A huge segment of our society is lost, disconnected, wandering with no direction and resenting authority.  They are like a boat without a rudder, like a plane flown with no instruments, like a school with no discipline, like a parent with no tough love, like a child with no respect.  Our society is crumbling from the inside due to a rot which is out of control.  Most of the reporting of most of our mass media is of negative happenings and opinions.  Our entertainers, actors and athletes are using their popularity for their own personal and convoluted thoughts.  They misunderstand their role in holding our interest in their fictional or game-like contest with its fictional resolution, and the reality of our daily lives with resolutions that are finalized in pain and suffering and death.  The idealism of entertainment, sports and acting do not apply to living together day to day under laws, government and enforcement that is meant to protect us from the outlaw and maverick in our society who thinks nothing of harming the weak and innocent and is idealized in movies, television and the internet.

Thus our role models are too often without the inner compass that is needed to guide us in a subtle way toward happiness and well-being and true caring for our neighbors and friends and relatives, and even casual acquaintances.  Too many of our lawmakers are concerned with “dumbing down” and catering to the lowest and forgetting about those who actually are able to think.  They forget about their purpose in facilitating the lives of all citizens in an unfettered fashion by guidance, not just over-regulation.  These lawmakers should not be forcing issues into politics which should only be worked out by the populace in their daily lives or by the local governments who understand the issues in their own communities. Too often we are using our roles as teachers and parents to lead the young, our own young, into confusion, and not into a healthy balance in their thought processes which require limits, both implied and ingrained.

We are confusing freedom in our system of government with unlimited freedom in our daily lives. Unguided and rudderless, we are dangerously out of control when our children are left at a young age to decide not just what sex they would like to pretend to be, but also what variation of it that they may want to enjoy for as long as it suits them.  And now we even inundated with laws to enforce this travesty.  Also laws to take away the safety and protection of the unborn.  We must ask ourselves, what has happened to the mindset of our lawmakers to even consider this and many other convoluted controls.  We can only assume that they also rot from within.

Anyone who really cares about our way of life must insist upon truth brought about by clear and deep thinking, not the latest fad and fraud in the misguided and uneducated opinions of a relative few who are given an undeserved platform by our irresponsible media. Truth is being clouded and overcast by a few puppeteers with unlimited finances who are controlling our thoughts and actions.  Out of control, we crumble and rot from within.  Do we the downtrodden masses have the will to effect change?  Can we swing the pendulum back where it belongs?  The lives of each succeeding generation depend on us.

The vast majority needs to wake up to the fact that we are being bullied by those who purvey wrong thinking, and there is only one way to deal with a bully… confrontation.  This may take many different forms, but fighting back with a show of force will become necessary and vital. Truth has always won over dark thinking, but someone must make it happen. Let the silent majority get up from its collective ass and go “kick ass!”  Now…!  Before our present national stupidity becomes irreversible.  Carpe diem…!

The month of August is a month in a holding pattern.  It foresees the fall season with all of its activities, holidays and seasonal preparations.  It is pre-football: the practices are beginning and the pre-season playoffs begin even though the weather is hot, especially with full uniforms when in use.  It is pre-school: a time for getting the necessary books and class materials together. It is pre-harvest: at least in the store decorations.  August is also pre-playoffs and World Series with all of the excitement that will be coming.  It is pre-holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s will be rushing toward us with the ever-changing store decorations, one blending into the other faster and faster each coming year. It is also pre-weather: rain and cold weather are coming.  The leaves will be turning and colder-weather clothes have to be brought out of storage or purchased.  For a static month in a seemingly holding pattern, August gets to be very busy and cluttered.  It is also a month of organizing for the next season.

Sometimes the preparations can outshine the actual events.  The next few weeks can become anti-climactic.  If overdone, the next season can become  a downer or depressing.  This is a lot like all preparations when overdone or over-thought-out.  Enjoying the month and relaxing and letting the weeks go by at their normal pace is much healthier than a frantic must-get-it-done mode.

How do we slow down the frantic pace of living that we get pushed and pulled into and can’t exit?  Limits!  Instead of thinking about the whole month of August, we need to take it in smaller increments.  Even one day at a time is too much.  Even hours or minutes.  Time itself is the problem.  We are ruled by clocks, watches, TVs, computers, the Internet, iPads, etc.  Everything we do is connected to a time restraint.  We are locked in to our schedules, and sometimes into everyone else’s schedules, again with no exit.  No limits.  The only solution is to figure out how to leave the carousel, the treadmill, the endless highway of our lives and take control of reality.  Living in someone else’s reality is a real problem and this also limits our personal control.  Without all of the above time restraints we should be able to gain control of our lives once again, but then what?  Keeping that control is another problem.

How do we lose track of time?  What breaks the rule of the clock?  Is this even possible? Our own minds are the answer.  Our own personal lists or schedules tailored to our own personal needs.  This means limiting our exposure to TV, Internet, personal phone, and all other communication devices that sap our energies and control our minds with someone else’s agenda.  Control of all of the above is the only way to insure our own sanity.  In this way we can slow down our schedules and make our own times manageable.  We can actually breathe on our own and deal with realistic plans of our own. We can have time to enjoy ourselves and the time period we are in, the present, instead of trying to live in the future.  A much healthier mindset.

And, finally, the best way to support the above release is music.  Music releases us from the time restraints of our daily lives.  It makes sanity possible by eliminating the unnecessary elements in our lives that push us around.  Music is the glue that holds us together when we use it judiciously as a support and not a crutch.  Let us use it wisely…!

One of my favorite painters is Norman Rockwell and one of my favorite paintings of his is “The Four Freedoms.” July 4th is one of our greatest holidays, the celebration of our independence, which we too often take for granted.  However, at least once a year we at least think, even in passing, of our rights and freedoms.  By the way, we also too often confuse what are our rights and what are our privileges.  Rights we can point to in our laws and liberties provided by our representative government.  Privileges are customary permissions that we have grown into and taken for granted as laws, but are, in fact, not legalities,  e.g. walking along the street, driving, shopping, etc.  We don’t need permissions, we do them all of the time, but they are not regulated. The Four Freedoms presented by Norman Rockwell are: Freedom to Worship, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Fear and Freedom from Want.  Well said, in my opinion.

Are these freedoms rights or privileges?  They used to be rights, but they are increasingly being treated as privileges which are unregulated, blurred or even looked down upon.  Do we really have free speech anymore?  Think of the college campuses that invite speakers to present a case or an idea and are shouted down by an agenda with only its own opinions.   Who regulates free speech?  Certainly not the college administration.  Do the majority of the attendees have a right to hear the opposing side of anything or are the shouters in league with the administration to limit ideas instead of presenting all sides of issues? In this case both rights and privileges are lessened, even negated. This is only one example. There are many.

Do we have freedom to worship?  Anything that has ties to religious ideas, symbols or the Bible itself is increasingly eliminated from the public forum.  The Ten Commandments cannot be posted in many places.  Public prayer has been eliminated from many gatherings and meetings.  Anything religious on a T-shirt or hat can be denigrated. Christmas symbols, Nativity scenes, etc, are discouraged in many places.  Has this right become a privilege that is now fading into nothing?  Separation of church and state does not mean that we eliminate religion entirely from our zeitgeist. Or does it?

Freedom from Want means that we are able to work to provide for our families.  It means that we are a capitalistic society that provides opportunities for all of us to find jobs and receive incomes that make life possible.  We are able to find housing, food, clothing and all of the rest of the necessities of living in our society. Extreme cases of want are provided for in relief efforts in housing, food and clothing.  This is deemed to be temporary until work is found to once again be in control of our own lives.  It is not meant to be a way of life.  Homelessness has been, and always will be, a problem wherever there are people and large cities.  The mentally impaired and those who just cannot exist in an organized society are provided for, but this rarely fixes the problem.  Mental instability is resident in any society.

The fourth freedom is Freedom from Fear.  This is an all-encompassing freedom because it affects everyone, no matter what their station in life.  Freedom from fear means that we are secure in our daily lives; that we are protected from the evils that exist in any society and that encroach on that society.  We have local law enforcement, and we have national law enforcement such as the FBI, CIA, and the military.  Our police can protect us, be we have to do our part in lessening our  vulnerability. We lock our houses and our cars.  We are alert in unprotected venues and have 911 as a back-up.  The military protects us from other nations and terrorist organizations that may want to take us over or just harm our society.  But we have to do our part also in this area.  We vote funding for our law enforcement organizations and trust them to protect us.  We support our military with our young that are able to join one of its branches.  We elect members of Congress to provide for our security by limiting access to our land without identification or credentials, and we trust them to carry out our needs and wishes. When this works we have freedom from fear.  Use your vote, but vote with intelligence.

Our freedoms are embodied in some of our music, e.g. “God Bless America,” and “America the Beautiful.”  Let us sing them in a meaningful and powerful unison.  And, please check out my patriotic music on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc, including: “America Together,” “Celebrate Our Freedom,” and “We Thank Them,” (Memorial Day).  Music permeates our society, but we are stuck in just a few styles: Love, romance, drinking, commercials to sell products and background music used as wallpaper in many ways.  Branch out!  Start listening to more styles with many more messages and feelings.  We are free to do this on a daily basis.  Let’s get to it…!

For some unknown reason in the middle of the night I began thinking back to a dinner-restaurant (night club) in Dayton, Ohio called Suttmiller’s. So, rather than lose my train of thought, I got up and started writing down my reminiscences.

Suttmiller’s in the 60’s was a beautiful place in decor and vibrant feeling. The main theme was German with lots of red and gold walls and fixtures. The main room which held the dinners and the shows seated 500 people. There was a small stage for the band and a dance floor maybe 10′ by 12′ that was on a hydraulic lift, down for the dancing and up for the shows. The stage was lit by good stage lighting and a spotlight, the kind used in ice shows, and very bright. (and we were not allowed to wear sunglasses) There was also a smaller room off to the side in which were held small parties and banquets. And adjacent to this was a piano bar with booths where Gardner Benedict presided, knowing every tune known at the time along with the composers & lyricists and sometimes even the history. And if this wasn’t enough, he had a voluminous file as backup.

The main room is where I worked, a booth in the bar is where we sat and had a drink during the breaks. The bartenders were a bit crotchety at times, but also helpful. When customers bought the band drinks, we had to use them or lose them. So I started ordering a hamburger or a bowl of turtle soup instead of too many drinks. With a shot of sherry, the turtle soup was delicious.

I’m not sure how I first learned that the band leader, Danny Martin, was looking for a trombone player. I was in the end of the first semester of my senior year at the College-Conservatory of music in Cincinnati and I didn’t have a car. My roommate, Dave McMaken, consented to drive me to Dayton for my audition which was playing during the dance sets. The hours were 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. six nights a week, and after playing a set or two, I was offered the job. I, of course, accepted and was on the road to working there for about five years. In order to do this I bought a small Ford which was semi-reliable and, besides feeding it regularly with gas and oil, prayed a lot that it would start at 2 a.m. The rest of my senior year was difficult to say the least. For the second semester I had 8 a.m. student teaching and a mandate to attend a certain number of recitals in order to graduate. Mercifully, I had friends who would fill out an attendance card for me so I could graduate. And I carried a full load of classes including Russian. (Had I only known).

There was always a rehearsal with the entertainers on Monday afternoon. Usually two and sometimes three acts. Then there were three shows, 9, 11, and 1 a.m. on Monday, Friday and Saturday with dance music in between. During the week there were only two shows a night with more dance music. The dance music was simple charts of popular songs of the day and medleys of standards in which the horns and piano took solos. To play the next tune, the soloist would indicate the key by holding up fingers: one finger up (1 sharp), meant key of G, one finger down (1 flat), meant key of F and so on. Musicians: trumpet – Basil Drew; sax – Roger Decker; piano – Joe Fernandes, then “Satch.” (last name forgotten); drummer – Jimmy LaMonica then Jimmy Green; bass- Danny Martin (and sometimes alto sax). When Danny played sax, Basil would play bass, and then after a while I was able to also play bass.

All through college to graduation and beyond I drove to Dayton from Cincinnati, then from Middletown, then from Dayton when I got married. It didn’t matter what kind of weather, I drove and made it on time always. I never had snow tires or used chains, just a car (and prayers). During my second year at the club Danny vouched for me at the Chevy dealer in Dayton and I bought my first new car, a stripped down Corvair. The motor was in the back, so I put a few cement blocks in the front trunk for balance and never had a problem in any kind of weather, even when most cars were stuck at the side of the road.

At one point in time, the sax player was let go (instead of me), so on the shows I played the lead alto sax parts on trombone along with the important trombone parts. There were also lines on the sax part for flute and clarinet. The alto parts are in Eb, flute in concert C, but up an octave or two and the clarinet parts in Bb. Thankfully, I never had a problem transposing at sight. My college training was classical in nature, and orchestral trombone parts are in alto, tenor and bass clefs. I also was able to play french horn parts in F. After a year, the sax was rehired and my life was a bit easier.

The house band at Suttmiller’s contained excellent musicians and were always a pleasure to work with. No hassles, we always covered each others backs. We could read anything put in front of us, and fill in things that weren’t in front of us. We played acts from all over the world. Good charts, bad charts, we played them all. Many acts came to Dayton to refine, rewrite, and break in their material before going to New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles. There was even one act so bad at first that they were going to be fired after the first show on Monday. In order to save them, I wrote and rewrote their music all night and into the next day, then rehearsed them so they could finish out the week. It worked and they stayed, but I was exhausted from scoring music and copying the individual parts for the band.

Some acts were an absolute joy to play behind. Carol Lawrence just off Broadway in the hit show “West Side Story” came in to refine her act before touring. Lou Rawls, Nelson Eddy, and Vaughan Monroe (who was very upset with me because someone stole the alto part of his theme son “Racing With the Moon” from my music stand). These were all hand-copied parts. I had it almost memorized and was able to finish the week suitably. There were a lot of older acts like Henny Youngman and Ted Lewis, and starting out acts like Joan Rivers and George Carlin. Acts on the rise and acts going down. Animal acts, vocal groups, Flamenco, and Adagio dancers.

This became a way of life, enjoyable but also hazardous. In a way I miss it, but I still have the memories of the people and personalities unique to this special life-style. And, because this was in the 60’s most are gone now. But recordings and films occasionally bring them back to our consciousness. And as comedian Jackie Vernon always ended his act by saying: “Just remember folks, a wet bird never flies at night.”

May you have good health and good memories…!

I have never thought much about age or the aging process. Even now when I am facing my eighth decade in life I still think the same way I always have, but my body is still changing and sometimes that takes a little getting used to. I have never paid much attention to this because my mind has always taken precedence. Both body and mind grow, however, but not always at the same or a proportional rate. I’m not quite sure what this means, but it is significant.

When I was young (in the fourth grade) we lived for a while on a farm. The farm consisted of sixty-three acres of farmland with fields for corn, trees, creeks, and a pasture with animals. We had pigs and cows and a large steer for obvious reasons. Chickens and ducks and turkeys (my least favorite), and a barn with a hay loft and pitchforks. At my age this was fun besides being a challenge in many ways. It was easy to get lost in the wilds of the fields. It was fun to play in the hayloft and jump down into the hay on the ground though this was forbidden. There might be a pitchfork or just something sharp under the soft hay. At this time I was also very interested in Indian lore. I dressed in clothes that I made myself with a headband and a feather and carried the always available bow with arrows. Furry creatures and birds grew to fear me not because of my expertise, but my inaccuracy.

I didn’t know it at the time but this experience was to be the foundation for the rest of my life. I learned many things that were only possible on a personal free range farm. Self-reliance, responsibility, directions determined by the sun or the moss on the trees, patience in finding a solution to a problem, and thought processes, including solving puzzling situations and working through difficulties. Most of these came in handy when we moved back to town and I joined the Boy Scouts. This became my next most important area of growth, a similar process to my farm days and including more of the same strengths in learning.

Through school (elementary, high and college) I concentrated on playing the trombone. I practiced and learned and this became my obsession through the next period of my life. And it employed most of the elements that I had acquired through my farm and Boy Scout days and grew to better concentration and stronger will power. My ego grew with my expertise as it must if you are to grow and achieve. (I’m still not sure that this was compatible with my first marriage). One does not lose one’s obsessions very easily or without a fight with them. But this segued into the next section of my life and the growth therein, my move to Los Angeles.

I had become estranged from my trombone after playing it from the second grade. I didn’t want to play it anymore and didn’t want to even think about it. I wanted to write. I had written arrangements for all kinds of ensembles and bands since I was a sophomore in high school. My doodles in all of my classes were of musical combinations of notes and chords. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had found a new obsession, and a new way to grow. So Los Angeles became a break with the past and a way to implement my new interest of just writing. And this is when I segued once again, this time from teaching (to survive) to church music. And this became my new interest and obsession.

Most of the music I had written and arranged before had been instrumental with a little vocal sprinkled in. But now I was dealing almost exclusively with vocal music. (a lot less parts to deal with). As my knowledge and comfort with vocal music and understanding of vocal writing grew, I began writing for not only performance, but also publication. And this is where I now reside. Happily. Sometimes stressed out, but still happy.

My early understanding of growth through the experimentation and challenges of my farm days up to the present has served me well. And I am still growing. All of us do, for we either go forward or backward. Never stand still. Life is about growth. And by growth I am speaking of the intellect, not the body. The mind, as long as it is viable goes forward, the body somewhere takes a left turn. But giving up should never be an option, just growth. Let aging do what it will. If all else fails I will fall back on the one thing that has never failed me, reading. I love to read. With music.

Long ago when I was in the second grade in a Catholic elementary school, the teacher one day asked if anyone was interested in playing a musical instrument. I’m not sure why, but I raised my hand and was sent to the music room. The nun in charge asked if I had a preference and, of course, I said “no”. I didn’t have a clue either about an instrument or what I was getting myself in to. This was one of my first formal episodes concerned with “winging it.” I ended up with a trombone. It looked interesting and much less complicated that most of the other instruments with keys and valves. It seems curious now that there were no drums around…

The next week private, once a week, lessons began and I started playing whole notes and navigating the slide and mouthpiece tentatively. By the way, I found out quickly not to inhale while moving the slide toward me. I’m not sure what lives down in the bottom of the slide, but it is very nasty. Things went along very well until the lessons got more intricate, especially if I didn’t practice enough to present them well to the teaching nun. Every now and then I got a swat across the nose, and those large gold rings they wear can hurt, and occasionally I got a bloody nose. This really helped me to practice at home more diligently. I learned the real value of practice – survival.

I played in the third grade then moved to a farm school where there were no instrumental programs. I practiced somewhat, but with no teacher I didn’t progress very well. Halfway through the fifth grade we moved back to town and I began private lessons at a local music store. Starting the seventh grade, I went to a public junior high school where I really got interested in playing with groups. I was in the orchestra and also the concert and marching bands. Playing your instrument is one thing, and marching and playing your instrument is a much different technique. The mouthpiece tends to bounce up and down while you are stepping on uneven grass or asphalt and this bubbling sound comes out. It takes some time to get this under control.

In the ninth grade I went back to a Catholic school and played with a band that was not as good as I was used to. But I started taking lessons from a professional trombonist who gave me challenging instruction for the first time. I went back to the public high school which had an excellent marching and concert band and thrived. I was seriously studying and practicing. At this time I also started playing with small dance bands, rehearsing and eventually playing small parties and dances. Not much money, but invaluable experience. Along with the playing I became interested in how the music we were playing was constructed. Who played what and how. Not much popular music was available then for bands, so I started writing and arranging little tunes that gradually started to sound believable. The first music theory I had was at band camp in the tenth grade. Everything started to make sense and I was off in parallel directions of arranging and playing. 

Next I joined the musician’s union and started playing with adult bands with a little more money for 3 or 4 hours of work for each job. The process was to dress up and, with my trombone and mutes, travel to a hotel, sit down in front of a music stand with a book (collection of individual arrangements) in front of me and play for three or four hours, usually four. Thank God my chops (lips) were strong enough. Because of all my other playing I was strong enough to last through these sometimes demanding jobs. I was now on the road to professionally “winging it.” Facing the unknown on every job and with every new band, me and my horn got better at doing this. Because bands were always looking for a trombone player, I was playing most every weekend and began to love every minute of this lifestyle.

Bigger bands had 3 or 4 trumpets, 2 or 3 trombones, 5 saxes and 3 or 4 rhythm players. This was really challenging and fun. Small groups were even more fun. There was usually a piano, bass and drummer and 1 or 2 horns: trumpet or sax or trombone in any combination. On these jobs I would walk in and stand up for 3 or 4 hours. There was no music. No music stands. We played tunes that everyone knew. The dances were slow or fast and may a Latin beat once in a while. Especially challenging when someone turns to you while you are playing and says “take the bridge.” Great if you know the song. The is “winging it” at its finest. I got used to it and loved it and it became a way of life.

During college and thereafter I could arguably read anything that was put in front of me. Classical, jazz, shows, or anything. I played Ice Shows, Circuses, Rodeos, and large arena shows in front of thousands of people. For these there was usually a rehearsal, but not always, and not always a complete run-through. Even these involved “winging it.” Be ready to walk in sit down and play whatever is put in front of you.

So my advice is to learn to “wing it” in life. Think on your feet. Dance around on your tip toes, and draw upon the experiences, personal practice and hundreds of situations that have made it possible and desirable to “wing it.” Be prepared (my Eagle Scout badge talking) to sing or play or do anything…anywhere…! And learn to love it…!

Today I’m thinking of duplicity. Two ways of thinking about things depending on the context of the subject. Getting up in the morning we can think, “what a wonderful day ahead of me” and be ready to face anything that confronts us. Or we can arise and think “O crap, why can’t I stay in bed all day and not have to confront life in general – where’s the coffee?” And every situation that we face as the day unfolds will have the same two ways of dealing with it. Positive or negative reactions are part of our attitude, and just having an open mind will eliminate the need for an instant decision about positive or negative. We don’t have to judge every person or every situation as it happens. We can call on “common sense” to help us slow down a bit and size things up or even table the reaction for a later time when we are more relaxed and capable of fairness or neutrality.

All of us have two sides to our personalities, a public persona and a private “the real me” personality. In most of our day to day living we could solve a lot of relationship problems by just keeping this in mind. Are we dealing with someone or something in a public way or a private way? By determining this we can actually smooth out the path ahead by not confusing public with private, professional with colloquial, play-acting with real life. Sort of like in a duel choosing guns or knives or fists or fly swatters. Our dealings are straight ahead rather than hopelessly convoluted. The above applies to our daily lives with people, shopping, tracking the UPS, phone, internet, etc, etc.

After our lives during the workday, however there is (usually) down time. We have some part of an evening to relax and be entertained. And entertainment for most of us means escape from the mundane work we just escaped from (usually). Let’s keep in mind that entertainment involves people who are visible and people who are behind the scenes in TV, movies, concerts, stage performances, recordings and many more possibilities. And also let’s keep in mind that these people are humans (with some exceptions), and being human they all have public personas and private personas. What we see most of the time is their public, entertainment persona that helps us to escape from the stress we are still carrying around. We do not care about their private thoughts and personalities when we are expecting to be entertained. This can be intrusive, irritating and stressful, the opposite of our expectations. The only time that the private lives and thoughts of public personalities are entertaining is when their lives turn into gossip columns in newspapers or magazines or talk shows and we get a peek into their daily lives and troubles, foibles and human or subhuman-ness. This is voyeurism although peering in at someone else’s troubles can also relieve our own stress at times.

So entertainment is helpful in our escape as long as it does not involve the real personality of the entertainer. Like listening to music of any kind. When we listen, we hear the pleasing vibrations of any mix of vocal, instrumental or electronic sounds and enter another dimension. Reading the seamy side of a composer’s life while listening would interrupt the pleasant vibes. Watching an awards show when the winner, instead of just saying “thank you,” starts a political tirade, rips you right out of the entertainment value of the show. Does listening to many years of the songs of someone and being entertained, then finding out the person is a serial killer or guilty of domestic violence change the music itself? Or not? Does the music itself still entertain, or does the private life-style of the performer invalidate the music itself? All of us are duplicitous. We all have a public and private persona. Does one or the other invalidate our own personalities? Or do we just need to be careful not to mix the two entities? Maybe watching others could make a big change in our own lives. Do we really need to constantly judge someone’s work either public or private?

I have been feeling increasingly that the freedoms of all of the citizens of the United States of America have been eroding.  This has been happening for quite awhile and, though it has been very gradual in the past, I think that the tempo is increasing.  Something like this is very difficult to recognize when it is gradual, but when it starts picking up speed, it begins to enter our awareness.  Also, the mere idea of freedom means different things to different people.  Freedom to what?  Freedom to travel, freedom to change jobs, freedom to get married to whom you wish and raise a family, freedom to think as you choose, etc.  This whole idea becomes complicated when freedoms conflict with one another.  Whose freedom takes precedence when I have the right of way and you also have the right of way?  How are these conflicts resolved?  When no one is willing to compromise, what is the last resort?  Does the person who shouts the loudest get the win?  Or do we rely on a judicial process for resolution?

When our lives are simple and uncomplicated, the above is fairly easy to deal with.  When the playing field is even, most everything is easy to deal with.  But complications inevitably ensue causing what should be simple to escalate into the “mountain out of a mole hill.”  And how do things escalate quickly and get out of control?  The media of all kinds are looking for the next story or situation to display before any others present it.  In a simpler time, the facts were usually checked thoroughly and witnesses vetted before any release.  When everyone rushes to get it out there first, facts and situations can frequently be slightly off or even incorrect.  But, hey, they can always retract on the last page or in small print or sotto voce (with a small fast paced runner below any other story).  This panic of presentation can cause the inflammation of any story or situation and cause it to escalate and become out of control.  But then, of course, there is another bigger story to cover.  For the media this is a win-win situation.  (High fives all around).  But what about the people whose lives are potentially ruined or who just become victims?  The media do not ever have to clean up the mess.  They just keep milking it until the next “breaking news” occurs.  What is lacking?  Responsibility, ethics, morals, fairness by covering both sides of any story. Who do the media answer to?  Anyone?  Who controls the media?

Your freedom ends where my freedom begins.  And what does this mean?  Compromise.  Activists of all kinds ignore compromise and responsibility.  They are just paid to disrupt.  (Otherwise, who has the free time to engage in uncontrolled disruption)?  And the media will air or present almost anything that does not include “common sense.”  Top themes are crime, disruption – including civil disobedience, religious issues, and anything al all that stands out against a tranquil society anywhere in the world.  What is this called?  Censorship.  What does this impinge upon?  Our freedoms.

There are segments of our society that are self-appointed censors.  They are paid to make sure that common sense does not intrude upon their issues.  They are supported by the media.  They are a beast that has risen several times in the history of our country.  They are bullies.  They spread hate and lies so loudly and so frequently that we, including the vulnerable and uneducated among us can’t distinguish the truth anymore.  Every country in the world that has experienced this unfortunate phenomenon has suffered and eventually crashed.  They are a virus.  They stifle education with their vilification of honest teachers until they just quit.  They infiltrate politics and proceed to dismantle  laws and attack the constitution itself.  And what can the vast population with daily lives to lead with common sense do?  Wake up!  We are experiencing “Idiocracy” (the movie), and the beast itself – socialism.  It starts with people who are doing good for everyone and morphs into government based on “wishful thinking” and slides into the evils of socialism which is the precursor to communism.  The solution is for the vast and silent majority to wake up.  There are a lot of really stupid issues being forced into our laws and our society.  The majority knows this but is too busy or too fearful to become vocal with it.  If they speak out they are castigated by paid activists and the media and the unfortunates who are dragged into the fray too deeply to get out.

Bottom line – do we have freedoms or not?  Do we as a society still want freedoms?  Are we still ready and willing to fight for them?  Hopefully the answers are a resounding “yes.”  And if this is so we need to get started now.  Today?  Enough is enough.  We are taking back our freedoms from the abusers.  Watch out media, here we come…!  Nuts!  Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!  We shall return! We shall overcome!  “God Bless America”…..!!!

Well, here we are, one year from 2020, whatever that means. But it sounds science fictional at the least. I started reading science fiction in the 50’s and was fascinated from that point on with the extrapolations it presented into the future.  Especially the year 2000 and beyond.  A lot of the predictions became reality and a lot of them did not.  And some of them are still waiting to become reality. Our present way of life with computers and the digitizing of a good part of our lives was not imagined in the way we are now living. The conveniences we now have are somewhat close to the early predictions, but the actual surroundings are, for the most part, missing.

Seeing into the future is dependent upon the present being consistent, like a river flowing predictably.  However, even rivers have been known to change their course due to other unpredictable circumstances.  But, even so, just imagining the things to come can have a calming effect on our lives.  By seeing what is probably ahead, we know that our children, grandchildren and their families will have comfortable and productive lives.  Or at least a chance at this achievement.  It is, I think, our human (and feeble) attempt at controlling our lives beyond the present.  It is one of the illusions we create in our lives to keep us grounded, even sane at times.

This all being the case, what can we expect for our progeny to face in the next millennium?  What can we expect them to see in the year 3000?  Marriage.  Will they still be couples and raise their own families?   Education.  Who will educate their children?  Religion.  Will there still be established religions?  Government.  What form will the peoples of the earth use to keep order in their lives?  Jobs. What means will be available for providing for basic existence?  Technology.  From the macro to the micro, what new developments in communication, medicine, travel, and life in general will be in use?

We obviously don’t know any of the answers to the above, but we do know that all of the above will be different.  And speculating about all of the possibilities is stimulating to the creative part of our brains.  When we look back over our brief recorded history and see the changes that have taken place over the past millennia, we are able to get a minuscule idea of how the evolution of societies has proceeded.  There are very few constants.  Almost like a great cosmic “crapshoot.”  Although this is not very inspiring, it does give us a measure of hope.  And this is one of the main ideas that we have to keep us looking ahead as humans.  Hope.  It has motivated a good part of our literature and arts and music.  It has inspired our sciences and our experimentations and medical research.  It has kept us alive as the people of the earth.  And now we sing our hope into the year 2019 and beyond into the next millennium, the 3000’s.  May our hope be the song in our lives!

Many of the values that we espouse during the Christmas season are just that – seasonal.  A once a year explosion of kindness and cheer overflowing with magnanimity and good deeds; abounding in charitable actions.  Peace descends upon our towns and cities and love is expressed in a pervasive manner that calms the beast in each of us and soothes our frazzled nerves. And… what planet am I now on?

This is all wishful thinking and “pie-in-the-sky” musing.  There is definitely a spirit of the above that resides in the Christmas season, but it is not pervasive.  There are those that would do away with the whole idea of “peace on earth, good will to all.”  They would also do away even with the word and whole idea of Christmas itself.  Keep in mind that in order to have peace, we must first have tolerance.  And that is the most difficult idea to implement.  Tolerance.

When we drive on any freeway in long lines of vehicles practically bumper to bumper, most people will ease back and let you into the next lane if they see your light blinking.  This is tolerance.  However, there are people who will shoot you for interrupting their place in line and chalk it up to road rage.  Is road rage now an excuse for intolerance?  There are also many amateur and professional “robin hoods” who feel that it is their duty to redistribute wealth.  They take whatever they can get from wherever they can get it and give it to the needy, usually themselves and their need for anything, including drugs.  There are also those who will take packages from your doorstep with unknown contents just for the possibility that there might be something valuable inside, or just for the surprise factor.  Do we tolerate bad behavior in order to have peace?  No, of course not.  Tolerance does not equate with submissiveness.  Tolerance means that we allow for individual expressions, religions, customs, traditions and honest mistakes that occur in many ways, as long as they don’t including bullying at any level and in any way.

In a free society our lives are conducted using the honor system; as long as we live within the laws we have in place to help us to interact with others on a day to day basis.  Kindness, ethics, morality and individual responsibility are necessary in our lives, but do they need to be mandated or made into laws?  I hope not.  These need to be instilled in us by our parents and reinforced by our schools.  They need to be explained and shown to us by example why they are important by all of our forms of religion, our belief in a supreme being or creator of everything in the universe as we know it.  We learn the above ideas by listening and watching and hearing the ideas of those who have the experience of tolerance.  This becomes the path to peace.  Not to be mandated, but taught.

December and the Christmas season in whatever form are very important to our society and its continued existence as we know it. The ideas of goodness and kindness and peace are valid and need to be carried through the rest of the year.  In December this can become a magical feeling of rising above our normal harsh realities.  This magical feeling is good for us.  It gives us an overview that can carry through the rest of our lives if we can only remember what it was like to be a child and then to apply these feelings of wonderment and magic to our own existence at this point in time.  This temporary suspension of reality can provide us with a permanent feeling of tolerance and then to its logical conclusion – peace!   Let there be peace on earth!  But it must first begin with me, and us, all of us.   Have a magical, mysterious,  and very Merry Christmas…!