Be Thankful For Seventeen-Seventy-six (1776)

 This is for Wednesday, November 22, 2023. But actually, it’s Thursday, Thanksgiving, and I’m down in the man cave.

 The really did start yesterday, though. On the movie rotation came “1776”, which is a musical rendering of the events culminating in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and was produced a few years ahead of the Bicentennial of 1976. Last summer we celebrated the 247^th anniversary.

I admit to having discombobulated thoughts - I've been dealing with Social Security and Medicare and that's enough to drive a saner man than I straight out of his skull. Come six a.m. this morning, or ten minutes 'til, I finally gave  up and gave in to the need for sleep and went back to bed. Then I woke, and we did stuff, and now I'm finishing my thoughts of the day and the season.

Some people who think they can perfect Socialism want to convert a republic into a commune of three-hundred-thirty-odd million people, and all will work for the common good with only such reward as their new government may see fit to provide.

 Hogwash!

 So, find the movie (1776), it’s on Tubi, and also on YouTube movies. Watch it. Some of you of a certain age will see a familiar face or two.

Yeah, it’s long, not quite three hours, full of silly songs (and I like songs). But ignore all that seems silly, and hear the STORY!

It takes liberties with history, as all dramatizations do, but it sticks as close to the truth as it can without making it too dry.

 Make a bowl of popcorn, take a seventh inning stretch and make another bowl of popcorn, refill the Sprite and Fanta, and settle back to watch some history.

Pay special attention to the song sung by South Carolina’s representative regarding slavery (2:05:00), and see how close we came to failing to win a consensus to make the grand attempt. For if the Carolinas had not joined, the consensus would have been lost, and with no consensus, then our bold statement would not have been made, and without that bold statement of us taking our rightful place among the nations, …

 We wouldn’t have.

 What would we have had instead?

 A collection of colonies, subjects to the British crown.

Not free citizens.

And these people tempting us with ‘free stuff’ think they can buy their way into power and control using money stolen from the rich. Margaret Thatcher was correct: the only problem with Socialism is, eventually you run out of other people’s money.

 Good Heavens, people! Think of all that has been done to wrest this nation from careless hands to be held in our own careful hands. With freedom under the rule of law, with checks and balances arranged under the Constitution, with ..

 Did I say ‘our careful hands’?

 I daresay we have become as careless our parent nation ever was.

We spend money we do not have to gift to people who care little for us apart from what they can take from us. We have a segment of our populace who think that work is a four-letter word, who would rather be given bread and circuses than opportunity, and our rulers, eager for voters in their pockets, provide the same. We have a minority segment who would rather do away with free speech lest someone is offended by an improper pronoun.

 So-called ‘Hate’ speech is merely speech you do not like, and to certain people the paragraph above simply reeks of it.

Yet, I have not written a single hateful thing; I have merely stated obvious facts.

 We are a nation of laws, not of prior restraints. Or we were, once. 

We should be free to say what we mean, and mean what we say. If we say the wrong thing, let the right thing be said and have it argued out in the arena of ideas. We should be free to do all that we are able, to use what we can to bless our nation, and our culture, showing our willingness to be ‘E Pluribus Unum’, Of Many, One Unity.

That, our motto, is marked on our coinage and currency, lest we forget it. We are many people, of many ancestries, forming one unified whole. Despite our problems this whole, this body, this nation can be the best nation on earth again.

 Or we can settle, stare at our screens, eat another slice of microwave pizza.

Do we really want to settle?

 On this Thanksgiving we should respect and honor those who planted the seeds of a new nation, thank the peoples of this land who welcomed and supported us, as well as the spirit of the Divine that watched over our young sprout and sapling of a … well, what can we call it but a new community struggling to stand, making use of the resources provided by Providence itself, to form itself a new nation to stand among so many other powers of the globe.

 And this is what some of us in our nation wish to swap for ‘free stuff’?

 Remember those fifty-odd signers of our Declaration, men, no more, no less, who pledged, and I quote: “Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor.” Remember them, and thank them, on this Thanksgiving Day November 23^rd, 2023.

Remember their gift two-hundred and forty-seven years ago of a nation of freedom and opportunity, where you can start from nothing and end up among the stars.

 With the help of Divine Providence (damn, I cannot help tearing up when that bell is rung),

 Yes, You CAN!

Zamizdat, Dance, and White Nights

About a month ago I hunted up a DVD at my local library. They didn't have it, but they were able to borrow it from another branch.

I love libraries, by the way.

Anyway, the the movie was 'White Nights', and I had checked it out because of the dancing. The Bear Cub is a dancer, and had not seen it. I take the opportunities I find to introduce her to dance that she may not have seen. Her preference is Hip Hop, but she enjoys all forms. For myself, I believe the statement that 70's song 'Teach the Children Well' is a good guideline: feed [the Bear Cub] on my dreams and see what she picks.

My many dreams include acting, singing, movement (I tend more to Mime than dance), and the sciences.

An odd mix, I'll admit.

The Bear Cub early on showed herself to be a dancer. Always on her toes, seldom did her heels touch the floor when she was a young child. She enjoyed singing and always being the drama queen. But her first love is dance.

Which brings me to 'White Nights'. The dancing is outstanding, and all too brief. 

The Bear Cub was impressed.

Then there was the story. Without giving anything away (I try to avoid spoilers) the story is about a Russian ballet dancer who defected, was on his way from one dance engagement to the next when the aircraft had an in-flight emergency and had to make a landing in an 'any port in a storm' fashion. That landing was in the Soviet Union, and at a Soviet military airfield. 

Defector reclaimed.

The rest of the movie revolves around him trying to find a way back out of the Soviet Union. See the movie.

Mikhail Baryshnikov plays the role of the dancer, and since he is indeed a Soviet defector and a ballet dancer, this could be considered type-casting. His foil in this story is an American defector, a tap dancer, played by the late Gregory Hines (outstanding in the role).

In accordance to the Law of  Unintended Consequences, what started as showing the Bear Cub some dance ended up reminding me of just how much freedom we have in this country, and how this is being curtailed in the name of security and safety. Even the notion of Free Speech is being infringed in inconceivable ways, making any notion counter to the notion espoused by the mainstream media has to take to alternate methods, almost to the point of becoming American Zamizdat. 

Zamizdat was underground news, opinions, and music, and all things unapproved by the Politburo, passed along by underground means. This goes without saying that it was fought against, by fair means or foul, by the State. 

Is that what we are coming to? I would say: YES!

The Internet, once the great equalizer has become a force of censorship. But it is NOT the government doing the censoring. In the name of 'Political Correctness', posts are being taken down from social media pages, lest they offend someone's sensibilities. Blogs are taken down for the same reason. News is becoming one-sided and editorials pretend to be news stories. And people (those 'wrong-headed'ones) are being banned and muzzled, including a former President. 

To these Arbiters of Thought, it is not enough to simply disagree with these people of differing opinions, These People Must Be SILENCED! They must be silenced for the good of all 'right-thinking' people, the ones who feel unsafe the moment a conflicting thought is seen or heard, the ones who are afraid to think for themselves. And if the counter-culturalists won't be silenced, then they must be destroyed! The force of identity politics is brought to bear.

If an idea cannot stand up to a conflicting thought, then that idea is poorly thought out. If you must resort to such unfair methods to silence your opposition, you are a tyrant.

Don't be a tyrant.

Instead, we must follow Voltaire's example: 

"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it!"

The solution to so-called bad speech is more speech. Put one thought up against the other in the marketplace of ideas and let the ideas duke it out. Fight fair, and may the best idea win!

If you must resort to censorship to protect your idea, then that idea is a poor idea. And don't pull out that chestnut: 'It's not the government so it can't be censorship' line. It doesn't matter who gags you to prevent your ideas from being expressed, it is censorship. If you are coerced into self-censorship, afraid what your peers may think and say, that is censorship. If a government prevents the free assembly of your group to petition our government for redress of grievances, calling that group 'Insurrectionists', that is censorship, . 

If a person or group in charge of providing connectivity and voices to those who have something to say (such as you), decide that some things may not be said, ESPECIALLY on the basis of what that speech is, they are guilty of censorship, just as surely as if they broke into your newspaper's office and destroyed your presses.

Whatever is done to 'unlevel' the playing field, that is censorship, no matter how blatant or subtle.

The movie White Nights wasn't about Dance. It was about the one place in the world that a person could pursue their own path, to be free to choose that path, win or lose, to succeed or fail. Nothing guaranteed, except to have their own expression presented in the arena of ideas. Dance or Diatribe, Song or Polemic, to be able to bring an idea to life, whether it is a building or a statue, or a machine to help complete a task (think bulldozers, welders, even autonomous robots, all helping to build), or to create a new way of healing. Or anything else.

Think of ideas that enable governments, our government in particular, to protect these freedoms. Think of a government that gets out of the way of people 'taking care of business'. Think of the productivity of these people. Think of the freedom to be yourself.

It all comes down to Freedom. Freedom to speak. Freedom to act. Freedom to live unencumbered by unnecessary rules. 

Is the United States of America perfect? No. But nothing is.

Does this country come closest to the ideal of freedom for all? YES. Are we perfectly there yet? No.

 Are we as a nation collectively moving in that direction? I believe we are. But there are some pushing in the opposite direction, disingenuously waving the flag of 'freedom'.

I'm reminded of ants on an anthill: two ants may find something that needs to be moved and they each attach themselves to it. They may head the same direction. Or they may have a tug of war trying to move that item. They each have what they think is the best idea on what to do. And in the end that pebble or morsel of food arrives at its (in the ants' opinion) proper destination. Sometimes it is the wrong destination. Somehow the ants get it sorted out.

We are more than ants. We should not, we CANNOT muzzle one another lest we miss the best ideas. We must not let some ideas become only available as Zamizdat. ALL ideas should be heard, and heard openly. 

That is how we find the best thoughts, the best ideas, by hearing them, letting them be tested in the crucible of true public opinion, not the stuff the talking heads give us.

We must all fight for freedom, beginning with the freedom of voice, the freedom of not being muzzled.

Yes, You Can!

Yes, We MUST!

E Pluribus Unum!

Let's see if THIS blog stays up!

Who Do We Remember?

Is this a field of dreams?


We all have loved ones who died. What dreams sleep with them, that they would have wanted to see completed?

The worst place to start writing is from the position of not knowing what to say to them.

My father lies beneath a modest marker of marble with the shield of a veteran with a dark patina of age upon it, indicating his status as one who fought for this country's freedoms. My stepfather now rests in a similar state, having passed away rather more recently.

Both men gave their best to this nation in its day of desperate need some sixty years ago. But what do the deeds of the past have to do with today?

I mentioned in passing to the grocery checker, as I was dating a check Dec. 7th, 20__, that this was an important day in history. I got an 'Oh?' by way of a reply. I elaborated that Pearl Harbor was bombed and got the reply: 'Oh, well I wasn't born then.'

That startled me. I suppose it should not have, but it did, nonetheless. Nonplussed, I said that neither was I, but we should know about them.

I have stood beside the graves of my father and my stepfather, each of whom fought in that mighty conflict, one in Europe and the other in the Pacific. Each stood in harm's way to repel and conquer those who would remove our freedoms from us.

It is interesting to note, historically, that both Germany (West Germany, before the wall fell) and Japan both became economic forces to be reckoned with, in part because we extended the hand of forgiveness that Lincoln taught us to use: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with power to do what is right, as God gives us the ability to see the right..." We helped bind the wounds of our enemies, having seen what the consequences of not doing so can bring; Hitler's rise to power might still have happened had not Germany been in such economic turmoil after the first world war, but he would have had a harder time of it.

So, what do we the living do now? Do we ignore what has gone before? Or do we do our best to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past?

The future holds a much different pattern than we have seen in the past. Some people say, and not without merit, that whatever the past can teach us, it has little to do with the current present, and the future, both near and far. Yet, whatever our global connectedness brings, people are still people. Singly, and in aggregate, people have their own self-interests and desires; it is ever thus.

I haven't written much in this blog of late, mostly I haven't thought I've had that much of importance to say. I still don't. But the lighting flashes now and again, and I try, in the brief shining moment, to write down what I see.

This moment's flash: learn of the past, the triumphs and tragedies, the loves and relationships. Learn from the past, throwing out the dross and gathering the gold an silver, not to mention the occasional pearl of wisdom.

Interesting; why is the pearl, of all gemstones, chosen to represent wisdom? I believe it is one of he few gems that have an organic origin, being made by shellfish, and one that takes time to create. And, perhaps most importantly, it is what the oyster does in response to something that causes it pain.

It's the oyster's way of making lemonade from the lemons in its life.

What is in the long past that you can learn from? What is in your immediate past? What can you make lemonade with? What can you make a pearl with?

What can you be proud of?

I am proud of my ancestors who wore the uniform of this nation, who fought and won through.

Remember those who gave their best. Remember especially those who gave their all.

Yes, you can!