AID

 

Aid is help, typically of a practical nature of empathy.

Assistance, support, help, backing, abidance, encouragement, cooperation, succor, a helping hand are all giving aid.

 

Financial aid or grants or loans or medical aid for disasters or natural anomalies or legal aid for those times of law infractions or military aid for protection and security. Empathy cost money.

The first responders rush in after a catastrophe. They will risk their own lives to pull bloody remains out of the rubble before the bull dowsers plow away the trash. The second responders are attempting to recover life from the survivors while others just place the parts in a plastic bag. Then there are the third responders who patch up those who decided to live and those who must identify the body parts. The fourth responders dig the holes in the ground to deposit the loved ones among the grieving and then move onto the next.

Everyone hopes for aid. No matter if it is a disaster with no hope for relief to a mild case of the flu, we all appreciate that someone else comes to our aid.

In simple terms, a grant is a financial gift given by one party (like a government or foundation) to another (like a person or organization) for a specific purpose. Unlike a loan, a grant doesn't have to be paid back, and the funds are typically intended to support a particular project or initiative

Our first grants are our allowance. It may seem to be a payment for doing choirs, but it was not expected to be paid back. Credit cards and bank loans expect to be paid back in full with interest. Winning the lottery seems like a grant, but you have to pay taxes on it. Go Fund Me campaigns are seeking grants, not loans. There are religious organizations, charitable groups and foundations set up to give assistance to those needing aid at no cost.

FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the federal agency that coordinates the response to disasters nationwide. Its mission is to help people before, during, and after disasters by preparing communities, responding to disasters, and supporting recovery efforts

FEMA generally doesn't cover damage to non-essential items, landscaping, or personal property that is not essential to making a home habitable. They also won't cover damage if you've already received funding from insurance or other sources for the same disaster-related needs. FEMA also doesn't cover business losses, secondary homes, or certain types of damage like flood damage or damage from sewer backups.

You can’t buy smarts (or love) but they will both cost you. Schools and desk and blackboards and teachers and buses and books are not free. There are educational aids called tutors who try to get kids over the learning bumps.

You can have pot luck dinners for the hungry, but tomorrow they will come back for more. You can gather some shoes and t-shirts out of your closet to give to the disaster relief fund but what happens is they are the wrong size? You can donate that camper you never use to some worthy cause only to have it get stacked up at the junk yard. You can throw money at the homeless, but it is never enough to get them a permanent shelter. Will you invite them into your house to share your kitchen? Will you let your children play with them?  

You can get emotional aid or spiritual aid or political aid, but they are mostly advice and opinions and bias.

At some point, the band aid must come off.

 

Liberty

 

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under GOD, I n d I v I s I b l e, with liberty and justice for all"

 

These are the words we say with our hand over our heart to a crimson striped and indigo field of stars cloth as a symbol to our nation. We could also say the “Lord’s Prayer” and sing “Amazing Grace” in unison.

 

 

Liberty.

Our country has a statue of Liberty given by France. It is the symbol for immigrants coming into New York harbor as a beacon for a better life.

These people, who left their homelands for various reasons, came to the colonies, just like the pilgrims of old, to break the chains of oppression and find freedom. The land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE.

Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views. Independence, freedom, autonomy, sovereignty, self-government, self-rule, self-determination is all part of the liberty belief.

Freedom, independence, free rein, freeness, license, self-determination, free will, latitude, option, choice, volition, no compulsion, noncoercion, nonconfinement, leeway, margin, scope, elbow room are all associated with the word “Liberty”.

In a biblical context, “Liberty” signifies freedom from oppressive restrictions or bondage, whether physical, spiritual, or moral, ultimately enabling individuals to fulfill God’s purposes and experience the abundant life offered through Jesus Christ.

While “Liberty” and “Freedom” are often used interchangeably, “Liberty” generally refers to the state of being free from oppression or control, especially political or legal control, while “Freedom” is a broader concept encompassing the absence of constraints or restrictions in general. 

 

 

Libertarians

They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

According to common United States meanings of conservative and liberal, libertarianism in the United States has been described as conservative on economic issues (economic liberalism and fiscal conservatism) and liberal on personal freedom (civil libertarianism and cultural liberalism).

With right-libertarianism, critics have argued that laissez-faire capitalism does not necessarily produce the best or most efficient outcome, and that libertarianism’s philosophy of individualism and policies of deregulation fail to prevent the abuse of natural resources.

 

 

Democracy (from Ancient Greek: δημοκρατία, romanized: dēmokratía, dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. a system of government where power ultimately resides in the people, who exercise it through voting and electing representatives

The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage are essential elements of democracy. In turn, democracy

Democratic governments exercise authority by way of law and are themselves subject to law's constraints. Laws should express the will of the people, not the whims of kings, dictators, military officials, religious leaders, or self-appointed political parties.

A democracy provides an environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights

 

Republic

A republic, based on the Latin phrase res publica (‘public affair’ or ‘people’s affair’), is a state in which political power rests with the public (people)

A republic is a form of government where power resides in the people and is exercised by their elected representatives, not a monarch or hereditary ruler. 

‎People also ask…

What is a republic government?

A “republic” is a form of government in which the people hold power, but elect representatives exercise that power.

 

 

Indivisible

Indivisible refers to something that cannot be divided or torn apart. It speaks to unity, to the idea that despite our differences — whether in opinion, background or perspective — there’s an underlying bond that connects us. It suggests that there’s strength in sticking together, in refusing to let those differences become insurmountable barriers.

Indivisibility isn’t just about patriotism or a pledge to a flag. It’s about our day-to-day interactions and the choices we make to seek connection over division. It’s about finding ways to create a bridge, hearing one another, and remembering that, no matter our differences, we are all part of something larger than ourselves.

Indivisibility is unable to be divided or separated.

 

 

Freedom

The aforementioned migrants came looking for Freedom. Still, they were not totally welcomed, so they stayed with their similar family groups forming segregated Little Italy or Chinatown. They brought their skills and trades to the New World colonies constructing fine furniture and musical instruments, repairing shoes, baking breads and pizza, sewing couture, haberdashery and dining establishments with the menus and flavors of the old-world traditions. They brought their music and poetry and art and dance and bias. They attended the church of their choice.

Cohabitation and procreation blended the cultures into the diversity we have today. They could even take an oath and become a citizen of the nation that allowed you to vote for your leaders and officials who make the rules.

The American dream was to assimilate into the masses, get gainful employment and make enough dough to buy a plot of land and build a house surrounded by a white picket fence with a two-car garage and two cars and two children and a dog.

Private property refers to ownership of land or belongings by individuals or groups, distinct from public or state-owned property, and includes both tangible and intangible assets. 

Private property is a legal concept defined and enforced by a country's political system. The area of law that deals with the subject is called property law. The enforcement of property law concerning private property is a matter of public expense. Defense of property is a common method of justification used by defendants who argue that they should not be held liable for any loss and injury that they have caused because they were acting to protect their property. Courts have generally ruled that the use of force may be acceptable. Remember Home Owner’s Association when a neighborhood agrees to a contract and fee to present your property in a certain consistent manner to match your neighbors. Consistency matters to conform to liberty.

In many political systems, the government requests that owners pay for the privilege of ownership. A property tax is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property, usually levied on real estate. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located. It may be imposed annually or at the time of a real estate transaction, such as in real estate transfer tax. Under a property-tax system, the government requires or performs an appraisal of the monetary value of each property, and tax is assessed in proportion to that value. The four broad types of property taxes are land, improvements to land (immovable human-made objects, such as buildings), personal property (movable human-made objects), and intangible property.

The social and political context in which private property is administered will determine the extent to which an owner will be able to exercise rights over the same. The rights to private property often come with limitations. For example, local government may enforce rules about what kind of building may be built on private land (building code), or whether a historical building may be demolished or not. Theft is common in many societies, and the extent to which central administration will pursue property crime varies enormously.

Some forms of private property are uniquely identifiable and may be described in a title or a certificate of ownership. The rights to a property may be transferred from one “owner” to another. A transfer tax is a tax on the passing of title to property from one person (or entity) to another. An owner may request that, after death, private property be transferred to family members, through inheritance. In certain cases, ownership may be lost to the public interest. Private real estate may be confiscated or used for public purposes, for example to build a road.

In capitalism, ownership can be viewed as a “bundle of rights” over an asset that entitles its holder to a strong form of authority over it. Such a bundle is composed of a set of rights that allows the owner of the asset to control it and decide on its use, claim the value generated by it, exclude others from using it, and the right to transfer the ownership (set of rights over the asset) of it to another holder. In Marxian economics and socialist politics, a distinction is made between “private property” and “personal property”. The former is defined as the means of production about private ownership over an economic enterprise based on socialized production and wage labor whereas the latter is defined as consumer goods or goods produced by an individual. Eminent domain is the government’s power to take private property for public use, but only with just compensation to the owner, as mandated by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution^, Prior to the 18th century, private property usually referred to land ownership.

It really isn’t YOUR land and house and picket fence, but part of the grid owned by the city or county utilizing the roads and water and gas and police and fire and the government will assess YOUR property to fine you an appropriate tax similar to the neighbors. Whether you have done no improvements to YOUR property, if your neighbor builds an extension to their house, you get to raise your property tax rate.

 

 

Rights

Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty. Our only FREE right is to breath the air. The air is for all of us and without it – we are not alive.

 

 

Whatever your opinions, views, beliefs or heritage; we who live in the United States of America are questioning our liberty. How ‘free’ are we?

Just like the dollar bill sez: “In God We Trust”, but it doesn’t say which God?

Deplorable

 

Have you ever seen photos of abandoned houses? They are an image of a lifestyle frozen in time.

Some may have a history of the people who lived there. There may be a reason why they left. There could have been a death in the family or couldn’t afford the rent and had the furniture moved to the sidewalk. There could have been a pandemic or maybe it was time to move on and instead of going through the sales process, left the remains for another generation to explore. It could have been left to squatters and after looting it bare, left to rot.

Walking through the house last night, stepping over vacuum cleaners and around out-of-place tables with dust bunnies the size of tumble weeds, it does not look like “House & Garden” visions. Spending most of my time outside I walk past the hanging spider webs and the roach filled sink with dirty dishes or the bathroom that looks like something from one of those gas stations along the road that you don’t want to use the restroom without rubber gloves and wonder?

I’ve never been fastidious about cleanliness, but this is getting ridiculous. I could hire one of those immigrant teams but I think they will look around and run off screaming. I have all the tools and appliances that are required for scrubbing and washing and sucking up dirt, but they sit waiting for a push.

This deplorable condition is deserving strong condemnation, but there is no one else here to object to the dirt and dust.

Disgraceful, shameful, dishonorable, disreputable, discreditable, unworthy, shabby, inexcusable, unpardonable, unforgivable, reprehensible, despicable, abominable, base, sordid, vile, hateful, contemptible, loathsome, offensive, execrable, heinous, odious, revolting, unspeakable, beyond contempt, beyond the pale, egregious, flagitious, lamentable, regrettable, grievous, unfortunate, wretched, dire, atrocious, abysmal, very bad, awful, terrible, dreadful, diabolical, miserable, pitiable, pathetic, sorry, unhappy, sad, woeful, substandard, poor, inadequate, inferior, unsatisfactory, unacceptable, appalling, rotten, crummy, lousy, godawful. chronic, frightful and they all describe my living conditions.

I rarely am welcomed into another’s abode to check out their living arrangements, but I wonder in my own neighborhood with the manicured lawns and sparkling autos, what goes on behind the closed curtains?

 

Cars & Drones & Destruction

How is your day going? It’s a beautiful spring day here with warm temps and singing birds and tulip flowers on the ground. The sun is shining and people are smiling.

Cars

 

Have you noticed how many ‘white’ cars there are now?

I don’t know if people are buying new cars to beat the tariffs or just spending their tax returns, but there are a lot of new white cars driving around my neighborhood. I can tell they are new and sparkling by the reflective coating they cover cars now. If I shaved, I could use a side panel as a mirror. I won’t get into the weird configurations of lights making these motor (or battery) vehicles look like something from sci-fi.

White is characterized by the equal reflection or emission of all wavelengths of the visible spectrum of light, lacking any distinctive hue. Don’t know why this has become so popular for brands like VW or Benz or that L brand or the one with the four rings or the one wearing a T? Don’t know if they are all EVs, but there are some new posts next to the street with extension cords.

Drones

Seems wars are going into mechanical robot fighting now. When these ‘drones’ started out they were toys. My brother had a remote flying toy plane that we would take down to the schoolyard and fly it around with the space needed until it got tangled up in trees or wires or crashed and broke. There was early flying software that was fun to practice being a pilot without going into the rain. I could take off and fly around but I couldn’t land. I’d just crash. Another reason not to be a pilot.

My experience with flying was walking out on the tarmac and walking up the stairs carrying suitcases before passengers walked through a tube into the plane without weather. My cousin got a pilot’s license and flew me down to Wilmington in his father’s piper cub so I sat in the co-pilot’s seat. I’ve ridden in a helicopter and was shoved out of an airplane to parachute, but I don’t like heights. Bridges and hi-rise buildings make me weak. Even my second floor can wobble my knees.

There are real estate drones in the neighborhood doing fly overs of people’s lawns to sell their $0,000,000.00 houses. I don’t intend to shoot them down but I do worry they will get tangled in my tall trees. Now and then I used to hear a plane fly overhead at night with a spotlight shining down into yards and streets. They were circling around a crime scene, so I stayed inside and locked the doors.

If drones are the new sign of warfare, maybe tanks and boats and airplanes can shoot and bomb using AI while humans shelter in place to become targets?  

Destruction

 

Along with all the political silliness raising people’s blood pressure, there are daily reports of disasters. Wild fires, bombings, earthquakes, floods are just a few of the destruction going on around the world (and luckily not in my neighborhood, so far). You can choose your speculation on causes as live TV shows the results of other’s misery. There have been pictures of destruction from previous wars, but these current pictures give pause in its scale.

How long did it take to rebuild Dresden or Berlin? How much money did it take to pay for the rebuild of Richmond after it burnt down in the civil war?

What inspires people to pick up the rubble and haul it to another place to dump, then go back and start over again? There was a reason that place was constructed in the first place. A railroad, a river, a highway was a good cause to form a gathering of buildings that become offices, homes, schools, churches, medical centers, libraries, banks, municipal airports, ballparks, taverns and dining establishments, etc.

Then a disaster hits and everything is wiped out. Where do the people (survivors) go? How do they shelter from the elements? What do they eat? Where do they poop? Where do they get medical care? Where are they educated? If the disaster is too devastating, do you struggle to rebuild a former life, or move onto another place leaving memories and rubble behind? Without the reminders of disasters we’d have not antiquities in the museums.

These are the recent thoughts as the season changes. I won’t buy or drive a white car the cost of my house. I don’t want to fly a drone but will fear the sound of them as an invasion to privacy. I will continue to watch the news from various sources but the pictures of man’s inhumanity to man is unavoidable. Why we continue to inflect harm on others for frivolous reasons as a way another speaks or believes or dresses or has sexual preferences? Does this follow the ’10 Commandments’ taught in school now?

If you do not assimilate with your neighbors by purchasing a white car, you will no longer fit into the grand scheme? If a drone appears in your window, are you losing more of your identity than what is being downloaded from your telephone?  If someone comes by and knocks on your door and ask if they can live on your expansive space for theirs has been destroyed by unimaginable violence and they are just seeking a place of peace, would you let them in?

Just the thoughts for a day. Hope you enjoyed the awaking of spring and have a nice evening.

Tomorrow is another day.

Rogue

 

Recently, I’ve heard the word ‘rogue’ applied to our current political situation. I remember hearing about a ‘rogue elephant’ that had left the herd and was stomping through villages, but not associated to people… or a culture.

I’ve known or associated with some ‘bad’ people. I don’t know all the backstory history of how they made their decisions or who they fell in with or mental deficiencies that took them down that path to become an outlaw or just a rule bender. Some have been an offender to pay a fine for speeding and some have been fatal. Some are incarcerated, some have vanished and many are dead. Yet, I never thought of any of them as ‘rogue’.

Rogue is a noun. Rogue is described as a dishonest, untrustworthy person; scoundrel: We were traveling in secret to avoid running into rogues and thieves. Synonyms: swindler, quack, mountebank, cheat, trickster, villain.

When a person "goes rogue," they are acting independently and unpredictably, often disregarding rules or expectations, sometimes to the point of behaving erratically or dangerously. 

My father was a bootlegger. He worked for private clubs during prohibition and probably knew some shady characters. He may have been a scoundrel, but I don’t think he ever went rogue.

Rogues often get a bad rap, their name evoking images of rule-breakers and troublemakers. Yet, throughout history, rogues have played a crucial role in driving progress. They are the innovators, the disruptors, the ones unafraid to challenge norms and question authority.

With that said, is today’s political situation progressing into a new world order we don’t understand yet or tearing down the house to be a ‘better’ one? Our elected and confirmed governmental officals are shaking the tree from the usual boring bureaucratically decision making we’ve all be accustomed to a seemingly shock and awe approach to finding and eliminating waste to establish a leaner, cleaner more efficient system to take our money and spend it on what a government is suppose to provide for the citizens of the land.

Governments, at all levels (local, state, and federal), provide a wide array of services and programs, including essential infrastructure, public safety, education, healthcare, social welfare, and economic stability, all funded through taxation.

Jigaboos

The other day I came across a word I hadn’t heard in some time.

A contemptuous term used to refer to a Black person. This word, along with other words that were used as a deployable yet acceptable reference to a different race were not part of my vocabulary when I was growing up, but I did hear them.

 Words like Pickaninny, Jezebel, Stepin Fetchit, Buckwheat, Sambo, Stymie, coon, n-word, negra, Negro, Black, Colored, African American, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Remos, Black Buck are still used today in some areas as a demeaning form of an insult to a different race.

  There are plenty of others.

Chink, Speck, Cracker, Fritz, Gook, Gringo, Hike, Honky, Hun, Hymie, Injun, Jungle Bunny, Kraut, Limey, Nip, Polack, Redneck, Hillbilly, Spade, Uncle Tom, Wetback, White Trash, Wop…

There are other words to describe people who you approve of like cutie pie, sweetie, hunk, burning love, hubba hubba…

These could also be taken as offensive or appreciated.

Every year there are new words to describe discuss with another race or gender or character. Boomer, woke, influencer or labeled by a political party. The worst consistent connotations of disrupted and demeaning words relate to religious beliefs.

As our culture continues to grow and shift our bias and beliefs will continue to come up with new words to express our lack of understanding. We react to words by our interpretations.

So, I present the word ‘jigaboo’. This is not to be offensive or upsetting but as a word that rolls off the tongue. I have no idea who came up with the word. I never added it to my vocabulary because I had no idea what it meant, yet I’m sure I heard it.

With all the medical terms that sound like they come from some alien planet or just a bunch of vowels and consonants thrown together, the word ‘jigaboo’ could be used in a new context.

The doctor says that bump on your back is a ‘jigaboo’. In the military you can say, “I served on the ‘jigaboo’”. Step up to the bar and order a ‘jigaboo’. 

 Make that a double...

Push Back

 

When young and a rule is handed down from the parents, you may not agree but there is nothing you can do. They feed you and shelter you and cloth you and teach you and they rule the roost. You can have a tizzy fit or kick your feet in the air or scream, but you will not win. You do not have a say in the matter. To top it off, you may lose privileges like movie time or dessert or may be sent to solitary confinement in your bedroom incarceration. As long as you live under the roof with your parents, they are the law. You can lose you allowance, be grounded or lost access to the car keys.

Moving out and living on your own might seem a rewarding and freeing action, but there is always someone else making the rules and laying down the law. The boss tells you when you have to be at work and what you are paid. The church tells you right from wrong. The police tell you when you are driving too fast. All have consequences.

Even romantic relationships have their squabbles over who left the lid off the peanut butter jar or their underwear on the bathroom floor. The defiant ones may yell and scream and have a tizzy fit until they kiss and makeup.

Pushing back from feeling wronged takes many turns. You can write your congress representative to change a law. You can paint a poster, staple it to a stick and walk around the streets yelling. You can sit in on meetings, like the city council or the PTA, to make your opinion heard. You can debate your case only if the other side is listening. Fisticuffs doesn’t solve the issue and road rage, while perhaps releasing the anger, only increases the potential for (perhaps deadly) confrontation.

In these trying times, the popular push back is to post an offensive meme on social media. It may give a chuckle or gather more likes and responsive comments, but it doesn’t solve the problem.

Being at an age where keeping my blood pressure under control reduces my expression of anger or frustration to those things out of my control. If physically threatened, I’ll push back as a last resort. Otherwise, I can’t tell the difference between the Nightly News and skits on SNL.

 

*No one noticed the ‘pull’ handle on the ‘push’ door

Contempt of Court

 

We have elected representatives who are good looking and have a nice family and speak well enough to gather together and make laws for our entire society to obey. As we know anytime you get a group of people together, like a family dinner or a cocktail party, cannot decide on any subject. Check out the school board. Check out the city council. Check out the PTA. Check out the board room.

Still, the law is declared and written down and distributed to all like the 10 commandments.

Obey the law

As wonderful lemmings, we follow the rules until they become obsolete or boring. The elected leaders then listen to the complaints of the public at town hall meetings and write amendments or a brand-new law.

If you decide to disobey a law, from jaywalking to shooting up a school, there are organizations to protect the rest of the public from your bad behavior and will detain you and question you and fine you with a ticket or incarcerate you and possibly kill you.

If you admit to the guilt of breaking the law, you get a mark on the record and move on. If you disagree with the charge, you can come before a judge to plea your case. After hearing your testimony, the judge (and/or jury of your peers) will decide whether the charge will be dismissed or find you guilty to pay the punishment.

What if you don’t show up?

The court can order that you be sequestered or additional fines or order authorities to arrest and place in incarceration.

Contempt of court is an act of disrespect or disobedience towards a court or interference with its orderly process, which can be classified as criminal or civil, and direct or indirect. 

If you have enough funds, you can appeal the court’s decision. Another attempt to plea your case, perhaps to another judge who may have a different interpretation of the law, with new evidence or more charts and figures in the presentation to get you off the hook.

Weeks or months or years of battling the judicial system you case may go up to the Supreme Court of the land. These nine judges must agree on a verdict that will be the final decision. They may be unanimous or have a split decision or send it back to the lower courts to futz around with some more.

While not perfect, this is the system we have chosen to resolve conflicts with our social interaction to maintain order. It is our selection of good vs evil.