Saturday, September 12, 2009

A Little Jolt of Perspective from Ms. Baines

According to the Associated Press, Gertrude Baines, the world's oldest known person died Friday at a nursing home. She was 115.

It is hard to grasp just how different was the world into which she was born in 1894 is from the world today.  Tsar Nicholas II succeeded his father Alexander III.  He would live and rule for another twenty-four years before the Bolshevik Revolution swept him, and the Empire away.  Norman Rockwell was born, as was Nikita Khrushchev.  Robert Louis Stevenson died.   Grover Cleveland was President of the United States.  The Emancipation Proclamation had been issued 32 years prior, the Fourteenth Amendment had given African Americans the right to be citizens 26 years prior, and the Fifteenth had given African American men the vote just 24 years before.  A case then in court would ultimately require ‘separate but equal’ facilities for people of color and Caucasians just two years later in 1896 (Plessey v. Ferguson).  The strife and progress of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s was more than a half century in the future. 

When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, there were many African Americans of all ages who expressed the view that they had thought they’d not see a black man elected as President in their lifetimes.  Particularly poignant were the faces and stories of the men and women who had fought so hard (and non-violently) in the 1950s to bring genuine equality to America.  Many of them were in their sixties and seventies, and it was touching to see their dream realized in their lifetime.

How much more amazing and touching it was to see Ms. Baines comments about the election of the President.  Baines celebrated her birthday at the nursing home April 6 with music, two cakes and a letter from President Barack Obama, whom she voted for in November. Local newscasts had shown her when she cast her ballot.  Baines, who is black, said she backed him "because he's for the colored." She said she never thought she would live to see a black man become president.

Like so many African Americans on election eve, Ms. Baines had hoped to live to see a  black man elected President, but doubted that she would.  When she was born, President Cleveland was the 24th President.  Barack Obama is the 44th President.  Ms. Baines had seen twenty men elected and serve before finally getting her wish.  Of course, she saw so many other amazing changes in her time that it is tough to imagine – radio, television, space travel, two wars to end all wars, the nuclear era, mass production, all modern technology…the list is mind boggling.  Still, I doubt that there was a more meaningful and powerful change in her lifetime than living long enough to see an African American elected President. 

Ms. Baines once joked that she won the genetic lottery to achieve her age.  I think she also won the political lottery in living long enough to vote for, and see elected, and African American President. 

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Suitcases Offer Glimpses into Patient Lives

The Willard Suitcase Project (http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org/flashSite.html) is an amazing and touching website built to showcase the lives of past patients through the contents of a number of suitcases that were found abandoned in the attic of one of the buildings of the Willard Psychiatric Center in New York State.  It was closed in 1995, and the hundreds of suitcases offer a surprisingly detailed snapshot of the lives of these people who had packed them to come to a mental institution.  It is definitely worth a few minutes to take a look. 

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Not Talking to Your Kids About Race Produces Racial Assumptions

In some ways this article presents the obvious, but I doubt most of us would assume that simply not mentioning race equality explicitly would lead our kids to assume we dislike or mistrust other racial groups.  Even avoiding the discussions because we don’t want kids to ‘notice’ skin color seems to produce the assumption that we dislike other skin colors.  And kids will notice the differences anyway.  Not discussing our views leaves them to make assumptions based on our unwillingness to acknowledge or discuss differences in skin color.  The Newsweek article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214989

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Solar Wow – Half Trillion Dollar Project to provide up to 15% of Europe’s Electrical Power

A consortium of European companies has committed to building a huge group of solar collectors from the Saudi Peninsula to Morocco. The power collected would be transmitted to Europe via undersea cables.  Power collected would also be distributed to power grids in the countries where the generation plants are located. 

It is an amazing amount of money committed despite many details left to be worked out, including the nuts-and-bolts of cost and profit contributions in generator nations, political stability and not least, the financing.  All that, if worked out, and assuming undersea cables not currently available are developed and deployed, would produce still less than 15% of Europe’s electrical demand in 2050.  To me at least, it is not an encouraging indicator that at least this alternative source of electrical power can be a meaningful contributor to the grid.

Paintballs work too…

We live on a street that although it is in a quiet residential neighborhood, is marginally wider than the streets nearby.  A lot of kids play alongside the street, and it is probably the busiest strolling and jogging street in the neighborhood.  It is also seen as a sort of main street, and as a result it is not uncommon to see people driving by at well over the speed limit, and well above a speed that would allow them to react to a kid or a jogger around a corner or unseen behind a parked car.  These are maddening enough to residents, but occasionally you’ll see (and hear) a driver go by at a truly ignorant and dangerous speed.  I have said more than once that I ought to get a paint ball gun, fill the projectiles with chicken manure, and express myself concerning these drivers speeds (I may, or may not have once expressed myself with a tennis ball and been encouraged by my dear spouse not to continue this form of expression).  So, I was amused to see this photo (Copyright 2009 Capitol Broadcasting Company) of one neighborhood’s response to a similar problem:

Mariner’s Doug Fister Off to a Great Major League Start

An update on Doug Fister, the pitcher I mentioned a few weeks ago as an interesting call-up to watch.  After one relief appearance Fister has been simply outstanding in five starts.  With ‘quality starts’ (six innings pitched with 3 runs or less allowed) in 4 of his first 5 starts, and much better than that in most of them, Fister has proven that his great control works well with a very good defense behind him.    Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu particularly commented on Fister’s success at working out of jams - ``This guy's really got a great feel for pitching.''    I especially have been impressed as he has built up his pitch counts, as he has held batters to a lower batting average after his 75th pitch than before it.  It is looking more and more likely that Fister will be a serious contender for the starting rotation in 2010. 

Sunshine on Discovery Bay

Sunshine on Discovery Bay
As always, the photos we use are either my own, or in the public domain. Please let me know if there are any errors and I'll correct them immediately.