Significance of labels

Have you ever noticed how labels inherently raise the significance of otherwise mundane objects? Take an ordinary image, apply a label, and people immediately search for portence in the pairing. The comedian, Demetri Martin takes advantage of this phenomenon for virtually all his jokes.
I think the deeper lesson in this is that we should be on the lookout for situations that cry out for meaning when there is none.

Fire in the sky

A few weeks back, I saw a shooting star.  Not your run of the mill, garden variety shooting star, but a real shooting star.  A shooting star with a fiery tail stretching out behind it, and blue-green flames rolling and churning around its bright, white core.

I have always loved how clear the night sky becomes in autumn, when the summer haze lifts, and the stars and moon seem so clear you could touch them.  This was just such a chilly clear night in Southern Michigan. 

I was admiring the spectacular display of stars when I saw, what I first took to be, an airplane.  I only noted it because it seemed to be moving so quickly across the sky.  Within a second or two it grew and I could see its flaming tail, spitting off streamers of gold and green.  I assumed someone must be setting off fireworks left over from the fourth of July.  But it kept getting bigger and brighter as it moved over the night sky.  It was halfway through its trip overhead before I recognized it for what it was.

By then, the meteor itself was visible as a bright white core.  I could clearly see the flames whipping around it, and stretching out in a twisting tail behind.  Every color of the rainbow was on display in that fire.

The meteor made a majestic arc across the star-scape, from right to left.  Just before it reached the far horizon, it went out.  It didn’t peter out.  It didn’t die.  It simply went out.

I felt an almost painful hope that the meteor had not burned out, but had bounced out of the atmosphere, and back into space.  I had shared an intimate moment  with this beautiful traveler from the void, and it shouldn’t be dead.  I wanted so badly to believe that it had escaped its encounter with the Earth, and is now hurtling through the void, carrying our shared experience to Pluto and the Oort cloud beyond.

It is such a beautiful idea that something out there, where I could never reach, has shared something with me, and carries that part of myself with it.

Perhaps it did burn out, and the dilation of perspective only made it seem to escape the atmosphere.  But it really doesn’t matter.  Every time I look up at the night sky now, I imagine that late meteor, turned asteroid, racing through space on its rebellious orbit.  I wonder what happened to it as it rounded the Sun.  I say a silent prayer to Newton that Jupiter’s gravity doesn’t gobble it up on its way to visit the comets in their winter home.

For a cold logical atheist like myself, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to a religious experience.  For the first time in my life, I look at the heavens, and I feel a personal bond with something up there, unseeable, and unknowable.

The experience has reminded me that we do not need fantasy to appreciate the fantastic.  There is so much in our universe to inspire wonder and awe.  Turning to myth only cheapens the real miracles of reality.

A thought about presidents

A thought occurred to me today.  

While some might find this fact revolutionary, I think it’s an interesting thought, and I am going to share it.

Over the past 20 years, we have had three republicans in the presidential race; two presidents, and one candidate.  On the Democrat side, we have had one president and two candidates.

Of the three Republicans, all have been wealthy men.  Furthermore, all three of them have become wealthy through inheritance.  Not one of them has contributed to his own fortune in a significant way.  As a matter of fact, in W’s case, he’s actually done more damage to his fortune than good.

For the Democrats, we have two self made men, and one that comes from money.  One self made man was the president for eight years, and it’s looking like the other will do the same.  Both of these men worked for everything they have ever owned.

The self made men are in favor of social justice.  They support the idea of social responsibility, and contributing to the well being of their fellow men.  They believe that we all have an obligation to invest back into the society that has given us so much.  They understand that the more people we raise up out of poverty, they better we all will be.

The men who argue that you should be able to keep all of what you have earned have never actually earned a dime in their lives.  Does it come as any surprise that all three men oppose an inheritance tax?  They put themselves forth as the defenders of the working man while denying him health care, and giving his boss a tax cut.  They look the lower middle class in the eye, while they pick its pockets.  These trust fund babies and husbands of opportunity could never understand what it means to struggle for a living, they’ll never know how it feels to choose which bill to let go for the month. You couldn’t get much further away from a normal American life.

I wonder, does George W Bush relate with the common man because, from his bedroom window, he can see the servant quarters?

Why then, do the rural blue collar workers of the United States gravitate towards these blue blooded children of privilege, while vilifying the members of their own class who have proven to be exceptional men on their own merit?

How can anyone say, with a straight face, that Obama is an elitist, while McCain is for the common man?  Why was Bush to common man’s president, when his blood runs bluer than Spock’s?

Things I don’t hear anymore

At great risk to my well-being, I was thinking the other day; something I have not heard anyone say to me in a very long time is, “You’re just a kid.”

I used to hate that phrase.  I heard it virtually any time I tried to get ahead or assert myself in any way.  If I said anything about regrets, or missed opportunities, I’d be reminded that I was still just a kid;  I was continually assured that I had plenty of time to realize my dreams.

A few other things I used to hear all of the time, “You’ll understand when you’re older.”, and, “You’re still wet behind the ears.”

I found that condescension so frustrating.  I wanted to be taken seriously.  I had ideas and regrets that were real to me.  To have them dismissed as the whimsies of a child grated at my dignity.

Realizing how long it’s been since I have heard these platitudes, I can’t help but reflect upon my advanced age.

For better or worse, people actually listen to what I have to say these days.  Whether I am any more profound, accurate or even insightful is dubious.  I suppose that with greater experience comes greater wisdom, but I often feel that the only difference between the me of fifteen years ago and the the man I am today is a good deal of wear and tear.  If I were a used car, I’d probably sell below blue book value.

Then again, I recall my former self through the fog of all those years, and I suspect that I’d be tempted to slap him, and tell him to wise up.  I’d probably tell him he’s just a kid, and he needs to realize how little he knows about the world before he tries telling people how it should work.

But what about those grand plans?  Did I achieve the things I dreamed of?  Did I become the great man I always knew I was?  Of course not.  My life now is nothing like I dreamed it would be fifteen years ago.  But the interesting thing is that I don’t regret that at all.  One thing about being wet behind the ears is that I had no idea what I really wanted out of life.  It took years to figure out who I was, and what was really important to me.  Despite failing miserably at my grand plan for life, I am happy with who I am, no matter how accidental it may be.

As for regrets, I have more than my share.  I am sure that I am far from done accumulating them.  But those regrets, failures and shames are part of what has made me.  I can’t begrudge the fact that my failures are more a part of making me than my successes.  Failure has taught me where my real strength lies.  It’s shown what I can endure.  Failure has taken me to my limits, and forced me to exceed them.

All this reflection reminds me of something I wrote a few years back.  Some of you might have read this elsewhere, and I apologize for the repeat, but it seemed appropriate to my present musings.

Summer on the Great Plain

Summer enters the great plain like a reluctant idea. It tests for fallacies and misconceptions before settling into the tall grass for a season.

We set out at first light. The sun, a great fat china man, lounged laughing on the horizon’s frown. As we had traded our seven league boots for a kind man’s karma, we booked passage on dandelion spores. Tightly we clutched the throbbing seeds as their canopies of gauze lofted us on sunbeams.

The throngs of grass, grown brazen in summer’s company, contended to snatch us from our perches while grasshoppers and cicadas cursed us as interlopers. We take no notice; our concern is for the mountains. Will summer have knowledge of the secret word, and gain us passage? Will the season be equal to their towering gates, or will we languish in the foothills with Moses?

Where will we be if we cross the mountains without summer’s companionship? The mysteries of that distant land will be pale comfort without our dear china man to illuminate them.

How could we succeed at defying the stony guards? We’ll be dropped on their harsh slopes when summer forsakes us. The grip on our perch quavers with burgeoning doubt. What began as a carefree adventure has turned grim. The china man’s laugh now has an edge. He celebrates our lost bravado and we begin to suspect the grasses of stealing it while we were distracted. I turn to confront the culprit, and nearly fall from my stead. The grass whips frenzy at my feet while the insects shriek with ecstasy at my weakness.

Our ride through summer nearly past, the mountains loom in our future. How had the trip been so brief? How did we fail to carry more memories away with us? There must still be time to turn back for the goods we left behind.

We weep over our foolishness; cursing ourselves for forsaking the warm plains of our beginning. We cannot remember what promise has carried into the wilderness with the china man. But we recall the hungers that pushed us from the plain’s bosom.

The tears fall from our eyes, and we can see farther than we have all day. A dancing light becomes apparent on the far side of the mountains. Beams of golden light kiss the edges of a secret pass. No longer mourning our companion, who even now begins to linger behind as if hoping to slip through a side door and quit our company, we set our sights on the egress.

The remainder of the day will be devoted to weaving tales and speculation for use as barter in the secret cities before us.

Addendum

Despite the title of my previous post, I completely failed to mention anything about podcasting.  

I meant to mention that I have plans to record a new episode in the very near future, so all five of my listeners should be pleased.

If you have any issues you’d like us to discuss, or would like to participate in an upcoming recording, please let me know.

Podcasting, rants, and the distractions of an election year

I know I’ve said that I am trying to keep politics out of my posting and podcasting, and I have failed miserably.

I try to stay out of politics because I do not consider myself to be a partisan; I don’t identify with either of the two parties.  But after the last eight years, I am finding it absolutely impossible to understand the Republican position, or anyone’s endorsment of it outside of a religious context.  

That religious context makes it apropo to this blog.  Therefore, I get to talk about politics.

First, let’s talk about John McCain.  Here is a candidate courting the religious right.  He knows that the Republican base will not get motivated unless there is some powerful Jesus in the room.  To that end, he has tried to portray himself as the defender of morality.  The man who, after his supermodel wife was disfigured and crippled in a car accident (while remaining faithful to him for over five years while he was a POW), left her for a rich heiress fifteen years younger than himself.

This is the guy that says he is the candidate of the working man.  But John McCain owns eight or nine homes.  Whenever you start using generalities when you talk about the number of homes you own,  you are no longer in touch with normal Americans.

Let’s not forget that when McCain was asked what constituted a wealthy American, he said that anyone making under five million dollars a year would be considered middle class.  His representatives later said this had been a joke.  Now I ask you, which is more horrifying; that he is so far out of touch, that he doesn’t even know what an average income is, or that he might have been making a joke at the expense of poor people?

So, we have a rich, legacy Annapolis graduate, with over twenty years in the senate, who says that the self made, son of a single mother, food stamps raised, community organizer from Chicago is an elitist, out of touch with the needs of average Americans.  

What McCain really means to say is that Barak Obama is an uppity negro.  Let’s not mince words about it.  He wants every American voter to remember that not only is he a different color than they are, but in all likelyhood, he is smarter than them too.  This tactic is just another example of Republican fear mongering.

This brings us to Sarah Palin.  She is the perfect choice for the McCain ticket for two reasons; she is a woman, who can diffuse some of the white guilt for not voting for the black guy, and she is a hyper-religious, gun toting housewife.

Some of you may have seen the recent video of Sarah Palin and her cult – I mean, church.  It seems that the Republican VP pick believes in witched, and generational curses.  She also believes that faith healing can regrow limbs.  This is a group of fundamentalists who truely believe they are forming an army in preparation for the End Times.  They make no bones of their ultimate goal to infiltrate and subjugate the federal government, so they can twist it into their own theocratic vision. 

John McCain is a self serving hypocrite.  He shows no shame in pandering to an undereducated base to win the presidency by mod rule.  He and Sarah Palin have repeatedly lied to the American voters, even after their lies were exposed.

The bottom line is that John McCain thinks your an idiot.  I’d say that Sarah palin thinks the same thing, but I think she is an idiot herself, and actually believes the crap she spews.  

Quite frankly, I can not understand how a self respecting, intelligent American could actually believe that these people are good for America.  Please, if you are a McCain supporter for any reason other that the religious hot button issues, please explain to me why you see him as the best choice, and how you justify the things he has said during this election.

The Sale of Integrity

This campaign season has accomplished something I thought was impossible.  After the 2004 election, I thought that nobody could outdo the Bush/Rove lies and slander.  When I saw a draft dodger actually attack a war veteran’s military record, and question the “degree” of enemy fire he might have been under when receiving a purple heart, I thought I had seen the lowest point in American election history.  But the McCain/Palin team has proven me wrong.

John McCain is someone I used to respect.  Ideological differences aside, he was a man of integrity; who could set aside partisan differences to the benefit of the American people.  But the past year has made clear that he is willing to compromise everything in order to become president, including selling his soul to the Republican Party.  He has consistently adopted the very practices that he once fought against.  He has turned what I had hoped would be an election season to return dignity to the American political process into yet another battle for the lowest common denominator.

Can any intellectually honest person actually justify the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate?  Can we interpret the choice as anything other than an attempt to pander to the fundamentalist base, and the feminists in one fell swoop?  Can we look at the hasty vetting process as anything other than an indication of the sort of thorough research and consideration McCain will invest in policy decisions, should he gain the Oval Office?

After promising to make this campaign an honest and respectful one, about issues and integrity, he has reversed himself and said it is all about personality.  He’s proven that by trying to drum up controversy over pigs and lipstick.  He pledged not to run negative ads, but went back on that promise before the general election had even begun.

McCain seems hell-bent on destroying a good reputation built on years of service to his country.  Yesterday, he went on the network morning shows, to explain that when he has repeatedly stated that, “the fundamentals of our economy are sound”, what he means by fundamentals, is the American worker.  He, and any rational person, knows that he did not intend to redefine the word fundamental to mean American worker.  Anyone with half a brain can see that the economy has crumbled to the point where his assertion that nothing is wrong can no longer be taken seriously.  So, in order to save face, and avoid an admission of guilt, he has redefined his statements. 

Even when he is caught out in a lie, McCain continues to repeat them.  If he knows they are lies, and he knows that the public knows they are lies, why does he continue to repeat them?

The most important lesson the Bush administration has taught America is that truth does not matter, just so long as you repeat the lies often, and loudly.  Eventually, whistleblowers come to look like whiners for constantly harping on what they say, and the public becomes bored with the argument.  After a week or two out of the news cycle, the repeated lies become de facto fact.

Who does he expect to win over with blatant lies and deliberate smears?  Apparently the complete morons he hopes will carry him to the Whitehouse.

 

Hypocricy, Lies and Other Conservative Absurdities

I’ve done my best to keep to myself this political season.  As usual, there is really no candidate that represents my views sufficiently to win my unabashed support (not that any of them are clamoring for it).  But McCain’s VP choice is just too much.  Seriously, are Americans so deluded that they do not see what this is about?  The Republican Party has taken an unknown member and transformed them into a character their members can rally around.  

It is true that Sarah Palin is a social conservative.  She would like to see creationism taught in public schools.  While Mayor of Wasilla, AK, she tried to get books she considered offensive banned from the local library.  She believes that abstinence is the only form of sex education our children should receive, and she believes that it works.  Oh yes, the Republican Party is being completely honest when they praise Sarah Palin’s social conservatism chops.

The problem comes when they try to talk about her policies.  I have yet to hear one statement about her position that was not a bald faced lie.  They tell us that she is a “maverick”, out to put a stop to business as usual. 

They tell us that she wants to put an end to entitlement programs, but then we learn that while mayor, she worked to get $24 million in federal money, while giving tax rebates to her citizens.  I guess she is opposed to entitlements and welfare for “other” people.  For her and hers, it’s just fine.  Why exactly should the rest of the country support her constituents?

She Claims to be a crusader against government corruption, but she has a reputation in Alaska for firing people that do not show enough political loyalty, and replacing them with her own toadies (sound like anyone else we know?).  She is currently under investigation for just such activity.

She is a staunch supporter of abstinence only education programs, and wants them to be the only sex education available for our children.  But then we learn that such education failed to work for her very own daughter.  This failure doesn’t get mentioned; instead everyone celebrates the girl’s choice to marry the father and keep the baby; a choice that she would like to take away from all American families.

Let’s not forget that as mayor, she tried to get books she found offensive pulled from the shelves of the local library, and tried to fire the town librarian when they refused to cooperate.

It sounds to me like Sarah Palin is anything but a maverick.  She sounds like yet another neo-con hypocrite, pandering to the common man so they can strip him of his rights and livelihood, while feeding the corporate giants.

Given her experience, and the proven insignificance of facts, I’ve compiled a list of people equally qualified for the vice presidency:

 http://westgonewest.blogspot.com/2008/01/fire-erupts-over-small-town-mayors.html

http://www.granolabox.com/2007/09/26/citizen-of-the-week-john-fetterman/

http://flprogressive.blogspot.com/2007/11/florida-gop-police-blotter-8-small-town_08.html

http://www.pocklington.gov.uk/pocklington-town-council-supports-local-water-company.htm

http://www.fuquay-varina.org/mayors-message-141.asp

 

The Big Day

Well, the big day has come and gone, and in some ways it may even seem anti-climactic. There were no shouting matches, or spitting as some had predicted. All in all, it was a very peaceful day. There ended up being about ten of us that attended as a group. Before entering the fair, we were met by news crews from Channels 5 and 2. I have to say that their coverage was refreshingly fair and honest after some of what we saw earlier in the week. We were given our discounts without fanfare, and once inside the grounds, nobody bothered us, and we noticed no angry glares, or even anyone particularly avoiding us. We met some very nice people from a local church who were offering free water. We were all amused that their signs included the phrase, “atheists welcome”. That turned out to be the case as well when we spoke to them for several minutes. Several people approached us with honest curiosity, and asked questions about what it really meant to be an atheist.

Overall, I feel that the day was a big success, and I can only hope that future events go as well.  If anyone is interested, here is a link to some pictures we took at the fair.

Lead up to Wilson County’s God and Country Day

Wilson County’s God and Country day is Sunday, August 17, 2008. I first became aware of it about two weeks ago, and after a little discussion within the Secular Life group, we decided that our best approach would be to ask for fair treatment in regard to the discount offered to church-going patrons, and attend the event in order to offer our support of the troops without religious strings attached.

It’s been amazing how strong the reaction has been over this event. It has garnered interest from surrounding atheist, secular, and constitutional groups, as well as a bit of outrage from local Christians. What we all thought would be a small, quiet, display of support has turned into something much larger.

What has disappointed me, and I think highlighted a great problem in our culture, is the media coverage. All three local news networks covered the event, as well as the Tennessean. None of the television news coverage even made an attempt at even handed coverage.  Instead, they portrayed the issue as one of “out of state” atheist activists trying to create controversy over the matter of $2. Despite the fact that all three outlets contacted members of our groups, and were provided with details about our concerns and grievances, they categorically chose to go with a shallow, one sided story, filled with charged language intended to create animosity towards seculars.

The Tennessean was the only news outlet to provide an even handed summary. Not only did they speak to Thaddeus Schwartz, but they actually communicated his position. The contrast was clear in the reader comments to the story. Viewer comments from the television coverage was almost exclusively vitriolic, and centered mostly around people that believed out of state activists were telling them they can’t pray to their god. While there was some of that from the Tennessean readers, there were considerably more people engaging in debate over the actual issues. While I may not agree with what many have to say about it, I am at least happy that they were made aware of the true problem.

I suppose it serves to illustrate the state of television journalism today. I can’t help but feel sorrow, as our local news outlets become carbon copies of Fox News, spewing out fabricated controversy, and overtly opinionated coverage.

Bob Smietana of the Tennessean was responsible for our only fair coverage this week, I’d like to extend my appreciation to him.  I was in personal contact with the office of Dennis Ferrier of WSMV news, and can say that what he presented as news was a collection of deliberate slanting, and outright lies.  I would ecourage everyone to email both of these reporters, and let them know what you thought of their coverage.

In the lead up to the big day, I want to thank the many people who have spoken up in our support, and express my gratitude to everyone that plans to join us tomorrow. I’d also like to speak to those who might disagree with our viewpoint, or believe that our intention is to force them to change their way of life.

We have no interest in telling you what you can believe, or when and where you can pray. We do not belief in dogma, which means that we do not believe in compulsory thinking. What we really want is very simple; we want the respect and considerations afforded to members of the Christian majority in our society. We want people to realize that secular people make up a larger portion of their communities than they realize, and that we are not amoral villains bent on destroying your children.

I can’t help but believe that if people understood us better, there would be so much less controversy. We are all becoming victims of a sensationalist media storm, who’s only desire is to generate argument to sell advertizing dollars.

Person Dennis Ferrier

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