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A NATION OF LAWS

The following extensive quote comes from a detailed description of the 14^th Amendment to the US Constitution and its potential use to deny Former President Trump a place on the 2024 ballot.

“January 6 United States Capitol attack

On January 10, 2021, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, formally requested Representatives’ input as to whether to pursue Section 3 disqualification of outgoing President Donald Trump because of his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[193][191]

On January 11, 2021, Representative Cori Bush (D-MO) and 47 cosponsors introduced a resolution calling for expulsion, under Section 3, of members of Congress who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 US presidential election or incited the January 6 riot. Those named in the resolution included Republican Representatives Mo Brooks of Alabama and Louie Gohmert of Texas, who took part in the rally that preceded the riot, and Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, who objected to counting electoral votes to certify the 2020 presidential election result.^[193][191]

After Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) declared his intent to run for re-election in 2022, a group of North Carolina voters from Cawthorn’s district filed a lawsuit alleging that a speech he gave immediately prior to the Capitol attack incited it, and, therefore, Section 3 disqualified him from holding federal office. A federal judge entered a preliminary injunction in favor of Cawthorn, citing the Amnesty Act of 1872;^[205] however, on May 24, 2022, an appeals court ruled that this law applied only to people who committed “constitutionally wrongful acts” before 1872.^[206] A similar challenge, which a federal court declined to block, was filed against Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and heard in April 2022 in Atlanta. Greene sued to strike down the law that allowed contesting her eligibility as unconstitutional.^[207]

Otero County, New Mexico commissioner Couy Griffin was barred from holding public office for life in September 2022 by District Court Judge Francis Mathew who found his participation as the leader of the Cowboys for Trump group during the attack on the Capitol was an act of insurrection under Section 3.^[208] This is the first conviction under Section 3 since 1869 (save the previously mentioned overturned conviction).^[209”

At least one senator, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, told reporters he had a “long talk” with fellow Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia about barring Mr. Trump from running for office under the 14th Amendment.

“I haven’t been convinced yet, because the 14th Amendment is not explicit on how you determine whether someone participated in an insurrection,” Durbin said. “If they had been convicted of that in a court of law, then I can understand how you can use it as a predicate for prohibiting people from running for office. But there is a real serious question, if that conviction has not taken place, whether the Congress can have a finding, or the Senate can have a finding that they are guilty of insurrection and whether that’s sufficient. So it’s unresolved.”

That’s a taste of the background for considering using the 14^th Amendment, Section 3, as a means of keeping Donald John Trump off of the ballot in 2024. As much as I believe Former President Trump will go down in the history books as the perpetrator of our darkest hours as a democracy in modern times (maybe ever), it gives him too much credit for normalcy to deny him the humiliation he so richly deserves as a candidate in 2024 election process.

Initially, I totally misjudged his oratorical talent to inspire the unfulfilled among us.  Furthermore, he excelled in his malevolent abilities to tap into their id (according to Freud, “that set of uncoordinated instinctual desires”). He awakened in 10’s of millions of Americans that sense of loss and embarrassment that the nation they thought they knew and loved was, in their minds, stolen by unnatural forces. From their perspective, racial and gender equality are observably untrue. An acceptance of a multi-religious world is an insult to their God. An appreciation for being born with differing sexual orientations is blasphemous. And the idea that we must nurture not expend our planet’s natural resources and disrupting our climate is garbage science. This is who Mr. Trump speaks to and for.

For the majority of us who believe in the common good, and respect our founder’s desires to create a set of democratic ideals that include the rights of minorities, while advancing the evolving will of “we the people”, we (I) cannot support denying Mr. Trump and his followers the reality that America has changed. We are a melting pot of ethnic, cultural, and religious differences. Men and women are born equal under our laws. We have individual rights and responsibilities. We have abused the life-giving forces of this planet, and we as a species must face up to the challenges ahead or the generations to follow will perish on a hellscape.

By removing Mr. Trump from our electoral system, we deny him and his acolytes an object lesson in democracy. All Americans have the right to speak their mind and make their case for a particular belief, or belief in a particular person. Invoking an amendment to our Constitution that was written after a very problematic era and written for a very specific remediation is not warranted here.

Former President Trump will likely be found guilty of a wide range of felonies under our legal system. However, the presumption of innocence is also key to our justice system unless and until he fails to make his case and is found guilty. Again, I fully expect that to be the situation in the months to come.

As importantly, however, Mr. Trump has successfully made his case to his followers that he has been misunderstood and mistreated by our legal system. To therefore deny him and them the opportunity to fail miserably under the weight of the facts yet to be put before a jury of his peers is asking for trouble. Again, millions of our fellow Americans have invested heavily in his distorted and discriminatory view of who we as a nation wish to be, and he and they need to hear us out under our agreed upon system of justice. Anything short of that denies them their day(s) in court(s) and gives them just cause for a potential violent push back. They already tried that on January 6^th, 2021, and dozens have been incarcerated for those acts. We now have to have faith that Mr. Trump, and his more radical followers live in an America of laws not ego-drenched autocrats.

If we don’t trust and believe that, we deserve to go by the way of all the once great nations before us.

John W-Bee

September 28, 2023

A WHITE, HETEROSEXUAL, MALE, BORN IN THE USA

I was looking for a word that described the quintessential white, American heterosexual male, and came up empty handed so far. As I have stated before, I had nothing to do with getting here with any of those attributes. Furthermore, it is estimated that Caucasians make up around 10.2% of the world’s population; not exactly your dominant race.

Yet, white guys think they own the place; I just don’t get it. Why do white men act like that? Worse, what can white men be thinking as they discriminate against women, people of different colors and races, or people who love another person of the same sex? It seems to be a delusional disease that has engendered massive levels of pain and even death over the centuries.

To the best of my knowledge, I cannot recall ever experiencing discrimination. On the Mexican side of the border, I am fairly certain I have been pulled over and paid the police officer directly for driving while White. However, unlike other forms of discrimination where the assumption is a person is “less than” the perpetrator, in the case of driving while White in Mexico, the assumption is I have “more” ability to pay a skin-color fee. “Ah, he’s White so he must have money to give away.”

To state that discrimination, for any reason, strikes me as nonsensical is an understatement. What must go through a person’s mind to lead them to conclude they are better than another person? We all come from the same species for crying out tears; created from the same primordial muck. I just don’t get it!

J W-Bee

September 9, 2023

LOST IN THE WILDERNESS

AND ONLY ONE WAY OUT

“For most Republicans, Trump has already changed the truth, in the sense that he has changed the way they perceive reality. Seen through Trump’s warped lens, the nation was in dire straits before he took office, plagued by crime, drugs and poverty; molested by hordes of immigrants; laughed at by our adversaries. “This American carnage stops right here and right now,” he declared in a memorable line from his inaugural address in 2017 (a speech the most recent GOP president, George W. Bush, described as “some weird s—”).”

Eugene Robinson 

“The first GOP primary debate confirmed the end of the old Republican Party and squelched any hope for a normal presidential election in 2024.”

Tom Nichols

America had a two-party system, which worked relatively well when there were adults in the room on both sides of any debate. Those debates were vigorous and at times divisive but good leadership usually found ways forward. That system is now broken thanks to an inability by the GOP to face facts. I am talking about Republicans treating lies as facts, turning honorable opponents into enemies, inciting violence as a remedy to overturning legitimate election results, and inviting Un-American activist into the Republican leadership in the name of keeping peace internally.

What is so flaming disconcerting, is that their party’s standard bearer has been shown to be a liar and violence-prone autocrat, yet a solid majority of US citizens continue to demonstrate their fealty to this inept and unqualified snake oil salesman.

Fear and anger are not viable principles upon which to build a strong nation or a political party.

It would be one thing if Neo-Republicans were just committing organizational suicide and soiling the table upon which they eat. What is so depressing, however, is that the GOP-on-us-all are dragging the entire nation down into its septic tank of hate.

I get that they were duped by a talented con artist promising instant cures for what ails our country; that just makes one gullible (we have all been there at some point in our lives). What is totally inconceivable and malicious is that after years of exposing his self-aggrandizing illegalities (91 at last count), the GOP is positioning itself to double-down with this charlatan. Suffering, therefore, is the only predictable outcome for America.

The Grand Old Party line currently says this is a highly organized deep state conspiracy against Mr. Trump. If that unfortunate deception were to be true, then some of the most staunchly conservative GOP leaders are its strongest voices speaking truth to his lies.

One of the most articulate of those conservatives is retired judge Michael Luttig. If you have not heard of or seen this man before, do yourself a 12–minute favor; listen to what he has to say.

For anyone caught up in the algorithm of this liar’s loop we have The Lincoln Project. Please just step away from the kleptocracy’s game board for a few minutes and see what loyal Republicans have to say about the party’s likely nominee.  Heck, even the FOX News puppet master himself, Rupert Murdoch, found The Donald to be an inarticulate boob and criminal.

For my conservative Christian friends, remember the quote from John (no relation) 8… “The truth shall set you free.”

Until the GOP, and more importantly, the current-day Republican voter set us free from this modern American nightmare, we will remain lost in this wilderness of lies and deceit.

John W-Bee

September 9,2023

“Donald Trump and his allies and supporters are a clear

and present danger to American democracy.”

Michael Luttig

Who is Michael Luttig?

“Retired Judge Michael Luttig is one of the most influential conservatives to have served in the federal judiciary. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia while he was on the appellate circuit, served as assistant counsel to President Ronald Reagan, and was the assistant attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, who later appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals.

He was twice considered for nomination himself to the Supreme Court.”

I encourage any and everyone who cares about the rule of law, and the underlying principle that we are governed by our laws, not individuals, to watch Judy Woodruff’s interview with Mr. Luttig.

This is not some liberal or biased government official who could be tarred with labels describing him as some deep state operative. One of his bottom lines is that what the 44^th President of the United States did after legitimately losing his bid for a second term was not politics, it was a criminal offense against our almost 250-year-old democracy.

I will say no more other than to encourage you to watch this interview with Judy Woodruff.

John W-Bee

August 17,2023

Do you think “Honest Abe” imagined our current predicament? Or, as Mark Twain suggested, is it that history does not repeat itself; it just seems to rhyme?

Whatever is going on, clearly some of the people seem to be receptive to being fooled all of the time. I would like to think it is not because they are malicious people, although some clearly are.

In times of war when there is an obvious enemy who is hell bent on killing you and me, political opinions are as useless as warts on a toad. However, when we have the time and space away from an external enemy, some of us seem to need to create an enemy out of the people who don’t look, think, and act like us. One would have to take the time to look at our history and our development as a nation to understand that’s who Americans are. We don’t look and think and act like one another because we came from distinctly different places. Many by their own free will, some by force, and some were native to the land. That is our greatest strength, and unfortunately, our greatest challenge.

“If it bleeds it leads” …thank you (not), William Randolph Hearst. As sayings go, this one still seems to be ruling our print media and airwaves 130 years later. In fact, thanks to AI algorithms, we are now fully identified and catered to by our electronic devices. If a person is seen as a Trump supporter, one is shovel-fed his righteousness daily. Likewise, if one is a Trump detractor, there’s plenty of muck to be raked and digested (barf!).

My point in this quote-a-rama, we have seen and heard all of this conflicting and hyperventilated “news” before. The difference today is that programmers and their highly intelligent software have determined one’s biases (we all have them), and constantly send us an avalanche of like-minded opinion. Human nature being what it is, we like being right…a lot; I know I do. And no matter one’s economic circumstances in life, being heard and then fed like-minded and reinforcing information bolsters are self-worth.

Donald John Trump is a master at identifying those who have legitimate complaints as to how unfair it is that their lives are being ignored by the powers that be. He then channels that visceral energy through speaking in unequivocal terms about “them” (the pointy-headed elite) who have discarded us like so much collateral damage.

I get that, I really do. I write often about the puppet-masters, and the corporate land and air rapists who are destroying our planet, along with our middle class. And if I thought Donald was aiming his sites on repairing an unjust economic and judicial system, I would be right in there with him.

Without being pejorative or demeaning, however, he has shown us that’s not what’s uppermost in his thinking or actions. Donald John Trump has been raised and learned to be a promoter of Donald John Trump. He is generally seen by those closest to him and those who have worked beside him as an egotistical and unscrupulous believer in win at all costs. (The latest four federal indictments brought by Jack Smith quote some of those who worked closely with him; it’s not a pretty picture.) In his world the truth is flexible. If you are his ally, you will be liked, if you disagree with him, or God-forbid oppose him in anyway, you are an idiot and ridicule-worthy. Here’s a perfect example…

Then you have this little threat to potential witnesses and judges in his case…

 “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.”

Some say he is a racist, a homophobe, and a misogynist. I’m not always sure because if you are a color other than white, or gay, or female, and you believe, as he does, the sun rises and sets on Him, He doesn’t give a rat’s backside who you are; just so long as you will help Him become the ultimate ruler of the USA. That’s His end game, period.

Therefore, what strikes me as critical at this moment is that we all, friends of Donald or not, need to reflect on what it means to be an American citizen?

In the America I praise, there is plenty of room to believe in wealth generation and saving our planet from over exploitation of its natural resources. Some will hold deeply held beliefs in God, while others do not. We can be fully aware of the human race’s history of enslavement (it’s not just Black and White) and insist that we not be painted as racist because we see tendencies in other races for un-American behaviors. We can be raised around guns and see their educated use as a right, while others find them to be repulsive devices that kill innocent people, including children. We can believe in a fetus as a life worth saving, while others believe that at the end of the day, no other person or society has a right to impose their beliefs on a woman’s right to make those decisions for herself. We can believe that war is the best choice for survival, while others believe diplomacy requires that we make every effort not to kill total strangers.

Please get my point here. Americans have free will, and we have been raised in very different environments with very different beliefs (I actually believe that’s one of our greatest strengths). Therefore, when things are not serving an individual or the common good, we need to sit down, hear one another out, and seek solutions that are mutually beneficial, or at least where both sides are equally unhappy (grow up…nobody always gets what they want). We need an economic system that leaves none of us behind in pain, starving, unhoused, and unheard. We believe, at least I thought we believed, in laws not individuals. Therefore, we need a justice system that treats us all as equals under the laws of our land.

A free people have the right to hold differing opinions. And equally, we have a responsibility to air our disagreements through civil discourse, not bombastic declarations of stupidity with those we disagree with.

Donald Trump has consistently demonstrated an inability to engage in civil discourse. You either believe in Him as your savior or you are His enemy. He makes this very simple really; just listen to Him for a moment. Who does He talk about? Who has been seriously mistreated? Whose power has been stolen by “them?”  Mr. Trump needs you to believe He is the only one who can save you and the America you believe in.

This is not someone who has an ability to disagree agreeably; it’s His way or you’re persecuting America’s one and only savior. Donald believes He is the second coming, and as such, lying, cheating, and stealing are His God given rights; the truth is what He says it is.

We can all agree, America has some pretty difficult issues to resolve. The middle class is being hollowed out from the inside by our economic system. Why? Big money has a strangle hold on our means of production, which is all done with the sole goal of maximizing profits for the wealthy. Our right to vote is being manipulated. We have entire critical systems, medical care being just one example, where your ability to pay determines what level of care you receive: that’s inhumane. We have a higher educational system geared to cater to those of means. We have a social media system that has been programmed to isolate and bifurcate, not inform and unite us. Equally, many of our news media conglomerates are not fact disseminators, they are infotainment garbage dumps. Our politicians are bought and paid for representatives of their major donors, not the people.

So, yes, we have some big problems to solve as a society, and we don’t need saviors, we need leaders who understand their responsibility to represent We the People, not some wannabe dictator.

J W-Bee

August 10, 2023

“Outer space does not begin at a definite altitude above Earth’s surface. The Kármán line, an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level,^[8][9] is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping.” 

So far, less than 1000 humans have experienced Earth from outer space. The rest of us only know about our relatively small piece of this celestial miracle. We also only know an impressively small number of its 8 billion human inhabitants, no less know about most of the living creatures on land and sea, the plants, and the rest of life on planet Earth. My point…we spend the vast majority of our lives ignorant of the bigger picture in which we exist. That’s not intended to be a put down; it’s just a statement of the vastness of our unknowingness.

The reason that is so important to this episode of my thinking and writing is to say I don’t know much, and I live among a planet full of contemporaries.

Given all that has been written since we have used words to express ourselves, and all of the incredible progress humans have achieved in this past 1,000 years (especially this past 100 years), homo sapiens are just the latest evolutionary version of  our species.  We are capable of contemplating our existence, we have the intelligence to create tools that far exceed our modest human abilities, and, despite all of this progress, we are still an ignorant, almost embarrassingly tribal bunch.

Nationalism leads my exhibits for our collective and profound political ignorance. It makes for myopic and self-aggrandizing rhetoric and painfully obscures the view from 100 kilometers.

Humans have even created Gods in their own image! Have we considered just how impressively arrogant and immature that is? Have we really taken in, historically, how cruel we are toward one another? Have we come even close to appreciating the gift we all live on? And only if we did would any God possibly admit to being our creator. Creators create, humans accumulate and expropriate. That puts us at a climate tipping point, and greed is winning out.

Our species, with all we know about the life-giving force we are surrounded by daily, treats this unbelievable place like it’s our personal garbage dump. On a global scale, simply based on skin color or the gender of our species, we savagely treat other human beings with disdain and degradation. And we have the audacity to imagine a God-force would look and act like us? 

Another piece of evidence that is inescapable is that not one of us had anything to do with how we got here, and yet a small number of us believe they are better and smarter than all of the rest of us. That level of hubris demonstrates just how poorly informed our species is about promoting the celebration of life. If we are all miracles of life, and I believe we are, then why do we tolerate such behaviors? And why in God’s name do religious institutions promote such behaviors?

At a height of 100 kilometers, we are one. We are equals in the eye of any life-giving force…no better and no worse than another’s life. We all got here the same way…respect that reality. We can travel for light-years and find nothing as spectacular as what we have before us. Embrace what each of us has to give and teach our children how to thrive together on this pale blue dot.

It’s not too late to grow up and be in awe of what we have all been given.

J W-Bee

July 29, 2023

The phrase “living on borrowed time” is an idiom that means to continue living after a point at which you might easily have died¹. It can also mean to continue to exist longer than expected¹. The phrase is often used to describe someone who is terminally ill and is expected to die soon².

The reality is that we all are dying from birth (we are terminally alive). The definition that best defines my circumstances is that I am living longer than expected based upon my immediate family members longevity. I am now almost 2 years older than the longest lived member of our family, my Dad.

I rather like exceeding the experience and expectations of our little clan. I was born the youngest, but I have lived to be the oldest. That feels good, and I am still comfortable saying I am likely to see several more years. However, my mindset at this point is there are no guarantees. Every family member but one has moved on after a bout with cancer. In my case I have already survived one successful round with prostate cancer, so cockiness and bravado have been set aside for gratitude and exercise.

The primary reason for writing about being on borrowed time, however, is to appreciate today. My yesterdays were, for the most part, productive and filled with good fortune. I have every good reason to imagine a future, but TODAY is the only certainty; what a relief. I am not burdened by regrets (the serenity to accept the things I cannot change), and tomorrow will be another delectable morsel of borrowed time. I have made my share of mistakes, but with age comes a perspective that mistakes are just part of the unending learning process. Additionally, seeking perfection has shown to be an ill placed use of time which promotes obsessiveness.

Of course, one of the complications of life in the 21^st Century is the speed of change and a requirement to adapt or give up. Add to that the obscene amounts of information piled on top of old information and I do not mind admitting I get overwhelmed at times. Occasionally, I forget that there is nothing normal about this new normal and the idea of dementia and senility seeps in. So far, I think I am keeping up fairly well, but I know this too shall pass, and death will be a welcomed relief.

Fearing death is like fearing ones next breath; both are natural.

In a cosmic sense, we appear to be the only species we are currently aware of that has a sense of self. Therefore, as I take a big picture view of this topic, even the idea of borrowed time is rather immature. Time is a human construct, and that we are even here and are aware of this, is unique. To then suggest any of this is “borrowed” (from what or whom?) is not very useful.

“You have much to learn grasshopper.”

I have concluded there are two main purposes in our lives; doing and being. While we go about our days “doing” various things, our minds need to be focused on that activity. It is only when we take the time to just “be” present and aware of our own miraculous existence, then living on borrowed time becomes a way of understanding what has always been needed…appreciate this moment.   

John W-Bee

July 7, 2023

The light is fading on our “more perfect union” and I implore you to take charge and forge the future.

My generation is an abject failure when it comes to what we are leaving behind for you to clean up. Boomers took the philosophy of “carpe diem” too seriously and you are inheriting its outcome. We got caught up in the successes of our parent’s generation, and we blew it. (As the old saying goes, we were born on third base and we thought we had hit a triple.) Our biggest mistake was worshipping the almighty dollar assuming we could buy our way out of any problems. On top of that we did not understand our planet is an organism, and we thought we owned it instead of taking responsibility to nurture it. A few of us saw that as a license to steal your futures, and we now have a super-wealthy class of egotists who are in the midst of leaving you broke and your world in shambles. You still have time to help change that, but you need to move now. We have given you little time to grow into your critical role as leaders, and for that I apologize; but get over it and step up. And when you make mistakes, learn from them and move on.

“To whom much is given, much will be required”. I am not a religious person, but this quote from the book of Luke 12:48, sums it up. That small sliver of people “to whom much was given” have not used it for the greater good, they used it to buy our political system in order to further enhance their financial worth. I’m sorry to say we let them turn capitalism into a steroidal monster. Therefore, our political leaders focus on their own well being and not their constituents.

You know this as well as anyone. The fossil fuel industry is killing us…you. The guns and ammunition business is killing us…you. The for-profit medical and pharmaceutical industries are gouging us to the point that only the well off can afford treatment. The military industrial complex has been misnamed the Defense Department; it’s offensive. If they want to defend us against our greatest enemy, invest in climate change solutions, not helping mega-industries to steal other countries resources. The for-profit incarceration industry, which includes our injustice system, is bifurcated. We have one justice system for the poor and one for the wealthy. Our Supreme Court has now been bought and paid for by the Federalist Society.

The theme here is pretty clear don’t you think? America’s whole reason for existing these days is to pad the pockets of those to whom much has been given so they can get more. Take the economic incentive to invest in politicians out of that equation, and insist that your representatives serve the greater good, and America has a chance of becoming a place physically and emotionally beneficial to all of us…you.

I am not saying that there will not be differences of opinions, of course there will be, and that’s a good thing. Civil discourse and compromise are essential to any functional political system. The three Rs (reading, ‘righting, and ‘rithmetic) are basic skills to be taught and so is the value of teaching civics. When it comes to how your government works, ignorance and abstaining bring about the mess we have today.

Many of our nation’s parents and grandparents have booted the pooch by focusing on themselves and not the country as a whole. When I was born, it was not at all unusual to declare our pride in what America represented. Our forefathers had the audacious notion that we could be a democratic republic that was welcoming of people from around the world. We aided in saving the world from a narcissistic fascist dictator, and then we elected one of our own. Also, we finally came to our senses and realized people of all races and both genders are, of course, equal under our laws.

America has never been perfect, that’s my point. Every generation has to step up and take their turn in improving upon our system. As I have said; my generation has badly handled its responsibilities out of egotistical hubris and apathy. Add to that the exponential speed of change, and we have backed your generation into a terrible corner.

From what I have seen so far, thank goodness, you are up to the tasks at hand.

John W-Bee

June 10, 2023

FROM BLINDNESS

One of those shared thoughts most people in the sighted world have had at one time or another is how difficult and frightening it would be to not be able to see. My older brother, Earl, was born blind, and the both of us found it neither difficult nor frightening.

My theory is when your brain gets hard-wired under a certain set of givens (having blond hair and blue eyes, being Anglo or Africa-American, or having two moms) those are simply givens. None of us has any control over how we come into this world, but once we show up things are what they are.

So, when my brother showed up, he could not see, and when I showed up two and a half years later, my brother Earl was blind; done…move along, nothing to see here (sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

Unfortunately for my brother, I fairly quickly realized I had certain advantages over him (like when Mom would rearrange the furniture and forget to tell Earl).  Also, when we would play a board game I might occasionally misread the numbers on the dice (in my favor, of course…oops). Yes God, I cheated the blind kid.

As I look back on our respective childhoods, I wish I could say that I was always the sweetest kid that had my brother’s best interests at heart; but that would not be the truth. He received a great deal of attention from people who could barely give me the time of day. However, if someone else thought it was funny to take advantage of the blind guy, I was as aggressive as a junk yard dog.

As time and age and decency started to over take me, I invested more and more time in working to understand what Earl was dealing with and absorbing the emotions that went with those thoughts. I love my brother, and I came to admire and greatly respect him.

They say (whoever “they” are) that if one of your major senses is unavailable, one or more of your other senses is enhanced. In Earl’s case he was born with perfect pitch and a computer-like memory for dates and time.

For the good and bad of it, my brother spent a lot more time in his head. I mean think about what’s in front of you. At this moment it is my computer screen and these letters that pop up on this white background. In my brother’s case he was not distracted by all of this visual input, it was black and that allowed him to focus inside of his head using sounds, smells, and touch. I could tell when he was concentrating on something because he would regularly put the knuckle of his index finger in his eye (a very common blindism). This form of concentration, along with his perfect pitch, gave him the skill set of hearing a piece of music and being able to play it back on any one of the seven instruments he learned to play. The clarinet was his go-to instrument, however.

In our adulthood he told me about what it was like to have to attend the Batavia School for the Blind in Upstate New York. The idea of mainstreaming came a few decades later, so the common wisdom was Earl needed the support he could get from learning with other kids who were blind and teachers trained in teaching the blind. He had me in tears as he recalled those first several months, at the age of 5, having to be away from home and living in a dormitory away from his family and with a bunch of strange kids. (Blindness often times comes along with many other physiological and psychological impairments. Put them all together in one 24/7 living environment and it left some pretty deep emotional scars.) Furthermore, that meant that Earl was away during the week days and would come home on the weekends. This was hard on both of us in that I had the full attention of Mom and Dad until HE showed up, and I was not always that pleasant. The older we got the easier and more caring I became; but those early years were pretty rough on him. Understandably, there remained some emotional residue that can never be taken back or washed away. For Earl it was the harshness of those early years; for me it was the shame that came along with being a little jerk sometimes.

I am sure this whole experience was one of the main underlying reasons behind my becoming involved in the not-for-profit helping profession. That our oldest brother was born severely mentally impaired was yet another contributing factor…but that’s a whole other story for another time.

One of the other major influences Earl had on me was the whole issue of race, and in particular skin color. Think about it…what difference does skin color have if one is blind. How a blind person assesses another person has to do with the person’s voice, their choice of words, their touch, and their sense of humor…real tangible things. (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement about being judged by the content of one’s character has always had a special resonance for me.) Skin color is so unimportant in the world of a blind person. It’s simply not a choice anyone gets to make, whereas how one phrases thoughts and talks about themselves involves multiple choices.

For me, it also became a way of looking at homelessness. What are the choices a person makes? An addiction to alcohol is not a choice; mental illness is not a choice; sexual orientation is not a choice. Therefore, what a person does with those givens, if they have the capacity to make choices, that’s where it matters.

One of the other incredible skills my brother mastered was his ability to navigate in the world. For the six years he was in college getting his masters degree in music theory from the Manhattan School of Music, he had to get to and from school; a portion of which took him through Harlem, NYC. He never had any problems and always spoke highly of the people that helped him along the way. Then he moved to Bethesda, Maryland, and made his way to and from GEICO’s offices and his apartment.

His love of music was a constant in his life, but his total dislike of performing kept his instruments silent.

So, the big lesson in all of this reflecting on my impressive brother is that we cannot control our givens. However, when we focus on those given intelligences, as grand or modest as they may be, it’s the choices we make under those circumstances that make us who we become.

It is probably why I love the serenity prayer so much.

John W-Bee

June 7,2023

I like the tradeoffs of aging…so far.

The operative word here is “tradeoffs”.

Aging does not come free from charges. In my case it’s surviving prostate cancer, dealing with a bum shoulder from skydiving 30 years ago, joint and back aches, and loose skin from losing weight after turning 70. Had I been told this was going to happen 40 years ago when I was 35, I guess I would not have been surprised…just unconcerned as my friend passed me the joint.

That reaction, looking back on it, was probably right. Seriously, what is the sense in being all concerned about the innumerable things that can go wrong? I happen to believe that one can bring about what the mind focuses on. So if I was always concerned about prostate cancer, I suppose I could have studied the causes of this cancer; stopped doing whatever the wisdom and science of the day thought were the causes of that cancer, just to find out worrying about it became the new cause…five years earlier.

Secondly, as long as we stay true to who we are, enjoy each day when at all possible (I mean, life throws bad days our way no matter what we do), don’t be stupid (something men seem to be a little slow to adopt), and learn the serenity to accept the things we cannot change (this one is critical), then go for it.

Big picture…from the day we are born, we are dying. Entropy is nature’s way of recycling energy. No one, no living being (virus, bacteria, plant, animal, human…nothing) has a forever agreement with the life force. The real trick is to become smart enough soon enough to appreciate and accept how the universe works. Matter is neither created nor destroyed; it just keeps changing form…that’s not too hard to grasp. I might tend toward reincarnation as long as one accepts the idea that we don’t get reincarnated as a particular form (a deer, flower, or mosquito let’s say), but our being gets put into the washing machine of the universe and we become a part of many other things; again and again.

What is so totally fascinating to me, and it keeps me wanting to hang in here (to age) longer is that I can’t help but be so incredibly grateful that I came into this world when and where I was born.

Here’s just one example…

As a kid, I had to take two buses to get to the Rochester, New York Library. Then, using the Dewey decimal system, look in the card file under the subject of the moment, hoping the book with the information I was interested in was on the shelf a couple of hundred yards away. Then, if lucky so far, read through the table of contents to find the part of that book that contained the information I was seeking.

Now, I type in a few key words into Google, and I am presented with a bazillion options of written material (books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, etc.) on, or at least near, the topic of my curiosity.

WOW!

(It makes me wonder how so many modestly educated people can be so flaming ignorant these days…but that’s a subject for another time.)

The one major subject area that remains for me, which keeps me going today; can we socially evolve fast enough to realize that human beings are all one big family, made from the same seedlings?  Can we then realize it’s a huge waste of time, money and talent to kill one another and the planet that helped birth all of us? Imagine the enormous shift in livability on Earth if we nurtured one another and the planet?

I would love to live long enough to begin to see that paradigm shift in our evolution. That would make life and aging worth all of the downsides.

J W-Bee

May 7, 2023