Yes, that is what I thought about Staten Island, but I have little or no
first-hand knowledge.
The parts of Queens I am familiar with, the sidewalks are teeming with life…and
you are right, the streets are not always the cleanest, but let’s face it,
Americans are known the world over for being slobs in public places…littering,
leaving their trash, empty cups, or worse, half full ones that tip over and
spill all over the subway or bus, leaving public restrooms in nauseating
conditions and so on. It has always struck me as so paradoxical that the same
people who won’t eat onions for lunch because they don’t want to have onion
breath or take several showers a day can be so filthy about the environment
they share with others.
On Aug 20, 2015, at 3:16 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes, I hope they're still walking in neighborhoods in the city. I'm not so
sure that the streets are clean, except in the prosperous neighborhoods.
They don't walk in outer Queens so much. It's more suburban and the public
transportation is less obvious there. A lot of Staten Island is sort of
suburban too.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alice Dampman
Humel
Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 3:00 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: old farts revisited
when was that? a very, very long time ago, and I disagree that it was
restricted to the white upper class. Many cultures had this or similar
expressions of polite acknowledgement. Hats and the expression are gone,
long gone. It used to be that any devout Catholic man when passing a
Catholic church would lift his hat. I remember my mother telling about the
men on the bus who would do this in a sort of furtive manner, acting like
they were scratching their heads or adjusting their headgear so no one would
think they were sissies or something.
But it is in the city neighborhoods where shops, bakeries, coffee places,
and other assorted businesses are located in a walkable area that we can
hope to find, well, just that, walking and walkable streets. The suburbs?
There's never anyone on the streets. People walk out of their air
conditioned houses where they are isolated from the outside world by their
closed windows and locked doors, get into their air conditioned cars and
drive away. It's like being in a ghost town.
In New York City, all 5 boroughs, well, maybe not so much Staten Island, I
don't know that area well at all, the streets are full of all kinds of
people walking, because the streets are walkable and there are places to
walk to.
There is the crime problem, yes. But those streets and the destinations most
people are headed for encourage walking, and you feel like you're part of a
community of sorts.a community of strangers, each hurrying off in his own
direction, but unlike in the burbs, you don't feel like you're alone on the
planet if you venture out and try to walk somewhere. Many of these burbs
apparently don't even have sidewalks...
On Aug 19, 2015, at 5:09 PM, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Ah, those clean prosperous streets with the gentlemen sauntering
down them,
tipping their hats at the ladies, just when and where was that? For
the
last 50 years, everyone is driving cars, except for the poor and
disabled.
And where are the clean, prosperous streets? In affluent suburbs,
and very
small towns with a wealthy population. The upper east side of
manhattan?
Fifth Avenue and Rodaio Drive? But eeven back when men wore hats,
the
majority of Americans weren't living like that, White upper income
folks
were. Just which America are we talking about?
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alice
Dampman
Humel
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2015 1:18 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: old farts revisited
I apologize, Carl, I'm doing it again, taking one little phrase out
of your
longer piece and taking issue with it.
And, like you, I'm not attacking, well, anything at all, but most
assuredly
not the old fart that sent it.I'm only ruminating about it and where
it
takes my thoughts.and, BTW, like seemingly you and Miriam and Roger
and
perhaps others, I conjure up an entirely different picture when I
say "old
fart," and I proudly count myself a member of my own mental picture,
along
with many of my very favorite people. We actually more often refer
to
ourselves as old curmudgeons, but same difference...
Anyway, the phrase that snatched my attention and set the brain
wheels in
motion was the following:
".where old farts can saunter down clean, prosperous sidewalks
tipping their
hats to the ladies."
So many of us advocates for and members of the working classes seem
to speak
of clean, prosperous streets populated by hat-tipping, polite old
farts and
young bloods with a sort of scornful disdain. But isn't that a
damned sight
better than blighted, neglected, filthy streets filled with trash
and lined
by boarded up, decaying buildings and populated by those who,
instead of
tipping their hats to the ladies, are mugging and raping them,
buying their
sexual favors, drinking or shooting themselves up into oblivion?
Nothing like two polar opposite extremes to drive home a point with
a
sledgehammer , is there? haha So I'll tone it down a bit.still
better clean
and prosperous than run down and neglected and shoddy. To me, even
that
dichotomy smacks of the tyranny of the super rich, the ruling class
who
wants to have the clean prosperous streets for themselves and wants
to keep
the rest of us living in squalor, in inferior housing, badly
constructed,
badly designed, sometimes even dangerous.
What I would want for all, rich and poor alike, are, within the
reasonable
parameters, clean, prosperous streets filled with people who are not
preying
on each other, neither economically, spiritually, mentally, not in
any way
preying on each other.
There's more to this than pure economics.
It's the oppression, the soul-deadening, mind-numbing grinding down
of the
person that is really at the root, and sometimes I think if we focus
only on
economics, we lose sight of the real core of the ruling class's
dictatorship.maybe the money is more a means to that end?
alice
I
On Aug 19, 2015, at 10:56 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
First, my thoughts are directed toward the posted piece, not the old
fart who posted it.
On first reading, posts such as this seem innocent enough. They
speak
to that Never-Never-Land, the Once Upon A time America, where all of
our finest values are the Law of the Land, and badness does not
exist.
It is the Norman Rockwell World, the one that we all dream of, but
it
never existed. Well, all of us White, Working Class Americans
dream.
If you look around Norman's world, it is the Land of the White Man.
This composite of the perfect American Elder sets forth our most
cherished image of who we believe we Old Farts are.
Yet it was the old fart generation that brought us to where we are
today. That old fart and the old fart who went before him. All the
way back to those old farts who, as young farts cleansed the Land
that
God had promised, and built this great, White, Christian Land, where
old farts can saunter down clean, prosperous sidewalks tipping their
hats to the ladies. And on Sunday mornings we can hear them
singing,
"Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to War"...
No, we old farts have dirt and blood on our hands. But so long as
we
deny it, we do nothing to resolve our growing crisis. The end of
civilization. And if this be civilization, perhaps it is better
that
the world...or what will be left of it, be given over to some new
life
form.
Our great experiment, our so called civilization is like a deep
wound
that has scabbed over. We look at the scab and say, "It is good",
but
the infection and pus continue festering and growing beneath that
protective cover. Until we deal with that deep infection within our
civilization we will continue on this death march. Since the first
Europeans set foot on the "New World", our progress has moved us
further and further away from a civilization where we live within
our
world, to one that must expand at the expense of the Planet's
limited
resources. So we go along playing this game of denial, absolving
ourselves and our Forefathers of any blame, ignoring the growing rot
within our misconceived Land of Plenty, and pretending that there
really is a Santa Claus and an Easter Bunny.
And all the while we pretend that we are Blessed because God is on
Our Side.
If I were God, I'd be rethinking that one.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/18/15, R. E. Driscoll Sr <llocsirdsr@xxxxxxx> wrote:
All:
May I comment to the effect that my contribution is not to
be modified
in any manner, shape or form!
R. E. (Dick) Driscoll, Sr.
On 8/18/2015 7:59 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Actually, Dick's message got it's heading mixed with
the one that
goes: Definition of a confused gentleman.
While us Old Pharts do many of the same gentlemanly
things described
in Dick's post, we honest and true old Pharts are
not the
soppy-brained, slack-jawed, mindless Casper
Milktoast's portrayed in
the tribute.
Real Old Pharts are crusty, out spoken fellows who
have been awake
enough years to know when the Bullshit is being fed
to them.
These sentimental bits of prose are fine for
Mother's Day cards, or
for grandpa's 100th birthday, but they do no real
justice to their
topic by glossing over, "The Rest of the Story".
Carl Jarvis
On 8/17/15, Roger Loran Bailey
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I thought I was an old fart until I read
this. Looks like I would be
excluded.
On 8/17/2015 10:49 AM, R. E. Driscoll Sr
wrote:
Good Morning Monday! Hope this
helps start the day with a smile.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Subject:* Old Farts
I never really liked the terminology
"Old Farts"but this makes me feel
better about it.
And if you ain't one, I bet ya you
know one!
I got this from an "Old Fart" friend
of mine!
*_OLD FART PRIDE_*
I'm passing this on as I did not
want to be the only old fart
receiving it. Actually, it's not a
bad thing to be called, as you will
see.
* Old Farts are easy to spot at
sporting events; during the playing
of the National Anthem. Old
Farts remove their caps and stand at
attention and sing without
embarrassment. They know the words and
believe in them.
* Old Farts remember World War II,
Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal ,
Normandy and Hitler. They
remember the Atomic Age, the Korean War,
The Cold War, the Jet Age and
the Moon Landing. They remember the
50 plus Peacekeeping Missions
from 1945 to 2005, not to mention
Vietnam .
* If you bump into an Old Fart on
the sidewalk he will apologize. If
you pass an Old Fart on the
street, he will nod or tip his cap to
a lady. Old Farts trust
strangers and are courtly to women.
* Old Farts hold the door for the
next person and always, when
walking, make certain the lady
is on the inside for protection.
* Old Farts get embarrassed if
someone curses in front of women and
children and they don't like any
filth or dirty language on TV or
in movies.
* Old Farts have moral courage and
personal integrity. They seldom
brag unless it's about their
children or grandchildren.
* It's the Old Farts who know our
great country is protected, not by
politicians, but by the young
men and women in the military
serving their country.
This country needs Old Farts with
their work ethic, sense of
responsibility, pride in their
country and decent values.
We need them now more than ever.
*Thank God for Old Farts!
*
Pass this on to all the "Old Farts"
you know.
I was taught to respect my elders.
It's just getting harder to find
them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avast logo <http://www.avast.com/>
This email has been checked for
viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com
<http://www.avast.com/>
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus
software.
http://www.avast.com
