Niches

For the last several years I have been seeking job with which I could be content and one that I would find fulfilling. I gave at various times thought of pursuing interests tthat involve my inteersts of law politics, international relations and anthropology and archaeology.

Books, Coins and Chess Sets

I find that collecting books, coins, and chess sets, pewter are way in which I can find outlets for my creative impulses and collecting them is much more fun than participating in sports.

A Salute to Veterans

We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We have felt - we still
feel - the passion of life to its top. In our youths our lives were touched by
fire. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

It is because of the noble and gallant conduct of veterans like Justice Holmes and other veterans like my grandfather that the United States if America remains a beacon of liberty.

I who am not able to take up arms because of my disability give thanks for women and men who can do take up arms to defend the country. I only wish that I could join you in the fight.

UST a campus with troubles

lolWhen I took Teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, we were taught that the word, Catholic has three meanings.

One: In its most general, sense the word catholic means universal.

Two: The term Catholic applied to those followers of Christ living in the Western portion of the Roman Empire.

Three: The term applies to those Churches and by extension their members who are in communion with, His Holiness, the Bishop of Roman and acknowledge his authority.

Can UST and the community truly and legitimately call itself a Catholic institution?
In my mind in order to be truly catholic in nature, a community or institution must meet all three definitions.

The University meets the second and third definitions of the term catholic. However, I would argue that the University fails to meet the first definition for two reasons,

First, the toleration of any form of discrimination against student minorities at the University is an abomination.

Second, the unwillingness in the past of the administration to acknowledge and engage in dialogue with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students on the issues faced by these students on campus daily as outlined in this passage from the article by Christina Fojas entitled Gay/Straight Alliance shifts focus: Club to request HRC chapter, non-discrimination policy,

Discrimination on campus has appeared in many subtle forms, primarily in
insensitive comments or hostile attitudes from classmates, according to Alliance
members. In one instance, Perez said a student brought a male doll dressed in a
pink bikini to school as a joke. "I felt embarrassed," Perez said. "No one wants
to acknowledge that there are gay students on campus, that there is
discrimination and it needs to be dealt with." http://www.ustcauldron.org/media/storage/paper444/news/2006/10/19/OtherNews/Gaystraight.Alliance.Shifts.Focus-2399452.shtml?norewrite200611021431&sourcedomain=www.ustcauldron.org&mkey=416196

seems to me to be exclusionary in nature and contrary to the stated mission and purpose of the University.

I applaud the efforts of the Gay/Straight Alliance. I urge the members to stay the course to which they have committed themselves. I give them my full and unconditional support.
It is my hope that your efforts will serve to encourage other minority groups on campus to speak out especially the disabled students of the University of Saint Thomas.

During my time at the University of Saint Thomas as a disabled student I was only too well aware no student advocacy group existed to aid the students of the university whose disabilities often left them at a disadvantage especially as incoming freshmen because, in my experience most incoming freshmen with disabilities were not well acquainted with the processes and procedures that were in place to determine the need for accommodations/ Additionally, topic relating to disability were not addressed during my tenure as a student in the New Student Orientation Program. To the best of my knowledge these deficiencies have not been address.

To the disabled students, I say the time has come for the disabled students of UST to unite together for the purposes of insuring that there is exists a student group for incoming students to turn to when they need support and advice.

And then there were eight: A reflection on Pluto

The International Astronomical Union after several days of sometimes acrimonious debate has decided to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, stripping it of its original designation as a true planet, a designation that Pluto had held since, its discovery in 1930.

www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0603/index.html


In ight of this decision primary school teachers will have to develop a new mnemonic device to asist their students in memorizing the planets.

An Intriguing question: How am I

Yesterday, I received a voice mail message from a friend who se voice I have not heard since late December or early January asking how I was doing, Her voice mail message made me pause to reflect on the question.

In my reflections I found that I have been answering that question on a day by dat basis and yet I had comnsidered the cumulative effect of the question in the sense that I never really considered it over the long term.

An assessment of my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state is something that I assess on a daily basis because, there is not a single uniform answer.

Indeed in the last eight months I have grown older and perhaps gained a little wisdom through my experiences. I have changed and grown in some ways and in others I remain unchanged.

Most of the changes were due in part to medical and psychological problems I am now under treatment for, and now I am on the right combinations of medications.

Also, I have found that I have generally withdrawn from much of the social activities I used to enjoy and have begun taking more pleasure in playing chess, reading, writing coin collecting, and stamp collecting, sword collecting that for a long while I had to give up because of all that was going on in my life.

In all I would say that the past eight months on a scale of -10 to a +10 that I have seen both ends of the spectrum. More often than not I fall into the middle of the spectrum. To provide a more detailed explanation of why this so would not in mind be prudent so I will say simply that I have been lonely and while my beautiful dogs Alli who passed away and my new dog Bella can only allieviate so much of my lonliness.
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The death of a noble man

This morning I attended the funeral service for Rev. William John Young C.S.B. I did not know Reverend Young all that well. Although, he was there for me during a difficult period in my life in his capacity as a priest. In this capacity he was able to help to find hope in a time when I had none left for myself and I had despaired of graduating. I will always be grateful to him for all the counsel and help he gave me during this period of my life.

Resquiat in Pacem Alli Doodle

My Beautiful dog Alli was euthanized today because, she developed Mange and cancerous tumors. I miss her greatly. I have a greater affection for her because than I do for most my relatives and acquaintances at school, when ever I was down or needed to talk out my problems I would take her for a walk and tell her my problems because, she unlike the majority fo humans I know never judged me.

Rest In Peace Alli my friend and thank you for all that you did for me.

Some thoughts on Television and America

Edward R. Murrow once said of television that it has the ability to teach, to illuminate, and to inspire people.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and
indifference. This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who
knew something about the use of weapons, is reported to have said, "When war
comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." The trouble with
television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival.

I believe Edward Murrow was correct concerning television and indeed the battle for survival for survival he spoke of in October of 1958 has come. This battle has come in the forms of the War on Terror and the War in Iraq.

It is has been said that support for the war in Iraq has been flagging in the polls whether this downturn is justified is not for me to say. I would comment only that television is being improperly used in these two instances because it does not teach, illuminate or inspire in any way the populace of the United States to learn.

Indeed the loudest voices are either those on the far right of the political and social spectrum or those on the far left of those spectrums. The great mass of individuals that occupies the center has been muted. The reason for this is the great indifference and apathy that pervades through the middle of the spectrum.

The popularity of shows such as Survivor, The Great Race, and Lost seems to indicate that the public at large is allowing themselves to be isolated and insulated from those events that have an effect on our daily. For example, I hear many people complaining about the high prices of oil and gasoline. Yet, I have not heard the question, why are oil and gasoline prices high from the public at large there have been individuals who have asked the question but, as of yet there have not been whole segments of the population that have asked with one voice such questions.

Yet it is not solely the fault of the the public at large. A share of the responsibility rests with the network executives and reporters as well because, many have forgotten the duty and responsibility they possess to be the catalyst for debates on social and political issues that inspire individuals to take a stand. However, journalists must undertake this responsibility with great care because with due diligence being accorded to examining both sides of an issue because, in and of themselves words can be persuasive as Edward Murrow remarked

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be
credible; credible we must be truthful.

It seems as though journalists sometimes forget these lessons as the election night coverage of the 2000 presidential election by CNN and Dan Rather's now discredited report on the military service of President George Walker Bush.

Eric Sevareid in his final broadcast as part of CBS News on 30 November 1977 laid out some rules that he adhered to in reporting

The rules are self imposed, these were few: Not to underestimate the
intelligence of the audience; and not to overestimate its information;
to elucidate when one can more than to advocate; to remember always that the
public is only people and people only persons no two alike; to retain the
courage of one's doubts, as well as one's convictions in this world of
dangerously passionate certainties; to comfort oneself in times of peril with
the knowledge that the saving grace of the press, print, or broadcast is a
self correcting nature and to remember that ignorant and biased reporting has
its counterpart in ignorant and biased reading and listening. November
30, 1977

I would argue that the nation as a whole is not served by television seeks not to teach not to illumine and not to inspire but to merely isolate the individual by replacing true reality with a scripted one that is escapist in nature.

The resulting programming fundamentally underestimates of the intelligence of the audience and provides less than adequate information to the public on the issues that are foremost in the consciousness of the people.

Indeed I would assert that the public is unable to go to the polls in an informed manner because of an indifference on the part of the majority of Americans that occupy the center. The indifference that pervades the center of the American sociopolitical system I would argue is reinforced by the predominant place given to escapist programming on television and that the television networks with the exception of PBS and a variety of specialized networks are neglecting the responsibility they have to assist parents, teachers, and clergy in their roles as educators of the youth of America.

What does this have to do with the War on Terror, the War in Iraq and the genocide Darfur. Edward R. Murrow envisioned a television that served as an educational tool.

If we are to be successful in rooting out the terrorists and their agents the American people must be educated and learn about the various groups involved. The best way to know about these enemies and to defeat them is to understand the way our enemies think, and feels to that end it is important the American people be educated in the history, social practices, mores and values of Americas enemies such as al-Qaida, the Taliban, the militias in both Iraq and Sudan and compare them against the mainstream of Islam illustrating them for what they are heretics who pervert the message of Islam.

Also, the United States must utilize the media as a tool for psychological warfare that can be used used to destroy the morale of the enemies that are facing the United States because, as General Thomas Jonathan Jackson once said:
"When war comes you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Only by employing this idea along with Philip Henry Sheridan's belief in a type of warfare in which one of the primary goals is to seek out and destroy the flow of aid to the enemy will the United States be successful in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are not merely conflicts that have their genesis in differing belief systems and systems of conduct. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are wars for the hearts, minds and souls of the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan.