Projections

Relentless. The days keep passing by, faster and faster. By the end of the week the month of June will be half over with. And the question is; always, what did I accomplish? Where does that come from, that feeling that you have to have goals and they must be met? I’m retired! Why does it matter?

OK, enough introspection. I should write about the fact that I finished the book, Mayflower. It was a great read and I highly recommend it. But be warned that it is a bloody book and well written, so it can be a bit traumatic. I had to put it down a couple of times. The King Philip War was, and still is, America’s deadliest war. New England lost 10% of its population while the Native Americans lost over 50% of theirs. Some tribes were exterminated completely. And all of those males over the age of 14 were sold and shipped as slaves to plantation owners in the Caribbean. Some Puritans argued that the Bible told them it was right and proper to execute Philip’s 9 year old son. They finally settled on simply selling him.

But, the First Thanksgiving Myth lives on and is still taught in our schools. Kind and gentle Pilgrims/Puritans and the ‘friendly Indians’ celebrate their friendship with a feast together.

Besides the heavy duty reading, I also spent some time downloading some music from the 50’s again. The old music has a new name now; Doo-wop. When I heard it for the first time in 1954, on KFOX – Long Beach, it was called Rhythm and Blues. KFOX was a low powered station and the signal could just barely be picked up in Manhattan Beach, about 20 miles away. Late at night was the best time to hear Johnny Otis as he played these fantastic sounds.

It was definitely ‘black’ music and so it was socially unacceptable in the 50’s. Especially where we lived. I remember that a fellow student named Earl Froug had turned me on to the music and it was something that we only talked about between us.

Remembering that name, Earl Froug, made me think of a great rainy day activity. Take your old high school annual out and start Google’ing the names.

I also read some of the usual stuff from the Chico ‘alternative press’, the Beat and the Chico News and Review. But, there was an editorial in the CN&R that caught my attention; as the editor told of meeting with a local right-wingnut on the City Council. The councilman took the editor to task for using the word ‘progressive’ instead of ‘liberal’. The editor responded as I would have; saying that the right wing has been so successful at their self appointed task of demonizing the word ‘liberal’, it has lost its original meaning. And he included the dictionary meaning for the word, liberal’. Yes, liberal is still a good thing and a good word. But progressive could be a better word and I think that’s what the councilman was getting at. It’s hard to demonize that word and he’ll have his work cut out for him if he tries, as the opposite meaning of progressive is regressive. A very bad word, indeed! So I’m still proud to be a liberal and progressive.

regressive - opposing progress

backward - directed or facing toward the back or rear; "a backward view"

progressive - favoring or promoting progress; "progressive schools"