One day in early February of this year I had driven to Tell City on business. Since I had finished earlier than expected, and perhaps due to the first tell-tale signs of Spring evident on that sunny day, I decided to come back to New Albany in a more circuitous route than normal.
I have an iphone which has a compass feature and a gps on it. "Pshaw", I said, "I don't need any help getting back to N.A. And besides, I might stumble across a new prospect for work." So before leaving the rather familiar setting of Tell City I loaded up my thermos with coffee and headed away from the river. Generally speaking, that should be north.
While I was finding little in the way of prospective business opportunities, I was dialed into the classic rock station on satellite radio on what must have been a momentous day in the history of Canned Heat, because an unusually long version of their magnum opus "On the Road Again" was followed immediately by their other magnum opus "Goin Up the Country". The sun was bright, the coffee was still hot and the road ahead seemed interesting and headed in the right direction.
Since I had just about given up the ruse of looking for business, although one never knows around which corner prosperity lies for a salesman, I was not paying particular attention to my precise latitude and longitude. I recall seeing a sign for Fulda, but I can't say for sure that I was in that town or had just seen a sign directing people toward it.
At any rate somewhere near, or near to someplace that could be directionally related to Fulda, I met Caleb. I think his last name was Blauch or Block. At first I was pretty sure he was "on" something. His two tone Studebaker Hawk swerved around a corner throwing dust in my general direction causing me to spill my coffee in an awkward and uncomfortable spot. I reacted by hitting the brakes too hard, I slipped off the gravel/asphalt road onto the shoulder and uncomfortably close to last year's corn field. My car, with American ingenuity engineered in, has a self-defense mechanism that causes the engine to stall out when sudden impacts occur, apparently such an impact occurred when I left the road.
As I was sitting in the immobile car, I was pleasantly surprised by the near-absolute quiet of the countryside. It was so peaceful, and, presumably deserted, the near miss not withstanding, that I thought I might be able to take off my soaked pants and put on my gym shorts from the bag in the back seat. I was in fact reaching around to get the gym bag when I heard a voice with an ever-so-slight German accent say, "far out man, are you OK? You drive like Steve McQueen."
Reluctantly, I got out of the car and only then, in the full sunlight, did I see the full need to change into something a bit more comfortable and a bit less soggy than the coffee-soaked khakis I was wearing. I must have presented a humorous sight to Caleb, as he was giggling uncontrollably at my situation. He offered to share with me a cigarette. "Do you want an Old Gold or A Rolled Gold?" Apparently he'd already made his choice. I declined either, but said I'd like to know what he was doing driving so fast on this road. "You know, it could have been more serious than it was, the way you came tearing down the road like you did." "Hey man, I don't ever want to hurt anyone, but have you heard that new one by Donovan, man? I was just groovin to "The Epistle to Dippy". Man, that is so out there, and I was trying to make up some more words for it. 'Cause I'm in a band and Donovan's so cool, he's hot, and he's one of our favorites."
I asked if he could stand by in case I need help getting back up on the road. That's when Caleb noticed that I had lost the air in my tire, and, in fact, the tire was at an odd angle. "Hey, man, I'm really sorry about this. I just live over there." He pointed in some indeterminate direction that seemed to suggest that he dwelled among the many trees beyond the corn field. He said he lived in a commune, although I truly believe he used the words, "intentional collective". Nonetheless, in this intentional collective was a guy named Ezekiel who Caleb promised had both a tractor to pull the car out of the mud and the skill to fix the bent wheel. I wasn't going anywhere, so I might as well go with Caleb in search of Ezekiel.
The Studebaker was a surprisingly nice ride. And the Dylanesque harmonica neck brace Caleb had been wearing as he tried to flesh out "The Epistle to Dippy" lay on the seat between us and seemed to be the missing piece as to why his attention had wandered at the fateful curve.
As we crossed the wood-decked bridge the unusual sight of the commune opened before my eyes. A full two blocks on both sides of a street were filled with store fronts. It looked like a back lot at a movie studio. The place was not exactly bustling, but people seemed to be shuffling from building to building engaged in commerce and the general tasks of city life. I've been to New Harmony many times. I know quaint. And I think I know genuine. This place was both quaint and genuine. The stores seemed familiar, but not. Then I saw the car lot, "Yoder's Wheels For You". I'm not a real car buff, but I think I didn't see anything newer than about 1965. There were probably fifteen or twenty cars under strings of multi-colored pointy flags and a, for lack of a better word, hippie sitting in the bed of about a 1950 something pickup truck strumming a guitar. Two unclothed pre-schoolers played under the shade of a tree; they were blowing bubbles and a dog was gleefully chasing after the bubbles. A cat sat atop a Rambler convertible, interested but uninvolved.
My eyes must have betrayed my puzzlement.
Caleb simply said, "We're Amish."
As we walked into his living room, his wife, Gert, seemed to have stepped out of the photo gallery in the Woodstock album. "Hello, I'm Gert. You've wet your pants." Caleb to the rescue with a retelling of the incident on the road. In his version the near-collision seemed a bit more my fault than his. But, hey Gert makes wonderful granola, and the yogurt and honey was outstanding, so imprecise assignment of the blame is OK with me.
As Ezekiel worked his magic on the bent wheel, Caleb explained that theirs is a break-away sect from the mainline Amish. While the original Amish ride in buggies, and will not use electricity from a power plant and in other ways have stopped the clock at about the turn of the Nineteenth Century, the intentional community into which I had stumbled stopped the clock in 1967, uses electricity to power only those appliances available in 1967 or earlier, and rides in cars that made in '67 or earlier.
This updating of the Amish way had been suggested as a means of keeping the younger ones involved in the faith. So during a long summer of discontent a few yers ago, the painful birthing of the "new order" began. Some had suggested that the any temporal brake be disengaged, that the Amish simply join the modern world. A not-so-fast mentality won the day, and 1967 was chosen as a compromise between the group who wanted pre-World War II and those who wanted the Eighties. "Everything still seemed possible in '67", Caleb explained.
All of the stores in town are resale shops. A party of elders within the commune have contacts within Goodwill stores, Salvation Army thrift stores, and a wide network of similar resellers. The record store carries Moby Grape, but you won't find Moby. As with the orthodox Amish, most of the food is produced within the community itself, so there's no necessity to search out time-capsule Twinkies or the like.
Caleb said they haven't had much trouble finding the material goods to keep their clocks set on 1967. But, he knows the young ones will always rebel. "It just comes with the territory, man. There's probably one of those kids out there right now that'll want to jump up to 1975 one of these days. That would blow my mind, but that's just life, man. It's a trip."
While the commune members, unlike their orthodox kin don't eschew photography, they insist that all pictures be taken with cameras extant in 1967 or earler. I didn't have my Brownie camera me, and I can never remember whether it takes 120 or 126 film anyway. So I'll just have to look over the pictures in my memory until I can get back out that way.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
The Vagina Idealogues
As I stand near the river's edge, matches and gasoline in hand, it hits me that we have reached a point in political discourse very much like a fork in the road. Down one way lies capitulation. Down the other, gunfire, battle, no turning back. Both sides are in the fray. All in? Or just auditing the class?
People will often say, "there's no difference between the two political parties." On many issues that's true. Both swim, like spawning salmon, up the stream of unholy political effluence. Both seek favor from those with favor to bestow; those with their hands on Capitalism's master switch; those with the money, the dough, the sine qua non of our political system.
Yet one of our political parties seeks to do what most decent people used to shy away from. One political party operates from the scorched-earth play book. One political party stands astride the fork in the road and, like the Black Knight in Monty Python's "Holy Grail", dares anyone to pass who has not met the measure of its occlusive edicts.
Once there was a man named Lincoln. He stood for immutable principles. He believed in government "of the people, by the people, for the people." He believed in a nation which would rise to meet the expectations of its "better angels." He was a Republican. I am a Democrat. I have felt nothing like reverence for our country more than those evenings when I have stood before the Great Emancipator's statue and read his immortal words, "with malice toward none...". Yet today, his party, the Republican Party, has evidently thrown its lot in with those who wish to take this nation down a dangerous, intolerant, theocratic road.
Today the cudgel is women's' rights; specifically their health care rights, their rights to control their participation in the birth process. In states across the land, Republican after Republican have raised high their hands in salute to the efforts of their fellow party operatives in curtailing women's' health care choices.
In the last couple of days, a state legislator in Arizona put forth inane legislation which would require women using birth-control pills to enunciate the reason why they are using birth control pills. Apparently in this human's vision of Arizona, and presumably the United States of America, it's acceptable for the government to determine which female citizens have a legal right to birth-control pills. In this human's view, those who do not want the pills to control pregnancy have a right to the pills. Those who do wish to control pregnancy do not. Wouldn't Lincoln be proud of his progeny?
Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Mississippi and other states have, in response to Republican playbooks, (perhaps written by the Koch Brothers?) laid down the gauntlet for women across the land: cede control of your bodies to the State, or become an enemy OF the State.
Is this the United States of America as we have known it to be? Who are these radical Republicans? The most famous mouthpiece of the radical Republican Party is Rush Limbaugh. This sociopathic huckster has peed in the punch bowl of political discourse for nearly three decades. Is it not time for someone of the adult persuasion within the Republican Party to muzzle this incendiary boob? Need we rehash his "slut" and "prostitute" brayings?
In most of my writings on this blog I have stressed the difference between RADICAL Republicans and those who simply, through ancestry, identify themselves, and vote, Republican. I have in mind a picture of a sweet woman who was a dear friend of my Mother. She was, and presumably is, a Republican--I accept such membership in the Party of Lincoln. But, I can no longer give a pass to those who actively participate in the hateful, divisive, anti-American activities of the RADICAL Republican Party.
The leaders of this movement are engaged in a campaign to destroy the cohesion of our the nation. Decent members of the G.O.P. owe it to their nation and to their own sense of humanity to disavow membership in this party of intolerance and hate so long as it dances to the tune of the current agenda-setters of that party.
Recall that once your party answered the clarion call of OUR "better angels". Today it has become a shill for corporate masters and peddlers of intolerance.
From time to time we all lose our way.
E Pluribus Unum.
People will often say, "there's no difference between the two political parties." On many issues that's true. Both swim, like spawning salmon, up the stream of unholy political effluence. Both seek favor from those with favor to bestow; those with their hands on Capitalism's master switch; those with the money, the dough, the sine qua non of our political system.
Yet one of our political parties seeks to do what most decent people used to shy away from. One political party operates from the scorched-earth play book. One political party stands astride the fork in the road and, like the Black Knight in Monty Python's "Holy Grail", dares anyone to pass who has not met the measure of its occlusive edicts.
Once there was a man named Lincoln. He stood for immutable principles. He believed in government "of the people, by the people, for the people." He believed in a nation which would rise to meet the expectations of its "better angels." He was a Republican. I am a Democrat. I have felt nothing like reverence for our country more than those evenings when I have stood before the Great Emancipator's statue and read his immortal words, "with malice toward none...". Yet today, his party, the Republican Party, has evidently thrown its lot in with those who wish to take this nation down a dangerous, intolerant, theocratic road.
Today the cudgel is women's' rights; specifically their health care rights, their rights to control their participation in the birth process. In states across the land, Republican after Republican have raised high their hands in salute to the efforts of their fellow party operatives in curtailing women's' health care choices.
In the last couple of days, a state legislator in Arizona put forth inane legislation which would require women using birth-control pills to enunciate the reason why they are using birth control pills. Apparently in this human's vision of Arizona, and presumably the United States of America, it's acceptable for the government to determine which female citizens have a legal right to birth-control pills. In this human's view, those who do not want the pills to control pregnancy have a right to the pills. Those who do wish to control pregnancy do not. Wouldn't Lincoln be proud of his progeny?
Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Mississippi and other states have, in response to Republican playbooks, (perhaps written by the Koch Brothers?) laid down the gauntlet for women across the land: cede control of your bodies to the State, or become an enemy OF the State.
Is this the United States of America as we have known it to be? Who are these radical Republicans? The most famous mouthpiece of the radical Republican Party is Rush Limbaugh. This sociopathic huckster has peed in the punch bowl of political discourse for nearly three decades. Is it not time for someone of the adult persuasion within the Republican Party to muzzle this incendiary boob? Need we rehash his "slut" and "prostitute" brayings?
In most of my writings on this blog I have stressed the difference between RADICAL Republicans and those who simply, through ancestry, identify themselves, and vote, Republican. I have in mind a picture of a sweet woman who was a dear friend of my Mother. She was, and presumably is, a Republican--I accept such membership in the Party of Lincoln. But, I can no longer give a pass to those who actively participate in the hateful, divisive, anti-American activities of the RADICAL Republican Party.
The leaders of this movement are engaged in a campaign to destroy the cohesion of our the nation. Decent members of the G.O.P. owe it to their nation and to their own sense of humanity to disavow membership in this party of intolerance and hate so long as it dances to the tune of the current agenda-setters of that party.
Recall that once your party answered the clarion call of OUR "better angels". Today it has become a shill for corporate masters and peddlers of intolerance.
From time to time we all lose our way.
E Pluribus Unum.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
I'll Take Door Number Three
The results are in. Those with a say, say it's time to toll bridge traffic. The deliberative process surrounding the question of how to pay for the Two Bridge Solution yielded the answer which can surprise no one.
So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's why I'm suggesting that when tolls are introduced, they should be imposed on all bridges, those built, as well as those only dreamed of.
The swaggering Mitch Daniels ,in high braggadocio, offered his take on the tolling plan, "We'll be using-as I often say-our favorite revenue source...other people's money." Following the Governor's lead,I suggest that any vehicle licensed in Floyd or Clark Counties in Indiana, and Jefferson County, Kentucky be exempt from tolls. And, rather than relying on electronic gizmos, such as transponders to winnow out the locals, I think we should use good old fashioned toll takers, members of the United Brotherhood of Ticket Takers, Turnstile Operators and Gatemen, since at least one side of the bridge will not land in a right-to-work state.
Drivers with local registrations would affix a sticker to their vehicles which would be plainly visible to the toll taker. A quick calculation yields the finding that, (assuming 30 toll booths staffed 24/7/365) about 180 people, including supervisors and maintenance, would need to be hired. At $16 per hour, the workers would earn about $8 million per year. Since this would all be paid by non-local drivers, that would represent growth to our local economy, and it would only equal about a week and a half of the gate, the handle, the action.
Another reason to toll all bridges is to even out the traffic flow. If only new bridges and The Kennedy bridge are tolled, a disproportionate share of bargain-hunting drivers would clog the Sherman Minton Bridge and bring all of the attendant problems of heavy traffic, such as smog and noise, to New Albany.
Since the current plan assumes a forty year duration for tolling, with local drivers included, the Pass-The-Buck tolling plan I propose would simply be a permanent fixture of our region. Learn to live with it.
So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's why I'm suggesting that when tolls are introduced, they should be imposed on all bridges, those built, as well as those only dreamed of.
The swaggering Mitch Daniels ,in high braggadocio, offered his take on the tolling plan, "We'll be using-as I often say-our favorite revenue source...other people's money." Following the Governor's lead,I suggest that any vehicle licensed in Floyd or Clark Counties in Indiana, and Jefferson County, Kentucky be exempt from tolls. And, rather than relying on electronic gizmos, such as transponders to winnow out the locals, I think we should use good old fashioned toll takers, members of the United Brotherhood of Ticket Takers, Turnstile Operators and Gatemen, since at least one side of the bridge will not land in a right-to-work state.
Drivers with local registrations would affix a sticker to their vehicles which would be plainly visible to the toll taker. A quick calculation yields the finding that, (assuming 30 toll booths staffed 24/7/365) about 180 people, including supervisors and maintenance, would need to be hired. At $16 per hour, the workers would earn about $8 million per year. Since this would all be paid by non-local drivers, that would represent growth to our local economy, and it would only equal about a week and a half of the gate, the handle, the action.
Another reason to toll all bridges is to even out the traffic flow. If only new bridges and The Kennedy bridge are tolled, a disproportionate share of bargain-hunting drivers would clog the Sherman Minton Bridge and bring all of the attendant problems of heavy traffic, such as smog and noise, to New Albany.
Since the current plan assumes a forty year duration for tolling, with local drivers included, the Pass-The-Buck tolling plan I propose would simply be a permanent fixture of our region. Learn to live with it.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Fragile
My wife's friend, who suffers from ALS, sent this to her and asked that she take a few moments to relax and enjoy it.
In light of today's devastation in our region, I am struck again by the fragility of life on this earth, the miracle of it, and our responsibility in protecting it.
In light of today's devastation in our region, I am struck again by the fragility of life on this earth, the miracle of it, and our responsibility in protecting it.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Sorry Charlie, Life's a Bitch
Convicted felon, Charlie White, Indiana's Secretary of State, has a friend in Mitch Daniels. To ease some of White's mental burden, le petite chief executive is holding the felon's job open by giving it to a place holder until the justice system's magic might return it to its not-rightful owner.
After all Charlie's life is, by his own admission, "complicated".
Hey Charlie, there are complications,
"White, 42, has said the charges ignored a complicated personal life in which he was trying to raise his 10-year-old son, plan his second marriage and campaign for the statewide office he won that November. He said he stayed at his ex-wife's house when he wasn't on the road campaigning and did not live in the condo until after he remarried." SEE LINK HERE
and there are complications,
10. Due to fiscal pressures, states are already making cuts to the safety net, and more are likely in the next several years.
With the 2009 stimulus package expired and revenues to state governments recovering slowly this year (due to the sluggish
recovery), many states (from Washington and California to Michigan and Florida) are making cuts to unemployment
insurance, temporary cash assistance, Medicaid benefits, and other services for low-income Americans. The fiscal pressureon some states may worsen before it eases. The pressure to restrain federal spending may cause Congress to reduce federal
fiscal relief for the states, which are already struggling to balance budgets in the face of rising Medicaid costs and depressed
revenues. If the federal government places more fiscal pressure on the states, which are required to balance their budgets,
then states are likely to consider additional cuts to cash assistance, Medicaid and other safety-net programs. States may also
be compelled to reduce funding for tax and educational policies that primarily benefit low-income populations. More state
cuts to the safety net should be expected unless the recovery – and the resulting growth rate of state revenues – accelerates SEE LINK HERE
With White's reinstatement, the way may be cleared for the continued disenfranchisement of low-income voters. SEE LINK HERE
That will make Charlie's life less complicated, since his is one of the few verified cases of voter fraud in Indiana.
After all Charlie's life is, by his own admission, "complicated".
Hey Charlie, there are complications,
"White, 42, has said the charges ignored a complicated personal life in which he was trying to raise his 10-year-old son, plan his second marriage and campaign for the statewide office he won that November. He said he stayed at his ex-wife's house when he wasn't on the road campaigning and did not live in the condo until after he remarried." SEE LINK HERE
and there are complications,
10. Due to fiscal pressures, states are already making cuts to the safety net, and more are likely in the next several years.
With the 2009 stimulus package expired and revenues to state governments recovering slowly this year (due to the sluggish
recovery), many states (from Washington and California to Michigan and Florida) are making cuts to unemployment
insurance, temporary cash assistance, Medicaid benefits, and other services for low-income Americans. The fiscal pressureon some states may worsen before it eases. The pressure to restrain federal spending may cause Congress to reduce federal
fiscal relief for the states, which are already struggling to balance budgets in the face of rising Medicaid costs and depressed
revenues. If the federal government places more fiscal pressure on the states, which are required to balance their budgets,
then states are likely to consider additional cuts to cash assistance, Medicaid and other safety-net programs. States may also
be compelled to reduce funding for tax and educational policies that primarily benefit low-income populations. More state
cuts to the safety net should be expected unless the recovery – and the resulting growth rate of state revenues – accelerates SEE LINK HERE
With White's reinstatement, the way may be cleared for the continued disenfranchisement of low-income voters. SEE LINK HERE
That will make Charlie's life less complicated, since his is one of the few verified cases of voter fraud in Indiana.
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