Religious Intellectuals: Who do I Think They Are?

December 10, 2007 by dave.

The following summarizes my opinions regarding that class of religious folk who voluntarily classify themselves as Intellectuals.

My observation is that they, the typical Intellectuals, while representing themselves as being amongst the Believers, set themselves apart by also stating that they must honestly doubt and seek relevant confirmation of everything that is of religious and / or spiritual origin.  It is often obvious that the Intellectuals consider themselves to be of much greater intelligence and far more capable of analytical thinking than most.

Often, it appears that they might best be classified as professional Doubters.

The stalwart Intellectual’s methodology seems to be the following:

• A demand for Confirmation, usually meaning finding some evidence that is measurable by a known physical test.
• Spiritual Confirmation is usually not acceptable because it is private and personal, thus not measurable in accordance with the standards of the Intellectual.
• Very often, the Intellectual in selecting sources of information, especially when dealing with personalities and most pointedly when dealing with those who claim to be Prophets, Apostles or Saints turn to the enemies of such persons for their basic information and justify this practice stating something like, “they are more objective in their evaluation,” of said person.
• Very often the Intellectual will reject the information available from friends and close associates stating that their information is tainted by charisma and / or collusion.

It would seem that there is another form of Intellectual who, still desiring answers to all questions, allows that there just might be some other persons at least as intelligent and analytical as themselves.  Most of these intellectuals even accept that God, himself, may possibly be more capable than they; perish the thought. 

These intellectuals (lower case intended) methodology seems to include:

• Recognize that one can receive and many have received spiritual guidance.
• Recognize that enemies are ever so likely to either exaggerate or to prevaricate the weaknesses or other failures of the person in question.
• Recognize that friends, though perhaps prone to over emphasize strengths and under play weaknesses, are often much more in tune with the actual character and behavior of the person in question.

The bottom line is that I like to flatter myself into thinking that I am an intellectual and if so, hopefully of the second variety.

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Does Zero Tolerance Really Equate to Zero Intelligence?

December 1, 2007 by dave.

From my private observations in the recent past, it does really seem that Zero Tolerance equates to Zero Intelligence.

Case in point:

A local school district has decreed that student must wear solid color clothing.  They have further stated that the color of pants must be Khaki, black or Navy.

OK, so what does this have to do with zero tolerance?  Well, what color is “navy”?
It seems that different fashion designers have very different ideas as to this color really is.
So, what’s a math teacher to do, but decide that navy (have you looked it up on the color tables?) is the color of a certain navy blue chair.
Thus, a student whose “navy” pants doesn’t match that chair is subject to detention!

Suggestions were made to the district that should they agree that that chair’s navy is the one and only navy then color samples should be made available so that students don’t buy non-authorized navy pants.  This suggestion was ignored.
So, how does one determine whether their navy is the school’s navy?  Why bring it to the principal and a determination will be made …

Hey Principal, how about coming on our next shopping trip?

General Philosophy:

The purpose of almost all bureaucracy is to reduce everything to a set of rules (has anyone tried to read some of the OSHA stuff on a “means of egress”?) that anyone can interpret, then hire special inspectors and carefully train them and then find that they all interpret the rules differently.  This leaves one with a few options:

1. Make the rules totally complete so that no intelligence is required in interpreting them (refer to OSHA again). 
   
2. When interpretation is required, use the most restrictive interpretation (expel a student in whose transportation is found a dull table knife, not a dangerous weapon).  After all, it is a knife and the rules state that having knives is an expellable offense.  Has anyone wondered about plastic knives?
3. Have specially trained experts available at all times to interpret the rules.

According to some sources, Abe Lincoln either quoted someone else, or stated the problem thusly, “Common sense is very uncommon”.

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Everlasting

August 30, 2007 by dave.

The Parable of the “Morning Glory” of August 6 inspired me to write this.
Weeding presents many parallels.
As I was contemplating the word, everlasting, in a ecclesiastical sense as in “everlasting punishment”, I realized that weeding can make its meaning considerably more clear.

Returning from an extended family reunion / grandchildren sitting foray of about 4 weeks, we found the weeds to have grown enough to hide the “real” plants in some areas of the landscaping.  Days of seemingly unending toil finally reduced the weed population to a minimum (note; not a nothing) and exposed the plants, many of them rose bushes, to the sun and their chance to grow.

Now, how does this apply to “everlasting”?
The weeds are always with us.  Oh yes, we can take off a few days without much notice, but let them have their way for two weeks and you will regret it.  Sometimes you can get your backpack sprayer, load the weed killer and spray away, wide spray in open areas and very narrow near the “real” plants, but even that has to be repeated.  But then, winter comes, the snow flies and even the weeds stop growing …

So, it is not everlasting weeding, it just seems like it!

But then, spring comes …

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And the Floods Descended

August 27, 2007 by dave.

Last year, I wrote about the devastating fires that decimated the flora on the Oak City hills.  I also mentioned that the “Fire Danger” signs had been replaced with “Flash Flood Warning” signs.

Well, it has happened.  In July of 2007, a drenching rain fell on the Oak City mountains.

The rain, finding that there was no vegetation to stop its progress, descended from the mountains in great sheets.  The stream beds not only overflowed, but they washed out roads in the canyons and in the valley below, brought great loads of rocks, gravel, tree branches and other debris, and blocked other roads with that debris.

Thousands of sand bags were used in the effort to prevent flooding of housing, but, still some homes were damaged.

The effects of a flood; water laden with dirt, debris and other can be almost unbelievable!

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THE PARABLE OF THE MORNING GLORY

August 6, 2007 by dave.

The idea for this piece came to me as I was weeding my garden this week after leaving it unattended for over one month. The garden was over-run with many varieties of weeds the worst of which was a weed called Wild Morning Glory.

Wild morning glory starts out with one delicate stem with a single leaf on the end poking out of the ground. It quickly grows into a clump of stems and leaves. Before long these seemingly fragile stems grow longer and become runners which discreetly hug the ground until they reach something to begin wrapping around. The runners are leafy and at intervals develop a pretty lavendar bloom. At the same time they are growing longer, joints form along them from which continually more runners form and more root systems dig into the ground to create new plants.

When a runner arrives at a plant such as a corn stalk or tomato plant, its tender and flexible leafy tip begins to wrap itself round the stalk of the plant. To the casual observer this might not seem like much of a problem. After all, it is just one soft and easily breakable stem and the plant it is wrapping around is usually much bigger. However, the stem behind the soft and fragile end thickens and becomes very strong. Each new offshoot from the stem behaves just as its parent plant and before long the runner has wound around the plant and its branches and is joined by the many fellow offshoot runners making a thick and strong cord which completely engulfs and ties down the plant.

A plant entangled in Wild Morning Glory finds that it is unable to grow upward or outward. New branches cannot form and delicious fruit cannot develope properly. It is often shaded from essential sunlight and is robbed of needed nutrients in the soil. It will eventually die unless it is freed, which is a tedious and painstaking process. Many times the dammage is irreparable.

The Wild Morning Glory can be likened to the problems, challenges and temptations each of us faces during our lifetime on Earth. Like the morning glory, with luscious looking green leaves and attractive lavendar blossoms, temptation often comes with very attractive accessories. Succombing to a seemingly small temptation to do wrong is similar to the small tender morning glory shoot. It can be easily repented of and plucked out of our lives. However, left unchecked, this little sin becomes a habit that leads to the growth of new sins each becoming a stronger cord entangling and binding us and preventing our personal progress or growth. Soon we can find that we are covered so completely that we are shaded from the essential sunlight of the influence of the Holy Ghost and we stop praying and reading the scriptures, the daily nutrients needed to keep our spirits alive and healthy. We will then have allowed ourselves to be cut off from the source of true happiness and much pain and sorrow is the result.

Unlike the plant, we have the ability to see danger coming and take steps to protect ourselves. We can weed out the temptations from our minds while they are small and easy to remove. In the event that we find ourselves engulfed with a problem, we can begin the painstaking process of overcoming and untangling ourselves from that problem. We also know that we have the ability to ask for help from strong and good people and especially from our Heavenly Father. Our strength and vigor increases as we untangle each cord of wrong-doing. This called repentance. True repentance brings us freedom of forgiveness, the freedom to be happy, and the freedom to enjoy the comforting influence the the Holy Ghost in our lives. We are free to continue to grow.

Guest Author: Charlotte

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Global Warming?

February 16, 2007 by dave.

I have lived long enough to be somewhat skeptical of great pronouncements from the scientific community no matter what the subject. Global warming is another of these great pronouncements that I do not have much faith in. It is right up there next to curing cancer in the next week or two and stem cells curing everything. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that some good will come of stem cell research and that some cancers will be mitigated or cured.

However, I am old enough to remember that scientists in the 1970s were proclaiming that the next ICE AGE was upon our doorsteps. This was about 30 years ago, time enough for the new generation of scientists to show how much smarter they are than the last.

Usually the problem occurs because data is taken over a short period of time and then extrapolated using the scenario: “If this keeps up” look what is going to happen! It makes producing the reports and papers (and getting them published) that are necessary to keep one’s academic position so much easier especially if the results predicted are catastrophic and controversial and the charts make really good Powerpoint slides.

So, why the predictions of Endless Summer now and of Endless Winter of the 1970s? A lot of speculation? I would certainly seem so. Let’s face it, we have good proof that climatic conditions have cycled hotter and colder over the ages. In fact, the settlement of northern Europe was greatly facilitated by a general warming trend many years ago. The eruption of various volcanoes in the early 1800s cooled the earth with disastrous results with no man made help involved.

But, it seems that lots of folks now a days have to have a cause. Global warming is convenient and politically correct so why not jump on the bandwagon? After all the year after Katrina was going to be a real blow out with hurricanes everywhere and cities being ripped apart because of the warming. That turned out to be a dud, but, maybe next year?

It’ll be fun to see whether another 20 - 30 years will bring the ice age predictions back - about 2030 maybe?

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Unnatural Selection

January 13, 2007 by dave.

I recently read an article which claimed that more people are influenced in their buying decisions by anecdotal stories regarding a product than by actual statistical evidence gathered by reliable 3rd parties. The reference was to the automobile industry where it can be shown that although statistics show that American manufacturers are turning out just as reliable cars as their Japanese counterparts, most Americans believe that Japanese cars are better.

The fallacy of buying as influenced by an anecdotal story is illustrated by the following true scenario:

• One brother bought a new Ford station wagon some years ago. He was not very good at keeping up with maintenance, getting oil changes and the like as he happened to think of it and letting the rain do any wash jobs. He just drove the vehicle and drove the vehicle. He finally got rid of the car when the interior was too shabby for even his taste. The car had well over 100,000 miles on it and had had only the necessary repairs, such as new tires, brakes and battery.
• The other brother bought a new Ford station wagon of the same model, from the same dealer and at the same time. This brother is a stickler on maintenance, kept his vehicles clean and tidy, and never abused them in any way. This vehicle spent more time in the repair shop than on the road and was disposed of rather early in its life, still appearing clean and snazzy.

Now, depending upon which brother with whom you may have talked regarding their vehicles, you may have found Ford cars either praised or maligned. Where, at the time, statistically speaking, Ford vehicles were somewhat less reliable than their Japanese counterparts.

But, times have changed. American manufacturers have found that reliability is an essential factor in remaining the business and have improved greatly. So, what do you go by? “War stories” of someone’s good or bad experiences or statistics. That really depends on your faith in which end of the stick you usually receive. If you’re like me, who can unerringly pick out the slowest moving checkout line, you may get the lemon Toyota or the lemon Chevrolet, so does it matter? Maybe only which salesman you dislike least should be the determining factor.

My experience is decidedly in favor of maintaining the cars to the best of your ability, buying as cheaply as possible and driving the cars into the ground. Having lived long enough to see most cars dying at about 75,000 miles to where several of my later ones have lasted well into the 100,000s. But, with most of my peers only driving nearly new vehicles, does it matter? Only resale value should be considered then.

So, one may ask, what is the reason for writing this? Actually just to keep something on the blog. May your automobile shopping experience — which I avoid or at least put off for a long as possible (possibly why my cars last so long) — be a good one.

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My Favorite Browser

October 25, 2006 by dave.

I recently downloaded Firefox 2.0. I am greatly impressed.

Right now I am writing this blog in the Performancing add-on which allows me to compose right in Firefox and then to publish, without leaving the browser.

With the variety of add-ons that are available, Firefox has become a “Swiss Army Knife” app. Some of my favorite add-ons:

Adblock - Adblock Plus: Does exactly that and pretty well
All-in-One Sidebar: Get to all the add-ons quickly
McAfee Site Advisor: Watch out for red and take care on the gray sites. Go for the Greenies.
ReminderFox: Right there in the browser all your todos and reminders.
StumbleUpon: More fun than a barrel full of monkeys. Admitting how old I am, I remember seeing a barrel full of monkeys having fun on an old TV Show, “You Asked For It!” This is better. Put in your preferrences and you will stumble upon some fascinating websites.

The add-ons are available from: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/recommended/

Enjoy …

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Software that I have known and loved

October 9, 2006 by dave.

I judge software on its ability to do what I want. That is, I don’t really care about its pedigree, the number of features that it has or how pretty it looks. I care what it does for me. Also, and most importantly, I am a cheapskate!! So, what does that mean to anyone else? Probably not much, but I am going to tell whoever reads this about my favorite software, so don’t complain to me that I don’t list your favorite.
Do that on your own website.

Disclaimer: Were I making a list of software to be used for commercial / professional production, this list would be very different.

I will try to break things down into groupings, but these groupings will be rather loose. My first offerings will all be Microsoft Windows® programs.

I’ll give my Linux favorites later—many of them being the same programs.

So, here goes …

NOTES: Xxx^o means Open Source, Xxx^f means free and Xxx^sw means Shareware.

Microsoft Windows® compatible software

Word Processing:

Words

• Just words and nothing else, good old Notepad.
  

• Plain text with tabs to have more than one open document, NoteTab Light^f.

Formatted words:

• 95% of my word processing is done in Open Office^of.
  For me, Open Office does everything that I want an office suite
  to do. It is compatible enough with Microsoft’s product to be
  interchangeable for all but a few esoteric functions, such as really
  complicated automatic addressing and etc. Nothing that I have done
  wouldn’t interchange completely.

• Atlantis^f
  (free version) is a very small word processor that opens quickly.
  If I am using Open Office, I usually leave it open all the time. I
  hate to wait for it to open. If Open Office is not open and I just
  need a short piece of work, I use Atlantis. Please note, however,
  it offers only RTF file output. The free version does not come with
  a spell checker, but, again, it one wants to quickly dash off nice
  looking (formatted) email, etc. I find it very useful.

Office Suites:

• Of course, I use Microsoft Office. On some occasions, complete compatibility is still a necessity.
  I also have Corel Word Perfect mainly because my wife loves and uses it exclusively.
  However, at this time, 95% of the office work I do — mostly involving word processing, but also a few
  databases, spreadsheets and presentations — is done using Open Office^of.

Internet:

• For HTML, PHP, or CSS, I use PSPad^f.I especially like PSPad’s default use of color to highlight coding.
  It fits my programming style, it knows different languages and it is fast. The quick preview in an IE base browser is very useful also. Its tabbed interface allowing multiple open documents is, to my mind, a very useful feature.

• I could also use PSPad for the items for which I now use NoteTab Light, but have so much stuff already in NoteTab that I probably won’t get around to moving. (It’s because I am rather lazy and also because NoteTab has some really nice features, e. g., libraries of useful quick inserts, formatting for languages, extensibility, speed and the ability to use both fixed width and proportional fonts.)

• XAMPP^of provides a nice Apache server which is very useful
  when creating websites as you can test them on your very own
  in-computer server.

• Foxmail^f is my email of choice. It has a good interface (be sure to delete the Chinese language option as they warn you — unless you happen to read Chinese. I don’t), it doesn’t have Outlook’s vulnerabilities and I happen to like its looks . You may, however, wish for better Spam and Junk Mail filtering. It does have a nice HTML composer.

• ePrompter^f is my Hotmail grabber of choice. It gets the mail directly with no browser involvement and will delete items from your Inbox, but you’ll have to check in with Hotmail every now and again if you want to check your junk mail.

Vector Graphics:

• Corel Draw has been my favorite for many years, but Corel’s insistence upon charging lots of money for each and every update (I finally stopped at Version 12,all the way from 1) has dampened my excitement.

• I have also used Adobe Illustrator but stopped at 7 for the same reasons (and, probably, that my professional need vanished).

• I now quite often use Inkscape^of and have found it handles everything that I have yet thrown at it
  rather nicely. However, I must admit that my needs are not necessarily someone else’s. Also, the UI is not as easy for me to pick up as Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, but I have persevered and now can use it quite readily enough.

Raster Graphics:

• Corel PhotoPaint has been my most used editor for many, many years (see comments about Corel Draw).

• I have used Adobe Photoshop, but I only got to version 5.5 before costs, in my opinion, exceeded
  benefits (and I had no more commercial use for it).

• I now mostly use the GIMP^of. I know that many do not like the UI. I am not especially fond of
  it either. However, I have not found anything that I could not do in the GIMP. Of course, I cannot claim to have tried everything.

• ArtRage^f
  is not Corel Painter, but of similar concept. For someone of my very limited artistic talent, it is actually overkill but I love to play with it. Corel Painter Essentials is the next step up from ArtRage and Corel Painter IX.5 and above are way up in the stratosphere. My daughter, the artist, can use these programs, but they’re way above me!

Desktop Publishing:

• I love Adobe InDesign, Adobe Framemaker, and have used Adobe PageMaker. I have used them all at one time or another.
  They all do very nice work and each has its own special strengths. They’re great for those who make money using them in their business, i.e., they cost a lot, but produce excellent professional results rather easily and have great support. Also, the business pays for them!

• I now mostly use Scribus^of.I find that I can do almost everything that I could with the Adobe products. I certainly can do everything that I now want to do using Scribus.

Utilities:

General

• I like Launchy^of. It searches for links and other types of files that you specify and will then find and launch them as you begin to type in the name of the program / folder (I have found that even many misspellings get
  you the item you want, usually with just the first two or three letters. I find it a wonderful tool for reducing desktop and start menu clutter. Of course, when I forget the name of a program, it doesn’t help much!

• I use CCleaner^f for many of my housekeeping tasks. This program will clean your browsers’ (IE, Firefox, Opera) caches, windows temporary files and some program temporary files and, should you so specify, securely erase them. It will also do limited registry cleaning and will perform uninstalls much quicker than Microsoft’s equivalent.

• I use Hard
  Disk Scrubber^f occasionally. This program securely erases all the free space on a hard drive. I use this program whenever I get rid an old hard drive. I delete all files and then securely erase the free space, which is, at that time, the whole drive.

• Karen’s Power Tools contain many, many useful items. Most are free.

• Fresh Devices has lots of interesting and useful tools. Viewer, FTP and TweakUI are the ones I use most. Free with registration (IE7 claims the Fresh Devices website to be a phishing site. I’m not sure that I agree).

• Net Transport and FTP Transport are great tools for doing just what they say, setting up FTP transfers and
  transfers of just about any other streaming net services.

• Virtual Daemon Manager^f is something that I find to be useful. Now that hard drives are big enough to everything except massive numbers of pirated DVDs, I find it extremely useful to keep my most used CDs on the harddrive ready for whenever they are needed. Daemon Tools uses ISO images and makes these images available by drive letter as if they were another drive.

• Startup Control Panel^f allows you to view all items that run at startup and to STOP the ones that somehow got there without you wanting them. It is very useful if you are a software junkie like me and often find yourself with a loaded Task Bar.

• TaskSwitchXP Pro^f is my favorite replacement for Alt+Tab switching. It gives you a very nice thumbnail view of each of the tasks between which you are switching. I find it very useful, especially between different open
  browser windows (not tabs).

• Ditto^fo is presently my favorite clipboard manager. I only turn it on, however, when I need its services.

• Keepass^of is my password keeper. It is safely encrypted, whenever minimized it locks the database, and it has lots of room with flexibility in assigning folders and etc. When you copy a password, it only allows it to be pasted once. Of course, if you are using a clipboard manager like Ditto, you have to erase your tracks left there.

• xplorer2 is a useful Windows Explorer replacement or enhancement. It opens
  two panes which you can switch between and has many advanced features.

• Winmover is a utility that use quite often. It allows one to hold down ctrl+alt and, with the left mouse button, move a window by clicking anywhere in that window. It also has the nice feature of toggling at the edges of the screen. While holding ctrl+alt and using the right mouse button, One can resize any resizable window.

Spyware

• I periodically use both Ad-Aware SE Personal^f and Spybot^f to see whether or not I have picked up any spyware. I keep my computer as clean as possible, so rarely does either detect anything.

• I credit Prevx Intrusion Prevention with much of keeping my computer clean. This software monitors and requires your permission for certain changes, such as registry changes to be made.

• I also use Microsoft’s Windows Defender. Redundancy is, in my opinion, the most fail-safe method of assuring a non-compromised computer.

Anti-virus

• I use AVG Free and like it very well. It scores well on all the tests. Only a few are better and they are not free. However, they may be better for many people, especially the non computer literate.

Fonts

• I like X-fonter freeware version^f for perusing and displaying my many fonts. It tells you just about anything you might want to know about a font, shows character maps, but does not allow easy copying of individual characters. It also allows you to install and uninstall fonts.

• ExtendedCharacterMap is similar to X-Fonter. It gives less font information, but does display the selected characters in huge sizes and can copy the characters selected to the clipboard.

PIM

• Essential PIM Free^f is a handy little personal information manager. It does everything that I want to do, including alarms, ToDos, schedules, notes and contacts. A portable version is available.

Firewall

• Zone Alarm^f (free edition) is installed on my laptop. I am using Kerio-personal^f on another computer. They are both capable firewalls.

Audio and Video:

• Goldwave^sw is a great audio recorder and editor. It will even generate waves from mathematical input.

• Noteworthy Composer^sw is a simple, but attractive music notation editor and player. I also use Print
  Music, a commercial program that has nice resources, such as the ability to scan in printed scores and play in music from a MIDI keyboard in real time.

• RealmAlternative (Media Classic Player)^f will playmalmost all known music formats, including Real Media. It saves you all the ads and other hassle associated with Real Player and many other free but not ad free players.

Toys and Eye Candy

• Transbar^f allows you to set the transparency level of the Task Bar. It’s kind of useful because it allows you to see stuff hidden by the Task Bar. Of course, you can always hide the Task Bar, but this makes it more fun.

• Locate32^f is my present desktop file search program. I know that there is lots of competition in this area, but this one is very fast and takes very little space.

Something Different:

• vmware player^f provides a way of testing and using other operating systems within Windows
  (Linux fans don’t get excited — I said I would cover Linux later). “Images” are created of the operating system you want to run and these run in a window within Windows. At present I have ubuntu Linux 6.06 and
  Foresight Linux 0.9.5 that I use. I prefer the ubuntu. Many different images are available on the Internet. You could even run Windows within Windows if you, for example, wanted say a Windows 95 machine and didn’t want to dedicate hardware for some reason. Crashes of the system within vmware player do not
  necessarily crash windows.
  

• Again, to placate Linux fans, I do have a dedicated Suse 10.1 computer.

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“You’ve got to be carefully taught”

September 29, 2006 by dave.

That old song, referenced above, from “South Pacific” regarding spreading of prejudices came to mind recently as I reflected on my feelings regarding immigration, especially from Mexico. I couldn’t see why we should have to educate and care those who sneaked into our country — why, my ancestors came to the USA as early at the 1600s and the last in 1862 and supported themselves, pushed the Native Americans out of the way, and built a wonderful nation! Of course, mine spoke English, were educated, got jobs easily, moved to the lily-white west and only rarely came into contact with any other ethnic group. So, why cannot new immigrants simply do what mine did?

Let me digress. Growing up during WWII, I observed many instances where prejudice was evident. A few stand out and made me think about what this was really all about:

• My father, although having nothing to do with the laws creating it or running the camp, was responsible for the construction of the Japanese interment camp, TOPAZ, near Delta, Utah. A rather dismal part of our history.

• A child relative was quoted in the local newspaper — thought, at the time, to be a really, really cute quote — “Daddy isn’t home now, he’s off fighting the Dirty Little Yellow Japs”.

• I observed a white guy yell at an oriental appearing person, “What’re you doing here, get back into your side of town”!

• While traveling, I met well-dressed blacks who cautiously ventured to ask my parents if we knew a place they could stay in town.

But that’s all over now — isn’t it?

I, on those rare occasions when I think about it, realize that I have treated many local Hispanics / Hispanic surname people with diffidence, at best. Sure, I was glad to get cheap prices on labor — when I needed it. I was happy to see so many mowing my neighbors’ lawns, collecting trash and etc.

Then, it occurred to me that I have 3 grandchildren with Hispanic surnames and somehow I just don’t feel the same way about them. In fact, I get angry if they are appear to be treated unfairly in any way.

Yes, my son-in-law has a Hispanic surname, but, his family has been in the United States longer than some of mine, his first language is English — his second, believe it or not, is Thai — his children are all blond with blue eyes and he is a very hard working perfectionist. (That, by the way, is the hard for me to live with since I am a, “Whatever is worth doing is worth doing any way you can“, type). Yet, he still had trouble getting a decent job — especially a face to face interview, maybe because his field is construction — because of his Hispanic surname? — that is, until he finished his degree in Business Management. Ah, what a college degree (or, preferably, money) does to deflect prejudice.

I, as I reflect back now, had, for many years, retained many of my WWII feelings about the Japanese until my work sent me to Japan and I had direct contact with that wonderful culture and people. I have even begun to appreciate Banzai as I saw how it was applied in a culture where land is at a premium. How easy it is to assume that anything different than what we know is “strange”, “illogical” (watch out Spock!) or “stupid”. The Japanese work ethic is impressive, their culture fascinating and they’re really tough competitors — something I admire, but have often regretted. I later learned similar lessons in Korea.

So, am I now prejudice free? Absolutely not! I have to steel myself against judging most middle-easterners as real or potential terrorists and, I am certain that I have many more prejudices that everyone else but I can see.

Now, how do I end this merry meandering monologue before I really get myself into trouble?

Let’s just say that I hope to some day, in a Christ-like manner, to be able to look at a person and see their strengths, their heart, their personality, their abilities and, if appropriate, their needs and/or weaknesses — rather like Martin Luther King, Jr. put it in his famous speech —and not than just their color of skin / exterior appearance / surname / cultural differences.

That is, see them all as human beings, my God’s children.

That I should live so long …

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