50 years ago, I got in my Brother’s car as we embarked on what we were still allowed to call “Christmas” break.
(The semester did not end in those days, we had to return to classes and finals in January.)

There was a warmth in my parents house that gave much comfort after riding through
the stark, winter, I65, landscape that led in a very straight line from the red bricks of West Lafayette to the smoking stacks of the Steel City’s mills.
This warmth was tempered by the chilly reception to my perception that Purdue was not the place for me.

Suddenly, the phone rang.
“It’s for you, ‘Cootz’…some guy named Dennis…probably another dropout”
(I had met Dennis Terry at a church camp a year or so before and hadn’t heard from him for at least 6 months.)
(If anybody knows where he is now, I would love to reconnect)
I took the phone from my father.
“Dennis! Hi, I just walked in the door, can I call you back?”
“Oh sorry, real quick, I’m having a party tomorrow night and everybody wants you to come.”
“Well, let me think about that”
“Great! call me back”

As I hung up, a barrage of verbal, NO-BASIS-IN-FACT innuendos about drugs and other unsavory activities were bandied about.
“Oh, it’s so good to be home. I love you too.”
I walked back to what used to be “my room” realizing that Purdue was not the only place I didn’t belong.

Yesterday my lunch time search for tubular wisdom landed me on 1954’s Executive Suite.

At the end of the movie William Holden’s character makes a speech about pride and purpose as he battles Fredric March’s character who feels the purpose of a corporation is to maximize the dividend to the stockholders :

McDonald Walling: (After smashing the companies NEW cheaply made table sitting in the boardroom)

We’ll have a line of low-priced furniture, a new and different line as different from anything we’re making today as a modern automobile is different from a covered wagon.
That’s what you want Walt, isn’t it? What you’ve always wanted? Merchandise that will sell because it had beauty and function and value not because the buyers like your scotch or think that you’re a good egg.
The kind of stuff that you, Jesse, will feel in your guts when you know it’s coming off your production line.
A kind of product that you will be able to budget to the nearest hundredth of a cent, Shaw, because it will be scientifically and efficiently designed.
And something you will be proud to have your name on, Miss Tredway.

The force behind a great company has to be more than the pride of one man; it has to be the pride of thousands. You can’t make men work for money alone – you starve their souls when you try it, and you can starve a company to death the same way.

As Joe Biden spoke last night, I felt the kind of pride McDonald Walling was talking about.

WE are the real force behind this country.  WE have the power to fire any incompetent, greedy, elitist, egomaniacal  buffoon that thinks he is in charge and above the law.

Like my mother and father I take pride in the finished product that I produce.  I draw my motivation from this kind of integrity. I have been asked to back off on the pride and integrity “shit” many times and join incompetent, greedy, elitist, egomaniacal  corporate buffoons, but I don’t work that way.  I need my soul as does this country.

It’s time for us to collectively raise our in charge voices and RESOUNDINGLY inform the Anti-Christ in the White House “YOU’RE FIRED”.

The phenomena of serendipity cannot be googled or otherwise consciously obtained.
You must allow yourself to fall into the cosmic tumblers of the universe and hear the click of enlightenment.

Before you decide that this is too heady a subject for you to pursue any further, realize that I surf, channels in the hope of finding value and agreeable things not sought. (the very definition of serendipity)

For example while I am a HUGE fan of black and white sci-fi, I have only caught glimpses of the Abominable Snow Man of the Himalayas, starring Forrest Tucker(also a big fan) and Peter Cushing (not so much of a fan).
As Monster movies go, it is slow and not something that would ever keep my 12 year old self awake at night, in fact it would probably put 12 year olds to sleep.

But when my 67 year old self hesitated on the following Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) speech, I heard the tumblers click:

Tom Friend: I lived on two of the basic drives of humanity, Fear and Hunger.When that began to dry up I found another one, Curiosity.Human Curiosity. The world is full of receptive inquisitive people.People who are informed, receptive to new ideas. Radio, Television, Movies, these things have gone to the very homes of people stirring up a healthy curiosity about the earth that they live on. These are the people that I work for. If I can, I am going to bring them one of these creatures so they can learn and profit from it. Give the world a whole new concept, a new slant on humanity. Help us to know and understand ourselves better. Come on Doc, writing learned little books in the corner isn’t enough any more. It’s a new age of awareness. It’s a big age and you’ve got to measure up to it.

Shortly thereafter they cut to a scene where the wife of Scientist(Peter Cushing) pleads with the Dali Lama to help her husband searching for proof of the Yeti as winter descends on the Himalayas.

Dalai Lama:Danger? Yes they are in Danger from their own actions. I can do nothing. It is not possible to bend the destiny of man. The fate of your husband will be guided by his own nature.

In 1957 perhaps the world was full of receptive inquisitive people. Maybe they even wanted to be informed but I am not convinced they were receptive to new ideas. Radio, Television and Movies did, indeed, stir up curiosity but hate, fear and hunger generated much of the information received such that our actions and reactions continued to put us in danger.

Now 53 years later, as we approach the Coronaissance, we live in an information age 1 billion times more powerful than mere Radio, Television and Movies.   We can satisfy our Idol curiosity by seeking “truth” from virtually any source that guides what we have been told is our nature.

OR If we really want to know and understand ourselves better, we can rekindle a healthy curiosity about how things work (and don’t work) on this earth that we live on and let our individual fate be determined by our individual nature.

The official post office was created in 1792 as the Post Office Department (USPOD). It was based on the Constitutional authority empowering Congress “To establish post offices and post roads“. The 1792 law provided for a greatly expanded postal network, and served editors by charging newspapers an extremely low rate.

The law guaranteed the sanctity of personal correspondence, and provided the entire country with low-cost access to information on public affairs, while establishing a right to personal privacy.

The United States Post Office Department was not just a way to convey packages and correspondence from one place to another,
it was an authoritative branch of the federal government that HAD TO deliver to every citizen regardless of their location, with the authority to protect the privacy of all deliveries as well as pursue and prosecute those who would defraud.

Therefore, rather than close up the U.S. Postal Service in the name of Privatization, I propose we re-instate the cabinet level US-POD in the name of Privacy, as follows:

1. The US-POD will be responsible for delivering highest-speed, secure internet connections to EVERY Household.
2. The US-POD will be given the authority to pursue, prosecute and organize to prevent fraudulent internet activities.
3. The US-POD will provide a secure means of verifying that all absentee votes cast are legitimate and verifiable by each individual citizen.
4. The US-POD will establish nationwide redundant networks and systems to ensure neither sabotage nor natural disaster prevents critical information from being delivered.
5. The US-POD will still provide for reasonably low cost physical package delivery to any householdIn other words The US-POD will resume its duties relative to establishing Post offices (be they traditional or datacenter) and Post Roads (be they traditional or electronic) and a greatly expanded Postal network be it for physical documents and packages or electronic communications.The time has come for us to recognize that our founding fathers KNEW value of  guaranteeing the sanctity of personal correspondence, and providing the entire country with low-cost access to accurate information on public affairs, while maintaining a right to personal privacy.

45 years ago,my professor, spoke of an Economic Strategy put forth by JFK (among others) referred to as “Full Employment, Fiscal Surplus”.

In the early 90s, a speech in the movie “Dave” stated that work was “not just about the paycheck, it’s about respect, it’s about looking in the mirror and knowing that you’ve done something valuable with your day.”

With the onset of Corona, some still get a paycheck because their jobs are gone, others have lost both job and paycheck.
Many small businesses, are not allowed to provide work even for their owners.
And so many are unable to look in the mirror and know that they’ve done something valuable with their day.

What if we were to start reporting Employment statistics?

What if we were to build a National Employment Registry where every individual can state their qualifications, whether or not
they are currently working and whether or not they are looking for something better,
Any Employer could post the jobs they are looking to fill and projects they are undertaking,
Every Craft Union could post the apprentice jobs that are going unfilled,
Every Educational institution could post the scholarships that are available for in demand academic credentials.
Every Government Agency could post requests for project proposals.

What if we allowed the government to be the employer of last resort, paying people to retrain and/or enhance their skill set
instead of  merely paying some subsistence stipend for 26 weeks while the individual is “looking for work”.

Full Stable Employment that provides the goods and services our society needs and the income necessary to earn a living,
will allow the country to know that it has done something valuable with it’s resources.

Patriot: a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors

Attention Protesters claiming to be patriots:

“We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all (men) are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness”

Means: the medium, method, or instrument used to obtain a result or achieve an end

Production: The creation of value

Nature’s viral assault on humanity has demonstrated the need for human effort in the creation of value. It has also allowed us to witness how some humans truly devalue other humans.

But even the harshness of the most elitist humans, is nothing compared to the dispassionate destruction Nature can and will reign down upon the Earth.

We are all in this…but we are not together, physically, virtually or spiritually. When attacked by other humans, we have often united. For some reason the human enemy of our human enemy becomes our friend, at least until the war is over. In the USA there are those who are trying to blame other humans for this act of Nature in order to distract us from the reality that they were not prepared for the REAL enemy.

I have heard many say “when this is over we will go back…we will REcover…we will REturn to normal”. What we need to REalize, is that this crisis is showing us the way to a new normal…To merely REsume will not be enough. To simply REbuild will lead to REgret.

My old basketball coach used to tell us “Never miss the same shot twice”.
And you all know the definition of insanity is REpeating the same behavior expecting a different result.

IF we are to survive the next Natural assault on humanity (and there will be many more), we MUST understand what REAL defense looks like.  We must build the structures that will truly recognize and support the fact that WE need to be ALL in this TOGETHER.  There are flaws in our virtual communications that must be fixed.  There are technologies and tools that MUST be made available to all of humanity.
We must find much better ways to design and build and work in HARMONY with Nature as well as each other.
Above all, we MUST find a way to physically gather together without fearing the breath of the human next to us, without being encouraged to hate those who do not look like us, without feeling we are more deserving than THEY.

These changes will not come easily, but  regardless of what Nature brings tomorrow:
I want to be able to hug my loved ones and my friends whenever they need it and whenever I need it.
I want to extend a real hand to those in need and sometimes those who didn’t realize they needed it.

There is some comfort in virtual communication, but REAL comfort is so much better.

So my daughter-in-law informed us that her pediatric office was running out of disposable masks for patients to use during office visits. We B.L., Melinda and Sammi) researched last night, and today had a video conference with our sewing savant granddaughter, Kirin to discuss design principles, and then started prototyping masks that would minimize the 15 – 20 minute processes on YouTube while not compromising the effectiveness. (truth be told the best home made mask will only be 75% as effective as one manufactured under medical specs…but 100% more effective than NOTHING)…bottom line our process has three stations, can assemble one these in less than 5 minutes AND will be at least 70% as good as any basic filtering mask.

Build your own or Build for your community…the very simple design and process are right here: