Re-Enacting the Last Days of Rome

"There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages, and to magnify the evils, of the present times."—Chapter 31, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon

One of my family members has worked for a small, independent bookstore for several years. The owner recently decided she wanted to sell, then discovered that because she has full-time employees with benefits, her profit margin was not as good as it might be. If her full-timers were not there, tamping down her profits, she could sell the store for a larger sum. The solution? Harass the full-time employees by screaming at them and telling them that everything they do is crap so they will leave. One of the three full-time employees is so distraught she is counting her days. The other two, despite feeling stressed, intend to stay until they are fired so they will qualify for unemployment and COBRA. How could someone behave like this? Easy. Just look at our media role models—from Congress to reality television. Abuse has gone mainstream. 
 

The world can be a nasty place. People, in their self-absorbed pursuit of money and/or power, often feel justified in brutalizing anyone who gets in their way. Fortunately, there are still people who believe this is wrong. Two of them are men who stand at the opposite poles of ideology. In 2009, Mark DeMoss, a Republican and prominent evangelical Christian who runs a public relations firm in Atlanta, joined forces with a friend, Lanny J. Davis, a Jewish Democrat and lobbyist who worked for Bill Clinton, to establish the Civility Project. They formed their initiative in response to what they viewed as an increasingly vicious tone in American politics.

"I am concerned about the hate and animosity being aimed at men and women with whom we may disagree on one issue or another and have decided to do something about it."—Mark DeMoss

Those of you who are my age will remember civility—the ability to calmly discuss issues with people of opposing viewpoints without name calling or disrespect. We learned about it in our civics classes where we were taught an important principle of democracy—intellectual, fact-based debate.
The Civility Project founders created a pledge with the goal of having every member of Congress and every state governor sign it. Here’s their “Civility Pledge”:

I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
I will stand against incivility when I see it.

Sounds like something we might have learned in kindergarten. Sadly, our legislators didn’t. Out 585 letters sent asking every sitting governor and member of Congress to sign the pledge, only three did so. They were Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut; Representative Frank Wolfe, Republican of Virginia; and Representative Sue Myrick, Republican of North Carolina. That’s right, my liberal friends, the Repubicans took the feeble lead on this one. Let us hang our heads in shame.
DeMoss folded the project after spending two years and about $30,000 in expenses on the endeavor.

 

My heroes, Mark DeMoss (left) and Lanny Davis. Courtesy of CivilityProject.org.

In a letter written on January 3, 2011, to the three admirable legislators who signed the pledge, DeMoss said, “I must admit to scratching my head as to why only three members of Congress, and no governors, would agree to what I believe is a rather low bar.”

DeMoss, a former aide to Moral Majority founder Rev. Jerry Falwell and an unpaid adviser to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential campaign, said that he was particularly surprised by the hostility to the civility pledge from conservatives.

"Incivility is the extreme of pride; it is built on the contempt of mankind."—Johann Georg Von Zimmerman, Swiss physician and philosopher (1728 - 1795)

“The worst e-mails I received about the civility project were from conservatives with just unbelievable language about communists, and some words I wouldn’t use in this phone call,” he said to an interviewer from The New York Times.  “This political divide has become so sharp that everything is black and white, and too many conservatives can see no redeeming value in any liberal or Democrat. That would probably be true about some liberals going the other direction, but I didn’t hear from them.”

He went on to say, “Whether or not there’s violence, whether or not incivility today is worse than it’s been in history, it’s all immaterial. It’s worse than it ought to be.” Well said. Thank you, Mr. DeMoss.

What it comes down to is this: When a society degenerates into reducing human beings to things to be destroyed or removed, we all lose a little bit of our humanity. And make no mistake. Once that happens, no one is safe.

The Amityville Rental

If you've ever watched the Amityville Horror (featured in a book and two movies), you know the familiar story of the Lutz family, who finds this beautiful Dutch colonial house on Long Island for a great price, only to discover something evil lurks within. Such is real estate. You just never know what you’re going to get until you move in.

“There's nothing like it on the market. Not at this price.”—Mrs. Townsend, Amityville Horror, 1979

My younger daughter, Chelsea, recently signed a lease on a beautiful apartment in the attic of someone’s home in Dover. It was remodeled with a brand new kitchen and lovely tiled bathroom. The floors were hardwood and it is, quite frankly, a very attractive apartment. The rent was reasonable, considering how crazy rents in Northern New Jersey can be. And she is basically happy there.

Dover has a train station. [Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger]

Before she rented it, the landlord’s father took us on a tour of the place. The family she rents from is quite nice, the typical first-generation-American, working-class family that occupies these parts. I was pleased with the apartment and the people who lived in the main house. One thing that struck me as odd, but only in passing, was a clause in the lease. It read that if Chelsea took legal action against the landlord, she would be liable for his legal costs. Maybe that is standard in leases these days, but I had never seen it before.

I think the first inkling that there might be organ music playing in a minor key, was when she called me up in a panic at 12:30 one night to say that there was running and scratching noises in the ceiling. I tried to calm her down. It was probably mice or squirrels. That's fairly common in suburbia. Since the landlord lived beneath her, surely he would have some stake in taking care of the problem.

“Your house frightens me, Mrs. Lutz.”—Father Callaway, Amityville Horror, 2005

A day or two later, the next phone call I got, she found out that the thermostat didn’t work. That meant if she turned on the air conditioning, it would not stop at a particular temperature. Instead it would keep chugging out cold air until it was frigid enough to store a side of beef. The problem with this is that she has to pay for her own electric. If the thermostat never turns off, then it should be heart-stopping to see her first electric bill.

Shortly thereafter, she found out that there was not enough hot water to take a shower. Normally, a tenant would have her own hot water tank, so this seemed a bit strange. Finally, this past week, when she decided to do some baking, she found out that the oven doesn’t work. The burners heat up, but the oven does not. Mind you, she just moved in a few weeks ago, so there are 11 more months on her lease to discover whatever other horrors might await in her new residence.

The landlord has been to her apartment to look into the pests in the attic and the thermostat, but so far nothing has been fixed. Fortunately, Chelsea is patient and philosophical. She understands the landlord has a full-time job and this is something he does on the side. She understands that what is wrong with the apartment may not be an easy fix. She also knows, due to the clause in the lease, she cannot afford any legal action should these problems persist.

“[sobs] Why is it all going wrong? We have to do something.”—Kathy Lutz, Amityville Horror, 1979

Looking on the bright side: Unlike the residence of horror fame, no one has been murdered in her apartment, no ghosts are terrorizing her and the walls do not bleed. There is also no demonic pig creature named Jodie with red glowing eyes. Hopefully, the landlord will be as honest as he appears and will take care of the problems in the next few weeks. If not, she will endure the next year unwashed, braving extreme temperatures, bereft of oven, with the unwanted companionship of several unseen, noisy wall pets.

Following the Sherman Tank Generation

“The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lately, I’ve noticed that I’m getting older. Not mentally, mind you. I'm still the same immature, Jersey girl I’ve always been. No. Mother Nature is tapping my shoulder on the physical plane.

I trimmed the hedges last week and my thumb is still swollen. I tripped on a phone cord, landed on my knee and it still hurts several weeks later. My ankles are permanently swollen; I have no idea why. When I was younger, any damage I did to myself cleared up in a day or two. Now it lingers and sometimes takes up permanent residence.

How did this happen? 

My mother is 29 years older than me and is built like a Sherman Tank. Nothing can stop her and she feels just fine. My generation seems a bit wimpier than hers. I had lunch with some old high school chums recently and the focus of much of our conversation revolved around our physical maladies and how we were coping with them. We sounded like my late grandmother did when she was in her eighties.

“There's one advantage to being 102. There's no peer pressure.” —Dennis Wolfberg

This is not just my imagination. According to a study by the University of California (UC), which oddly enough was carried in the UK Daily Mail, today's Baby Boomers are the first modern generation to be less healthy than their immediate predecessors. Despite improvements in medicine and standards of living, we are more likely to be blighted by health problems, from aching knees and hips to diabetes, asthma and strokes.

Technology: friend or foe?

This may be due to fast food, lack of exercise and a growing reliance on computers and other technology. It does not bode well that the U.S has the fattest population in the developed world. Apparently, two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those extra pounds make joints wear out more quickly, boost cholesterol and blood pressure, and raise the risk of a host of other debilitating health problems. Even if they aren't overweight, Baby Boomers tend to be less physically active than their parents and grandparents. Their daily routines are often dominated by desk jobs and commuting, both of which involve a lot of sitting.

The UC study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, compared the health of thousands of men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s with data on different people of the same age collected ten years earlier, and here’s what it found:

• One in five people in their 60s need help with basic day-to-day activities—up more than 50 percent from a decade earlier
• People over 60 years of age are 70 percent more likely to have difficulty walking from room to room, getting in and out of bed, and eating or dressing than the same age group 10 years ago 
• Finally, the over-60 group was 50 percent more likely to have trouble walking a quarter of a mile or climbing ten steps without a rest. Stooping, crouching, kneeling and getting up from a chair proved 40 percent more troublesome (that's right, folks, no more Russian kick dancing for us!)

“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”—H.L. Mencken

The UC study draws some dark conclusions:

• The growing number of individuals aged 60 and older will place ever-growing demands on the health care system
• Increased levels of disability, particularly among the youngest of older adults, may also negatively affect economic productivity (ready those mobile scooters; MY generation can't afford to retire)
• Younger people could also lose out if they have to compete with older people for scarce resources in an overburdened health care system (move over, kids, those are OUR respirators)

My mother: 85 years young and going strong.

Cary Cooper, professor of health psychology at Lancaster University in the UK, believes that our ever-growing reliance on technology is harming our health. (Spoil-sport!) He warns that the impact will be even greater in years to come, with the retirees of the future having spent many more years sitting in front of a computer than those of today. His advice is simple: Be active.

Ironically, some "advances" in health care could be contributing to this backward trend.

“We have been lulled into a false sense of security that pharmaceuticals are the answer to our health problems,” says Dr. Ian Campbell, a general practitioner and medical director of the charity, Weight Concern. “So we get statistics saying that the number of deaths from heart disease is falling but that is because we are keeping people alive with drugs. That is admirable but it would be far better if we could cut the amount of heart disease in the first place.” Keep people healthy rather than drugging them up over a prolonged period of time to cope with chronic symptoms? Lousy business model.

So let's get this straight. We are living longer, but we are doing so based, not on good health, but on life-extending pharmaceuticals. Rather than maintaining good health through lifestyle, we eat bad food and spurn exercise with the assumption that all problems can be solved by popping a pill. We may not feel all that great, but we are being kept alive, which improves the mortality statistics and gives us a false sense of progress.

While science may have provided us with longevity, past generations had a better quality of life. Why? Simple. They ate unprocessed foods (sans genetically modified organisms) and got up off their duffs and did something.

For Whom the Spa Tolls

"All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that."—Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658)

Last December, my daughter, Jessica, found a solution to the age-old question of what to get me for the holidays. She knows I have little interest in "things." The greatest gift my loved ones can give me is their time. Whenever I say this, it is usually met with groans and rolling eyes. But this year, Jessica rose to the challenge and bought a Spa Day for me, her sister and herself so we could enjoy a mother/daughter day together. Brilliant!

Due to a bit of procrastination, no one called to make an appointment until March and the earliest time the Jeunesse Spa had open was in early May. So we bided our time and eventually the weekend of our appointment arrived. Unfortunately, the spa called us the day before our family event to tell us that they had plumbing issues so would have to reschedule. Our new appointment would not be until the end of July.

They have trademarked the phrase:

“Spa Moments...Cherish Them.”

The week leading up to our appointment, a spa staff member left a message on my answering machine every day, asking for a confirmation. Every day, I called back to confirm. This, however, had no effect and the spa staff continued to call me every day to request the already supplied confirmation once more. This led me to seriously question my credibility.

Finally, I left them a message informing them that having confirmed three times I was not prepared to confirm anymore, so please stop calling me. That seemed to work. My daughter also confirmed for good measure.

"This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Our big day finally arrived and my younger daughter, Chelsea, and I caught a bus in New Jersey. Jessica lives in Queens, so we planned to meet at the Port Authority in New York City.

The relaxation room. Ah...

Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take the gift certificates for our spa day, so we all had to go back to Queens so Jessica could print out new copies. This meant that we had to skip our leisurely lunch and rush directly to the Jeunesse Spa.

Apparently, Jeunesse is French for "the time of one's youth," which certainly applies to my two daughters, but not to me. I suppose it would not do to call the place "the time of one's youth and/or advancing age." Not quite as trendy.

When we arrived, they offered us free wine, a great tactic for putting clients in a good mood. Then we were escorted to a locker room where we were invited to exchange our street clothes for bathrobes and plastic sandals.

Jessica was taken away by a staff member while Chelsea and I were led to a waiting room with a large television screen. The screen had a scene of a red flowing river. It moved slowly and looked somewhat stagnant. I remarked to Chelsea that the river looked polluted. She replied that it was lava and meant to be relaxing. Really? Oh. To me, it looked like a vision of Hell. But okay. The picture shifted to a bubbling mud caldera, then steaming geysers. These scenes of oppressive heat, rather than offering serenity, left me feeling uncomfortable in a way that only another menopausal woman could understand.

Finally Rosa came to lead me to the massage room. The room was warm—almost as warm as I was. She told me to get comfortable and she would be back in a few minutes. I disrobed and lay down on the massage table. Soon Rosa returned and a truly relaxing massage ensued. The background music was New Age with some screaming gulls, the latter of which took some getting used to. An hour later, I was back in the locker room getting dressed for my manicure and pedicure.

Chelsea chose avant garde green; I went with traditional pink.

Chelsea and I were led to some chairs with foot pools, where we were offered more wine and encouraged to choose which color we wanted for our nails. Chelsea choose a provocative shade of green and I selected a more conventional hot pink.

The woman who painted my nails was from Nepal. Her family had won a lottery there and they used the money to move to the United States seven years ago. She and her family now live in Queens. Half of her family is Hindu and the other half is Buddhist. Of course, most everyone in New York City is from somewhere else, so her exotic background did not make her stand out. I guess you could say she is a typical New Yorker.

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."—Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Our nails were soon done, and Jessica emerged from her massage, so we went to the front desk to pay our tips and head off for a very late, 4 p.m. lunch. We sat outside at a local cafe, caught up on what was going on in our lives and enjoyed our time together. As holiday presents go, it was one of the best I had ever received.

The Butterflies of Our Minds

Last night, I dreamt I was writing a blog. Aside from giving me an idea for writing this blog, does that mean anything? Dreams have long intrigued people. They have been used for psychic prognostication, psychological analysis or just good breakfast conversation.

Why do we dream?

No one knows, for sure, why we dream, but there are many theories.

• Sigmund Freud thought that dreams carried our hidden desires. (You remember him; the guy who thought that anything that was wider than it was long was a phallic symbol?)
• Carl Jung believed that dreams had meaning, although not always of desire, and that these dreams could be interpreted through symbols. (He also lived in the same house with his wife and his mistress; fun times!)
• Edgar Cayce said that dreams are our body’s means of building up mental, spiritual and physical well-being. He thought dreams sped up a person’s ability to realize their potential. (He went to sleep to give people psychic advice)
• Dr. Christopher Evans theorized that dreaming is our body’s way of storing the vast array of information gained during the day. (Got nothing on this guy; can't even find his bio)
• Francis Crick (the Nobel prize winner who discovered DNA) and Graeme Mitchinson (the only man on this list still alive) believed that this information is being dumped rather than stored

How has dreaming been viewed historically?

• The earliest reference to the significance of dreams was found in the ancient epic story of Gilgamesh, King of Urk, recovered from the ancient library of Ninevah in Assyria. Assyria was a country that existed from around 2200 BC to 608 BC between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now present-day northern Iraq. Gilgamesh is thought to date from Sumerian poems from the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150 BC to 2000 BC). The Assyrians created special collections of dream interpretations. One of those collections was The Assyrian Dream Book, found by archaeologists on a set of clay cuneiform tablets

“Gilgamesh dreamt that an axe fell from the sky. The people gathered around it in admiration and worship. Gilgamesh threw the axe in front of his mother and then he embraced it like a wife. His mother, Ninsun, interpreted the dream. She said that someone powerful would soon appear. Gilgamesh would struggle with him and try to overpower him, but he would not succeed. Eventually they would become close friends and accomplish great things. She added, ‘That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus your dream is solved.’"—case closed: Epic of Gilgamesh

• In ancient Egypt, priests acted as dream interpreters. Hieroglyphics depicting dreams and their interpretations have been found and translated. Egypt may have been where the process of "dream incubation" began. When people had troubles and wanted help from a god, they would sleep in a temple. The next morning, a priest, called a Master of Secret Things (awesome title!), would interpret their dreams in an attempt to offer some insights on their problems. (So when Meatloaf sang "Let me sleep on it," he was partaking in a time-honored tradition)
• The ancient Greeks also used Asclepieions (healing temples) to heal the sick. They believed dream incubation could effect cures within the confines of the temple
• The Oneirocritica, or The Interpretation of Dreams, was a five-volume book written by Artemidorus of Daldis who lived in Greece about 140 AD. The first three volumes were an encyclopedia for dream interpretation and the last two chapters were written exclusively for his son who followed him in the family dream-interpretation business. Although Artemidorus believed that dreams could predict the future, he also held some more contemporary approaches to dreams. He thought that the meaning of dream images could be decoded. For instance, Alexander, while warring against the Tyrians, dreamt that a satyr was dancing on his shield. (How often have we all had that one?) This dream was interpreted as: satyr = sa tyros ("Tyre will be thine"), predicting that Alexander would be triumphant. (Did any soothsayers ever dare to interpret failure?)
• Tabir, the Muslim science of dream interpretation, coalesced from the ninth to the 13th centuries. This body of knowledge integrated Islamic faith with the classical heritage of the Greeks and Romans, according to Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, in her essay, “Reflections on the Dream Traditions of Islam.” Ibn Sirin (654 AD to 728 AD) wrote a well-known book on dreams. The work is divided into 25 sections on dream interpretation, from the etiquette of interpreting dreams to the interpretation of reciting certain Surahs (chapters) of the Qur'an in one's dream. Unlike Western dream interpretation, Ibn Sirin taught that a dream’s meaning could not be determined without reference to the personality characteristics of the dreamer. There was no "one size fits all" interpretation for any particular dream symbol; the meaning depended on the personality and life circumstances of the dreamer. According to Kelly, in the Muslim culture, dreams, and the ability to interpret them, are still an important sign of God’s favor. Through dreams, God sends commandments, inspires accomplishment and provides divine knowledge 
• A standard traditional Chinese book on dream-interpretation is the Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation compiled in the 16th century by Chen Shiyuan. The Chinese were concerned with the implications of dreams for their welfare in this life and the hereafter, according to Richard Strassberg, who translated and wrote the introduction of Wandering Spirits, a translation of Chen Shiyuan’s book. Dreams represented "spirit wandering," which included nighttime interactions with deities, demons and ghosts. Dream interpretation combined shamanic, Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist principles; literary allusions; and common sense. In addition to dream interpretation, Chinese thinkers also raised profound ideas such as the question of how we know we are dreaming and how we know we are awake

"Once Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly. He fluttered about happily, quite pleased with the state he was in, and knew nothing about Chuang Chou. Presently he awoke and found that he was very much Chuang Chou again. Now, did Chou dream that he was a butterfly or was the butterfly now dreaming that he was Chou?"—written in the Chuang-tzu

• Saint Jerome, a medieval church scholar from Slovenia, became secretary to Pope Damasus around 380 AD. From there he went to Palestine and devoted himself to study and writing. He is credited with shaping the Latin version of the Bible (called the Vulgate) from Hebrew and Greek texts. Unfortunately, Saint Jerome mistranslated the Hebrew word for witchcraft, anan, as "observing dreams" when commissioned to translate the Bible by Pope Damasus. “Anan” appears ten times in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), but Jerome translates it as "observing dreams" only three times, in such statements as, "you shall not practice augury nor observe dreams," which more accurately reads, "you shall not practice augury or witchcraft." As a result, dream interpretation was banned, limiting European scholarship on the topic for nearly a millennium. (One could argue that translation is mightier than the sword)
• Alfred Maury, a French doctor, pioneered modern dream interpretation. He studied over 3,000 different dreams and believed all dreams were caused by external stimuli. This viewpoint was inspired by a dream experience he had. He dreamt that he had been condemned to the guillotine. As it fell, he woke up to find the top of his bed had fallen and hit him in the spine at the exact time the guillotine would have struck him. This theory of the unconscious developed into the modern attitude toward dream interpretation
• Probably the most well-known of the modern dream philosophers was Sigmund Freud. His theory was that although dreams may be prompted by external stimuli, wish-fulfillment was the root behind most of our dreams, and that usually involved sex. (Only a man could develop this theory) 
• Carl Jung, a student of Freud for some time, disagreed on the theory that erotic content was the basis behind most of our dreams. Jung believed that dreams reminded us of our wishes, which enabled us to realize the things we unconsciously yearn for, and helps us to fulfill our own wishes. (Like living with two women?) These dreams were messages, Jung believed, from ourselves to ourselves and that we should pay attention to them for our own benefit

Depending upon your cultural and religious background, you may consider dreams prophetic, psychological, philosophical or just nonsensical brain noise. However, regardless of what you believe, one thing cannot be refuted. My dream last night, of writing a blog, undeniably came true.

Pass It On—Or Else

Why do otherwise healthy and rational human beings send me chain emails threatening my luck, my livelihood and my love life if I do not forward them on to eight to ten other soon-to-be-annoyed friends?

Who started all this nonsense, anyway? Well according to one website, Chain Letter Evolution by Daniel W. Van Arsdale, chain letters have been around for a long time. He amassed a collection of more than 600 letters from early times to today.

Early Chain Letters

The first chain letters were religiously oriented, claiming the end of the world: pass it on. These letters, which claimed divine origin, circulated in Europe.

Early European chain letter supposedly authored by Jesus.

Around 1900, shorter, secular letters appeared that demanded the reader distribute copies. Apparently, the Victorians had little to do. 

In 1935, the first money chain letter appeared, the infamous "Send-a-Dime," which was copied over a billion times worldwide within a few months. Newly discovered sources have been used to argue that the unknown author of Send-a-Dime was a Denver woman motivated by charity.

Chain Letter Approaches

Letters from heaven chain letters claimed to have been written by God or some divine representative. (The one pictured above claims to have been written by Jesus.) They often commanded Sabbath observance and promised the bearer magical protection from misfortune. They circulated in Europe and elsewhere for centuries and were reprinted during World War II. 

Luck chain letters preyed on superstition, promising good luck if the letter was copied and re-sent or bad luck if it was not. Early types started with a prayer or Bible verse. They may have developed from a requirement to distribute a prayer in a Roman Catholic Novena devotion. The oldest copy of this type of letter is from 1898.

Charity chain letters requested money or some item be sent to a fixed address, ostensibly for charitable, political or memorial purposes. An 1888 letter solicited dimes for the education of "the poor whites in the region of the Cumberlands." (Hope it worked.) This letter stated it was an adaptation of a previous solicitation, and asks that four copies be sent to friends. For compliance ". . . you will receive the blessing of Him who was ready to die for us." Recent charity chains do not ask for money. The Craig Shergold appeal requested get well cards for a dying child (since recovered), intending to break a Guinness world record that existed at the time. It was launched in September 1989 by fax, email and chain letters. By December 1990, a record 33,000,000 cards had been received. Despite efforts to stop the appeal, hundreds of millions continued to be sent. While common on the Internet, these types of letters are generally hoaxes.

In their modern form, chain petitions request their own reproduction, circulation and delivery of signatures. Earlier examples did less. A 1903 letter asked that recipients send their name and address to the "U.S. Moral Society" to be added to a petition to Congress to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors. The use of chain letters in political campaigns goes back at least to 1912 with a letter urging support for U.S. Senator James A. Reed (Missouri) for the Democratic nomination for President. Wonder how that went? Other chain petition causes included Czech independence (1949), nuclear disarmament (1985), protests of apartheid (1988), and a misinformed boycott of Proctor & Gamble (1986). (If you are old enough, you may recall that some people thought that the trident of Poseidon in the P&G logo was actually Satan’s pitchfork and the company was accused of supporting the Church of Satan.) 

Copy from 1935 Send-a-Dime chain letter. Courtesy: Chain Letter Evolution.

Money chain letters urge the recipient to send money to one or more prior senders, with the slim promise that the sender will likewise benefit in the future. Money chain letters originated in the United States in the spring of 1935 (coincidentally the height of the Great Depression) with the "Send-a-Dime" letter, also called "Prosperity Club." They continue as a pervasive nuisance to this day, both in paper and in email. Money chains and pyramid schemes violate Federal USPS and some state laws.

Exchange chain letters, which first appeared in 1935, asked that an item of small value, such as a recipe or postcard, be sent to one or more prior senders, promising that if the chain was not broken the sender would, in turn, receive many such items.

Human nature being what it is, parodies began springing up very early in the history of 20th century chain letters. Very soon after the first publicity (April 19, 1935) of the Send-a-Dime craze, parodies such as "Send-a-Pint" and the "Drop Dead Club" (shoot the first person on the list) appeared. The next known examples are the familiar "wife exchange" (1953) and "Fertilizer Club: "go to the top address on the list and crap on the front lawn" (1971).

Today, chain email runs the gamut on topics including reminding us how to behave (duty to friends, sobriety, safe sex), consumer warnings, friendship, hoaxes (virus warnings, charity, giveaways, false quotations), human rights alerts, humor (single jokes and lists, office humor items, stories), inspiration, good luck (often in sex or romance), missing children, money chains, number guessing tricks, parodies, patriotism, personality tests, petitions, poems, political commentary, prayer requests, protests, rumors, surveys, urban legends (warnings, humor) and much more.

Let's face it, most of us find chain letters incredibly aggravating and a waste of time. No one of sound mind should ever send one. Friends don't let friends forward chain letters. If you feel the same way, show your support by cutting and pasting this into your email and passing it on to eight friends. ;) Jersey-rants.blogspot.com

The Casey Anthony Shell Game

I have a confession to make: I didn’t follow the Casey Anthony murder trial.

Why? Two reasons. One: I didn’t need to know the gory details of a small child’s death to appreciate the horror of the situation. Two: I believe that news stations should be concentrating on seminal events that are currently omitted or under-covered. In short, the news media should not make a circus out of a tragedy because they are too stupid, lazy or corrupt to cover news that may impact life as we know it.

Emote; don't think. Courtesy: CrimeFiles.com.

One of my friends told me that because I did not follow—and emote over—every grizzly aspect of this event that I have no heart. To the contrary. I think people who feast on the details of other people’s misfortunes for their own sadistic entertainment or to bond with others are the ones lacking humanity.

What would I have preferred to see in the news? Well, according to Project Censored, these 10 news stories were either ignored or hardly mentioned in the past few years. (If you want to read about any of these topics, click here.)

1. Global Plans to Replace the Dollar (importance: the dollar will dramatically plummet in value; the cost of imports, including oil, will skyrocket; and interest rates will climb)
2. US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet (offenses include: extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil)
3. Internet Privacy and Personal Access at Risk (not just our government anymore: private companies and even some schools are engaging in reading your personal emails and text messages)
4. ICE Operates Secret Detention and Courts (“If you don’t have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he’s illegal, we can make him disappear.” James Pendergraph, executive director, Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
5. Blackwater (Xe): The Secret US War in Pakistan (you may have mixed feelings on this one, but it is worth reporting)
6. Health Care Restrictions Cost Thousands of Lives in US (A recent Harvard research team estimates that 2,266 US military veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance)
7. External Capitalist Forces Wreak Havoc in Africa (Land-grabbing for oil: thousands of Kenyan and Nigerian civilians have been killed in oil-rich regions as the military burns whole communities to the ground and police commit extrajudicial killings, rapes, beatings, thefts, arson, and intimidation)
8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement (On World Environment Day, June 5, 2009, Peruvian Amazon Indians were massacred by the government of Alán García in the latest chapter of a long war to take over common lands—a war unleashed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Peru and the United States)
9. Human Rights Abuses Continue in Palestine (The face of 21st Century apartheid)
10. US Funds and Supports the Taliban (Go figure: American tax dollars are paying Taliban insurgents protection money so they will not hurt our soldiers who are fighting them)

 If you’ve read my blogs, you know that I have my own pet peeves of ignored stories as well.  

1. Dangers of genetically altered foods and the FDA's refusal to label them
2. Need to warn parents and pregnant women about the health risks of cell phone radiation to growing children and fetuses
3. Radiation contamination raining down on our country from Japan, how it has contaminated our water and food supplies, and steps to protect our health from it
4. How the rich and powerful are slowly siphoning off our country's wealth at the cost of the average working person

Yes, these are scary and complex subjects, but a responsible news media would be all over them with the same doggedness they show for sensational trials and missing blonds in the Caribbean. And by the way: When was the last time you saw months and months of coverage for a poor, black child gunned down in a ghetto neighborhood? It happens every day.

Brittany Johnson: killed in a drive-by shooting. Ever hear of her?

I have lived long enough to see personal tragedies played out hundreds of times: parents turning against nature and harming their children, senseless drive-by shootings, sickening drunken-driving carnage. These should all be reported and acknowledged—briefly, with dignity and respect. But in-depth news coverage should focus on the events that threaten our food supply, health and financial stability.

That is the problem I have with the national obsession over Casey Anthony. It comes at the expense of ignoring the important issues that will affect the lives of ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. Make no mistake. The news media know how easy it is to manipulate your attention away from these issues by waving the shiny object of a lurid murder trial. Will you allow yourself to be manipulated? Or will you demand that the real news, quietly being ignored for the benefit of corporate and private financial interests, be reported? That, my friends, is entirely up to you.