I wait in 4/4 time

IT’S A WELL-KNOWN businessperson’s NO-NO to talk to customers or potential ones about politics and religion and—what else? Race? Sexuality? Money matters?. I’m not speaking for anybody else at Rivendell. I’m pretty sure of where everybody else here stands, but I’m speaking for me now.

I’m for gender/sexual/any kind of equality. Is it dangerous to say that? Does that take nerve of any kind? Should it take nerve? Should it have to be said?

I think evolution should be taught in schools, because it would help kill racism and xenophobia. It’s probably more dangerous to say that, but science says earth is 4.54 billion years old. Everybody’s ancestors were African from the get-go, and i think we owe those original Africans from 60,000 years ago or whatever, a little thanks for wading, swimming, rafting, or flailing across the water gap and fanning out east and north and then all over. Way to go, ladies and gents…a big-time doff of the cap to you!

Genetic adaptations to the environment are so fascinating! Dark skin works better in hot sun, and wider short nostrils don’t warm up the already-hot air as much as long narrow nostrils do, so – that’s why Michael Jackson’s original nose was broad. If only he’d known. All physical difference should be seen as fantastic scientific adaptations to circumstances, not reasons to fight.

I see you have a long, slender nose and white skin—cool, those features evolved in northern Europe!

I dig your epicanthic folds! Good thing your ancestors had ‘em for eye protection in the snow!

I think every child deserves the care and love and education my daughters got and still get. It helped that we weren’t worried about food or gang violence and mom’s or dad’s troubled cronies coming by and making life scary. A certain amount of peace and stability make love and care giving come easy. 

I think poor people should get medical care as good as rich people get. I am not against universal health care. The U.S. wouldn’t be the pioneers of it; we can learn by current successes.

All children, by the time they’re 5, should have memorized at least 20 picture books, and by the time they’re 14 should have had the kind of home environment that lead them to have read 40 on their own, at least. That doesn’t happen when home’s a war zone.

I don’t think the world is the center of anything, but it’s special because it has evolved this complex (and complicated) life. It’s an unlikely micro-spec, which is another way of saying we’re lucky.

I know that in a universal view, what we do here won’t affect anything in outer space. I get that what we call “litter” and “pollution” is just a rearrangement and redistribution of molecules that were already here. It doesn’t matter to the universe whether we rearrange molecules into something we call waste and put them into rivers instead of reclamation plants, or better still, not rearrange the molecules that way in the first place. But this IS where we live, and nobody wants the dog poop in their bed, and if you pan back far enough, the earth is our bed, so let’s not rearrange its molecules in bad ways that are gross or deadly, just because it’s profitable and convenient.

I want the fish to spawn. Does that mean undamming all rivers? No, but a few, for sure, and let’s not put up any more, OK? Damming is damning, right?

I want jobs for all, but the ‘50s and ‘60s are over, and the low-skill, high-paying factory jobs that allowed a single-income or even two-income family of four to buy a house are not coming back, no matter who’s president. We (Rivendell) do our best to support U.S. manufacturing, and for our size we do way better than most. But our clothing costs are 4x what Ralph’s and L.L.’s are. No president can make low-tech U.S. labor compete with low-cost overseas labor.

I kind of think within 60 years, lots of “manufacturing” will take place at home, with software programs and hardware 3-D printers You need a new bowl? Pick your pattern, print it now. This will eliminate even more job and create other problems. People are already 3-D printing weapons.

I think people should be able to own guns for hunting and I guess for personal protection, too, but assault weapons, no—and if you’ve proven yourself to be untrustable, you shouldn’t get another chance. I might be against all private gun ownership if I didn’t grow up shooting pheasants with my dad. But I also think hunting is a good way to get meat, even if it’s impractical on a large scale. Cars kill more deer than bullets do. Shotguns kill more doves than cars do, but the biggest killer of animals is habitat loss and pollution.

I think teachers should make lots more money. Start them at $65K. I think wealthy people should pay more taxes. I think there should be some limits on inheritances, because it’s better that surpluses go to help those who need it, rather than those who are related and already have more than enough to live on forever. Should a .265 hitting shortstop with a good glove get a five-year contract at $17 million a year, buy a ton of land, and pave the way for ten generations of entitled heirs? No–let’s go with a hefty inheritance tax and give the money to social programs and education.

Related to wealth, I think one’s allocation of land should not be limited only by the ability to pay for it. This is pro-earth and pro-animal, not anti-wealthy. I think the concept of land ownership is a little…well, I get it, and I’d like to own land myself, but doesn’t it seem weird that people can buy actual chunks of earth and crystal bubbling trout streams?

Anybody should be able to marry anybody, and a big part of being good is not telling others how to be good.

The biggest source of the biggest problems is overpopulation. Ten percent of the population is not contributing to that, and when they want to adopt some of the homeless orphans, I see lots of good and no harm in that.

I think in an overpopulated world that can’t sustain its current population and is set to double its population within 25 years, women should get to say yes or no to birth. Even in a sparse world. I think it’s bizarre that I have to be nervous even saying that.

Technology and advance in medicine are struggling to extend life. Physician-assisted suicide is against the law in most states. At some point it’s just time to vamoose, and that is one area where less government might be a good thing. It’s complicated, but 5 years of life support is not good for anybody.

I think the worst of all crimes are crimes against children that I can’t even stand to mention. Stopping that should be No. 1 priority, regardless of what country they live in.

I think too many people are in prisons. I like the way prisons work in Norway, but not Rikers Island. I’m for stun-guns, rubber bullets, and tasers, and a backup single bullet in the pocket, Barney Fife-style. I know this alone isn’t a solution to crime, but I still think it would be better. Three Strikes didn’t work.

There’s strong evidence that the universe is guided by physics, and natural and sexual selection are powerful shaping tools for all life, plant or animal. Rather than human behavior originating from an as-yet undiscovered source within that only humans have, I think its more like natural selection without the time-lag. Think about that. If somebody says something funny or outrageous or foul and applause and higher poll numbers follow, more of that will follow–in the same way that standup comedians know the jokes that work. That is natural selection.

That take on natural selection has all kinds of ramifications, and comes from seeing how plants face the sun and dogs roll over on command and zoo-dolphins jump through firey hoops, and owls hunt at night because it works. It’s highly unlikely that of all life forms, the one called human would be the only one that didn’t play by the rules. Because we have a – what? And where IS it?

I think running a business is not the same thing as running a country. Citizens aren’t employees, and the bottom lines in both cases are not exactly the same.

Immigration is a real toughy, I’ve got nothing MUCH to say on that, but there is this, but it’s worth a reminder that the European immigration that brought a lot of our ancestors here was justified by labeling those-already-here (who themselves were immigrants) as godless savages, and then the slaughter began. And “we” weren’t war-refugees, just wanna-be conquistadors. I know we don’t get a do-over, but you’d hope it would shape our feelings toward immigrants coming here to escape death back home. Just a little.

Everybody has shortcomings, but some people’s shortcomings affect more people and in a bigger way than other people’s. My messy desk doesn’t wreck any part of your life. When my wife goes away for a few days and I mess up the house, I clean it up before she returns.

There are prerequisites and minimal qualifications for most jobs.  I think all candidates for president should be able to draw accurate geophysical & geopolitical maps of the middle east and name the head of those countries. Prove it, no notes, on television in front of a live audience. Explain your map the the class, too. List the last four books you’ve read, and summarize them. If you run for president, this seems a low but necessary bar.

I think the pollsters should quit pretending they’re practicing science. Exposed!

I know the intent of the electoral college, but I’d like to see it go away, anyway.

Good luck to us all. We gonna need it.