New Flavor of Terrorist?

I must say, the news this morning of 40 commuters being blown to bits by two women terrorists was disheartening to say the least. It raises may questions in my mind; all fueled by my own view of the world of course.

Women, givers of life, recruited to kill as many men women and children as possible.

When women in this country were fighting for the right to vote, their opponents declared "If women have the right to vote, there would be no more war" (They saw this as a bad thing).

I suppose someday all this insanity will be explained and it will make some kind of sense.

Til then...

You May Already Be a Winner! (but probably not)

Last blog I touched on winners and losers and how "this is what makes America Great" according to some of our more conservative brethren. We all know people who support political ideologies that run contrary to their own best interest. I've always come up short trying to understand that... Well, gather around because I get it now, and now I'm gonna give it to you:

Why are people who will never make $100k/year willing to board buses and protest when earners of $250K + are threatened with a tax increase? They will tell you: "Someday I expect to be in that bracket, and I don't want to pay those high taxes" .

Why are unemployed people with no health insurance willing to shout at town hall meetings that they "don't want government taking over health care"?

It's the winners/losers modality, and it's always running in the background.

Suggestion: listen to John Mellencamp's Little Pink Houses while you read the rest of this.

To say "Hey, I'm struggling here, and me and my family could use some help" is to paint yourself a loser in the eyes of many. Maintaining the illusion that someday you'll be rich (and have the problems of the rich) is worth the cost.

Why are some people so resentful that the government assists people who are down and out? Because they're LOSERS! If they were worthwhile, they wouldn't need help. They would pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become WINNERS!

I don't have answers for this, it's just an observation that came together for me this week. I WILL say there must be a better way to run a society...

America Is...

During a period of sleeplessness, when many things that have been floating around in my head come up, links sometimes click into place and I get an aha! moment.

I have been staying away from the political fray lately, earlier last year, I got enough of it to understand how little my voice means to Washington or even Austin politicians. But these movements still fascinate me, like the Tea Party folks. I heard one spokesperson that was articulate enough that I could follow her train of thought, and that led to a couple of conclusions.

All the pushback and fear around concepts like Socialism, Welfare, Universal Health Care, Taxes, suddenly made a bit of sense to me... When I understood her view of the world:

America is a place where there are winners and losers; the winners deserve to win, the losers deserve to lose. This, in a nut shell is their definition of our country.

It caused me to remember Bishop Carlton Pearson, a preacher who built a huge following and religious institution around the traditional theology of "God loves me, but you're going to hell".
Bishop Pearson had an awakening one day when God informed him nothing of the sort was going on, all his children were on his 'saved' list, and that was that.

Thrilled and excited, the preacher brought this news to his congregation who (like the tea party folks) were less than happy to hear about universal salvation. As in ages past, I suppose many people have a mental list of who's going to hell, and they don't want that list disturbed. Something like 95% of his congregation denounced him and moved on (to someplace where "we're saved, and THEY are not").

I don't know how they square that with an image of the Almighty being identical to the program at a German death camp in the 1930's.

Who Is Anointed?

It occurred to me that some people come into this world destined to leave a big footprint.

Really now, think about it. If you read biographies, or follow the lives of particular world movers and shakers... you have to agree that many of them seem to know there were no limits to what they might do with their life. These realizations seem to come early in life. Many broke the mold from which other people came before them to do things nobody in that field had done before.

I'm being vague, so let me try one example (but there are hundreds or thousands).

Bono for one. Here is a guy that knew he was a star long before he was one, and spent his time preparing for it when stardom came. Say what you will about his ego, etc. (BTW rock stars without egos are called singer-songwriters), Bono also broke the mold for what rock stars do. The man is an influence on the world political stage in the humanitarian sense.

Compare that with Elvis (my real daddy in case your just tuning in) who was instructed to say "gosh mam, I'm just a simple entertainer, I don't know nothing about all that" whenever asked about anything of any substance by the press. I'm not saying E didn't make it big, just that he was Rock Star 1.o I suspect Bono is in the 3.x somewhere.

Think of someone you admire that really took off in a big international way. If you learn their history, you often find they hit the ground running, shot themselves from a cannon at an early age, to become the adult human they are. And this begs the question: Are Some People Born to Change the World?

This just in; 7 year old boy the next Picasso

Clueless

I have become more and more aware of an epidemic of this psychological condition lately, I've been looking at more documentaries on the state of various parts of the world. Oh, I know the clueless charge is one we hurl at people as an insult. I'm not talking about that, I mean conditions when entire countries are completely out of step with what is actually going on in front of them. One clue of cluelessness is the feeling of shock when the realization hits. Like last Tuesdays election (hellos Dems? wakeup call).

One example is when the trumpets were sounded several years ago and we (the US) invaded Iraq. It was crazy then, and still crazy after all these years (lives, billions $, resources).

I watched a film about China invading Tibet and taking it over. After years of mistreating the Tibetans, they invited a delegation back to tour the country and try to patch things up with the Dali Lama. Of course the stories they heard on their tour were horrifying, and the Chinese canceled the project after about 10 days. The amazing thing was the Chinese thought they had improved the country so much that the exiled leadership would hear good things! THAT is CLUELESS.

On a personal level, probably the most scary form of clueless is believing you are somebody you actually bear no resemblance to. Important, but less so is getting off in a direction where we lose site of the middle ground. This could be in consumption, status seeking, or whatever. Know Thyself!!

This is why isolation is very bad for the individual. Without community surrounding you, you WILL create a world of you own, and it may consume you.

You may notice, many of these regions of the world that are so disfunctional do isolate themselves.

So, I'm wondering what issues do you see in our society where a large percent of us is clueless?

De-Bugging

Here's some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first? The good news? OK:

We haven't had roaches or ants in our house in at least 15 years.

Now the bad news.

Our house may be a toxic waste pit.

A long long time ago (around 15 years), our house began to get German Cockroaches (the little brown roaches) (LBR). How did I know they were German Cockroaches? They were wearing the armbands and sounded like Clink from Hogan's Heroes.

In alarm, I contacted a guy I knew from a business breakfast club I was a member of. "He" was Joe. When he stood to introduce himself each week, Joe simply said "I kill bugs". In my predicament, I felt sure Joe was the man for me.

Joe laid out a plan to get rid of the LBR, and it was a tough plan, Joe was the Saddam Hussein of the bug world. "I'm using the most powerful chemical allowed by law" Joe would say. He showed up regularly to lay down the wrath of Joe on the LBR. Sure enough, before long, they were gone.

I thought we could use some touch up after a year or so, I called his number to arrange it. I was told Joe was no longer among the living as he died of cancer. Sad, but determined to not let the bugs back in, we used the referral Joe's wife gave us. I'm guessing those folks either closed or also got cancer, as they stopped calling us after a while too.

Fast-forward 12 years.

No bug man has been in my house, I have not treated it with over the counter sprays, and yet, the only time we see a roach, it is a large one, and it is in it's death throes calling out Jooooeee!!!

Well, I've seen a LBR, and I'm ready to get on the war path. We called an outfit well reviewed on-line, and the nice representative explained they no longer use deadly chemicals, instead chrysanthemums and mostly outdoors! 'Can't hurt mammals or even dogs!

They also explained that you sign a one year contract and they come around every other month.

Since we now have 2 houses, that adds $800. to the budget of maintaining them! All this because a Little Brown Roach popped his head out of a book!

Early Connections

Reading a story where a man is looking back on his childhood to connect where meeting someone like himself kick started his life and life's work. In this case the man was a scientist, so as a kid, I suppose you would say he was a geek (in today's lingo).

In my case, it would have been finding friends as interested in music as I was (as a kid). That happened early. I played guitar backing a girl in my class in singing "Downtown"at a school talent show in 1964 (I was 11). A few guys were trying to get something going, and asked me to join with them. The playing I did with them didn't last but a few months, but because of it, I realized I needed band mates and got some guys I was already friends with to take lessons, etc. We jammed in my basement nearly every weekend.

When that folded, I got with another group of guys from my old neighborhood and got in a band with them. It all becomes a series of one thing leading to another after that. When I got to Houston in 1972, I knew how to network. I promoted a weekly jam/get together called Montrose Musicians Workshop. It lasted 6-8 weeks and that got me and many others acquainted and playing together. I took off with some of them to Austin and formed a band that lasted 6 months. Again, another stair step. I came back from Austin and found an index card on the bulletin board at the local music store. "Working band seeks keyboard player". Answering that card kept me busy the next 4 years...