. to seek access to these metals is understandable. To seek it in this manner is, quite arguably, unconscionable,indeed, nefarious, perfidious. The problem with this leaked report is that it seems to have a certain basis in reality, rather than merely being another internet lie. Bottom line: if you are a decent person or country, you cannot and do not tie emergency medical assistance to industrial mineral resources as a bargaining chip, no matter how devilishly tempting it might be. Surely not. Or do you, do we, should we? Are we? We the people sure as hell ought to know, and should find out, poste haste. I for one intend to find out...surely, not my America. Trump's America? Who knows? Life saving plague stopping modern miracle medicines and vaccines for diseases like AIDS and all the rest, should be available to everybody, regardless of abilitiy to pay, surely we can all agree, at a reasonably low cost. Yes, we want productivity and proper payment from everyone, but, we want everyone in the world vaccinated for everything, every year, no matter what, full stop. We can iron out the financial details and discuss the efficacy of vaccines with our ant-vaxxer comrades while vaccinating at a feverish pace, pun intended. It is all well and good that the U.S. wants and needs mineral resources form other countries, at times, for various worthwhile purposes, and vice versa. And yes, let's make deals, in a civilized, cooperative manner. But let's not go full Trump, the low life dishonest low life approach of extortaion and deceit, which if of course what Don teh Con is all about, and always has been, in plain sight. Let's make the arrangements cooperatively, for the benefit of as many people as possible, not jsut the billionaires and corporations. On this fragile planet we humans will of necessity do more sharing in the future, of everything, at all levels, for our survival. Consider, for instance, American capitalism. The more money we distribute, by any means, among America's poorest people, the more economic growth we have, including and especially among the millionaires and billionaires. An economic system, a nation's economy, is inevitably a pyramed, a pyrmaid best build long, broad, and low, an close to the ground, with the top being close enough to the ground to be seen from the ground...With food,clothing,shelter, and health, lettuce all help each other, and share. When all of our basic needs are met sustainably, for all of us, we can knock ourselves out competing for luxuries, frivolities and non essential goods and services in the great sacred totally normal and natural Adam Smithian free market level playing field of economics and life, or whatever. Nobody should have to fight and struggle constantly to simply live. Surely we can have some basic socialism for the poor. Lord knows we have had, and still have, through our economic and taxation system, plenty of socialism for the wealthy.

Gerrymandering Part II

THIS WHOLE GERRYMANDERING thing in Florida is beyond disgusting, just as it is always disgusting, no matter who is doing it, no matter which party. Currently, it appears to be primarily if not excusively Republicans of the MAGA kind doing the dirty deed, led by Trump, and the primary, immediate impetus seems to be coming from the widespread right wing desire to keep Trump and MAGA politicians in power, indefinitely, perhaps eternally. Stipulated here is that this behavior anybody is capable of,just like anybody is capable of lying, cheating, stealing, or killing. Democrats gerrymander too. Over the circuitous course of American politica history, who's to say who or which party has been the most guilty of it? Its as if,in a democracy organized by voting districts,its going to happen. We must stop it in the U.S., or at least try to, instead of placidly accepting it as some sort of inevitable, unavoidable,necessary evil. What the Republicans are trying to do and successfully doing in Florida isnothing other than outright subversion of democracy, and we all,if we are good citizens,must rise up and stop it. We must fight to unrig our democracy,our alleged democracy. Everybody talks about the big corrupting money in American politics,and of course,that is the main problem,and must be dealt with first. America's poor majority must organize,and take our democracy back from the billionaires, and aare perhaps are finally being heard, auspiciously, more often of late. The ruling plutocracy can be dismantled, removed from power, maybe as easily as enacting a few basic new laws. It wouls start, ofcourse, with public cammpaign financing,and strict limits on campaign contributions. One we make it impossible to actually blatanly purchase political offices, we are beginnning to build an actual democracy. But not until. Many people argue that our two party system is best, because it quickly, effectively gives us a clear majority and a minnority, on all issues at all times, instead of a collection of many different fragmented small parties witth differing points ofview, no clear majority, and a permenantly fragmented societed, paralyzed in inaction. However, in countries where such a fragmented situation exists, thyy have learned the art ofcompromise and temporary, shifting party party allliances, dependant on ths issues of the day. In any political system in which money is not regulated and is allowed to flow freely throughout the political system, the political system becomes and remains utterly corrupted,bought and paid for by the wealthiest of the wealthy elite. Rich versus poor is the main American divide. This is reality, not "class warfare", as the rich like to call it. Or, OK, call it class warfare. The poor and working poor classes can either accept the currrent situation, or they can try to do something about it,to change it. This our wealthy elite masters call "class warfare." Billionaires organize to keep their wealth and power, and attack the poor for organizeing to gain some of it, some semblance of equality. The Marxist theory of history can be attacked, criticized, demonized all day long. It remains fundamentally valid, as a partial explanation of history which, in concert with other theories and paradigms, helps us understand human history, and ourselves. Recent history has seen the rebirth of democracy, dead since ancient Greece and Rome. Today, it is a dwindling flame, attacked by forces intent on putting it out. MAGA is anti-democratic,and must be opposed, and ultimately defeated.

Being Conservative

I'M WILLING To ACCEPT THE BALLROOM, with conditions. Not on the White House lawn. Maybe down the street a bit, on Pennsylvania Ave. Leave the White House lawn the way it is, but replace the Rose Garden with the Rose Garden, put it back the way it was. No stone or concrete patio. All future additions must conform and compliment those already there, let's say. And this big new wing Trump is building, stop it. No White House expansion, I dare say, most Americans say. What we're going to do, what Trump and his cult are going to do, is overbuild. We do not want to reamke Washington or Mt. Rushmmore in the image of Trump, permanently, for futue generations to ridicule. So let's put the proposed new White HOuse wing and the ball room and the Arch de la Trump on hold, and give it all due consideration. And, above all, if an when we the people, acting through our federal government, choose to build some sort of arch, fine; but make damned sure it has nothing to do with Trump, with mentioning him or honoring hime, and instead, make it a tribute to the common man, for instance, a granite "fanfare for the common man". Arron Copeland, baby. Hell, let the people weigh in! What's wrong with a little patience, due deliberation, democracy, and due process? We don't want Trump, of all people, making these decisions alone, or with his inner circle. We want all this to be an expression of the will of the people, American style. Lettuce await the results of the many national, scientifically accurate polls and surveys which can and probably will inform us of the popular will. We could have much more democracy in this counrty than we do. We could vote on many of the things we leave to teh government to decie. Our democarcy has, arguably, become a bit too representative, and too little direct. At the ballot box in this November's midterms, why not vote on whether to keep the White HOuse the same, or to allow big changes and additions to be made to it? I've jsut go to believe that a majority of the American people do not want any changes to the White House. I sure as hell don't. Especially some huge gawdy fun house next door, dwarfing and dominating the White House, replacing lovely green lawns, trees, and gardens. Let trump and hsi party buddies have their fun in Vegas, Atlantic City, Mara Lago, or Epstein's place, their usual haunts. If its beyond repair, tear it down, and rebuild it precisely the way it was, as closely as possible. Hell, 3D print the damned thing, build it out of plastic! (joke). Let's take the conservative approach; change as little as possible, and preferably, nothing. The White House (andmaybe the capital, among other buildings), is perfect the way it is, correct, America? What we need now is change to our political and electoral system. We need fair and reasonable Congressional voting districts, not gerrymandered by anybody, determined by independent, impartial groups and committees, with public approval. Whether its one party, two, or one trillion poltical parties trying to cheat and rig elections, we must support and expand democracy instead of destroying it, by implementing fair voting districts, easy, accessible voting, and by making it easeir, not harder, to vote. Democrats must fight for easy voting and mass voting, to replace our oligarchial Republican plutocracy with government by the people, of the people, and, well..you know the rest. And as for the ballroom, if they build the damned thing, I think I and everybody else should have access to it, not just the billionaires.

Writing Love Letters In The Sand

COMEY'S 8647 sand script number posting was, seemingly obviously a joke, corrrect? Like, he he, haha. Let's get rid of Trump, Down with Trump. Out with Trump, at the ballor box, wherever, however,being the obvious message. But instead we're ("we" being MAGA) choosing to take it seriously, maybe to take full advantage of it, to make the most of an opportunity to defame, dehumanize, falsely incriminate Comey, the great Trump slayer, to get even. Demonize Comey, victimize Trump. Now, you'll have to admit, it aint necessarily easy turning somebody like Trump, with all that wealth, power, and ego, into a convincing sympathetic victim, except perhaps in a literary sense. Something Shakespearian, such as King Leer, although the metaphor doesn't exactly match. However, if the Trump administration is splitting hairs and rasing a stink over letters and numbers in the sand, which are here today and cast washed into the sea tomorrow, they're either trying to create a distraction from something or other by making scandalous mountains out of mole hills, are deeply paranoid, or both. Regarding James Comey, and all that he has done since leaving the Trump administration as FBI Chief, and regarding any alleged or feigned importance attached to any of his actions or words, methinks the king doth protest too much, to quote Shakespeare. Comey was apparently indicating in sand that he wants Trump to be out of office, rather than in it. My Dear God, how shocking! Hell, I express that exact saem sentement on this very website more times before nine o'clock in teh morning than most folks do all damned day, at least. I despise Trump, I want hi out of office, and if he has to die to leave, that worked for me. I would, in a nutshell, rather have Trump dead than president. So, shoot me, or sue me, MAGA. Far as I know it is nto illegal to say that you wish somebody or other were alive, or that somebody or other were dead. I wish Trump wpuld leave politics and the presidency, and if he had to die to do it, that's fine with me. I assume that if I were famous and influential the Trump administration would come after me for saying this, and in fact for saying much of what I have said, on this website, about Trump for the past dozen years or so. Iknow hat paranoia is. I suffer from it, among probably a vast and impressive array of mental illnesses. Nobody is entirely healthy, physically, or mentally. I'm flexible, willing to get rid of Trump by any means necessary, after the fashion of how many people today feel about Hitler in 1935, retroactively. A year ago we anti-Trumpers lamented the forthcoming four years of hell. Now its down to three, and here we are, alive and well, sailing smoothly if angrily towards the inevitable end of Trump. And no, there won't be, in late 2028 and early 2029 any vast groundswell among MAGATs to rewrite the constitution and remake the Trump administration, duration wise, in the image of the FDR administration. Won't happen. By the end of this what may seem like but really is not interminable term, we'll, Republican included, by more than ready to move on. Granted, they wanted Reagan to stay in 1988, but only lukewarmly. They knew he was losing it fast, had already lost much of it, senility rapidly encroaching in the Gipper. They know the same thing about Trump. Republicans, a bunch of old people, with their endless succession of ancient, over the hill political leaders. Trump is losing it fast, and it'll be a race to the finish line.

Disliking Israel

I DON'T LIKE ISRAEL, and I never have. I think its because I have somehow gotten the impression that Israel is a propped up military power, whose need to defend itself and is very existence has evolved, over the years, into a messaged ideology that the nation of Israel is the exclusive victim in constant dire peril, constantly fighting for its existence against the evil forces of its powerful, ruthless, relentless enemies. This, I now believe, and would flatly asset, is complete and utter nonsense.It truly seems as if Israel controls the United States government. It doesn't buy the control. The money for this comes streaming in from the United States, and has since Israels' inception on May 15, 1948. The pro Israeli lobby in Congress, among the strongest, best funded such efforts on Capitol Hill, has the full support of millions of American Jewish benefactors, and many other pro Isralei donors.I am not a Christian, am not anti-semitic, and have nothing against Jews, Christians, or anyone. But the nation-state of Israel under Neyanyahu has become a terorist monstrosity. This description includes and is partly based upon its recent treatment of Gaza, and all of its other neighbors. My impression and understanding is that almost from the moment of its declaration of nationhood, Israel naturally had the sacred and inviolable right to defend itself, and has done so with great success, with American and British assistance. But soon thereafter it became increasingly obvious that Israel and its leaders would not be content to remain peacefully within it own original borders, but would conduct its foreign policy as an aggressive, expanionist politial and military entity. Staunch American supporters of Israel fume and chafe at the very notion of anyone not being pro Israel, not being firmly, toally Zionist, and not being completely hateful towards Iarael's mostly Islamic enemies. If one does not like the Judaic religion, or any religion, or religion generally, there is no necessary association with this point of view with hatred of the nation of Israel. What we all must avoid doing is disliking or discriminating against Jews, or anybody else, as human beings, based upon merely religious considerations. Disliking governments and countries is an entirely different matter. Some governments and whole countries, by virtue of their behavior and the support of their citizens of their behavior, deserve only contempt, censure, and condemnation, if only temporarily. My belief, over the years, is that the United States, its government and foreign relations establishment, has always been much too closely allied, aligned with Israel, with an imbalanced foreign policy skewed against the Islamic countries and Islamic international community. I confess that I have a far less favorable attitude towards religions other than my own, which is essentially pantheism, or deism. Recognizing this limitation, I have determined to be more openminded and tolerant. Surely every intelligent person of faith in the world has the potential to openmindedly comprehend and accept the wisdom and beauty inherent in all of the world's more than forty two hundred known organized religious faiths. I embrace and rejoice in my Uniterian pantheism, which, from the Christian viewpoint, is nearly indistinguishable from atheism. In terms of some anthropomorphic Biblial or Koranic deity, I am indeed an atheist. Thus go our individual differences. Let us embrace the reality that Goethe was speaking the truth when he said; "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine."

Celebrating Birthdays

TODAY IS MY BIRTDAY, and I'm excited about it, as I was trained, lured into being from an early age. My parents treated my birthday from an early age like a national holiday, at least in terms of presents given and joyfully received, and, well, old dogs, new tricks, no go. I was in essence, brainwashed and lured into regarding my own virthday as an occasion suitable for excessive celebration. They piled the beautifully brightly wrapped presents onto the kitchen table, and I thought maybe they should have erected a Christmas tree (birthday tree?...HEY!) I recall one year in particular, I think it was my eleventh birthday, but it not, it was close, when Iwalked nextdoorto my neighbor's house, and,with my arms loaded with the weight of too many material objects, bats, ball gloves, ball caps ( I was still a Cardinal fan in those days, but a "closet" Yankee fan.) The neighbor mother answered patronizengly, laconically, I beamed broadly, and said something childish like "loog what I got for my birthday!" She smiled slightly, and pretended to care, poorly. I took her lack of interest for toned down interest. Over the years Idon't rmember ever having a bad birthday, and this one is off to a glorious beginning and only promises to get better. I reckon the real reason for my lifelong birthday success is that I have always made damned sure that they turned out that way, that I made them this way. On the first day of April at the senior center the director and staff gave a birthday party for everone having a birthday during April. Its a great monthly senior center activity.I proud and thrilled to stand up in front the other ancient ones. These words appeared on this "Paper" early on teh mmorning of my birthdy, amid my joy, and boy howdy how rapidly it will go and is going by. I must make every second count. The best celebration of my birthday is on Facebook, so how in hell can I join the veritable legion of Facebook users who claim that they hate Facebook, only use it rarely, only when they have to, blah blah, because its so lewd, immoral, or wtf ever. Hell, I like Faceboo, and aint ashamed to admit it. I have no snobbish condescending need to convince everyone that I truly hae Facebook and consider it beneath me, whhile spending twenty hours a day on it. I have no idea whether, wenn I show up for ten oc'lock gospel singing, anybody there will mention my birthday. I hope somebody does; I doubt anyone will. But, not to worry. As you have by now no doubt apprehended, I can and do make damned sure my birthday isn't ignored. Other people, Americans, might tend to ignore or downplay their own birthdays, and acknowledge and celebrate other people's, but not me, oh no, hell no. Dennis Rodman used to party for a week. He had a "birthday week". I can relate, but find it more special still to use only this one day, watch it pass and dwindle, and reflect on the nature of the universe. Man, does it ever come and go in a hurry. And, truth be told, it has always seemed, been that way, even back in the day when I was terribly young and the rivier of time flowed sluggishly, like molasses. Even then it seemed too fast. Today'll shoot by like a rocket, despite my best intentions to slow it down, which, they say, can be done, through perception. Like Dr. Faustus whined when his deal with the deal was coming due, "Oh horses of time, run slowly, slowly...". I'll be fine, it'll be great, and already is. Thanks, everyone. Maybe my misanthropy is misplaced. Maybe, insane. Hell, maybe folks aint so bad after all. Maybe, just maybe, there is hope for the world. Goethe, who was no gullible pollyanna optiimist, said: "Noble be man, compassionate, and good," Isn't it perfectly normal and understandable to make a big deal out of one's birthday, much bigger than out of other's? Happy Birthday to me!