Salem-News.com Culture articles

Random Musings

A ranging view of the ideas circulating in one writer's mind.

(AGOURA, Calif.) - Sometimes there are many ideas fighting for attention in my mind, covering all the subjects I tend to write a column about, but each isn’t worthy of its own full-length coverage.

Consequently, I collect them. So, in no particular order, here are my current random musings.

Everyday Leaders

As an everyday leader, you are the guardians of servitude and the custodians of courage in the time of need. You tap the resources of your leadership not out of impulse, but from what you have nurtured all along.

(CHARLESTON, S.C.) - On a cold wintry day in January 2009, US Airways flight 1549 taxied down the runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport. The flight, bound for Charlotte, N.C., was a familiar flight for Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Within a matter of minutes after takeoff, flight 1543 was floating in the Hudson River, mechanical failure from a bird shot brought the plane down.

In his book, Highest Duty, My Search for What Really Matters, Sullenberger shares not only his life story, but the heroic actions he and his crew took to ensure that not one passenger was lost.

The Canadian Comparison: Part 1

There’s an old joke: The definition of a Canadian is an unarmed American with health care.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - Over the past few months I have been asked about Canada—about atheism, health care and gun control in particular. None of these issues can be addressed in isolation, so a comparison benchmark is required.

Americans, as the primary readers, understand America best, so America becomes the benchmark.

America`s Political Dilemma

The best way to overcome political dissonance is by taking decisive action directed toward domestic goals and cooperation among nations.

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - Republicans condemn Democrats for spending too much money on Healthcare Reform, yet encourage President Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan as an increasing expense to the nation.

A chorus based on the same tune was used to achieve similar results [domestically and abroad] where 130,000 troops supposedly will be removed from Iraq by the end of 2011, and where the act of military reduction ought to be well under way, but isn’t.

Asperger`s Syndrome Wives Need Understanding

Those who stay in a relationship with an Asperger’s-afflicted mate should do everything possible to be independent socially and financially.

(BOSTON, Mass.) - Asperger's Syndrome is a neurological disorder considered as high-functioning autism. Individuals with this syndrome have difficulty with social aspects of intelligence. This manifests itself as a notable lack of "common sense."

The presence of Asperger in children is getting more attention now, but the undiagnosed adult is not yet well recognized. Because these types of brain disorders seem to be more common in men, many times wives have trouble getting the support they need.

The Political Depravity of the Founding Fathers

John Bach McMaster (1852—1932) was an American historian, best known for his eight volume History of the People of the United States from the Revolution to the Civil War (1883-1913).

(CALGARY, Alberta) - American Exceptionalism is a term that has been considerably bruited about on the Salem-News site over the last couple of weeks. Some readers have been critical of my viewpoint as an outsider who can never understand what it means to believe in AE.

Not having grown up with the mythology, this is true. What no one seems to have noticed, however, is that my viewpoint is an echo of what actual Americans themselves say. My arguments have been built up on the knowledge of American thinkers.

Muslim Bodies Bombarded with Hate Mail: Mosques in US Seek Protection

In California, authorities have already deployed police officers outside mosques as a precaution.

(WASHINGTON D.C. ) - President Barack Obama stressed on Saturday that people of all faiths, including Muslims, served the US military, as mosques across America sought police protection.

On Thursday, a Muslim psychiatrist in the US Army, Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, killed 13 and wounded 30 people at the Fort Hood military base. And on Saturday, the US media warned that the shootings could likely post the sternest test for US Muslims since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

Cognitive Dissonance Defines Balloon Boy Dilemma

Republican fiction comparing Healthcare Reform to Nazism ignores that nations around the world offer universal healthcare to their people. The tyranny of propaganda is as deceitful as Falcon‘s parents whose lies are damaging their child’s mental wellbeing.

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - Cognitive dissonance is a state of psychological conflict or anxiety resulting from a contradiction between a person's simultaneously held beliefs or attitudes that do not fit or are inappropriate to logical context.

Mental incongruity is the cause of dissonance in individuals the effect of which is harmful.

The Fall of America

[This is an unchanged article I originally published 25 years ago in the Winter 1984 edition of the now defunct Canadian magazine Goodwin’s. I reprint it now only because it is still relevant today.]

(CALGARY, Alberta) - American society in the mid-1980s is increasingly conservative, jingoistic and paranoid about its national defence capability. Many of its institutions have been infiltrated by the New Right and its economy is in decline. Some argue it is on the inevitable road to totalitarianism.

If we compare the United States of today with the Germany of the 1930s, the sounding of such an alarm might be justified, although arguments based on analogies are always inexact.

The Dead Visit Salem (VIDEO)

Dia de los Muertos is observed in Salem in a unique multi-cultural event.

(SALEM, Ore.) - It wasn't Halloween anymore, but a large group of people wearing costumes walked the streets of downtown Salem last night as part of the local Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead Celebration. Mexicans honor their ancestors on this day, when some believe they visit the living.

Many people visit cemeteries where their loved ones rest, and prepare for their visit by making their favorite food and light candles to lure their spirits closer.