I am trying to think of a topic that will get you talking. You, like any human being, want to sound profound, but that is not what I am looking for. It may sound sexist, but in this respect you cannot beat a mature, intelligent woman.
Shari and Elizabeth say what they are thinking about. Shari is too modest about her thoughts to suit my taste, but that doesn’t keep her from simply saying what is on her mind. Elizabeth will go on about her family or other personal things, but there is always a point I can chew on. The average male ego would rather die than say “merely” personal things.
Women’s Lib would be deeply offended at my making a general remark like this about women. But I have yet to find a single thing a man can say about women that Women’s Lib is NOT offended by, so I am interested in the Elizabeths and Sharis who would hunt me down and mount my head on their wall if I called them Women’s Libbers.
To return to my original topic here, I am trying to find a topic that will get you talking. I got some good stuff out of “Fear,” so I’m going to try it again.
Let me risk saying that almost every member of this seminar has some fear about money. Let me give you some background on that.
One biographer of Teddy Roosevelt talked about Theodore Roosevelt’s cowboy days. He said Teddy was a good, brave man out on the range and he was fearless in fighting during the Spanish-American War. With good reason when Teddy dealt with cowboys and soldiers, he considered himself “one of the guys.” He was hurt by the fact that he wasn’t fully thought of that way by his buddies, and he never understood why.
This biographer had a terrific insight on this. The writer said that Theodore Roosevelt was considered to be a brave, highly skilled man and a good friend by his fellows, “But he never shared with them the daily, humiliating fear of being without MONEY.”
Roosevelt’s father was proud of this fact: “I have left enough money to my son so that, if he is not profligate, he will never have to work for a living.” It wasn’t just that Teddy inherited money. There was also the fact that his father never expected him to ever have to work. He did not have to earn his father’s respect by striving. His family did not require him to EARN their respect.
That is a million miles from where his buddies lived. That is a million miles from where you and I live.
Another example. A WWII vet in the program was leveling with me. He had lots of combat experience in the Pacific Theatre and he had the medals to prove it. He told me about an island where he and other vets spent some time when they were not in actual fighting. The island was under the command of a particularly obnoxious colonel.
That colonel was no coward. That colonel who was in command and everybody else there had been in combat, plenty of it. But the colonel had one awful habit. When he got drunk at the officers’ club, he got mean. He would bang into people on purpose. Nobody dared to object to it. Finally one of the combat vets there actually knocked the hell out of him for it.
The guy who knocked hell out of hte commanding colonel went to military prison. The man who was talking to me admitted that if he or anybody else had gone to the court martial and testified as to how that colonel acted, their fellow combat veteran would not have gone to prison. In fact, the colonel would have probably been up on charges.
NOT ONE of the defendant’s beloved, loyal buddies dared to testify for him! There were dozens of them, but not one of them had the courage to speak up. This was something the vet who was talking to me had kept inside himself for years. He said I was the first person he had ever admitted it to.
So why didn’t these brave combat officers save their buddy from prison?
The reason was that none of these officers who chickened out had ruled out the possibility of remaining in the service after the war. Testifying AGAINST a senior officer in a court martial would put them in the same category as a doctor who testifies against other doctors in a malpractice suit. There are no legal penalties against it, but it can be suicide for a career.
They had ALL shown heroism in the nasty fighting on Pacific islands. None of them would have hesitated to risk death or lifelong disabilityto save their buddy’s life in actual fighting.
But NONE of them had the guts to risk his career, his MONEY, for a combat buddy in desperate need of their help. They had all been through the Depression, and the idea of hitting the job market at the age of thirty or forty with no non-military skills scared them so much that they let a buddy go to prison rather than risk a possible military career.
So it makesme sick to my stomach when these same WWII vets would tell me that nobody knows REAL fear unless they have been in COMBAT.
Bullshit.
I have been shot at, and I have faced the prospect of losing my high-paying job and hitting the job market at age forty. Getting shot at is nothing by comparison.
And THAT is what Theodore Roosevelt simply could not understand or empathize with.
#1 by Shari on 10/15/2006 - 6:03 pm
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Money has always been a constant running pressure on us. We have never had enough to be “smart” with, just enough to keep going. This is a load and a half when everyone wants MORE. For instance, the college president gets a 40K raise. You can’t vote against anything anymore. The weight is on the other side.
I can honestly say I’ve never cared about money directly, but to be free, we need sound money. This is a big reason why pc has thrived as long as it has, because it certainly is wickedly stupid. But people need money. They are now too busy trying to survive, or else too damned comfortable, to overthrow it. But it looks as if it will fall apart of its own rot.
Finally, like religion and politics, there are very few you can say anything to, about this. You will offend somebody. Besides, the churches and the politicians like to tell us that we are all the RICH.
#2 by Mark on 10/15/2006 - 7:23 pm
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“They had ALL shown heroism…”
Did they REALLY show heroism — or were they simply brainwashed by military training? Marines are sleep deprived during basic training so they can be brainwashed into killing on command. To me that’s not heroism, that’s cult like indoctrination to the enth degree. REAL heroism would have been standing up for one of their own at a court martial.
My uncle Dave is a Korean war navy vet. He says he is proud of having “fought for America.” He considers himself to have been a brave hero of sorts. He and his comrades fought the ugly, nasty, Korean Communist and made “America safe for democracy.” If he had NOT gone thru navy brain washing and if he had been faced with a real invading army — on American soil — I wonder if he or any of his greatest-generation-comrades would have had the stomach to fight?
Do I need to tell you that he will argue that Lincoln was right in his war agasint the Southern States?
#3 by Alan B. on 10/15/2006 - 8:26 pm
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You hit the nail on the head here Bob and this reminds me of something I said to a guy once who was a liberal. I said, its always the Ted Kennedy’s amd FDR’s who love to screw with the system, busing, welfare etc. I put it this way, no matter how badily these people screw things up for us average joes, they will still have their private beaches and expensive homes and trust funds, they have nothing to lose.
#4 by Pain on 10/16/2006 - 4:18 pm
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“So why didn’t these brave combat officers save their buddy from prison?
The reason was that none of these officers who chickened out had ruled out the possibility of remaining in the service after the war. Testifying AGAINST a senior officer in a court martial would put them in the same category as a doctor who testifies against other doctors in a malpractice suit. There are no legal penalties against it, but it can be suicide for a career.”
Let me say that I have been in the above position many times, and I have lost my job many times, and I am quite proud of it.
Here’s one of many stories I have on this.
I once taught Math and HIstory for a year to a fine group of seventh-graders. One third of them had ADD, ADHD, and other generic Learning Disabilities. They were great. The other teachers for this group were pregnant. Needless to say, the brand-new guy, me, was an instant hit. I got an excellent evaluation from the principal. Soon, however, the principal pulled me aside and told me that her son could not get a job in professional baseball, and since I was the newest teacher at the school she would be giving him my job. She claimed however that she would see that I was transferred to another school.
One day, one of the ADD boys came flying in a split second before the bell rang. He was something of a macho boy. My kids were quietly working on a warm-up on the overhead screen. He flew like the wind to his seat in the back and sat down. A few minutes later, he jumped out of his seat, said the f-word about five times and started to cry.
I sent him out to a side room. Since the class was quietly stunned, I went over to the kid and asked him what was wrong. He said someone had dumped old formula Krazy Glue into his chair, and he showed me a hole in his t-shirt with wet edges. (Later the art teacher told me he had hoarded old-formula Krazy Glue.) I went back to his seat and there was Krazy Glue where he said. I asked the class who did it. Naturally no one admitted it. I went back to him and asked him why this made him cry. He answered that his dad was in jail for the third strike possession of marijuana, had gotten out temporarily for Christmas two years ago, returned to prison, and the kid hadn’t seen him since and didn’t even know where he was.
I had an adult aid in the classroom. She was hired to help the kids with the learning disabilities. She used to tell me that she didn’t believe in ADHD or learning disabilities, since the real problem was that the kids were lazy and their doctor’s diagnosis was just a pathetic excuse. She used to wear her hair in a little tiny pony tail in the back at the top, like a little girl. However, she was in her fifties. The women once told me she had a son she thought was about my age, but they did not get along and he had left the country. When the kid started to cry, she ran out of the room.
Soon a special meeting was called to deal with the special situation with the principal and the other teachers who taught this group of kids. But instead of talking about how to help the kid, the meeting went on about how evil all boys in the world were. The aid reenacted the boy’s jumping out of his seat and seemed to really enjoy shouting the f-word five times to imitate him. She ignored his crying and the glue in his seat.
I defended the kid and the five women began screaming in my face about how evil all men and boys were. My fear was great since I had never been a situation like this and I knew I was going to lose any chance of teaching in the district again. The principal suspended the kid for three days.
Some kids overhead the other adults screaming and heard me quietly trying to explain the whole story. This improved my reputation greatly among all the kids and even though one third of the kids had ADD, management was no issue (they were also white) for the next few months.
The next day, one of my very best students came forward and said it was she who had dumped the glue. I didn’t believe her, but the boy was satisfied and thanked her.
The principal put in writing that I was not come back to the school in fall. Over the next few months, the job became a daily battle with the aid going to the principal, asserting some nonsense, and the principal calling me into her office and screaming, finger-wagging. These sessions removed my preparation time for the kids. I went to the district offices and negotiated for them to buy out my contract with the sugar that the principal would get to place her son at the school. They did. The kids gave the principal’s son hell and they said that as big as he was, he often looked like he was going to cry.
Sticking up for some poor kid at that school felt like a million dollars. The look on the other kids’ faces afterwards was worth another million. When I went around town, I caught kids and parents whispering from the corner of my eye. Yes, people can be that nice.
I loved those kids and I had really loved that job. I have not found a decent job since. I am poor and miserable.
Would I do that all again? You bet.
#5 by Shari on 10/16/2006 - 7:30 pm
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Oh boy, Pain’s experience brings back memories. Both of my sons had outragious episodes with women teachers. I learned long time ago that there is a big difference between despising men and knowing which ones to despise. You can’t do both. Too many women, young and old, can’t tell the difference. BIG education has injected it’s poison.
#6 by Elizabeth on 10/16/2006 - 9:04 pm
I used to want to get my teaching certificate. Eventually, I got the opportunity but never quite completed all the coursework. I had found out for myself just how stupid and dangerous the Education Establishment could be. Even worse, I’d found out that most people working towards teaching certificates in “Social Studies” — few states certify teachers in History — are
plain dumb. (The intelligent ones tend to go for certificates in high school physical sciences,
higher mathematics, foreign languages, and Special Education.)
I’m 48 and will be getting my M.A. in History in December. I’m planning to go back to work
for the Federal government. I’d love to teach at the college level but know how bad the job
market is. (I might be able to pick up some part-time work teaching community college but
I have to have something going with health insurance attached to it.)I love teaching. But I’ve
been burned badly at K-12 teaching.
#7 by Gillian on 10/23/2006 - 7:21 pm
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Perhaps never having to put oneself on the line, day in and day out,
is the crux of the addiction to self-indulgence which begets the stupor
of willful ignorance.