America – She Ain’t What She Used To Be

     I intended to come up with something light and humorous for this posting, but it’s difficult to set the latest events in the news aside and put my mind in a frivolous and light-hearted mood.  The world is going nuts, but most Americans seem to be oblivious.  Young people are busy texting and most of the networks just keep the masses sedated and uninformed. 

            Now beheading westerners is the rage among the uncivilized barbarians who operate under the banner of Islam and Sharia Law. Beheading has been a tradition in militant Islam throughout history, but now it is hitting home with several westerners, among others, beheaded by ISIS. One woman was beheaded by an ISIS disciple this past week in Oklahoma.

            ISIS is beheading children, burying innocent victims alive, and committing other atrocities too gruesome to mention.  This is the practice of radical Islamists used to generate terror and fear in the civilized community.  Now some mental midget in Oklahoma, emulating his stone-age heroes, beheads an innocent woman and starts on a second. Out of political correctness the beheading is called, “work place violence.”

            Guess what prevented the Oklahoma killer from continuing his murderous rampage.  Yep.  A gun. This Oklahoma killer was in the process of killing his second victim when a man with a gun saved her life and probably saved the lives of many others by shooting the perpetrator.  And yet there are people who want to disarm law-abiding citizens, like the hero in this story. 

            Maybe it’s time for the civilized world to become less tolerant.  Aristotle said that “Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society” and G. K. Chesterton said, “Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions.” 

            Why do western countries allow pockets of Muslims to practice Sharia Law while ignoring the laws established by the host country?  There are areas in Malmo, Sweden where even emergency vehicles won’t venture, because infidels don’t come out alive.  I only use this example because I’ve been there. 

            This trend is taking over Europe and has begun here. Take a stroll through Detroit, or better yet, Dearborn, Michigan where Sharia law is in force.  But, bless us, we are tolerant.  Oh so wonderfully tolerant and very, very politically correct.  Isn’t that special.

            We seem afraid to call evil “evil” and have a president who won’t even refer to Islamic terrorists as “Islamic terrorists.”   How do you fight an enemy if you can’t even define them?  Tolerance and politically correct nonsense are destroying our country.

            Amazingly, the world, including our administration, is critical of Israel for defending its very existence while it is surrounded by countries bent on its destruction. Benjamin Netanyahu said, “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.  If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.”  Netanyahu also said, “Hamas uses children to protect their weapons.  We use our weapons to protect our children.” 

            Israel is a culture of life, but they are fighting a culture of death for their very survival.

            Why does the world hate Israel, the only democratic country in that part of the world?  Why does our President side with the enemies of Israel?  Why is he allowing Iran to move ahead with their nuclear weapon program putting the problem on Israel alone to solve?  Is Israel the only country left with courage?

            Freedom must be terrifying to primitive countries where leaders, religion, and laws keep the people in servitude to an ideology.  Freedom is anathema to Sharia Law.  Certain theocratic cultures are not ready for freedom and democracy.  They need a strong dictator for control.  Yet we want them to eat their vegetables, so they can grow up and be like us. Vegetables don’t appeal to carnivores.

            Islam is not simply a religion.  It is a complete, all-encompassing system of life that includes economics, religion, politics, law, social, military and other components. That’s what makes it so dangerous.  Religion is only one part of it, but the part that is used so effectively as a strategy.    

            I’ve heard some intelligent “moderate” Muslims speak out against the radicals that they say are hijacking their religion.  They should speak louder.  Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about the Koran or the nuances of the Muslim religion to be able to talk intelligently about good and bad Muslims.  But I do know that this radical and virulent strain of Islam seems to be very contagious and is metastasizing beyond its incubator.

            Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” 

            Lock and load.

The Birth of the Blues

     My wife can’t stand to watch the news anymore, so she retreats to another room and watches old black and white films.  Actually, I join her when I think my head will explode over the actions of the morons running our country.  Generally these old films have a good plot, no profanity, only suggested sex, some violence but devoid of entrails exploding on the screen, and most don’t require special effects. 

     Film noir is a cinematic style of the ‘40s and ‘50s depicting the dichotomy between the dark and the beautiful.  Taken from the French meaning, “black film,” most of these films are easily recognized by the use of light and shadow and usually involve detectives, crime, and mystery. 

     As you know, I have an interest in the emergence of traditional American jazz in New Orleans.  If a director could eliminate the criminal aspects of film noir and capture the mood of those early musicians in the dark style of film noir, I would be hooked.  See if any scenes pop into your mind as you read this article.

*   *   *

     The twentieth century was still new when jazz was born.  It was the dawn of a new day portending scientific advancements and a better life for Americans.  But the optimism of the new century would be tempered by a depression, wars, and social unrest.  Yet, hidden deep in the south the pulsating rhythms and groans of slavery began to articulate a new and unique musical language called jazz

       As an art form, jazz is America’s unique contribution to the world. It is purely American.  It began and thrived in the south, nurtured by black musicians expressing emotions from blues to joy.  For example, funerals for musicians would begin with local musicians marching slowly in honor of the deceased playing a song like, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” soulfully and in a slow tempo on the way to the gravesite.

       Upon reaching the gravesite, the music changed, expressing the joy that their deceased brother had reached the promise land. Fast, happy, exuberant jazz suddenly turned the event into a joyous celebration.  The music would change to something up tempo with a positive message like, “Didn’t He Ramble.”

      Turn on the film noir and picture a smoke-filled brothel where black musicians join together and jam through the night - sometimes until the sun peeks through the dusty shutters covering smoke tarred windows.
 
      Patrons are long gone or busy upstairs while musicians from other venues stop in to continue playing music strictly for themselves.  Generally musicians play for other musicians who “hear what they’re saying” and understand the language of music. The audience is secondary. 

       Finally exhausted, spent, but deeply satisfied from a musical catharsis that temporarily extinguishes the struggles of life, the musicians succeed in replacing the shadows of their dreary lives with the glow that only music can provide.  After the last note is played, they slowly put their instruments in their cases, step on the last cigarette butt, and reach for what’s left in the bottle.  One more for the road.  After a few pats on the back they shuffle out into the cold morning air.

      A low fog hangs over a dark and wet street reflecting the moonlight. Steam rises from a manhole cover as a tired trumpet player shuffles silently down Royal Street, past a gas lamp, his hat pulled low over his forehead, his dark overcoat collar turned up, and a beat-up leather trumpet case under his arm.  He shuffles slowly from another all-night gig, his lips swollen from hours of pressure from the trumpet mouthpiece. The last tune he played runs over and over in his mind.

    As he stumbles into his humble abode this musician has no idea that he is building the first steps on a musical staircase to the future where Louis Armstrong will add a major step, Harry James will add another, Dizzy Gillespie will add a step, Miles Davis will add another, all the way up the staircase to Al Hirt, Doc Severinsen, and Winton Marsalis.

       That trumpet player jamming with his musical buddies at the turn of the century kicked off the colorful musical language that continues to evolve today.  Those were the days of King Oliver’s Creole Jazz band, Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong, , and many other New Orleans musical “saints.”  Generally the groups were made up of black musicians, but there were also white players like Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines in the '20s who spoke the same musical language.
 
        I used trumpet players in this example because that is my instrument, but you can follow the same evolution on the keyboard with Fats Waller, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck and other great jazz piano players, numerous sax players, and many others.

     There’s a part of me that would like to have been that lone figure in the film noir scene with a trumpet case under his arm, leaving an all-night jam session sharing Bourbon Street with those musical giants of the past.  The musicians who were at the bedside in New Orleans for the “Birth of the Blues” had no idea that they created America's only unique musical form.

    

Pride Goes Before the Fall

      Arrogance is a trait that I have never understood.  What I mean is that I have difficulty understanding how someone can be arrogant and how they can justify their hubris intellectually in a large and realistic context.  Arrogance is the manifestation of pride. And pride is the problem.

            We all deal with pride to one degree or another.  In my case, I have too many failures to let pride linger long enough to morph into arrogance.

            Pride and arrogance are a lifestyle with some people, but only an occasional blip on the screen of life for others, like when you make the perfect omelet. 

            Look at our glorious and egocentric leader who only brushes up against humility briefly on the golf course when he misses a putt then blames Bush for moving the hole.

            Given his history, Al Sharpton has little reason to be proud.  But I got a kick out of Al recently as he took the stage responding to the Ferguson riots.  He’s lost a ton of weight, which makes his head look disproportionately large.  I’ve done a lot of ocean fishing and Sharpton reminded me of a Cabazon, which is a bottom feeder named Cabazon for its huge head and small body.

            Arrogant Al, after being anointed by the administration, strode slowly and majestically to the microphone. His back was straight as an arrow, his head up in perfect alignment with his spine. It looked a little overplayed, but I took this to be a cautionary measure to maintain his center of gravity.  If that head got a little off center, the man would immediately tip over and fall off the stage.

            I worked my way through college at a variety of jobs, but I made pretty good money playing in small combos at fancy country clubs.  I’m going to describe an incident that is a graphic example of a fall from pride to humility. 

            I was playing a gig at the Palo Alto Hills Country Club when it happened. As I was playing, I spotted the most beautiful women in the room, which was a talent I had in those days.  She was elegant, gorgeous, and dripping with expensive jewelry.  She reeked of class and was well aware of her beauty.  I fell in love instantly and turned my trumpet into a love machine, projecting a sensual ballad in her direction.  A slow glance at me was all it took for me to forget what I was playing.

            I watched her virtually glide across the large dance floor on her way to the ladies room and waited patiently for her return.  When she reentered her kingdom, all eyes seemed to be on her and she knew it.  This was her night.  She was the queen.  But then I saw it!  It was horrifying!  Ghastly. 

            There was at least ten feet of toilet paper stuck to the heel of her right shoe. As she walked, this obscene trail of toilet paper chased her in grotesque jerks, followed by a float, then another jerk, a float, a jerk, a float. What an incongruity.  I closed my eyes and continued playing, but I couldn’t look anymore.  My fantasy had exploded.

            That was an example of pride going before the fall.  It was also a reminder to me that at base we are all just human beings crawling around like insects on a huge dirt clod flying through space. 

            We have no justification for considering ourselves better than anyone else.  Money, degrees, social status, athletic prowess, and whatever superficial robes of pride we wrap ourselves in mean very little.  We came from dust and we will return to dust. All skeletons look alike.   Life reminds us of this fact now and then. 

            The great thinker, C. S. Lewis emphasized the fact that pride is at the base of all sin. If you don’t like the word “sin” use your own equivalent, but think about it.  I’ve written that the basis of virtually every problem we have as a culture is moral ambiguity.  If you analyze it, pride is a major factor in that moral deficit.   

            So when you see a beautiful movie actress strutting in front of the cameras at the Oscars, just picture the camera zooming in on ten feet of toilet paper caught on her shoe. That will level the playing field.

Dark vs Light

     The chaos in the world today makes me think that a kind of darkness is sweeping over the world; like the moon’s shadow passing across the earth.

            While hiking a logging road this morning with Gayle and my dog, Dakota, I was ruminating out loud about concepts that probably only interest me.  Gayle listened patiently and silently, while Dakota chased lizards and squirrels.  Neither cared.

            Actually, I was contemplating darkness and thinking of different ways to understand it. This was just mental recreation; nothing of consequence, but interesting to me.   

            Actually, darkness in not a “thing.”  Darkness is the absence of a “thing;” that thing being light.  Similarly, cold is the absence of heat.  Death is the absence of life.  Maybe these are not opposites and darkness, cold, death, for example, are not substantive things in and of themselves.  Maybe they are defined by what they lack. 

            Science talks about the speed of light, but no matter how fast light travels where ever it arrives darkness is already there – waiting.  Is the absence of light, i.e. darkness, the natural state of the universe? 

            If you blew out all the stars and could eliminate their light, obviously there would be only darkness.  The first thought that came to me was from the Bible when God said, “Let there be light.”  Maybe this command was more profound than I previously thought.  Maybe light is the anomaly. Maybe light had to be created. Maybe light is a foreign element in a dark universe. 

            Translated metaphorically to human life, could darkness also be the natural state of mankind?  This opens the argument as to whether the basic nature of a human being is “good” or evil.  Mark Twain said, “Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”

            Along those lines, the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung said, “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow?  I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole.”  According to Jung’s rationalization, a human being is not good by nature.  If we give human nature a free reign, and don’t tame our babies and civilize our young, we end up with sociopathic savages.

            What is “evil?”  Is evil simply the absence of good?  Or the absence of God? 

            Is evil then like cold, i.e. the absence of heat or darkness the absence of light or death the absence of life?  Thinking of things this way obviates the duality concept where light is the opposite of darkness and good is the opposite of evil. 

            If we focus on mankind and accept the premise that there is darkness in the world, to one degree or another there are still glimmers of light in the shadows.  But as the light diminishes, the darkness increases, as implied in my first sentence.  As I type this, the soulless savages of ISIS are snuffing out the lights in Iraq.

            “Don’t curse the darkness, but light a candle,” Brother Andrew said in “God’s Smuggler.”   He also said, “The bigger the darkness, the easier it is to spot your little light.”  

            Mark Boyer poetically opined, “When lost in the darkness, he who lights the way marks himself as easy prey.”  It doesn’t require a great imagination to think of historical examples of this truth.  The most obvious to me is the crucifixion of Christ.  Galileo and Copernicus are also examples of men who suffered for “lighting the way.”  And there are many more.

            Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” “Love your enemies.”  

            Plato made a profound statement when he said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; but the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”   

            Those are some thoughts I brought home from the forest today.   Let your mind rummage around in the concept and the quotes.  I’m sure that you can take these ideas further than I have in this brief article. 

            And if you think you’re getting way out in left field, don’t worry.  From left field you have a view of the entire playing field. 

Peace in the Middle East??

     The title of my blog is “HigginsUnhinged,” but in most cases I’ve managed to remain “hinged.” But the chaos in the world is beginning to “unhinge” me. The savagery of ISIS in Iraq may be the most brutal in history. Perhaps too brutal to be described in my blog.

      The purge of Christians and Jews is ramping up and not just in Iraq. Nevertheless, I want to focus on Israel. Our closest ally in the region is under attack while we watch passively. The people of Israel have been persecuted for thousands of years, yet they survive and attained statehood in 1948. I doubt if much of this will be news to my readers, many of whom know more about these things than I do.

      I think what happens with Israel has consequences far beyond what we can envision. Unfortunately, the mainstream media only provides us with a minimum of information and what it feeds us is always colored by its bias.

      The Hamas propaganda machine is pumping out a barrage of photos of Palestinian children killed by Israel, despite the fact that the Israelis continue to go further than any nation in history to avoid killing civilians. They are more careful in this regard than even the U. S. has been throughout our history. Israelis drop pamphlets, they radio ahead of attacks, and contact citizens by every means possible to give them time to leave areas where munitions and weapons are stored and targeted.

      Unfortunately Hamas rounds up innocent Palestinians civilians, herding them to missile launch sites as human shields in anticipation of an Israeli counter attack. Hamas uses schools, hospitals, and crowded communities to place their weapons in order to maximize civilian casualties when Israel retaliates. This is all designed to depict Israel as the evil aggressor. And the world sucks it up. It provides fodder for a growing anti-Semitism.

     “Israel uses rockets to protect its people. Hamas uses people to protect its rockets.” I believe Benjamin Netanyahu made that statement and it summarizes the current situation accurately.

      Israelis live their lives under a constant barrage of thousands of missiles, protected, so far, by the Iron Dome. This is the missile shield the U. S. helped Israel develop for the protection of its citizens. Despite that defense, some missiles still get through and citizens in Israel have only 15 seconds to run to the safety of bomb shelters when the alarms sound. Bomb shelters are part of their communities, kind of like fire hydrants are in ours.

      Can you imagine living under a constant barrage of missiles day and night? When venturing out in public, Israelis must be aware of the closest bomb shelter, considering the few seconds they will have to get to it when the sirens blare. Highly sophisticated tunnels extend from Gaza into Israel for use in infiltrating Israel to kill or capture civilians.

      Ironically, Israel provided the cement and other material meant to help Palestinians build their infrastructure, including buildings and schools but the material was diverted by Hamas into the construction of these death tunnels. There are roughly 40 of these tunnels, some of which open up under schools where Israeli children are vulnerable.

      Our Secretary of State went to Qatar for help in negotiating a peace plan and came away with exactly what Hamas wanted. Qatar is the richest country per capita in the Arab world and provides aide to Israel’s enemies. Amazingly, Kerry even asked Israel to halt the destruction of the death tunnels used by terrorists to infiltrate Israeli communities. Naturally Israel rejected the plan.

      A coalition of countries fearful of Hamas should have been enlisted for support – not Qatar. As I write this, another “time out” has been called with Egypt’s help, but again, Hamas broke the cease fire. Peace talks sound good, but will always be futile. Hamas has as its goal the total destruction of Israel and the death of every Jew. This is stated clearly in their charter. That’s who they are and it won’t change. A rattle snake is what it is.  It can’t change.

      Israel, as the only democracy in that part of the world, wants to be left alone to live in peace. Yet our cowardly government won’t stand with our only ally in the region, Israel. There is one simple solution to the current fighting - demilitarize Gaza. If Hamas stopped the missile attacks on Israel, that would be the end of it. Israel does not want Palestinian territory. But how do you trust terrorists who break their own cease-fire agreement, once within 90 minutes of its acceptance by Israel?

      Peace treaties are an exercise in futility in view of the Hamas charter. Unfortunately, the innocent Palestinians in the Gaza strip are suffering the consequences of the Hamas terrorists and their use of civilians as shields. They also lack basic supplies needed for everyday life. It’s a tragic situation for the Palestinian people.

      Anti-Semitism is growing world-wide – even in America. It’s like the thirties all over again, especially in Europe. Look at our own government – this is the first American administration to fail to back Israel. The minions in the administration and the press admonish the Israelis for simply protecting their people and their country and seem to sympathize with the radical Islamists.

      Valerie Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to the President and his closest Presidential Assistant. Jarrett was born in Iran and a surprising number in governmental officials have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama’s approach to all things “Muslim” makes one wonder where his loyalties lie. Recently Nancy Pelosi stated what she had been fed by the Qataris stating that “Hamas is a humanitarian organization.” Hillary Clinton’s stated brilliantly that “Hamas uses human shields because Gaza is pretty small.” Dingbat city.

      As long as over half of Americans remain uninformed and ignorant of history and international events, the juggernaut of apathetic and naïve “sheep-like” voters will push America over the cliff, just as the Arab nations intend to push Israel into the sea.