Blues Not Just on the Bridge 2024

The month of festivals lasting from mid-August to mid-September (and even a bit beyond this year, due to at least one rain delay), continued Saturday with our 23rd annual Blues on the Bridge.  This free concert each September brings both local bands and talent who have performed with nationally known artists to downtown Binghamton, New York.

It seemed like things were so normal.   Well, maybe they are.  The new normal, that is.

But first, the good stuff.

This bridge, built in 1886 and currently only used by pedestrians, was the original bridge the concert was held on.  It's now held on a much sturdier bridge  

The signature statue at each annual concert.

Of course, free is not free.  This event takes a lot of fundraising and t-shirt sales (I proudly own several of the t-shirts from over the years), advertisers, and other promotions.  But we are so fortunate to have this September music fest.

People of all ages comes out.  The weather is usually great.

But then, the world intrudes. Today is the anniversary of a good friend's death and this year I'm missing her and my wisdom.

Yes, I know what she would say about my mood today.  She would tell me to put on my big girl panties and face the world, just like she did during her second and final battle with cancer.

But I also wonder what she would have thought about our current world.

Sunday, the second attempted assassination of a former President and current Presidential candidate in a little over two months.

A city of about 58,000 people in southwest Ohio continue to be terrorized by bomb threats against schools, a hospital, and a college, as the latest episode of what can happen when your city is in the bulls eye of social media, as memes continue to go viral.  I will not mention what the topic of discussion is but, if you don't live in the United States and haven't heard of Springfield, Ohio, you will quickly find out what is happening if you do a search.

Ukraine.  The Middle East. Other places at war.

And the more trivial.

The continued list of major league baseball players who played in my youth but are now dying, grows bigger.  Just think, this year - Bud Harrelson, Carl Erskine, Ken Holtzman, Jerry Grote, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda,  And now, Eddie Kranepool, back on September 8. Like me, he was from the Bronx.  He played his entire major league career for the NY Mets.  He was only in high school when the Mets signed him.  18 years with the Mets, more than anyone other Mets player.  What amazes me is that I didn't even know he had died until about four days ago.  

I feel like I am getting older by the minute and, come to think of it, I am.

The September 15 death of Tito Jackson, founding member of the Jackson 5 and sibling of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, added to today's blue mood.  At least I found out about his death right away.

We can wish we lived in happier times, but happier times tend to be an illusion. 

We are at war with each other, and I thought it was appropriate to post a 2021 song from Tito Jackson, called Love One Another.

If only we took his advice.

Enough with the sadness.  Now, I'll take my friend's advice and start the day.

Let Freedom Read

It's become a sad tradition on my blog.  I so wish it was an unnecessary tradition.

October 1-7 is Banned Book Week. 

It seems that every year, observing this week (which actually is needed each and every week of the year) becomes more and more important.  Our freedoms are slipping away.  We will lose them if we don't value them. 

This year, the theme is "Let Freedom Read".  I wish I could copy an email I received yesterday from the New York Public Library, written by author Judy Blume.  She said it so much more elegantly than I can.

Here is an explanation of some of the terms being used below.

Here is an infographic.  One of these sobering statistics is how much censorship has been on the rise.  Incidents have almost doubled between 2021 and 2022. (I apologize for the size of this infographic; I can't make it any bigger.  However, you can find the original of this and the one below at the American Library Association website. ) Or, one can only hope, at your own public library, where you may also find a display of banned books. 

At our local library, my spouse picked up one of the books from a display of books that have been banned:  The Call of the Wild, by Jack London.  He loved that book as a child (as did I).

I've read at least two other books that have been banned from time to time as part of my schooling:  Animal Farm by George Orwell, and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  My son read another banned book as part of his schooling: The Giver, by Lois Lowry.

If you look at reasons books are challenged or banned, they will range widely, from the author's political beliefs, to violence, to descriptions of witchcraft, to profanity, to depictions of drug use.  

In 2022, Dr. Seuss Enterprises decided to no longer offer for publication six Dr. Seuss books.

Sometimes, all it takes is someone wondering if a library even has a book.

Take, for example, the example of the library in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

I was so fortunate to have parents who did not control my reading.  They would take me to the library, or to a bookstore, and just stand by while I made my selections.  Never once did they try to change my mind.  They might discuss a book with me, but I was free to read it.

These are the top "most challenged" books, noting there is a big difference between challenged and banned (as explained in a link at the beginning of this post). 

People can challenge books in an effort to protect children (the largest group challenging are parents) from difficult ideas or situations but too many times it comes down to a desire to censor beliefs that run counter to certain groups' or powerful interests' beliefs.  But don't take it from me.

Quoting from the ALA's website:

"As Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in Texas v. Johnson , said most eloquently:

If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

If we are to continue to protect our First Amendment, we would do well to keep in mind these words of Noam Chomsky:

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Or these words of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (" The One Un-American Act." Nieman Reports , vol. 7, no. 1, Jan. 1953, p. 20):

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

Freedom of reading.  Freedom of thought.

Let Freedom Read.

Voting in 2022

Voting should not be much of an issue for us in the United States.  But times have change in the past few years.

Let me tell you about my 2022 voting experience.

Spouse and I, who live in New York State, decided to take advantage of the first day of early voting.  It started for us on Saturday.  One of the early voting poll sites (there are four in our county) is right next to the farmer's market.  We would have been in the area, anyway.  We got there 15 minutes after the site opened.

There didn't seem to be a line outside. So far, so good.

Inside, it was a different story.  We found the end of the line, and settled in.  We were standing in front of an older gentleman (well, we are "older", also) who told us the polling site had not received its ballots, and we were waiting.  We decided to stay.

Everyone on the line seemed to be in a good mood.  No grumbling.  No anger.  We waited patiently.

The ballots were delivered.

The line started to move.

We got to the room where the voting was taking place.  All the poll workers were older people.  In New York, you have an equal number.  Half are Republicans.  Half are Democrats.

The poll workers were smiling and chatting with voters as they checked them in.  

We voted. The process was smooth. We left, and went to the farmer's market.

It was ordinary.

Except it wasn't.  In our modern times, it was the exception.  In our world, a large percentage of Americans feel that our nation is going in the wrong direction.  A major polling company (Gallup) reported record levels of dissatisfaction. Whether or not you believe in these polls, I think this one is accurate.

Poll workers have been quitting in record numbers.  One reason is threats of violence.

Finally, there are the constant death threats our elected officials receive.  Some have escalated to actual attempted, or completed, violence.

No one knows what is going to happen next Tuesday, our national election day.  There is a lot of anxiety.

But there is one thing you can do, if you are 18 or older.  It's not a waste of time.  It will count.

More than ever, I encourage my American readers, no matter what their political affiliations, to vote. 

I am grateful my experience with voting in 2022 was peaceful, and I was able to vote without incident, without armed people monitoring my vote, without intimidation.  My respect goes to those who are turning out and will turn out despite these kinds of threats.

We used to watch that happen on TV in other parts of the world.  Now it's our turn.

Our democracy depends on us turning out and showing we care by voting. 

Seven Years

It's been seven years.  Seven years ago today, your journey on Earth ended. 

I had visited you, with my spouse, four days before. 

Life has gone on since.  One of your granddaughters married in the past year.  Another one is having her engagement party tomorrow.

I hope you don't know what has been going on here in the United States.  It would distress you so, I know.  Your parents were Holocaust survivors and good people.  You spent part of your life as an elementary school teacher.  You loved children so.

Today, I went to a local music festival.  I think you would have enjoyed it.

This was the 20th annual (in 21 years - one year cancelled due to COVID) Blues on the Bridge, a free concert event featuring local bands from the Binghamton, New York area.  Ironically, it was you (and your mother) who brought me to Binghamton for a short visit, back in 1972.

I never suspected I would spend much of my adult life here.  Life takes people in strange directions.

Let's pay a short visit to the festival (more tomorrow). 

Since I used to work a few blocks from here, I knew there was a flower garden a few hundred steps away. 

Ah, there it is!  You would have loved this pollinator garden.

The first group scheduled to perform did a cover of the iconic "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.  They felt it was important that the festival goers hear the song.  Written by Steven Stills, the song did not begin as a protest song, but it's thought to be just that by many today.

I think the song is timeless. In the years since, it has been covered by so many artists. Some of the lyrics apply just as easily applies to our times today.

So, today, friend, I am thinking of you just as I do every September 17.  One day, the cancer that took you from us will be conquered.  But can we conquer ourselves, our drive to hate the "other", some of our impulses?

For What It's Worth.

 

A Post Labor Day Rant

No flowers today.  Instead, it's time for a rant.  I backed off from it but got encouragement from some of my regular readers (thank you!).

So, if you don't want to read it, here's a picture for you (impatiens in morning light). Then feel free to skip onto something else.  But if you are staying with me, thank you.

Friday, in front of the hospital where my son was born, a local station gave live coverage, on the 5pm news, of health workers demonstrating for their right not to take the vaccine.  It was the last straw.

Yes, you have the right not to take the vaccine. Yes, you have the right not to wear a mask.  What you don't have is the right to make someone else sick because you don't want to be responsible.  What you don't have is the right to fill up hospitals so that others without COVID can't get care.  I don't want to hear about the falsehoods circulating about what these vaccines do to you.  I won't even repeat them here.

Today, I think of someone I know through blogging, who has a family member who may have a cancerous tumor.  She worries that her hospitals, almost to full capacity with COVID patients,  may not be able to treat her family member.

I don't understand how selfish a country we have become, with our personal rights trampling all over the rights of our neighbors, our friends, and even our families. 

One of my cousins continues to work retail (and is still doing so in 2021) in an essential retail setting.  Last year, a customer spit on him.  Why, he doesn't even know.   Another one of my cousins is a teacher in New York City.  One of my husband's cousins is a teacher in Florida. A third cousin moved recently from Massachusetts to New York City.  She's in education, too.  Just imagine what they have gone through and are still going through this new school year.  It's not over yet.  Maybe it could have been, in a more perfect world.

Another one of my cousins is an emergency room in a Midwest hospital. What has he experienced? He has a father in his 90's.  Does he want to get sick?   His niece is in her second year of nursing school.

For me, and many of my readers, this has become personal.

Just imagine what the parent of every school aged child in this country is going through, for this matter.

And, the children.  Let's not forget them.  Just in my county, the statistics are concerning. They can't be vaccinated even where their parents want them to be.  You want to see their smiling faces.  G-d forbid they get this illness, they won't be smiling.

Now, too many families have gone through the experience of having sick members, maybe sick enough to require hospitalization.

When my autistic brother in law contracted COVID-19 in April 2020, our family entered a world where our only contact with him was through his health care workers.  He was hospitalized for three weeks and was in a skilled nursing facility set up by the agency that provides his housing and services for another two weeks. 

But that wasn't the end of his story.  It took him a while to regain full lung function.  I'm not sure what he went through was long COVID, but long COVID is real and it puts its sufferers through hell.  COVID isn't a head cold or a mild flu, folks, even if most people don't die from it.

The health care workers and support staff we spoke to during his hospitalization almost always were able to take the time to talk to us, provide updates, and reassurance, and just kept on keeping on.  They worked hard and yet they took the time to support US.  I will never forget that.

They are getting tired. No, I'm wrong.  They are past tired.  Past tired of treating people, many of whom chose not to get one of the three (in our country) available vaccines.    In the county I live in, some 90% of those hospitalized are not vaccinated.

They are past tired of being abused by the public and some their patients. COVID-19 isn't just a health epidemic in our country.  It is an epidemic of everything becoming politics, of misinformation coming from various sources, of fear, of distrust, of hating your neighbor because he or she votes for the "wrong" person.

And yet, there are health workers who won't take the vaccine, even while treating a population where many of their COVID patients haven't taken the vaccine. They are walking off the job.  Same with those working in nursing homes.  Everywhere our facilities (here in our part of New York State) are shortstaffed and the latest tsunami here isn't at Texas/Florida/Missouri/Louisiana levels yet.

Has everyone forgotten our developmentally disabled population, some who can't advocate for themselves?  Our immunocompromised?  Cancer patients? Those unfortunate enough to have heart attacks where the hospitals are full of those who have exercised their personal freedom?  We all pay that price for some personal freedoms.

It would be a wonderful thing if everyone in our country could show respect for each other by our actions.  Respect those who put their lives on the line for our health, for our food, for our transportation, for our packages in the mail, for the education of our children, each and every day.  Respect the elderly, those with health issues?

I asked this in 2020.  I'm asking you to do it again, except this year that respect includes vaccination.  Wear a mask. (No one will see your smiling face if an oxygen mask covers it.)  Educate yourself with facts, not rumors read online.  Practice consideration  Get the jab if you are medically able. 

And, if you leave a comment on this post, please be respectful.  Any comments not meeting this criteria will be immediately composted.

If we all don't clean up our act as American citizens, what kind of society will we have when this is no longer a pandemic?

Sunday Shadows

There is a flood wall where spouse and I walk several times a week, ever since the shutdown in March.

About a month ago, signs appeared.  I took this picture the day after Election Day.

At the end of the path these signs appeared.  At one point the Biden sign was ripped down.  A few days later, it was put back up.  You'll also see a sign for Claudia Tenney, the Republican incumbent of my district, who lost in 2018.  Vote counting isn't over, but she probably has regained her seat.

At this time of year, it's almost hard not to avoid shadows, so I kept part of my shadow in the photo.

A different day, back in October,  again two shadows.  We aren't walking on the grassy field but higher up on the flood wall.

Meanwhile, the last of the fall foliage is displaying.

Here's a sample.

And now our musical selection for this Sunday.

The Byrds and "Turn, Turn, Turn" with words of wisdom that are thousands of years old.

This song, written by Pete Seeger, was written in the late 1950's and covered by the Byrds, becoming a big hit towards the end of 1965.

May your day be peaceful and filled with happiness.

Voting in the Time of Anxiety

Today is the finish line.  Or is it?

Voting wasn't supposed to be like this.

If, in 2016, we could have seen into the future...a future of long, long voting lines, people wearing masks while they wait and while they vote, stores boarding up in expectation of riots, lawsuits, voting sites full of hand sanitizer and this thing called "social distancing"...A future full of absentee ballots, people trying to vote by mail, anxiety, and a dysfunctional post office....

This is the building I voted in, the building that was the subject of one of my most visited posts, Snow Doors, now turned into an early voting site for the first time.

 (This is what the building looks like now - it's a Taste of New York store, and the snow door is gone) 

If we were able to see into the future in 2016, would we have done things any different?  Would more of us have turned out to vote?  Would more of us have cared then the way we care now?

There is nothing like feeling you are about to lose what you've got to motivate you. That's why people took pictures of themselves on line, or pictures of the scenery as they waited, or their "I voted" stickers. 

Our lives, every one of our lives, has been changed by COVID-19.  But one thing hasn't changed - we have the right, and the duty, to vote.

Need non partisan election help:  Try this site, established after the 2000 Presidential election that was decided by the courts. 

Need to talk to someone about election protection:  these are hotlines open right now

English 866-OUR-VOTE866-687-8683

Spanish/English 888-VE-Y-VOTA888-839-8682

Asian Languages/English 888-API-VOTE888-274-8683

Arabic/English 844-YALLA-US844-925-5287

One of many articles about voter anxiety (noting I am not a mental health professional, and if you feel you need professional help, please seek it immediately!  Otherwise, these may help.

I admit, I've been doing too much doom scrolling lately. (If you follow me on Twitter, by the way, you will know immediately where I stand politically.)

I can't see into the future.  Maybe I wouldn't want to look if I was able to.  But, I have no doubt in my mind that the future of our democracy is at stake today.  We have two opposing sides, looking at our current events and convinced that if the other side of the aisle wins, we will be plunged into a most horrible future.

We are tearing ourselves apart.  Family members aren't talking to each other. Neighbors aren't talking to each other.  We are in our own bubbles. 

Can we unite?  Or will we be torn totally apart in the coming days and weeks?

We must unite. 

Our alternative is another civil war.  Our first one didn't end well, but it did produce a speech that is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

The war also produced more misery than any of us can imagine.  We don't want to go down that road.  We don't want a speech written during another civil war becoming something our descendants study in school. 

If you haven't voted yet, please don't sit this one out.  Get to a poll and cast your ballot.  In some states, you can register at your polling place on Election Day, in fact.

Vote, if you haven't.  You will feel better.

American democracy will thank you.

Women's History Month - Margaret Chase Smith

International Women's Day was Sunday, but a comment on my blog Saturday where I incorrectly indicated that there were no more female candidates in the Democratic race for nomination to run for President reminded me of a woman who made her mark years ago in politics.

She may not be well known today, but for today, which is an important primary day, I want to remember a Senator who was the first woman to run for a major political party's nomination for the candidacy for President of the United States.

But years before her run, she gave a speech considered one of the most important speeches in the United States Senate of the 20th century.  It's called A Declaration of Conscience and was given on June 1, 1950, during the Joseph McCarthy era.  I invite you to read the summaries online - in many ways it is as relevant today as it was back then.

Margaret Chase Smith, Republican Senator from Maine in the mid-20th century, gave that speech, and almost 14 years later announced her candidacy for President of the United States.  Smith was not the first woman to run for President, but was the first to be nominated at a major party convention.

The running for President clip of January 27, 1964 is about 17 minutes long.   No need to listen to all 17 plus minutes if you click the link below, but if you listen to the first few minutes and the last five or so minutes, you will note a lot of one thing:

Laughter.  Lots of laughter.

Was a woman announcing a run for President that funny?  But let's remind ourselves that we listen to this recording with 2020 ears.

Link to Announcement of Margaret Chase Smith's candidacy for President - take note of about 13:00 and onward

Smith did not win any of the Republican primaries she was entered into in 1964, and lost her nomination bid to Barry Goldwater.  But she lived to the age of 97.  At the time of her death, in 1995, she was the last living Senator to be born in the 19th century.

The century where women worked tirelessly to get us the rights we enjoy today.

Hopefully, since 1964, we have come a long way, baby.

Early Voting and Fall Color

New York State sometimes is way behind the times.

So many states have had something called early voting for years. It's a system where you can cast your vote "early", a few days before the official election day.  Of course, once you vote, you can't change your mind, but it allows people to vote at times convenient to their work or living schedules.

New York finally got early voting this year.  In fact, today is the first day of early voting.  How many people will notice that, in-between all the Halloween events, is another story.

Oh, we've had innovations years after everyone else for some time.  Like electronic voting.  
One thing true about our United States is that there is much inonsistency in voting rules, which makes years where we elect high officials (like next year, which is a Presidential election year) interesting.  In some places, polls echo with the sounds of crickets.  In other places, people wait on line for hours.  In several states, people vote by mail.  This is a brief insight into New York's system - until today.  

Early voting is going to cost taxpayers a lot of money, because that is what happens in New York.  One of the reasons why is because the polls will be open an extra 10 days, but another reason is that people are not going to vote in their normal polling locations.  We now have an electronic system for verifying our registration when we enter the poll, rather than the "sign a physical book by pen".

I wonder how much confusion this is going to cause.

In my county, Broome County, there will be three polling sites open.  Two of the three sites are libraries.  The third is in an indoor mall, the Oakdale Mall, which has a place in history for another reason.

I am not sure about the libraries, but I am positive the Oakdale Mall has never been used for voting. The hours are limited, too - most days voting only occurs from 12pm to 5pm.

But I thought, why not check it out?

Well, on my way to early voting, I got a little distracted by fall color. 

When I arrived at the library in Endicott, the voting place wasn't set to open until noon and it was 11:40 am.  Poll workers were arriving.  I figured, maybe another time.

So we decided to look at some more fall color, instead.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so maybe I'll try again. 

Whatever the outcome, I hope this is running smoothly by November of 2020, when we vote for our President, Congresspeople and 1/3 of our Senators.

Do you have early voting or postal voting where you live? 

A Chance Blown? #blogboost

President Jimmy Carter, who was President from 1977 to 1981, celebrated his 95th birthday this week.

In 2015, he was diagnosed with  stage IV melanoma, highly aggressive.  He spoke for almost 40 minutes at the press conference where he announced his cancer diagnosis, dressed in blue jeans and a blazer.  But he is still with us.

Which leads me to how I blew my chance to see Jimmy Carter back in 2009.

I had gone to Americus, Georgia to visit the nearby Andersonville Civil War POW site and Plains, Georgia, the birthplace of Jimmy Carter.

While staying at a B&B, I was told that Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School every Sunday he was in the area.  He was still doing extensive travel for his charity and foreign relations work, and, when I looked up his schedule, it said online he wasn't going to be at church that Sunday.

I felt a little uncomfortable, being of a different faith, and decided not to go to the service.  The set up was:  service first, then the Sunday School.  You had to go to the service to go to the Sunday School.

If I had gone, I would have seen him, because, as it turns out, he did teach that Sunday.

We had talked about going back to Americus this past April (2019).  Jimmy Carter is still teaching Sunday School, by the way.  What a lesson in Profiles in Courage.

So the obvious lesson of this moment is:  Grab the moment.  Don't let the discomfort of a new experience keep you from a once in a lifetime opportunity.

But there's one more thing I wanted to blog about.

At the 2015 press conference, there was one last surprise.  I have blogged about my family history of pancreatic cancer (on both sides of my family) - an aunt, an uncle, and a great aunt.  It turns out that Jimmy Carter may have the most extensive pancreatic cancer history of any living person.

Pancreatic cancer killed his father, brother and two sisters (all of his siblings).  His mother died from breast cancer that spread to her pancreas.

But, despite all this, he plans to continue working as long as he can.    And, as of right now, he still is.

While I, drawing closer to age 67, waffle about retirement.

I am in awe of Jimmy Carter.  No matter what your politics, this man deserves our respect. 

Due to circumstances, I still may not be able to get away from Americus until next year.  And then - will I try to see President Carter teaching?


We'll see.

Day 5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

Is Love All We Need?

Our local newspaper had a supplement today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Concert - peace and love in the midst of a country at war thousands of miles away.  Our streets were full of protestors. Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedys were very much on our minds.  Much out there was anything but peace and love.

Now, 50 years later my mind turns to  Charlottesville, Virginia. Today I remember August 12, 2017, the day the white supremacists rallied under the guise of protesting the removal of a statue and one of them drove a car into a crowd and killed a 32 year old woman by the name of Heather Heyer.  Two police were also killed that day, and many people were injured.

Tomorrow, I, and many others, will remember Heather Heyer, the act that killed her and injured dozens of others trying to exercise their right of free speech, the rallies the night before meant to terrorize, and that day that we now remember with anguish.

The driver/killer is in jail, convicted of the crime.  A 32 year old woman's life was cut short and our country still struggles to make sense.  How could there possibly be fine people on both sides? We are afraid to face what our country is becoming.  We pause.  We feel that we've lost our way.

Here are some signs of that day.  It amazed me, in a May 1 visit to Charlottesville, that "Love" seemed to be one of those reactions.

Is love all we need, though?

This is near the scene of that tragic act on May 1 of this year.  A message to those who hate: "You just magnified her."

The street memorial. 

Think about it.  Are we stronger than this hate?

A young woman died here, killed by hate.  We struggle to maintain our democracy.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us" - Walt Kelly, who wrote it in a different context.  But never mind that. Will we have the strength for the days ahead? Slogans are good, but the right actions are better.

Sobering thoughts for a Sunday.

Two Boy Scouts

Out of a shameful part of our United States history came a wonderful story of two Boy Scouts that, in their small ways, changed history.

You can see and hear it here.

We just commemorated the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese armed forces, which resulted in the entry of our country into World War II.

But what also happened is that thousands of United States citizens of Japanese descent were rounded up and sent to interment camps all over the country.  One of these was a hastily constructed camp at Heart Mountain, near Cody, Wyoming.

One of the detainees was a young man by the name of Norman Mineta.  He had been, back in California before he became a civilian prisoner of war, a Cub Scout.  His parents had wanted to become United States citizens before the war, but had been prevented from doing so.

The young of this camp were sent to school within the camp and permitted various activities to keep them occupied.  One of these was the formation of a Boy Scout troop and Norman Mineta joined.  The troop tried to engage nearby Wyoming troops in their activities, but all the troops rejected their overtures.  These boys were the enemy, after all.

Or were they? 

Only one troop accepted the overtures of the Japanese interment camp's troop, and came to visit   In that troop was a young Boy Scout by the name of Alan Simpson.

Alan Simpson and Norman Mineta became good friends.  And the 12 year old Simpson, who returned to a warm home after his visit to the internment camp, realized an injustice was being done.

The two boys didn't see each other again for some 35 years.

When they met again, it was thousands of miles away, in Congress, where Senator Alan Simpson (Republican) made his second acquaintance with Congressman  Norman Mineta (Democrat).  Eventually, Mineta would join the Cabinets of two Presidents.  Their friendship has lasted to this day.

Simpson, now 87, gave one of the eulogies at the recent funeral of former President George H.W. Bush, under whom Mineta served as Secretary of Transportation.

An interesting story of non fiction.

As it is said, you can't make this stuff up.

Polio and the President

Polio.

With a paralytic disease called AFM striking some children in the past several years, I wanted to blog a little about a scourge of my early childhood that, hopefully, will never reappear in our lifetimes.

I visited Warm Springs, Georgia in March of 2010 and saw the Little White House where Roosevelt died, the unfinished portrait that still sits in the house, and the pools where Roosevelt had found relief from his polio.  

Yes, Roosevelt was a disabled man in a time were disabled people were disrespected and discriminated against - so much so that Roosevelt had to hide the fact that he depended on a wheelchair for mobility.

Otherwise, people might have thought he was unfit for office.

That would be totally inconceivable today - but those were very different times.  Still, Franklin Roosevelt, who contracted polio at the age of 39,  had a large role in making disability acceptable, and gave hope to a lot of people with polio.  Ever hear of the March of Dimes?  It started as a movement to find a cure for polio

At the time of his death, polio was a feared scourge.  I can vaguely remember the panic that was felt during the summer - the peak time for polio. Parents would even keep their children away from public swimming pools, as it was believed that pools were one place you could "catch" polio.  As children, we believed that being near a storm drain could give you polio.

Some children became so paralyzed that they could no longer breathe on their own.  My generation remembers a device called an iron lung.

But then everything changed.

A charity called The March of Dimes was founded by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938..  Roosevelt had a simple idea- asking Americans to send in a dime, just one dime, to fight polio.  The "march" of dimes helped to finance research, so that the Salk and Sabin vaccines could be developed.   In honor of Roosevelt's fund raising, his face appears on the dime and has appeared for many years.

Ironically, Roosevelt's polio may have been misdiagnosed - but many people alive today can be grateful for that misdiagnosis.

I may have been one of those young children in those old black and white photos lining up in schools for their polio shot.  I even vaguely remember being in one of those lineups.

I was a member of the first generation in human history that did not have to fear polio.   And to my son, polio is just a historical curiosity - although one of his older cousins married a woman who had polio as a child, and has a noticeable limp to show for it.

And yes, there is still a Roosevelt Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs.

If you need a story on how one person can change history, and enrich the lives of millions, you need look no further than this story.

And we all hope a cure is found for AFM soon before more children are stricken.

Autism Votes

I originally posted this on November 8, 2011, which was election day.  I repost it with some edits and updates.

My autistic brother in law, who will turn 60 shortly, has made up his mind he will not vote in November.  Two years ago it was a different story.  He voted in the New York presidential primary in April.  He made his mind up from watching the TV news shows he watched.

Not only that, he voted for President, and voted the opposite of how his mother (who he relied on so emotionally and physically at the time) intended to vote.  It led to some interesting comments from my mother in law, who wasn't seeming to like the fact that he wasn't just following along with whatever she said.

In a way, it is amazing that he never voted until 2004.  And now, he won't even tell us what changed his mind.  We don't press him, as he has a right to his private thoughts.  I wonder, though, if the intensity of this election cycle has overwhelmed him, in addition to the fact that his mother is terminally ill.

I repeat this post in honor of my brother in law.  And please, if you are in the United States, vote on November 6.  Please.  This may be one of the most important elections in our country's history.

From November of 2011 - Autism Votes

A Facebook post by a Facebook friend of mine, a woman who has an adult son on the autistic spectrum, inspired this post.

The day I first posted this was election day in the United States, where I live.

Her son voted for the first time that day. Although she is his legal guardian, her son retains his right to vote.  She told her Facebook friends that her son has looked forward to exercising his vote for years.  This was a big day for him.

It's also a big day for our country for another reason.

Her son is on the leading edge of a wave of soon to be adults with autism.  Some say 1 in 100 live births in this country result in an individual with autism.  Not too long ago it was 1 in 166. Then it was 1 in 150.  (Update, in 2018 it appears it may be as high as 1 in 59, according to the Center for Disease Control).  Let's step back a moment and see what that means.

Those babies are going to grow up.  In fact, the "leading edge" of the autism epidemic I just mentioned are now legal adults in many states, including New York (age of 18).  Just wait until all those adults with autism, who have been given the tools and supports to vote, start to exercise that right. 

Growing up, my brother in law was never encouraged to vote nor were people like him ever expected to vote.  This just didn't happen.  The belief was that they weren't "normal".  So their voices, and opinions, were unheard.

In 2004, a person who worked with him in a support role decided that my brother in law should exercise his right to vote.  He watches a news station that carries a lot of political discussions and has formed very definite political opinions.  Why shouldn't he vote?  She worked with him, he did vote, and he was very proud of voting for the presidential candidate of his choice.

For the first time, his voice was heard.

It is not easy for a person with autism to vote, as described here, but it can be done with proper education and proper support.  This issue isn't restricted to the United States, either.

It will be interesting to hear what these new adults with autism have to say in the voting booth.


I hope that many of them, unlike my brother in law, don't decide to sit this one out.

Throwback Saturday - Polio and a President

I originally posted this on April 12, 2012.  And I figured that you, dear reader, would want a break from my several consecutive days of posting flower pictures.

(But no worries - I'll be back Sunday with more flowers, just in time for Mother's Day.)

Several days ago, I read a blog post that touched on The March of Dimes charity and the late President Franklin Roosevelt who had (or may not have had) a once dreaded disease called polio.
On the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's sudden death on April 12, 1945, I blogged about a scourge of my early childhood that, hopefully, will never reappear in our lifetimes.  This post follows:

I visited Warm Springs, Georgia in March of 2010 and saw the Little White House where Roosevelt died, the unfinished portrait that still sits in the house, and the pools where Roosevelt had found relief from his polio.  Yes, Roosevelt was a disabled man in a time were disabled people were disrespected and discriminated against - so much so that Roosevelt had to hide the fact that he depended on a wheelchair for mobility.

Otherwise, people might have thought he was unfit for office.

That would be totally inconceivable today - but those were very different times.  Still, Franklin Roosevelt had a large role in making disability acceptable, and gave hope to a lot of people with polio.  Ever hear of the March of Dimes?  It started as a movement to find a cure for polio

At the time of his death, polio was a feared scourge.  I can vaguely remember the panic that was felt during the summer - the peak time for polio. Parents would even keep their children away from public swimming pools, as it was believed that pools were one place you could "catch" polio.  As children, we believed that being near a storm drain could give you polio.

But then everything changed.

A charity called The March of Dimes was founded by Franklin Roosevelt in 1938..  Roosevelt had a simple idea- asking Americans to send in a dime, just one dime, to fight polio.  The "march"of dimes helped to finance research, so that the Salk and Sabin vaccines could be developed.   In honor of Roosevelt's fund raising, his face appears on the dime and has for many years.

Ironically, Roosevelt's polio may have been misdiagnosed - but many people alive today can be grateful for that misdiagnosis.

 I was one of those young children in those old black and white photos lining up in schools for their polio shot.

I was a member of the first generation in human history that did not have to fear polio.   And to my son, polio is just a historical curiosity - although one of his older cousins married a woman who had polio as a child, and has a noticeable limp to show for it.

I realized, in researching my blog, that I had never published my photos of Warm Springs, and I hope to fix that in the near future.  And yes, there is still a Roosevelt Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs.

If you need a story on how one person can change history, and enrich the lives of millions, you need look no further than this story.

Make Entertainment Great Again?

A short post today for a busy summer Sunday.

Last Tuesday, on a summer TV series called America's Got Talent, I saw this performance by a Presidential impersonator who promised to make the show Great Again.

I don't get into politics in this blog, but I wonder if this singer (who made it into the next round) might enable us to have a little fun.  I assure you, it is not mean spirited or political.  The audience loved it.  I think you may, too.

He certainly connected with the audience, and with a guest judge who said "This is a thing I didn't realize I needed in my life until now."

We really need a good laugh.  Will The Singing Trump provide it?

I don't watch muchTV, but America's Got Talent (a show I've never watched much of) has hooked me this summer.

Day 23 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

Hair - Music Monday #atozchallenge

Today, traveling through time and space, I return to the 1960's, a time of great social upheaval - just like today. 

A blogger in suburban New York City reminded me of a song that seems just perfect for today.

This is a cover of a song that was written for the Broadway show "Hair" sung by the group Three Dog Night.

This is taken from the 1979 movie based on the Broadway show.

The Broadway Show, and later movie, explored the final night of a young man from Oklahoma, a farmhand who was on his way to enlist in the Vietnam War.  He meets up with a tribe of hippies in New York City and it's love at first sight between him and a female tribe member.  There's just one problem: he's on his way to combat. So....

We live in a time when every day brings news from our government here in the United States. Some cheer.  Others become more and more fearful.

When Hair was written, in the 1960's, we were in another era where it seemed things were getting worse daily.

At work recently, a co worker came to visit another co worker.  I was just leaving for lunch, but was in the area long enough to hear co worker #1 upset because someone had just unfriended her on Facebook over a news item she had posted.  The former friend had taken it "the wrong way".

We can be so cruel to each other on social media.  Even a harmless pregnant giraffe living in upstate New York brought out the snark in some because she wasn't giving birth when expected.  Seriously?

We are all on edge.   We are increasingly polarized. 

Yes, too much like my memories of the late 1960's.

Today is "H" Day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Everything's Political In Its Own Way

As we become increasingly polarized in the United States, even small acts like watching television have become political.

 The popular TV satirical show Saturday Night Live, on for over 40 years, now ratchets up its satires of the new Administration in our country.

Now, even the Super Bowl, which once was a championship football game eagerly awaited by fans, who partied and watched the game and commercials (and non-fans who partied and watched the commercials) has become political.

Here is a comprehensive list and links to some of these (and other) Super Bowl commercials.

If you don't have the time, here are a couple by themselves:

A commercial originally aired in 2014 by Coca-Cola was rerun, to much controversy.

Then, there was a commercial so controversial that the TV network showing the Super Bowl required an edited version.  The full version (above) is available on You Tube and runs a bit over five minutes.  Over 10 million views, and if you want to see the Internet in action, just read the reviews (or, perhaps, don't.)

February 12 used to be celebrated as the birthday of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. We haven't forgotten that Lincoln was President during a time when the United States was at war with itself.  Over 700,000 dead later, the states that seceded lost the war, and, today, we are a nation of 50 states.

Days after the war ended, Lincoln was assassinated by someone who sympathized with the rebels.

What we call the Civil War, others The War Between the States, and still others (still) the War of Northern Aggression is in our DNA.

The United States is at a crossroads.  More than ever, those who supported the man who is now our President and those who did not are at odds with each other.  So much so, that families and friendships have been torn apart.  People debate at work.  I find myself resenting those who voted a certain way, and I'm not the only one.  On both sides.


Our country has been in terrible situations before.  Perhaps, from history, we can learn some lessons before we tear ourselves apart.

I am therefore going to restart my Civil War Sunday feature, which ran from 2011 to 2015 (the 150th anniversary of that war) with two new Civil War Sundays.  The first one, next Sunday, will be on Frederick Douglass (because, apparently, some in our country think he is still alive.  Another Mandela Effect situation?)  I may continue this into March, with some selected reruns.

I can promise no less on Lincoln's birthday.

Doubleplusungood

In July of 2009 (the first year of my blog) I blogged about an incident where Amazon.com "disappeared" Kindle copies of the book 1984 by George Orwell.  This book, written in 1949 by the late George Orwell, was a warning against totalitarianism and the ability of governments to manipulate information.

In the world of 1984, there was no Internet.  But there were telescreens in each home that had to stay on constantly and they were two way - you watched them but Big Brother (yes, that was where that name came from) watched you, in turn.  There was constant emotional manipulation in a daily ceremony called the Two Minute Hate, where Party members had to watch a film about the Party's enemies and scream out their hate in a period of two minutes.

Constant surveillance.  Information manipulation.  Sound familiar?

Now, 1984 has climbed to the top of the best seller charts once again.  Yes, this has happened before, notably in the early 1980's, and again in 2013.  This isn't a brand new phenomenon.

Think about our modern world for a minute.  Websites and their contents can disappear or change in a minute.   We ponder these questions:  Are our virtual assistants, Siri and Alexa (among others) secretly listening to our conversations?  Recording our questions? (The answer to this last one, incidentally, is "yes" for both Siri and Alexa.)  Is there tracking software that can follow what we say on Facebook or Twitter, ready for the future use of a totalitarian leader?

There was the incident late last year where an Amazon Echo in the state of Arkansas may have been a digital witness to a murder.

What does privacy mean anymore?


Here's my post from 2009:

Doubleplusungood, dudes

This is not new news. For all that I love buying from amazon.com, this gives me a bit of that Big Brother feeling.

For all of you lucky enough to study the book "1984" in high school back in the 1960's, there are certain things in this book that stuck with you forever. The present generation would not be impressed but this book was absolutely chilling in its depiction of a world where a dictatorship totally controlled all sources of information, complete with a Ministry of Truth whose bureaucrats labored to continuously revise all written records to reflect the current Party line. To control thought, a new language called Newspeak was introduced. Words and thought were so short in Newspeak that one could spit sentences out without giving a thought to what one was actually saying.

Of course, nowadays we manipulate photos with ease via programs such as Photoshop and can manipulate electronic records with just as much ease.

And, apparently, we can buy an electronic book and download into our Kindle, and Bi...I mean, Amazon.com, can take it back for whatever reason.

When's the last time your local bookstore knocked down your door to grab back a book you legally paid for?

How ironic (not that this is exactly not my original thought) that the book they "vanished" was....1984. (Along with another Orwell classic, "Animal Farm".)

For the record:
1. This was due to a copyright infringement issue, not censorship and
2. Amazon.com duly refunded monies paid to the customers affected.

However, when they sent emails with the refund notices, some customers claimed Amazon never bothered to explain what was going on. (Disclosure: I do not own a Kindle and was not affected by this.).

But still. This gives me a very big sense of unease especially as I've been thinking about getting a Kindle. Not any more. Who would have thought of a Kindle as a two-way device quite like this? If you buy anything via Kindle, is it really yours? Can amazon.com take stuff back whenever they want? Maybe we should just stick to the old fashioned books that clutter up the house?

If not Big-Brotherish, it is certainly creepy.

Day 29 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

The Collective Holding of Breath

"It’s the time to buckle down and work positively as much as you can,” she says. “Just think, ‘All right, there’s nothing I can do about that right now. But I can do my best in my little circle. So if I do that, maybe you’ll do your best and we’ll get through this." Actress Betty White, in an interview with Katy Couric, talking about division in the United States and staying positive. 


There has been so much hate flying around on Facebook this last year or so.  I came so close to blocking people (I did block someone whose posts were non stop hate.  I don't block people just because they don't support my candidate)  I knew for years.  I knew most of the people venting (on both sides) were decent, hardworking people.  I also knew that many of them were scared.  But it just got to be too much for me to read.

A reader of my blog recommended that I just "scroll on by", and that has kept my sanity.

Now, on the eve of the inauguration of the new President, many are pausing to consider what the future may be holding, for better or for worse.   What kind of world?

I don't mean the Trump-Inauguration-As-Twilight Zone-Episode article appearing in a Scottish newspaper.

Or the internet meme started over a comment by Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos in a discussion about if firearms had any place in schools.  

(For the benefit of my readers outside the United States, yes, there are places where students must be protected against wildlife. Grizzlies are no joke.)

No, this world:  A world, for example, where Jewish community centers all over the country are being targeted by bomb scares. 

Or a man accused of harassing a black family is said to have quite an arsenal in his house (and, by the way, his elderly parents were living in that same house.)

Hate crimes in general are on the increase.

But others are happy that their voices are being heard - voices they feel have been ignored by people on both coasts of our country. 

Division, with no unity in sight.


Recently, I have pondered my future actions, and what I will do on January 20, and thereafter. I fear, based on how history has gone before, that the divisions in our country are only going to get worse.  Love will not trump hate.  

Will I be able to work in my own little circle? Will I choose right?  And will it make a difference?

Day 19 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.