The Sleaze Factor
Sleaze runs rampant during political campaigns, this one's no exception, in fact, this one's sure to set unbreakable records. Let's see, one campaign has changed managers for the third time and, in doing so, each new addition must out do the earlier by sensationalizing even greater the falsehoods previously spread around. Thickening layers of sleaze become, more and more indigestible, like piling on a velveeta cheese sandwich so much more cheese that it sticks to the roof of your mouth and keeps you from swallowing. Sleaze gags you, too.
"Crepe Suzette" some argue, not sleaze. My detractors rather bring down then build up. Their's is of guts and guns, devious and denial, and of slime and sleaze. Their anchors dig deeply as seas rise and their ice makers hum while glaciers degrade and melt. Their World is not mine, your's maybe, definitely not mine. We're World's apart.
I have outlived Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Tojo, Ho Chi Min, Tito, Joe McCarthy, Nixon, and many others of their horrid ilk. Their common denominator seems to have been, "having no shame". Shame is a person's self regulator by imaging in one's mind the degradation of an act if done on one's self. Zealots seem to languish in their deficiency of having a sense of shame in their character. They feel no pain in exerting pain on others; therefor, they are masters of sleaze. Beware !!!
Ronald C. Downie
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Snow Birds
Just like the "Gods of Snow Birds" are looking out for Connie and me now in Florida, so to, should the northern "Gods of North Evans Street" keep watch over Daisy, Gladys, Barry and Brenda, the girls, both corner houses at St Johns, Sammy and family, and all walkers of dogs.
No matter how far a field a person roams, it is said, the person always takes his " giant with him ". Giant meaning his home or hometown. More apropos pertaining to me would be : this journey of mine which started with my first step - as all journeys must begin - and won't end until all memories are wiped clean. Since a journey is only a direction of travel, it becomes then a book of memories, memories are the only thing a person may take with them into their final demise.
Ronald C. Downie
Just like the "Gods of Snow Birds" are looking out for Connie and me now in Florida, so to, should the northern "Gods of North Evans Street" keep watch over Daisy, Gladys, Barry and Brenda, the girls, both corner houses at St Johns, Sammy and family, and all walkers of dogs.
No matter how far a field a person roams, it is said, the person always takes his " giant with him ". Giant meaning his home or hometown. More apropos pertaining to me would be : this journey of mine which started with my first step - as all journeys must begin - and won't end until all memories are wiped clean. Since a journey is only a direction of travel, it becomes then a book of memories, memories are the only thing a person may take with them into their final demise.
Ronald C. Downie
Monday, August 15, 2016
Thank You All
Settling in and mellowing out in Florida so it's time to thank everyone who responded to my earlier post. Thank You !!!
It's sunny and warm during the day but comfortable in the shade. Blue skies dissipate around 4Pm with a short thunderstorm - the old way us northerners remembered Florida - raining some every day in Summer's late afternoon
Went in the pool, day one, but on day two, got a much needed shower, first good washing in a long, long time. The outside pool shower suited me fine because it's roomy enough to accommodate a seat and my walker too. I feel so clean today that I probably squeak. Impaired people desire not the big things in life but, the little ones, the simplistic daily things most healthy mobile people take for granted.
For now, Old Pops
Settling in and mellowing out in Florida so it's time to thank everyone who responded to my earlier post. Thank You !!!
It's sunny and warm during the day but comfortable in the shade. Blue skies dissipate around 4Pm with a short thunderstorm - the old way us northerners remembered Florida - raining some every day in Summer's late afternoon
Went in the pool, day one, but on day two, got a much needed shower, first good washing in a long, long time. The outside pool shower suited me fine because it's roomy enough to accommodate a seat and my walker too. I feel so clean today that I probably squeak. Impaired people desire not the big things in life but, the little ones, the simplistic daily things most healthy mobile people take for granted.
For now, Old Pops
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Arriving Safely In Florida
After two and a half hours of peddling and flapping our arms we finally landed at Punta Gorda, Florida : Friday, August twelfth just past noon. Winging south from Allentown aboard Allegiant Airlines for a flying time of two hours and seven minutes that felt like thirty minutes of incline, a little over an hour with the hammer down at 500 miles an hour, and thirty minutes of descent. Landing in Florida with a loud bump woke up the passengers who had enjoyed a non eventful flight. "All's well that ends well."
Connie's and my life starts a new chapter in this Earth oriented journey. Our children : Heather, Ronnie, and Lia (our Florida host along with Marty) will enable Connie and Me to comfortably live out our lives here. We can never express enough gratitude to our children and our grandchildren for making this happen as seamless as possible. To friends left behind, we'll never forget you even though we're 1200 miles apart. Lie 's calling me now to come in the pool so I'll say for now, "gotta go". A whale out of water is one floundering - sounds like describing me.
Love You All.
Ronald C.Downie
After two and a half hours of peddling and flapping our arms we finally landed at Punta Gorda, Florida : Friday, August twelfth just past noon. Winging south from Allentown aboard Allegiant Airlines for a flying time of two hours and seven minutes that felt like thirty minutes of incline, a little over an hour with the hammer down at 500 miles an hour, and thirty minutes of descent. Landing in Florida with a loud bump woke up the passengers who had enjoyed a non eventful flight. "All's well that ends well."
Connie's and my life starts a new chapter in this Earth oriented journey. Our children : Heather, Ronnie, and Lia (our Florida host along with Marty) will enable Connie and Me to comfortably live out our lives here. We can never express enough gratitude to our children and our grandchildren for making this happen as seamless as possible. To friends left behind, we'll never forget you even though we're 1200 miles apart. Lie 's calling me now to come in the pool so I'll say for now, "gotta go". A whale out of water is one floundering - sounds like describing me.
Love You All.
Ronald C.Downie
Monday, August 8, 2016
Join Vera Lynn, "We'll Meet Again"
I am a product of the Second World War being an elementary student throughout the bitter conflicts. When it ended with unfathomable destruction from two Atomic blasts in Japan; I, as a ten year old, cringed from the magnitude of destruction.
Much later, when the movie, Doctor Strangelove, was being shown in movie houses across the World, I again shuttered at the movie's final scene. There again was the mushroom cloud billowing up to the lyrics of Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again" posing the ideas "don't know where, don't know when" to her listeners.
That was 1964, this is 2016, and I get that cold chill yet when thinking of the finality of civilization with today's nuclear power. I doubt if our planet could ever recover from a nuclear conflagration ! Even worse then would be : the blistering heating up of our planet fanned by mindless, greedy, money grabbers who deny involvement.
Adding flame to hot embers is a candidate for presidency of our powerful nation. No matter what he says, his lifetime of actions point us to question his stability if he gets control of the nuclear button. So often in his business life he discounted human decency and true business acumen to squeeze subcontractors into bankruptcy. Now at 70, Donald leaves the business field strewn of bodies not unlike a scene from Japan's holocaust.
Maybe someday, "God willing", when a remake of the movie, Dr. Strangelove, is ordered, Donald Trump will be cast as one of the many deranged figures who played loosely with the nuclear button. Better he play a part in a movie rather then actually have the real responsibility of the nuclear button. At least, by then, I'll be but a memory, forgotten by most, not even an after thought to the World. Just so Vera Lynn sings in her inimitable way drawing audiences to sing along with her. Will there be a meeting beyond this life ? I doubt it, but I'm getting closer every day to finding out.
Thank You and Good by,
Ronald C. Downie
I am a product of the Second World War being an elementary student throughout the bitter conflicts. When it ended with unfathomable destruction from two Atomic blasts in Japan; I, as a ten year old, cringed from the magnitude of destruction.
Much later, when the movie, Doctor Strangelove, was being shown in movie houses across the World, I again shuttered at the movie's final scene. There again was the mushroom cloud billowing up to the lyrics of Vera Lynn singing "We'll Meet Again" posing the ideas "don't know where, don't know when" to her listeners.
That was 1964, this is 2016, and I get that cold chill yet when thinking of the finality of civilization with today's nuclear power. I doubt if our planet could ever recover from a nuclear conflagration ! Even worse then would be : the blistering heating up of our planet fanned by mindless, greedy, money grabbers who deny involvement.
Adding flame to hot embers is a candidate for presidency of our powerful nation. No matter what he says, his lifetime of actions point us to question his stability if he gets control of the nuclear button. So often in his business life he discounted human decency and true business acumen to squeeze subcontractors into bankruptcy. Now at 70, Donald leaves the business field strewn of bodies not unlike a scene from Japan's holocaust.
Maybe someday, "God willing", when a remake of the movie, Dr. Strangelove, is ordered, Donald Trump will be cast as one of the many deranged figures who played loosely with the nuclear button. Better he play a part in a movie rather then actually have the real responsibility of the nuclear button. At least, by then, I'll be but a memory, forgotten by most, not even an after thought to the World. Just so Vera Lynn sings in her inimitable way drawing audiences to sing along with her. Will there be a meeting beyond this life ? I doubt it, but I'm getting closer every day to finding out.
Thank You and Good by,
Ronald C. Downie
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
How long will it take to right a wrong ?
"How long will it take to right a wrong ?" A wrong, this wrong, probably unintended started thousands of years ago by being told as a story, basically conjured up in the minds of the more influential men of the tribe. Most likely these men were the leaders of their villages, in fact, they probably were the spiritual leaders feeding off the unknown trying to weave some sense of meaning out of life for whomever they influenced.
I'm sure, "The Garden of Eden" went through numerous revisions as the stories of it were verbally passed down through countless generations. The same goes for the concept of an omnipotent God : an Almighty Jehovah, a single God rather then multiple ones. As people were able, they began a written tradition to record life as they observed it. Then the clerics of the church needing to solidify their high position sought artists and artisans to sculpt figures and paint images that exemplified the church.
All over Europe, seemingly all at once, this cultural renaissance exploded in exclusively white churches under control of white skinned clerics. All the statues, all the paintings, all the written words depictd life, especially influential lives, with images of white people. Why ? White is all they saw at home, at work, at church, in paintings, through statues, all, everywhere. The all white European churches then became so highly successful their influences swept the World and the goodness of being white was their standard. From Europe to the World this word spread even to America where white missionaries pressed the white supremacy to all indigenous people they encountered.
I'll ask again, "How long will it take to right a wrong ?" Unintended, probably, but so highly effective that "white supremacy" has polluted thinking forever. An American school child even today can't get away from it especially in a white church affiliated school. Dumbed down schools, as found these days, won't change the facts but only broaden the abyss. "The way a twig is bent so grows the tree" is a familiar phrase that tells what happens all the time in nature. The same is true in youth. At a highly impressionable age young minds soak up numerous sights and sounds from school and their surroundings, the church being one of the most influential contributors.
"How long... ?" Only through you, one person at a time, can a worldwide error be remedied. It is in your own best interest to do so. If left to fester further in time surely more turmoil will occur, more barriers will be erected, and finally a tipping point will be reached ---beyond which the unknown.
Ronald C. Downie
"How long will it take to right a wrong ?" A wrong, this wrong, probably unintended started thousands of years ago by being told as a story, basically conjured up in the minds of the more influential men of the tribe. Most likely these men were the leaders of their villages, in fact, they probably were the spiritual leaders feeding off the unknown trying to weave some sense of meaning out of life for whomever they influenced.
I'm sure, "The Garden of Eden" went through numerous revisions as the stories of it were verbally passed down through countless generations. The same goes for the concept of an omnipotent God : an Almighty Jehovah, a single God rather then multiple ones. As people were able, they began a written tradition to record life as they observed it. Then the clerics of the church needing to solidify their high position sought artists and artisans to sculpt figures and paint images that exemplified the church.
All over Europe, seemingly all at once, this cultural renaissance exploded in exclusively white churches under control of white skinned clerics. All the statues, all the paintings, all the written words depictd life, especially influential lives, with images of white people. Why ? White is all they saw at home, at work, at church, in paintings, through statues, all, everywhere. The all white European churches then became so highly successful their influences swept the World and the goodness of being white was their standard. From Europe to the World this word spread even to America where white missionaries pressed the white supremacy to all indigenous people they encountered.
I'll ask again, "How long will it take to right a wrong ?" Unintended, probably, but so highly effective that "white supremacy" has polluted thinking forever. An American school child even today can't get away from it especially in a white church affiliated school. Dumbed down schools, as found these days, won't change the facts but only broaden the abyss. "The way a twig is bent so grows the tree" is a familiar phrase that tells what happens all the time in nature. The same is true in youth. At a highly impressionable age young minds soak up numerous sights and sounds from school and their surroundings, the church being one of the most influential contributors.
"How long... ?" Only through you, one person at a time, can a worldwide error be remedied. It is in your own best interest to do so. If left to fester further in time surely more turmoil will occur, more barriers will be erected, and finally a tipping point will be reached ---beyond which the unknown.
Ronald C. Downie
Sunday, July 10, 2016
A Grand Marshall's Lament
I am truly sorry !
Yes, if I could turn the calendar back, I would. You see, last year, I was chosen to be the Grand Marshall ( the very, "First Grand Marshall" ) of the Fourth of July Parade held here in Pottstown. Whatever I did, It must have been something wrong because, this year, there was no parade. Am I to go down in Pottstown's history as the very first, as well as, the very last Grand Marshall in our town's hundreds of years of history ?
Little did I know that last year I was setting the town up for a fall. Poor John Potts would roll over in his grave if only he could have known. Me, one of the chief champions of the town; one, who has lived here over eighty years, now turns out to be a loser.
How does a town our size die ? Our's has outlasted Indians, plagues, floods, wars, loss of industrialization, and loss of population but still has survived. The problem still remains that the town can't survive me.
Surly as ever, Pottstown is a structured governmental unit which works as well as its present personnel allows it to. But, the spirit, the character, the essence of a town lies in incalculable intangibles pent up in its citizens which reside there at the moment. It is in these ordinary citizens, the simple ones who love a parade, the ones who love fireworks, those who honor a place to live, not for structure of governance, but for a few intangibles found there which trumpets the spirit.
For these people, I am truly sorry that I let them down !
Ronald C. Downie,
Former Grand Marshall
I am truly sorry !
Yes, if I could turn the calendar back, I would. You see, last year, I was chosen to be the Grand Marshall ( the very, "First Grand Marshall" ) of the Fourth of July Parade held here in Pottstown. Whatever I did, It must have been something wrong because, this year, there was no parade. Am I to go down in Pottstown's history as the very first, as well as, the very last Grand Marshall in our town's hundreds of years of history ?
Little did I know that last year I was setting the town up for a fall. Poor John Potts would roll over in his grave if only he could have known. Me, one of the chief champions of the town; one, who has lived here over eighty years, now turns out to be a loser.
How does a town our size die ? Our's has outlasted Indians, plagues, floods, wars, loss of industrialization, and loss of population but still has survived. The problem still remains that the town can't survive me.
Surly as ever, Pottstown is a structured governmental unit which works as well as its present personnel allows it to. But, the spirit, the character, the essence of a town lies in incalculable intangibles pent up in its citizens which reside there at the moment. It is in these ordinary citizens, the simple ones who love a parade, the ones who love fireworks, those who honor a place to live, not for structure of governance, but for a few intangibles found there which trumpets the spirit.
For these people, I am truly sorry that I let them down !
Ronald C. Downie,
Former Grand Marshall
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