Christmas Season 1969

It has been 40yrs this yr since the holiday season of 1969. The end of a decade....and a difficult one at that. We had our 9-11 , the 60's had a strangeness all it's own. I was a senior at High School. Home for my last Christmas Season while in High School. In thinking back to that time I especially remember the anger of that time. The 60's opened up real wounds within this country. The political side of my family was staunch Republicans. They did not know it at the time but they were beginning a 40yr domination of political life in this country beginning with the election of Richard Nixon the previous yr. At the New Year turn of the decade there was little sign of conservative joy....just exhaustion and a sense of the world having gone somewhat crazy. As for me.....I was more hopeful. I was thrilled with the prospect of getting the hell out of Maple Hill High School. 5 more months and counting. But my home town was I think typical of many spots , angry , upset at the culture , fearful of loosing what they had. I remember the bitching at my Aunt and Uncle's house during Christmas Dinner that yr. Bitching about drugs , hippies , music with no mention of Christ that I remember. Dick Nixon would save us from the counter culture. But you could feel a harder edge to that time of peace. Oh and did I mention Vietnam and the war going on.....talk about wedge politics. We had the water shed moment of Kent State ahead of us a few months down the road but Woodstock was also inbedded in the nation's culture. That event was only a few short months before. The 60's still effects our politics & culture but you know....that was one of my favorite Christmas times I remember. I was ready to move on....dispite having to thank my mother for the soap on a goddamn rope I got as a stocking stuffer. My life was ahead.....unix time , a new time was about to start . America was moving on to a new decade and damn so was I .....goodby hometown....High School. on to the shock of the new. But that feeling of going beyond myself that yr still stays with me. Warm potential.

Lion of the Senate now gone

Well Ted Kennedy died on my birthday. Whether one loved or hated him I must say he was a heavyweight.....in a Congress of many lightweights perhaps a handfull of lightheavyweights in Congress now in power. The man once he stopped running for President did his homework. Knew his stuff & knew the people around him. Trust me he did not forget you when you were out of power and perhaps down. Not common among Pols. Family members who were in politics were sometimes shocked when they left the arena how they were quickly just a face in the crowd to their former "political friends" If you can't do anything for me why are you attempting to talk to me. So just for that basic piece of humanity , thank you , Ted.......RIP...... You took what life presented good & often tragic and became an uncommon Pol.

Winter in a Baseball Stadium

As the current baseball season is now way past the midway point I recently recalled a trip to the old Shea Stadium in the middle of January afew yrs ago. When one is all most alone in an off season park , in the cold and snow there is generally a longing for the future. The next season to come. But I sat with my Dunkin Donuts coffee and just took in this quiet moment....so many games....but so many days of absolute quiet. No game....no one. I lost track of time , set for more than an hour froze my behind on that plastic seat.A baseball field in limbo....awaiting spring and it's warm weather restart hundreds of miles away. For being in a huge modern city these stadiums shelter out a great deal of their noise and clutter. Giving some peace....

Permanent Anger Voting Block vs Christianity

Listening to political radio Limbaugh....Hannity....Urban AA Radio I think it time for me to simply say this. This is a raw meat example of feeding your angry core of a particular voting block. Feed them some anger & lets face it hate....wala.....angry people finding a home in someones expression of how bad the other side is. A reliable block of voters who are encouraged to feel left out, ignored and not thanked enough for their contribution to the collective whatever. Now my great question....is this a good example to hold up as samples of Christian thought. We hear alot of moral talk from these voices on the media , especially Limbaugh , but where is the foundation of Jesus...DO UNTO OTHERS.....etc. Frankly it is easy to do the hate than the Love stuff. Builds a more conformed base of voters as well. Let me put it this way.....it should take more than being antiabortion to be a good Christian or for that matter Jew or Hindu etc. These voices of anger & rage seeking concensus with a sizeable enough group to become a "CLUB". Of course using this "club" in the political venue which is done not only on the political battlefield but vastly to much in many churches gives some a feeling of satisfaction but frankly blots out The Spiritual arena. Taking many on an ancient road to dispair by amnesia of original purpose.

The Political Back Alley

With the recent shooting in Washington DC by a Neo-Nazi it is time again to remember that within this world are dark side streets within any political culture. Von Brunn I believe was attempting suicide.....in his sunset he would be shot ....be a hero to fellow extreme persons in his back street culture but be finally dead. Suicide by police is uncommon but certainly been done multiple times. In our everyday lives we can easily forget that the badly lite back alley people still wander.....elope not with the sound of a different drummer but the sound of several rounds of gun fire. Whether the target be Jews or an Archduke or a Kennedy there is always that distant rumble of gunfire. The noise of everyday life blankets that distant rumble............we pass by with but a glance in that narrow passageway. Common sense keeps us away. Spawning there is the next loners death , strange vision of a world of separates or some great revenge upon a group of THEM. Take watch.....sometimes history is modified by that next killer...........WW1 or The Kennedy Administration as supreme examples. The back alley's have their own reinforcement system.

Dinosaur bone fossil found in island off Crotia

On a recent St Lawrence University Geology Dept student tour the teacher / student team may have discovered the first dinosaur bone fossil in that country. Further study of the fossil will continue in the fall. This could be a truly important find as no fossils of this type have been found in Croatia or that part of the European Union. The discovery was on the island of Myjet. It came from a local residents garden he was clearing. First reported here.

Boroleum X

Code name given to the room of Sterling Winthrop where old samples such as lung tissue from a man in the 1920's who had the Spanish Influenza were kept. Triple locked....special pass. Many samples were encased in wax. Some marked War Dept. Sterling was bought out in 1980's. Samples destroyed before buy out.