No, Do Not Go Backwards

 

In the recent past, there was a general trend in our society to be more open and accepting of different races, and sexual orientations, and gender identities. But in the last year or so, there has been this mad rush to dismantle these added protections and frameworks. Like DEI, for instance.

Many corporate entities added DEI initiatives in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. These were meant to make someone feel welcome and included in most any kind of a corporate organization, no matter your skin color, gender or sexual orientation. And what is wrong with that? They wanted to hire a diverse workforce, representative of society, and to make everyone feel like they fit in. To me, this is the sign of a strong and prosperous society. We are big and strong enough to welcome in all of our diverse elements, to make everyone feel welcome and at home.

But, a sign of a weakening and fearful society, one that is becoming less prosperous, is to exclude. To exclude classes that one has recently allowed to come out in the open and breathe freely, without fear. To create divisions and conflict between diverse groups of people, to distract them from some bigger picture perhaps.

There is a minority of people who were recently allowed to come out in the open and participate in society. Society was adjusting. Rest rooms were being modified to be single-use, or designated a ‘family restroom’, to accommodate different genders. Gender pronouns were being recognized, accommodated, used widely, disseminated generally. Society was making the adjustment, despite some grumbling from certain quarters. We were all getting used to this new world. And when one thought about it, why not – what is the harm in being a fully inclusive, loving society? This is the mark of an advanced, enlightened civilization!

Nope, it just couldn’t last. The dank qualms of a reactionary group were just too much to ignore. Our baser, more fearful natures took over our political leadership. They threw out the enlightened treatment of everyone in society. Tossed out the good with any perceived “bad” (like letting schoolkids discuss gender issues. ). We are just setting ourselves back, and setting up renewed fighting and struggling in the future. We are just creating more pain and anguish, and for what reason? In some cases, it is being based on an ancient set of texts that barely even mention anything about gender or sex. People are getting all up in arms about what some very old literature supposedly condemns as ‘wrong.’

To me, humankind, over many millennia, have created a body of absolute truth outside itself. And while the basis may have originated in religious texts, the law has evolved and changed to recognize the changing, growing, vibrant entirety of humanity. As the human race grows and changes, then so must our body of agreed-upon body of laws governing behaviors. A law that governed a tiny tent society in Judea is not adequate for over eight billion human souls today. Absolute truth, the body of law, must reflect the change that humanity has undergone.

To take a recently recognized group of people and render them invisible under the law again is a major offense of the idea of universal law itself. To give them recognition and protection, then yank it away a few years later, is completely unjust and harsh. It is the sign of a fearful and sinking society, a society that is moving in the wrong direction. Any thinking, feeling human being should oppose this hard turning back in our laws and society! It is only going to do harm to the ones we may love and care about, to our family members, and ultimately to ourselves, as our legal structure further erodes.

Thanks for reading.

Math Formula is our Friend

 

Once upon a time, there was a quantity

measured in an arcane formula,

or not so much, really.

It was just called Delta-vee.

Nothing so erudite as E=MC/2

or long-winded like X + Y + Z =0.

Just a measurement of change in velocity.

Distance and speed together,

for a full reckoning of directionality.

Just make sure your propulsive element

has full functionality!

No ‘Buck Rogers’ without the big bucks,

No high performance rocketry;

No reaching Earth orbit, either,

without enough change in Delta-vee!

Thrust is everything, you see,

as long as you go in the right direction.

So make sure of the proper Delta-Vee,

and avoid any meteorite deflections!

But I never claimed to be an expert in rocket science,

So thank you for following this simple explanation;

Lucky that we have computers to rely on;

digital servants to calculate those Delta-Vee variations.

Mathematics is a map of our entire reality,

so sometimes it’s good to revisit the science;

reminding selves that formulae like Delta-Vee

help us tame and explore many externalities.

Elon and Jeff need help lofting all those rockets;

The math computers tackle care of all the details;

the proper Delta-Vee ensures profitable orbits,

So they can celebrate, tell tall tales and sip cocktails.

Then and Now - This and That - Old Guy Musings

 

Back in the late 1970’s and early 80’s, I was a poor working stiff. But I could go out and find places to spend money, when I had it. Bank branches were all over the place, gas stations on almost every corner. Lots of shops, small and large, dotted city streets. The shopping malls were full of stores, and people too, on the weekends. Even on slow days, our shopping economy seemed to be thriving.

Now, older and retired, I have a little extra money, and a lot of extra time these days. But as I go out and about in town, there are not many places around any more. Once thriving restaurants are closed up. Storefronts are turned into something else. Downtown offices are being converted to housing units. Shopping malls are empty, and being re-purposed. The visual perception I’m getting is that our economy, and in some ways our society, is moribund, stalled out, withering away. It is a frightening and depressing perception.

Sure, we have a whole other economy running hot – the Internet/online/shipping economy. Storefronts are virtual-visual. Goods are loaded from warehouses to trucks, to end up at our doorstep. We can buy more things than ever – but just not “outdoors” or in our town. We walk around a local town and our five senses tell us it is dying or dead. We know better – our homes are full of stuff, and we put more stuff into storage units when we run out of room.

It seems strange, but we live in two worlds in a shopping sense. Granted, there are still places we can shop in person, but they are insignificant compared to what was around in, say, 1978. It is as though most of us are walking around with their awareness in two worlds at once. The virtual cloud-world on their phones and computers, and the real, physical world. Trouble can arise when we don’t make a clean shift from one to the other worlds.

Sometimes, I think that drivers rushing around, cutting in front of people, hurrying up to red lights, etc, are still living in the Internet world, where everything one desires is a mouse-click away. But when you are driving a vehicle, things take time – you have to wait for all the other people out there in the physical world to make their decisions and operate their vehicles. Things on the highway are not a mouse click away, but must be dealt with in a real, physical sense. We have created a virtual way of existing and are now victims of convenience, in a sense.

If these AI programs begin to take over the running of physical systems, like traffic lights, utility delivering and so forth, we could be further victimized by our own clever contrivances, who will have taken on a life of their own. May our new overlords have mercy on us and our slow, fleshy ways. Maybe they will even leave us a small store to shop at in the next century, when we can unplug from the giant matrix of world machinery. Our offspring will get to see if that ever comes about.  Good luck out there.

Mementos

 

A geode gathers dust and obscures its colors;

Elephant statue wears dust on its back.

Plastic statues dance across the shelf.

A tiny medicine bottle stands by nearby.

Tiny ceramic owls gaze out, flanking a

lightpost from some Victorian street scene.

Beer cans hang out on the shelf above,

in front of dog-eared paperbacks and movies.

Flat river rocks and small statuary echoes of

happy memories, times gone by.

Little reminders of past places visited,

memory jogs of fun times had long ago.

But they jog empty cells now – destinations

forgotten, although good time tokens themselves

adding appeal and delight to a small living room.

The mementos become memory and add to the

aura of a living space all on their own.

Don’t you dare throw them away.