Ignorance is bliss

I worry that we are becoming a nation of blind people. By blind I don’t mean that we are unable to see, but rather that we lack the ability, and especially the knowledge, to see. The knowledge I fear that has been lost to us is common sense and critical thinking.

Let’s start with public schools. I know that they are failing our children (who are the future of our country) because of something that happened to a friend of mine. He supervises a small staff of warehouse workers, many in their early 20’s. His employees know that he reads a lot (he generally reads a book during lunch), and one day one of the young men there asked him “What are stars?” This young man has a high school education and doesn’t know what a star is (and I’m not talking about the ones in Hollywood)! Another friend of mine got a job teaching at a brand new high school. He told me about his ‘adventures’ there: no books for students (generally there is just a set in the classroom for the students to look at during class), no homework given to students (he was told “they don’t do it anyway, so why assign it to them”), unruly students and limits placed on what teachers can do to discipline them, and that’s just some of what he’s told me.

Humans are not born with the ability to think rationally, it has to be learned. Unfortunately with a steady diet of video games (generally violent), commercial television (look at how families are portrayed), and movies (a co-worker once told me that if stuff wasn’t blowing up in the first 30 seconds that the movie was no good), I have little faith in the future of our society.

Ignorance is a dangerous thing. And things are not being helped by the fact that most television news programs and newspapers are now owed by mega-corporations. Have you ever noticed how no matter what nightly news show you turn to they are all showing the same thing – at the same time? Heck, they even have commercials at the same time! By using a “cookie-cutter” approach it makes it easy for the owners to produce the shows. Unfortunately it also makes it easy to control what information is made available to the public, and what real and vital information is withheld from the public. I did a post on January 1, 2008, about New Years Resolutions, take a look at my fourth suggestion for a list of alternative sources for information.

We as a nation have to do better. We are failing our children. Our educational ranking, as compared to other nations, has been slipping for some time. There is an organization called the National Education Association, they have some interesting things to say about public schools and education. Lastly, because of the Federal No Child Left Behind program, teachers are just teaching students how to pass a test, not the things they need to know to survive in the real world

Wish I could end this on a better note. Parents have a lot on their plates and so many work multiple jobs just to make ends meet which gives them little quality time to spend with their kids. Families are scattered and often don’t have the support of grandparents, aunts, or uncles to help with raising the next generation. There are some volunteer organizations out there, maybe that’s a start.

Bitten by a bug

This is not the Blog I had in mind for this week, but like many people at this time of year I’ve been bitten by a bug. No, I’m not talking about the small, flying type of bug like a mosquito, but rather the stealthy type that hops from person to person. I’m not sure who I should thank for this cold or flu or some combination of both that has felled me, but they could have kept it to themselves.

Now, I’m not a doctor nor should my advice be used in place of sound medical advice, but there are a lot of common sense things to do when you are under the weather. Some people call them folk remedies, naturopathic, or homeopathic medicines, but whatever you call them keep this in mind: for most of the history of humanity we did not have modern pharmaceutical companies producing wonder drugs, instead we used plants, minerals, and foods to cure what ailed us. Our ancestors must have known something or we wouldn’t be here.

The proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria should also be a warning to us that we rush to the doctor for antibiotics much too often. Heck, a cold or flu is not even caused by bacteria but rather a virus – and you can’t cure a virus with an antibiotic. Next time you’re bitten by a bug try some common sense folk remedies instead. They will lessen the symptoms just a well as some “wonder drug”, will cost a lot less, and probably be better for you anyway (have you ever read the drug fact sheet that comes with your prescription? those things scare me more than what made me sick to begin with!).

One of the simplest things to do is have some chicken soup. Many cultures over the ages have been feeding this to folks sick with a cold or flu. Don’t believe me, check out this article – it even comes with a handy recipe. It is simple, soothing, lessens your symptoms, and requires no FDA warnings.

What if you have a lot of congestion? Did you know that milk makes mucus? Now I love milk and when I’m sick a quick bowl of cereal is easy to fix. However, a very wise lady warned me about this, but not believing her at first I tested it out much to my discomfort. Here’s a Web article stating the same thing, plus it has a whole long list of other good advice. Looking for a quick way to open up those blocked sinuses? Try steam. Something as simple as a hot bath or shower can do wonders to open up your sinuses. Add some lavender, peppermint or eucalyptus to aid the process.

Now I know it’s the American way to work no matter what, but I wish people would stay home with their illness instead of sharing it with everyone, especially in the early stages when you are so very contagious. And I especially ‘enjoy’ shaking hands with someone who then (after letting me shake their hand) goes on to tell me how sick they are. Ugh!

If you or someone you love is not feeling well here are a couple of other Web sites with more good advice and remedies. This one has tons of advice for colds or flu, while this one includes some advice for herbs that may help prevent or reduce the effect of the bug. Common sense is the best remedy for simple illness. Save the doctor for the big stuff. Oh, if you need a doctor that knows a lot about natural and homeopathic medicines, check out Dr. Samuel Mason.

A trip through the mountains

The other week I did a Blog on the things that I love. Since I'm really sick of politics right now I decided that I would just post some pictures that I've taken in the past of other places that I love. It's winter now in the U.S. and lots of people are dealing with snow and cold weather, so I thought some pictures of green plants and other non-frozen stuff might be nice.

The picture shown above was taken somewhere in the Great Smokey Mountains - another place that I love - mountains that is, although this series of pictures is all from various places in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

The above picture is from an out-of-the-way, country road in South Carolina. Hidden treasure (and I'm not talking money) awaits those who travel off the beaten path.

There are lots of waterfalls throughout the Appalachian range. They are wonderful for soothing the soul and refreshing the spirit.

It was a bright but cloudy day when I took this. A blue sky would have been nice, but we don't always get everything that we want. Better to enjoy what we have.

Does my vote count?

The presidential election year is upon us: newspapers, TV news, talk-show radio, and – for those states where their vote counts – TV commercials and signs all over the place. Politicians, their staff and volunteers are all out trying to get your vote, and your mailbox is full of flyers telling you why one person is better than all the rest. To support all of this an unbelievable amount of money will be raised and spent in this race for the White House, by one estimate almost $1 billion total!

One thing is different for this election: some states are being “punished” by the Democratic and/or Republican National Committees because they decided to hold their primary too soon. If you are a Democratic and live in Florida or Michigan your vote won’t count. If you are a Republican living in Iowa you face the same fate. The Republicans also took away one half of the votes of people living in Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Wyoming. This doesn’t mean that you can’t vote, but rather that there will either be no delegates or only a few delegates at the convention for your state. Confused? Read this article from The New York Sun about the whole mess.

All in all this makes me kind of mad. The political parties want us to contribute to them, they want us to vote, and then they decide to punish us. I didn’t decide to move my state’s election date up, I was quite happy with it where it was. I’ve had little faith in how much my vote counts on the national scale in the past and now I have no faith at all.

I still haven’t decided what to do on “election” day, at least as far as the national side of it is concerned. There are local and state issues that I will vote on, but since I have been disenfranchised by my National Committee why should I vote for one of their candidates? Maybe I’ll do a write-in candidate for someone I know or pick a popular TV celebrity. If you live in Florida you should read this newspaper article where they say your vote will probably have some “impact” even if it doesn’t count. Another Florida article says that the news agencies will mostly ignore Florida. Interesting considering what happened in 2000.

One nice thing though, since I live in a state that is being punished I am enjoying the fact that my mailbox is not full of junk, yards and street corners are not cluttered by signs, and best of all I don’t have to watch any of those campaign sound bite commercials!

Something I love

I love the beach.

I love the ocean, the sound of the waves as they crash on the shore.

I love swimming in the water, the fun of riding the waves.

It is sad though to see so much trash and debris on the beach and floating in the water. I wish we took better care of our home.

Last year, on my annual beach vacation with friends we were unable to swim in the ocean because there was just too much seaweed. I know the source of that, runoff from peoples yards. I can only hope that is not too bad there this year. We'll go back because we all love the beach and ocean, but I know that each year things will only deteriorate.

What do you love?

Explorers wanted

Humans have been quite adventurous in the past. Our ancestors crossed vast continents, explored the wide oceans, braved ice and deserts as they expanded across the face of our home, Earth. Who knows how many lives were lost in this process, how many ships never returned, how many wagon trains never reached their destinations? Did this stop us? No, if it had we would not be where we are today.

But what about now? Since we’ve covered this planet, space must be our next destination. So why aren’t we doing more? Yes, I know, we’ve had a number of accidents and we’ve lost people and space ships. These are disasters that need to be examined so we can learn from our mistakes [and honor our lost heroes], but these should not be disasters that cause us to stop trying. Did our ancestors stop when a ship was lost, when a caravan did not survive? No, they kept trying and so should we.

The author, William Burrows, states in his book, “The Survival Imperative: Using Space to Protect Earth,” that the current generation “increasingly has no sense of joy of purposeful adventure.” We need to inspire them, instruct them, encourage them, and motivate them. If nothing else will get people moving, then they need to look at how MUCH money can be made out in space (after all money seems to be the only thing that so many people are interested in)! John S. Lewis states in “Mining the Sky”, “[L]et's consider the smallest known M-type asteroid, the near-Earth asteroid known as 3554 Amun (two kilometers in diameter): The iron and nickel in Amun have a market value of about $8,000 billion, the cobalt content adds another $6,000 billion, and the platinum-group metals add another $6,000 billion.” That comes to a total of $20,000 billion. Current estimates put the total number of asteroids above 1 km in diameter in the solar system to be between 1.1 and 1.9 million. You do the math. If that isn’t enough to create a ‘gold-rush’ type stampede, I don’t know what will.

Albert Einstein once wrote in a letter to his son, “Life is like a bicycle, you have to keep moving in order to keep your balance.” We [humanity] have stopped moving, we’re stagnate, overweight, out of shape, uninspired, and without a vision. We need people who are willing to brave the dangers and take us that next step. Heck, if I had the money to build a ship (or two), I’d be willing to go. I suspect that space travel could not be any more dangerous than a trip down the average interstate highway (Florida, California, or Chicago for example!).

One last thing to consider: If the dinosaurs had a space program they would still be here. Big rocks do fall out of the sky. We need to be somewhere else before the next extinction sized rock heads our way. Don’t think they are out there? Read this!

New Year's resolutions

Ah yes, here we are at that fateful time of year where many a person will resolve to do this or not do that. It’s another tradition that has been with us for a very, very long time. I got to wondering how long we’ve been doing this to ourselves and discovered that this goes back to the time of the Babylonian’s (who’s most popular [recorded] resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment). Seems we’ve been torturing ourselves for much longer than I thought!

Personally I’ve come to the realization that it is not good to set a bunch of unrealistic goals for myself and then not be able to achieve them. It’s not good for my (or anyone’s) self worth. It is much easier to be one’s own worse enemy than it is to be one’s own best friend. I have learned that if you can’t like yourself then it is very hard to truly like others; and there is one thing that I know for sure, you can’t make it through life without friends. I am very grateful for my good fortune to have some very good friends.

So, with all of that said, I want to list a few “non-resolutions” – suggestions for things for all of us (myself included) to consider doing (and, yes, this is me stepping up on my soapbox again):

1. Be kinder to one another.
2. Take care of our home, our real home: Earth. Recycle wherever possible (Circuit City takes rechargeable batteries; Publix takes plastic bags, paper bags, and foam cartons; many communities have drop sites where you can take aluminum, plastic bottles, and glass; Staples takes some brands of empty toner and ink jet printer cartridges). Try to use less water, less energy, and other non-renewable resources.
3. Invest in the future: support education (read a book or magazine, watch a nature or science program on PBS – NOVA is a favorite of mine). Encourage a child to learn about science.
4. Don't believe everything you hear on the TV or read in the papers. Remember who owns those sources (a very few, big corporations) and that they do not have your best interests in mind. Instead, try to read more from non-traditional sources: PBS TV and NPR radio, Free Speech TV, Free Inquiry magazine, and Mother Jones are just a couple of suggestions.
5. Be a volunteer. I’ve found that getting involved with something is very fulfilling. Many communities are allowing retired folks (who are on limited incomes) to “pay” their taxes by doing volunteer work.

I also have one important, and personal, resolution for this year: find a job. If you’ve read my earlier posts you know that late last year I quit my job. So this is one resolution I’ve got to reach soon (or you might not see many more posts from me!).

In closing I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I hope that you have a happy and enjoyable day. As for me, I’ll be sitting down to a traditional dinner tonight of ham and black eyed peas (with rice) for a dose of luck for the coming year.