Nature (and Television) Abhors a Vacuum

With the US midterm elections now past tense did you notice the sudden disappearance of news stories on those invaders and their caravan hurtling towards the US border with Mexico at breathtaking speed (if you have COPD that is). Blink and you missed it. 

I know, I, too, was astonished that our alarmist in chief has stopped screaming about it and his TV pap provider of choice has grown silent now that the ballots are counted. Truly, there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But certainly, nothing that fifteen thousand or so troops cannot handle.   

That's not the only thing missing from the screen, of course. Also missing in action are all of those Vote for Me and I'll Fix Everything (I've already fixed the election) commercials on the radio, television, and social media platforms we endured for the last three (?) months.

An estimated 900 million dollars was spent on advertising. Sort of like firecrackers on the 4th of July or wrapping paper at Christmas. One time use and discard. I hated all of them without exception or favor but will concede that half of them were successful (though that also means half were not). I'm just not sure, based on results, which half is which. 

So while seeing Smilin' Bob or Betty asking for your vote is now history, everyone with a product or service hoping to convince you to open your wallet and give it a home this holiday season will use any and all media to get your attention and your patronage. 

The mandala of marketing keeps turning and churning through the seasons of man and woman. Yesterday it was, perhaps, a state legislator or a Governor and today, it's an X-Box or a Popeil Pocket Fisherman. The dogs bark but the caravan moves on.
-bill kenny     

One Hundred Years Later

This Sunday is Veterans Day which began as Armistice Day, marking the end of "The War to End All Wars" also known as World War One, but obviously and sadly, failing to achieve its goal, hence the numerical suffix. Sunday’s remembrances also mark the centennial of the end of that first world war.

Sunday morning at 11, to commemorate the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 when the Armistice was signed that ended the hostilities, the members of the Frederick J. Sullivan Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2212 and the Peter Gallen American Legion Post 104 in Taftville, joined by local elected officials and Congressman Joe Courtney will hold their annual Veterans Day observance in Memorial Park (on the corner of South Second Avenue and South B Street in Taftville). In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will move to the American Legion Post 104 at 22 Merchants Avenue.

Later in the day, at one in the afternoon at Chelsea Parade, there will be observances marking not only the Centennial of the World War I Armistice but also one hundred years of women’s service in the US military. Our local ceremonies are usually understated as is probably most befitting a common and shared national experience. They are well-attended but there’s always room for you if you’d like to join us.

I very much believe there’s a relationship between Election Day, yesterday, and Veterans Day. I submit that without the latter I’m not sure we would still be having the former. You are welcome to disagree because a veteran made sure you have that right as well.

As a veteran, I’m always impressed with how much veterans have in common despite our differences in age, sex, ethnicity, religion or political beliefs. Our composition very much reflects the nation which has been and continues to be protected by our uniformed service. Sometimes, I admit, we seem to forget that. 

With a population of about 325.7 million people, there are an estimated 18.5 million veterans among us. Veterans Day truly is our Day of National Remembrance and Recognition of all the characteristics, embodied by everyone who served as well as those who wait for those who served, which allows us to remain among the freest nations in the world. 

I've gotten older if not better and my memory fades but I recall the boy I was who listened to John Kennedy a World War Two Navy veteran, when he was elected President of the United States in 1960, urging us to "....pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

Service to others, like any other habit, becomes second-nature when performed often enough. Yesterday’s elections across our country continue and extend conversations about what’s in need of repair from sea to shining sea. 

Veterans Day should remind us of all that is right with us, and with one another.

-bill kenny

The Ticking of the Sweep Second Hand

No matter your political beliefs, leanings and/or philosophies, today is the day we defend them, advance them or change them. It's Election Day. 

Around these parts, polls open at six in the morning and remain open until eight this evening. Your mileage may vary in your neighborhood so look before you leap and be sure you cast a ballot. 

As Bugs and Daffy offered so eloquently decades ago, on with the show, this is it.

-bill kenny  

Even as the Wheels Turn

One of the things I always find fascinating, possibly because I have close to no mechanical ability, is how much more motion in the turning of a wheel is devoted to the outermost part, the rim, as opposed to the center or the hub. 

Considering that tomorrow, not just in Norwich, but across these United States, is Election Day, which means many new beginnings and endings and an awful lot of 'to be continued's, this might be a good moment to devote a thought to everyone who volunteers to serve on all those advisories, board, commissions and committees all towns and cities seem to have and whose functions continue no matter who comes or goes among our elected officials. 

With tomorrow as Election Day and polls in Norwich opening at six in the morning and closing at eight, let's all agree on some day-after behaviors in advance. 

You don't get to call the local radio show or write letters to the editors of newspapers, griping about what's wrong in your town, unless you go and vote. No exceptions. For those of us in Norwich and Connecticut, we have many choices and many voices and the luxury of choice is a marvelous thing. Thank you to the friends and neighbors (and actually everyone) who've offered of themselves to seek elected office. You will not all triumph at the polls, but we have all gained because of your generosity.

All the months of campaigning and discussion and debate on the issues are coming to an end. Everyone else has had their say; tomorrow it's our turn, so do what you have to do and vote.
-bill kenny

The Beating of the Heart

This time today was yesterday when it was already yesterday. This morning in the wee, dark early hours, we fell back an hour (I've always liked how we keep that straight, 'spring ahead' and 'fall back' and that 'wander stupidly like a drunken lemur' I hear so often is, I guess, only used to describe me) all across the country.

I've never been clear how much of the rest of the world does this time-travel-but-standing-very still-stuff although daylight saving is utilized across significant portions of the earth's Northern Hemisphere. I've always wondered about hourly employees working overnight shifts when the clocks change directions....do they work seven and get paid for eight in the Spring and then work nine and get paid for eight in the fall? Is there a law or a workplace practice that covers this and why on earth is a sixty-six-year-old guy, pecking away at a keyboard in Norwich, Connecticut, worrying about stuff like this? When you have no life, interest in the obscure becomes a crusade.

The reason why we move clocks forward and back is the part I will NEVER understand no matter how erudite the explanation.  We share the planet with a nearly infinite number of other life forms from single-celled amino acids to a full scale of the abiogenesis catalog (now available for only three easy payments, and if use your credit card right now...), and none of them have watches much less the concern for time and its division and measurement that we, Homo sapiens, have.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day/Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way. And then we look up in surprise and dismay at the time and wonder where it's gone when it hasn't gone anywhere. The end of a television program, a movie, a radio serial or other entertainment, a relationship with another person, or a business relationship or political alliance.

You don't have to be Richard to have misgivings about time and what we do with it. Merely being human will qualify. I'll leave the sun behind me and I'll watch the clouds as they sadly pass me by....I can see the world and it ain't so big at all. This time tomorrow.

-bill kenny

A Little Something to Think About

Tonight before we go to bed we'll set our clocks back and hopefully by the day's end on Tuesday we take our country back from the grifters, the grafters and the no-loads who, through equal parts voter indifference and petulance we installed in elected positions two years ago that they should have never had. 

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, time for change.
-bill kenny 

Trick Question

Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner Yet Wave? 

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Forever.
-bill kenny