Politics and power.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of R. E. Driscoll Sr
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2019 3:47 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Monday Morning Mental Musings
Miriam/Carl:
I wonder what motivates Nancy Pelosi.
Richard Driscoll
Sent from my iPhone
On Jul 8, 2019, at 11:31 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Interesting musings, Miriam. And yes, it is the glossing over to make
a point which distorts history. But we all do it to one degree or
another. This is one of the irritants about Mostafa's posts. He
thinks in absolutes, when it comes to religion. But religion is just
another part of history, and *All history is fluid. I might tell the
same series of events several times over the years, and each time
there would be a different slant to "the facts". I keep promoting
Howard Zinn's book, A Peoples History of the United States, and yet I
would be the first to admit that it leaves out as much...or many times
more than it includes
And no matter how objective we try to be, our very involvement in a
discussion declares that we are biased.
But our minds work differently, even though we look similar...well not
you and me, but Us, in general.
Some of us think in black and white, while others are explorers. I
prefer the company of explorers.
Carl Jarvis...one explorer to another
On 7/8/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So first, it isn't just "white elites who hated all those folks you
mentioned. It was also white working class people who hated them. White
farmers and factory workers and fire fighters and policemen. And yes, I know
that the job of the police is to protect the rich and the system. But
nevertheless, they're working people who were also screwed by the system
until they formed unions. Whatever the power elite does, individual people
need to be held responsible for their actions. Those border patrol people
are working people. They make choices as to whether or not they'll follow
orders and their choices have consequences. Remember the Nuremberg Trials?
"I was just following orders", isn't an excuse.
All those people who emigrated to the US to find a better life were lured
here because this country needed laborers. The country wanted their labor,
but that didn't mean that they were considered to be acceptable people. The
Chinese came to build the railroads, but weren't permitted to become
citizens. In New York City, we had the garment district which was where all
the clothing factories were. That's where the Jews and Italians worked when
they arrived here. Remember the Triangle Fire? And it was the Jews who
organized labor unions. There's a huge middle income, federally subsidized
apartment complex on Manhattan's West Side, originally constructed by The
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. I've known several people who
lived there. Blind friends lived there from the time it opened in the early
60's until they died a few years ago. These were co-op apartments and there
were medical and social services within the complex, as well as a volunteer
service for the elderly. I don't know if it's managed to survive into the
twenty first century in its original form.
On the east and west coasts, in large metropolitan areas, the Jews thrived.
People whose parents were working class immigrants, landing on Ellis Island,
ended up living in affluent suburban communities and many became
Republicans.
I suppose I should also point out that German Jews came earlier than the
Jews from eastern Europe and they were more affluent and educated. They
tended to look down on the eastern European Jews. It was the German Jews who
began the Reform Jewish movement which was a very different way of
practicing the religion from the other branches of Judaism. Superficially,
Reform services look more like church services than traditional Jewish
services.
Things tend to be much more complicated in reality than they are when people
write about this stuff in articles, particularly if they gloss over some
facts in order to make a point.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2019 12:07 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: carjar82 <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Monday Morning Mental Musings
Good Monday morning, Miriam and All Brave Souls who dare to face another
week with Uncle Don and his motley gang of Womanizers.
Miriam, you are quite correct in the widespread anger and outright hatred
for Jews, the world around and for many centuries.
My history books are full of Jewish persecution, targeting of entire
communities, and driving all Jews out of one nation after another.
But I was talking about the United States of America, a nation supposedly
settled by persecuted religious groups. But as memory recalls, this New
World, Land of Opportunity to the Down Trodden, did not include invitations
to Catholics or Jews.
But of course, our Fore Fathers began building a Mythical Land, a Land of
Opportunity, where any Man who worked hard and saved his money could rise
from rags to riches...just so long as he was White, and not Catholic or
Jewish.
Of course without saying, this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave did
not even consider what we called Darkies, or Redskins, or Chinks, or Japs,
or Wet Backs and Spics, or Wops, or Micks, or Pollock's and Krauts, not to
mention such enduring terms like Slant Eyes, Mulattoes, and Half-breeds,
only to scratch the surface of the long list of putdowns White Oligarchs
labelled those whom they held in contempt.
When I was a boy, back in the 40's and 50's, Seattle was made up of many
communities. We lived on Queen Anne Hill with the up and coming Junior
Execs. I called our house "the Ghetto" because it was a basic shack of a
box. In 1949 we moved to a "real house" in Snoose Junction, where families
of Scandinavians gathered together, mostly fishermen and laborers. Being
fair skinned, blond and blue eyed, I passed as one of "them". Then there
was Garlic Gulch, Rainier Valley and Renton, Land of Italian truck farmers
and coal miners, along with a scattering of Japanese and Filipino truck
farmers. Just to the South and a bit East of Down Town was China Town(now
called the International District". Almost entirely occupied by Chinese
Americans, but with a scattering of many other Asians. We referred to them
all as "Orientals".
Negros were bunched together on the backside of Capital Hill East of Down
Town, and contained there through the practice of "Red Lining", until they
finally became so numerous that they began spilling South into Rainier
Valley, into the open arms of Slum Lords.
And of course there were all of the little clusters of the Invisible People,
those folks we never saw, or did not even know existed. The very old and
infirm, the Blind, the Lame War Veterans, and those whom we gave names to,
like crips, hunchbacks, Spazes, Idiots, Deaf and Dumb, , and on and on.
I recall walking the streets of Down Town Seattle, block after block without
ever seeing a "colored face". I remember somewhere in the late 40's or
early 50's waiting for a bus in down town. The bus pulled up and the door
creaked open exposing a smiling Black Man! I look back and wonder if he was
grinning because he was a friendly guy, or if he was reacting to my very
obvious shock of seeing a Black bus driver. I had the same transparent
expression the first time I came face to face with a Woman Bus Driver. And
the first time I saw a Black man walking arm in arm with a White Woman, I
stared open mouthed.
And all the time I would have told you that I was not prejudiced.
Coming to grips with that deep, buried prejudice took years to resolve. And
the last prejudice I had to deal with was in another outcast population.
Gays. Without being able to explain where such prejudice snuck into my
brain, I was programmed to give instant angry outbursts whenever I came face
to face with anyone who was Gay, male or female...we didn't know about
transgender, transvestites, etc.
But there we were, bragging in our ignorant ways, about how free we
Americans were, and how we were spreading Peace and democracy around the
world. And our wonderful Propaganda Machine spread lies so thick and
plentiful that they covered the few warnings of their own deceit.
Even though there were warnings, The Silent Spring, The Ugly American, For
Two Cents Plain, and so many other warnings confined to paperback production
and mostly invisible to the average white American.
But the last Invisible People I want to mention are the American Oligarchy.
The descendants of our White Landed Gentry, the men who stood up for Freedom
from Oppression, while refusing to include their woman folk or their Slaves.
The nation was built upon Lies! As advanced a document as our constitution
is, it covers the real America with promises unfulfilled and untruths about
who we really are. And hiding behind the face of, "The Folks Next Door",
the Oligarchy is invisible. But never believe for a single moment that it
is not still in control. Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
It isn't just privileged white Christians who have hated Jews. There's
a very long history of antisemitism which includes peasants in eastern
Europe and Russia, along with working class Irish and Italian kids in
New York City, as well as the head of the US Immigration Service in
the late 30's and early 40's who wouldn't allow Jews to emigrate here.
There were the medical schools with quotas, allowing only a limited
number of Jewish applicants, the fraternities and sororities which did not
allow Jewish students to join.
There were the country clubs and the small hotels and guest houses in
New England where we never attempted to stop on our trips back from
Canada.
There were the public schools with their Christian hymns and opening
prayers at the beginning of Assembly each week. There was the
Inquisition, the mandatory conversion of Jews to Christianity in
Spain. There's America which theoretically has separation between
church and state where Christmas and Easter are national holidays and
there is a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the White House each
year. In Westbury, the Village had a display at the Village Hall of
the scene at Christ's birth and when one of our prominent residents
who was Jewish, finally wrote a letter of objection to our newspaper,
all hell broke loose. How dare she question such a sacred tradition!
It was Russian peasants who participated in pogroms, and it was the
white working class and middle class who marched in Charlottesville
chanting, "Jews will not replace us". You can say that all of this was
stirred up by wealthy people. But I say that it's been part of European
and American culture for centuries.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2019 7:57 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: AddendumF Re: my random thoughts versus
yours
Actually Miriam, what I believe is that there is an undercurrent of
hatred and mistrust toward Jews, by the Privileged White Racists, and
of their sycophants, At times the window dressing is different, and
often it is deliberately misleading. but it seems to me that so many
times, those in power use suspicion and hatred as tools in managing the
people beneath them.
Jews have been a favorite target since Adam and Eve were kicked out
of the Garden of Eden, setting the tone for the treatment of Jews down
through the centuries.
Some years ago a Seattle attorney whose last name was Goldmark, was
murdered along with his wife and two children. The murderer was
apprehended and confessed that he hated Jews. The Goldmarks were not
Jews.
I have tons to say on the subject, mostly conjecture on my part, but I
am about to have an early supper and listen to a murder novel to relax
my mind(grin).
Carl Jarvis
On 7/7/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mustafa,
I'm going to try to answer you, one point at a time.
-----Original Message----- Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2019 3:03 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: AddendumF Re: my random thoughts
versus yours
Miriam, your approach seems to be honest and rather intriguing. I
actually am interested to learn more about your experience. How has
this started?
What made you believe in the statehood of Israel and what was the
shifting point that led you to dispose of it?
I was about ten years old when Israel was created. Everyone in my
family believed that having a Jewish State was a wonderful thing
because Jews had been hated and discriminated against for so long and
because 6 million Jews were exterminated in Nazi death camps.
Everyone believed that we needed a place to which to escape, the next
time another country began doing what the Nazis had done. The people
in my family believed the Zionist propaganda which stated that the
Palestinians were all uneducated Nomads. They never called them
Palestinians. They called them, "Arabs". They thought that they could
easily live in the surrounding Arab countries. I was just a child. I
absorbed all of that. But I grew up. I went to college and graduate
school.
I read a lot. I am an independent thinker. And I have always been
concerned about groups of people who are mistreated like African
Americans and Native Americans, and poor people.
I tend to question everything. I never practiced the Jewish religion,
but I absorbed the values and tradition. Here in the US, Jewish
people have always been involved in social justice movements. They
were active in the labor movement and in the civil rights movement.
They ran excellent social welfare agencies. I've always identified
with that part of Jewish tradition.
In my work, I met people who had lived in Israel and who had visited
Israel, and they described it to me. That was in the 1980's. I
realized that Israel was very different from the way it had been
described by the media and in the books I read. And then there was
that massacre of Palestinians in a refugee camp in 1982 in which the
Israelis were involved. One of my clients had lived in Israel for a
time and she also wrote a novel about it. I realized, from talking to
her and reading her book, that the Palestinians who were Israeli
citizens, did not have equal rights with Jewish Israelis.
In the 1990's, I thought that the two state solution might be the
right idea. But in the mid 1990's, I got a computer and that allowed
me to read a lot more. After the US attacked Iraq in 2003, I began to
see that the people in the US government who supported Israel, were
supporting much of what the US was doing in the Middle East and all
of it was wrong. And then I read a book by an Israeli historian
called The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. I watched what Israel did
to Gaza at the end of 2008. I joined an Israeli email list which was
opposed to Israeli policy. My whole view of Israel and Palestine had
changed by 2008.
It isn’t something typical for someone from Jewish background who
lives in America to dissent with Israel and its brutal practices in
Palestine.
Among American Jews, there are a variety of opinions. Probably, a
majority of older people still support Israel, but not all of them do.
After all, I'm going to be 82 years old, and I do not. Among the
younger Jews, a large number have begun to question Jewish support of
Israel. There are several very active anti Zionist Jewish groups in
the US and Canada. The young people are reacting to the crimes that
Israel is committing.
Do you think that the Nazi persecution in Europe was the key factor
by which Jews have been urged to seek a new land?
Yes, that was the impetus. But in the late nineteenth century, Jews
also emigrated to Palestine because of European antisemitism. Most of
them were secular Jews, but they chose Palestine because of the fact
that Jews came from there originally.
And, to the settlers in the occupied West Bank, what have made them
able to remain in perhaps the most litigious region on earth
I can't explain these people. They are very religious and very
assertive.
Many of them came from Russia where they had very little and felt
unwanted, so now that they emigrated to Israel, they want to assert
Israeli rights over the land. It makes them feel important. The more
educated Jews of European background, tend to live in Israel , not
the West Bank, and they have favored status. They are the elite, and
therefore, they don't have a need to bully people openly.
? Carl, your experience back then has given me an idea how Jews were
maltreated. Is that why their star is so high now in America? Do
European Christians feel somewhat guilty toward Jews that they react
tolerantly toward their enormous atrocities perpetrated in Palestine?
I am attempting to fathom and somehow connect the puzzle. How in the
past, Christians used to despise and persecute Jews and as of right
now, they’re their closest ally. How has this unfolded? They chased
them in Europe and then, helped them establish a homeland in
Palestine. What has changed after the second world war? I hope I
could discern.
I'm not Carl, but I'll answer. It is Evangelical Christians who are
strongly supporting Israel. But not because they have suddenly valued
Jews. Israel fits into their fantasy of "The End Times". They need
Issrael to exist in order for the chosen to rise to heaven. The Jews
will be discarded, along with everyone else who isn't "saved".
Following up your last point, how could the two states solution be
applied?
And about those were born there, they knew they reside in an occupied
territory, even if they attempt to justify and even legitimise their
colonisation.
On 7/7/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mustafa,
There's one point that you made, with which I don't agree. You said
that all of the Jews living in Israel should return to the countries
from which they came. But the fact is that most of the people who
live in Israel, were born there or have made it their permanent home.
They don't have homes to which to return. I think that we have to
accept that Israel exists. But what should happen, is that it should
be changed. It should no longer be a Jewish State. It should be
Israel/Palestine, a democratic country with no walls, no barriers,
and where everyone, Jew, Muslim, Christian, member of any other
religion, and non believer, should be equal with an equal vote. The
government should not be aligned with any particular religion. All
of the Palestinians, living in the diaspora, should be allowed to
return, if they wish to.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2019 1:15 PM
To: 'blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [blind-democracy] Re: my random thoughts versus yours
Mustafa,
I agree with what you say about Israel. And there are many Jews who
also agree with you. And no, I have no relatives living in Israel.
But I want to explain to you that it took me many years to
understand the truth about Israel. And learning the truth and
changing what I believed and what I had thought to be true, was a
very painful process. Jews were traumatized by what happened to Jews
in Europe during the second world war. And they were lied to by the
media and by their governments, about Israel. Additionally, it
wasn't until recently that we have all learned the truth about the
Zionist project to take over all of Palestine. That project existed
since the early 1930's, but it was kept a secret. So what I'm saying
is that Jewish people were manipulated, as were Americans, who were
taught that Israel is a democratic country and an ally whom they should
support.
That lie has torn the Middle East apart and it has turned America
into an autocracy with a democratic façade. But then, most
governments lie to their people, manipulate them, and use them in
order to gain power in relation to other countries.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Mostafa
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2019 7:55 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: my random thoughts versus yours
Well Miriam, I think many Jews around the world have been trapped
into the deceitful notion, that Israel is presumptively the ideal
solution for mass Jewish persecution. I watched various television
series, featuring tales about Egyptian Jews whom had been beguiled
to immigrate to Israel. Laila Mourad is a popularly distinct
Egyptian vocalist and actress from Jewish background. Many including
myself still love her songs and movies. I want to ask you, do you
have relatives who live in Israel? If so, what’s their experience?
Have you ever considered settling their yourself? In my opinion, the
problem of Israel, beyond territory occupation, is the fact that
each and everyone therein is forcefully a soldier in the army.
Furthermore, they constantly build walls, establish settlements
while backed by the US. They do so because they knew they hooked this
land.
Thence, they are somewhat coerced to pestilently confront their
victim everyday.
Furthermore, I noticed the construction of the separation wall or
barrier into the West Bank has substantially been accelerated. So, I
believe that the major crisis has been evidently misidentified. The
two states solution isn’t practical at all. Jews ought to redress
the situation and consistently retrovert to where they were
originally from. Otherwise, the conflict shall remain, probably will
heighten and it won’t ever be solved. The idea of Israel has
instigated Arabs to react vindictively. Jews are despised for
viciously playing the victim role while they relentlessly sabotage
and subjugate innocently civilian Palestinians periodically. Peace
talks aren’t expected to be of any significance if they’re conducted
unilaterally. In addition, Antisemitism verboten has to be utterly
revoked. People must be able to freely criticise what Israel does
without being threatened of losing their job or getting their reputation
dreadfully ruined.
That’s why, the New York Times has been scandalously coerced to
submissively apologise for portraying a political satire.
Nonetheless, when a Danish magazine drew an offensive caricature of
prophet Muhammad, it hasn’t been compeled to apologise nor even
demanded to. The subject is essentially complected. For sure, Jews
are two holy to be criticised in the west, that’s a fact. At the
same time, we aren’t suppose to biasedly generalise. I’d hope that
Jews recognise what the problem really is and attempt to solve it
themselves.
Even those who may not necessarily agree with what Israel does,
aren’t enacting their proposition properly or proceeding it
gradually into the legal arena.
For the United States, Israel is quite sanctimonious. How many time
Israeli war criminals who intently perpetrated white phosphorus
against innocent civilians of Gaza have been brought to justice? How
many time the US sternly vetoed a resolution issued by the UN that
is destined to push peace process forward for the sake of Israel?
How many time Israel’s secret nuclear arsenal has been probed nor
even oppugned? The west and the States in particular must develop
the motivating factor by which they could devotedly interrogate
about what Israel does on that regard. If the States truly cares
about establishing genuine peace in the Middle East, it must quit
arming Israel and start negotiating the proposed departure deal.
What a Jewish of Russian background has got to do with Palestine? I
think what I say makes sense, quite so far. Your opinion Miriam?
On 7/6/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mustafa,
Most people of my generation and previous generation who come from
Jewish backgrounds, experienced antisemitism at some time in their
lives. That is the reason that so many of us supported the creation
of the State of Israel.
Because of centuries of antisemitism and then the Nazis'
persecution of the Jews, they thought that a country, dedicated to
Jewish people, would protect them in the future. Not all Jews felt
that way, but after the second world war, many did. And we were
kept ignorant of all the details of what was done in order to
create Israel. American Jews, at least most of them, believed that
by now, at least in the US, anti-semitism had disappeared. But
after the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency,
anti-semitism, which has been pretty much hidden for decades here, is
now apparent again.
But I don't think about it as religious discrimination. What I
think is that when people, any people, have been taught that their
race or their religion or their country is superior to everyone
else's, there's always a potential for them to turn on other people
who are different from them. If they are feeling frightened about
their own security, it's very easy for people in leadership
positions to turn them against other people.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Mostafa
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2019 1:40 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: my random thoughts versus yours
Miriam, it's so sad that you were disallowed from entering some
places for your religious background.
On 7/6/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Weather? When I was young, in New York, June was sunny and warm.
July was sunny and hot. August was muggy, sometimes rainy,
sometimes sunny, until the end when we would have one or two
cooler sunny days to remind us that autumn was on the way. It has
been hot and muggy for days now. We've had some rain and some
thunder. Back in the old days, thunder storms were reserved for
the end of July and August.
Today is cloudy, hot and muggy, with rainstorms forecast for the
afternoon.
Car trips. We were working class city people with no real need for
a car because New York City had good, inexpensive, public
transportation. But when I was nine or ten years old, my father
bought a car. The first one was a Chevrolet. The color was crystal
green and my very fashion conscious mother just loved that color.
Each summer, we would travel by car to Montreal to visit my
father's family. It would be a slow, rambling trip up through New
York State with stops at various tourist attractions like Niagara
Falls, and back home through New England. There was a wonderful
restaurant called, The Springs, somewhere in Massachusetts, that
we stumbled on one year and where we made sure to return each year.
Two of my father's brothers had also emigrated from Canada to the
US and one year, one of them, with his wife and son, traveled back
to Montreal with us. No rambling that time, just one or two very
long days of riding in a car. But that was the year, I think, that
after we visited the family in Montreal, we traveled to the
Mountains in Quebec Province for vacation. But we couldn't find a
hotel because no one would allow Jews. One place said we could
stay in a cabin, but we weren't allowed in the dining room.
So we kept riding. And then we saw a beautiful hotel on an island
in the middle of a lake. We were sure that since it looked so
fancy, we would surely be excluded from there too, but we thought
we'd try anyway.
Luckily, the owner was Jewish. We were allowed in and absolutely
loved our stay there.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2019 11:49 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Fwd: An Hour with Noam Chomsky on
Fascism, Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, Julian Assange & More |
Daily Digest
07/05/2019
Hi Miriam...and anyone else still recovering from the Fourth of July.
Rereading is probably more related to temperate, as you say,
rather than age related. But I wonder how it is that you continue
to read...or at least skim my posts, since redundancy is my middle
name.
I always figured that I just had a limited vocabulary. Not like
our friend in Egypt!
It's Saturday, July Sixth, and it's raining. All night it rained.
20%, the weather person said. Well Mister/Missus Weather person,
we got 20% five times! It reminds me of the many times we put the
four man surplus Army tent in the trunk of our old Hudson, called
the Family Bus, and tossed in some food and sleeping bedding, and
headed out on a sort of sunny July Fourth, looking to commune with
Nature.
Sometimes we drove down the Coast into Oregon and sometimes we
headed up toward Bellingham. I liked it best when we turned the
Family Bus toward the East, and wound up at grandma and grandpa's
farm in the Spokane Valley. No sleeping on lumpy rocks at
grandma's. Sure, the beds were old and lumpy and sagged to the
middle, but it was dry and hot and beat the rain that was falling
on the Coast.
It seemed to always rain over Fourth of July weekend. Come to
think of it, it always seemed to rain on Memorial Day
weekend...and Labor Day weekend, too. And it was always a fine,
soaking rain.
Mother called it, "Oregon Mist". Then she would add, "It mist
Oregon and hit Washington".
Something I learned early on...well, a couple of things, was that
Four Man Army Surplus Tents are made to accommodate three
undersized soldiers. We had two fairly large adults and three
varying sizes of children. Crowded was a bad joke. It was
impossible to crawl out over sleeping bodies if you had to go out
in the middle of the night...and there was only one compelling
reason anyone in their right mind would crawl out of the safety of
that four man tent, into the wet, clammy, very dark night. And
the other important thing I learned about canvas tents and rain,
Do Not Touch the Canvas when it is raining. Mother and Dad told
us this warning every time we headed out...in the rain. You would
think that the first time we disobeyed them, we would never touch
the tent's canvas roof. As soon as a stray finger explored the
tents surface, a drop of water would form.
And there was no way to put it back. It would draw more water
into itself and then drop...splat!
And another drop would form...
This foolishness always happened, but always over my sisters or
myself.
Never, ever did anyone touch the tent above our parents.
They slept warm and dry while us three kids wiggled and squirmed
while trying to avoid the drips.
One time we found a beautiful valley in Western Oregon, accessible
only by a couple of ruts that went straight down the edge of a
high rock wall and a steep drop off on the other side. We
pitched...or actually we struggled the tent into an upright
position and then began slapping our arms and necks.
We saw no mosquitoes, but little welts began rising up on our
exposed skin.
"No See ums'!" my dad announced.
"You can't see them because all there is to them are teeth with
wings".
After we tired of slapping, we hauled down the tent and crawled
back up that rutty road with the windows all rolled up. That was
another joy in summer camping trips. Old 1938 Hudson's were
roomy, but air conditioning was available only by cranking down
the windows. One trip through Roseburg, Oregon it was 105
degrees, with that hot sun beating down on an all metal car. That
trip we had five adults and Mimi, our small family dog of many
breeds.
Poor Mimi, she hated long trips, but had to go because she had
bonded with Mother. She always threw up within the first hour.
Then she was fine for the rest of the outing, no matter how many
days we were gone.
That is when Mimi became "Our dog", meaning my sister's and mine.
We got to clean the pukey newspaper out of her box and toss the
stinking mess into a waste barrel when we stopped for gas...or had
to put water in our boiling radiator...or add air to our soft tires.
You would think that such memories would guarantee that I would
live deep in the heart of a large city. But something about
heading into the unknown moved my heart and Soul...and moved us
finally to our ten acre horse farm in the wilds of the Great
Olympic Peninsula...where I've never met a tree I didn't like.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/6/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Carl,
There are a lot of young people who read books over and over again.
It has nothing to do with age. I know because of what people
write on the DB Review list. And when I listen to these podcasts,
I'm hearing the same subjects discussed repeatedly, but sometimes
with new facts thrown into the mix. I just don't like hearing the
same words repeated. I guess it's temperament.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2019 9:46 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Fwd: An Hour with Noam Chomsky on
Fascism, Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, Julian Assange & More |
Daily Digest
07/05/2019
Miriam,
It's one of those subtle signs that I'm getting long in the tooth.
I used to read or listen to information, or read a novel, and
never dream of wasting my time reading or listening to it
again...ever!
But in recent years I find myself listening to the same articles
or the same speakers, and actually learning new information...again.
I'm sure that this relaxing of my mental process is not the only
indication of the aging process, but being blind, I never worry
about what would stare back at me from my mirror.
I do chuckle when Cathy and I return home after working with two
clients, and we can barely stagger into our recliners. When we
began back in 1995, we saw two clients in the morning and two
clients following lunch. And we worked five days a week in the
field, not just Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and we wrote our
reports in the late evening.
If I kept that sort of schedule today, I'd last about one
day...and no reports would ever be written.
By the way, I read A People's History of the United States, twice.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/5/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Again, another repeat. I've just learned from experience that on
holidays, Democracy Now repeats past performances. I may be
weird, but just like I don't reread books, I don't listen to
repeat programs.
Happily, I had plenty of podcasts to listen to yesterday and if
there aren't enough today, I have more than enough books. I've
just unsubscribed from my second New York Times podcast. The
first was The Daily, because I didn't like the way they framed
most of the news stories they presented. It felt like a well
planned propaganda presentation. Now, I've deleted The Argument.
The most left wing of the three presenters, is, from my point of
view, just slightly left of the center of the Democratic Party.
They're supposed to be providing a right of center, center left,
and leftist view of issues.
That's ridiculous.
There's a whole spectrum of viewpoints on the left that they're
omitting.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2019 9:50 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Fwd: An Hour with Noam Chomsky on
Fascism, Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, Julian Assange & More
| Daily Digest
07/05/2019
From the mind of our nation's leading elder statesman, to your
ears.
An address from this past April, and an interview by Amy Goodman.
Carl Jarvis
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Democracy Now! <digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2019 13:06:40 +0000
Subject: An Hour with Noam Chomsky on Fascism, Nuclear Weapons,
Climate Change, Julian Assange & More | Daily Digest 07/05/2019
To: carjar82@xxxxxxxxx
Ousted Honduran President Zelaya: U.S.-Backed Coup Destabilized
My Nation Forcing Migrants to Flee
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