War & God

1934 – Hey, I am born in Brooklyn. So far as I know, there isn’t much going on in the world, i.e., no serious wars going on.  I mean that thing between 1914 and 1918 finally ceased, and it was replaced by great uncertainty, but then the 20s hit and the world started dancing and singing again.

1939 – ok, I’m now 5, not yet in school. Rudy (my dad) has begun his thing, which is to get drunk a lot and stay out for long periods. That means Daisy, the Mother, has to begin working to support us. Of course, the Germans under Hitler have begun acting out, sort of like my father, except the Germans are killing people, just cuz. Yeah, the beginnings of a second bigtime war have now begun in earnest.

1941 – OK, I’m now 7 and enrolled at PS82 in Manhattan. The Japanese drag US into the War by doing something terminally stupid—bombing Pearl Harbor. And so we got into it big time. Lots of Blackouts in Manhattan. Nothing much said in school about all the booming going on around the world. But to be fair, we weren’t getting boomed. Just everyone else. That continued until 1945 when Germans and Japanese both threw up their hands and said, “OK, we give up”.  Course, we had to drop a couple of those big nasty nuclear things on Two Japanese cities before they made that decision.

1946 – ok it’s now post World War II, and, Hey, I’m now 12. So roughly half of my kidlife so far has had killing wars going on. But now things calm down for a few years.  And then I turn 15 and North Korea, supported by China decides to invade South Korea.  And, “So What” you say. Well, after that nasty Second bigtime War. America decided it kind of liked wars, so we decided to step in and help South Korea, by sending our guys with some arms to help out.  And that went on til 1953, when I am already in college at Stanford.  And I had to register for the draft when I turned 18 in 1952. But since I am officially a college kid, I get a deferment from the draft, so I can avoid going off to get killed in some far-off place.

1954 – I’m now entering my junior year at college, and we begin to engage in Vietnam. The French had been in control throughout Vietnam, but they were never too good at the war thingie, so they just opened a nice bottle of wine and sat back, as we entered.   Then in 1955, I was entering my senior year, but my really my bigtime event is getting married in July. Yeah, but, guess what?  This War is a bit bigger than the war in Korea. So, China backed North Vietnam, and we decided to back the South.  And America becomes engaged again.  We do so love War, as does apparently almost everyone on this Planet.  I guess God decided that humans killing other Humans is just a normal thing to do, and perfectly ok with her.  But again, I am deferred from entering. First, I’m still in college, then I get married and have a kid. And then, the Biggie, I obtain a secret clearance and become involved in the development of big missiles. So, it’s almost like I’m in the military, except nobody’s shooting at me.  This shoot’m up goes on through several presidents. Dwight Eisenhower got us involved in 1954, by sending troops to train the South Vietnamese army. Then Kennedy in 1961 sent in more troops to advise, followed by Lyndon Johnson who expanded our role because he said the North had attacked one of our warships. Then Tricky Dick Nixon took over and promised to end that war, yeah right, hahahahaha.  So tricky Dick kept the war thingie going on, ensuring that we would lose more thousands of our troops.  Finally, we got the hell out, with Nixon resigning with dishonor from his post.  And, I guess if we’re honest, we have to acknowledge that this is the first War we actually lost. Well, we didn’t say that, but we just left with our tail twixt our legs. We didn't even open a nice bottle of wine like the French.

1979 – 2023 – The Middle East. Yeah that place.  For reasons I fail to properly comprehend, the Russians got themselves into a war in the Middle East, if you can count Afghanistan as “The Middle East”.  And where’s “The Middle East”? Well, I guess it’s anywhere from Pakistan westward all the way into Northern Africa. If Muslims are either in charge or at War, it’s “The Middle East”.  And then, we helped the Afghans and the Russians got their asses kicked out. But then the Middle East erupted in wars all over the place. Turns out Muslims love war even more than we do. And Israel being set up in the midst of all those armed Muslims was probably less than the World’s best idea. I guess everyone thought they would just get over it, but apparently these folks don’t get over such things. So, the bombs have kept flying ever since.

And now, I’m in my 49^th 39^th year of age, and I have difficulty looking back to a “peaceful age”. I wonder whether Neanderthals knew peace.  Apparently their replacement humans were born to kill.

And that is a truly sad commentary on life. Why can’t we all just get along? Evidently, if humans were truly invented by God, then she has a weird sense of humor. I mean, I doubt that Trevor Noah or Jon Stewart would have invented humans. And since comedians seem to be the smartest people on the planet, how come God didn’t just put them in charge> Are all these killing machines part of some other God’s Plan, one she hasn’t told us about?

Well, maybe God is waiting for all the killing doofuses to leave—that is idiot-malenfants like Putin and Trump and DeSantis, and MTG. Maybe God is waiting for our Great Grandkids to become a little bit more mature before she just turns everything over to them.  Too bad I won’t be around to see all that peace and kindness spreading around the world. It’s really overdue God. Can’t we accelerate the changeover a bit . . . PLEASE? Some Peace would be really nice.

The Not So Great Salt Lake

I was just reading an article about the coming demise of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It has shrunk to a shadow of its former glory, and it is threatening the entire state. Partly, it is the loss of water in one of the driest states in the nation. But partly, the residue left behind as the lake shrinks is apparently filled with potentially poisonous debris. Apparently arsenic, mercury and lead line the desiccated lake bed, and those toxins are being picked up by winds, creating clouds of polluted air that threaten all who live even remotely close to the lake. The entire state is at risk.

Exactly what a solution would look like seems unclear at the moment. Water drainage from the lake (mostly agricultural) from farmers and increasingly from the state’s growing population continues to threaten this formerly huge body of water.  Some reduction is vital, but how and when are questions not open to easy answers.

The retreat of The Great Salt Lake is sometimes compared to the drying up of Lake Owens in California, producing one the largest sources of air pollution in the country. But in fact, the Salt Lake is more akin to the loss of The Aral Sea, straddling Israel and Jordan. That sea was largely killed off by the Soviets via irrigation projects.

The main issue in Utah is the likely air pollution that may infect much of the state’s population.  Perhaps the state, and in fact the Nation may move to somehow resolve the current dangers, but, given our record, a successful solution seems unlikely. I am thinking of Climate Change of course. We have known of the need to act for at least 50 years, yet we seem incapable of useful solutions, even though those solutions are staring at us in our collective faces. The solutions to climate change, now likely beyond our grasp were available had we acted. But we didn’t. Instead, we dithered and allowed political shouting matches to substitute for serious adult actions. So, now it may well be too late.

And then, I was just reading in a newsletter called Nautilus about the possibility of humans turning into dinosaurs—remember them? Yeah, they disappeared some 60+ million years ago, due to the after-effects of a rather large meteor striking Earth. It was a pretty big dude as meteors go—several miles wide.  And No, the authors are not predicting a similar event. They are merely speculating that such an event is at least possible, given the amount of crap continually wandering about in our galaxy, and sometimes striking home.  So, they speculate that it is at least possible we might encounter a meteor akin to the one that did in the dinosaurs. If so, we would be screwed, much like the Dinies. What they are suggesting is that, unlike Climate Change where we mostly suck our thumbs and argue amongst ourselves, that we actually begin preparing for such an event, by figuring out ways to avoid it.

Now you and I will likely not be a direct part of such an effort. Much like Climate Change, and even the cataclysmic Great Salt Lake event, most of us don’t get to participate in avoidance of such things. But also, like World Wars, we can at least participate from afar. How? Well, by voting of course.

We seem to have two kinds of people in our once Great Nation—folks who read, and therefor think, and folks who prefer to allow Fox News to do their thinking.  And we all know what Fox News does to brain cells. Ugh.  So, for the folks who still consider themselves thinking creatures, regardless of which side of the political aisle you inhabit, it really is vital to become involved politically. At a minimum, register to vote. And then, when it is time, actually go to the polls and cast your vote for those persons who are more likely to be treating such issues as Climate Change, or meteor-prevention seriously. See individually, we are not big enough to have any effect. But collectively, we can act with intelligence to keep our planet reasonably healthy. But we must read, and we must think. And then we must act through our elected representatives to act collectively as an intelligent force for good.

Do it folks.  Otherwise, we might follow the Dinies. And we really do not want that. So Do It!

Dismal Times

This weather begins to make me wonder about my non-belief in a greater being up above us. It really begins to look like someone just got fed up with Humankind, and then tossed a switch to change everything about the weather, and then sat back to enjoy the resulting chaos.  We here in North Carolina have been lucky so far, having missed out on California’s Atmospheric Rivers falling from the sky. But, we used to live in downtown San Francisco, and so we feel their pain.  And then there’s Texas. They cancelled, what, 6000 flights into or out of Texas airports?  How awful is that? Especially for folks trying to leave Texas.  

And then, right in the middle of this weather chaos, we have republicans beginning to gain speed in their zeal to become the Evil Overlords of America. They’re busily banning books that make them uncomfortable. They are threatening teachers with felony convictions should they dare to reveal to their students how the world actually works.  But then republicans really do so hate educated people. They ask so many embarrassing questions.   And then those same educated people seem to insist on voting, and we know how that works out for republicans.  All in all, the chaos here in America makes me think about moving, except for two things. One, I’m 88 and have no serious wherewithal to pick up and leave to some other country.

But then I also have this other issue. Even if I were able to move, where would I go?  I used to imagine New Zealand. But then Jacinda Ahern left as their political leader, and the weather Frankenstein moved over their country, creating chaos there. I mean, Britain seems totally screwed up politically, Australia isn’t any saner than America. So I guess I am going to have to look around a bit more cautiously.  Politics does seem kind of screwed up so many places.

And then, and then, our police started thinking it was ok to kill people, just to demonstrate who’s really in charge.  And that is never a good thing. We need our police. Really, we do. But we really do not need police acting out their worst instincts.  First, five Black cops, belonging to some elite unit, decide it’s ok to beat some other (Black) dude to death. And here I thought we learned something from the George Floyd disaster.  And then, some other White police dudes decide it’s ok to chase after a guy with no legs and then shoot him. Wouldn’t want him getting away, would we?  Makes me think maybe the Brits have the right idea by denying arms to their beat officers.

So, now, as I gaze outside at the dismal weather, I have to resist the urge to watch any TV news, or even to follow any Newsie outlets in my computer, since we seem to have all bad news all the time. Remember that Ukraine place? Yeah, it’s still there, and Vlad the Impaler continues to sit in his comfortable Moscow office and issue orders to kill and maim as many Ukrainians as possible. He is so bad that even Russians have begun fleeing their country to escape the possibility of being drafted into Vlad’s Evil Army.  Begins to bring back memories of both the Cold War and that war in Southeast Asia. Remember that? Such fun.

When did it used to be fun living in America?  Remind me, please. I’m really old and have begun to forget when those good times were a’rolling.