I have always been fascinated by former President John Kennedy.  He is the first President that I remember.  I recall how frightened my Mother and Father were during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962.  I heard my parents talking about the possibility of ‘the bombs’ and the fact that we did not have a ‘bomb shelter.’

Tomorrow, November 22, 2016, will mark fifty-three years since President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas…shortly after noon.  I was six years old and in first grade…and Mrs. Kittinger announced to our class that President Kennedy had been shot.  School ended for the day and I walked home to the big…cold…scary house that we had moved to in Eldorado, Illinois.

My Mom was weeping.  When I asked her why she told me that President Kennedy had died.  I was amazed that my mother was so emotionally moved by the President of the United States death…I wondered if we were related to him.

For much of the rest of my childhood our Country was filled with unease.  I watched Walter Cronkite announce each evening on the CBS Evening News the American fatalities for that day.  My cousin was drafted.  I was sure that when I became of age…that I would be drafted and sent to Vietnam as well.

In school we had ‘bomb drills’  where we either crawled under our desk or when we became larger we exited into the hallway and knelt against the wall and covered our heads with our hands.

Today, there is a significant amount of disquiet in our land.  Americans from many different walks of life fear that our beloved country will no longer fulfill the wonderful poem written by Emma Lazarus in ‘1883 to raise money for the construction of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty,’ wikipedia.

The Poem is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty Pedestal and reads in part, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of you’re teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’

Thanksgiving is a time of thankfulness and renewal and re-energizing.

It is a time to realize our many blessings…and to think about those in need…and to resolve to help lessen the suffering of our fellow human beings.

Let us all realize that the success of our Great Country has never been about a President…no matter how charismatic he might be…but it has been about our inclusiveness and working and struggling together…much as our wonderful troops did in World War II.

The secret of the United States Success is the acceptance and transformation of ‘the huddled masses yearning to breath free…the wretched refuse…the homeless and the tempest-tost!’

If;  Bigotry…Xenophobia…Misogyny…Respect for the Disabled…’Standing Rock’ and the horrible manner our government treats our Native Americans…has given us concern…it is up to us to do your part to make it better.  No political leader will ever solve those Herculean problems for us.

As President Kennedy admonished us at his Inauguration… so many years ago…’My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your Country.’

The Quakers say, ‘Speak Truth to Power.’

Facebook reminded me that a year ago today I had written a blog that was critical of Republican Presidential Candidate Trump’s bigoted rhetoric, including his promise to build a wall.

Now half or more of our Country is shocked that he is the President Elect.  I am not.

I began my career at Southern Illinois University as a Building Service Worker I…which is a janitor.  I was assigned to the General Accounting building.  As a young man of twenty years old I felt that all the people who occupied the office that I was cleaning had important jobs that they had obtained through their higher education.

My predecessor in custodial had done an abysmal job.  I began by striving to produce a clean General Accounting building each night.

I asked the Associate Director of General Accounting, about two weeks into my tenure, if he was satisfied with my job performance, and explained that I understood that my work was not nearly as important as the rest of the building’s staff.  Associate Director Blaney told me that my work was as valuable as the work that he performed…or maybe more so and told me that without my preparing the cleanliness of the building each night the accountants coming in the next morning would not be able to perform their job duties effectively.

After many years of working within the Building Services department and rising through the ranks, I determined that I wanted to have more of a Global understanding of the University that had been so good to me.

The University was a microcosm of our Country.  There were definite classes…of which I was a member of the lowest…the Civil Service Employees.

Through my work associated with the Civil Service Council, which is the elected representative body for employee concerns and ideas for the University Administration, I became acquainted with University leaders; including Chancellors and Presidents.

It became abundantly clear to me that most of the Administration had little or no knowledge of the real concerns in the Civil Service Community.  It also became certain to me that when I was speaking with them and they were smiling and shaking their head in mock affirmation to my words…they were giving me the political correct body language for my ‘small…pedestrian requests.’

One Chancellor told me unequivocally that Faculty came first and then Administrative Professional Staff and finally…if there was anything left…Civil Service Staff.

I met and befriended two ‘breaths of fresh air’ in the Chancellor role during my thirty-two years of service.  Both of these individuals spoke to me with respect…they really listened…and moved affirmatively on some of my requests.  Dr. Jo Ann Argersinger and Dr.Don Beggs sought my counsel…and on University Wide issues.

Believe me when a leader listens to you and respects you and seeks your counsel…you become loyal to that leader.

It is disingenuous and wrong to equivocate the supporters of President Elect Trump as all bigots and misogynist and haters of those who are not like them.

As the adroit Dan Rather put it on a news program this morning, often the States in the middle of the East coast and the West coast are considered ‘fly over’ in political importance to the Presidential Candidates.

So, it is noted that Businessman Trump customarily walked the construction site of his buildings and stopped to talk with the workers and sought their ideas and valued their counsel…and showed them the respect of their knowledge of their craft.

President Elect Trump made that same connection with millions of hard working…intelligent…and exhausted people…who are often working two or three jobs to put something on the table and pay their bills.

I began my career as someone who was thought of as a ‘job description’ and not a person.  I set about and actively sought to understand the Academic Community and to break through the ‘wall of academic elite’ to benefit my group.

It is vital that all people of good will seek to not hate and define each other by a simplistic group name…but rather with the respect of their intelligence…their humanity…and our shared struggle for fairness and equality of human rights.

Last night there were massive protests in many of our major cities regarding the election of Donald Trump.  When interviewed, many of the protestors expressed their fear that members of their family were going to be deported…that a target was now on their back because of their religion…that the ‘stop and frisk’ policing policy embraced by the Candidate Trump would be brought back…that there is a diminishing of  the horribleness of sexual assault…and that the personal freedoms won by the Gay and Lesbian Community would be under attack.

Last night I watched an impassioned response, to Trump supporter Andy Dean complaining about CNN Commentator Van Jones.  Mr. Jones was talking about Trump’s electoral victory being a ‘white lash’ as opposed to being a backlash. The response came from respected New York Times Columnist, Charles Blow, appearing on CNN.  “I don’t know what walk of life you have to be in to think that race is a media fascination…I happen to live in this skin, been doing it for forty-six years and I’ll tell you something, this has nothing to do with the media, my job, any of that.  It has everything to do with the fact that I know my history…”

I have worked closely with two mercurial leaders. One was in a faith community and the other was in a work environment.   Both men had the capacity for great kindness…and great retaliation… and mean spiritedness when they perceived that they had been crossed.  Both could be influenced by good advice that leaned toward mercy and understanding of others.  Both ultimately stayed true to their darker paranoia.  My combined time with these two leaders was twenty-nine years.

This election is unprecedented.  The American people have elected a person who said, on a regular basis during his campaign the most… bigoted…misogynistic…xenophobic utterances ever heard by a Republican or Democratic candidate for the presidency.

Now that President Elect Trump has secured the highest office in the land it is incumbent on him to quiet the fears of the many groups that he maligned during his candidacy.  We are in to the second day of the President Elect…and so far his actions have been magnanimous and Presidential.  I was heartened at his gracious words for President Obama when they just concluded their White House meeting.

Mr. President Elect…calm the fears of millions of Americans…reach out to them and show them that you care about their welfare…assure us that we are not in the ‘Twilight Zone.’

After the most acrimonious presidential campaign in my lifetime Donald Trump is the President Elect of the United States.  This result was something that the political pundits and pollsters almost universally did not forecast.

Mary Jane and I had dinner, the other evening, with a couple who are dear friends of ours.  I stated that irrespective of what the polls were showing… Donald Trump could win.  I was going to go on to say that he could win, and that he may win handily.  I did not make the final statement as my friend, who I deeply respect, told me that there was no way Trump would experience a persuading win due to the democratic Blue Wall.

I have believed since the President Elect first appeared on the political scene…riding down the escalator at Trump Tower…to announce his candidacy for the presidency…that he indeed could win!

Millions of people in the United States are hurting.  They are out of work or underemployed.  The Affordable Care Act has been a godsend to many poor people and a nightmare to much of the middle class.

Many feel that their elected representatives do not listen to them…with good reason…because they do not.

The CNN political commentator, Van Jones, gave a beautiful and frightening description of the fear and trepidation that is now in the hearts of African Americans, Latinos, Women, Muslims and the disabled…the fear of a Bully with power!

The Tableau beginning today,…will be painted of a Trump presidency.  Mr. President Elect…bring us together…don’t divide us by our fears…our bias…ask us to be our better selves…

Our country is a melting pot.  What has made us great is our inclusiveness.  Now we are praying for our elected leader.  We want our President Elect to succeed.  We want him to listen to us…African Americans…Muslims…Latinos…Women…the Disabled…American Indians…it will take all of us to…as it always has… make American Great Again!

Mr. President Elect…you can choose to listen to the haters…the prejudiced…the xenophobic…the misogynist… because their voices were loud during the campaign.  Or, you can seek greatness by hearing the voice of the downtrodden.  Their voices are not as loud at times…but…to hear them…is the mark of a great leader.

During the Children’s Message this morning, at church, Kathy Manfredi gave a lovely account of what friends, who disagree on the up-coming election, will be doing on Wednesday, November 9.  She had seen two women on television who mentioned that they disagree on the political candidates…but that on the day after the election they planned to make a pot of soup together…because that is what friends do.

It appears that this presidential election cycle has been more mean and full of the most hateful damaging accusations that I have witnessed in my fifty-nine years.

If anything has been clearly illustrated during this malignant process, it is that the divisions in our country are deeper and more sharply delineated than ever before.

To equivocate politics with religion and God’s will for humanity is a fools’ errand.

Democrats are not especially enlightened or wiser than the Republican members of the human family.  Their’s can be a liberal snootiness or, ‘ nose in the air,’ attitude toward conservatives that borders on the obscene.

Republicans do not have a special relationship with the Creator because they love, ‘ the right to bear arms,’ or believe that every word of the King James Bible means literally and exactly what it says.

Basically the question is, what kind of country do we want to live in?  Do we want to live in a United States that disrespects women?

Do we want to live in a country that disrespects African Americans and tells them that they have thus far, ‘lived in hell?’

Much of our country is Latino.  Do we want to live in a country that describes them as; rapist and murders?

Is it all right to make fun of the disabled?

Is bragging about the ability to perform sexual assault on women something that we want to chalk up to locker room talk?

The email debacle surrounding the Democratic Candidate for President is sad.  It was sloppy according to the Director of the FBI…but not criminal.

The following is from the Washington Post’s account of Air Force Col. Tom Moe speaking at an event in Ohio.  This is a paraphrase of a quote from Protestant pastor, Martin Niemoller taken from lectures that he gave after World War II.  “You might not care if Muslims should register with their government, because you’re not one.  And you might not care if Donald Trump says he’s going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants because you’re not one.  And you might not care if Donald Trump says it’s okay to rough up black protestors, because you’re not one.  And you might not care if Donald Trump wants to suppress journalists, because you’re not one.  But think about this: If he keeps going, and he actually becomes president, he might just get around to you.  And you better hope there’s someone left to help you.”

My friends are probably fifty percent liberal and fifty percent conservative.  I have some convictions on both sides.  I am however…afraid…very afraid…of a Strongman government.

Wednesday morning…Soups On!

Earlier this month Mary Jane, Jonathon, and I traveled to our nearby State Park, Giant City, with my wonderful brother Brock and his sweet wife Marcy.  I so enjoyed the experience that I returned today to walk two of the trails within the picturesque natural region.

Giant City is located within the Shawnee National Forest.  “Named for the unique impressions made by  its’ massive sandstone structures and a landscape like none other, with lush garments of fern, moss, flowering mints, hundreds of species of wild flowers and more than seventy-five varieties of towering trees,” according the Giant City State Park website.

The Devils’ Stand Table is fascinating.

The rock formations are simply awe inspiring!  It is said that the during the Ice Age…that the glaciers stopped in the Giant City region and thus the spectacular natural splendor.

The Post Oak Trail was very nice.  It had a lovely view of the various trees and foliage from a high vantage point.

In our world of hustle and bustle…it is refreshening to commune with Gods’ gift of nature.  So often what we deem important…money and the accumulation of it…prestige and power…fame and renown…is dwarfed by the reality of who we are…and what we are…in the magnificent creation that surrounds us.

I wrote a blog regarding the Ghosts of Anthony Hall earlier this month that I throughly enjoyed due to my having some first hand knowledge of the story.  Thinking of this I pondered whether or not I had any other weird or spooky stories to relate.  I was reminded of our stop in Sicily during our Mediterranean Cruise of 2011.

“The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo are burial catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy,” according to Wikipedia.

Rosalia Lombardo is considered to be the best preserved corpse world wide.

The Capuchin Monastery outgrew its’ cemetery and thus began digging crypts below it.  “The bodies were dehydrated on the racks of ceramic pipes in the catacombs and sometimes later washed with vinegar.  Some of the bodies were embalmed and others enclosed in sealed glass cabinets.  Monks were preserved with their everyday clothing and sometimes with ropes they had worn as penance,” according to Wikipedia.

The experience of walking down many steps into the catacombs and then encountering dead bodies or mummies along both your left and right…and often above your head was difficult to describe.  They were close enough to reach out and touch without moving from the walking path.  Many were dressed in their finery…including wedding dresses and suits of the day.

One of the figures had been a proud “Don Juan” in his day and thus requested that glass eyes be inserted into his eye sockets in order that he might continue his avocation.

The Catacombs of Palermo were like nothing I have ever experienced and certainly conveyed to me the short time of our existence on this Earth…our mortality.

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”   Ecclesiastes 12:7   KJV

Note: All photos are from Wikipedia.

Today is my 59th birthday.  As I reflect back…it seems that only yesterday I was 58!  I began the morning by stopping by to pick up my cake from our local bakery, that Mary Jane had ordered for me.  The young woman that waited on me remarked…”are you picking up your own birthday cake?”  I responded yes…and felt good about it as Mary Jane often picks up her birthday cake also.  The cake person then asked her colleague why my cake was so expensive…and received a logical explanation for the cost…she subsequently charged me three dollars less…with a sad smile.  Finally she asked me if I needed a cake server with my cake…although I thought that she asked me if I was going to be the cake server.  Lastly she wished me a happy birthday.

Two lovely Birthday Presents have been given me this October.  One was enjoying time with my brother Brock and his sweet wife Marcy earlier this month.  The other was our enjoying birthday dinner in St. Louis..at my favorite restaurant, Cunetto House of Pasta, with my delightful sister  Billie,…again who I had never met.

My sons Aaron and Jonathon continue to be the light of my life!  They and their wonderful mother Mary Jane have made every day for me an adventure and a joy!

One truth I have discovered is that my and Brock and Billie’s father is a mystery to all of us.  It is much like the fable of the blind man touching an elephant and reporting much varied descriptions of the animal that they felt based on where they placed their hands.

Springfield, Ohio “69”

This is a photo of our Dad with our sister Tammy.

This was Dad’s birthday. He was 57. Taken in Tennessee

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle…” according to the Old Testament author Job.  KJV

I received birthday wishes from several of my high school and grade school classmates…and instantly I could see their faces as I remembered them from our childhood days.  They’re taking time to wish me happy birthday warmed my heart!

I think of my old friend Steve…who in years gone by I had many adventures with.

I think the complexity and hidden beauty of this thing we call life is so rich and full…that often we fail to absorb it.  It happens so fast that we see it in the rear view mirror as we speed down life’s highway.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12   KJV

York, England fascinated me and captivated my imagination!   “York is a walled city in northeast England that was founded by the Ancient Romans.  The city walls form a walkway on both sides of the River Ouse,” according the Wikipedia.

The Roman Emperor Constantine was named Emperor of Rome in the Principa or headquarters, which is now under the York Minster.

As we began our exploration of the medieval city of York…we decided to put first things first and thus visit a fudge shop where we purchased some inspiring confections.  After this we divided, in order to conquer, and pursued the ancient city.

Suddenly I happened upon a gentleman performing one of the famous magician Houdini’s favorite escape feats.

Now if that is not enough for you…there was also a knife thrower!

I neglected to mention that the knife thrower also juggled knives while he rode a ten foot tall unicycle.

All of this excitement happened before our lunch at the Gin House which was located on the third floor and had excellent food and libations.

York was such a mysterious and inviting city that I want to return.  The ghosts of history are everywhere you look.  Again…I will say that Time Travel is possible…as indeed you are transported to York’s medieval past with every step you take in this gracious place.