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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.

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Why Are We Angry?


Anger can be a useful tool in our lives. But for the past 6 years, it seems the level of anger in this country has risen to an unacceptable level. You need only look at a few politicians to find the source of much of this anger at it root. But what has happened in turn is that Americans are simply getting angrier at other things as well.

Have you ever gotten angry at another driver on the road? Of course, you have. But why? Ironically, when I am driving and my wife is with me, she is the one who get angry at inconsiderate drivers and not me. I find this hilarious, but it is also a problem. Why is it I do not get angry at these drivers? It is simple, I have accepted the fact that there are a lot of fools driving on our roads. What can I do about it? Where the other driver is concerned, nothing. Where I am concerned, take it in stride and accept it. By doing this, I do not get stressed.

The golden rule says: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I take that very seriously. And so, I do a lot of little things that I hope will in turn make the other person at least smile. One thing I do is, when I am at a checkout counter at a store, I always say to the checkout person, “have a wonderful day.” Sometimes they do not acknowledge but that is all right. And other times I see them smile and respond in kind. Another thing I do is, I have this stack of $2 bills. I will always give a waitress one of them as a part of her tip. Since the $2 bill is not seen very much, many of them are amused and therefor a little bit happier.

But the question remains, how much anger is needed in our lives. In a perfect life the answer is none. That means that if we think through the problem which has caused our anger, we need only think of a solution, or, barring that, we need ask ourselves why are we getting angry? The kind of anger I most frequently get is towards our elected officials who do not seem to have the needs of their constituency at the forefront. That anger lasts for less than a minute once I realize there is little I can do about it except vote, and/or, write that person a letter explaining that discontent.

It is said that humans are social creatures. If you accept that, and that is what science tells us is the truth, then we must act as if we are always at a friend’s party and keep smiling and saying happy thoughts. If we are being drawn into a contentious conversation, we can simple excuse ourselves from it and find a happier place.

The bottom line is, trying justify anger is like trying to keep the tide from coming in.

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Wither Mental Health in the United States


We are by far the richest nation in the world. But we are 20th in the world in dealing with mental health issues. What countries do we trail? Pick pretty much any country in western Europe plus Japan and you start to get the idea. According to the Well Being Port, which is based on the well-being of any one country versus its mental health care. We are number 3 in well-being worldwide. That means that we rank 20th in mental health paints an even gloomier picture of our approach.

What is mental health? According to the report cited above, 1 in 5 Americans will encounter and mental health crisis at some time during their life. But among those figures, and one least written about is addiction which includes alcoholism. According to the World Population Review, the rate of alcoholism and addiction in the U.S. is among the highest in the world. I think this speaks loudly to our desire to take on these health issues directly. Again, countries such as Sweden, Austria and others have a much lower rate of these diseases. This is not a statistic anomaly, but a reality.

It is strange that anytime a Republican speak of mental health, it is only when there has been some sort of mass shooting. They are most certainly only trying to curry favor with the NRA and have no real empathy for those who suffer a mental illness.

The streets of the cities of the U.S. are littered with the mentally ill. There was a time when such people could be institutionalized until they were stabilized and of no danger to themselves or others. But in the 1970s Democrats in particular, viewed this as involuntary incarceration. If you care to wax philosophically about the, yes, that state is true. But is that good policy for those who suffer? It definitely is not. But also in the 1970s, there was a lack of psychiatric facilities for pure mental illness and a lack of facilities to treat those with drug and alcohol addiction. That has changed somewhat, although medical hospitals are want to treat the mentally ill past 2 weeks and almost uniformly refuse to provide in-patient care for drug and alcohol abuse.

This year, as our debt limit crisis is apparently avoided, Democrats refused to cut back on funding for mental health. But that is like saying, I will pay you 25 cents for your $1 product. Republicans on the other side, tried to reduce funding for those on public assistance. Well, news flash to the Republicans in denial, many of those on such assistance get government aid in the form of public assistance. The answer here is, if you want to reduce how much you pay into public assistance, put more into programs that directly assist those with mental health issues.

In a chapter of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, written over 80 years ago, Dr. Silkwood, at that time, described alcoholism as a health issue and not one of moral character. And yet still today we treat these individuals as pariahs of the general public. Many employers upon discovering an employee with drinking problems that lead to substandard work, fire such individuals rather than help them find assistance. They simply cite the lack of quality work as the reason for the firing. In truth, it is the combination of these factors. If a person get cancer, they cannot be summarily discharged because they miss so much work. There is a little known law by the public which is a portion of the American with Disabilities Act call the Reasonable Accommodation portion of the law which requires companies to work with people who present every sort of disability. Alcoholism and addiction are most definitely disabilities.

In short, we are failing all around to treat the most treatable illnesses today. Some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and psychosis, defy physicians best efforts to contain them. But for the most part, people with mental illnesses can be fully productive provided they receive proper mental health care. Personally, I have what is called, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I have been on medications for over 40 years and there is little likelihood that I will ever fully recover. And yet, I lead a quiet but happy life. That is because via good health insurance and the Veterans Administration, I am fully cared for. But I believe I am in the minority who receives such care.

It is long overdue that our politicians, of any stripe, step up to the plate and put forth a rigorous plan that attacks the root forms of mental health in our country. We would do well to publicly fund treatment facilities for anyone who suffers any sort of mental illness. The result of this would be two-fold, they would get well and they would become healthy supporters of our economy. This might sound like a huge influx of cash by our federal government, which it would be, but it will reduce the costs of funding other portions of our public sector.

We each have a duty to help those in need. We cannot turn a blind eye to such problems and call ourselves good people. It is good to practice the help as you would wish to be helped thinking we must embrace.

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Crisis at the U.S. Southern Border


The crisis there is very real but the U.S. government is handling wrong. Worse, the Republican Party seems hell-bent on making these people into a menace. They are not! Trump demonized them by saying they were all drug smugglers and the like. Also not true.

Our country is a country of immigrants with one exception, the Native Americans who are, sadly, few in number today. My own family arrived in America in its earliest of days, 1638, flees Englands policy of imprisoning Puritans and sometimes putting them to death because they disagreed with the Church of England. They fled persecution.

As the decades passed, many other new Americans came here for the same reason. Three waves of Irish came here because of famine, harsh living conditions under the thumb of land owners.

Then the Chinese came to the West Coast of America and helped build the railroads and do other jobs that Americans thought below them. That was until the Chinese Exclusion Act, thoroughly racist in design, was passed in 1862.

Otherwise, our borders were wide open. Starting in the 1890s and continuing until 1923, almost everyone from a foreign country who arrived here was welcomed. Most were southern Europeans although some were German immigrants and Jewish immigrants. The Germans were fleeing forced military service, worsening economics, and other factors. Many of these Germans were skilled laborers who helped our economy.

Then, starting around 1900, Italians, Poles, Syrians, Armenians and other groups came to America to escape both economic failures, government repression, ie. the Ottoman Empire and the Russian occupation of Poland. They too were welcomed with open arms. The only requirements for these people is that they arrive disease free, have $50 and an address to go to. Most did not have the $50 and many used addresses given to them by friends even though most would never go to that address. And during this era there was an explosion of American industry due to these people taking wages that long time Americans were unwilling to take. They filled mostly jobs in the various types of mills in the Northeast and the mid-west mills.

It was not until the Immigration Act of 1924 limits the number of immigrants allowed into the United States yearly through nationality quotas. Under the new quota system, the United States issues immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States at the 1890 census. The law favors immigration from Northern and Western European countries. Just three countries, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany account for 70 percent of all available visas. Immigration from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was limited. (https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/immigration-united-states-timeline#new-restrictions-at-start-of-wwi). The reason the 1890 census was chosen is because it did not reflect the great immigration from 1890 to 1920.

For some reason, America has long been Xenophobic. It does not seem to matter that previous generations of immigrants have always found a productive place in American and have contributed greatly to our economy.

And so, today we have this crisis at the southern border. Xenophobia is at a height never seen before. The vast majority of people arriving at our border are fleeing various types of repression, personal attacks, forced labor, etc. This is a humanitarian crisis to which we must respond in a positive manner. Before us stand the future of American labor, and not to belabor a point, this has always and without exception, been an extremely positive thing for our country and our economy. Yes, there are a springling of coyotes, drug smugglers and other undesirables among the group, but they can be ferreted out and put in jails in Mexico.

The U.S. would do well to make an agreement with the Mexican government to build housing on Mexican soil for these immigrants. It would be costly, but far more humane than what exists today. Republican truly need to read the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore” written by Emma Lazarus. Are we now too arrogant, too unsympathetic, too xenophobic to remember those words, the people arrived at Ellis Island, that we now think to turn our backs on those words is somehow all right?

Let them in via making at least 100 more immigration judges, faster processing and, of course, weeding out the undesirables. In the end, decades from now, we will be reaping the benefits of such immigration.

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Are You Happy? Why Not?


Unless you live in a country that is repressive, you have no reason to not be happy in general. We all go through times of sadness, death in the family, losing a job, sickness, and other unplanned occurrences. But those are things of limited time, things which will pass in time. And in those times, you can still find happiness.

We human beings are wired to be happy. Most of us are born to loving parents and have a good childhood. And even those who have experience less than that, they manage to find happiness, so why don’t you?

Our entire life experience, starting with childhood, is controlled by certain portions of our brain. But our brain needs to be trained. Too many people train their brains to think in a positive way. Instead of saying “why me?” why not simply accept the situation at hand and move on. As parents we are responsible for teaching our children these positive reinforcements for our children. And then we need to train ourselves the same way.

I so often hear someone say, “it’s just not fair.” What are they talking about? They are talking about their home being devastated by a tornado, a child who has leukemia, a parent who dies suddenly, and so many other things. I bring out these things because if you look at them, each is because of the forces of nature and not those of many. I always say, they are entirely fair, miserable as they are, but disease and weather do not pick out individuals and bring pain upon them! It is just a natural course of events. This is the universe, inexorably moving along, a power bigger than any of us, and, unfortunately, bringing pain to our lives. The only things that can possibly be unfair is the action of one or a group of people who cause us pain. It is only a human being who can bring about the condition of being “unfair” to us.

To feel happy you must think happy. As I said in my previous post, there is beauty all around us, we just need to take notice. There are wonderful people everywhere but we must find them. Their are people beyond our family who will support us in hard times, but, including our family, we must stay connected to such people.

Our individual happiness depends first upon our own state of mind and then by the bridges we have built.

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You Do Not Ever Need to Feel Lonely Again


I am struck by how many people say they feel lonely a lot. Why is this? Is it because they do not have a mate? Is it because they do not know what to do with themselves? Is it because they are depressed?

I will start with the last thing first. Depression is a medical condition which requires treatment, first and foremost, by a psychiatrist. I hear many people say they went to their primary care physician to deal with it. If the primary care physician is not immediately referring such patients to a psychiatrist, shame on them! But once that condition is stabilized, the following suggestions apply to them equally as with someone who does not have depression.

The first thing you might do is read a book. Figure out which types of books are likely to be of greatest interest to you. Expect to find some that, after reading a book or two, did not hold you as you had hoped. Move on to another genre and do not stop until you have identified at least two genres that please you. Once that is accomplished, play a game with yourself to read as many of these books in a month as you can. Of course, libraries are a great resource in finding books but if you end up like me, you use your local bookstore to find them. And once you are done with them, please, do not throw them away. Simply put them in the library’s return book area or drop off device and be certain they will be welcomed.

Next, get outdoors and walk. Even walking is a great source of exercise but as another use, you can get out into nature and enjoy her. Most people own an automobile, so if you live in a city, make no excuses about there being nothing to find in the city. I can easily combat that idea, but that is for another time. In the countryside, find a walking trail. Walk slowly with the determination to find as many different animals as you can. Even when I am riding my bicycle, you would be surprised by all the animals I saw. And oh yes, bring a camera with you. You may see some animal you have seen frequently, but this is a photographic notebook of your travels. And no time of year is not good to do this. Once you start see certain animals and birds, of course, many times, find a spot where you can rest and watch these creatures in their habitat. Note how they move and which of their species they move with and how they do it. One thing you will find, birds love to be in the company of another of their species but of the opposite species gender. Note the color differences. If the bird is brightly colored, most likely it is a male. But do not stop a birds, notice bugs, and if you have the stomach for it, spiders, they are the most resourceful and creative of all insects, in my opinion. And for a mind blower, remember that scorpions are related to spiders!

Another thing to take note of is the flora of the woods. In northern climes, see if you can spot a lady’s slipper, a type of orchid which is rare but not impossible to find. If you see one, there are probably others near it. But do not pick them! They are an endangered species. Of course, also in nature are trees. There are nine different types of conifer trees, pine trees. There are 35 different species of elm tree, there are 600 different types of oak tree, there are 17 types of walnut tree, there are 13 different types of cedar tree, and the list goes on.

Can you find edible plants? There are 120,000 types of these plants.

Wild flowers abound and figuring out what you are looking at is a challenge unto itself.

I recommend that your purchase some of the different books that apply to each of the things above: trees, birds, wild animals, edible plants, rocks and other things.

Finally, if you find yourself “stuck” in the city and cannot get out for any reason, take a walk along the sidewalks. As you do and come upon a building you think is old, look up and find some of the most amazing architecture. Modern buildings are cold and without merit. But buildings dating back to the 1930s and earlier, were built with a lot of pride. You will find cornices, finials, balustrades, arched windows, colored glass, and windowed and non-windowed domes, some with bells. There are many other parts as well but that is what you will need to identify. Start with the easy buildings, old public libraries and other public buildings. Take pictures of these buildings, make a written note of them, such as what the picture is, and take them home and research them. It is not impossible to find a building dating back to the 1850s, or earlier! Note the progression of styles. Find out what their original use was. Let’s say you live in New York City. There are two buildings of note that I would bet most New Yorkers know nothing of their history. The first is the Flatiron building and the other is Grand Central Terminal.

Each of the things noted above are things you can do alone. And some beg you to do them alone. But the important part of all these exercises is that you will not feel alone while doing them and you cannot help but learn something new, never a bad thing.

One last important note. If you find yourself drinking every night or everytime you feel lonely, consider the case that you might be an alcoholic. Call your local Alcoholics Anonymous Service Center and talk to whoever answers. They are alcoholics in recovery and can give you some useful guidance.

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You Cannot Read This


I recently saw a list of books that are banned in at least one state if not many. Among them are D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Anjelou, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the list goes on!

I read several of these books while in high school and I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to ban them. They are classics for a reason. Each is very well written and by authors whose legacy of being among the great American Authors will remain unblemished.

Florida’s governor, Ron DiSantis leads the way of deciding who can read what. And he is not alone but simply stands out more than most. God forbid in the state of Florida that a student might want to read The 1619 Project. What happens to that person if they do, that high school student? Are they expelled? Are they punished? Or are they simply inquisitive about the world around them and how we got here. Should that student follow up with The Grapes of Wrath and then Tortilla Flats, is that student on his road to perdition?

Conservative American politians claim they are here to fight to the end to preserve a person’s 1st Amendment rights, but does that right not include the liberty to read what he or she likes? I guess they think pouring all their efforts into making sure everyone in America has a ton of guns and not worrying about preserving a person’s right to choose.

Oh! There is that phrase! “A right to choose.” Hmmm, sounds like something a pro-choice person would say. But is not pro-choice also inclusive of the right to choose what any one person desires to read? Let’s see, they won’t ban Hustler Magazine, but they will ban To Kill a Mockingbird! The foolishness of this should be apparent to all Americans.

And one last thought, Texas is the only state in the union that sets a long-standing standard as to what material is included in high school history books. God help us because what is next?

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Things I Should Have Said to My Father


My father was/is my hero. He died at the age of 57 when I was just 20. And because I was so young, it had not occurred to me to ask him a large number of questions plus just talking to him about things in general.

I am the eldest of three children my parents had and simple math shows that my father was much older than most people who were having children, particularly when considering how old a parent is when having that first child. My mother was 35 when I was born. That was in 1949 and at the time having a first child at that age was considered bordering on dangerous. Of course, it wasn’t as we know today.

My father lived in a large old house, built in 1790, a farmhouse style home, that my family occupied since 1791. The makeup of my family in 1912, when my father was born, was an upper middle-class family, a family that could afford to have a cook and housekeeper. My grandfather was a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had a strange feeling towards his children and their education. While two of my three uncles went to college, my father graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology, a trade school in those days that had strong ties to the textile industry of Massachusetts. The industry was quite extensive at that time and my father, who graduated in 1932, became an employee at the J. P. Stevens Mill in North Andover Massachusetts, his hometown. When the war broke out in 1941, my father delayed his entry into the service because of his father’s impending death.

My father served in the U.S. Army Air Corps and was part of the armament section for a B-26 which had him serving in Morocco, Algeria, Italy and finally France. He declined a promotion that would have required his transfer to the Pacific theater of operations. But when he returned home, a law which required J. P. Stevens to take him back, was ignored and he was told his position no longer existed. A patent lie but my father was a gentle man who was not one to take issue.

From what I have told you, you might think I knew so much about my father. But those unasked questions came to surface when I interviewed his sister Charlotte in 1988. Even that interview was wanting for a more logical and extensive series of questions. Still, I learned a lot about my father’s family experience through her. But still, it was not done in his words.

A sampling of questions I might have asked: What are your earliest memories of your family? What were Thanksgiving and Christmas like? Tell me about your going to the Center School (elementary) and Johnson High School. Why did you want to go to Wentworth instead of a 4-year college? Why did you end up getting our house instead of Uncle Ike or Uncle John? Why did you go into the jewelry business and watch repair? How did you learn to repair watches? I am certain that were I to sit with myself, I could easily come up with 100 questions I would love to hear the answer. But as I said, my father died when I was just 20 years old and too much “all about me” as is common among young men and women then and today.

Year later I got a master’s degree in U.S. history which brought home the idea of written family histories. My thesis would have been ever so much better had I known of personal journals of the people involved. After I retired from the Federal Government with 30 years of service, I went into teaching, and I frequently would tell the children to learn as much as they can about their family history. It is only to common for a person to say that their family history is boring. But it is not! Each of us is a part of history and we all witness history from out own unique view. That view can be crucial for future historians. This fact was brought home when I was writing a paper in grad school about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. I found the diary of a young man who lived just south of Boston and wrote down, albeit briefly, his take on the first shots of that war. That was invaluable.

Not to put too fine a point on this subject, I was taking the train from Boston to San Francisco (Oakland) when at dinner one day in one of the mid-west states, I was seated across from an elderly woman. I asked her the usual questions, where are you from and what did you do from work. From that modest beginning opened up a wealth of information, totally unexpected. She too had said hers was a boring background as she was “only” a schoolteacher in a one-room schoolhouse in southern Ohio. In the late 1980s that was a story worth telling.

I do not expect any young people to read this article, however, I know adults will. I implore those of you who are reading this article that you get a written history of your family of birth and that you pass on to your children your own personal experiences. The importance of having first-hand knowledge of the events of history is extremely important. What you experience is unique and worthy of being told to following generations. When history is written, it is these first-hand accounts that will give a much more full understanding of history.

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World War III? Do Not Count It Out!


Right now the world is in a very precarious state. The war in Ukraine is front and center but it is far from the only issue of world safety. China is an ally of Russia and is already on a war footing. Will the Chinese send weapons to Russia? I think it likely. And worse, our ability to detect such movements of weapons can be made difficult simply by sending them by rail.

In the 21st century, China has had expansionist plans ever since it took over Tibet and the world did nothing. It regained Hong Cong and the world was forced to stand by as the iron fist of Chinese Communist rule struck down any inkling of democracy in Hong Kong. Now it has its eyes on Taiwan.

And while China built up its industrial complex to be a world supplier of electronics needed in our everyday life. Right now China is a world economic power and fast gaining influence in 3rd world countries, particularly in Africa.

The unstable variable in all this is President Putin of Russia. We have heard that it is doubtful that battlefield nuclear arms will be moved into Belarus. But I would not bet against that either.

We do not know 90% of the information our intelligence community has gathered. It has always been that way. And the hope is that they are getting good intel.

All the above items will figure into what happens next. And I expect the next thing to happen is Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine which will include all portions of Russia’s armed forces. I expect the reason Ukrainian soldiers are being trained on the Patriot Air Defense system is our country is expecting Russia to launch a much increased missle attack but also a much higher use of jet aircraft to included bombers, something it has not done to date. Bombers can fly at 50,000 feeet over Ukraine and effectively hit any target it desires.

On the other side of the world China is making warlike moves on Taiwan. It would not take much for a war to break out there which we would ultimately be drawn into because of our commitment to help defend Taiwan. It is not unreasonable to expect Russia to be embolden after getting Chinese support to draw in NATO.

Then what? WWIII.