Pray4America (part 1) - National Day of Prayer

America Needs
a Declaration
of Dependence

In his booklet of the same name, the author, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, puts forth three steps that precede the downfall of any nation:

1.  Religious Apostasy 

2.  Moral Awfulness

3. Political Anarchy

(Many blogs could be written, filling the details of the three points above.)

As for the United States of America , one of the quotes given in Isaiah - Thru the Bible Radio applies to our current state of affairs:

“America is coasting downhill on a godly ancestry,  and God pity America when we hit the bottom of the hill.”
– Dr. J. Gresham Machen


And Dr. McGee expounds on this downward spiral with an example in history, a summary from the historian Edward Gibbon of the main reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire:

1.  Undermining the dignity and sanctity of the home, which  is the basis of all society

2.  Higher and higher taxes, the spending of public money for free bread and circuses

3.  The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year, more exciting, more brutal, more immoral

4.  The building of great armaments when the great enemy is within — the decay of individual responsibility

5. The decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people

(Reference the booklet - America Needs a Declaration of Dependence)

Sounds like today?

The problems we face today may seem enormous and complex.  But the problems of the day have always seemed so in other times of history.  And clergy (such as Dr. McGee, in point #1)  and historians (such as Edward Gibbon in point #5)  have some consensus that the root cause of  the decline of a nation is spiritual.

Decline has its genesis in religious apostasy as the religious institutions fail to have any meaningful effect in personal lives or provide moral guidance and ballast for the individual, the home, and the nation.

It makes sense that the start of a way out of a downward spiral is to look up.  And we have a great opportunity to pull up out of the tailspin - now.  And a national event coming in the next few days may just be the kick start we need.

This May 3, 2012 has been set aside as the National Day of Prayer.



Is it true ....
"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history" ? 
George Bernard Shaw

Are we doomed by our own amnesia?

Many of our past presidents have relied on prayer, especially during difficult days when it looked the nation would not survive. Such words from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln indicate their dependence on God, as in the link given below:

*  Pray for our President.

Ronald Reagan also said much about prayer and his faith in God, as shown in this clip below, which gives an insight for his optimism in America, even in the troubled times.



Keep praying for America
for ...

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord ...  
Psalm 33:12
(NIV)

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Previous posts on similar subjects:


New Years 2012 - the Good worth fighting for! (2011)

America in Decline?!  (2011)

A Royal Inspiration (2011)

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Ecards for National Day of Prayer:

*  Please join me in prayer May 3rd

*  America's Hope

*  May We Remember 

*  Let's Pray

* Testimonies of Prayer

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Photo from Wikipedia:  Capitol Prayer Room

Culture 101 (part 3) - Paul Revere's Ride

The Shot heard around the World!

This phrase has come to represent the beginning of many historical events - like the American Revolution (1775 - 1783).

And its genesis can be traced to  Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn -

"Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world ..."

Emerson words immortalized the American Minutemen resistance to the British forces back in 1775, as the British were on a mission to seize and destroy the American militia ammunition and weapons.

Emerson's poem marks the Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775), the start of the American Revolution (1775-1783).

But the night before ....

April 18, 1775

 ...and early morning the following day ..

Paul Revere crossed the Charles River and rode to Lexington to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were coming.

One if by Land, Two if by sea

To alert the Charlestown colonists of the British troop movement, Revere had instructed the sexton to signal by the code of the number of lanterns set in the tower of Boston's North Church.  From the other side of the Charles River, Revere spied the two lanterns to indicate the British would be crossing the river ... "by sea."

Paul Revere with William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott continued on toward Concord, warning many along the way.  Revere and Dawes were stopped by the British, but Prescott got away to finish the ride to Lexington.

Cool map: Virtual Midnight Ride

* Paul Revere's Ride *

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this poem in 1860 lionizing this event that ignited the Revolutionary War.  It's told through the eyes of the landlord and has become a classic in American culture.  Fortunately, for kids and big kids, too, Warner Brothers did an animated version of this poem with characters from their Animaniacs.  Here is the story as told by The Flame.





The genius of this animated clip is to make American history and literature entertaining as well as educational ... while most of us don't even know it.  Cartoons convey the culture, especially in this age of satellite TV and the internet.  And that need not be a curse - it can be a good thing.

As noted in the part 1 of Culture 101, Ronald Reagan had expressed in his farewell address  for carrying on the American culture -

"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? ...
...
"The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."

 And Reagan's warning reverberates into the 21st century.

"I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. ...
...
"Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children."

Have we heeded this warning given almost 25 years ago?

It seems we haven't as so many kids don't know ... or don't have it as a priority to know ... the basics in American history and culture as shown in this clip below.




President Reagan was so prescient with some of these last words in office -

"We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."

 

But there is some hope ....

Some of the Animaniacs cartoons do just that - entertain as well as educate us about our special American culture.

Nothing new under the sun?

Likewise, Reagan's warning is nothing new, but needs to be repeated every generation.  In the Good Book, Moses likewise encourages God's people to impress the Lord's commandments upon the children as well as adults -

⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6
(NIV)


And Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride - retelling an important part of American history - is part of American literature and is a part of American culture
which will continue to be reinforced in this blog ...


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Animaniacs teaching American history and geography:

Wakko's 50 State Capitols

Presidents Song 

Other history posts:

The Shot Heard Around the World - 235 years ago (2010)

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Previous posts on Culture 101:

Culture 101 (part 1) - Reagan's Challenge (2012)

Culture 101 (part 2) - Easter Eucatastrophe (2012)

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Photo from Wikipedia:  Paul Revere's ride

Culture 101 (part 2) - Easter Eucatastrophe

Eucatastrophe?

Sounds like a made up word ... and it is.

J. R. R Tolkien - famous for his works, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, coined it.

What does it mean?

First, let's look at the familiar word at its root, which has quite the opposite meaning - Catastrophe

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a catastrophe is -

1:  the final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy
2:  a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin
3 a:  a violent and sudden change in a feature of the earth
   b:  a violent usually destructive natural event (as a supernova)
4:  utter failure : fiasco


We see catastrophes reported in the news every day -

* the natural disasters:  earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, out of control wild fires, drought,  famine, pandemics, ...
* the man made disasters:  nuclear meltdowns, serious security breeches, stock market crashes, wars, genocide, economic collapse, toxic pollution, ...

Then we have its opposite - Eucatastrophe

Eucastrophe is Tolkien's  neologism  from

Eu - from the Greek for good
Catastrophe - as defined above, simply put - destruction

According to Tolkien Gateway -

"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears ..." 

The climax of Lord of the Rings is a eucatastrope.

At Middle Earth's darkest hours  ... as Frodo had succumbed to the evil power of the ring and turned back from the quest to destroy it ... as Gollum wrested the ring from Frodo ... as the evil forces of Sauron seemed certain to be victorious ...

Then there was a sudden turn of events for the good ... the eucatastrophe ... which destroyed the ring and broke the power of Sauron.

Below are images of the highlights of the trilogy - over ten hours into four minutes - ending in the eucastrophe:

Likewise, there is another epic story - it would be no exaggeration to call it the greatest story ever told -

* The Easter Story *

The promised Messiah was betrayed by one of His own ... rejected by His own people ... handed over the Romans to be cruelly abused ... ridiculed by the elite religious leaders ... crucified as the lowest of the criminals.  He died and was buried.  His followers' were disillusioned - their hopes totally crushed.

Yet, at this dark time in history when all the forces of hell seemed to have prevailed came the eucatrastrophe ... the resurrection.

Out of death came life.  Defeat became victory.  Despair turned to Joy. Good triumphed over evil.

The Psalmist wrote of eucatastrophe in the following verses :

... weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning
...

You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
 
 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
LORD my God, I will praise you forever. 

Psalm 30:5, 11, 12 (NIV)

Handel's Messiah captured the Easter Eucatastrophe setting Holy Scripture to music in these verses:

Lyrics above were taken from I Corinthians 15 (KJV):

²¹For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
²²For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
 ...
⁵⁴   ...then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

⁵⁵O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
⁵⁶The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
⁵⁷But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

As Professor Tolkien wrote in Letter 89:

"The Resurrection was the greatest "eucatastrophe" possible ..."


Death - Resurrection of the dead

In Adam all die - in Christ all shall be made alive

*  *  *  *

This Easter Season presents a wonderful lesson in Culture 101 - 

Christianity and the literary contributions of Professor Tolkein are part of Western Civilization and the American culture

which is to be continued ...


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Previous post on Culture 101:

Culture 101 (part 1) - Reagan's Challenge  (2012)

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Previous posts of subject:

Eucatastrophe for 2010?  (2010)

Earth Shaking Easter - a wake up call (2010)

Easter - The Sign of the Prophet Jonah (2011)

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Photo from everystockphoto.com:  My precious

America's Story (part 7) - When Reagan was shot

Rawhide!

It was the name of a great TV Western of the 1960s, starring Clint Eastwood. But it was also the secret service code-name for President Ronald Reagan.

As an actor who had once starred in Westerns (host of and guest appearances in Death Valley Days, guest appearances in Wagon Train and Zane Grey Theater, Cattle Queen of Montana, The Last Outpost, Santa Fe Trail - where he played George Custer, ...), President Reagan quite liked that code-name, Rawhide.

But not long after being sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, Rawhide was in for a rough ride ...

Seventy days into his presidency, the Reagan administration had not gotten off to a good start. The resounding victory in November, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter was forgotten.  What should have been the honeymoon period for a new president was over in mid-March.

With proposed cuts in federal spending, the opposition party, the Democrats, had criticized the President for not caring about the poor. His decision to send military advisers to El Salvador echoed fears of another Vietnam.  President Reagan's approval rating had dropped to 59 percent. This had been the lowest approval rating in modern times at this point in office.

Difficult days were ahead ...

Then came

* March 30, 1981 *

This day could have been the day the President of the United States was assassinated - and nearly was. And the clip below shows some of the chaos of that day:





Del Quentin Wilber chronicled that day in his book, aptly titled -

Rawhide Down - the Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan.

And the book has the flavor of an episode of the TV series, 24.  The author gives a timeline of what happened that day from his site- RawhideDown.com.  The link below is a great resource to piece together the chaos.

(click on the link below for the interactive site)

* Timeline of March 30, 1981

Leaving the Hilton after giving a speech to the AFL-CIO, the President did not know he had been shot by would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. ... neither did the secret service. But after walking into George Washington University Hospital, the President collapsed and almost died.

Meanwhile, the Vice President, George H. W. Bush, was on Air Force Two over Texas and out of the loop of constant contact of real-time events. The confusion of what had just happened and who was in charge played out badly in the media as if the Keystone Cops were running the country.

Fortunately at this time, the confluence of trained secret service agents and advancement in trauma medicine saved the life of the 40th President of the United States. However, presidents who had been shot before had not come to a such good end.

Previous Assassinations of Presidents

(It was not just the assassins' bullets that killed them.)

Death by "bad" or "inadequate" medicine ...

James Garfield was in office for four months when an assassin shot him twice in 1881. The wounds were not mortal, but the bad doctoring - compounded by a medicine in those days that had not fully grasped the idea of germs - were fatal.

President Garfield suffered for 80 days, wasting away from 210 pounds to 130, in the sweltering summer in Washington DC before air conditioning. He suffered greatly by the infection induced by the surgeons, who so ineptly tried to remove the bullet - and never did.  President Garfield finally passed away from a heart attack, not from the original three inch wound, which the doctors turned 20 inch contaminated gash.

William McKinley was reelected in 1900 along with his running mate, Theodore Roosevelt. September 1901, a self-proclaimed anarchist shot the President in the stomach. He lingered for eight days before succumbing to gangrene and infection. Again, good medicine could have saved him. In all fairness, antibiotics were unknown at that time.

Death by incompetence ...

Let's look at the most famous assassinations in American history. What is tragic is that the assassination may have been prevented if those protecting their presidents cared about their job or had been adequately trained.

Abraham Lincoln:

I garnered much information about the assassination of the 16th President of the United States from Bill O'Reilly's Book - Killing Lincoln. (It's an excellent read.)  Two weeks before his assassination, the President had a premonition of his death and continued to act fatalistic concerning the many threats on his life.

The man assigned to protect Mr. Lincoln and his entourage at the Ford Theater was Washington D.C. policeman John Frederick Parker. Parker was a slacker and the people around him all knew it. Even Lincoln.  Clearly, security standards were abysmal.

That fateful Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Parker left his post guarding the President's box. He went next door to get a drink and never came back. The book, Killing Lincoln, gives the account that at about ten o'clock John Wilkes Booth stopped by for a shot whiskey, sitting only a few feet away from Parker.

Left unguarded, Booth had easy access and shot the President - and the rest is history. Amazingly, Parker was acquitted and unpunished for dereliction of duty. Lesson painfully learned was to vet the presidents' guards more seriously.

John F. Kennedy:

November 22, 1963 in Dallas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy, who was riding in an open limousine with the first lady, the Governor of Texas and his wife.

Yet, the driver did not recognize the sound of gunfire when the first shot whizzed by the limousine. When the second shot hit the President and the Governor, the driver slowed down to glance behind him to see what was happening. At this point, neither the secret service agents nor the driver took any evasive actions.

Then came the third shot.  That one was fatal.  It killed the President ... and again, the rest is history.

Who knows?  With proper training of the driver and the agents, they may have recognized trouble from the get-go and taken evasive action to save the President's life. But since then, more hard lessons were learned.  The agents now are more thoroughly trained.

The Marvels of Modern Medicine ...

As in the cases of Presidents Garfield and McKinley, it was the infections, not the initial wounds, that killed them. Since then, we know about germs and have drugs that effectively fight infections.

Trauma centers in hospitals were unknown in the 1960s and early 1970s. Before then, soldiers wounded in combat had a greater chance of survival than someone getting shot in the inner cities. But with advances in trauma medicine, units came into being in the late 1970s - especially at George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC.

Lessons Learned ...

Rawhide Down fills in the minute by minute details of the timeline and the key players leading up to the day President Reagan was shot and its ensuing events. Fortunately, the agents had learned the lessons from the tragic mistakes of the past, such as:

* Training the President's body guards, which had been lacking during the times of Lincoln and Kennedy.

* The advances in trauma medicine, something unknown in the time of Garfield and McKinley.

All the above saved President Reagan, who would have otherwise been dead within twenty of the shooting.

A brand plucked out of the fire?

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, came close to burning to death at five years old when he was trapped inside a house on fire. He was snatched before the flames consumed the house as well as himself. Susannah, his mother, saw the hand of God in the rescue of her son. Susannah called John - a brand plucked from the burning (reference Zechariah 3:2).

Likewise, President Reagan came very close to dying while just three months in office. Throughout the ordeal of the shootings, the President still showed an optimism and a concern for those about him. In the epilogue of Rawhide Down, the President wrote in an entry about his near assassination:

Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.

Indeed, President Reagan pressed on for the next eight years with ups and down and was mostly successful. Under his watch after previous years of malaise, the Spirit of America revived with renewed optimism. Taxes were reduced. The economy recovered from stagflation and boomed.  Defense was beefed up. Reagan did not cave in to appease the Soviet Union.   And shortly after he left office, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Union fell apart.

What was meant for evil, God had turned to good. (Genesis 50:20)

The Saving of Ronald Reagan and renewing our national spirit is part of America's Story 
which is to be continued ...

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Previous posts on America's Story:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)

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One of my favorite Reagan speeches:  Rendezvous with Destiny

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Other accounts:


This site on B-movies - AwesomeBmovies.com:

* The Movie That Saved Ronald Reagan’s Life.

Recently there has been a special on cable on the Military channel -

* Saving Ronald Reagan

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Photos from:
Google Books: Rawhide Down
Wikipedia Commons: Lincoln, Kennedy, surgeons

ZAMM (part 5) - Sheldon vs Penny

Penny!  ...  knock! knock! ...  Penny! ...  knock! knock! ... Penny! ...  knock! knock! ...

So knocks the compulsive Dr. Sheldon Cooper on the door of the cute aspiring actress from Nebraska across the hall.

This is a familiar recurring scene in the TV show, The Big Bang Theory.

What makes this comedy work is the tension between Sheldon (with his scientific geek friends) and Penny.  They conflict with each other's world views of different visions of reality. Sheldon looks for the underlying scientific reality - in everything.  Penny sees the immediate artist appearance - she is in the moment.

The opposite personalities of Penny and Sheldon resemble that of Robert Pirsig - author of  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) - and John and Sylvia Sutherland, the author's traveling companions for part of his road trip described in his book.  This time, Sheldon and Penny are a 21st century update (with more humor) of the clash of worldviews between Pirsig and the Sutherlands of the late 1960s.

Like Penny, the Sutherlands do no like technology - they loathe it.  Meanwhile the author really gets into it, like Sheldon, especially when he has become obsessed with the meaning and concept of values to literally the point of insanity.  Pirsig's thoughts on "Motorcycle Maintenance" are a touchstone into the transcendental - the higher meaning.

But to keep this simple ...

Let's look at the Penny - Sheldon Interaction

To set up the following clip from the 3rd season, Sheldon's roommate and fellow physicist, Leonard, is dating Penny.  To understand Leonard better, Penny asks Sheldon for help in understanding physics.




For a longer scene containing this clips - (I was not allowed to embed this one) - check out:  The Big Bang Theory - Sheldon teaches Penny Physics

This scene humorously portrays this conflict of visions of reality, which Pirsig describes when he was with the Sutherlands.  Later in ZAMM, the author postulates dividing reality in two - Classic (intellectual) and Romantic (pre-intellectual).

The two characters of the sitcom personify this philosophical split of world view.  So let's look at  ...

Sheldon vs. Penny

To paraphrase Shakespeare - There's a method in madness and also a madness in method.  

Penny, the Romantic

Disorganized as seen her cluttered apartment, seemingly scatter-brained at times, Penny's madness has a method.

Penny does not have the formal schooling nor the encyclopedia knowledge as Sheldon, but on many occasions she demonstrates that she indeed smart.  She is the present moment, aware of her environs and what's going on in pop culture.  She is fully functional in society as she supports herself as a waitress, which demands satisfaction from her customers.  She has "street smarts" and knows how to survive.

Aspiring to be an actress, Penny pursues a goal in which she can practice her craft as daunting as founding a start-up company.  Both take gumption, perseverance, and applying a diverse skill set to break into a difficult field.  Facing much rejection and disappointment, she does not give up, but keeps on going.

Sheldon, the Classic

In contrast to Penny, Sheldon's method borders on madness.

Sheldon is a human output version of Google, uses techno-jargon as his native language, and dissects and categorizes reality ad infinitum.  He is driven and very focused in his pursuits as a theoretical physicist.   Like Pirsig, Dr. Sheldon Cooper has a very high IQ.  His quest for unlocking the deep secrets of physics are as elusive as Pirsig's quest of understanding Quality.

Yet, Sheldon seems dysfunctional in society.   He is OCD to distraction.  His learned helplessness gives rise to his manipulation of his friends to do everyday things for him.  He doesn't or can't drive and depends on his friends - like Penny for rides.   Likewise having a very high opinion of himself, he brags of his mental superiority  - a trait  that shows that he really is dumb as dirt in the social skills department.  He would not survive without a little help from his friends.

Who's the "smartest" of them all?

I go with Penny.

(And I am a recovering physics major  - I understand Sheldon very well.   But I also love the arts and play the flute - I have a lot of "Penny" in me.)

Now, for the greater picture .... the transcendental of Sheldon vs Penny ...

Art vs Science

The Chautauqua in ZAMM points that modern western culture has disconnected the arts from the sciences.  In other cultures, other times, the arts and sciences have always been connected with each other - bound up with the spiritual.   Yet, the arts and science are not opposed or mutually exclusive, but complement one other - part of a whole experience of reality.

If you have 45 minutes, below is a very good presentation of this - the connections between art and physics.




In conclusion, the arts and science are very much in sync with each other.

It comes down to integrating -

Zen - the spiritual part, the caring

and the

Art - creativity as expressed in the arts, thinking outside the box, being in the moment

of

Motorcycle Maintenance - science and technology, the practical, searching for the deeper underlying meaning


Likewise, the Pennys and Sheldons of this world are all part of the whole and need each other to fully function.

Question:  Are you a Penny?  A Sheldon?  A little bit of both?

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Previous articles in the ZAMM series:

ZAMM (part 1) - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

ZAMM (part 2) - Journey through Life

ZAMM (part 3) - Chautauqua, then and now

ZAMM (part 4) - Ghosts

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Photo from everystockphoto.com: TBBT

Culture 101 (part 1) - Reagan's Challenge

This coming Monday - February 20, 2012 - marks President's Day. 

And what more appropriate tribute to this holiday than to impart some of the wisdom of one of the greatest presidents in the 20th century (in my humble opinion) as well as kick off a new series -

Culture 101

 First of all ...
 
Let's rock through the latter half of the 20th century

As a baby boomer, I have seen a lot in the last half century.  When I crunch the numbers, I shudder to think that I have lived between one fifth to one fourth of American History - if you reckon from 1776.

1950s -

In the middle of the Eisenhower administration, the country (the 1950s) seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief after World War Two, then to be followed 5 short years later by the "conflict" in Korea. Yet, for most of the 1950s, the times seemed more innocent and the nation had more of  a sense of optimism.

1960s -

But as we entered the 1960s, the tranquil life of "Leave it to Beaver" was shaken with the rumblings of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, the unpopular War in Vietnam, the Counter-Culture, assassinations (JFK, RFK, MLK), the frantic Space Race to the Moon.

1970s -

No relief came in the 1970s.  Watergate destroyed Nixon.  Ford (the only president not to elected as either president and vice president) fizzled in two short years.  The next four years of Carter brought another serious energy crisis with long gas lines, the Iran hostage crisis, high inflation, and a sense of national malaise.

Innocence seemed lost - though it may be argued we never had it in the first place.

1980s -

Amid pessimism, national humiliation, high inflation, deep recession, we elected Ronald Reagan - former movie star and governor of California - as the 40th President of the United States.  One of the great achievements of the Reagan years during the 1980s was bringing back a sense of optimism.

On January 11,1989, Ronald Reagan gave his farewell address to the nation.  The video clip is below.





The last part of the speech, the President issued a warning of teaching our children what -

"America is and what she represents
in the long history of the world."

Shortly, President Reagan makes this point -

"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important -- why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant."

One reason I started the series,  America's Story, was to remind viewers (and especially myself) who we are as a people.

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Check out the previous posts on America's Story:


America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen (2012)


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Likewise, Reagan spoke of his desire for an "informed patriotism." 

The baby boomers and the greatest generation have grown up in a different America than the Generation X-ers and later generations.  Before Generation X, the family, the institutions, schools, the neighborhood had imbued a love of country.  And if that failed, there was sense of patriotism in the popular culture.

"The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."

Some things I have already blogged about were the positive influence of some movies and TV shows and even books in our culture.

Here they are:

Movies:

Mary Poppins:

I first saw Mary Poppins (1964)  movie as a child.  Later, I watched it as an adult, but this time recognized in the story line  a serious message of the importance of fathers in the lives of their children.  The magic and the fun songs made the movie delightful for us little and big kids alike, but what Mary and her friend Bert did to bring the family together was wonderful - especially in this "me" culture strewn with broken and dysfunctional families. 


Mary Poppins (Part 1) - from 1910 to 2010  (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 2) - It's a Wonderful Life? (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 3) - Take your kids to work day? (2010)

Mary Poppins (Part 4) - Go Fly a Kite! (2010)



Barbie:

I grew up with Barbie dolls.  Much has been said about the influence of the Barbie franchise - good and bad.  The last ten to fifteen years Barbie made it into movies ... at least videos and DVDs.  I was curious and checked out some of these.  And I was pleasantly surprised.   The characters Barbie portrayed showed great character, something to be emulated.

Barbie ought to be in pictures - and she is  (2011)


TV shows:

The Beverly Hillbillies:

The premise for this 1960s sitcom, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 - 1971), is displacement - a bunch of hicks in a sophisticated society.  It's been done many times.

Yet, the basic goodness Clampett family drew a sharp contrast against the background of the sophistication of Beverly Hills.  This was something that was missed in the movie.  It reminded me of the prophet Amos going to Bethel.

Beverly Hillbillies and Amos - country folk in the big city (2010)

Gilligan's Island:

One episode in the Gilligan Island (1964 - 1967) series really spoke to me and I blogged about it for a New Year's message.  Generally, the character Gilligan was portrayed as incompetent, inept, dumb as a bang of hammers.  But not in this episode - Diogenes, will you please go home?  Here, Gilligan shows great character - honesty, meekness, a pure heart - in contrast to his more worldly wise fellow castaways.

New Year's Lessons from Gilligan's Island (2010)

Books:

Other than the Bible, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of the books that has influenced me in the way I look at things.  It addresses the sorry disconnect in our society and how to integrate science/technology, art, and the spiritual.

Consequently, I have started a series on it - ZAMM (short for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, of course):


ZAMM (part 1) - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance  (2011)

ZAMM (part 2) - Journey through Life  (2011)

ZAMM (part 3) - Chautauqua, then and now  (2011)

ZAMM (part 4) - Ghosts  (2011)

and I hope to continue with more ...

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I conclude this first in the series of Culture 101 with this quote from Reagan's Farewell Address -

"We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs production [protection]."

And with this challenge and with God's grace, I hope to be many more in this series.


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Related posts:

America in Decline?! (2011)

3 birthdays, 3 presidents, 3 centuries, 3 defining wars ...  (2011)

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Photo from Wikipedia:  Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat

America's Story (part 6) - GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen

This February 2012 has been designated African American History Month.

And one of the recent movies released last month was so timely in celebrating African American history - Red Tails, the story of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War Two.

(It has not played yet in my neck of woods. I know. I'm really out in the sticks.)

And the story of the Tuskegee Airmen still resonates well beyond the war throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.

Back in the days when I worked outside the home for pay, I was employed by a big company with a diverse workforce. Before long, diversity training got phased in considered as serious a business as safety or security training.

In fact, diversity training had become a requirement in all major companies - especially those that get government contracts.

Frankly, I thought the mandatory diversity classes were very good. They boiled down to the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It's not all about you.

Try to empathized with your fellow co-worker, who may (and most likely has) come from a different culture than yours.

All this was very good stuff ... if only everyone would put these principles into practice, instead of just going through the motions to present a good image to the public and our customers.

Diversity on one particular project

On one of my stints at the turn of this century, I was on a project composed of many small teams. My small group was lead by an African American, who conscientiously worked hard to get us to bond and focus on the common good of the project. Looking back, that was something I really respect him for doing. Frankly, I had some leads, who I swear were working for the competition. Their poor management skills and big egos divided and totally demoralized the team.

Happily, this was not the case this go around. Though small, our team on this particular project was diverse. One programmer was of Hispanic origin. Two of the engineers from different parts of Asia - one a young man, whose family had been one of the Vietnamese Boat people that sought refuge in the United States, and another a very sharp immigrant from Sri Lanka. Then there was little of me - a girl from a small town in Montana.

Individual space

In our space in a common cubicle, we had some room to express ourselves. Our computers back then used CRT monitors - not the thin flat screen. They were more clunky, but the tops of the monitors allotted much space to park things on. I had a small collection of stuffed cats that perched on my monitors looking down on me and my computer mice. It earned me the nickname - Catwoman.

Gosh!I would kill to look like Michelle Pfieffer in the movie, Batman Returns (1992) .

My African American lead also had his personal stuff - a collection of GI Joe dolls ... er ... I should say "action figures."

GI Joe Action Figures - Barbie dolls for guys?

Here is the skinny on GI Joes dolls ... er ... action figures -



My lead just didn't have any old GI Joe collection. He had a special collection of GI Joe action figures - the Tuskegee Airmen - as show here: GI Joe Tuskegee Airmen. His were still in the collector's box.

I could tell that these action figures meant a lot to him, especially when learning about their story of the pursuit of excellence against great opposition (stuff legends are made of) as seen in this video clip:




Equal Opportunity?

My company promoted that they were an equal opportunity employer and respected diversity. A few times, I saw pictures of my lead in the company newspaper shaking hands with someone in upper management. My lead was being honored for his work in reaching out to the African American and other minority communities. That press was worth a lot to the company in PR capital.

But reality can be different than the image.

In my early years with the company, pictures of management in organizational charts gave the impression that it was an exclusive white males' club. And indeed it was. Some seemed blessed with "the look" and had an easy and fast track into management. Yet, many had to prove themselves over and over, again. Only after much time and perseverance did the glass ceiling finally start to crack.

To the company's great credit, overt racism has been obliterated and severely sanctioned. But prejudice and discrimination are equal opportunity maladies that cross all races and genders. Prejudging individuals just becomes more covert and so it's much harder to detect and sanction.

As a casual observer, I could see that my lead was not given an easy pass and had to prove himself over and over, again. I see why he identified himself with the Tuskegee Airmen and their struggles, which were much greater than his. Yet, their story inspired pursuit of excellence and gumption to keep on keeping on in face of covert prejudice ... even if doing the right thing would go unrewarded or unrecognized in our lifetime.

Never give up. Keep on keeping on. Do the right thing.

In the spirit of African American History Month, I salute my lead with the GI Joe collection of Tuskegee Airmen! The way he quietly pushed on without complaint still inspires me as I face new challenges in the next stages of my life. Frankly, he was one of the best leads I had in my working life, who believed in building up people, instead of tearing them down.


The Tuskegee Airmen's pursuit of excellence in face of great adversity is part of America's story

which is to be continued. ...

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For other posts in the America's Story series:

America's Story (part 1) - The Speech that redefined us, November 19, 1863 (2011)

America's Story (part 2) - Savages! (2011)

America's Story (part 3) - Over There - 1917, 1941 (2011)

America's Story (part 4) - Christmas 1944, when we said NUTS to the enemy (2011)

America's Story (part 5) - Amazing Grace (2012)

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For other posts about February:

Groundhog Day - Time for a do-over? (2010)

The US Presidents Remembered in February (2010)

Who said George Washington will be the Greatest Man in the World? (2010)

3 birthdays, 3 presidents, 3 centuries, 3 defining wars ... (2011)


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Photo from everystockphoto.com: Tuskegee Airmen