This is a piece that was published in the Concord Monitor this morning.

I picked up the May 18^th copy of the Concord Monitor and noticed that in addition to the stories about recovering drug addicts and the need for more government subsidies, there was a piece about how the country was going into a tailspin regarding its moral conduct.

Apparently the writer just recently had this revelation after noting that an egotistical blowhard (my words not his) like Donald Trump was a serious candidate for President. What really perplexed me, however, was not the sudden clarity of his view on society, but that this same individual (a politician himself) has been a very staunch and public supporter of one of the country’s most morally corrupt politicians of the last two decades. Yet it took Donald Trump for him to realize that this country had lost its moral compass.

The capacity for hypocrisy among our politicians is hard to believe. And yet they somehow manage to keep setting higher plateaus from which to bloviate. Still, it was hard to disagree with his essential point that the country has lost its way as it wanders down the path to disaster.

There was another article in the paper discussing the demise of many local newspapers in this country. It was a nice piece but I couldn’t help but wonder if the writer was too close to the problems.

Yes, the newspaper industry is beset by many issues. The internet has provided inexpensive competition, has taken away ad revenues and changed the readership habits of many in the population. But the local newspapers have also lost awareness of some of the advantages they have, such as being the ready source of what is really going on in local communities. Unfortunately, the Monitor, and many others seem to focus primarily on the negative side of things. Even when they think it is an uplifting approach such as the article on a recovering addict or a new homeless shelter, it is a negative kind of positive. We are celebrating the care and success of those who have spent their lives making poor decisions. Yes, it is good that we are doing this, but if this is all we are doing we are heading for a murky future.

The morale and morals in our community might be well served by showing some truly positive  examples. Perhaps we could highlight some of the fathers and mothers who have taken responsibility to raise their children well: families without drug problems, and where abuse and infidelity aren’t the flavor of the week. I believe that many of those exist although you would never know it from the news. Perhaps we could feature a few pieces  about the business people who bring jobs and products to the area or those bringing creativity and vision to the community.

I know we don’t seem to be getting much of this from our political leaders right now, but that makes it even more critical that we provide it locally. There are lots of people in Concord and New Hampshire who resist the temptations of the world. They make sacrifices for their kids, work difficult jobs, treat people with respect and integrity, and help establish a “moral” environment. Couldn’t we focus a little more often on those stories?

I talk to a lot of people in this community, have served on a multitude of boards and think I have a pretty good sense of the pulse of the city, and I can tell you that the Monitor is losing its position as a real representative of the citizens. Readers tell me they may still subscribe to find out what physical events are happening, but they spend less time on the articles because it’s too depressing, it is just saying the same thing over and over, or it has no diversity in its approach to issues.

I realize that it is a hard road for the news media in this country to travel. It is very easy to focus on the negative. We have violence, wars, a poor economy, and lots of bad decisions made by our leaders and our individual citizens. But the majority of people in this country still work hard, raise their children well, and try to live good lives. We need to be reminded of that. In this election year we are facing a mystifyingly bad set of choices for new leadership. And perhaps we all need to take responsibility for that. There has been a distinct lack of attention given to people who do things the right way. Everyone, especially the media, focuses on the train wrecks in society. The non-producers and the manipulators get the attention, so we shouldn’t be surprised when they rise to the surface in a national election where the most outrageous, the most devious, the most deceitful, are the names the electorate gravitates toward. 

Glenn K. Currie

One of the TV shows that Susanne and I used to like to watch was Nashville. The show had a nice mix of likeable characters, interesting new performers and the feeling that the actors actually liked each other. There were always plot lines that included some drama and a few characters who were necessarily dislikeable. But in general, it was a “feel good” show.

About two years ago everything started to change. The number of songs performed by the actors (they actually sang) dropped dramatically, and in its place, the characters were all given major problems to deal with. As a result of the plot lines, the “likeability” quotient of most of the performers began to drop dramatically.

By this year, the show had become a typical soap opera with over-wrought drama and almost no music.

Today I read that the show is being cancelled. This should be a surprise to no one. I had stopped taping it a few weeks ago because it just became too darn depressing. Writers too often forget that viewers often watch programs to escape the problems and burdens of the events they see every day on the news.

A show named Nashville should provide a look at country music and allow us to identify with a fictional world where, at least once in a while, things go right for the characters. The writers instead started to fall into the typical cycle of misery, duplicity, back-stabbing and tragedy that defines so many nameless offerings on television. They killed the likeability of the characters, the association with the city and, most importantly, they killed the music. For a series with the name Nashville there wasn’t much else to kill except the show.

As a writer of humor and poetry, I have always believed that it is useful to provide the reader with something that can lift their spirits, or at least leave them empathizing with the characters or the topic.

I feel sorry for the actors because they had put together a talented group of performers, but the writers and director ran their ship aground on the mud banks of the Cumberland River and the their paddle wheeler has sunk with all hands.

Perhaps a final question might be why Hollywood seems to do this so often. They seem to lose touch with their audience and change shows to fulfill other objectives. Comedies stop making us laugh and start preaching to us. Dramas seem to lose a sense of proportion and go way over the top or else get so involved in a single story plot that they lose track of what made them popular. Hollywood needs to get over themselves and stop thinking they are so much smarter than their audience that they can use the bait and switch on viewers to accomplish other objectives. 

Here's a little message for the people in southern California. We look to you for entertainment and once in a while hope that you will provide us with an intelligent show that is fun to watch. We have no illusions that you are smart because we are very familiar with most of the crap you put out there. But we hope that, "like the blind pig and the acorn", you will once in awhile stumble onto an interesting or different show. Please, when that happens, try not to rush out and screw it up. Nashville without music?  Send those people over to Chicago PD and let's move the show to Reno and feature poker strategy. 

Glenn K. Currie

I just returned from a Navy reunion in which the plankowners of USS Biddle (DLG-34) gathered together in Annapolis to celebrate the 49^th anniversary of the commissioning of that ship.

Our Captain (now 96), and nine of the original officers plus wives and other family were in attendance. There were about twenty-five plankowner officers initially, but deaths, conflicts and illnesses had worn the group down from earlier years.  

It was a very pleasant chance to renew old friendships, but also a telling example of the old adage that time waits for no one.

We were the young lions of the late 1960’s. we served our country, ignored the excuses, and came home from the conflict unharmed. In many ways we were very lucky…and for the most part, tolerant of those in our own country who wished us ill.

We formed a family, a shelter, where we could gather. We knew the truths and the fictions of that era, and took pride in having carried on the traditions of the finest naval force in the world.

We met every few years, but as the years passed, we saw our ship, the finest in the Navy in 1967, be decommissioned and probably chopped up for salvage. And we saw our country also go through a change to where it now appears to desperately need some kind of repair or salvage.  

At our reunion, I looked around at how we had all aged, and there was little doubt that our country has passed us by. Other younger generations are going to have to do the salvaging of this great country. And I think we are alright with that.

We could rejoice in the common bond of service. We had done our duty during our own difficult times. We had protected each other in the bad and good times through nearly fifty years.

Many of our group were career naval officers. You don’t get rich in the military and so we weren’t staying in the fancy hotels down by the water. But the company was the best you can get.

It is sad that our country has not honored the promises it made to service members then or now. The VA is still not doing its job as was abundantly clear from several of the comments there. That scandal seems to carry on, although better in a few locations. Other promises have also faded from memory as politicians declare a form of government induced amnesia.

But veterans do have a few special benefits still. All of us still have a strong love of our country and the deep satisfaction, the honor, to know that we served our country well. And we have the family that has been created by that service.

I don’t know what lies ahead for our particular family. We have become the observers, the invisible ones in the country. We hope for the best for our children and grandchildren and great grandchildren. But we are truly the old soldiers fading away. I suspect we may not meet again, but it has been a singular honor to be a member of this family and to have traveled with them on this journey.

Glenn K. Currie

Susanne and I saw Jewel perform last night in Wilmington, Deleware. It was a small venue, a few hundred people, and she did a two hour, one-woman show. It is hard to believe she is forty, but her voice and songs are better than ever. She still looks great, and the range of her voice is still amazing.
She.is the real deal. If you are ever fortunate enough to have the chance to see a performance, run, don't walk, to get tickets. I know that is what I did yesterday when we arrived here and learned that she would be performing that evening.
You will see few performances on this level. I can't think of a single other major female performer today who could captivate an audience for two straight hours with no bells and whistles to support them. She sang Over the Rainbow acapella to begin and the rest of the show with just a guitar. She never even sat down.
She has been through it all and that brings real depth to someone who still manages to have a sense of humor and can still deliver her songs with the full range from innocence to disappointment to anger to redemption.

In a totally irrelevant post to the previous one, I am adding a few more of my personal definitions to the Currie Dictionary. And yes, I do find myself a little jaded recently.

Wisdom: The art of unlearning innocence and understanding the frailties of man.

Common Sense: Finding a path through these frailties that allows one to survive.

Success: Walking a path fast enough that even though it may be crumbling beneath your feet you are able to stay ahead of the chasm opening below.

Fame: Fooling enough people that they actually believe you are worth paying attention to.

Superhero: Someone who raises kids that aren't too badly damaged by the real world and understand the concepts listed above.

Bobble Heads: What all statues will be in the future. A way to pay tribute to the titans of politics and industry. Big heads, little hearts and a moving target for the pigeons.

Glenn K. Currie

I haven’t written much recently. I have been pretty depressed about what is going on in the United States. The anger that seems to be roiling just below the surface with so many citizens is almost palpable at times. It shows in the political process and it surfaces in the way people treat each other. Lines are being drawn and people who cross are considered traitors. Yet our society has been built on the premise that in a democracy, we vote and then live with the decision of the majority. In order for that democracy to thrive, however, the victors need to be willing to compromise on issues so that even the losers feel included in the general well-being of society. Our society has been gradually moving away from this sense of inclusion, and the winners, in their exultation and trashing of the losers, have left a large portion of the population feeling betrayed and abandoned. As a result, we now find ourselves facing an election with no viable candidates willing to offer hope for a society where all its citizens will be accepted and respected.

I don’t have any real solutions to offer. And that is my problem. Instead I am going back to a poem I wrote a few years ago. I have never found a leader or a philosophy that didn’t have some flaws and when we make the mistake of subscribing, totally, to either, we open ourselves and our society to disastrous consequences. Right now, it seems to me, that the left and right are trying to tear the country apart and we have no leadership or constituency that really wants to prevent it. I would caution us all, in both parties, to beware the “True Believers”. Our society will not survive without the freedom of both winners and losers to voice their differences and to continue to cherish the hope that we  all have a chance someday to feel like a winner.

“The True Believer”(In the Cat’s Eye, Snap Screen Press, 2009) is a cautionary tale about what happens when those who think they have all the answers rule with impunity, and with the sure knowledge that they are purveyors of all that is right and true. It is a scary place, and we all should be very afraid that our absolutist actions are helping to take us there.

Glenn K. Currie

                             True Believers

They wear their causes

Like tattoos.

Insignias

Made from the cloth

Of cultural epiphanies

Or sacred decrees.

They march to words

Beaten into placards.

Written too large

To accommodate

The small surface

Of their hearts.

Their torches burn

At my windows,

Demanding

Allegiance

To a society

Without questions.

They want to create

A new world,

Where everyone

Believes the same.

Where everyone knows

All the answers.

Music has the ability to pick us up and take us to new places. It also can carry us back to favorite times. It can be soothing, arousing, or bury us under the beat of distant tribal drums.

I often write with quiet notes playing in the background. I find they help to unlock the spirits.

The Porcelain Piano (copyright 2016) is a new poem that evolved from one of these sessions after a particularly difficult day. The difference was that, this time, I put the pen down, and the solitary piano placed notes before me that told stories that had been written in the thin ether that is life.

Glenn K. Currie

The Porcelain Piano

The waves lifted me.

Lighter than air balloons

Rose over the mountains

Into the clouds,

Then floated

 Down the stairs of my childhood,

Leaving notes

I wish I had written.

They painted pictures

In the wind:

Impressionist works

That filled a moment,

Then faded.

Black and white keys,

Transposed, solid to liquid,

So I could drink until drunk.

Until tears

Had torn, refreshed and healed,

And the waves could finally

Wash away the mountains.

I have just returned from vacation and have watched the nominating process for our country with growing trepidation. I try to stay away from politics in this blog, but, in good conscience, I want to explore some of the observations I have had while watching this process from outside the direct batteground. It is a discouraging sight and the anger that seems to be running rampant in the parties and with the voters makes me fear for the future of our country.

Hypocrisy seems to be one of the major products that we manufacture in this country.

All the liberals are terribly sad that Justice Scalia has passed away and can’t wait to get total control of the Supreme Court. All the conservatives, who swear by the strict reading of the Constitution, are suddenly reinterpreting it so that the “people” can decide who appoints his replacement.

Liberals are in favor of abortion but are against capital punishment. Conservatives are pro-life and pro-capital punishment.

Liberals hate guns but many of the most prominent opponents are the same people who make Hollywood films and TV shows that are filled with gun violence. And they do it because it sells, not to show the problems. If you asked them to pull all their crime, combat, end of the world, zombie and Star Wars type shows, they would all be out of jobs.

Conservatives say they want the government out of our lives…except when they want the government peeking in our bedroom windows.

Liberals want lots of free stuff that someone else pays for…it’s undefined who, but looking like it will be our great grandchildren.

Conservatives want the world the way it was fifty years ago, except they would complain incessantly if they didn’t have all the modern amenities that modern life provides.

Everyone wants good health care, but no one knows how to pay for it…except it shouldn’t be them.

Everyone loves the internet, but also is afraid of what it means for privacy and the developing total dependence of society and life style on its sustainability.

It all has created a real quandary in where we go and how we get there. Progressives seem to say the more changes and the faster, the better. Conservatives limp along trying to protect the rear, and keep society from getting blown up by a sneak attack.

So now we take our partisan feuds to politics in a hugely important election, and we seem to be focusing on a bunch of gerbils as our choices for leadership. Is there a real healer in the group? Certainly not among the frontrunners.

Our voters seem to be taking on the character of the crowds at the Roman Coliseum during the declining days of the Empire…except that everyone, including the crowds, has bigger weapons.

All the disputing parties want total victories: complete surrender by the “enemy”. We need to be seeking a peace that allows the country to endure and prosper. This country cannot survive if its citizens are not allowed some measure of self-respect. We cannot legislate through “thought police” and demanding subservience to every new wave of conscience by some bureaucrat or lawyer trying to break new ground on human relations. People aren’t all going to agree on everything and we need to learn to live with that, because the only alternative is what we are seeing in the Middle East right now.

I hope our voters and our political parties will all step back, take a deep breath and choose some leadership for this country that we can respect and be proud to have represent our country. We have done it before. It isn’t impossible, even though right now it’s looking a little grim.

Let’s stop trying to squeeze all our population into a one-size-fits-all hole. We will all be in our own unbothered little hole soon enough, and at that point will finally realize that there is no total victory in life. Perhaps a little patience and tolerance before we get there would be a nice interlude.

Glenn K. Currie

I have published two pieces today because I will be unable to post for a little while. When I return the primary in NH will be over and the world of politics will have moved on. It is shaping up to be a very strange election year and I am not sure our state will have done much to clarify things. I hope, in the end, we choose candidates who will work to bring our nation together. The world needs us to be a better, stronger internal community, and one that can provide leadership in a global congregation that seems to be losing its way.

Glenn K. Currie

When I was young almost every town had a Memorial Day Parade. This was a big event for the community and our school bands marched in all of them. I was proud to be a part, playing at different times saxophone, clarinet, drums and once even a glockenspiel. I especially liked how proud I was to be marching in the same parade as my Dad who was a WWII veteran.

In those days we had veterans from four wars march with us, although the wounded and almost all the Spanish American vets rode in open convertibles.

As kids we would get restless as we stood around at the cemeteries waiting for ceremonies we couldn’t hear to finally finish. Most of the time the bands were positioned off in the far reaches of the place where all the “old” graves were located. I can remember wondering who put all the little flags on these graves that were so far removed from current life. Most of them were for Civil War veterans whose markers were small, often in disrepair and very hard to read.

I wrote the poem Abraham’s Mountain (In the Cat’s Eye, 2009) a few years ago, after  I stood in a different cemetery on another Memorial Day. This time I had intentionally sought out that old portion of the cemetery which was again far from the ceremonies. The focus, as might be expected, was mostly on veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The little flags were still placed on the graves of all of our veterans but little attention was otherwise focused on the distant memories of the Civil War.

As I listened to the far off report of rifles and then the haunting notes of taps, I wondered if the soldiers buried at my feet would be surprised to learn that their war has been the longest of them all. That bringing a nation together, after it had been ripped asunder, would involve so much more than the force of arms. Would they be surprised that hatred and prejudice still bubbles to the surface from the tar pits of people’s minds, even so many generations later?

Perhaps as Lincoln’s actual birthday approaches, we might honor those who gave so much for freedom but also remember that Lincoln’s and our work is still not finished. Our nation is a work in progress and each of us is also.

Glenn K. Currie

                     Abraham’s Mountain

Strangers gather here

On Memorial Day.

They plant little flags

Made in China.

Worn stones are decorated

To honor those

No one knew.

James (something)

New Hampshire 5^th

Died December 1864.

Speakers are as stiff

As the cheaply-made flags.

Words from a different time

Remember many wars

With little understanding.

Their heavily labored words

borne on caissons:

Their ashes then

 solemnly carried away

On a languid wind.

They forget that

Abraham’s war,

Started so long ago,

Wages still

In deeds and spirit.

Strangers fire their rifles

Into the air,

And hear only

The thin cry

Of a lonesome bugle.

But far away,

Invisible dominoes

Are still falling,

Like the ancient gravestones.