Oh the places I have not been

No matter how long I live in Texas there will always be places I have not been.  Here is a list of some of those places:

I have been to Hearn, but I have not been to His’n

I have been to Mexia, but I have not been to Mycornia.

I have been to Comfort, but I have not been to Payne.

I have been to Houston, but I have not been to Housounce.

I have been to Waco, but I have not been to Stable.

I have been to Lufkin, but I have not been to Lufstranger.

I have been to Cistern, but I have not been to Brethren.

I have been to San Antonio, but I have not been to Saint Ziva.

I have been to Fort Worth, but I have not been to Fort Poor.

I have been to Needville, but I have not been to Satedville.

I have been to Dallas, but have not been to Dalleg.

I have been to Weatherford, but I have not been to Weatherchevy.

I have been to Austin, but I have not been to Austeel.

I have been to Brownsville, but I have not been to Blueville.

I have been to Mission, but I have not been to Mosque.

I have been to Crockett, but I have not been to Bowie.

I have been to Waxahachie, but I have not been to Watchalivebirthie.

I have been to Plano, but I have not been to Fancyio.

I have been to Abilene, but I have not been to Abastraight.

I have been to Alice, but I have not been to Wonderland.

I have been to Corsicana, but I have not been to Nohecannota.

And on and on…

Misplaced Loyalty

There was a man who was madly in love with his beautiful wife.  Even after 3 years of marriage, he felt the same way about her as he did the night he proposed.  He loved her.  Deeply and completely.

The feeling was not mutual, however.  And though the wife spent a lot of time telling her husband how much she loved him and how much she supported him and how she was always working to make his life better, the truth was she did not really believe any of that.  She had a hunger for other men as some have a hunger for wealth and power.   As often as she could she would cheat on her husband.  Sometimes just one night or one afternoon stands with men she met in grocery stores.  Sometimes a longer-lasting affair with standing dates at a local motel.  The bottom line was that she was in no way faithful to him or supportive of him and simply told him things he wanted to hear to keep him around and provide her with a certain standard of living, wealth and prestige.

Others became aware of the wife’s behavior.  They began to talk about her lies and her infidelity and her lack of commitment to her wedding vows.  Some even risked sharing their concerns with the husband.

But the husband could not see it, could not believe it, and would not believe it.  As the evidence grew more and more obvious to others the husband dug his heels in and attacked those who would say bad things about his wife.  He ended friendships with the critics and developed new friendships where the only prerequisite is that the new friend supported his wife.

The world knew he was a cuckold, a fool, a blind believer in a false image.  But he persisted in his blind loyalty and denial of the facts.  The world assumed that someday he would wake up and become angry and heartbroken.  He may have secretly known that as well.  But on the surface, he continued to proclaim his devotion to his harlot wife, loyalty to those who supported him and his devotion, and attack anyone who criticized her. 

He was like a Trump supporter.

Sounds Like

Increasing testimony and evidence point to the fact that the President obstructed justice.  The House begins an inquiry.  Sounds like America to me.

Increasing testimony and evidence point to the fact that the President used taxpayer dollars approved by Congress to leverage a foreign nation into conducting an investigation into the son of a Democratic opponent.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

After months of testimony presented mostly live, the House votes to impeach the President on 2 counts with reams of testimony transcripts and piles of evidence.  Sounds like America to me.

The President orders people not to testify, not to honor House subpoenas, and refuses to release documents.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President calls it a hoax.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate Majority Leader stalls the Senate trial until he gets the rules he wants.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate Majority Leader announces he is working with the President to organize the Senate trial.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President dismisses all the testimony and all the evidence by saying he did nothing wrong and besides, look at the unemployment rate.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

When the Senate trial begins the Senate decides to hear no testimony or review evidence.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The Senate votes to acquit the President after no witnesses, no testimony, and no presentation of evidence. Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President celebrates his victory and claims he has been exonerated by a trial with no witnesses, no evidence, and no testimony.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President begins to fire everyone who was subpoenaed and testified under oath.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President is determined to find evidence that the son of a Democratic candidate for office had in fact done the very things his daughter and son are currently doing from positions in the White House.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

The President awards America’s highest honor to a man with no education, no experience in government, no resume except being a talk show host and the source of more divineness, insults, polarizing vitriol and conspiracy theories than anyone else on the air.  But he thinks like the President.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Supporters of the President go after anyone who voted to remove him from office or participated in the testimony or evidence gathering.  Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Three branches of government.  Checks and balances.  Liberty and Justice for all.  No man is above the law.  Freedom of speech.  Only in America, not in a dictatorship.

Sounds like America is now a dictatorship to me. 

Into What is the Universe Expanding?

Bobby Jack Schlueter was 39 now.  He still wore his hair long, like a dark shawl hanging on his shoulders.  That was his trademark.  In high school Bobby Jack had been the best tight end his school had ever seen.  He was 6 foot 3 inches big and 220 pounds strong with great hands and surprising speed and most amazing, he was nimble of foot and graceful.  Slow-motion replays of his catch and runs were works of art.  Some defenders he bowled over, some he simply waltzed around, and some he changed direction on so smoothly they tripped on their own feet trying to keep apace.  He carried the team to state for 2 consecutive years.  Those whose horizons stretched beyond the city limits watching him play football knew he could probably go pro someday.  Or, become a celebrity leading man in Hollywood.  Or become a great ballet dancer like Nureyev or Baryshnikov.  He had the looks, the charisma, and the presence to do it all.

But Bobby Jack was 39 now.  He still had the rugged good looks and he still stood 6’3’.  But his frame now carried closer to 260 pounds.  He was sitting on the front porch swing, straining the chains that held it above ground and creaking with the metronome beat of the swing.  One day a link would give way and down would tumble Bobby Jack, swing and all.  But that would not happen today.  Today his hair floated gently behind him on the upswing and slowly embraced him on the downswing.  Back and forth.  Creaking and moaning.  Bobby Jack, a cold beer and a front porch swing.  He both liked and hated these moments alone on the front porch as the sun set, as Sue cooked supper and though his kids had been herded inside still ran around with energy from unknown sources. 

Bobby Jack liked these moments because he could reflect on how good his life was.  He inherited the land his great grandfather had staked out and 3 generations before him had cultivated.  He was on the same front porch his dad and grand and great granddads had all occupied.  He was swinging in the swing his grandfather had built by hand, shaving each of the slats in the swing so that they would be curved to best fit human butts, backs and thighs.  Bobby Jack thought how lucky he was to have married Sue even if he had not realized it at the time.  They had been sweethearts in high school.  She was beautiful and stirred his manhood every time he saw her.  Just after graduation Sue had come to him in tears.  She was pregnant, what would they do?  Bobby Jack was a man of principle if nothing else and he proposed to her on the spot.  He walked away from college coaches waving money, girls and cars, and settled in with Sue.  His father welcomed them back in the old homestead where they lived until this very day and raised their 3 kids, two boys and a girl. 

Bobby Jack hated these moments because he could reflect on all that he had missed in his life.  He was not the college or pro football start.  He was not a Hollywood celebrity.  Hell, he wasn’t even a ballet dancer.  He was still sitting on the same porch of the same house in the same swing as had his dad and grand and great-grand.  He was a fourth-generation Schlueter in a small town in Texas.  He knew he would never escape.  He knew his "all things possible" days were gone.  He knew that all he had left was the same routine his dad had, his grandfather had and his great-grandfather had.  He was a farmer in a small German town and that is what he would always be.  Knowing that, made Bobby Jack, now 39, feel very sad, very lost, and very worthless.  He saw no good future despite the fact that Sue still looked good and his kids were good and he loved them more than life itself.  But he was sad.  Sorry for himself.  So he got another beer, settled back to swinging on the swing and feeling his hair rise and fall.  He was stuck in stasis.

Or so he thought.  Even as he could smell the hay freshly cut and the corn just now crowning he was not in stasis.  Even as he had not moved from this spot for over an hour or for over 28 years since his dad died.  It seemed peaceful.  It seemed still.  It seemed safe.

But he was not still.  He was not safe.  The sun was roughly 93 million miles from earth.  That was a radius.  The circumference of the orbit was 584,336,233.56 miles.  For each of Bobby Jack’s years he had traveled over 584 million miles through space.  In his 39 years he had traveled almost 23 billion miles.  That is not the attribute of someone who has achieved stasis.  So while he was swinging on his safe little front porch he was actually moving on his home planet at about 1,000 miles per hour, looping 584 million miles around his star every year.

And that is just for earth.  His solar system is moving.  His galaxy is moving.  Galaxies are moving further and further away from each other leaving space we do not understand.  Is it dark matter held in place by dark energy, or is that as likely as trolls bowling every time it thunders?  We do not know.  We guess.  But Bobby Jack, now 39, is not sitting still.  And he will soon come to know that.

Sue stepped out on the porch.  “Bobby Jack, supper’s ready.”

“OK.  What are we having?”

Sue said, “Cutlets and brown gravy and mashed potatoes and fresh spinach.” 

“Sounds great, I’ll be right in.”

“OK,” Sue said.  Then she paused.  Then she looked up.  The early twilight was changing.  It was growing brighter.

“What’s that?” Sue asked, pointing at a very bright spot on the horizon.

Bobby Jack turned to look.  It looked like a fireball and it looked like it was heading right for them.  They both yelled at the same time and ran inside and grabbed the kids and headed for the cellar.  They made it, but it didn’t matter.  There was no stasis.  Not anymore.

The comet was unknown to us.  It was as big as all of Texas and it had just circled our sun so we did not see it coming.  The sun accelerated the comet’s speed to almost 100,000 miles per hour.  It hit in the Gulf of Mexico and the fireball from the impact spread at supersonic speed around the planet, burning off our oceans and our atmosphere.  No one survived.  No living thing survived. 

Earth would eventually have several rings formed from the debris thrown into space by the impact.  The moon would jostle around in these debris rings and grow larger.  The sun and other planets were barely affected at all.

But, Bobby Jack would only ever be 39.  The universe is expanding from some sense of stasis to total chaos.  Humans in a flash learned that we are not so smart and that there is no such place as safe and sound, no such place as the same old swing on the porch.  We learned that yearning for some mythical good ole days was pure fantasy.  We learned that differences regarding gender identity and sexual preferences did not matter.  We learned that differences regarding wealth did not matter.  We learned that differences regarding skin pigment did not matter.  We learned that any belief that had separated one of us from another of us was inherently wrong when none of us would survive.  We learned all that and knew there was no ark for this flood.  We learned all that, and then we were extinct.

The universe continued to expand.  Earth’s fate was not even noticed by other sentient beings as galaxies collided and black holes ate light and the night sky shown less bright as all the stars retreated from view.  There is no stasis.  There is no status quo.  There is only progression from where we are and what we perceive to the eventual ripping of the fabric of time and space by an ever-expanding universe.  There is no why.  There is no how.  There is only expansion from where we are to chaos.

Had Bobby Jack survived he likely would have reached the following conclusions.  Make the most of each minute.  Bond with other humans as best you can.  Build bridges, not walls.  Solve the problems we can solve and accept that there are quantum forces at work over which we have no control and no understanding. 

All that would be good to do in honor of Bobby Jack and Sue and their kids and every other human on the planet as we expand into chaos. 

Most Admired Man

I awake to 2020 and am already in shock.  It seems that a recent Gallop survey revealed that Trump and Obama are tied as the most admired men in America.  What the hell is the matter with us? 

If you admire Trump, if he is your model, your hero, the recipient of your support, here are some things you can do to more closely duplicate his attributes:

• Lie all the time.  Shoot for a record number of lies like the 13,000+ lies Trump has said since taking office.
• Cheat on all three of your wives.
• Hire porn stars for sex then pay them not to tell anyone you hired them for sex.
• Get accused of sexually assaulting at least 25 people of the opposite sex.
• Take credit for everything good that happens around you whether you had anything to do with it or not.
• Refuse to accept blame for anything that happens around you even if you are responsible.  Blame bad stuff on a competitor, a conspiracy, a hoax, or Hillary or Obama.
• Take the millions of dollars you were given by your parents and declare yourself a self-made rich man.
• As a public official refuse to release your tax returns.
• Claim to be a genius but do all that you can to block the release of your college transcripts.
• Claim that the evidence presented in the impeachment process is all a Democratic hoax, but refuse to allow those who know what happened to testify and do all that you can to block the release of documents that would clarify the charges.
• Start charities that were a scam and forced to close.
• Start a college that was a scam and forced to close.
• Praise your enemies and attack your allies.
• Praise dictators and criticize democracies.
• Use social media to personally attack anyone who disagrees with you or questions your behavior.
• Mock the disabled.
• Gather your followers in a venue so that you can pump them up with lies.  Should anyone disagree with you in such events have them removed.
• Criticize the US Constitution that you have sworn to protect and defend.  Propose changes that eliminate the freedom of the press and term limits on the Presidency.
• Stop reading non-fiction and promote conspiracy theory books that support your world view.  Then stop reading altogether.
• Claim to be a hard-working person but play golf once every five days.  Play golf at your own resorts so that taxpayer money helps you grow your wealth.
• Claim to be a Christian and that the Bible is your favorite book but never go to church and be unable to name one scripture that you find inspiring.
• Call any accurate report of your shortcomings fake news and offer alternative facts.
• After you have lied, cheated, failed and hidden all the data you can, you can claim that any effort to remove you from your job is an obsession or conspiracy.

And the above list is just personal attributes.  Policy and decision-making, knowledge and expertise attributes would require a new list.

Good luck with changing your behavior to more closely match your most admired person.  If a family member acted like Trump I would organize an intervention to get them help as soon as possible.  With more Americans acting like Trump we will become the most shamed nation on the planet.  We are close to that anyway.

Two Parties

I’m a two-party guy.  That does not mean I have a full social agenda tonight.  I’m talking about politics and decision-making.  Yes, I am a progressive Democrat, but I absolutely do not want Democrats to be the only party.  I do not want the Republicans to be the only party either. 

H. L. Mencken wrote that for every complex human problem, there is a solution that is neat, simple and wrong.  Smart man.

 

As a species, we are facing the greatest challenges ever.  Can we survive on our home planet or have we done so much damage our climate and atmosphere are irreparable?  How many humans can our planet support?  How do we resolve conflicts that are driven by deeply held belief systems that are not subject to logic and science?  Now that 99% of all life that has ever existed on this planet is extinct, how shall we ensure that we do not follow that same path?  How do we get to a position of collaboration rather than competition with others of our kind?  How do we reconcile the wealth of the 1% with the extreme poverty of the 36% who are daily on the verge of death?  Shall barriers between humans grow stronger or should we be breaking down barriers? 

We so want someone to just step up and say “Here are the answers.”  But no one person can do that, and if they do we know upfront they are wrong.  We cannot solve human mobility across national boundaries by building walls.  We cannot solve our climate crisis by saying there is nothing to worry about and life should go on as usual.  We cannot solve the conflict between religious groups by government institution and support of one religious belief and casting other belief systems as evil.  We cannot solve the conflict between the haves and the have nots by writing off the have nots and ensuring the continuation of the haves.  We cannot solve the tension between members of our species based on DNA and skin pigment by suppressing those groups we deem somehow unworthy.  We cannot mandate the reduction in human rights and freedom and expect positive outcomes, especially if the reduction in freedom is the result of a religious belief.  Each of those paths has been tried and each has failed again and again, and yet we try again and again.

Democrats do not have a patent on the best answers to these challenges.  Nor do the Republicans.  I am a Democrat because I have looked at the proposed solutions of each party and I perceive that the proposed Democrat solutions are much more likely to yield a long-term resolution of the problems and I perceive that the Republican solutions appear to protect the status quo.  And I believe the status quo is killing us.  But, I truly believe the more minds that are brought to a problem increases the likelihood of problem solution.  For our survival we must, we absolutely must gather at the same table and discuss the issues.  We will disagree.  We will argue.  But solutions generated by open contribution and respectful debate are much more likely to ensure our survival than petty power politics.

Democracy is hard.  We must defend the right of someone to articulate what we absolutely oppose and yet be willing to seek truth in what they say.  We must confront the misuse of power for selfish ends.  We must view our entire planet, not our little square on the planet.  We must see each other, not just those who look like us and think like us.  We must plan for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren and on and on, not plan for the next quarterly report and this year’s contribution to our total wealth.  We must regain integrity.  We must pursue truth, embrace it no matter how painful, and act on fact. 

If it turns out that as a species we are incapable of the pursuit of such a noble mission then archeologists of another species will make that note on our tombstones.  The pursuit of such a mission in this nation will require two political parties both of whom are more interested in the mission than sustaining temporary majorities.  No one will care if a party has the majority and the decisions they make doom us.

Birds of a feather may flock together, but I deeply hope we are smarter than birds.  One party could foster tyranny.  Multiple parties would result in chaos and divisiveness.  Two parties, respectful of each other, can do it.  Have done it.  But we must confront those who are building walls in the petty game of politics and say to them our great-grandchildren mean more than your re-election.  We must care more about the world and America’s role in the world than we do about our own temporal power.  Just ask Genghis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, etc. how long power lasts.  It is a false goal.  

Our mission must be to save the planet, pursue equality and equity, pursue human rights, save each other, and thereby save ourselves. 

Accountability in 2030

As I approach my 80^th birthday I review my life.  Something about being this old triggers looking in the rearview mirror rather than the windshield.  I reflect on my life, what I have done, what I have not done, the good things I did and the mistakes I made.  Some of those mistakes haunt me to this day.

My 18-year-old grandson came to me the other day with a series of questions I had a hard time answering.  He was in his senior year in high school and was studying American Government.  He had already had American History.  He was confused about the past and my take on the situation.

“Grandpa,” he began.  “Can I ask you some questions about what was going on in our country back in the 2016 to 2020 time frame?  We are looking at our government during that time and some of my classmates have very strong feelings that I do not understand.”  

“Sure.  Ask away.”  I said.

“Did you support President Trump?”

“Well, yes I did,” I said reluctantly.

“Why?”

“There are several things you have to understand about those days for any of this to make sense.  Barak Obama was elected President in 2008 and took office in 2009.  He inherited one of the worst economies this nation had ever seen.  Stocks tumbled, foreclosures were skyrocketing, plants were shutting down, unemployment was rising, the national debt was climbing, and on and on.  The nation turned to a Democrat to fix the economic fiasco left by Bush and handed him a Congress controlled by Democrats.  In other words, the Republicans really took it on the chin in the 2008 election.

But the Republican machine was a long way from dead.  During the campaign conservative talk show hosts and Fox News continued to imply that Obama was a Muslim and that he was born in Africa, not Hawaii.  It was a constant blitz of false information.  I did not know it was false.  In fact, I had voted Republican every year since the late 1970’s so I hated that the Democrats were in control.  Hearing that their leader was possibly ineligible to be President and that he was a member of a religious group that attacked us helped me feel better about hating Democrats.  I was uncomfortable with a Black President.  It seemed to me that our nation was turning more and more to protecting minorities and less and less to protecting the Anglo middle class.  That upset me.  It seemed to me that we were being taxed just so people who could not or would not work would have benefits.  That upset me.  It seemed that our judicial system was always siding with minority rights.  That upset me.

But what really upset me was the Democratic Party stand on two issues.  Gun control and abortion.  I was opposed to stricter gun control and believed it was my 2^nd amendment right to own firearms.  The NRA constantly told us that the Democrats were going to take our guns away, so did Fox News.  When Obama won there was a rush on firearm and ammunition purchases.  We now know that was the goal of the NRA who represent firearm manufacturers.  But many believed the Democrats would take away our guns.

The Democrats also supported Roe v. Wade which gave women the right to decide whether to have an abortion or not.  I was strongly, emotionally opposed to that.  I felt that unborn babies needed protection.  I felt that only God should judge which baby survives and which ones become miscarriages.  I felt like abortion was murder and I stood on holy ground opposing it.  No matter what the Democrats did regarding the economy, or health care, or international treaties, or protections against future crashes, or protection for American workers, or efforts to reduce global warming I could not see it.  I was told over and over again that Obama was terrible.  Democrats were terrible.  

And I believed it because I wanted to believe it.  As long as I listened to just some news sources and read some books and talked to only certain friends all these beliefs were strongly reinforced and I believed they were factual, not propaganda.  It was as though my team had lost the Super Bowl and I believed the other team cheated to win.  I could never forgive that other team even if they in fact did not cheat.

Obama won a second term.  Unbelievable.  At least Congress was now controlled by Republicans and every effort the Democrats made to pass legislation was thwarted.  Republicans even allowed the government to shut down to stop Democratic spending even though the national debt created by Bush was coming down under Obama’s budget.  The debt was coming down because employment was improving, homes were being built, and the economy was rebounding.  But again, I could not see it because I hated Democrats. 

So, when 2016 rolled around and Trump won the Republican nomination I was all in.  He promised to reduce the number of Hispanics entering our country illegally by building a wall.  He convinced us that those people were killers and drug dealers.  He promised to protect gun rights and oppose abortion. He promised to stimulate the economy with a huge tax cut.  He promised to improve our standing in the world by not taking any gruff off anyone, standing up to NATO, the UN, the EU, China, North Korea, Iran, ISIS, etc.  He said everything I wanted to hear.  So yes, I supported him.”

“But Grandpa, did you know he was a liar?  Did you know he was charged with sexual assault?  Did you know he used women and hated minorities?  Did you know he would protect oil companies at the expense of the environment?”

“Yes, I guess I knew all that at the time.  It didn’t matter.  I hated Democrats so much and Trump was talking my kind of talk.  Make America Great Again sounded wonderful, back to the good old days where men were men, and white men ruled.  I really liked it.  I loved it, in fact, and the more I loved it the more impossible it became for me to see the truth and the more impossible it became for me to listen to Democrats.”

“I don’t understand.  You knew he was corrupt and his administration was corrupt and he committed impeachable offenses, and yet you continued to support him?  Just does not make sense to me.”

“In hindsight, it does not make sense to me either,” I said.  “I was living in an echo chamber.  The news I saw and heard, the friends I had, everyone around me was strongly supportive of Trump.  And my hatred of Democrats and the belief that Democrats wanted our nation to be a socialistic/communistic country scared me.  It took a long time for me to see what was really going on, and when I did I felt great guilt and embarrassment.”

“What changed your mind, Grandpa?”

“I watched the impeachment proceedings.  Witness after witness confirmed what the Democrats had been saying all along.  I began to doubt what I believed so I started listening to other sources of news.  Suddenly I realized I had been living in a cave.  This man was corrupt.  He was guilty as charged.  And no matter how many times I heard him say he did nothing wrong and how many conservative editorials attempted to dismiss the facts, the facts were the facts.  I read the Meuller Report and realized that there was collusion, there was obstruction.  He obstructed justice.  He abused his power.  He opposed the US Constitution.  I was sick at heart.  I think I felt much like the Germans did when they saw Hitler as the savior of their country only to realize he was a horrible war criminal. 

“But I changed before he was removed from office.  I began to share facts with my friends, but they did not want to hear them.  They had an excuse for everything.  It wasn’t that Trump was bad it was that the Democrats were bad.  To this day I am amazed I ever swallowed all that.  I don’t anymore.”

“Thanks, Grandpa.  There are still a lot of kids whose parents think removing Trump went against God’s will and was the beginning of the end of our nation.  How do you respond to them?”

“I believe the truth will set you free and the truth will come out.  When I opened my eyes I saw the truth of Trump and I will never go back to believing the ultra-conservative propaganda machine again.  It may take a generation to recognize what almost happened here, but thank goodness democracy and our law prevailed.  We will eventually right the course this man set.  I am so sorry I did not help do that sooner.  If I and others had done so you would not be facing these tough questions now.  I am so sorry.”

“It’s OK, Grandpa.  I still love you.”