CHEESE IT - THE COPS

As a former NH Bail Commissioner for several years, I was blessed enough to work with and get to know numerous police-persons from local towns as well as several staties (is that an okay label or is it pejorative? I am sure someone will let me know). All were fine, but there was one (and only one) whom I'd describe as having an attitude, a most disrespectful attitude.

I was brought up to respect the police, the military, the opposite sex (are you the opposite sex or am I?), teachers, students, and, well, pretty much everyone. Through the years, however, I have modified that respect.

One day, I don't remember how old I was 14 or 15?, I was playing baseball with some friends in a suburban field when a patrol car with two young officers pulled up. We walked over to the car (not everyone runs). Ignoring us at first, the driver slouched back in his seat and shook out a cigarette from a pack that had been in his shirt's breast pocket, put it in his mouth, and lit it. He then flicked the match at us. I don't remember the exact conversation, but I do recall it was punctuated by some swear words and a couple more flicked matches. In retrospect, from that interaction, I realized he was a punk.

On the other hand, on a more positive note, a friend and I were walking down a dark side street in Boston at night when a police car came whipping up to the curb and stopped by us. We too stopped and just stood there. Two officers got out and walked up to us, hands on their butts (gun butts). They professionally yet politely frisked us and then asked for our IDs. They told us there had just been a robbery and the two suspects' description vaguely resembled us (or vice-versa), so they had to check. They offered an apology and left. Respect.

And one more. I was driving on the James Jackson Storrow Memorial Drive (aka by locals as Sorrow Drive) down by the river Charles. My car got a flat, so I pulled into a small turnoff on the road and checked for a jack and spare. The spare was there, but I had no jack (I know - I should have checked sooner). It didn't take long for a police car to pull up behind us to see what was happening. He too checked and didn't have a jack either (hmmm - he should have checked sooner), so he got on his radio giving our location and saying, "Officer needs assistance." Wrong thing for him to say. In what seemed like almost immediately, several more cars whipped up with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Embarrassing (yet impressive) to say the least. Respect. 

Long story short, I learned through the years to respect the uniform but not always the person wearing it. 

(By the way, yes, Istill do respect the office of the President of the United States.)

Father Knows Best

I recently had an epiphany (no, I didn't get any on me).

It's not tRump at all. He clearly is who he is, says what he says, and does what he does. It's you; it's me; we are the problem. Everything that has come before has made us who we are and what we deem acceptable, which is the reason why the perception we have is the perception we have, and you're wrong; I'm right.

By the time we are adults, we are supposed to have matured, developing and shaping a personal moral compass along the way. We should have a reasonable sense of what's right and what's wrong for us and the world. We read, see, and hear things and should be able to figure out what's okay and what's not okay. 

In class, I used to draw a vertical line on the board and labeled one side 'Right' and the other Wrong.' Then I would toss out some concepts and ask which they belonged on. 'Being honest,' 'Stealing,' 'Helping someone in need,' 'Lying.' 'Bullying,' 'Cheating', 'Murdering,' etc. When I upped the ante with explanatory circumstances, the line blurred and bent to either side - 'Well, this one time it's okay.'

tRump is tRump. To some, he is a bold knight in shining armor, the Second Coming - a self-proclaimed stable genius. To others, he is the Antichrist, a person with no morals, class, or any basic human decency. With either view, he is who he is - what we see says more about who we are. As viewers and listeners, we see and hear the very same things, but to some he can do no wrong, and to others, he can do no right. I can only assume when he does or says something absolutely appalling (to me), someone else is looking up at him with dreamy eyes and battling their eyelashes and thinking, "Sigh... My hero..." 

So, here's the thing. With my background and upbringing, I have concluded tRump is a divisive liar with no sense of anything decent (except winning [for him and his family and the rich]). He thinks (and has now seen) he is above the law, and his supporters eat it up. No matter how crass the act, his supporters cheer. I want to scream, "How can you possibly see this as something good or right or desirable?"

Sadly, we are hard-wired, unable to be altered by an external force. Someone's parents taught them what their parents taught them, and so on. Robert Frost captured it perfectly when he wrote: "I see him there/ Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top/In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed./He moves in darkness as it seems to me,/Not of woods only and the shade of trees./He will not go behind his father's saying...."

And never the twain shall meet...

I am so old...

How old am I? I am so old, I remember when:

-Candy bars were 5 cents and bottled Cokes were 10 cents

-Paperback books were 25 cents (and the really thick ones were 50 cents. Hardbacks topped out at $10 for the big ones.

-Gas was 30 cents a gallon

-A brand new Ford Mustang was under $3,000

-Comic books were 10 cents

-Postage stamps were 4 cents

-Pay phones were all over and cost 10 cents

-McDonald's burgers were 15 cents

-Levi's were $5

-TVs were all black and white

-I played outside

-Many people waited until they were married before having kids

-The National Guard really was the National Guard

-I saw Disney's "Song of the South" in a theater

-Doctors made house calls

-The music was great

-I really thought I was cool.

That's it for now. More later?

It was a Partisan Hoax!

     I recently published a Note on Facebook, which expresses my views on the Impeachment trial. All I asked for was a fair trial with evidence and witnesses, not a cover up or what IMPOTUS called a 'partisan hoax.' Toward the end, I wrote: "How can senators in good conscience take this solemn oath on Thursday when many of them have already decided whether the president is guilty or not?" That is why I am praying for a fair trial. Present evidence, evaluate it, and then decide; let the chips fall where they may."

     I ended the note with "No comment is necessary."

     Of course, there were those who had to comment. Apparently anything spoken or written that in any way could be construed as anything against their Dear Leader must be addressed.

     I didn't want comments because I knew exactly what they would say. I know where you stand, and you know where I stand, and nothing will change either one of us.

I have never seen this kind of angry national divide. Never!

     As far as I am concerned, there are only two things to know, which summarize where we are: first, IMPOTUS was absolutely right when he said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” folding his fingers into the shape of a gun. We have seen where nothing he says or does makes any difference. NOTHING!

     The second thing takes the form of a joke: Q. How do you get trump to change a light bulb?

     A. You don't; he'll lie and say he changed it, and all his followers will sit in the dark and agree how bright it is (or you could just say Obama put installed it).

     By the way, IMPOTUS was right – after the Senate vote, it was a partisan hoax.

Liar, Liar....

I do not lie. Many (most?) people as they go through life, see lying is an easy way to get in or get out of something. While he may or may not have said it, Mark Twain is credited with the quote: "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything" (meaning it's a lot harder trying to remember what you said to whom rather than just telling the truth where your story won't change).

How honest am I? I remember one day at work I spilled toner trying to install a new cartridge (that stuff is worse than glitter). No one was around, and I just could have left, but I didn't. I called the office and told them what I had done. Yes, I am that honest.

Through the years, I do remember telling my students early in the school year (using an appropriate facial expression and deep gravitas) that if they lied to me once and got caught, it would be a long time before I ever trusted them again. Along the way, that resulted often in my asking, "Did you do that?" The response was usually a meek, "Yes." And that solved a lot of problems that could have easily grown like Pinocchio's nose.

I have zero respect for liars. "By a lie, a man... annihiliates his dignity as a man." (Immanuel Kant). Is that so hard to understand? I ran into one former student who told me he had been in the army. I asked what his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) had been. He didn't know what I meant. Bus-ted! Stolen valor? I learned he was a pathological liar and to trust nothing he said. Sad situation. 

In school, I was known for my frequent truly-true "stories" (one girl once told me she thought I'd really be fun at a party because I was so random and know so much (fooled her, didn't I). From the student perspective, every story was time away from whatever we were doing. When a work we were reading reminded me of something in my past, I'd put down the book and begin.

What they didn't know is virtually every story actually had a point that advanced and supported the school's Mission statement: "Together we challenge one another to develop and demonstrate the attitudes, skills, and knowledge essential to attaining excellence in self, family and community." (I added the Oxford comma just because, well, that's what I do.)

I had been where the kids were, but they haven't been where I was. I learned and grew through my experiences through the years and am pretty happy with the person I have become. I wanted them to know I was human and made mistakes along the way - that  I made decisions that I look back on and regret (but learned from).

Anyhow, telling the truth is difficult. I Googled 'truth,' and I was presented with a list of 1,540,000,000 hits. Truth is a major topic in philosophy and has been discussed for thousands of years. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes "the proble

Perhaps defining truth is much like Supreme Court's Justice Stweart Potter's famous comment regarding pornography: " I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description["hard-core pornography'], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." 

I can't accept people who lie. I am surprised by those who can and do on a daily basis.

Oops, this is getting too heady, so if you take anything away from this, it's "Tell the truth."

It Wasn't Always that Way...

Way back, I was told that one of the reasons I was hired for my teaching position teaching English at PAHS (Plymouth AREA High School) was because I was... well, different (I am).

I came from a different place (The Flatlands outside of Boston) than many of the other teachers, I went to different schools (again Emerson College in Boston), I had a host of different experiences, and I had a strong sense of character and morals. It wasn't always that way.

True confession time. One of the first paperbacks I ever bought was called "The Best of Sick Jokes" (and they certainly were - absolutely inappropriate today). The book first came out in 1958, but I am guessing I was probably 14 or 15 when I got my copy a few years later, and the sicker the joke the better (at least so we thought then [it's a boy thing]). I would tell adults a shocking joke or two, and they would glare disapprovingly, but I could see them stifling a smile. Yeah, I was naughty! 

I maintained that penchant and became known for my offbeat sense of humor, but as my high school years unfolded and college neared, I discovered romantic comedies at the movies. Because growing young people are constantly trying on different faces to find one that fits, the new male image I began to emulate was that of a wise-cracking, suave, sophisticated gentleman (Cary Grant and Rock Hudson in particular with a sprinkling of James Garner, Jack Lemmon, James Coburn, and even Frank Sinatra mixed in). Audrey Hepburn and Doris Day [and a host of others] were often their quarry. Both personas carried me through my college years.

Everything changed when I began my teaching career. I learned quickly that almost any straying off the conservative path had consequences. For over thirty years, I had to watch what I said. Probably once or twice a year, I'd mutter something in jest only to realize as soon I said, whatever it was, I had messed up. I prayed for no phone calls from home or summons to the principal's office. Overall, I lucked out.

Today, even though I have been out of the classroom for over a decade, I still watch what I say. I come across as a prig (prig - look it up). My few close friends know the real me, but for the most part to most people, I seem pretty boring. When I meet someone shopping, it's "Hey, how are you doing? What are you up to?, etc, and then we move on with me often wondering, "Who was that?"

Anyhow, I found out  suffer from Witzelsucht , which consists of excessive facetiousness and inappropriate or pointless humor - someone who jokes at inappropriate times and places. I have controlled it so few people have seen it (apologies to those who have). I will hear a 'trigger word,' and a joke emerges. My poor wife and daughter have heard the same jokes too many times. It's kind of like when Moe Howard or Lou Costello hears the words, "Niagara Falls."

Forewarned is forearmed. Make sure you offer no trigger words. 

A tip of the Keyboard

A tip of the keyboard goes to the Ever-effervescent Miss Jessica  who has rekindled my interest in blogging.

I began a new one, but we decided I should focus more and continue with the one I have going. There's a lot of 'stuff' there, but it's all over the place.

After a few new entries, I will publicize what I am doing, and, if people like it, they can share it and start to build a following.

Now, for some serious thought....

Be back soon.