A reprise! Cats and Compassion

What is it about cats and kittens than gets humankind so focused on survival?

Years ago there was a story out of Pennsylvania where a kitten was stuck in a sewer. People tried to coax and get the kitten out of the sewer for two days before they called in a local Rotorooter company to help.

They discovered the whereabouts of the kitten with a fiber optic sewer cam and then decided in which pipe they would find her. A guy, who says he's an animal lover, descended into the sewer system and got the kitten. Somebody named it "Lucky".

I remember a similar story also years ago; the rescue of Molly the cat trapped behind a deli basement wall in New York City.

There was some criticism of the New York media then for spending too much time on the rescue of a cat and not on other stories. The story, however, was important because it symbolized and validated the sanctity of life, any life. Why else would so many people, spent so much time, energy and effort to save a stranded cat behind a wall or a kitten wandering a sewer line. It took two weeks to finally rescue Molly who was stuck behind a concrete wall.

Molly and Lucky remind us that the essence of life is cooperation, concern for the other and compassion for the sustainment of life.

Given humankind's penchant for violence and indiscriminate destruction of each other we have much to learn about where we focus our loving efforts.

Olympic History

Robert Garrett was probably as surprised as anyone that his name would go down in the Olympic history book.

He was captain of the Princeton running team and back in 1896 when the modern day Olympic games were born, Garrett was urged to participate. One of his professors, William Sloane, was one of the games' organizers. When the king of Greece finally agreed to host the games, Professor Sloane asked Garrett to attend.

At that time the entries were unlimited and not really "national" in the sense of representing each nation's best athletes. Garrett probably decided to go because his professor asked him and his Mother could afford it. She not only paid for him to travel to Athens but also for three of his classmates.

Garrett was a runner, but he always wanted to throw the discus. He even asked a local blacksmith to make one so he could practice. The Smithy did so, but it was based on a 2nd-century description and ended up weighing 20-pounds. Much too heavy to throw.

On a sightseeing tour in Athens Garrett saw an old discus and picked it up. It was light. It weighed less than 5 pounds. He decided to enter the discus event just for fun.

The first time he threw it, he was so bad the stadium crowd roared with laughter. With each throw, he got better and managed to qualify for the finals.

He competed with several Greeks who had been practicing all winter, but on his last throw he made a distance of 95 feet, 7 and a half inches and won a laurel wreath, the equivalent of a gold medal.

Term Limits

I agree with this.

Citizens Demand Term Limits After Brown Indictment

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the leader of the citizen movement to term limit elected officials, today called for swift action from Congress on a constitutional amendment to limit members’ terms.

“The corruption cauldron of Washington, D.C. is boiling over, and it’s harming our country more every day,” said U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel. “Congress must propose a term limits amendment immediately to restore confidence in this broken institution.”

The statement comes in the wake of a federal indictment against Rep. Corrine Brown, a 12-term Florida congresswoman who stands accused of using a phony education charity as her own slush fund. She is charged with mail fraud, wire fraud, concealing facts on financial disclosure forms, theft of government property, obstruction and filing false tax returns.

Brown’s is not an isolated case. In April, 11-term Pennsylvania Congressman Chaka Fattah was defeated in the Democratic primary while under 29 counts of indictment for bribery and other charges.

Term limits are needed to curb the hubris and opportunity that lead to this corruption, U.S. Term Limits says.

“Lifetime tenure has a paralyzing effect on Congress, by producing members who are addicted to the power and prestige of office,” Blumel said. “Term limits will stop the empire-building in D.C. and require members to live under the laws they make.”

According to the last nationwide poll on term limits conducted by Gallup, the issue enjoys wide bipartisan support. The poll showed that 75% of Americans support congressional term limits, including supermajorities of both parties.

The term limits amendment bills have already been filed in the House by Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona and in the Senate by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana. They require two-thirds support from both chambers and ratification by three-quarters of states to become part of the Constitution.

Dallas

What happened in Dallas was the tragic aberration by a deranged mind and a social misfit. Micah Xavier Johnson was a misguided soul whose choice lead to death and sorrow. His actions amplified the festering sore of prejudice innate in all accept saints and young children.

What happened in Louisiana and Minnesota was wrong. Very wrong. Poor training and the militarization of police forces after 9/11 may be a factor in the fatal aggressive tactics now used by many police organizations. Death did not justify Dallas.

America is not a racist society. There are racists and bigots and ignorant individuals within our diverse racial structure who would have us believe one race is better than another. Skin color does not delineate superiority; character does, and character is soul driven and has nothing to do with ethnic origin.

We are all emanations of the one source. We are all here to experience the gift of life. The peace we seek resolving differences is only achieved through the respect of listening, the courtesy of dialogue and not debate, true kindness, genuine concern and the charity of compassion as they are daily choices in the struggle of life.

Part of our problem may stem from the desensitizing of life in our passion for and participation in fiction and fantasy. Look at the gratuitous violence in our movies and television dramas. Look at the game applications our children play on their smartphones and computers, most of them contain violence and killing. This constant of taking life inures the reality of real death. Play-time killing and recreational destruction may contribute to the diminution of life unless there is parental and social interaction to the contrary. Dispassion is what destroys a social structure, not individual acts of terror or egregious action by police.

The government and the media are also part of the problem. The government promotes fear for it is easier to control the vox populi with fear, and the mainstream media learned too quickly from the tabloids that sensation sells and ratings make money.

Demonstrations are the right of the people to protest. All participants should realize some demonstrators have a different agenda. Those who want violence and confrontations will always be present. Anarchy will bring change, but one of authoritative control, not one of fair and righteous consideration.

These are some things to think about as we grasp and grab on to what we think is safe. Killing is never the answer. Killing is the problem.

A Cup of Tea and today it may be iced.

It's hot again today...

Wild thoughts while having a cup of tea.

The flavor was intense and mesmeric. The color black. It moved my mind into its growth, its genesis in the agriculture of Tanzania.

In my minds eye, I was there. I could see the knurled sun-darkened fingers picking the top leaves from the tea bush. The hands were experienced, and they were old hands before their time.

A large wicker basket hung off the picker’s shoulders like a backpack of a hiker. It was secured with crude cloth straps. There were no pockets for water bottles, sunscreen and trail- mix, only a large open basket at the top in which to put the select leaves for the drying process.

With each sip of my tea I wanted to say thank you to the picker. My enjoyment of the flavorful astringent beverage started with this person. I felt it. Here was an individual, like me with hopes and dreams, needs and wants, hurts and pains, laughs and cries, but unknown to me except for my distant and ethereal appreciation of the picker’s labor and skill.

We, as global citizens need to be more conscious of the other’s gifts that accentuate our pleasures. Instead of seeing ourselves as isolated in the comfortable confines of an industrial society with our things and flavors materializing from magic, we need to acknowledge, with appreciation, that many human beings contribute to our collective and singular enjoyments.

What we lack in our modern, cultured, privileged societies is the remembrance to give thanks. We have a penchant for indifference.

The native cultures of the world give thanks, not only for the courtesies of others in their community but for each animal life they take for sustenance and for each plant they harvest for food or medicine and in doing so they strengthen the nutrient and an even sentient bond between species.

We are all here in a symbiotic relationship of life; appreciation may be the catalyst for global peace, perhaps even mutual survival. Let's try it daily.

That was a good cup of tea.

The Weather

For those of us in the Northeast, the Southwest, and a number of places inbetween.

Here is a weather bulletin.

It's HOT!

Maybe a better blog tomorrow.

Stay cool.

The Experiment

I’ve stayed away from politics these last few weeks in hopes it would all go away. I knew that wouldn’t happen. I did have a nice rest, however, from the belligerent passion of lies and alliances of fabrication and innuendo. Illusion may be a political campaigns best tactic, but it is not a good one for a discerning citizen.

I will not single out one over the other in this election time. They both allude and lie. They both create a contextual reference to untruths, and they both smear the other with inciting rhetoric designed to look like truth and engender fear in those who already dislike one or the other.

The Pollyanna take on all of this is that the ideal of America is better than that. Skullduggery in politics is not new to and in the American political system. Lies aren’t either, and smearing has been around since George Washingon’s days in the White House. We all can deal with the truth if all sides said the truth and nothing but the truth.

Our experience is that the few who have sought the office of President, who used only truth as their campaign ethic have never been elected. We don’t want to hear the truth for it would mean an acknowledgment of our global complicity in duplicitous actions and that is inimical to what we think America is.

It may come as a surprise, but America is not perfect. Democracy is a practice, not an absolute. America is a grand experiment.  People, We The People, comprise democracy and just in case we don't remember it, we are not perfect. YET!

Democratic perfection takes time. Our Founding Fathers knew that and created a system of check and balances so that we could become perfect in time and with mistakes. Given this election cycle, we’ll need a lot more time in our nearly 250 years to become perfect.

The efficacy of truth starts with the self. It spreads upward to those we choose to serve as our representatives. So far, we’ve gotten what we deserve in our candidates. We’ll deal with it. We’ll make the best of it and maybe we’ll think about it next time.

The experiment continues.