Which is it?

July 4, 1912- Huntington Indiana

Photo Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society

   Our session on non-violence veered into the topic of patriotism vs jingoism. An interesting conversation followed, probing, defining, and, I thought, a conversation appropriate for this nation at this time. 
     At the least people could afford themselves time to think about the difference between patriotism and jingoism, in light of their own attitudes. It would be a patriotic thing to do.
    Patriotism, a pride in what this nation has done that is honorable and good and an acknowledgement of errors and wrongs is healthy. One sided patriotism is not healthy. Both the good and the bad need to be measured. 
    Jingoism is dangerous and is the province of the stupid.
    The current president is a jingoist. Dangerous because he suffers a mental illness that distorts reality. But he is also dangerous because he is ill informed and dangerous too because he lies almost all then time. 
     His desire for a military parade is not without precedent, but it is jingoistic, as he is, and it is stupid because he has no concept of the context. Veteran analyst and political correspondent Jeff Greenfield observed this on Politico:  

      "...history also suggests there's a good reason that his plan is rubbing people the wrong way. For one, it really is rare; it; far more common for presidents to vacate Washington on the Fourth of July, or to remain at the White House, than to insert themselves into the proceedings.

            And on a more troubling level, what Trump is doing is wreathing himself in the most potent symbols of American history-delivering a speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, site of the 1963 March on Washington, looking across at a landscape of monuments-without any appreciation for the history that made that whole landscape possible. Perhaps uniquely among American presidents, he sees himself without any connection to the American story, any link to presidents past, other than his manifest superiority to any of them."
         
         Greenfield notes the sure sign we are dealing with 
an unbalanced man who acts as if he aspires to be a dictator, like those he embraces;

         "Trump prefers to think of himself as the lone, overarching figure who can bend history to his will. "I alone can fix it," he said..."

           He offends sensibility and decency which explains the undeniable fact that a majority of Americans voted for someone else, despite the Russian interference. 

         The American pageant has its sordid and despicable chapters and this is the latest. We have survived our past sins and we have worked over the centuries to improve, to broaden human dignity and to extend liberty. We have been courageous and generous and we will be again. But we came upon this continent as terrorists, invaders, practitioners of genocide and ethnic cleansing. We were slavers, chauvinists, sexists, classists, drunks, racists, xenophobes, cheaters and liars. But some two centuries has refined us and forced us into a stream of history where we are bending toward a better nature, a more civilized and decent nation. We will survive and overcome regressives and new racists like Trump and McConnell. 

           As much as we might desire to be like Moses and call down a plague on the house of the Pharaoh, that is not for us.

        We are the heirs of Democratic Republicans who have battled on philosophy, policy, politics and who have changed positions and minds, but have since the beginning been combined in a hatred of tyrants, kings and dictators. That is a common creed we share. The president we see is not "American," his behavior is anathema to our history, he is not us. We are not his minions and not his subjects. We are his employer and we will not forget that, despite what may be seen on TV or read on twitter.

          The Fourth of July reminds of throwing off a tyrant, of declaring Independence, of being ready to stand in the breech to combat evil oppression. In this season, think about patriotism and jingoism and maybe read the Declaration. Happy Fourth!

blooming for the 4th

     

         Cheers!

         See you down the trail.

PROTECTING OUR HERITAGE

photos courtesy of Pexels

night skies for future generations

     Astronomer Scott McMillan could have hit me in the head with a 2X4. He said the way we have preserved wilderness in national parks, preserves and marine sanctuaries is necessary for the skies.

     Consider this. It was a mere 140 years ago that electric lighting began to illuminate our lives. From the dawn of human life on this blue planet all or our ancestors had access to stars, constellations, galaxies and the infinity of space. It has been only a bit longer than our lifetime since we could look into the night sky to see what inspired science, religion, philosophy, art and literature. As McMillan said now millions of children will never know the wonder of the Milky Way. Perhaps some of you are unable to see it.

     The first time I saw stars that arched over me like a bowl was standing on a cliff at Big Sur. The stars rose up out of the roaring Pacific and passed over my head until they descended into the towering redwoods behind me.

      It's difficult to explain a moment on the plains of the Serengeti in the Great Rift Valley in Africa as I stood in absolute silence enveloped in a 360 degree dome of millions upon millions of stars, galaxies and visual wonder. That extraordinary sight and sensation caused me to shudder, almost shake. It seemed to have touched a key in my mind that changed my consciousness.

      Until the early twentieth century all of our ancestors had  those night sky experiences. How have we changed as a specie as the stars dim? Has it diminished our capacity? Do we routinely take desecration of nature as something we accept? Do we look down more than we look up and what is the significance of that?

      Thanks to the efforts of Beautify Cambria we have become part of a Dark Skies initiative. I have become a proponent of the International Dark Sky Association.  

I urge you to link here www.darksky.org

          Light pollution hurts the planet and life in ways that many are unaware. Human health is affected, it devastates wild life, it wastes energy and money, it can make you less safe and it robs us of our heritage. There are simple, inexpensive things we can do.

      I'm lucky to live at the edge of the continent, between the vastness of the Pacific and unpopulated coastal mountains and forests. But growing up in the mid-west I saw the dimming of the stars as cities grew and lights polluted the sky. We owe it to our self and to next generations to protect night skies and the wonder they hold.

fighting words

      "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

     We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

     That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and Happiness.

      But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for the future security."

     Are you feeling happy?

     Are you feeling safe?

     Do you think the majority of voting Americans have given consent?

      Do you think Government has been destructive to unalienable rights?

      Do you see abuses or usurpations?

      Is North Korea's leader a despot?

      Is Vladimir Putin a despot?

      Should the President of the US legitimize despots?

      What are the opinions of mankind about our present leadership? Are they being given a decent respect?

       "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.--It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."

                           Thomas Jefferson to James Madison,

                            Paris, January 30, 1787

        Wouldn't you count it good fortune if the ghosts of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams haunted us these days?

        Maybe they could whip the dickens out of you know who!

     See you down the trail.

     

      

THE COLORS

A VILLAGE VIEW

   Just about everything is conformed by "village life."

In San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Santa Barbara and elsewhere we still enjoy the urban buzz that connects with our earlier years, but we find a continuing pleasure in how life in a village is personal, intimate, picturesque, eccentric and yes, even a little slow.

    Here Cambria is adorned for the 4th.

So, here's to Jefferson, Adams, the signers all,
 patriots of history and to you! Cheers!

Some time soon find a copy and read it again.
See you down the trail.

TRULY INDEPENDENT

HOW DO YOU DEFINE RADICAL

   Today's sentiment was launched by thoughtful observations of Jed Duvall and Stephen Hayes who authors the extraordinary blog The Chubby Chatterbox.

   You can read Jed's thoughts in the comments of yesterday's post on the Gettysburg anniversary observations.

    The Chatterbox, which is linked in the column on the right, got my wheels turning.

   This is always a day of melancholy. On the one hand it prompts a childhood sense of joy and delight. On the other it recalls true patriotism, devotion and sacrifice adjoined to how we modern Americans regard the day as little more than a reason to eat, drink, be merry and watch bombs that sparkle instead of those that have more lethal outcomes.

    After all is said, I come down on the thought that more than anything this is a day that should celebrate conviction and principle. John Adam's did not attend 4th of July celebrations, despite his contribution to our birth. He did not because he noted the Declaration was "declared" on July 2nd and he thought that should be the day of observation. The formal declaration was adopted on the 4th, but the actual separation from England occurred on the the 2nd.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

That is an example of the American spirit. 

JULY 4TH REFERALS

If you have not seen the Gettysburg post

from yesterday,Here is an easy link 

And a true reprise-worth considering again-

A UNIQUELY AMERICAN DAY

Do your self a great favor today.

Take a couple of minutes to read

the Declaration of Independence by linking here.

Here's something to add to your conversation at a barbecue or party today.

Two of the framers and signers of the Declaration

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third 

Presidents of the US, died on July 4th 1826, the 

50th Anniversary of the signing.

Both men had been ill.  Jefferson asked his doctor

"Is it the Fourth yet?"

"It soon will be," Robley Dunglison replied.

Later Jefferson awoke to say,

"I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country."

Adams was asked if he knew what day it was.

"Oh yes.  It is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God Bless it.  God Bless you all."

He lapsed into unconsciousness. Later he awoke and said

"Thomas Jefferson.  Thomas Jefferson survives."

Actually Jefferson had died a couple of hours earlier.

It remains an amazing coincidence that the two men, infirmed and dying  held on to life until the 50th Anniversary of perhaps America's greatest day.

Happy Independence Day!

See you down the trail.