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December 2003 Reflections
December 15, 2003: Life has been busy... busier than ever. I've been interviewing for jobs and trying to keep up with everything else. The holidays have been especially hectic because I like to make plenty of Christmas cookies to mail in care packages, and there are all of the usual things to do like writing Cookie Chronicles, mailing Christmas cards and packages, and decorating. My parents came out to visit for a week at Thanksgiving, and we're looking forward to having friends over for Christmas dinner.
September 2003 Reflections
Septemer 17, 2003: About this time one year ago I decided to make it official, that I was going to take a year off from engineering to work on my writing. It was something I had always wanted to do, the sort of thing that most people say "Maybe someday, when I retire, or something..." I took the plunge, and I haven't regretted a minute of it. It has been a fantastic learning experience. However, a year has passed and I realize that I need to get back to technical work before my skills get too rusty.
While I haven't yet completed my novel -- which is well underway -- I have started to discover my voice as a writer and have learned a great deal about writing, which I love as much as ever. Even as I contemplate going back to engineering, I will carry on with my creative pursuits. It's all about balancing analytical and creative energies.
June 2003 Reflections
June 2, 2003: Another weekend has come and gone. It rained for most of it. Sure enough, this morning (Monday) it is bright and sunny outside. We did manage to do some gardening on Saturday, but even then it sprinkled on and off and during the afternoon we had rain. It rains a lot here in Pennsylvania during the springtime. I thought we were having a lot of rain, but Wayne says we had even more last year. However, I actually like the wet weather because it means it's cool. I hear it's really hot out in California right now, but here we're still around the sixties and seventies during the day. I hope we continue to get rain into the summer so it's not so dry this year.
February 2003 Reflections
February 28, 2003: Benjamin Franklin once said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." The dramatic over-reaction to terrorist acts sends the wrong message, that we are afraid and must hide to be safe. Thanks to excessive security measures and other hypersensitive government changes, our civil liberties and rights are rapidly eroding, taking us closer to the Orwellian world of 1984. Certainly we can take a few basic security precautions without tossing our freedoms out the window.
What we really need is perspective. Terrorism is an attention grabber, but here's something for you to think about. There were about 3.4 million injuries and 41,611 people killed in auto accidents in 1999. More than 20,000 people die from the flu and its complications ever year. In 2000, there were an estimated 15,517 murders in the US.
An average of 120 people die every year in airline accidents. And only 5 people died of anthrax in 2001. The population of the US is 289,979,800! We are throwing tons of resources at an undefined and indefinite war against indeterminant targets, bogging our airline and tourist industries down with excess and useless security measures, and doing very little to solve real problems.
Don't forget the level of incompetance out there. Instead of doing lots of changes badly, why don't we go back and do a few good things right, the first time.
February 6, 2003: Here'e some timely humor from The Onion (in case you aren't familiar with this one, it's a parody online newspaper).
January 2003 Reflections
January 19, 2003: Don't believe that we're losing our civil liberties? Here are some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the September 11, 2001 terror attacs:
Freedom of Association - Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.
Freedom of Information - Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
Freedom of Speech - Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.
Right to Legal Representation - Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
Freedom from Unreasonable Searches - Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
Right to a Speedy and Public Trial - Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
Right to Liberty - Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.
So, you may ask, why should we care? Isn't this just the price to protect us from terrorists? Innocent people have nothing to fear. Well, think about the Salem witch trials, or the more recent Macarthy era blacklisting. Remember what happened in Nazi Germany, or in Russia under Stalin. We are all being treated as potential criminals under these rules, and it would be very easy to get caught up in the legal swamp following any old random accusation. These violations of our Constitutional rights won't protect us from terrorism; they only make our society into one no different than those ruled by extremists like the Taliban.
Further reading:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/usapatriot_oakland021217.html
January 7, 2003: Here is yet another example of the worrying trend of increasing and burdensome government control. According to the Associated Press headline today, "Researchers worry fear of terrorism could muzzle science." Take a look at this link. Why does this matter? Think about the opportunity for abuse. This doesn't just affect the publication of papers on classified military topics. For example, to quote the article, "The Justice Department demanded the right to approve before publication a study on physical abuse of college women." They'll be wanting to sensor all kinds of topics. Let's think about this logically. If someone really wants to hurt you, they will figure out a way to do it, regardless of what is or is not published. Stopping the free flow of information will not stop such an enemy. Meanwhile, this stoppage harms the free movement of information that keeps our citizens educated and scientifically advanced. Our best defense is not to return to the caves to hide like our ancestors, but to be informed and educated. We should be learning self-defense and practicing our diplomacy and manners with our allies. We must build greater bonds of trust with our friends, our families, and our neighbors, not turn suspicious eyes on everyone we pass on the street like we are living in WWII Germany or Stalinistic Russia. If we stifle our scientists and universities, where will we be in twenty years? The rest of the civilized world will advance, while we will fall behind. And we will not be protecting ourselves from anything.
January 6, 2003: Nowadays, a lot of people think that the twelve days of Christmas precede December 25th; however, the twelve days really start at December 25th and count foward into January. Thus, today is the actual twelfth day, known as Epiphany. It is a prime Christian feast day, which commemorates three events including the visit of the Wise Men to Behlehem, and in popular celebration the feast is far more ancient than Chistmas. Technically it is more important than Christmas, ranking after Easter and Pentecost, and in many places, this is a day of gifts, rather than Christmas as typically practiced in the US and Britain.
Maybe we ought to think about going back to this model... It's so easy to be overwhelmed by the rampant commercial atmosphere of exchanging ever bigger and better gifts, to forget that there is more to life than this. Many of us celebrate the renewal and miracle of life in one way or another during the winter season (my apologies to the southern hemisphere - must be confusing trying to balance the cultural calendar with the reversal of seasons). So, for the moment, let's forget the commercialism and simply remember the beauty of life on our little blue-green planet on the western spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy in a mind-bogglingly big universe. The longest night of the year--December 21, 2002 was this year's solstice--just went by, and we're now moving back towards sunnier days.
I'll be leaving our decorations up until tomorrow. Oh, and yes, we're finally getting a little snow - just an inch or two.
January 5, 2003: Read my comments on keeping perspective in these turbulent times.
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Updated February 2, 2004.
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