Brave, New World

Fresh after the events of Charlottesville, VA I shared a video from Arnold Schwarzenegger on Facebook with an anti-hate message.  You can see that right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_YIBr0ELM.  I thought that Arnold’s message was pretty on point and important enough to share in my feed.  I thought to myself, ‘Hey, this one’s a no brainer, who could possibly be upset at this idea?’  A Nazi just killed a woman and injured dozens of others by driving his car through a group of protestors on American soil.  I found this to be pretty self-evident – the concept that the Nazis and the KKK were on the wrong side of history.  Facebook, however, had other plans…

One person said, “He’s telling Trump how to write a speech, I didn’t hear him include Black Lives Matter, Antifa, or any other ‘left’ hate group. Shut-up Arnold, go lift some weights.” Another said something about, “The liberal agenda knows to destroy America…” A third defended the torch bearers by saying, “So you are saying that all of the people protesting the removal of the statue are white supremacists and Nazis?  His [Trump’s] point was that not all of the protesters that didn’t want the statue removed are bad, not that the white supremacists are not bad.”  Other points were made but I believe that, you – most Gentle Reader, get the gist.    

I responded...

No. I’m a realist, not an extremist.  I’m a big fan of the Rule of Law. I’m not a fan of the Nazi agenda, the white supremacy Alt-Right agenda, or any other agenda that sacrifices reason at the expense of the American people.  But, getting back to statues, I am a big believer in thinking about what we choose to worship.  Pedestals are dangerous things.  We should be mindful of what we put on them.  Frankly, Indiana Jones was right, some things “Belong in a museum”. 

I too am a big fan of the democratic process.  I am not a fan of Nazis driving cars into protestors.  Bottom line.  Such terror smacks everything that we stand for – or at least it did at one time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II.  Here’s to hoping that this is still the case.  That we, as Americans, can pull together and work together in realization & recognition of the scars of our past and step boldly into the future; where we should find our hope.

Contrary to most empirical information I can collect these days, I still believe that America’s best days are ahead.  …I hope I’m not alone.

They heard an entirely different message from Arnold than I did.  I must believe that they are apologists for Mr. Trump and not Nazi sympathizers, KKK members, or some other cancerous Alt-Right hate mongers.  I don’t believe that – but, before you scream “There are good people on both sides of this issue,” I gotta tell ya, historically, the Nazis and the KKK are on the wrong side of history.  Consistently.  That’s the “Say what you will about Hitler but at least the trains ran on time,” argument and it does not hold up.  “Heritage not hate!” I hear, as well; this is usually accompanied by, “Lefties want to erase history!”

Erase history? No, on the contrary, History is vital.  We must learn from the past but it is imperative that we learn the right lessons from it.  Lessons that appeal to, as Abraham Lincoln said, “the better angels of our nature”.  One cannot erase history by destroying a statue just like one can’t kill an idea by burning a book.  But if hate is put on a pedestal then we have the moral obligation to explain to the generations that follow us why it is wrong.  The lessons that the modern Nazis and KKK learned from the history and the lessons that others have drawn from it are vastly different in scope, and moral credibility. 

 Do you want Nazis?  Because that’s how you get Nazis.

Senator John McCain recently wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post on.  He opens the article by saying, “Americans recoiled from the repugnant spectacle of white supremacists marching in Charlottesville to promote their un-American “blood and soil” ideology. There is nothing in their hate-driven racism that can match the strength of a nation conceived in liberty and comprising 323 million souls of different origins and opinions who are equal under the law.”  (see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-mccain-its-time-congress-returns-to-regular-order/2017/08/31/f62a3e0c-8cfb-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.c08f54c61629). Yes, he’s right. I am thankful that there are still leaders who will say it. 

It is an odd time in our country right now.  We forget to talk to each other.  We must remember as citizens not only speak but also to listen.  Of course, we are not always going to agree but we must think for ourselves – make our points, compromise, and move forward.  Bipartisanship is not the evil it has been made out to be.  We must acknowledge and learn from the past so that we can step together into the future – a future where there is no room for hate.  As Americans, we owe this not only to our posterity but to the world.

Thank you, Mr. Schwarzenegger, for this reminder that should not be so complicated of hard to see.  

The Great Categorization

“Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits.  I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” - Bilbo Baggins

Ah, Facebook.  I do not wish to deceive you, Gentle Reader, I love it.  I never suspected that I would; however, I do.  It’s a great way to communicate & share ideas, thoughts, events, photographs, & adventures with your friends.  Unfortunately, you also share this information with your, “Friends”, which are two entirely different things.  If you have tooled around Facebook and have acquired a list of people on your, “Friends” list you know what I mean.  “Friends” should be more accurately named, “Acquaintances”.  I have thousands of acquaintances in real life and a much smaller group of what I would truly call my friends.  It is inevitable that Social Media would mirror this simple equation.  I’m pretty sure that if you were to look at your Facebook “Friends” list that you too would come to a similar conclusion.

Now I’m not necessarily saying that I’ve tuned up the grouping on my list of “Friends” on Facebook but I would imagine such an experience would be cathartic.  Let’s face it, there’s a lot of flotsam and jetsam in Social Media or our Facebook pages.  Gentle Reader, don’t deny it.  Yes these people are your, “Friends” but it’s YOUR Facebook experience NOT theirs.  Wouldn’t it be nice to take it back - to trim the vines, so to speak?

If you wanted to thin the great head here’s how it’s done.  Go to your main page and click on “Friends”, (currently located to the left of the page) a whole new world opens - a world of lists, categories, & groups.  This would be where you get the option to put people into whatever grouping you so desire.  You can post to individual sections of your groupings by choosing the option button next to “POST” in the dialog box.  In the future this will insure that your message is delivered to the group that YOU want it to reach.

“But I have a bunch of “Friends” - how can I arrange them all?”

With patience, a pinch of honesty, & half of an imagination you can find here are some possible names for arranging you “Friends” by groups.

True Friends

Acquaintances

Perfunctory

Friends who post Pictures of Cats

Optimists

Pessimists

Lunatic Fringe

Friends with Agendas

Friends who Believe Themselves to be Constitutional Scholars

Friends who are Zealots - Religious

Friends who are Zealots - Political

Friends who are Zealots - Other

Friends who Believe

Friends who Do Not Believe

Friends who Used to Believe

Friends who Kind of Believe in Something

Friends who Want to Believe

Friends from Assorted Schools

Who Are These People?

Of course, you can have cross-sections and sub-categories.  Say you have a narcissistic, gun-toting, acquaintance from high school, who believes that alien technology is responsible for all the “dangerous” leaps in technology that we’ve experienced over the last 25 years and that the only way to protect ourselves from the world is to secede from the Union and to destroy all those who stand in their way as they reshape the world in their own image.  As you can see, it’s possible to be in several groups and sub-categories at once.       

If I were to embark upon, “The Great Categorization” and I were to filter all my “Friends” into designated groups so that I could reach and/or speak to the groups that I wanted to communicate with when I wanted to communicate with them I must confess, that would be pretty cool.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my “True Friends” category would not only the most precious to me but also the least populated.

Just like in real life.

King on Taxation

I subscribe to the original Greek meaning of the word “Politics”.  One can break down the word into its root words such as, POLY meaning, “Many” and TICKS meaning, “Blood Sucking Creatures”.  Apart from my occasional Slacktivist rantings I try to avoid talking politics here on the electronic pages of Chicken Scratch.  That being said here is an interesting article from Mr. Stephen King concerning taxation and the rich that is certainly worth the read.  Beware though, there is some colorful language and some well-reasoned thinking to be found if you click right here > http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html.

Mr. King, I’ve always been a fan, Thankee, Sai.  Now I have even more reasons to make that claim.  I like the concept of setting up a Charitable Foundation and I would hope that if ever this 99%er joined the 1%ers that I would do the same.  It’s on the list, so to speak, or at least, I believe it would be.

What do you think about taxation these days, Gentle Reader?

Image by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 'Paying the Tax (The Tax Collector)' oil on panel, 1620-1640 by way of Wikipedia.

So, Is This Legal?

Happy Election Day – sort of. If you are living in New Jersey I hope you voted. I don’t care how you voted I just hope that you did so since I don’t believe you have much room to complain about the “powers that be” if you don’t participate in the process of "democracy". I am neither a republican nor a democrat and to yours truly, both of the grand old parties are all just a part of the same machine. Well, today I had the unusual and unique opportunity to see the machine in action. I thought that I would pass along the tale to YOU Gentle Reader so that I could ask and gage to see if what I saw and heard was / is legal or not.

Here is what happened. Two co-workers and myself stop into a deli before accomplishing a work related task that was set before us (I’d go into greater detail but I make a point to not discuss work here at Evil Chicken Scratch. You’ll have to wait for the novel). It’s about 11:40 AM and I notice that there seems to be a lot of people hanging around the place, to be more precise there was a large amount of Latino patrons hanging around the place. One guy had a great Spiderman club shirt that I was going to compliment him on but the sandwich that I ordered was calling my name. A politician came through the crowd and entered into (I kid you not) the back room where everyone was congregating. From my seat I could see the whole thing. He was polished in a nice shirt and tie and wearing fine tailored pants. There was quite a nice spread too; sandwiches of all shapes and sizes and buckets of coleslaw, potato & macaroni salad took up the whole area where the stage is located. There were bumper stickers and buttons for the candidate in question and thick manila envelopes were being passed out to the crowd of about 30 people.

“Ok, today the person who gets the most amount of people out to vote wins $500.00! The person that gets the second largest amount gets $250.00!” he announced. The crowd reacted with a quick but heartfelt smattering of applause.

“Is that legal?” I asked my coworkers.

“Politics? Unfortunately, yes.”

“No really, can he do that?” I asked again.

“I’m not sure.”

“Me neither.” I said grabbing my large cup of Black Satin coffee. I needed to hit the cream and sweetener station. I ran into one of the owners of the place there and smiled as I asked, “Hey, is this legal?”

He looked at me and smiled nervously; “…Yes it is good coffee.” And he shuffled away from where I stood. I looked over at the politician and our eyes met. He quickly turned back to his audience as I grabbed my three Splendas and my shot of half and half and headed back to our table.

“Enjoy the food.” The politician said. Some did and some didn’t. Those that did not were apparently hoping to grab a piece of that $500.00 prize. Hey, the early bird gets the worm. The politician put on a designer pair of dark glasses.

“He’s leaving.” I said. “Now whether it’s through the back door or the front door is still up for grabs.”

One of my co-workers glanced over her shoulder. That’s XXX.” She said.

“Really?” I said.

“Yep.” She said. I will not go into detail on the where’s and why’s she would know but, let’s just take it as a given, she knows. He walked passed our table as workers replenished the food that was eaten from the buffet.

“It looks like they are going to have another round of people come through here.” One of my co-workers said.

“Yeah, no doubt.” My other co-worker said.

I started humming the “Mission Impossible” theme. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom. It’s not my fault that the bathroom happens to be past the back room.” I said.

“We’ll meet you in the van.”

I passed my coffee to one of my friends and thanked her for holding onto it. Off to the bathroom I went. On my way there I couldn’t help but notice the bumper stickers, buttons and manila envelopes scattered throughout the room. I made a mental note of where the buttons were, where the only two people in the room were and of the buffet.

…What can I say I love a buffet.

After using the facilities I decided to abscond with (not steal because stealing would be bad) a button. I needed to know who was selling whom. I smiled at the couple enjoying their sandwiches (they were engrossed in a deep political conversation), went to the table with the propaganda and took a button. I quickly stuck it into my right front pocket and exited the establishment giving my compliments to the fine hands that had crafted our sandwiches.

As I approached our van I flashed the button. My co-workers began to giggle, as did I. NOW I am pondering was what we, three humble servants during a half-lunch break, saw legal or not.

After getting home I relayed the experience to a paralegal I am well acquainted with. I will hold what she suggested in strict confidence until I hear from YOU Gentle Reader.

So… was it legal?