What Would Jimmy Do?

You’ve probably noticed that a lot of the news lately has centered on the Confederate flag. There’s always been a controversy over the flag, but it pretty much came to a head over the killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.

Shortly after we moved to West Virginia, we drove by our local cemetery on Memorial Day and there were a number of Confederate flags displayed on the graves in one section. Claire was astonished that the Confederate flag was being flown instead of the Stars and Stripes. That section of the cemetery contains the remains of Confederate troops that fought in the battle of Antietam. That’s the flag they fought, and died, under. For whatever reason, they believed in something enough to give  their lives. I thought at the time, and continue to think, that it’s appropriate to display that flag on their graves. I suspect that a great many — probably most — of those soldiers buried here in Shepherdstown did not own slaves — they fought to defend what they perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be unjustified Northern aggression.

I absolutely agree that removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds was the right thing to do. But more and more over the last few days, I’m seeing the (typical?) over-reaction to the flag and the trend to seemingly consider anything related to the Confederate states offensive and vindictive. Apparently a lot of people are using this one incident to promote their own “causes.” It falls into the category of grandstanding that seems so prevalent in politics today. A part of Route 1 that runs from the Washington area south is named Jefferson Davis Highway. There is a move afoot to rename that section of the road. I’ve read just in the last couple of days of movements to change the names of highways, schools, public buildings and pretty much anything and everything that in any way refers to something or someone related to the Confederate states. Of course politicians are going to jump on this — it’s a great political tactic, an easy way to raise their profile, especially if they’re a legislative newbie. According to some of the political speeches I’ve heard, we’ll be able to eliminate all residue of racism by taking down these signs. If only it were that easy.

Removing the flag from the statehouse grounds in South Carolina probably serves as some sort of a symbolic victory but removing the flag won’t eliminate racism and in fact may make things worse in some regions where whites and blacks believe the flag only exists as a symbol of slavery.

Like it or not, the Confederate flag is a piece of history — it has no place flying over government buildings, but the display of the flag is appropriate at historic sites, museums and, yes, graves of Confederate soldiers….
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The annual family picnic was held in Cleveland this weekend. I’m told there were a couple of Ohio residents that couldn’t attend, but otherwise it was well attended….
It was good to see and visit with all the family again, the weather was just about perfect, the food was good, the beer was cold and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Thanks to Chris and John for pulling this together every year. Looking forward to trying to find it again next year…..
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We’ve had a lot of rain this year and everything in our yard has grown a lot. But it seems like the one thing that’s grown the most is the weeds. Everyone has this problem and if you look around it obviously bothers some people more than others.

I understand that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place but I’ve spent a fair amount of time to create and maintain a fairly decent lawn and Claire has picked out flowers that appeal to her. I like grass and I like flowers, but I don’t want grass growing in the flower beds and I don’t want flowers growing in the lawn.

Sometimes when we’re driving, I notice wildflowers and weeds along the road and often I think they look pretty nice — but not in our lawn or flower beds. But I give them credit — weeds are survivors. Someone said that a weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows. Seems like that’s true….

So — I think I’ve decided to come to terms with weeds on a philosophical level, and take action by having a cold Margarita and watching those weeds grow. Man is the only critter that feels the need to label things as flowers or weeds…..
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Happy Birthday to Locke’s parents.

Hope Dave and Chassie have a great day!!

Love you guys….
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A lot of people are afraid of a lot of things, but one of the more interesting fears or phobias is Ompalophobia — the fear of belly buttons. I’m not making this up. This would seem to be a particularly bad phobia to have since people suffering from Omphalophobia are terrified of belly buttons — sometimes those of others, but usually their own. How do you get away from your own belly button?

Belly buttons are kind of interesting — we all have them and they are located on the belly but they don’t do anything if you push them. Why are they called a button? Turns out that the belly button also goes by the term “navel.” The Romans call the belly button the umbilcus. The Greeks called it the omphalos. So if you add the greek word tome that means cutting, you get omphalotomy. That word means “cutting of the umbilical cord.” So maybe we use the term belly button because it’s a euphemistic title that sounds more attractive than the remains of your umbilical cord cut at birth.

Your belly button is your very first scar. It’s scar tissue left over from the cutting of the umbilical cord when you were born. All mammals have belly buttons. However, in some dogs and cats, they’re a little hard to see because they’ve healed well and they are covered with hair.

One of the most interesting questions about belly buttons and one that I’ve pondered about for a number of years is — Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? I’ve often wondered about this. I’m not a big reader of the Bible but I’m pretty sure that in Genesis it says that God formed man (Adam) from the dust of the ground and later caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and while he was sleeping, took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. Then with the rib, God made a woman (Eve.) OK — if Adam was made from dust and Eve was made from Adams rib, then neither one came from human parents. If they didn’t come from a mother, there would be no umbilical cord and therefore, no belly button (?)

From what I’ve read, theologians disagree on the existence of belly buttons for Adam and Eve. Painters over the years have also been divided on the subject — some have taken the easy way out and covered the belly button area with a strategically placed fig leaf or tree branch or an arm or something else. But some painted the pair without navels — some painted them with navels. It’s interesting that when Michelangelo painted Adam on the roof of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican he gave him a belly button.

One story I ran across during my extensive research for this blog occurred in 1944 in, where else, Congress. The US House Military Committee (chaired by Congressman Durham of North Carolina) refused to authorize a 30-page booklet, Races of Man, that was to be handed out to American soldiers fighting in World War II. The booklet had an illustration that showed Adam and Eve each with a belly button. The subcommittee ruled that showing Adam’s and Eve’s belly buttons would be “misleading to gullible American soldiers.”

There’s an old phrase that you don’t hear as much any more, contemplating one’s belly button. Literally it means to think about your belly button. But figuratively it is often used to refer to people who are thinking about relatively unimportant things or engaged in thinking about subjects that another person considers to be trivial. (Like maybe the subject of this blog….)

There’s an old joke that goes something like this… A boy was born with a golden screw in his navel. He couldn’t remove it no matter how hard he tried. It caused him a lot of embarrassment over the years and finally, after he grew up, he traveled to Tibet because he heard that there was a wise man there that might be able to help him. After climbing up a mountain, the wise man told him to sit down. He began to unscrew the golden screw and turned the screw for many hours. Finally — the screw came off. Very excited, the man stood up, and his butt fell off.

I suppose all stories (and even blogs) should have a moral and I guess the moral here is that we can contemplate our belly buttons as much as we want, but some things should just be left alone. Sometimes if we act, or speak, or write when we shouldn’t bad things can happen….
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At one of our last winter golf sessions, one player indicated that he had a hard time understanding the Bible and religion in general. One of the things that I’ve concluded is that religion is one of those things that you believe in or don’t. You absolutely cannot make logical sense of it. You either have faith or you don’t.

Some things can be “proven” to be true, or not true, but sometimes factual data just isn’t available. But even when we don’t have facts to prove something, we often still tend to believe. We’ve all heard the saying, don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up.

So there are some things, even today, with all our advanced technology and knowledge we just don’t know. Ghosts — some people claim to have seen ghosts and offer that up as proof they exist, but others argue that any sighting of a ghost can be explained away by lighting tricks or some other logical explanation. Aliens — a lot of people have seen UFOs and we’ve all heard the conspiracy theories that the government is hiding alien bodies, but so far as I know there is no verifiable proof that other lifeforms exist from somewhere in space. Lots of people claim to have been taken aboard alien spacecrafts, so you won’t convince them, but as yet it’s not a scientifically proven fact.

The Bible is certainly one thing can’t be proven, but most people believe the stories about people who lived for hundreds of years and completed fantastic feats because they are part of the Bible. There is no proof that these writings are a true reflection of a higher power, but most people do their best to abide by the rules and morals outlined in Bible.

And then of course there’s God. The biggest leap of faith that anyone takes is believing that a higher power exists and guides our lives. By definition, God cannot be proven through empirical evidence, but the idea of God is something that most people believe.

All through life you can choose to believe or not believe lots of things. Some people choose to believe everything they hear on Fox News — others don’t. But I’ve come to the conclusion that there are some things you should believe in because those things are worth believing in. It really doesn’t matter if something is or isn’t true.

So everyone should believe in something. Winfried has a sign in his office that says, “I believe I’ll have another drink….” Sounds good to me.
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Today, in 1863, West Virginia became the 35th State.

The Mountaineer State adopted the current state flag in 1929. The state flag displays the West Virginia Coat of Arms (as seen in the State Seal of West Virginia) centered on a white field. The date of admission to the union, June 20, 1863, is etched on a stone and the state motto “Montani Semper Liben” (Mountaineers are always free) is printed on a ribbon below the farmer and the miner. A red ribbon floats above the coat of arms with the words “State of West Virginia.” Wreathed rhododendron, the state flower, is arranged below the coat of arms.
Happy Birthday West Virginia!!
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Rednecks — that’s what I remember “them” being called where I grew up in Oklahoma. In Cleveland, where Claire grew up, “they” were called hillbillies. So what’s the difference in a hillbilly and a redneck? That’s one of those things that I was pondering the other day, for no apparent reason — I just got to wondering. I have noticed a lot of people wearing camouflage and John Deere hats lately and most of them seem out-of-place dressed like that. It seems like it’s becoming “cool” to dress like a redneck (or hillbilly) even if you’re not one.

I haven’t run across any “official” definitions of either a redneck or a hillbilly — I’m guessing it’s mostly geographical. Often times, people may be talking about the same person and use a different term, just depending on where they live or where they grew up.

My extensive research into the origin of both terms turned out to be kind of interesting. The origin of the hillbilly moniker comes from Ulster. Ulster-Scottish (usually referred to, incorrectly, as “Scots-Irish” settled in the hill-country of Appalachia. Much of their music dealt with William, Prince of Orange, who defeated the Catholic King James II of the Stuart family at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland in 1690. Supporters of King William were known as Orangemen and Billy Boys and their North American counterparts were soon referred to as hill-billies.

Two theories about the term redneck caught my eye. One theory traces the term redneck to wealthy southern plantation owners who thought they needed to justify their own supremacy by degrading poor, uneducated white people. They coined the term redneck to belittle white field laborers who could be identified by the bright red sunburns on their necks. The other theory is that during the West Virginia miners strikes of the 1920s, the miners concentrated their effort to become organized, adopting a uniform that featured a red bandanna worn around the neck. The miners nicknamed themselves rednecks as a point of solidarity.

So various groups and individuals have always been tagged with some name — but I recon it don’t matter so much what you call people as it does how you treat them….
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