Dear Editor:
Jeff Vander Meer said, “It’s more important that books be laboratories and experiments and it’s up to readers to be moral.”
What a nice expression for which so many of us could agree. Those of us who would support such a statement are most likely to also be moral, too.
It brings to question as to what is moral? What is morality? What are moral values? At this point, this expression is taken from simplicity to a more complex one. A man named Timothy McVeigh got his plan for a homemade bomb from a book titled, The Turner Chronicles. This man was executed for the Oklahoma City bombing. Was he moral when he grabbed at the contents of a book with an intent to murder which ultimately turned into genocide? As a librarian, this has been a question I have struggled with for some time now. I am against censorship. I am against the book burning perpetrated by Hitler in Germany. I am against the Southern bastards who had burnings of Beatles recordings in the good old Dixie crap. I am against someone of another religion who asks that I burn my infant baptismal certificate. Should I have stood firm about my position with regard to the immoral reader named Timothy McVeigh and The Turner Chronicles? I believe this takes the Vander Meer quote a step further than just a simplistic consideration. What is the answer?
Stacy Abrams of Georgia recently said that we should stand firm on our values, but compromise on the actions we take to support those values. These words, values and morality, are too generic, especially in light of a society in which too many are in control who obtain their values from Parker Brothers Monopoly games, the words of an unintelligent atheistic Russian Jew named Ayn Rand with her “virtue of selfishness” (clarify: I have known many American Jews who are wonderful people and who do NOT follow the principles of Ayn Rand), and from the false ideas of being “free” generated by a pediatrics doctor for the Baby Boom generation named Dr. Benjamin Spock. Libertarians and other “free thinkers” today believe in “free markets” and go along with supply side economics as if it would be endorsed by Adam Smith, the one who defined capitalism. Their “values” are that such “free markets” would be better.
Not only do individualistic selfish snots help boost Rand’s ideas of “virtue of selfishness,” but in actuality, they go AGAINST the moral values of Adam Smith. Adam Smith’s writings were Wealth of Nations, not “wealth of individualism.” Another writing by Adam Smith was the Theories of Moral Sentiment. Adam Smith, a contemporary of the American Founding Fathers (located in Scotland), was also a theologian who based his values on the moral sentiment of Jesus Christ. Christ who was degraded as being one to seek to be a “king over Israel,” based on the example of King David and Joseph who became a leader in the land of pharaohs in Egypt. Christ was dealing with a miserable autocratic government in line with the example of a Trump regime and its autocratic ways based on evil values with a love of money, hatred of neighbors, and pitting one American against another.
May I remind people that Smith’s definitions of capitalism, falsely blamed by lousy and evil Karl Marx, is really supply AND demand. Supply-side economics is a reprisal of Medieval crappy economics of an autocratic aristocratic lousy society. Marx missed the point and has plunged the world into real stupidity about values.
Thus, I have a problem with “it’s up to readers to be moral.” We live in the days when there are generations which did not experience real difficulty in life, called world war, economic depression, world war once again, and then “cold war.” Baby Boomers embracing Monopoly, Ayn Rand with “virtue” of selfishness, stupidity of notions from Dr. Spock in training young people, and supply-side economics. Where are the values of “the reader?”
My World War II-generation mother often spoke to me about how bad the teaching of young people was, due to Dr. Spock. I would say, “I don’t get it, Mom.” She said, “someday you will.” To Mom in heaven, “I get it now” as the Dr. Spock generation is causing hell on earth and I would rather fix things to relieve this earth of a “hell on earth” and not face the only possibility of going to Heaven RIGHT NOW. Morality is not of one mind today, as much as it was more likely with the generations which faced a great deal of hardship and had an appreciation in overcoming those hardships with the America in which I was born.
A writer in the old pre-Gannett newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, once challenged Tom Brokaw and his thoughts that the World War II generation was the “greatest” generation. This writer, who was part of the World War II generation, proclaimed that it was his PARENTS’ generation, or the World War I generation, which was the “greatest.” His EVIDENCE was the historical facts that the World War I generation lived their adult lives, from out of high school until they died, with World War I, Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, and sometimes into the years of the “cold war.” He proclaimed that much of the World War II generation were kids during the Great Depression and a large part of World War II, and then served in World War II. This writer addressed the ideas about morality.
When Stacy Abrams mentioned compromise on actions, not values, it also brings to mind a speech by Roman Catholic Bobby Kennedy, Jr., when he discussed how legislating morality about abortion does not work as well as regulating abortion. He used examples of how regulating abortion, contrary to the likes of asses like Rick Santorum (who is purposrtedly not even liked by his relatives in Italy) or Rick Scott or DUH-Satan (DeSantis) of Florida, in addition to asses like Abbott of Texas and Kemp of Georgia, Johnson of Wisconsin, Gaetz of Flordia, as well as Trump and the Trumpicans. This later group of folks might proclaim they have “moral values,” but their UNCOMPROMISING actions are to make things illegal and destroy what they find go against their values.
At the end of the day, Vander Meer’s ideas about the moral reader ignores the ideas about democracy and compromise on ACTIONS while maintaining values. An autocratic government like that envisioned by Trump and his followers,destructive forces against democracy, negates the domestic peace of America by ignoring the justice necessary for WE THE PEOPLE of all kinds. Peace with an autocratic leader might be peace, but it lacks justice for so many people.
Having an ass of a Supreme Court justice, appointed by Trump, Amy Coney Barrett, does not help to improve peace and justice, but destroys justice for many. Barrett is purportedly affiliated with LGBTQ hate groups, in addition to the hate groups which wish to legislate morality regarding abortions while falsely validating those who use guns to kill people in abortion clinics. Might as well say she is affiliated with the “Hitler Youth.”
Barrett’s morality might be good. Her justification of actions which are absurd and irrational, is unacceptable. Even with her actions, I refuse to compromise my MORAL VALUES regarding murder and hatred of folks who were BORN gay, made by our CREATOR. She says it is not right to murder babes in the womb, but it is okay to hate those who are born gay and outside the womb. People who might be males but have XXY chromosomes or males who are not bathed enough in testosterone while in the womb or born with two genitalia or …. I can go on and on about how our Creator gave us life, besides the fact that we are ALL created as females, but our genes help us develop in the womb to be what we become. Amy “Conan the Barbarian” Coney Barrett proves she is affiliated with the same Satan which Jesus Christ faced in his 40 days of life on earth, following his baptism. I don’t want someone imparting justice to America who is like this bitch, the “Barbarian.”
As Jesus Christ said, while hanging from a cross, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”
Go ahead, New York Times, don’t publish what I write here, which is similar feelings to many Americans (perhaps MOST Americans, according to the polls). Saying morality is up to the reader is a bunch of crap from bleeding heart liberals who ignore what is really happening in America today.
Tioga Herald 
Reply to Daily Kos / Labor Article: “Las Vegas restaurant manager shows exactly why he might be having trouble hiring workers”
My reply on Daily Kos article, “Las Vegas restaurant manager shows exactly why he might be having trouble hiring workers”:
Someone replies with, “We often seem to forget that these are localized phenomena, as is the notion of a living wage.” Agreed. This statement describes part of a complex problem. I believe minimum wage and unemployment numbers need to be set at a more local level. I must say that when one is searching for a job, they should inquire as to the rate of pay. What is the sense otherwise? With benefits being trashed and other really bad treatment of employees, what gives incentive to work? I don’t think it is the amount in an unemployment check. With that being said, I can also explain what local management in Florida did when we, in a union, tried to ask for a salary comparable with the higher cost of living. In an area in Florida, just to the north of us, the workers were getting a higher salary with a lower cost of living. If cooks find this to be happening, then I say they should go for it. But they are not lazy in doing so. As a company man in a corporation, I was loyal to the company. Then Republican lovers of money came in to take over the corporation in order to merge it with others and create a monopoly. Employees may have been loyal to the company, but these Republican jerks could have cared less about loyalty, as in the days of Thomas J. Watson at IBM and other corporations. In the case of our union in Florida, we lost employees to this other area with a lower cost of living. Also, there was a different union representing the employees there. This opens up other methods to fix the problem. Change the union or move to where the union is negotiating something better. In today’s world, if there are plenty of jobs, then capitalist supply and demand dictates the process. Or else the union which is being trashed with lower salaries than what is affordable with a higher cost of living is fortunate enough to negotiate a better price. But if the management then turns and uses denial about the cost of living (denial is a word which frequently describes many Republicans in management today), and refuse to negotiate, like McConnell in the U.S. Senate, then what can be done? A management which tries to use the cost of living overall in the southeastern United States rather than the cost of living in the Miami metropolitan area are absurd nutso people. But they dig in their heels and refuse to listen and compromise. This is why I say this is a very complex issue which requires people ON BOTH SIDES to hold to their principles, but compromise on the actions taken. Also to not be in denial about what the cost of living really is. And I have other examples. Such as a county in upstate New York where one end of the county pays a higher teacher salary than at the other end of the county, due to which union represents the group and the cost of living in each area of the county.In this case, unlike the dismal experience with a south Florida bunch of idiots in management where it ended up the area with a lower cost of living received a higher wage, in this upstate NY county, back in the 1970s, the salaries better matched the cost of living in each part of the county. This is where I say minimum wage should be determined at a more localized and/or state level. The Scandinavian countries are socialist democracies. Yet, they have no minimum wage because the cost of living is somewhat closer across the board in those nations. What if the European Union decided to impose a minimum wage across all of Europe? Do they do this? I doubt it, but correct me if I am wrong. At any rate, such an event, if true, would likely not set well in the socialist democratic nations of Scandinavia where, in Denmark, the people have been surveyed, along with all around the world, and the Danes come up as the happiest people on earth. How does that compare with a survey which combines all people in the European Union? The last survey like this one and the USA ranked down about 26th. I began this reply agreeing with the statement: ““We often seem to forget that these are localized phenomena, as is the notion of a living wage.” My experiences and observations validate this as being a rational thought.
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New Comments, Periodcial Article Reviews