Spock

Rest well and prosper Mr. Spock!

Your mind meld and logic are safe with the human component.

I'll bet the beam up this time was far different.

Rolland Out!

It's Coming...honest! SPRING!

In The Air

© 2009 Rolland G. Smith

The ache of spring is in the air

Despite the chill of winter’s fare.

I see it in the buds of trees

Whose pokes from ‘neath the twigs do please.

For me a sadness in each spring

When birth and growth cannot re-bring

The energy of parted souls

Whose lives we shared with gentle strolls.

But then I know, I truly know

Life’s light forever keeps its glow,

for when complete, form goes away

And spirit laughs and plays the play.

We who stay must understand

That short or long life’s ever grand,

And ceases not despite the shift

of back and fourth in cosmic drift.

But back to spring and its rebirth

With life profound from sentient earth.

Both warmth and light do bright the stage

Releasing all from winter’s cage.

The War That Shouldn't Have Happened

The Falklands War of 1982 is back in the news because of Bill O’Reilly and his claims to have reported from a war zone. This post is not about him, but the war itself.

The Falklands war should never have happened. 967 people died because of misinterpretation and bureaucracy.

Here's how the war began.

There was a 39-year-old scrap dealer by the name of Constantine Davidoff, an Argentinean, who wishes today he could take back an innocent action.

Davidoff heard about three abandoned whaling stations on the British owned Georgia islands. It was a chance to make some salvage money with scrap parts. In December of 81, Davidoff, and seven crewmen got permission from the British to inspect the stations. In March he started salvage operations. His men, either as a joke or excitement or pride or what have you raised a blue and white Argentine flag over the salvage operations.

The flag was spotted by a group of British researchers camped about 5 miles away. They got on their radio and called London.

Word spread in Great Britain and in the Falklands. 

The British Government protested that the Davidoff crew landed illegally. They didn't and had permission, but distance and time and inter-department bureaucracy didn't get permits to the right people at the right time.

Argentina said the Davidoff Salvage crew had a right to be there. Britain responded by sending in an Ice Patrol Boat. Argentina then sent a navy ship to protect the crew from forcible removal. More meetings were held between the British and Argentina. Words became angry. Ownership rights were stated and demanded and days later the Argentineans invaded and the Falkland’s war began. 

You know the rest.

Mr. Mayor

When I was a little boy, my mother said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say about another, don’t say anything at all.”

It is obvious that Rudy Giuliani’s mother did not say that to him.

Since when is Mr. Giuliani prescient into the mind of President Obama?

Mr. Giuliani was a prosecutor, turned Mayor, turned lucky Mayor, turned gadfly, turned obnoxious individual and one whom the media continues to give an extended fifteen minutes of fame.

It is time to stop.

60-minutes

I watched with admiration and pleasure the tribute 60-minutes did for correspondent Bob Simon last night.

Simon’s ethics, courage, and intrepid curiosity are once again an inspiration for getting back to the basics of broadcast journalism.

To me the medium is no longer just the message as Marshall McLuhan suggested over a half century ago, today the medium is all pervasive and it's most visual element, television, is the tribal fire of humankind.

We can be either warmed by it or burned by it.

I know my business, my profession, my media, but sometimes I don't love it.

When its responsibility is less than it should be, I don't love it.

When brevity is more important than understanding, I don't love it.

When ratings are more important than content, I don't love it.

When violence is more important than beauty, I don't love it.

When profit is more important that service, I don’t love it.

There are so few stories in my profession of elegance; no one talks of grace.

Where are the stories and programs that feature the tales of gentleness, kindness, positive acts of service, miracles, selfless acts and unconditional love, courage, spirit and things artistic, as expressed through form and language and music.

Gentility is a facet of everyday life worthy of talking about. It has a value far beyond the degenerating voyeurism into other people’s pain and problems solely for the purpose of ratings.

The sad truth is not that television continues to exploit the sordid stories and the banal characteristics of life; it is that there are few offerings of an elegant alternative.

We deserve better, we can demand better.

True or Not?

Did you know the peace we seek is not out there, but within?

Did you know that flowers were originally created in another realm and sent to Gaia as a visual and fragrant reminder of our connection?

Did you know we live in the illusion, not the reality?

Did you know that children today have a different DNA and purpose than in previous ages?

Did you know that each letter of every alphabet on earth has a different vibration that is altered to a collective vibration when combined into words and altered again when words combine into thoughts?

Did you know that a little piece of creation lingering for release in your heart could change humanity?

Did you know that each time you transit from life to life, you begin to laugh?

Did you know that the soul is bigger than the body?

Did you know that love is the unified field Einstein was looking for?

Did you know that God has no judgment; only man does?

Did you know that responsibility is really two words: Response and ability?

Did you know that all of these statements may be true and none may be true, but it is up to each of us to decide?