This week I had three more laser beam experiences.  On Monday evening a former economics student of mine, Andrew McManimon, came by our place in Wrigleyville.  We trotted over to Wrigley Field to watch a ball game.  Andrew’s laser beam ZAPS mine from time to time, and it is always pleasurable when we connect.  I look forward to more and more contact with Andrew as the years go by.

On the way back from Chicago last Wednesday afternoon there was a construction delay on I-90 west of Wisconsin Dells.  Traffic was crawling at about 5 miles per hour, stopping occasionally.  Along side of me pulled a semi  truck from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  It was a pretty, yellow truck and the driver looked pleasant and clean-cut.  Because we were both stopped for a few minutes I seized the opportunity to greet him.  I don’t know why, but the words “God bless you, my Canadian brother!” bolted past my lips.  He smiled and thanked me for the friendly response.  We talked a bit.  I told him that my great uncle had been a wheat farmer from Gladstone, Manitoba.  He responded by saying that he lived in southern Manitoba.  We talked briefly about the Stanley cup playoffs and he was off.  Once again…ZAP…laser intersection for about two minutes!

This (Sunday) afternoon I was working on restoring a wooden window that had been painted shut over 100 years ago.  It took some time to pull this off, since the window had been painted shut from both the inside and outside of the house.  Anyway, while I’m working on the window out in the garage, a car pulled up with a man and woman inside.  The woman got out and introduced herself as “Ruth.”   Then she handed me a business card, asking me if I knew where I could find the person named on the card.  The name was Mark VanFleet, the same name as an old college buddy of mine.  I looked a little amazed at the name similarity and was even more astounded to find my old college buddy standing next to me.  It has been forty years since I’ve seen Mark!  Ruth is Mark’s wife and her charade worked perfectly!  Again, laser beams of two lives came together after 40 years of separation and for the time it took to have lunch and chat, we were one again.  ZAP!

Doggone it…I love those laser ZAPS!

Wrigley Field:  (circa 1914) was originally called Weeghman Park, the home of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League.  It has been the home of the Chicago Cubs since 1916.  With its ivy-coated brick outfield walls, a three story manually operated scoreboard (which has never been hit by a batted ball), its unique neighborhood location and rooftop venues, there is simply no other place like Wrigley Field.  Ernie Banks, on a train coming back to Chicago after a horrible road trip, said to a teammate;  “It is going to be good to go back to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.”  I don’t know how to explain Wrigley Field except to tell you that when you enter it for the first time there is a special feeling; there is just nothing like it on the face of the earth.  If you are a baseball fan, no matter where you live, to see a game at Wrigley Field is an absolute requirement for your bucket list.

Loveable Losers:   Gosh, the Cubs are losers!  They haven’t won a National League Pennant since we dropped the bomb on Japan (1945).  The last World Series won by the Cubs was in 1908!  Generations of Cubs fans have been born, lived, and died without seeing the Cubs win it all.  Yet here they are on the North Side…little kids holding the hands of their fathers and mothers, all wearing Cubs hats!  Despite any rational reason to be a fan of the Cubs, they just keep breeding and going to the ball park!  Thanks to superstation WGN there are Cubs fans all over the country.  Anyone coming to Wrigleyville from the outside has got to be saying….Why?  Why so many fans for a team that crushes their dreams every year?  No one really knows….it is beyond comprehension!

Season Ticket Holders:  Believe it or not there is a waiting list to become a Cubs season ticket holder.    Season ticket holders are a team’s most loyal fans (suckers).  They pay face value for 81 games.  No one wants to come to baseball games in April or on the cold days in May.  Season ticket holders can’t even give their tickets away in the early spring.  This is my first year as a Cubs season ticket holder.  Last week I took 72 of my unused tickets and gave them to my grandson in Minneapolis.  He uses them like baseball cards; they are but pieces of cardboard to him.  The only problem is that they cost me $22 each!  But, ah yes….I am the Cub’s biggest sucker…I’m a Cubs season ticket holder!  As of Monday’s game against the Rockies, so far I’ve contributed $1,672 to the “Dream”.

The Stress of Being a Cubs Fan:  The world goes on in endless rounds for those who call themselves Cubs fans.  It is probably good that I didn’t grow up in Chicago; real Cubs fans live and die with each pitch!  I know an economics professor named Mike Wenz.  He is Chicago born and raised.  I’ve seen him suffer mightily when Carlos Marmol, “the arsonist in the bullpen,” flushes another Cubs victory down the toilet.  I don’t know how Mike survives the stress; his heart should have given out years ago.  But really that’s it…the Cubs aren’t about winning; they aren’t about rational thought; they aren’t about making sense; they’re just all about Heart!

In Matthew 6:34 it says, “Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Sufficient undo the day is the evil thereof.”  Shakespeare used a variant of this scripture in King Henry VI Part II”, Act 4.  Others have paraphrased it widely.  It is, in my opinion, great advice for all of us.  Today will present enough problems to deal with; don’t worry about tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow.

At virtually every commencement speech the graduates are told, “Your idealism is needed!  You can change the world!”  I beg to differ with those statements.  Actually, during our lives few of us will have any significant influence on major political, cultural, or economic trends.  We are bit players in the cosmic equation.  We will be happier more prosperous by adjusting our lives to existing trends rather than trying to change the world.  As John Nesbitt once said, “It is always easier to ride a horse in the direction it is already going.”

My late wife was somewhat of a worrier.  She would sometimes worry about things that “might” happen, even when it was unlikely that such events would occur.  I used to tell her that worries were like someone trying to hit her by rolling a tire down a hill.  No matter how careful the guy at the top of the hill aims the tire, it goes wobbling off to one side or the other, making it almost impossible to hit you.  When my wife would worry about something that I deemed impossible, I would tell her that she was worrying about a tire rolling down the other side of the hill!

When there is a problem we should ask ourselves if it is our problem.  If it isn’t our problem we should forget about it.  If it is our problem we need to ask ourselves if we can do anything about it.  If we can’t do anything about it, we shouldn’t worry about it.  If we can realistically do something about it we should make an effort, even if it is a just small contribution to a charitable foundation.

For example, I could make a contribution to a global warming awareness organization, but I’m not convinced that climate change is a legitimate issue.  In addition, with the Chinese building one coal-fired power plant every week, this “problem” is not going to be addressed anytime soon.  For my sanity and for yours, “The evil of the day is sufficient thereof…”

Whereas liberals use the power of government to take our property, conservatives use it to take away our civil liberties.  If you smoke pot you’re in trouble.  Use cocaine or meth and you’re in BIG trouble.  Not all conservatives are rattle snake kissing Alabamans, but in some states your choice of an adult bedroom partner can put you on the wrong side of the law.  Our immigration laws are a mess.  If you come to this country illegally you can work hard every day of your life, purchase a home, pay sales and property taxes and put your kids through college, but you can’t return to Mexico to be at the bedside of your dying Mother.  You can’t go to her funeral either because you can’t get a visa to get back into the United States.

Whereas liberals (acting out of economic ignorance) honestly believe that redistribution of income makes society a better place, conservatives know without a doubt that redistribution kills societal work incentives.  Even though they are dead right in supporting free markets and opposing socialism year after year conservatives (the Republican Party) compromise with Democrats to make the nation more socialistic each year.  The Hegelian Dialectic is in full force here; virtually every position in the 1928 U.S. Socialist Party Platform is now law in the United States of America.  Shame on you, conservatives.

Conservatives, through their support of the “War on Drugs” have declared all kinds of substances illegal.  This has the effect of reducing the supply of these substances, making their manufacture and distribution highly profitable for criminals.  The government created high prices are the cornerstone of gang violence and warfare, as rival gangs kill each other (and innocent bystanders) with turf wars.  Drug laws also incarcerate hundreds of thousands of non-violent people.  If you’re a black male child in the United States today you have a 25% chance of spending some of your life in prison.  Most economists (including the late Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Milton Friedman) encourage decriminalization of all drugs, which would put and end to gang violence and unnecessary incarceration.  Conservatives just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that drug addiction is a health problem, not a crime.   Conservatives are the ones that make it a crime, perpetuating gangs and and all is well in gangland.

Most discouraging  is that conservatives seem not to have the zeal, personal resolve, or character to fight for freedom and liberty.  Whereas everything is a crusade for the liberals, everything is a conviction for Conservatives.  Yet conviction itself is insufficient to persuade the masses, many of whom are already on the dole.  The Republican Party is now leaderless.  It would be nice if conservatives could be more persuasive and at least lead the United States out of it’s fiscal quagmire, but many conservatives are also on the dole.  Government tax breaks extend way beyond the realm of the poor and permeate the finances of even upper middle class families.  Perhaps conservatives are no more likely than liberals to give up their government benefits.

This was a tragic week in Boston where two terrorists exploded bombs that took the life of an 8 year old boy and another young lady. To add to the misery the men killed a security officer at MIT and another policeman is fighting for his life, although at press time he was expected to pull through. My heart and prayers have gone out to those who were killed or injured.

In the Jerusalem Post on Saturday, April 20, 2013 Yakov Katz, who has spent years covering terrorist attacks in Israel and who is now on Sabbatical leave at Harvard, wrote about a terrorist attack in Israel:

“There was no lockdown in Israel and there was no order by the mayor to seek shelter. Instead, people were out in the streets, filling up coffee shops right next to the one that had been bombed or standing at bus stops waiting for the next bus from the same line that had just exploded. This has always impressed me as a sign of true resilience, of a refusal to allow terrorism to change our way of life.

I am not judging the people of Boston and their leaders and yes, there is something to be said about being safe than sorry. But, I wonder about the long-term strategic ramifications and if this won’t be viewed as a near-surrender to terrorism.

Yes, on Friday there was a 19-year-old terrorist on the loose but did that mean that nearly 5 million people needed to stay locked inside their homes?

Did it warrant the complete suspension of public transportation, of taxi cabs, of Amtrak trains between Boston and the rest of the East Coast? The postponement of the Red Sox-Royals game, the Bruins-Penguins game? I’m not sure.”

I think Mr. Katz has it exactly right. I don’t think that New England’s founders, who were celebrated on “Patriots Day” would have been hiding in their homes worrying about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; they would have been outside on the streets hunting this guy down.

As my good friend Dave Delano asked me yesterday, “How many of those Boston liberals that have voted ten times for Barney Frank and supported the likes of Ted Kennedy secretly wished that they owned a gun while they were cowering in their basements on Friday?” I wonder.

You may find Katz’ entire article at:  http://www.jpost.com/Features/Front-Lines/What-message-is-US-sending-with-a-Boston-lockdown-310424

While scientists, engineers, mathematicians and philosophers spend their entire lives in the pursuit of truth (generally acknowledging that the more they learn, the more they realize how much more they need to learn), liberals are able to obtain pure truth about virtually everything somewhere between the ages of 20 and 50.  Armed with their “Advanced Degrees”, liberals decide at a young age that they are experts on virtually everything including child development, climate theory, economics, and even how to run multinational corporations.  This is, of course, utter nonsense.

Liberals want to steal from the successful (Rich) because they are either envious of the success of producers, or desire to covertly steal from producers using their good friends in government.  If envy is the motive, liberals are insecure children.  If theft is the motive, liberals are….OK, I’ll say it…. thugs.

I know a conservative person who has many liberal friends.  She tells me that “there is some good in everyone.”  I fail to find much good in people who are intellectually cocky, steal from me, make it hard for me to run a business and employ others, and otherwise harass and befuddle almost anyone who wants to accomplish anything in this world.  We are increasingly living in a regulatory environment in the United States where almost everything a person wants to do is illegal.  If it is legal it requires government privilege, a permit, or a license; all of which add costs to literally everything we buy.

My frustration with liberals has one silver lining; with liberals everything is a crusade.  They are wrong, but passionately so.  While I occasionally lose sleep trying to figure out how to make my enterprises survive the liberal onslaught, the sleep of liberals is haunted every night as they worry about endangered species and global warming!  Have you ever wondered why liberals in their fifties and sixties look so worn out and old?  They’re trying to solve the problems of the universe!  The women have mousy grey hair and dress like misfits from the 60’s.  The men look gaunt and lifeless.  If the “gaunt and lifeless” characterization doesn’t ring a bell, just conjure up a likeness of John Kerry and you’ll be there!

I suppose that Liberals get old before their time worrying about the straw men (global warming, environmental catastrophe) that they have created!  Conservatives, on the other hand, look better and healthier than liberals of the same age.  Contrast two women of about the same age, Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.

While liberals look worn out, they seem to live as long as conservatives.  While you would think that night after night of restless sleep would cause a liberal die much younger, they are spared by the fact that most of them have secure government jobs.  Conservatives don’t lose sleep about global warming, but are worn down more quickly over their lifetimes by something that Liberals normally disdain….the fatigue of work and the stress of financial risk.

You may wonder whether this blog was written tongue and cheek…..it isn’t.  Liberals proudly advertise their “collective conscience” and their “progressive ideology”.  A capitalist can trade only through voluntary exchange; his world is characterized by free will.  The Liberal, using government as his tool, is the brute of society; his world characterized by coercion and force.

Tara and I had driven down to Chicago from Minnesota, arriving just an hour before the game.  Sunday games start at 6pm, an hour earlier than the normal start time.  For that reason you will find more children at Sunday games.  The kids were out in force last night.  About five minutes before the end of the first period Tara and I walked into the concourse to get fries, bratwurst, and chicken wings.  We stood at a small table just opposite to the entrance of the men’s bathroom.

After about 5 minutes I noticed a cute young girl, about 8 years old, standing patiently at the entrance to the men’s room.  She stood facing the entrance, obviously waiting for her father.  Hundreds of men walked in and out of the bathroom; still no daddy.  Bravely she held her composure, but I could sense that something was wrong.  At that time I told Tara that I wasn’t going to take my eyes off of that girl until I knew she was united with her parents.  Five, then ten, then fifteen minutes went by.  I walked over to the little girl and asked her if she was waiting for her father in the restroom.  She said yes.  At this time a middle aged woman approached us, also keeping an eye on the girl.

All of a sudden the most wonderful thing in the world happened.  Her  young, tall, handsome father ran up and swooped her in his arms.  He had been frantically looking for her for more than fifteen minutes.  They were both crying at this point; he out of thankfulness, she out of joy.   Gosh what a moment!

I didn’t dwell on what could have happened to that girl.  After all, not everyone of those 22,400 fans has noble intent.  The little girl did the right thing; she stayed in one place and waited for her father.  The other woman who was watching this young girl did the right thing too….she wasn’t going to go to her seat until that girl was made whole.  For this man and his daughter last night at a jammed hockey game wasn’t a time of disaster, it was a time for loving and caring  about the most important thing of all….family!

When is Easter Celebrated?  According to Christians Easter celebrates the day that Jesus arose from the dead, sealing for all humanity the promise of eternal life.  Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox, otherwise known as Easter Sunday.  The first full moon after the vernal equinox is called the Paschal (Passover) full moon.  For 2013 the vernal equinox was on Wednesday March 20, followed by the first full moon (Paschal full moon) on Wednesday March 27th, followed by Easter, Sunday March 31, 2013.  Thus Easter is a “movable” date of observance, unlike Christmas, which is celebrated on December 25th every year.

What is Good Friday?    Good Friday marks the sad day when Jesus was crucified.  There is puzzlement over usage the term “good” when applied to the day that Jesus was killed.  Some say “Good“ refers to the entire holy week; others say “Good” is just the derivation of “God” or “Holy”.  The words “Good Friday” do not appear in the bible.  The Good Friday designation was created by the Catholic Church over 400 years after the death of Jesus.

Why Easter:  What is the significance of Easter?  For Christians Easter embodies the very meaning of life, both on this earth and in the hereafter.  It is the date that Jesus literally arose from the dead, granting life after death to humankind.  The resurrection elevates Jesus to “God” status; no other religion gives such a status to a religious figure.  As such, Jesus is to be worshiped and remembered throughout the lives of every Christian.  The lives and actions of Christians should mimic the love and compassion of the Master of all men, Jesus Christ.  The faithful should pray to him and remember him always as they go through their lives.  Being a good Christian represents a continual task of righteousness, love, and charity.

Why I am a Christian?  Probably the most obvious reason is that I was raised a Christian.  If I had been born in India I would probably be a Hindu.  When one is raised in a particular religion he or she seldom deviates from the original beliefs.  A Lutheran might become a Presbyterian, but a Christian seldom becomes a Hindu or vice versa.  It is easy to demonize people of other religions until you actually meet a Hindu, or a Jew, or a Buddhist that ranks among the most decent, moral people you have ever known.  In Matthew it says “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.   A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.  Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.”  I have been blessed to witness firsthand the good fruits from people of all religions.  I am especially blessed by my Hindu friends, largely because of my frequent travels to India.

Enough said about other religions on this Easter Sunday.  Today is the day for Christians to humbly consider the gift of eternal life that Jesus promised me and you.  This promise of eternal life is a big deal for we Christians…in fact it is the only deal!

Journal Box Oiler Circa 1969

As we grow from toddlers, through adolescence and into adulthood we learn many lessons and our character is formed.  I’m no childhood development expert but it seems to me that often people who we barely know, just acquaintances, can teach us lessons that stay with us for a lifetime.  Sometimes it is a simple phrase that seems to be “burned into our brain” such that we never forget it; that’s why I use the term “Soul Tasers” to describe these brief but unforgettable moments.  I’ll illustrate with a few examples from my own life.

When I was about nineteen my girlfriend Chari and I decided to attend the Sydney, Iowa rodeo, which was a big deal in southwestern Iowa.  To keep things in prospective, in those days $17 to $25 was a good day’s wages for a union worker.  As we entered the fairgrounds I purchased two tickets to the rodeo, which was going to be held later in the evening.  The tickets cost me about $4 each.  Then Chari and I headed to the midway, where all kinds of con artists were trying to get people to play their games.  One of  these guys saw a sucker coming and within ten minutes I lost a whopping $18 and walked away with nothing.  Chari and I didn’t have a dime in our pockets, but we watched the rodeo and at least had enough gas in the tank to get home.

About a week later as I was working on the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks in North Omaha I came across a fellow employee who oiled car bearings.  I told the old man about my midway fiasco.  I can still see him in his greasy overalls listening to my story, hump-backed from years of stooping down to put oil into journal boxes.  When I finished he looked up at me and in a friendly, kind voice said, “Son, you can never beat a man at his own game.”  I don’t remember the man’s name but I can still see his image in the fading twilight of a summer night over 40 years ago.  Furthermore, I never forgot those words and have been able to apply them several times in my life.  That’s the thing about soul tasers; they can come from anyone at any time, not just from relatives or friends.

Some of my favorite soul tasers:

Dr. Frank Orazem, on entering my classroom at Kansas State University and seeing that I had not erased the blackboard:  “Mr. Salyards, I consider an un-erased blackboard as revolting as an un-flushed toilet.”  Since that day I have never left a room without erasing everything on the blackboard.

Winona Realtor Mike Rivers, after showing Deb and I several houses when we first moved to Winona:  “The problem with you guys is that you have a champaign taste and a beer pocketbook.”  Mike was absolutely right.  We bought a small duplex and started working on the “beer pocketbook” side of the equation.

Hazel Salyards:  After I told her that the most beautiful cheerleader at Westside High would never go out with a “nobody” like me, my Mother said:  “Call her up.  If you don’t make the call right now, you’re a chicken.”  Hands trembling and voice cracking, I called her up.  A week later I took her to the Criss-Crosser dance at Omaha’s Peony Park.

I would be curious to learn about some of your “soul taser” moments.  Email me at salyardsblogsubsciber@gmail.com

Simply stated, “enablement” is good when it makes human beings better and bad when it makes them worse.  For example, enabling a child with an education will make him a better person if he takes advantage of the opportunity.  On the other hand, enabling a drunk or drug addict by giving him money is not going to make him into a better person.  To the degree that our society is characterized by positive enablement this is a good thing; the opposite is indicative of negative enablement.

Parents are tempted to spoil their children.  These parents opt for the short term approval of their children by purchasing gifts or pampering their kids.  The results are usually negative unless the child somehow learns to appreciate the true sacrifices of the parents.  Ironically, far from appreciating the lavishness of their parents, spoiled children often respond with a lack of respect and backtalk.  Children from poorer families, whose parents don’t have the material means to spoil them, are more likely to be respectful of their folks, knowing that they are doing their best.

On a larger and more tragic scale, the US Government is an enabler of hundreds of millions of its citizens who qualify for welfare and other Federal Aid programs.  Rather than striving for financial independence through education and hard work, the recipients of these programs lollygag along, without purpose or motivation as they wait for their next monthly Government check.  In return for a monthly check they abandon their mental creativity, almost never experience the satisfaction of a hard day’s work, and are void of the self-respect that comes with true accomplishment.  Regardless of their race, religion, or ethnicity they are on the “new plantation” of governmental control and dependence, with little likelihood of returning to real personal freedom.*
These “welfare” programs are concealed in the guise of “helping the poor”, while they serve mainly to propagate generation after generation of poverty.  I would not be the first to suggest that welfare programs have been a leading cause of the breakup of the family social structure.  Those families that have remained intact without government aid soon break the cycle of poverty, due to their emphasis on the education and discipline of their children.  Families that accept government aid are more likely stay poor due to their lack of emphasis on education or personal discipline.  In short, enablement quickly becomes entitlement.

With the explosion of entitlement programs our government is going broke.  Politicians argue that more public money needs to be spent on the poor; that our society is better and more humane as a result.  Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone if we make noticeable cuts to Federal entitlements.  First of all, these cuts will lower the deficit.  Second, and perhaps more important, entitlement cuts will make about five million “spoiled kids” get out there and do something for a change.

*According to the US Commerce Department the percentage of black Americans that are on welfare (39.8%) is roughly the same as the percentage of white Americans that are on welfare (38.8%).  Hispanics and Asians have far fewer percentages of their families on welfare (15.7% and 2.4% respectively).  Click for Commerce Department Link