Cleaning House & Mind

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1235 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people about the reasons for war in Iraq, (and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Cleaning House & Mind

I hope I have waited long enough since my last posting that any comments about the election are unnecessary. You've already read it somewhere else...and it was probably funnier/pithier/more insightful there.

But I can't resist just one complaint about the statewide results in Indiana: Joe Kernan seems like a man of tremendous integrity and conscience. It is a terrible shame that we have replaced him as governor. One of my daughters has been working in state government for over a year, and has had lots of opportunity to interact with Mr. Kernan. I haven't met him, but have listened to Sarah's stories and feel like I've come close. I hope he will find a way to remain involved in public life. We need more people like him.

On the home front, we have begun preparations to sell the house next spring. Mary and I have spent two weekends in the basement - purging the bookshelves, painting and cleaning. For the first time in months we filled both trash cans this week. The trunk of Mary's car is full of things to be donated to Goodwill. And we've barely made a dent in it!

My dad used to say that you should move every 7 years to clean out your closets. He was right. We've been here 6 years now, and our closets (and store room and garage) are bulging. We'll take our time this winter and get rid of it, little by little. We'll spackle and paint and generally "spruce up" the place. Then in the spring we'll put it on the market.

We have not made any decisions about where we'll live next, other than to say it will be a smaller place. Our thoughts swing to the extremes. One day we talk about a small country place with room for a big garden. The next day we're thinking about a condo in Indianapolis. Somewhere in between we think about a small house in Indy. The good news is that we don't have to make up our minds anytime soon.

Along with the house cleaning we're also working on "mind cleaning" or mental de-cluttering. We find ourselves awash in printed matter -- newspapers, magazines, and since it's the holiday season -- catalogs by the dozen! And most of it goes unread, sitting in stacks that silently add another "to do" to our already too long lists.

Earlier this week I started downsizing. I'm allowing all my magazine subscriptions to expire. (Most of them I can read online anyway, with the added advantage of a Google search to help me zero in on topics of interest.) I've cancelled the Wall Street Journal. We're going to keep the Sunday New York Times. It's enough newspaper to last a week.

Except for this week. They didn't deliver today! Oh well...just one less thing to do. I feel freer already.

Election Night Reflections

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1123 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people about the reasons for war in Iraq, (and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Election Night Reflections

It's been nearly a month since I've posted anything to the blog. Two reasons: Lots of other things clamoring for my attention, and a sense that others had more important things to say...and a forum to say them.

Now it's election night. The campaigns are effectively over. All the claims and counterclaims come down to one night of watching the scores accumulate on the tv screen. We voted at 6:10am this morning, and there was already a line forming...in the rain. By the time we finished, the line stretched out the door. We saw lots of our neighbors and co-workers. It was Will's first opportunity to vote - he turned 18 late in October. We went out to breakfast afterwards.

Tonight Mary read me an email she received from our friend Rosa in Ft. Lauderdale. I asked her to pass it to me, and I've copied it verbatim below. I think it provides a fitting summary to this campaign period. During the campaign I have been rabidly partisan, and have made no secret of my views in this forum. Tomorrow I can be elated (if my party wins) or deflated (if they lose). But for the moment tonight, I'll reflect on what the democratic process really represents, and find comfort and strength in Rosa's commentary. It's good to have friends who are so coherent.

"Today"

Ever since I became a citizen of this country, in 1994, I have voted in every election available to me. I have found myself in tears many of those times. I don't think it was maudlin sentimentality. It is just that when you live with 220 or so million other people in one country, you realize you are a little speck, yet on election day, I have always felt like I was somebody. That my voice was getting added in and counted for something. The elections of 2000 and the way in which the final decision was made about who our next president would be were strangely--quietly--devastating to me. There had been other elections where the people I voted for lost. I like to think that I am not a sore loser and am respectful of the democratic process. But in those weeks following the 2000 elections, for the first time since I immigrated, I lost trust and hope in this country. I didn't allow myself to think about it much. I muttered here and there, but mainly, I tuned out the deep and real despair I felt, and went about the business of living my life as a citizen of this country with as much integrity as I could.

In June of this year, the despair turned to determination--determination that to the extent possible, I would engage the political processes of this country to make sure that whatever happened next, I was not a passive observer--and receiver--but rather, that I could go to bed at night with some sense of certainty that I had done my bit to make this the country what I believe it is capable of being. I began to make financial contributions to the candidate I support. I began to find ways to volunteer--in my precinct, by having a national staffer stay in my house for the last 2 weeks leading up to the election, by voting early, and finally, this morning, by serving as a poll watcher, an observer in a predominantly African American precinct up in one of the poorer sections of Fort Lauderale.

What I saw this morning made all the effort worthwhile--no matter what the outcome of these elections. As poll observers, I and my counterpart were given chairs to sit on where we could get a birds-eye view of the polling area w/ 6 machines. The polling area was nicely air conditioned and my seat comfortable. There were close to 200 people waiting in line when I came in at quarter till 7 (am) and the sun rose hot, bright, and strong early. Most people had to wait 2 hours outside. I wish I could convey to you the quiet dignity, determination to vote and polite patience. One young man's voter registration papers had gotten terribly messed up and he kept getting bounced back and forth between precinct 4K and precinct 5K. He was angry. He was visibly upset. But he did not stop trying until he got to the voting booth and when he did the whole room cheered for him. Another woman had waited for 2 hours in the hot sun. She was 90 years old, thin as a rail and frail as a leaf at the end of the autumn. I gave her my seat where she waited another hour to cast her vote. Her daughter wanted to help her at the voting booth but she said she could do it herself and shuffled over while the poll workers and watchers held our breath not sure she'd reach her destination.

I had come with some fairly serious concerns about the role my counterpart from the other political party would play in terms of accosting and challenging voters. He's a good ole boy from Georgia, served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam and came from Georgia to be a deep sea fishing guide inFlorida. That business failed and when he didn't make it he got into the business of Real Estate appraising. We all make our compromises and settle with our disappointments, don't we? He was polite. He was not threatening to anybody. About 40 minutes after the polls opened, he looked at me and said, "these folks aren't cheating anyone around here. Hell--they're to busy surviving to have time for that. I think neither of us should be here." It broke the ice and helped us both because we were able to cross check w/ each other what our counts were (that was part of the drill). After bantering back and forth for a good part of the morning, he asked me what my job was. I told him I was the Director of Religious Ed at a church. My answer left him speechless for about 20 minutes. He literally turned away from me and got busy doing something else. Then he came back and asked me: "Is that a Christian Church you work for?" And I said, "yes." "So how do you reconcile being a Christian and voting for your candidate." We talked some about that. I don't believe I changed his position any more than he changed mine. I want to hope that I left some cognitive dissonance for him--I could certainly hold my own quoting Scripture and and using theological arguments for my position. Ultimately, we changed the subject back to safer matters like "ain't it awful how the Dolphins are doing." We parted ways wishing each other luck. Perhaps more than anything, I deeply appreciated the fact that we could have fundamental disagreements with each other and still have some sense of kinship. Some sense that we are not bitter enemies. My sadness, however, is that in the larger political discussion of our time, "us and them" seem to keep cancelling each other out, instead of creating something bigger and better than either side is capable of being.

The people who voted in the precinct where I kept watch are not politically powerful. Neither am I. Neither is my friend, the Georgia goober. But I believe that today changed us all and we changed the country back a little in the direction of who it is that we are capable of being. We all made sacrifices. We all cared enough to be there. We all shared a determination to be heard, to have our votes count and to have a fair process. Maybe this is like the kingdom of heaven. From the tiniest of mustard seeds...

I am proud to be an American.

Much love, Rosa

Eisenhower on Kerry...

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1076 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people about the reasons for war in Iraq, (and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Eisenhower on Kerry...

Earlier this week, my friend Lynne sent me a link to a recent Doonesbury cartoon on the website of the Louisville Courier Journal.

(We don't get Doonesbury in our local newspaper. Lynne made a cynical comment about that, but since I don't read the local paper anymore, I'll let it pass.)

I was, however, interested in the link shown in the cartoon strip. Figuring that any link that Gary Trudeau publishes is one worth following, I found a great article by John Eisenhower, son of Dwight Eisenhower, on "Why I Will Vote for John Kerry".

It's worth a read. One more long-time Republican who has made the connection that George W. Bush is wrong for the country.

Today's Picture: The Six Pack That Made My Head Hurt at Work!

No, I haven't begun sneaking drinks under the desk. I'm in the second week of Six Sigma Green Belt training this week. My company has adopted the Six Sigma methodology of process analysis and improvement. On a strictly objective level, I can say that I have seen tremendous benefits come from our use of this tool set. On a purely subjective level, I'll just say that at 3:30pm this afternoon, after several hours of training on statistical methods, I thought my head would explode. The software we use to process our data produces a "Six Pack" report of graphs that are useful and important...

The"Sixpack" 

Let's just say that after looking at THAT six pack for a while, I was really dreaming about one that was more like this...


A different sort of 6 pack... 

What Else Do You Need to Know?

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1064 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people about the reasons for war in Iraq, (see below) and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: What Else Do You Need to Know?

The following item is reproduced verbatim from Misleader.org

BUSH CONTINUES TO MISLEAD ON WMD

In the lead up to war, President Bush argued that America must invade Iraq because it possessed weapons of mass destruction. For example, on 9/28/02 President Bush said, "the Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons."[1] On 10/7/02, President Bush said, "Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program."[2] Long after it became clear that there were no stockpiles of WMD in Iraq, President Bush has continued to insist that before the invasion "Iraq was a gathering threat."[3]

A comprehensive 1000-page report to be released today by the Bush administration's handpicked weapons inspector, Charles A. Duelfer, will reveal "Saddam Hussein posed a diminishing threat at the time the United States invaded and did not possess, or have concrete plans to develop, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons" according to the Washington Post.[4] According to Duelfer's report, U.N. sanctions prevented Hussein from reconstituting his weapons programs.[5]

Sources:

1. "Radio Address by the President to the Nation," The White House,
09/28/02, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1240587&l=61151.
2. "President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat," The White House, 10/07/02,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1240587&l=61152.
3. "Remarks by the President at Victory 2004 Rally," The White House,
09/16/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1240587&l=61153.
4. Report Discounts Iraqi Arms Threat, Washington Post, 10/06/04,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1240587&l=61154.
5. Ibid, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1240587&l=61154.

Visit www.Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion.

Any questions?



Today's Recommended Blog:

Way back in May, when I started this rant, I recommended my daughter Katie's blog. Since then, my other daughter, Sarah, has begun a blog to record her experience and reflections on the process of applying to law school.

Check it out. Sarah may be a better writer than anyone I know. (She's certainly better than me.)


Finally: In Memoriam

The news today is filled with the news of Rodney Dangerfield's death. A sad day for all of us who were fans of the man and his movies. Maybe he didn't "get no respect", but for millions of bad golfers, like me, Caddyshack is in our all-time top 10 list. Thanks for making us laugh, Rodney!

Reflections from the Southern Hemisphere, Part 1

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1054 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who is intentionally misleading the American people about the future prospects in Iraq to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Reflections from the Southern Hemisphere, Part 1

I'm back in Sao Paulo, Brazil again this week. Long days at work, followed by late evening dinners and conversation with my hosts and colleagues. It is both invigorating - I really enjoy being here with these people - and exhausting. By the end of the night I have little time to do much more than crawl in the hotel bed and hope I can sleep all night.

Tonight, though, I wanted to jot down a few notes on topics I've been thinking about since before I left Indiana on Sunday afternoon. I make no promise that they are connected...or that the result will be coherent. Here goes...

When I was in college -- long ago and far away -- I had a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. It was one of my all-time favorites. Having grown up in a small, rural Kentucky town, Rolling Stone was a window into a whole 'nother world. There was no Internet in 1973, so I got my news about the stuff that really mattered -- sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, politics -- from RS.

Fast-forward to the present. I haven't seen a copy of Rolling Stone in 30 years. My 17 year old son gets a subscription. A recent issue arrives with a large spread on the classic photos of rock-and-roll. It's fun to look at. Photos of all the folks I grew up with - Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Elvis - and a bunch that I've learned about since. Some of the old feeling came back. This is nice.

But what I started to write about was an article titled "Heavy Metal Mercenary" about a guy named Wolf Weiss, one of over 20,000 "for-profit contractors" (aka "mercenaries") operating in Iraq. According to the article, these "corporate soldiers [are] the second largest contingent in Iraq after the U.S. military". Weiss is an ex-Marine (I know that's incorrect...once a Marine, always a Marine) -- ok, he's no longer an active-duty Marine. But he's plenty active, with a small corps of like-minded souls in heavily armed SUV's racing around Iraq, escorting convoys and generally doing lots of jobs we might otherwise expect our soldiers to be doing. The biggest exception - Weiss makes upwards of $20,000...a month.

The story has a real Rambo kind of feel to it. Lots of fast driving, pointing guns at people, shouting curt commands, and relishing the adrenaline rush. There's a movie to made from this.

Having read the story, and thought about it for several days, I still have conflicting thoughts about the situation it describes. I'm mostly disturbed by what appears to be another example of our incursion into Iraq going out of control. How did we get ourselves into a situation where we have to depend on private contractors to run a war? I'm not bashing Weiss, here. He saw an opportunity and pursued it. I have no doubt he's earning his money. God knows it's a job I wouldn't do. But I also wonder about the cumulative effect of 20,000 Weisses and what their kick-ass-and-take-names style does to the perception of Americans in the minds of the Iraqi people.

And it seems to be inextricably related to the same failures of leadership and accountability that resulted in the government giving Halliburton a blank check.

Money...money...money. Is this the common denominator that underlies the whole botched "war on terror"?

Here's the flip side of the same coin. In Monday's New York Times, James Glanz wrote about American truckers who have gone to Iraq to drive in supply convoys - risking their lives to double or triple their take-home pay. As one driver put it, "It's all about the money".

I'll forego another rant about lack of controls on spending, lack of oversight and controls, etc. (Yes...I'm in Brazil doing Sarbanes-Oxley audits...controls are on my mind.)

The most striking thing about both of these stories is the sense I have that these men (and maybe some women...none were identified in the stories) have taken jobs in the middle of a war zone because it pays better than the jobs they can find in the United States!

Something's desperately wrong with this picture.

But it's getting late and I've only touched on one topic this evening.

Today's Photos: Political advertisements in Sao Paulo.
Banners like these adorn lamp posts and telephone poles. They are hand-painted on the walls of houses and businesses. On the surface, it appears as though there are thousands of candidates for local offices. Each one has a registration number that appear on his or her advertisements. The larger the number, the smaller the offce -- 2 digit numbers represent the mayoral or gubernatorial candidates while a 5 digit number reflects a candidate for the local council.


Election time in Brazil 


Election time in Brazil 


Election time in Brazil 



BTW, the election is next Sunday.

What Are They Thinking?

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1041 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who is intentionally misleading the American people about the future prospects in Iraq to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: What Are They Thinking?

One of the strangest news items I've seen in this whole strange political year appeared yesterday:

MSNBC - NBC poll: Bush holds narrow lead: "when voters were asked what they would want in a second term for Bush, 58 percent say they want major changes, compared with only 9 percent who say they want his second term to look a lot like his first term. "

There are lots of things I don't understand here, but the first thing that comes to mind is "How could anyone expect a president who can't admit a mistake on any topic to make significant changes in his second term?"

And I'll credit Mary with the better question, "How would he do this as a lame duck?"

Here's a suggestion for anyone who wants a "major change" in Bush's second term: Vote for John Kerry!

A Strong Reminder

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 1005 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: A Sharp Reminder
It's been a busy summer - a week of vacation, two weeks in Brazil for work, some extra projects at home and at work. Mary's surgery. The net result is that I have not spent much time doing blog posts. I've read a lot of them, and have appreciated the dedication to the medium that other bloggers display. (Two of my favorites are John Bailey's "journal of a writing man" and "Ever So Humble" by Amy. Good writing and photography on both sites. My benchmarks.)

This is not to say I haven't thought about the blog. I have thought about it, even if I haven't contributed to it. I've thought about the purpose, or lack thereof. I've thought about maintaining a consistent point-of-view and political orientation. (OK...so mainly I was just thinking about how important it is that we replace George Bush this November.) I've thought about some topics that I'd like to explore and write about. I've accumulated some pictures that I'd like to post.

But some of this is why there is winter in Indiana - to give us time to do "indoor" things. This has been a glorious summer in southern Indiana. Mary and I have enjoyed many delightful evenings sitting on the screened porch, listening to the crickets and the sounds of soccer games coming from the park down the way. We have started talking about how we will change our lives when we become "empty nesters" next year. We've daydreamed about visiting Italy, and Paris, and other places. And we started watching TV again. (The "No TV Journal" might make a good blog series...later this year.)

And as I've thought about the blog, I wondered if the current format, with the "Today's Top Story" block, continued to make sense. Maybe the awareness of the death toll in Iraq was there, after all. It's been all over the news this week. And there is certainly plenty of rhetoric about the war in the political campaigns. Maybe my little voice in the wind didn't really matter.

Then on Monday I read one more thing. In Sunday's New York Times Magazine, David Rieff wrote:

And even the summer's steady toll of roughly two American combat deaths per day has neither seemed to resonate all that much with the public nor received anything like the coverage in the media or on the campaign trail that might have been expected. Certainly, American fatalities have received far less attention on local TV news, in the tabloids and on the cable networks than the Scott Peterson case or the Kobe Bryant trial.(1)

What it meant to me: It is important that the true costs of the war in Iraq be reported to the American people, and the rest of the world. We have lost over 1000 of our young men and women in a war based on lies and misstatements. These brave young people were asked to do something their own president and vice-president refused to do - to serve in combat. They willingly risked their lives in defense of the ideals of liberty and freedom, in a war effort led by liars. To subordinate their stories to those of murderers and rapists is to demean their service.

I believe we can honor the troops even as we reject the arguments of their leaders.

I also believe we will see many more lives lost before this conflict is completed. It is impossible to disengage from Iraq any time soon. We created this mess. We must stay to put it to right.

So...

I may not post every day, or even every week. But when I do, I will continue to lead with the "top story". And then, if there's something important enought to say on a different topic, maybe I'll get around to saying it.


(1) David Rieff, "Welcome to Iraq, Mr. President", The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, September 5, 2004, p. 11.

Now this is winter!

I'm traveling on business this week. It's my second trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil in a month. What a fascinating place! It's the middle of winter here, the calendar equivalent of January in southern Indiana. But, boy howdy, it sure is different.

Today's high temperature in Sao Paulo was 76 degrees. I've only lived in Indiana for 6 years, but I doubt that it ever got to 76 degrees in January. When I got settled in my hotel room mid-morning, after the all-night flight from Dallas, here is the view:


The view of the pool... 

And I left my bathing suit at home, thinking "it's winter down there, who needs a bathing suit?"

What you probably can't see in this small photo is a) the fountain at the end of the pool in full operation, and b) the sunbather to the right of the pool.

Lots more to say about this place, but it will have to keep til later.

Cheryl Flies the Coop - Part 2

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 938 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Cheryl Flies the Coop!

It's been about 6 weeks since my last post. All I can say is it's been a busy summer. More on that later. What I "owe" is the finish to the story of Cheryl the moth. Here it is...

After "Cheryl" dropped out of the mesh "moth-house", she sat on the ground for a few minutes and let her wings dry. Then she flew off across the yard and into the Serenity Garden. I grabbed the big 35mm film camera and followed, hoping to get a shot or two before she flew off.

I managed to get two shots of her. The first one caught her on the euyonimous.


Cheryl rests on the euyonimous. 

After that, she flew over to one of the hostas.


One last look at Cheryl before she flew away. 

Mary and I stood in the garden and watched, spellbound. After a couple of minutes, Cheryl flapped her wings and flew away, over the fence and out of our lives. We felt a range of emotions, but mostly stood in awe of nature as we had witnessed it unfold.

Good luck, Cheryl, wherever you land. Thanks for dazzling us for just a few minutes.

Cheryl Flies the Coop! (Part 1)

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 864 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: www.icasualties.org

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: Cheryl Flies the Coop!

It's been a busy summer here in paradise. Mary and I have spent entire weekends working around the house on small projects and regular maintenance. We've spent most evenings on the screen porch, enjoying the cool breeze, watching the finches and hummingbirds visit the feeders, and usually sharing a nice dinner, a bottle of wine and background music from the outdoor speakers we finally wired up and placed in the corners. (We brought them from Memphis 6 years ago...) I've made two business trips in the last 3 weeks. All of that activity means blog posting takes a back seat, and the telling of some good stories has had to wait.

One of the most amazing moments we've had this summer was the day the polyphemous moth finally hatched.

Last fall, Mary found several large, green caterpillars on the bushes in our front yard.


Polypheomous moth caterpillar 
(Photo source: Stratford Landing, VA elementary school. )
A friend told her that they would spin cocoons and hatch into moths in the spring. We made a "caterpillar house" out of some plywood disks and cloth mesh. Mary brought in three of the caterpillars and clipped a bunch of branches off the bush so they'd have food. Since all the animals in our home need names, Mary (known to our kids as "Dr. Doolittle") christened them. The smallest she named "Mary". The biggest she named "Mike". The middle-sized one she named "Cheryl", after our next door neighbor. (Cheryl is marreid to Bill. I gave Bill credit in my initial posting for my attitude about living in paradise.) We hung the caterpillar house in the garage and checked on Mary, Mike and Cheryl every day.

After several days we saw one cocoon. Then another appeared. Then a third. Fall turned to winter, and the coccons hung in the garage waiting for spring. I had nearly forgotten about them during the winter. As we got engaged in lawn mowing and gardening this spring, I saw the house regularly - it hung between the wheelbarrow and the weed eater.

Then, during the long Memorial Day weekend, it happened - Cheryl hatched! I was indoors, doing something, when Mary raced in yelling "Mike, hurry! Come quick!" I thought there had been an accident outside, and raced out into the garage. Mary pointed at the caterpillar house, and said "Look! One of them has hatched!"

We quickly hung the house outside and I grabbed the digital camera. The new moth was clinging to a stick at the top of the house. We weren't sure how long she had been out of the cocoon, and wanted to get her out so she wouldn't hurt herself in the house.


Cheryl stretches her wings. 


What stunning colors! 

It took a bit of coaxing (for me and Mary, as well as for the moth). We wanted to be very careful not to hurt it as we tried to get it out of the house. I pulled some of the cloth mesh away to make a bigger opening. Mary nudged the moth with a branch.


Mary coaxes Cheryl out of the caterpillar house. 

After a few tries, "Cheryl" flew from the house to the ground, then sat there sunning herself for a few minutes. Her flight was a bit wobbly, and we realized at this point that she had only hatched minutes earlier. We figured her wings weren't dry...or something.


Cheryl makes a safe landing. 

We stood and watched in quiet amazement for a few minutes. Then "Cheryl" wiggled her wings and flew off into the garden. I grabbed the big film camera and hustled after her. The film is being processed this weekend, and I'll have a digital cd made. More pictures in Part 2 later.

The F-Word

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 860 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: www.icasualties.org

(Why is this "The Top Story"?

1. Each of these soldiers died in a war that was initiated by a President who intentionally misled the American people to serve his own ends, and
2. Like Gen. Anthony Zinni, I believe that this has got to be more important than "American Idol").

Today's Feature: The F-Word

One of the big stories last week was that Vice-President Cheney had said "f___ you" to Sen. Patrick Leahy on the floor of the Senate during a photo session.

Up until that time, I didn't think I had anything in common with Cheney. Like most of my other assumptions, this one also proved to be false. But I, too, have used the f-word. I have worked in enough construction sites, factories and spent sufficient time in bars to have heard (and used) the word used in practically any context imagineable. It works well as an adjective, a verb, and a noun. It works as a descriptor of both sexual activity and pure stupidity. I even heard it dissembled on NPR last week (pre-Cheney).

But despite its increasing commonality, it is still one of the most hurtful words that one human being can direct at another. I know. That's how I used it last.

I was in a private conversation, behind closed doors, with my boss, a man I have worked with, traveled with, and shared a few beers with for six years. He had asked my opinion on why an internal supplier organization was experiencing a high rate of turnover among its employees, causing them to be unable to meet their commitments to our group. My opinion was that the management of the group in question had put costs first, ahead of the welfare of their employees. So I said to my boss, "they basically told their employees 'f___ you, we're taking your jobs offshore', leaving them with no sense that their skills and efforts were valued, let alone with any sense of job security. Why would anybody stay in an environment where you were treated so poorly?"

Was it appropriate for me to use that word? Maybe...maybe not. Would I use it in a public meeting? Absolutely not. Would I direct that epithet at a colleague or an employee? Only if I wanted to be shown the door.

Used indirectly, the f-word has broad, if coarse, descriptive powers. But when it is directed at another human being, it is an unconscionable slur - the worst type of insult. If I used it directly against a colleague or employee, I would be swiftly terminated, especially if I expressed no remorse, like Dick Cheney did.

That's what Dick Cheney deserves. The good news is that we have the opportunity to fire him come November.

The Actual View from the Roof

We've been enjoying a couple weeks of absolutely wonderful weather in southern Indiana. Yesterday was about 75 degrees, with a dazzling blue sky punctuated with fluffly white clouds. Mary's comment is right on the mark: "We've got to capture the feeling of these days and remember it in the dead of winter when it's grey and dreary."

Maybe this photo will help.


The View From the Roof - June 26, 2004 

A shot of the Serenity Garden, from the roof.

Three Steps for Challenging Ambiguity

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 848 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: www.icasualties.org

(Why is this "The Top Story"? This has got to be more important than "American Idol". See my earlier post on comments about the Iraq war by Gen. Anthony Zinni.)

Today's Feature: Three Steps for Challenging Ambiguity

In my earlier post about the comments of General Anthony Zinni, I got on a soap box.

It is easy to rant about "the Administration" and "the war" and to advocate some action that no one of us can effect on our own (like "Let's start by firing Donald Rumsfeld"). As much as we each might like to see that happen, it's doubtful that any of us have the responsibility or latitude to do that as part of our work plans. (However, Mr. Bush, if you're reading this and are considering "lowering the boom", I'd be happy to give you ten or twenty good reasons to do so...). It is easy to rant, easy to comment at the "100,000 foot" level, easy to gloss over the messy details of pragmatic action.

In short, it's easy to get lost in the ambiguity. You can feel good for raising the issue, without any feeling of responsibility for participating in the solution. It's even better when you can raise it in a company of friends over a coffee or a beer.

But commenting at an abstract level without personal commitment is just whining. It misses the point. Remember "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"?

It is harder to provide a set of concrete suggestions to the urgent question, "What can I do, NOW, to make the world a better place?". Much harder. I started this posting two weeks ago, and got to the "here goes" part below...and drew a blank.

In the interest of combating ambiguity where it lives...of speaking directly to the heart of the issue, hear are three concrete actions that any of us can take. Here goes:

Number 1. Talk to your neighbors. Start the dialogue, even if it's just saying "hello" to someone you see every day but have never met. Don't assume anything about their beliefs or opinions. Ask. Years ago there was an ad for a non-profit humanitarian organization that used a tag line that stuck with me -- "You can't change the whole world...just a little part of it." Start with your little corner. Conversation leads to familiarity, which leads to understanding, which leads to trust. The fearmongers of the world would prefer that we remain huddled inside, insulated from each other, with our paranoia fed by the Department of Homeland Insecurity reports of nameless, vague (yes...ambiguous!), but somehow "credible" threats. Are there bad people in the world? Absolutely. Do they live next door to you? Probably not.

Number 2. Call your elected officials. Let them know what you think and where you stand. Most US Senators and Representatives have voice mail, so you can do it after regular business hours. (One exception: The last time I called the White House, there was no voice mail. You can draw your own conclusions - mine ranged from "They really don't want to hear" to "G-dubs couldn't make it work".) Leave your name, address and phone number. Tell them you are one of their constituents, and that you are calling to express your opinion about . State your case succinctly, in 3 or 4 sentences. (Make a few notes before calling if you feel better with a script.) Be sure to close with a "thank you". Need some facts to help bolster your case? Visit MoveOn.org or The Daily Misleader. You'll find plenty of material.

Number 3. Volunteer. I know, you're busy. Really busy. Too busy. Me, too. But if we don't make the time, who will? There are plenty of options available to you, no matter where you live -- local political campaigns, food pantries, tutoring programs. Find an hour. Make a difference.

That's my three. What are yours?

Today's Final Note In an earlier post I mentioned that I had enjoyed reading Denny Coates' Book of Life blog. Denny recently announced that he is giving up blogging to concentrate on writing a novel. His site will be archived after June 30th, so if you haven't visited it yet, you'd better hurry. I will miss reading Denny's posts. They were insightful, humorous, inspiring, and usually made me smile. They also provided a benchmark for good writing that I aspire to reach. Thanks, Denny. Good luck with your book.

What's Up, Tiger Lily?

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 833 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: www.icasualties.org

(Why is this "The Top Story"? This has got to be more important than "American Idol". See my earlier post on comments about the Iraq war by Gen. Anthony Zinni.)

Today's Feature: What's Up, Tiger Lily?

A new explosion in the Serenity Garden this week. Mary told me this was a "Tiger Lily". I had never seen one before. This flower is amazing. I made this photo my PC's wallpaper last night and have enjoyed looking at it all day today.


The "tiger lily" - June 9, 2004 

I am not a gardener...I just wield a shovel when asked and take direction. Mary has the vision and love for the plants. I just get to walk around in the evening and enjoy them. Another day in paradise...

A Site to Get Lost In

Today's Top Story:
At the time of this posting, 819 US soldiers have died in Iraq.
Source: www.icasualties.org

(Why is this "The Top Story"? This has got to be more important than "American Idol". See my earlier post on comments about the Iraq war by Gen. Anthony Zinni.)


Today's Feature: A Site to Get Lost In

I have spent a lot of time recently wading through different blogs, trying to understand the medium, and the quality of information available. This is a great activity for an adult with an undiagnosed case of ADHD -- you can follow every odd link like a rabbit's trail, and not feel bad about yourself at the end.

Somehow along the way I stumbled on Tim McSweeney's site: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/. It is not a blog. It is a political satire site, with numerous contributors. The quality of the writing is excellent, and the wit is sharp!

Some recent postings include:

-- "Pros and Cons of John Kerry's Top Twenty Vice-Presidential Candidates"

-- "The Making of The Autobiography of George W. Bush (An Excerpt)"

-- "Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush"

There is much more here to explore. I'm going back every day. Enjoy!

Memorial Day Reflections

Memorial Day is unfolding as a beautiful day here in Southern Indiana. The sky is clear and the temperature is warm. Soon we'll have the smoker fired up to cook ribs. We'll clean up the sticks and debris from last night's thunderstorm, then do a little work around the yard and garden. About mid-afternoon we expect several of Will's friends to join us for a cookout. For us, it's another day in Paradise, living the American dream.

But I've recently had two vivid reminders of what Memorial Day is all about.

First: Last Friday I was listening to NPR's "Morning Edition" as I drove to work. Steve Inskeep was interviewing retired Marine General Anthony Zinni. General Zinni had some very blunt criticisms of the administration's handling of the war in Iraq. He said that the military was given unrealistic objectives that have led to unnecessary loss of life. "We [The Bush Administration] were in there talking about Jeffersonian democracy, free market economies, changing the face of the Middle East with this one blow. That was ridiculous, and I think now what we have is young kids paying the price..."

Gen. Zinni went on to comment that he had heard on the news that morning that three more Marines had died in Iraq, but that it was not the lead story -- it was number 3, behind the results from "American Idol". Gen. Zinni was concerned that a loss of focus on the human cost of the war will lead to a situation similar to Vietnam.

Second: Gen. Zinni's point was brought home in a very graphic way by yesterday's Doonesbury comic strip. Gary Trudeau filled his entire 6 cartoon panels with the names of soldiers killed in Iraq from the beginning of the war through April 23,2004. He provided a pointer to www.lunaville.org, a web site that maintains a detailed tally of casualties from the US, UK and other countries. At the time of this post, the US casualty count stands at 813.

The View from the Roof today is that we must not allow our soldiers' sacrifice to go unnoticed or, worse, to be trivialized in the media. We need to see the numbers every day, first thing, not as part of some grim exercise in scorekeeping, but as a prompt to continually demand an answer to the bottom line question: "Why is this happening?" More importantly, we must continue to demand accountability from the government officials and policy makers that started this war. (Let's start by firing Donald Rumsfeld!) One of the mistakes of the Vietnam era was that we confused the targets of our opposition -- blaming the soldiers for the mistakes of their generals and the elected policy makers. There are many today who maintain that any criticism of the war or the current administration somehow equates to lack of support for the troops. I think we're smart enough to tell the difference.


(You can hear the entire interview with Gen. Zinni here: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1912641 )

We've got pictures!

This post is really a test to see how the "hello!" software works. Within Blogger there is no way to directly upload photos. But "hello!" handles it for you. Very cool!

So, for this morning, the View from the Roof is the view from ground level. Mary has a beautiful rose garden started. The blooms got clobbered by a thunderstorm last night, but earlier in the week I captured some shots of the first blooms.


Some of the first blooms on Mary's roses. 


Another first bloom. 

Out of the Stone Age?

My grown daughters, Katie and Sarah, call me "Stone Age Pop" because until recently I had the oldest, ugliest cell phone on the planet...and I didn't know how any of it's features worked. The numbers that I programmed in the memory of the thing when I first got it two years ago were the same numbers in it when I lost it in a New York cab two months ago. (The one night I decided to go out with it in my pocket instead of hanging from my belt on a really ugly aftermarket belt clip I bought at Wal-Mart for five bucks.) I didn't care that it was ugly. It was a tool, not a part of my lifestyle. We have 350 minutes a month, shared across three phones. We never came close to running out.

Now I have a new flip phone - the same kind that Katie has. (See her new blog for her opinion of it.) It's newer, lighter, and hipper. And it fits in my pocket very nicely. And I talk on it a little bit more. But it's still a tool. I still don't know how all the features work, and the voice activated numbers I entered don't work - a step back from where I was.

And so the girls still call me "Stone Age".

I let them get away with it mainly because as long as they're teasing me, they're still talking to me.

But neither of them knew what a blog was til I started mine. Old Stone Age surprised 'em.

I'll admit, I hadn't paid much attention to them until we gave up television. (More on that another day.) I had read a few at random, but they usually contained the drivel that caused my son Will to turn up his nose at them. Will said

It's some kid sitting in a dark room at night, all alone, with no friends, writing crap like "I'm all alone, listening to this music. It sucks. I think I'll kill somebody." Don't ever tell my friends you have a blog!

OK. I won't tell. Your secret is safe.

Creating a blog won't change my life. Reading it won't change yours. This is fundamentally a very self-centered endeavor. It's about my opinions, my point of view, me...me...I...I. It might be the cyberspace equivalent of the crazy guy on the corner shouting at the people passing by. And you know what? If you don't like it, you have two choices:

1. Ignore it. Cross the street and don't look back. Click somewhere else. I'm not being rude, I'm just reflecting the reality of the Internet. Nobody made you come to this site. Maybe somebody suggested it, or included a link in an email. (Ha! Maybe it was me!)

2. Start your own blog and tell the world I'm wrong. Find your own corner and startj shouting. It's free. Go ahead. I dare you...no, I double-dog dare you. Send me a link when you do. (But please, no angst. It upsets Will.)


Here are some of the blogs I was reading before I started my own:

Denny Coates -- "The Book of Life". I like reading Denny's posts. He inspires me to look for the "glass half full", like my neighbor Bill does. Some of us need constant reminders.

Franklen (Sorry, I couldn't find the last name...)-- "Bicycle Commuting Now". I've been dabbling in bicycle commuting. (OK, so 3 days in 4 weeks doesn't constitute much more than good intentions.) Frank's running commentary on bicycling in Harrisburg, PA gives me frequent reminders of how easy, and fun, it can be.

Kiril Kundurazieff -- "The Cycling Dude". Kiril, aka the "Mad Macedonian", is a west-coast cyclist who comments on cycling issues around the country. He has put up some great pictures from California rides.

John Perry Barlow -- "BarlowFriendz". Barlow was a member of the Grateful Dead. He also was a cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation a non-profit group working to protect "digital rights". An interesting blog that addresses a variety of topics.

My favorite blog today, however, is:
Katie Johnston, "Things That I Like and Things That I Do Not Like"

OK, so she's my daughter. I think she's funny as hell. What's so Stone Age about that?

"Hello, world!"

"Hello, world!"

Anyone who has ever written a computer program recognizes this cheerfully optimistic two word salutation as proof that his or her code has successfully executed. It is the simplest programming task: display a line of text on the screen. Why "Hello, world!" and not "What's up, Bubba?", I don't know. But as a starting point for a new blog, it makes perfect sense to me.

I used to be a programmer. I loved it. Now I'm a director of IT for a large Indiana-based manufacturing company. Some days I love it. (Those are the days when I get to see somebody else's "Hello, world!" moment and cheer them on.)

I'm 48 years old. Next week I'll be 49. I'm almost out of that magic demographic range of 18-to-49 year old males. Next year I'll get my AARP card. Damn!

For 25 years I lived in Tennessee, which explains why "What's up, Bubba?" also makes perfect sense to me. Now I live in Southern Indiana. I've looked up "Hoosier" in the dictionary. It's not really a flattering term.

For the last several weeks I've been reading other people's blogs. There are some excellent ones out there. (I'll share some links later...as I learn how.) There is some trash out there, too. (You can find it on your own.) I hope to land somewhere in between. (You can decide.) My reason for starting a blog is probably the same as anyone else: I think I have something to say, and the Internet provides a free podium. We'll just have to see if it's worth reading.

So why "The View from the Roof"? It was really my third choice.

As I thought about the tone I wanted to set for this blog, I remembered a conversation I had with my neighbor, Bill, a couple of years ago. It was a warm spring Saturday morning. The sky was blue, just a few clouds in the sky, and I was standing on the roof of my back porch, cleaning leaves out of the gutter. Bill was in his yard next door. He called up to me, "Good morning, Mike!". I said good morning, and asked how he was doing. His reply stuck with me: "I'm just enjoying another day in paradise. I'm living the American dream." I'd never thought of it that way. We both have nice houses, good jobs, loving wives and great kids. Bill is a "glass half full" kind of guy. I'm a bit grumpier. He shook me out of it that morning. I try not to forget. So I thought about naming the blog "AnotherDayInParadise", but that was already taken. (You can find it. It's probably very good. I don't know.)

My second choice was "The View From Here". That was already taken, too.

So I'm in the middle of the sign-up form, needing to enter a name. Two strikes. I get up and walk through the house to think. I don't want to cancel and start over tomorrow, and I don't want a lame name. I consider "Free Frame of Reference", a lingering memory from a news story in the 60's about a large door frame set up in a San Francisco park. (I think that's right. Some of my memories of the 60's are cloudy. Bet yours are, too. Be honest, now.) But that's kind of obscure...and I'm not sure I've got the details right.

Then I remembered another spring day, another rooftop moment. We were living in the suburbs of Memphis, in a two story house. My wife, Mary, and I were replacing the roof. Throughout our marriage (28 years, as of yesterday! She still hasn't figured out that she got the short end of the deal.) we have enjoyed doing major projects together. This particular year we were doing the roof. I remember being up on the second story on a clear, warm Memphis day. It was early afternoon and we had few more pressing concerns than how we were going to finish the roofing project. In the back of our minds was the news we had heard the night before about an older woman we knew from church, Olive, who had been rushed to the hospital after a stroke. Mary was on the ground when the phone rang. She went in to answer it. A few minutes later she came out of the house and climbed up the ladder to join me. She said that the call was another church member calling to let us know that Olive had died that morning. We stood on the roof for a few minutes in silence, gazing out over the neighborhood rooftops. I remember looking up at the sky and seeing the misty trails left by a jet and thinking "there goes Olive, streaking up to heaven.". That moment stuck with me, too.

"The View From the Roof" wasn't taken on blogspot, so here we are.

Hello, world!