Often times, I have to wait while a client attends a meeting or has dinner or goes to the theater or some such thing. This wait can be for a couple of hours or a full day. This evening one of my clients is having dinner in The City. I dropped her off at 6:45 PM and have to pick her up at 10:30 or later. Finding some place to wait is usually a problem. In suburbia it is easier to do. I usually find a Marriott or a Courtyard
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Observations on life as my 7th decade draws to a close and my 8th begins.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed that on many applications and other forms, we are no longer asked "Race." Instead we are now asked "Ethnicity."This is an improvement since there are only 3 races and the only one still in common practice is Caucasian. The other two are Mongoloid and Negroid. So now we have more difficult tasks. Are we Caucasian or are we Hispanic? Are we African American or are we Native American? Are we Asian or South Pacific Islanders? Some of these choices posed a problem for me. Is an Egyptian an African American or an Asian? Is a white South African a Caucasian or an African American? But the hardest of all for me is "am I a Caucasian or a Native American?" I know that I am white, I just had my DNA tested. But, I was born here. That makes me a Native American. So, even though "they" have changed the answers and the category, "they" haven't really solved the problem. The reason being that if you chose the answer that you think denotes your ethnicity, the people asking the questions, have answers with completely different connotations. "They" are implying one thing and I am inferring something else.
A question that I hope someone can answer is the following. As you drive in the passing lane on a highway, how many cars have to pass you on the right (on the left for your people who drive on the wrong side of the road) before you move over to lane where you belong? Highways all over this country have signs posted that say things like "Stay right, Pass left." But, there seems to be ignorant people who maybe can't read and stay in the left lane and not the right. It is really infuriating when they don't even do the speed limit while hogging the left lane. And when you do pass them, they give you the finger or shake a fist or some other totally inappropriate signal.
This leads me to another question that I ponder, if you are not willing to drive the speed limit, why are you driving? If you are afraid, take public transportation. If your equipment is faulty, get it fixed be for you venture onto the roads. Stupidity and ignorance are not an excuse. There are days when I wish I had an Abrams and could just rollover some of the people on the road.
In the really stupid category are all the people who still talk on their cell phones while driving. I mean the ones that don't use a hands free option. The worst of these are the ones who hold the phone in one hand against the ear on the opposite side of their head. I haven't gotten a new phone in the last 3 or so years, but I think that new phones still come with ear pieces. It is a hell of a lot easier to talk on your cell phone when you are using an ear piece than when you are holding the phone in your hand. I personally don't have a problem since my car has built in blue tooth technology. Both the car and the phone remember each other and reconnect whenever I turn on the car.
My final observation has to do with names and religion. When one is a member of a religion that is the religion of the majority, it seems to me that one has a problem relating to people of other religions. Sometimes people of minority religions can be a little too sensitive, also. I grew up where I was one three or four kids in my grade and one of maybe fifteen kids in the entire school system who were Jewish. Now every morning we stood at attention and pledged allegiance to the flag and we then said the Lord's Prayer - actually I didn't say it and there were a number of different ending depending upon which denomination of Christianity you observed. By the way it wasn't until I was in the fourth grade that Congress decided we would be mistaken for Communists if we didn't add "under G-D" to the Lord's Prayer. Did that mean that for the first 178 years of our nation, we were not "under G-D?" Currently I am reading a book which actually delves into the circumstances behind all of this official religious sayings. The author shows how all of this official religious stuff was actually started by evangelicals and big business to battle Roosevelt's socialism. It bore fruit when D. D. Eisenhower became president. As a Republican and a war hero, he was able to get the changes made.
Now many of the same types of people who inserted phrases into our pledge and our money, are claiming that we are a "Christian nation." Ironically, I'll bet that most of these people are strict adherents to the Second Amendment. But when it comes to the First Amendment, they change their color (stripes if you like). Additionally, they chose to ignore the writings of our founding fathers. We know that our founding fathers were very devout religious people. But, they also believed that there was no place for religion in government. Most our founding fathers had come to this land to escape religious intolerance. They came here to be free to worship as they wanted. And they were willing to let others worship or not as they saw fit. The fact that our Constitution is based upon Judeo Christian ethics still does not make us a country with an official religion. The ethics are not dogma. The ethics are the basis of our legal system which goes way back to the time of Moses. Our legal system is based on these ethics and the Socratic method.
I guess it is time I stop babbling and post this. I would really hope that someone will comment on any of this.
A question that I hope someone can answer is the following. As you drive in the passing lane on a highway, how many cars have to pass you on the right (on the left for your people who drive on the wrong side of the road) before you move over to lane where you belong? Highways all over this country have signs posted that say things like "Stay right, Pass left." But, there seems to be ignorant people who maybe can't read and stay in the left lane and not the right. It is really infuriating when they don't even do the speed limit while hogging the left lane. And when you do pass them, they give you the finger or shake a fist or some other totally inappropriate signal.
This leads me to another question that I ponder, if you are not willing to drive the speed limit, why are you driving? If you are afraid, take public transportation. If your equipment is faulty, get it fixed be for you venture onto the roads. Stupidity and ignorance are not an excuse. There are days when I wish I had an Abrams and could just rollover some of the people on the road.
In the really stupid category are all the people who still talk on their cell phones while driving. I mean the ones that don't use a hands free option. The worst of these are the ones who hold the phone in one hand against the ear on the opposite side of their head. I haven't gotten a new phone in the last 3 or so years, but I think that new phones still come with ear pieces. It is a hell of a lot easier to talk on your cell phone when you are using an ear piece than when you are holding the phone in your hand. I personally don't have a problem since my car has built in blue tooth technology. Both the car and the phone remember each other and reconnect whenever I turn on the car.
My final observation has to do with names and religion. When one is a member of a religion that is the religion of the majority, it seems to me that one has a problem relating to people of other religions. Sometimes people of minority religions can be a little too sensitive, also. I grew up where I was one three or four kids in my grade and one of maybe fifteen kids in the entire school system who were Jewish. Now every morning we stood at attention and pledged allegiance to the flag and we then said the Lord's Prayer - actually I didn't say it and there were a number of different ending depending upon which denomination of Christianity you observed. By the way it wasn't until I was in the fourth grade that Congress decided we would be mistaken for Communists if we didn't add "under G-D" to the Lord's Prayer. Did that mean that for the first 178 years of our nation, we were not "under G-D?" Currently I am reading a book which actually delves into the circumstances behind all of this official religious sayings. The author shows how all of this official religious stuff was actually started by evangelicals and big business to battle Roosevelt's socialism. It bore fruit when D. D. Eisenhower became president. As a Republican and a war hero, he was able to get the changes made.
Now many of the same types of people who inserted phrases into our pledge and our money, are claiming that we are a "Christian nation." Ironically, I'll bet that most of these people are strict adherents to the Second Amendment. But when it comes to the First Amendment, they change their color (stripes if you like). Additionally, they chose to ignore the writings of our founding fathers. We know that our founding fathers were very devout religious people. But, they also believed that there was no place for religion in government. Most our founding fathers had come to this land to escape religious intolerance. They came here to be free to worship as they wanted. And they were willing to let others worship or not as they saw fit. The fact that our Constitution is based upon Judeo Christian ethics still does not make us a country with an official religion. The ethics are not dogma. The ethics are the basis of our legal system which goes way back to the time of Moses. Our legal system is based on these ethics and the Socratic method.
I guess it is time I stop babbling and post this. I would really hope that someone will comment on any of this.
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