Our Schools are in trouble

Arlington Massachusetts is having to decrease music and art, foreign language introduction. Class sizes are increasing as well. This is because there is a one million annual short fall in the budget for public education.
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This is the next generation of Americans we're talking about. They come into a culture that is going to demand high math skills, engineers, doctors, teachers, a world view. We need an educated body politic to make wise decisions when they vote.

Where are we spending out treasure, Iraq, Afghanistan, bailing out our excesses from the past, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac, Goldman Sacks, and Citibank?

The Lunatic Fringe wants less Government, Less Regulation.

It is easy to get depressed these days.

I am grateful that Barrack Obama is willing to serve in this difficult trying time. It is useful to contrast him with Senator Lindsey Graham. I watched him, Graham, display his Idea Fix, convictions from the Bush/Chaney era at the Senate hearings on Afghanistan. After delivering a totally ignorant and stupid line of questioning to General Petraeus, he got up and stomped out of the hearing. God save us from these Senators who are stuck in the past.

Letter to James Carville

Dear Mr. Carville,

I have been watching you come apart on TV. For me it is one of the most distressing processes related to the Oil catastrophe.

You are an articulate intelligent political man. We need you to make the connection with this event and our modern life style.

Take a breath and think about this in the larger sense. Very few people are making the connection. Please note the adds following the news from the Gulf on CNN. There is Lexus, touting the speed of it's cars, wheels spinning. How insensitive it that!

Obama is between a rock and a hard place. We need to shift the economy away from Coal and Oil, Gas but we can't do it quickly if we want to control the deficit.

People who have the "public ear" need to help people see the connection between our reckless use of energy and the destruction of the Planet. It isn't just BP and the Federal Government, it is ALL OF US.

I have always enjoyed your comments, so "right on". Now you are so upset I can't understand you, speaking so fast. "Time out" to regroup.

Best regards to you. I am so sorry. I know you are watching the death of the life and place you love.

Bern Kilgariff

Thanks, David. Looking at the picture of Bernie and Aileen I remember one time she loaned me blankets, I think it was when we moved from the Oasis Motel to the little stone house on the Todd, which she had found for us. She asked for them back because, "we have only two blankets for each child."

Their past is ours too. Love, Sally

Overheard at the Diner

I was sitting in a booth waiting for my Vegtable Omlet.

A man, about mid-fifties in age was in the next booth facing me and talking on his cell phone. I gathered from his conversation, that he was talking to a friend about being out of work. He said he was working part time in the diner, "For something to do."

"I voted for Brown".

"The Republicans were in we were doin great."

"The Democrats are in we're doin terrible."

Report to Ezra Jabez
Sacketts Harbor, 1996
Grandfather, they are taking the boats out of the water at Navy Point. In 1996. I
walked out there this morning. There was a misty rain and the wind was from the north- west, coming in off the lake. I thought of you and how you would know and expect the seasonal activity of this little harbor, so I am making my report to you.

The harbor is full of pleasure boats, Sail and motor launches. They have names and home "ports", which seem to be the domiciles of their owners, not necessarily on the lake. There was "Empty Pockets", a message I will try to remember when I toy with the idea of boat ownership. Many are for sale, beautiful clean shining hulls, up on pylons, their dimensions, year of launch, and price stuck on their bows. The dollar amount ranges from $19,000 to $176, 000. Your estate, at your death was listed at about $27,000. You would be shocked.

These boats are made of fiberglass, not much wood to be seen. They have tall aluminum masts, now lying side by side like stacked wood, segregated in another part of the boat yard. There are all sorts of navigational aids attached around the cockpit. These electronic navigators communicate with satellites, Grandfather! You can tell your position any where on the earth within a few feet by turning on these gadgets! What happens when the power fails? I hope these sailors still know how to "shoot the stars".

They are predicting a drastic change in temperature tonight. Today, October 2nd it is about 65 degrees and sunny. The flowers are blooming. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 40 F. I'm ready. I know how changeable this place is. I've got my Down Parka along.

Lots of love, your granddaughter, Sessa

The Informant, staring Matt Damon, or Name that Pathology

I had read of Mark Whitaker’s debacle with Archer Daniels Midland ten, fifteen, years ago in maybe the New Yorker? I had been fascinated and amused so looked forward to seeing the dramatization on screen.

I was not prepared for the “this is your life” experience that unfolded before me. At first I thought, "Wait a minute, this is familiar."

His story was good, believable. But then little things didn’t add up. What’s wrong here?

The main character, Mark Whitaker spins out lies and fabrications with the ease of water pouring from a jug. It became apparent that he was preoccupied with his interior life. At first I thought, “pathological liar.” Then, “He’s paranoid.” Then “to think it is to say it.”

At that point things became uncomfortably familiar. “This guy is like Ian. He can’t help himself. He even lies about his lies."

I began to feel sad and depressed. There it was before me. The charm, the manipulation, the grandiosity.

I have always struggled with my guilt, sadness, frustration trying to make Ian “like other people.” Wanting to shake him and say, “For once, just tell the truth.” I see the same frustration in the FBI handler. He always just gets more lies.

What is this syndrome? There are elements of autism, antisocial personality disorder, paranoia, secretiveness, and manipulation.

I left the theater sad and depressed. Ian was sick, from an early age. A lot of very good people tried to help him. No one really saw or understood the whole picture. It is a tribute to Matt Damon, a fine actor, that he could catch all the nuance and bring it before the audience. In the end how can we understand such complex mental illness? Poor Ian, he was his own worst enemy.

Update the Senario

Watching movies on TV these days strikes a discordant note.

Bank robbers get all excited about one million dollars

Car thieves go ballistic about Cadillac’s, Hummers, and SUVs.

“What’s wrong with them?” I think.

One million dollars was a big haul twenty years ago. Now a days is it worth risking your life and freedom ?

“Who wants one of those cars?”

How long will the new reality take to get into the story line of the script?