11.2.2024 – he knew no jury

he knew no jury
darken honest man’s future
with unjust verdict

When the charge of election bribery was brought against an Illinois senator, he replied, “I read the Bible and believe it from cover to cover”

When his accusers specified five hundred dollars of corruption money was paid in a St Louis hotel bathroom, his friends answered, “He is faithful to his wife and always kind to his children”

When he was ousted from the national senate and the doors of his bank were closed by government receivers and a grand jury indicted him, he took the vows of an old established church

When a jury acquitted him of guilt as a bank wrecker, following the testimony of prominent citizens that he was an honest man, he issued a statement to the public for the newspapers, proclaiming he knew beforehand no jury would darken the future of an honest man with an unjust verdict

Implications by as printed in Good morning, America, by Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1928.

Mr. Sandburg titled this poem, Implications.

The online Oxford Dictionary defines implications as “the conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.”

Mr. Sandburg published his poem, Implications, back in 1928.

I am startled not by the implications, the laundry list of wrongs or implied wrongs, that has been going on forever.

But that the Senator in question was backed and continued to be backed, regardless or in spite of evidence to the contrary, by ‘prominent citizens‘ and the Senator’s self assurance in his knowledge beforehand that the jury would be swayed by the testimony of the ‘prominent citizens.’

You could bet cash money this poem had been written yesterday, not 100 years ago.

Who needs social media?

Who needs influencers?

PS: 3 days out of the last 4, I have turned to Mr. Sandburg. If he were alive today, he wouldn’t stop throwing up.

10.27.2024 – had fallen asleep

had fallen asleep
year ago and woke up today,
would have missed little

Adapted from the opening paragraphs in the New York Times Opinion Piece, The Election Is Happening Too Soon by David Brooks.

Mr. Brooks wrote:

I had hoped this election would be a moment of national renewal. I had hoped that the Democrats could decisively defeat MAGA populism and send us down a new national path.

That’s clearly not going to happen. No matter who wins this election, it will be close, and this is still going to be an evenly and bitterly divided nation.

In retrospect, I think I was expecting too much of politics. When certain sociological and cultural realities are locked in, there is not much politicians can do to redirect events. The two parties and their associated political committees have spent billions this year, and nothing has altered the race. The polls are just where they were at the start. If you had fallen asleep a year ago and woke up today, you would have missed little of consequence, except that it’s Kamala Harris leading the blue 50 percent of the country now and not Joe Biden.

It’s clearer to me now that most of the time politicians are not master navigators leading us toward a new future. They are more like surfers who ride the waves created by people further down in the core society.

When I was in college and studying the history of the United States, a theme pounded into my head by one of my favorite Professors was that the number one job of the President was to ‘educate the people’.

This Professor felt that with the correct information, the people would understand and support the President’s goals and the current administration’s efforts to reach those goals.

Another way to put, was that the President’s role was to provide leadership.

What a concept.

Leadership.

Mr. Brooks writes, “Politicians, especially when running for office, are professional opportunists, trying to please voting blocs. They are rarely visionaries.”

I like that.

Professional Opportunists.

Even when its seems both parties are just a bunch of lemmings running in opposite directions and the reason there are running in that opposite direction is mostly because it IS the opposite direction, with both sides heading for the cliff, the candidates see which way the crowds are moving, get in front of their group and yell, ‘Follow Me (to the cliff’s edge).’

When certain sociological and cultural realities are locked in, there is not much politicians can do to redirect events.

The two parties and their associated political committees have spent billions this year, and nothing has altered the race.

The polls are just where they were at the start.

And this is how we choose our leaders.

It sure doesn’t seem to be because of any leadership qualities on where we might, as a country, be going.

As Mr. Thurber reminds in his Fable, The Wolf who Went Places, “Where most of us end up there is no knowing, but the hellbent get where they are going.”

10.16.2024 – and you are to love

and you are to love
those who are foreigners, for
you were foreigners

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

Fear the Lord your God and serve him.

Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name.

He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

Deuteronomy 10:17-21 (NIV).

John Hendrickson and Family (1905 maybe?) My grandfather, Leonard Hendrickson is the little boy in the center of the photo.

I work in the online world.

The WORLD WIDE WEB.

Forever I have done battle with folks who feel that the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights applies to the world wide web as a whole rather than just the United States.

It is confusing to be sure but the protected right to say what you want here in the USofA is not the same as it is in, lets say, Venezuela.

There are other jurisdictions and other basis for law and in some cases a higher law.

Take immigration for example.

Lots and lots of talk about immigration and borders today.

And when I say border I mean the border of the United States.

Let me say that I agree 100% that they have to be rules, regulations and laws in place and followed to manage the border of the United States and immigration into the United States.

When you get family history to the level of Great Grand Parents, of the 8 people I count as my Greats, 6 were born in the Netherlands.

As far as I can tell, they followed all the existing rules and regulations to enter the country and take the road to citizenship.

It occurs to me though that while that is all well and good as far as the United States goes, I put it to you that there is a higher law.

Maybe not recognized by everyone in the country but for those who embrace the idea that the United States is a Christian nation, there is an accepted, unquestioned higher law.

And the way I read it, this higher law says to defend the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love the foreigner residing among us, giving them food and clothing. Love those who are foreigners, for we ourselves were foreigners.

Debate on this view is way above my pay grade and you can take it up with the management when the time comes.

10.12.2024 – leave your cares behind

leave your cares behind
here’s the perfect chance – troubles …
they cannot find you

From an ad in the New Yorker Magazine on May 6, 1933 for traveling on the French Line.

The ad featured a drawing by James Thurber.

Travelcade! Full of expectations?

Not interested or at least not as interested as leaving my cares behind me and that troubles cannot find me.

My daughter is working to get back on her feet best she can with two little girls to look out for.

Two weeks ago everything was looking good.

She had a substitute teaching job / semi-permanent on call but still paid hourly but with the promise that she would be working every day.

Because she was working, she was able to qualify for reduced day care for the girls.

Things were full of expecatations.

Then Helene hit.

They were without power or fresh water for days.

Internet and phone just now being restored.

Schools have been closed and will be closed until next Tuesday.

No substitute teaching jobs.

Then she was informed that she had to get the girls into day care, when it opened as you had to use it once a week or lose your spot.

When she showed up with the girls, she was told she also had to pay for day care for the weeks they were closed or lose her qualification for the reduced cost program.

Even though the day care was closed by the storm.

Her rental insurance would not cover the cost of food lost when the power went out as it was only a tropical storm, not a hurricane.

And FEMA rejected her claim for assistance.

Where do you go to get on the French Line today?

10.1.2024 – if did not want to

if did not want to
go to Minneapolis …
why get on the train?

Garrison Keillor wrote that Father Emil, the Catholic Priest in Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, would say ” “… If you didn’t want to go to Minneapolis, why did you get on the train?”

This quote was on my mind as I thought about people I know who plan to vote for a certain candidate for President but say, “I don’t agree with or support a lot of what he says or plans to do, but I will vote for him.”

That’s nice.

But if you vote for him, you get him and all that he says, all that he stands for, all that he plans to do and all that will come about if he is elected.

Sure I can say the same thing about voting the other way.

I don’t agree with all that she says, all that she stands for and all that she plans to do, but I will vote for her.

In the main, because she is not him.

You get the whole package.

If you don’t want to go to Minneapolis, don’t get on the train.

As Bret Stephens, New York Times Conservative Columnist says, Voting one way in this election will make me sick. Voting the other way will kill me.

As Mr. Lincoln said in his 1862 Message to Congress:

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history.

We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

We say we are for the Union.

The world will not forget that we say this.

We know how to save the Union.

The world knows we do know how to save it.

We – even we here – hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

Say this again to yourself as you decide to make your choice.

We cannot escape history.

We will be remembered in spite of ourselves.

No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us.

The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

We hold the power, and bear the responsibility.

Vote one way and you will have to overlook or accept some things you don’t like.

Vote the other way and you will have to overlook or accept some things don’t like.

It is a question of personal integrity only you can answer.

Do the yellow pad test.

Take a yellow pad and draw a line down the middle and write these things down.

One side may compromise your principles.

One side may ask for your soul.

You hold the power, and bear the responsibility.