An Anniversary Date That I Could Do Without

Good Day World!

When I got out of the Army in March of 1971, I threw away my uniforms and medals. 

Then, I disappeared into the hinterlands of America for three years. I was angry a lot. Got into fights too easily. I was constantly looking over my shoulder in anticipation of something bad happening.

Fell in love and got married in August 1974. My wife soon found that she'd married a flawed man. A tortured soul. My nightmares haunted my wife's nights as she tried to comfort me when I woke screaming gibberish.

No one talked about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) back in those days. My wife and children, as they came along, learned to walk on eggshells when I was around. 

Fast forward to the early 1990s when I was diagnosed with PTSD by the Veterans Administration. Got counseling. I was no longer able to work at my job as a newspaper editor and was awarded a 100% disability pension by the VA.

Today I still struggle with PTSD. I have discovered how to take care of myself, and to avoid situations that could trigger my temper, or fear.

Yet, there's still a certain time of the year (late April, May, and early June) when I'm most vulnerable. The doctors call this time an Anniversary date. 

It's usually associated with dramatic circumstances. In my case, surviving an ambush and seeing my best friend killed at the same time while we were in Cambodia.

I wish I could convey the horror of nightmares and daymares assaulting my senses for days, and sometimes weeks on end. 

I can only tell you the brain is a mystery. My anniversary date is upon me now...

Every hour is a challenge. Every noise a reason for an increased heartbeat. Darkness tries to wrap me up in a cocoon of misery. 

During this hell-spawned anniversary, the ghosts of war follow me throughout the day. Sometimes I see them, and can't make them go away. And, I die a little bit.

My redemption however is never far away because I have someone who loves me each and every day. My wife Shirley.

She shields me from the darkness whenever it gets too near. She is my loving companion throughout the year; for 41 years now. 

With love, anything can be overcome. Even PTSD.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Struggling To Survive: 'Where Are You Now, My Son?'

Good Day World!

Few singers can speak to the human condition better than Joan Baez. 

I look at what's happening around the world right now, especially in Syria, and I can imagine Joan's beautiful voice telling these people's story today.

The following song is as valid now as when she wrote it in 1973.

Where Are You Now, My Son?

By Joan Baez

"It's walking to the battleground that always makes me cry

I've met so few folks in my time who weren't afraid to die

But dawn bleeds with people here and morning skies are red

As young girls load up bicycles with flowers for the dead

An aging woman picks along the craters and the rubble

A piece of cloth, a bit of shoe, a whole lifetime of trouble

A sobbing chant comes from her throat and splits the morning air

The single son she had last night is buried under her

They say that the war is done

Where are you now, my son?"

Related:

What You Should Know About the Syrian Refugee Controversy

Inside the Syrian Crisis: Social therapy in Jordan

Time for me to walk on down the road...

The Lizard King's Legacy: Strange Days Are Upon Us

Good Day World!

The world has never been stranger.

When Jim Morrison wrote Strange Days he was talking about the world in the 1970s.

The song really resonates in 2016. Strange things are happening in this presidential campaign. The world has never been stranger... 

STRANGE DAYS

Strange days have found us

Strange days have tracked us down

They're going to destroy

Our casual joys

We Shall go on playing

Or find a new town

Yeah!

Donald Trump Is The presumptive GOP Nominee For President

Strange eyes fill strange rooms

Voices will signal their tired end

The hostess is grinning

Her guests sleep from sinning

Hear me talk of sin

And you knows this is it

Yeah!

School project's graffiti sparks fears Zodiac Killer is back

Mad Scientist Invents Hoverbike  (Photo above)

Strange days have found us

And through their strange hours

We linger alone

Bodies confused

Memories misused

And we run from the day

To a strange night of stone

Yeah!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

When I Was Young Wednesday

Good Day World

Looking back when I was young in the 1950s (photo left):

I want to say it was a time of innocence, but that's not entirely true.
My memories are merely preceptions of a time when the world seemed new.

When The Animals came along with this song - When I Was Young - it became one of my personal anthems.

WHEN I WAS YOUNG

Smoked my first cigarette at ten

And for girls, I had a bad yen
Life meant so much more
When I was young
When I was young

When I was young, it was more important
Pain more painful, the laughter much louder, yeah
When I was young
When I was young

My faith was such much stronger then

I believed in my fellow men

I was really so much older then

When I was young

When I was young


Time for me to walk on down the road...

May 3rd: 'Whoa thought it was a nightmare...'

Good Day World!

On this day, May 3, 1970:

The Cambodian Campaign (also known as the Cambodian Incursion and the Cambodian Invasion) was a series of military operations conducted in eastern Cambodia during 1970 by the United States and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the Vietnam War.

I was one of those Americans (31st Eng. Battalion, 79th Engineers). This song by Creedence Clearwater Revival always reminds me of my time in that particular corner of hell.

RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE

Whoa thought it was a nightmare

Lord it was true

The devil's on the loose

Better run through the jungle

Better run through the jungle

Better run through the jungle

Whoa don't look back to see

Thought I heard a rumblin'

Calling my name

two hundred million guns are loaded

Satan cries "take aim."

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Marvelous Monday: What A Wonderful World!

Good Day World!

Going through my mind this Monday morning...

"I see trees of green, red roses too
 I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world."
-Louis Armstrong


It is a wonderful world if we allow ourselves to see the good that's happening every day:

"I see friends shakin' hands
Sayin' "How do you do?"
They're really sayin'
"I love you."

The Red Hospital Wagons Bringing Smiles To Many

"I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world."

Blind Boy Sees Mom For The First Time, And It’s Magical

Time for me to walk on down the road...

You Haven't Seen His Whole Act Yet

Good Day World!

It's no mystery why Donald Trump is popular; he's managed to mine the misery of the GOP's older white middle class men and turn it into votes thus far.

No one knows what Trump will do if he's actually elected president. That's because even Trump doesn't know what he'll do. 

How did a guy just as obnoxious as The Donald ever get elected as Maine's governor? Whoever voted for him is probably regretting their decision by now.

Governor Paul LaPage is the most racist, insensitive state governor in America. Is this what the voters expected when they elected him?

I have to wonder.

Read some of LaPage's comments:

 "The only thing that I've heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards."

That was LePage in 2011 dismissing concerns about the chemical BPA in plastic bottles.

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"The minute we start stifling our speech, we might as well go home, roll up our sleeves and get our guns out."

That was LePage fuming after he was barred last May from speaking at a state Appropriations Committee meeting.

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Maine State Sen. Troy Jackson "claims to be for the people, but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline."

LePage said this in 2013 after Jackson gave the Democratic response to the governor's budget veto.

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"If you want a good education go to private schools. If you can't afford it, tough luck. You can go to the public school."

LePage said that in 2012 while discussing school choice during a talk at a local community college

FULL ARTICLE

Meanwhile, if you think LaPage has been the poster boy for bad taste and racism, stop and think about what Trump would be like. 

He's already further divided an uneasy country with his racist rhetoric in just the primaries.

Worse, we haven't seen his whole act yet.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Feds Lying About Lack of Pot Studies to Prolong Prohibition

Good Day World!

I really get tired of the government telling us lies.

Fact: monied and ideological special interest groups don't want to see marijuana legalized.

They hook up with politicians to perpetrate lies to keep the plant on the Schedule One Drug list with the Feds. One of their biggest lies has been the repeated claims that no clinical testing has been done on marijuana.

The U.S. federal government, legislators, law enforcement officers and many health care professionals often use the “lack of clinical trials” with cannabis as a legitimate reason for continuing the marijuana prohibition. 
The Catch 22 here is that the federal government has made it virtually impossible for researchers to study the therapeutic efficacy of cannabis.

But guess what? There has been legitimate clinical trials conducted, and what's more they have showed the positive benefits of medical marijuana.

1) 60 Peer-Reviewed Studies on Medical Marijuana - Medical Studies Involving Cannabis and Cannabis Extracts (1990 - 2014)

2) Clinical Studies and Case Reports On Marijuana

3) More research:

 A. Ellis, R. J., Toperoff, W., Vaida, F., van den Brande, G., Gonzales, J., Gouaux, B., et al. (2008). Smoked medicinal cannabis for neuropathic pain in HIV: a randomized, crossover clinical trial. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(3), 672-680.

B. Abrams, D. I., Hilton, J. F., Leiser, R. J., Shade, S. B., Elbeik, T. A., Aweeka, F. T., et al. (2003). Short-term effects of cannabinoids in patients with HIV-1 infection. A randomized, placbo-controlled clinical trial. Ann Intern Med, 139, 258-266.

C. Ellis, R. J., Toperoff, W., Vaida, F., van den Brande, G., Gonzales, J., Gouaux, B., et al. (2008). Smoked medicinal cannabis for neuropathic pain in HIV: a randomized, crossover clinical trial. Neuropsychopharmacology, 34(3), 672-680.

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I could give more examples, but I think the above are enough to prove legislators are lying when they say there's not been ANY clinical trials.

Why hasn't someone exposed the lie then? Good question. You tell me.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

What A Trip! Wacky Predictions from the 1960s that Came True

                                         Good Day World!

Futurists in the early 1960s predicted that someday Americans would be transported in driver-less vehicles. I thought that was too big a stretch at the time, but look what happened...meet the Google self-driving car.

Looking at the popular technological literature in the 1960s is a study in contrasts. Anticipated inventions were often illustrated by using contemporary hardware in fantastic future predictions.

Does the illustration above remind you of anything? It sure looks like the forerunner for Smart Phones to me!

I certainly never thought that there would be underwater homes like predicted in the above illustration.

But guess what? 10 Underwater Facilities You Could Actually Live In

Fifty and 60 years ago gee-whiz films depicting life today were a staple—a sure way to wow audiences. Today these fanciful visions of the future live on, on YouTube.

As it turns out, though, there’s more technological progress predicted than social progress in the 1960s. The woman’s place in that “futureland” was by the (microwave) oven. Fortunately, Women today aren't stuck in the kitchen.

Science fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke, predicted robotic surgery in 1964. He was right on. 

There's hundreds of other examples out there. I just want to whet your appetite to research some more. Remember, knowledge is power and learning can be fun.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Ladies...what's stopping you from saying 'Thank You' when complimented?

Good Day World! 

  More often than not compliments can trigger an usual response when they come from one women to another. 

Rejection. 

That’s a sweeping statement but consider this; women these days receive mixed messages about which behaviors are desirable or accepted, according to Renee Engeln, a psychology professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. 
   “We’re told love yourself, but not too much. Be confident but practice a style of humility this culture doesn’t require of men. Less than we thought we were going to be. Less than what we could have been. This is a big issue with women,” said Engeln in a recent interview.
   Engeln also explained that women are taught to believe in themselves, but not to admit it, lest they make other women who don’t feel good about themselves feel uncomfortable. 
   In 41-years of research (aka marriage) I’ve watched this behavior first hand. My wife, a very intelligent person, will describe herself as a scatterbrain or some other negative description depending upon the company she’s in.
   She lives in fear of offending people. I may sleep out on the front porch for a couple of nights after she reads this post, but I like to share from experience. You know, that little bit of insider knowledge that keeps you from being a clueless clown even though you don’t have a degree in psychology.
   I’ve had a lifetime of observing women from my mother and sisters to my girlfriends. My wife has been my master’s degree on women and why they do the things they do. The whole concept has been foreign to me from the start. Experts say men just don’t worry about the same things. I’ll go along with that.
   I can’t remember the last time I went to a sporting event with my guy friends and had one of them tell me my outfit looked cute! I don’t recall any men I know ever admiring one another’s t-shirt or slim-cut pants when we got together. Perhaps I’ve lived a sheltered life.
   Men just aren’t that nice. Women often worry about hurting each other’s feelings. Men are busy bruising egos and boasting of their exploits to all who’ll listen. I’d wager if you checked out our DNA you’d find that most men are missing some nice traits. Not all, mind you.
   I think women are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to showing they feel confident without offending each other. I’ve personally witnessed a woman arrive at a party and get immediately complimented on her dress. She responded by saying she bought it at a Salvation Army Thrift Store! Even though it wasn’t true. 
   I ran across a viral video created by Amy Schumer of Comedy Central that every woman should watch. It shows a bunch of young women busy deflecting compliments from other young women. 
   Women are often considered unfeminine if they’re assertive in their careers. Men are thought of as “bold” or some equally positive description when they’re assertive. 
   That kind of thinking needs to recede into the past where it belongs. I think it’s up to women to break the double-standard. They can start by accepting compliments from one another. It’s okay to be praised for something. No matter what it is. Women don’t have to be complete jerks like men tend to be socially, but they should loosen up and not be afraid to say they’re good at what they do.
   We’re not responsible for what other people feel. You can be proud of what you do without being a heel. This change won’t come about overnight, but it’s time for more talk about the topic.
    I’ve watched my wife grow emotionally and intellectually in our marriage. However, she’s still learning how to take a compliment. 
   I remember reading “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus,” by John Gray, a relationship counselor and American author, and thinking …“This guy’s hit it on the head!” If you’ve never read the book give it a shot. It’s a good read.
 Time for me to walk on down the road...