M and I moved from Southern New Hampshire to Philadelphia and it Suburbs in 1974. I was to teach and run a school and make the transition from being a Mathematician to someone who works with people and their heartaches. We had taught and worked at a school there that housed about 70 very bright but very disturbed kids in the Woods of Rindge, NH. It was a mixed bag ... the area that is. NH had been run by the Manchester Union Leader in the 60's and early 70's ... William Loeb. He was a Law and Order, Gun Rights sort of guy and anti-Labor proponent. Really disliked the school. As due to libel suits (there used to be Libel Suits) it wasn't good for him to be in the state, he sent some henchmen to examine the school. I forgot the exact words in the article of the Union Leader but it was something like:
A skid-row scenario run by Hippies.
Actually, the school was run by an Olde Newe England couple, Henry Curtis Patey and Adelaide Patey. Everything that went on at this wonderfully crazy place had to be cleared by Henry. Henry had hired M to work the Library and run reading programs. I was to be a Chaplain, Math and Philosophy teacher, and builder of Geodesic Domes. Together, we did relief houseparenting and were expected to be on-campus for 144 hours each week and were allowed 4 other hours of individual leave.
True! There was a somewhat permissive attitude on campus. For instance, the 13-19 year olds (the school population) were not prevented from hanging pin-ups of that day --pretty mild in comparisons to today's still and moving crotch-shots), leading to a confrontation between one of Loeb's henchman:
Henchman (pointing to a picture on a dorm wall): "That's pornography."
The Kid responds: Hell! I don't even own a pornograph.
There still is -- moreso than in Verrrr-mont -- in New Hampshire a pretty Conservative minority and a lot of inbreeding, as far as I know.
All this by way of preface. Last Thursday night, The Trumpster famously listened to a man accusing President O'Bama (I can't resist making him Irish) of being not an American, un-American, a Muslim, and by implication someone who was allowing the setting up of Radical Training Camps, while he was -- with a broad brush -- demonizing all followers of the Muslim faith. Trump gave a number of reasons for not responding in the style of John McCain in 2008 when McCain made it clear that his opponent was a good family man, a patriot American, etc., even if on important principles they disagreed and he was seeking to unseat him due to those differences. Trump had said nothing.
What struck me was not only his willingness to say nothing -- he later said that he had no moral obligation to defend the President (whom he typically calls Obama -- after all, Trump has really never given in on the President being a citizen). But his explanations.
1) He hadn't heard the offensive parts.
2) Obama was carrying on a campaign against Christians.
3) He was not obligated to defend each nasty remark about Obama.
Now, the flip side of his excuses might be thought of, as follows.
1) There was a bearded young man in the audience quite a few rows further away that Trump shaking his head in disbelief and, apparently, hearing quite well.
2) The example Trump gave before a group of Evangelical Christians to demonstrate that there was a war on Christmas (I thought his calling the Eucharist "My cracker and sip of wine" was a mocking of among the most sacred of Christian practices) was that walking into Macy's at Chistmas time, one was confronted, presumably, by an attempt to make one's visit into the department store a seasonal one for all Americans and others, too). How odd! Beyond that, O'Bama comes across as a man who embraces the Gospel of Peace as laid out in the New Testament ... and its general ethos, that espoused, say, by our visiting Pope Francis.
3) Maybe this one puzzles me most. Do I want someone representing my country who:
offends women;
corrects for the same by saying that he cherishes them or that they're beautiful;
cannot apologize for his frequent verbal flatulence;
criticizes one of our soldiers from Viet Nam
who lived in captivity for years and served his Country for decades;
feels no "moral obligation" to defend our President
who must for another 16 months lead the world through troubled waters;
says thigs like
"They say they'll take care of you but I KNOW HOW to do that and
THEY DON'T ... BELIEVE ME;"
(I don't, BTW, believe anyone who says "Believe me.")
attacks ethnic groups by playing a statistical game ... by generalizing from individuals to the entire subgroup of those living in the United States;
who keeps saying that he loves us and that he doesn't have to tell us how he'll make Amerika great; only that he will; and
hasn't apologized for anything.
True, even in the Bible (which he claims to understand ... maybe I'll come to believe him ... but I'd bet against it), it takes 37 chapters in Genesis for anyone to take responsibility for their actions (Judah in the story of his twice-widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar ... where Judah says צדקה ממני ... "(In this matter), She's more righteous that I am."
I won't belabor his pandering to the religious ... Gag.
Prayer: God give me the strength to live through the horrors of the World with its 34 Wars raging AND a Trump Presidency or the finances to relocate to New Zealand.
Apology: This Old Man Blog is supposed to be about gittin' on in years .... and here I am wagging my cain at Trump der Chump, the man who feels he can be elected on Promises and Believe-Me's.
