Remembrance

14 thoughts on “Remembrance”

1. Sometimes it is necessary to be impolite to get the point across. I am reminded of a quote by Dr. Seuss:

   “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”

   I don’t mind if you are who you are, and you say what you feel. I do not get offended by heartfelt words. I was born after World War II, but I have learned and taught myself real history to understand what real suffering has happened in this world caused by the evil people. The only way to stop the evil people is to stand up for what is right and speak out against their evil acts. Fear NOT!

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   1. Thanks, Philip. I have seen that remark attributed to Bernard Baruch, but the source is not as important as the message.

      Unfortunately, I think the world is growing more polarized by the moment, fueled by “social media.” Between the xenophobic yahoos on the right and the identity politics morons on the left this country is on the verge of breakup.

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2. “this country is on the verge of breakup.”

   It’s also becoming an increasingly “odd” place to live. Case in point:

   The county seat where I live will be familiar to anyone who has viewed the TV shows Heat of the Night and Dukes of Hazzard, as both were filmed here. There is, on the courthouse square, a large monument dedicated to the dead from the civil war that lived in the county. As is the same as anywhere else in the south, there is a movement to remove that statue because it’s obviously racist. Yesterday (Sunday) there was a rally scheduled to Save the Statue. I was returning to town from a short trip at around 1:00 PM and decided to drive thru and see what was going on at this rally. I guess the “main events” had been earlier as there were only a handful of folks left. Of particular interest was an older (I believe he is in his mid-late 70’s) black man holding a battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, commonly called the “Confederate flag.” He is a well known local resident, his roots going back at least 2 generations before him. He was matched against a handful of younger (I would estimate 18-25 years old) white and black kids protesting about the monument, none of whom I would suspect live within 30 miles of this area.

   From talking to other local folks at a local restaurant last night, there were no showing from the KKK, skinheads or other white supremacist groups. Just local folks that don’t see what the big fuss is about over a statue honoring war dead. No call to remove statues honoring the dead from WW I, WW II, Korea or Vietnam, only the one from the civil war. And in case anyone is wondering, there are names of black soldiers on the statue that MUST be removed because RACISM.

   Jesus wept.

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   1. Thanks, DDM. I can’t really add anything to your account except to, once again, lament the apparent increase in the scourge of temporal arrogance, largely fueled by “social media.” Make no mistake, though, temporal arrogance has afflicted mankind for eons.

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      1. “largely fueled by “social media.”

         Personally, I trace it back to the creation of CNN. Previous to that, you could get maybe 90 minutes of local news a day, and 30 minutes of national news. All from one of 3 networks to choose from. When CNN came into existence they had an additional 23 1/2 hours a day of time to fill. Suddenly some relatively minor kerfuffle in Podunkville is on the national news, albeit to those that had cable. Then starting 25-30 years ago the proliferation of the internet brought about more news sources to pick from. These days it’s, as you said, “social media,” which is actually neither. Now everyone has a platform and if you don’t agree with me, you must be racist, a misogynist, or some other miserable bigot of some stripe.

         I don’t watch TV news, I have never had a Fakebook, Twatter, Instagram, or ANY type of BS social media account. And I never will have one of them. I pick and choose what I want for news from a handful of sites on this here Internet thing, and I’m quite content.

         As always, YMMV.

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      2. Thanks, DDM.

         In this post I quoted a former news producer for both Fox News and MSNBC:

         “…Then there is this: Whatever political bias these channels have (and they do have them) is nearly always driven by an even bigger bias: that toward drama and conflict. The constant use of “breaking news” banners to announce often insipid bits of information. “Countdown clocks” to marginal events. Dramatic music, whooshing sounds, bells underneath it all. There are 24 hours to fill, and it’s cheaper to have an endless parade of talking heads — often underqualified pundits and journalists who are supposed to have an opinion on everything.”

         Unfortunately, these underqualified people have influence, too.

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3. The problem is we are too quick to respond without listening to what is really being said to us. Social media and texting are not real conversations between two people. The time gap between “sentences” in the conversation causes a loss of train of thought. A phone call or a face-to-face meeting has so much more communication between the people than the typing on a keyboard of phone. Facial expressions and tone of voice are as much of the communication as the actual words.

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   1. Thanks, Philip. I also think it is orders of magnitude easier to type hateful things from a computer keyboard/cell phone than to say them to someone face-to-face.

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      1. Texting or posting a rude comment is how you avoid getting punched in the nose because of your comment. I’ll bet 95% of the crap that gets posted would not be said face to face.

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      2. I concur, DDM.

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      3. Only cowards say hateful things about you remotely behind a keyboard and computer monitor or phone.

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      4. Cowards abound and always have.

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4. Touching my mind

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   1. Thanks, sir. Real life is more interesting than fiction, IMO.

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