My parents raised me to be an independent person. Perhaps they did too good of a job because I revolt at the idea of being told what to do. And God forbid if you try to tell me how I should think. Of all the things that stir my outrage, nothing does the job quicker or better than banning a book.
I am an avid reader. I literally devour books, whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Books expand your mind, your perspective, your knowledge, your ability to think for yourself. Books help you understand how others live, how the world affects your own life. And they even help you discern right from wrong, good from evil.
Because my ultra-conservative parents allowed me to read any books I brought home, I never thought about book banning. Yes, I knew about the book burnings of Nazi Germany and I had read Fahrenheit 451, but I somehow thought, as a civilized society, we had moved beyond that. Then I began working with a literature professor who taught aspiring teachers about book banning in America. I was shocked.
Steinbeck's incredible portrayal of Americans struggling during the Dust Bowl days, The Grapes of Wrath, had been banned for its vulgar language and negative depiction of the nation. James and the Giant Peach, a childhood favorite, shows disrespect for adults. And perhaps most astounding of all, Shel Silverstein's wonderfully imaginative A Light in The Attic has been banned for promoting disrespect, horror and violence. Someone banned the author who gave us "but sure as you're born, you'll never see no unicorn"?
Now book banning is rearing its ugly head again. This time, Wesley Scroggins of Republic, Missouri, is waging war on three books: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer, and a book on date rape entitled Speak. The reasons for the ban? They violate Christian principles. Too much swearing, too much sex, things that today's high school student knows absolutely nothing about. Yeah, right!
What Scroggins and his ilk forget is that they, as parents, are the content filters, not the schools. If they don't want their children reading an assigned text, ask the teacher for an alternative. Most are happy to oblige. Any correlation between a book's content and Biblical teachings is irrevelant in the school setting. Again, that is the parent's responsibility to establish and explain any correlation. And finally, banning a book on Biblical principles goes against the separation of church and state. Last time I checked, we do not have a state religion in America.
Being a Christian is fine. Being a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, whatever is fine. Just don't misinterpret the teachings of your religion to do violence to others or to control them. Instead use your God-given brain to think and conduct yourself in a humane, or perhaps godly, manner. You are using religion to exert control over something you do not understand, something you are incapable of comprehending.
And to those who do not wish to be controlled by the small-minded, intellectually stunted idiots in this country, keep on reading those horrible, no good banned and challenged books. Your mind will thank you for it.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Life in the Circle of Fifths
Anyone who knows me fairly well knows my many shortcomings. Some are pretty serious -- my infamous temper and "colorful" language. Others, while less serious, are just sad and at the same time, humorous.
First, I am mathematically challenged. Forget the fact that math is the language of logic; I see nothing logical or rational about it at all. I can't even balance my checkbook WITH a calculator! And second, I have the singing ability of cats in heat. My vocal stylings are so bad that when my sons were younger, they would beg me to NOT sing with them. Not even "Mary Had A Little Lamb"!
Despite the lack of these skills that are vitally important to music, it has always been an important part of my life. In my parents' home, we listened to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra one day, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash the next. We never listened to that "long-hair shit", my dad's term to describe everything from Beethoven to The Beatles. I even missed the Fab Four's first performance on Ed Sullivan because of my dad's aversion to rock and roll.
At some point, my parents decided that I needed to learn to play an instrument and bought an organ. First, a nice little Wurlitzer, then a Lowery theater organ -- the kind they played in supper clubs! And I took lessons . . . for ye-e-a-ars, I took lessons. From talented musicians who performed in supper clubs, in jazz bands, even in rock and roll bands. Oh, I could read the music and was technically proficient. But actually "perform" the music? Not on your life!
While my playing ability was the musical equivalent of two left feet, all that practice and playing deepened my knowledge and appreciation of all types of music. I began to understand how notes went together to weave a melody. I looked for meaning in lyrics and classical influences in popular songs. I even took college classes about the sociological impact of popular music. (Ever write a paper on the Tolkienesque references in the music of Led Zeppelin or take a test on the meaning of Don McLean's "American Pie"? I have.)
But I had help expanding my musical horizons along the way. I am so thankful to all of those who taught me that, despite my lack of talent, I could still enjoy playing the keyboard. There are days that I miss the feel of my fingers on the keys, my feet on the pedals. I still dream of one day owning a Hammond B-3 and playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", or at least the opening arpeggio from "In-A-Gadda-da-Vida".
My musical knowledge and tastes would be limited indeed had many individuals not opened my ears to new sounds. My late friend Scott introduced me to the psychadelic philosophy of Pink Floyd and the classical sounds of Yes, two groups that remain favorites to this day. When Carl-Michal shared celtic music with me, I discovered the roots of much of the bluegrass music I heard growing up, and appreciated it so much more. And Kevin, well he gave me U2, Sisters of Mercy, Mozart, Black Flag, and all those horribly wonderful 80s groups like The Stabilizers, plus many more.
And, then there is Marti, the wonderfully talented singer-songwriter, who told me that anyone can sing if the song is in the right key. God love you, Marti, I'm still looking for that key.
My family has always shared in (or tolerated) my musical adventures. And while I never sang to my sons, I have given them a legacy of enjoying and appreciating all types of music. My youngest even possesses that ear for music and performance talent that I lack.
I cannot imagine a life without music. I listen to some type of music every day. After all, life is so much better with a soundtrack.
First, I am mathematically challenged. Forget the fact that math is the language of logic; I see nothing logical or rational about it at all. I can't even balance my checkbook WITH a calculator! And second, I have the singing ability of cats in heat. My vocal stylings are so bad that when my sons were younger, they would beg me to NOT sing with them. Not even "Mary Had A Little Lamb"!
Despite the lack of these skills that are vitally important to music, it has always been an important part of my life. In my parents' home, we listened to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra one day, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash the next. We never listened to that "long-hair shit", my dad's term to describe everything from Beethoven to The Beatles. I even missed the Fab Four's first performance on Ed Sullivan because of my dad's aversion to rock and roll.
At some point, my parents decided that I needed to learn to play an instrument and bought an organ. First, a nice little Wurlitzer, then a Lowery theater organ -- the kind they played in supper clubs! And I took lessons . . . for ye-e-a-ars, I took lessons. From talented musicians who performed in supper clubs, in jazz bands, even in rock and roll bands. Oh, I could read the music and was technically proficient. But actually "perform" the music? Not on your life!
While my playing ability was the musical equivalent of two left feet, all that practice and playing deepened my knowledge and appreciation of all types of music. I began to understand how notes went together to weave a melody. I looked for meaning in lyrics and classical influences in popular songs. I even took college classes about the sociological impact of popular music. (Ever write a paper on the Tolkienesque references in the music of Led Zeppelin or take a test on the meaning of Don McLean's "American Pie"? I have.)
But I had help expanding my musical horizons along the way. I am so thankful to all of those who taught me that, despite my lack of talent, I could still enjoy playing the keyboard. There are days that I miss the feel of my fingers on the keys, my feet on the pedals. I still dream of one day owning a Hammond B-3 and playing Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", or at least the opening arpeggio from "In-A-Gadda-da-Vida".
My musical knowledge and tastes would be limited indeed had many individuals not opened my ears to new sounds. My late friend Scott introduced me to the psychadelic philosophy of Pink Floyd and the classical sounds of Yes, two groups that remain favorites to this day. When Carl-Michal shared celtic music with me, I discovered the roots of much of the bluegrass music I heard growing up, and appreciated it so much more. And Kevin, well he gave me U2, Sisters of Mercy, Mozart, Black Flag, and all those horribly wonderful 80s groups like The Stabilizers, plus many more.
And, then there is Marti, the wonderfully talented singer-songwriter, who told me that anyone can sing if the song is in the right key. God love you, Marti, I'm still looking for that key.
My family has always shared in (or tolerated) my musical adventures. And while I never sang to my sons, I have given them a legacy of enjoying and appreciating all types of music. My youngest even possesses that ear for music and performance talent that I lack.
I cannot imagine a life without music. I listen to some type of music every day. After all, life is so much better with a soundtrack.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
I Like Ike?
Ok, I will admit it. I am old. I was born during the first Eisenhower administration, but JFK is the first president I truly remember. What he and his brother, Bobby, stood for shaped my earliest political views -- views that have only grown stronger and more liberal with the passing years. From family and history, I learned what an ineffective president Eisenhower supposedly was. His great military leadership ability did not translate to the civilian world. Therefore, I was never a fan of Ike.
In recent days, I happened across a quote by Eisenhower regarding the very programs our Republican Congress continues to threaten -- Social Security and Medicare (along with education, civil rights, equal rights, and more). It was part of a letter written to his brother in 1954. I think it sums up nicely what average Americans are trying to tell the idiots who want to gut programs that help the majority of Americans.
"But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Amazing! A Republican that supports programs that help average Americans. Better yet, he calls out one of the wealthiest men in the nation (at the time) as “stupid”. Can you imagine what he would think of the likes of the Koch brothers and the conduct of Congress today?
As if this weren’t enough, I found another quote that applies to today’s Congress and its way of thinking as well. Ike further demonstrated his belief that people come first in an earlier speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Read this carefully and imagine any politician saying this today.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?”
Schools and homes before bombers and warships? Unlike today’s politicians, Ike knew first-hand about war and he did not want it to happen again. He was not saying we should not have the military but that it should exist in perspective to all else. He saw that the right path lay in helping people. If a man who lived and breathed war and the military for much of his life could reach this conclusion, why can’t today’s politicians who have never seen a battlefield?
It’s just some food for thought. We need to be thinking because it is quite obvious that our elected officials are not.
In recent days, I happened across a quote by Eisenhower regarding the very programs our Republican Congress continues to threaten -- Social Security and Medicare (along with education, civil rights, equal rights, and more). It was part of a letter written to his brother in 1954. I think it sums up nicely what average Americans are trying to tell the idiots who want to gut programs that help the majority of Americans.
"But to attain any success it is quite clear that the Federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. The political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the Constitution. This is what I mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Amazing! A Republican that supports programs that help average Americans. Better yet, he calls out one of the wealthiest men in the nation (at the time) as “stupid”. Can you imagine what he would think of the likes of the Koch brothers and the conduct of Congress today?
As if this weren’t enough, I found another quote that applies to today’s Congress and its way of thinking as well. Ike further demonstrated his belief that people come first in an earlier speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Read this carefully and imagine any politician saying this today.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?”
Schools and homes before bombers and warships? Unlike today’s politicians, Ike knew first-hand about war and he did not want it to happen again. He was not saying we should not have the military but that it should exist in perspective to all else. He saw that the right path lay in helping people. If a man who lived and breathed war and the military for much of his life could reach this conclusion, why can’t today’s politicians who have never seen a battlefield?
It’s just some food for thought. We need to be thinking because it is quite obvious that our elected officials are not.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Heard A Tale of Old Manhattan
I'm not certain if I love to cook, or simply love cookbooks and cooking magazines. My coffee table is piled high with two years' worth of Taste of Home and Food Network magazines. One kitchen cabinet is entirely filled with cook books containing recipes from days when fat and salt went into everything. Occasionally, I do get a good idea from them -- a fabulous recipe that, once I'm finished with it, scarcely resembles the original. Most of the time however, my kitchen resembles Professor Snape's potions classroom, producing noxious odors and strange vapors.
Recently, I came across a photo cutline in one of my magazines talking about hot dog sauce. It seems the new sauce du jour with hot dog vendors in New York City is a simple tomato paste, olive oil and onion concoction. Sounded delicious to me, but there wasn't a recipe. Not about to be deterred by something so trivial as written instructions, I took to the kitchen to see what I could create.
My first attempt was nothing short of -- stupendous! Even people whose culinary skills are the talk of Methodist covered dish dinners loved it. Of course it helped that we ate it on the best hot dogs in all of creation -- Tony Packo's Hungarian Hot Dogs from Toledo, Ohio. But my new sauce held its own with those fabulous dogs.
Then I started thinking, and that not always a good thing. What if this sauce was the base for other things? You could make it Italian or Mexican. Use it with pasta or baked steak. With something so basic, the possibilities were endless.
So today, I made Italian baked steak with my new sauce. I just added garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, basil and oregano, then topped the final product with mozzarella. Absolute heaven!
If you want to give it a try, here's my recipe.
Manhattan Sauce
1 large Vidalia onion
1 small can of tomato paste
Some olive oil
As much Mrs. Dash as you need
1 Tbls. brown sugar
1 tsp. prepared mustard
Halve the onion and slice it. Toss in olive oil until well coated, then saute until tender. Add tomato paste and Mrs. Dash. Stir together over low heat. Add water to thin paste to a sauce consistency. Add brown sugar and mustard. Use more if you think the tomato is still too acidic. Slather on your hot dogs and enjoy. It's an entirely new taste treat.
Recently, I came across a photo cutline in one of my magazines talking about hot dog sauce. It seems the new sauce du jour with hot dog vendors in New York City is a simple tomato paste, olive oil and onion concoction. Sounded delicious to me, but there wasn't a recipe. Not about to be deterred by something so trivial as written instructions, I took to the kitchen to see what I could create.
My first attempt was nothing short of -- stupendous! Even people whose culinary skills are the talk of Methodist covered dish dinners loved it. Of course it helped that we ate it on the best hot dogs in all of creation -- Tony Packo's Hungarian Hot Dogs from Toledo, Ohio. But my new sauce held its own with those fabulous dogs.
Then I started thinking, and that not always a good thing. What if this sauce was the base for other things? You could make it Italian or Mexican. Use it with pasta or baked steak. With something so basic, the possibilities were endless.
So today, I made Italian baked steak with my new sauce. I just added garlic, mushrooms, green peppers, basil and oregano, then topped the final product with mozzarella. Absolute heaven!
If you want to give it a try, here's my recipe.
Manhattan Sauce
1 large Vidalia onion
1 small can of tomato paste
Some olive oil
As much Mrs. Dash as you need
1 Tbls. brown sugar
1 tsp. prepared mustard
Halve the onion and slice it. Toss in olive oil until well coated, then saute until tender. Add tomato paste and Mrs. Dash. Stir together over low heat. Add water to thin paste to a sauce consistency. Add brown sugar and mustard. Use more if you think the tomato is still too acidic. Slather on your hot dogs and enjoy. It's an entirely new taste treat.
And if you think you need meat sauce on a hot dog, fry some ground beef and add to your sauce.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Is Anybody Listening?
Speaker Boehner:
I realize that writing to you is an exercise in futility, as you will not respond to my concerns or even deign to consider them. However, I feel compelled to continue expressing my extreme displeasure with your conduct as an elected official. It is quite obvious from your recent comments regarding taxes that you are not listening to the majority of average Americans. Nor can I see how you consider yourself to be a capitalist when everything you are doing goes against the principles espoused by Adam Smith, the father of modern economics and capitalism.
You, and other Republicans and Tea Partiers, have dug in your heels on raising taxes, claiming Americans do not want this. Have you not seen recent surveys of average Americans? The vast majority of those questioned are in favor of increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthiest. Even those who consider themselves to be conservative Republicans favor this. I would wager that, if you asked those who live in your district in Ohio, they would tell you the same thing.
No, Americans do not want to pay more in taxes. We do, however, want everyone to pay their fair share, something Smith considered essential to a sound economy in his definitive work, The Wealth of Nations. Do you not realize that average Americans are paying 28% of their income in taxes while some of corporations and wealthy Americans are paying only one-fourth of that? How can you consider that fair and reasonable, and something all Americans want?
You continue to claim that tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy will spur job growth. As an unemployed Ohioan, I am still waiting for those jobs to appear, knowing full well they will never happen. Granting tax breaks to create jobs is a pipe dream, a fantasy, or an out-and-out lie. To invoke a colloquialism, you’ve beaten that horse to death; it’s time to get off and walk.
It is also clear from your comments and those of others in Congress that you are more interested in removing President Obama from office than fixing the problems of this nation. You must get your priorities in order, sir! As I told you before, this is not about Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, right or left. It is about what is best for America and that is fixing our economy by making certain everyone pays his or her fair share. We did not have these problems prior to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. We had a balanced budget then; we can have one again – if everyone makes a contribution. Right now, only those who can least afford it are bearing this burden.
This has to stop! You must stop this stonewalling just so “Republicans can beat the Democrats”. That is juvenile; you sound like bullies on the playground. The Congress of the United States of America is no place for one-upmanship and chest-thumping machismo. It is the place to resolve the problems facing this nation in a rational and equitable manner. It is the place to resort to compromise that saves a nation.
For the sake of America, put aside this us versus them mentality. Do what is right for a change and work together to make this country strong again. If you continue down this path you are currently on, you will not defeat the Democrats and the liberals. You will, however, defeat everything America stands for. Is this what you and your colleagues truly want to be remembered for achieving?
I realize that writing to you is an exercise in futility, as you will not respond to my concerns or even deign to consider them. However, I feel compelled to continue expressing my extreme displeasure with your conduct as an elected official. It is quite obvious from your recent comments regarding taxes that you are not listening to the majority of average Americans. Nor can I see how you consider yourself to be a capitalist when everything you are doing goes against the principles espoused by Adam Smith, the father of modern economics and capitalism.
You, and other Republicans and Tea Partiers, have dug in your heels on raising taxes, claiming Americans do not want this. Have you not seen recent surveys of average Americans? The vast majority of those questioned are in favor of increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthiest. Even those who consider themselves to be conservative Republicans favor this. I would wager that, if you asked those who live in your district in Ohio, they would tell you the same thing.
No, Americans do not want to pay more in taxes. We do, however, want everyone to pay their fair share, something Smith considered essential to a sound economy in his definitive work, The Wealth of Nations. Do you not realize that average Americans are paying 28% of their income in taxes while some of corporations and wealthy Americans are paying only one-fourth of that? How can you consider that fair and reasonable, and something all Americans want?
You continue to claim that tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy will spur job growth. As an unemployed Ohioan, I am still waiting for those jobs to appear, knowing full well they will never happen. Granting tax breaks to create jobs is a pipe dream, a fantasy, or an out-and-out lie. To invoke a colloquialism, you’ve beaten that horse to death; it’s time to get off and walk.
It is also clear from your comments and those of others in Congress that you are more interested in removing President Obama from office than fixing the problems of this nation. You must get your priorities in order, sir! As I told you before, this is not about Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, right or left. It is about what is best for America and that is fixing our economy by making certain everyone pays his or her fair share. We did not have these problems prior to the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. We had a balanced budget then; we can have one again – if everyone makes a contribution. Right now, only those who can least afford it are bearing this burden.
This has to stop! You must stop this stonewalling just so “Republicans can beat the Democrats”. That is juvenile; you sound like bullies on the playground. The Congress of the United States of America is no place for one-upmanship and chest-thumping machismo. It is the place to resolve the problems facing this nation in a rational and equitable manner. It is the place to resort to compromise that saves a nation.
For the sake of America, put aside this us versus them mentality. Do what is right for a change and work together to make this country strong again. If you continue down this path you are currently on, you will not defeat the Democrats and the liberals. You will, however, defeat everything America stands for. Is this what you and your colleagues truly want to be remembered for achieving?
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