Fish for Friday (Tank #1)

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

Whether the weather be fine,
or whether the weather be not,
whether the weather be cold
or whether the weather be hot,
we'll weather the weather
whatever the weather,
whether we like it or not.

The joys of "global warming." A quote from Pete Seeger seems appropriate: "And the damn fool says to press on" (from "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," which he performed on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967, starting their battles with CBS censors—which got them canceled at the end of the 1969 season.

My mother died on December 5, at age 98....In 1948 my father purchased a 400-acre ranch in the San Joaquin Valley of California. He and my mother built a new home on the property and moved there in 1953. My mother was very proud of her new home and lived there until 2012. The ranch had originally not had one tree. However, my mother loved gardening and soon had a barren alkali patch blooming with flowers. She planted trees. The mature valley oaks still surrounding the home were planted by my mother.

After my husband retired we moved here and became members of a local church. It wasn’t easy making new friends when we had no connection in the community (no children, neither of us working, etc.), but we persisted. Then five years ago our youngest daughter died after a decade long battle with breast cancer. She died in our home and it was a very difficult time for the family. But every night at 5:00 p.m. some dear Christian friend would bring our dinner to us. There was no time to eat a meal together, let alone cook it. So we learned (once again) the joy of being part of the Body of Christ at that time.
    The practice of love is far more important than any dogma a person believes. I may risk the sin of judging other Christians to say it, but, nevertheless, I know atheists who are truer Christians in their behavior than the so-called Christians I know who can be counted on to try to improve their own advantage at the expense of others. I see them shooting innocent animals for sport. I see them cutting corners in business. I hear them supporting political candidates who favor the rich and powerful.

I believe all of us (certainly including myself) have prejudices and misconceptions that we need to try to actively overcome. If I talk about my rather limited gestures to promote peace and justice, it's just my defensive way of saying, "I'm trying," although the truth is I haven't done nearly enough.
    Although racism certainly still exists in the South (was that big news?), if Southerners deserve any credit it is because many, maybe most, have changed very significantly in their attitudes and actions over their lifetimes. What obviously infuriates me is that some people, rather than challenging their own prejudices, view them as evidence of their own superiority. Excuse the religious reference, but I'd rather be around someone who admits he is a sinner than around someone who pretends he isn't.

Why do people become so defensive when confronted with the possibility of their own prejudice? What is it about the suggestion that we benefit from systems of inequality that causes so many people (particularly, in my experience, men and white people) to claim that they’re not “all like that”?... It’s an enormously uncomfortable feeling to sit with—to be accused of racism by one’s simple existence, by the accident of birth and genetic pigmentation, or accused of sexism by being comfortable with the male gender one was assigned at birth. Most white people and men choose not to continue that line of thinking. ("Privilege Discomfort: Why You Need to Get...Over It")

Another of the "Top 10 Ways the US is the Most Corrupt Country in the World." Excerpt:

The rich are well placed to bribe our politicians to reduce taxes on the rich. This and other government policies has produced a situation where 400 American billionaires are worth $2 trillion, as much as the bottom 150 million Americans. That kind of wealth inequality hasn’t been seen in the US since the age of the robber barons in the nineteenth century. Both eras are marked by extreme corruption.

Why should America have to choose between needy people? Robert Reich's comment on Sunday. Excerpt:

Congress is more ideologically polarized today than at any time since the Civil War...That polarization correlates...with one simple variable: economic inequality. When the economic gap is smaller, politics is less divisive; when the gap is wide (and today’s gap is wider than it’s been in a century or more), polarization is more extreme....

More good, sound sense from Paul Krugman: "The Punishment Cure."

And from Jim Hightower. "Slapping the poor just for the hell of it." Excerpt:

The bluebirds of happiness are chirping away in our nation's treetops, for America is now in the fifth year of economic recovery, with stock prices at record highs, corporate profits soaring, and employment is even ticking upwards.
    But wait, what's this? Down below the treetops, down at the grassroots, poverty persists and is spreading. Also, income disparity is worsening as middle-class workers are pushed into lower-wage jobs and poor people are pushed out entirely. Far from happiness, joblessness among our lowest-income families is now the worst on record, topping 21 percent.

Truth. A short way to make a point.

Arty stuff, or stuffed?: "Study: America’s culture economy is doomed." Tagline: New NEA report finds that in the wake of the recession, the arts represent a shrinking portion of our GDP.

Have you been served by a drone yet? "Amazon, Applebee’s and Google’s job-crushing drones and robot armies: They’re coming for your job next."

The Waterfall Island at Iguazu Falls

View from the lighthouse. Lengkuas island, Indonesia

Limerick #1 of the Week:

For a look at my latest haircut, see the selfie^*

(no, that's not a photograph of a Santa's elfie);
    I trust you're not thinking,
    with a nod and a winking,
The haircut probably hides the bats in his belfry.

* Definition of selfie: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

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