As I get older I get the feeling that time is moving by much faster than it did when I was younger. As a child for example, I always thought that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas morning was the equivalent of the entire time I had been alive up to that point. And Christmas Eve was always the longest night of the year!
Remember when summer lasted forever? Nowadays summer feels like a long weekend. The time between Memorial Day and Labor Day, once a sweet eternity, is now a madcap rush, not unlike the feeling one gets while racing down the freeway to the airport. With one eye on the road the other looking for state troopers, your hope fades that you will ever make the last flight home on a Friday evening. And so it is with summer. Why does time seem to go by so much faster now? Some say it’s because we are much busier than our ancestors ever were. No doubt farmers living in the pre-industrial age, tilling their fields with a horse drawn plow had loads of time to spare. Imagine how much time housewives had on their hands in the days before dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and microwaves. Yeah, leisurely lives they led. They had it made.
There are some theories floating in cyberspace about the likelihood that time is actually speeding up. One theory suggests that something called the Schumann Resonance or heartbeat of Earth used to be 7.83 cycles per second. Apparently it’s been rising since 1980. It is now over 12 cycles per second, leaving us with the equivalent of about 16 hours per day instead of 24. Note to theorists: The missing 8 hours might be the ones that occur while you’re sleeping which would make them hard to track. The more I dig into the “Schumann Resonance” though, the more convinced I am that it has merit in at least one respect. A smart candidate for the Presidency could score serious points making 24 hours an issue. Promising to restore time to its original and rightful place in our system of government could win votes, no? Republican candidates can assign blame to the Carter Administration by suggesting that he wasted so much time that time itself started to slip away. A wily Democrat like President Obama could point to The Resonance as what the so-called Reagan revolution was really all about.
But I digress.
The fact is that man came up with the concept of time. It was man who decided that 60 seconds equals a minute and 60 minutes equals an hour. These units still exist and can be measured.
So why do we feel like time is going by faster than it used to? I am pleased to report that yesterday, December 28, 2011, I found the answer. I was shopping in a Target store in Franklin, Tennessee. As I meandered through the aisles, I happened upon a row of Hallmark and other greeting cards six feet high and fifteen feet long. Remember the date, December 28th, still 3 days before New Year’s Eve and just 3 days after Christmas. Now which greeting cards do you think I saw completely dominating the racks? If you said Valentine’s Day cards treat yourself to a Be Mine candy heart. Valentine’s Day is seven weeks away! Yet, by the time it arrives we will have been completely inundated by retail displays, advertisements and junk mail from jewelers reminding us to buy something special for that someone special in our lives. What galls me is that by the time the day arrives, by no later than 6:00 p.m. on the day itself, retailers will be restocking their shelves with St. Patrick’s Day paraphernalia.
No wonder time seems to fly by. Living in the present these days is hard work. We are always being pushed ahead to the next holiday, the next season. Does rushing each holiday really work? Is anyone reading this post ready to forget the Christmas or Hanukkah holidays? It occurs to me that I’m asking a foolish question since the business version of the Christmas season now lasts so long that one is tempted to not bother taking down the tree at all. Still are you actually ready to focus on Valentine’s Day? If you have already bought your Valentine’s Day cards, have you also mailed them? Please let me know. And while you’re at it, send me your menu for the 4th of July barbecue.
Copyright 2011, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label President Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Barack Obama. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Snopes.com is Good. Critical Thinking Helps
I’m worried about the good people of this country and our future. Here’s why: I regularly get emails with patently false information. These days it’s usually about some grave indiscretion committed by President Obama but sometimes it’s an editorial that Andy Rooney never wrote not to mention said, on 60 Minutes.
This morning I got one about the tragic shootings that happened in Fort Hood, Texas last year. Supposedly, when George and Laura Bush heard about the shootings they jumped in the car, unescorted, and drove to the Fort. When they got there, former President Bush asked for directions and was again offered an escort whereupon he told base officials to shut up and drove on to the hospital. The story went on to say that the White House asked the former President to leave. The story goes on to say that President Obama “merely held a photo session” in a gym at Fort Hood.
Okay, I understand a lot of people in this country are unhappy with the current occupant of the White House. Some may have excellent reasons to be unhappy. The election next week will probably hammer home the point. That’s not enough for some of us though. There is no shortage of people that will gladly spread misinformation about Obama and his administration. Certainly in my lifetime there is nothing new about that. Anyone who lived through Watergate understands that evil lurks in the hearts of many people. What frightens me is that there are so many people who are so unhappy with the current state of affairs that they will believe anything that supports their world view. And they are willing to blithely spread hideous stories which today are point and click easy to do. Whatever happened to critical thinking?
I am grateful for Snopes.com. It’s so easy to check stories that don’t sound right and you know what? My instincts are often right. And I am just an average guy with a tendency to be skeptical about what I read. Does anybody else think a little skepticism is healthy? Consider if you will a few points about the Ft. Hood story.
We live in an unstable world. We are forced to be very security conscious. Former Presidents have access to enormous amounts of sensitive information. What are the chances that President Bush, not once but twice, fails to take proper security measures? The reason we protect former Presidents is to ensure we don’t have an international incident that could result in the deaths of many. Think George Bush knows that? By the way, would George Bush tell a man or woman in uniform that offered to help to shut up?
In a highly politicized arena, knowing that former President Bush had been on the military base visiting wounded soldiers, is there any chance that President Obama would “merely hold a photo session?” The guy won an extremely hard fought primary and general election because he exercised formidable political skills.
The truth is that I didn’t really need to check snopes.com to see that the story being sent around was false. I firmly believe that most of us would see that. Common sense tells us that the heart of the story is fabricated. Yet, too many people won’t see that. Why do so many of us choose to major in minor things? We get lathered up over whether a mosque should be built near ground zero while we ignore the fact that educators in this country aren’t getting the job done. America’s students rank 21st in science and 25th in math compared with students around the world. Teachers need to do a better job and so do parents. The mosque issue may be important but where is the outrage over the state of education?
In the days before cyberspace, newspapers and even TV journalists behaved responsibly. They wouldn’t think of publishing something like the Bush visits FT. Hood story. Ethics, moral and business, forced them to walk the straight and narrow. Advertisers would not have stood for malicious propaganda. Readers may not have agreed with certain points of view but they could rest assured that the essential facts of any story were accurate. The Internet changed all that. Everybody can play now and it’s more or less a risk free game. Web sites, blogs and email are a demagogue’s dream. Unless otherwise bright people learn to accept the truth that just because it’s “in print” doesn’t mean it’s true, our liberty is at risk.
Copyright Len Serafino, 2010. All rights reserved.
This morning I got one about the tragic shootings that happened in Fort Hood, Texas last year. Supposedly, when George and Laura Bush heard about the shootings they jumped in the car, unescorted, and drove to the Fort. When they got there, former President Bush asked for directions and was again offered an escort whereupon he told base officials to shut up and drove on to the hospital. The story went on to say that the White House asked the former President to leave. The story goes on to say that President Obama “merely held a photo session” in a gym at Fort Hood.
Okay, I understand a lot of people in this country are unhappy with the current occupant of the White House. Some may have excellent reasons to be unhappy. The election next week will probably hammer home the point. That’s not enough for some of us though. There is no shortage of people that will gladly spread misinformation about Obama and his administration. Certainly in my lifetime there is nothing new about that. Anyone who lived through Watergate understands that evil lurks in the hearts of many people. What frightens me is that there are so many people who are so unhappy with the current state of affairs that they will believe anything that supports their world view. And they are willing to blithely spread hideous stories which today are point and click easy to do. Whatever happened to critical thinking?
I am grateful for Snopes.com. It’s so easy to check stories that don’t sound right and you know what? My instincts are often right. And I am just an average guy with a tendency to be skeptical about what I read. Does anybody else think a little skepticism is healthy? Consider if you will a few points about the Ft. Hood story.
We live in an unstable world. We are forced to be very security conscious. Former Presidents have access to enormous amounts of sensitive information. What are the chances that President Bush, not once but twice, fails to take proper security measures? The reason we protect former Presidents is to ensure we don’t have an international incident that could result in the deaths of many. Think George Bush knows that? By the way, would George Bush tell a man or woman in uniform that offered to help to shut up?
In a highly politicized arena, knowing that former President Bush had been on the military base visiting wounded soldiers, is there any chance that President Obama would “merely hold a photo session?” The guy won an extremely hard fought primary and general election because he exercised formidable political skills.
The truth is that I didn’t really need to check snopes.com to see that the story being sent around was false. I firmly believe that most of us would see that. Common sense tells us that the heart of the story is fabricated. Yet, too many people won’t see that. Why do so many of us choose to major in minor things? We get lathered up over whether a mosque should be built near ground zero while we ignore the fact that educators in this country aren’t getting the job done. America’s students rank 21st in science and 25th in math compared with students around the world. Teachers need to do a better job and so do parents. The mosque issue may be important but where is the outrage over the state of education?
In the days before cyberspace, newspapers and even TV journalists behaved responsibly. They wouldn’t think of publishing something like the Bush visits FT. Hood story. Ethics, moral and business, forced them to walk the straight and narrow. Advertisers would not have stood for malicious propaganda. Readers may not have agreed with certain points of view but they could rest assured that the essential facts of any story were accurate. The Internet changed all that. Everybody can play now and it’s more or less a risk free game. Web sites, blogs and email are a demagogue’s dream. Unless otherwise bright people learn to accept the truth that just because it’s “in print” doesn’t mean it’s true, our liberty is at risk.
Copyright Len Serafino, 2010. All rights reserved.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
A Couple of Historic Moments
I got an email from President Obama just before midnight (11:56 p.m.) Saturday night. Yes, he wanted to tell me as soon as he could that at 11:15 p.m. the House of Representatives passed a health insurance reform bill. His email ran 8 short paragraphs. I found myself wondering about that. I mean the President is surely a good writer but to crank out such a long message and send it in just 41 minutes is amazing. And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one he sent it to. It was addressed to me personally but we’ve never actually met.
The President said it was a historic moment and he praised the bravery of those in Congress that voted yes. The he cautioned me that it was “a night to celebrate but not to rest.” Next, the President expressed worries about the Senate bill’s prospects. Insurance companies are sure to do whatever they can to derail the bill. I have to say I was with the President all the way up to this point in his message. Regardless of how I feel about health care reform, I think it’s wonderful that the President is living up to his campaign promise to change the way things are done in Washington. Barack Obama is a busy man. Yet he thinks enough of me to write and so late on a Saturday night! I mean I never heard a word from George Bush.
But then the President said something that brought me up shorter than the period at the end of this sentence. He asked me for money. He wanted to know if I would donate $25 to the cause. Here was the President of the United States, our 44th President, asking for money to help him push his agenda.
Presidents have asked citizens to contribute to worthy causes like helping the people that suffered so much from Hurricane Katrina. But a sitting President asking working stiffs for money to help win an ongoing political battle marks another historic moment. I guess it was inevitable really. Vested interests, big corporations and rich people with more money than they need, have been engaged in a titanic struggle to hold onto their particular pieces of the pie for years now. Reforming big spending by well heeled lobbies is probably impossible given the advantages of the current system that accrue to lawmakers. Instead the answer seems to be, “Let’s get the little guy in on the action.” I’m not sure it will work though. Right now middle class America puts up with an enormous amount of electronic dueling during Presidential elections. How many of us are willing to spend our hard earned money for media ads with their laser like focus on dividing us further apart?
Still, it seems to me that the President’s asking for donations to fight for his agenda is an unprecedented step. If it works can we expect more of this type of behavior? Will we get Christmas cards praising artificial trees along with a request for a donation to get the administration’s version of global warming legislation passed?
Maybe when the President speaks to school children again he can ask them to donate 50% of their lunch money to get his education program done.
Will the President and his successors wind up hosting telethons, staying up all night a la Jerry Lewis mixing issues talk with entertainers that support the President’s views? (Note to Barack: Labor Day is taken and Jerry’s cause is worthy.)
As the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States certainly has the right to use Teddy Roosevelt’s bully pulpit to advocate his agenda. But making a direct appeal for money is unseemly. It’s as if being President isn’t enough. He wants to be the president of a PAC as well.
We are living in a time when well reasoned argument isn’t enough anymore. The idea that together we will ultimately do what’s right based on good thoughtful ideas, has been replaced by money plays. I understand the President’s dilemma, but in the long term his strategy is not a winner for him or us.
Copyright 2009, Len Serafino. Al rights reserved.
The President said it was a historic moment and he praised the bravery of those in Congress that voted yes. The he cautioned me that it was “a night to celebrate but not to rest.” Next, the President expressed worries about the Senate bill’s prospects. Insurance companies are sure to do whatever they can to derail the bill. I have to say I was with the President all the way up to this point in his message. Regardless of how I feel about health care reform, I think it’s wonderful that the President is living up to his campaign promise to change the way things are done in Washington. Barack Obama is a busy man. Yet he thinks enough of me to write and so late on a Saturday night! I mean I never heard a word from George Bush.
But then the President said something that brought me up shorter than the period at the end of this sentence. He asked me for money. He wanted to know if I would donate $25 to the cause. Here was the President of the United States, our 44th President, asking for money to help him push his agenda.
Presidents have asked citizens to contribute to worthy causes like helping the people that suffered so much from Hurricane Katrina. But a sitting President asking working stiffs for money to help win an ongoing political battle marks another historic moment. I guess it was inevitable really. Vested interests, big corporations and rich people with more money than they need, have been engaged in a titanic struggle to hold onto their particular pieces of the pie for years now. Reforming big spending by well heeled lobbies is probably impossible given the advantages of the current system that accrue to lawmakers. Instead the answer seems to be, “Let’s get the little guy in on the action.” I’m not sure it will work though. Right now middle class America puts up with an enormous amount of electronic dueling during Presidential elections. How many of us are willing to spend our hard earned money for media ads with their laser like focus on dividing us further apart?
Still, it seems to me that the President’s asking for donations to fight for his agenda is an unprecedented step. If it works can we expect more of this type of behavior? Will we get Christmas cards praising artificial trees along with a request for a donation to get the administration’s version of global warming legislation passed?
Maybe when the President speaks to school children again he can ask them to donate 50% of their lunch money to get his education program done.
Will the President and his successors wind up hosting telethons, staying up all night a la Jerry Lewis mixing issues talk with entertainers that support the President’s views? (Note to Barack: Labor Day is taken and Jerry’s cause is worthy.)
As the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States certainly has the right to use Teddy Roosevelt’s bully pulpit to advocate his agenda. But making a direct appeal for money is unseemly. It’s as if being President isn’t enough. He wants to be the president of a PAC as well.
We are living in a time when well reasoned argument isn’t enough anymore. The idea that together we will ultimately do what’s right based on good thoughtful ideas, has been replaced by money plays. I understand the President’s dilemma, but in the long term his strategy is not a winner for him or us.
Copyright 2009, Len Serafino. Al rights reserved.
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