Author: Peter

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The Death of the Earth?


For a month now, I have seen on television the record high temperatures being realized in southwestern America and now it is moving towards the plain’s states. But this is not just an American phenomenon. Across the globe, countries are being ravaged by heat waves. The Saharah Desert is moving more southward. The polar ice of both poles is melting at an alarming rate. And today, I heard on NBC news that the water temperature in the Florida Keys is 101!

In the north polar regions, many animals rely upon a polar cap just to survive. The polar bear is the one being hurt the most buy our climate change. What happens in the north pole ice disappears completely? What happens in the Greenland glacier melts away? What happens in the ice shelves of the south pole disappear? What happens is there becomes an ecological disaster!

Since the dawn of industrialization in the 19th century, the world has been moving towards this moment in time. People seem to be either blissfully unaware or just refuse the looming disaster. Our planet survives because of a synergy between all the animals on earth, from the microscopic to the largest of whales. There are whales that eat only plankton. What happens to them when the plankton disappears? What happens when water temperatures rise to high for certain fish and mammals that cannot adjust? And what happens to people when their water supply and food supply dwindles?

People may not believe that survival of the human race as it is, is at stake. We must cut carbon emissions to zero and fast. A scientific project for the year 2030 was 7 years off! That project has been met this year.

Scientist has warned that a rise in the average temperature of the earth but just 2 degrees Fahrenheit will kill off many species of animal that are part of the food chain and thereby cause a food chain calamity. We are a part of that food chain and yet we do very little.

The United States, China, and India are among the biggest contributors to global warning. China is still building coal fired power plants. Coal is a huge polluter!

We need only look at the planet Venus to find out what happens when a planet’s upper atmosphere is so thick with gases that hold in the sun’s heat to see a possible future for our planet.

The answer is really simple. All the peoples of the earth must switch to a power grid of electricity powered by the sun and stop the usage of fossil fuels and nuclear fuels as well. Nuclear power plants are heat polluters because of the great amount of heat they give off. We have a number of carbon zero methods of electrical generation: the sun itself, wind, water of rivers and the water of the oceans. In some places the use of volcanic steam is possible.

Our technology is evolving but it can evolve faster if the demand for is grows faster. The wind farms of today will look nothing like those of the future. The use of solar panels should become a mainstream part of every country’s power grid.

We have two choice and only two choices. We can continue as we are and guarantee a future of desperation world-wide or we can use the technology that is at our hands to change the course of our human existence.

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Colombia: An American Friend


Why Colombia as a topic. I was researching who belonged to OPEC as a start, but it produced no countries that I did not expect. But there was Venezuela. I wondered how this could be the only country, besides the United States, in the Americas to produce oil. It turns out that it is not. Along with Venezuela there are Brazil, a true surprise to me, Mexico and Colombia. Colombia made the most sense to me as it shares a long border with Venezuela to its north and east.

I remember many years ago there were advertisements on television about coffee from Colombia. As it turns out Colombia is only second to Brazil in coffee production. Then I looked at who are Colombia’s main trading partners, and it turns out that the United States import more than double of another other country.

My thoughts turned to thinking that Colombians as a whole must be much like Americans in their earning power. But that is just not the case. First, we must look at the Colombian peso. Right now, the inflation rate in Colombia is 13.3%. It is most simply about the demand for products not produced in Colombia far outpaces its exports. The Colombian Peso is in constant fluctuation and of late, its value against America, its biggest trading partner, has fallen dramatically. That means that certain necessities are very expensive. The following table lists the top 8 imports Colombia gets from America.

  1. Machinery including computers (11.6% of total imports)
  2. Electrical machinery, equipment (11.1%)
  3. Vehicles (10.7%)
  4. Mineral fuels including oil (8.3%)
  5. Plastics, plastic articles (4.8%)
  6. Pharmaceuticals (4.4%)
  7. Organic chemicals (3.8%)
  8. Cereals (3.4%)

And so, a weak Peso vs the Dollar makes importing these things to Colombia very expensive to Colombians.

Rich people, regardless of where they live, seem to have a certain immunity to things like inflation. That is because buying an automobile, regardless of price, is not at issue to them. But when you consider the average Colombian, if they must have an automobile, it must be the least expensive available.

The median household income in Colombia is $15,812. That is below our poverty line but in Colombia, many goods and services are inexpensive relative to an individual’s income. In 1991 Colombia changed its constitution to include socialized medicine. But then I came across a figure which absolutely floored me. The rate of single mothers in Colombia is 84%! Of course, then I had to look at education levels. Well, that turns out to be 59% of Colombians have completed a secondary education or GED. Compare that to America which is 88%.

What do single mothers do for a living? An article written in Forbes magazine states, “Beyond the challenges the sheer volume of these numbers bring forth to already strained resources, the issue in Colombia is further compounded by the fact that a large majority of these single-parent families are headed by women, and that women represent a disproportionate percentage of the countries poor, a phenomenon commonly labeled as the “Feminization of Poverty”.  It is well-documented that lone-mother households are at the highest risk of poverty amongst women due to lack of income. This is further exacerbated by deprivation of capabilities and the gender biases present in both Colombian society and government. The culmination of all these factors in modern day Colombia has resulted in a vicious cycle of emotional, financial and social problems and other stressful life events for both the single mothers and their children.”

Another source took me to what jobs a single mother might take and among them is “sex worker.” I am not just talking about prostitution, the most obvious, but a much less obvious option they take which at the least keeps them off the street, “Cam Girl.” What is that? That is an online industry that has been around a very long time where, mostly men, go to find women, and sometimes men, who will perform various sex acts for them. I found such a site, I will not mention its name, where I was able to chat with a number of women. With one or two exceptions, each was a single mother where the father took no part in support of his child. They had taken the job out of desperation for some sort of an income. One woman in particular, who I will call Julie, recently had to be in the hospital. While she was in the hospital her income went to zero, which brought yet another hardship on she and her son. And as it turns out, such incidents are not uncommon at all. Even worse for them, when people find out what they do, they are ostracized by their community and God forbid their family should find out. They stand the stark possibility of being thrown out of the only housing they have.

American commerce is entwined with that of Colombia, but it seems to me that American investors would do well to invest in Colombia where labor is cheap and readily available. American venture capitalists would not only find it a good investment, but in turn, the people of Colombia would have a chance of lifting themselves out of poverty and those women working in the sex business would have other options.

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Regrets? Jealousy?


I have lived long enough to have a long list of regrets. A long time ago there was the regret that I did not get to know my father better before he died. There is a regret that a beautiful woman who I dated off and on, that I did not try to take it further. There are so many other regrets too. But why?

I think it is a normal human condition to begin with. But it is like trying to get more water from an empty bottle. It is not happening. This is where it is okay to remember the past and our regrets, but we must never stare at them because there is no good that will come of that.

Now I come to jealousy. I call this the worst feeling anyone could ever have. First of all, if you feel jealous, you must ask yourself the question, what inside you is so insecure that you allow this feeling to arise in you? Men are really bad with this one. A man is walking down a street with his girlfriend or wife who is a stunning beauty. He notices men are looking at her and he gets mad at her! Why? She has done nothing wrong. Or, worse case, he takes a swing at some stranger who had the audacity to look a little too long at his lady. It means he is insecure about his relationship with her. This applies to women as well. That a man wants to look at the lady you are with is a compliment. Even if they stare! Take solace in the fact that you have her/him and that person does not. The best thing to do with jealousy is to toss it out as a totally useless emotion.

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Why Don’t Americans Read?


I can answer that with a simple statement, “I don’t know.”

Something has happened within our culture which keeps American, without regard to education, from reading. The most obvious sign of this is how many newspapers have ceased publication in the past 25 years along with formerly daily newspapers which have become three day a week papers.

I am tactile person who likes nothing better than to read a daily newspaper in its newsprint form. Until my wife and I moved to Eastern North Carolina, on Sunday mornings, I went out and bought both the Boston Globe and the New York Times. We sat at our dining room table pouring over these publications with delight. Newspapers’ ability to sustain publication relies entirely on its circulation. As across the nation those numbers have decreased, the ability of the newspaper to get much needed advertising has also declined. Newspapers, even though they print news that you may have heard 12 hours earlier on the television, offer something that television news reports do not; their coverage of a story is far more complete. Additionally, television news cannot give the same amount of news as a newspaper does. But this is where the non-reading public comes into play. I suspect that a large portion of the American public will say that they do not have time to read a newspaper. But for most of them the real truth is that they just cannot be bothered to do so.

Fifty years ago, in any city of any size that you ventured to, had at least one bookstore, and, in most cases, there were multiple bookstores. In larger cities the used bookstores were easy to find. That is not true any longer. My wife and I are avid book readers. My wife reads them electronically and I buy the hardcover book. Either way, we read a lot of books. But independent bookstores are shuttering their operations more and more. There simply exists little call for what they sell. Where I now live, Barnes & Noble is my refuge.

I know from the experience of having worked for many years in public school systems, that reading is a major part of their curriculum. But for some reason, people who go through those systems may be looking at reading as something they did not like to do in primary and secondary schools and so why should they continue?

And then there are our public libraries. If such figures existed, I suspect the foot travel into these institutions has dramatically decreased. And those books are free which means that people on limited budgets cannot use the excuse of not having the funds to buy books.

I read a lot as a way to escape the realities of our world into the world of fiction. I also subscribed to the Boston Globe’s electronic version just to stay abreast of the news of a state I called home for most of my life but also because it is the only daily source of that type of news available to me here in Eastern North Carolina. We have two “daily” newspapers, as their masthead declares, that come out 3 days a week, have about 8 pages of mostly advertising, and are overpriced, $2.00 per copy.

It is my belief that Americans have lost sight of the value in reading the printed word. The last time to general public got into a reading frenzy was when the various Harry Potter books were published. Since then, everyone has reverted back. Are we heading to being a country of illiterates? To some degree, yes. Are we becoming a country which is ill-informed of the news of the nation and the world? Most definitely!

I have no idea how to get the general public back to reading except to write my blog about what I see as a problem. And of course, my blog, and others like it, appeal mostly to people who read.

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Airports Clogged — What About AMTRAK?


Of late the news is all about the delays and cancellations at our nation’s airports. With our climate change coming into full view these days, it is likely that the air travel chaos will continue. What is the answer? AMTRAK is the logical substitute however, outside of the Northeast and the West Coast, AMTRAK is seriously lacking.

The AMTRAK schedule between certain cities is remarkably sparse. For example, from New York to Chicago there are 2 trains a day. Boston to Chicago, 1 train and our Nation’s Capitol, 1 train. Each of these trains take approximately 24 hours travel time between the two cities. Each of these cities needs to have available trains doubled. And with a combination of track repair and scheduling adjustments for low passenger loadings, the schedules’ time can be reduced. But even leaving them as they are, they provide a mode of travel, while considerably slower than air travel, give a reliable option of travel.

There are other potential high speed corridors, cities that not presently have corridor style service, that need to be considered: Las Vegas to Los Angles, Tuscon to Phoenix to Los Angeles, Chicago to St. Louis, and other cities.

This would require and substantial influx of cash but it has become obvious that such funding is necessary. It will require infrastructure work as-well-as new equipment. But the return on investment is obvious, the reduction of people using the nation’s airlines.

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Tipping


Here in North Carolina, wait staff at restaurants get only $2 per hour, unless the owner feels more generous, which, as a waitress related to me, goes entirely to taxes. So what is a tip?

Where personnel of a restaurant are concerned, there are two different types. There are the cooks / chefs, then there are the wait staff. Cooks / chefs get a living wage. Wait staff rely upon tips for their entire income.

When considering a tip, do not consider the quality of the food. The wait staff has absolutely nothing to do with that. For example, I took myself out to have a steak on Sunday at the local Outback. The steak left a lot to be desired. I told the waitress of my dissatisfaction with the quality of the steak. She took that too her manager, which is where it belongs. However, I gave the waitress a full 20% tip, my usual. She had done a very good job and that is why we tip.

Earlier that same day, I went out for breakfast at a local restaurant. The food was good, the waitress was good. But I got to talking to the waitress and I happened to mention how I saw a group of four people leave only a $5 tip. Now this is not an inexpensive breakfast place. The average meal will cost $20 or more. That meant the table I saw spent about $80, probably more. That meant the tip was less than 4% of the bill. My waitress related that it had been a bad tip day with some people leaving nothing. I find that to be inexcusable.

Another thing to consider is how busy the restaurant is. Did you have to wait to get a seat? Then you must take into account a harried wait staff. Meals come more slowly at such times. That they come more slowly had little to do with the wait staff.

So what should you tip? A 10% tip is low average, 15%, average, and 20% above average. I almost always give the 20% tip because I can afford it. But many years ago I was told by the head waitress at a family restaurant their take on tips. If a person leaves nothing, the think the person simply forgot but if a person leaves some pocket change, that is a signal that the waitress/waiter had done a poor job. Personally, I find it rare that a person does a poor job. To my waitress that morning, I gave her a tip which exceeded the price of my breakfast by a good amount. I stared her in the eyes, said nothing, and finally she took the money after protesting that it was too much. I told her that I was simply doing the right thing.

When you go out for a meal, always consider the tip into the total cost of the meal and prepare for that. I recommend that everyone give the wait staff a 20% tip unless they truly have done less than expected. But remember at the same time, this is what they live on.

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Self-Care: What is it and Why Aren’t You Doing It?


Self-care is a very simple concept. As it says, it is all about taking care of yourself. But most Americans, and probably others around the world, are not do much.

To be in good health is that you are doing three things: a mind not cluttered, a body in good health, and a spirit that thrives.

You would think the first thing would be the easiest, but it is not. Many people do not get an annual physical. Young people are especially guilty of this. They think they will live forever and since they feel good then everything must be good. Not true. First, you must look at your family history and see if there is any medical or psychological history of disorder. For example: my father had heart disease which killed him at a young age, 57. At age 49 I nearly had a heart attack too. But did I even consider it before that? No! In fact, after I left the army, I was guilty of not having physicals. I was most fortunate on the day of my “almost” heart attack, I was very close to Massachusetts General Hospital. That ended in surgery, a cardiac catheterizing when a stent was place in the problem area. Since that incident, I have had a physical every year and seen a cardiologist regularly. Two years ago, I needed a second surgery and last year a third. My heart is strong and heathy.

You say you are 20-somthing and what could be wrong? Cancer, heart disease, kidney issues, lung issues, and other problems which show up in simple blood tests. All doctors who are in primary care always want your history and that of your family. It helps them when they consider possible issues.

If there is a history of mental illness in your family, make sure that you are in strong psychological health. Simply put, if you have periods of depression, that is not normal. If you have fears you find impossible to overcome, that is not normal. These too are things to discuss with your primary care physician. Oh, you must get a primary care physician.

Do you find your mind racing? Do you feel weighted down by problems? This is something which needs attention. Sometimes talk it out with a friend will do the trick. But many times, it is time to call in a professional of some kind. It could be a financial professional, a lawyer, or even a psychologist. There are times when we have lived with some feeling that is uncomfortable, we come to believe it is normal. It is not. If you are known to say or thing that you have no friends, it is time to get help.

Finally, there is the spiritual portion of your life. Spiritually is not owned by churches or synagogues, it is a state of being when you are comfortable with yourself, know how to deal with your own problems, know how to reconcile with people in your past where harsh words were exchanged. This calls for a personal inventory. It is simple in concept but difficult in execution. You have to go through your whole life, look at your shortcomings, look where you have wronged somebody, and focus entirely upon what you have done to people or institutions, and not what they have done to you be it real or imagined.

You can be neither too young nor too old to start doing these things. It all comes down to desiring a better life. If you think your life is as good as it is going to be, do the things about and you will probably find that your life could be better.

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Dealing With Death and Depression


I write this today because a longtime friend of mine died yesterday. I had known him since 1964. My heart is heavy today, but I can find solace in the fact that I knew a kind and gentle person for so many years.

Death is a part of life. It is the earth moving around the sun. It is always in motion and there is nothing we can do to change that. It was here and moving before life even formed on earth and will continue long after all life is extinguished.

My father died when I was just 20. He had heart disease, and his 3rd heart attack ended his life. I cried, I got mad, and I got depressed. In those days I had no idea of how to handle death, or depression for that matter.

The is a single word that we all need to use in dealing with death: “acceptance.” I have heard so many people say that death is not fair, but I always say that, except when death is caused by another human, it is always fair. It is that sort of acceptance that keeps depression away. My friend’s death has given me a heavy heart and with that I can feel the strings of depression tugging but I respond by not allowing such a thing. It is pretty easy actually. A heavy heart is normal and acceptable. When we allow ourselves to have that and to grieve our loss, we can avoid depression. But the grieving process must have a shelf life. If it goes on too long, it becomes self-pity which is always an unacceptable position.

Death will come to each of us and we should all prepare regardless of our age. No one knows the mind of God and therefore, we know nothing of our future or that of anyone else. I am 74 years old and each time I talk to one of my daughters the words, “I love you” are always a part of the conversation because were I to die, even today, they will know of my complete love for them, and for my grandchildren for that matter.

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What is Your Story?


I think I wrote about this a while ago, but it is time for me to revive it in light of my most recent posts.

Every life has meaning. Many of us think we live this dull and boring existence. I can tell you, as a historian, there is no such thing. When I was writing my masters degree thesis, I would have killed to have writings from the mill workers of Lawrence Massachusetts in 1911 to 1912. But I found only a very few in existence. For example, we do not know the name of the woman who started the walk-out at the beginning of the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike. Such a dialogue, had it existed, would be invaluable. Then there are the approximately 30,000 strikers. If I remember correctly, I only found about 6 stories, some from the U.S. House Representatives hearing on the strike, and about 2 verbal memories. My own grandmother was a part of the strike, but we have no record of either which mill she worked in nor of the strike’s effect upon her and her young children.

I always like to recount my story of taking a cross-country trip on AMTRAK from Boston to San Francisco. Somewhere in Ohio an elderly woman got on the train, and I was fortunate enough to be seated across from her in the dining car. I ask what she had done for work, and she responded that it was nothing special. But up a little more prodding from me, she related that she had been a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in southern Ohio. We talked well past the time the last of the diners had left the car. Her story was absolutely fascinating.

The point of these occurrences is that each person is a part of a much larger story. But unfortunately, precious few ever write down their experiences in life as they go along. They forget that things they experience during their lifetime have a shelf-life time that expires. For example, when I was young, all gasoline was pumped by an attendant. It is rare that you find that today. Hence, another part of our history is passing and soon the gas stations themselves will be a rare thing as electric cars take over.

You might say, “well, I’m just a ________ ” and fill in the blank. The thing with that is that your experience is unique because you are unique. There may be 10,000 people doing the same job, but each person’s experience is always different. For example, you may run across a well-known person in doing your job. Historians love to find such experiences as they give a first-hand account of what that person was like at that particular moment. You might also say that you lived in “tornado alley” and had had many experiences with that phenomenon. I have never had such an experience so find out what it is like from the common person is important.

Historians love nothing better than first-hand accounts of just about anything. Today’s scholars write about historical events through the eyes of others. Why cannot that person be you? In doing a writing on the first day of the American Revolution, I came upon a diary of a young boy. His short account of what he said brought a valuable insight. But he referred to that occasion as the beginning of “hostilities” as the idea of a revolution had yet to exist in anyone’s mind.

The best way to keep an account of your life is by journaling. With today’s computer systems, that should be a very easy thing to do. By recounting what you see and hear, you are giving insight to your life at that particular moment in history. The personal accounts of people who lived through Hurricane Katrina, the California wild fires, the Mississippi floods, the 9/11 accounts, the bombing in Oklahoma and so very more, one day, will be extremely valuable for a future writer of history to have that first-hand account.

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It is Time We All Slowed Down


The late 20th and early 21st century, it seems that everyone has become more and more in a rush to get something or go somewhere. The most obvious place where we see such things is on our roads and highways. People seem to have taken to the left lane on our highways instead of staying to the right. What is their rush? How much time do they expect to make up in their rush to get somewhere?

My experience is that I see many drivers going 10 mph or more over the speed limit. On a long drive you can certainly go further in a day but what are you risking? When roads are constructed the engineers response set a maximum safe speed for that road. In my travels I have driven on a highway where the speed limit is 80 mph. But mostly, I drive roads that are 70 mph. The problem arises when that highway passes through a city and the speed limit drops to 50 or 55. Too many drivers ignore the speed limit. They put aside their responsibility to drive safely for the other driver.

But this is just a small part of our need to slow down. I have asked people, friends, to lie down on their bed, get very comfortable, close their eyes and then take in a long slow deep breath through their nose and then slowly let it out through their lips. I ask them to do this 10 times. Afterward, I ask them what their experience doing this was. Without exception they tell me they feel much more calm. What they are doing is destressing from the demands of the day. It is a very real way to slow down our minds. Then I ask them to take inventory of their body and what each part is feeling. I explain that each part of our bodies will tell us something different if only we were to listen to it. I always use the example of asking what they feel in the neck and shoulders. Invariably they respond that they feel tightness which is just another place our stress settles in. But in doing a complete inventory of our body, with our eyes closed, we find that our legs, our stomachs, our backs and other places feel tight and therein lies the problem.

The way we got to that place is very simple. We are not taking care of our bodies and our bodies are sending out all the signals it can that we need to destress. That means we can start by simply slowing down.

Many people will say, “I have to do this” or “It has to be done quickly.” They question they fail to ask themselves is that of the truth to their statements. Do this with three simple questions: Do I have to do this? Do I have to do this now? Does this have to be done by me?

People commonly stress themselves by thinking they must clean their house all in one day. And when they fail, they end up feeling badly. The better approach is to pick one or two rooms to clean in one day. By doing this every room will be cleaned and there will be little, if any, stress involved.

Have you ever gotten angry because some driver around you does something you consider stupid? We all have but it is our reaction to this that makes the difference. If you decide you need to yell at them, as if they would hear you. My response is to simply call them a dumbass and then return to my job of being a responsible driver. This keeps my mind slowed down.

I recommend that on a daily basis everyone take at least 10 minutes to meditate. Don’t think you know how? It is simple, go to your backyard or a quiet place, and focus on something which pleases you. Do not let your mind wander from that unless it is to another place you find pleasing. My best thinking comes during these times of meditation. Things I have decided are a problem are solved by my slowed down mind. The solutions just seem to pop into my mind as if from nowhere. But in truth, I have simply given my mind a break from being stressed and a chance to come up with logical solutions.

One last good thing to do to quiet ourselves and slow down is to take a daily walk, ideally with our spouse, a friend, a lover and walk for about half an hour. You are forcing your body to slow down because walking peacefully allows our body to slow down.

These are but a few examples of gaining more pleasure from our daily lives through slowing down. There are many others but you have to start somewhere.