How Observant Are You?

While roaming the streets of Zurich, probably ten or so years ago, I came across this drinking fountain. I had to have the picture. I didn't realize what a gem it was until I had it developed. Click on it to enlarge it and take a good look. You'll see it.

It made me laugh then; it makes me laugh now. On that note, and in lieu of another iffy effort at videoing Bacchus, I'll leave you with this. Be back in a week or so. Hope you all will be too!

Portrait Of A Frustrated Voter

I was sorting through some family keepsakes, getting things gathered to donate to the museum in my folks hometown, when I came across an old World War II ration book. Along side the coupons are tokens, a schedule letting you know when you could get certain items and an old civil defense volunteer armband.

I got to thinking maybe I should explain why I am so passionate about the upcoming election and frustrated with what I've been seeing. You see, these items belonged to my Mom and Dad. I was very young at the time but not so young that I don't remember what sacrifice meant to everyday Americans. And why that sacrifice was necessary. We were just coming off the Great Depression and entrenched in World War II.

We had strong leadership then - Roosevelt. He knew how to soothe or persuade - whichever was necessary. He never told us to go shopping. In fact, he prevented us from doing so! He talked to us.

I remember working in the victory gardens everyone in the neighborhood had. I developed a taste for tongue and heart and liver because we could get organ meat and Mom was a fantastic cook. She could and did make everything taste good. She made all my school clothes. There were no $100 Nikes, iPods or cell phones. If there had been no one would have bought them and the technology would have been applied to the War effort first.

As I grew up my interest in politics waned as one might expect. The war ended, the country stabilized. There was so much of interest going on. I loved school and band and my dance band and Friday night football games. Yes. I was a kid then and I loved every minute of it. I look back and treasure those memories. Today's kids are growing up so fast. Sex and drugs far too soon. One mistake and poof, no more childhood. And oh, my, what they missed. Being a kid.

My college years were a mixed bag. Our worst vice was maybe taking up smoking or guzzling 3.2 beer on the weekends. Even then loose girls were received with a raised eyebrow.

On the serious side I remember Nikita Khrushchev visiting our campus and men in trench coats prowling around roof tops with strange looking cases. The fervor over John Kennedy. Many of my classmates were veterans of the Korean War attending school on the GI bill. We had a large international presence. I dated Iranians, East Indians, Egyptians and Africans without giving it a second thought, yet I would not go out with a black basketball player from New York. Questions began to stir within me. I was learning how to look at myself, who I was and what options lay before me.

I remember Kent State with students lying dead, shot by our own National Guardsmen for protesting; I remember the National Guard being called out in cities across the country to quell race riots. Kennedy's death. I was watching live TV when Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby; Martin Luther King's death, the attempt on Gerald Ford, the attempt on Ronald Reagan. All unsettling times.

I remember Vietnam and the young men who came home. One friend, still in the Army, couldn't look at rice nor hear a car backfire. He had problems. He saw a letter from a male friend on my desk and threatened to break a chair over my head. That was the end of that relationship. My own brother-in-law came back with an alcohol and drug problem that caused his untimely death. It was a tough time for those who served. It would seem we still haven't learned the lesson that was taught.

Time marches on and maybe it's an old fogey thing. I'm not sure. But when I listen to the pundits on radio and television calling the events of this election like it's a play by play on Sunday afternoon football I get mad. Nothing going on today is a laughing matter. It's bad enough they don't handle it with the seriousness nor the depth of understanding it deserves, but it's worse that they don't appear to understand much of it themselves. There is really no one to explain it to those who are going through some of these things for the first time. Those of us who try either do not articulate it well enough or are considered less then credible because - what? We're old?

McCain, who lived through these time, isn't explaining things. Who better could? And why isn't he? Chanting he knows how to fix everything doesn't cut it. Where has his leadership been all these years?

Obama isn't explaining either. How can one lead us into the future without an understanding of our past? Is it okay that they, along with the rest of us, are bewildered by this massive breakdown and the speed with which it seemed to occur? Of course, in reality, it wasn't speedy at all. Everything just culminated all at the same time. Where was everybody?

It is not okay to pretend they know all the answers. They do not. I would rather hear that admission along with a pledge to do the best they can to find the right people, regardless of party, to get it l sorted out. The posturing and blame gaming of Barney Frank and his ilk does not inspire confidence in me. Many in Congress were part of the problem in the first place.

Every one of us is concerned about how and when things are going to shake out. We're angry and we're attacking anything that moves - in anger, without rationale. It is disturbing to witness. It's like the entire country is on the brink of a nervous breakdown and our shrinks are running around in little tight circles, the worst of us all!

The wars are not going to end tomorrow. Humans seem never to learn the cost and futility of them. They will continue to drain our treasury which really isn't so much ours any more. It will continue to kill our young men and women. A drain on our future talent. This is no laughing matter.

If ever there was a time for a clear head and a steady hand , one that realizes the seriousness of the circumstances in which we find ourselves and the courage to be honest about how difficult extraction from these circumstances is going to be, it is now.

This is why I'm so frustrated with the tone of the campaigns and the caliber of the candidates. We are walking on very thin ice. I've been there, I've seen it; I've lived it. Lessons not learned. Actions not taken or taken merely to give the appearance of doing something. This is nothing new. History has a way of repeating itself because our attention span is short if we pay attention at all.

There was a question in one of those "man on the street" columns just this last week. It asked the participants what they thought of Sarah Palin. Out of six only one even knew who she was and he was Canadian. The other five are all of voting age. Where have they been? Do you want them to vote?

Writing this hasn't really made me feel any better but it does bring to mind a question; can there be worse things than rationing books? You bet. In a time of national crisis there can be a lack of them.

Pet Peeve

An oddity occurred in the headlines this morning . The Spokesman Review above the fold headline was Best friends, big bucks and the Coeur d'Alene Press led with KHS (Kootenai Humane Society) holding firm to no-kill policy .

The thrust of each article touches on attitudes of two cities divided by a state line. The Spokane article talks of how technologies for fighting human disease and disablement are becoming more available and affordable for pets. The other, in addressing a boom in our cat population bemoans that enough of them aren't being killed. Including comments from a former director of the humane society to a county commissioner up for re-election to an animal control officer.

I know a lot of you are animal lovers. One of my favorite bloggers just lost his beloved Rufus. I had a lump in my throat while writing him a personal note even though I have never met him. I judge people more on how they feel about animals and how they treat them than anything else. There is absolutely nothing I would not do for that old guy in the picture. And there was no stone left unturned for any of his predecessors.

We have been fortunate to have had the means to take the best possible care of our pets. That, however, does not seem to me to be the point. It's attitude. I don't care if it's a cat or a rat, it is a living breathing being; not merely a possession - or a wild thing that has no value. It's life should not be abused nor ended because it becomes an inconvenience.

I was elated when KHS hired it's current director. The attitude of the former director is one reason why he is no longer at the helm. As for animal control, what can I say? Technically, death is a type of control.

I know this over population of cats is an issue. But rather than addressing it and trying to solve it, the death option is far more convenient and cost efficient. This type of thinking is one reason, among others that indicate a similar mind set, that the commissioner will not get my vote.

The Coeur d'Alene area keeps getting mentioned in magazines as being such a great place to live. It may be for the wealthy who can still afford their summer places on the lake and the medical and legal communities. Other than that it is not a wealthy area, the economy died along with the timber industry and it is not the destination tourist community one is led to believe. It is an area divided by political acrimony and for good reason.

Yeah. I know. Sour grapes. It's true. Hub and I knew after a few short weeks we had made a mistake. We don't "fit" and we never will. We're stuck for the time being, until the economy turns around. Then there will be another house on the market. No, it's not on the lake. We don't fit in that financial category. But we have nearly five acres, fenced; plenty of room for your pets to run.

If you want to bring them.

Anarchy Looms!

This election is going to go down in history for many reasons. The first viable black candidate, the first Mormon candidate, the first viable female candidate and the oldest first time candidate. There is one more element and the most disturbing of all.

At a time when both candidates are championing the need for non-partisan cooperation and each claims to be the one most able to accomplish same, this is turning into one of the most divisive campaigns I can remember. I cannot ever remember the anger being shown within the parties at their own candidates such as we've been seeing at McCain rallies.

Today Michael Barone, in his column talks about how the Democrats are doing their best to quell anything put forth deemed criticism of Obama. Some supporters have gone so far as to threaten criminal prosecution of his critics. They have even gone so far as to edit the content on a Saturday Night Live skit that spoofed Barney Frank and a couple of contributors. This is obstruction of one of our few remaining freedoms - that of free speech, the First Amendment!

It is disturbing enough to watch the hate mongering I wrote about in the previous post. The "Obama thugocracy" , as Barone puts it, suppressing free speech is something we indeed need to fear should it continue unchecked.

These are frightening times. People are worried more than most have ever been in their lives. You have to be of my generation or older to remember the great depression and the World Wars. Even the Korean "police action" as they liked to call it. Knowledge of how these events were resolved and those who were the players are little more than names and lessons in a history book. If history is even being taught anymore. Revisionism seems to be popular this day and age so I have no idea what students are being "taught".

While all this is going on I'm looking for one or both of the candidates to take control of their own people and reign in the turmoil. I do not see it on either side. If the people are left to their own devices and their frustrations are allowed to boil over, neither candidate will ever be able to regain control. Then it becomes anarchy.

That's all we need on top of everything else.

Come on gentlemen. You're each vying to be our leader. Show us some leadership and nip this now while you still can. For your sake. And for ours!

The Slippery Slope From Fear Mongering To Hate Mongering

Ever since 9/11 we have been living in an atmosphere where the fear has been palpable. The administration, while telling us just to go shop, was at the same time forming the Department of Homeland Security to rob us of many of our rights, treat us all as suspected terrorists and tell us if we dared to question their actions we were unpatriotic. The public, in general, nodded their heads and said, "Duh, okay, jist as long as they're keepin' us safe!" Balderdash.

As bad as this has been, it is getting even worse as desperation raises it's ugly head heading into the final weeks of the campaign. Fear mongering. Obama is "palling around with terrorists". Who is the real Obama. Wink, wink.

I'm wondering if the unintended consequence of this baiting isn't far more dangerous than another attack on American soil. It is turning rallies which are supposed to support one candidate into mob mentality against the other. It is one of the most frightening scenarios I've witnessed in politics.

The Washington Post described one event as such:

There were boos, middle fingers turned up and thumbs turned down...

The rhetoric is vehement and irrational. "We have the good Reverend Wright. We have Pfleger. We have all these shady characters that have surrounded him. We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you. Take it to him!" This from a radio talk show host. He's nearly as incoherent as Sarah Palin has been.

Even McCain was quoted as saying, "Senator Obama has a clear, radical, far-left, pro-abortion record."

The very worst however, are the women. Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin stirring the fervor. McCain using her own son as bait. "The day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a chill through my body." Please.

Fomenting frustration and raw emotions into hate filled responses like "kill him" is dangerous beyond words. I am appalled that it is two women leading the charge. Especially these two. The potential First Lady and the potential Vice President.

I understand their own frustrations in having to confront the notion that they may not win. But to allow themselves to be so used by the campaign is not only insulting to them, it is insulting to every woman in the country. At their most disappointed, you never heard Hillary supporters saying much other than they'd never vote for Obama. No threats, no character assassination.

As this continues any neutral thoughts I may have had about McCain and his team have eroded. I am embarrassed for these women who'd I'd like to have thought would be above such behavior.

I fear for the mood of the country already stressed to a dangerous degree. No good can come from this tactic. As for women, we're being set back decades.

It's ugly.