The American Dream . . .

. . . never really WAS within our control

NPR is doing a series on THE AMERICAN DREAM.  Generally speaking, I like NPR.  Although nothing is ever ultimately perfect, and who can say what is objectively perfect since we are all subjective human animals and one man's (or woman's) idea of perfection will always be different from anothers'.

The series began Tuesday morning with some relatively blue-collar guys in the Midwest speaking about how the AMERICAN DREAM is much harder to attain these days.  I don't say 'blue-collar' condescendingly or dismissively either because, quite frankly, I know from blue-collar.  Where I grew up, guys in high school (overwhelmingly, if not exclusively) strove to secure a job at either Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point steel mill or at General Motors Assembly plant, where (by the way) my own father was employed  for thirty years before his retirement.

So as long as people bought cars and steel was in demand (by 'whomever buys steel,' as I would have said when I was in high school) things were good.  If I was lucky enough to secure a position with either of these two industrial giants, I was guaranteed a healthy income, superior benefits and what was considered by me and my peers to be 'job security'.

But when your maximum level of education attained is H.S. Diploma, and you're not a particularly aggressive self-learner, you may not fully understand supply, demand, costs, revenue, taxes, economics, competition etc etc, blah blah.  And when there are no longer tens of thousands of jobs in your neighborhood, you feel you've been cheated and your AMERICAN DREAM has turned into a nightmare.

I well understand how that feels BUT, (speaking of perfect) this world, this species, this country, business (etc etc, blah blah) are NOT perfect.  And furthermore, things change.  Things begin, things end, and always, always, always - things change.

Guess all I'm saying is, maybe a little information;  maybe a little more education; maybe a better education (Santorum Shuddered!!) would help these folks have a better understanding of what's going on.

And I am in no way bad-mouthing this country because I most certainly love the life I am able to lead in America and know many non-natives who having experienced it, and would prefer it to living in the places from which they came.

But I am saying that I think people should be more aware of. . . EVERYTHING they can!  So an AMERICAN DREAM without a bevy of facts, awareness, some hard work and a heap of realism, the AMERICAN DREAM is just a dream.  And we all know that every dream ends and then we must wake up.

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Ahh, Summer . . .

 . . . unofficially, at least. . .

. . . and OHO plans to take the lead by opening. . .

Gregfest 2012 Block Party
3906 5th St.
Brooklyn, MD
21225

Here's the tentative schedule:

1:30 OHO
2:30 El Sledge (+)
3:30 Freak Accident – Set 1
4:30 Freak Accident – Set 2
5:30 Weaszels
6:30 Hangdog

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This I know . . .

 ". . .  If it is in the Bible, it must be true. . ."

 (from Howard Bess)  
 ". . . In the past this attitude has led to advocacy of slavery, segregation, subordination of women and corporal punishment for children.  It has been only when these Biblical teachings were challenged and set aside that justice has prevailed.  The latest challenge to Bible standards is the current debate about Biblical marriage and same-sex marriages.  The Bible standard advocates are calling for Biblical standards for marriage.
    Many of the relevant passages are found in the book of Leviticus.  The place of women is set out as a part of the property codes.  Women were property.  Men were owners of women.  A man could own as many women as he could afford.  Polygamy was the standard, not monogamy.  Men owned women in three categories.  They owned wives; they owned concubines; and they owned slaves.  All were available to their owner for his sexual use.  Most of the women involved were little more than breeding stock.  These standards were prevalent all over the Middle East and reflect Mesopotamian and Babylonian traditions. 
    Over the centuries, custom changed and, while polygamy was allowed and was common, cultural pressures and standards evolved toward monogamy.  One standard did not change.  Women in Jesus’ day were still seen as property.  Marriages were still arranged.  A woman had no voice in the acquiring of a husband.  A young woman was provided for marriage for what was deemed the best interests of the father.
    During the times of Jesus, the life of many women in a poverty economy was precarious.  A man could divorce a woman by declaring his freedom from her.  The worst scenario for a woman was to have no owner.  The so-called prostitutes that hung around Jesus were not prostitutes in a modern sense.  They were vulnerable women who had no owner.  Evidently Jesus accepted them and provided them with a level of protection and security.  One of the criticisms of Jesus was that he associated with prostitutes. 
    To his credit, the Apostle Paul declared that in Christ there was no longer slave or free, male or female.  In spite of the acceptance by Jesus and the declaration of Paul, the early church embraced and perpetuated patriarchal dominance and female submission.  The Leviticus standard of male ownership of wives continued in most of Christianity until the 20th century.  It now seems incredible that women in the United States did not have a vote until the 19th Amendment was adopted in 1920. 
    I scratch my head when I hear someone declare that we need to return to Biblical standards for marriage. 
    Around the world and within the United States the understandings of marriage and marriage practices are hugely diverse.  In that diversity a new question has been inserted in the public discussion.  Should two persons of the same sex be allowed to marry?  It is a subject that is never addressed in the Bible.  It is a modern question that has evolved over the past 50 years.  The Bible is a collection of ancient writings.  I would not expect any of these writings to address a question that is so recent.  Bible quotations seem so very irrelevant. . . "

". .  . Is there no standard for marriage that can be embraced in our modern world?  I suspect that diversity of understandings will win the day.  The need to formalize the attractions that we have for a loving companion will not go away.  . ."

[The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska.  His email address is  HYPERLINK "mailto:hdbss@mtaonline.net" hdbss@mtaonline.net]

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You've always been . . .

. . . ahead of me . . .

One fact that I
In my infinite wisdom
Could not always see
But in the end you always convinced me
Things aren't always
What they appear
The things I've always looked for

Once long ago before we met
I thought I could
Single-handedly make the
Spinning world go away
Just like some king
from back in those bygone days
But I was wrong
I don't belong
Inside this category

Seemed to be
At the time to me
To my advantage
Missing why
Not knowing
When to try
To start believing
In my
Very own
Self
Determination

Sometimes at night
When I'm alone
The solitude
And the quiet can bring out
All the worst in my head
But now it seems that isn't to big or bad
I've learned a thing
Or maybe two
And just ahead
There's
Always
You

ALWAYS YOU
(instrumental version from PUT A FINGER ON IT & WINE)
©2006 Raymond M. Jozwiak



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Underappreciated. . .

 . . . undervalued . . .

(from Wikipedia.com)
John Gilmore (September 28 or October 29, 1931 in Summit, Mississippi – August 19 or August 20, 1995 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States) grew up in Chicago and played clarinet from the age of 14. He took up the tenor saxophone while serving in the United States Air Force from 1948–1952, then pursued a musical career, playing briefly with pianist Earl Hines before encountering Sun Ra in 1953.

For the next four decades, Gilmore recorded and performed almost exclusively with Sun Ra. This was puzzling to some, who noted Gilmore's talent, and thought he could be a major star like John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins. Coltrane, in fact, was impressed with Gilmore's playing, and took informal lessons from him in the late 1950s. Coltrane's epochal, proto-free jazz "Chasin' the Trane" was inspired partly by Gilmore's sound.

In 1957 he co-led with Clifford Jordan a Blue Note date that is regarded as a hard bop classic: Blowing In from Chicago. Horace Silver, Curly Russell, and Art Blakey provided the rhythm section. In the mid-1960s Gilmore toured with the Jazz Messengers and he participated in recording sessions with Paul Bley, Andrew Hill (Andrew! and Compulsion), Pete La Roca (Turkish Women at the Bath), McCoy Tyner (Today and Tomorrow) and a handful of others. In 1970 he co-led a recording with Jamaican trumpeter Dizzy Reece. His main focus throughout, however, remained with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Gilmore's devotion to Sun Ra was due, in part, to the latter's use of harmony, which Gilmore considered both unique and a logical extension of bebop. Gilmore had stated that Sun Ra was "more stretched out than Monk" and that "I'm not gonna run across anybody who's moving as fast as Sun Ra ... So I just stay where I am."

Gilmore himself made a huge contribution to Sun Ra's recordings and was the Arkestra's leading sideman, being given solos on almost every track on which he appeared. In the Rough Guide to Jazz critic Brian Priestley says:

    Gilmore is known for two rather different styles of tenor playing. On performances of a straight ahead post-bop character (which include many of those with Sun Ra), he runs the changes with a fluency and tone halfway between Johnny Griffin and Wardell Gray, and with a rhythmic and motivic approach which he claims influenced Coltrane. On more abstract material, he is capable of long passages based exclusively on high-register squeals. Especially when heard live, Gilmore was one of the few musicians who carried sufficient conviction to encompass both approaches."

Many fans of jazz saxophone consider him to be among the greatest ever, his fame shrouded in the relative anonymity of being a member of Sun Ra's Arkestra. His "straight ahead post-bop" talents are exemplified in his solo on the Arkestra's rendition of "Blue Lou," as seen on Mystery, Mr. Ra.

After Sun Ra's 1993 death, Gilmore led Ra's "Arkestra" for a few years before his own death from emphysema. Marshall Allen then took over Arkestra leadership.

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Unusual . . .

 . . . to be stuck like this?

Maybe not.

Ever feel this way when you've been asked to do something that you really have no business doing, you know it may not be the best thing to do and you know that it will not promote peace and harmony, which you like best?  Furthermore, the person doing the asking, is one that you hold in high esteem and one whose relationship you value immensely.

Uncomfortable?  Unnecessary? Undesirable?  Maybe. But not unusual.

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Put your money . . .

. . . where your mouth is . . .

(from Wikipedia.com)
". . . The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada. The movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as excessive wealth, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, inadequate labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Theologically, the Social Gospellers sought to operationalize the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:10): "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." They typically were post-millennialist; that is, they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the Progressive Movement and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important leaders include Richard T. Ely,Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.

Although most scholars agree that the Social Gospel movement peaked in the early 20th century, there is disagreement over when the movement began to decline, with some asserting that the destruction and trauma caused by World War I left many disillusioned with the Social Gospel's ideals while others argue that World War I actually stimulated the Social Gospelers' reform efforts. Theories regarding the decline of the Social Gospel after World War I often cite the rise of neo-orthodoxy as a contributing factor in the movement's decline. Many of the Social Gospel's ideas reappeared in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. "Social Gospel" principles continue to inspire newer movements such as Christians Against Poverty. . . "

It's time for some of these ideas to reappear. . . again!

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