O'henry Comes to New York

(from http://redskelton.wikia.com/wiki/TV_ep._05.12_The_Cop_and_the_Anthem)

I know that at this time of year we sometimes forget in all the stress and turmoil that good things happen.  I also know that only a few of you may know who O'henry is. A few more of you may know one of his stories, a Christmas tale called the "Gift of the Magi."  At one point his stories were included in virtually every literature text for every high school.  He was a master of the surprise ending.  His stories were carefully crafted so that if his readers would go back and look all the details were there for the ending.

At any rate use one of my favorite stories by O'henry was the "The Cop and the Anthem." It is a wonderful story about a hobo named Soapy and his attempts to get arrested so that he can spend the winter months in  a jail cell protected from the elements.  If you would like to read the story you can find it here.

Today I heard of a true life story that happened on a cold fall day in mid-November on the streets of New York City.  It is sort of tale that O'henry would be proud to claim and "The Cop and the Anthem" in reverse.

Walking his beat in Times Square on a brisk November 15th night, Officer Larry DiPrimo noticed a homeless man who had no shoes.  DiPrimo asked the man where his shoes were? The homeless man replied that he didn't have any shoes or socks.  DiPrimo remarked that he was wearing his service boots and two pairs of socks and his feet were cold.

DiPrimo ran two block to a shoe store and went in where he told the clerk to give him the best winter boots they had.  The clerk learning what the young beat cop was up to, threw in his employee's discount; nevertheless the socks and boots cost DiPrimo nearly what a beginning cop makes for a day.  Why not buy cheaper shoes? DiPrimo says that it was his grandfather who told him if you are going to do something, then do it one hundred percent or don't do  it at all.

The three year "rookie" cop returned to the homeless man and with the man sitting on the sidewalk, he placed the socks and boots on the cold and blistered feet with the words " I have these size 12 boots for you; they are all-weather. Let’s put them on and take care of you."

The story should have ended there with no one ever knowing of this simple act of kindness except for the classic O'henry twist.  Jennifer Florence from Arizona, who has been in "law enforcement for 17 years" was visiting NYC with her husband and was about to approach the homeless man who was asking for change when DiPrimo arrived with the boots and heard that fateful statement.  She took a picture not because of the gift, but because the young officer kneeling, putting shoes on a needy man reminded her of her own father who was a police officer.

(from https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=388162557927199&set=a.274991665910956.65258.262068223869967&type=1&theater)

Florence who does not use Facebook or any social network, waited until she returned to work in Arizona and then emailed a letter and after a request the picture to the New York City Police Department congratulating them on the act by the officer whose name she did not know.  They put the letter and picture on their Facebook page.  It was a story of a cop and a hobo that was never meant to be told.

Merry Christmas

Raised Liberal in a Conservative Home

(from http://www.imaginativeconservative.org/2011/09/kirk-on-liberal-education-1945.html#.ULRZmYdjqSo)

I was reminded recently about something one of my siblings said.  In many ways, it tells me why I am the way I am and also why I have one child of conservative nature and one of liberal.  I raised them the way I was raised. I know it is easy to make fun of  a liberal education as someone who will never make much money.  But I am in good company because those of the liberal education include minds like Socrates, Plato, Mark Twain, and Einstein. I can live with that.  Keep in mind though that liberal has more than a political meaning.

My sister once said "we were raised liberal in a conservative household."  I suppose that would give me a reason as to why I am, I think, fairly middle of the road.  Liberal in some areas and Conservative in others.  My dad was very conservative, in most areas.  His thoughts of hippies and the whole antiwar movement of the sixties was very clear to me.  My eldest sibling who graduated during that era was also quite clear on her beliefs. We were taught, you see, to stand on our own beliefs.  My dad and she may have disagreed, but it was always based on the respect of knowledge.  None of us would be easily led or should I say misled.

We were taught to find answers and that knowledge was the greatest wealth one could have.  We were taught to respect our elders but that didn't mean we followed them blindly.  Dad had lived on his own too long.  He was self-reliant.  He stood his ground but listened and learned. We were also taught you voted for the best candidate not for one party or the other.  This meant that we had to have knowledge of the candidates, what they believed and what they said.  The party was irrelevant.

He understood the civil rights movement and the dangers of blind racism.  To this day I will never forget when King was shot.  At the time, we were being visited by my great uncle who was a member of the old South.  The shooting came on the news and my uncle announced ...well I won't repeat what he said.  My mother and father were both less than happy about his reaction and for that matter the language he used.  Without ever really discussing it, I knew that it was wrong.  My parents had made that clear.

I am not really sure what the political views of my mother are or really were when growing up.  I know she would not hesitate to discipline us which could involve the use of a ruler.  I suspect though her views are considerably more liberal than my dad's were.  What I do know is again, every thought we built was on a respect for knowledge.

For them money was something that you budgeted.  Wealth was not a goal.  Thought was the goal.  Learning was the goal.  While I never became the dentist my mother wanted (another story), I became, all of us became independent thinkers.  We truly were given a liberal education in a conservative home.

Odds are Odd

(from http://howtowinalottery.net/using-lottery-odds-to-your-advantage/)

If you are buying a lottery ticket today good luck.  I may buy one for fun.

The odds are 1 in 176,000,000 that you'll win and the odds are much better, because of the number of players, that you will split the jack pot with someone.  I admit there is some fun in playing but if it really is your financial strategy, you need to fire yourself as your adviser and hire someone else, say someone like your Uncle Silas who thought investing in the koi business was a good idea.

Just know that the odds are better that you would become President (1 in 10,000,000) than winning.  You actually have a better chance of dying by vending machine (1 in 112,000,000) than winning. Also keep an eye on the sky because if the odds are in your favor then you are also more likely to die by being struck by lightening (1 in 2,320,000).  I have to be careful because I am left-handed.  The odds of dying from being left-handed is 1 in 4,400,000.

You also have better odds of winning an Oscar (1 in 11,500) or becoming canonized (1 in 20,000,000).  Your odds of dating a super model are 1 in 88,000. Your Odds of winning an Olympic medal: 1 in 662,000. Oh and there is still a 40 percent chance that there will be no winner.

In fact about the only things that are greater than odds than winning the lottery is being killed by a shark (1 in 300,000,000) and having your house struck by a meteor (1 in 182,138,880,000,000).

But the anticipation is fun and as they say if you don't play, you cannot win. Please be careful driving to buy that ticket because the odds of dying in a car accident is 1 in 6,700. If you win, though please consider that you may not have time to spend the money.  The Mayans say so.

Good luck.

(Odds are from http://www.funny2.com/odds.htm and http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/30/15-things-more-likely-to-happen-than-winning-mega-millions.html)

Dreams of teaching

(from http://teachertrainingdelhi.blogspot.com/)

I don't remember dreams as a general rule.  Even when I do, I don't recall details.  This is true, except for the fact that maybe once a week, I dream about teaching.  Always a struggle, but also always a joy as well.  I mean, I do not wake up terrified by the thought of again standing in front of the classroom. I also do not awaken saddened by the idea that I no longer do.  Still, I dream about teaching.  It was, after all, my life for over thirty years.

I recall a few dreams but have little idea about why they contain what they do.  Most commonly, I think I am back in my own classroom, and a few are about the politics involved in keeping programs alive, courses protected and classroom numbers up or down. One recent dream was truly odd. I was teaching at a charter school, but it was more than what a charter school should be.  It was really more like a camp.  A series of cabins in the woods and I was both the new teacher and the only one of the six or so staff members who had real teaching experience.  It was truly odd.  I recall one of my fellow members sitting behind a desk, his cabin empty, and bare rough hewed planks making up the walls.  I was looking for my own classroom.  He knew where that was and sent me off into the forest.  Along the path I followed, I would pass students on their way to various places but I had the feeling that no one actually knew where the students were.

I awoke.

Actually quite vivid.  I am not one who analyzes dreams.  The searching for my classroom, my place, was obvious enough.  Aren't we all searching, even at my age, for our place in the world.  The dream was not a nightmare, but just a search.  Dreaming about this in the context of teaching is to be expected.  It is what occurred to me after I awoke.

For several months, since I retired after I awake from dreaming about teaching, I would wonder at what point I would quit dreaming about teaching.  I wondered how long teaching would continue to be the context of my subconscious life.  I wondered when other teachers leave teaching how long it was before they stopped dreaming these dreams.

And then it hit me.

What does it mean when I stop dreaming about teaching?  Will it mean I've found a new place?  Will it mean that I've lost the context of the life I built as a teacher?  Have I moved on or have I given up?  The loss of these dreams are a bit disconcerting.

Even retired, it is still one of the defining features of my life. In no small part, my blogs have given me an outlet to discuss events and thoughts, to use what we used to call teachable moments. The only difference is now I do not have to monitor my own beliefs as I would in the classroom.

Still --

I dream of teaching...

OPEC May Lose -- More about gasssssssssssssss

(from http://energy.aol.com/2012/05/23/sabine-pass-natural-gas-export-project-leads-controversial-trend/)

If the International Energy Agency report had been released during the campaign, imagine what would have happened to the talking points how lowered oil production, which was not entirely accurate, had lessened our dominance. With the release of the International Energy Agency's report, it would appear that we are indeed becoming a leader in production.

IEA reports that the US could lead in petroleum product production in as little as five years and be completely energy independent by 2035.  We will lead in exportation of natural gas by 2020.  Gas prices rise because of demand and the expanding growth of China, India and the Middle East account for 60 percent of that demand.  In other words, they continue to control demand and set market price by doing so.  As such, by the time the USA is oil net (exporting as much as we import) 90 percent of the demand for Middle Eastern oil will be going to Asia.  These gains for the US is in large part due to policy on use and efficiency.

Because the US actually has a policy is why we are showing growth and not the other way around. Other nations who do not have these policies will not fair so well.  The report also points that these policies could by time for a "much needed global climate agreement" which if put in place could reduce energy costs by as much as "20 percent on average."  The report goes on to say the controlled use of energy policy "would facilitate a gradual reorientation of the global economy, boosting cumulative economic output to 2035 by $18 trillion, with the biggest gains in India, China, the United States and Europe."

Looks like our efficiency policy may be paying off big dividends if we can convince a few folks that we do have a global climate problem and get busy doing what we needa to be done, instead of making jokes about it.

Is America Dying...Really?

(from http://cezl.wordpress.com/category/the-end-is-near/)

This is what the politics of divisiveness has wrought.  We aren't a changing country.  We aren't a growing country.  We are a dying country. If you are to believe those who tried to scare us with how terrible things will become with Obama's re-election or how divided between the haves and have nots would be had Romney been elected, then this is a scary, dying and once great nation.  I for one am digging my hole to hide in for the coming apocalypse.

A student wrote that it was time for our decline after all the average life span of any world power is on average only 200 years she argued.  How sad to have such an outlook.  How sad that she would have such a stilted view of history.  No, the average life span of a great nation is not 200 years.  That is a myth.  The Egyptians, Ottomans, Chinese, Romans, British, and and and - all have had empires last far longer than 200 years.  The USA did not start out as a world power from its inception by the way.  We only became that actually if you think of the invention of the Atom Bomb in the 1940's.  Always considered a "sleeping giant" because of our land mass size and number of resources, the US as a world power is not even then much more that just over half a century old.

The place we are in now is because of scare tactics.  We are going to hell in a hand basket.  Life is horrid.  The world is ending. We are fiddling while Rome burns.  Life in the US is only going to get worse.

I blame sensationalism.  I blame a press who has become more interested in ratings than challenging the  outrageous statements.  I blame foolish politicians who monger in fear and refuse to look at reality.  I blame reality television which is about as real as a game show...in fact, most of them are game shows.  I blame those who take no stand against this insanity that divides us.  I blame the Mayans.

Let's face it, there have always been guys standing on street corners with sandwich signs announcing the end of the world.  He was on that street corner in New York City, in Dallas, in ancient Persia, on the Great Wall as it was built.  There are just some folks who don't seem to see what a great place we live in.  They miss the massive support from ordinary folks following Sandy and Katrina and other disasters.  They've missed the folks who contribute to their food banks and donate coats and toys.  They miss the wonder of Christmas as a child sits on Santa's lap or the discovery of the incredible sacrifice of Easter or Passover.  They were unaware of the steps that men like Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, Armstrong, Glenn, Salk, Roosevelt, and countless others have made for freedom and mankind.  They miss the man who maxes out his credit cards to buy pumps for flooded basements in New York not because he can use them all but he knows his neighbors can.  They miss the artists, the magic of theatre, music and dance and that we do always seem to come together to do what needs to be done. The secret of our country, you see, is not our age but our resilience and the hand we offer in troubled times to others.

We know that sooner or later we must do more to protect our planet and try to stop over-population, global warming, and that we should be caring for all and not listening to extremism of the fringe who think freedom only applies to what they believe.  The problem is for the first time in history the guy with the sandwich sign can appear in more places by being on TV or YouTube or Facebook. His sign has been replaced by a meme which is just as big of lie as the sign he once wore is.  It makes them seem like they really do have a stronger and scarier voice. They are still fringe and the only power they have is to deal in fear, lies and half-truths.  One writer I saw recently put it this way.  Every town had a wacko standing on the street corner.  They thought they were alone. Now, they are discovering their fellow wackos online and banding together.

NO we are not a dying nation.  We are still a great nation.  Don't let the sensationalist and scary people and politicians make you think otherwise.  Paranoia is easy. Fear is easy.  Living is a challenge that only you can take.  There are far too many who don't think...they react. Wackos are just louder than they used to be, but they still don't know what they think they do and if you follow them, you need your own sandwich sign.

What do you choose?

The Purple Map...a cool thing

(from http://politicker.com/2012/11/the-purple-election-map/)

You've all seen the election maps with the red states and blue states and purple or swing states.  These maps create something of a distortion showing large swaths of red in the South and central West while the blue areas tend to cover the states with large metropolitan areas and along the coasts.  There are ways to avoid the problem and get a more accurate picture.  Some maps have been done going county by county which creates a much more distinct picture but on a large map of the US it tends to get a bit blurry.   Another person did it by every 100 vote areas which creates a very large over-lap or purple areas.  But by far the coolest is the one that avoids these issues by going 3-D showing red, blue, and purple divisions.  It is really fascinating the amount of area that is actually purple, but besides that it is really cool.

 The map takes a while to load so be patient. It can be found here. It is the brain child of Princeton's Robert J. Vanderbei.  You can see his 2-D version of the map here. The point is that we really aren't Red States and Blue States but surprisingly purple.  Maybe - just maybe - Republicans, Democrats and Independents are not so far apart.  We seem to be living together in a very civil manner.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I thought perhaps that it would be best to remember like the map above we are not red or blue but as a country, very purple.   Well that's my thoughts on it any ways.