Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Rants and Raves Return with a lesson I learned more than 45 years ago

And a plan for the next three months
of concluding ranting and raving

       It was in Washington, DC in 1969, and I was thrilled to see that the minister who had so impressed me in 1945 at Hollywood's prestigious Presbyterian Church was the guest minister at National Presbyterian in Washington. What a thrill for me to have the opportunity to take my children to hear this marvelous, challenging minister who so mesmerized me as a Marine Lieutenant during those war years. But what a disappointment! I learned the lesson that one can hang on too long. The lesson was underscored just a few weeks ago at National Archives when the author of what appeared to be a fascinating book was speaking. Again I should've learned that as I approached 90, I may have reached that same fate.
       Thus I'm committed to have my final say before December when I turn 90 by sharing a few more of my deeply felt beliefs and insights with family and any who might be interested.
       First of all though, I must admit that I feel I sincerely believe I OVERPLAYED MY HAND IN SPEAKING OF THE “GREATEST GENERATION”. While we won a war again the forces of evil, suffered and overcame the "great depression", added many to a more comfortable middle-class and voted for a government a bit more responsive to the needs of all people, there were two dramatic areas where we failed miserable. How obvious were our failures in race! Certainly it has taken another generation to make progress in the field of race relations.
With my lifelong profession and interest in education and race relations, I was completely mesmerized by the challenge of the book, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs. I hope you will have a chance to read it before I have my final say on education, youth and race in a month or so. I'd surely be interested in feedbacck from your thoughts on the book.
       And having just completed the book, Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese Americans Internment in World War II by Richard Reeves, I am appalled by my generation's failure to provide basic rights to 120,000 Japanese Americans and forced them into concentration camps. (Yes that was the name given to them at the time.) I marvel at how blithely ignorant I, and our society generally was, of the shocking treatment of citizens of Japanese ancestry who lived on the West Coast. Even the president of the ACLU supported the action. To think that Japanese parents, some of whose children were killed defending us, lost their their property and were incarcerated in these prisons. And yet I must admit I, and most people I knew, maintained we were not aware of it. How similar were we to the “innocent” people of Germany who maintained they knew nothing of the horrors of the Third Reich? I would be remiss if I did not encourage everyone to see the Japanese internment display in the park at the corner of D St. & New Jersey Avenues NW to see our belated recognition of this failure of justice. Surely our reparations were also an effort to make amends and recognize the loss of life and property by our extreme action. I hope more of you will read this book to see how distorted our thinking can be     when we face adversity.
       As is obvious from this rant, I still have a number of views to get off my chest. However there is one rant I am most eager to get to begin sharing before taking a month off to be with my family in Michigan and Germany. It's been a consuming interest of mine – one that I have increasingly felt is largely responsible for the wars and hostilities that have existed through the years – one that – like politics is something “good manners” dictates not be discussed in “polite” society. Yet I believe it has the answer to finding world peace! My working title is Why an agnostic atheist attends two churches.
       I'll follow that with a final say about all those topics I introduced almost a year ago ranging from race to the environment to mental depression to issues of American youth to American exceptionalism to wage disparity to education and to youth participation in sports.
       And not wanting to conclude as a ranting old man, I'll end with some thoughts on how it is possible in my 90th year to have one of the seven best times of my life!



Tuesday, August 25, 2015

A rant - about the proper function of government and a rave about my life in DC

Perhaps I'll learn that "A rant a day keeps the doctor away."  What then will a rant and a rave a day do?

Standing in line at the Cleveland Park Post office I saw someone selecting a birthday card from their rather pathetic supply.  My thought was, Why can't the government do more effetively the things we expect from a government rather than compete with one of the best greeting card stores in the city RIGHT NEXT DOOR?

An how fortunate are we who live in Cleveland Park with the opportunity to greet three doting parents with smiling children on a five minute walk;

I hope a number of folks will read these two blogs and read my plans for future blogs tomorrow when  I  "divulge" my plans for closing out my rants by December 8.  I'm eager to share some of most deeply felt on everything from a-politics to z-religion.

The briefest RANT I'll ever make concerns "Impatience".

When one approaches his 90th birthday, it is hard to hear, "Don't be so impatient!"

Especially when one is interested in pursuing change!

Ron

I hope you will tune in to the plethora of R and R's I'm planning to send before my month in Michigan and Germany with family.

And it will begin tomorrow as I  "divulge" my plans for closing out my rants by December 8.