A FORBIDDEN SUBJECT

(A correspondence with a friend about a forbidden topic.)

Good Morning, ,

I don’t much care for the way we communicate with each other, Don, and I can’t imagine that you like it, either. Sure, we may have strong political disagreements but why should that make us so snarky? If you want to continue the effort (and if you don’t that’s fine, too) I hope that we can change the tone. Let’s see if we can really try to understand each other a little better. 

In an effort to do just that, I would love to know when it was that you think your political philosophy started to take shape? And what was it that influenced your thinking? I grew up in a divided home, where politics were concerned, and I thrived on it. Yes, dinner-table discussions would sometimes gravitate to heated arguments but I loved every moment of it. I don’t believe my parents ever thought much about their politics but, looking back, I can tell you that my mother was a born Liberal and my dad was a strong conservative. At that time, I didn’t have any idea of what I was or where I stood. I was just a kid and, understandably, ignorant. But I liked the passion in the discussions. Even as a kid, I knew It was good theatre. 

My brothers and sister and I all ended up in dad’s camp but, for me, that didn’t really happen until years later. It wasn’t until I started driving a school bus, where you spend a lot of time waiting. I grew to hate that sitting-around-doing-nothing time on the bus. So, I got into the habit of filling the time with books. I hate to admit it but I’ve read more in the last fifteen years than I ever did in school. Sad, huh?  I’d pick a subject that interests me, subjects where I have questions or doubts, and pretty much devour books about it. The first subject a tackled was religion, because I wanted to know what were, and are, my real beliefs. That worked out very well for me, so I went on to American History. I’d always been mildly interested in our history but I had never really studied it. Anyway, it was during that time when I developed a real love and appreciation for our country and how it came to be.

 

I am probably boring you to death so I’ll cut it off here. Suffice to say that it was when I really dug into our history that my politics started becoming clear for me.

I hope things are good for you,

Dick 

 

 

MAINTENANCE

Just as the ESB has undergone numerous renovations, so has our government. Emancipation, Sufferage, the Sherman Antitrust Act, Prohibition, the New Deal, Social Security, the FBI, the minimum wage, NATO, Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Ed, Roe v. Wade, NAFTA, Homeland Security...all major movements/decisions in American history...all initiated as responses to changing national/global circumstances. "Change" is not a foreign concept to our country.

Running on a platform of change, Obama won the 2008 election by a decisive margin. If the voting populace does not like the change enacted, he will be voted out in another two years...not much of a run for a Tyrant.

MAINTENANCE  (Part of an exchange with Adam.)

Just as the ESB has undergone numerous renovations, so has our government. Emancipation, Sufferage, the Sherman Antitrust Act, Prohibition, the New Deal, Social Security, the FBI, the minimum wage, NATO, Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Ed, Roe v. Wade, NAFTA, Homeland Security...all major movements/decisions in American history...all initiated as responses to changing national/global circumstances. "Change" is not a foreign concept to our country.

Running on a platform of change, Obama won the 2008 election by a decisive margin. If the voting populace does not like the change enacted, he will be voted out in another two years...not much of a run for a Tyrant.

Ah, something we can agree on! Yes, everything needs to be 'maintained'. But, how does one define "maintenance"? You've given me a long list of programs that, I assume, you are calling 'maintenance' and, though I lay no claim to being an historian, I am moved to comment on two of the programs on your list.    

As for, The New Deal: I was too young and ignorant to know what was going on when I lived through it but I have read about it. It seems to me, now, that The New Deal was a disaster. It was a disaster, that is, if its purpose was to right the ship of state and get us back on track to prosperity. Then again, it was a success if its real purpose was to ensnare more and more people into dependency on government. If that latter was its real purpose, then it was a smashing success, a huge leap forward in the Left's never ending grind toward Socialism.

In most cases, The New Deal did little to solve any real problems and much to create new and bigger ones. Instead of lessoning the pain of a 'bad time', it prolonged that pain and made it much worse; creating what we now call The Great  Depression. (By the way, I loved the book you sent me: "The Worst Hard Time". I never would have read it had you not sent it and it's a fascinating glimpse of the time we're talking about. It didn't surprise me at all to find out that the government was responsible for creating the conditions that created the whole Dust Bowl disaster.)

It's my guess that, without the Second World War, Roosevelt would have gone down in history as an unimportant and forgettable president. Fortunately, for us, he turned out to be a pretty good war-time president. Not all bad.   

As for Social Security: I don't believe any program that needs a lie, to give it birth, should be considered anything but a problem. At the very same time Roosevelt was lying to the American people about Social Security, calling it "insurance", his lawyers were lying to the Supreme Court, claiming it was a "tax". Rather than go further about SS, I recommend you read chapter 7 of the Levin book, "Liberty and Tyranny". He states the facts far better than I can.  

Got to go watch golf. Maybe more later.

 

PS, I loved "Last Night in Twisted River", too. Something about how it ended didn't satisfy, totally, but it was a good read, as Irving always is. I read about 2/3 of Ted Kennedy's autobiography but gave up on it after he made himself sound like a choirboy during the Mary Jo episode. I was older and a little less ignorant when I lived through that fiasco. I didn't expect him to trash himself but, after reading what he writ about that incident, I realized that I need not go any further. I would like to read a Ted Kennedy bio by a good historian, however.             

 

(Part of an email exchange with Adam.)

Just as the ESB has undergone numerous renovations, so has our government. Emancipation, Sufferage, the Sherman Antitrust Act, Prohibition, the New Deal, Social Security, the FBI, the minimum wage, NATO, Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Ed, Roe v. Wade, NAFTA, Homeland Security...all major movements/decisions in American history...all initiated as responses to changing national/global circumstances. "Change" is not a foreign concept to our country.

Running on a platform of change, Obama won the 2008 election by a decisive margin. If the voting populace does not like the change enacted, he will be voted out in another two years...not much of a run for a Tyrant.

Ah, something we can agree on! Yes, everything needs to be 'maintained'. But how does one define "maintenance"? You've given me a long list of programs that, I assume, you are calling 'maintenance' and, though I lay no claim to being an historian, I am moved to comment on two of the programs on your list.    

As for, The New Deal: I was too young and ignorant to know what was going on when I lived through it but I have read about it. It seems to me, now, that The New Deal was a disaster. It was a disaster, that is, if its purpose was to right the ship of state and get us back on track to prosperity. Then again, it was a success if its real purpose was to ensnare more and more people into dependency on government. If the latter was its real purpose, then it was a smashing success, a huge leap forward in the Left's never ending grind toward Socialism.

In most cases, The New Deal did little to solve any real problems and much to create new and larger ones. Instead of lessoning the pain of a 'bad time', it prolonged that pain and made it much worse; creating what we now call The Great Depression. (By the way, I loved the book you sent me: "The Worst Hard Time". I never would have read it, had you not sent it, and it's a fascinating glimpse of the time we're talking about. It didn't surprise me at all to find out that the government was responsible for creating the conditions that created the whole Dust Bowl disaster. What a great example of The Law Of Unintended Consequences.)

It's my guess that without the Second World War, Roosevelt would have gone down in history as an unimportant and forgettable president. Fortunately, he turned out to be a pretty good war-time president. Not all bad.   

As for Social Security: I don't believe a government program should be considered anything other than huge problems when its birth is based on a lie. At the very same time Roosevelt was lying to the American people about Social Security, calling it "insurance", his lawyers were lying to the Supreme Court, claiming that it was a "tax". Rather than go any further about SS, I recommend that you read chapter 7 of Mark Levin's book, "Liberty and Tyranny". He states the facts far better than I can.
  
Got to go watch golf. Maybe more later.

Pop

PS,  I, too, loved "Last Night in Twisted River". Something about how it ended didn't satisfy, totally, but it was a good read, as Irving always is. I read about 2/3 of Ted Kennedy's autobiography but gave up on it after he made himself sound like a choirboy during the Mary Jo episode. After all, I was a good deal older and a little less ignorant at the time of that fiasco. I didn't expect him to trash himself but when I read what he writ about that incident I realized that I need not go any further. I would like to read a Ted Kennedy bio by a good historian, however.             

 

 

IMAGINARIUM A Concept For Improving Early Learning

 

Assertion: The organ in our body that defines us is our brain. It is YOU, the source
of every thought you will have, the filter through which every idea you ever encounter must pass. It is the environment from which all of your ideas, hopes and dreams emanate. Your brain is your Imaginarium.

And how fortunate it is that the brain is the one organ in our body that we can have a direct influence upon. For good or ill, you will feed it, train it. In fact, you can't not feed it. It will learn, no matter what.  And what you, friends, family and society feed your brain will define the life you will live. At the very least, it will define the potential of that life.

Our brain is born ready-and-eager-to-learn. However, because our body takes so long to mature, we put off training (feeding) the brain for years. Mostly, it marks time, waiting for our body to catch up. Why do we wait so long to start training our most important organ? At root, it's probably because of habit, custom. Because... "We've always done it that way!"

In not taking better advantage of the early years, are we underutilizing the potential of the brain's most fertile period in life? The one time when everything is new, the slate is clean and the brain is so eager to learn?

 

An Assertion and an Observation

I believe the brain is not only born ready-to-learn but it is also capable of learning and solving problems while we sleep. How often have you awakened in the morning with a solution to what you had been thinking about the day before? 

During my years in the Theatre, I discovered that if I studied lines at night, and then slept-on-them, I was much further ahead in the learning process the next morning. And, when I was Producing or Directing a play I found that during the night my brain would, somehow, solve the problems I had gone to sleep thinking about.

Questions

If the brain is born ready-to-learn, why don't we start feeding it sooner?  And, If it continues its work while we sleep, why don't we explore ways to take better advantage of the one third of our life we spend sleeping?            

An Imaginarium Bed  

Imagine combining a child’s crib and a planetarium, creating a place where a child sleeps under-the-stars. Every night.

This bed might be in a tent, with a screen mounted overhead. When the child goes to bed a friend/host will appear on the screen and greet the child:

 “Hi Bobby. I sure hope you had a good day.”

In this soothing, conversational manner the host will then offer an age-specific lesson-for-the-day, the goal of which is to nourish curiosity and to impart basic educational tools. For the very young, this could include:

Learning the alphabet: 

Building Vocabulary: A word might be presented each night and the child asked to think about it and figure out what it means. The next night, the child would be reminded of the word and given its definition.

Mathematics:  In a similar fashion, an understanding of simple, basic mathematics will be imparted.  

Production values would be minimal, like mom or dad reading a bedtime story. Beyond imparting simple educational tools, the main goal of the lessons would be to encourage the child's curiosity about these, and other, subjects.  

The image on the screen would then change to a view of that night's moon and the host would explain why it looks the way it does. The screen would then change to a view of that night’s sky and the host would point out some of its particulars. Then, with appropriate classical music in the background, the child would be left to ponder the cosmos as he or she falls asleep.

 

“It is the structure of the universe that has taught this knowledge to man. That structure is an ever-existing exhibition of every principle upon which every part of mathematical science is founded.”

Thomas Paine

“The Age of Reason”

 

“Something in us recognizes the Cosmos as home. We are made of stellar ash. Our origin and evolution have been tied to distant cosmic events. The exploration of the Cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery.”

Carl Sagan

“Cosmos”

 

Why Imaginarium?

There is something basic about sleeping under the stars, just looking up at the sky and pondering what you see. And it’s an experience fewer and fewer people have, today. If you live in a city you rarely, if ever, pay any attention to the night sky. And, even if you want to see it, light pollution is such that you can see very little of what’s there, anyway.

For most of human history the sky was all people had to ponder after the sun went down. Were they deprived or were they blessed? Consider what they were able to figure out with only the sky to teach them: that the earth is not flat, but round, that it revolves around the sun, and not the other way around, that it is one of a number of planets in the solar system, gravity, navigation, etc.

What are today’s kids losing, or not learning, by not pondering the night sky? What might future generations learn if a keen interest in, and understanding of, the cosmos were rekindled?

OBSERVATION

When not in their own comfort zone, many people, today, (especially young people) seem comfortable only when plugged-in to somewhere else. Distracted by cell phones, CDs, MP3s, etc., they are, for the most part, unaware of the potential of the moment-at-hand.  If this is true, might we be loosing the ability to recognize and respond, face to face, to the potential of the moment? Could this explain why so many, today, depend on the Internet to find friends, dates, wives, husbands?

 ASSERTION

 Nothing is more important than being your own best friend, comfortable with spending time in your own mind. One should always strive to be aware of what’s happening right now, for nothing beyond the moment at hand is guaranteed to us.

OBSERVATION

Kids, today, seem uncomfortable with just ‘being’. When faced with a moment where nothing seems to be happening, they automatically reach for a cell phone or some other device-of-distraction to fill the void.  

If a person needs to fill every silent moment with noise might they, also, find it difficult to spend time in their own mind, thinking, daydreaming, imagining? 

ASSERTION

Creativity depends on imagination and imagination is dependent on enjoying time spent with our own mind.

QUESTION

Could Imaginarium help? Not just by feeding our young brain with good and nourishing truths but, also, by training us, from a very early age, to enjoy the time we spend with ourselves?

What now?

A test to prove, or disprove, this Imaginarium Concept?

How might such a test work and what would success look like?

I believe that if we introduced a group of children to Imaginarium very early, weeks-old maybe, that before they reached the age of five, today's school age, they would:

1. Know the alphabet.

2. Have a vocabulary well beyond their years.
3. Be able to read.
4. Have an understanding of basic mathematics.
5. Understand the solar system and how it works.
6. Be comfortable with classical music.
7. Etc.

No matter how much the children learned during such a test, however, surely the most important lesson that could be learned is that learning can be easy and fun and natural; as if by osmosis.  

 

Dick Mueller

October 31, 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Attempt To Explain Myself to My Kids

Dear Rachel and Adam,

I'm afraid that distance and differences are conspiring to drive us apart. I don't want that to happen and will do anything and everything I can to avoid it. After my last, ridiculous dust-up with Rocky, and for the life of me I don't know why that happened, Pat suggested that I write a letter to both of you and try to explain where I'm 'coming from'.. She has a good mind and makes good suggestions and, certainly, the old fashioned letter offers the opportunity to discuss things without the danger of going off half-cocked. Hence, please consider this my attempt to open a civilized, adult dialogue with two people I love very much. More than love, even, I have great pride and respect for the people you have both grown into. Believe me, when I listen to so many of my friends talk about their kid's problems, and their problems with their kids, it is clear to me just how great you both are.

 Since politics is the scab that keeps getting picked-at:       

 "Patriot":  A person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion."

How un-cool, old fashioned and corny that, from Webster's, sounds, today.

I admit that I have always tended to have patriotic leanings. You can probably chalk-up a lot of that to the boy scout in me. Hmm, "The Boy Scouts". There's another term that sounds square and out-of-date, today. Nevertheless, even though I've always thought of myself as a patriot, it wasn't until the last ten or twelve years that I would have accepted "devotion" as part of the definition. Driving a school bus, however, means that you have a lot of time to kill, and I kill it by always having a good book along for the ride. It's great and it's allowed me to learn a lot of the stuff I should have learned in school. American History, for instance. Maybe you can't have 'devotion' for something until you know something about it.         

 But the devotion I feel, today, is not blind devotion to anything other than the ideas upon which our country was founded. That, and the small group of learned men who were not only capable of thinking about ideas but, also, capable of using those ideas to form a government upon. Until The Founding Fathers came along, no government in human history had ever been formed that was based on philosophical ideas. Ideas like: rule-by-law rather than by man, individual sovereignty, personal responsibility, private property rights, the freedom to think and speak your mind, etc. Before The Founders, it had always been raw power that was used to create governments. And man, instead of being sovereign, was never anything more than a serf, a slave, or a subject. Certainly, never The Sovereign.  

In my eyes, nothing is more precious than freedom. It's a commodity that is, and always has been, very rare, and always threatened with extinction. Hmmm? Maybe that's why man created the idea of Heaven? If I had lived my life without the freedom that I've enjoyed, maybe I, too, would want to have a place like Heaven to believe in. Who knows?

 

Since Mr. Obama seems to be "A Bridge Too Far" for us to discuss, here are a few of my thoughts about the man.

I considered voting for Obama because I didn't care for John McCain. A hero, yes, but a lousy candidate for president. Before the election, I read "Dreams From My Father". Actually, I read about half of it. At that point I'd had enough. I mean, what do you call a person who's written two auto biographies by the time he's forty? 'Narcissist' is a good bet. My god, Abraham Lincoln never did write an auto biography, and just think about what that man accomplished.

When Obama won the election I sincerely hoped my fears about him would be proven wrong. I really did hope for the best. However, when I heard him say, more than once, "We are the one we have been waiting for." ... I can't explain my reaction other than to say that a shiver ran up my spine. Few people have focused on that line but I will never forget it. Or my reaction to it.

Suffice to say, I feel, now, that all my fears about the man have been proven to be true. I consider him an enemy to everything I hold dear. Everything I have "devotion" for. To me, he perjured himself when he took the oath of office, when he swore to "defend and protect the Constitution of The United States". His own words, from when he was in the Illinois Legislature, and his actions since taking office, have proven to me that he never intended to make good on that oath. In my eyes, he has no value or respect for the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. He has done, and will do, everything in his power to destroy those incredibly precious documents that were written to guarantee our freedom. I don't want to live in Obama's fantasy world, nor do I want your children, my grand children, to grow up in the country he wants to create!

Since the beginning of human history there has been an endless string of utopian, masterminds who have delighted in concocting ideas-of-misery for their fellow man to live under. From Plato's Republic, to Thomas More's Utopia, to Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, to Woodrow Wilsons Progressive Movement, to FDR's New Deal, to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, to Obama's Hope and Change, all of their great plans have lead to the same thing - Tyranny.  And, when Mr. Obama declared that "We are the one we have been waiting for", what I heard was - I am the One who will pound the last nail in freedom's coffin.  Am I being overly dramatic? Maybe, but I think not.

I love and admire both of you and the way you live your lives makes me very proud. The only thing I'd change, were it in my power, is that we could, occasionally, venture beyond talk about Things, Doings and Stuff and adventure on to things like Feelings, Ideas and Dreams. Yes, those can be scary terrain to travel, but the roles I played that always ended up being the most rewarding to me were those that scared the hell out of me, beforehand. If at all possible, let's opt for adventure every now and then.     

 

Pop  

                                        

A Wedding Present for Adam and Stacy

 

TIME

 

When you're a young you never think about Time. The supply seems endless and, when you think there is an endless supply of anything, you take it for granted. At the very most, in your misguided desire to grow up quickly, you may ponder why Time doesn't move faster, but that's about it.

 The value of, and the way you think about, Time changes as one grows older. Days that used to seem to go on forever are now over before you know it. And the years flash by the way they once showed the passage of Time in the movies. There might be a shot of a steam engine barreling down the tracks, smoke billowing from its stack, and imposed upon that image would be a shot of a calendar with its monthly pages flying off.

 I am reasonably certain that Time, at least on Earth, is fairly constant and there are few things that better-prove that assertion than a good, old, faithful clock. I'm partial to Vienna Regulators, myself. Like this one. They take a bit of TLC to keep them running but, in return, they provide a life-time of steady tick tocks as well as their incredibly consistent and lovely chimes. This happens to be a Blind Man's Clock which chimes every quarter-hour, so it may take awhile to get used to. I promise, however, that after awhile you won't even hear it, unless you're listening for it. Why is it called a Blind Man's Clock? Well, it's hard to find but there is a special wire that, when pulled, replays the last quarter-hour that was chimed. So, even should you lose your sight, you will still know what Time it is. At least to the quarter-hour.

Having had this great timepiece a long time, I can't think of a better use for it than being part of you and Stacy's life, together.

 With much love,

 Pop and Pat                

 

A Thanksgiving Letter To My Kids

 

To Rachel and Adam, Thanksgiving Day, 2009. A day that begs the question, for what am I thankful?

 

Certainly, the two of you and the pride I feel in being partly responsible for your being here vie for the top of the list. I regret that our time together, when you were growing up, was so short and I'm sure that's why I treasure the memories from those years so much. I'm thankful that all of us, both of you, MariJane, Pat and myself, have managed to turn what was, at the time, a very sour lemon into lemonade.

I'm thankful to have had the good fortune of growing up with Mom and Dad, Bob, Ed and Jannelle. I didn't know enough to appreciate it then but, looking back, it was a great family. With Mom, the congenital liberal, on one end of the dinner table and Dad, the conservative rock, on the other end, it was a rare dinner that bored any of us. Yes, Ed had his problems but I've never known a better brain than his to bounce ideas off of. I miss him. And what I wouldn't give to spend another day with Mom and Dad. There's so much I'd like to talk with them about and so many questions I'd like to ask. I hope they knew I loved them because I was never very good at verbalizing such things. Hey, if this is starting to sound a little maudlin, don't worry. I'm not planning on cashing in my chips any time soon. I'm in great health .... for my age. And that's something else to be thankful for!

If the two of you only vie for the top spot on my list of things to be thankful for, it's only because nothing could be more important to me than my great, dumb luck of having been born an American. Does that sound corny? Maybe, but it's true, nonetheless. Some would ask why I feel that way and I would answer that it is the freedom we enjoy, and take for granted every day, that makes everything else, the kind of life I want to live, possible. I am thankful that there was that group of brilliant men 233 years ago who risked everything to create a form of government, the first in human history, based on the revolutionary concept of Individual Liberty. Freedom. Before that moment, man had always been only a 'subject' who's existence depended on the whims, good, bad and very bad, of a top-dog; be it a king, chief, pope, high-priest, dictator, furor, or any of the other tyrants who are wont to grab the reins of power.

The Founders knew that what they had created was unique and that it would be forever at risk because so many were, and always would be, hostile to the idea that an individual should be free. They warned us of the  dangers ahead: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety", B. Franklin, "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of liberty", T. Jefferson.

It will be no surprise to either of you that I think we have not been "vigilant" enough. And, that explains your Christmas presents this year. It was late in my life when I came to appreciate and love American History. Actually, driving a school bus is something else I'm thankful for because, with all the sitting-around-time, it has given me time to read a lot of books I'd never read, before. You have both studied a lot more history than I will ever know but I think there's a difference in classroom learning and what you pick up on your own. So, your Christmas presents this year are my way of trying to kindle, or rekindle, your interest in what I think we all should all be very thankful for.