Talk Amongst Yourself

I talk to myself; a lot.

Sometimes I fear being accused of being a stereotypical crazy homeless man.  The one that the movies love to portray, wandering around, arguing with himself.

I don’t argue with myself.  Well, at least I never argue with myself and lose.  Not yet anyways. 

I’m not sure why I do it.  Often when I’m working on something, or with something: I anthropomorphize it.  I can’t help it.  Things become ‘he’ or ‘she’, and I swear at them, or praise them according to how things are going.  Lots of people do that, actually, I’ve seen it. 

When I find something hideously wrong while I’m inspecting an airplane at work, I’ll chide the airplane to “not be like that, now”.  If I whack my head on something, I’ll turn to the offending bit of metal and express some anger, “Is that really how it’s going to be??? I mean, really?”

I talk through problems with myself, just kind of voicing thoughts out loud.  Almost to hear if they sound rational or not.  Sometimes something doesn’t sound bad in your head, but when you say it out loud, it just sounds terrible.  Ideas to steer clear of. 

Other times, I’ll be rehearsing for a conversation I’m going to have with someone.  I kind of say what I want to say, and like to hear how it sounds.  So I can say it differently if I need to.  Voice tone, pitch, timing, etc.  Actor shit, I guess.  Not that I’m an actor, but I do it anyways.

Occasionally, I’ll have both sides of a conversation, and that’s when I know for a fact that I sound crazy.  I’ve even been busted at work doing it sometimes. 

I just acknowledge the other person’s presence, and stop talking to myself, as if nothing happened.  I wonder what they think?

I have discussions with myself, of past events.  Arguments, or debates that didn’t go the way I wanted.  So I’ll rerun them for myself, out loud, with more carefully chosen words.  Perhaps I misguidedly think I’ll learn something from doing that?  It’s just a habit.

Once in awhile, I'll speak of the dead.  Not TO them, mind you, just OF them.  No ghosts for me, thank you very much.

I do it in my head, I do it quietly out loud.  I often get tears in my eyes when I do it.  I guess it's how a person like myself, who eschews funerals, and overt public signs of grief, deals with death and loss.  I do my own memorial services, for myself. 

I'm enamored with the idea of a Speaker For The Dead.  Not my idea, it's Orson Scott Card's.  It plays a big part in his Ender series of novels.  If you like science fiction, even a little, they are a must read.  Do it.

Basically, a Speaker For The Dead, is summoned when someone dies.  Anyone can ask that a Speaker comes and speaks for the dead person.  This 'order' of Speakers is recognized like a religion. 

The Speaker will come and research the person's life.  They will find out everything they can, the joy, the pain, the good, the bad, the bland.  They will encapsulate all a person's life into one presentation.  The Speaker has the job of telling the truth of a person.  Whether it causes pain or happiness to the survivors who listen.  A person is who they are, and that is what the Speaker does.  Tells it like it is, or rather, was.

It seems to me that this sort of an approach would be highly cathartic.  I could see hearing such a thing, being painful, and hard to listen to.  But in the end, a greater understanding of who the person really was, would be the payoff for all involved. 

As a matter of fact, if I ever get around to making a will, I'm putting that in it.  I wish to have a Speaker summoned.  I will leave some notes for them.  Perhaps some things I have never told anyone to get them started.  Post the request on Reddit, or something.  Hopefully someone who knows of the concept could do me that last favor.

Or maybe that would be my last communication with the world.  The request for a Speaker For The Dead, to speak for one Frederick Damien Robel II.

Arriving at the point though, that's what I do sometimes.  I talk to myself about the people that I've known who die.  I sort of go through all the things I knew of them.  I sort out my feelings about them being gone now. 

I took a small stab at doing it in front of people once.  When my dad died.  (Good god, talking about THAT again?)

My mother requested that both of us kids write something for his funeral, for us to read out loud, or for the priest to read for us. 

I sat down and started writing something.  I don't even know if I saved it.  I told how my father was.  I think I mentioned his temper, his smoking habit, his stubbornness, his righteousness, his kindness, his honesty, his high moral standards.  I was sort of thinking of telling it how it was, showing his strength, along with some flaws.  I sort of liked it. 

My mother walked up behind me, and read the unfinished piece over my shoulder.  She was horrified, and cried asking me how I could write such an awful thing about my father.  I didn't see it that way, and didn't know how to respond. 

In the end, I did the dutiful son thing, and wrote something that only said good things about him.  Praised my adoption, and such.  It was all true.

But it wasn't the whole truth. 

I had wanted to tell a bigger picture. 

I was only allowed to tell a postage stamp.

I did redeem myself in my own eyes, by standing up at his memorial wake, and telling the story of how he didn't strangle me with his bare hands when I totalled his sports car when I was 16.  It showed he had a temper, but that he could rise above that.  And it was sort of funny too.  It made most everyone laugh.  Which is a good thing to have at a wake I think. 

I keep telling myself, that the next time I have something to say.  Whether it's in an argument, a discussion, a job interview, or a funeral.  That I'll say all the things that I only say to myself.  That I tell everyone what I think.  But I don't know if I ever will.

I have a crazy thought sometimes of actually trying to sell the service that is portrayed by a Speaker For The Dead.  I feel most times that such a thing might go over pretty well.

Other times, it feels pretty ridiculous. 

I did have someone tell me once, that they wanted me to write their obituary.  Of course, that person is not even 30 yet.  So I hope I never get the chance. 

Until I figure such things out;  I'll keep saying them to myself.  I'll drive my hour to work, listening to my music, sometimes spinning tales of those now lost, giving commencement speeches, performing eulogies, giving lectures. 

All to the most critical of possible audiences. 

Myself

Cheers to voices outside my head. 

Mowing the Neighbor's Lawn

I mow my neighbor's lawn.  I really can't say why.  I've never met him, nor do I know much about him. 

I've never been asked to do it, let alone paid for it.  I just do.

I know he's an old man, who lives somewhere else.  He's been trying to sell his house for years, but with things the way that they are, nobody has been interested.  It's kind of sad.  It's actually a very nice house.  Sort of an Up North looking chalet style kind of thing, might have been sold as a package home from a lumber yard.  You can probably picture the sort of place.  Not too big, not too small.

It's just that it's here.  Up here, the real estate market isn't so good, just like in many other places.  The number of people who actually live here year round is probably smaller than the number who do not.  So that larger group of homes, and the percentage gets larger the closer to the lake you go, go figure, are not full time residences. 

This community of Au Gres is sort of a vacation summer type community, or at least it seems that way.  There is a lot of farming around here.  Back in the early part of the 20th century Au Gres billed itself as the Onion Capital of the World.  I have a first day postage cover from the opening of the Au Gres airport, I think it was in the 1930's sometime.  The commemorative postage mark is that of a large onion, with that Onion Capital thing above it.  Pretty neat small town stuff.

Nowadays, the airport is still kind of there, but it's closed, and there is a few industrial complexes taking up about a third of the old airport property.  Makes me sad, but then again, I am an aviation guy, so of course it does.

Mowing my neighbor's lawn though.  It started out innocently. 

There is a 'vacant' wood lot between his property and mine.  I don't know who owns it, hence the demiquotes.  Nobody was mowing the frontage on that lot, so I started doing it.  It's just a 30 yard extension of what I already do for my own property, and only about 12 feet deep.  So no big deal.  And it makes the neighborhood look nicer I think.  Besides, I didn't want anyone to think that I owned that vacant lot, and wasn't mowing it.  The upper crust would be horrified. 

Then, as a sort of natural progression, I started looking at the frontage in front of my neighbor's house.  No one had been taking care of his lawn for about a year.  And my frontage, and the vacant lot's frontage, sort of runs into that frontage.  So I started mowing that part too.  Another 30 yards or so.  At that point, I'm now mowing almost 100 yards of frontage.  Still not such a big deal, I mean, I do have a lawn tractor after all.

Then, as I was mowing the frontage in front of the neighbor's house, I started looking at the house every time I did a row of grass.  Seeing how vacant and sad it looked.  The for sale by owner sign now removed from the front yard, and propped up against the garage door.  Almost like they've given up for now. 

I decided to mow the whole front yard up to the front porch.  No harm in that, right?  I might help sell the house even.  It would be wonderful to have a nice family or something move in next door.  I liked the idea of it more and more as I did it.  I was the champion of the neighbor hood I was! 

I rationalize doing it sometimes.  I tell myself that I dump my leaves over the fence, into the vacant lot often, and if the neighbor actually owns that lot, then me mowing his front yard is a kind of repayment for dumping the leaves into the wood lot.  The sort of agreement, that hasn't actually been made, ever.  Probably the same type of deal arrangement some people make when they steal things actually I bet. 

Kind of like, I'll take this twenty dollars, they'll never miss it, because they have so many twenty dollar bills.  I'll put it back as soon as I get paid.  Maybe even leave an extra one someday.  But they never do. 

I'm not sure why I really do it.  It does take a little extra time.  I might even get in trouble for doing it, which I admit does make me chuckle a little to think of.  There is a little of the anarchist within me yet.  Random acts of kindness are sort of anarchist too maybe.  There are no rules telling you to do things like that.  And actually some telling you to stay off your neighbor's property when not invited.  But I don't pay much attention to casual rules like that. 

If he didn't want me to mow his lawn, he'd put up a fence. 

So if you come over, and I told you I'd be mowing my lawn, but you don't see me.  Look next door, I might be there.  Don't forget to look behind the neighbor's house too, there's no telling when this sickness I have will tell me I should mow back there too, and pick up the leaves too. 

Cheers, to random kind acts.

Walmartism and the Death of the Local Grocer

I admit I have mixed feelings about going to Wal-Mart. 

When I first moved out of my parent’s house, I lived up in Northern Michigan for my job.  I was about 1 mile from the Country Store. 

It was a place I’d been going almost all my life.  We’d stop there to get groceries when I was a toddler, I rode my minibike there when I was 9 for gas and candy.  And the same old couple still owned it back then.  I felt I wanted to support it. 

Back then, in the early ‘90’s, there was no Wal-Mart around to tempt me.  But being single, and really not money conscious at all, I wonder if I’d have done my grocery shopping there at all.

I’d stop at the Country Store for all my necessary items.  Any kind of food, drink, or home basics, they had, and I bought.  I’m certain it cost a little more than the grocer in town, but I didn’t care.  I used to say that if you liked having the Country Store there when you needed them, you better support them when you have a choice.  I was aware of that reality, even back then. 

Time passed, the store changed hands after the wife died, and I moved away.  The store is a house now, the owner does welding stuff in the garage out back.  But it looks much the same.  Just no giant Country Store sign up on the roof. 

Now, when I want groceries, living in that same town, the choice is the local chain grocery store, or Wal-Mart.  The local store is about 5 miles south of where I live, the Wal-Mart is 20 miles North. 

I like Wal-Mart for their prices.  I can fill up a cart really full, for under $200 dollars, and with a family of five in my present life, I have to do that up to four times a month.  Three dogs too, I forgot, they contribute to the bill.  Iams dog food is not super cheap. 

I also drive right by the Wal-Mart on my way home from work every day.  Since I work the night shift, and get off work at midnight, the store is usually pretty empty.  It takes a lot less time to get in and out, than during the daytime.

I don’t like the selection at Wal-Mart usually.  Sometimes, it’s because I have no preference for something, and they have just too many dang choices for me to know what would be the best thing.  Other times, it’s because the selection is too limited. 

The local grocer in town, while being 15 miles closer, has it’s limitations.  They don’t turn over their stock very often, and even when things are going well, I have gotten food that was a little old from them.  If the power in town has gone out for more than an hour or so any time in the last week, I know to avoid the frozen and refrigerated stuff.  They run things on a tight budget, and don’t get rid of things afterwards, like they probably should. 

The frozen peas will be solid blocks, the milk will smell a little, um, stale. 

And their prices, are quite a bit higher there.  When I spend $100 dollars there, I just don’t get as much for my money for sure. 

So what to do?  I feel guilty for not buying my things at the local grocer.  I know that they don’t do well, and I’m frankly surprised that they are still in business. 

But my pocketbook is just not that full, and I need to squeeze mileage out of my coin. 

Once again, I’m definitely a part of the problem.  I’m contributing to the monster that is eating the small stores up across America, thereby making it bigger, selling more stuff, able to buy it cheaper and in larger lots, and sadly making it impossible for the local grocer in my town to compete with their selection and prices.

I see only one ray of hope, at least for all the local grocers across America, that live within driving distance of a Wal-Mart, or similar large box store.  That is to go for the niche market.

I’ve seen it work, and I think it could around here too.  There are some people who want higher quality foods, and are willing to pay a little more for certain things.  I, for instance, am partial to my good meats, breads, fruits.  I can’t say I’d shop at a place like that every single day, but I would go to get my special things.  I can afford to do that. 

Conroy’s Organics was such a store.  It was just down the road from us when we lived out in upstate NY.  Just north of Plattsburgh, they were located on their family farm actually.  Often surrounded by a herd of the family highland cattle, the store was really neat.  It offered lots of local foods, organics, and natural (whatever that means).  My favorite, was the beef, from those very same cows you could see all around the store.

It’s not easy I’m sure, but if you happen to be in the right market, you can compete with the Wal-Marts of the world. 

So my guilt about not supporting the local grocer is a little less, when I think on such things.  Because they are trying to compete head to head with the large store up the road, and losing.  But in their fight to stay open, they are having to bend rules, limit selection, and raise prices.  Thereby ensuring more and more people opt for that 20 mile drive to the north.

Cheers, to changing your way of thinking to slay a giant.

Occupy: My Head - The Thicker the Head.......

Cranium Thick; Change Hard

I want to flippantly call this all about how the possibility of positive change in one’s life, is proportional to the thickness of that one’s skull.

Literally, obviously, it’s not true.  But sometimes, it sure does seem like it.

Living here, in the wild North Country of Michigan, I sometimes feel like a minority. 

I’m a fat white middle aged male, so I don’t mean in ethnicity or gender, or age.  Especially for this area.

I mean in just some of my politics and social mores.

I believe in gay marriage.  As a rule, I find the institution of marriage an antiquated and silly institution.  In practice, having a life partner is often delightful, fulfilling, and necessary.  If someone wants to hold a ceremony, and call it getting married; more power to them.  Everyone should be able to do that if they want.  Male, female, transgendered, it doesn’t matter.

I’m not in love with guns and hunting.  Don’t misunderstand, as a testosterone filled male, who is a professional mechanic by trade; I love beautiful mechanical objects that can make a loud noise, or blow something up.  But I don’t think everyone needs one, or that I need to carry one, or that I need to go out in the woods to kill the very animals that I so enjoy seeing.  Granted, some animals in particular are overpopulated due to us killing off their natural predators, so taking them as game in regulated numbers to supplement our food, is a good thing.  But I still don’t do it. 

I really could go on, and on, and on.  But I won’t.  I’m also not Republican, or conservative, or the owner of a huge pick up truck, or anti technology, and lots of other things.

I’m not patting myself on the back, because often I wish I was like everyone else.  I tried to be like them, when I was younger.  It was fun to fit in, to have so many common interests to talk about.  But it was a lie.  It wasn’t who I was.  It sucked.

I’m just sad and frustrated.  When I try to correct someone’s idle comments, sometimes those that I find pretty distasteful; it’s like I’m talking a foreign language.  I get blank stares, and grunts to indicate that they did hear me.

If they took the time to actually argue with me, at least I would know that they cared. 

I’m going to grab the current Occupy Wall Street movement as an example here. 

Few people up here know about it.  Many have heard of riots taking place in some of the larger cities around the country.  But so few know what it is all about.  So few recognize that it is all about their own issues.  If I try to tell them of what the 99% headline is all about, they insist that that isn’t them. 

I wish I was younger, I wish this was happening before I got married and had kids.  I want to tell myself that if this were so, that I would drop everything, and go to Detroit, or New York, Or St. Louis, and join the Occupy movements.  Try to have my voice heard, to tell the world that it needs to change.  The future depends upon it.

But I’m a coward.  Sure, maybe not to the naked eye, but I am.

I used to be fond of a certain truth.  The smart man must be prepared to drop everything, and get out of harm’s way, when it becomes clear to his logical mind, that it is time.  Don’t take clean socks, don’t water the plants, don’t lock the house.  Just throw the wife, kids, and dog into the car, and get the hell out of there. 

It has a survivalistic flavor to it, but I think it’s probably right.

That ideology doesn't deal directly with Occupy, except in the mindset of this:  If you truly believe in something, you should act on it.  Not tomorrow, not next month, but now.  If you wait, it may very well be too late.

And yet, knowing all that, deep down in my bones, I do not go.  Such a thing, is just not possible.

And that, as Yoda would say, is why I fail.

I wish Occupy Wall Street all the luck.  I’ll send encouragement.  I’ll send small donations.  But I won’t go. 

This all makes me wonder, if I am an all too common component in today’s society, maybe all over the world. 

I want change, I have lots of ideas, and I can go on and on about how I think it should be.  But when the rubber meets the road, I’m surrounded by naysayers who believe what they hear, I have a family I don’t want to let down, I have a job I don’t want to lose.  I have all the excuses I need, to not do it. 

But I hope I am a small minority of the change minded people in this world.  I hope the Occupy Wall Street movement does not fail.  I hope not too many people are hurt or killed along the way.  I hope that real change, and reform takes place. 

Just because I fail.  Doesn’t mean that you have to.

Cheers, to the black ale of cowardly complacence.

eBayed And Played

Ebayed and played.

Well, as a part of my clean and purge process of things in storage, I decided to take some more baby steps and sell off some of what I considered "better than garage sale" books. 

I call them that, because it's more than I'd want to see books for sale for if I went to a garage sale.  Folks just aren't willing to spend ten or twenty dollars on books at garage sales.  At least I'm not. 

I had five different hardcover editions of Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic comic compilations.  They came out in the mid nineties, and each collected a certain number of the published comics.  Roughly divided up into storylines.  I bought them at a time in my life where I was single, had my first real job, and was spending way way more than I was taking in.  I got them at a book shop in East Lansing, for around $35 dollars apiece. 

They've been living in boxes, or on shelves ever since I got them.  I never really read them.  Some graphic novel stuff I love, because it grabs me quickly.  Other stuff reads more like an actual novel, sort of forced into graphic form.  These seemed to be the latter to me. 

I took them out, and took pictures of them, and listed them on eBay.  I had them listed to start at $19 and run for 5 days.  Nothing happened.  I relisted them, dropping the start price to $9.99, plus $4 shipping. I sold two of them at the end of the auction period for the starting bid.  The two buyers didn't pay right away.

I relisted again, putting the remaining three into a ten day auction, at the same prices, plus $19.99 buy it now option.  I sold two of them to a gentleman in Australia.  International shipping was for $5 apiece.  I sort of felt bad that I hadn't included the option to combine shipping.

One of the first buyers finally sent some payment, four days after the auction via PayPal. 

Then the guy from Australia sent his payment, of $50 US.  I was feeling ok about selling them for that much.  Not great, but ok.

Then I wrapped each sold and paid for book in brown paper, put them in recycled Amazon.com boxes, padded liberally with saved bubble packets, and was off to the post office. 

I had a problem.  The package to Australia, was going to cost $29 to ship, at the cheapest possible rate.  3.6 pounds to Australia, who knew??  I set the shipping rates according to what eBay recommended.  Apparently, I didn't read something correctly.  So now I had to chip in $19 towards the shipping.  My two books had now just netted me $10.50 apiece.  Great sadness.  I paid it, and shipped it without flinching, as that is what I agreed to do. 

My other book that sold, was only going to Tennessee.  I figured, no problem. 

But, once again, burned by the shipping.  Shipping alone was $8 dollars or so.  And when possible, I always add insurance and delivery confirmation to my eBay sales. 

This is due to an unfortunate $275 incident about 6 years ago.  Where I sold an aircraft tool to someone on eBay, and shipped it off regular, with no insurance, or tracking.  The buyer claims they never received it.  So by the rules, I had to reimburse him all his money.  I had no recourse, because I had no tracking or delivery confirmation on the item.  I learned that lesson at least.

It appears I need to learn this shipping cost lesson a little better. 

Back to the book to Tennessee:  I sold it for $13.99, which included shipping.  I paid over nine dollars to ship it.  So I sold my cool graphic novel for what? less than 5 bucks? 

Jesus Christ.  Just makes me sad.  Seeing as how I got these for $35 apiece, hung on to them for almost 20 years now, being careful with them the whole while, and now they get sold for less than a third what I paid, if that.  Highly, highly disappointing.

My fourth sold book, well, the buyer still hasn't paid.  So I have to send out an "ultimatum email"  Where I inform them that if they do not pay within 48 hours, I will declare them a non-paying bidder, and do the negative feedback thing.  Which I don't want to do, as they can just do negative feedback on me, with some bullshit story as to why they didn't pay, and that I didn't give them a chance.  blah blah blah.  Sometimes I really hate the eBay system. 

But, it's either deal with the internet marketplace in some fashion, or open a shop on the side of US-23, stock it with all my cool crap I don't need anymore, and wait the ten years it will probably take for people to buy it.  That just wouldn't make much sense either. 

I like simple, straightforward eBay transactions.  Where the buyer pays right away via PayPal, shipping isn't a gouge, and everything goes smoothly.  Is that too much to ask?

When I buy anything at all on eBay, I pay as soon as I can.  Same day the auction ends every time, if not within the hour.  I just don't understand people who do not do this. 

This has been my eBay therapy, brought to you by the letter 'M'. 

Moooo!  This grass is so Gooooood! 

Shhh, Bessy, Shhh.

Cheers 

Essay #3: Touching Healthcare, Liberty, and Immigration

Number Three in a series: Occupy - My Head

Our hypothetical new country is coming together rather slowly.  But, the founding fathers didn't do it overnight either, so I will not despair.

On the subject of our new bill of rights.  I have to add public health care to the list.  I can't believe that I forgot it on the first one.  I was all ready to move on to Liberty, when I hadn't even finished our Life list yet!  Shame on me.

Health care will be a part of our new country.  Doctors will still be paid well for their services.  Since I haven't decided what sort of monetary system we will have yet, I'll just call it compensation, for providing this important service.  Above average compensation, without being outrageous, maybe good parking privileges, and a fancy ham once a month or something.  You get the idea.

I think in order for the health system to work to everyone's benefit, people do need to see a doctor at least once a year.  It's only fair, if the health car is free, then you have to take at least that much care of yourself, so that conditions don't get too out of hand before treatment starts.  As most of us know, the earlier you catch something, the better the results, and usually the less it costs.  Since everyone in the country will be paying for it, everyone should be interested in this.

Moving on to Liberty, in the scheme of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I've become aware of a few different kinds of Liberty.  The most interesting to me being the concept of 'positive' and 'negative' liberty.  Who knew there were different kinds?

Positive liberty, is mostly interpreted as total freedom.  The ability to do as you wish, no matter the consequences.  That seems a little too much like anarchy.  And while I think a little bit of anarchy is good for the soul.  That same small amount, goes a long long way. 

I think there should be a little bit of a leash.  Just a little.

Negative liberty, is still freedom, but you can't harm anyone else in doing it, and you are protected from others as they exercise their freedom as well. 

Kind of like if you thought the coolest thing in the world would be to set off a huge bomb, and yes, i do think big explosions are pretty neat.  You wouldn't be allowed to do it where it could ever hurt anyone.

Negative liberty can also be interpreted as protecting you from anything at all that would restrict your given freedoms.  I know it sounds like a contradiction.  It is just a modicum of restraint really.

So some restrictions on liberty are in order, in order to protect us from each other.  I just feel it's necessary.  We will hammer out those rules later.

I've been bothered by the issue of who gets to enjoy all these wonderful freedoms that we are concocting.  If we do this right, this country will be a very desirable place to live.  Other people from other places will want to join us.

I think that we have a lot of space here in this country, and we should let immigration happen.  It should not be a hard process.  I am thinking as easy as walking to the border, saying hello, and walking in. 

Some people will disagree.  But I think when people want to live somewhere bad enough to make sacrifices and make the trip, they will work hard to be successful members of that society. 

I don't have the precise plan for that to work, or any of this really.  I think of these ideas as seeds.  Maybe someone can make them grow.  I'll help. 

That was three varied things, I'll look to focus more next time. 

Cheers, to 3:30 am!

Essay #2: These, Are Who Represent You

Occupy:  My Head  Essay #2

I'm still mulling over Liberty.  I read a few things about it yesterday, and it is both more, and less than I ever thought that it was.  Fascinating.

Today, for our new country, I'd like to discuss political structure.

I like the democratic system that we have.  I really do. 

Starting at the top:  I think it's important to have a figurehead, one person who can speak for our country.  I almost think that 4 year terms are too short in a way, as it would be nice to have a presence in the world, someone that every other country thinks of as our leader.  On the other hand, when we get a real stinker, 4 years, is way too much.  What to do?  I propose perhaps 2 to 4 year terms for our leader, our president, our king.  Call him a king, why not?  It's only for 2 to 4 years!  How to choose him?  More on that in a few paragraphs.

I'll pause here, and mention that I like the theoretical system of checks and balances we have.  So having the same general structure works for me, with the three main arms of federal government.  When functional, they do keep each other in line a bit, even in these very screwed up times. 

I am still in love with the Supreme Court.  Lifetime appointments are still pretty good.  Although, I would like to add a member or two to the mix.  Nothing to literally tip the balance, just one or two people added onto the number we already have.  Perhaps two judges from the states, chosen by election perhaps by the people.  Thereby adding a 'local' flavor to Supreme Court decisions.  These elected Judges would only serve a year or two, then go back home, and give the other states a chance. 

Actually, it would be cool to have all of the states represented in this way.  I realize it would be an expansion of the Judicial arm in a huge way, but it would ensure more representation in that arm.  Why not?  The judges have always made decisions by consensus, just like the House and the Senate.  The minority always submit their dissenting opinions along with everyone else's.  Valid points can be made, recorded, and studied for future debate in this way. 

I rather like this actually.  Fifty judges.  One from each state.  Each with a lifetime appointment.  Chosen by the people perhaps.  I do still think the lifetime appointment for a judge is pretty important.  It tends to raise them above bribery and such. 

Although, what about their family?  I don't know, could you bribe or threaten a judge over his family?  Probably, they are human, and that's a good thing! 

I'll go all rogue here, and propose that our new Judicial arm of the Federal Gov, be comprised of fifty judges, with lifetime appointments,  all unmarried, with no living family members.  So these would mostly be older people.  All of them would live in a Judicial area of the capital city.  They would of course be accessible to the people, so as not to lose touch.

Just an idea.  This is all if and only if we even decide to have a federal level of government.  After all, we could just do with a figurehead person, which I don't see how we can avoid; and all the states give him input on everything through that more local government.  That would be a much 'leaner' way to run it.  In this connected age, is it necessary to send all our representatives to Washington DC?  Couldn't the individual state level branches of government basically take the place of the Representatives and Senators who are normally sent there?  Going to Washington really separates one from the ones you are supposed to be representing anyways.

I really am warming to that idea.  I still like having a panel of Judges though.  Maybe it's just their cool black robes.  I'm a sucker for neat outfits like that.  Kind of like our own wise Jedi knights or something. 

You know what?  I like the idea of getting rid of the Federal level of the House and Senate, in favor of running a similar system from the State Level.  Do you see the correlation?  All the state House members take the place of the Federal ones, same for the Senate.  These members would have 2 or 4 year terms, revocable by the citizens of their district.  There would be no more recall vote petitions.  I want to change that.  People are too apathetic to jump that moat generally.  I think that in our new tech age, that the state members of the House and Senate should have to go through periodic 'votes of confidence' by their constituents.  If they aren't doing their jobs, then they'll lose the vote of confidence, and they are out.  There will be a short process of picking new people from the districts to go to the state capitol, or represent them virtually even.  That would be even better, that way as a representative of the people, you could live in your district full time, and serve them better.  Maybe only visit the capitol in certain times, like a convention once a year or something, to meet all the other members face to face.  ?

It's good to have leadership.  And at the state level, it is needed too.  I think Governors are a good thing.  Except I want to maybe change how they are chosen.  Governors, should be voted in on 2 to 4 year terms, whichever we choose for the term of our state level reps and senators, should be the same for the Governors, and here's where the timing works.  The Governors, are chosen from amongst the Senators and Representatives; by the Senators and Representatives themselves. 

I had been wondering how the heck a huge state could possibly know someone well enough to have that one person represent them all, and it's just not possible.  It is possible to know your representative and senator, especially if they live in the district full time, and travel around the district diligently to know the people they represent.

So everyone can know their own Representatives and Senators, and supposedly trust them.  So those members in turn can vote for the Governor, from amongst themselves, at the end of their terms.  Then at the end of the term, that Representative or Senator, would move up to the office of Governor, for a 2 to 4 year term.  The Governors of the individual states, must in turn be supported by those same periodic votes of confidence, with the same replacement policy. 

Getting back to the Leader, and figurehead of our country, I think that that person should be chosen in the same manner as the Governors, for the same 2 to 4 year term as them, from the group of Governors.  With the same vote of confidence issues, etc. 

So in that way, we could be represented, hopefully more directly and fairly.  And the system of government could be the same, from the local level on up. 

And politicians, at least from the Representative level on up, could have careers of only 6 to 12 years.  Depending on how long we make the terms of each level.  And that would only be one person possibly having the 12 year career.

I suppose we could even do away with a separate House and Senate for each state, if we wanted to go straight democratic representation.  I'd have to see how the system of checks and balances would work in that case, might still work ok.  Like I'm thinking all along here, in our tech age of connectivity, we just don't need a massive government.  Think lean and mean.  With a little being able to take care of a lot.

Of course, being able to live in district, and having no need to campaign for office, since they are restricted to one term, Representatives could work year round, like a real job, getting more done in a year.  Which would probably be necessary, are they would have to take care of decisions for not just their districts, but vote on issues for the whole country as needed.

Locally, counties in the states could run themselves as they see fit. 

In a way, I'm just moving everything down one step.  Getting rid of most of the Federal level of government, and giving most of that power back to the states.  After all, what is the purpose of having everyone in Washington DC?  Back in the day, it was because we didn't have anything like the communication level that we have today.  I see pooling everyone in one city like that, to be wasteful and unnecessary. 

I know I've skipped over lots of stuff.  But I'm a little excited by this idea of doing the states like this.  I won't pretend no one else has ever thought of it, or that I've never read it.  But it feels new to me, so I'm going to bask in that thought for a few minutes. 

Thank you very much.  :) 

I hope all this makes an ounce of sense.

Next time I'll write on something else.  Maybe Liberty, maybe something. 

Cheers, to smaller government, and less waste!

Essay #1: These Are Your Rights

For the sake of argument, let's say we are remaking the United States of America.  It's been a few hundred years since it was formed, and like all good things, it needs an intensive restoration every now and again to keep going for another few centuries.  Perhaps this was the failing of Rome, that it did not reinvent itself from time to time.

Let's take our countries borders as they exist for now, perhaps later we'll let the states decide if they still wish to be a part of the country, or go off on their own.  I don't think it matters in the long run, as eventually the world will be as one, with what we now know as countries being more like the states that we know today.  Being super connected to one another via the internet and technology has shown how this might be possible I think. 

Start with the basics of our reinvented country.  What are human rights?  Do we want to include them in our charter? 

At it's root, human rights seem to be a human invention.  Without our structured society, human rights are still there, but are less enforceable.  The higher our level of technology and automation goes, the more viable a large set of human rights becomes.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Those are pretty good, for a start.  I think we should keep those, as I'm looking to cherry pick the good from the old system, and only add newer, and to my mind, better ideas.  Someone smart told me not to reinvent the wheel every time I do something.

Life is important, without it, we are nothing.  Our corporeal existence is all that we know on this earth, the rest of the rights become sort of meaningless without it.  I can't disallow for life after death, but for the sake of this discussion, it must be separate.

Liberty is a good concept of freedom.  The ability to do as one wishes.  With the important caveat implied that you don't hurt someone else by doing as you please.  In our modern age, I think perhaps that the ability to leave mental scars should be as important as physical ones.  Liberties should take adequate precautions to prevent them both.  In other words, it's not ok to be mean, even if you don't physically touch.

I realize I'm presenting things simplistically, but I'm but a simple warthog, after all.

The pursuit of happiness.  I like that one, it takes the liberty, and uses it to seek fullfillment in life.  Pretty nice.  I'd like to spring off of it into new territory.

How can you seek happiness in your life, if you are so busy being stressed out over your health, or a loved one's health.  Losing your house because of back payments.  Loss of your job, so you can't afford to take care of important things.  No money.  And I'll get to that too.

Human rights, at least in our new conceptual country for a start, should include the basics of living. 

How can you have the right of life, without the means to support it?  Humans need things to survive and thrive.  Air, water, food, shelter, clothing when necessary; in our modern age the ability to communicate and know what is happening in the world is important, and education gives us the ability to interpret all that we see or want to do properly.

So I will add these things to our current list of rights, maybe as subheadings if you will under the mains.

            Life

                        Air

                        Water

                        Food

                        Shelter

                        Clothing

                        Communication

                        Information

                        Education

            Liberty

            Pursuit of Happiness

You might find it silly to include things such as Air or Water on a list of human rights.  I don't.  Water has often been an issue in our history, and our present.  Wars have been fought over water rights.  Right now some of our states need so much more water than they actually have, that they make deals with other states to use theirs.  Perhaps a common sense practice of living in sustainable areas should be added to our new Constitution?  But I digress.

Just as water is and has been an issue, I can forsee a strange future where Air is also a commodity.  I hope it never happens, but it could.  Check your speculative fiction for a favorite example.  One of the failings of our current Constitution and Bill of Rights, is that it failed to be as forward thinking as we now need it to have been.  The fact that it is a living document is almost irrelevant as the process to change it is now so mired in our current corrupt system as to be impractical.

Food should be a right.  Our farming practices have increased their efficency to such a degree that no one in this country should ever have to be hungry.  Even though I think the efficiency model has gone too far, and is now a little unhealthy; we could pull it back to a little more natural state, and simply apply modern technique for good results.  There would still be more than enough food for our population easily. 

As a right, the food should be provided freely.  I don't mean you can get any kind of food you want, such as junk food.  Sweets can be made from simple staples if desired in moderation.  Twinkies are ridiculous.  Food such as a person needs to life happily should be given out. 

Appropriate shelter should also be a right.  A home to call one's own is an important part of being a happy human.  It's the way we are wired, a safe place to live is really important.  For sleeping, for rearing young, for the pursuit of happiness.  The home provided by your rights should be in a location that makes a person happy.  It's no good to provide a place to live that no person would want to live.  We'll have to figure that part out. 

Clothing is important.  Important for practical reasons of given activities, and for climates.  I'd say the people of Hawaii have no need of clothing, but again you should have the right amount of clothing to feel happy and safe, as those are some basic concepts of our new society.  As an aside, I'll not have laws requiring clothing when it isn't needed, thank you very much.  Some will want to be clothed on a nice day, others will not, I see no need to govern that.

Communication and Information, really very closely related.  I think I envision the basic home provided under these new rights, to have something built into it.  The fantastical do it all terminal of the future.  Phone, video, audio, internet access, etc.  Important for keeping society informed, educated, and empowered.

Education is a right already.  I think we need to make a right to a GOOD education a right.  Growing up is hard enough without having to put up with the bullshit system that so many young people have to.  With the extra time that many citizens will have in our new country thanks to their new set of rights, home schooling will be more possible for many.  That will help.  I don't know what, how, or even if to regulate the educational content everyone learns.  Smarter head will have to think on that.  All I know is that I had to "learn", at least long enough to pass a test, many things that I never, ever used again.  Many things that I do actually need in my life, I don't know as good as I wish I did.  But that is probably due to the niche I've found for myself, and my interests.  Perhaps everyone should learn differently?  Custom schooling for the modern age? 

Well, that's all the rights I have so far under the heading of Life.  If it is starting to sound a little communistic, you are probably right.  I think that the negative baggage that the United States has associated with strong social programs is unfortunate.  I think that many of the concepts of communism are things to strive for.  Much of what actually transpired in communist countries, is not.  In our new country, we must prevent those negative aspects somehow. 

My social theories are wonderfully unfounded in any real way.  I was influenced early on in my life by books.  I'd point you to a couple Heinlein books, For Us The Living: A Comedy of Customs.  And Coventry.  These two books show where I first got my feet wet in social ideas.  They both contain many ideas I think should be incorporated into our new country.  

In case you are wondering:  Yes, I know that the rights I've outlined above are a profound change.  Requiring many many things to work to achieve them.  Hopefully I can successfully touch on them in the future.

I think I'll wonder about the right of Liberty some. 

Cheers, to the Rights of Humanity

Thoughts, keeping me up!

I swear, I'm not going to get much sleep with the old ticker ticking away so much in my noodle.  In this case ticker means my brain, instead of the more traditional heart.  Don't ask me why.

I've been pondering some things.  With the Occupy Wall Street, and the many 'children' of OWS that have sprung up in so many cities around the United Stares, it started me thinking.

First, I wondered what the heck was going on.  I discovered it was many things.  In some cases many people in the group had different ideas that simply complimented other's.  Sometimes there is solidarity of idea.  Some places accuse various groups of not being 'genuine'.  I guess planted movements or protests to push someone else's agenda.  Politics and big business stuff. 

And those are the two things that chafe me the most in our country today.  Politics and big business.  I can't be completely invested in either hatred though.  Because not all things are equal, even when called the same thing.

I work for a 'big business'.  At least I think I do.  The company I work for is in the air freight business, and contracts with other larger companies, and the government for the chance to fly cargo to anyplace on the planet.  The company has, oh heck I don't know, let's say 20 to 25 aircraft, all various vintages of Boeing 747.  Definitely not a low buck operation.  So it seems big to me.  The reason I can't dislike our big business, is that I know the owner.  We aren't best friends, but I've met him, and know of him.  And I like him.  I like what our company does.  Other than the presently unavoidable pollution issue, I don't see what doing our business does. 

Not all big business is created equal though.  I recognize that.  There are the companies that strive for true global dominance in given fields.  They do this to humanity's detriment.  Bribing, destroying, killing, all in the name of the ultimate goal; money and power.  The two feed each other once they are big enough, in perpetuity it seems.

Politicians aren't created equal either.  I refuse to believe that every single one of our elected officials at the higher levels are bad.  Maybe I'm naive, but I can't.  I do have a hard time when a particular Senator will do something wonderful one minute, and then don the horns the next.  What the heck can I make of that?  There is more to the story obviously.  But should there be?  Things should be a little more transparent than that.

I'm tired so I'll get to the point.

This blog, even more than the poetry blog in a way, is my therapy.  It is the voice in my head that I can talk things out to.  I want to try and reason out some of these social political issues.  I hope you will join me. 

I will call these expositional romps "Essays".  Not because they will be really, but it sounds better than calling them Wobberchompers, or something else.  Eh?

Look for Essay #1 in the Warthog's attempt to solve his little corner of the earth's problems, soon.  Maybe.

Cheers, and goodnight.

Hello, Anthony Linck

I met Anthony Linck in a rather strange way.

My wife and I were at the weekly Bridge Street Auction event in Plattsburgh, NY.  It was early 2005, I honestly don't recall the exact month.  We enjoyed the auction crew and their family atmosphere, good people and personalities.  We were perusing all the things that were to be auctioned for that day.  Among them were estate items, as was usual.

The bulk of that day's auction seemed to be photography things.  Quite a variety of things.  There were boxes of slides, all labeled.  Boxes and boxes of prints, of all sizes.  Negatives.  Assorted antique cameras.  And large exhibition style poster sized prints on backboards, most with small title tags stuck on the back.

All of the photo items had one name in common.  A. Linck

At the time, I had no idea who A. Linck had been.  I was impressed for sure.  It was obvious he was a great photographer.  The images that passed before my eyes, as I sorted through as many of the items as I could in the time before the auction started, were varied in subject and location.  Most of the images were pictures of life.  Children playing, neighborhood streets, people doing people things.  Fire trucks, airplanes.  Several groups of action things, like sports, and house fires.  There were others, older ones.  From World War II.  Ships, soldiers, vehicles, warplanes.  It was all things that I loved.

I wished I could have bid on all the things there.  I was definitely coveting all the coolness.

When the auction started, I did bid on many of the lots.  Unfortunately, the lots were extremely large groups of the collection all at once.  I was very disappointed, as I just didn't have the money to compete with the art and antique dealers who were in attendance.  I had nickels and dimes, they had hundred dollar bills.

I did get a few items.  At the start of the group of gallery pieces, the auctioneer did a buyer's choice section.  Where we bid for choice of the prints.  I didn't win the bid, but I was second highest.  Maybe 10 or 20 dollars.  An antique dealer went and cherry picked some of the best images.  Walking off with four or five of them.  Then, I got to pick as many as I could afford, and liked.  At the price that I had bid.  I only had two minutes to rifle through them all, and there were at least fifty of them up there, leaning in stacks.  I chose three. 

Two 25 x 30 print boards, and one smaller 15 x 24 (?).  One large one was an air to air shot of three Mooney airplanes, in a staggered line.  I think it might have been a promotional shot for the Mooney aircraft company perhaps.  The second large one was an aerial shot of Manhattan.  This was Manhattan from maybe the late 1940's.  Very, very cool picture.  You can see where the Twin Towers would fit into the photo someday, I had wanted a better lit version of the same picture, but the dealer had gotten it.  This one is a little more in shadow, but I still love it. 

The last, smaller one, is perhaps my favorite.  It's got the gallery title card taped to the back, it says "Take-off moment on the aircraft carrier 'Leyte'"  It's a tightly framed shot, showing a launch person with his arms in the "take-off" position you see the Navy guys do, just before the jet roars from the deck.  Except this is no jet, dominating the bottom third of the photo, is the nose and wings of an F8F Bearcat.  I know what it is, because handwritten on the back of the board it says "Grumman F8F Bearcat Takeoff, Aircraft Carrier 'Leyte'"  Perhaps half redundant when you have the title tag, but I like it.  I like to think that Mr. Linck wrote that there for me to read. 

EDIT:  I just found out there was no such aircraft carrier in the US Navy.  "Leyte" refers to the battle for the island of Leyte in the Pacific.  The gallery tag is quite misleading!

I learned a little that day about Mr. Anthony Linck.  Not from his obituary, which had run in December of 2004 in the local paper.  But from all the photos he took, all the care with which he catalogued them.  Felt like I had shaken his hand and had a long chat with him.

You can Google Anthony Linck, maybe look under Tony Linck.  In a nutshell, he was born in 1919 in upstate NY.  He loved photography and flying, Mooney airplanes in particular.  He was a Life Magazine staff photographer from 1945 to 1954.  After which he went freelance, doing aircraft and industrial photography.  He was married to a girl named Marie in 1950, who died 9 months before he did. 

It's a long life, and a large pile of photos that I saw that day.  I was saddened that no one in his family had wanted all the things he had left behind.  But that was unfortunately common to see there at the Auction. 

I was glad I was there that day. 

Cheers.  Rest in peace Tony, it was nice to have met you.