EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

HOUSING

The New York Times featured an interesting guest editorial this morning by an economics professor. It was a "we can build our way our of it" solution to the affordable housing crisis by someone who has probably never attended a planning commission meeting. He says that zoning and bureaucracy are significant obstacles blocking our way.

I call, “Bullshit.”

 I can name a half-dozen cities in our state that have the land and utility capacity and would approve vast "Levittowns" tomorrow. Assuming some sort of construction "Deus ex Machina" miracle that suddenly lowered material and labor costs, the projects could be built quickly and with minimal red tape.

So why not?

Just check the racial composition of those cities.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

SACREDNESS

Well do I remember my visit to Arlington National Cemetery and associated spots. I always found it a bit historically delicious that we took the grounds from a slave owner and the bride of America's most beloved insurrectionist.

The tour even allowed me to look into the room where Robert E. Lee made the historic decision to turn his back on the country that bred him, nourished him, employed him, and rewarded him. In a few weeks, I'll once again stand on the spot where he once ordered over 13,000 men to make an uphill assault against the United States Army in an effort to preserve slavery.

Back to Arlington and the cemetery. To stand before the burial site of John F. Kenned was moving. My most vivid memory, however, was when, while waiting for the tour to continue, I turned and saw the tombstone of Audie Murphy.

If you are under the age of 40, you may not recognize the name. He was just an ordinary man from an ordinary place in the state of Texas. When World War Two broke out, he sought to join the military and was denied admittance by some branches due to his size and age. The United States Army took him. The sent him to Europe where he became America's most decorated soldier of the war.

The medals he earned included the Congressional Medal of Honor. Yes, that's the one Donald Trump said wasn't as worthy as the civilian one he gave to a big political donor.

Yesterday, Donald J. Trump desecrated this consecrated spot for political purposes. His backers now defend the desecration.

On the day of my visit, the tour ended with a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, perhaps the most sacred spot in America. The slightest indication of disrespect at this spot draws unimaginable castigation.

Does it bother me to think that Donald J. Trump is not above invading this holy place for a political op?

Yes, it bothers me a great deal, but it would not surprise me at all. I can seem him in my mind stopping the marching guard and turning him toward the cameras, a fake smile covering his orange face.

What bothers me more is that I know a score of people whom I once considered caring, respectful, and patriotic who would still vote for him if he did.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 SACRIFICE

 Folks, I am a veteran of the United States Navy. I served one year in Vietnam and the rest on a Navy vessel. I didn’t join the Navy because I sought adventure. I joined because the Draft Board told me that one more address change and they would send a squad for me. I picked the Navy because I loved it more than the others.

I entered a bitter enlistee and emerged one who loved both America and the Navy, despite the fact that many Americans didn’t love me. I know how it feels to be despised for your service.

I entered a profession and immediately became aware of the sacrifices I had made. Peers who never served had good jobs and let me know about it. My own brother-in-law told me that secretaries at the paper mill where he worked made more money than I.

But I progressed. So did my country. So did the attitude toward me and my brother and sister veterans.

Then.

I was disappointed when a major political party dishonored the service of Max Cleland who went to Vietnam with four limbs and returned with one.

I was dismayed when a major political party dishonored the service of John Kerry who drove river boats in the treacherous waters of Vietnam.

I was disgusted when a major political party dishonored the service of John McCain who spent six years in a brutal prison as a result of serving his country.

I was despondent when a major political party deemed me a “sucker-loser” and dishonored veterans who wore their country’s highest honor for bravery and sacrifice.

Now, I live in a state where not a single constitutional office holder deems my service honorable. This includes the service of those who served before, after, and with me, including those more than 50,000 whose names fill the most famous wall in Washington.

Does it make me want to give up?

Nah, it’s just, as someone once quipped, “Déjà vu all over again.”

It makes me want to serve. The old uniform wouldn’t fit, but this old Bosun’s Mate can still tie a clove hitch. It was once called the king of knots for its ability to hold when needed in a tight spot and released when needed elsewhere. In fact, a high accolade for a sailor ran, “He’s all in a clove hitch.”

I’m going to whip a hitch and join the ride. Come on along. I’ll tie one for you too. They deserve it.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 COACHES

 Thinking about football coaches. Never sell one short.

Some years ago, I was sitting in the lobby of a real estate office in a mid-sized Arkansas town waiting to see the owner about his current development plans. A man entered and walked through the lobby and the sight shocked me. Later I told the owner, “That man looked like our old football coach Marcus Kaufman.”

“Yep.”

“Really?”

“Our top salesperson.”

“He was our football coach and math teacher for years.”

“Sells real estate now. And does he ever."

It was true that he had been a coach. Legendary ain’t the word. Rumors abounded. A prevalent one had him flying a fighter plane in WWII. An adjunct rumor had him shot down, an incident that left him with an uncontrollable tick when he got excited. He had two modes: telling you to do it and telling you how you did. He once gave my sister an A+ on her report card and scribbled a note to my parents saying he was sorry it couldn't have been higher. How would you like to carry that on your shoulders through High School?

“Your top salesperson?”

“He is great with young folks. He shows them several houses and when they opt to see another, he stops the car and tells them they have seen enough and they need to pick one so they can get settled in and start their family. Works every time.”

Never sell a teacher short. I think Coach Walz said that.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 DEBATES

There are things about the telecasting, nationally, of so-called presidential "debates" that bother me. Yes, first and foremost is the fact that they aren't debates at all. They don't even resemble the classic confrontations of Lincoln and Douglas. In fact, it is hard to say of what they actually do remind one.

Best analogy I can think of is a verbal confrontation between Hulk Hogan and Jake "the Snake" Roberts.

Then there is the fact that some people simply appear more likeable on TV. Back during the start of modern debates, people hearing "Kennedy v. Nixon" on the radio tended to grant Richard Nixon the nod of success. Those watching on TV picked the young and vibrant John Kennedy over the sweating and unshaven Nixon.

Then there is the lack of discipline imposed by the producers. This is, after all TV. These events are not designed for information, much less for decision-making. They are designed for ratings-making. Producers jump for joy when an unmanageable bully like Donald Trump treads all over the time allotted to a policy-wonk, and female, like Hillary Clinton. "Eye-God, he showed her" or something like that dominated the headlines.

Then there is the fact that the aftermath, the denouement, the score in effect, is managed by the pundits. Say two debaters perform miserably. Reports of that won't sell. Pick one as "the loser" and let the public decide through some form of mental subtraction, that the other was "the winner."

Above all, though, is the issue of expectations. Take the Bush Jr. v Gore debates. All the former had to do was not say "I haven't a clue" and remember who the president of Mexico was, and he achieved Mt. Everest-sized accolades. Oh, and poor Al Gore sniffed more than once. When one has the Supreme Court of the United States in his corner, the achievement of expectations falls in importance.

Now we have an upcoming debate in which the following standards exist. Achieving them all will gain a resounding worldwide claim of victory for one of the contestants:

CONTESTANT ONE:

Outline a clear plan for world peace. Outline a clear plan for establishing an economic system that is equally fair and equitable for all, Outline a clear plan for solutions to nagging problems such as supply-chain delays. Solve a major immigrant problem caused in great part by Americans' penchant for illegal drugs from South America. Reduce grocery prices while on stage. Appear like the kindly neighbor down the street. Convince all under 40 years of age that this is the contestant with whom one would most like to share a beer or two.

CONTESTANT TWO:

Make it to the podium without wetting himself on national TV.

One suspects that the pundits have already written their reviews. 

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 LIES

 David Letterman once commented that, in a professional wrestling match in New York City, one participant beaned another with a metal chair, creating all sorts of blood, and requiring officials to rush the recipient to the hospital.

“And there wasn’t one word about it in the New York Times this morning.”

It is that way with election news these days. One candidate simply stands before a microphone and spouts lies.

And more lies.

And more lies.

And more lies, each easily disclosed with a few computer strokes.

Over time, they become more bizarre and, well, weird. They tell of crowds that don’t exist, or do, of economies that were the greatest in the history of the world, of imaginary crime rates, of dangers far from imminent, and mostly just plain, unadulterated, out-of-this-world bullshit.

And the press treats them like the rantings of a Hulk Hogan or Jake the Snake.

“It’s just him,” the say. Whatcha gonna do?”

For one, we might remind ourselves that this is the person who seeks the most powerful job on the planet, one that makes Oprah Winfrey sound like a street corner preacher.

In other words, it is a serious matter. That red phone sits on the desk in the office he seeks.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 BOLDNESS

A popular sci-fi series in America included, in its introduction, “…to boldly go where no one has gone before.” That serves us well, we think, as a guiding principle.

Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well.

Two United States generals during the Battle of Gettysburg, Sickles and Barlow, didn’t like where their units were deployed so they moved boldly into new positions they liked better.

Both created havoc that decimated their commands and almost cost the Union the battle.

One of Ernest Hemingway’s most popular novels, “The Old Man and the Sea,” features a man who ventured too far out to overcome disappointment.

The magnificent edifice of Mount Everest is littered with the frozen bodies of those who wanted to boldly go where few had gone before.

Custer certainly learned a lesson.

And then there was the time America told France, “Don’t worry, step aside and we’ll settle these pesky Vietnamese down in a few months.”

On the other hand, we could list countless examples where boldness carried the day, the spirits of those still haunting the beaches of Normandy would demand it of us as would those who stormed Missionary Ridge under the leadership of the man who boldly led America into passage of the Emancipation Proclamation. But his life ended at the hands of one who no doubt saw himself as the boldest person who ever lived.

Where does boldness end and idiocy begin?

We must decide, each for ourselves. In the meantime, does compromise work?

It gave us Medicare.

It saved our economy several times over the last few administrations.

It gave us the United States Constitution. Yes, a flawed document, but one that has gained strength over the years, and is held in awe throughout the world.

Public administration examples suggest that too much boldness can result in bankruptcy. To little boldness can result in a rusted polis.

Things seem to work best with healthy doses of each.

Just some thoughts.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 SERVICE

Best I can remember, it was in late summer of 1973. The crime? We both skipped work to stay home and watch a full day of the Senate Watergate hearings on television. Former Richard Nixon aide John Ehrlichman was testifying. The terms riveting and spell binding don’t even begin to describe the effect. The future of our country stood on one of those dangerous precipices of history. You know the feeling—where we are now.

The high point of the day was when the late Senator Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye, one of the committee members forgot that his microphone was live after Ehrlichman finished his testimony. As people began stirring, Senator Inouye, a decorated World War Two veteran of the famed Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, leaned back and said, “What a liar.”

As an aside, having lost an arm in combat, Senator Inouye was a perfect example of the kind of hero that modern conservatives and evangelicals would demean and denigrate for his service, a clear sign of our sailing into the abyss.

Just ask Max Cleland, John Kerry, or John McCain. Or, we can check yesterday's headlines.

Now, as they say, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” We can almost see the venom dripping from the fangs of those who would disparage a man’s 24 years of service in uniform for political gain.

As one who grew up not long after World War Two ended, it is difficult, very difficult, for me to accept a veteran’s service to America as a negative wedge issue.

In the springtime of my adulthood, after the winter of my own military service, I often wondered how some people could hate a veteran. I suppose it is easier if your cult tells you to.

The lure of the Kool-Aide is strong with these people.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 WORDS

My friend from another galaxy, the Alien C. W. still drops by to see me from time to time. Here is what happened today as I was trying to understand our modern times.

C.W. often becomes confused by our language so so I was scarcely surprised when he showed up at my door dressed as a monk. He smiled and raised his hand in a gesture of forgiveness as I opened the door.

“Sed do absolutionem, fili mi,” he said.

“Get the hell out of the hall before someone sees you,” I said.

He looked confused.

“What is this ‘hell’ that I can remove from your corridor?” he said.

“Give me a break,” I said as I ushered him in.

“How does one ‘give’ an act of forcing a division?”

I grimaced. He sat and arranged his monk’s robe carefully before speaking.

“I have been learning Latin,” he said.

“Marvelous.”

“Your modern English derives largely from that forgotten language, I understand.”

“Quite so.”

“So why all the confusion about word order?”

“Confusion?”

“Yes. In Latin, if one combines the words ‘house’ and ‘cat’ the order would make no difference.”

I thought for a moment, then said, “You have a point there.”

“And the combining of two innocent words for off-pigment purposes is beyond my understanding.”

“How so?”

“For example, you take a valid term used to describe a prolonged period of high winds.”

“You mean ‘a blow’”?

“Yes, my son.”

I ignored him.

“And then you attach to it the term used to describe what one does for a living …”

“That’s quite enough,” I said. “My wife is sleeping in the back room.”

“Speaking of your wife,” he said. “I have heard her on occasion use a term that I find particularly baffling.”

“And that is?”

“She refers periodically to a “Sin Erase Date.”

“Yes.”

“And that means?”

“That refers to the date that a politician with a checkered personal life uses to pinpoint the exact moment when he or she embraced a religious dogma.”

“I don’t understand.”

I explained. “That is the date before which one cannot question the politician’s past since, at that time, he or she ‘found religion’ and was absolved of all previous bad behavior.”

“Sort of a ‘Get out of Hell Free’ card?”

I smiled. “Sort of.”

“Does your so-called ‘news media’ fall for it?”

“Ask George W. Bush.”

He sighed. “I see.”

“Has this been any help?”

He went into repose as I continued with the headlines.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 THE MARKET

Woe be unto the one who attempts to predict the stock market. I’m not aware of anyone who has done that persistently and successfully. A woman did predict the market fall in 1987. She promptly rose to prominence and more quickly fell into obscurity.

Truth is, the stock market can’t really be predicted on any form of reality. It is gambling. Gambling. Big players simply play the hand that is dealt them. Those big players include people who manage mutual funds. They rarely beat the market.

Ironically, there is even an approach called “contra-investing.” It simply bets against the congregate opinion of market gurus.

One who watches the market can easily become confused.

One day, an increase in employment “scares the market” because of inflation fears.

One day, an increase in employment leads to a market rise based on a stronger economy.

One day, an increase in treasury rates “scares the market” because of reduced corporate productivity.

One day, an increase in treasury rates leads to market increases based on more discretionary spending based on higher earnings for fixed-income investors.

Fact is, they don’t know. But “lemming-like” behavior is what truly influences the market. This is behavior more pertinent to gambling than reality.

Couple this with the fact that too many corporations place making their executives and stockholders rich as more important than providing a product designed to make things better. That leads to the most common ploy involved in seeking economic health: Tax cuts for the wealthy. The same basic thought process leads to cities allowing the rich to wall off their subdivisions, while receiving full municipal benefits, as the ultimate method of handling crime.

For the average American, history suggests that stability is the most important force in a healthy economy.

That is the last thing the gamblers want.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 FACTS

This week, we learned that Russia had released American hostages not through negotiations with the current administration, but because of fears that Donald Trump might be elected and negotiations would get tougher. Was this a case of “anticipatory conciliation?”

Might we then say that the economy is doing well for the same reason? As the Alien C.W. once pointed out, “In the new conservative paradigm, “Facts are of no use until one fits them to a pre-arranged set of claims, beliefs, myths, viewpoints, or religious dogma.”

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 SCIENCE

My life has turned out to be an interesting one. I’ve seen things my great-grandparents couldn’t have imagined. One example comes to mind.

A particular horror of my youth was polio. According to theMayo Clinic, “Polio is an illness caused by a virus that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. In its most severe form, polio can lead to a person being unable to move certain limbs, also called paralysis. It can also lead to trouble breathing and sometimes death. The disease also is called poliomyelitis.”

In school, we suffered through films featuring youngsters like us confined to “iron lungs” that allowed them to breath despite the ravages of polio. Epidemics would spread through our world on occasion and the fear would come home, even into our kitchens. Someone told mothers that a test for early stages of polio would be to place the child face up on the kitchen table, the head hanging down over the edge. When instructed to raise the head to be even with the body, failure to do so was a sure sign of polio.

It's impossible to explain the terror that accompanied that simple command, “Now raise your head.”

Let us give thanks to science. Again, from the Mayo Clinic “A vaccination effort throughout the world has led to only a small number of cases to occur around the world in recent years. But poliovirus still spreads within areas with low vaccination rates.”

Science also gave us penicillin, antibiotics, x-rays, plastic surgeries, clean water, weather reporting and countless other benefits of modern life.

Sadly, in my state, we have applied the brakes to such progress. As I said, I’ve led an interesting life. Two college degrees, four years of military duty, a marriage in its 53^rd year, and a long career as a fairly well-respected professional brought me to a comfortable retirement, well … a comfortable semi-retirement. I still putter.

After all this, my family’s tax dollars go to schools that teach young Americans that science is not only suspect, but also false, and even evil in the sight of imaginary deities.

A White House spokesperson even coined the term “alternative facts” to justify lying to the American public and threatened loss of access to reporters who didn’t accept them.

Powerful groups, aided by media nonchalance are undermining the use of vaccines such as the ones that have diminished the horrors of smallpox and polio.

It is possible now for a child to complete college believing that the universe is no more than 6,000 years old and science that eliminated polio is the work of some imaginary demonic force.

I've lived and interesting life but not always one that made a lot of sense.

The Evangelical's Dream

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 CHANGE

Events of this week have touched me to and amazing extent. First of all, they demonstrated once again how wrong I could be.

Yes wrong.

I had avowed that the drag on one political party was the thought that a mixed-race Californian as a vice-presidential candidate would be come president sometime before 2029. America wasn’t ready.

Seems I was wrong.

So what happened?

I’m thinking the events caused some sort of cosmic shift in our national psyche. That happens, often negatively. Look at what happened in my part of the country when America elected an African American president. Bigotry didn’t simply emerge as valid political weapon. It exploded like a dormant volcano.

No, this enervated something good and decent in our genetic banks. Maybe America was tired of the sight of two grumpy old men dominating the media and our national psyche.

Sometimes we just want to see the image of what we think America needs. I think it happened to some extent with the emergence of Ronald Reagan as a presidential candidate. After the nightmare of the Nixon debacles, America longed for a kindly old uncle, or at least an actor who could play one.

Too late we discovered that our kindly old uncle wasn’t averse to taxing Social Security payments so the rich could pay less taxes.

But now.

Now I think we want to see a fresh face of decency. We remember civility. We remember love of country. We remember respect for our military personnel. The so-called “suckers and losers,” along with their friends and families, longed for some sense of decorum.

At any rate, the news has shaken things up. One can tell by the reaction of the opposing party. I longed for an apt description. I searched and researched my memory.

Finally it came, attributable I think to Henry Miller in his Tropic of Cancer:

They are sh*****g arpeggios.

Yep.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 POPULARITY

One hears it often during this political season in America: “I don’t like either candidate.”

That’s all. No policy analysis. No review of historical records. No consideration of past actions. No prediction of future implications. No educated guess about what either candidate might do to hurt or help the people of America if elected.

Just, “I don’t like either candidate.”

The election of a president of the United States of America might be likened to a taste test of two sodas. 

Elections have more potential consequences.

Germany had an election in 1933. It’s very likely that a majority of Germans didn’t like any of the candidates involved. Perhaps many stayed home.

The Brownshirts didn’t.

In 1945, General Dwight David Eisenhower, head of the allied troops in Europe, forced the people of selected villages in Germany to march past the final result of the 1933 elections. The programs and intentions that brought about these results had been spelled out very clearly in a 1925 manifesto that sold over 12 million copies, including a braille edition for the blind.

People had known.

How many people in these sad lines do we imagine might have been thinking, “But I didn’t like either candidate?”

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 DANGER

Some years ago I read a scientific treatise stating that we have a genetic trigger withing us that alerts us to danger. This made sense. When we roamed the savannah, danger, immediate and unforgiving danger, lurked everywhere. After the old and weak, the overly complacent probably found themselves eaten next. One might even say stress was good. Maybe it still is, within certain boundaries.

The piece, more interestingly, stated that the genomic trigger still activates when all seems safe and calm. Perhaps it is there to tell us that seeming safety is the most prevalent forecaster of danger. In other words, when all seems safe and secure, that's the time to be most alert. Ever know any of these feelings?

• Something just didn't seem right.
• I had this feeling something was wrong.
• It was too quiet.
• Some sixth sense told me to be careful.
• I felt as if someone was watching me.
• What had I done to make everyone suddenly start acting so nice toward me?

Perhaps we shouldn't be so critical of a little stress in our lives. I say, "a little" for when genetic triggers suffer negative mutations, chaos can result. Responses can seize and direct us when there are no modern-day lions and tigers in the vicinity. What is even more alarming is that scheming people and institutions can use these triggers to generate responses, to accomplish their own ends, within those willing to listen without reasoning. Whether danger exists or not, we mentally stand ready to take action.

When that goes to an extreme, we don't simply plan a safer route through life, we climb onto a building and start shooting people.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 VIOLENCE

The first time I ever saw a dead body that wasn’t a victim of old age, it made an impression on me. It was that of a Vietnamese man of maybe his late thirties. He had been found by a Marine patrol on a routine mission. He hung from a tree on Monkey Mountain in Vietnam on the South China sea. It was an area which I, myself, had covered on patrol.

The noose still hung around his neck as his body rested in a pickup truck bed on our Navy base. It was located next to an enlisted men’s club, so the drunks had a good time commenting as they passed it by.

Our leaders used it as a lesson for caution and strict obedience.

The village next to our base was especially quiet for the next few days.

What caused this death? Who knows?

Was it a warning as to who controlled this barren spot of real estate outside the City of Da Nang?

Was it punishment for a failure of courage?

Was it a warning to other villagers whose loyalties might waver?

Or was it, as I tend to think, simply the remains of a poor being who tired of living in a country that had been at war off and on for over 300 years?

Violence has its collateral costs.

It also always has its adherents.

Today in America, we read of violence again.

Political parties will “make hay” of it.

Special interest groups will frolic in unilateral explanations.

The media will know it has fuel for another week.

All of this will occur, though, while families mourn and America bows her head in shame.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 MORALITY

After reading Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, and related works, I’m coming to the understanding that what we view as moral standards are not based on spirituality or philosophical thought. Rather, they are based on some 200,000 years of reciprocal agreements that help society avoid some of the destructive tendencies created by evolutionary psychology. This includes particularly those tendencies emerging from the instincts to protect the tribe, or group, against other tribes or groups.

This was a hard intellectual pill for me to swallow.

But it explains a lot of things, particularly those concerning how America has become so divided in recent years.

There would seem to be nothing to be gained by such divisiveness as we currently experience other than triggers within our genomes that spark when the tribe is threatened. In the field of mechanics, there are systems that operate contrary to established laws of physics. For example, a current should flow between two identical capacitators. Therefore, when energized the system runs smoothly. In reality, no two capacitators or totally identical, so this anomaly is used to start and stop the system.

Our genomic map has currents that should flow except that primordial triggers can activate when perceived danger occurs.

We don’t regress as much as we revert to systems that meet our archaic mechanisms.

It goes a long way in explaining the Donald Trump syndrome.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 AMERICA

Given the daily news, that so many Americans condone behavior most similar to that prevalent in 1930s Germany, we must wonder. Has something happened to America? It would appear so as a superstar of mendacious conduct controls a cult comprising a terrifying percentage of our people. Many of those had behaved, in all outward aspects, within normal boundaries until recently.

We now seem to have normalized bad behavior. It generates seductive news reporting and thus receives more than its reasonable share. We can’t seem to escape wallowing in its repulsive filth. Some examples:

-          Insurrectionists are heroes.

-          Facts are tools of the Dark One.

--       America needs a government operating on evangelical Christianity.

-          The Sermon on the Mount is banned from pulpits.

All at a time when America is outpacing the rest of the world in most standards of living.

Did something happen that threw us from an orbit of cognitive thought and rational behavior?

Or, some might say, have there always been flaws within our system? Did the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America open fissures that allowed the demons to escape?

We hope not.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 AGEISM

America is dealing with a new “ism” lately. That would be ageism. I never thought about it when I was younger for they always told us that old folks had more sense than we did. Now it seems old folks, that would include me, don’t have any sense at all.

I’ve only encountered ageism once in my professional career. That occurred during a political campaign, and I was doing some work for the wrong candidate. I don’t think the other party hated me as much as she did society at large. She hurled the word “elderly” at me like a Roman centurion throwing a spear.  I didn’t pay it much mind for I spent a year of my life hoping to live long enough to be an elderly anything. In the interim, I dealt with experts, even professionals, in the area of mendacity. Amateurs amuse, more than provoke, me.

I have come to believe that ageing is a remorseless fact, but I’m not sure we measure it effectively. I have young friends, even relatives, who quit learning at the point where logic became binary and facts were only useful when they agreed with emotions.

On the other hand, I have friends and acquaintances, some older than I, whose minds are, as they say down in LA, “sharp as tacks.”

I do think old folks tend to be a bit forgetful and hesitant in their responses to stimuli. I’m not sure that this is due to malfunction as much as to overloaded hard drives. They also maintain an imbedded acquaintance with the "law of unintended consequences." That can slow a response as much as anything.

Stories of achievement by those termed elderly—such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Grandma Moses—counsel against ageism. Stories of youthful folly abound. Think of the Cuban invasion and the refusal of 20-something “me” to buy Walmart stock when his wife told him to.

Why don’t we move away from thinking of age and dwell on policy analysis? Yes, it would be harder, but the results might astound us.

EPIPHANY OF THE DAY

 THE FOURTH

Today is the Fourth of July and it creates competing feelings. First is respect and reverence for an experiment that began as a glorious way of government for a few, one that we have grudgingly expanded to include the rest of its citizens.

Until now.

Next, a sort of selfish feeling of gratitude that I was one of the Americans fully able to appreciate the largess of its democracy.

Then, a sort of begrudging sense of pride that I sacrificed four years of my life in thanks for the opportunities that America provided me.

Also, a feeling of loss as I ponder what the next four years will bring.

And finally, a bewildering sense of wonder as to whether I would have given those four years had I known that so many Americans would someday worship at the table of a cult led by the likes of Donald Trump.