2012...Coming Events

Yes, Virgina, the Grinch Exists (in Saugus, MA)

Richard Langlois, the Grinch of Saugus

SAUGUS, Mass. -- Santa’s plans in Saugus took a downward spiral when the superintendent of schools tried to cancel a nearly 50-year tradition.

“We were being told that the Santa Claus was not to go to any of the Saugus public schools,” said Mark Gannon of the Saugus Fire Department.

Saugus firefighters donate their own money, union dues, and time to help Santa deliver coloring books to more than 500 preschoolers and kindergartners via a "red sleigh."

“As soon as Santa walks into a room, the teachers love it too ‘cause the kids are dead silent. They are just - mouths open, looking at him, they can’t believe it. They’re quiet, they do everything they’re told. Nobody wants to mess with Santa,” said Gannon.

But Superintendent Richard Langlois did, and he said he was just following rules. (Channel 7 News whdh.com)

Read more: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/north/12006204912426/saugus-santa-tradition-almost-cut-due-to-school-policy/#ixzz1hkSJg9L9  (Check the picture and see if this could in any way approximate a religious figure, no matter how wild your imagination.)


    So, this idiot of an excuse for a school leader banned fire fighters who freely donated time, costumes and coloring books from sharing acts of kindness in the lower elementary students in the the Saugus, MA schools.  Of course, he had a rationale: Santa Claus is a religious figure and there is somewhere written that church and state should be separate.  You know, the Church of Santa ...the one in every mall and department store.  .And of course, this is height of stupidity,  How someone without a smattering of logic could ever be a school superintendent evades me...but I guess there are many like him.  Same type who would probably have no qualms about relegating sped kids to basement rooms.
    Santa, is a conglomeration of many figures of myth which predate Nordic times.  Maybe they were associated with religions thousands of years ago, but so were trees, the sun, bunny rabbits and cupid.  Maybe we'll banish eggs, and bunnies and Valentine Cards (no offense to the mythical RC St Valentine).  Let's work at sanitizing the schools and the lives of kids.  Let's make believe that there are no differences among people.
    Morons like this dude, have tried to banish :  "Huck Finn," "Aesop's Fables," "The Catcher in the Rye" and " Lady Chatterly's Lover" from school libraries....like this stuff  doesn't happen in school halls in front of the glaring eyes of administrators all the time.
    So in one fell swoop of the axe, the good will of fire fighters and the innocence of children is destroyed because this idiot declared  Santa to be a god actually, a religious figure),,,let's all light a candle in front of a statue of a Santa and pray to him for a miracle ...that the school committee fires his ass.


Thank god, he rescinded his decision ... after death threats were reported in paper.

Check the following blog for a local parody!  Also are bonehead's address and e-mail!

     

The North Shore Tab

A cute, but cutting local editorial about  Richard Langlois,  The Grich of the Saugus Public Schools

The North Shore Tab (click for suggestions)

Now seriously, folks, does this look like a religious figure?

The Gift.....Our Gift

Adam's Gift from Aimee and Tony (12/25/2011)

Once a goalie, always a goalie

Adam in goal, Spring 1998

Winter Solstice: Rebirth, Renewal, Rejuvenation...

       The Winter Solstice will occur at 05:30 UTC on December 22, 2011.  With this re-adjustment of our planet's axial tilt, nights gradually become shorter and daylight gradually increases.  This primordial event which predates all life on this planet is so significant...there is more light, more evolution of consciousness, renewal.  There is little doubt as to why the lives of many deities, many pagan celebrations, many world events center about the time of the solstice.  Astronomical events, which during ancient times controlled the mating of animals, sowing of crops and metering of winter reserves between harvests, show how various cultural mythologies and traditions have arisen.

     




  We celebrate the re-birth of our son today...a movement forward, a renewal of our spirit, a grasping for more light. 

        




       We celebrate a renewal of our commitment to Adam and his continued healing.  






    






  We celebrate a renewal of the source of all energy as it shines upon us and all who strive to recognize the purity and the perfection of our son.









       We celebrate a renewal of the message...the sun will continue to shine more brightly each and every day...world without end.

        We celebrate the ceaseless, unending smile...a clear and unequivocal indication that life is worth living and that life has meaning in itself.

      


        And, of course, we celebrate Adam's personal guardian angel, Ollie!


       To all our friends, followers and fellow journey men and women....a blessed Solstice, renewal, light, a a brilliant sun shining upon you, your children and your dreams.

Sustaining Life....

       Not a day passes by me without a serious reflection upon what sustains life in our severely disabled children and adult children.  Against all medical and mathematical odds, they survive and thrive.  Against the backdrop of a society which stigmatizes the compromised, they survive.  In the world of western medicine, despite cutting, implanting and medicating, which are commonplace routines, they survive.  In the myriad of strangers and others who blow in and out of their lives, the disabled face people who look away...the other way, they survive.  In a system of dwindling resources and respite for their care givers, they survive and live.

       There is suffering, floating in and out of consciousness; bodies deformed by spastic contractures; bodies incapable of many controlled basic functions; bodies which are probed and examined and invaded; spirits which could be crippled by the indifference of people who should care and do not.  There is deep suffering in their cellular awareness that the outside world perceives their lives as not worthy of life itself.  There is suffering in the spiritual knowledge that mom and dad may not be around forever, and that no one has stepped up to fill these voids.  There is an intuitive belief that they may be a burden, that their needs are overwhelming.  Yet life sustains itself, and always with a smile...that smile which sustains the caregivers and that smile which itself is sustained by the unconditional love of the parent and the care-giver. There is no indignity when care is given because of that love.  Unconditional love requires nothing in return...unconditional love is a gift particularly reserved for the disabled.  This love sustains life because it permeates the very core of being; it is sensed at cellular levels and allows life to pursue life.

       I often view institutions, hospitals and group homes as places devoid of this level of love.  Great care, great medicine, great homes never communicate the level of unconditioned love to those who need mom and dad forever.  The greatest  fear of parents is that their children will be alone, alone in living and alone in dying.  We are the mechanism of sustaining that life force in our kids; kids unrecognized for their contributions to the evolution of human consciousness.

      I am amazed that people worship a man who suffered for several days, was betrayed by friends, was given up by supporters to an indifferent government, beaten and killed over a course of three days.  Myth has it he rose a few days later.  Yes, he suffered and yes, he died.  Does the suffering and the betrayal of the Christus compare to the suffering and social and betrayal of our kids?  Not for three days, but for 3 years, for 13 years for 60 years...suffering more intense and more prolonged than that endured by a man who others claimed to be a god.  Perhaps, he did not experience that unconditional love that children have; maybe that's why he folded?  Lessons to be learned? I, perhaps, believe that our children, disabled and pure of spirit are gods.

       I remember a lifetime ago (just after Adam's accident) receiving a card from one of the parents of a boy who played hockey with Adam and who had just seen him.  He said that it "was like looking at the face of god."  The comment has never left me..

      The lost gospel of Mary of Magdala (the supposed wife of Jesus and mother of his two sons) was discovered in Nag Hamadi in the 1940's.  She, of course, was in a power struggle with Peter, who denied the lord. This misogyny continues 2000 years later.  Perhaps that's why the gospel was suppressed?  The fragment found contains her final words which she learned from her lord, "Know ye not that ye are all gods?"  I believe that our vulnerable are gods and their life sustains because of unconditional love, something which was not active in the life of the Christus.  So many lessons to be learned, so much knowledge to be unearthed.  I believe that the source is in our midst and is sustained by unconditional love.

       We can never allow our most vulnerable to be exposed to care and homes without deep unconditioned love; this is a death sentence.  We sustain life; there is no single more important task or event that any parent can share in.

       Of course, I have long abandoned the notion of a personal deity and I believe that religions poison everything. (Hitchens, 2007: "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything)  Religions also stigmatize and devalue the disabled.  How few churches/temples have ramps and are really accessible!  How many religions still believe that disability is a punishment for someone's sins?  How many religions believe that disability is taken on by a "victim soul"?  How many religions believe that the disabled are here waiting to be healed by a miracle because they are less than perfect?  How many disabled kids are viewed as "pillow angels"?  Without religions, we can fully honor their sublime divinity and full humanity.

“Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation.” 

― Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

N.B.and P.S.     Hitch (Christopher Hitchens) died a few days ago at age 62.

A recent blog tribute to Hitch written by neuroscientist Sam Harris  HERE

“What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” 

― Christopher Hitchens

Messengers...Our Duty as Parents of the Disabled

Elie Wiesel

Remarks at the Dedication of Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum

Delivered 15 March 2005, Jerusalem, Israel

There is a frightening character in all of Kafka's stories. It's always the messenger who tried to deliver the message, and is unable to do so. We feel sorry for a poor messenger. But there is something more tragic than that: when the messenger has delivered the message and nothing has changed.

        We are the messengers and it is imperative that we continually and repeatedly keep delivering our message about the plight of the disabled.  Over and over again!  Until that point in the evolution of human consciousness that society provides our sons and daughters all the necessary supports to live lives which are worthy of life itself.  The invisibility, the stigmatization of the disabled must become a thing of the past, not by law or legislation, but by a change in the belief of the dignity of every person.

        I salute and honor every messenger, every blogger, every advocate who calls for a new world where institutions are closed and families have all the resources and supports to care for their own...if we can subsidize oil companies in the U.S. and bailout the biggest lenders, we can provide for the most vulnerable of our society and their committed care takers.  The resources are unquestionably available, the priorities are skewed.  It is in this quest that we become human, to turn away from this responsibility is inhuman.

ADDENDUM:

       I just found this passage from Weisel which explains why there is a need for parents tp continue being messengers, even if no one hears:

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity

He told the crowd the story of the sage who visits a town dripping with corruption, from government on down to the people who live there.

“He would go to the marketplaces and from one street to another, saying to people, ‘Wake up! Wake up! Wake up to the needs of your fellow man!’

“In the beginning, children would gather around him because nobody had ever spoken like that. And he went on day after day for years and years,” Wiesel said.

Much like the old sage of his story, here Wiesel got quieter and softer as he continued.

“And years later, the children stopped him in the street and said, ‘Poor stranger, you speak and you shout, but don’t you see that nobody listens? And yet you keep going, speaking and shouting. Don’t you see it’s for nothing?’

“The sage said, ‘My dear child, I know it’s for nothing. They don’t listen and will never change. But I go on shouting louder and louder in this village and that village, on this corner and that corner, because ultimately, I don’t want them to change me.’ ”

Just Because....You Will Understand

       Just because the parent of every severely disabled child will understand without the need for any explanation...especially the parent of an post school-age disabled son/daughter!

64....I AM

       I am not a fan of birthdays, nor most holidays....must be the grinch gene that was passed on from my ancestors and kept replicating itself in my DNA (hope I'm not passing it on to my progeny).  But I guess that turning 64 today must mean something other than I'm old.   I minimally researched the significance of "64" and found the following list of stuff which should make me quite celebratory.  Wish someone would add my "64" to wiki-pedia.  How about it?

Sixty-four is:

• In some computer programming languages, the size in bits of certain data types
• In chess or draughts, the total number of black (dark) and white (light) squares on the game board
• 64 is the name of the premier Russian chess magazine
• The code for international direct dial calls to New Zealand
• The designation of US Interstate 64, a freeway from Missouri to Virginia
• The designation of U.S. Route 64, a highway from Arizona to North Carolina
• The subject of the Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four"
• The registry of the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CV-64)
• The number of Braille characters in the old 6-dot system
• In 8-bit home computers, a common shorthand for the Commodore 64
• In video games, the Nintendo 64 video game console and (historically) the Commodore 64. Since 1996, the number 64 has been an abbreviation or slang for Nintendo 64 (though N64 is more common)
• The maximum number of strokes in any Chinese character
• Number of hexagrams in the I Ching
• Number of sexual positions in the Kama Sutra

                                                      When I'm 64  by the Beatles

• Number of demons in the Dictionnaire Infernal
• Slang term referring to a 1964 Chevrolet Impala, often configured as a lowrider, a popular subject among early-90's gangsta rap
• The number of classical arts listed in many Indian scriptures. They include: singing, dancing, painting, poetry, playing cards, making arguments, making flower garlands, etc.
• The number of the French department Pyrénées-Atlantiques
• The number of crayons in the popular Crayola 64 pack
• Base 64 is used for example with Base64 encoding.
• 64 (dog) is a character in the Donald Duck comics universe.
• Number of codons in the RNA codon table under genetic code.
• Number of golden disks in the myth of the Tower of Hanoi.
• A number referring to Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (Chinese: 六四事件; literally "Six Four Incident") in Chinese

• Messier object M64, a magnitude 9.0 galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, also known as the Black Eye Galaxy.
• The New General Catalogue object NGC 64, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus
• The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on -832 April 11 and ended on 430 May. The duration of Saros series 64 was 1262.1 years, and it contained 71 solar eclipses.
• The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on -801 August 9 and ended on 714 February. The duration of Saros series 64 was 1514.5 years, and it contained 85 lunar eclipses.
• 
  
                                            FOR MATHEMATICIANS ONLY

Sixty-four is the square of 8, the cube of 4, and the sixth power of 2. It is the smallest number with exactly seven divisors. It is the lowest positive power of two that is adjacent to neither a Mersenne prime nor a Fermat prime. 64 is the sum of Euler's totient function for the first fourteen integers. It is also adodecagonal number and a centered triangular number.

Since it is possible to find sequences of 64 consecutive integers such that each inner member shares a factor with either the first or the last member, 64 is an Erdős–Woods number.

In base 10, no integer added up to its own digits yields 64, hence it is a self number.

64 is a superperfect number - a number such that σ(σ(n))=2n.

64 is the index of Graham's number in the rapidly growing sequence 3,27,7625597484987,....

• Phil's "64" today....yeah!  One year from Medicare....