tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71957561898537571842024-03-13T16:09:43.022-07:00The Road to DotageTom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-18370990666787909532021-12-02T19:49:00.012-08:002021-12-06T04:02:56.480-08:00What Happens After You Die<p>-- By Tom Phillips </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cH8DtQVJpo/YamRf7uGriI/AAAAAAAAHaE/GU4fgmyTDioCQkobeFCWdc-wJ7hwkSQEACNcBGAsYHQ/s599/Waltercronkite.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="560" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cH8DtQVJpo/YamRf7uGriI/AAAAAAAAHaE/GU4fgmyTDioCQkobeFCWdc-wJ7hwkSQEACNcBGAsYHQ/w187-h200/Waltercronkite.png" width="187" /></a></div>Back in the day when Walter Cronkite was America's Most Trusted Person, he sat for an interview with talk-show host Dick Cavett. After a couple of warmup questions, Cavett leaned in with an impish grin, and asked: <p></p><p>"So Walter, what happens after you die?" </p><p>Cronkite brushed it off as mischievous flattery. He was sixty-something at the time, and lasted a couple more decades. </p><p>At 80, the question is harder to dismiss. Here's what I'd like to know: Do we have any say in what happens? </p><p>Maybe I do, and you do too. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>I may be risking Hell for my impertinence. But here's a theory I've held for many years, and rarely told anyone: We may not have a vote, but we have a voice, and it doesn't hurt to ask for what you want. </p><p>It may be that consciousness continues after death, like a dream. Dreams begin with desires. And Heaven may just be your heart's desire. </p><p>I don't believe a heavenly court calculates your good and evil deeds and gives you the place your life deserves. I think judgment comes in the hour of your death, and where you're at determines where you go. <i>Your heart's desire is part of where you're at. </i>It may be the main thing or even the whole thing in that hour. This is why Catholics ask Mary to pray for them "now and at the hour of our death." </p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> ------------------------------</p><p>I'm an Episcopalian, a choice made late in life when I decided to go with what appeals to me. And Episcopalians in New York City have many places to go. </p><p>At the corner of Fifth Avenue and 90th Street, there's the Church of the Heavenly Rest. On a recent visit I found it spacious, and dark, and perfumed with the breath of wealth. It didn't appeal to me. </p><p>At one end of West 112th Street stands the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the length of two football fields, the nave surrounded by chapels and tombs, with light streaming in through a Rose Window that transforms sunset into spectroscopic splendor. I can do without such grandiose displays. </p><p>Besides those, there are Episcopal churches small and large, rich and poor, high and low. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGNcTnORRjb7_ZNRmAfRGmetDSw3ZJ65_xUsqXDxVXkDer3EXiCZzOhCTpJ6hhsAoBqasxfmqTqxM9P7u587kRriSEQPstKThBnVQLnDO7w3rC3IAcGIylByYoLPDGNE7YWuDVsWfBj2lgi_qzQ3EomzGDH096GEizzbg8L1_31DXVEq2Pdhha4_cedA=s1800" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="1653" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGNcTnORRjb7_ZNRmAfRGmetDSw3ZJ65_xUsqXDxVXkDer3EXiCZzOhCTpJ6hhsAoBqasxfmqTqxM9P7u587kRriSEQPstKThBnVQLnDO7w3rC3IAcGIylByYoLPDGNE7YWuDVsWfBj2lgi_qzQ3EomzGDH096GEizzbg8L1_31DXVEq2Pdhha4_cedA=w294-h320" width="294" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Michael</td></tr></tbody></table>My church is St. Michael's, at 99th and Amsterdam -- an airy, light-filled vault with an Tiffany stained-glass window as wide as the altar below. It depicts the scene from the Book of Revelation, when "war broke out in Heaven." In the foreground is the Archangel Michael ---leading the forces of God in battle against the forces of evil. Following him is the host of heaven, an army of angels receding to a distant horizon. <p></p><p>Once I had hoped to relax in heaven, and listen to the music of the spheres. But now, "O Lord, I want to be in that number." As long as the battle goes on below, I'd like to stay in the fight. Or better yet, bear witness and write it. </p><p>My epiphany came as a journalist, in Tiananmen Square in 1989. CBS News was there for the beginning of the end of the biggest political protest in history. </p><p>At the height of the Chinese movement for democracy a million protesters were in the square -- millions more in cities all over China. Their demands were modest -- more freedom, more representation, less corruption. From their mood, it seemed they would be happy with a simple acknowledgment that the voice of the people had been heard. But day after day there was no word from Communist Party leaders, holed up in a palace a few blocks from the square. After a week they came out at dawn for a photo-op "visit" with student leaders -- as if they cared for them! A few hours later army helicopters flew low over the square -- and a tinny female voice sounded from loudspeakers: </p><p> "Martial law has been declared in Beijing," she said. "The situation is very dangerous, go home immediately!" We tried to report it, but they pulled our plug. Two weeks later, in the dark of night, the army opened fire in the square. </p><p>By then we journalists were long gone. But in the moment when that disembodied voice spoke out, I flashed on the true nature of history. It appeared to be just what the Bible says it is -- a fight to the finish between good and evil, truth and lies, darkness and light. </p><p>I believe Plato when he says that our lives are just an indistinct shadow of an ideal realm. And I believe Martin Luther when he wrote "A Mighty Fortress is our God": <i>And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us/ We will not fear, for God has willed his Truth to triumph through us." </i></p><p>The cosmic battle between good and evil rages within me as well as out in the world. But as Thomas Aquinas wrote, we're judged not on what we do, but what we love. </p><p>If you love to fight for what's right, tell Uncle Sam to go to Hell, and sign up with St. Michael. When war breaks out in Heaven, the Truth will be revealed. </p><p>And if, as in the book of Revelation, a voice from heaven says "Write this"-- I will write. And this time, no one can pull the plug. </p><p>--Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-16731090168444863182021-08-28T13:58:00.013-07:002021-09-01T13:04:48.873-07:00House on the Water <p> -- By Tom Phillips </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BV5haLKu5GA/YSqdxY3Qd_I/AAAAAAAAGwA/6DVLI3x5PzAVvOKwZ04QQnBbOD5Zdg0kgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_7072.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="456" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BV5haLKu5GA/YSqdxY3Qd_I/AAAAAAAAGwA/6DVLI3x5PzAVvOKwZ04QQnBbOD5Zdg0kgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_7072.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>It was hard to leave at the end of our annual family vacation on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. On the last day, my sister-in-law Linda and I have a tradition of walking down to the shoreline wearing pure white robes. <p></p><p>This year we got up at dawn, and sat at the high-tide line watching the surf roll in as the sun emerged from clouds on the horizon, lighting a spark and then a fire across the waves, practically into our laps. We chanted OM three times, took some selfies and shots of each other, and then just looked out into the distance, as dawn went down to day. </p><p>On vacation, I don't read much. I prefer to sit and stare at the ocean, watching people in the water, thinking about nothing in particular. Normally my mind is busy, but by the ocean it rests---in the natural trinity of sky, sea, and sand. If I have a mental focus it's the shifting line where the water rolls up on land, then flows back, sometimes rippling sideways, sometimes just slipping back under the next wave. </p><p>On the verge of 80, life's a beach. It's the borderline between life and death, the known and the unknown, being and nothingness, the light of day and the darkness of the deep. </p><p>John Lee Hooker wrote a blues about it, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzy7mOv3hbY">"I'm Going Upstairs."</a> It's about an old man, unwanted, with no place in the world to go. </p><p><i>I got a house on the water, I don't need no land.<br /></i><i>When I'm dead and gone, bury me in the deep blue sea. </i></p><p>-- Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><br /></p><p><i> </i><br /> </p><p><br /></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-15794487360226975242021-08-21T09:22:00.010-07:002021-08-26T05:27:27.097-07:00Blow the Man Down <p> -- By Tom Phillips </p><p><span> <i> </i></span><i>Come all you young sailors who follow the sea ..<br /><span> </span>Way, hey, blow the man down---<br /><span> </span>Please pay attention and listen to me, <br /><span> </span>Give me some time to blow the man down.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwmss6kjv8QVoY2q6o-mT4v1ratSGadZ_mS_RLjvGRe_HAFfpfNk9PpWbhatG9hDE6HeX3c4gK9RRQPtMTd-A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />Midway through a two-week vacation on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, this sea chantey is stuck in my head, along with the crash of waves on the ocean beach across the road. The waves are strong and steady -- kicked up by Tropical storm Henri, hundreds of miles out to sea in the Atlantic. And they are crashing much nearer to our door than just a few years ago, when the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the shoreline and rebuilt the beach, vastly multiplying its height and width. That was the official response to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Sandy, which overwhelmed the island in 2012. <p></p><p>When we showed up for our annual vacation the following summer, the battered pathways through the dunes were festooned with American flags and signs declaring New Jersey "Stronger than the Storm." This bore the trademark of then-governor Chris Christie, pumping himself up for a presidential run. That ended quickly, but the illusion of supernatural powers endured. </p><p>Since the floods of 2012, billions of dollars have been spent on new beachfront homes. The local mayor -- a real estate developer -- boasts that his customers are now venture capitalists and hedge fund managers. And indeed, I listened to one high-powered bicyclist out for his morning exercise, yakking on his mobile phone to a conference call of investors. Apparently they're in it for the short term, comforted by federally-subsidized flood insurance which protects their investments. </p><p>It doesn't protect their houses. Henri won't get us -- it's passing by at a safe distance. But with rising seas and monster storms already baked into our future, eventually the sea will bury this sliver of sand and everything on it. </p><p>Vacationing in such a place -- even as a renter -- is a peculiar experience. Do you identify with the foolishness of :"stronger than the storm," or do you prepare to mourn the loss of a fragile barrier island? </p><p>My answer is neither -- I'm with the ocean. Just "give me some time to blow the man down." </p><p>I welcome the victory of the sea, even though it's the end of my vacationland. In time the waves will be rolling over a drowned island and breaking onto the mainland, driving its inhabitants inland, just as the first European settlers claimed the shoreline and drove indigenous people into the western wilderness. The Lenape, who camped on this island for thousands of summers, ended their trail of tears on a reservation in Oklahoma. Where we we English wind up? </p><p> -- Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </p><p><br /></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-55837598766195003282021-08-10T06:31:00.004-07:002021-08-11T10:07:06.151-07:00On Turning 80: First, You Cry<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GKkOhZG7rcc/YRG3rGpAL5I/AAAAAAAAGks/BdULARjVlf8kGbkic1JGhCZTgANkLBWUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/ben-hershey-8-fHqPCNy4c-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="2048" height="219" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GKkOhZG7rcc/YRG3rGpAL5I/AAAAAAAAGks/BdULARjVlf8kGbkic1JGhCZTgANkLBWUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/ben-hershey-8-fHqPCNy4c-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash </td></tr></tbody></table>--- By Tom Phillips <br /><div><br /></div><div>First, you cry. <div><br /></div><div>Lying in bed, doing nothing, thinking about nothing, I would suddenly start to cry. Nothing dramatic, just a few deep, soft waves of sadness that came and went, with few or no tears shed. Still, it felt like a good cry. </div><div><br /></div><div>My mind went back to senior year in high school. I'd been determined to goof off and take a minimal academic load, so I could concentrate on basketball and girls. But my guidance counselor told me that wouldn't look good on college applications. So I reluctantly signed up for a fourth year of Latin. And along with a handful of fellow scholars and goof-offs, we read the Aeneid of Vergil, an ancient epic that mixes Gods and humans, history and mythology to tell the story of the founding of Roman civilization, by wandering refugees from the Trojan War. </div><div><br /></div><div>With the very first phrase, you know you are in the presence of a great writer: <i>Arma virumque cano, </i>writes Vergil -- "Arms and the man I sing." A hero, a war, a song -- all promised in three words. And delivered, in thousands of lines of dactylic hexameter without a false note or a misplaced syllable. </div><div><br /></div><div>And somewhere in the middle, I came upon a phrase that stayed with me forever: </div><div><br /></div><div><i>Lacrimae rerum. </i> "The tears of things" is the literal translation -- but <i>rerum </i>means more than things. It means what all things have in common, the common ground of existence. </div><div><br /></div><div>At the ground of existence, we cry. </div><div><br /></div><div>At 80, I hit the ground and cried. I cried for everything I loved, everything I had lost, for life from beginning to end. I saw my life and all lives flashing into emptiness and uncertainty. I began to prepare for my own epic journey. </div><div><br /></div><div>First, you cry. </div><div><br /></div><div>-- Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-59144861240932932422021-04-13T09:49:00.002-07:002021-04-13T13:09:32.915-07:00The Strangest Dream <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UYtX4oWyEA8/YHXy1sn8giI/AAAAAAAAFhw/w7jMQdX6zqcb7Xo1C9F2cY_6NGMylx0fgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/guernica-full-painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="1000" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UYtX4oWyEA8/YHXy1sn8giI/AAAAAAAAFhw/w7jMQdX6zqcb7Xo1C9F2cY_6NGMylx0fgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h180/guernica-full-painting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Picasso: Guernica</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Vaccinated at last, on the eve of Easter I flew masked across America, not looking out the window, not talking to my neighbor, and arrived in Seattle to see my new granddaughter, already nine months old. My sleeping meds disappeared en route, probably somewhere in the TSA security gauntlet. I went to bed, prepared for a rough night. And I dreamed: </p><p>Forty years, forty years. The phrase "forty years" kept echoing in my head, like an anvil chorus, like an indictment, like a sentence imposed by a merciless court. There was music, a vicious descending line that came down like a hammer, repeat, repeat. And I saw men taking sledgehammers to a nursery, to the place where their children play, bringing down their hammerheads to pulverize everything, to turn it into trash, shards, the ruins of a civilization. </p><p>I awoke in horror. Trained to see dreams as an extension of myself, I thought -- can this be? That drugs to help me sleep have been repressing the real me, a sadistic wrecker of all I supposedly love? </p><p>And I saw this was only partly true. The real me was a bystander, one who has stood by and watched for forty years as men with purpose took sledgehammers to a civilization -- deliberately destroying the world that had been a-building, the world meant for their children and grandchildren. </p><p>I had dreamed the Reagan Revolution. </p><p>In brief: </p><p>The bursar began with a blast: "No one's entitled!" </p><p>Money replied -- God Bless the Child!</p><p>A burning Bush stormed the desert -- read my lips, read my lips. With a giant sucking sound, he was consumed by a clown. H. Ross Pierrot said I told you so. </p><p>In came Billary, a two-faced monster. Not asking, not telling, ending "welfare as we know it," defending, defining, defiling marriage as we knew it, signing a bill of rights for bankers to do it. The Bill came due. </p><p>An archfiend had been laden with a plan to attack America. It worked even better than he dreamed. </p><p>Another Bush took arms against a sea of troubles, an Axis of Evil with heads in three directions. Mission unaccomplished, the Bush was consumed. Exit Axis, rising sea. </p><p>Enter Mr. Noh Drama, with "greatness thrust upon him." He purred, he demurred. Single mothers took third jobs, fathers were hounded to Honduras. The archfiend was shot and thrown into the sea. </p><p>Finally came the Beast, slouching through Bethlehem down the Capitol stairs. A mob seized the palace. Four years later, "the carnage ends here." </p><p>In comes an old man, been Biden his time. Joe and Jill run up the Hill, to fetch a pail of oughta. </p><p>-- Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQbO076GvwQ/YHX6EDWawMI/AAAAAAAAFh4/UWI5mdMlyP0Lw0m4E2QVznCDcBY7u1SyACLcBGAsYHQ/s526/Stella%2Band%2Bme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="526" data-original-width="526" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OQbO076GvwQ/YHX6EDWawMI/AAAAAAAAFh4/UWI5mdMlyP0Lw0m4E2QVznCDcBY7u1SyACLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h200/Stella%2Band%2Bme.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Nursery </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-34706698637225178962021-02-12T15:28:00.009-08:002021-02-23T04:07:36.786-08:00Sis-Gendered <p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -- By Tom Phillips </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bI8w3YIeyK8/X_O89aYYX1I/AAAAAAAADpM/Vnuz07VRbg89aXhB_q_O2vKmfInrEPViwCLcBGAsYHQ/s600/henrydavidthoreau_0.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bI8w3YIeyK8/X_O89aYYX1I/AAAAAAAADpM/Vnuz07VRbg89aXhB_q_O2vKmfInrEPViwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/henrydavidthoreau_0.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Portrait of Thoreau attributed to his sister</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Most men, wrote Henry David Thoreau, "lead lives of quiet desperation." I read these words as a teenager, and immediately resolved not to be one of those men. I was desperate, haunted, frustrated, insecure, confused, irrational and contradictory. But quiet? Not while I could draw a breath. The world soon began to hear my complaints against injustices large and small, personal and political, real and imagined. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There was just one subject that cowed me: sex and gender. I participated gingerly in what was called the sexual revolution, but couldn't bring myself to speak out for sexual freedom. Quickly and prematurely, I slid into a lifestyle of a heterosexual, cis-gendered, homophobic husband and father. I opposed same-sex marriage on linguistic grounds, telling my children that you couldn't just change the meaning of a word that goes back to biblical times. But of course, you can. </span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span>All this had a history. When I was about twelve years old, my father warned me that if I turned out to be a "fairy," he would disown me. This threat was repeated more than once, with grim emphasis. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My father saw something in me that he feared, and he was determined to squelch it. He succeeded. My crack-up came at about age 12, one day as I was walking across a across a ballfield with a school buddy of mine, our arms casually slung over each other's shoulders. The scene felt idyllic, like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Suddenly, I was struck by a thought -- someone might think we were fairies! It was as if I'd been spotted in an open field and shot dead by a sniper. I dropped my arm and crept away from my buddy, Our friendship was never the same, and such a scene was never repeated with any other boy or man. I was miserable, a prisoner of my own fears. In this one area, for decades I lived a life of quiet desperation. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I suspected I was gay, even though I was much more attracted to girls. Was I repressing my homosexual desires? This fear haunted me through two marriages, and six children. Finally, in my fifties, I began to explore it with a female therapist. After a long time she said something like this: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">-- Listen Tom, I know many people who are gay, and they are not like you. I have racked my brain trying to find some evidence of homosexuality, but I can't find anything. Are you sure there's something to look for? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Well, I said, not really. It's more of an assumption than a feeling. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">-- Well then, forget it, she said. I breathed a long sigh of relief, and stopped torturing myself with the idea of a hidden gay self. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Still there was something off -- something that set me apart from most men. I loved women, but not in the same way they did. During my dating years between marriages, I surprised a couple of women with some odd, off-the-cuff remarks. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One of these dates was walking down the street with me and started to wax enthusiastic about what it would feel like to be a man. She looked at me for an example, and I felt miscast in the role. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span>-- Actually, I said, I feel like more of a woman. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Another time I was out with a feminist writer who insisted, in print and in person, that all men were rapists at heart. Once again I demurred, saying I didn't think I was capable of rape. I meant it. At the time I was a student of psychology, and was shocked to read Dr. Freud's description of sex as "an act of aggression." I didn't l think or act that way. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Once at work in a TV newsroom, a fellow worker was amazed to hear that I was married, with children. </span><span>"You </span><i>fuck?" </i><span>he said. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That stung, but I stayed cool. -- Occasionally, I said. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> ___________________</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Something was different about me, but I had no idea what it was. I began to think about it again last year when my one of my four daughters -- a happily married Presbyterian minister in her thirties --- came out as Bisexual. This was accepted by her husband, and applauded by her friends and her congregation in California, which includes many same-sex couples. Later she told me she didn't care for the label of Bisexual, because it was too binary. She decided to be a "demi-girl" -- which she described as "gender indifferent -- female enough, but not strongly identified with it." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Talitha's bold admission and its positive reception seemed to open up possibilities for me. I too was something other than the plain vanilla father-figure that was my official identity in the world. But if you're going to come out in America, you have to come out as something. Talitha had labeled herself B on the LGBTQIA spectrum. I didn't know what I was. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">An answer began to emerge last summer, during a week's vacation in a beach house. I was the only man in a vacation party reduced by pandemic fears to Debra, two of her sisters and a niece in her twenties. I was having a fine time, socializing with the ladies, talking up a storm with young Simone, who was interested in Freud and Jung and their theories of sexuality and personality. I told her about the ego and the id -- and she related what she knew about Jung's theory of the anima -- something like a moon-self that reflects the underside of our psyche. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As the week went on I became more and more relaxed by day, and more and more restless at night -- stalking the house, the decks, and the surrounding streets. I felt something inside me wanted out, but was terrified of what it might be. At last I concluded it was a demon, the kind Jesus and his disciples used to cast out. The pressure mounted until I had no choice -- it must be cast out. And so one night, near the end of the vacation, I let her rip. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It was a woman, and what a woman! She was outrageous, mincing down the hallway, vamping like Marilyn Monroe, lounging in doorways like a French whore. Oh my God, I thought, this is my true self. I really am... what? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A couple of weeks later I told the whole story above to a wise old woman at my church, and she interpreted it. In brief, she said this was no demon, but a part of myself -- cut off since I was twelve, isolated from the world, unacknowledged, appearing only in disguised forms. No need to be ashamed of her, said the old woman. Just talk to her. Get her to trust you. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And so begins the story of my little sister, my Inner Girl. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -----------------------------------------------</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I never had a sister. I wanted one. When I was three years old and my mother was
pregnant, I remember feeling her belly and the life squirming inside. My parents had chosen names: Angus if it was
a boy, after my father’s older brother. Deborah if it was a girl. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">“I think it’s Deborah,” I
said. “I think it’s Angus,” said my
mom. And she was right. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Deborah was one of those children
who was never conceived, never born. But
she didn’t die as an idea in my mind, a desire in my heart. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Strange coincidence: When I met my second wife, my partner now of 41 years, I knew her as Debra but I didn't know her last name. After a few dances, I
asked her for a date. She accepted, and
we exchanged full names and phone numbers.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I walked up the street staring at
her name on a scrap of paper. Debra
Given. Was this a gift? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">After much to-do over three
years, we got married. It was a family affair. Her three sisters were the bridesmaids. (She never had a brother, though
her father had badly wanted a son.) My children Jenny,
Luke and Django stood with me. On the
cover of the church bulletin was a verse from a love song by Bob Dylan, which
Debra and I liked to sing together in harmony:
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span>“O Sister, am I not a brother to
you,<br />
<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>And one deserving of affection -- <br />
<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>And is our purpose not the same on this earth, <br />
<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>To love and follow his direction..”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That seemed to be the essence of
our relationship. She was an unrealized
part of me – a Presbyterian minister-to-be, someone who could travel with me in
the spirit. And I was an unrealized part
of her – an adventurous mind in search of experience and truth. Our lives would be tied together as if they
had been from the beginning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">So in a way, Deborah became Debra,
and that’s part of our mystery to this day.
But it didn’t completely solve the mystery of my own self. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Debra was just one of many women
I reached out to, in search of something I couldn’t name. And though I
developed many brotherly friendships with women and girls – and adored them
devotedly -- these connections still left me yearning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My little sister, my anima, was
not to be found out in the world. She
lives within me, she is part of me. I
first remember encountering her image in Anne Frank’s diary, which I read at
age 12 – roughly the same age as the girl who wrote it – each of us in hiding,
living in fear. I was fascinated with
the way she adapted – living a rich interior life, growing up within. She was a model for the girl-child hidden in me.
My anima is quiet and bookish, sensitive
and self-sufficient, an intellectual all-in-all. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But she’s also a dancer, flamboyant and fluid. I exercise her every morning, getting out of
bed with some flourish inspired by Balanchine or Isadora Duncan. And while cooking in the kitchen I have tried out some new moves -- shaking my formerly unshakeable bootie to the rhythms of <a href="https://folkways.si.edu/los-pleneros-de-la-21-afro-puerto-rican-traditions/latin/music/article/smithsonian">Puerto Rican Plena music. </a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It's something to celebrate. My generous and understanding
wife helped me mark my recent 79</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: large;"> birthday with a “gender
reveal” cake. These are usually baked by pregnant women to let friends and
family know what they’re expecting. Cut the cake and the reveal comes in pink
or blue. My reveal was subtle -- just a thin spread of lavender between the two layers. And my letter in the LBGTQIA
lineup was Q, at least for starters. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It turned out my issue was not sexual
orientation but gender identity. A
profound thanks to the feminist and gay rights movements for making clear the
distinction between sex and gender. I’m not
gay, but gender-queer, gender-fluid, nonconforming -- a man who is comfortable
in a man’s body but who often feels more like a woman inside, who loves women
but maybe in the way women love women, not as something alien or other
-- but as people like myself. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am not "gender indifferent." I like being a man --- tall and
strong, able to stand up to bullies. But I also like being quiet and bookish,
sensitive, perceptive, helpful to others – beautiful like my Inner Girl. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And I’m still a happily married
man in every way. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">However, I’d like to add a
new term to the LBGTQ lineup. I am not just cis-gendered but
SIS-gendered -- a man with a sister
inside. She’s been there all along; I haven’t really hidden her, just
never acknowledged her fully. And I hope
by writing this to say to every reader that it’s OK to be whoever and whatever
you are, and not to be ashamed. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Most of you probably know that better than I do. I just needed to say it for myself.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> --------------------------------------</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> Epilogue </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I sent the above story to my immediate family in January of 2021, and got many positive responses. They made me feel it was worthwhile to put it out there -- not just for myself, but for others who might need encouragement. Telling the truth had a healing effect; I felt more comfortable with who I am, and free to express it. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>However, my idea of myself and my sexuality has proved to be more fluid than I can keep up with. My daughter Cassie pointed out that the adjectives I used for my "inner girl" -- quiet and bookish, intellectual, sensitive, perceptive, helpful to others, beautiful -- can all be male qualities too. At that point the concept of an Inner Girl started to lose its meaning. I'm not two persons, but one. My Inner Girl went through several name changes. but now you can just call her Tom. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have no plans to change my lifestyle, divorce my wife, take hormones, undergo surgery, or buy a new wardrobe. All I have done by "coming out" as gender-fluid is to rid myself of a curse. I no longer care if someone thinks I'm one of <i>them. </i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I am one of them! I'm even joining the LGBTQ Concerns group at my church, St,. Michael's Episcopal in Manhattan. I want to hear what's on their minds. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have two fathers in heaven -- my biological father, and the creator of the universe, They're together now, and I think they understand. God created humans in God's image: "male and female he created them," says the Book of Genesis. It doesn't say "male or female." but "male and female." That's me. And you? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -- Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-33387145454086590822020-12-29T11:09:00.006-08:002020-12-31T08:53:56.103-08:00Trash Talk of 2020: The Year in Quotes <p class="MsoNormal">-- By Tom Phillips </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Des2sRRyGP4/X-t2-ONkq6I/AAAAAAAADoU/ZZi2njslS4IPzodqxjaNGGqVNKf5vF_1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/lINCOLN.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Des2sRRyGP4/X-t2-ONkq6I/AAAAAAAADoU/ZZi2njslS4IPzodqxjaNGGqVNKf5vF_1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/lINCOLN.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /> America survived the Civil War with the g<i>ravitas </i>of Lincoln's speeches and the c<i>aritas o</i>f Whitman's poetry to bind up our wounds. We fought World War One -- "The War to End all Wars"-- egged on by Woodrow Wilson's visionary slogans. We slogged though the Great Depression and World War Two heartened by Roosevelt's radio chats, and First Lady Eleanor's newspaper columns. Kennedy and Reagan pictured castles in the air, and Obama could be stirring, when stirred. </p><p class="MsoNormal">In 2020, we were on our own. Rhetoric was barely a memory, giving way to the grunts of combat: Curses and challenges, defiance and dares; trash<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> talk, mayday calls, last gasps and pleas for mercy. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">What they said: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">"It is what it is.." </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Donald Trump on August 31, downplaying US deaths from Covid-19 ".. <b>because you are what you are." </b>Joe Biden, blaming him in the first presidential debate September 29.</span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">“I can’t breathe.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">George Floyd, as he lay dying under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin May 25. When Biden was declared president-elect November 7, CNN commentator </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMoCW1Pq54&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR1-CSIdzzoVTLbEekXeriISLAadG0ZY10KGEcAccPGRPgxD3WrZDLm5DjE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Van Jones</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> broke down on camera, weeping for his children and friends. "It wasn't just George Floyd," he said through a flood of tears. "A lot of people …felt they couldn't breathe."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><b> "Kill me!" </b>Luis Vasquez, a neighborhood resident who fired gunshots into the air in front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, following a Christmas concert on the Cathedral steps December 12. Police shot him dead. The gunman's sister said he'd been "damaged" by prison time in the 1990s, and his mental state had worsened in the pandemic. </span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">"Please, call the cops." </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Spoken and recorded by Christian Cooper, a black man birdwatching in Central Park, on the same day George Floyd was killed in May. Cooper had asked a</span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> woman to put her dog on a leash. She responded by calling 911 and telling police that an “African-American man” was threatening her.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> The birdwatcher knew such white lies have meant prison or death for many black men. Still he challenged his accuser and was vindicated by the video.</span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4v_9PgdRQco/X-t9wjHx9II/AAAAAAAADog/LRX0W_8U0S8UFshOZN_tUYeJTZNrAzWdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s275/aoc2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4v_9PgdRQco/X-t9wjHx9II/AAAAAAAADog/LRX0W_8U0S8UFshOZN_tUYeJTZNrAzWdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/aoc2.jpg" /></a></div></span><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;"><b>"I am someone’s daughter too.” </b> One<b> </b>flash of eloquence came from R</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">epresentative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in response to a congressional colleague who called her a “fucking bitch” on the Capitol steps. Rep. Ted Yoho cited his daughters in a half-hearted apology, which Ocasio-Cortez rejected July 23. “Having a daughter does not make a man decent,<b>”</b> she said, but "treating people with dignity and respect." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">“White bodies up front!” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Unidentified protester in Black Lives Matter. The cry went up as unarmed demonstrators faced police in riot gear moving to break up a </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/julie.hoplamazian/videos/10100709257419434/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">protest in Brooklyn</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> June 4. Young white women and men surged to the front, using their white privilege as a shield to protect those of color. </span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">“We demand change. Sick of it.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Lebron James, as NBA teams walked off the court August 26 to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. In 2016 Colin Kaepernick was booed and vilified by fans and NFL owners for kneeling during the national anthem, and his career effectively ended. In 2020 NBA owners supported the protests, and cancelled playoff games. </span><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">“I do not believe you are a racist.”</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;"> </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">Kamala Harris</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.12px;">, to Biden during a Democratic presidential debate June 27. Harris then took Biden to the woodshed, castigating him for opposing school busing in the 1970s, citing her own experience as a girl being bused to integrate California schools. Six weeks later, Biden named Harris his running mate. In the vice-presidential debate, Harris refused to yield when Mike Pence interrupted and talked over her. Repeatedly she told him, “<b>I’m still speaking." <o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“Numbers don’t lie.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensberger of Georgia, certifying on November 20 that Biden won the state’s electoral votes. Facing death threats and calls to resign, Raffensberger said as a conservative he was disappointed by the result. But he called it “the verdict of the people.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">“I don’t want to die.” </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Lady Gaga, at the end of the video to her song <a href="https://gaganow.net/announcements/911/">“91</a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://gaganow.net/announcements/911/"> </a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://gaganow.net/announcements/911/">1.”</a> The four-minute film bursts with images from American hip-hop to Armenian iconography, beginning in a desert strewn with broken pomegranates. Their scattered red seeds evoke the myth of Persephone, and the life-or-death choices facing the human race. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">More to come in 2021. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.85pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">--- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </span></p><p><span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tevQIvDLD10/X-lcq7StV5I/AAAAAAAADnY/PZTfzGW5jjcVQdRDkFKLexWv7Z2otFm1QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Phillips%2BFront%2BCover.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1325" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tevQIvDLD10/X-lcq7StV5I/AAAAAAAADnY/PZTfzGW5jjcVQdRDkFKLexWv7Z2otFm1QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Phillips%2BFront%2BCover.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For noble speeches, <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/Beginners-Life-Adventures-Tom-Phillips/30324225694/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade-_-naa-_-naa&gclid=Cj0KCQiAlZH_BRCgARIsAAZHSBlEoZKeej1jASxjMuXTAFd22-RtioaB812QPFtih72VLI7LXwA6LHEaAhoZEALw_wcB">click here</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /> </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-75539930741013450422020-10-13T10:01:00.008-07:002021-01-14T04:55:02.846-08:00Future Bible Stories: King Donald and the Bugs <p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g8pFWB1Qxhk/X4XadDZ2dPI/AAAAAAAADes/IjgOYnLVVEcl6Go_N-8LoG2cj_vybndZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/201006-trump-white-house-mc-9222_79f93e44e9a757ca1d9de38e3e8ec331.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-g8pFWB1Qxhk/X4XadDZ2dPI/AAAAAAAADes/IjgOYnLVVEcl6Go_N-8LoG2cj_vybndZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/201006-trump-white-house-mc-9222_79f93e44e9a757ca1d9de38e3e8ec331.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br />The manuscript fragment below was recently discovered by Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's campaign to develop a vaccine before election day. Sources say the project had accelerated to several times the speed of light when engineers realized they were in a time warp. The manuscript was discovered at a point corresponding approximately with the year 4525 CE. It was damaged during the rapid deceleration that followed as crew members worked frantically to restore their present lives. It appears to tell the story of the 2020 presidential campaign, in the language of a latter-day Bible. </i><p></p><p>In the fourth year of the reign of King Donald, in the second month, the Lord sent a bug to plague the people of the earth, as a sign against the king because he did not love justice. </p><p>The prophet Woodward went to the king and he was afraid. The king said, "You just breathe the air and that is how it is passed. It is also more deadly that even your strenuous flu. This is deadly stuff." And the prophet wrote that in his book. </p><p>Then the king went to tell the people. He stood at the gate and told them, "When it gets a little warmer it miraculously goes away. The King of China is working hard and it's going to work out fine." And the people went home and did not fear the plague. </p><p>Then God sent the plague from another direction, because the king had not warned the people, and many were sickened and died. They covered their faces, but the king was proud and would not cover his face. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>In Albany and Sacramento governors warned the people to stay home, and the streets were emptied. King Donald called a great feast for the day of Easter, but few came. And those who came breathed the air and were struck with the plague, and it spread throughout the country. Great carts were brought to store the dead as no one would bury them. </p><p>Inside the beltway was a man named Joe B. His granddaughters came to him and told him to stand up against the king because of the people. Now Joe B. was an old man and slow of speech. But he had served and obeyed King O. Bama in the years of his reign, and he listened to the people. He told his granddaughters, "I am an old man and slow of speech. But I will stand." </p><p>In the ninth month of the year Judge Ruth died and slept with her ancestors. The life and opinions of Judge Ruth are written in the Annals of the Court. </p><p>Even as the people wept for Judge Ruth, Donald chose Aimy Comely Barrett to take her seat, and he called her into his chamber with all his friends. And the Lord sent in the virus as a sign against the King's friends, because they had not let O. Bama choose a judge in the last year of his reign. </p><p>And they breathed the air with their faces uncovered and many fell sick. And the king also was sickened. They took him into the reeds, and gave him cocktails to make him feel great again. But the prophet Woodward spoke and told the people what the king had known but had not told them, and the people were asking,"Why did he not tell us?" But others were angered. </p><p>Meanwhile the viceroy Michael stood up to defend the king against Joe B.s warrior Kamala. And as he spoke the Lord sent a black fly to sit on Michael's head, and the people all saw it because his hair was white as snow, and closely cropped. And Kamala smiled at the fly on his head. </p><p>In the eleventh month the people went out to choose ...</p><p><i>The manuscript is torn and ends here with only indistinct half-letters on the ragged edge below. </i>Write your own ending..) </p><p>-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-15336152109458214232020-08-29T18:02:00.013-07:002020-09-03T18:12:57.150-07:00My Life with the Cops <p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><i><span>Run chillun run, the pattyroller git you -- </span></i><i><span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Run chillun run, it's almost day. </span></i></span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span> </span><span> </span>-- Slave song </span></i></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oT6bgmL-8H4/X0qGRo1P-6I/AAAAAAAADXg/Z9PWKZiar_0ZDUs5ud055hwSXPgFcWwOACLcBGAsYHQ/s768/Young%2BJames%2BBaldwin.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="768" height="290" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oT6bgmL-8H4/X0qGRo1P-6I/AAAAAAAADXg/Z9PWKZiar_0ZDUs5ud055hwSXPgFcWwOACLcBGAsYHQ/w410-h290/Young%2BJames%2BBaldwin.jpeg" width="410" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />One evening in the 1940's, a young James Baldwin took the subway downtown to 42nd Street, just to explore midtown Manhattan. A policeman asked him what he was doing there, then told him to go back to Harlem where he belonged. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One evening in the 1950's, a young Tom Phillips walked out of a bar in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, in the poorer section of town around the railroad station. Emerging from a parked patrol car, a policeman asked me what I was doing "in there." I said I was having a beer. He informed me that everyone else in the bar was black. "So what?" I said. At this he grew defensive. He had nothing against black people, he'd "worked with them for many years." It was just that I didn't belong there. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Neither of these events would be likely today. Black people are welcome on 42nd Street, which has become an urban extension of Disney World. And the poor section of Roslyn has been torn down to make way for a parking lot. My classmate and teammate Sam Brown, whom I saw in that bar that night, now lives in Roosevelt, a poorer town farther out in a suburban sprawl that has become more segregated as it has grown more affluent. Such are the changes over time, but the basic principle remains: Each race has its place. And the cops will let you know it. </span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The racist style of policing in the United States can be <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police">traced to slavery. </a> In the North as well as South, enslaved people were subject to draconian "slave codes." enforced by armed police and militias. In 18th-century New York, slaves could not gather in groups of more than three; could not ride a horse; or be out at night without a lantern. In the South, curfews were enforced and runaways hunted down by Slave Patrols.</span><span> "Patty-rollers" in Virginia were authorized to kill anyone who dared to "absent himself from his masters service and lye hid and lurking in obscure places." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span>Keeping the peace meant protecting white lives and property. </span></span><span>And though slavery ended with the Civil War, no one told the police to change their racial views. Most cops I have come in contact with still consider segregation an essential part of their job. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes it takes benign forms. The first time my teenage daughter took the subway to my apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, she got on the wrong train and wound up in central Harlem -- 110th and Lenox instead of 110th and Broadway. She wandered uptown, completely lost. A police car pulled up and the cops asked her where she thought she was going. Alarmed by a stray white child in the ghetto, they drove her to my house. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">No such chivalry was granted to a young black woman we rescued from domestic abuse. My wife sent me downstairs to break up a screaming fight between the building superintendent and his daughter. We brought her upstairs, in shock, her clothing ripped, and called the police. They took down the report. She had a relative a few blocks away where she could take refuge. I asked the cops if they could drive her there, and they refused. "We're not a taxi service," they said. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A few years ago I picked up another daughter at JFK Airport in the early morning, and drove home over the Triboro Bridge, onto 125th Street. It was 4 a.m. A police car pulled me over near Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and a fresh-faced patrolman looked into the car. The question was unspoken, but obvious: what was an elderly white guy doing in Harlem at 4 a.m.? When he saw my daughter and heard my explanation, all was well. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">These days I have few problems with the cops. Gray-bearded and incapable of fighting, I get out of traffic tickets -- even driving the wrong way on a one-way street, right past a police station. I was confused. OK, be more careful. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>It was not always so. In the early 1960s I was a long-haired hippie, hitch-hiking across the West, when I ran afoul of Sheriff C.W. Ogburn in Rawlins, Wyoming. </span> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -- We don't allow hitch-hikers around here, said the lawman.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -- Why? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> -- We've had rapes and murders, that's why. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He shoved me in the back of his car and radioed headquarters that he was "just cleanin' up the road." I was sentenced to 19 days in the Carbon County jail, in a cell with a black kid from Detroit -- also in for hitchhiking -- and a local Hispanic, in for fighting in a bar. Each of us in some way was an affront to community standards, a threat to stability. When I got out, Sheriff Ogburn called me into his office with a warning: </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> -- Don't ever show your face in Rawlins again. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We hippies eventually had our day, and now Black people are having theirs -- a full-blown challenge to the established order. Hispanics await their own. And the cops are ready to take us on, convinced that they are protecting something of value. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently the New York City police union broke with its non-partisan tradition and endorsed President Trump for re-election. Gerald Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said "Mr. President, we're fighting for our lives out there. We don't want this to spread to the rest of the country." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">By "this," Lynch presumably meant the wave of demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, in which protesters confronted police with charges of racist brutality. The NYPD reacted petulantly -- withdrawing from the streets, then pushing the narrative that crime was "out of control." Their message to white America was clear: you need us to protect you. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Lynch went on to blast politicians for "blaming us for society's ills," and there he may have a point. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">The police are not charged with improving the world -- just keeping the peace, i.e. the status quo. M</span><span style="font-size: large;">aybe the best way to reform the cops is to change the status quo. And this time, tell them about it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-23868552068405494662020-07-18T04:26:00.005-07:002020-09-03T18:18:09.210-07:00Tom Phillips's 116th Dream <div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW44993136" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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-webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">- By Tom Phillips </span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{164}" paraid="1768765284" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{164}" paraid="1768765284" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-size: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBhnpyvvzT4/XuqyuYPsSrI/AAAAAAAADMI/e38sLsNZXGEOEqEluyGSO_wImLNb7CkSgCK4BGAsYHg/s1290/liberty-bell%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1290" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iBhnpyvvzT4/XuqyuYPsSrI/AAAAAAAADMI/e38sLsNZXGEOEqEluyGSO_wImLNb7CkSgCK4BGAsYHg/w320-h283/liberty-bell%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Chronic Condition" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Irreparable </td></tr></tbody></table><font face="times" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></font></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><font face="times" size="4" style="background-color: #ffe599;">I dreamed that I was fighting for a new America, a better America, in a rebellion that had just been named the "Green Patriotic Uprising" or something like that. I was in a school gymnasium, waking up at dawn next to a young woman who was my wife or girlfriend. She told me the name of the uprising; and I said -- OK that's what they call it, now let's go fight it! I was gung-ho, as they say. <span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span></span><span style="line-height: 19.425px;"><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font><p></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{168}" paraid="290819797" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" size="4" style="background-color: #ffe599;">We were to move out at dawn. My assignment was to run to the front lines pushing my upstairs neighbor, a fellow septuagenarian and a long-time activist, in a wheelbarrow. She wanted to fight, but had a bad leg and couldn't run. I grabbed the wheelbarrow with Myra lying down in it and began to run, full tilt along a narrow wooden track, with the rest of the rebel force close behind. But the wheel got caught in a crack and stuck. I was holding up the charge, so I worked frantically to free the wheel. Then it occurred to me that neither Myra nor I had any kind of weapon. How did we expect to fight? </font></span></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{172}" paraid="482613578" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" size="4" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{172}" paraid="482613578" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" size="4" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">At this point I woke up. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{176}" paraid="1377131098" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" size="4" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{176}" paraid="1377131098" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #ffe599; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Before military commanders go out to fight, they look at the balance of troop strength in a document called the Order of Battle. Under my pillow, I found the current Order of Battle for the conflict between the Powers-that-Be (PTB) and The Movement (TM). </span></font></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{176}" paraid="1377131098" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times"><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #ffe599; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span></span></span></font></p><a name='more'></a><font face="times"><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #ffe599; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font><p></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{6cf2892c-cf63-4058-afe4-8ebdbd91f69c}{212}" paraid="228064670" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{184}" paraid="1924164004" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 192px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><b>ORDER OF BATTLE 6/20/2020</b></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"><b> </b></span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":2880,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{188}" paraid="620796681" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">ESTIMATED PTB TROOP STRENGTH </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{192}" paraid="1435881088" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">US Police forces: </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">700,000 </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">(</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">source: US Bureau of Justice Statistics) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{196}" paraid="332788107" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Armed with rifles, handguns, tasers and stun guns, chemical irritants, clubs, helicopters, armored cars and trucks, attack dogs. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{200}" paraid="1082558390" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Army National Guard: </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">343,000 (</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">National Guard </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Bureau )</span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{212}" paraid="1022938756" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Armed with tanks, rifles, grenades, artillery, automatic rifles, surveillance and attack aircraft: helicopters and planes. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{216}" paraid="98935892" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">23 State militias or State Defense Forces (SDFs</span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">) :</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">14,000 (</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Heritage Foundation) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{228}" paraid="706094495" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Authorized to carry personal weapons in some states; unarmed in others. </span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{232}" paraid="880027122" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Private militias: 165 private militias known to exist in the US, with 20,000 + members. Armed with automatic weapons, rifles, handguns, bows and arrows. (SPLC) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{236}" paraid="532080387" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{240}" paraid="1553811353" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Also available: Up to 1,000 "goons" authorized to carry out arson, looting and assault in the event of disorders. (Source: Dept. Of Justice) </span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{248}" paraid="594337918" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Total PTB troop </span><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">strength 1.4</span><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> M </span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{1}" paraid="2095004445" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">(Not counted: Active-duty armed forces: 1.3 M plus 800,000 reserves, armed with weapons of mass destruction. Unavailable except in </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0iVVRGLTgiPz4KPHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iNXB4IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjRweCIgdmlld0JveD0iMCAwIDUgNCIgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4xIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHhtbG5zOnhsaW5rPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8xOTk5L3hsaW5rIj4KICAgIDwhLS0gR2VuZXJhdG9yOiBTa2V0Y2ggNTYuMiAoODE2NzIpIC0gaHR0cHM6Ly9za2V0Y2guY29tIC0tPgogICAgPHRpdGxlPnNwZWxsaW5nX3NxdWlnZ2xlPC90aXRsZT4KICAgIDxkZXNjPkNyZWF0ZWQgd2l0aCBTa2V0Y2guPC9kZXNjPgogICAgPGcgaWQ9IkZsYWdzIiBzdHJva2U9Im5vbmUiIHN0cm9rZS13aWR0aD0iMSIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgZmlsbC1ydWxlPSJldmVub2RkIj4KICAgICAgICA8ZyB0cmFuc2Zvcm09InRyYW5zbGF0ZSgtMTAxMC4wMDAwMDAsIC0yOTYuMDAwMDAwKSIgaWQ9InNwZWxsaW5nX3NxdWlnZ2xlIj4KICAgICAgICAgICAgPGcgdHJhbnNmb3JtPSJ0cmFuc2xhdGUoMTAxMC4wMDAwMDAsIDI5Ni4wMDAwMDApIj4KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIDxwYXRoIGQ9Ik0wLDMgQzEuMjUsMyAxLjI1LDEgMi41LDEgQzMuNzUsMSAzLjc1LDMgNSwzIiBpZD0iUGF0aCIgc3Ryb2tlPSIjRUIwMDAwIiBzdHJva2Utd2lkdGg9IjEiPjwvcGF0aD4KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIDxyZWN0IGlkPSJSZWN0YW5nbGUiIHg9IjAiIHk9IjAiIHdpZHRoPSI1IiBoZWlnaHQ9IjQiPjwvcmVjdD4KICAgICAgICAgICAgPC9nPgogICAgICAgIDwvZz4KICAgIDwvZz4KPC9zdmc+"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">extremest</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> emergency. See notes of POTUS OO mtg w MM 6/1/2020, Top Secret.) </span><span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW230183642 BCX0" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;"> </span><br class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; white-space: pre;" /></span><span class="TextRun EmptyTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="auto" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{7}" paraid="911135263" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">THE </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">MOVEMENT (</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">TM) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":2160,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{15}" paraid="974813605" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Anti-racism and anti-government demonstrators: 27 million. Unarmed. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{19}" paraid="836123122" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Antifa:</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Approximately 1,000 violent activists. Armed with bricks, crowbars, slingshots, metal chains and water bottles, some filled with gasoline, urine and/or feces. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{27}" paraid="1593690058" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Total troop strength: 27+ million. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{33}" paraid="1487922262" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #ffe599; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></font></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{33}" paraid="1487922262" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">ANALYSIS </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":2160,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{39}" paraid="1821078718" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">While TM holds more than a tenfold advantage in personnel, it has no lethal force at its disposal and would be at the mercy of PTB forces in the event of all-out conflict. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{47}" paraid="770126445" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: #ffe599; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></font></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{47}" paraid="770126445" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px 0px 0px 144px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-indent: 48px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">RECOMMENDATIONS</span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":2160,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{53}" paraid="603157331" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Recommendation to PTB: Do not engage. Military considerations aside, the slaughter of unarmed protesters could damage political standing of PTB. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{59}" paraid="1265100492" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{59}" paraid="1265100492" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Recommendation to TM: Do not engage. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Triunfa</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">porque</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> no </span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2 SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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"); background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">engana</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{77}" paraid="662133289" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"> </font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{77}" paraid="662133289" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span> OUTLOOK</span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> (Classified) </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{83}" paraid="1497665925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;">As the tear gas clears and emotions subside from this, one of the larger uprisings in the history of American civil disorder, a familiar landscape emerges. The Movement is now moving toward an acknowledgement that revolution is not feasible given the balance of strength, that as a result democracy will evolve incrementally rather than systemically. The PTB are moving on a corresponding track toward the same central conclusion. The issues of systemic racism and White Privilege are now permanent features of public discourse, and, while not acknowledged by PTB, will affect its policies and actions going forward. </font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{83}" paraid="1497665925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{83}" paraid="1497665925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">P</span><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">olitical change may not match cultural progress given the rise in anti-democratic practices. If the gap between those two vectors widens, potential exists for even larger civic uprisings in the near and middle future, though actual change will remain incremental regardless. </span></font></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{83}" paraid="1497665925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{83}" paraid="1497665925" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The pressure for cultural change is constant due to the existence of an anomalous condition found only in the US: "a crack in everything." This may be represented as a DNA drive fragment corresponding to the rupture in the Liberty Bell – stable, irreparable, dynamic and disruptive. Cf. Folk-singer W.W. Guthrie, DOD Wish Division. (see next and final edition of Viral Spring.) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{c5fbd7eb-135f-4b85-a50d-6da453347bd4}{37}" paraid="1913090959" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><br /></font></span></p><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{c5fbd7eb-135f-4b85-a50d-6da453347bd4}{37}" paraid="1913090959" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Respectfully submitted,</span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{109}" paraid="892784271" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Viral X. Springer, DOD </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{91850667-13d7-4919-af24-153ab694ddc7}{87}" paraid="1356334581" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">(Dept. Of Dreams, Warning Division) </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{115}" paraid="1595391167" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Summer Solstice 2020 </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{127}" paraid="313855416" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Please note I will be out of the office for the next three months. </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{42f4c2b7-8fe4-479d-b839-57ae1282c7cf}{102}" paraid="625208370" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></div><div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW230183642 BCX0" role="list" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; cursor: text; font-family: verdana; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><li aria-setsize="-1" class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" data-aria-level="1" data-aria-posinset="1" data-font="Symbol" data-leveltext="" data-listid="1" role="listitem" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; display: block; font-family: "times new roman", "times new roman_msfontservice", serif; margin: 0px 0px 0px 24px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" lang="" paraeid="{42f4c2b7-8fe4-479d-b839-57ae1282c7cf}{112}" paraid="1102900763" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">-Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"134233279":true,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559737":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></font></p></li></ul></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr BCX0 SCXW230183642" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{131}" paraid="1832460194" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; 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-webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{139}" paraid="659303608" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="times" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; 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-webkit-user-drag: none; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{151}" paraid="755364095" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; 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-webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;"><p class="Paragraph SCXW230183642 BCX0" paraeid="{ce33fd1c-c61c-47b8-92c1-5f6e1280196c}{189}" paraid="1614675593" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="TextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-contrast="none" face="" lang="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW230183642 BCX0" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"></span></span><span class="EOP SCXW230183642 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></p></div><p class="Paragraph SCXW44993136 BCX0" paraeid="{c40829d0-bef4-4921-ac5c-70c00f0b25c6}{164}" paraid="1768765284" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; font-family: "segoe ui", "segoe ui web", arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div>Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-10499705380160219092020-06-19T04:34:00.004-07:002020-06-19T14:04:35.908-07:00Bound for Glory <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WSVIC7Ys8Xk/XuvUbypKR2I/AAAAAAAADNQ/DDxwQgjotagiSeZOsZ87xXMNsrTlfIbYACK4BGAsYHg/s631/Woody-Guthrie-playing-guitar-631%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="631" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WSVIC7Ys8Xk/XuvUbypKR2I/AAAAAAAADNQ/DDxwQgjotagiSeZOsZ87xXMNsrTlfIbYACK4BGAsYHg/w500-h238/Woody-Guthrie-playing-guitar-631%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woody Guthrie <br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><i><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "helvetica neue", verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: monospace; line-height: 0;"><font size="5">y</font></span><span class="text Joel-2-28" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; position: relative;">our old men shall dream dreams,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "helvetica neue", verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.42em; line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Joel-2-28" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">and your young men shall see visions. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> Joel 2:28</span></span></i></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue", verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;">In this apocalyptic time, as America is revealed in all her shame and beauty, an old man dreamed a dream: </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;">I was walking the wrong way on Grand Central Parkway --- a road without a sidewalk -- making my way against a tide of traffic speeding into New York. My clothes were filthy, my shoes battered. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A voice said stop, wake up, before you get hit by a car and killed. But another voice No, keep going, walk the walk. I kept going. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The first voice said watch out, here comes a truck. I walked through the truck and it vanished. Then I knew the dreamer was not a bum going the wrong way, but a spirit bound for glory. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Suddenly I was behind the wheel of a powerful car, and the road was clear, leading up into mountains covered in green forest. The road followed a cliffside, the mountain soared beyond my vision, beyond human scale. And in those mountains, a voice came sounding: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i>This land was made for you and me. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The road peaked and led down into a valley, through towns and cities.... and there I left it, got out of the car, and it vanished. Then the whole song came back to me -- including the last three verses, which hardly anyone knows today. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, </i></span><i style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> By the relief office I seen my people; </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> Is this land made for you and me?</span></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land is Your Land" in the depths of the Great Depression -- a time echoed in America's crisis today. He was walking across a country in economic ruins -- millions unemployed, lining up for soup in church basements, their next paycheck a government handout. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"><br /></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> As I went walking I saw a sign there </i></span><i><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> And on the sign it said "No Trespassing" </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> But on the other side it didn't say nothing. </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> that side was made for you and me. </span></i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <i> </i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The song was -- and is -- a protest against economic ruin brought on by economic excess, against those who would exploit the land and destroy the land for personal gain, who would claim the land as theirs and not the people's. It's a </span><span style="font-size: large;">protest against those who would set Americans against each other -- by race or religion, class, wealth, or political party. This land was made for you AND me. </span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"> <i>Nobody living can ever stop me </i></span><i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> As I go walking that freedom highway</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Nobody living can make me turn back</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> This land was made for you and me.</span></i></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"><i><br /></i></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4">One thing the present crisis has done is to revive the battered idea of America, and, yes, its exceptionalism. If we lose it, where do we look for a vision? </font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"><br /></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4">If we save it, we have a new chance to fulfill its promise. In Lincoln's words, which also now rise from the dead and make sense: "One nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all (people) are created equal." </font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"><br /></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"> </font><i style="font-size: large;">From the redwood forest, to the gulfstream waters -- </i></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><font size="4"><span><i> This land was made for you and me.</i></span></font></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><i><br /></i></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </span><br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-75675916432297726052020-05-24T17:08:00.000-07:002020-05-24T17:08:07.445-07:00Old Movie, New World <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">-- By Tom Phillips </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">With nowhere to go until the Pandemic is over, we've been watching old movies we failed to see the first time around. I skipped "Dr. Zhivago" in 1965 because it sounded like sentimental claptrap, and it is. But it was a cultural icon, a landmark for my generation. Sometime in the not too distant future Hollywood will make a sentimental movie about love during the Pandemic of 2020. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">No one alive can remember anything like it -- a political crisis, wrapped in an economic crisis, inside a global pandemic. </span><span style="font-size: large;">It resembles 1918, with the Russian Revolution bundled in World War One and the flu pandemic. Paging </span><span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Zhivago... </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Then as now, politics comes first. The pandemic will be over in a year or so. The economy will follow the nation's health into recovery. But the political crisis will not be resolved in 2020.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Like the Wobblies in the 1920's, both Democrats and Republicans fantasize about a final conflict that will decide the nation's destiny. But with two septuagenarians vying for the White House, this is not the year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">No matter who wins, both sides will double down for 2024, when power will pass to a new generation. <a href="https://occupythearts.blogspot.com/2019/12/war-babies-prophets-of-peace.html">War Babies</a><span id="goog_1465881333"></span> like Biden and Bernie Sanders will age out of public life, and Boomers like Trump will quickly follow, either voluntarily or with a shove from the next generation. AOC is a harbinger; so is Ted Cruz. Th</span><span style="font-size: large;">is decade will complete a century of economic, political and cultural warfare that started with the Great Depression. By 2030 this will be a new America, and a new New World. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">To win control of it, Republicans have made it clear that they will sacrifice democracy. With demographics against them, they're trying to muscle their way to minority rule. During the W. and Trump years they have worked tirelessly to complete the groundwork: elevating young, partisan right-wing judges to the nation's highest courts; </span><span style="font-size: large;">gerrymandering to produce a conservative congress; promoting a "unitary" presidency that can rule by decree; and suppressing voting rights by every means available. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile Democrats envision a grand coalition of the weak -- labor, racial and religious minorities, </span><span style="font-size: large;">teachers, writers and artists,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> academics and intellectuals, </span><span style="font-size: large;">the old, the poor, the unemployed and the homeless. This is actually a majority in America, and one that can articulate its goals. But to achieve power it will have to be a super-majority. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Democrats dream of a Nanny state like Denmark; Republicans of Putin's Russia. So much for the American Dream. Meanwhile </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-china-us-showdown-beijings-steely-propagandist-sharpens-her-attack/2020/05/21/f71133e4-94bd-11ea-87a3-22d324235636_story.html?amp=1">China mocks us all,</a> as the center of gravity shifts back toward the Middle Kingdom. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The only sensible line in the movie of "Dr. Zhivago" came from Lara, who told her doctor/lover -- this is a terrible time to be alive. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">So is this. I can't wait </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">for the movie. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </span></div>
Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-12793064483544082672020-02-05T18:34:00.000-08:002020-02-07T11:58:35.390-08:00Devils Fall in Shootout: Bucket List Cut by One <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Newark, February 5, 2020<br />
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">The Montreal Canadiens defeated the New Jersey Devils 5 to 4 last night in a thrilling overtime contest decided by a shootout after the Devils tied the game in the final minute. No one in the crowd of 15.000 was more thrilled than a gray-bearded New Yorker in the fourth row behind the goal, attending his first professional hockey game at the age of 78.</span></h4>
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Thus did one item get crossed off my bucket list. I had always had a passing interest in hockey, along with every other kind of game covered in the sports pages. But it was a game I never played. Not having grown up with frozen ponds at hand, I can barely skate, much less juggle a puck through a hostile crowd at 50 miles an hour. So I was a pure fan; and I was agog.<br />
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Half an hour before game time, the lights suddenly went up and both teams swarmed onto the of ice for fifteen minutes of shock and awe. My friend Ivan and I were twenty feet away, behind a pock-marked plexiglass wall. On the other side <i>les Canadiens </i>circled furiously in choreographed waves, charging the goal and firing hundreds of pucks in rapid succession at their own crouching goalie, who nonchalantly caught most of them with his free gloved hand. Other missiles smashed into the plexiglass, delighting a crowd of little New Jersey devils with their hockey coach.<br />
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The beauty and the violence escalated as the game got underway. Now bodies as well as pucks smashed into the plexiglass, bouncing off and resuming their flight as if nothing had happened. You can't take your eyes off a hockey game, because the puck can travel in an eyeblink the length of the rink, and a scoring play can develop with just one lightning pass, a shot, a rebound and a roar as the goalie flops on his back and the puck flies into the net. The first goal of the evening unfolded right before us -- a Devil broke loose, raced past the goal from left to right and then fired a shot at the last possible instant, across the goalie into the one open corner of the net. The goalie and I shared a moment of astonishment. Was that perfection, or just luck?<br />
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Later the Devils' goalie -- -- named Domingue, like a bullfighter -- faced a shot at point-blank range from Tomas Tatar, the Canadiens' top scorer. Domingue was on his knees blocking the lower half of the goal, so Tatar fired it just over his head. With the puck launched from twenty feet at a hundred miles an hour, Domingue gloved it. Tatar gave him a nod of approval.<br />
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A fight enlivened the proceedings. It unfolded like a ritual dance -- a Devil and a Canadien suddenly shed their gloves and circled each other, hands up. The other players -- and strangely, the referees -- formed an outer circle to witness the clash. Suddenly the two rushed together and their skates scuffled for a grip on the ice as they wrestled, punched, pushed and hauled, until one man fell under the other and the refs stepped in to separate them and send one off to the penalty box, furious and cursing. It was like the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad: all the passion and pettiness in men's hearts on display. Except this is sport and not war.<br />
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A sportsman and a fan all my life, I've been sheepish about it, thinking that I should occupy myself with more serious pursuits. Now I realize that sport is life, with only life's impact on history removed. In this way sport can be discussed without unnecessary solemnity, without pontification, with no need for sober judgments. In this way it is exactly like art -- it is art, existing solely for pleasure and edification. And hockey is the greatest of the visual arts; it includes every element at unthinkable speed and intensity. (This is why the New York area -- not exactly the ice capital of the Northern Hemisphere -- can support three losing hockey teams with triple-digit ticket prices.)<br />
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The train back to New York was full of happy Canadiens fans, celebrating an artistic success. One of their stars, the former New York Ranger Ilya Kovalchuk, was booed mercilessly by the New Jersey crowd every time he handled the puck. So it was Kovalchuk who decided the shootout, in which individual players go <i>mano a mano </i>with the opposing goalie. Kovalchuk darted, weaved, faked and flicked the puck past Domingue's left shoulder, then laughed all the way back to the bench. Homer would have celebrated it, Shakespeare would have parodied it. I just ate it up.<br />
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-- Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips </div>
Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-51473284756447977812020-01-12T10:03:00.000-08:002020-01-12T10:03:34.159-08:00The Unknown Dancer <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"The Unknown Dancer in the Neighborhood"<br />Written and Directed by Suguru Yamamoto<br />Japan Society, New York<br />January 10, 2020<br />
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-- By Tom Phillips<br /><br />
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<br />Mayday! Mayday! Is a cry that comes up repeatedly in Suguru Yamamoto’s dance/drama “The Unknown Dancer in the Neighborhood.” It means “help me” in French, but it seems to fall on deaf ears in Tokyo, the setting for this theater piece by and for a new generation of Japanese artists.<br />
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Despairing dramas about alienated people were a staple of the last century. What makes this fresh is that it suggests alienation is actually the flip side of community. We feel disconnected only because we're connected.<br />
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“The Unknown Dancer” is a whole cast of characters, played by one brilliant young dancer-actor, Wataru Kitao, equally at home with hip-hop and ballet, in male and female roles, as a child or an old person, as a human being or an animal. The ability to cross so many lines is a feat of acting empathy – the very opposite of disconnecting. <br />
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He begins as a chest-thumping gorilla in the Tokyo Zoo – then jumps outside the cage to play a bunch of camera-toting zoo patrons, getting in each others’ shots, getting on each others’ nerves. One of them knocks down an old man, who is so cranky that he refuses a hand up from a young person.<br />
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The show is a rapid-fire series of urban vignettes. There’s a fatal accident on the packed Tokyo subway, where people fall into a gap between the door and the platform, and other commuters just walk on the victims' heads as they hurry off. But one young man tries to help, tries to lift them from their death trap. The “unknown dancer” is the thread -- dance embodying the emotions that run, like the subway, under the city's hard surface.<br />
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An inquiry is held into the subway tragedy, with questions for the unknown rescuer flashed like text messages or tweets on the wall. Are the questioners even human? No way to tell.<br />
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TV News saturates the air, covering the subway tragedy, then a siege at a bank with hostages taken, some murdered. No one can understand the hostage-taker’s demands: he wants to stop time, and have someone look his way. Mayday, mayday.<br />
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The masked, unknown hostage-taker then seizes the stage – whipping out a samurai sword and threatening to eviscerate the audience for its indifference. For a minute I thought he might do it. But no.<br />
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The piece ends with a gut-wrenching dance of grief by the mother of one of the subway victims –- a shy teenage girl -- as text messages from their last evening together flash ghostly on the wall.<br />
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The last exchange goes -- Mother, am I ugly? No, you’re not ugly.<br />
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Kitao pulls out all the stops in this climax, making a mother’s grief so real that it reaches into the gap between life and death – between two people whose relationship was strained, incomplete. The texts on the wall are a brutal reminder that we have memories, and regrets.<br />
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In a program note, director Yamamoto says the piece “is about the indifference of people toward other people; however, it is not about despair." So, what looks like despair to a 20<sup>th</sup> century man like me looks like “not despair” to Japanese millennials. Also to my 20-year-old granddaughter Lucie, who helped me spot myself in the show – a comical old man who gets knocked over by the dog he’s walking, who groans that he can’t even understand dogs today. All he understands is pain.<br />
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She also helped me see this show is about an epochal shift in consciousness. As we elders dodder and fail on the road to dotage, a new generation is dancing -- young people in a world under siege, who still know what it means to be human: to resist. <br />
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<li>Copyright 2020 by Tom Phillips</li>
<li>Photo by Ayumi Sakamoto</li>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-91831799352098171692019-09-04T22:58:00.000-07:002019-10-16T20:35:26.846-07:00India Ink: A Reporter's Notes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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A lot has changed in India since I first went there in 1978. But its psyche feels the same: Driven.<br />
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India is the only place I know where the energy is higher than New York. In New York, motorists are warned not to honk their horns, on pain of a $350 fine, which deters even though it is never enforced.<br />
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In India, everyone honks their horn continually, 24 hours a day. You honk when passing, turning, speeding up, or just getting angry. Indian drivers keep themselves at a boiling point. On our first night in the country we hired a car to go from Delhi to Jaipur, a 250 km straight shot that took five hours, from midnight to five a.m. Nearly all the way the four-lane road was clogged with brightly painted, heavily used trucks carrying cement and other materials for India's never-ending national construction binge, honking their way around each other, jockeying for position. In India, the preferred position is the center of the highway, straddlng the white line. Here you are King of the Road.<br />
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Our driver was Surinder Singh, a Rajput warrior from Jaipur, who loves his car and defends it against threats and slights, real and imagined. Half-a-dozen times he stopped the car and leaped out to wipe the windshield, scold the driver behind, dispute with a toll collector, or drive home a point to the guy next door. (The Encycledia Britannica notes the ethos of the warrior Rajputs includes a "mettlesome regard for personal honour.") He told us proudly that he lives in a part of Jaipur open to Rajputs only -- no other caste allowed.<br />
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Surinder takes tourists all over India, and sleeps in the car when his customers check into a hotel. The passenger seat folds flat like a first-class airline chair, so he made it up as a bed for Rusty, after his marathon flight in economy class.<br />
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Halfway to Jaipur, at three o'clock in the morning, we passed a noisy parade of pilgrims, in buses and on foot, waving a flag and blasting music from boom boxes. It was the start of a Hindu festival honoring Lord Krishna, right on the heels of a national veneration of Lord Ganesh, the elephant god, the hugely popular remover of obstacles. The Times of India reports Ganesh is so beloved that the cast of a hit TV series took time out to perform the climactic pageant of the festival, right on the set. Fake news, celebrity news, pictures.<br />
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Behind India's energy is religious devotion, sectarian rivalry, and a fervent desire to make money. New York has only one of those three, how could it compete?<br />
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--- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips<br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-69042692229180649382019-09-04T06:21:00.000-07:002019-10-30T08:47:15.126-07:00My Detour to Germany<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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I hadn't meant to go back to Germany so soon after my first visit last year, but Pakistan and India are playing games of "gotcha" again, and the Paks closed their airspace the day I was to fly. At least that's what United Airlines told me, so I wound up flying a different route, with a twelve-hour layover in Frankfurt Airport.<br />
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Last year's Tour of Fear cured me of my Germanophobia, convincing me that the Germans have done a much better job of repenting for their past crimes than we in the US. But nothing prepared me for just how comfortable I felt among the end-of-summer German holiday crowd in Frankfurt.<br />
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No people resembles America so much as the Germans. They look like us, move like us, clump together in teams and groups like us, laugh like us, dress like us, drink beer and eat hot dogs like us. All this stuff they've been doing longer than we have. Because in many ways, they are us.<br />
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Many Americans are surprised to learn that Germans are the biggest immigrant group in America. That's because they just "look like Americans." but of course the only true Americans are Indians, who look like Asians, and for some reason there aren't that many Indians around any more.<br />
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In New York, I can spot almost any foreign tourist as not-American, including the Brits who walk and talk differently, colonial history notwithstanding. But Germans could be Americans until they start to spout German, and most of them speak near-perfect American English as a second language.<br />
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The only consistent behavioral difference between us and them is neatness. German girls look American down to the logos on their clothes, but their jeans are never "distressed" and their hair is only rarely. It's not cool to look poor in a country so recently in ruins.<br />
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Of course all this goes deeper than style, but style was all I was able to take in in twelve hours at the airport. I came, I saw, I traveled on. Next stop on the Road to Dotage -- Delhi.<br />
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-- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips</div>
Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-32045231688644057352019-08-30T13:29:00.001-07:002019-09-02T04:23:45.267-07:00My Passage to India: Prologue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- by Tom Phillips<br />
<br />
Just last year on the Road to Dotage, I began a Tour of Fear -- to places I've always been too scared to visit. <a href="https://roadtodotage.blogspot.com/2018/06/confessions-of-philo-semite-3-road-to.html">My road to Germany </a>was a revelation -- seeing how a great civilization can renew itself, even after a descent into Hell.<br />
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My next planned destination was Texas, the land of big hats, big hair, big boots and big shots. When I worked as a TV newswriter, many of the network anchormen were Texans, and I've always been afraid to go to a place where such personalities are the norm.<br />
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Once I was working with a well-known Texan anchorman in New York, when he came across an AP story about the "hippest cities" in America. "NEW YORK!" he cried in disbelief. "New York is not the hippest city in America!"<br />
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Timidly, I inquired what city he thought was most hip. He looked at me as if I ought to know.<br />
"Why, FORT WORTH!"<br />
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I'm probably not hip enough to appreciate Fort Worth. So this year, in a detour, I'm going back to a place I've been, but one where a westerner always carries a <i>frisson</i> of fear.<br />
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In 1978 I spent two months in India, traveling with a fellow seeker after truth and adventure -- Arnold "Rusty" Glicksman. Each of us has written a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Life-Adventures-Tom-Phillips/dp/1938812530/ref=pd_ybh_a_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6V1H0TTGPV7GD55GB4YY">memoir</a> in which that trip plays a life-changing part. (Rusty's is still unpublished -- watch for it.) In a few days, right after Labor Day, we're going back.<br />
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Rusty's red hair is white now, and he is winding down the jewelry-making business he's had since the 1980s, with gold and stones he buys in Rajasthan. I'll spend a few days with him in Jaipur, and then head out for adventures in new places. First to the Caves of Ellura and Ajanta, ancient temples carved out of moutainsides, with some of the finest and best-preserved religious sculpture in the world. My must-see deity is a reclining Buddha carved in a wall.<br />
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According to legend, the Buddha didn't sleep -- his mind was so clear that he had no need to knit up "the ravel'd sleave of care." He would just lie down and rest for a few hours.<br />
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My other most-desired deity is this sexy female in Ellura. Though present-day India suffers from a hangover of Victorian prudery -- kissing in public is still a crime -- its gods and goddesses cavort freely with one another and love every kind of sexual pleasure.<br />
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How I wish I could rest like the Buddha, and romp like Lord Krishna with his consort Radha!<br />
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That was back in the Axial Age, when human wisdom and vision reached its zenith. I'm touring today's troubled world, and India is no exception. Still, with God all things are possible.<br />
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More later, God willing.<br />
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-- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips<br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-18487159301528490492019-06-17T07:51:00.000-07:002020-06-23T03:50:41.619-07:00Circumambulation 4: Turn, Turn, Turn. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kh-oP-Orc9Y/XQel5qKUrYI/AAAAAAAACfk/-TWPjCUgWdsIwozaZNB7OOFMVjYxs4XEwCLcBGAs/s1600/derv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kh-oP-Orc9Y/XQel5qKUrYI/AAAAAAAACfk/-TWPjCUgWdsIwozaZNB7OOFMVjYxs4XEwCLcBGAs/s1600/derv.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dervishes </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Saving the airfare to Istanbul, I went yesterday to a one-day workshop on Sufi whirling in midtown Manhattan, hoping to learn the best way to turn. In a large, airy, second-floor studio, about twenty New Yorkers showed up -- mostly young and female, plus a few young men and middle-aged women. Most had some dance training, and many were spiritual seekers. I was by far the oldest student, and at 77 the senior person in the room. The teacher was 73.<br />
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A dumpy, grandmotherly presence, she introduced herself casually by her Sufi name, Khadija -- also the name of the Prophet Mohammed's first wife. It didn't take long to recognize her as a quintessential New York intellectual, well-traveled and well-versed in several esoteric traditions, liberally seasoned with kosher salt.<a href="http://www.whirling-dervish.org/about.htm"> Look her up</a> and you'll find she started out as a modern dancer in New York, then to San Francisco where she encountered <a href="https://www.ruhaniat.org/index.php/lineage/murshid-samuel-l-lewis">Sam Lewis, </a>the father of Sufi dancing in America. This sparked a pilgrimage, overland from Europe to India and back in search of true whirling -- which she found with the Mevlevi order of dervishes in Turkey. Forty years later, she runs an upstate retreat for devotees of whirling meditation and cleansing diets, and returns periodically to Turkey to teach.<br />
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She's also been a Zen student for decades, with Sasaki Roshi of Los Angeles. But turning is better meditation, she told us. Sitting on a cushion one can look like a little Buddha, all the while obsessing about work, sex, or lunch. But whirling requires utter mindfulness. Think lunch for a half a second and you're in danger of falling.<br />
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We whirled in three sessions, each lesson about an hour long. Walking to the place in the morning, my joints were aching, and as she gave her first instructions I wondered if this wasn't a terrible mistake. But I kept on keeping on. Walking out, I felt stronger, more balanced, the aches and pains replaced by a pleasant general fatigue.<br />
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I learned that my home-made whirling technique was wrong only from the shoulders up. I'd been looking out over the fingers of my trailing hand -- the correct way is to look left, over your leading shoulder. You want to see where you're going, and "arrive ahead of yourself." But it's not like spotting, where you look for a single point. In whirling the gaze is inward, on the "center of the center of the center" of the self.<br />
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Our group was remarkable, said Khadija. We danced in a circle and it stayed that way -- even those like me who stumbled were careful to keep the same distance between ourselves and our neighbors. She'd never seen a group of beginners do that. Even the dervishes have trouble with it.<br />
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In the breaks between dancing and meditating, she read poems by the 13th-century Sufi mystic Rumi. She then explained every line, often referring to Einstein's theory of relativity, which she learned from her first husband, a professor of physics. Hers is a blend of Zen and Islamic theology: There is nothing but God, our individual existence is an illusion, the goal of whirling is to refine the self down to nothing.<br />
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Questions she handled like batting practice. I asked how she reconciles the idea that all is grace, all is light, all is God, with the idea of karma -- specifically, bad karma. Bad karma, she said, is just how you interpret things. If the world ends tonight, that's bad karma, but so what?<br />
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She also explained that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscle">psoas muscle</a>, used by human beings to stand on two legs, is used by cows only for copulation. The cow's psoas stays so tender that it becomes -- filet mignon.<br />
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The dancer-seekers ate it up, many sprawled on the floor or curled in the fetal position. Khadija and I, septuagenarians, sat in chairs. As elder statesman, I received the standard New York treatment -- this guy is compost. Khadija didn't bother to learn my name, focusing her individual attention on the next generation.<br />
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And that's how I spent Father's Day.<br />
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At 5:30, my eldest son Luke met me in the spiritual bookshop downstairs, and we went for a home-cooked dinner of tacos and rhubarb pie, cooked up by my lovely wife Debra. From 5:30 until I fell asleep at 9, one thought kept flashing in my mind: "If I can do this, I can do anything."<br />
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-- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips<br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-62963977420462982222019-06-02T04:26:00.000-07:002019-06-02T12:24:41.305-07:00My Road to Boston <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<o:p>-- By Tom Phillips </o:p></div>
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After sixty years of puzzlement, I finally got it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cartwheel logo of the Boston Bruins, with
a capital B at the center, refers to Boston’s traditional nickname, the
Hub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I talked to five Bostonians and to
my surprise, none of them knew this. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
gives me the courage to analyze Boston for them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve been trying to understand this place since my first visit
in 1952, when I was ten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father
brought me up from the New York suburbs to see a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was excited to see Kenmore Square, which I
envisioned as something like Times Square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing prepared me or my father for its sepulchral drabness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After two days in Boston he concluded, “This
is a small town.”</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It still is, but not like any other small town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the Hub, it is the biggest small town of ten
thousand small towns that make up New England civilization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wheel is not geographical but conceptual
– showing the place Boston occupies not on the map of New England, but in its
mind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Boston is a city of the mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the Freedom Trail tour of downtown Boston,
a retired schoolteacher in a Puritan costume gave us the New England view of American
history, i.e. ideas matter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Boston,
then and now, has the best ideas. (It was Oliver Wendell Holmes who came up with the idea of Boston as the Hub -- and he meant the center of the universe.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">New </span>York may be the cultural capital of the world, but Boston is its capital of Thought. In New York, one hears animated discussions on the subway,
but on the Red Line in Boston most passengers are silent, lost
in thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideas in Boston are not so much the stuff of intellectual
discussions as of post-doctoral theses, peculiar to the thinker. Thoreau was
the archetype of a Boston intellectual – just leave me alone, eventually I'll write the answers<br />
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But watch out for the grammar police. While in New York people may be silently correcting
your speech, in Boston they do it aloud. Years ago my teenage daughter worked behind
the counter at a store in Cambridge, when a customer scolded her briskly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -- </span>Don’t say “these ones!” Just “these.”</div>
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This intellectual arrogance begins at Harvard – founded by Puritan settlers in 1636, as the intellectual center of a new civilization,
intended to save the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1636, not
many believed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2019, Harvard's global gravitas was enough to recruit the leader of the Free World to address its commencement exercises. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood on the same
stage where George Marshall announced his Marshall Plan in 1947, and
methodically, maternally, matter-of-factly instructed the graduates that the
next miracles are up to them.</div>
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I was there to see my 67-year-old sister-in-law Linda receive
her B.A. from the Harvard Extension School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Frankly I had thought of the Extension School as not-quite-Harvard, but
the Dean set us straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is 100
years old and an integral part of Harvard’s mission to save the world – a democratic
alternative to Ivy League elitism, right in the heart of Harvard. This year’s valedictorian was a 58-year-old former
juvenile delinquent who graduated at the bottom of his high school class. Like
every Harvard graduate, he understands that he must use what he has learned for
the good of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His plan is to be
a better homework helper for his grandchildren. <o:p></o:p></div>
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</span>__________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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For me, no trip to Boston is complete without a return to Fenway
Park. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the lower grandstand, the
nation’s oldest ballpark looks much the same – no longer old-fashioned, now positively
retro.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ancient tunnel that ramps up
from the street to the grandstand is now decorated with newspaper headlines from
the Sox’ first golden era – 1900 to 1918.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before the game, an elementary school band from a small New England town played the Star-Spangled Banner. 200-strong, they sounded like an elementary
school band. The crowd cheered. </div>
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The groundskeepers looked like Keystone Kops compared to the
efficiency of Yankee Stadium. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took
them a half hour to get the tarpaulin rolled up and the field ready after a
rain delay. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand – the PA
system is mercifully moderate, not like the blasts in the Bronx. </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Boston is changing, little by little.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not nearly as drab as it was in
1952.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not as segregated as it was
even a few years ago – the Fenway crowd is now a comfortable mix of colors, and
the Harvard commencement a global affair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Hub is still fundamentally dour, provincial, sleepy, introspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At two a.m. it is dark as a tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
town is sports-mad because there really isn’t much else to do. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Go Sox, go Bruins. We want the Cup!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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And oh, yes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Veritas. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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-- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips<br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-81370099054261169572019-05-08T07:27:00.000-07:002019-05-10T08:46:57.346-07:00Circumambulation #3: Turning Left <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Whirling Dervishes in Turkey </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Last year I took up <a href="http://www.whirling-dervish.org/turn.htm">whirling </a>as a physical and spiritual exercise. After a while I drifted away and forgot about it, until something jogged my memory this year and I began again. It's different this time.<br />
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Last year I turned clockwise, recommended for beginners. Clockwise whirling can give you a groove, a feeling of centeredness and calm. But counter-clockwise is the real deal. It takes you out of your "comfort zone." This is my new practice.<br />
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The 13th-century Islamic poet Rumi wrote: "Do you know what whirling is? It is escaping one's existence continuously tasting the everlasting experience." If that sounds like nonsense, remember what the Talking Heads advise -- "Stop making sense."<br />
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To whirl counter-clockwise is to stop making sense, to step out of the patterns your mind has made for your life. We humans have a primitive area of the brain that if left unchecked will make sense of life by killing it -- that is, reducing it to routine tasks rewarded with mindless pleasures. Anyone can fall into this. Housewives are encouraged to do it, as are civil servants. But professors can do it almost as easily. This is why Rumi says we have to escape our existence.<br />
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Turning left instead of right, against the ordinary drift of life, I feel my outstretched hand is wiping dust off the table, knocking objects off the shelf. This dust and these objects are the detritus of habit and routine. What is beyond them? A whirling cosmos, spinning too fast for the mind to do its job of categorizing and judging, picking and choosing. In this state the mind has no choice but to move toward what Rumi calls the everlasting existence, i.e. the present moment.<br />
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I say "move toward" rather than "enter into" because I'm still a beginner, doing it wrong. I know there's an ecstatic spiritual continuum out there, but it will take practice, refinement, and <a href="http://www.whirling-dervish.org/about.htm">guidance </a>to whirl my way to it. These days I can turn for five or six minutes at moderate speed, and the effect is energizing, refreshing to body and mind and spirit. Taste and see...<br />
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To be continued.<br />
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-- Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips<br />
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-67299231008287450092018-09-06T18:41:00.001-07:002018-09-17T06:06:45.037-07:00Believing in Truth <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">-- By Tom Phillips </span></div>
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Rudy Giuliani: "Truth isn't truth"</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It’s happening more and more these days – people saying things that just a few years ago would have been considered insane. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">At a recent party, a young female stranger – a
graduate student – asked me, “What do you think about the post-truth
moment?”<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>My flustered answer: “I’m
against it.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On the street and even in church, on hearing that I used to
write for CBS News, people have cheerfully piped up: “Oh, fake news!”<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Absolutely not, I tell them.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>I never knowingly wrote a word of fake
news.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Oh, they reply, but you’re
retired.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>How about the people writing
now?<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I am a member of two establishments -- the press and the church -- that
depend for their existence on the idea of truth. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Both are under siege by a new wave of old politics
that values visions over facts, slogans over reason, personality over truthfulness. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>The press is in danger of being discredited,
the church of being co-opted.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>And so
far, the press is holding up better, more resistant and resilient.
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Professional journalists have no problem with
the idea of truth.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>A news story has two essential elements – a core of verifiable facts, and a
narrative that makes sense of them. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Any
reporter who doubts the first is incapable of the second.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>If one considers truth purely relative or
subjective, the only reportable facts are opinions, and a story consists of no
more than commentary – he said, she said.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>This is what has happened to much of TV News.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>But reporting still exists.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>In a true news story, opinions are secondary;
to say there are “two sides to every story” simply means there is more than one
way of analyzing, interpreting, or evaluating the facts.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>And the value of any interpretation depends first
on its agreement with the facts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">When I taught at a graduate school of journalism, I would
occasionally be stuck with overeducated students who wandered in a world of
pure relativism, with no way to evaluate one point of view over another.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Divorced from the simple idea of truth, their
stories went nowhere, and most of them soon dropped out. The best students were untroubled by epistemology; they were devoted to facts, figures, and common values.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Many of them are reporting and writing today, their faith in the truth
unshaken.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>A good journalist is the salt
of the earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Church people, on the other hand, have multiple problems with the fundamental idea of truth. Conservatives are susceptible to visions that have nothing to do with reality. Not long ago, in the large and diverse church I attend, a young man asked for
prayers that "Donald Trump will lead us into the promised land,” something
even the president has never come close to promising.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Liberals are hamstrung by their commitment to religious tolerance, which they confuse with relativism. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>Discussions
often founder on the standard disclaimer, imported from the secular world, that
there is not one truth but many truths, and we should take care not to value
one over another.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>This despite a Nicene Creed that begins “We believe in one God … maker of heaven and earth, and all that is, seen and unseen."<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Many liberal Christians believe that by stating a belief in
one God, we risk offending other faith communities.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>But Jews and Muslims also believe in
one God, maker of heaven and earth. So do Hindus – any taxi driver in Mumbai will tell you that Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and all their manifestations and
consorts are really aspects of one ultimate reality.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>And Buddhists believe in a universal Buddha
nature.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>All monotheistic religions agree there is one ultimate truth, though none of us has seen it whole. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> Many atheists agree -- they just don't call it God. A</span>s for the rest, we can tolerate nihilists,
neo-pagans, cults and superstitions without agreeing with them.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“Believe in truth,” advises Yale historian Timothy Snyder, in his essential 2017 handbook for resistance, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558051/on-tyranny-by-timothy-snyder/9780804190114/" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“On Tyranny.”</a></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">“If nothing is true, no one can criticize power, because there is no basis on which to do it. If nothing is true, all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding
light.”</span><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span>“Investigate,” he goes on.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</span>Use your own light to find out the truth, write it and publish it
yourself.<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span>There has never been, and will
never be, a “post-truth moment,” unless we let it happen by devaluing the
truth in own minds. Power doesn't like truth, because truth has its own power. <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areopagitica" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">John Milton </a>wrote in 1644, in defense of unlicensed publishing:</span> <span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously... to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">-- Copyright 2018 by Tom Phillips </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPq4mj6-TrA/W5-lvoGdeAI/AAAAAAAACNA/3L78re18zlI5oMB4okRfEGTArbhqltQ7gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Phillips%2BFront%2BCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1036" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPq4mj6-TrA/W5-lvoGdeAI/AAAAAAAACNA/3L78re18zlI5oMB4okRfEGTArbhqltQ7gCEwYBhgL/s320/Phillips%2BFront%2BCover.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For True Confessions, click <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938812530/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1">here</a></td></tr>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-46516125064762553512018-08-18T20:26:00.000-07:002018-08-20T06:19:10.092-07:00I Liked It Better When ... #6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">-- By
Tom Phillips </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I don't like to rail against modern
conveniences and comforts – don’t want to go back to washing dishes or clothes
by hand, or typing stories and correcting them with white-out.</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">But I
liked it better before beach houses were air-conditioned. </span></i><br />
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<i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Our
guest blogger Linda Given makes the case for a salty air and the sound of
surf: </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;">My parents both grew up in New Jersey and as a result, I’ve
spent time at the Jersey Shore since I was a very young child. One of my
first distinct memories being there is of sleeping in a little bedroom under
the stairs of a rental house, with my window open, feeling the ocean breeze and
listening to the waves rolling back and forth along the shore. In the
morning, I heard seagulls and footsteps and the occasional car. Some sixty
years later I’ve just returned from a beach vacation and things have changed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;"> I've seen it coming for awhile. The
house we’ve rented for years got central air-conditioning about ten years ago,
and while we didn’t use it much, it was definitely appreciated on a hot and
humid 95-degree day. On nicer days, we just opened the windows and doors and
let in the air. Maybe five or six years ago I noticed the screen for the
door in the bedroom I use wasn’t there. I searched the closets but
couldn’t find it so had to choose between fresh air and mosquitos.
Gradually, the screens disappeared from all the downstairs doors, and one
year we opened the downstairs windows only to find storms in most of them - the
ones we could actually get open. So we were cool on very hot days, and stuck in
an air-conditioned box on all the rest.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;">It’s a strange feeling to spend your whole day
soaking in the sun and sound and air at the beach and then return home to a
sealed-up house - in my probably not humble enough opinion, it just doesn’t
feel right. We used to be able to talk to the people on the back patio
through the kitchen window while cooking dinner or washing dishes - now they
can’t hear through the glass. The “breezeway” has become more like a sauna.
--- no a.c. there, but no breeze either. And even sitting on the roof
deck looking at the stars at night, it’s hard to hear the surf through the roar
of all the cooling units on the beachfront. To me, it feels like we’ve
been robbed of an essential part of the beach experience. So, I couldn’t
agree more with Tom’s introduction - I wrote this on a computer and I’m glad I
didn’t have to pull out the bottle of white-out. I’m glad that publishing this post is just a matter of a few clicks. But - I liked it better when the
windows opened!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt; margin: 0px;">Copyright 2018 by Tom Phillips and Linda
Given </span><br />
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<i>"I Liked It Better When … " is an occasional feature about disappearing aspects of life. Readers are invited to contribute! </i><br />
<i>Email submissions to this retro address: Roadtodotage@aol.com </i></div>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-80035307587425006992018-07-29T18:03:00.000-07:002018-08-02T04:57:21.089-07:00Pinker's Paradise <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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Harvard professor Steven Pinker is out with another of his weighty books about how the world is getting better all the time. This one's called <a href="https://stevenpinker.com/publications/enlightenment-now-case-reason-science-humanism-and-progress" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Enlightenment Now." </a>Readers should appreciate his contrarianism; his mass of statistics about the world's rising prosperity, improving health, reduced violence and increasing personal satisfaction is a welcome antidote to studies that show humans growing more lonely, pessimistic and frightened.</div>
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There's a fly in the cream, though. While Pinker's global stats generally show that happiness rises along with income, here in the United States, the pursuit of happiness has ground to a halt. In recent decades, Pinker reports, American men have gotten no happier, while women have actually grown less happy. This could simply reflect the stagnation in middle-class incomes since the 1970s. But happiness is not an isolated phenomenon -- it reflects much broader societal trends.<br />
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In my view, the overall decline has taken place in a category difficult to measure with numbers. </div>
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<i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Humanity</i> is expressed in the quality of human relationships, and over the last half-century, we have seen key human relationships in America systemically degraded and dehumanized, to the point that some of them barely exist. Among them are relations between employers and employees, businesses and customers, teachers and students -- daily interactions that form a large part of nearly everyone's lives. </div>
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Every curmudgeon needs his own timeline of when things began to decay. Bill Moyers points to a 1971 memo written by Lewis Powell, later a justice of the US Supreme Court. Powell claimed to see a broad-based attack on the US economic system, and called for businessmen to lead a broad-based counterattack -- in politics and the media, colleges and high schools, business schools and corporate boardrooms. The memo presaged a relentless campaign ever since to roll back the economic and social reforms that began with Roosevelt's New Deal. </div>
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My "uh-oh" moment came in the early 1980s, when I first heard the term "maximizing profits." It came via my oldest son, who was attending a high school that suddenly switched its focus from science and humanities to business and money. Swept up in the free-market enthusiasm of the Reagan years, the school was now urging practically every student to prepare for a career as an accountant, to ride the tide of maximized profits. </div>
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The phrase had ominous implications. When a company makes "maximizing profits" its goal, everything else goes on the chopping block: employees' wages and benefits, customer service, product quality, worker and consumer safety, the environment, and corporate culture itself. When I first went to work for CBS in the 1960s, I remember chairman William Paley defending the idea of "corporate citizenship" to a disgruntled stockholder, who was complaining about the company's civic contributions. Sure enough, when "maximizing profits" became the mantra, the company was sold to Laurence Tisch, who imported a team of accountants to test every expenditure for its economic value. All they wanted to know was how much profit could be wrung from each and every transaction -- whether with employees, advertisers, or the public. At CBS News, journalism was transformed from a public trust to just another commodity, to be produced as cheaply as possible. I wince to say it, but "fake news" isn't entirely a myth -- it's cheap stuff that looks like news, but can't be trusted. A common example is the use of free-lance video from opportunistic vendors all over the world. This cheap stuff may be biased or even staged -- but it is routinely narrated by stay-at-home reporters to make it look like the network is on the scene, covering the story.</div>
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Over fifty years in journalism, my own job as a writer was transformed -- from a known and valued staff employee to an anonymous free-lancer. In the 1980s and 90s, I took part in labor negotiations with CBS and became familiar with their long-range strategy for degrading their relations with workers. An executive let us in on the concept of the "eroding core," i.e. the reduction of permanent staff jobs and the rise of casual labor, essentially a beggar class competing against each other for work. This was supposed to be OK with us, because it would only harm those coming after. But some of us wound up in that beggar class - let go, then taken back as day laborers. </div>
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Today, highly skilled union writers work at CBS and other networks with no set hours, no vacations, no company benefits, no real relation with the company they work for. If one were to die on the job, the company would feel no obligation to send flowers. </div>
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Consumer relations are also high on the corporate hitlist. Customer service has been widely replaced with self-service, and this trend is accelerating. The idea is for the company to do as little as possible for customers, turning them into unpaid gas jockeys, ushers and floorwalkers, waiters and busboys, garbage collectors. The decline in service employees has been matched by the rise in security guards -- to make sure the unpaid help doesn't steal. (I'm tempted to write: why shouldn't they?)</div>
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Nearly gone are the days when salesmen and women formed actual relationships with customers, and profited from the trust implicit in those relationships. These connections benefited all concerned, including the owners, by giving capitalism a human face. Faces are anathema to a new generation of owners -- often private equity firms far removed from the business itself, concerned only with streamlining an acquisition until they can flip it at a profit. Each human service eliminated means more unpaid labor, more dollars squeezed down to the bottom line.</div>
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In education, the emphasis on business and money has changed the role of teachers -- from mentors <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">in loco parentis</i> to something more like career coaches, simply <i style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">loco. </i>In some high-end suburban schools, teachers are required to pressure children as young as 13 to choose a college major, and map out an academic path toward a specific profession or job. Of course, there's no guarantee that job or profession will even exist when the students finish their schooling. But a career is now the goal of education -- the product, a worker who fills a supposed need, rather than a human being with the freedom to choose. The student-teacher relationship is just another transaction; a transfer of supposedly practical knowledge, often near or past its expiry date.</div>
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One hopeful note in "Enlightenment Now" is that Millennials are somehow happier than the rest of us. I've noticed their sly expressions, and have some hint as to what they're thinking. Millennials are well-organized, tech-savvy, already battle-hardened in politics, and their time is coming. <br />
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Who knows? Within the lifetime of those of us on the Road to Dotage, the US could become a normal, modern, socialist nation. And the pursuit of happiness could be on again. </div>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-48145445967845792132018-06-23T11:43:00.002-07:002021-02-11T17:26:05.457-08:00My Road to Germany <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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Among my must-see destinations on the road to dotage are some I've spent my life avoiding -- places in the world that frighten me. And the scariest has always been Germany. <br />
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Born in 1942, my first idea of Germans was just "the enemy," the ones who started this all-consuming war. Then in 1946, right after the war, we moved to London and I learned what was meant by <i>blitzkrieg. </i>Bricks and half-bricks were scattered everywhere, cranes were excavating craters where buildings had been. An army manual showed how an incendiary bomb pierces the floors of a home, then blows the place up. I drew picture after picture of planes dropping bombs, blowing homes and people to bits. <br />
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Back in America at age twelve, I read the diary of Ann Frank and felt her terror of the Gestapo. It seemed incomprehensible that anyone would want to kill such a peaceful, brilliant child. Germans struck me as uniquely ruthless and sadistic people. And as I grew up, my fears were intensified by my affection and admiration for Jews, who were my best friends, teachers and mentors.<br />
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Still, it was clear that Germany did not equal Nazism. History showed it was the very center of western civilization, the seat of philosophy and the arts. How it turned monstrous was a conundrum without a clear answer. Some of my fellow students had no qualms about visiting Germany, but many, like me, were afraid.<br />
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Still, I was amazed to learn that some Jews actually went back after the war, to live in the nation that had tried to exterminate them. And recently I read about Jewish writers, artists and intellectuals <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/books/an-american-jewish-author-now-calls-germany-home.html">thriving in Germany</a>, despite continued incidents of anti-Semitism. <br />
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If they could go, I should. So this summer, on vacation in the Netherlands, we planned a short side trip -- a weekend in Koln (Cologne) on the Rhine. The prospect filled me with violently mixed emotions. What would we see?<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
My guide and interpreter was my Presbyterian pastor wife Debra, who spent a semester in Germany in the 1970's. When our train stopped at the border, she rascally whispered, "This is where they bring out the dogs." <br />
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Koln, just an hour past the border, was celebrating the end of the university year, and roaring with excitement over World Cup soccer. Nobody paid much attention to us, but after an hour of looking at faces in the crowd, I was freaking out. Everywhere I saw Hitler Youth, middle-aged SS officers ready to follow orders, and complacent <i>hausfraus</i> looking the other way. I searched for someone who looked like a Jew -- there are 5,000 in Koln today, down from 20,000 in 1933 -- and could find only one candidate, a man sitting miserably alone in a café.<br />
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"Are you still afraid of Germans?" asked Debra as we walked among crowds by the riverfront. More than ever, I said. And I felt ashamed: Just by being here, I was betraying my Jewish friends.<br />
I knew I couldn't spend three days in this state -- so the choice was either to flee the country, or find another way of looking at it. In the morning we prayed, and I asked for eyes to see Koln not by my light, but God's.<br />
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At that point fate, or chance, or providence intervened. We went to see the city's historical museum, but were told its main collection was closed because of water damage. The young lady at the desk told us nearby was another historical site -- the El De building, headquarters of the Koln Gestapo during the war, now a museum of the National Socialist era.<br />
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The museum fills four floors of a nondescript office building, and shows in documentary detail Koln's participation in Nazi war crimes. Until the 1980s, Koln had comforted itself with the notion that it was a center of resistance to Hitler, but this was more comforting than true. The Nazis got 39 percent of the city's vote in the 1933 elections. But once they seized power, demanding total loyalty from each citizen on pain of persecution and death, Koln fell into line. Hitler came to visit, and nearly the whole town came out to hail him. Dissent was only possible through organizations with international connections: the communist party, and a few conscientious churchmen who resisted the Nazi program to "harmonize" church and state.<br />
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Gestapo headquarters was a prison and interrogation center where citizens were tortured, deported and killed because they were Jews, Roma, homosexual, mentally deficient, or just unenthusiastic about the Nazi cause. "Anti-social" was a catchall category that could be used to arrest anyone, often on the basis of vague suspicions written up by neighbors. We see neatly typed letters: So-and-so wasn't at home one night. Where might he have been? Graffiti on the basement cell walls makes it clear some inmates had no idea why they were there. "You are mad," scrawled one prisoner to his keepers. Another tried philosophy: "Everything is transitory, even a life sentence."<br />
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400 prisoners were hanged or shot in the central courtyard, without trial. Thousands more were deported or sent to concentration camps. The courtyard was clearly visible from surrounding apartment buildings, but no one seemed to remember what went on there, until a lone protester bore witness in the late 1970s, and the city took note. Today the walls of the courtyard are lined with mirrors. I saw myself, as each visitor does, and wondered what I would have done in wartime Koln, where every morally acceptable course of action carried the risk of death. <br />
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After three days we retreated to the Netherlands, but my sense of Germany was changed. Today it feels much like America, with a hard core of conservative xenophobes balanced by a liberal intelligentsia and a horde of non-German types -- Turks and Arabs, Africans, Indians and Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. The mix seems lively and resistant to the conformity that enabled Nazism. Unlike us, the Germans have owned up to their crimes against humanity, and are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/25/europe/germany-kippa-protest-intl/index.html">vigilant</a> against repeating them.<br />
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The scariest aspect of Germans is their fabled efficiency. Supermarket cashiers make change with no wasted motion or breath, fingers flying and faces frozen. They work like machine-gunners, and a customer's imagination can take him straight to the camps. But this isn't fair to the cashier, who is harming no one, and who keeps the line moving much faster than in America. <br />
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We saw another side of German regimentation on Sunday, at a Catholic mass in Koln's Dom Cathedral. It happened to be a service honoring a uniformed charity group, <a href="https://orderofmaltarelief.org/#popup1">Malteser International</a>, headquartered in Koln. Maltesers are ordinary people -- men, women and teenagers who volunteer to help refugees, the sick and needy in projects all over the world. As the service began, hundreds of them marched down the center aisle three abreast, the middle person in each trio bearing a flag in military style.<br />
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Next came the choir -- the<i> madchenchor,</i> 100 girls aged seven to seventeen, all in white robes. Their marching was casual by German standards, but when they sang, every grace note was in place. Their teacher conducted with military economy and precision, yet was able to lift every voice with a sweep of one arm. <br />
<i></i><i></i><br />
Koln's Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki made it clear in his sermon that all this organization was in the spirit of charity -- that serving the poor, the sick, and the oppressed is the essence of Christian faith. It dawned on me that efficiency can be frightening, but need not threaten anyone. It even helps if put to proper use. <span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">And so
ended my Germanophobia. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; margin: 0px;">Next (and final?) stop on my Tour of Fear: Texas. </span><span style="color: black; margin: 0px;"><br /></span><br />
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-- Copyright 2018 by Tom Phillips<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For more war stories, click <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Life-Adventures-Tom-Phillips/dp/1938812530/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">here</a> </td></tr>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7195756189853757184.post-19474349890990640442018-05-05T16:18:00.000-07:002018-09-26T04:07:45.695-07:00In a Spin (Circumambulation #2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
-- By Tom Phillips<br />
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A few years back, just starting out on the Road to Dotage, I wrote about the benefits of walking around in circles -- the spiritual practice of <a href="https://roadtodotage.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-walking-cure-3-circumambulation.html">circumambulation</a>. That essay described walking around various holy sites in India, and later circumambulating an elephant sculpture in New Jersey. As one's dotage advances, the circles get smaller. And so it is that this year I have ended up in the most minimal of all circular paths -- turning on a dime, AKA whirling. <br />
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I had only whirled once before -- in the 1970s, at the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Poona, India -- where a friend and I were visiting out of curiosity. <br />
<u><span style="color: #000120;"></span></u><br />
<i>My most ecstatic time was in the
whirling class, where we learned the basic technique of the Sufi Dervishes.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Contrary to all my previous
learning and experience, I found if you keep one foot in the same place and
your eyes on a level plane, it’s possible to spin around indefinitely.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We beginners did it with one foot planted and
the other pushing around in a circle, as if we were riding a scooter on a
dime.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We held one arm straight and
looked out over the fingertips.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I felt
no dizziness at all.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The world, trees,
buildings, clouds and sky, just rolled around over and over again like the
walls of a whirlpool.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The picture was
not blurred at all, just moved faster and faster, round and round.</i><br />
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<i>This experience was so deep and
inexplicable that I never tried it again after we left the ashram, and to this
day don’t know if I could repeat it.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It
seemed like a magical window, opening on an area of truth that could not be set
down in words...</i> <i>(from "<a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-beginners-life-tom-phillips/1121631983?ean=9781938812538">A Beginner's Life."</a>)</i><br />
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Recently I took up whirling again, for reasons of health and safety.<br />
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Most of the obituaries in the paper now are about people my age, and common among the causes of death is "complications of a fall." I'd noticed that my balance was not what it used to be, especially when getting up in the middle of the night. My sister-in-law, a physical therapist, explained that in old age the liquid in the inner ear tends to dry out and crystallize -- and a good way to keep it sloshing around is to turn, turn, turn, a few times every day. <br />
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So I began to turn, and remembered the lesson at Rajneesh's place. Looking out over my fingertips, I see the room rotate, revolve, wobble, level out, then speed up, and elevate slightly as the radius on the floor expands. Turning a hand inwards I close the circle, and what happens next is different each time. I'll talk to the hand, sing to the room, or just spin and watch, watch and spin, until the timer goes off at five minutes. Then it's time to slow down, cool down, end with hands vertical next to the face -- eyes on the painting on the wall straight ahead -- and watch as the picture frame oscillates right-left-right and then slowly settles back into a fixed object. This I try to do once each day, adding few shorter whirls whenever I can slip one in.<br />
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At this point, a largely self-taught beginner, I have no thoughts to offer on the meaning of whirling. <br />
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<a href="http://www.whirling-dervish.org/turn.htm">Sufis</a> say: "..the steps themselves are few and simple, but like a top, unless you are perfectly centered, you cannot disappear into an infinitesimally thin axis so that everything you take yourself to be is whirling around you, and you are that existence which has no physical residence." <br />
<b><br /></b>Rumi, the 13th century poet and dervish, described how it feels: ".. to struggle with the notion of one's self, like a dying, bloodstained bird, fluttering in the dust..." <br />
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As for falling: I hadn't had a serious fall in decades, but shortly after taking up whirling as protection against it, I fell. Twice. First while hiking on a hillside, next while falling asleep on a wobbly kitchen stool. Each time I landed on my right shoulder, and the second fall tore the rotator cuff off the bone. <br />
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Was this a divine warning? A consequence of hubris? A bump in the road? A random coincidence?The beginning of the end?<br />
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How would I know? Surgery this week, "fluttering in the dust..." <br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">-- Copyright 2018 by Tom Phillips </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For more complications, click <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-beginners-life-tom-phillips/1121631983?ean=9781938812538">here</a></td></tr>
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Tom Phillipshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17811449456953451486noreply@blogger.com0