Once More We Mourn and Weep

I had to wait a few days before I could write this.  My first selfish thought was "not again in Arizona."  It's where I've lived for more than half of my life and I sometimes think that only bad news that happens here is reported.  Then I could only stare at the TV, hoping that no one was dead or badly injured.  It took several hours before I could wonder about the shooter: was he that angry, was he insane?

Then I heard about people like Daniel Hernandez and the older woman who grabbed the magazine out of the gun, and the one who staunched the wounds of one of Ms Gifford's staff.  People on the street all over Arizona wept and showed our best face to the rest of the nation.  We are really a melting pot of the US and of the world.  People here have sponsored many of the African "Lost Boys."  We have world class hospitals that often bring suffering children and adults here for treatment they would never gete in their home countries.  The Tribes of Arizona finally have decent control over their own lives and lands.  Many more people (even many who oppose the undocumented immigrants) care for the individuals involved. It is a place that attracts people from all over: last time I heard less than half of the population of the two major population centers are native Arizonans.  There is so much beauty in this state and so often such a feeling of small town life- even in the 5th largest city in the nation.

Lastly I began to get angry at all the hate in the world today - otherwise sensible people cannot see beyond their own biases to the point of advocating violence against innocent people.  They attack funerals with signs saying that God hates dead sholdiers, that God is damning this nation because of Gays, Immigrants, and who knows what.  We are all entitled to our opinions on these and other issues.  What we are NOT entitled to do is to advocate hate and violence against anyone.  There is a process in this country to change what we do not like, and (to be trite) the majority rules at the ballot box.

Now I want to know why none of the people who recognized that something in Loughner had changed and he was in desperate need of help did anything.  A fellow student in Pima Community College wrote a long email to a friend telling a chilling story of how Loughner behaved in class and that she expected someday he would come in shooting.  The instructor of the same class had him barred from the campus.  His writings and speech were disjointed - what I have heard described as "salad talk."  This evening's news is talking about several police contacts in Loughner's past including  overdosing on vodka and being taken to the hospital.  Just hours before the shooting he was stopped for driving with a burned out light- admittedly a minor thing that has happened to many, but the officer is reported as thinking something wasn't quite right but found no evidence for taking any action.  A teen neighbor said that the youngsters on the street wouldn't go to the house because of the "strange vibes."

P.S. Between writing and posting this I watched, along with so many others, the service at the University of Arizona last night.  Most of the speakers - especially the President and Daniel Hernandez - spoke sensitively about the people who were killed and those who are recovering.  However a couple of the speakers seemed almost to be running a pep rally for the UofA.  Too many of the audience (students at the UofA?) acted as if it were a pep rally. While I also cheered when President Obama announced that Rep. Gifford had opened her eyes, I found the nearly constant cheering and yelling of those too many attendees out of the spirit and intention of the ceremony.

Today we learned more of the shooter's history. What kept the campus police at Pima C.C. from taking some steps to notify the proper authorities of the vividly dangerous potential of the man?  They had over 50 "contacts" with him.  Did his parents hide his problems from doctors? Is this a general failure of the current views towards mental health issues?  We need an answer.

Still Fighting My Photos

Well, the Ipad updated several hours after my last post and it only made matters worse! At least before the photos were sorted by date (well sort of by date: I  had forgotten I was many time zones from home so everything is dated as if it were at home and often show the wrong date- will have to remember that if I travel afar again!). Now they're all in one huge album of over 2000 photos! ANGUISH!

Why couldn't the update just have left well enough alone- at least before they were in order even if with wrong dates and so with patience I could resort them into proper files in My Pictures.  I still can't find a lot of the photos even though I looked at each and every one methodically - they were there - I saw them and showed them to some people.  Where are they now?  Hiding? Did some of the "interesting" ones from Pompei censor themselves? (You have probably heard of the brothel in Pompei and it's wall paintings - well they are very faded and, for the most part, if you didn't know what they were you'd never know! However, since not all the populace were literate, the city was liberally sprinkled with "visual guide signs" of stone to help the men find their way - now THOSE are hard to miss!)

Ah, to quote someone in a movie I once saw: "Tomorow is another day."  Maybe I'll find the missing photos then.

It's Been a Long Hiatus

It's over a month since I have vented through this blog.  Not that I haven't had reasons to vent, but I've been traveling and out of reach of the Internet for the most part. Not really out of reach, but where access costs $0.75 a minute!  Now I'm at home, and trying to transfer nearly 2000 photos from my iPad to my PC.

I should explain that when traveling, I usually transfer from my camera to my computer every evening.  OK I am neurotic about the possibility of damaging or losing the camera and the photos on the card.  I recently got an iPad and decided to only carry the much lighter than my laptop alternative. I had no problems transferring the day's pictures from the camera to the iPad using the gadgets the Apple Store told me I needed.  The photos look GREAT on the iPad. For four days I've been trying to transfer them to my computer.  I am still trying to get them all transferred. Although I select "import all" several hundred of them are not on the computer. Others are there in several copies. I called Apple and they suggested that I should update the iPad - so far that has been running for over an hour!!! 

These problems will be solved sooner or later. What is a bigger problem seems to be my memory.  Thanks to the daily transfer, I know the date and general location of each photo.  But forget about the subject of each photo! How on earth can you recall the exact  building, sight or ruin, shown in each photo? 

It was a wonderful journey, now how will I be able to bore all my friends and family?

Where's My Anger?

I'm finding it hard to believe that lately nothing has inflamed me to the point of writing a new post.  Why hasn't any of the recent news incited me? The election outcomes proved to be just as idiotic as I expected - not so much the people elected as the issues on the ballots.  I suppose that I have just come to expect the nonsense and accept it as business as usual.

I am tired of trying to remind people that is took 11 years and World War II to finally end the Depression.  Nineteen months is barely enough time to get long term plans into place, let alone time for them to fully work.  Let's see what people are thinking in November 2012.  So why bother to rail at it now.

Am I just tired? Am I distracted? Am I just getting old(er)and more accepting of things?  Saving my energy for other things that are more personally affecting me?

Well, let's just hope that something gets under my skin.  After years of wanting a forum to air my anger, it would be a shame, having finally found one,  to discover that I have mellowed!

Election Day At Last!

Never mind what your politics are- aren't you glad to see the last of the political commercials and robo-calls for this cycle?

There seemed to be nothing but no-issue and smear commercials this year. On the biggest issue nationwide, does nobody remember how long it took to come out of the Great Depression? I know less and less do from first hand experience, but (and I guess this harkens back to my post about teachers and curricula) what about what was learned in school or from parents and grandparents?  It took over 10  years to come back.  While I am not advocating continuing or starting new wars, it actually took World War II to complete the job. I don't care what your opinion of Pres. Obama is, expecting the current troubles to be over in less than two years is being too impatient.

That is a major problem with today's society- impatience.  We want instant gratification in just about everything.  The world is presented in 10 second bytes.  Fast food, instant messaging, texting, a phone on every hip and all the rest. 

I just hope that enough people were patient enough to take the time to see what candidates really stood for, what propositions really wanted to do and what bonds would really do and cost.

I suppose that now the only thing to do is go vote if the polls are still open, and hope for the best.

Terrorism Again

Here I was playing with my grandson, watching episode after episode of Toddler TV.  When he took his nap I turned on CNN to see if there was anything interesting happening in the adult world - just in time to watch a Yemeni airplane landing at JFK. 

Only two days ago several of our allies were saying that the US was going too far with travel security measures.  Are we?  Apparently cargo isn't subject to the scrutiny that passengers are given- not abroad and from what I am hearing not in the US either.

Not enough details have been released yet to make it anything but (informed)speculation to rail at specific people or their twisted reasoning.  But we do know enough to see what unreasoning hate does - not that we needed this most recent incident - to both  the intended target and other "collaterals." 

Even without actual damage or injury another blow has been struck at feelings of safety and freedom.  Freedom: does anyone still remember FDR's Four  Freedoms? We surely have lost at least the Freedom from  Fear.

I'm not the first to say it, but They will win if we give in to total fear- let's rather say let's be aware and cautious. Maybe sort of not being afraid to use the freeway,, but not being willing to walk down  the middle of the freeway.

Teachers and Every Day Skills

  Back in "my day" teachers could spell, properly pronounce words, do math without electronic help, knew that Jews didn't believe in Jesus (yes readers, that did happen in the school system of a major US city), and were allowed to discipline students (OK I didn't think they should have been able to hit them, but there was not any doubt who was in charge.)   Teachers and other people in the public eye almost always could and did use decent grammar.  Has every day common sense teaching fallen by the wayside? Are teachers without that skill or do the curricula not allow it?  Or do the students just ignore the teaching?  Probably a combination of all three.  Look at all the fuss about teaching to the test: never mind teaching what the students will need for the rest of their lives.  Do the second and the first automatically follows.

Does anyone still  know when to use "me" and when to use "I"  - when to use "he" or  "she" and when to use "him" or her"?  And which to use first and which second?  Who can still pronounce height not as if it were spelled heigth?  I hear  all of these atrocities repeatedly used and not just in casual conversation.   Listen carefully and you will hear it from educated people, people in the media and elected officials.  As for sports figures: well it's noticeable when they don't make these errors.

Have you ever given a cashier a five dollar bill and a dime for a $4.09 purchase?  Did they just look at you as if you were crazy? Could they count out your change or did they have to have the register compute the amount and then just dump it into your hand?  Yes, I know many employers insist that workers use the change compute method, but they should still count back to you- either from the sale to amount given, or the amount of the change - they could have picked up the wrong amount after all.

Are reading skills still taught?  Exposure to good books? Even college educated people often have no knowledge of "the classics" in literature, music or art.  History?  Look at how many cannot name the current Vice President, or even who the first President of the U. S. was.  World War II is only a vague concept to too many who have no idea of how that war changed the world.  Will we be doomed to repeat history.   I don't want my grandkids to have to suffer through something like that.

On the positive side, today there is more teaching of and knowledge of science and medicine than ever before.  Although sometimes I think some areas have gone too far.  Another subject for a later rant. I think I will also leave common courtesy for another time.  That's more a responsibility of the home and family, with teachers just backing it up.