Key Idea

Let's see: the Demos blame the Repubs because ... the Repubs would not sign on to the Demo proposal. Now, the Repubs blame the Demos because ... the Demos tabled the Repub proposal. Lots of fingers pointing every which way, but no progress is being made and that's what WE elected YOU to do.

Folks, it's time to bring in the kindergarten teachers: not only do they teach us everything we need to know about life skills, but they won't let us out for recess until we get it right!!

Managing My Own Perceptions

There has been "something" lurking in the back of my mind since Obama appeared so suddenly on the national scene, unseasoned, inexperienced, inadequate credentials, and was elected President. His first 6 months or so seemed to confirm that he was not qualified to hold the top office, so I wondered how he got it: someone had to start the ball rolling. I began to believe that someone with a personal agenda manipulated the [social] media to create a perception that did not necessarily conform to reality. Right time; right place; right financial backing; one person's personal pick in place and running the country.

I listened to Glenn Beck during the run-up to the election, who, at times, seemed delusional, but, at other times, seemed to have done his homework, especially on George Soros: absolute power does corrupt absolutely when one person with too much wealth becomes a world power and a country’s decision-maker. Beck exposed documented truths about people in power, as well as the extremely wealthy people behind the curtain. A person’s credibility can be compromised by innuendo faster than by truth, so (someone) planted the ideas, watered them occasionally, and voila: problem person, Beck, disappears, while the wealthy power base continues unchallenged.

OJ walked with the catch phrase if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit; more recently, the CMA trial's stunning verdict confirmed that far too many people prefer their personal perception to the crime’s reality. Reasonable doubt rested with jurors who created their own versions of the crime, as well a list of alternate perpetrators, not supported with factual evidence presented during the trial. It is far too easy for one person to force personal perception onto a group because people seldom care enough to stop, look, and listen carefully to what is being said before reacting to it and then acting on it. Evidence is not really useful when it doesn’t conform to what an individual wants to believe. Today, reality is posted on Facebook!

I'm currently reading David Baldacci's The Whole Truth, a book about PM: Perception Management. The premise is that "Created truth [is] controllable" because "real truth [is] too unpredictable.” The character who manufactures/ manipulates/ manages "created truth" asks the question, "Why try to hide the needle in the haystack, when you can just make lots of needles?" That is a reasonable explanation for the legal tactics used by the CMA defense: fill the crime with a haystack full of needles and dare the jurors to find the right one. Most people will be happy to find any needle and move on: taking the time to figure out which one needle is the right needle is … dare I say it? … a waste of time in this age of instant gratification, instant messages, and personal agendas.

But this concept of Perception Management also pertains to current politics, reflecting in my mind back to Joe McCarthy, who created the Red Menace, then made all people believe it because that was his fear, his perception, his power base. His catch phrase was “Better dead than Red,” so anyone he could tinge even slightly pink suddenly found him/herself on a national stage, trying to defend a career, a reputation, a lifetime, against a man determined to destroy him/her. Playwright Arthur Miller used as his vehicle the fear of witches in Salem, Massachusetts, to help readers understand that any one person can create a menace that affects all of us by evoking our most primitive fears. In Miller’s case, a seemingly innocent young girl imagined herself in an affair with a married man, then struck out in anger when she was rebuffed. The townspeople believed the apparently guileless young girl, whose accusations of witchcraft took the focus off herself by blaming others. By the end of the play, everyone’s lives were ruined because the young girl’s unsupported accusations became the people’s reality.

Applying this thinking to the current financial crisis, the reality is whatever perception is in the media today! Although everyone is saying the same thing, "We have to change what we're doing," no one has a clear vision for that change. My perception is that it makes no difference how much money we print and/or how big our debt is because it's not real. This perception developed in the aftermath of the last financial crisis: those of us who stuck to a budget, who paid our bills, who prioritized our lifestyle to conform to our income, were screwed, while those who were in over their heads financially were bailed out at our expense. After that experience, what difference does it really make how much anyone, including the government owes? Just print more money, but make sure everyone gets some and keeps spending it. The money is simply a vehicle for exchanging goods and services, and that's what counts: how many goods and services we exchange to keep the country working.

My reality rests on someone else’s perception, and my perception is the reality I have created for the world around me. In some strange, senseless way, it all makes sense!

USE Your Context Clues!!

BIG headlines in today's online paper: Editorial: A towering infernal, thanks to Congress

If you want readers to take you even half-seriously, do the definition and usage checking rather than assuming that a "big" word from the thesaurus makes you sound more erudite (well-educated): inferno is the word you're looking for. Next, explain how cutting off funds to finish the construction of an airport tower is either an infernal or an inferno. These are completely different words, one of which means "of or relating to the world of the dead in classical mythology" (infernal) and the other (inferno) means "hell, or any place likened to hell," which is the image you probably thought you were creating with your word choice.

Context means literally "with the words," so with the other words in this headline, infernal is really wrong and inferno is contextually incorrect, so ... find another word, perhaps one that more correctly expresses that, in your editorial opinion, not completing the airport tower may result in an airplane disaster at the local airport, and THAT disaster could well be an "inferno," which captures an intensely hot, out-of-control conflagration (fire) from which victims could, indeed, be condemned to an infernal afterlife, even though it would be more polite to suggest that they would rise to a more heavenly fate after death.

Critics of teachers who demand that students memorize vocabulary words, including prefixes, roots, and suffixes, probably do not recognize the flagrant errors so commonplace in today's writing, but some of us cringe each time we encounter these glaring errors. And don't go there and give me the old "teachers don't" critique of what education is or should be: parents are at that tiller!! Classroom standards for behavior and expectations for learning are only as strong as the parents who support them. The first parent who comes crashing into the classroom either to put the teacher in his/her place and/or to tell the principal and/or schoolboard about "my child" sets the tone for the educational program at that school and in that district.

You want more well-educated students? Let the professional educators do their job in the classroom and you do your job at your worksite. When your child complains that the teacher assigns 20 vocabulary words each week, help with the instruction and reinforcement of the learning. Perhaps, someday, rather than being embarrassed by the lack of simple vocabulary skills, you will be able to announce proudly to the world: that's my child!!

B'fast in WY; dinner in MT

Small towns crop up here and there in WY, including Cody, where I spent my summer vacation, without the sprawling miles of malls and apartment buildings that are so much a part of the SoCal communities. We ate in cafes, not chain restaurants, and we had friendly service and coffee at 25 cents a cup, rather than a drive-through speaker box.

My host’s long-hair chiwawa, Chico, who cuddles close with his own daddy, was okay when I held him, talked to him in baby talk (what is it with female dog owners?), and took him for a couple of short walks. We also enjoyed sitting outside in the backyard in both the early morning and the late evening hours, breathing in the fresh air and listening to the silence of the country night.

My friend’s home has a huge finished basement wherein she’s creating a guest room with a horse theme. When she showed it to me, I had an idea for a headboard that I shared with her, then went about constructing. Rather than the 4-6 hours I thought it would take, we worked on it sporadically over the next 5 days. I involved her sister in the project to make the center medallion background, which is a rope-covered circle, because my design vision required that to complete the rustic cowboy idea and she creates a variety of craft items from rope. We added the other rope elements to bring in both the WY cowboy (hat) and their family cattle brand, as well as the WY license plate emblem on the pillow top.

My flight landed in MT, but the guestroom awaited me in WY; the trip between was filled with postcard landscapes. Bright blue skies, green prairies, wide open spaces are a different view from the passenger window than what I’m used to seeing as a desert-dweller. This picture was taken from a scenic view turn-out on the way back to WY from dinner in MT.

Wildlife is abundant, which means the 25 mph speed limit is for safety’s sake: hitting a deer cannot just kill the animal, but also cause extensive damage to a vehicle. The only speeders I saw were those from out-of-state, especially California! Everyone else respects the environment and protects the inhabitants thereof, including the neighbor whose front yard is being used as a restaurant by these two foragers.

WY is the land of the bronc riders; this young man was a living exhibit at the Cody Museum. He's 17, his brother is 19, and they are 5th generation horse trainers. They spent a couple of days demonstrating both a bronc-riding saddle [he's in the classic pose featured on the WY license plate] and roping a barrel calf. I enjoyed talking to him, and smiled at his encouragement to take a picture while he was twirling a rope. When I shared with him the story of my g'son taking a picture of the local windmills, then being disappointed when the pictures were developed because the blades weren't moving, he laughed along with me.

My visit was restful, rather than a frantic rush to see as much as possible each and every moment of each and every day, so I returned home feeling better than I had when I left. Yep, I’m going to return to WY for another visit as we have many places to visit, as well as things to do and people to meet. Next time, I may be physically able to drive that far and see more of the spectacular scenery between hither and yon!!

It IS a Big Deal (for a few of us)

Once again the headline blares with the incorrect usage of its. It's so easy to remember that it's ALWAYS means it is because it's a contraction, a combination of ... it + is.

If you mean "belongs to it," use its: dog bites its own butt, not the butt of another dog.

On the other hand, if you refer to people, use his/hers/theirs, not its, as in "Each camper will carry his/her own duffle bag." No, we don't say "Each camper will carry their own duffle bag" because each implies the word one, as in "Each one [of the campers] will carry," which makes each singular, not plural. Thus, if you want to avoid the his/her sentence construction, simply rewrite the sentence: "All campers will carry their own duffle bags."

Finally, there are personal pronouns to refer to people, such as "He is the one who," my favorite writing goof from people who should know better but use that instead of who.

People make mistakes when they try to sound more correct, more well-educated. "Keep it simple" is a good writing guideline.