A New Beginning

Well it has been three years and a half years since I posted anything here. Not that I have something important to say now, but I feel a need to type a few sentences just to set the stage for what may follow.  It is now 2014 and time is speeding by like a bolt of lightning. I made a few resolutions which I will not bore you with. I do this every year and I keep a few and I dump a few.  Marie and I are going to do some traveling this year. First, in January we go to Uruguay and in July to Paris and London with my brother Bill.  I think I might blog a travelogue of sorts with pictures maybe.  More to come……

Effeciency of Business vs the Government

I spent twenty years in the Air Force where I worked as a procurement officer, and subsequently I served for twenty years as a supply manager in industry. As a procurement officer I worked with US Government civilians. There were some excellent civil servants, but there were also some incompetent and unmotivated ones who blamed their lack of productivity on labyrinth of rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulations. There was no profit motive to encourage efficiency. Although industry is driven by the profit motive, I would not call it the bastion of world class management, but the market did discipline management to strive for best practices or, else, perish. The two worlds provide me with a clear picture of where we should focus our efforts to grow the economy. Based on my experience I have little confidence that government has any business doing anything industry can do. The U. S. government should structure tax laws to facilitate commercial growth and, at the same time, shrink government whenever possible.

We Use Less Than 10% of Our Brain

We have extras space in our brains, so let’s fill it with another language. In “Lessons From My Roots” by Edward Baca, we learn of a man proud of his diverse ancestry which formed the foundation of his bilingual command of the Spanish and English language. He points out how impressed he was with Roger Federrer who accepted trophies in French and English. I, too, have been awed by multilingual Europeans. We have all heard of people who command five and six languages.

This goes to show that brain capacity is not so small to be limited to one language. Studies show we use less than 10% of our brain’s capacity. So why are so many Americans protective of the English language as if it will disappear if we don’t designate it as the “official” American tongue? When I moved to Texas twenty years ago I began to build my Spanish skills through independent study (tapes, CDs and books) and group and private lessons, and now I speak what I call “street” Spanish. I have fun each time I have a chance to communicate in Spanish so I try it as often as I can. When I traveled to Spain, Argentina, and Mexico, I communicated solely in the local language to practice my skills. Most people tolerated my poor Spanish, and many openly appreciated my efforts.

As a high school student I took Latin that I recall to this day as a basis of many English and Spanish words. We can and should learn to speak as many languages as time and resources permit. Obviously, some language will be more useful than others, but one side effect of being multilingual is that we begin to appreciate our native language and its significance to our culture.

Resolutions

Why do resolutions? Many are not kept, and many are repeats. I will take a stab at answering this question that I have been asking myself for years. I know it sounds like a cliché but I know I am not perfect, I know that I can't be perfect, but I can be better than I was last year. Better in what respect? Better with respect to the things I think are important. Family, health, and mental state come to mind. Benjamin Franklin carried a little notebook with his checklist of areas for improvement. I don't go that far but I can set some goals for the coming year. I will continue my running and keep my weight in check. I will study to do well in my graduate classes. I will attempt to be a strong tutor to my students who deserve the best. One new area I want to pursue has to do with creativity. I noticed my grandchildren are very creative, and frankly, I wonder where I missed the boat. I will attempt to cultivate some creativity in my life, but right now I am not sure just where. Maybe, I will cultivate my writing or language skills. I did write a paper that I will try to figure out how to publish on line. I have been practicing my Spanish during my one hour drive to and from school a couple times a week. Anyway, I will figure something out. But back to why I and many others like me do this each year. I'm not sure really, but perhaps only to confirm the notion that I have not arrived.

Why Don’t I Write More

Why Don't I Write More

 

Writing is a noble art. I can write, even though it may not be polished, but I don't do much of it. Why? Here are some plausible explanations. I have nothing to say? Nobody cares about what I write? After all are doesn't writing mean there is reading? Is it because it is too difficult? I don't have time? I am not really sure.

Let's examine each of these excuses for a second. I have nothing to say. I have many opinions, biases, conclusions, and beliefs that roll around often unexamined and accepted as truths, but go unspoken or described on paper. The act of placing them in print requires some amount of examination, work that evidentially I find tedious and unnecessary. It seems to me that it is a good thing to attempt to put a rational dialogue around an idea that will lend firmness to its existence. Perhaps writing a paragraph or two on a subject I find interesting and where I have some element of understanding is a beneficial exercise regardless of its worthiness of it being said.

OK what about the others? "Nobody cares what I write". Do artists consider this question when they paint? I am not sure but I doubt it. They probably have a vision and drag out the brushes. Is it too difficult? It is easy to do a mediocre piece, but I find it difficult to do good job. It is a hard thing to write, read, rewrite, several times until the words and ideas flow smoothly across the page. Of all this reason I don't write more this one is probably in first place. I don't have time surely in the last place. Not that I have an abundance of time, but that I have time that I waste on other things of which I could direct towards working on a sentence, paragraph, or page. So having no time does not pass the test of reasonableness and, therefore, is not a real excuse.

The conclusion I reach is that none of the excuses or "reasons" are valid. I need to do more writing to get better and more self confident at it. With that in mind I pledge to write every day in some form or fashion. If anybody besides me cares.

World War I Was Pointless

I just finished Paul Fussell's "The Great War and Modern Memory". The book was a review of the war though the eyes of British soldiers who survived, and some who didn't, and who left written material describing their ordeal. Eight and a half million soldiers died in that war. They died in elaborate trenches filled with, at one time or another, water, gas, dead soldiers, rats and other disgusting remnants of the carnage. The tactics of the generals was primitive and unimaginative, resulting in solders being mowed down in the 10s and 100s of thousands sometimes in just a few hours. All this horror happened with little understanding and much fantasy from the home front.

Mr. Fussel pointed out that the soldier's basic instinct was to survive so to return home to resume their life as father, brother, carpenter, teachers, and more. The conscripts were summoned to the war with little training and no knowledge of what faced them. The odds of survival was slim so a whole generation was wiped out as they tried to cross No Man's Land, that patch of territory between the trenches of the two opposing forces at war.

The Great War, as well as all wars according to Fussell, is ironic, ironic in that wars are always much more horrific than ever dreamed at the start. WWI was started with the thought that it would be over quickly and victory would be glorious, but as it turned out it went on, and on, and on. The death was staggering and the killing was technologically brutal, ripping bodies apart and leaving mutilated bodies to rot in the mud on which rats engorged themselves. All the while, the literature at home painted the picture of victory, glory and valor. Fussell at one point says that Wilfred Owen lived out in WWI "the old lie" (that it is sweet and proper to die for one's country).

War changes everything. No one can really understand what war does to the innocent until one has to step over dead bodies with care so as not to trample once "silly conscripts that are now cold marble". This was an excellent education for me. It brought to me, as close as I ever want to come, the devastation of war and what it does to human beings on both sides of No Man's Land. War's affects the short lives of the boys being sent to their death with a swift end to their short lives as well as to following generations who have to live with the consequences the giant loss to humanity. I'm changed. I now have another dimension to consider when I contemplate war as good or as evil.

Just Finished “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

I am sure many millions before me have said it, but I will add once more, "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque is a great book. He led me through the horrors of war via a masterful piece of art. I kept saying to myself as I read each page how lucky I was that I did not have to experience it firsthand even though I was in the Air Force during the Viet Nam war. I lost friends there, but I was fortunate to come up with state side duty. I have always considered myself somewhat of a pacifist, but I have not been very vocal about my beliefs. When George Bush was taking us into the Iraq war, I kept saying "Maybe this guy knows something that we don't." In other words, in the face of my reservations I gave him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had the CIA, and I did not. As it turns out, he did not have them either. I think now after reading this work of art, I am apt to be more decisive and vocal about my views on war. I don't think I will be against all wars, but I expect to be more opinionated and active about expressing my thoughts. We need to be extremely cautious about entering into war. But when is war necessary? It needs to be the VERY last resort. We can influence leaders and peoples of other states by many other means than just military might. We have economic power that has not been fully explored. I believe we could cripple Iran to the point that they would shelve their nuclear plans in favor of economic and political survival. We would need the cooperation of other counties but we could achieve our objective there without using bombs Every bomb that drops has the risk of hitting a child, mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, grandfather, or grandmother. After reading "All Quiet", I believe we should go to much greater lengths than we have in the past to avoid the horrors of war.