Some folks are embarrassed because they were once ‘Beautiful People’

So, I’m certainly not a conspiracy theorist. I’m more of the belief that we’re sort of random elements in a random universe and we’re just hurtling through space and that’s the end of it. But, as I’ve gotten older, and perhaps because I’ve watched too many movies, I’ve really been wondering about what went down in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s….I mean there were a string of assassinations and deaths that I believe totally and fundamentally altered the path the planet was moving along and has moved along since.

In the 1960’s, we saw John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Malcolm X all murdered and all were possible huge agents of significant change in our world. Then, after that carnage had ended and just at the beginning of the 1970’s, we saw Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all tragically die. And these three were among the biggest symbols of the ‘60’s counter culture – not the only ones, but certainly among the most visible. And now that I look back on it – and after likely seeing too many Hollywood movies – it seems fairly weird to me that all these folks died in such a short period of time. Cue the Twilight Zone theme.

I obviously have no real idea how things might have turned out if even some of these people had lived longer lives. But I think things would have been radically different. The world seemed to be heading in one direction, mainly fuelled by the planet’s young people, then, pretty darned quickly, it started heading in another entirely different direction which has landed us where we are today….which is a mean, greedy, avaricious, hateful and grotesque sort of place where many, many, many people are living with constant pain and suffering while a precious few reap the fruits of these other folks’ labours.

Certainly, something changed in our world in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s that altered the trajectory of our societies and our world. The age of the hippie came to a sort of abrupt end and today is regarded as a curious time when young people were mostly drug-using, irresponsible creatures who needed to grow up. Phil Oches, whose music I listen to from time to time, thought the age of the hippie ended with the Kent State shootings which were 50 years ago this year. Oches said that at Kent State, middle class white kids suddenly realized something we called “the Establishment” would actually kill them to maintain what had been the status quo…..they quit protesting, got jobs, got married, had kids and went on about their lives. They stopped being hippies and some were even embarrassed to have to admit they once were hippies. And that is sad.

And, these days, watching how governments around the world conduct business – and especially being aware of how certain branches of the American government conduct business – absolutely nothing surprises me anymore….and it would no longer surprise me to find out that the many significant murders and deaths in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s were somehow tied or connected together. Something like this just might be able to happen when you had nefarious characters like J. Edgar Hoover running the show. It’s really hard to know who to trust in the world of today and I imagine it was just as tough back in the olden days.

The catchwords of hippie culture were peace, love, harmony, cooperation, compromise….and these are not words to be embarrassed by….they are words that we should be fiercely proud to use and to live by….if you’re embarrassed that you were once a hippie and you smoked some dope and maybe dropped some acid….it’s because society and history have twisted and perverted what it meant to be a hippie…what it meant to hold all life precious…..and to make some feeble attempt to live in peace and harmony.

The age of the hippie was remarkably short…..in fact, I read somewhere that by the summer of love in 1967, most of the for real hippies had already moved on and out of the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco…..but a whole generation of young people almost caught the spirit…. It sort of almost worked….almost, I think, changed the world….politicos are saying we are currently living in the most dangerous times since the second great war…..but it didn’t have to be this way…..not at all….and that’s for sure…..

Time for a course correction on Spaceship Earth……

Ya know, when I started this blog, I sort of told myself that I should keep away from things political….the world is just too damned polarized these days….whenever you try to offer what you think is a voice of reason, you get beaten up by folks who feel you’re somehow on the opposite side of the so-called political spectrum from them. Really, what I try to offer, is indeed a voice of reason. And I guess I can’t hold off any longer, so here’s my take on the way things are currently working on Spaceship Earth….

First, you’ve gotta proceed from the premise that this economic thing we call “capitalism” is, in reality, just a really big pyramid scheme…..in case you haven’t noticed, all the wealth on the planet is concentrating in the hands of fewer and fewer folks all the time…..we’ve already got a whole bunch of multi billionaires on the planet and, soon, my guess is we’ll have our first trillionaire…..sooner or later, somebody like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk is going to end up owning the whole damned planet and everything and everyone on it….Why don’t people get that.

And, right, now – at this specific moment in history – most ordinary people on the planet are worrying how our various governments are going to pay down the enormously ginormous debts they are racking up battling the economic impact of the pandemic….How indeed? Literally trillions of dollars are being doled out by the governments of the world and wealth is sort of being redistributed – at the moment, the redistribution is from government to the people, but at some point government is going to have to get that money from somewhere. And they better not be expecting to get if from the so-called middle class – because we don’t have it. We’re broke already.

Money to pay off our pandemic debts has to come from rich folks….that’s the only answer. The redistribution of wealth has to be from the rich to the poor – it can’t be from the middle to the middle….or from the middle to the bottom….it really is time for the people who have most benefited from the societies that have allowed them to become vastly wealthy to pay those societies back….it is time, indeed!

Since the late 1940’s, the taxation system throughout most of the Western world has been wildly skewed in favour of those with wealth. And it is time for that to change. It’s time for the rich to pay up….it is their turn to pay the piper. We have carried the load for far too long and it is time for that to ease.

A friend of mine said he watched a news program recently and that it reported that in Canada alone -a tiny country – there is something like $440 billion owed in delinquent tax accounts – and the vast majority of this money is owed by rich people and large corporations. And the government makes only a scant effort to collect this money. And the reason is because the rich people and the large corporations wheel out batteries of lawyers and such and tie the whole thing up in court for years – or decades. The government simply can’t afford the cost of collecting these taxes…instead, if you or I get behind on our taxes, they threaten to take our stuff – and there is no escape….

For reasons I can’t understand, most wealthy people and big companies won’t willingly pay even their fair share in taxes….they spend amazing amounts of time, resources and money trying to take advantage of a system that has allowed them to amass huge quantities of wealth and to live fabulous lifestyles. What is wrong with this picture….? Even though I have been branded a socialist – or worse – by most people who judge me politically, all I’ve ever asked is that everybody pay some semblance of a fair share. No socio-economic sector of our society – especially the wealthy – can avoid their financial responsibility to the society to which they belong, or the whole damned system will come crashing down – which, by the way, is what is currently happening….

We need a little equity in the system. That’s all even the most ardent of revolutionaries usually want out of a system that has become bloated and corrupt over time. It’s what happens to all societies over time. It’s just the way it is but it’s time for a course correction. It’s time to guide Spaceship Earth in a different direction. Anyway, there’s a bit of a political rant for you…try not to do that too much…

Be well and stay safe…..

Musicians of the world unite – cast off your chains…….

You know, the state of the music industry greatly saddens me these days. I have been deeply involved in music since I was conscripted into the Hanover Musical Society junior town band when I was four-years-old. I played clarinet for eight or nine years, until the mid-Sixties when I realized you couldn’t really play clarinet in a rock ‘n’ roll band….then, I switched to bass guitar and I’d played in rock, blues and country bands for 53 years when the pandemic hit. I surely wasn’t good enough to be a professional musician – my first choice in life – but I was good enough to do lots of playing and have a really great time….

When I started playing, seriously in 1968, music was just bursting out all over…..while my garage band, Strange Brew, was practicing in my parents’ basement, my buddy, Dick Knechtel and his band, Local Disturbance, were practicing in our back yard in an old barn – it was a very noisy neighbourhood every night after school and on Saturdays. And there were gigs everywhere. In those days, before the advent of “disc jockeys”, if you were holding pretty well any type of event, you needed a band. There were dances everywhere and all the time….there were parties and there were coffee house-type venues. And in those days, we were too young to do bars.

Then, the drinking age dropped when I was in about Grade 12, and, suddenly, there were really gigs everywhere. Lots and lots of gigs – and you could even make okay money…..a three-nighter in a decent bar might get you $1500…..and my point is that you could actually aspire to be a musician in those days with some hope of paying your bills. That has mostly changed over the last few decades so that today it is pretty tough earning a living as musician. You’ve always had to work hard to be successful as a musician. But today it seems you have to work even harder….

And, of course, as live gigs have dried up and the money for playing live has mostly dried up, along have come these wonderful streaming services that the public just thinks is the cat’s ass….and why wouldn’t they. For ten bucks a month, they can have unlimited music from unlimited sources….hell of a deal – unless you’re a musician trying to sell your music to help pay your bills. Then, it’s only okay if you’re one of the truly big-time folks who get millions and millions of streams. Everybody else is dying – you might say they’re gasping for air in the middle of a stream of music. Anyway you look at it, it’s a hugely large pile of shit. Meanwhile back at the gold-plated ranch, the guy running Spotify is worth about $4.5 billion…..

In the middle of all this, I truly don’t understand why musicians, big and small, don’t start pulling it together to take on these music streaming services. Way back in Hollywood, when Charlie Chaplin and a bunch of other early-day actors thought they were being ripped and gouged by the movie studios, they started their own – United Artists – and it basically broke apart the stranglehold a few major studios had on the movie business. Why in the world don’t today’s musicians try to pull something similar? Musicians have long worked together collaboratively, forming bands, orchestras and putting together large and complicated projects and shows. How hard could it be to get some type of union or association together to protect musicians’ rights….there is indeed strength in numbers….there is indeed.

In fact, back in the old days when I was just starting to play, there were still musicians’ unions operating all over the place. And some of them were pretty powerful and lots of clubs and bars wouldn’t book a non union act back then. Are these unions still around, and if they are, what in the world are they doing…? Part of the problem in modern society is that the word “union’ has somehow become a negative thing and this is truly a stupid thing…..the folks who are running our world – not quite sure who that is these days – love it that the common people aren’t organized and have nothing to represent them and have to fight all their own battles. It’s something called dividing and conquering….and it’s working really well…..

If musicians – or any other part of society – want a fair shake from the system, they need to “band” together and force the system to change. It ain’t gonna happen if you don’t push and push real hard. The rich folks – the folks in control – never give it up without a fight. Make it happen, people. Musicians of the world unite – cast off your chains….

Over-parenting our kids into mental health issues

I don’t want to be judgemental and I was far from being a perfect parent, but here’s sort of what I think’s wrong with the way we’re raising kids these days. So, there’s this ad on TV….a little girl, maybe 3 or 4, approaches her mother. “Hey, Mommy,” she says, “I want to be a fairy princess.” And just like, the mother arranges the most amazing princess costume for the girl and transforms the whole house into this like fairy-type place and it’s all gorgeous and magical and filled with little twinkly lights and, well, it’s amazing.

So, after watching this, I consider how my mother would have reacted if one of my sisters had approached her and said, “Hey, Mommy, I’d like to be a fairy princess….” My mother, who I’m sure dearly loved her children, I think would have replied, “Well, have fun, dear….” and that would have been the end of it. And my sister would have been left to her own devices to get some type of costume together and create her own fairyland. She’d have been sort of forced to deal with the situation herself. Yea, I think we try to do way too much for our kids these days and it only hurts them in the long run.

Kids seriously need to at least try to solve most of their own problems as they grow up – parents can’t do it all for them. That, I think, is why a lot of today’s young people have major problems when they head out on their own into the big wide world. When I was a young guy, most young people couldn’t wait to get out of their parents’ home and get going with their lives. That’s not usually the case these days. Kids tend to hang back before getting out on their own….mostly I think this is because they want to have everything their parents have before they leave that usually very comfortable nest.

When we moved out of our parents’ homes when we were kids, we very often didn’t have a “pot to pee in” as the expression goes. We lived in crappy apartments or old, dilapidated houses – anything we could afford to rent – we used ancient, well-used furniture….we drove really old clunky cars that were falling apart. Put simply, we lived in a type of poverty, but were sort of proud that we were doing it on our own.

Today, when kids go off to university or college, they often keep in constant touch with their parents, sometimes texting back and forth almost constantly. When my generation of young people headed off to post secondary education, our parents – some of who had only Grade 8 – had absolutely no idea where we were going or what we’d be doing. There might be a weekly phone call to keep in touch, but you likely wouldn’t see your parents until Thanksgiving and, after that, until Christmas. Our parents somehow trusted us….somehow thought we’d survive out there on our own. And they didn’t love us any less. And some of us failed at life, but that’s sort of the way it was – and should be even today.

Apparently, there are long line-ups for mental health services at universities and colleges these days. A lot of our young people just cannot cope with life on their own. And, in my opinion, it’s because we’ve done too much for them while they were growing up. I think parents these days are enormously well-intentioned. I think they’ve got only the best interests of their children at heart – no parent wants to watch their child struggle – but their over-protective style of parenting is not helping their children when they become adults.

Listen, I’m likely not the best person to give any type of parenting advice. I did my absolute best as a parent – which I’m sure most people do – but I still feel I came up short a lot of the time. I sometimes wish I could have done more for my kids. However, after a few bumps in the road, they are out there being contributing members of society and they are good people – and that’s about all you can hope for. And I have to hope they’re happy – because that’s what I want most for them. And I think I share that with parents around the world.

Technology surely ain’t movin’ at warp speed….

Ya know, we have a lot of sort of neat technology in our society…..we’ve got cool phones and other devices…we’re got this whole internet thing…..there are medical breakthroughs happening….it looks like we’re the kings of technology and we’ve got life in general under control and most of us continue to believe in something called “the technological fix”, which means that no matter what kind of problem humanity faces, it can always develop some type of technology to fix it.

What I think, though – and you’re likely going to disagree with me – is that we’re moving technology forward in tiny baby steps these days….I mean, I think, that we are indeed moving forward – but just not too quickly and surely not quickly enough for me. It’s great to have a cell phone that can cook you dinner – and it’s great to have a robot that can torque a nut onto a car wheel – or even vacuum your rug – but this is all small stuff. Last great breakthrough we likely had as a civilization was the computer. That was a pretty big one. Most of the other stuff we’re doing is sort of chicken feed.

Here’s what I mean. Compare when we moved into the 21st century about 20 years ago…..we were just moving into cell phone technology and the internet was really starting to happen….we were moving forward – there’s no doubt…….but when 1900 dawned, this is what was happening…..the invention of cars, airplanes, telephones, electricity, radio and soon TV….these were massive technological breakthroughs of the kind we haven’t seen since perhaps the invention of computers and early days of the internet.

And we are at a point where we could really use some big advances. We could use things like warp drive, teletransporters, time travel….some big stuff. Even something like a new, clean and never ending energy source would be good for starters. I mean if our belief in the technological fix is going to be proven to have credence, we badly need some really big stuff.

For example, if we could really move out into space – which we’ll never do without something like warp drive – it could solve massive problems on the planet. It could ease population pressure – it could provide us with alternate locations to gather some of the resources we need to survive as a species. Earth is getting way too crowded and you don’t have to be too bright to figure out we’re going to run out of resources before we get much further along. No, if we were able to get out into space in a serious way, it could be great for us. It would provide humanity with a much-needed frontier to grapple with.

It’s strange, but when I was a kid, we tended to play games and keep ourselves amused by looking backward. We mimicked what we saw in popular culture – which was cops and robbers, WWII stuff….the very politically incorrect “cowboys and Indians”…..that type of thing. When my son was a lad – which is going back 40 years – his generation tended to play games that looked forward. Star Wars was really huge…Battlestar Galactica….a whole bunch of futuristic things were all over the pop culture of the day.

For some reason – and I actually used to think about this – I thought my son’s generation and the ones that came after would be eager to invent or create the futuristic “toys” they played with as kids. I’m not sure that has happened. In fact, I’m pretty sure it hasn’t….I don’t see anything like “ray guns” and we’re sure not using flying cars or jet packs or anything else that dominated that early pop culture.

I mean, when I was sitting in the Paramount Theatre in Hanover in 1969-70 watching Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, I sort of thought that’s where we’d actually be by the year 2001. Man, to an old guy like me, we really seem to be moving forward very, very  slowly. We’re moving, but it sure as heck ain’t at warp speed.  

Valuing something more precious that cold, hard cash…..

Put quite a bit of thought into what to write about this week….the obvious topic would be the machinations of the political scene in the United States….had tears in my eyes last Wednesday watching what was unfolding at the U.S. Capitol….indeed, one of the saddest scenes I have seen in my lifetime. And my only hope that it will strike fear and terror in the hearts of my conservative friends who will now realize that it is not the liberals or the socialists who need be feared – they are not the ones who are after your freedom and liberty.

Anyway, I think what happened in Washington this past week points to something else that has been assiduously eating away at our planet for a considerable period in our history. And it has been the gradual but relentless dumbing down of our world to the point that there is a lack of greatness nearly everywhere, but it is most evident in our politics. There simply are no great leaders on the planet today – no one to lift us up and out of the muck of creation.

I’m not really sure what has caused this to happen….but where are the people like Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Indira Ghandi, Chairman Mao…..people who really changed the world. Where are the great people in our world? I think that they might still be out there, but the problem is we are so awash in everything these days – there’s just so much of everything – and the world of information is so splintered and fractured that we’re all running in different directions and seeing reality from many, many different perspectives.

Perhaps folks like Elon Musk and Bill Gates are our great people, and, in some senses, I suppose they are. They have radically advanced the planet technologically and I suppose that’s a good thing. Technology is highly valued in our world – almost to the point of excluding everything else of possible value. Indeed, we are far more concerned with having a better cell phone than feeding the billions of people who starve.

But, of course, there is something closely tied to the advancement of technology, that is even more highly valued than the technology itself – and that is money – cold, hard cash. And the fact that pretty well everything on the planet revolves around our incessant pursuit of wealth is perhaps the most fundamental flaw in humanity’s ecosystem…and, yet, there seems no way out of this conundrum….surely there is nothing we can value more than money. It is really the fundamental need on the planet. You need it to eat. You need it to live.

But what if, somehow, we could figure out some way to value life – all life – more than anything else. What if each and every tiny piece of life could somehow be more important than the money it’s worth? What is we had some type of socio-economic system that valued life and held it as the most precious commodity on planet earth. And where is the great mind who can conceive of such a thing? Who could develop some way to live that would treat all life with fairness and justice and equity?

I am fundamentally an evolutionist. I believe we are indeed evolving and I’ve always believed that this was intellectually as well as physically. But lately I’m wondering if this is true….my old friend, Sam, was a devolutionist. He thought we reached the pinnacle of human intellectual evolution with the ancient Greeks and it’s been downhill since then. And, in some senses, it’s a difficult argument to defeat. Look back into the distant past to see some historical figures who seem to have achieved some level of greatness. It is more difficult to find them in the here and now. I pointed this out earlier.

Anyway, I am clearly not the great mind to solve the problems of humanity. But I keep hoping that one will come along to lead us on the next stage of our journey through the cosmos. Hoping for some stuff like warp drive, teletransportation, time travel as well….maybe Elon Musk and Bill Gates will get there yet. But let’s give the latest version of the latest cell phone a rest. It’s not where we should be going, people. Value life – not money. Be well and stay safe…..

I’m waiting for the heads to roll; it should be a good spectacle

Ya know, I’m really and truly tired of hearing about what great philanthropists we’ve got on Planet Earth these days….I’m tired of hearing what a great guy Bill Gates is because he gives several billion dollars to charitable causes each year….tired of hearing how great a guy Elon Musk is because he’s out there launching spaceships or whatever…..tired of hearing all this stuff….blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…..Truth of the matter is that if all the rich folk in the world got together and put together some type of super fund, they could solve world hunger and provide health care and education to every living soul on the planet….

You see when Bill Gates donates $4-5 billion through his foundation or some other way, it’s a pittance….Bill is worth – at last count – about $90 billion…..when he donates a few billion here or there, it’s like you or I throwing ten bucks on the collection plate on Sunday morning at church…..it’s not nothing…but it’s pretty damned close. You see, believe it or not, Bill could give away $89 billion of his $90 billion and still live like the proverbial king….$1 billion is a whole of money….

Feel the same way about Mr. Musk and the rest of them…..Glad Elon is reaching for the stars….can’t wait until humanity gets there…..but we need to get our priorities straight….feed the planet…provide a solid level of health care…..get people educated….lift the world out of poverty and deprivation in a way that shows respect and allows people to retain some of their dignity….Until this is accomplished, we might as well all still be living in caves….we continue to live in primitive times – and that’s for sure….

Of course, the rich folks don’t seem very willing to simply give up their huge whacks of money….we’ve been doing this grotesque “trickle down” economic thing since 1980…and how’s that working out for us…..actually, not worth a shit….every study everywhere plainly and graphically illustrates that since the early 1980’s, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten – well – poorer….the inequity on the planet these days is dazzling, to say the least…..

And if the rick folks won’t willingly give of their money to make the system somehow more equitable, then the only solution is to take it from them – likely in some form of taxation….and, of course, we can’t do that because the world economy would certainly collapse and government would simply waste most of the money it collects…. And that assumption is certainly valid given the usual track record of governments around the world….they are usually corrupt and evil things that are not much concerned with the welfare of their citizens. And that is a problem….for sure….

But the real problem is – how do you fix the problem? It should be easy….I mean, I worked in the newspaper business for almost 40 years. I interviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of people who had tossed their hat into the ring and were running for office….and they were generally all running for the same reason – to make things better for them and their fellow citizens….and so how do they all – or nearly all – get co-opted into a system that is wildly dysfunctional and rarely responds to the needs of its consituents? A good question but one we don’t seem able to answer….

Of course, there should be absolutely zero “professional” politicians….elected office is something that should be shared among the citizenry. Everyone in a society should have the opportunity to serve. In fact, it should really be an obligation to serve…and, to that end, there should be term limits on every elected office….political parties should also go extinct. We should just have one simple rule – legislate for the good of all – not for the good of a few….it really is a simple thing.

I’m going to tell you something you should already know. If those without are pushed and shoved too much – if their lot in life gets truly too difficult to endure, they will, at some point, rise up and cut off the heads of the rich people…It has happened consistently throughout the planet’s history. It should come as no surprise when it happens….because it’s not “if” it will happen, but “when”……

Ya know, I’ve been writing about mostly the same sort of thing since I was in high school….and things just sort of get worse and worse. Things will change. Either we will accept that it’s necessary and make it with some modicum or order – or it will simply happen – and it will be a really big mess. And that should also come as no surprise….I guess I’ll keep writing about this stuff, but I’m pretty sure heads will roll before it’s all over….it’s just sort of the way of the world….

“Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”

What Christmas Means to Me

Christmas to me means snuggling under the covers in my Mom and Dad's house on Christmas Eve, my brother asleep in the bottom bunk and my sisters across the hall. We're together in the house on 6th Avenue.

Christmas to me means gatherings at Grandma Gardiner's house with a table so long I couldn't see the other end and lots of commotion and laughter and good cheer. And my Uncle Stew stretched out on the couch, shades of green from too much holiday fare.

Christmas to me means being in Grade 9 and getting a high school ring from Mom and Dad and not being able to believe that I'd received such a grand gift – and sneaking up to Klie Jewellers after Christmas to see what it cost.

Christmas to me means the time we were in high school and my buddies and I got together on Christmas Eve – and we had a few drinks – and we called up a bunch of our teachers and sang them a very bad version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Christmas to me means road hockey games in Pinewood Park with teams made up of long-haired guys named Pood and Doc and Kunk and phoning the score into CKNX TV so we could listen to it being announced when we were at the dance at the Coliseum that night.

Christmas to me means the first year I didn't get home for the holidays – a sick child and a young couple alone for Christmas – and our doctor made us feel better by making a house call – 1979 and the last one I've seen.

Christmas to me means walking in the winter snow that crunches and creaks under my boots – up 10th Street past the ghosts of Stogie and Ken and through the Hanover Inn to see who's home for the holidays.

Christmas to me means remembering the year after my first marriage broke up and I was alone – back in my old bed in the house on 6th Avenue – standing in the family church pew – I felt like a kid again. I think that maybe you can go home after all.

Christmas to me means happy times gathering with family at 436, 6th Avenue to play crockinole, see Dad play Santa, eat turkey and watch the men do the dishes.

Christmas to me means slippers from my Mom – slippers of all shapes and sizes – mocasins, old man slippers, Gordie Howe slippers, Toronto Maple Leaf slippers – slipperrs for all occasions – so that even today, I have three pairr.

Christmas to me means thinking of others and somehow knowing that each of us can make a difference if we try – and in today's uncertain and confusing world, we need to try harder than ever to make life better for all who share it.

Christmas to me means celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ and knowing that he was a smart guy who had good things to say and that if we could just find a way to listen, the world would be a better place for all.

It was the ‘best of times’ to grow up……

So, I’m a baby boomer…..I was born on a dark and stormy night in December 1952….in the old days, I’d have been right at the end of the baby boomers – but now they’ve sort of extended it and there are more baby boomers than there used to be. Of course, the folks who are runnin’ the world these days – mostly young folks – absolutely can’t leave anything alone. Like I think they’ve dumped DayLight Savings Time when I wasn’t looking….or maybe they dumped the other one – anyway, we don’t have to change our clocks anymore….and I hated changing my clocks, but it was just something you always did…..why change it?

Of course, from the perspective of an old guy – a gnarly old codger – most everything on the planet seems to be in a bit of a mess these days……yea, we’re overpopulated and overpolluted and over this and over that…but we’re strugglin’ along, careening from crisis to crisis in the same way we always have since the beginning of recorded history….we’re not good at long range planning….we just sort of fumble along, sometimes staggering remarkably close to the edge, but always never quite toppling over.

Yea, I was born and raised in the small town of Hanover and still have the fondest regards for that community. Growing up in Hanover back in the really old days was sort of like growing up in Mayberry…..you know where Andy Griffith and Don Knotts were the police department, every boy in town owned a BB gun and there was roller skating in the summer and ice skating in the winter….we watched John Wayne and Audie Murphy save the free world at the Paramount Theatre every Saturday afternoon…it surely seemed like a simpler time when things were more cut and dried.

You know, we spent most of our time as young people growing up in Hanover complaining about how bored we were….only now, as I watch today’s young people on their devices, do I realize what a richness of activity I grew up in the middle of….we had our ice and roller skating, there was the bowling alley, the pool room, the show, a couple of restaurants to act as after school hangouts…..the churches in town ran “coffee houses” for teens and there were dances going on all the time…..I played in a band when I was a young guy – and, actually, still do – and we were busy all the time because there were always dances and parties and stuff…..

We sort of grew up in a golden period to be a young person….my parents never really got to be teenagers because they grew up during the Great Depression and the war….my Dad always thought he was extremely lucky because he was just too young to actually be in the war, but was old enough to share in the prosperity that came after the war. Our generation not only didn’t have to endure a depression or a war, but really also got to share in the prosperity of the 1950’s, 1960’s and early 1970’s, when the world seemed filled with hope and anything seemed possible.

These days, the world seems enormously complicated and difficult to navigate in. But I’m kinda thinkin’ that just might be me getting to be an old guy. I suppose it’s only natural to feel that your generation grew up in the best of times – had the best music, movies, TV shows, books and cars and everything else. I think each generation sort of feels like that about the times they grow up and come of age in.

But that won’t stop me thinking that my generation was the one that had the absolute best of everything as we passed along through life. I’ve had a great run through life and have somehow ended up with some really old children and a whole passle of not-so-old grandchildren…not really sure how it happened, but extremely glad it did. It is, however, exceptionally strange to be the same age as old people….

Anyway…..be well and stay safe out there…..or as the guy on Hill Street Blues used to say, “be careful out there”….because life can throw some really challenging curves at you…I sometimes say, “be good….and if you can’t be good, then be careful…..” 

“ Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may…..”

We’re definitely not all in the same boat……

You know, a few years ago there was a pretty big hit TV show called, Breaking Bad. I only watched the first episode and thought it was sort of an evil show – but that’s only my opinion…..anyway, I remember seeing the stat on how many people watched the final episode of Breaking Bad on one of the networks – maybe HBO….about 4 million folks tuned to watch the show wrap up….sounds like a lotta people.

However, back in the 1970’s, there was a show called MASH…..it was a comedy about a bunch of doctors unwillingly serving in the Korean war. It was, in my humble opinion, one of the finest shows ever to grace the airwaves….when its final episode aired – and I’m not sure exactly when – about 1980-81, I think – about 40 million folks tuned in….that’s right….40 million. Now that’s some kinda audience….

Anyway, I cite these numbers for a reason – to demonstrate how fractured and splintered our society has become….everybody is sort of watching their own thing and what good shows there are out there in TV land are spread across a huge number of networks – or streaming services. In the old days, all the shows were packed onto just a few networks – and they were all free to watch on your aeriel….so everybody sort of ended up watching the same things….a good example of this was the Academy Awards – which almost everybody used to watch in the old days – even if you hadn’t seen any of the movies….

We used to be a relatively homogenous society…..we were sort of on the same wave length – everybody was sort of pulling in the same direction….these days, in television land, we’re all over the place…..there are about 900 networks and countless streaming services….and you’ve gotta pay for most of this stuff. In the old days, we watched everything for free….but, somehow, they figured out how to gouge and pillage us over our TV watching – and we let it happen…heard the other day on the radio, that an average household show be paying about $120-$130 a month for streaming junk….yikes…we’re at $12…..a little short….

And , of course, the very same thing has happened in the world of music…..back in the really old days, pretty well everybody listened to something called AM radio….most teenagers owned a small, transistor radio and listened a lot. Now, AM radio played “the hits”…..and, in those days, the hits were incredibly diverse – we were exposed to nearly all kinds of music….in one block of music, we might hear Jimi Hendrix, johnny Cash, the Monkees, Paul Anka, Elvis Presley, Charlie Pride, Janis Joplin…..anyway, you get the idea….

These days, everybody’s off in their own little world, because most commercial radio stations – does anybody listen to them anymore? – play a specific kind of music….so if you’re a rap/hip hop fan, you listen only to that – if you like new country, you only listen to that – if you like blues, that’s what you listen to…..no, everybody’s sort of off in their own little world, not really getting exposed to too much diversity…..which leads us all into a kind of grey, textureless pablum of a life…..

And then everybody’s walking around scratching their heads and wondering why we’re so divided politically – where it gets a little dangerous….and it’s the way of the world these days….everything is divided….social media, which everybody thought would connect the world, has driven even deeper wedges into society, through the use of something called “algorithms” which herd us all in the direction we’re already going and excludes differing and perhaps objectionable points of view….

Don’t get me wrong, either – diversity is a good thing. The mixing and mashing of our myriad of diverse cultures and beliefs should be a positive thing. But only if we allow ourselves to be exposed to this diversity and we learn to tolerate all that it brings….at the moment, there is a relative dearth of tolerance in our world…there is systemic racism, sexism and a few other “isms” as well….it’s come down to us through our checkered past.

Somehow, we must piece our society back together….we can’t all think the same…..we can’t all believe the same things – but we can still all pull in the same direction….saw this on Facebook the other day….I like it:

“We’re not all in the same boat - we’re all in the same storm….but some of us are in yachts and some of us are in canoes and some of us are drowning….we’re definitely not in the same boat…..”

Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may. 

Stitching together the left and right…….

A-bloggity-bloggity-blog-blog-blog….bloggity-blog-blog-bloggity….blog-blog-blog-bloggity…..Was going to write the whole blog in Morse Code but decided against it – mainly because I don’t know Morse Code……dropped out of Boy Scouts during knot-tying and didn’t make it to Morse Code….could have been a secret agent except for that simple action…I mean, if you can tie a good knot and you know Morse Code, you got a good head start on the rest of the spies.

So, if you wanna know when the great political divide started – at least in North America – you have to look no further than when something called Fox News went on the air….because from that day forward, the political right and the political left and everybody in the middle started to fall under the sway of their own particular source of news…..conservative folks generally started to watch Fox News for their TV news and the so-called liberals and people left-of-centre watched and continue to watch everything else….

Because while a lot of right-leaning folks watch a steady diet of Fox – I only know this anecdotely but am fairly confident it’s true – most of the rest of society gathers its news from a relatively broad spectrum of sources…..pretty well all other sources – except perhaps Fox….the conservative folks don’t generally watch this other broad spectrum of sources because they’ve come to believe it’s “fake” news or somehow untrue….Even though the liberal philosophy has given us pretty well everything positive in our societies, a whole bunch of conservatives seem to think that liberals eat babies, are involved in human trafficking and are responsible for nearly every evil action on the planet.

Whenever I get into any type of discussion with people of the conservative persuasion these days, I always ask them the same question….I say to them that modern liberalism has given our societies old age pension, unemployment insurance, universal health care, health and safety legislation, disability insurance, social assistance, environmental protections……what, on the other hand, has modern conservatism given us….name one thing – I’ll give you the last 300 years – name one thing!

In fact, I’ve come to believe that if we could somehow rid the world – the entire planet – of all modern conservative values that we would in short order be feeding everyone on the planet – there would be health care around the world – and there would be some basic standard of living on earth. For every step that liberalism takes to move us forward, conservatism takes us two steps back. It holds us back….it punishes the poor and downcast for who they are and where they were born.

No, I used to believe we needed some type of balance in our societies - that there needed to be a right and a left….but I also believed that there was some way for them to work together for the overall betterment of humankind and planet earth. I no longer believe that. I now believe that there is no real way to get the two sides working together so we can move forward and make this a good place for all to live.

And I’m pretty sure it all started with the launch of Fox News….the polarization of society has, of course, been greatly accelerated by social media which uses something called algorithms on all of its platforms….these non-human, cyber organisms further divide us by making sure we mostly only see the opinions of the people we agree with – and we grow wary of any other point of view…

But there’s no going back….so we have to find a way ahead. We need to somehow stitch together left and right into one piece of cloth….we really need one giant re-boot….we need to somehow start over….we need to forget the past when nearly every ethnic group on the planet has been abused and damaged in one way or another. We need to move forward worrying about the good of all and the betterment of everyone….no one should be left behind.

“Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may…..”

School Daze

Fondly remembering school daze today….remembering a time when kids used to really play and there  was all kinds of sort of dangerous stuff for us to do. Like “King of the Hill”. Every winter at James A. McGee Public School in Hanover, the snow plow would build up this giant pile of snow in one corner of the school yard….and every day before school, at recess, at lunch and after school, every boy in the school was trying to be King of the Hill….got tossed off the “Hill” quite a few times myself.

Every young boy I knew when I was a kid had a BB or pellet gun. It was just sort of the way of the world back then…..and I’m amazed there are any frogs or small birds left in the Hanover area and I’m also a bit ashamed to admit that I was once a mighty hunter and murdered a bunch of these tiny creatures….was kind of a dumb kid, I guess….not too smart….

In today’s world, everyone is afraid of hurting children’s self esteem or of them being hurt physically…..so, when I was ready to learn how to ride a bike, my Dad picked the most logical spot in town…..out near an old train station on a cinder-track roadway….cinders, by the way, are spent coal and are enormously sharp and pointy and to fall on them would mean almost certain death – or at least some nasty cuts and scrapes…..and my Dad was an honest-to-goodness nice guy who never raised his voice to his kids, let alone his hand….

My wife gets angry with me these days when I tell folks that I really sort of believe that when I was a kid it was every adult’s job in life to humiliate and degrade every child they met. I mean, that’s what it seemed like to me when I was a kid. There was this belief around in those days – and it still lingers a bit today – that enduring tough circumstances when you were a kid helped “build character”…..I tell people today that if that’s the case, I have one helluva lot of character….

Not being particularly athletic as a young boy was a huge disadvantage because boys did large amount of sports in those days. Not usually organized sports, like today, but sandlot baseball and road hockey or hockey on a frozen river or pond – that type of stuff…..I was usually always the last kid picked for the team – after both teams admitting that they’d really rather not have me at all….it was sort of brutal stuff…..I was getting massive marks in school and could blow a mean clarinet, but that stuff didn’t really matter if you couldn’t play very good hockey.

And then, of course, there was the junior choir at James A. McGee…..in those days, when you entered grade 4, you were compelled to sing in the school’s junior choir. All of us were marched down to the school auditorium one by one to “audition” for the choir and so Mrs. Holland, our music teacher, could decide where to put us in the choir – what section. And Mrs. Holland named the various sections of the choir after popular song birds……so, one section would be called robins and another would be canaries and there were bluebirds, I remember….

Well, then there was this other category or section – and it was for kids who basically couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket…..and this was where I ended up. And our section was called, “blackbirds”……and don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but blackbirds really can’t “sing”….they sort of just make noise. And so we couldn’t have our blackbird section in our choir making some sort of gawdawful noise in the middle of the excellent singing of the robins, canaries and bluebirds….so…..the kids in the blackbird section just mouthed the words….that’s right, we sort of lip synced…..imagine that happening to children in today’s world.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure that incident traumatized me for life and was at the root cause of why I never became a billionaire….apparently, my old music teacher, Mrs. Holland, is still alive and kicking in her 90’s….and I’ve thought about bringing some type of emotional abuse case against both her and the Grey County Board of Education…..but, hey, such is life….and like I said…..I’ve got character to burn…in fact, a lot of people in my life tell me I am a “character”…..

“Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”

What You’ll Get and the Miracle of Life

Well, here goes. I’m writing the first “blog” for my brand new website. Now, just to be clear, we used to call a blog a column and I’ve written thousands of columns over the course of my nearly 40-year newspaper career. So, I’m not exactly new to this. In fact, when my grandson Mitchell suggested I write a blog, I wasn’t too keen. But I’ve sort of warmed up to the idea the more I’ve thought about it…..lots of provocative crap to write about these days….our world is easy pickings as far as what to write about goes….

 If you “get into” this blog, what you see is what you’ll get. I write only what I feel and what I believe. You will get honesty and sincerity. I write columns the same way I write short stories or anything else. From the heart.

 This will be a wide-ranging piece where I’ll write about anything and everything. I’ll write about growing up in Hanover, working as a newspaperman…..playing in a band….being a writer….what I think of the junk going on around me in life. Just sort of – stuff……

 For example, here’s what I think of what we’ve taken to calling “celebrity culture”….I think it’s just one big massive pile of bullshit. It adds nothing positive to the overall operation of the planet other than to distract its inhabitants from some really serious stuff that needs to be dealt with. To be fair, there’s always been a celebrity culture on Spaceship Earth and it’s okay for a bit of mild amusement. It’s not okay that it dominates and permeates everything and is everywhere and everywhen……

 And the whole mess is designed to make us consume more and more and more. On Black Friday this year, we’re slated to spend over $1 trillion on mostly useless junk. Give your head a shake, folks. What are you thinking? Billions of people around the world have no food or health care or any of the basic necessities of life. Yet we’re spending our brains out on makeup and fashion and getting our nails done and playing golf…..

 The whole socio-economic system on Spaceship Earth is morally corrupt and evil. It arbitrarily disadvantages billions of people around the world – people who are beaten by life before they are even born. This is Eden, people, but, for many people, we have turned it to hell….hell on earth…..a common enough phrase and the real reality for a whole lot of our fellow beings. Even though we need to be aware of our past, we also need to somehow leave it behind – to forget all the evil stuff we’ve done to each other over the thousands of years of history and to have a fresh start where all are cared for and can live their lives with dignity and respect. Each and every life is precious….oh, so precious….

 There is no room on this planet for selfishness and greed. It is too crowded. We need to learn to share and get along. We need to reach a point in our evolution where getting your nails done and playing golf aren’t more important than people eating or having health care. Any people. Because each and every piece of life on this planet is interconnected and shares in a type of universal oneness. There may be no god but that doesn’t mean that all of life isn’t a miracle. Look around you. You should be in absolute awe of all life.

 Wow! Pretty serious stuff for the first time out. Sorry about that. They won’t all be like this. I’ll do my best to lighten up once in a while. I don’t really enjoy being the prophet of doom…it’s a tough job…but somebody’s gotta do it….the reason I do it is because I see hope….I think we can still save ourselves.

 So, my wife and I were planning a trip to Ireland before the pandemic. I’ve always been a bit of a U2 fan, so I thought it might be neat to see where Bono lived…..so, went onto Google maps to see if I could find out – but the streets had no names….

Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may…….