I try to stay away from too much politics in this blog, but I thought I would include a recent piece of mine that the Concord Monitor published on Friday. The world seems to be going a little crazy lately and I think we need to tamp down the anger a lot both in the U.S. and almost everywhere in the world.

Starting at home would be a good idea. The United States should set an example for the rest of the world by electing a President who can work with others and bring some logic and order to our actions both at home and abroad. I hope the electorate will be smart enough to figure this out.

Glenn K. Currie

Conservative Choices

When I was in junior high school, I agreed to play on a church basketball team. One night we played the top team, against which I had scored nineteen points during our previous meeting. Apparently, that was frowned upon because the first time I drove the basket, one of their players hit me in the teeth with an elbow. There was no foul call and lots of trash talk.

I let my anger fester and finally exploded later in the game when my assailant was driving his basket. I put a hip under him that sent him six feet off the court. We immediately got in a fist fight and I was thrown out of the game and off the team.

The relevant point regarding the current primary is that we have seen conservative republicans taking elbows in the teeth for two decades and the festering anger is finally starting to surface. In their anger some are throwing their support behind a guy they think will “even the score”. The problem is that such a candidate will stand no chance of winning the general election and will probably result in their very valid concerns being discarded as they are “thrown out of the game” for picking a stupid fight. Instead let’s “get even” by uniting the party and appealing to the large number of unhappy independents, to make real change, and help eliminate the incompetence and irresponsibility that currently exists in Washington.

The world doesn’t need any more “bomb throwers”. Electing someone as President of the United States is a huge responsibility. And yes, we haven’t done a very good job lately. We have already proven that a “hope and change” guy, with no experience in anything, is going to be totally overwhelmed by the office. It’s a complicated job that takes an ability to make hard decisions, and also a willingness to compromise and work with others.

Our government has spent the last few decades throwing one big frat party at home. We have left a trail of destruction in morals, ethics, drugs, and infrastructure. We have lost our sense of responsibility for our actions, and our ability to tell the difference between right and wrong. Nobody has a clue how to pay for this big party and the answer from the Democrats is “more of the same’, and to let someone else deal with all the garbage our generation leaves strewn on the front lawn.

And overseas it may be even worse. We cannot make a decision and sometimes don’t even make an appearance when things start to go to hell. Uncle Sam is like the weird old relative who lives in the attic and only comes down on the Fourth of July wearing a tin pot hat and thinking he is going to lead the parade.

Our young people are dying or being maimed in conflicts all over the world and we seem to have no strategy and no real objectives. Yet we ignore the major threats to our way of life. Our answer to terrorism is to call it by a different name and try to pass bills to disarm Americans at home, and to sign treaties abroad that will arm our enemies. (Are we really giving Iran 150 billion dollars to support the mess in the Middle East and kill our allies?)

If conservatives are truly angry about all of this, they should work to create a Republican ticket that can actually get elected. There are lots of independents and even some Democrats that are finally getting tired of our current situation. People yearn for leadership that can help reunite the country and solve problems instead of just feeding the flames of hopelessness with devalued dollars. The Democrats have no answer. If they are tired of Hillary and more of the same, their only choice is Bernie, whose solutions all involve spending more money and throwing a bigger party.

But the solution certainly isn’t to be thrown out of the game. Please choose carefully in the upcoming primary. It may be feel good to hit a few people in the teeth after the mess that has been created, but we need long term solutions. There are several candidates that actually have some answers. Let’s fix things, not blow them up.

As I sit inside with ice on my driveway and more snow forecast for tomorrow, I realize just how right people have been about climate change. It changes almost daily and in New England in winter, it hardly ever changes for the better.

When the sun comes out, it is usually bone-shattering cold. If it is cloudy, it’s even colder, or about to rain and freeze on the roads and cars, or about to snow and stay until May. We do usually have a January thaw, except some years, but even then it is really just an excuse to create slush that careless drivers splash all over the desperate walkers who mistakenly take to the streets in hopes of finding spring.

It is at these times that I think most about climate change and how we might seek solutions to this problem that our President has labelled as the most pressing issue facing us in the world (unless you happen to have just been captured by ISIS).

One answer to this issue, which I actually thought up a few years ago, but, surprisingly, has never been acted upon, seems worthy of bringing up again in hopes that the world will soon be free of “climate change”. My one caveat is that this policy should be enacted in summer in New England so that the southern hemisphere gets stuck with the drawback of “no climate change”, which could mean eternal winter for those poor fools.

My solution was previously published in Granite Grumblings (Snap Screen Press, 2011) under the title Solution to Global Warming but has been updated here to reflect the realization that “global warming” is really “climate change”.

Glenn K. Currie

Solution to Climate Change

I’ve been doing some thinking about climate change. All the publicity and concern about its dangers has prompted me to seek a real solution to these serious issues.

Initially, I was led to believe that the cause was a bunch of unthinking folks driving big SUV’s, and maybe those politicians in Washington emitting all that hot air. But, recently, I read an article that stated that the biggest contributors to our ozone hole are cows. Yep, old Bessie’s flatulence is what is really doing us in.

When I looked at the big picture, this made a lot of sense. While I personally didn’t think Bessie’s  issues were that bad, I had long sensed that it was a problem being downwind from Vermont.

As I pondered the Earth-destroying subject of cow flatulence, it suddenly came to me that this could be the solution to many of New Hampshire’s and ultimately, the world’s problems. We could seize the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of this issue. Why not sell “flatulence credits’? Al Gore has been pushing his company that sells “carbon credits”, but I think we could do better.  We could copyright “flatulence credits” and then sell them to cow owners. This would in turn let them off the hook for their olfactory role in causing climate change. They could put little stickers on their milk and cheese and butter certifying that they are “flatulence friendly”.

The concept would work like this, initially. The state sells these credits to cow owners, the revenues from which are used by the state to buy up all the cans of beans on our grocery shelves. This simultaneously removes another only slightly smaller cause of flatulence. Ultimately, we could license this concept worldwide (it would work for sheep, too) and the State would collect a fee for every credit sold. We would in turn use the revenue from the credits, after buying up all the beans, to pay for schools and other needs, and maybe build some giant wind power fans at the Vermont border to blow Vermont’s flatulence down to Massachusetts, where they are accustomed to bad odors.

This would solve a lot of climate change problems. Cow flatulence would be offset by a reduction in human flatulence, our taxes would probably go down, and we would be drinking environmentally-approved dairy products. The only losers would be the growers and processors of beans. But I have a solution to that also. We just get Congress to pass a bill requiring all vehicles to start using a new fuel blend called beanahol. Then everyone would be a winner, once drivers got a good whiff of the beanahol emissions, we would surely see a lot fewer drivers on the road. This might eventually solve the climate change problem completely, and  New Hampshire could take its rightful place as the state that let the air out of the flatulence balloon, ended climate change, and got the ice off my driveway.

Sometimes it seems like “the melting pot” is no longer a valid description of America. Newcomers to this country hold onto their history a little too tightly. The nation works so hard to foster diversity and delineate people by so many different cultural and racial identities that we build walls instead of blending into a more uniform citizenry.

At the same time, the picture that we project to the world, and which is so gladly inhaled around the globe, is a distorted view through the lenses of television shows, film productions and musical concerts.

While this is wonderful from the standpoint that it has helped make English the international language, and provides lots of revenue to our nation, arriving refugees think that is what America is really like. It can require a real readjustment if their only understanding of the United States comes from dealing with the State Department and watching the slop put out by Hollywood.

The real America is a big space in between these two places, and most immigrants wind up somewhere in that space.

The people who adapt most quickly are the kids. They go to school and get absorbed into the culture. Often, they in turn then have to bring their elders along. As long as immigrants allow their children the freedom to be American kids, I think our immigration issues will sort themselves out.

So far, in my observations of what is happening in New Hampshire, I think we are doing okay. The poem “The Refugee” (Copyright Glenn K. Currie, 2016) is about a brief observation I had a few weeks ago, and about an intersection of cultures that is, so far, avoiding any major crashes.

Glenn K. Currie

The Refugee

He scorched the intersection

In a blaze of color.

Red and purple and yellow

On black.

He ignored the stoplight,

Went the wrong way

Up the “one way” street

And raced away smiling.

He was one of them:

The new arrivals.

Bhutan or Senegal or someplace.

A long way to come

On a bicycle.

Already oblivious to rules,

Hat on backwards,

He was learning quickly.

I have received a notice that indicates that those of you trying to follow my blog on Google Friends Connect will have to open or already have a Google account to go that route. I have no idea why they are playing this game and I apologize if it creates an inconvenience for any of you, especially my many overseas followers.
I would suggest that if that is a problem, please connect directly to my blog via glennkcurrie.blogspot.com and add it to your home screen.
thanks again for your support and I apologize for this inconvenience.
Apparently this change will go into effect on 1/11/16.
Glenn K. Currie

I’m including a poem today that I wrote a few months ago. It is a reflection of the times in which we live: a period when the world is changing so fast that our children and grandchildren cannot even relate to the ways of society just a few decades past.

Just as there is a chasm between generations in technology and philosophy, there has been a figurative implosion of the Earth that has left us lost in clouds where no one can find sanctuary.

The tall grass can neither hide us nor protect us from the revolution that has swept us along for 115 years. Instead it helps to fuel the journey into the future, taking us to a place where even the ghosts are swallowed by their history.

“Ghosts” (copyright 2015, Glenn K. Currie) was just published in Touchstone’s summer issue, although an editorial error has listed the wrong author. Fortunately the check was issued to the correct person and I have been promised that the error will be corrected in the next issue.

My best regards to all of you for a wonderful 2016.

Glenn K. Currie

Ghosts            

Tall grass muffled their departure

So that I hardly knew they were gone.

Sometimes I think I see them

Running along the edge of ancient forests.

Their hooves pound the hollowed earth

That falls away even as I watch.

The ground shifts, the planet spins,

And they are swallowed whole.

Their graves are the caverns left

By the needs of their successors.

Their replacements rage across the land,

Arriving in spectacle, burning the air,

Eating the tall grass of their ancestors.

I wrote “A Christmas Prayer” a few years ago and included it in my poetry collection In the Cat’s Eye (Snap Screen Press, 2009). Unfortunately, it has seemed to apply every year since. We can only pray that, one day, a Star in the East will shine down on all of us, and make this prayer come true.

In the meantime, may God bless all of you, everywhere, and teach us how to truly bring “goodwill” to the world.

Glenn K. Currie.

A Christmas Prayer

We exist in a dark age.

A time where horrible things

Are done unto each other

In the name of religion.

Help us to find passage

To religions’ true teachings.

To end the hatred,

The explosions of hearts and minds.

Let quiet words create a gentle breeze

That blows away

The acrid scent of burning anger,

The smoke that blinds the soul.

And in this season

 Where presents are exchanged so freely,

Help us to begin to find

That gift born within each of us.

Give us the vision to see the light

That shines in the body electric.

That glow emitted by the human spirit

That can reach the farthest stars.

Give us the wisdom

To use that internal flame

 To find our way onto a new path,

And into a new world.

To that promised land

Where lions lie down with lambs,

And there is Peace on Earth

Goodwill to Men.

I think that sometimes we forget that real people are involved in the news stories that are so breathlessly related to us by some form of media. We read the headlines, and the throwaway quotes, and go back to the football or video game or current reality show that is so important in our lives. But there are real people involved in each of these. When we talk about refugees, many are people like ourselves who made the best decision possible for their families by fleeing a war torn area where a six-sided gunfight with major weaponry was being held. Most rational folks with children and homes being blown apart would probably make the decision to leave the general area.

Yet our leaders and many of our citizens simply look at the survivors as statistics. We don’t really want to be bothered with finding solutions and go with the most negative approach possible.

The following is a piece I wrote for the Concord Monitor and which was published this morning, that comments on this issue.

Concord Monitor, December 19, 2015

Apparently, common sense has become a very scarce commodity among the leadership in this country.

In a global society more integrated than ever, we are resorting to solutions like the Willows Palisades and the Berlin Wall to deal with the flood of refugees that have been swept like loose flotsam into camps too small to sustain them.

Our country has been feckless in dealing with the cancer called ISIS that has been growing in the Middle East and now, as the side effects spread across the world, we appear to be equally clueless in dealing with those members of our world community who have been cast adrift.

It is part of being a humane society to offer help to those in extremis. Some of our politicians, however, are busy posturing, and shouting out the first reactionary thoughts that come to mind from an unsuccessful playbook that was written centuries ago. Here’s a useful update for the isolationists and wall-builders. The planet is now like a big open room with no exits. We are not going to be successful if we spend our time trying to build walls out of chairs and blankets like kindergartners looking for a hiding place.

The global society is long past where we can just close our doors as a nation or a community and think the misfortunes of life will pass us by. People come into this country every day illegally. They have no screening, and yes, some wish to do harm. Building high walls won’t change that. As the world shrinks, we need to find better solutions. Our nation has retreated from the world scene in recent years. And the primary leading candidates of both parties are not providing much hope for positive change. But we need to get our act together quickly.

Glenn K. Currie

As the generations that grew up in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s pass from the active scene, I worry that the community structure in our nation is undergoing a seismic change.

The local organizations that provided both financial and cultural support to help knit our communities together are fading away and being replaced with nothing but the complex bureaucratic structures of the Federal government.

The aging generations and a strong local financial structure were the backbone of support in cities and towns all across the country. They are slowly dying.

1)      Fraternal organizations such as Masons, Shriners, Odd Fellows, Knights of Columbus, etc. have been fading away for years.

2)      Social organizations such as Rotary, Kiwannis, the Lion’s Club and the Grange have funded a huge amount of the social requirements of communities. But their memberships are dwindling.

3)      Military organizations such as the VFW and American Legion have become shadows of their former selves.

4)      Children’s groups like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, 4H and Camp Fire which provided structure for so many kids have been overshadowed by the appeals of video games and drugs.

5)      Churches in most areas of the country have had dramatic losses in membership and can no longer bring the resources they once had to the social structure.

6)      The feeling of neighborhood and shared association has disappeared in many areas.

7)      Local banks, which provided so much aid to community efforts are disappearing, replaced by regional or national organizations that have lost touch with local needs.

8)      Public libraries, historical associations, and musical organizations like community concert groups, city orchestras and choral groups are finding it tougher and tougher to survive.

There are not many new organizations, fueled by the younger generations, that are focusing on replacing or reinvigorating what we are losing. Instead we are passing local responsibilities to the federal government where local needs are neither understood nor capable of being supported. Our sense of community is disappearing with them. We have already seen the impact it has had on quality of education and healthcare. The bureaucrats in Washington just don’t have the same level of interest or involvement in the quality of life in local communities. They are looking at bigger pictures.

We will lose a lot if this continues. The appreciation of the arts and the human spirit, the security of neighborhoods where people care about each other, the sense of actually feeling involved in our government will all disappear. Perhaps it already has in many places. We all may soon be tucked into our internal worlds where electronics are our lifelines to the outside, and we are just a population living in the same area. We may become a nation of lost souls adrift in tiny spaces that never feel like “home”.

I am including a piece from Granite Grumblings (Snap Screen Press, 2011) called Phil and Larry's, which may provide you with a little sense of what we already are missing.

Glenn K. Currie

Phil and Larry’s

When Phil and Larry’s store closed, it marked the passing of an institution which had been a landmark for the community. It was a destination for countless high school students who appreciated its convenience to their classrooms, but even more so, it was the sustaining energy for a neighborhood.

During the lifetime of this business, the world changed. Small downtowns were assaulted by the encroachment of mammoth malls. Service stations became convenience stores with self-service gas pumps. Five and dime stores gave way to Walmart and Target, and the corner grocer traded his apron for the unreadable nametag of the supermarket.

 Somewhere along the way, the sense of ourselves as individuals also started to disappear, burning out in the white-hot intensity of modern life. People rushed head down from door to car to door, consumed by the demands of making a living, and content to satisfy their needs for conversation and human contact through the sanitized filter of the TV screen and the internet. Along the way, friends became acquaintances, neighbors were hardly known, and parents and children sometimes became distant relatives.

There were few lifelines to reach for as the waves of change swept us along. The banker who used to work on a handshake, suddenly was replaced by someone reporting to Boston or Ireland, and needed a file to know your name. And the family doctor was often replaced by organizations that ran on acronyms and numbers.

Maybe that’s why the passing of Phil Denoncourt’s little store had such a profound affect on the community it served. Phil is a personable man who seemed to reflect the best of old New Hampshire. He looked you in the eye, had that dry sense of humor that seems to be nursed to perfection in this state, and he knew everyone’s names. He treated his customers with respect and had the time to listen when you wanted to talk. He and his family provided an environment that made people want to linger and chat after they made their purchases.

Often you would see Phil and customers playing cribbage or checkers or cards when times were slow. He was always willing to give you an opinion on the movies in his video library, or discuss the virtues of the local sports teams, many of which he saw up close in his capacity as a baseball and softball umpire.

The store itself had a special charm. It was filled with all sorts of novelty candies, sports cards, and inexpensive toys that made it a joy for children of all ages. You could buy night crawlers, hunting and fishing licenses, hardware items, lottery tickets or get your skates sharpened. We were often amazed at the variety of items in the store, although I must admit that some of them had been there a while. But more than once when we had searched every store in town in vain for a desperately needed item, we would finally find it on a back shelf at Phil's.

When the world finally left the little store behind, it was because people no longer had time for it. Life had moved to the turnpikes and the country roads had become curiosities.

There was a farewell party at the store, and a final auction attended by friends. Typically, Phil felt he had recouped his inventory costs during the “going out of business” sale that preceded it, so he donated the auction proceeds to charity. People came from all over Concord to laugh and cry and pay their respects. And Phil and his mother and the rest of the family that had seen it through two generations, watched it finally end. A place that had once been called the “city hall annex” because so many of the city’s leaders congregated there, finally became an empty shell.

I don’t worry about Phil. He had a new job within two days of starting his search. And he is the kind of individual who brings to an employer much more in value than a paycheck can ever return.

I do worry about the community, however. I feel sorry for the high school students who will grow up never experiencing the difference between a Phil and Larry’s, and a self-service convenience store. And I grieve for the local residents, present and future, who have lost the chance to meet their neighbors there, talk sports and politics, and feel the pulse of a real neighborhood.

For all of us, these kinds of places were an important part of what shaped the character of New Hampshire, and they are now rapidly disappearing from the scene.

I'm really not anxious to get into the whole gun control argument because I don't know what the right answer is, But I do find it curious that in a war with ISIS and with bad guys seemingly running around all over the place, the first response by many is that the law abiding public should disarm. Is this what all the smart people were saying after Pearl Harbor? Is this really going to defeat the whack jobs and terrorists? Maybe some other steps might be justified.  Sorry, but it is hard to sustain my Christmas spirit  when the news keeps punching me in the mouth.

Wow! A recent headline in the Concord Monitor said that “U. S. shoppers are losing their holiday spirit”. I wonder why.

1)      Is it because greed seems to have replaced the generosity, good humor, love and hope that used to be the emotional drivers behind the season?

2)      Are we becoming so stressed during this season that instead of the “Christmas” spirit, many are being infused with the beginnings of a nervous breakdown?

3)      Perhaps it is having to deal with the “scolds” who are everywhere telling us: a) Christmas foods should be replaced with kale, b) The sweet smell of a real tree should be buried under the smooth plastic of an artificial tree from Macy’s, c) the sounds of Christmas carols are offensive and should be taken off public airwaves, d) make sure you get a permit before you roast any chestnuts on an open fire, and e) stop offending people by wishing them a Merry Christmas.

4)      Maybe it is that many churches don’t seem like such a welcoming place anymore and you can’t come out of a service filled with the joy that used to accompany those visits. Instead you too often get a dose of political propaganda that leaves you more upset than when you entered.

5)      Or possibly you are discouraged by the constant assault from the courts telling you to stop referring to Christmas, the baby Jesus or anything else that has to do with the religious part of this religious holiday if you are on public property or in a public place where non-believers could be offended. (And yes there is always someone out there who is offended by everything.)

6)      Finally if it is strictly the shopping that has gotten you down, perhaps it isn’t fun anymore. The following may be some of the reasons for that: There isn’t much joy in using the internet, although it is fast and it keeps you from having to interact with real people. The stores and communities don’t spend as much time on Christmas (sorry) holiday decorations. Mostly now it seems like fake snow and candy canes. So that isn’t something to take the kids to see. And the Santa thing has been done to death. Too many bad Santas and bad TV that leaves the kids with no sense of wonder. And finding the good humor and courtesy that was once a part of the season now is such a rarity that finding “an honest man” may be an easier search.

Let’s face it, the “holiday spirit” has gradually been sucked out of the atmosphere. It has gone the way of the nuclear family, apple pie, knowing your neighbors, and good manners. And the season is now just an extended period for businesses to sell stuff…sort of President’s Day on steroids.

For a few of us, however, as we hide in our basements among our Christmas ornaments and manger scenes, there is still a little of the old Christmas spirit in our souls. For you who hide there with me, I share “Christmas Day” (Riding in Boxcars, 2006) and wish you that much criticized greeting, Merry Christmas! For those of you whom I have offended, I should warn you that later in this month I will be featuring another Christmas poem, so be warned.

Glenn K. Currie

                             Christmas Day

We gather together,

Searching,

For lost childhoods

And home work undone.

Eating from platters

Shared for decades

With those now framed

In old photographs.

We gather together,

Mixing meals,

In cultural blenders

Prepared for young and old.

Traditions traded

Like baseball cards.

Compromises,

Bringing new treasures.

We gather together,

Tied by red ribbons,

Strung on family trees.

Children receiving the gifts,

Handed down

Through generations.

Brightly wrapped,

Or given in a smile.

We gather together,

Singing ancient carols

Of spiritual renewal.

Ends and beginnings,

Celebrated

Joyfully,

In the promise,

This day born.