At Home On Piety Hill

Yes, it’s true. Denise and I have other children. Besides our children in the US, we have two more families in Uganda. I met their fathers on my first trip there in 2000. Since that time, we have kept in touch and helped them with tuition for their education. In Uganda, education is valued very highly and private school can be a real advantage.

Shammah is about 10 years old and, though we have never met, she loves us dearly and we love her. She is the oldest and has three little brothers. Her letters and photographs portray her as a smart, confident and patient young lady. She would like to become a medical doctor.

You know, a little bit of money goes a long way over there.

The other day at work, I was following my usual routine… performing menial labor, while I listen to talk or opinion on the radio. One of my customers, who would probably consider herself progressive, tolerant and erudite, came to the counter and asked, “how can you listen to so much hate?” I was taken aback and then responded, “man, you should have heard the hate I was listening to this morning driving up here. I had NPR on the radio!” Then, it was her turn to look surprised.

So, I thought it might be a good idea to reflect on what I listen to and why; then blog about it. I don’t watch commercial television and what little time I do have to enjoy video, I try to spend watching good films or something educational. But, I have hours every day when I am commuting or doing production work, so I listen to a very specific, well-rounded mix of radio and spoken word.

Now, before I start blogging about what I’m listening to, you may be wondering if I was serious about National Public Radio (NPR) and “hate?” Well, “yes” and “no.” You see, I am an amateur media analyst… I love watching how art, film and communication media are employed to educate, sell, persuade and manipulate people’s thinking. And, I’m equally fascinated by people’s response, when they are “getting worked.” But, I don’t see this process as necessarily bad and I’m not using the term “worked” as a pejorative, nor do I think all propaganda is bad. However, I do think there is such a thing as what Francis Schaeffer called “true truth.” And, I actually enjoy the challenge and the excitement of “drilling down” through what’s presented to me throughout the day and sorting out “what’s really going on.” It’s something of a hobby for me.

NPR is one of my staples… it’s one of my main sources of news, opinion and entertainment and I wish them success, even though I’m always urging Congress to cut their funding and make the private Corporation For Public Broadcasting earn their keep and compete on a level playing field with their commercial counterparts! I think, by and large, they do a good job, but they lean left and I find it amusing that there are actually folks who think that NPR or the BBC are “objective.” Face it folks, no news or opinion source is objective and I really don’t expect them to be. If NPR had to compete for listeners ($$$), I think they would be more diverse and cover a broader range of cultural and political perspectives in their programming.

When we are talking about “hate,” as defined by my customer, we are actually talking about critical opinion, parody, sarcasm, downright ridicule, etc.. So, do I hear that on NPR? By her definition, sure! I’ve heard some of the most narrow, bigoted, hateful language and opinion from NPR’s most vaunted personalities: Terry Gross, Garrison Keillor, Daniel Schorr and Steve Inskeep. But, more on them later… I suppose what I’m saying is that “hate” is a loaded word and its definition often depends upon which side of the opinion you’re on. Your sense of humor and ability to laugh at yourself and the absurdity of some of your deeply held opinions, along with the discipline it takes to be objective (when news organizations are not) will play a part in ones idea of what qualifies as “hate.” A rudimentary grasp of history can also be helpful, in putting things into perspective.

Write Fink! has been blogging about old VWs and conjured up a few memories of, believe it or not, young romance. When I met Denise (she was 17 and I was 18), she had a blue 1966 Volkswagen Beetle, much like the one in the photo. Technically, it was Brian, Denise and Diane’s VW, but when Brian was off to school, Denise had seniority and it was eventually handed down to Diane. My heart still thumps when I think of Denise, long blonde hair blowing through the window, leaning into a turn, cranking the wheel with her left hand, while down-shifting with her Dr. Scholl’s clogs. Phew… I better cool down here.

It had one of those crank sunroofs, which meant that we didn’t need racks for my surfboard… just stuck it out the top! It got good mileage, ran well and I remember the radio working. However, it did have one particularly annoying flaw. There was some sort of obstruction in the channel, which the cables ran through to the engine compartment. It seems once every six months, the clutch cable would snap in some inconvenient location, like a busy intersection. Still, we enjoyed that car very much.

There were other Volkswagens in my life. A guy I worked for had a legendary old bus; white with windows and and Union Jack painted on each side on the small back panel. Then, there was Joe’s bus with problems overheating. His solution? “We’ll just pull the engine.” It seems like we spent a lot of time pushing the bus away from a motor on a jack, until the last time when the flywheel came off outside of Cloverdale CA. That’s when being a hippie became a real drag.

Joe M (preserving his annonymity) had a “rock buggy” — an original dune buggy, chopped with floatation tires on the back, which he would sneak out at age 14 (I was 13), late at night, to go forth wreaking havoc (idiots).

Andy had a ‘58 bus with no windows and double doors on each side — one side welded shut. It had a dangerously small motor — 1100 something CCs, I think. The van was totally beat and had “Moon Unit” spray-painted on the side, as well as spirals on each hubcap. Their was a reason behind the junky exterior. This was about 1973 and inside, Andy had a state-of-the-art TEAC cassette player, a big amp and some monster speakers, as well as a comfy mattress. As I recall, we just drove around listening to music real loud.

Denny’s VW was the best!

The pro photos are in and they are beautiful. Hope you enjoy them here.

This weekend, I’m cleaning up all of my eMail SPAM and webforms on my sites. So far, success! The highlight is this anti-SPAM plugin for WordPress that really works. It’s called Did You Pass Math? and requires the commenter to solve a simple arithmetic problem before the comment is submitted. Fortunately, robots aren’t smart enough to know that 2 + 2 equals 4… yet.

Next, I’ll be checking out some spell checkers… The last one I tried didn’t work.