A Child's Wimper

I watched a toddler cry while in her Daddy’s arms on a New York City subway yesterday. The baby was maybe two years old. The parents were young, but loving to the child and tolerant to her reaction to harsh subway noises and the heat of a humid summer day.

I also watched the other passengers on the subway car. They were of all races and nationalities, Black, Hispanic, Asian and White. The baby whimpered and then periodically whaled and each of us smiled.

Each of us knowing the parent’s frustration, but not wanting to participate in it or acknowledge it.

All of us passengers surrounding the toddler were of diverse and disparate backgrounds. All of us, at one time or another, glanced at the child with a loving look and even a little finger wave in hopes of distracting the child. A big burley guy, a construction worker in yellow hard hat, seemed to be the most taken and tender with the child. 

Even his smile didn’t work.

Watching this child and the people around her I was reminded of a great line from Tagore, a Bengali poet. He said: “ Every child comes with a message from God that he is not discouraged with humanity.”

The Mimics of Nature

Maybe it’s because I am getting older, but when I look nature I can find so many lessons of life.

I planted some Cosmos bipinnatus a few years ago and they have found their way into other parts of the garden. They are hardy, tall stemmed with colorful flowers and spindle-like leaves.

Clusters of flowers and buds in various stages of life exist on the lanky stems. It reminds me of human life.

You have the buds of birth and babies.

You have the vibrancy of youth.

The aging signs of senior life.

And finally there is only a memory of where the flower’s life had been.

It’s not that I need the reminder of how short our life span is. It’s just interesting how plants and human life mimic each other.

The bipinnatus comes back year after year. I suspect our spirit does too life after life; we just don’t remember.

Thought Transmissions

There are some people who believe the thoughts we have for others are seen physically in our body language and are sent ethereally through an unseen energy. It's been called many things: prayer, light, vibration, and even the force.

Assume for a moment that our thoughts are a personal energy that we can send to someone, even to the world's leaders, the Kings and Princes, the Dictators, Presidents and Premiers and Prime Ministers all over the world.

The men and women who govern different countries are constantly being criticized or cursed by their citizens and others for one reason or another.

We are all quick to criticize, but slow to praise, to encourage, and to even love, thus the leadership of the world is mostly bombarded by negative and harmful thoughts.

To help our struggling world, perhaps if we send our best thoughts to these fallible men and women, it will inspire them to seek the greater good through the medium of compromise.

If it works, if a little piece of our hearts, our positive energy, our Chi, could indeed be felt by these leaders, then we have everything to gain in the process. It might even encourage global agreement on contentious.

Think about it!

Big Brother Tactics

I don't know if you've noticed on your television programs how many times a commercial comes up saying that the nuclear treaty deal with Iran is a bad idea.

It's very well produced  and cites negative facts that Iran has violated over the years. I saw the same commercial five times in a two hour span in my television market. That's called saturation and it is designed to subliminally influence our thinking.

In very small print at the bottom of the screen and at the end of the commercial it says it's sponsored by, "The Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran."

Who are these alleged citizens?  There is no website the check them out. There is no way for any of us to see where the money comes from to sponsor such an expensive advertizing campaign.

I'd like to know because whoever it is is using the public airwaves to try to influence my thinking on the potential Iranian nuclear agreement. Whoever it is doesn't want the agreement to happen. We have a right to know who doesn't want it and why.

Don't be dupped! Check your facts and your sources.

Huckabee

I am a nearly 74-year old retired reporter who has been covering and or who is aware of the American political process and political antics since the early 1960’s.

I was National Correspondent for Metromedia Television covering Congress and I was an accredited White House correspondent during the Nixon administration. I knew and conversed with many of the nation’s political leaders.

I say this only to offer a credential of observational and experiential ability as a former practicing journalist in the national arena.

Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee uttered a political phrase that borders on sedition and is offensive to all thinking Americans. He said: “President Obama is marching Israelis “to the door of the oven” He is referring to the potential Iran nuclear agreement.

His remark is offensive, inflammatory, and politically designed to publically raise his declining stature as a once again presidential candidate. Any agreement or treaty should be debated on his merits, not its emotion.

Gov. Huckabee you failed and you injured the political process in this great country.

I knew the greats of political dissention, and Gov. Huckabee you are not one of them.

Gifts From The Past

I was listening to my favorite singer, songwriter of the 70's and 80's Kris Kristopherson last night and the fact that he was a Rhodes scholar brought this post to mind.

President Bill Clinton was one and so was Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey. They are among a select group that since 1904 have been offered Rhodes scholarships.

It all started with Cecil J. Rhodes, A British colonial pioneer and statesman who died in 1902. He was a man with a vision and a loyalty to Great Britain that bordered on zealotry.

Cecil Rhodes made his fortune in South Africa by first supervising and then owning a diamond mine.

Over the years Rhodes concentrated on two things. Adding territory to the British Empire and controlling more and more diamond mines.

Rhodes became an elected official and through political power did more than any other person of his time to increase the territory controlled by the British.

He forced the annexation of what is now Botswana. He forced the Matabele tribe to surrender most of its land. Land, so vast, that today, that same territory comprises two countries. Zambia and Zimbabwe.

By 1888 Rhodes had combined all his diamond mines under the name of the De Beers Consolidated Mines. He was very influential and very rich and he had a vision. He wanted to strengthen the ties among English-speaking people and broaden their knowledge of one another by having the best of their young and potential leaders take degrees together where he went to school, Oxford University.

Approximately 90 Rhodes Scholarships are awarded each year.