Quotable Thought

" Elections belong to the 
people.  It is their decision.
    If they decide to turn
their back on the fire and
   burn their behinds, then
     they will just have to sit
            on their blisters."

                         ---Abraham Lincoln

                                  

POSITIVE FUTURE POSSIBLE

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them, the first time."  

I wholeheartedly concur....with Maya Angelou.

The Republican Party Presidential candidate has repeatedly shown us who he is -- we need to believe him.   He clearly at heart is not the person he's been trying hard to present this past week or so prior to the election.   His Party's platform, assuming he would even try to promote it -- and I don't trust what he might do -- will not lead our nation to prosperity, especially since the financial approach is a repeat of a previously unsuccessful plan.    He and the wealthiest class will benefit most despite the platitudes of his caring about the rest of Americans -- campaign platitudes which are just that and nothing more.   If in doubt, consider news reports showing workers and businesses who've lost income owed them. 

A positive future is possible, I believe, with Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
I trust this candidate will make every effort possible to promote prosperity for this nation with plans she has outlined.  Hopefully, the legislative branches, especially the House of Representatives, will recognize they are long overdue to accept and engage in meaningful compromise for the good of the people which is precisely their job.   I am aware of her alleged shortcomings but believe them to pale in comparison to those of her opponent.

My perspective.....
I've given serious thought to what is at stake in this election as likely most readers here have also done.     I observed with great interest all the prospective candidates as they each burst on to the scene -- then their numbers were whittled down to the two major political party candidates.  I've been aware of all the shenanigans of one candidate turning this election into the basest of reality entertainment -- heard all the lies, innuendos -- noted the media suckered into providing free promotion of that individual, lessening the credibility of much of the serious news media in the process.   

Consider this.....
Third party candidates will receive votes from a small percentage of people who believe they're making a statement.  Unfortunately,  the reality is this is an empty gesture that will  serve to do little more than sway the election to one of the two realistic potential winners.   This is a critical time for our nation that would be best served if a choice between the top two candidates is made  based on major party platform, consideration of probable need  for Supreme Court nominee appointments.

After the election, third party voters need to then align themselves to actively promote whoever their favored candidate is for the future and build their party  to viable numbers for the future elections.  Some may well believe we need to relegate to lesser status that major party taken over by their current candidate repelling so many of their number -- or maybe some of that party can form that third party, and other possibilities.      

MORE ELECTION THOUGHTS

This is a momentous election year---with choices unlike any others in my lifetime --- so
--- we better get it right on who we select to be in charge of decision-making for us and our nation ---  if we want to retain our constitution's democratic republic as intended by our founders. 
Our next U.S. President needs to be------


... someone who understands our nation's importance and place in the world for our own security and need to foster peace
... someone who respects our country's various relationships with that of other nations
... someone who recognizes the significance of fostering unifying actions within our country
... someone who demonstrates genuine understanding of the needs of all socioeconomic groups 

... someone who actually offers realistic plans and solutions for problems facing our nation rather than simple-sounding grandiose or previously failed trickle-down financial schemes

.... someone not afraid to release their income tax form to demonstrate the truthfulness of claimed charitable contributions, true net worth
....  someone whose life's work has evidence of public service beyond self-aggrandizement
....  someone who speaks civilly of all genders
....  someone who does not disparage, ridicule, belittle and bully other individuals
....  someone who can verbalize meaningful ideas so does not have to resort to name-calling


....  someone who appreciates the need to value and preserve the fourth estate  instead of automatically condemning the press when they report the truth or what is unfavorable to them  
....  someone capable of using reason to recognize and build on what's positive in our government
....  someone  who.........there are more positive comments that could be written .......

VOTE TUESDAY,  NOVEMBER 8, 2016

UNIVERSITY IS LONGWOOD BUT VEEP DEBATE LOUSY

Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia was the setting for the first and only 2016 Vice Presidential debate.   I was more than a little annoyed when the Republican candidate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, falsely called the institution Norwood.   Longwood University students, including a proud family member of mine, must have been impressed.   Longwood is an outstanding  university, but any school should, at the very least, be appreciatively  named correctly by guests on their campus.    The university deserves Pence's apology -- or just like his running mate is prone to do -- does Pence not apologize either?

I guess the name glitch was an honest mistake,  but this was the only university where Pence and the Democratic candidate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine would debate in this election.  Surely Pence could get the university name  fact correct, or maybe bothering with such details affecting ordinary people aren't that important to him.  Of course, Kaine had an unfair advantage since he was more familiar with his home state, plus he had even once been Governor of Virginia.  Unfairness is a theme the seed of which the Republican  Presidential candidate may be not so subtly planting as a potential possible accusation he'll unleash if he doesn't win this November election.  

I couldn't help thinking that Pence might have become infected with just saying whatever came to mind regardless of accuracy as his running mate is infamous for doing.    Pence continually having to defend all of his running mate's denials that he didn't say what he actually said, I can imagine  results in discerning fact from fiction becoming more than a little challenging. 

The candidates talking over each other angered me as that is not debate.   Let the speaker spout their mistruths, falsehoods, distortions -- then the opponent counters with the facts.   That's the purpose of rebuttal.   What's so difficult about doling that?   Difficulty occurs when the issue to be addressed is avoided and the subject is even changed which infuriates me, too.    Just cut off the sound on their microphones when they talk over each other,  ignore the moderator, or if they don't answer the question -- that's a penalty that will train them real fast.      

I get disgusted with name-calling and labeling, also, but that's a tactic used primarily at the higher presidential candidate level this election and mostly by Gov. Pence's running mate.   Let's cut that presidential candidate's microphone, too, when he pollutes the airways in that manner.  I know, easier said than done.

One of these two Veep  candidates will become only a heart beat away from the Presidency.  Though we can't vote separately for a Vice President, maybe we should give serious consideration to whether or not we would want a person in that vice-presidential position who willingly and so readily has been reinforcing his running mate's obvious falsehoods -- lies that even a child would recognize.  

RECOLLECTION

Remembering .....9/11
......those whose lives were lost then and later

.....those still living who cope with the effects of what they encountered  then and later

.....those families and friends affected then and forever

So much going on in this world for which we have concern that reflection on painful experiences from the past is unwelcome.  Yet we need to consider events in our history lest in our haste to seek change we be doomed to again select a leader with questionable judgement capabilities (a fault one candidate from that same political party demonstrates almost daily) which so many now agree in hindsight was made following 9/11 -- that year not-so-long-ago.

On a more personal level  I shared my experience of  that day in an archived 2011 post titled
  
9/11 Remembered 10 Years Later  --  for anyone who may not have previously read it.
 (Post will appear after clicking on link if you scroll down below current post which reappears.)

MOTHER, EDUCATION, VOTING

Periodically I've been writing personal memories for my family so thought I’d share one commemorating my mother.  

Mother was born in nineteenth century United States to educated conservative but progressive farm parents as our agrarian society was becoming industrialized.   We had entered the twentieth century by the time Mother completed the 8^th grade of school.   The Great Lakes State where she lived required those students wanting to attend high school must first pass a specially designed competency test referred to as “the Boxwell exam.”    

  

Mother’s parents encouraged their children who were so inclined to attend high school.   She passed the Boxwell, went off to a town the long-horse-and-buggy days-distance-away from her home to live weekdays with a family in the town where the high school was located.  In return for that family providing her board and room where she stayed while attending classes, she performed housekeeping duties in their home, plus her father paid them a small sum.    

Interestingly, I was able to locate the Boxwell exam's questions in the Ohio State University Library archives.     Here are a few questions with one I chose from each discipline an eighth grader was expected to have mastered.   The student was offered ten question choices in each discipline from which they had to select nine to answer.  

There were no yes/no or multiple choice questions as in many of today’s tests, often recorded on Scantron forms. 

Grammar and Composition:     

Analyze or diagram the following:  Captain Nathan Hale, a brilliant and handsome young man came forward and said, “I wiLL undertake it.”  His Last words were, “I regret that I have but one Life to Lose for my country.”

Orthography: 

7,8,9,10. Spell as the examiner pronounces: Aviator, vigil, Brazil, courtesy, tapestry, grieve, candor, reverie, Japanese, merino, sterile, dissent, refrigerate, justice, suffrage, peppermint.

Geography:

Write a short composition upon any of the following topics: "Raising Corn," "The Amazon Valley," "The Reciprocity Trade of the United States With Canada," “The Panama Canal" or "Our National Congress and Its Work of the Last Year."

Writing:

Write a short selection of poetry or prose from memory as a sample of your penmanship.

Reading:

Read for the examiners. (65%)

Arithmetic:

If ten men can dig a ditch 3.6 rods long, 2 feet deep in 8 days of 9 hours each, in how many days can twelve men dig a ditch 49 rods long and 3 feet deep if the days are only 8 hours long?

United States History including Civil Government:

What is a protective tariff? What is a tariff for revenue? What do you understand by the conservation of our natural resources?

Physiology:

Name the three divisions of the brain, and state the work of each division.                                                                                                                       

Click Boxwell's for a link to more details and questions if you're interested.    

 

Mother spoke of having to memorize all 88 Ohio counties; learning Latin to better understand the roots or relationships to some of our English words, especially scientific and legal ones, but these may have been high school studies.       

Following high school graduation Mother attended Kent Normal School (Kent State University now).  She became a teacher after completing the then required two year program for certification.  Subsequently she taught in a one room school house in her northern Ohio home community.   The experience of teaching all age students through eighth grade together in one room was the practice of the day.

1920 was the first year in which women could vote in the United States following passage of the 19^th Amendment to our Constitution.   My mother became 21 that year, enthusiastically voting in that Presidential election.   She continued to proudly vote in all elections at every level throughout her life.    She cherished educated voting as a hard won right and a citizen's responsibility for living in this free nation.  

After meeting and ultimately marrying my father, they moved to a different area of the State where their family began.   Consequently, her life took quite a different path from that in education due to a variety of reasons, including the later development of unexpected health issues. 

 

Each year that I become older and closer to her age when she departed this earth, I increasingly think of matters I would so enjoy discussing with her now.   This year’s election is one such topic, especially when I read this description of issues in that first 1920’s election in which she voted.  

American Leaders Speak…    “…politicians were arguing…Overseas there were wars and revolutions; at home there were strikes, riots and a growing fear of radicals and terrorists. Disillusionment was in the air…The debate between the nationalistic activism…and the global idealism…”. 

My mother had a very positive outlook on life as she adapted to changing times and circumstances.     She was loving and supportive of our family throughout my life as only a mother can be.