Today, I saw a cardinal. We each noted one the other. A cock of its head in my direction, a nod from me. And, then, it flew away to tend to its day and I, to mine.
World Trade Center September 11, 2001 I don’t watch television in the morning, so I had no idea until I arrived at work of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Seemed like an age ago at the time, but I had dined in the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center (All I remember is the restaurant was the “It” place to dine. I don’t remember if the group I was with was celebrating or we went just to say we had eaten there.)
The third day of December 1990 was a Monday… New Madrid is the namesake of a seismic zone spanning several states in the lower Midwest and South that was the site of some of the largest earthquakes in recorded North American history. And about a year earlier, a self-styled climatologist named Iben Browning had predicted a 50% chance of another one on Monday, Dec. 3, 1990, give or take a couple days. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tgounley/the-day-the-earth-stood-still
I drove into Memphis, Tn on Sunday, December 2, 1990. I had to be there for work on Monday morning. I stayed at a hotel that had a view of the Mississippi River and a view of the bridge that someone must have told me was laughingly called “Dolly Parton’s Breasts” (when lighted the bridge did look like two huge brassiered breasts). I liked that hotel. When a storm approached, one could see the lightning filled clouds roiling along the course of the river. I remember walking in the deserted downtown area…maybe looking for an open restaurant. The feeling was eerie. It was dusk, and absolutely no one shared the sidewalk with me and there were no cars on the street. There was only silence. I don’t remember if I found an open restaurant. All I remember is the feeling of eeriness,the silence, and the emptiness.
In the Gulf War of 1990-1991, the US had led a multinational coalition which forced invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64980565
I was in Memphis. Work. I remember thinking–why? I was more cynical by then. I wondered what the powers that be wanted to distract us from.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. while riding in a motorcade in Dallas during a campaign visit. https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/jfk-assassination
I was in elementary school. I remember some of the older girls, crying and the Principal turning on the television. Afterwards, there were the newspapers. My father kept those newspapers for decades. There was a storage compartment under the sofa cushions. That’s where the newspapers were kept and, every so often, I’d reread the newspapers and study the pictures, many of which were in color.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination
I was watching Batman when it was interrupted by a news flash. Needless to say, no more Batman. I think I knew MLK’s name, but I only had a hazy idea of who he was.
Vietnam War–...and active combat units were introduced in 1965 .https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War Even though the war began in 1954 with the French, it was not a concern until 1964 when the draft began.
The only reason I knew anything about the Vietnam War was because of the draft. Two cousins were drafted and my brother was of age. My brother went to college, so he was never drafted. One cousin, because he was an only son, served his time in Germany. Another cousin was not so lucky and served in Vietnam. PTSD is real and he suffered. PTSD never really goes away. One just learns to live with it. I found out when researching my family history that a distant cousin also served in Vietnam. He was not so lucky. He was killed in a helicopter crash.
Also, went to college with guys who had served. Again PTSD is real. One learned to avoid the guys who had served in Vietnam. Not their fault, but some of them were dangerous when triggered and one did not know what would trigger them.
You’d think I would remember the moon landing on July 16, 1969 or Bobby Kennedy’s assassination on June 5, 1968. I don’t. Not specifically. The moon landing may not have made an impression because on our black and white TV, it would have looked like scenes from the B movies we had seen on The Big Show. Some time ago, I met someone whose parents worked on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign and one of whom was there at the time of the assassination. I think he would have worked for the people, not corporate monied interests. His father had done the dirty for their riches and he had no need to bow to any man. Even then, were forces working to ensure what is happening today?
Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he’s gone
Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free
Someday soon, it’s gonna be
One day
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’
Up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John
Writer/s: Richard Holler
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/dion/abraham-martin-and-john
Did we ever think we would be in an era where the government was controlled by such amoral, immoral, no character, unethical, law breaking, greedy, ignorant males and females? When, in the past, there were men and women who actually thought there was a greater good and worked to achieve it? The above song always saddened me when it played on the radio. Even then, it was a lament to the passing of a caliber of person that was not to be seen, not in this country, not in our lifetime.
When will the people who inhabit this white supremacist country get it through their ignorant mindsets that the opposite/absence of “light” is “dark”. When speaking of the deity of light, its opposite is the deity of darkness. The color “black” should never be used in the context in which it is freely used, i.e., to denote bad, evil. I just read the transcript of a video where the Native American speaker was talking about “light” and used “black” as its opposite. That is white supremacy speaking.
I suppose it is a pet peeve of mine. Words have a meaning that we should respect. Why would you call someone a hero because the person did you a favor or did something you approve of, especially when you know the person is evil? You know the person’s actions, his words and his actions and his words are evil. Even the act you are praising the person for really only benefits the person. That you receive a benefit was of no consequence to that person, but, yet, you misuse, glibly misuse, the word “hero”.
Manufactured distractions–war, threats of war, shortages of what we consider essential goods, disease (foreign carriers preferred), general chaos. That’s how to maintain control–manufactured distractions that instill fear. And the hoi polloi is to stupid to realize that the person who says “I can fix it” is the one creating the fear so that he can maintain and remain in control.
Do we know the definition of cruelty? A callous indifference to or pleasure in causing pain and suffering. So years(?) of cruelty, inhumanity, barbarity have been unleased because of ignorance, narcissism, corruption, white supremacy, and the profaning of christianity. Wreak havoc cried the wolves of greed. (Thanks Shakespeare and Star Trek!) The wreak(ing) has begun.
Memory is so mercurial. I wonder if I will remember how disheartened I felt on January 20, 2025?
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Mahatma Gandhi
Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu
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