The end of the world and other bits.

2012?
Wrath o' God?
Global warming?
Why oh why are such catastrophes happening?
Hmmm, let's look at the facts. We are easily bruiseable animals hurtling through space at an alarming rate of speed in a universe that isn't always moving in the same direction. Oh yes and we are riding on a molten rock with a thin bit of crust on the outer edge that keeps getting folded back into the molten core AND most of the rock's surface is covered in water which the last time I checked gets rather jiggly and sloshes about when agitated.
What could possibly go wrong?
I can see the marketability of religion on such a planet. Something to make you feel a tad bit less exposed and keep you safe while riding on "Mr. God's wild flaming rock and water flume with special guest appearances by the four horsemen."

You would think being fragile creatures in such a precarious existence would make us love each other and cherish every moment we are not immediately about to be done in. Oddly enough this is not the case. At least not the last time I was in traffic. I think we tend to miss the big picture while attending our appointed rounds.Then the planet burps and squashes thousands of us and we think "hey maybe we should come together to help one another survive." Que no, amigos? Why not indeed.

I've spent the last week at home sleeping in my bed. What luxury!
Millie insists on sleeping right next to me, preferably against my chest.

I've noticed that every night she has fitful dreams which leave her whimpering and kicking. I can only imagine what terrors go through her doggy brain.
Since she is almost blind she can freeze at the sight of a garbage can or stray box thinking them lions or tigers or bears.
Remodeling the house is torture for her. Nothing is in it's right place and to her the noise of construction sounds like the last day of Pompeii.
This girl can run full speed through a field without fear of hitting a tree, rock, or brier (o.k. she does just smash through bushes) but balk at coming down the hallway if the broom is against the wall.
I can't stop her dreams but can assure her that everything is o.k. right now.
This is one hell of a ride we are on and more enjoyable if we don't paralyze ourselves with fear.
End of the world. Could be but what else do you have to do today.
Love em like there is no tomorrow.

In defense of Boston police.

I swore I would write this the next time I heard some jack ass compare the Wisconsin state employees to the Boston police strikers of 1919.
Over and over again pundits are using the Boston riots as a reason why public employees cannot unionize "lest our country start down the road to Sovietization."-Calvin Coolidge.
The Boston police had a damned good reason to strike. The Boston Policeman's Association had asked the city for better working conditions for years. Since 1904 the city claimed it was broke. Then came W.W.I and the city promised that after the war conditions and wages would improve.
By 1919 all negotiations between the B.P.A. and the city were for naught so in an attempt to strengthen their position the Boston police applied for recognition into the A.F.L. They were granted a membership into the union which the City of Boston and the State of Massachusetts deemed an illegal action. In order to protect public safety policemen could not form a union.

This is the difference between then and now...The Wisconsin public employees are fairly well paid and have benefits. Truth be told most public employees are paid only slightly less than comparable positions in the private sector and given the good benefit packages it comes out about even.
The Wisconsin public employees agreed to all pay cuts proposed by the Governor but they want the right to keep their union. For good reason.

In 1919 the wage for a Boston police officer was the same as it was in 1857. Over 60 years without a pay raise!!!
Officers worked 7 days a week with one day off every other week in which they were still on call. They worked between 73 to 98 hours a week.
Officers had to buy their own uniforms,equipment and guns.
There was no health benefits or benefits for dependents if an officer was killed.
During the Great flu pandemic of 1919 at least a quarter of the force died or was severely ill. One of the duties of the police was to collect the thousands of corpses from the flu in the city. You could make almost three times the wage of a policeman by working as a street car conductor.

State attorney Albert Pilsbury said at the time, "Organized man has taken us by the throat and has us at his mercy."
Seriously? You beat down workers for so long that in an attempt to survive they organize and somehow they are the threat to America.
Calvin Coolidge milked this all the way to the White House.
J. Edgar Hoover used this to become the most dangerous man in America.
And the Market is still using this threat today.
The country ain't broke and workers wanting to watch their backs isn't bad.

BONUS FEATURE: How bout a book plug..."The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River. Shutter Island). A great book about Boston and the wild years of 1918-19.

Angels and Demons.

It's not often I cry for 300 miles.
I've had breakups with girlfriends and deaths of family members that have brought on brief torrential tears but these clouds pass as the natural order of life keeps moving.
War, genocide, famine, these things tend to get me mad rather than cry. You'd think we would get tired of behaving badly and live like descent mammals. I know we can.

This story had me in tears all the way across Virginia and still is bugging me. So in lieu of a therapist here it goes.....

In 1964 a doctor and his wife wanted to experiment on a baby and learn about child development. They found a mother who had just given birth to a baby girl in a hospital and after two days of careful planning the good Doctors stole the baby from the mother.
The doctors raised the baby as their "own" daughter as they observed and documented her development. They conducted experiments on her cognitive understanding of language and the pattern of her social development as a child.
She was cloistered in the Doctors home where she had limited visitors and was always under observation. She lived this way for 12 years.

She grew into a thoughtful child who delighted in the civil ritual of making tea for her parents and teachers and other guest that would visit. She had a happy childhood.
Ah but puberty brought on changes that made the doctors most uncomfortable.
She became extremely strong willed and prone to fits in which she damaged their possessions and made them wonder of their own safety.
Her budding sexuality was overwhelming and uninhibited.
Their sweet little daughter had grown into a hellion.

In a throw back to Victorian times the doctors made plans to send her away.
They found a nanny to watch after the child while they looked for a suitable exile.After six months they settled on leaving the girl in Gambia, Africa.
At 12 years old the girl and her nanny, Janice Carter were left in what Ms. Carter describes as "a tropical hell".
Janice Carter had instructions to stay with the girl for three weeks to make sure she was accepted into the local society and her new family.
The doctors went back to the States. Janice has never left Gambia.
And for Lucy...(fuck .I'm crying again) The child Lucy was left to face a world in which she did not fit in. Why had her parents left her? Why after being raised as a normal girl had her parents left her to live among chimpanzees?
You see, Lucy was a chimp who was raised as a human girl.

I think this is one of the most monstrously EVIL acts ever done by humans.
Dr. Maurice and Jane Temerlin created a lost soul through their arrogance and lack of foresight in the care for Lucy.
Lucy did not adapt to her new situation. For all she knew she was not a chimp. She became gravely ill from the stress of her abandonment.
Thank God for Janice Carter. She stayed with Lucy at her original sanctuary then took it upon herself to find a better sanctuary and bought a small island in a river in which she moved Lucy and several other chimps to live.
It took a year of insane dedication on Janice's part to socialize Lucy enough that she could survive as a chimp on the island.
Janice Carter has devoted her life to the care and well being of chimpanzees and still runs sanctuaries in Gambia. She is an Angel.

After being away for a year Janice returned to the island to check on Lucy and was approached by the chimps and Lucy. Lucy hugged the tearful Ms Carter and comforted her before joining the other chimps in the bush.
A year later Janice Carter returned to the island and found the mutilated skeletal corpse of Lucy. She had been killed by poachers who she probably approached as fellow "Humans".

I reckon this story tears me up because of the broken covenants that I see every day. We domesticate animals and invite them into our families and then when they become an inconvenience abandon them to a cruel world.
You can get rid of an old sofa but how the hell can you throw out someone you raise as family?
This story aired on the radio programs "This American Life" and "Radio Lab".and can be found on line in their archives. (yet another reason for funding public radio.)