William A. Keleher’s Masterpieces

Writen by William Keleher

William A. Keleher was unequivocally a multi-faceted individual. While other great people focused on a single field of expertise, Keleher begged to differ. Yes, it is true that he was essentially a lawyer and he did excel in his field, no doubt. However, he did not want to restrain his potential to merely a single field. Instead, he chose to be versatile, something many of us cannot be in our entire life. Besides being a successful lawyer, William A. Keleher was also a newspaperman, historian and most importantly - an effective writer. Keleher’s knack for writing is first discovered when he was appointed as a newspaper reporter in 1908 by local newspaper authorities who were duly impressed by his skills. His writing skills were further honed as he went on to write in papers like the Albuquerque Evening Herald and Albuquerque Journal. It came to nobody’s surprise when he occupied the post of a city editor in those newspapers.

Despite such noteworthy writing experiences, Keleher’s brilliance remained unnoticed until the Texas Bar Association and the New Mexico Bar Association Meeting at Amarillo, Texas on July 5, 1929. It was a pivotal moment which made him an authoritative author on the New Mexico history topic. Interestingly, he talked there about the Maxwell Land Grant, the same title of his first ever book. “Maxell Land Grant” was published in 1942 and was revised after twenty two years (1964).

Violence in Lincoln County: 1869-1881 is perhaps one of the most intriguing books written by William A. Keleher. Like an adept artist, he described the 1870s scenario in a smooth manner. According to the book, the alleged Lincoln Country War during the 1870s resulted from partisan politics and business disputes. There was a major clash between the corrupt mercantilists and cattle kings in the issue of land acquisition. Well known cattle barons like Chisum, Turnstall and McSween formed faction to counter the alliance of mercantilists and small-scale ranchers led by Dolan, Riley and Murphy. Santa Fe’s partisan politics prevented additional violence and turmoil with the aid of the law enforcement agencies.

Consequently, rights were being violated, cattle were being stolen and power was being threatened. If it was not bad enough already - incidents of homicides started to take place. Billy the Kid was said to be fueling all this and it was not until his death (1881) that L. Wallace (then-governor, better known as the author of “Ben Hur”) declared peace in the territory. Although superseded by recent studies, Keleher’s findings are still regarded as valuable. He would often give reference to the leading stories and contemporary news-reports in his drama. Keleher’s book on this topic boasts first-hand reports and adequate information, making it a must-have book for people interested in discovering this period in western history. The book was written in the year of 1957.

“Memoirs”, another book by Keleher, was published in the year of 1969. It was republished after several years under a different title. It mainly had biographical information of Keleher and the events witnessed by him.

The Fabulous Frontier (1945), Turmoil in New Mexico, 1846-1868 (1952) are some of his other well-known books. Keleher also showcased his expertise in numerous short writings and speeches. Throughout the state, he spoke for groups in a regular basis. The topics included in the discourse were mainly historical subjects and patriotism, identical to his full-length works. The short writings, however, include longer essays and newspaper articles, dealing mostly with New Mexico history.

William Keleher’s last book came out in 1969. It is very surprising to know that he was able to keep his regular hours at the law firm (Keleher & McLeod) despite the demands of writing these books. One must ponder how was he able to keep a balance between two entirely different yet equally responsibility-demanding tasks since he was not only a successful lawyer, but also a well-known writer for the books.

William A. Keleher is the burning proof that one can successfully leap into different realms if he has the diversity and talent. His contribution as an author is undeniable. It will not be an exaggeration to say that he will always live in people’s mind as a great writer who engendered amazing masterpieces.

Sit Back And Remember

Writen by Tyler Brooker

Why is it, that any holiday, time off, or event, someone is sick? Do they plan it that way? I was sitting today, pondering, reminissing, and it came to my attention that every function I have ever attended had at least one of my family members sitting with the sniffles.

I was 7 years old. It was christmas time, and I was sick with my appendix. That was a good one. Is it coincidence? Or is there some greater evil out there that enjoys watching suffering in times of joy. We should find him, and tell him we are NOT impressed.

Timing is everything. There is a point, in every persons life, where everything seems to go wrong, and all you can do is sit there and watch it happen. But maybe it’s a good thing. In fact, if nothing goes wrong, we won’t know what’s right. Perhaps what we need to do is change those tears of helplessness into tears of joy. That would be weird. “I love it when i get Scarlet Fever!” Woops.

Here is a good one. This time, evil chose to be more mean than ever. I will tell you the holiday AFTER I tell you what happened. I had the chicken pox, my youngest sister had the chicken pox, my other sister had scarlet fever, and my parents were sharing the flu. Get this…. Thanksgiving. Thats right. Usually at thanksgiving time we go around the table, taking turns saying thanks for whatever you are thankful for. What a task. I was thankful for oatmeal baths!

It’s funny how we are tested in such ironic ways. The outcome of our battles with nature shows what kind of person we can become, but what happens during the battle defines what kind of person we really are.

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Tyler Brooker is the owner and operator of Scarlet Fever Symptoms - http://www.scarlet-fever-symptoms.com, which is the best site on the internet for all Scarlet Fever related information.

A Dog’s Eye View of the World, Part I

Writen by Dr. Robert Sprackland

(Note: The following article was relayed to us via an otherwise respected author, who told us he had transcribed his dog’s musings on humanity to him. While we were, shall we say, skeptical to the max, the, uh, dog had some interesting points to make. We therefore present this four-on-the-floor account for your reading pleasure or consternation. Good luck. -Ed.)

Humans are fascinating creatures. I don’t think any other animal spends so much time doing things it doesn’t want or need to doexcept maybe antsand finds so many justifications for doing them. But the thing that is most confusing for my canine friends and me is that humans seem to spend the majority of their time engaged in falsehoods. You are either lying, prevaricating, stretching the truth, spinning, or misdirecting. These are traits you never find among canines! That’s probably why you like us so much. You say it’s a dog’s world; you should be so lucky!

I have been observing humans since early puppyhood, mainly to compare how my humans and I were doing things to other dogs in the neighborhood. As I got older, I was exposed to more and more experience, because my humans liked to travel and they rarely went anywhere without me. My experiences don’t make me an expert on humans, but from down here on all fours I certainly have a different viewpoint from you. Because so many of you areor can bereally nice, I want to share some of my perceptions with you so maybe you can have nicer lives. It is not my intention to teach you to be dogs, or even that you should take up any particular doggie habitsthough who can deny the joys of a wet nose, chasing cats, and chewing your own crotchbut rather to just share a point of view that leaves the observermeconfused. Maybe if you see some of the contradictions in your behavior as I do, you can learn to make life more pleasant for all of us. You never are far from help with this, either, because there is always a willing and helpful dog ready to join you and share life with you.

Much of what I have learned about humans is that you are generally inclined to be lazy. Hey, that’s not a put-down (perhaps a bad choice of term), but it is true. You drive everywhere, even if you could walk. You eat fast foods rather than cook, and you eat them quickly. You can spend more time sitting motionless in front of a TV than a dog can spend asleep at one stretch. If there is a problem, you want someone else to fix it. You get the picture?

I guess laziness isn’t bad in itself. It works well for sloths and toads. But it means that we dogs need to keep things simple for you humans or we’re liable to loose your attention. That’s why we train you to use one-word instructions when you are talking with us. Like “sit,” and “shake,” and “stay.” That is also why I am going to put my observations together for you alphabetically by subject. That means we’ll start with the letter A. So sit. Read. Enjoy.

Good human!

*****

ASSES. On this subject humans and dogs share a common fascination, though our specific approach to asses is rather different. In contrast to humans, who shake hands or bow or do some other eye-to-eye greeting with other humans, we dogs make introductions by sniffing each other’s ass. We get a whole lot of information this way, such as what kind of food do you eat, what kind of mood are you in, are you ill or well, will we be friends or at odds, do you want to date? Think of all the time and trouble this could save you.

Ah, but humans have no respect for asses, though you are inordinately concerned with them. I think that if you spent your time sniffing asses rather than kissing them, you’d save yourselves a lot of trouble.

You also tend to divide asses into two categories, those you can sit on and those in the horse family. Sometimes you are clear on which one you mean, like when I hear men in mating mode saying “look at the ass on that!” (Though, I hasten to correct them, it should be “on her,” not “on that.” See, by not sniffing first, you aren’t even sure of the sex of your ass.) Then, too, they call someone an ass, which must refer to the animal. Ask any horse or zebra, and they’ll tell you that asses aren’t the swiftest pacers on the track. Mentally, they rank right down there with mules. Which means that if the Democrats really want to be taken seriously, they need to ditch the ass as their symbol. It would also help if they would stop acting like asses. Let me give an example.

From a dog’s point of view, the Republicans are a well-ordered wolf pack. The leaders set out the agenda and get the goodies first. Whatever is left over gets passed down to the lower ranking Republicans. If a leader makes a statement, the rest of the pack rallies to defend that statement, even if they personally disagree. They let the world know that if you attack any one of them, or their ideas, the whole pack will stand together, ready to rip opponents to pieces. They limit internal mutilations to something called “primaries,” at which point they are as vicious towards each other as they usually are to Democrats. You can enter a den of Republicans at any time and sniff their asses, and you will get a pretty uniform reading. Like their symbol, the elephant, Republicans never seem to forget. But then, elephants don’t have much to remember.

Then there are the Democrats. They are not wolves. They resemble a pack of Pomeranians, with a few noisy Chihuahuas thrown in for getting attention. Throw a nice meaty bone to them, and it’s every dog for itself. They rarely have a common plan or idea, even when they think they do. The few smart ones usually can’t be heard by the yapping of the Chihuahuas. It hurts my head to try to listen for the few glimmerings of good ideas. On the rare occasions when they get a good idea and can generally agree on it, they compromise it into puppy piddle. It gets attention, is useless, and everyone wants it to go away. Sniffing asses here is like taking a whiff at one of those indoor international food courts. Lots of odors, no consensus. They certainly live down to their symbol, which is why I think they should ditch the jackass and get something more focused and intelligent. Just don’t pick a dog! We have enough troubles already and don’t need the stigma of being seen as political animals.

***

SEX. Wow, if there is any subject that really throws humans into a mental frenzy, it has to be sex. You use the word as a noun and a verb, which is already pretty interesting. I mean, how should one really respond to the question “you want to have sex?” Don’t you already have sex? You are either a boy or a girl, right?

Well, okay, you even complicate that. You have veterinarianssurgeons, I think is your termthat can turn boys into girls and girls into boys. Then there are those humans who don’t get surgery, but dress and act like the opposite sex. I think you call them trans-vegemites. There are human males who have several wives, and women who have several husbands, and there are humans that only do sex stuff with members of the same sex. You have sex, alright, more than a simple hound can figure out. And to think how whacked out you get when a dog rubs a trouser leg!

That fact that an impartial dog observer is confused about your take on sex is a sad statement. I mean, what should be more basic and natural and simple to understand, right? It’s one of life’s most basic acts, like eating, watering the bushes, doing number 2, and using a can-opener. But no, humans have to go complicate this, too, with Americans among the worst of the lot. In America, sex is even divided along political lines:

Sex (n.) Republican version. 1. Demographic term to distinguish those with real power from those without. 2. (verb) An activity to be performed no more often than necessary to produce two to three highly photogenic offspring. 3. (verb) An evil and dirty activity to be performed only with one’s spouse, then deny ever having performed.

Sex (v.) Democratic version. 1. An activity that should be practiced as if an Olympic event. 2. An activity that provides comic relief for voters who have been terrified by Republicans. Best done with multiple younger partners not your spouse.

Democrats get bogged down in sex scandals the way flies are attracted to poop piles. The only disgrace for them is if the scandal costs them an election, otherwise they just say “I’m sorry” a lot while lining up the next intern in heat. Republicans, however, simply do not have sex. I heard about former Senator Bob Dole and his pitching Viagra ads, but come on! He was a Republican, a guy who never takes off his suit and tie. You can’t have sex in a suit and tie. Not really.

There is no topic in America that confuses us dogs more than human sex. It’s quite a mystery to us, and to other critters we talk with, too. Ask a fox or wolf, and they just scratch their ears with a hind leg and shrug. Raccoons, voyeurs that they are, watch humans “do it,” but still come away confused. Here’s our conundrum:

Americans talk about sex, use it to sell magazines and food and toilet paper. They dress like dogs in heat (at least in warm weather), and do all kinds of things to display sexuality. But look at television, and try to find a naked human, or a couple doing sex things. Or look in a mainstream magazine to find the same thing. It isn’t there. Newsmagazines even brush out “parts” so readers don’t becomeoffended? Aroused? You don’t see this problem in Europe, where nude humans are on TV and billboards out in public, but Americans both want to have sex and deny it is in America.

But more serious, in our opinioneven bears, weasels, and squirrels agree on this, and they rarely agree on anythingis that Americans regularly watch murders and war as (gulp) entertainment. Grisly stuff, with dismemberment, blood, and all the screaming and moaning that goes with such pain. Television shows and movies offer murder, torture, terror, and war as ways to spend a fun evening. I can’t even keep track of how many murders I saw one week, just on commercials.

We animals just cannot understand why violence in all its forms is considered appropriate fare for entertainment (even the pups get to watch “cartoons,” which push the violence button as hard as anything adults see), but a depiction of humans making love or procreating practically causes rioting in the American streets. Now I may be “just” a dog, but the human viewpoint strikes me as ass backwards. It is just not healthy, for example, to have a society where a person would rather be accused of, say embezzlement or even murder, rather than an illicit sexual encounter. I think most humans would much rather have the encounter, but they just can’t admit it in American society. Weird, and dangerous.

Just think of the different ways that sex and violence have impacted the two most recent American presidents. Bill Clinton had sex with a consenting (and legal-aged) adult who was not his wife. Congress asked him about the affair, and he lied: “I did not have sex with that woman.” The sex got Clinton in trouble, but the lie got the whole country in serious trouble. They set up something called an impeachment, trying to throw the presidentthe popularly elected leader of the countryout of office because he told a lie about something that shouldn’t be the business of Congress. Clinton is a Democrat, and he acted like an ass.

More recently, though, President George W. Bush told Congressand just about anyone else who was listeninga whole pack of rabid lies. He told people: Iraq was linked to the terrorist attack that destroyed thousands of people and the World Trade Center and Pentagon buildings
Iraq had weapons that could reach the U.S., and was planning to use them
Iraq had tried to obtain weapons-grade uranium from Africa
A guy named Chalabi provided lots of information about how the Iraqi people wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq (even weasels blush when they hear this whopper)
Iraq had stockpiles of “weapons of mass destruction”
The Qur’an had not been abused at any time while interrogating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
He is a compassionate moderate
If elected (the first time), his cabinet would not be his daddy’s White House (except for Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice)

Granted, Mr. Dubbya was continuing a family tradition started by his daddy who, when running for president, had promised “no new taxes!” That wasn’t true, either.

It’s hard for a dog to understand the ethics here. Clinton lies to Congress about something personal, and Dubbya lies about something of international importance. Clinton’s lie didn’t get anyone killed, but did make the U.S. a laughing stock. Dubbya’s lies have cost thousands of lives and made the U.S. almost universally detested. Clinton’s lie caused the government to lock down on everything but impeachment. Dubbya’s lies just rolled off him, as if they were of no consequence. But as a dog I can tell you, Dubbya’s pile is one even I wouldn’t sniff! Even his wife has confirmed the Republican stance on sex in the First Householdshe described herself as “a desperate housewife.”

***

WAR. Speaking on behalf of a great many animals, I must loudly protest the human use of the word “animal” when describing unspeakably violent people. Sure, we have our black sheep and bad dogs, but we have nothing like the crime you call war. At worst, a few of your primate cousins may launch a troop-to-troop battle, resembling the tribal warfare still practiced by some humans in places like the New Guinea highlands and Amazonia. But the mass-destruction, genocidal, ideology-driven terror you call war is wholly human.

Why, I ask, is war so popular and so persistent, with your species? You didn’t learn it from us, so stop blaming your “primal beast.” For as long as humans have had civilization you have decried war for the terrible and pointless thing it is. You have wept rivers of tears over human losses, watched vast fortunes and empires crumble into oblivion, and destroyed the art and literature of your predecessors. You do this continuously, not repeatedlythere hasn’t been a year in history without some war somewhere. And still you wage more. Even my fleas can’t understand that mentality.

But war is popular, being practiced for and waged constantly. Old men who don’t have to face combat easily order young men and women to places where the terror and immorality will forever brand them physically and psychologically. The old ones keep talking about patriotism, glory, booty, and heroism. They offer uniforms, medals, ceremonies, and martyrdom. For all the talk about how much people say they hate war, there is really little evidence to suggest that is true.

As seen through a dog’s eyes, wars are generally about acquiring more land, or expanding the power of leaders. Most seem to be battles over God. This really makes no sense to me, because as I have learned it, the God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims is the same god. The wars cannot, therefore, be about “my God is better than yours,” can they? Each religion springs from the same people, places, and cultures, though members of one group seem offended by such thoughts if presented by members of another group. Is one way of interacting with God superior to the others? If so, which one? If so, how can each group apparently be based on the same Old Testament? If so, in which set of God’s words did God command any group to slaughter the others? Or did I just not get that lesson, and there are indeed new testaments with titles such as “Who Would Jesus/Mohammed Slay?”

But that still wouldn’t explain why groups from supposedly the same religious base are so angry at each other. In North Ireland, the war is waged by Catholic Christians against Protestant Christians. I do not understand, and what is more, I do not think the humans understand, either. We doggies make friends with humans on all sides, treat them with kindness and respect, and hope they will learn from us that life can be good. Humans, alas, are not doing their homework.

King is a sheperd-mix who is frequently stymied by humans and their odd habits. He lives with his humans in Seattle, and helps with many tasks around the house. Reach King via Dr. Sprackland.

Language of the God(s)

Writen by Robert Baird

In Man and His Symbols, Jung shows us the same archetypes in the untutored dreams of contemporary children, in medieval alchemy, in Hindu mythology, and in Persian folk tales. Joseph Campbell and Alan Watts have continued and extended this study of a vast and strange inner world, little appreciated until quite recently. How does Jung account for the universality of symbolic themes? He sees it as evidence for the collective unconscious, which could be called the collective Soul of humanity. Jung was not the first person in Freud’s school who took from the Mystery Schools set up by St. Germain de Medicis in Freud’s Vienna. But few authors talk about Silberer and fewer still know about how great an adept Hitler learned to be in these arts. Hitler and his father before him had studied long and hard in this bastion of Rothschild involvement. They received money in a legacy from their Rothschild family according to the OSS in a book by Langer called The Mind of Adolph Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was another personal coven of the Rothschilds in London as Crowley weaved his magic. Joseph Campbell did a forward to Marija Gimbutas’ Language of the Goddess and there is a lot in her archaeological work that he knew would have altered much of what he had previously written. Jung did an excellent forward to the Evans-Wentz version of The Tibetan Book of The Dead and I heartily recommend it to any person seeking to know what connects the likes of Krishnamurti and Jung beyond the mere scholarship of Eranos Conference scholars.

In fact the Set and Gematria of all alphabets can be traced to adept Keltic or Phoenician scholars who the Father of Biblical Archaeology knows gave us the Bible. I think it is important for us to know who these ‘gods’ calling themselves Anunnaki or Elohim and alien Dragons were. So I have done a whole new history of man’s cultural evolution that uses forensic and modern artifacts that I am sure Joseph Campbell would have loved to have access to.

Author of many books available at http://www.lulu.com/gaianinstituteofarcaneknowledge and World-Mysteries.com

Literary Fiction - Is it in Danger of Dying Out?

Writen by David Tucholski

If Ernest Hemingway were alive today and publishing his first novel at the infancy of the 21st century, would anyone care? I’d have to say, probably not. This is of course, unfortunate. Whether you like his work or consider it overly macho and sexist, there is one undeniable fact: Hemingway redefined the way early 20th century American literature was written. In his simple, yet amazingly realistic style, he was able to relate more to the common man, rather than appealing to ultra-elite society as the countless Victorian authors did before him. Not to say he was the first to write about average everyday people, but it was the way he wrote his fiction that made the average everyday people want to read it. By scrapping the pretentious Victorian-style narrative and sticking to the actual guts of the story, his novels became the everyman’s novels, and this is what made him an international superstar in his day.

But today this would not be enough to get old Ernie that kind of attention. In fact, it may not even be enough to get him published. Today it takes a brand-able or franchise-able idea that has the potential to branch out into spin-off products and mega-movie deals to garner that kind of worldwide attention from a novel. Examples include The Da Vinci Code and the Harry Potter series. They have that mega-million dollar potential that drives authors to the top of the bestseller lists for months at a time. But why is it that the bestseller lists are so often dominated by genre novels? What happened to the literary novels that used to rule the book world?

I don’t want to offend anyone here, but I would like to take one moment to explain the difference between “literary” fiction and “genre” fiction (genre meaning Mystery, Sci-Fi, Romance, etc.) Many people actually have no idea that there is a difference. In fact, when someone asked me once what genre I wrote in, I said, “I don’t write in a genre. I write literary fiction.” They laughed and said, “Isn’t all fiction literary?” Well maybe they were confusing the word “literary” with “literature,” but at any rate I will now explain the difference for those of you who don’t know. I do want to say upfront that I am in no way putting down genre fiction, since it too has its merits and value. And many times genre fiction may even take on some aspects of literary, and vice versa. However, the focus here is on whether or not literary fiction has completely fallen off the general public’s proverbial radar screen . . . So, I continue.

The main difference between genre and literary fiction is one thing: conflict. Conflict is that all-important element in fiction, so important that without it you have no story to tell. Conflict is the problem the characters must solve, the obstacle they must overcome, the foe they must defeat, etc. And, there are two types of conflict: External and Internal. External is the type of conflict utilized by genre writers. For example, in a murder mystery the conflict would be the murder that the detective is trying to solve. In science fiction it might be that the alien hoards have just landed in Jersey and the Air Force is faced with destroying them. Whatever it is, in genre, the conflict is always external, i.e. aliens are an external force the Air Force pilots must defeat, the murder is an external problem the detective must solve. So the conflict depends more on these external forces, rather than the characters.

In literary fiction, the conflict is much different, it’s internal, which means it is character driven. It focuses less on the external forces the characters must overcome, and more on the internal forces the characters must face within themselves. For example, it may be a story about a man who has cheated on his wife and his conflict is whether or not he should tell her. Or (and this is where the mixing of genre and literary comes in) the alien hoards have landed in Jersey, once again, and the Air Force pilots must decide if they believe it morally correct to blow them to kingdom come. That’s the beauty of literary fiction, there is a much deeper revealing of the characters in that it explores what we as human beings would do in these situations, rather than what an idealized character may do. Like us all, they are not purely black or white. They are instead gray characters, sharing both good and bad qualities. This is what literary fiction does; it explores the true nature of, well, human nature.

So, is literary fiction falling through the cracks of mainstream society? If so it’s not because it isn’t being written. On the contrary, there are plenty of contemporary literary writers in America today who are all worth the accolades and awards they have received. But have you ever heard of Marilynne Robinson or Jeffrey Eugenides, two fairly recent and award winning literary novelists? You may have, but how about Richard Bausch? He was once called “one of our greatest short story writers” whose literary stories “deserve inclusion among the best American stories of the past 20 years.” It could be said that Bausch is near the top of the modern literary strata as far as talent goes, but have you ever heard of him? Is his name as recognizable as Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling? Indeed, not. So why is that? In 2004, genre fiction made up about 75% of all fiction sold, while “general fiction” made up about 25% (this is according to Romance Writers of America, Inc., who of course noted that the genre of Romance had the largest share at over 33%).

In general, sales for all books have been declining in recent years. This may be attributed to many factors, one in particular I like to call, the MTV factor. I mean, why waste your time reading a book about twenty-year-olds having sex in a hot tub when you can watch it on cable television, right? MTV, however, is not the cause of this problem, but just another symptom of what has been coined by the talking head as, “the dumbing down of America.” If this phenomenon exists it is something we must all live with, but is it the reason less literary novels are being read today? After all, it doesn’t take a genius to enjoy literary fiction. I enjoy literary fiction, and I am certainly no genius. So could it be the publishers? Are they to blame for the slow demise of this once sought-after art form? Well, they certainly contribute to it, since a book about a teenage wizard does mean a bigger profit margin than say, a novel about a dieing preacher writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son (Gilead, Marilynne Robinson). But whether or not the mega-conglomerate publishers bare the bulk of the responsibility for the impending death of literary fiction is unclear. What does seem to be painfully clear is, whatever the reason, literary fiction is no longer craved and devoured by the masses as it once was. In fact, most Americans will only read literary fiction in grade school. But what turns out to be an even scarier statistic is that after high school, the majority of them will never pick up a book, of any kind, for the rest of their natural lives; a sad sign that we are doomed as a literary society. So I suppose in the end, we should be happy that those that do read are reading at all, no matter what kind of fiction it is.

© 2005 by David Tucholski
This article comes with reprint rights providing no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.

David Tucholski is the author of the novel, The Good I Stand On (an iUniverse Editor’s Choice pick), available at Amazon, as well as several other works that can be found on his website: http://www.davidtucholski.com

Visit http://www.thegoodistandon.com for more about his debut novel.

Paul Hamm: Did He Deserve Gymnastics Gold in 2004?

Writen by Murray Hughes

What was the controversy all about?

In the 2004 Olympics, an all-star group of athletes from around the world gathered together to compete for titles in gymnastics. In the spirit of competition, there are always tensions between analysts and spokespersons about whether or not athletes deserve the medals they receive. Sometimes, judges are found to be at fault for the controversy, and other times the fiasco is trumped up by uneducated speculation. In this case, the Paul Hamm stir was due to an ancillary error.: the judges mistakenly set his rival’s starting score at 9.9 rather than 10.0. Many believe that it is this error that cost Yang Tae Young, the South Korean rival of Paul Hamm, the all-around gold medal in gymnastics.

Gymnastics judging is not a science.

This is proven again and again. There is no mathematical way of measuring gymnastics routines — in fact, gymnastics is perhaps one of the most subjective sports of all. No goals are involved, as in soccer - no hoops like in basketball; no bullseyes are involved, as in archery; one does not go for distance or height, as in pole vaulting or shot put. In gymnastics, an athlete is judged on form, scored on perfection. It is exceedingly difficult to do so accurately, as there are no vectors that can be calculated to see if someone grasps hold of the parallel bars incorrectly or lands with a wobble.

If you have ever been to a gymnastics competition, you probably understand that panels look at execution for their scoring: something that is full of twists and turns and is poorly executed will score lower than something that is simpler but perfectly executed. The criteria for measuring this aspect of gymnastics include stability and landings — whether or not he or she wavered in the element’s terminus, or held position for less than three seconds at the end of the routine, or took an extra step or stumbled. This does indeed lead to criticism of the judges’ abilities to do their job, and leads also to mistakes in scoring.

Why does Paul Hamm deserve gold?

Paul Hamm, like any other athlete, is and was not a part of the politics of the game. He was there to compete, and indeed, he was there to win. This is the goal of thousands of Olympic hopefuls around the world — to go to the games and to show their skill at the sport they love best. In all actuality, no athlete should have to deal with the things Paul Hamm was forced through. It is entirely understandable that he should refuse to give up his medal — the gold is certainly not tainted; it was his and his alone. The mistakes of the judges are not his to bear. He is an incredible gymnast, indeed.

Why does Yang Tae Young, his rival, not deserve gold?

Perhaps more convincing is the reason as to why Yang Tae Young, Paul Hamm’s Korean rival, does not deserve the gold medal so many have attributed to him. Firstly, the Korean gymnastics team’s representative was late in calling in a complaint, which made the investigation itself - and all the stress associated with it - completely invalid (Olympic rules state, that a protest needs to be made before the end of any full game, such as with the parallel bars, and the Koreans did not do so). Even then, the judges were suspended, and the probing took place. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, even if the judges gave Tae Young the extra .10 points warranted by the difficulty of his routine, he still would have scored lower than he did because of yet another ancillary error. After the tapes were reviewed, it was revealed that Tae Young accidentally made four holds on the bars rather than the allotted three, which would have resulted in a deduction of .2, still leaving him with a deficit of a tenth of a point.

The snafu regarding Paul Hamm’s gold medal - versus, of course, giving the medal up to the South Korean team - is regretable. There should have been no question that Hamm deserved his medal, and he certainly should not have had to deal with the problems around the world. Nor, indeed, did he deserve all of the ill press surrounding his name. The gold medal was well-earned. It certainly bears no tarnishing, and neither does his record.

By Murray Hughes
Gymnastics Secrets Revealed “The book EVERY gymnastics parent should read”

http://www.gymnasticssecretsrevealed.com/gymnastics-articles/paul-hamm.htm

If your child is a gymnast and you enjoyed this article, you will definitely enjoy reading the zero cost, 5-day course Gymnastics Tips Course written especially for gymnastics parents. Go here now: Gymnastics and Paul Hamm

Jokes for Jay Leno 02: President Bush

Writen by John T Jones, Ph.D.

Jokes for Jay Leno 02: President Bush

This is the second in a series to help Jay Leno find jokes for the Tonight Show. We focus on news about President Bush.

Cost of Iraq Occupation

When no WMDs were found in Iraq, President Bush said we went in there to get Sodom Hussein and to give the Iraqi people a constitution. So far the cost of that constitution is $170 billion dollars. That’s $635 for each Iraqi.

We could have sent each of them an individual copy of our constitution by UPS

I, Ego, and Power

Writen by Robert Baird

I: - A vowel that didn’t appear in sacerdotal alphabets for which there is little, or should I say not one IOTA of, reason to hold up for personal glorification. The ego is man’s greatest hindrance and his competitiveness possesses him like the demons he has created in his IGNORANCE!

I O TORUS:

Mathematics has a language so pure it cannot lie. Energy has every reason to conform to good mathematical formulae and this is said to be the best way of communicating. Digitized ‘bits’ are not what it is about; though they are binary math that came from it, and make our computer age possible. In 1650 BC An Egyptian scribe copied something into what is called the Rhind Papyrus. Where it came from is anyone’s guess. It includes binary math.

That being said I must confess this particular piece has many things in it that I don’t understand. I have read some things related to it but never heard of it in the terminology ‘I O Torus’. You can presume that it has merit and that the writer herself doesn’t fully understand it either. Or you can judge it as actual fact derived from ‘The Table of Destiny’ which it may well be through the ‘Mark of Qayin’. If she did not include a research project done in France, I would not be moved to include it under this heading or even use the term. I would find other ways to express what I think it is dealing with. It certainly is an exercise to test whether or not the reader has an open mind.

“As I worked on my next book, ‘Secret of the Grail’, I stared in amazement at the 8,000 year old ‘alphabet’ before me. Although, I had kept a copy of these strange ’symbols’ close to my computer for months now without understanding why, suddenly, in that moment I realized where I had seen these curious geometrical signs before - in the hundreds of crop circle photographs that I had examined over the years.” (1)

The work of Marija Gimbutas is probably what led to her language that she is calling the ‘Ea ANNA’ script. ‘Ea’ is Greek for ‘of’ and ‘de’ and rather than her name it may relate to the De Danaan, whether she knows it or not. Gimbutas and others like Richard Rudgely who wrote ‘Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age’ call it Old European. She (DeAnna) appears bent on the figurines that look like ‘grey’ aliens. The epistemic art background of these and other amorphous figures has little to do with aliens and may have something to do with human auras, or just representational art. The Tartessus use of a language reported by Strabo seems at least 1,000 years older than this dating, but the halls of academia want more proof. The Saharan alphabet is from the same period. The roots of all language include divinatory math such as will be contemplated in her article; but language had a sign language root and chanting spiritual root that we shall explore under Ogham. It would appear likely that there is a human type race (Mungo Man or even older ones) that co-existed with Homo sapiens and taught them some of these early language or communication tools. It is quite likely that the de Danaan were some of their students or even possible they were these ancient hominids.

As to the alien Mars root of humanity I am not inclined as yet to buy it. The recent discovery of water on Mars and life in meteoric material from Mars may buffet these claims. Anything is possible, but I prefer to look for answers that are constructed with step by step logic.

“Furthermore, as incredulous as it seemed, I remembered that in ‘The McDaniel Report’, Professor Stanley McDaniel carefully and painstakingly details the curious ‘markings’ seen on the computer enhancements of the Mars ‘Face’ - strange markings immediately recognizable in the language that I named the EA ANNA Script for the ‘House of ANNA.’ {A second set of photos of the ‘Mars Face’ in closer definition show no face but a rectangular base that Mars origin enthusiasts are now focused upon. The ‘face’ is NOT a FACE and it was nice of NASA to task subsequent flights to address the concerns of people.}

In other words, here was a ‘mathematical’ language carbon dated at 8,000 years old (possibly 500 million years old according to one researcher), an ancient language comprised of strange symbols that reminded me of various Native American signs. In fact, the small dots and bi-lines, obvious mathematical symbols possibly representing the Power’s of one, two, three, etc., could be found in the Mayan numerical system. I also realized that although particular carbon dating methods could be called into question, the fact was that perhaps hundreds of thousands of the figurines of the Great Mother Goddess as Creator of Mankind were inscribed with these geometrical designs. {I have seen evidence to draw the beginning of the connection between Old European markings in Gimbutas’s book ‘Language of the Goddess’ that allows this correlation with Mayan.}…

Although the first language on Earth is considered to be Sumerian, this enigmatic alphabet was irrefutably dated at least 2,000 years older. {Rudgely says it was accepted as an alphabet until the dating showed it was 2,000 years older. Then they called it ‘notation’ or tallies. He correctly decries the lack of integrity that alters facts to fit prevailing theories, and gives many examples of this phenomenon [ego?]. He is an Oxford trained expert in art history as it applies to archaeology.} A startling revelation that indicates that rather than ancient civilizations migrating from east to west, from Mesopotamia as previously believed, {There are many scholars since the early 70s who have given this perception a rude going over from all points of reference, especially engineering and the social structure of adepthoods around Stonehenge, etc.} these peacefully co-existing societies migrated from old Europe {Where the Keltic god DANA and DN=Don and Danube, as well as DNN=Danaan or Homer’s Denians.} to the Middle East. This also explained why the Mother Goddess worshipped by all ancient civilizations, including the Hopi who still revere her as the Snake Mother {The ’serpent’ in the Milky Way and the cosmology of many observers of the heavens.} who came to Earth to create mankind {A reason why when the ’snake’ didn’t touch the Earth in the heavens that the Inca people knew a momentous change was about to occur. This is a part of the TV documentary I mentioned earlier in reference to the Inca.}, is still recognized as AN or ANNA in Ireland and Scotland, whereas in the Middle East, the early northern semites had altered the female name of AN or ANU to that of a male ‘god’. At the same time, Sumerologists have acknowledged a fact that has been largely suppressed; a distinctly female language existed in Sumer. This language was used exclusively for sacred purposes much as the strange markings in the EA ANNA script were inscribed exclusively on female figurines of the ‘Mother’

At the same time, in order to understand the Mars mystery, it is absolutely crucial to examine the major difference between ancient civilizations that practiced a loosely defined ‘religion’ of nature and traditional religions of today that worship a male ‘god’. While the earliest civilizations honored the Mother as Creator, through elaborate ceremonies associated with the cycles of seasons, offering gifts of food and flowers, traditional religions rake in billions of tax free dollars, much of it traceable to gun running, drug trafficking and money laundering operations. Goddess ‘worshipping’ (a term not used until the 16th century) civilizations believed in freedom of choice; the importance of self-experience and that it was possible to communicate directly with a higher source {Do you think a son of the ‘arch-tecton’ family of David and Solomon was raised as an intellectual Essene or ‘Therapeutae’ to know this and other things?=Jesus.}. Therefore, it was not necessary to communicate through an intermediary such as a priest, rabbi or minister; consequently, love was more important than power {The ‘living father within’ and ‘We are all the children of God’ (YHVH). of Jesus.}. A far cry from today’s power structures that are directly involved in suppressing the individual right of freedom of choice and the slow erosion of our constitutional rights {And a reason for the treatment of the ‘money-changers’ in the Temple [of the Sadducees] by Jesus.}…

Is it possible, that as the evolution of humanity took place, these curious symbols were originally a ‘telepathic’ language used as a means of communication between humans and deities that were extraterrestrial in origin {Or advanced hominids like the Mungo Man}? Indeed, two EA ANNA script symbols in particular strongly suggest that this is the case - the I (a line) and the O (dot or circle).

As nanotechnologist, B. C. Crandall told us, the ‘I’ and the ‘O’ somehow accesses ‘memory’, or possibly a higher intelligence. When a particular molecule in the eye sees, reads or writes these two binary figures. Much as the computer is programmed, the I and O were used to open and close memory. Neurologists also acknowledge that the geometric symbols in the Crop Circles are called ‘Antopitic’ forms. These forms vary between people but this sacred geometry is seen in the early stages of meditation. Then, as the ‘hyperdimensional’ brain of the individual goes deeper into altered states of consciousness, these geometric forms mix with the familiar forms of everyday life

HYPERDIMENSIONAL PHYSICS

The I O Torus

In order to discuss certain ideas which go beyond the bounds of three-dimensions, physicists and mathematicians have developed concepts such as hyper-cubes and hyper-spheres. While we can draw a three dimensional sphere or a cube on a two dimensional surface, the drawing can only show one view of the object, no matter how we turn the two dimensional drawing. We can make three dimensional models and two dimensional drawings of hyper-dimensional objects, but there is never enough room in two or three dimensions to show what the full hyper-dimensional object really looks like.

In a reflexive universe, Arthur Young writes, ‘the formula for the volume of the Einstein-Eddington universe, the so-called hypersphere, is 2 R,’ this is the same as the volume of the I O Torus with an infinitely small hole! From this, we see that there is a strong mathematical relationship between an I O Torus (a three dimensional object) and a hyper-sphere (a hyper-dimensional object). The I O Torus, a symbol that relates to hyperdimensional physics is also capable of two kinds of rotation {Remember the high spin atomic entry}. It can rotate about its central axis and it can turn through itself.

To understand what the I O Torus looks like, imagine an eliptical shaped ’smoke-ring’ or donut, the ‘line’ of light (or space as the I, in the script) passing through the center of the circle describes it best. This ‘I’ or line of ‘energy’ passing through the center of the circle has a positive pole and a negative pole, furthermore, additional research may prove that the ‘I’ and the ‘O’ in the EA ANNA scripts represent, in physics terms the wave and the particle.

The I O Torus may also explain, why an extraordinary experiment performed by Alain Aspect’s team of scientists in Paris has been virtually ignored. Aspect’s team brilliantly confirmed quantum theory, the study of matter at the subatomic level, which proved one of the following possibilities: either objective reality does not exist and it is meaningless for us to speak of things or objects as having any reality beyond the mind of an observer, or else faster than light communication {This, before NEC showed 300 X light speed last year.} with the future and the past is possible. These are not hypothetical assertions. According to Aspect’s confirmed theory, at least one of the two above options must now be accepted as fact. Thus the I O Torus may provide the key to faster than light communication with the future and the past, perhaps as it opens and closes memory, as well as the key to ‘free energy’ or cold nuclear fusion. This may be the reason the northern Semites (early Hebrews) and the early Romans erased every trace of the original symbol for the Torus. {We will prove a connection of the Bruttii and sons of Aeneas that founded both England and Rome later.} The ‘Torus’ symbol was altered, not only by the northern Semites, but by the Egyptians {The symbol of the bee in Egypt and Crete to Miletus/Phocaea will show a trail with massive money that makes sense of all of history up to Napoleon who was made Holy Roman Emperor with a bee festooned robe as he took the crown from the Pope and placed it on his own head.}, into a circle with a cross in the middle {The ‘rosae crucis’ symbol.}, a hieroglyph used to describe ‘place’ or the ‘city’.

As my research continued into the EA ANNA script, I soon discovered that various goddess worshipping civilizations had protected the secrets of this particular mathematical language. In the beginning, I found the EA ANNA mathematical symbols in the Sacred Geometry {Golden Section of Masonry} associated with the Brotherhood of Pythagoras {see Croton entry}, an organization that honored Nature and revered the Mother as Creator. I also recognized the EA ANNA script in the cipher code of the Knights Templar, a secretive organization that evidence reveals was an off shoot of the Pythagorean Brotherhood after they were virtually eliminated {Incorporated into a new larger theme.} by the early Romans.” (2)

She continues to develop partial understandings of the Templar/Mason and Bilderberg ‘octopus’ without knowledge of key players like the Illuminati of Weisthaupt, Hibernians and Cecil Rhodes or the Merovingians. She has a bent to develop or add-on to the alien theory of the Christian Mystery Schools and myth-makers which is taking her judgement way away from obvious things that are readily provable. However, she is on a course of truth in the area of science and such things as anti-gravity and time.

In 1966, Dr. Carroll Quigley, a professor of history at the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University and an employee of the Tri-Lateral Commission who informed or blew the whistle on them; published a 1311 page book called Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time. On page 950 he says: “There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960’s, to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments… my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known… because the American branch of this organization (sometimes called the “Eastern Establishment”) has played a very significant role in the history of the United States in the last generation.”

Author of Diverse Druids

Columnist for The ES Press Magazine

Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

An Antidote for Hate - Will Rogers

Writen by Cy Eberhart

I heard the news of the horrendous 1998 murder of the University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, with shock and disbelief. Its raw hatred brought back memories of my Oklahoma City visit the previous Spring.

Again I saw that chain-linked fence surrounding the Murrah Federal Building bomb site. There was the array of crayon drawings, small toys, sprigs of flowers, each in memory of victims of hate. I thought, too, of Oklahoma’s favorite son, Will Rogers, and remembered his words, “A fellow shouldn’t have to kill anybody just to prove they are right.”The McVeigh trial in Denver was over. Justice had been served, but it left a troubling question. Even with justice served, the hate infecting the country remained. So how now do we respond?

For my answer I turned to Will Rogers. That is, I turned to my understanding of him, gained through several years of studying and portraying him in my living-history performances.

I’ve tried to puzzle out why people endowed Rogers with such authority. He lacked the qualifying credentials. He was neither a man of industry nor of government. He passed himself off as unschooled, a status the people readily accepted. Even so one Washington observer noted, “This country could never go to war unless Will Rogers was for it.”

The relationship between Rogers and the American people is unlike any other in the nation’s history. I turned to examine it again, but with new purpose. Since practically all behavior and action can be understood in terms of self interest, I decided to consider the relationship from this viewpoint. As I did, Rogers came to represent the pursuit of self interest in ways that created trust. Trust is an antidote for hate!

Trust bonded Rogers and the people. The people took him to heart because of what he was as a person. He was so refreshingly genuine, so honest, a friend, not a celebrity, even though he was the best known person in America. This bond was so strong some say he helped prevent a revolution in the days of the Great Depression.

This trust stemmed from the deep-rooted human desire to be oneself. Rogers was legendary as a man who was himself. He mastered this art about as well as was humanly possible. He did it with such ease, such unconscious effort, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Being your self was a birthright. You simply claimed what was already yours.

In being himself, Rogers achieved the ultimate in self interest. The man was at peace. Being content with himself freed him from the tyranny of envy, jealousy and greed. He had no desire or interest to use people to satisfy self-serving needs. He entered relationships, wanting only to know others and to enjoy them for their own sake. This translated into a grinning, rope-spinning cowboy, radiating joy, boyish enthusiasm, courage, friendliness and trust

Imagine living free from negatives, free from trying to control others, to control events, to control life. You are free from pretense, sham and deceit, free from the intimidation of status, rank or station. That’s what people in the 1920s and ’30s did. They could look in a mirror and more nearly see themselves as Will Rogers than as any other person in America. What then was there to do but radiate hope, joy, trust, and find satisfaction in the moment - just as Will Rogers did.

One could trust a man like this, and trust him they did. It was a trust he never violated. He in turn trusted them, believing everyone to be honest until they proved otherwise. In trusting him, they trusted what he stood for. He became the nation’s conscience and unmatched opinion setter because people also trusted his wisdom. He had them laughing about things that mattered, about human welfare and the health of democracy.

In their laughter they were saying, “He’s right about that.” In this laughter they agreed that all shared common foibles. Strip way the social facade and trappings and indeed all the people had much in common. This commonality should give freedom, equality and justice to all. There should be freedom for the pursuit of happiness and self fulfillment, the equality of an opportunity for success, and the justice of a government serving all the people.

For Rogers these values were vital and alive. He was what he championed. Being himself and living these values were one and the same. These were character values that made him the person he was, creating trust up and down a two-way street. They were values he absorbed as a Cherokee raised in the Indian Territory years before Oklahoma was a state.

Will Rogers revealed to a nation what internalizing these values will do to a person. They are the conditions in which human life flourishes and trust abounds, conditions which support the desire to be oneself.

This is the challenge today: Weaving them into our nation’s social, political and economic fabric, expressing and realizing them continually in the milieu of daily commerce. No more to be trivialized, corrupted or perverted into inane slogans by politicians, slick promotional copy by advertisers, or rallying cries for rebellious action. These values will be so pervasive that any behavior violating them will atrophy from lack of reinforcement.

This is possible when we understand that all of our institutions, formal and informal, are part and parcel of an all-inclusive venture - the human enterprise. This enterprise extends from home life to national assemblies; from neighborhood gatherings to federal government policies; from playgrounds to professional entertainment; from charitable endeavors to corporate board room ruminations.

With this understanding, is it a short step to insist that all activities, goals and objectives become subservient to the promotion and expression of the character values inherent in American democracy.

Can it happen? Yes, if we want it to. It will be difficult. Rogers himself said, “Meanness has always been better organized and conducted than righteousness.” It’s easier for us to pass “tough” laws than work to change the equation. But unless the equation is changed the image of a bombed out Federal Building and a young man dying as a scarecrow will soon be lost from sight, buried under ever newer scenes of hate.

(c) Cy Eberhart 1998

As a hospital chaplain Cy Eberhart, (now retired) was a firsthand witness to the entire spectrum of human emotions: personal successes and failures; the deepest despairs and the great peaks of joy. Two questions remained foremost in his mind: How was it that some could find inner strengths that brought courage and hope and others could not? What was to be learned from these experiences that would have a positive and creative effect for daily, routine living?

His lectures, writings, workshops, book In the Presence of Humor and his living-history performances of America’s famed humorist Will Rogers offers some of the answers.

Un-Boom Me!

Writen by Liz Ryan

Okay, we got it - a lot of babies were born in the decade after World War II ended. Here’s what I don’t understand: all these millions of babies were born, and then the birth rate dropped; and all those babies that were born in that 1946 - 1964 period are known as the Baby Boom generation.

If the kids had kept coming, would we be talking about a Baby Boom that extended from 1946 to 1972, or 1975? And if so, would we keep defining the whole blinking generation by the trends and events that shaped maybe the first ten percent of them?

I was born on December 31, 1959. I have exactly nothing more or less in common with the stereotypical Baby Boomer than with any other human being on the planet. I don’t know from Howdy Doody. Ed Sullivan is a dim memory, already a caricature by the time I was old enough to pay attention. I can’t remember Father Knows Best. Annette Funicello? Give me a break. My older brother went to Woodstock, one of the younger attendees at age 15 (and got his sleeping bag stolen); I was at home with the younger siblings, watching the moon landing.

All of the signal events associated with the Baby Boom are my older siblings’ experiences, not mine. I don’t remember JFK’s asassination. Hippies were slightly exotic when I was six or seven years old, and then really boring.

I have my own set of reference points. My poor brother Pete, an even further-out-on-the-curve Baby Boomer than I, born in March of 1964, wouldn’t even remember the few Boomer references that register for me. How can we all be lumped in one group together? Could any set of people born over any 18-year period be expected to have that much in common? We just don’t. Ask a real Boomer, a 1946-through-1956 Boomer, how he felt the first time he heard the B-52s. Whaaa? We heard “Rock Lobster” and had to call 15 people and say “Wait until you hear this, it’s random, it’s the greatest thing.”

Un-boom me, now. I insist. I could give a damn about the Summer of Love. I never trusted anyone over 30 any less than anyone else. When I started going to concerts in high school, it was (briefly) 70’s rock bands, and then (avidly) Tuff Darts and Blondie at Irving Plaza. If anything, my contemporaries are the Tickets Generation - it was “can you get tickets to Zappa at the Beacon? What about Ian Dury at Max’s Kansas City?”

I was at the Blondie concert on the pier at Asbury Park when Debbie Harry got booed for singing “Heart of Glass” (disco sucks, remember?). I remember Son of Sam and dancing to Rick James and the New Year’s Eve fire on my 19th birthday at the Ipanema Club near Times Square. I remember when Sid Vicious died, like it was yesterday. I read Go Ask Alice when it was assigned to us in tenth-grade English class, and related to it the same way I would do a novel set in ancient Greece. There’s nothing wrong with all that Flower Power stuff, but it isn’t my experience.

Set us free, release us from the Baby Boomer group - we want to go off on our own. The tired “I did the wild drugs and peace and freedom bit, now I’m going to get rich” doesn’t fit even one of my contemporaries. Think about it. We didn’t grow up in Ike’s fifties and react to that upbringing by inventing pot parties. We grew up with Vietnam on the evening news, watching RFK and MLK and Malcolm get shot down, and then saw Watergate, the icing on the cake, around the time we entered high school. Of course we became punk rockers! What would anyone do?

In our twenties, half our gay friends died of AIDS, sometimes two weeks after the first symptom appeared. In our thirties, we began to have children - the Boomer experience of kids in college and beyond isn’t ours, either. Of my high school graduating class of 1978, only one friend (Dave) has a 15-year-old (and Dave was always more responsible than the rest of us). My youngest is three; John has a two-year-old. Steve the former ticket scalper (a master sign painter/”letter-head” in Berkeley) has a one-year-old.

Honestly, when I think of the boomer stereotype, I think of my old boss, Marty. Only ten years older than me, the guy seemed like a fossil, culturally: he didn’t know jack about anything that he didn’t read in Customer Service Management Today magazine. He would bring new-car brochures to work and show them to me. I could not relate, because I was sleep-deprived after having danced all night and coming into work directly from Medusa, the after-hours club. One day, when we were finshing up a project together on a Saturday, Marty said “You really like music, don’t you? Who’s that on your Walkman - Gruppo Sportivo?” That’s right, I said. I also had the Roches and Ben Sidron and the Gap Band and Joan Armatrading and Fear and the Palominos on there. And Marty said, “Yeah, I’m into Iron Butterfly.” I just stared at him. “Um, are they still recording?” I asked.

Un-bundle us, un-boom us, we opt out. Have a happy sixtieth birthday, Boomers, and be well: just leave us out of the club, because we are a whole ‘nother thing.

Liz Ryan is a workplace expert, 25-year corporate (Fortune 500) HR executive, and the founder and CEO of WorldWIT, the world’s largest online community for professional women. Liz is an international keynote speaker on workplace, work/life, leadership, and women in the workplace topics. WorldWIT provides internal communication and community-building services, consulting and training to employers seeking to create a diversity culture and to increase retention and engagement of women and minorities. Liz lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and five children.

http://www.worldwit.org