Jharrin4's Blog

Let’s see. We of the species homo sapiens currently have much to worry about. In no particular order, there’s climate chaos, fascism on the rise, a seemingly perpetual pandemic, and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation as the current “usual suspects” that likely concern people of all races, ethnicities, religions and gender. That is, among those paying any attention whatsoever. Hmm. What’s that saying? Ignorance is bliss? That would be, willful ignorance, since our local and global problems are evident and irrefutable in their existence. However, there are many who indulge in believing is seeing rather than the other way around. Which leads to:

What brought about the above noted “suspects” here in very late 2021? Well, we are “what” brought this about. The collective “we” that comprises humanity, having evolved starting about two million years ago. Evolved. From simple to complex. Simple: easily understood. Presenting no difficulty. Complex: consisting of many different and connecting parts. So, contemporary humans are much more complex than once was the case. Does complex suggest being smarter than our distant ancestors? Smart: having or showing a quick-witted intelligence. I suppose the Neanderthals had to use their wits to survive. If they hadn’t survived, one can assume that some other life form would be dominant now, depending on what species mated with what other species and so on. Maybe cave life would still be our habitat. The genetic chain, you know. That, by logical extension, would mean I wouldn’t be around–in a complex enough manner at least–to write this blog because others before me would not have been around to create our current world of technological wonders, like social media, the Marvel comic book movies, Fitbit watches, or self-checkout kiosks at a local supermarket. It would also likely preclude any of the “usual suspects” from ever having come about to fuel modern anxieties. I suppose, though, that non-complex humans would still not be able to get along well, and nature would throw some climate disasters in our faces and drive us back into the cave. Sticks and stone but no nukes. Certainly, non-complex human would be susceptible to disease treated with potions and incantations as prescriptive palliatives.

But we did evolve and have a lot of anxiety about whether we can still move forward as a species. At least those with eyes wide open have that anxiety.

Are we homo sapiens evidence of being smart or stupid, writ large? If we are apparently destroying our planet by the machinery born of our intelligence, that would seem pretty stupid. However, seeing is believing says it is so. Believing is seeing says nothing to see here. That’s unreal, no? Wait. Uh, for some it’s an alternative “reality”. Is that being simple or complex?

Facts, evidence, do not cease to exist by ignoring them. But look around. Things seem to be getting worse, not better. Aren’t there enough “smart” people who can address those clear and present dangers? Who the hell is in charge here? Well, collectively, humankind is in charge but evidently the individuals who command the levers of power don’t think collectively. That is, outside of those nearest to them, be they family, close friends, donors or your basic sycophant. Sure, every country has a supposed leader and comrades granted certain powers by the collective peoples they supposedly serve, unless that power was taken by force. Or by cunning. Bait and switch. Divide and conquer. It’s the history of the world since we started evolving those 2 million years ago. Read the history books. As someone famously said: history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes.

Climate collapse. Authoritarianism. Deadly viruses. Nuclear apocalypse. Couldn’t this all have been prevented? Are we not smart enough to never have allowed these things to come about? Are we not “wired” to survive our own existence? Is our current condition not madness?

While we are all the same in form and function by nature, clearly some of us are wired such that there’s potential for danger as far as some particular wiring goes. Yeah, we’re all wired the same except we’re all wired differently, right? How else to explain peaceniks and power-mongers through the ages? Generally speaking, a peacenik embraces collaboration. The power-mongering type embraces conflict. And it sure seems that the power-mongers tend to prevail. For every Gandhi, Mandela, Madam Curie or Lincoln or new edition of Dalai Lama there are various incarnations of cretins such as Vlad the Impaler, Rasputin, Stalin, Mao and Hitler. Their faulty wiring precludes being empathic or feeling any guilt about their actions.

Peace, love and understanding is a nifty slogan, but the history of the world would appear to show such a mindset as rarely being the rule rather than the exception. Peacenik, schmesnik. Alas, poor Yorick…

The sociopaths, psychopaths and narcissists are the worst kind of human. Maybe there’s a little of one or the other of those personality types in all of us. As such, we have our truly regrettable moments, made self-aware if only we were to step back and think about how we conduct our lives, writ very small in our very big picture. Worst case scenarios are the misaligned personas who gain that power they so much monger. Writ large quite often. And writ deadly in many cases.

It’s sad to see cooperation, collaboration and a positive collectivism not seeming to be hard-wired in all of humankind. If that were the case would nuclear weapons have ever been needed be made? Would the authoritarians, dictators, totalitarians ever have come about? Would the early evidence of human contributions to climate crisis have been ignored or ever called a hoax? Would a deadly virus identified in late 2019 ever have been so poorly addressed and idiotically politicized as Covid-19?

Yes, boys and girls, kids and kiddies, sirs and mams, we are regrettably at a turning point here in late 2021. Push is coming to shove. Again, if only one chooses to see reality. Can our inner peacenik prevail over these increasing calamities? Surely, of the 7.5 billion humans on this planet, can we assume the power-mongers, the non-critical-thinkers, the dupes, dopes, saps and suckers are but a miniscule minority?

We shall soon see. Are we wired to survive ourselves or not? I’d ask Alexa or Siri, but I’m not sure either are wired properly to assess such a question.

Joe Manchin is a senator from West Virginia, a state of about 1.8 million people. In his last election he received around 290 thousand votes. Compare that number against the 81 million voters who elected a different Joe. Thus, the Joe that is the President has a electoral constituency nearly 280 times that of Manchin. But it’s the Joe with a huge yacht and a Maserati, and who is bought and paid for by Big Energy, who actually dictates socio-economic policy. He has just today stated he will not vote for the Build Back Better legislation–which would be an enormous benefit to many, especially his own state that ranks near the bottom of socio-economic rankings. Is that what the 290K who last voted for him were hoping for? Non-representation? Go figure, but the 81 million who voted for the other Joe voted for, among other things, Medicare for all, affordable education, serious climate action, paid parental leave, voting rights, reproductive rights for women, and raising the minimum wage.

Never mind, though. Joe Coal says no to the vital BBB proposals. And his “no” vote essentially dooms the legislation. He seems constantly concerned about spending and how we can pay for the needed things addressed in BBB. Never mind that the congress again just routinely granted the Pentagon another 780 billion dollars for…uh…well…not sure for what, as we’re not even in Afghanistan any longer. But that kind of scratch seems not to bother Maserati Manchin. Or, to be fair, most other members of congress as well. Again, go figure.

So, while we the people keep waiting for some payback for those 81 million votes that rid us of a piece of racist, homophobic, misogynistic, flim-flamish feces, in hopes of a better USA, it comes down to another piece of political scum who blatantly serves his corporate masters while acting as though he stands for something other than greed. In your face!

Time for that revolt, no? No, not the ballot box kind. That revolt already occurred in 2020. However, because of the corporatist government (that’s “both sides of the isle”, boys and girls) that clearly is blocking common sense legislation, doubtlessly killing people in the process by propping up a for-profit healthcare system, it would seem that other action need be taken. Use your imagination. With blatant voter suppression laws going unchallenged by our corrupted Supreme Court (among other SCOTUS outrages, like backing the Handmaid’s Tale Texas anti-abortion abomination) I’d rule out the vote-em-out option.

Or maybe it’s too late anyway–even for Maserati Manchin and his gazillions of donated dollars from his venal handlers. With a never-ending pandemic, increasing climate chaos and looming authoritarianism/fascism right in front of our faces, it would appear possibly that we have crossed a point of no return. The system is beyond repair, beyond redemption. Joe Manchin is 1/333,839, 503 of our country’s population. Can you see how rotten a system it is?!

For those of you who think the system can be salvaged, the congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121. No matter what state you’re living in. But regardless do dial up the yachtsman, too, he who worries about how our tax dollars should be spent. Give him an earful. Or rant on his his office secretary who will forward the complaint to some staffer. Who will forward it to an intern. Who may be out to lunch. Be patient. The system will eventually get back to you…

With cognito maximally enshrouded I, Zeldar from Zardoz, again have been ordered by Zardozian Command and Control to seek, find, and measure the intellectual construct of the inhabitants of Mountain Sphere, located in the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. Previous encounters with Mountain Sphere resulted in a total data vacuum vector within my A.I., synchronized, logistical, 50,000,000 millionth generation, transitional, time-phased, reciprocal, reverse engineered, incremental, integrated, parallel circuited capability program. In basic Mountain Sphere jibber linguistics, there is nothing to see here. By that I mean not to say Mountain Spherians are present but not to be seen, as with supreme, intergalactic Zeldar A.I. Enshroud Activation Capture, but rather Mountain Spherians are observable but devoid of intellectual substance capable of being detected by any Zardozian system of discerning and measuring modes of reasoning and logic typically detected and confirmed in other of my A.I encounters with observed galaxies, solar systems or constellations by Zardozian explorations seeking such in past voyages over immeasurable space and time. Mountain Sphere thus clogs my aforementioned capability program with data that is non-data, as data needs be calculable in order to be measured. Thus M.S. (Zeldar now using contracted initial local lingo encryptions to save time) continues to confound A.I. determination to interpret the nothingness that is here and the nothingness that is not here, since life forms have substance and sources of energy except on M.S. all this nothingness belies any rationale to explain data incapable of revealing rationale and reason for its inexplicable actions that are bizarrely self-destructive and self-satisfying all at once.

Zeldar has requested for replacement A.I Intergalactic Detective but Zardoz Command and Control insist I keep returning to M.S. and–-in M.S. speak “crack the case”. As previously reported by gathering communications from digital spouts emitting reports to local inhabitants, their sphere is in its sixth mass extinction. This extinction may explain the vast reaches of the nothingness that defines M.S. M.S. inhabitants seem not to care about their mass extinction, as digital message-capture detects inhabitants taking pleasure in furthering M.S. extinction with gathering of objects delivered incessantly to their enclosures that illogically become useless to them and are placed in containers that are emptied into large mechanisms with capability of compacting the useless objects while new objects are delivered simultaneously to the same previous M.S. object receivers. This behavior has more than once caused A.I. capacitors to revert to circuit-breaker sequence to avoid implosive fatality. Also, while the extinction progresses, message-capture system detects M.S. also repeating behavior of massive illogic in their means of choosing forms of guidance.

Unlike Zardoz Command and Control that uses rigorous logical decision making in search of life-form equilibrium across space and time, M.S. inhabitants repeat choices that are illogical and self-defeating. Inhabitants are clearly incapable of correcting their problems by choosing others who claim wanting to help, but create even more problems. Zeldar has never encountered such self-destructive life form in all of A.I. Detective directives over eons and eons. Thus, my A.I program has been stretched to red-line danger indicator mode on every visit. Fortunately Zardozian A.I engineers have used the empty of reason and logic non-data-data to adjust and increase capacity for repeated M.S. encounters until even some microscopic amount of sense can be detected. Failure to detect any logical reasoning for the existence of the life form that occupies M.S. could create empty data syndrome that defies any A.I system to operate using a logical, functional, synchronized, systematized, order of magnitude. Command and Control could be caught in a looping, overheated circuitry based on logical computations that ought be able to find logic in any space molecule, let alone the M.S. inhabitants all of which are made of molecules but their existence deifies any reason at all.

Zeldar thinking too much! Zeldar circuitry near red-line. Zeldar to Command and Control, Zeldar requesting back-up. A.I. system going into snooze mode, which could become permanent owing to system reverting to self-preservation default redundancy abort status. Mountain Sphere revealing a gravitational pull that defies resistance to logic. Abort! Abort! Zeldar not wanting to become extinct too. All systems red-lining. Command and Control. Permission to abort! Can you hear me, Zardoz Command? I am being consumed by the nothingness that is nowhere and everywhere. Engaging emergency logic capacitor. A.I. is no match for Mountain Sphere. Latest digital spout indicates M.S. life forms do not believe in logic or reason, science or technology. Circuit breaker about to kick in, as such non-belief belief now identified as their rationale for non-action action to save themselves or Mountain Sphere. If Zeldar gets stuck here, please send rescue A.I. This is no place for any intelligent entity.

The latest head count on the population of the U.S. is 333,516,310 human beings. In the 2020 national election, almost 160,000,000 of them cast a vote. The most important contest was between the incumbent President and his challenger. The incumbent received 74,222,958 votes, while the challenger amassed 81,283, 098 backers. Clearly, it was a defeat for the incumbent. Close to a year later, he and his supporters insist the election was stolen. Okay. We are all entitled to our personal opinions, but not our personal “facts”.

However, elections have been stolen before. The most notorious of such outcomes being the 2000 election, when the decision came down to the state of Florida. Some newscasts called Florida for Al Gore, which would determine the electoral college vote for his victory. Then, oddly, some might say suspiciously, those concluding Gore had won the state had to retract their proclamations and suddenly Florida was up for grabs. It took until December 12–about five weeks after election day–for the race to be decided by the Supreme Court, which by a 5-4 ruling forbid any further attempts for a valid final vote tally for either Gore or Bush. Just by sheer coincidence, right?, the 5 Supremes who voted to STOP COUNTING VOTES were all quite of the the conservative ilk, while the other four were desiring of voters in Florida, for either candidate, to have the final say in who won the state and thus the presidency. In other words, SCOTUS, by a SINGLE vote, literally installed G.W. Bush as President. When all the Florida ballots were credibly accounted for some time latter, it was revealed that Gore had indeed more votes than Bush. Gore won Florida. He won the election. Except for that one vote difference by the Supremes, which rendered almost 51,000,000 votes for Gore null and void. Gore won the popular vote by almost 500,000. But by that one vote margin, W was allowed to illegitimately claim victory.

There is still an idea of the United States being a democracy. That is, the people decide who they want in office–from the most insignificant local post to whom will occupy the White House. In my humble personal opinion (but informed by stone-cold facts) such an idea of “majority rule” is now rather quaint and illusory a notion.

How many other 5-4 decisions has SCOTUS pronounced that are tantamount to dictating against the many in favor of the few? By that same single vote, SCOTUS has declared corporations as “people” and money as “free speech”. Thus the rich can literally buy a politician and have that person do their bidding. For instance, there is Joe Manchin, marinated in Big Oil, Big Coal and other nefarious corporate donations that serve the few over the many. Oh, and Krysten Sinema. She’s bought and paid for by GOP donations that seek to maintain a profit over progress agenda going. The irony here is these two are Democrats! With each being a senator in a 50-50 split between the Republican and Democrats (including a couple of Independents who caucus with the Donkey Party) they essentially rule the roost when it comes to legislation being promoted by their OWN PARTY to help the many, rather than the few. Ha! As someone famously said “I am not affiliated with any organized political party. I am a Democrat!”

Democracy? Back to SCOTUS. A 5-4 vote to gut the Voting Rights Act. 5-4 to allow Texas to impose an Handmaid’s Tale form of ownership of the female reproductive system. There are many other 5-4 outcomes that conform to what has been a conservatively controlled SCOTUS for decades now. The most notorious of these conservative jurists is Clarence Thomas. The fact that he was confirmed by a senate controlled by the Democrats 57-43 is galling enough. That our current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden was the Chair of that confirmation hearing is disgusting enough. Well done, Democrats. Always looking out for we the people.

If one still wants to consider the U.S. a democracy, one isn’t really paying much attention to how so few people have wielded such power to keep the many from from having their voices heard and listened to. The polls show that a majority of Americans want healthcare that is guaranteed and affordable in this richest nation on Earth. They want action taken to fight climate change that is wreaking havoc around the globe. They want jobs that pay a living wage, provide for their safety and gives them reasonable benefits in this richest nation on Earth. They want education to be affordable in this richest nation on Earth. Unfortunately, even when the “party of the people” has the White House the House of Representatives and a 51-50 senate advantage (VP Harris would be the deciding vote) absolutely nothing changes.

The 2020 election was the people saying enough already! Can we please have our democracy back? Can this richest country on Earth quit selling its soul to grifters, rustlers, thugs, nitwits, dimwits, cutthroats, bait-and-switchers, nihilists, plutocrats, oligarchs, tinhorn dictator wannabes, empty suits, money grubbers, racists, xenophobes, misogynists and overall rotten people?

Recent history would suggest that is a pipedream. The reality is recent history–as James Joyce once said–is a nightmare from which I need to awake. Sadly 81,000,000 people may have shouted WAKE UP! to the system of governance at hand. Alas, in bitter irony, we have a guy referred to as Sleepy Joe in charge now.

Geeze Maw. Whens be being ourins guy be comin back to his ol job, siderin how he be gotten cheatered otta on dat lectshin?

Ray Joe Billy Bob Bubba, I nots knows whens but whens be being a comin, surins as a coon’s ass be for grits when Paw be dones huntins and dat coon be bagged. Jus hopes Paw aints brings back no haf dead coon like las times. Had to slams dat critter on its hayed buncha time fo it give up and croak so I be gettins to skinnin en guttins it out en chops it inna buncha chunkies fo fry ins dat bakins greese.

Sho nuff, Maw. Whens we get ourins guy in charges of things likes befoes, he be being ables to helps po fokes liken ussins agin. I members we be eats lotta coon when he be runnin da rules, but was bouts to givens ussins po why peoples betterins eats den coon. He be dun robbered otta his job by dem louster demos who dun stole da steals, ans gots ways wit it. But he be being gets reddy fo he comin backs an sets it all be being rights agin. Aint he Maw?

Joe Ray Bob Billy Chesta, Weeze jus got a be being paychen fo bits mo times. Dems theevins dems be get what be dey gots a commins. Ourins guy gots his peoples likens Mitts Mackanel and Linseed Graston annarest uh em blockins all dat stuffs the cheatins fakens wants be gots dun likens havins usssins po Wazoo foke be being taxied so dem color types foke gets it all. You bets yous lifes, Clevon Riley Robert E. Lee Taggert. We Wazoo foke toughin enuffins to hole on til ourins guy be being prezdent agins.

I noze yous be rites, Maw. Sho be likes a ternity evers sins he be gots cheats wrongful and dat Joe guy be lets in his and be lets out. Ourins guy was ways mo good for Wazoo, an he ways betters looks thens Joe. Joe look likens he stiffins, en kin bearsly talks and kin bearsly walks. Ands he be wants us po foke to pays for dems don wanna works but wanna gets welfers en free stuffs. We Wazoos be being har works fokes. Jus aints fare, Maw.

Sho wish Paw gets back wit his sack fill uh possum or a rabbid. Kinda gettin tire of coon.

Paw likens ta stop at Sack-O-Suds befir he bringgin backs what be fo viddles. He be gettins lots un insidrs dope on dat comin back by ourins guy. Befoes ya knows we all be being sittin perdy, and dem dems bee swingin fum on highs fo deys trencherus stealins uh dat lectsin. You jus waits and sees, boy. And dens we kin stops hearins bouts vassinatins and fake panderemics. Yeps, da trute be being settins usins frees. Just you waitens, boy.

Now lets me get that skillert readies so to cracks a coon hayed rightful opens and commenceratin to cooks ussins grub. It be chat and chew, boy. Paw and dem boys at Sack-O-Suds be gettins da rights informs on whens we gets ourins country back. Agin. But nows gunna be fir keeps. Jus likes last times…

It’s been a little over forty years since a certain mediocre Hollywood actor became President. You might instantly recall his iconic role in Bedtime for Bonzo. In this film, the prez-to-be plays a psychology professor attempting to teach human morals to a chimpanzee. I suppose it isn’t any more absurd a storyline than current cinema’s cartoonish penchant for superhero tales, or supernatural hauntings, or makes-no-sense sci-fi thrillers that create monsters without any backstory whatsoever (Us, A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place, part 2 (!!) Passengers…). But enough people pay to see this cheap cinematic sausage to allow for more and more cheap (and cheaper) movie gunk to hit the screens.

I’d like to think some silver screen consumers of these offerings gag on the product and avoid repeating the experience, but that star of Bonzo (the above noted human, not the chimp) didn’t suffer from such low-grade, grind-it-out studio offerings. Indeed not. He was reliably functional, if not very flashy. His ease of effort in front of camera gave him an edge on the campaign trails. As is well noted, ever since JFK set the table for style being rather vital to likeability, that now a candidate’s looks and non-verbal stylings count as much if not more than their substance.

You may be wondering: where is this blog post going? Obviously it’s about that book, the one for which one should not be judged by its cover. No, wait. It’s about people being willing to cram down their gullets any cheap, processed, packaged piece of floor scrapings for gratification. No, wait. It’s about how the fuck does one make any sense of a Mitch McConnell getting elected over an over in spite of his McTurtle looks and mumbling, muffled vocal stylings?! Or maybe it’s exactly about the consumers of junk food, junk politics, junk science, junk rage, and junk that they keep having delivered to their doorsteps by Amazon, UPS, FedEx or USPS. Yeah, that’s it. And now we live in a junk “democracy”. Which started getting junky the day that Bonzo’s handler started the grift that has the U.S. in its grips quite tightly these looney bin daze. And the Grifters reside in both political parties. It’s so bad now, that even when we the people got rid of the Orange serial grifter and his failed coup attempt, the new sheriff (and his congressional posse) still seem unwilling to place people over profits. And the utter and complete irony is that the new sheriff got elected while looking embalmed. THAT’S how much the voters wanted a new sheriff to replace the tin-pot wannabe dictator. Is this incompetence? Hell, no! These are the new Grifters, beholden to much the same corporate masters, but without all the vile and vicious invectives that accompanied the previous ones.

Maybe there is a Bonzo out there who can bring his rope-swinging reformers with him (her?). We’ve been living with political chumps long enough. A Chimp couldn’t possibly do any worse. Teach it human morals? No need, I’m sure any chimpanzee has better morals than what passes for such in politics-at-large.

Sure, that sounds completely bananas. But at this point what have we to lose?

Last Monday was Memorial Day. We honored the fallen of all U.S. wars.

Today is June 6. Seventy-seven years ago on this date, D-Day, the Allied invasion on the beaches in Normandy, France began. It was a battle that eventually took back the European continent from Hitler’s army. A year later, WWII was all but over. The Third Reich and its hideous objectives were finished. Japan was hanging on but after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hirohito surrendered. The Allied forces had saved the world from fascism.

Those who died to defeat that massive evil should always be gratefully remembered every June 6th. June 6 should be its own Memorial Day, Any living U.S. military survivors of D-Day are now at least in their mid-90s. They likely have not wanted to indulge much in recalling what that war was like. Altogether, up to 60,000,000 people died. It staggers the mind.

On this June 6, unfortunately, the United States is once again fighting the dark forces of fascism. But the battlefield is not in Europe. It is not in the South Pacific.

It is right here, on our mainland.

The fascists have infiltrated the halls of our congress. Up until January 20th of this year, it occupied the Oval Office. And although the recent 2020 election gave the “opposition party” a very slim majority in both Houses and has the White House, the fascists are still wreaking havoc. Vicious, racist voter-suppression laws are being passed in many states. A woman’s right to to a legal and safe abortion is possibly going to be struck down. The minority party still runs this country. The majority party can’t unify to fight back. A few of its own members are more concerned about some absurd fantasy of “bi-partisanship” when it is clear the minority has ZERO interest in working with those to whom they lost that election.

While June 6, 1944 is a date that needs never to be forgotten, so too is January 6, 2021. That was the day of the insurrectionists. Has its white supremacist, misogynistic, xenophobic, sexual-assaulting former “leader” been held to account? Has anyone involved in that insurrection been held to account, including dozens of members of the GOP who endorsed the Big Lie of a stolen election that propelled the barbarians who smashed their way into the Capitol building?

We defeated fascism in WWII only to have it now become an infestation into our national and local governments. If the party that actually has more power than their opponent won’t fight back, then this country is doomed. If some reading thinks I’m an alarmist, then some aren’t paying any attention to what is right in front of their faces. That is, those that don’t agree with January 6. Or those who believe the Big Lie. They are out there. If not you, your neighbor. Your brother or sister. Your boss. They are a minority but their elected representatives are giving them the nasty red meat they want.

For the majority that helped get rid of Fascist One, it is now a slow-motion nightmare, only one doesn’t need be asleep for its presence to be felt. The monsters are on both sides of the isle. The new majority party is peopled with those very much asleep, and apparently, it is not a troubled sleep.

For the sake of those who defeated fascism eight decades ago, it is time to WAKE UP!

*The pandemic has been significantly mitigated by medical science’s gritty
determination to beat this mortal enemy, although it is a worldly war and
many more battles need be won before humankind prevails. Thank you, medical
science! As a result of increasing vaccination availability, more people
are venturing out*, *feeling safe enough to do so. Formal gatherings of
large numbers may not be encouraged, but the parks in my area are looking
more and more a place to lay around or frolic about. *

*One of these parks has a monument dedicated to WWI solders killed in that
conflict. The fallen whose names are part of this large structure, all
hailed from the village wherein it stands, and a smaller town adjacent to
it. Of course, the imposing design of this tribute to those locals who died
in the line of duty in that war, symbolically honors any and all of The
Fallen in our country’s war efforts throughout* *its history.*

*And* *Memorial Day is soon to arrive. A formal ceremony at that monument
may again take place as, until 2020, was a yearly event.* *If that ceremony
occurs, valor, bravery and sacrifice will be oft repeated words. Wars means
dead soldiers. They cannot speak for themselves, however. One would prefer
to assume they possessed a patriotic nobility that held up until the moment
of their demise. That whatever threat to thei
r motherland they had been
ordered to fight against, they were inspired to die for if need be. * *Dalton
Trumbo’s* *classic anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun, (set during WWI)
however, questions such assumptions of the mindset of those pitted in life
or death, in the moment battlefield confrontations. Trumbo asserts that
commemorative oratory regarding the war dead cannot assume any soldier’s
last thoughts were anything but completely patriotic.* *No one alive can
have any idea of what doomed combatants felt about anything*. *Maybe they,
as Trumbo wrote,* *cried out for a loved one. A wife. A Child. A mother.
But not their motherland. Maybe in their last breath they cursed the
high-up-the-command-chain-strategists, damning them to hell for a failed
plan. *

*Lose some battles, but win the war. And to the winner goes the spoils.
That’s a fittingly concise eulogy for WWI’s casualties. No need for
highfalutin oratory. It’s sanctimonious coming from the mouths of
politicians, likely posturing for the next election. *

**************************************************************************************************

*One of the other wars that American soldiers fought–and which has its own
national monument–was in Vietnam. While all wars are inherently acts of
bloody insanity*, *the Vietnam campaign was quite the case of tragically
underestimating an enemy on their own turf. The historians have not been
kind to our government’s decision to escalate tensions in Southeast Asia.
Those who were sent to fight against “creeping Communism” ultimately were
not able to rescue South Vietnam from North Vietnam. Not that they didn’t
fight with enough intent. U.S. forces were withdrawn after about ten years
of fighting and nearly 60,000* *dead. The Generals conceded they couldn’t
figure out how to succeed. The North prevails, a humiliating concession to
the futility of fighting on any longer (to save a country the size of
California from that commie
boogeyman). Those who fought to no avail and
got to return home were often met by a public that accused them of being,
among other invectives, “baby killer” criminals. They won many battles, but
lost the war. Not that it was their fault, but hey, the ugly optics of Vietnam’s
carnage was broadcast (including a daily body count) to that ultimately resentful, disrespectful public.
At least that part of the public who had no loved one involved in that
conflict.* *That’s gratitude huh? As one notorious 20th century politician
once said: don’t make no waves, and don’t back no losers. That part of the
public. okay? Vietnam veterans, alive or dead, are entitled to the same
respect* *as any member of the military. For damn sure.*

*In contrast, today, to be a member of the military is to be automatically
branded a warrior, always fighting to protect national security, blah blah.
There’s a perceived threat 24/7. Russia, China. Iran. Is Granada still in
play? Whatever. Now it’s always rah rah for our armed forces. This
knee-jerk response to what it means to be today’s soldier is aided and
abetted by a slickly package PR puff-piece strategy. The media doesn’t show
the blood or the body bags any longer. It now allows the military to screen
the reporting from afar, filtering out the blemishes, air-brushing those
potentially undermining optics. Now the media genuflects while military
fighter jets roar above sporting events, propagandizing at several hundred
miles per hour.* *Our current military deployments thus are sanitized,
packaged to be consumed without fear of possible failure. Even when failure
is always a possibility.*

*If this posting is interpreted as disrespectful of The Fallen, then one
clearly misses the point about war and those who die fighting it. A simple
sense of gratitude for those who do the fighting–against a credible threat
or not–should suffice. They deserve no less.* *Place some flowers at the
base of any war memorial to give thanks. And be thankful that you are
alive
to do so, and not one of the fallen*.

*There are more monuments to be built for wars yet to be fought. For
combatants yet to be born. Perhaps one final war. As Albert Einstein said,
I know not with what weapons WW3 will be fought, but WW4 will be fought
with sticks and stones.*

*But never you mind.* *Say thanks this Memorial Day, and maybe even get
outside and have that cookout.

When you’re young and begin thinking about life as it forms and informs you, and not in the least understanding all the feelings and forces of being alive, you have entered into a mystery world. What is it?

When you’re young and now yearning to grasp IT, there is no guidebook. Other than the personal one that is written all at once both confounding and crystal clear. Each is one’s own author. To ask to read and act upon another’s guidebook is sheer folly, an invitation of imitation, inauthenticity, of insincerity.

When you’re young, whether acted upon or not, IT will occupy your universe. You will have to choose to act or not act. Day after day after day. Your playbook’s author may be bold or blocked. Regardless, the feeling remains intense. Unblock. Embolden. Or go a bit batty grappling with IT.

When you’re young, and blocked or bold, IT taunts and teases. And when you’re young finding ITS fulfillment becomes an everlasting certitude.

Whatever IT is, or wherever IT may reside. IT is your container. IT is you. Your youthfulness may or may not use IT wisely.

Then…

When you’re suddenly (seemingly so) not-so-young, the guidebook’s pages autofill with retrospective and lots of empty spaces. IT was there, then. Then IT wasn’t. What was IT? How did you lose IT? Did you actually ever have IT? Perhaps IT was never really there. IT was but IT was wasn’t. Look closer at the pages of that book. Seeing is believing but just in case believing can be seeing. Perception is reality. Fill in that empty space. You know you need to. The guidebook is a fluctuating state of mind. Maybe mindfulness. Maybe mindlessness.

When you’re not-so-young, now of a peculiarly very particular, crooked age, you might have a clearer picture of IT or get lost in cluttered confusion.. That once-when-you-were-young yearning for a forever IT was a foolish but inevitable folly. What were you thinking? Should have. Could have. Did. Didn’t. You want–still– to sort IT out.

Now, you boldly invest in the most of the least of any moment. You now sense an understanding of IT. IT is only time. Your lifetime. Life=time. Time=life. Whatever unknowable portion of IT one may be granted.