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I have had some welcomed assistance in the assurance that essays continue even though my personal time is sometimes not as free as before my wife's stroke. (Jean is doing very well, thank you, but the work that needs to be done to keep a house in order has to be first in priority and secondary priorities simply stand in line.) The previous essay by Robert J. Tinsky made a simple plea - BE SURE TO VOTE. Today, I am publishing an essay written by a Mississippi friend, T. J. Ray, who is a retired professor of The University of Mississippi. T. J. Ray is a unique writer with a background of 40 years teaching English grammar and language history. He thus qualifies as a pristine wordwright. Readers will immediately sense T. J.s writings stand alone. Some tongue-in-cheek, irony and humor can be found but there are portions that require serious contemplation and rumination. Hopefully these words, no less than the thoughts, will ultimately find their way to the hearts and minds of those who rule as well as they who follow--and vote. THE WORDWRIGHT
The Presidential Party Protocol
Recently someone wrote about defining the constituents of elected officials. Probably he was regnostic and may have been suffering a case of collywobbles. Even so, his words made sense, even suggesting a long-overdue application of the principle. A fitting rubric for the topic might be the Presidential Party Protocol.
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In accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S.Constitution, whenever a President is sworn in, these words are uttered: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Of particular note here is the absence of phrases such as "the interests of the _____ party." And a reading of the Constitution that is to be protected and defended is amazingly void of phrases such as "the Republican Party" and "the Democratic Party."
The logical effect of the oath is that the new Chief Executive swears to support the Constitution as it applies to all citizens, those who may have helped elect him as well as those who fought vainly to keep him out of office. As government is practiced (or malpracticed) in our country, folks who financed the winning campaign usually expect a return on their investment of dollars and time. Therein exists the real possibility that the only people represented by the winners are the ones with the deepest pockets. The likelihood is that donors whose checks ran to thousands or millions of dollars will be paid much more attention than the thousands of pensioners who could only contribute ten dollars.
The Presidential Party Protocol should profoundly alter the political landscape, perhaps profoundly improving the management of the nation. (Coincidentally, there should also be a gubernatorial version of the Protocol.) The most significant requirement is that from the day of inauguration the President is barred from participation in any way in party affairs. This includes endorsing other candidates while he or she is in office. One result is that no government agencies will be used to promote party candidates. Air Force One will fly for the people, not the party. It prohibits the Chief Executive from appointing people to positions because of party affiliation. In other words, the President will select the person who is best qualified to do a job, ignoring any pressure to filter nominees through a party screen. While such a constraint on the President may be difficult to define, it is like other aspects of that position: the moral integrity of the person in office.
If the President is concentrating on doing the job , being free of obligations to a party, time and energy may be dedicated to the business of the nation and the welfare of the people. This is highly preferable to presidents going around campaigning and fund-raising for their parties. Perhaps they would then know, for example, whether weapons of mass destruction actually existed before declaring war and that corporate greed was robbing hardworking Americans of their investments and pensions.
Though not direct aspects of the PPP, three other ideas need to be acted upon. Given the intermittent poor choices of vice president running mates, it is past time for the vice president to be elected just as the president is. And the term of office for both offices should be extended to six years with no option for a second term. It makes no more sense for a senator to serve six years than it would for a president and a vice president to also serve the same term. Finally, the electoral college should be abolished. If the nation is to respond to the actual poll of its citizens, then the results of that poll (the popular vote) should be the deciding factor in elections.
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Now, on with the ruminations. Thanks T. J. Again, BE SURE TO VOTE!
THE WORDWRIGHT
By Robert J. Tinsky, Oblong, Illinois
THANKS to Bob Tinsky of Oblong, Illinois, for providing the real reasons to "go vote". Unfortunately, the lack of participation in the voting system is evidence of apathy and shallow concepts of what America is all about. The existence of angst in any election seems to be a contrived concept to play down the importance of voting. In other words, if you get enough people discouraged or depressed sufficiently about issues in general, a covert movement might be seen "in the works" and thus benefiting surreptitiously from smaller crowds at the polls. I appreciate the personal testimony of my friend in Illinois and hope his essay is an encouragement and challenge for all who read THE WORDWRIGHT and accept the responsibility and recognize the privilege we have in the United States of America. BILL VENRICK
We Americans enjoy a privilege that is denied to millions of people in our world. I am talking about the privilege that we have to vote and choose who will be our leaders. It saddens me to know that almost half of the citizens of our great nation do not take the time to go to the poll and cast their vote.
Several years ago I was in the small country of Guyana, South America when they had their first free election. Guyana received its independence from Great Britain in 1966. It was ruled by one party for 28 years before that government agreed to allow the citizens the privilege of voting. I remember seeing the long lines of people who came to cast their vote. Some of these people waited for several hours to exercise their franchise.
Some of those who waited for hours to vote were turned away because those in charge told them that they were not properly registered. I remember very vividly hearing on the radio the sound of stones being thrown on the roof of the voting booth as those who were denied the right to vote endeavored to relieve their frustration. I also recall hearing the reporter who was inside the polling station telling his audience that he was broadcasting underneath a table to protect himself from the rocks being thrown at the building. Those people wanted to vote. They wanted to have a say regarding who was to lead their fledgling nation.
Before the day was over mass riots broke out in the nation's capitol because people felt they were being denied the privilege of voting. It was an awesome and somewhat frightening experience to witness the military airplanes flying overhead and the army vehicles loaded with armed soldiers drive pass our hotel prepared to use any means necessary to quell the riots.
We need to be grateful that we have the privilege to vote. Further we need to be thankful that our nation can choose its leaders by ballots rather than by bullets. But having the right to vote does us no good if we do have take advantage of this great privilege.
Regardless of your political affiliation and your personal preference for the various candidates, I plead with you to study the issues and learn all you can about the candidates. Then exercise your franchise by going to the poll on November 4. Remember, there have been elections that were decided by only one vote.
BE SURE TO VOTE - THE WORDWRIGHT
REFLECTING ON 'HARD TIMES'
By Dean Rea, Eugene, Oregon
People who lived through the Great Depression think differently than those born within the last three or four decades. THE WORDWRIGHT is privileged to have a full-fledged wordwright, Dean Rea, of Eugene, Oregon, as a guest essayist. When Dean writes about his boyhood experiences in Kansas, you can almost feel the grit of the sand seeping under the doors and through cracks in the window frames. With more than 55 years as a practicing journalist and professor of journalism, our guest essayist comes thoroughly equipped to "tell a story" and leave his readers begging for more but his short story style is sure to satisfy anyone who reads his reflections on "hard times."
Bill Venrick
A 5-year-old boy sits quietly on a chair in a Kansas farmhouse at mid-day. Dust whips across the drought-stricken wheat ranch and soon turns day into night.
The boy's mother closes the curtains while his father sprays water across rooms in the house to clear dust as it seeps through door and windows frames.
The boy worries about the watermelon vines that grow along a garden fence. He planted the seed, and he's looking forward to picking the melons when they ripen.
As the dust storm blows away the topsoil in what was to become the Dust Bowl, the last vestige of hope of raising wheat - and watermelons - vanishes.
Dust and the Great Depression drove my family from the farm and from Kansas during the early 1930's. With a grubstake from grandparents, they ended up in the Ozark Hills on a hardscrabble farm covered with rock, weeds and neglect.
The pre-World War II era is often referred to as "hard times." Fortunately, I wasn't old enough to know how difficult it was for my parents to feed a family and to finance a 40-acre farm operation.
As a 10-year-old, I recall racing across a field with my father, the sole of one of my shoes flapping with each step. We laughed about the flapping shoe, and dad repaired it with hammer and nails on a shoe last that evening after the cows were milked.
Maybe times weren't so hard because I was a boy and didn't realize that I was experiencing "hard times." We had food on the table. My mother canned everything we grew in the garden and meat from pigs and cattle that we slaughtered in the fall. We weren't teased about our patched clothing because everyone wore patched clothing.
No one had electricity, and the battery-powered telephone was mounted on a wall. Our ring was two longs and a short, and everyone on the line listened in on everyone's conversation. We packed our lunches and walked to school where we helped keep a stove stoked with wood during the winter.
We took a bath every weekend even though we had to hand pump every ounce we used from a well and had to heat the water on a wood-burning stove. We read books beside oil lamps at night. We wore clean clothing to church, and we looked forward to Saturday night community potluck meals, games and festivities.
We had a form of universal social services in which everyone in the community would help anyone in need. If you were sick, home remedies were shared. Serious sickness might require a doctor but certainly a prayer vigil. Sick or hurt and couldn't work? Neighbors pitched in and plowed fields, cared for livestock, harvested crops.
So, why the concern today about an economy going south? Inflation? High gasoline prices? Job losses? Mortgages in the dump?
While discussing today's "hard times" with a son, who is a pastor, I said: "During the depression many people didn't have much. Today, many people are losing their jobs, their homes, their toys. Maybe, it's more difficult to lose something when you have something than it is when you have little or nothing."
I often think of the 5-year-old boy seated in a darkened Kansas farm house and wonder about children today who are experiencing "hard times": domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug addiction, starvation, slavery, war, genocide.
On reflection, a dust storm and a depression hardly qualify.
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THANKS, Dean, perhaps you have struck a chord reminding us that "neighboring" was exactly that and not expecting an invasion of "the government" or help driven by committees and organizations from Washington and some kind of headquarters operating out of territorial jurisdictions. True, our population has grown so much larger since those days of the Great Depression and other calamities caused by Nature itself but the pristine neighborhood assistance from the communities themselves "back then" exemplifies something about which a bureaucracy knows little.
THE WORDWRIGHT
The world was not worthy of them
Copyrighted by Bill Venrick, 2008
The title of this essay comes from Hebrews 11:38. The words that follow have not come easy to this writer since we live in a land of political correctness, casual life styles and a trading of virtues once deemed "natural" or even Christian, or no less than "godly" when one considers the oft used phrased, Judeo-Christian virtues or values. Let's face it, America, those of us who have lived in the era from the late 1920's until this 21st century have experienced what might be called "The Surviving Witnesses." But such an accolade needs some sinews and meat on the bare bones.
How long the financial and economic crisis America, and even some parts of the world, will take to right itself (like cream coming to the top of its container, or oil and water separating in a laboratory beaker) will not be known until "later." We can pray that what happens will be better than the circumstances that caused this sickness we have experienced. And it is a sickness.
The phrase used in the title was spoken by the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews in the Bible. The writer has chronicled "righteous people" or "faithful people" of centuries past (back beyond or before the divisions we call, BC and AD.) But back to the writings in the book of Hebrews. Two words, "by faith" precede sections or paragraphs of that New Testament book and a near symphonic expression of words are so profoundly put together that nothing less than a great musical score by Beethoven or Bach needs to accompany the reading of this chapter of the Bible.
By faith we understand...
WOW - and what is it that is now being attacked? Attempts are being made to wrestle godly faith from the mouths of our nation's forefathers by saying the Bible (or God) had no place or the background or lives of those spiritual giants who framed the Constitution, the By Laws and many other legal documents through which our nation was birthed. That very constitution is being challenged and attempts to virtually rewrite it by the men and women who were appointed as Supreme Court judges. The argument appears to be: "Is the constitution living or dead?" At the rate spiritual values are being changed, it looks like the latter is the consensus of the majority of the individuals wearing black robes.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's commands. The words continue to flow: "By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain..., by faith Enoch was taken from this life...,by faith Noah...built an ark..., by faith Abraham...obeyed and went... All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised them...By faith Abraham offered Isaac (his son) as a sacrifice..., by faith Jacob...blessed each of Joseph's sons, by faith the people passed through the Red sea..., by faith the walls of Jericho fell..., by faith the prostitute Rehab...was not killed." And the writer of Hebrews went on to describe still more spiritual giants or heroes and because they lived lives of faith and died without seeing their goals - that is when we find the words: "The world was not worthy of them."
The moral application of this essay so far would be to say, "Our nation's leaders have, at least the majority who have ruled us lately, have sunk in their own stench of broken promises and misconstrued values -- they are not worthy of the hundreds of thousands of young men and women who have died on battle fields in our land and in lands across the seas. Their utter contempt for the bravery of fallen soldiers by attempting to discard the basic spiritual values our nation has held dear for over two hundred years smells worse than the foulest barnyard excrement produced. Our current leaders are not worthy of the men who gave their most for the very purpose of keeping our freedom.
I regretfully say, "It is disgusting to see our great nation floundering in financial chaos after the Great Depression and congressional shenanigans involving Social Security and broken promises, "IOU" slips left instead of refilling the coffers with cash; stealth-withdrawals used to invent programs liberally using money apparently with little or no intent to repay. In the recent decades our congress has gone along with [even] fake-sounding names like Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac that would make our grandfathers laugh out loud - "Loan people money to buy a house with no down payment? That's silly and unheard of!" "Nothing down? Ridiculous!" In actuality, the truth of the matter is: "If you cannot save to buy, you cannot borrow to buy." That is why there have been "renters" and "landlords" -- is that so difficult to understand? Even when manufacturers or companies project new products, they may have to invest (through borrowing) monies that require stocks to be sold. Our city and state governments work through bonds where the purchaser of bonds invests money to take care of our roads, dams, buildings and anything else deemed valuable enough for the most (or the citizenry). Those bonds are "paid off" in taxes levied against home-owners or property owners. The money lent was not freely given.
And they are trying to dupe us into believing that the right and proper ways that formed our land are no longer practical? Who are they trying to fool? They have already fooled themselves and apparently enough of our citizens to continue to reposition the parasites sitting on both sides of the aisles of our nation's capital. If this circumstance and situation is a catharsis, I pray we will see the best flushing that Washington has had for decades! No incumbent is worthy of any more terms to misguide, misuse and mismanage our treasury and taxes any longer. Term Limits should be the first order of business.
By faith we understand, and to put it another way - is it by no faith required (or allowed) that we are being cloned into dupes who will give our governmental leaders whatever they want? The new $1 coin which has received customary criticism from "concerned religious citizens" seems consistent with the covert workings of some leaders. True, they retained the motto "In God We Trust" but that motto has lost any significant place on the coin - its location is more like a riddle to solve. We went through one revolution (from a purported tyrant King) and now have we merely traded hats and some kind of crown is worn by men in $400 double-breasted suits and feet shod with wingtip shoes? And yes, men who have convinced themselves and us that they "have to have" two homes and all the other accouterments known and maintained by the members of our congress. Seems most, if not all, have never read the accounts in our nation's history where when members of the congress or government, from the President down, wrote letters like this:
"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this august body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life." (-- and he went back home.)
-- George Washington (Address to Congress on Resigning his Commission, 23 December 1783)
I think what I would like to see is the National Guard being so busy directing traffic of our congress and senators leaving Washington every two years, they have to use auxiliary units of the Boy Scouts of America to make sure all evacuees get out by midnight of the day their terms expire. And the next day (or two or three, whatever it will take) the same National Guard and Boy Scouts, if needed, will have to do this all over again, directing traffic as the new crew comes in to try to do something with the circumstances left by the previous folks. The only problem is maybe some kind of an extermination crew might need to be used making sure no unhealthy residue remains before the new folks get there.
Perhaps we ought to at least try to smile and see some value in the philosophy of the cartoonist, Charles Schulz: "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
Charles M. Schulz
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THE WORDWRIGHT
THINGS WE CAN'T SEE
Copyrighted by Bill Venrick, 2008
Something that has intrigued me for years is: Many things in life are the way they are as a result of things we cannot see with the naked eye. For a typical example, consider my thumbs, which cause my wife to smile when she sees them as "just another finger"-- they're not formed like her genetically inherited thumbs. Her thumbs turn "backward" in an obvious curve, like her father's, and mine stick proudly straight without a curve at all (like a finger). Her father's thumbs were even more pronounced in shape to almost a quarter of a circle but actually appearing to be a right-angle from the last joint. Why do I bring this up? We can't see what causes such things because it's in the genes!
A young ballplayer with a crippled arm and leg stands out in my memory as another example of something that was caused by things we can't see. This young man's hand was crippled, causing it to hang limply from his wrist and appeared useless. Boy was this a mistaken observation. I remember seeing him play ball in the outfield, crippled though he was, running awkwardly to where the ball was going to hit the ground, he caught it with the gloved hand (the one not crippled). He shifted his glove from his good hand, using his crippled hand to remove his glove without letting loose of the ball and used his good hand to grip the ball and accurately threw it to the baseman scoring against the runner. All this happened within seconds and with an adeptness so slick you wondered how he did it. Many kids would have given up even thinking about playing ball if they had such a crippled hand. What caused that boy to have a crippled leg and arm is something we can't see.
John K. Fink, M.D. Of University of Michigan has a laboratory committed to finding the causes and developing treatments for hereditary spastic paraplegia. A long time mystery of mine came to an end about a specific problem caused by things we can't see came to an end unexpectedly at a high school class reunion. My wife and I shared a table with a lady whose body suffered from HSP (hereditary spastic paraplegia). Her father had this disease, which is not really a disease but rather a group of clinically and genetically diverse disorders that share the primary feature of progressive, generally severe, lower extremity spasticity. She was the only one of four children who inherited HSP from her father. Our classmate transmitted this disorder on to five of her seven children, and the disorder can now be seen to be in two of her grandchildren. Our friend noticed in adulthood she was stumbling or tripping a lot and as this intensified she saw this trait occurring one of her children. It was at this time a physician zeroed in with a diagnosis of the problem that causes leg stiffness and gait disturbance due to difficulty dorsiflexing the foot and weakness of hip flexion - in other words, the problem was in her legs, knees and ankles. Our friend was glad to find she was not just a stumble bum but what she had was something caused by something no one could see. (That is, until Dr. John K. Fink came along, and obviously her physician had read reports of or by Dr. Fink)
Life is filled with such maladies, diseases or disorders - most of which the causes cannot be seen with the naked eye. We could go on with a suggested list: retardation, Down's syndrome, any brain connected disorders (strokes, tics, etc.), leprosy, the color of our hair, the shape of our fingers, the way we stand (our posture), the way we act or speak and so on to make a list without end. As I thought about this malady, learning it had a technical name, or HSP, I recalled the book by Philip Yancey & Dr. Paul Brand, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" (Their title was drawn from the Scripture in Psalms 139:14, the King James Version.)
Designers of the internal combustion engine and every other involved invention worked from sketches written on bits and pieces of paper to be finalized into involved drawings before the essential parts could be made to combine with yet more parts utilizing additional skills of pattern makers, mold makers and mechanical engineers. Great scientists like Leonardo da Vinci yearned to discover why or how the body worked and they intently sought cadavers to dissect. Some of their research exists yet today guiding men of medicine and anatomy to see the marvels of the human body that was truly "fearfully and wonderfully made."
To some, all of this has been simplified, at least in their own minds, to say all of this has "just happened" through hundreds of millions of years evolving from slime that had washed up on the beach. Perhaps such an unsophisticated generalization by this writer is not fair but a shortening of what would seem to be an involved creation process in an attempt to deny the existence of a creator God is just as unsophisticated and unfair in my mind. Just because doctors before Dr. John K. Fink could not "see" what caused our friend's serious malady, and some perhaps even concluding she, and others like her, were simply clumsy, did not make the malady or disease any less a reality to her and the thousands similarly affected. After stumbling, excuse the pun, on this subject, talking with a doctor friend about this malady, he asked me if this crippled friend of ours was from Logan, Ohio. I thought that was a strange question but he quickly allayed my concern by saying, "There is an near clan in Logan (Ohio) with such maladies." It should not come as a surprise to discover problems involving our body, and everything around us occur, and as the created being, could it be that "all of this" is one great program or scheme of learning for us?
Yes, it is strange that humans are plagued by maladies, weaknesses and even diseases that are caused by things we can't see. Perhaps some critics of "the church" might think "all of this" as a cruel joke by a creator God to hem us in with skin in a body that is not perfect and required -- sometimes, deigned to do near impossible deeds. Early on in God's dealing with man, Moses tried to convince God that he couldn't talk (properly, I am sure was his main concern) but Moses, like us, was overlooking the very fact that he was talking with the One who designed and made his body!
No, I do not feel I have answered any great anatomical questions or solved any genetically transmitted maladies in a few hundred words but I do hope it might be a bit easier to believe many of our problems are caused by things we can't see. If the reader is sincerely seeking enlightenment I would urge you to search for the book mentioned, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" or perhaps one yet easier to find, "In His Image" by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand. The simple, though complex discoveries, uncover or perhaps unwrap this subject unfolding layer after layer enabling us to see things we cannot see. Is it faith? Is it acceptance or admission of some spiritual workings that cannot be seen with human eyes and minds clouded somehow with a spiritual blindness? Whatever - we do not have to stay ignorant or uninformed about things we can't see.
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THE WORDWRIGHT
A resource of interest: http://www.med.umich.edu/hsp/analysis.htm
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