Give me the Fortitude to challenge injustice,
The Courage to stand up for those who are weaker than I am,
The Boldness to do what is right when no one else seems to care,
The Determination in the face of criticism and mockery,
The Firmness to stand my ground when I am abandoned and alone,
The Tenacity to ignore insults and attacks on my character,
The Grit to fight the battle until I can fight no more.
The Ability to believe in myself when no one else does.
The human race is a history of high spots and low spots. A history of happiness, joy, love, and compassion. It is also a history of injustice, murder, racism, and cruelty. When we look back at the past, we see villains and heroes. The villains are those who exploited and oppressed others. The heroes are those men and women who stood up for the downtrodden. The courageous few who stood up when the majority stood down. Those who had the gumption to endure ostracism and worse because they would not abandon morality and righteousness.
Many years ago, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) wrote the following prophetic words:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Being faced with injustice poses a difficult choice for many of us. If it were simply a choice behind a high road and a low road, it would be easy. But life is seldom black and white. The choice is often much more difficult. It can be a choice between being alone or standing with the anonymity of the crowd. No one wants to stand out. There is a saying in Japan that the “nail that sticks up, gets hammered down.” It is the same with every other culture. The world is moved by the adage to “not make waves.”
A few years ago, I fought a battle with the town to fire the library director or else to put him back to work. He had been accused of pedophilia and suspended from his job with pay. Wisconsin is an employment-at-will state and I could see no reason that a poor small-town library needed to pay a salary to someone who was now suspended from his job. I went to the library board and eventually to the town council to challenge this decision. Either fire him I said or put him back to work until he has been tried by a court of his peers. Both boards told me the same thing. A lawyer that the city hired advised against such a move due to the potential of a lawsuit. Lawyers all over this country use the possibility of a lawsuit as a scare tactic to do nothing.
At first, I had support from others in my battle with these boards. Eventually, one by one they all dropped out. “We have to live in this town, and we don’t want to make waves.” I continued what had become a lonely battle. Doubts and recriminations daily filled my mind and heart. I was disappointed by the lack of support I was receiving. I felt deserted by friends who I thought shared my ideas of right and wrong. I was told by the city council that I should not attend any more of their meetings. I was persona non-gratis.
I toyed with the idea of giving up. I wanted at least one other person who could help me justify my crusade. “Why should I care about the library if no one else does?” Instead of giving up, I amplified my efforts. I threatened to send a flyer out to every citizen in Frederic during Frederic Family Days. My flyer was carefully worded to show the cowardice of the City Council and the costs to the Frederic taxpayer due to this cowardice. Within three days of the council receiving a copy of my flyer, they fired the former library director. Because of their spinelessness, they had kept him on the payroll for nearly nine months while he fled to Mississippi. A few months later he was convicted of pedophilia and sentenced to jail.
I did not like the role I played in this battle. I would have preferred that someone else had taken up the gauntlet. However, no one wanted it. I am no hero. I question myself every day. I am always wondering if this decision or that decision is the right one. I lack the self-confidence to assert that I am right and that you are wrong. How can I be certain that I am right? What if I am not?
I look around me today and I do not understand the world. I do not understand the decisions that our leaders make. It seems we have a moral disease. The symptoms of this disease are short-term thinking and greed. Arizona is suffering from an unprecedented drought and heat wave. The water levels in both the Central Arizona Project and aquifers are dangerously low. Yet when asked to cut back water usage by 3.8 percent, the golf course owners in Phoenix created an association to oppose such a “drastic” cut. Their counter proposal was for a 1.6 percent cut in water usage. The Governor of Arizona was the keynote speaker for the associations kick off meeting. Am I crazy? Do you believe this? Are golf courses more important than drinking water and water for farm crops?
If you dare to stand against the greed that has taken root in our society, you are an anti-capitalistic liberal communist left-wing radical. What passes for dialogue in politics today are theatrical stunts, public attacks, name calling and vows to never compromise. Our legislative bodies have been corrupted by men and women who are only motivated by avarice and power. We are beyond truth and reason. Words like reconciliation, harmony and accord no longer have any meaning. Nothing gets done as each side digs its heels in and votes strictly according to party-line. Instead of asking what is good for the USA, politicians only ask, “What is good for my party?”
The man or woman who stands out is a person of courage. It takes guts to stand up and speak out. It is much easier to do nothing. Sgt. Shultz used to say, “I hear nothing, I see nothing.” It may be comforting to go through life hearing and seeing nothing but at what cost to the world?
Do you think the world needs to be changed? It all starts with us. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see.”
Stand up, speak out, put yourself on the line. If not you, then who?
I remembered from many years ago, a leader at a support group that I belonged to advised me that I should have more humor in my life. I asked him “Do you know any good books about getting more humor in one’s life.” He laughed, “You can’t read about humor, you have to do it.” The thought has often struck me over the years that it is one thing to read about things, it is another thing to do them. Could it be, I am just a writer and not a doer? Was it still possible that I needed more humor in my life. Maybe a clown I am not?
A year ago, (June 2020) almost to the day, I had a sharp pain in my chest. I fell to the floor and passed out. I know that this is not very funny but stay with me and I will get to the funny part. I promise. Karen thought I was having a heart attack and she called 911. They came, attached an IV to my arm and I had my first ever ambulance ride to the emergency clinic in St. Croix Falls. After a blood test, an Ultra Sound, an X-Ray, and a CAT Scan, they decided that I had a Gall Bladder problem. Three hours later, I was sent home with an appointment for the next day back at the hospital to see a doctor.
I saw a Physician Assistant at the clinic. He was polite and thoughtful. He gave me some rudimentary tests. A little prodding and touching here and there. He then advised me to go to the Emergency Department at the St. Croix Medical Center. He said the Frederic Clinic was not equipped to do the more complicated tests that I would need and that I should get these tests done immediately.. He suggested that it might be time to get rid of the unneeded and problematic Gall Bladder. I was quite ready to agree. I had managed to keep my Gall Bladder for almost 75 years. It had a good run, and perhaps it was time for it to retire.
After a short wait, I was brought by wheel chair into another room. I laid down on yet another bed. A new nurse (or was it a technician) came into the room. I assumed that she was going to perform the test. Someone else brought the apparatus for conducting the Ultra Sound into the room and left. The nurse or Ultra-Sound Technician started to poke and prod me with a rod connected to the machine. This increased my burping considerably and went on for longer than I had remembered a year ago. I guess they wanted to be really sure this time that I needed my Gall Bladder removed. I was resigned to this eventuality.
When we get back to normal, two parent families will again reign supreme. Mom will stay home to cook, while dad goes to work. There will be no trans-people. Girls will stick to cheerleading and let the boys play the sports. Contraceptives will be banned, and no one will dream of getting an abortion. Priests and ministers will be male, and gay people will disappear. Everyone in America will go back to being good Christians.
Second, what are you going to do about your fears? Fear is an adaptive mechanism. It helps to keep you alive. If you are in the woods and walking down a trail and see a large bear or cougar coming towards you, it is quite healthy to have some degree of fear. But fear alone is not going to save your life. If you are paralyzed with fear you may just be eaten. Fear is an alarm. An alarm sounds to wake us up. The next step is to do something. Doing something is a risky effort with no guarantee of success. Sadly, there are few guaranties in life, but the evidence seems to suggest that doing nothing is worse than doing something. This is where forethought and preparedness come in. One of my favorite quotes is by the Roman philosopher Seneca (died 65 CE) who once said that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
Dylan Thomas said, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” I don’t know about the raging part of his poem. I prefer thinking about my life as I get older and not raging. But he makes a good point. It is all too easy to give up on life as we age. We can live in memories of what we used to do, or we can find new activities and new levels to pursue old activities at. For instance, I may not have the stamina to play tennis or racquet ball anymore, but I can still play pickleball or go for a short ride on my bicycle. I used to do six-minute miles in road races. My personal best was 38.48 on a 10K. The race I ran for Frederic Family days this year on June 12, 2021, I averaged 10.14 per mile for a 5k. Quite a bit off of my pace from years ago but I still got my t-shirt. I run for t-shirts these days and not trophies.
The first tale begins with a trip back from Duluth, Minnesota over thirty years ago. Karen and I were returning from a scenic ride up the North Shore to our home in White Bear Lake. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in July. We decided that we were hungry. We were nearing the Cloquet exit on Interstate 35. Not seeing anything near the exit, we decided to pull off the freeway and try to find a place to eat in Cloquet.
The quantity of food when it came was plentiful, but the quality of the food was a big surprise. We have been to many a good Chinese restaurant in Shanghai, Huangshan, Nanjing, Suzhou, and several other Asian cities including American cities with large Chinese populations. The food here was wonderful. It was tasty, spicy, and as good as we have eaten anywhere in the world. We were beyond surprised. I could not believe our good fortune. How could this be? A diamond in the rough where diamonds were not supposed to exist.
She advised me that Mr. Huie (who started the well-respected Chinese Lantern restaurant in Duluth) had decided that Cloquet would be a good place for a small take-out style Chinese restaurant. He placed an ad in a San Francisco paper which found its way to mainland China. Mr. Huie (son of the founder of one of the first Chinese restaurants in Duluth) reviewed a number of applicants who answered his ad. The present cook was selected for the job. Who would believe a genuine Chinese food restaurant in Cloquet Minnesota?
This logic is simply bizarre. It is almost beyond comprehension. A rifle based on a cartridge designed during the Vietnam War is now touted as a “perfect” defense weapon. It sounds like every home should buy one. Americans live in a country where there is no protection from crime according to the NRA and gun manufacturers. The NRA kisses the asses of manufacturers to grab more and more power as they perform like Pied Pipers for their members. “Come along, buy a gun, protect your rights, protect your family and children. Don’t let the criminals make a victim of you.” The NRA is a monster that has metastasized on the fears of Americans. Politicians court the money and votes of NRA members to get re-elected knowing fear is a great motivator. To paraphrase a comment made by the Nazi Hermann Goering:
“The more guns we have the safer we will all be,” scream the gun fanatics. I have neighbors walking around in their yards with guns strapped on their hips. I often see shoppers in some stores sporting revolvers and automatics on their belts. Walmart’s has asked that shoppers do not open carry guns. Do you know why? It is because people get nervous when they see these idiots walking around with pistols on their belts. I worry more about being shot by one of these jerks than I do by some armed robber. In the event of a store robbery, I suspect I might be more likely to be shot by the so called “good guy with a gun.”
I admit that I have always liked guns, knives, rifles, and assorted military hardware. However, I like them in their place. Rifles for hunting when hunting is a sport and not a crap shoot like so much of it is today. Baiting bears with donuts and then shooting them from a tree perch does not seem very sporting to me. I like target shooting. I enjoy shooting some black powder pistols that I own. A friend gave me an old revolutionary style musket which is fun to shoot. I do not shoot at squirrels or birds or rabbits. I use it for target practice. I am not against hunting deer, elk, and other animals for food. Many people in rural areas depend on game animals to supplement their diets in lieu of costly meats at a grocery store.
I don’t know who might kill you. I don’t know when they might kill you. I don’t know why they might kill you. Best odds are that it will be totally random, and you will never see it coming. You will never know when it will happen. The statistics show that you have a 75 percent chance that if you are murdered it will be by a gun and not by poison or a knife. (
How then have we gone from sanity to insanity? From being able to walk down a street or go to work or school and not worry about some nut case coming in and killing us? When did America go from being a country with “Law and Order” to a country where everyone needs to carry a gun to protect themselves? How have we let the politicians, NRA and gun manufacturers convince everyone that it is not safe to walk outside without a concealed carry permit and a Glock or Smith & Wesson hidden someplace beneath our bullet proof vest?
Like Dion DiMucci’s “The Wanderer,” I spent years wandering from church to church and religion to religion to explore other venues for spirituality. Dion was my favorite pop singer in the sixties. As I write this, he is still alive and performing. One of his most popular hits was a song called “The Wanderer.” The lyrics grabbed every guy I hung out with, and we all dreamed of being macho and tough like the guy in the song.
There are beauty products, breast enhancements, hair implants, plastic surgery, expensive cars, perfume, jewelry, large homes, designer clothes, college degrees and many other products or services designed to help you feel less inadequate and more adequate. We all want to feel adequate which means we must somehow learn to escape or jettison our inadequacy paradigms. The marketplace strategy involves spending huge amounts of money on a regular basis to escape the “inadequacy paradigm.” This…
Title: Historic Match between Good Guy from the West and Evil Guy from the East
17 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: biden, commentary, Putin, summit
Just for the hell of it, I am going to comment on the historic Biden Putin summit. Everyone else in the world has given their take on this historic moment in US and Russian history, so why not me? I can sound as knowledgeable about Biden and Putin as any of the commentators who have commented on this situation. Think of me as a commentator commenting on the commentators who commented about the historic Biden Putin summit. I should add that if you have not already noticed, just about every commentator commenting on this summit mentioned it as a “historic” summit.
In case you do not know the definition of historic, it has something to do with something that someone might potentially put into a history book or perhaps something that Hollywood will make a movie out of. If I were to make a film out of this historic summit, it would go something like this.
Plot:
Two leaders from hostile countries meet to divide up the world or at least agree on who is screwing things up in the world. The leader from the evil country denies everything while the leader from the great and good and very morale country warns the evil leader of the consequences of not being a better leader. The good leader is in the blue trunks while the evil leader is in the red trunks. The match consists of three one-hour rounds with a ten-minute restroom break between rounds. The breaks are to allow commentators to send their commentaries to their offices.
Cast:
Joe Biden: President of the USA
Vladimir Putin: Evil Dictator from Russia
Sycophants: Both countries brought along dozens of elected officials to witness the match
Commentators: Just about anyone who could buy, forge, or obtain a press pass
Synopsis:
Joe came out of his corner with a quick handshake which threw his opponent for a momentary loss. Commentators scored it 1-0 for Biden. Vladimir recovered quickly and met Joe’s handshake with a bone crushing shake of his own. Joe smiled and they both took their seats. Commentators gave Joe another point since they like him better. The score was now 2-0 for Biden.
Numerous subjects were dealt with in the next three hours. Despite the pre-game name calling by Biden, the opponents settled into a polite routine with no grandstanding or insults. As expected Biden threw a “dissidents jab” at Putin who responded with a “January 6th insurgency jab.” Biden called the comparison ridiculous which most commentators agreed on. Biden scored another point making it 3-0 for Joe.
Joe threw a right cross nailing Vladimir with warnings about any more hacking. Vladimir blocked the punch and denied everything. Commentators were split since Joe did not provide any evidence and Putin seemed so confident that nothing could be pinned on Russian hackers. Call it 1 for Joe and 1 for Putin. The score after round 2 was 4-1 in favor of Biden.
Both leaders came out in round three with Putin clearly shaken up and worried about the bad press he was getting from a less than stellar effort. It was clear that Putin had underestimated Sleepy Joe and had not trained well for this match. Nevertheless, Putin scored early in round three with some nice comments about his opponent that Joe rolled with. Commentators gave Putin a point since Joe should have side stepped these compliments instead of accepting them. Joe was clearly surprised. The final score after round three was 4-2 in favor of Joe.
Post-Game commentary tended to judge the match a win for Biden due to his early domination of the bout and self-confidence. However, many commentators had it as a draw since Putin made no concessions and gave nothing away. There were no major knockdowns and depending on one’s viewpoint nothing was really decided.
Stay tuned for a sequel to this historic match, in which both opponents will meet again for another historic showdown.
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