Summer is here in NW Arkansas. This week we will be in the 90s (one day may hit 100), no chance of rain. Definitely stay-indoors weather. We have a couple of appointments that will take us out for a while, but not a lot. Time to get things done, get back to normal.
Except, the time has come for some major work on our house. Three hailstorms this spring have severely damaged our roof. Our insurance company, on the second inspection, agreed. We will get a new roof and some work on the gutters. Since our attic space is not ventilated, I’ll spend a little money and have some vents added. Since some water leaked in and stained the ceiling, we will get a new living-dining-entry room ceiling.
But before that work is done I wanted to have some trees cut away from the house. I arranged for that work with the tree company that worked for us after the August 2019 storms, asking them to hold off a little until the visit of our grandchildren was done. The guy called me Saturday to schedule it, then called me back and asked if they could do it that day. So my Saturday up till about 1 p.m. was consumed with directing their work. At the same time I picked weeds from the front yard, something I had delayed doing. It’s now weed free except for a small area where I had to stay clear of due to the tree work.
After that I was way too tired to do much of anything. I did get some blackberries picked. If I do so again this afternoon I will have enough fresh ones to make a cobbler.
At the same time we may have another bug matter we have to deal with, different than the one from May 2019. Lynda has picked up on the decluttering effort and is working on it. That makes the house a mess, though “this too shall pass”.
And, to top this all off, my residual work at CEI has decided to peak right about this time. Last week I made six construction site visits with the man I’m training to take the work over. I still haven’t written the reports yet. I hope to get them done this week.
And, Lynda had her first cataract surgery last Thursday, with the other one soon to come.
Through all of this I try to remember I have a writing career. Stock trading continues and can’t be put off as writing can. The corona virus pandemic makes little difference to two retired people. Church and Life Group on-line takes up almost as much time as they did in person.
Once again, I hope to return soon to writing. I hope to return to the blog series I started on racism and lawlessness. Plans abound; time to execute them is difficult to find.
This past Friday we drove the grandkids back to West Texas. We had intended to stay a few days, but then realized we needed to get home to prepare for my wife’s cataract surgery on Thursday (weren’t sure when to start the eye drops). So we headed home on Saturday, arriving at 10:45 p.m. Yesterday was a day of true rest, as we did very little.
So now it’s Monday morning and everything’s back to normal.
Except, what is normal these days?
Stock trading, writing, house upkeep, exercise, medical appointments. These are all on the to-do list I started today. I have much more to add. It’s going to be a full week.
That’s good. I like to have things to do and to structure my time to get them done. I like to cross completed things off the list and have a sense of accomplishment.
But the new normal is now built around the corona virus and trying to make sure Lynda and I don’t come in contact with someone who has it. Isolation, use of masks, keeping up with news about it are all part of the normal now.
Concern about the violence taking place across our nation is part of the new normal. The violence will pass, you say? I’m not so sure. I think, as I mentioned in a previous post, that people have come to realize that the reach of the police is limited and that they can get away with lawlessness. I fear where this will take the USA.
Worry about the survival of the American experiment takes up some of my brain power. Maybe worry isn’t the right words. Rather, it’s time spent brainstorming what I can do to help the survival of the American experiment. I’m working on that.
So, I’ll end this post and get back at it. My thoughts are beginning to come together even now for resuming the series on racism I started before the grandkids’ visit.
I am worn out and worn down from the grandkids being here. Happy to have them, love having them, but I’m really tired. We will see them home soon. I hope Monday to be able to return to more regular blogging.
This bridge on the upper trail is a favorite destination for hikes. The end of the trail comes beyond this, after a hard uphill climb.
Yes, I’m worn out this morning. I slept well last night—had my fifth or sixth “all nighter” in a row, if you know what I mean. My weight is steady to slightly dropping, and my blood sugars have been low, low enough to cause me to reduce my insulin dose a little.
The cause of all this is, or course, our grandkids. Yesterday is a good example. We took two hikes. In the morning, before breakfast, we hiked what I call the lower trail. We walk downhill from our house to where the trail comes right by the road then walk the trail. It’s not an official trailhead, but it’s easy access from the street. The end of the trail brings us back to a city street and about 4/10th of a mile back to the house. The whole thing is 1.62 miles. Before breakfast. Three of us went on that hike.
Occasionally we have to bathe them. Even that is work.
Then, after supper, all four grandkids and me went to what I call the “upper trail”. It starts at the same place where the lower trail finishes. It goes through the same sort of woods, with a small bridge near the middle of it. The end of that trail segment is at a city street, where it continues across. A difficult uphill section takes you to that city street, and the three older grandkids run on ahead to that while the 3 year old and I go as far as we can and head back, the three older ones catching up to us. That entire route, up to the far street and back, is a little over two miles. Elijah and I did 1.93 miles.
Indoor times, like this hide and seek game, keep the uproar going.
That was the day of greatest walking. Today, I don’t plan on any walks. After breakfast I plan on cutting wildflowers with the two youngest. After that it will be into the woods with the two oldest to work on the fort. I may add a picture or two of it later, or maybe in a future post. It’s quite a production. So far that project is all building and no playing. Maybe that’s as it should be. The fun is in the building.
They all wanted to walk this tree, down across a small pond, about 7 feet to the water. I wouldn’t let the little one do it.
Is it fun? It’s fun to be spending time with #1 and #2 grandsons. Working is healthier than sitting at the computer. So, yes, I believe it is fun. Exhausting, all the sawing of logs, placing them, lashing them, and clearing away the debris. Ephraim is starting to understand the needs a little better and is requiring less instruction. Still, the work falls heavier on me.
They don’t believe me when I tell them this raccoon was frozen into the tree trunk last winter.
So my writing is on hold for another week. And my blog post series as well. I may or may not post on Friday and next Monday. Shortly after that I hope to be back in writing mode after that.
Or, perhaps I should title this post “Blog Interrupted”. Life is fine, just busy. We are keeping the grandkids for 11 days, and I find myself, while my wife is still convalescing from her surgeries in April, having little time to do such trivial things as writing and preparing blog posts. I’ll try to do another interim post on Monday, but won’t be back to my recent series until probably June 26.
My last post was a start to a discussion about racism in America. This is the second. I’m not yet sure how many posts I’ll have in this series. For sure one more after today and perhaps two, depending on how prolix I become and how my interest and energy goes.
From a Facebook posts by Thomas Nybo.
I used two terms in my last post: racism and racist acts, but I didn’t define them. Actually, I’m not sure I need to define them. Racist acts are actions taken against a person because of the color of their skin, or against an entire people for the same reason. Acts include words spoken or written. Racism is a condition of hate or belittlement that resides inside a person. It’s what gives rise to racist acts.
Examples of some racist acts:
refusing to rent an apartment to someone because they are black.
denying seating on a bus or at a lunch counter because someone is black.
enacting laws saying blacks and whites can’t marry, or college rules that say they can’t date.
enacting laws and practices that make it difficult for people of color to vote.
saying derogatory words against someone because of their skin color.
writing a piece that slams an entire race that’s different than yours.
erecting a statue that glorifies a slaveholder.
I could go on and on. Many are the racist acts that have taken place in the USA over the years.
But many, also, are the laws and court decisions which have set aside those racist laws and practices. Court decisions beginning in the 1950s and civil rights legislation beginning in the 1960s went a long way to correcting these racist wrongs in our nation. In addition to court decisions and laws, policies were changed at institutions (such as university) that corrected much.
Racist acts still happen. When they do, and when they are brought to the attention of authorities, corrections are made. Or should be made. A constant diligence is required to make sure the laws are faithfully executed and rights of people of color are not denied them by racist acts. The fact that many civil rights claims are brought before the courts indicates we are not perfect in this regard. Our administrators must figure out how to better and more faithfully implement the law, and our legislators must be looking at unintended holes in the law and find ways to plug them of otherwise strengthen them.
That’s my summary of what racist acts are. Now to tackle racism.
Racism is what gives rise to racist acts. Racism is what’s inside a person that causes them to commit racist acts. Racist acts are seen or heard out in the open. Racism is concealed inside a person. It may be concealed for a long time until it spills out in a racist act. Some people, I am convinced, are racists without realizing it, a condition I call latent racism (to be covered in a future post). When it does spill out, if it does so in a way that the racist act is against the law or policy, the law enforcement and judicial system can be called in to counteract the racist act.
But the racism, being inside the person, cannot be countered by any law or policy. How can the law say, “Don’t hate blacks, don’t look down on blacks, don’t think your race is better than blacks”? The law can’t deal with that, with what’s in a person’s mind and heart.
Racism is a terrible thing. How does it seep into a person’s mind and heart? Are people born racists? I covered that in my last post. I don’t believe anyone is born a racist. They become racists through education, example, and persuasion. Of these three, perhaps example is the largest contributing factor. A father doesn’t say to his son, “Son, come here and let me teach you to be a racist.” No, a son watches and listens to his father, and from observing racist acts (which, remember, includes speech), the son becomes a racist.
The father may never say anything to his son directly, but the son will learn from his father’s example. When we moved to North Carolina in the mid-1980s, we were invited to a neighbor’s house. The neighbors had moved there from New York. In the party were a number of local families they had befriended. I was 32 or 33 at the time, and I’d say most of the local folks were younger than that. The women were inside and the men were out on the front porch. One of the local men said, “If the Whites would just band together we could deal with the Blacks more effectively.”
I was shocked. That man was less than 30 years old. By 1984 the major civil rights legislation had been in force for about 20 years. Yet here were racists acts being committed by men who were 10 years old when those public policies were enacted. Why were they committing racist acts? Obviously they were racists, and they must have learned it from the examples of parents, grandparents, and others in the community. They were also taking part in persuasion, either trying to convince these newly moved-in northerners that they should become racists, or perhaps reinforcing the racism within themselves. This was one of the times I didn’t speak up, but I remember thinking how sad it was that these men were burdened with the scourge of racism.
Why is all of this important? Why do I separate racist acts from racism. I do that because of what I will highlight in my next post, that many different approaches are needed to combat racism. One person’s approach may tackle one small part of the problem while others tackle other parts of the problem. For this subject, look for my next post, on Friday.
Dateline 2 June 2020, for posting Friday 5 June 2020
I may write this post over several days, as I’m starting it on Tuesday and it’s scheduled to go live on Friday. Events are moving quickly.
My post on Monday addressed how the U.S.A. has been a lawful country because of voluntary compliance with the law. We have been, for the most part, a moral people. The average person has voluntarily complied with the law. No police force was necessary to make this happen. That seems to be changing around us.
The rage being expressed is due to racism in America. Are we a racist nation? Do whites hate blacks? Are whites trying to “keep the blacks down”? Is the socio-economic-political-judicial system we live in skewed to favor whites over other races? By the way, I use the term black rather than African-American because a person’s black skin can come from ancestries other than from Africa.
That many white people in our nation are racists is true. I can think of instances in my life where I have encountered racists. Two of those times I remained silent in the face of what others were saying. Two other times—the last two—I spoke out against what they were saying. One of those times was one-on-one with the person. The other time was with another family member present. Looking back, my failure to speak out at the one incident in 1984 and the other around 2010 were just that: failures on my part. I should have spoken out.
I say all this because I believe many methods are needed to combat racism. Back in the 1960s, laws were needed to curb racist acts. These were passed once the protests led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others moved the nation to see the wrongs that were being done. From time to time those laws have had to be renewed and strengthened. Pressure was kept on government for that purpose, though I don’t think a lot of pressure was needed. Once the nation woke up to how local and state laws were used to suppress people because of the color of their skin, few people in government saw a reason to go backwards.
Are the laws protecting people against racism perfect? Probably not, but I think they are close to exactly what is necessary. We should keep them, extend them, and strengthen them where needed.
So if the laws are right, or close to right, where is there racism in America? Where does it show up in our society?
It is in the sinful hearts of our people. It shows up in anything and everything people do. For a police officer it’s when he’s enforcing the law. For an engineer it’s as he deals with coworkers and clients. For a shopper it’s as you’re dealing with other shoppers, stockers, and check-out clerks in the store. For pastors it’s as they counsel and admonish parishioners and cooperate with community leaders. For nurses it’s how they provide health care. For patients it’s as they respond to the very people who are providing that care.
How do we combat that? Because no law will change a person’s heart.
How do we change the hearts of people so that they are no longer racists? Or, perhaps I should ask can you change the heart of a person so he/she is no longer a racist? I believe you can. I’m not saying it will be easy, but it is possible. A meme you frequently see posted on social media is “No one is born a racist.” That is true.
Racism is learned. How is it learned? From example, education, and persuasion. Children learn from the example of their parents, grandparents, and others in their lives. If those adults are racists, the child will learn to be a racist. The child may not even realize it. They may become latent racists (my phrase for unrealized racism; perhaps there’s a better term others use, but that’s my term for it). I’ve met some of those.
How does a person un-learn being a racist? I believe it happens the same way: through education, example, and persuasion.
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come from throwing stones off overpasses onto oncoming cars below near Fall River Massachusetts. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come from a handful of agitators stirring up a peaceful protest in Bentonville Arkansas by yelling “f*** cops”. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come from looting jewelry stores in the Buena Park neighborhood of Chicago.
So, if racism won’t be stamped out by these means—because they don’t address the sinful, evil heart—what’s to be done? Unfortunately, I’ve run this post on a bit long. I’ll have to cover my proposal in my next post.
With great sadness, I’m watching the news coverage of the looting, burning, stealing, and destruction of property that is going on in the U.S.A. right now. This was after watching the news coverage and video of a black man being killed by a white policeman. George Floyd was killed by that policeman even though he gave no cause for the use of such force. It looks like murder, or at the least depraved indifference by up to four policemen. A man’s life snuffed out by policemen who acted as police, judge, and jury.
But what we are seeing is only in part protests. Much of it is simple lawlessness. It’s either pent-up rage that has spilled over into lawlessness or it’s deliberate taking advantage of the situation. Either way, a flashpoint has been reached. It’s now happening in, it seems, 50 cities. Police seem unable to keep the peace. Some of it is their unwillingness to take violent action against the criminals. Some of it might include not recognizing the difference between protestors and criminals. Some of it might simply be lack of sufficient officers.
The police are tied up with seeing that the protests remain peaceful. I suspect all police days off have been cancelled in just about every city of 50,000 people or larger, yet there still aren’t enough. While the police are in one place, looters and destroyers do their dirty work in another. It’s a desperate game of whack-a-mole.
What this is showing me is that a peaceful America depends on voluntary compliance with the law. This has been oft noted concerning paying income taxes, which to a large extent depends on people voluntarily complying with the law requiring them to pay income taxes. If a hundred million people suddenly decided to not voluntarily pay their taxes, our national government will collapse.
So it is with honoring property and people. We live in peace because people want to live in peace so they don’t go killing their neighbor or breaking into houses, stores, institutions, or vehicles. A handful of people do that all the time. But what if a hundred million people suddenly decided to act unlawfully? Same thing: the USA would collapse as a civilized society. We can’t have enough police, enough national guard, enough military to maintain the internal peace if we, as a populace, decided we were not going to respect life and property.
It’s likely that what we seeing is the activity of two different peoples. One is a group fed up with instance after instance of black men being killed by white police, with nothing seeming to change, and are protesting that. Another is a group of opportunists making hay while the sun doesn’t shine. But there might also be a third group of people who are trying to incite a race war or a general state of lawlessness as a way of damaging our nation. We hear anecdotal evidence that this third group is at work, both left wing and right wing extremists. I personally think they are “no-wing” extremists, simply wanting to see America harmed.
I have no solution. I will continue to voluntarily obey the law and encourage others to do the same. I will continue to encourage local police forces to get rid of the racists, realizing as I say this that it’s easier said than done. I will continue to speak out against lawlessness. I will be an army of one, and see if I can somehow enlarge my regiment.
I won’t go into a lot of detail, but over the last four days I have seen much progress in tackling my to-do list. One huge task is done—huge, not because of the amount of work involves (though there was some work), but huge because of the load off my mind. And, the way is paved for part 2 of that particular task, for which the hard work is done, to be finished early next week.
A second item, small in work but big in sense of accomplishment was sending letters back to the family from which they came to my wife’s grandmother back in the early 1960s. They are mailed, and will possibly arrive today. Hopefully they will enjoy seeing them.
Today I will begin to break down empty boxes for taking to recycling. I’ve been bringing them from the basement to the garage, which is somewhat overflowing with them at present. Next Friday we’ll get rid of the accumulated Styrofoam at a certain re-use center. At that point we’ll have our garage back again.
In the spirit of de-cluttering, I placed a box of my old engineering books on my work table in The Dungeon, and will go through them later today. I anticipate putting most of them in a pile for donation. I have several other boxes of work things to go through, and can now see my way clear to be doing that next week, maybe even a little on the weekend.
Oh, yes, the other big thing off my mind was getting our taxes turned in. I finished them on Sunday, printed them on Monday, made copies on Tuesday, and mailed them on Wednesday. That’s always a huge load to be done with every year, this year more than in others.
So, now it’s on to other special tasks: getting the tree service to come and give an estimate to see how far our stimulus money will go; getting the roofer to give an estimate on some minor roof and siding repairs; get the recyclables taken care of; repair a book shelf that prior repairs weren’t sufficient; re-shelve books on two other shelves that are fixed and can’t be repairs without complete disassembly of the entire bookcase. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few. Oh, yes, find out why our health insurance refused a certain dental claim. That’s a next week task for sure.
Okay, enough for now. Time to go outside and get some yardwork done.
Today I feel like a logjam broke. A logjam of busyness. This morning I put the final touches on our 2019 income taxes, printed and signed them. Tomorrow (or the next day, perhaps), I’ll take care of mailing them. I had them done about two weeks ago but let them sit. I did some searching/organizing in papers and found an interest statement I hadn’t put into my spreadsheet. I entered that this morning, updated the forms, reprinted two pages of the Federal and two pages of the State, and now it’s done. Again.
Then, my wife and I can finally take care of the final distribution of her mom’s estate. It was waiting on the taxes to be figured, since some of our taxes this year were really estate taxes. That’s done. Today we’ll write the next to last checks from the estate account, and next week we’ll write the last. Then we can close those accounts, bundle up the statements, and tuck them away in an archive-type file.
Having done a fair amount on de-cluttering, I’m putting some of that on hold for a time. Oh, I’ll get the now-empty boxes from the basement to the garage, consolidate the electronics for recycling, and get the boxes to the AARP recycling center. That alone will clear a lot out. But I’m going to leaf off from sorting my mother-in-law’s papers for now. Maybe I’ll get back to that in a month or two.
So, the checkbook is up-to-date, the budget is up-to-date. I caught up on filing on Saturday—though immediately generated more items for filing. I paid the bills on Saturday and will mail them today.
My outlook is much, much better than it was when I posted this. Perhaps I’ll see my way clear to resume writing this week, something I haven’t been able to do lately. Reading is also on the Memorial Day menu.
Oh, I haven’t mentioned the pandemic, have I? For us, being retired, with Lynda much better but still convalescing, the pandemic isn’t having a huge effect. I go to the grocery store a little less frequently, planning my trips better to keep from having to go back for that item missed. We can’t go to the bank lobby, but the drive-through windows work for our purposes. Doctor appointments are mostly on-screen, though Lynda did go to the eye doc week before last, and will have her cataract surgery in July. I’m schedule for lab work in late June, but have no appointments until September.
But I still walk for exercise. I still go to construction sites and do my observations, keeping my distance from the workers on site as I do. I still went to the office last week for a meeting (though all training meetings and the recent annual stockholders meeting was virtual). Our church and Life Group meetings have been virtual, or course. That’s allowed me to learn some new skills.
I think we will still mostly isolate at least until July. Except for going to Texas and getting the grandkids in just under two weeks, keeping them for nine or ten days, then taking them back. Their county has only 6 confirmed cases of the virus. We will practice isolation for the few days we are there, and once we get back here.
This too shall pass. What will life be like on the other side? I have no prediction.
