share that this matters today as it mattered three centuries ago
“Unfortunately there are elements of our nation that have taken a stand that history and culture are not important, this should not be taught, should not be introduced; that this is irrelevant. And so the work that we do now is even more steadfast because we have to really share with the nation and the world that this matters today as it mattered three centuries ago.”
The festival, held in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston and home to 14 Gullah Geechee communities, aims to promote and preserve the tradition of sweetgrass weaving, a centuries-long tradition started by enslaved people in the region and passed down to future generations.
most dangerous thing normal person will do on a daily basis …
According Trooper Nick Pye of the S.C. Highway Patrol, in the Charleston Post and Courier article, Grace period is over for ‘Carolina Squat’ truck in SC. How many tickets have been issued? By Caitlin Byrd on July 29, 2024, who was quoted as saying, “Driving is the most dangerous thing a normal person will do on a daily basis.”
Let us say that all together …
Driving is the most dangerous thing a normal person will do on a daily basis.
Now let’s take the statement apart.
Driving …
We all know what that is and how difficult it is for some folks to do.
Daily Basis …
Something that happens daily and multiple times in any given day.
Most dangerous thing.
Like sharks, rattle snakes, high power lines, black ice and that person behind you in the McDonald’s drive through lane as time ticks down to the end of Breakfast Available.
We can come to a consensus on those terms.
Then that last one …
Normal people …
Normal people?
BOY HOWDY!
Pretty much a subjective term doncha think?
As Bernard Woolley said in the TV show, Yes Minister, about the word, “individualism … That’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it. I have an independent mind, you are an eccentric, he is round the twist.”
My feeling, and I count myself as being part of the Normal People group, is that driving is the most dangerous thing I do on a daily basis because so FEW of the other drivers aren’t normal.
Driving in Atlanta on a daily basis, I formed opinions about other drivers based on their license plates.
Georgia drivers were okay as they understood the first official rule of driving as issued by The Georgia Department of Transportation which was KEEP MOVING.
Drivers from up north I assumed were pretty much normal and just wanted to get through the city on their way to visit the Rat down in Orlando.
Drivers from Tennessee, Florida and Alabama should be avoided if possible because they were just bad drivers and often visitors to Atlanta and liable to drive across 5 lanes of traffic when their GPS told them to ‘Take the Exit.”
Then there were those drivers from South Carolina.
I learned to stay away, get away, back off or pass them as soon as possible because there was no way to figure out what they were doing and that there was the possibility that they would do anything including come to a stop at anywhere on the freeway.
Anything could happen with a South Carolina driver near you.
NOW I LIVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Now I have a South Carolina plate.
Dangerous drivers are the norm!
Sometimes, the real heroes of our society are those people are those, who on any given day, back the car out of the garage and drive off to work.
The most dangerous thing a normal person does on a daily basis.
set of ideas centered on human rights and personal freedoms
Adapted from the opinion piece, The World That Awaits the Next President by Bret Stephens in The New York Times, August 6, 2024 where Mr. Stephens asks the next President, whoever it might be …
If necessary, are you willing to use force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons or China from subjugating Taiwan — two events that may well take place on your watch? Will you use the threat of an arms embargo to compel Israel or Ukraine to agree to cease-fire deals they do not want? Are you prepared to increase military spending to Cold War levels to contend with great-power competitors and new asymmetric threats, such as from the Houthis?
Above all, do you believe that maintaining our global primacy is worth the price in effort, treasure and sometimes blood?
If the answer to that last question is “no” — an answer that has the virtues of honesty, modesty and frugality — then you can mostly ignore the previous questions. You can also comfort yourself with the fantasy that the world will leave us alone in exchange for us leaving it alone.
The world doesn’t work that way. Unlike, say, New Zealand, we are not a pleasant and remote country under the implicit protection of a benign ally: Nobody will protect us if we do not protect ourselves. We have globe-spanning territorial, maritime and commercial interests that require us to police the global commons against bad actors, from China in the South China Sea to Iran in the Strait of Hormuz to Russia in the cyber domain. We stand for a set of ideas, centered on human rights and personal liberties, that invariably attract the violent attention of despots and fanatics.
It is only an opinion piece but I guess it is an opinion that finds traction with me.
You can comfort yourself with the fantasy that the world will leave us alone in exchange for us leaving it alone.
The world doesn’t work that way.
Unlike, say, New Zealand, we are not a pleasant and remote country under the implicit protection of a benign ally: Nobody will protect us if we do not protect ourselves.
We have globe-spanning territorial, maritime and commercial interests that require us to police the global commons against bad actors, from China in the South China Sea to Iran in the Strait of Hormuz to Russia in the cyber domain.
We stand for a set of ideas, centered on human rights and personal liberties, that invariably attract the violent attention of despots and fanatics.
Once more, We stand for a set of ideas.
Back in January, of 1941, a year that would end with the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt laid down what became known as the Four Freedoms saying that, “we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.”
And what were those four freedoms?
To quote FDR:
The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
And where do these freedoms apply?
Everywhere, anywhere in the world.
No wonder these ideas invariably attract the violent attention of despots and fanatics.
“I address you, the members of the 77th Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union,” said President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he started his message to the joint session of Congress, Jan. 6, 1941. Also visible are Speaker Sam Rayburn, left, and Vice President John N. Garner. (AP Photo/George R. Skadding)
couldn’t get married because there’s crazy people in his ancestors
I am not sure, but I am pretty sure, this James Thurber drawing was never released beyond it’s original publication the New Yorker Magazine on April 9, 1932.
No Haiku For You 