Unintended consequences

i don’t know if this is true or not but when growing up my mother claimed that on my father’s side of the family they had a motto on a crest. He told her the motto and said that it was integral to his conduct through out his life.

This motto was never pushed on us as something we had to adhere to…it was just there. We knew it was a family saying, part of some old crest that lived somewhere in our ancient subconscious or his imagination.

When my mother died i found it written in one of her note books with an asterisk and jottings about where it came from.  i decided then i would keep it close.

In the past i think i have written here before about a sign i keep by my computer that says:

“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not FAIL?

That quote takes up a whole sheet of 8x12 paper and is printed in big black block letters. i have had it there for years and replace it when it looks old and tattered. It resonates with me all the time but has nothing to do with family loyalties or ancient clans. i suppose i could pass it on to my kids as some thing that meant something to me but i don't think i would ever expect them to embrace it as some sort of family heirloom.

At the bottom of this most recent sheet i have copied the family motto out in small hand writing. It is only three words so it doesn’t take up much space.

i look at them both all the time and think about their implications especially today when i was going to write a piece about unintended consequences. 

There is something about the family motto that rubs me the wrong way. i don’t know if it seems as if those living by it felt entitled, or if it is that i don’t believe it. 

i have another quote that is taped onto the big one that says:

“Always forgive your enemies. Nothing infuriates them so” by Oscar Wilde

My father was a prankster. He constantly told tall tales that people would believe were true even though he had made them all up. i remember once he had a girlfriend convinced he raced giraffes. He had names, physical attributes, speed trials, purse wins, track conditions, jockeys and trainers down pat. He told her he raced them in Africa and that they should take a trip there to watch them.

So i take the motto with a grain of salt as my mother advised. He probably read it in his Latin class and absconded with it. But just on the off chance it really is a family motto i wrote it down. And that is the power he had…you never completely knew what was true and what wasn’t because he was a master of mixology. Truth and not truth were one and the same.

Even though you knew he mixed some truth in there you still had to be wary. Which was even more interesting because he was one of the most beloved men around. Everyone and i mean everyone loved him, including me.

So one of the unintended consequences of my father’s story telling is that i am a total skeptic. Which maybe isn’t unintended after all.

Before i tell you what the motto is, i have to write down another quote that speaks to me.

“Again, even honor and virtue make enemies, condemning, as they do, their opposites by too close a contrast.”

i would love it if some cousin could confirm or deny that the following three words are really our tribal saying.

“Virtue alone Ennobles”

See ya next week

Scraps

Every once in a while i take all the bits and bats of paper i have living on my desk and try to purge them.

Today is one of those days and you get to see the types of things i write down. Months may have passed since jotting down the notes for ideas for the blog, music i enjoyed, or some poem that worked its way out of my brain and onto paper.

i think its hereditary. Both my parents would leave little passages written on the backs of envelopes, bar napkins, or just scrapes of paper that you would run across as a book marker or find lying on a counter. i was always finding profound writing gems all over the house.

i would wonder what made them write what they did and why some saying was important enough to jot down. i totally understand now why they did it and when they both died that was what i wanted…their notes to selves.

The poem below i wrote after days of staring at a magazine cover with young ISIS men looking back. The picture was haunting…i couldn’t stop staring at their eyes wondering how the hell they got to such a violent place and still looked so young...also why the hell did we get to that same place?

ISIS and US

dark thick brows,

black and blue

clothing

checked and pure.

silver rings and

chewed fingernails

whisps of hair

camoflaged.

open arrogant gaze

with artillery now

points at everyone

who cares, who cares, who cares?

Not the best poem but i was feeling betrayed and also felt they had been betrayed.

Here's a brief God poem.

the GODS didn't

communicate with

men and women

those damn GODS 

only fluttered on by.

So moving on i wrote down some lines on scraps of paper that i’ll reproduce here.

“Political ideology provides a mental block.” me

“Why doesn’t everyone indulge in motivated reasoning?” me

“Not crazy to assess news events to see if they are real or not real. Isn’t it crazy not to?” me

“Infiltrators provoke violence.” me

“What is aggressive social media?” me

“A person is a person through other persons.” Zulu maxim

Water, sugar and yeast will kill mosquitos...i wonder how it works on fire ants?

Not wanting to completely bore you today i’ll spare you.

So see ya next week.

Fewer taxes means???

i’m loving this Pope and want to repeat what he said this week.

“Many people don’t want peace because they live off war.”

Fewer taxes cause bridges to fail. Crumbling infrastructure...fewer taxes.

Too many potholes….blame….fewer taxes.

Fewer taxes cause lost jobs.

Uneducated workforce…blame…fewer taxes.

Bad hospitals…blame…fewer taxes.

Fewer taxes cause electrical blackouts.

Fewer taxes means more military and police.

Fewer taxes cause crime.

Fewer taxes cause dirty air.

Fewer taxes do not create jobs.

No mail…blame fewer taxes.

Closed public parks and beaches…blame fewer taxes.

Closed garbage dumps…blame fewer taxes.

“Personal responsibility” is a dog whistle on the right. It really means I got mine. It is a  talking point. It is a term that means if you aren’t prosperous you are a loser. It is also a term that accepts the unfettered freedom for people with power and money to manipulate government to act in their favor.

If you want unelected government(corporations) to run the country then go right ahead and vote for those that don’t want to invest in America and don’t believe in government.

If you don’t invest in your society you get crappy, expensive profit driven non-service. Think cell phones and all your frustration with those corporations…now magnify that across all of society.

See ya next week.

PS. If you are wondering why i have so many bird pics this week its because i went out Saturday for the annual Global Species counting day. Three of us managed to find 50 different species on St. Croix which is really good for such a small island and such a small group of bird counters.

Also for those out there still confused about Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned night herons the yellow is first and the black is second.

Madison said it could go wrong

Madison, Hamilton and Jay wrote the Federalist papers which advocated ratifying the Constitution. In these papers, used to convince the population of the thirteen states that uniting under one law would benefit all;
there is a sentence (paper 10) where Madison describes what could go wrong. Initially he states how it could go right.

The effect of the first difference [delegating the powers of the people to a small number of citizens elected by the rest] is, on the one hand, to refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the purpose.

But he qualifies his above statement in his very next sentence by saying:

 

On the other hand, the effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may, by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests, of the people.

Today the wealthiest 10% have way more influence over government than average citizens according to a study done by Princeton and Northwestern Universities in 2014. According to the researchers “economic elites” had their laws enacted even when the majority of the citizenship did not favor that policy. 

Madison described elected representatives who would use their wisdom to discover the true interests of the country as

a whole. These men were to use their love of justice to ensure that all people's were treated equally. They were to rise above temptation so they could govern a nation that worked for everyone.

Sadly, i think Madison's qualifying statement has become all too true. In fact he knew this would be the case because he and his co-authors were that "elite" group that knew better than the common man.

Today our system is stacked against the common man. It favors the elites and works against the common good. Four techniques oppress the lower classes.

1.Paying low wages while maximizing profits. 

2.Loaning money on credit cards with high interest rates that people use to make ends meet. Loan the money but lower the rates to what the banks pay.

3. Creating monetarily burdensome laws that criminalize poverty and create indebtedness.

4. Debt slavery and lack of a good education.

i believe in the common good. i believe that we could, if we all put our heads together, turn this nation into one that respects and cares for the land, the sea, and all its people.

i am not a communist. i don't believe that government should own the means of production. i don't believe that government would serve the common good if it did own the means of production. i do believe that a good government tries to address the needs of all its people, not just a select few.

See ya next week