Live Long and Prosper...The New U.S. Space Force

Welcome our guest today, Roger Carlton, columnist for the Graham Star

Newspaper in Robbinsville, NC.


This columnist has great respect for the military. Our son-in-law is a graduate of West Point and served with honor in Iraq. I considered both Roy Bahr and Mel Greene to be friends. They served in the military and supported veterans till they both recently passed on. In balance, there have been many military mistakes and successes over the years. Our country remains free due to the military's heroic actions. In fact, our right to dissent has been protected by the military and that is very important.

This past week, the White House took great pride in announcing that a new branch of the military had been established. The U.S. Space Force now joins the Air force, Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. Just what we need in a time of multi-trillion dollar deficits, the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression and a country torn apart in the debate between scientific management of the coronavirus pandemic and the politics of pre-election economic ruin. 

To go back in history, when President Kennedy gave his inaugural speech, he boldly went were no president had gone before by committing that we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This was a response to the threat of the Russians who had gained an early lead in the space race. Sadly, President Kennedy did not live to see the delivery of his promise by the civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when we landed on the moon in 1969. 

The great debate that was settled by President Johnson and Congress was that the military would provide the astronauts and the civilian NASA would provide the technology and governance of the program. This was a partnership and not a competition. Space would be shared by all humanity as would the next 50 years of technological wonders. This has worked even to the point that Russia launches missions to the International Space Station from their Bakonur facility because we gave up the Shuttle program. The astronauts come from different countries and live together in outer space.

The Space Force tosses that successful history into a Star Trek warp speed black hole. The insignia is remindful of a combination Nike swoosh and Star Trek uniform patch. There are many questions to be raised about scientific research for all humanity versus military dominance. Budgets come to mind as does the need for efficiency and enhancing cooperation among the military branches. If there is a need for this new branch, certainly no case has been made to the American public by our political or military leaders. More specifically, are we sending a signal to the world that we are weaponizing the space program?

Karen Paul Holmes on video

I am sharing this video of Karen Paul Holmes reading poetry from her most recent book. I have watched it several times and I hope you like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM_5klDJEpw

I found this reading comforting to me at this time, but there is no mention of COVID 19. The book was written before we ever heard of this deadly virus
I like Karen's voice and she is such a lovely person inside and out. 

"Karen Paul Holmes lifts up the extraordinary found in the everyday. Here are poems that brim with finely-crafted detail, anchored to place while at the same time embracing change and impermanence." -- Poet Nancy Chen Long

Photo by Roger Carlton

Located on Lake Santeetlah facing south across the the lake using my Apple I-Phone 7. The time was around  6:30 am and the shot lasted for less than 10 minutes. The early bird catches the best image.

 

Roger Carlton is columnist for Graham Star newspaper. He was once a writing student of mine. He has developed a great eye for photography. I believe this view is from his lovely home on Lake Santeetlah in western North Carolina.

Roger says the Graham Star is using some of his photos on the front page of the newspaper. Who says life can't get better after retirement? Roger has found a new calling with writing and photography. He spent his working years in city management. We are happy to have him as part of Writers' Circle around the Table.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Guest post by Roger Carlton. 

There is much good in the world. In 1847, the Choctaw Nation managed to collect $170 and send it to the starving peasants in Ireland's County Cork to help ease the impacts of the potato famine. This was a lot of money for the Choctaw who had been forcibly removed in the Trail of Tears just nine years before. There is a monument in County Cork to celebrate this generosity. 

Today, more than 173 years later, Irish families have sent $2.7 million to the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation to help ease the impacts of the Coronavirus. "The Choctaw showed such decency and humanity and we are still grateful" said Michael Corkery who contributed $200 to the fund. That gratitude after so many years defines good.

There has also been much bad in the world. Last week was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State massacre. Four students were killed and nine injured when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on Kent State University students who were protesting the Vietnam War. There was an iconic picture of a student screaming as she knelt over the body of a fellow student. Arguably this event which was covered extensively in the media changed the tide of public opinion. The ensuing national student strike may have played a role in the downfall of the Nixon Administration although Watergate was the final blow.

The bad here is obvious. The lesson to be learned is that gun violence, whether by protesters or government, has no place in political discourse and  the freedom of speech guaranteed by our democratic way of life. We should be able to demonstrate and express our opinions without violence. Our leaders should not encourage nor praise groups that are known to have a tendency or history toward violence.

The ugly is also apparent as governors struggle to balance the need for caution in returning to some degree of normalcy in our social and economic lives. The desire of many to express their individuality by ignoring the need to wear masks or remain a reasonable distance apart achieves nothing but momentary satisfaction.  The most recent example happened at the Michigan State Capitol. Some protesters of Governor Gretchen Witmer's extended stay at home order carried long rifles, Nazi Swastikas and Confederate flags. They demanded to be let into the building. Some of the legislators wore bullet proof vests. While this behavior represents only a small percentage of the people at the event, it is clear that such ugliness should not be encouraged or tolerated.

While the history of this pandemic continues to unfold every day, we should all try to remember that the good far outweighs the bad and the ugly. There are certainly heroes and villains, acts of generosity and greed, leadership and pandering. For those threatening or using violence to express their displeasure...chill out. The risks are too great.  

Old Diaries and Journals

Mother's Day

Recently I was reading a small red diary written by my twelve-year old self. Only a few sentences scrawled across the pages, however, they brought back memories.

My mother, Lois Robison Council, the sweetest mother ever

My mother gave me freedom to do many things I wanted because she trusted me to be responsible.

But in this diary, I had written about deceiving my mother. I did not tell her things that might end my freedom to ride Daisy. I didn't tell her, and my friend Joyce didn't tell her mother, of the incidents with horses that would have put a stop to our meeting on Saturday afternoons and riding for hours through woods and down trails on open land miles from home. Both Joyce and I had falls from horses, but we weren't hurt and we knew not to tell our mothers if we wanted to continue to ride.

In this diary I tell of the time I was on my way home after riding for hours with Joyce. We had not paid attention to how late it was. It would be dark soon, and I was not going to make it in time. I decided to take a shortcut through an area I had never ridden before. The fat farm horse, Daisy, plodded along until she saw a pile of trash beside the trail. Startled, she shied to the left. I didn't make it with her. I ended up on the ground while Daisy took off through the dark woods. 

When I realized I was able to walk, I headed across an open field hoping to reach the road to my house and hoping Daisy would be somewhere easy to find.
In the diary I didn't say how frightened I was, but I remember being terrified because the sage brush was taller than I was and I couldn't see where I was going. When I finally broke out of the tall grass, I arrived on the side of Fleming Road and within a few seconds a big black car turned down the road as well. What relief! My brothers had come to find me.

How did you know where I was, I asked them once I was snuggled in the front seat between two of them. 

When Daisy came home without you, Mother said for us to go and find you. She was scared to death.

I was ashamed and sad that I had upset my mother. Being the empathetic person I have always been, I felt her fear and worry. I was sure my riding days with my friend were over.

But Mother was so happy to see me and find I was not hurt, she didn't scold me and she didn't take away my privileges, my riding with Joyce. She was a mother who listened, and when she heard why I had taken the shortcut, she understood. She just said to me, Pay more attention to the sun next time.

I was told later by one of my brothers that an open well existed in that big field with the tall grass. If I had fallen in it, they might not have found me because no one would have thought I would be in that field. 

After that day, I told Mother where I would be riding, and I stayed where I could be found if I had an accident. Today, on Mother's Day, I remember and miss my wonderful mother. She was my anchor, my lighthouse, my security blanket. She was the glue that held our family of nine together. Always in the background, but always a prominent figure, we knew she would listen and understand.

We have all had our fill of COVID-19 news.

Enlightening words from Roger Carlton, columnist for the Graham Star newspaper.

The death tolls, monumental human suffering, acts of human kindness, heroic efforts to tame the beast and economic impacts on millions of unemployed workers will be in our memories forever. There is one more aspect that needs some thought. It is the "Effectiveness Trap" as expressed by Brett McGurk.

First, who in the world is Bret McGurk?
He is an American diplomat who has served in senior national security positions under Presidents Bush II, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Most recently, he served as Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. He is a Distinguished Professor at Stanford University.

It is pretty easy to conclude that he is a smart guy who has served presidents of both parties in a distinguished manner. Most importantly, he quit his role when the decision was made to pull out of Syria. That was a great loss to policy-making, but an ethical stand because he thought it was a terrible mistake.

The Effectiveness Trap keeps men and women from speaking out – as clearly or often as they might – within the government. And it is the trap that keeps people from resigning in protest and airing their dissent outside the government. It is one of the great moral questions for a senior government executive or advisor.

 It is the predicament in which Drs. Fauci and Birx find themselves daily in COVID-19 press conferences regarding the Administration's efforts to contain the medical, economic and political crisis with which their leadership is confronted.

 This columnist did not think much about the moral dilemma for these two heroic doctors, until they were confronted with how to react to the question raised regarding ingesting bleach as a potential preventative for the impacts of the virus. A simple "not a good idea" would have been the best answer in a normal world.

 But Washington is not a normal world and probably never has been. So the good doctors made the right moral decision and maintained their effectiveness for the greater good of our society. They did not quit in protest. These heroes just told the truth and maintained their leadership role. That is why we trust them. Their decision-making and recommendations come from scientific knowledge and unbiased concern ... not the politics of the moment.

We should all think about the effectiveness trap. When do you say, as immortalized by Johnny Paycheck in his 1977 hit,Take This Job and Shove It?
Here's the question. What did Johnny Paycheck know when he performed these lines 43 years ago?

 "I been working in this factory for nigh on 15 years.
All this time I watched my woman drownin' in a pool of tears,
 And I've seen a lot of good folks die that had a lot of bills to pay.
I'd give the shirt right offa' my back if I had the guts to say …"

Think about how you would end the verse as you go to the polls in November.

Time Blindness - A new issue we all might be experiencing now

https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/coronavirus-self-isolation-time-blindness.html

The link above leads to an article on a subject I know about but did not know it was a condition with an actual name. Time blindness. I have suffered the effects of it for about ten years. Ever since my husband died in 2009. 

Symptoms I have are losing track of time daily and many times a day. I had a sense of time without the use of a clock. But now I can't leave the kitchen if I am cooking because I forget how long the potatoes have been boiling and soon I smell them burning. I sit down to the computer to work for half an hour but if I don't set a timer, I will work for three hours before realizing how long I have been there.
This has had a troubling effect on me. I wondered why and what has caused my sense of timing to disappear.
In the article by Bridget Reid, she says Dr. Ari Tuckman, a Pennsylvania-based psychologist who specializes in ADHD, says adults typically develop an innate awareness of time and an ability to track its passing. Some people have what he calls a “harder,” or sharper time awareness: they know when they’ve been out for lunch too long, or when something hasn’t been in the oven for long enough.

Others have a much softer one; they can miss appointments and trains, or play a game for hours and not realize they haven’t eaten dinner. This is where I am now. I am often late for appointments because I underestimate the time it takes to get dressed and to drive to my destination. It makes me angry with myself.

Dr. Tuckman says, At the severe end of the spectrum, toward the soft end, is time blindness, which can profoundly impact someone’s life, if they can’t ever keep deadlines or make social events.  
I am grateful that I am not at that end.
Grief is one of the biggest causes of time blindness, says Dr. Tuckman.
Holding onto time is a skill of your mind, like doing math, and sadness sucks up its computing strength, Reid says. 

This is a link to an article on how to deal with time blindness and explains more about this strange phenomena. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/guide/a32304056/time-blindness-what-is-it-and-do-you-have-it/
I wonder  how many of you might have time blindness, and like me, did not know what it is.

How Do Our Leaders Make Tough Decisions?

Our guest writer today is Roger Carlton, columnist for The Graham Star newspaper in Robbinsville, NC. Thank you, Roger, for more thought provoking words.  

Roger Carlton

The higher up you are in government the tougher the crisis management job. Mayors and County officials must make local decisions like closing certain roads and how much to invest in emergency medical services. Governors must make state-wide decisions like closing schools and limiting the number of people who can gather. The President must decide how to allocate critical supplies like ventilators and face masks, when to activate medical ships and where to send them and shutting down airports.

President Truman decided to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing or maiming more than 200,000 people. This ended World War II and saved more than 1 million lives if we had to invade Japan. He famously said "The buck stops here." Attorney General Janet Reno mishandled a crisis when she blew up 76 Branch Dividians near Waco Texas. She accepted responsibility and moved on.

 The Governor of Louisiana and Mayor of New Orleans failed when they allowed Mardi Gras to go on and are now paying the price. Their strategy was cry that they weren't warned. Local officials in South Florida and the Governor blew it when they allowed spring breakers to mingle on the beaches. Unfortunately the hotel and restaurant lobby overcame the medical experts. Florida is paying the price now.

More than three years ago, this column was about the election of President Trump and a concept known as "loyal opposition." This means that he was our president and while you may not support his policies and actions, he was still our president and leader. During the past three years, his ability to earn respect and support has been an inverted Bell Curve. Straight down to a Pollyanna ignoring of the expert warnings of a pandemic and then straight up to supporting three relief bills and then down again with a thinking out loud blunder suggesting a quarantine of nearly 20 million people in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut area. Overall, to be fair, his performance has improved and that is showing in his approval ratings.

Suggesting that we need to get people back into churches by Easter and get the economy going is a difficult choice. If we lessen the current strictures on our lives, many more people will die from the virus than necessary. There may also be a lessening of the risks to our economy if the 3.2 million people who filed for unemployment last week and millions more this week, might begin to be able to go back to work.  Dying people and their grieving families versus people who can't put food on the table. How would you like to have to make that choice?

The thought process that most top leaders follow is called "utilitarianism."  Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Thomas Hobbes all influenced this thinking in the late 1700's  when the Industrial Revolution was tearing up traditional societal norms. Utilitarianism instructs leaders that ethical decision making is creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people. To make decisions in this context requires expertise, contemplation and empathy. It also steps on justice and individual rights. Tough stuff when you think about it.

We must remain hopeful. This too will end and then we can evaluate which leader did well and which did not. Each of us can do our part by being responsible with precautions. We must support and thank our first responders who are at risk and the workers in stores that remain open who are also