Month: November 2020

One could fairly describe Stewart (“Stuey”) Pfulph, as a small, unassuming, and generally introverted person, who, in an effort to look his true age and, conceivably, improve his disappointing social life, had been only moderately successful in his attempts to grow a man-size mustache. Modest in stature, but passionate by nature, he projected his potential ardor onto the lifestyle of a passionate lover of small, domesticated animals. Consequently, after the truly crushing disappointment of flunking out of veterinary school in his freshman year, he sought employment in some field, related to the care of domestic animals. Positions in this limited and unspecific area being extremely scarce; but he, as an intelligent, educated and self-respecting person, could not possibly accept the available lowly, part-time assignments as a dog walker. After much frustrated effort, Stuey was finally obliged to accept a nighttime position as an “Airport Canine Hygienist,” specifically consisting of the sanitary removal of dog droppings from narcotic- sniffing dogs, at the “Airport Arrivals” tarmac at LaGuardia Airport.

Thus, five nights per week, and, occasionally on weekends, he would routinely commute by bicycle to LaGuardia, arriving, promptly at 6:30P.M., and, with the exception of a 9:30 coffee break plus an early morning meal break, would continuously alternate, from one landing area to the other, toting a yellow, airport plastic bag, dutifully attending to his undertaken canine investigation responsibilities.

On one Tuesday evening, following the arrival and “deplaning” of a Pan American Airlines flight from Aruba, he espied a small leather bag, on the tarmac, apparently left behind by a traveler. The small bag had an identification ticket which read: Emma Ipecac, 13 Valentine Street, N.Y.C., Apt. 6B. Stuey, a bit nonplussed, since he resided at the same building address, in apartment 4B, decided, as a favor, to personally return the found bag, rather than delivering it, as usual, to the overstocked and disorganized, Airport “Lost and Found,” department, and carefully inserted the small bag in his jacket pocket, with that neighborly intention.

The following morning, Stuey, after a short nap and quick, nervous shower, arrived at Emma’s door, at 6B, and rapped softly. Emma had just had breakfast and was busily engaged in putting away the balance of her unpacked clothes from the previous evening. She answered, “Who is there?” Stuey, nervously replied, “Is this the residence of Emma Ipecac?” She answered in the affirmative and so he identified himself as a downstairs neighbor and related the details of his find, the previous evening.

Upon being admitted to Apt. 6B, Stuey, while handing Emma the lost small leather bag, was immediately smitten by her exotic beauty. Emma, happily relieved to recover her property, invited Stuey in, and if “he had time,” for a neighborly cup of coffee. To be candid, the petite, demur Emma Ipecac, felt a general and unspecific attraction to Stuey; conceivably, it was the appearance of the off- beat mustache, like her late father. They sat at Emma’s plain chrome kitchen table for coffee, each slightly blushing.

As Emma poured the coffee, she said,” I am sure you must be curious about the contents of the bag,  assuming, correctly, from her initial impression of Stuey, that he did not, out of mere curiosity, inappropriately, open the small bag. In addition to some clean tissues and a soft moistened cloth, the opened bag revealed, three small, soft tan orbs, identified by Emma as marine turtle eggs. She confessed to her impulsive act in taking the three eggs from an exposed cluster of thousands laid by their maternal source. She stated that she now regretted the impulsive act, which was probably illegal and swore Stuey to secrecy.  Stuey, still blushing from internal excitement, of course, agreed. They very gently, placed the three turtle eggs on a clean, soft towel, inserted as a liner in an empty shoebox, in Emma’s clothes closet, in close proximity to a warming lightbulb. Their remote hope was that the purloined eggs would successfully hatch, affording the opportunity for the hatchling turtles to be transported to the nearby shore and, thereby, perform a kind act and additionally, relieve Emma’s ailing conscience.

The joint and daily enterprise, of responsibly curating the turtle eggs for the required two months was successfully rewarded by the eventual appearance of three little green hatchlings. It was further rewarded by the hatching of the nascent love affair between Emma and Stuey. As the relationship happily matured, Emma, had been advised by Stuey, of his great love for animals and his negative and disappointing experiences in that endeavor. Emma excitedly advised him, that Mr. Horton Ipecac, her paternal Uncle, is the head curator of the nearby State zoo, and she, being his favorite niece, would certainly be willing to secure a position for him at the zoo, caring for and working with animals.

During the drive to the local seashore, in possession of the three hatchling turtles, destined to live a natural life in the Ocean, Stuey, clumsily, but effectively, asked Emma to marry him, which she joyously accepted. Thereafter, by virtue of the political connections of Emma’s influential Uncle, permission was secured to hold the wedding ceremony, meaningfully, at the waiting plaza, adjacent to the Pan American Airways “Arrivals Area”. The newly wedded, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pfulph’s lavish wedding, was momentarily interrupted by Stuey’s studiously ignored, declaration, he thought he “saw something” on the tarmac.

The newlywed’s honeymoon was enjoyed in Aruba, the West Indian Island Emma had originally visited, however, this time, no turtle eggs were taken. Eighteen months later, the married couple joyously announced the birth of healthy triplet human hatchlings.

-p.

In his classic novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens dramatically portrays the intertwined lives of people, living in London and Paris, during the turbulent times of the French Revolution. In analogous fashion, the voter results of the recent Presidential election were a confirmation that the narrative history of the so-called, “United,” States is, effectively, a tale of two Countries, each fundamentally differentiated in culture and perception. The advent of the pandemic resulting in substantial damage to our previously questionable economy and the consequent disruption of normal interaction, was a clear demonstration of the eternal nature of the distinct dichotomy between our two categories of voter.

One Nation of voters, based upon its observation of Trump’s demonstrated incapacity, serial mendacity, profoundly demonstrated ignorance, unconstitutional behavior, and widely publicized and unabashed moral misbehavior, fully expected a complete blow-out victory for the societally mainstream, former Vice-President, Joe Biden. Should such citizens be questioned as to Trump’s incapacity, moral failings, mendacity and ignorance, there would be no reasonable expectation of re-election. The very substantial voter support on the part of the other segment of the population, voting for Trump who, as President, never evinced any doctrinaire position, demonstrates, by logical elimination, a wide-spread “cultural” inclination, empirically unrelated to the subject of virtues of the candidate.

What virtues, in fact, are the millions of loyal Trump supporters voting for, is the compelling question to be posed by understandably perplexed observers. We will cautiously and modestly, venture our considered answer to that compelling question, based solely, and admittedly, upon our decades long, personal perception and understanding of human behavior and affairs.

In a previous mini essay, we attempted to comprehend and portray that large segment of the dual-faceted population who observably, support Donald Trump. As stated above, such support is not at all doctrinaire nor related to the demonstrated level of efficacy of his four- year term of office. In our view, such empirical considerations to Trump voters, are irrelevant; they vote upon their personal perception of who is perceived to be a member of their tribe, or, put another way, on the “home team.”

In addition to those pathological air polluting, industrial giants, who value mega-profits above human life, and thus oppose health regulations, the large segment of the Nation which supports Trump, sees him in one of several possible imaginary subjective contexts, conducive to its respective personal fantasies. Perhaps, as a “strong leader,” a heroic fighter against the “system,” in which the voter has experienced failure, an unabashed opponent of the elite or highly educated class, an opponent of “foreigners who take away jobs,” a champion of white supremacy and of “law and order,” an unorthodox opponent of societal propriety,  a xenophobic patriot, protecting the Nation from foreigners and Socialism, a non-conformist outré, the champion and protector of masculine autocracy, the roadblock to liberal thinking in civil rights and immigration, the curator of an imaginary “ better old order,” the small- town common opponent of arrogant big cities, or some other abstract, neurotic or bizarre preconception.

The other segment of the Nation, clearly abhors the previous criteria and traditionally supports a Presidential candidate who demonstrates the expected, polar opposite of such enumerated characteristics ,such as capability, mature perception and demonstrated judgment, practical as well as academic knowledge, determined morality, ethical awareness, and rectitude in the proper application the Constitutional principles of equality and justice, viz., the “American Way.”

We have previously written on the subject of the death of civic amity, resulting, not only  in the absence of  amicable citizen debate,  so very useful in a representative democracy and as expected by our Founding Fathers, but the total absence of (friendly) social interaction between citizens of disparate opinion. This unfortunate situation is responsible for that portion of the nation, properly concerned with standards of rectitude and capability, to erroneously and naively assume that every voter makes his selection based upon demonstrated merit, and not on fantasied, neurotic perceptions as outlined above. Accordingly, such citizen-voters may be, understandably, bewildered by the substantial numbers of voters supporting the lack of professional and societal values characterized by Trump.

We have always been of the empirical understanding that any election is, essentially, a contest between competing and disparate portions of the electorate, every bit as much (or perhaps, more) than the representative candidates standing for election.

-p.

While the global population anxiously and impatiently, awaits the development of a safe and efficacious vaccine against the disease of Coronavirus, our attention may be diverted to an ancient and dangerous pathology, existing back since the reign of Emperor Constantine, the ruler of The Holy Roman Empire in the 4^th Century. James Carroll, an ex-priest who authored the enlightened and fascinating book, “Constantine’s Sword,” which, in addition to the illuminating revelation that it was Constantine’s sword which, no earlier than the 4^th Century, was the actual model for the symbol of the Christian Cross,  guides the reader through the origin of the historic hatred of the Jews by the Catholic Church ( including  the reigns  of Popes, Augustine, Innocent 3^rd, Paul IV, Pius XII, John 11 and John Paul 2^nd ) and an understanding of the historic origins of anti-Semitism.

To summarize the salient theme of the footnote referenced scholarly work, consisting of more than 500 pages, the pathological hatred, identified as anti-Semitism, had its actual birth by virtue of a tactical and  intensive program by Emperor Constantine and his Mother, Irene (creator of the myth of the “Robe”) with the express tactical intention to divide the age’s large extant population of Jews, using divisive propaganda and  slander, in their (successful) program to attract 4^th Century Jews to  Christianity.

The eternally slanderous pathology and hatred (especially in Europe) as known, lived on and metastasized, exponentially, to cause, virtually uncountable and indescribable, egregious results, over the entire course of World  history, encompassing in addition to the well- known relatively recent “Holocaust,”  eternal generations of pogroms, inquisitions and other hateful tragic and homicidal travesties.

Occurring with the most virulent frequency in Europe, Jews were wrongfully blamed and prosecuted, as being responsible for plagues, most famously, Europe’s Medieval “Black Plague,” famine, absence of rainfall and other irrational and paranoid conceptions, viz., poisoning well water, abducting Christian children to drink their blood, of evil control of all the banks, and a great many other absurd and mob inciteful charges, all energetically bubbling up from the wide-spread primeval ooze of antisemitism.

The deadly pandemic of coronavirus set the entire World back on its rational heels, to the absurd extent of  evincing attempts by extremists from all facets of the political and social spectrum  to cast blame on the Jews, also blamed for the recent wrongful constabulary killing of George Floyd, akin in irrational absurdity to medieval charges of poisoning well water and the absence of rain. In Los Angeles, law enforcement was contacted after White Nationalist stickers from the right-wing, Patriotic Front movement were found on lamp posts adjacent to the Museum of Tolerance. In New York City.it became necessary in several instances, to affirmatively take official action to safeguard Jews and speak out against racism and hate.

An apparent rise in violent attacks on French Jews, motivated the French Government, recently, to station military troops at Jewish neighborhoods, schools, Synagogues and community centers. Recently, in Argentina, public lurid and revolting caricatures of Jews, have been shown as being responsible for the pandemic; many stating, hatefully, “Jews are the Virus, and “Argentines Awake to The World Jewish Dictatorship.” In our closest neighbor, Canada, the virulently anti-Semitic, Canadian Nationalist Party, publicly libeled all Jews, “Liars and Deceivers,” and as if that were not hatefully sufficient, as a “tribe of parasites,” “ police brutality is an Israeli export,” and finally, “Zionists are Nazis.”

We, at plinyblog, would take the liberty to conclude this writing, instructively, by the recitation of a few of the sage quotes from the brilliant writer, philosopher and death camp survivor, Elie Wiesel, who died in 2016:

“We must always take sides, Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed.

“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.” and,

“Human suffering anywhere is the concern of men and women, everywhere.”

[Who can say it better!]

-p.

Amidst an ongoing, virtually endless debate as to how to represent the darker periods of American history, the frequent media reports of despicable police brutality and homicide, shamefully practiced against unarmed black Americans, has empirically provided a catalyst for protests (by black and white citizens), popularly known by the heart-breaking mantra  “Black Lives Matter.” It has also reignited the movement by citizens of conscience to remove existing public statues and monuments which evince  racist, or discriminatory reference.

Unquestionably, the darkest and most shameful period of that history, existed throughout the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, when black people were kidnapped from the Continent of Africa and brought in chains to this Country to be relegated to hopeless lives of cruel slavery. The acrimonious debate over slavery was the primary subject leading to the bloody and tragic Civil War.

The morally required progress toward universally equal status for people of color has eternally been resisted by those in our Nation, who seem to have a need, neurotic or otherwise, to irrationally and shamelessly adhere to the bogus belief in the purported superiority of people born with light skin over those gifted by nature with darker color skin. This irrational and dystopian Gulliver’s Travels or Alice in Wonderland predilection, has nevertheless, robbed millions of people born with black and brown skin of equality of treatment and opportunity in virtually every area of life.

Efforts by right thinking Americans, commencing with the nightmarish, post- bellum Reconstruction Period, to date, has resulted in substantial but insufficient, progress. Disappointingly, and admittedly, it appears that much of the empirical progressive change has had its impetus in mandatory legislation and legal precedent. A veritable Herculean challenge exists in evolving the atavistic and immoral mindset of too many “flat- earth” people to the emblematic American aspiration to universal equality.

The ongoing National desire for historical repentance and attainment of universal equity, catalyzed by the recent horrific uptick in police manslaughter of unarmed black Americans, has led to a more active National reckoning including a closer, more sensitized perception of public statues and monuments, deemed capable of memorializing or extolling the racial underbelly of the American past. Debates which seem to be occurring Nationwide, especially in the former Confederate States, seem to us as resolved into two camps: those who support the maintenance of these statues and monuments on arguments in favor of maintaining their historical value, versus those who believe that such claimed historic value, if any, is outweighed by their public insensitivity to the descendants of the victims of the memorialized historic period.

It is our firm opinion that the arguments for the preservation of these monuments on historical grounds are either specious or beside the point. We maintain that public monuments such as statues are empirically, a visible statement of the sentiment and current values of the community. The descendants of victims of America’s most egregious immorality, should logically and justly be vested with the decisional authority, concerning public monuments and statues, reasonably capable of perception as extolling the immoral institution of slavery.

Our stated view that public monuments articulate existing statements of community sentiment and values, is easily confirmed by the existence of the Statue of Liberty standing in New York harbor, since 1886, representing the Nation’s shared sentiment of express welcome to all fugitives of unjust governance and people who simply desire to immigrate to our land to find a better life. The Statue is an evident confirmation of our welcome hand (notwithstanding the opinions of our errant and unprecedented Presidential Administration) to all who desire to come to America.

The final determination of the contested public monument issue, appropriately and  logically, belongs to the people, who, in relatively recent American jurisprudence, were valued and determined, by its highest legal authority, the United States Supreme Court, to be mere “agricultural equipment,” or “chattels,” mandatorily returnable to their “owner.” (Dredd Scott v. Sandford, 1857, J. Taney).

-p.