Category: Uncategorized

A CAUTIONARY TALE

A cautionary tale is a narrative designed to warn readers of a danger or moral consequence. It typically has three parts: it states a danger, shows those disregarding the warning, and ends with the violators facing an unpleasant fate to drive the moral lesson home. Continue reading “”

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

Have a safe 4th.

Last year at this time I posted about the 250th time the signing of the Declearation of Independence was celebrated (the official anniversary is this year). Here’s some more reading material: written in 1787:

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A CELEBRATION YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD ABOUT

Native Americans recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of their victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn. With the focus at this time being on America’s history that has somehow been twisted into white nationalism, it’s refreshing to report an acknowledgement to the original people who lived here and their own fight against tyranny.

(Photo: Tallyr Irvine / AP)

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Looking back from the moon in Artemis II, the planet Earth looks the same as it always did. Unfortunately, it’s just a photograph, and photographs lie.

Even if you ignore climate change and recent weather events, the American Dream is different. Owning your own home might still be possible, if you have a high enough paying job or you receive your parent’s house (or a large inheritance), but otherwise it might very well not happen.

American kids are now saying, “The American dream is the ability to become be the best you can be.” A worthy goal for anyone, but how easy is that to achieve without support? Emotional, mental, and financial. The more of that you have in your childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, the more likely you are to reach the ultimate expression of that sentiment. Identifying who it is that YOU are and what YOU have to offer, is much harder if you are not raised in a way that encourages deep thinking or your head is buried in a screen with earbuds on.

I truly feel for today’s youth in the USA. They are genuinely afraid and reticent to ask for help. I’ve offered to “pay it forward” several times lately without any takers, and it makes me sad. I hope the world stops being stupid, so that what really matters doesn’t disappear before it’s too late.

(Image: NASA)

“I’M NOT SO SURE HOW MUCH CELEBRITY AND SUCCESS CHANGES AN INDIVIDUAL

I think the world around you changes, but I think the person pretty much remains the same”

-Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders

SEATTLE IS FEELING IN THE GREEN BECAUSE OF THEIR WORLD CHAMPION TEAM – THE SEAHAWKS

Redemption never felt so good for us local fans. Congrats to all the Seattle football players, coaches, support teams and followers, for their faith and never give up attitude!

LOVE NOT HATE

The Capitol, Washington DC

There is love and there is fear. Fear spawns hate in those who choose it. Choose love instead.

Everything else is just opinion. So far, that’s still legal to voice in the USA, depending on who you talk to. I find it better to say nothing, because you never know who’s listening.

DEEDS, NOT WORDS

I’m a pragmatist at heart with a penchant for aphorisms, but even I know that a worthy man dedicates himself to service to remind himself that there are other things more important than his own selfishness. Forget the farcical hypocrisy you see on TV. It’s my belief that good deeds are best done the first time you think of them.

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY MOM!

Congrats to my mother for her remarkable achievement after a life of challenges, including the death of her mother in Estonia when she was very young, losing her father to the Russians at the beginning of WWII, being bombed while a prisoner of war working at a German hospital, learning English and adapting to a small fishing village in Alaska, working in a cannery, raising us kids, and a life that revolved around my dad, a commercial fisherman from Colorado who was often absent. You made it!

(Photo:Andrea Wells)

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The Massachusetts colonists, or “patriots”, won the first major military campaign of the American Revolutionary War in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, 250 years ago. Today is also the 250th time the signing of the Declearation of Independence will be celebrated (the official anniversary is next year). Here’s some reading material:

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LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Words on a piece of paper. A document that used to have the same meaning for everyone. I remember a time in the USA when those words spoke of a dream that was attainable for all.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seemed possible for those who worked hard and followed their passion. An achievement that was not just measured in monetary terms, but also in how WE THE PEOPLE felt about our nation. Continue reading “”

REMEMBERING OHIO

Injustice demonstration regression déjà vu. From Kent State 1970 to L.A. 2025: “I’m not a crook” to “I’m a crook, so what”.

Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters