Happy Birthday Granddad!

Today is my granddad's birthday. Happy Birthday Ben Lewallen. If he were still with me, he'd be 84 years old today. He stepped up to the plate and served as a role model and father figure to me when my own father proved lacking at the task. My step-dad, who is also a tremendously great role model, unfortunately didn't arrive on the scene until I was 15 years old, so there were many years that needed filling with a positive male role model. I owe much of who I am today to my mom, my step-dad, and my maternal grandparents. Granddad was a great role-model. He was a WWII veteran, having served with the 8th Air Force, 453rd Bomb Group, 734th Bomb Squadron at Old Buckenham, England. He served as a Technical Sergeant on Edward Traylor's B-24 Liberator and they flew 35 heavy bombardment sorties. Not an easy task for anyone who knows their WWII history, and it took it's toll on him. After WWII, he worked as a fireman for the city of High Point, NC and eventually retired from that job as their chief mechanic. I was very fortunate to need Ben's services as a father figure and role model in his later life, after he had matured and learned much from his many life experiences. Grandparents can be tremendously positive role models in the lives of their families and have a huge impact on not only their grandkids, but the entire future of their bloodlines.

Happy Birthday Granddad! You will never be forgotten and you will always be loved. I look forward to seeing you again someday when my time on this earth runs out as well.

Diversity

The lovely yellow banana. Perhaps the most popular fruit in the world, it's success toppled nations and fueled the growth of argo-corporate empires. It isn't a surprise that producers would do everything possible to maximize their profits. If one variety of banana was more appealing (no pun intended) to the public then that's what they'll get. Plantations around the globe now all grow the same type of banana the Cavendish. The type has become so popular around the world that commercially it's all but the only game in town.
The homogeneousness of the banana has allowed suppliers to to remove any surprises from the production and marketing of the fruit. They know what the yield will be. How much pesticides to use, when to pick. They know exactly when to ship them and at what temperature so they're just ripe enough at the store. Just what every company (and consumer) wants - a sure thing.

Of course there's a price to be paid. Even though there are more bananas growing in the world today than ever before, our favorite yellow banana is possible on the verge of extinction.

Diseases now require weekly pesticide use for crops rather than monthly a few decades ago. A new strains of viruses pop up all the time. New fungicides are developed in a race to keep banana trade viable. Should R&D slip behind in the race and the Cavendish is wiped out, it will be the second time the primary variety of banana has disappeared. The old 30's song "Yes, we have no bananas"- The Gros Michel was wiped out by soil fungus in the first half of the 20th century.

There isn't any threat that the entire species of banana will disappear from the world. There still are hundreds of strains grown by hobbyist and in the wild. But in a decade or so it may become too expensive and difficult to grow bananas commercially and they very well may disappear from the grocery store shelves.

Is there a lesson in this?

Often in society we look for ways to be more efficient. Businesses streamline. Governments cut waste (that's what they say). Banks maximize investments. We all want to get the most out of our day. Maybe we could all focus a bit more on flexiblity.
What if IBM didn't invest money in areas other than their profitable typewriter business?
What might you find if you didn't take the shortest route home?
What if listened to those you didn't already agree with?

Of course there's a real good chance you'd just end up wasting your time and money taking the scenic route through life. Wandering though life very well may get you nowhere. But as the banana can tell us, rushing for perfection in all things will just get you nowhere faster.

H5N1 Virus, Are you aware of this and it's potential impact?

I don't want this to end up being only a "preparedness" site but that's a large part of my psyche. I guess the outdoors training and scout mentality never leaves you. Not that I was in boyscouts or anything. That's another story entirely.

Back to this topic. I've been reading and hearing a good bit about the H5N1 virus, otherwise known as "Avian Flu". I'm actually a bit more concerned about this virus's potential impact on the US and world population more than many of the other perceived and real threats currently "in play". Here's more about this virus. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/ and
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-09-20-voa45.cfm
The flu pandemic of 1918 that killed between 20-100 million people had a lethality rate of between 1-2%. Avian flu currently has a lethality rate of 55%. If it maintains it's lethality rate when it adapts to efficient person to person infection, versus it's current bird to person infection, it could cause more casualties across the planet than anything we've ever seen or recorded. Last night while watching public TV's "Wide Angle" with Bill Moyers, at the end of the broadcast they briefly mentioned that there was reportedly already one doctor in Asia who was working with avian flupatients who has come down with it.

I've added a link in the sidebar to "Bird Flu Central", a site run by Tom which has up-to-date content regarding this potential global crisis. Stay informed and check by "Bird Flu Central" periodically! http://avianinfluenza.blogspot.com/

Fuel Alternative for Diesel Cars?

One of my co-workers has a good friend of hers who actually did this conversion to a VW Jetta diesel and has been driving it for the past year or so. Reportedly she gets something like 55-60 mpg.Looks interesting.
http://www.greasecar.com/

Family Emergency Response Plans

Well, well, well.....We just completed a fun filled evening of trying to develop an extended family emergency response plan. After approximately two hours of discussions about the types of potential crises that could happen in our particular area, and the types of responses that would minimize suffering and injury within our extended family group, I can assure you that the biggest disaster so far, is our plan. It's extremely challenging to come up with a cohesive yet flexible plan, that involves mulitiple individuals, in different locations, dealing with a variety of potential crises, presumably while operating impaired modern communication equipment. Oh, and did I mention the part about trying to collect my children if anything were to happen while they're in school? There is an official evacuation plan in our area, which encompasses the schools, in case of a crisis at the nearby Mcguire Nuclear Power Plant http://www.dukepower.com/community/safety/nuclear/mcguire/McGuire_Map.pdf. That's comforting, except for the part where they immediately bus my kids to another school in the event of an emergency evacuation. OK, not to be the "doubting Thomas" here, but if there's a major crisis at the nuclear plant, and the phone lines all get tied up, and mandatory immediate evacuation is ordered, I expect pandemonium at the school. Lots of parents won't know the plan because they never read the materials so they'll be trying to pick up their kids. Teachers, bus drivers, and administrators will have their own children (not necessarily at that school) they want to evacuate. I'll be trying to figure out whether or not my kids actually made it onto an evacuation bus to get to the alternate pick-up location or whether they are still back at school. This added to the fact that I'll be trying to get our essentials after leaving work and following the remainder of our family crisis plan. Neat-O! That's just one potential crisis for which to develop a plan. Suffice it to say we have a few more details that we'll be working out in the near future. Hopefully, we'll never need to enact the plan but it's always better to be prepared for hardship rather than get caught with your pants down. Das Office of Homeland Security (Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil), http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/index.html , has a site with some preparedness suggestions that may be helpful in developing your own plan. http://www.ready.gov/

Your Participation

I also thought I should clarify that since this is the Thingvellir, if you want to post a topic on this page, just drop me an email at thingvellir@gmail.com or bruceparris@hotmail.com and I'll add you to the members section so that you can make posts. No, I won't give you administrative priviledges but I'll make you an empowered posting member of Thingvellir. You will need to be registered here, http://www.blogger.com and you will need to send me your blogger email address so that I can add you as a member.

Who is really your representative?

Now I'm going to point the finger back in the other direction away from highly paid, powerful, industry backed lobbies and look at the American people. Who is your real representative. YOU ARE YOUR BEST REPRESENTATIVE. I really can't stand people who whine and complain that our government is not doing a good job but yet they don't vote or get involved in the very issues with which they're seemingly concerned. These folks are "the peanut gallery". The tremendous freedoms we enjoy in the United States REQUIRE that we each take some responsibility for our lives and help to safeguard both our rights, and the rights of others who live with us in our nation. This REQUIRES invovlement by the citizens in ALL levels of governments. This includes not just voting, but being knowledgeable about the issues which concern you and acting to further your own agendas, or at least expressing you opinions to your elected representatives. I might add that being knowledgeable involves gathering information from more than one source so that you can formulate a balanced stance and not just serve as the pawn of liberal or conservative propagandists.

Why do so few people even vote in this country? Here's one survey from the 2004 timeframe. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/whynotvote.htm
Our freedoms and prosperities DEPEND on the watchful guardianship of the citizens. How can people not have the time to protect their independence? I'm just as jaded as the rest of you, but that doesn't give me an ethical or moral excuse to discontinue my efforts. I have a busy life like the rest of you, but should I not also to the time to think and act on behalf of the long term health of this country for my decendants? Have we become so accustomed to living a quick and easy life (relatively speaking compared to the rest of the world's population) that it's simply just too much trouble to be involved? Is it that we feel entitled to have the benefits promised to us by the Constitution without having to safeguard them? I just don't understand.

I look at countries around the world, like Iraq for instance, whose populations seem largely oppressed with the expectation that their government can come and take their possession, rape their families, and kill them on a whim or if they don't comply with a demand. It's hard enough for me to understand how an oppressed population lives this way without spontaneously rising up and saying "No", responding with force and making their lives better. I rationalize their continuing to live under such conditions as just a difference in cultural worldview, or that those people do not know any better because their political systems have always been that way. However, in America, we're a western culture that has been free and largely respectful of individual freedoms for over 200 years. What the hell is our excuse for lazily sitting back and allowing whoever wants power over us to just saddle up and mount us? I'm not saying that we need some kind of violent revolution in America or anything. Violence is only an inefficient tool to be used when you have reasonably exhausted other more efficient and humane methods of problem solving. We don't yet need a revolution in this country, we just need our citizens to get off their collective arses, get educated, motivated, and vote.

We could learn a thing or two from the fall of the Roman Empire. It was a very efficient empire that conquered and ruled much of the western and near eastern world for a very long time. Historians credit the fall of the Roman Empire to various reasons, not the least of which was an apathy among it's citizens to stay involved in their governance and state issues. This opened the way for only people interested in personal gain to take up the political reign and drive the Empire into the ground serving their special interests. You'll always have some people who are purely interested in personal gain, but that should not be the majority.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall..." Edmund Burke

Thingvellir

I decided that I'd create an on-line space for discussion of various topics. I picked the name Thingvellir because it was the place in Iceland where Viking colonists held their Althing to discuss various political and social issues, and to resolve conflicts. It was essentially the first parliment.

I'm an American, and a dedicated patriot to my country. However, that does not mean I am blind to it's problems. There is no such thing as a government that does not make mistakes. From a social standpoint, "government" seeks to resolve the competing agendas of large numbers of individuals so that the group, as a whole, can gain overall tangible advantages they could not easily achieve as individuals. It is a system that should produce overall positive benefits for it's community or it is unhealthy. Today, with the world's economies and conflicts so thoroughly entwined, I would argue that we have to look beyond not only the interests of our own governments, but to the interests of humanity on a global scale. From a practical standpoint, I still think it is more effective to "Think globally, act locally" to copy a commonly heard phrase.

This leads me to my current feelings about our government. I often feel that what was once a more "democratic" government in America, has actually evolved into a political system where big business and wealth essentially purchase the positions of our politicians, and any benefits or costs to the vast majority of the population, ie. the common people, under the rule of that system are mere by-products and no longer the primary intent. Lest you begin to think I'm a socialist, I place the highest of values upon individual freedoms as long as those freedoms to not prevent others from having their freedom. Obviously, as an advanced industrial nation, industry should have some say in choosing leadership of the government which creates the rules that greatly impact their success or failure. However, I've begun to feel that our political system has become far too skewed toward the interests of our industrial machine.

At heart I would look to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence to guide our government and legal system. It should be a government,"...of the people, by the people, and for the people...", to quote Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Is it just me, or does it seem like we have drifted fairly far away from some of the basic premises of our founding fathers? At this point in our history, it seems that our choices in voting political representatives falls only among those who are wealthy and/or connected to industry and power, and who do NOT come from, or represent, the majority of American citizens. Indeed, I begin to believe that our political system, with it's very powerful special interest lobbies and excessive monetary requirements for campaigns, has thoroughly eliminated any reasonable chance that an educated person of the middle or lower class (the majority), whose worldviews coincide with the vast majority of other Americans, could even conceivably be voted into any position of power.

Well, I'll stop right here and see what develops. Also, please feel free to bring up any more personal or local issues that you want to share. We're all in this life together, hopefully doing the best we can.