1.9.2023 – Hail to the colors

Hail to the colors
float in the light … Hurrah for
the Yellow and Blue!

I am one of those weird alumni who knows the words to the schools’ Alma Mater or the anthem of the University of Michigan, The Yellow and the Blue.

It was written by Charles M. Gayley, an 1878 graduate, who composed the lyrics in 1886 while he was a professor of English and Latin at UM.

According to legend, he was motivated to write the song in hopes of winning a $20 prize from the student editors of the yearbook.

The song is played before every home football game and at commencements and most folks only know to hold out their fists and sing, “HAIL” at the end of the chorus.

But it was one of my family’s songs.

The University station would play it when it came to the end of the broadcast day and I remember one evening when my Dad had his radio on and my Mom yelled upstairs to the girls to ask if they were standing at attention.

She was kidding … I think.

We would often sing it at family gatherings and by general agreement we would let my Dad sing the HAIL part as a solo.

At my wedding, as warning to what she was getting into, my new Brothers-in-Law thought it would be funny if they would get to me by forcing me to sing the Michigan Fight Song.

I looked them cold in the eye and said, “The Fight Song? Everybody can sing that. I am singing the Alma Mater.”

And I grabbed my wife’s hand and stood on a chair and surrounded by wedding guests, I started the song, “Sing to the colors …”

Several of my family saw me, heard and hurried over to join in.

One of the brothers-in-law, caught off guard as he was a Michigan Grad, also joined in.

Sorry and sad to say, my Dad had passed before I got married.

But when we got to the “HAIL”, I felt it he was as much a part of party as if he had been there.

I thought of him last night.

I thought of all us, my family and friends, who have followed this stupid team and wonderful school over the years.

Can’t explain it, but it sure feels good.

BTW, notice the tie in the photograph.

It was my Dad’s tie.

It was the same tie he wore at his wedding.

It was also the tie he wore in his graduation photo from Michigan.

He bought it at store in the Arcade in Ann Arbor when he was a student.

Sing to the colors that float in the light;
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!
Yellow the stars as they ride through the night
And reel in a rollicking crew;
Yellow the field where ripens the grain
And yellow the moon on the harvest wain;
-Hail!
Hail to the colors that float in the light
Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!

1.8.2023 – justice is always

justice is always
in jeopardy, pitfalls
misery, meanness

Political democracy, as it exists and practically works in America, with all its threatening evils, supplies a training-school for making first-class men.

It is life’s gymnasium, not of good only, but of all.

We try often, though we fall back often.

A brave delight, fit for freedom’s athletes, fills these arenas, and fully satisfies, out of the action in them, irrespective of success.

Whatever we do not attain, we at any rate attain the experiences of the fight, the hardening of the strong campaign, and throb with currents of attempt at least. Time is ample. Let the victors come after us.

Not for nothing does evil play its part among us. Judging from the main portions of the history of the world, so far, justice is always in jeopardy, peace walks amid hourly pitfalls, and of slavery, misery, meanness, the craft of tyrants and the credulity of the populace, in some of their protean forms, no voice can at any time say, They are not.

The clouds break a little, and the sun shines out — but soon and certain the lowering darkness falls again, as if to last forever.

Yet is there an immortal courage and prophecy in every sane soul that cannot, must not, under any circumstances, capitulate.

Vive, the attack—the perennial assault!

Vive, the unpopular cause—the spirit that audaciously aims—the never-abandon’d efforts, pursued the same amid opposing proofs and precedents.

From Democratic Vistas, an essay by Walt Whitman.

According to Wikipedia, Whitman condemned the corruption and greed of the Gilded Age, denouncing the post-Civil War materialism that had overtaken the country.

“Never was there, perhaps, more hollowness at heart than at present, and here in the United States. Genuine belief seems to have left us,” he wrote.

His solution to the moral crisis was literature: “Two or three really original American poets … would give more compaction and more moral identity, (the quality to-day most needed) to these States, than all its Constitutions, legislative and judicial ties,” he declared, believing that literature would unite the country.

The line from the song, Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio? The Nation turns its lonely eyes to you ..” comes to mind.

Where are the heros today?

Where are the Two or three really original American poets?

Where have you gone … Taylor Swift?

I will say this.

Should Ms. Swift endorse any candidate this cycle, its game over.

Justice is always in jeopardy.

Peace walks amid hourly pitfalls, and of slavery, misery, meanness.

The craft of tyrants and the credulity of the populace, in some of their protean forms, no voice can at any time say, They are not.

It some ways, its comforting that Mr. Whitman felt this way back in 1871 and here we are today.

1.7.2023 – key to the rise of

key to the rise of
authoritarians, they …
use false history

The key to the rise of authoritarians, they explained, is their use of language and false history.

Authoritarians rise when economic, social, political, or religious change makes members of a formerly powerful group feel as if they have been left behind. Their frustration makes them vulnerable to leaders who promise to make them dominant again. A strongman downplays the real conditions that have created their problems and tells them that the only reason they have been dispossessed is that enemies have cheated them of power.

Such leaders undermine existing power structures, and as they collapse, people previously apathetic about politics turn into activists, not necessarily expecting a better life, but seeing themselves as heroes reclaiming the country. Leaders don’t try to persuade people to support real solutions, but instead reinforce their followers’ fantasy self-image and organize them into a mass movement.

Once people internalize their leader’s propaganda, it doesn’t matter when pieces of it are proven to be lies, because it has become central to their identity.

As a strongman becomes more and more destructive, followers’ loyalty only increases. Having begun to treat their perceived enemies badly, they need to believe their victims deserve it. Turning against the leader who inspired such behavior would mean admitting they had been wrong and that they, not their enemies, are evil.

This, they cannot do.

From Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson (Author) Viking (September 26, 2023).

This is one short passage from just the short forward to the book, Democracy Awakening.

Reading the forward was about all I could get through.

I am reminded of the story about a lady who walked into a police station and asked if she could sit in the lobby.

She was reading a Stephen King book and got so scared she couldn’t keep reading at home.

I did look ahead through the rest of the book, all to easy to do with an e-reader and I keep saying yup, yup, yup and why don’t those people see it?

Why don’t they see where this is leading?

It is not a case of ‘none so blind as those who will not see’ as it is a case of everything Ms. Cox points out that the extreme’s are achieving through their drive to an authoritarian world is not bad, damaging, wrong, hateful or hurtful but are GOALS.

Parallels to the triumph of authoritarian Germany are to easy to make.

I have to point out that the German authoritarian leader was offered the 2nd highest place in government in 1932.

By 1934, all opposition political parties were outlawed.

Two years.

How can I sleep at night.

Really, how can I sleep at night?

The main reason is that the United States in 2023 is not Germany in 1932.

What do I mean by that?

Well, this is what I mean by that.

I am reminded of the movie Casablanca.

Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart is asked by a representative of the German authoritarian Government:

Can you imagine us in London?

Rick replies, “When you get there, ask me.”

Diplomatist.

The representative of the German authoritarian Government continues: How about New York?

Rick replies, “Well, there are sections of New York, … that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.”

That is the American attitude I am betting on to save us.

There were, are and will be a Major Strassers in this world.

There will always be people, who for their own reasons, want to line up with the Major Strassers.

Let us hope there will always be a Richard Blaine.

I, and I hope a lot of America, will line up with Monsieur Rick

1.6.2023 – cotidal lines that

cotidal lines that
circulate counterclockwise
amphidromic points

In the North Atlantic, because the cotidal lines circulate counterclockwise around the amphidromic point, the high tide passes New York Harbor approximately an hour ahead of Norfolk Harbor. South of Cape Hatteras the tidal forces are more complex, and cannot be predicted reliably based on the North Atlantic cotidal lines.

From ancient times, tidal observation and discussion has increased in sophistication, first marking the daily recurrence, then tides’ relationship to the Sun and moon. Pytheas travelled to the British Isles about 325 BC and seems to be the first to have related spring tides to the phase of the moon.

Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation first enabled an explanation of why there were generally two tides a day, not one, and offered hope for a detailed understanding of tidal forces and behavior. Although it may seem that tides could be predicted via a sufficiently detailed knowledge of instantaneous astronomical forcings, the actual tide at a given location is determined by astronomical forces accumulated by the body of water over many days. In addition, accurate results would require detailed knowledge of the shape of all the ocean basins—their bathymetry, and coastline shape.

(Wikipedia)

Time and tide wait for no man but when you move to an area with an average 8 foot tide you learn to check the tide tables early and often.

I am not sure why it didn’t sink in but an 8 foot tide is not horizontal.

The water does not move back and forth.

An 8 foot tide is veritical.

It moves up and down.

In doing so, the water moves back and forth across the beach but it is the depth that is changing.

I am just at six feet tall.

If I stood at low tide along the ocean’s age and didn’t move, but the time high tide was at its peak, my head would be 2 feet under water.

Those cotidal lines that circulate counterclockwise around the amphidromic points can really mess up your day and use some really wonderful words to do it.

1.5.2023 – reasonable but

reasonable but
nevertheless too often
we slow down for fog

Adapted from, You Came with Shells by June Jordan.

You came with shells. And left them:
shells.
They lay beautiful on the table.
Now they lie on my desk
peculiar
extraordinary under 60 watts.

This morning I disturb I destroy the window
(and its light) by moving my feet
in the water. There.
It’s gone.
Last night the moon ranged from the left
to the right side
of the windshield. Only white lines
on a road strike me as
reasonable but
nevertheless and too often
we slow down for the fog.

I was going to say a natural environment
means this or
I was going to say we remain out of our
element or
sometimes you can get away completely
but the shells
will tell about the howling
and the loss

In a borough that has landmarks for the writers Thomas Wolfe, W. H. Auden, and Henry Miller, to name just three, there ought to be a street in Bed-Stuy called June Jordan Place, and maybe a plaque reading, ‘A Poet and Soldier for Humanity Was Born Here,” said American playwright, journalist, librettist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter, Thulani Davis.

Nevertheless.

We slow down for the fog.

Too often.

We slow down for the fog.

What might be in the fog?

Giants maybe?

Windmills?

Tie Sherlock Holmes with Don Quixote and you get the line from the movie, “They Might Be Giants where Mr. Holmes comments:

“Well he had a point.

Of course, he carried it a bit too far.

He thought that every windmill was a giant.

That’s insane.

But, thinking that they might be…well…all the best minds used to think the world was flat.“

Sometimes you can get away completely …

But the shells …

They might be …

Reason?

Reasonable?

But the shells.

Will tell about the howling.

And the loss.