Title: Gruppa evreĭskikh malʹchikov s uchitelem. Samarkand
Title Translation: Group of Jewish children with a teacher. Samarkand; Photographer: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Corresponding photographic print is in album: Views in Central Asia, Russian Empire

• Digital color composite made for the Library by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, 2004.
• Digital color rendering, with hand editing, made by WalterStudio, 2000-2001.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress).

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.; record page for this image.

Funny thing, I didn’t see anything in the last few days about the apocalyptic predictions for 2012, not that I really watched that much of the traditional media end-of-the-year lo0king back, looking forward tripe.

(Cartoon is from XKCD – A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.)

In January, I wrote about a coworker’s suggestion that I apply for unemployment when the contract that I was on was over — even though I didn’t need the job when I took it.  Comments on the piece overwhelming supported my decision not to apply for unemployment compensation. (see Applying for Unemployment)

The contract was over at the end of August.  In the turbulent economic months since then, I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought about the extra cushion that unemployment income could provide.  However, I’ve never had a moment where I regretted my decision.

A few weeks ago I was at one of our every-other-week retirement breakfasts when I heard some fellows talking about putting in for unemployment benefits after thay had finished a contract job.  The nature of the industry that we retired from is that there is a lot of opportunity for contract work for those with the right experience and/or credentials. It wasn’t surprising that the idea of putting in for unemployment had occurred to others.

Apparently a couple of them had actually applied.

They were turned down!

They weren’t qualified because they were making too much money from their pension!

Since I was a contract worker working as an employee and NOT an independent contractor, if I didn’t have any other income, I could have applied for unemployment payments.  However, with my pension and other income, it didn’t seem right to apply.

In the end, I was not only morally right, but legally right, as well.

I would not have been able to receive unemployment compensation.

Posted on flickr by royal_broil

On my last job, one of my coworkers asked me if I was going to put in for unemployment when my contract was finished.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I told him.

“You really should, ” he said.  “After all, you’ve been paying for it all these years. It’s your right. I’m going to when I do contract work after I retire.”

He went on about it a while longer, but I didn’t have much to say on the subject.

I thought about it for a while, though, and concluded that, no, I was not going to apply for unemployment.

While the extra income would be helpful, I didn’t need it and, after all, it’s supposed to be used to help those who need it bridge the gap between jobs.  I wasn’t going to be looking for another job.

For that matter, I didn’t actually need the contract job that I was working.  It was helping to pay off some debt and, while I was working, we weren’t having to use any of our investment funds.

So, since I went to work when I didn’t need to, it just didn’t seem right to me to apply for unemployment.  It felt like taking advantage of the system.  (I’ll have more on this in a later post.)

What do you think?  Should I have applied for unemployment?

One of my favorite places in the world is 20 miles from the nearest town and seven miles from the nearest road.  Nearly treeless except for those few planted to provide breaks from the harsh winds of winter, it is a broad expanse of lush grass covering the dunes of an ancient desert — land unforgiving of those who tired to break it to the plow — land perfect for ranching.

I never knew the whole story of how the ranch came to be.  All I can remember of it is that a farmer in the days of the Great Depression, with no market for his crops and beef, was able to save his land and his herd by being able to buy a large supply of grain at extremely low prices.  As a result of taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time, the family was able to make it through the hard times and, a little later, buy 21 square miles of range land where the farmer’s son and his bride settled in 1941.

The ranch hold significant positive memories for me. Experiences associated with the ranch, its owners and their family helped shape who I am.   The ranch — a result of a farmer taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time.

The world again faces unsettled times — and opportunities.

What kind of new opportunities might be on your horizon?

I overheard it the day before the election.

“That Obama scares me.”

I tried to believe that his fear was of the changes that are going to occur as a result of this election.

I really would like to believe that.

But I know better.

It was fear of something different, of someone different.

“HE isn’t like us.” “HE looks different.” “HE sounds different.” “HE can’t be a real American.” “HE pals around with Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist.” “HIS preacher teaches hate.” “HE’s a Muslim.” “I can’t vote for him, HE’s…, HE’s…, not white.”

“THAT Obama scares me.”

“THAT one.”

Despite the misinformation campaigns, the hate ads, the robocalls, and racial bias, the American electorate overwhelming elected THAT one — the SENSIBLE one — the RIGHT one.

Yes, WE can!

Yes, WE did!

The change is started.  It’s going to take some time.

Some people aren’t going to like it.

It’s not going to benefit everyone.

I’m not going to like everything about it.

But the nation was off course.

The nation needed a new heading and there will be a new hand on the tiller.

Yes, we can!

I’m not afraid of Barack Obama — Never was.

Note: This commentary is not intended to imply that all who voted for McCain and against Obama were racist.  In my view, race was not an issue for the majority of those who voted for the Republican candidate, but there were many voters who were influenced by race and/or the campaign ads and speeches that were designed to foster fear — and that is what this post is addressing.

To support his family during the
Great Depression, my wife’s grandfather
had to travel to places where there was
work.  He built this small “camping
trailer.”

We did everything right…, we thought.

We “bought” a house that we could afford on our budget and never re-financed, though it probably would have been smart in order to get a better interest rate…, or to pay it off earlier.  But now it’s paid off and that doesn’t matter.

We never bought more on credit than we could afford…, but sometimes it was close.

We did without the toys that others bought…, no bass boat, no four-wheeler, no recreational vehicle — until recently.

However, we did travel, sometimes on our own dime and sometimes on company business, with us paying Karen’s way and the cost for the side trips that we made.

And we saved, saved, saved — most of the time on a single income.

Our vehicles — except for one — have always been new, never used.  But we always drive them until they are just about falling apart — except for one, a different one — , so we generally get decent value out of them.

And we always, always pay our bills on time — except for that one bill that fell behind the couch back in 1978.

Creditors usually like us — we did everything right.

And now it’s likely we’re going to have to pay because others didn’t do it right…, and I’m just a little upset about it.

I’m not upset at the people who were able to finance more than they should have been able to.

Its.. not… their… fault!!!

I’m upset at the greedy bastards that let them finance more that they could pay for — the people who came up with variable interest loans and other creative financing schemes that were going to make the loans possible for those who were too close to the edge — the regulators that deregulated — the politicians that made it legal to deregulate.

I’m upset at all the people who worked to change the rules that said you had to live within what you could afford, that said you had to be able to afford whatever debt you took on.

The way we did….

Damn greedy bastards!

Years ago, I read a book called Black Like Me, and, as I recall, it had quite an impact on me.

In 1959, the author of the book, John Howard Griffin, a white man, undertook a project on his own to darken his skin and go into the American South to see what life was really like for the blacks there.

Recently, I was questioned by a black lady about my interest in her blog and part of my explanation included that I had read Black Like Me as a young man and that it had made an impression on me.  She is an older lady and what she is doing with her life today as well as her her reflections on the past is fascinating.  I don’t know if I was able to explain satisfactorily why a middle aged white guy with a science and technology background would be interested in the blogging of an old black lady grounded in the humanities.

While in Little Rock last Sunday, I found and purchased a copy of the book and read it from cover to cover over the next couple of evenings. This is the third time that I have read it, and, once again, it has made an impression.

The South that Griffin visited as a black man in 1959 for the most part no longer exists outside of the history books and memories. Segregated schools and separate facilities — or lack of facilities — for non-whites have been left in the past.

However, hatred, racism, and bigotry have not been been left behind. Prejudice, unfortunately, is still alive and well.

“But,” the reader asks, “What does that have to do with your changes, with your moving out of your comfort zone.”

The answer is that I have not fully addressed my own prejudices and I carefully stay away from anything that has anything to do with race, homosexuality, gender bias, profiling, immigration and anything else that is related to the prejudices of others.

Lorelle VanFossen has a blog challenge for readers to “blog about where you find your inspiration to blog.”

Going forward, and in moving out of my comfort zone of only writing about things that are safe, I will be looking for and writing about things that challenge my perceptions and the perceptions of others.    I’m going to be diplomatic and still try to use reason, logic, and persuasion in presenting things that might be a little uncomfortable for me, and , perhaps, for some readers.  But, I won’t be avoiding all of the hard topics that I steered clear of in the past.

I’ll still be doing many of the things that I did before on the blog, of course, including photography and travel.

I plan to re-read Black Like Me again soon.

…blowing in the wind.

For some reason the title of this post reminded me of a classic song from my youth.

I didn’t intend the previous post asking about who I am voting for to be a trick.  Rather, I was presenting a stereotypical representation of what I could be like.  The regular visitors who responded, though, saw through it.

All of my statements were true.  They just weren’t the complete truth.

I did vote for Reagan for president and for George Herbert Walker Bush in his first election for the presidency.  I voted against Bush in his second term because he wasn’t doing what I thought he needed to do on the economy.  I never voted for his son.

While I can trace many of my ancestors to colonial America, my grandmother was 100% Moravian, her parents coming to America in the early 1900s…, and they were Catholic, which I didn’t know until recently.  Her husband, my grandfather, was an ardent denier of his Native American ancestry, which was actually pretty diluted as far as I can tell.  I grew up believing my heritage was entirely white, anglo, and protestant.

While I believe abortion to be a very bad thing, I don’t oppose it and I certainly don’t want things to go back to the way it was before Roe v. Wade.

I am uncomfortable with gay marriage.  That’s not the same thing as being against it.  I’m not and that is a recent change, within the last week, for me.  I voted against it when it came up for a vote in a state constitutional ammendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  I would not vote the same today.

In some small degree my vote is going to be about race and age. Barack Obama is a relatively young man of mixed ancestry who has taken much of the best of both cultures and is moving beyond it.  Electing Barack Obama would show to our young people and the world that the great potential of the American Dream is still alive and well, despite everything that is going on.

In general, I like John McCain.  If McCain had been the nominee in 2000, he would have had my vote.  However, today, John McCain is not the best choice for me — though he was the best out of all the Republicans, in my view — and part of that is because he is just too old.

The most important thing, though, for me in this election, is that we have a good turnout for this election, no matter who people are voting for.

If you aren’t registered to vote, do it soon!

If you are registered, please make sure you vote for the candidates of your choice!

I’ve made up my mind on who I’ll be voting for in less than three months.

I’d be interested in visitor comments on who they think I will be voting for.  Here’s some more information that might help:

I haven’t always voted, but in previous presidential elections where I did, I voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Before I went in the navy, I lived in the older George Bush’s congressional district in Texas and for some reason I paid atttention to what he was doing over the years.  I knew when he was ambassador to China and head of the CIA.

I can trace my ancestry back to the 1600s in Virgina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey — WASP all the way (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) — and if I ain’t, I’m not tellin’.

As a couple, we are better off than we were 4 years ago and 8 years ago.  I have benefited personally and professionally from the policies of the current administration.

I served in the United States Navy for just short of nine years and was honorably discharged at the end of my last enlistment.  I got most of my college education under the G.I. Bill.

I own a rifle and a shotgun and have fired the shotgun from my front yard.

We live in the south along a country highway and I drive a big red pickup truck.  We’re into camping and RVing.

I graduated from high school in 1970 from a southern school that was not yet integrated.  Our kids graduated from an all white southern high school in the 1990s.

When I was in high school, we were poor “white trash.”

I supported the invasion of “Iraq,” though I wasn’t sure we were doing the right thing.

I support controlled and responsible drilling for oil offshore and in areas like ANWR.  The technology is there to do it with minimal impact to the environment.

I believe that we need, as a country, to invest heavily in new nuclear power plants.  Nuclear power has a proven track record and we are going to need a lot of new electrical power capability if we are going to really move away from foreign oil.

I am a small investor in oil and natural gas production.  I’m not a speculator.  My investments are at the well-head.

I’ve been retired for over a year and a half.  When I was working, I didn’t talk about politics because most of the people I worked with had very different views.  I’m back contracting in the same office I retired from and, surprisingly, we are in much more agreement than we used to be.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the racial heritage of the candidates.

I think an abortion is a very bad thing.

I’m uncomfortable with gays getting married.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the ages of the candidates.

Please make a guess about who you think I’m going to be voting for.  After a reasonable period of time, I will let ya’ll know in a post who I will be voting for.

Over the last several days, I’ve been evaluating parts of my own beliefs and values.

For the most part, I was pleased with what I discovered.  I also came to a few new perspectives on our culture and way of life.

And I discovered that I need to make some personal changes.

I’m going to make those changes.  I’m not just going to work on them.  For me, the changes are going to be real — and along with those changes will be some changes on what I blog about.

As long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve pretty much just blogged on things that were comfortable for me to talk about.  I stayed in my blogging comfort zone.

I’m going to be moving out of that comfort zone.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information.

I’m an American, a product of our country’s cultural “melting pot.”

I am third generation American in descent from my Czech great-grandparents.

I am thirteen or fourteen generations removed from my English ancestors who settled in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Rhode Island in the 17th and 18th centuries. My ancestors came from Ireland, Germany, France and probably other parts of Europe, many from before the Revolutionary War and some from after.

However, according to my grandfather, we don’t have any Indian ancestors!

The question apparently came up more than once. One instance recounted by my stepmother has her telling my father, “I’m not going anywhere with no Mexican.” Dad had been working long days shirtless and hatless in the summer heat. Like me, he tans very darkly with long exposure to the sun. I had a similar response from a girl many years ago, except I think she said something like, “Ewww, you’re as dark as a Mexican,” somewhat disdainfully.

A few years after that, I asked my grandfather if we had any Indian ancestry on his side. According to him, we didn’t.

Later, after he died, I began researching our ancestry. While I didn’t have a lot to go on, through various databases and the internet, I learned more about my ancestry, including a dirty little secret that wasn’t so dirty and not so much a secret in other branches of our family.

It turns out, of course, that there is some amount of Indian ancestry in my grandfather’s ancestry. I’m sure that he knew it or at least had some suspicion.

It was his grandmother, according to others who knew her, who tried to lighten her skin to be more attractive to the young man she was interested in, who tried to “pass” for white.

Whether or not I have Native American ancestry is not important, just interesting. It does not change who I am.

It does, however, change my views, though only slightly. I can accept that I have ancestry that some view as less than equal.

The thing that really interests me, though, is that very few people really know their ancestry. It is likely that there are many in America with ancestors who may have decided to “pass,” possibly including some who today have very narrow and bigoted views.

Post from one of my abandoned blogs – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine and edited 2/27/2011 – page

I didn’t see the film when it was in the movies. I had no need to see it then as I had already decided who I was going to vote for. There was no way that the film was going to change my mind.

After it came out on video, I went to the local video-music-book store specifically to see if there was any copies available. They must have had a hundred – and they were all rented out. That was last weekend.

This weekend, I went in early, before the local Friday evening “rush hour.” A few copies were available.

I watched it this evening.

Michael Moore definitely has an agenda – and so does the film. However, there is plenty in the film that stands powerfully alone, independent of any agenda.

I thought to write here about the movie, but that’s been done over and over again by others so I’m not going to.

However, I would like to issue a challenge to anyone who has not seen it.

Watch the film.

That’s all that I ask. Nothing more.

For those who read this, please do not misunderstand me. I voted for Gore because I mistrusted Bush. When the world voted to hold Sadaam Hussein accountable, I agreed. I felt that our government wrong to attack without the backing of the United Nations Security Council or most of our traditional allies. However, once it was obvious that we were past the point of no return, I fully supported our military personnel and their military leaders. I believed that Sadaam was a legitimate threat and that he probably had weapons of mass destruction. Even after none had been found, I held out hope that they would be. I hoped that my mistrust of Bush would be proven to be unfounded – I have long since given up on that hope.

Post from one of my abandoned blogs – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine 2/26/2011 – page

First debate:

I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently. They’re not going to follow somebody who says, “This is the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I know how these people think. I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently.

Second debate:

I know how these people think. I meet with them all the time. I talk to Tony Blair all the time. I talk to Silvio Berlusconi. They’re not going to follow an American president who says “follow me into a mistake.”

How denigrating.

I can’t say that I know how these people think. I thought these particular statements were pretty telling concerning this president’s attitude about the leaders of foreign nations.

He doesn’t think much of them. He thinks of them as followers rather than allies. Those who do not go with him are obstructers.

He thinks himself as their better, and, by extension, thinks of their countries and the citizens of those countries as somehow less than America and Americans.

Talk about the ugly American! Democracy is not about being the biggest bully on the world’s playground.

Many of these people are smarter than this president thinks. They didn’t need anyone to tell them that this president was asking them to follow him into a mistake in 2003. They already knew.

Post from one of my abandoned blogs – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine 2/26/2011 – page

Today there are constant reminders of a war that was fought when I was young. The daily toll of lives taken, the rehashing of the war records of two candidates, the images on the television.

To be sure, Iraq is not Viet Nam.

It’s not the same for our soldiers. They have the support of the public.

It’s not the same for me.

In 1967, I was a sophomore in high school, a somewhat introverted kid from Nebraska transplanted to the steamy heat of Houston, Texas. I was moving from a comfortable lower middle class life into poverty as a 15 year old. Viet Nam was a far distant place and not a true reality for me.

I graduated in 1970, still in the Houston area, from the same high school I had been in for two and a half years, even though we had moved five times. Still poor; I drew a high lottery number. Viet Nam was still unreal and far away, something in the papers every day and on the evening news. It was just a part of life.

I joined the Navy and got married. Our first daughter was born at Travis Air Force Base early in 1972. At that time, POWs were returning home, many of them for treatment in the same hospital my wife and baby daughter were in. But it was time for us to move on to our next duty station. Viet Nam was a closer reality, but I was in the Navy, not likely to have to go there, and, besides, it was just part of life.

Time passed and so did the Viet Nam conflict. It never was a war, they said. Just a conflict. It never was close to me.

I don’t remember when I first saw the memorial.

What I do remember is how striking it was. It fascinated me. It stunned me. It was emotionally painful. It brought tears to my eyes.

With all of the names on the wall and the little mementos left by family, friends, and comrades, the wall brought home to me some of the horrible reality and waste. The loss of all those young lives; the impact on families; the sons, husbands, and fathers who were lost; the terrible toll that it took on our country.

Iraq is not the same as Viet Nam… and it’s surely not for me.

Iraq is far away, but it is very, very real to me. It’s not just because my son-in-law is in the service and could be sent there. It’s the wall. It brought the reality of that long ago conflict and helps, for me, with the reality of today.

I fully endorsed the attack on Iraq. I thought it was a just cause. I was wrong. My belief is that it’s taken us off track in the war on terror. We’ve lost ground because of it and it’ll take much, much longer to get past it. I don’t know that it will ever be won. I expect it will eventually just fade away.

Viet Nam was just a part of life for me. The wall, with its simple stark beauty, showed me some of the terrible reality of a war we didn’t fight to win.

I just hope a memorial to the fallen in Iraq is not needed to teach anyone else that lesson for this conflict.

______

Update:  January 1, 2007 — Around the time that I wrote this, I got back in touch, for the first time since 1971, with a friend from high school. She said she had wondered about me over the years and that, on a trip to D.C., she had searched for my name on that wall.

Post from a retired blog – North Farnham Freeholder – recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine 2/26/2011 – page