JFK

JFK. President John F. Kennedy was killed 50 years ago today.

The tributes are always many on the anniversary, but the Kennedy family usually does not participate. They understand and accept the honors paid to the fallen president, but they prefer the memory of JFK be focused on the day of his birth, May 29th, rather than November 22nd, the day of his death.

That may take a long time, for there are so many of us alive today who remember that tragic time 50 years ago. Our children's children may learn more of his life and philosophy than will recall the day he died. History bears that out.

We honor Lincoln on his birthday and not the day he died, April 15th.

Very few even remember the assassinated 20th president James Garfield and the September 19th he died.

William KcKinley's assassination day is now forgotten. He died on a September 14th.

It takes time to bury painful living memories, but it must be done so  memory can stand without sorrow. The Kennedy family has learned through many tragic experiences, that once you acknowledge the death, you must let it go and honor the life, for only the body dies.

Who Knew!

Former President George H. Bush, known as (43), was a guest on the Tonight Show Tuesday night and presented host Jay Leno with a portrait he painted of Leno.

For me it was probably the first time I was impressed with something Mr. Bush did.

Comeuppance, Cost Overruns and Brutality

There are always some things you love to hear.

How about the white supremacist that is trying to set up an Aryan enclave in North Dakota.

He took a DNA test on a television show and discovered he was 14 percent black.

And then there are the things that make you shake your head.

The Navy christened its newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford. It’s the most expensive warship ever made. It was supposed to cost eleven billion, but came in two billion dollars over budget.

Two billion over budget! Where is congressional oversight?

And finally there are the things that disgust and make you sick.

Several days ago North Korea executed 80 people, men and woman, for crimes against the state. One crime was watching South Korean soap operas. The accused were tied to posts in public arenas and sprayed with machine gun fire.

Super Storms

Despite the fact that some individual and organizations are trying to convince us otherwise, there is scientific and empirical evidence that shows human influence has contributed substantially to global warming and that the earth will get a lot hotter than previously predicted. Wine growers in Spain are worried. Islanders in the South Pacific are worried. The Philippines are in shock. The New Jersey shore is trying to recover. We ought to be worried.

What global warming means is beyond contemporary understanding. Possibly the melting of the polar ice caps thereby raising the oceans levels, flooding low lying areas like Florida, portions of New York City, Holland and much of the world's coast lines. Very troubling possibilities. Crop failures, dust bowls, species extinction and human devastation.

Nearly forty years ago satellite and space technologies gave us a view of our planet never before seen by humankind. We saw a shimmering globe from deep in space without borders, without boundaries, without fences and walls. We began to see a whole living system, with all life interrelated and interdependent. We saw the effect of choice becoming the affect of life.

No longer can the individual look only to the corporate polluter and say, there is the source of my pain. It's part of it, but until we, as individuals, no longer tolerate pollution and pollutants in ourselves and in our work environments, and let our voices be heard in a clarion call to stop, we will continue to befoul our nest for future generations.

We forget, we are the nature we abuse.

A Drone Strike

A US/CIA Drone strike into the hinterlands of Pakistan a couple of weeks ago killed the leader of the Pakistani Taliban.

The Taliban have vowed revenge. What else is new?

Since 2003 the Taliban have killed over 17-thousand civilians and nearly 5500 security personnel in Pakistan, yet Pakistan’s leadership continues to allow terrorist cells to live and function in their country.

Pakistan’s leaders have condemned the drone attack and at the same time are willing to receive 1.6 Billion dollars in military and economic aid.

Pakistan is plagued by corruption and is duplicitous in fighting terrorism.

1.6 Billion dollars! Are we stupid or what?

The Philippines

Somehow it doesn’t seem real. It’s a half world away. We watch the pictures of destruction in disbelief and see rescurers digging for loved ones in collapsed buldings. We see that far away look in those we show on camera. We report the dead in rising numbers, not names. We can repair buildings, and roads, but the bodies that held the names are gone forever.   

All we can do is embrace the Philippine people in our hearts and send relief supplies and prayers.  Grief is such a painful personal hurt. Sorrow is more universal in its heartache, for it acknowledges on a higher level the collective loss to humankind. How many of the dead bodies were potential scientists, poets, leaders or the pure simple souls who teach us love by just being.

Empathy is not only the capacity to understand another’s feelings, it is the willingness to comfort, to cry together and to share the strength of hope when so many, see nothing but despair.  Hope lets those who hurt know they have not been forgotten by a loving spirit and a collective world as it manifests itself through a helping hand, a bottle of water, a hug or a shared tear.