Ooops

Excuse the glitch in today's post.  For some reason, my computer won't allow me to edit.  I was going to define de-mobbing as being a British term for excused from active duty but still in the AF Reserves.

My World by Decades: 1940-1945

My World by Decades, Part 1:

The 1940’s (1940 - 1945)

;It may be a bit of a cheat to begin my discussion of the 40s before I was born, but I was a true “war baby” and not a baby boomer – anyone born 9 months after V-J day.  I heard about the war and the Nazi’s from the time I was an infant.  Having a dad in the military, I was privy to some discussions a little child would be assumed not to grasp. I’ve wondered what I would remember if I did hypnosis regression!

My first conscious memory was when I was about 2.  We were living in Provo and dad had been, what the Brits called “de-mobbed.”  (He was stilHe was working at Geneva Steel in Orem, UT, and taking a few law classes from the University of Utah.  He always left for work before dawn but to me, he was walking out the door in the middle of the night! I remember one night when a bat got caught in the window mechanism.  Another clear memory was when my mother got her finger caught in the sewing machine and the needle went right through the nail and the finger and she couldn’t move it.  I remember a lot of blood and of being scared.  Mom was crying and sent me to the next-door neighbor for help.

My next clear memory was living in a motel in Las Vegas when my dad began singing at the Last Frontier Hotel on the strip in 1947. A short time later, his employers sent him to sing in a Beverly Hills Country Club in Covington, Kentucky. He used his time to study classical singing at the University of Ohio (we lived in Cincinnati, OH, just upriver from Louisville, KY.) I was the Little New Year at the Country Club in Jan. 1949.  I would have just turned 4.

We returned to Las Vegas, not long afterward, and Dad became the singing MC at the Thunderbird Hotel.  He was somewhat of a local celebrity, but to me, he was just Dad.

I started Kindergarten at the 5^th Street Grammer School in the fall of 1949, 3 months before I turned 5.

That covers my personal little life.  Now for what was going on in the world.  I have studied a lot and most of what I know is from later study as an adult.

The Rise of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich

course available at https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/history-of-hitler-s-empire-2nd-edition.html 

Hitler was a veteran of World War 1.  From the beginning, he thought the Treaty of Versailles put an impossible burden of financial reparation and national guilt upon the German people. (It did, and created a climate in Germany that sowed the seeds that become WWII)

He joined the German Workers Party and was jailed for his part in a failed coup in Munich.  While he was in jail, he wrote Mein Kompf (My Struggle.) His hatred of the Jews and the Communists was apparent from the beginning.  He blamed the Jews for the economic depression of the 1930s in Germany.

It is fascinating to see how he rose to power and you may want to study that further. (Much of the propaganda and violence shown during the rise of the Nazi’s of very reminiscent of the tactics being used by the Democratic Party in America right now. They hurl insults at Republicans and other conservatives by calling them Nazis, homophobes, racially prejudiced and misogynistic.  They call President Trump a Nazi dictator like Hitler and they believe they are right. They don’t have a clue what a real Nazi is.  They sometimes openly attack conservatives and are being urged to do so!  Just the opposite is true, if you read your history with an open mind. If there are Nazi tactics being used in the US, they are not coming from the conservatives. Propaganda 101: Blame the other group and accuse them of the very thing you are doing in order to draw their attention away from the things you are doing: Joseph Goebbels)

Nazi is short for the German National Socialist Democratic Party. (NSDAP) Note: Yes, they were socialists but only in terms of the pure nation - Germany.  Out of this grew the idea of an Arian super race (blonde hair, blue eyes, no physical or mental infirmities.) He came to power in 1933 and within weeks was an absolute dictator.  Truth in Germany was whatever the Nazis said it was.  It wasn’t long before Hitler began his pogrom against anyone with a mental or physical disorder.  These people were taken to “hospitals”.  Months later, their families would get a letter that their child grew ill and died.  That was not true.  Dr. Mengele pulled out some for his “experiments” and the rest were killed in “showers” with shower heads that poured out poisonous gas instead of water.  That was the first use of this method of pressing forward the Nazi’s “final solution.”  Because it worked so well, it became the method of choice in murdering over 6 million Jews and others deemed “undesirable.” (In the book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the character of Delores Umbridge would make a very good Nazi.   She used their tactics so well, giggling all the while she tortured others, feeling justified by being a “pure-blood.” Hmmmmm? Sound familiar?)

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September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, “justifying” it by saying he just wanted Lebensraum or “breathing room.”  He went on from there to “liberate” German-speaking people who were torn from Germany after WWI.  While he was at it, he just took the rest of Europe with it.

September 3, 1939
Following the attack on the Allied nation of Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany.

April 9, 1940
Germany invades Norway and Denmark.

May 10, 1940
Germany launches an invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. Within a few weeks, all but France have surrendered.

June 22, 1940 France signs its official surrender to Germany. The Germans march into Paris. (Have you seen Casa Blanca lately?)

July 10, 1940
Germany begins its bombing raids against Great Britain in what would be called the Battle of Britain.  England held her ground only because of the outstanding courage of one man: Winston Churchill.  It was said that he sent Britain to war using only the power of his words.  Never, never, never give up! (I would refer you to the masterpiece movie, The Darkest Hour for a very accurate, blow-by-blow account of Churchill and the Battle of Britain.)

September 13, 1940
Italian troops invade British-controlled Egypt in an attempt to expand Italian territories in North Africa and capture the strategically important Suez Canal.

September 27, 1940
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact in Berlin to formalize the alliance of the Axis Powers. The Pact provides for mutual assistance should any of its members suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war.

June 22, 1941
In the largest German military effort of World War II, Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Within a few weeks, the Soviet Union formally joined the Allied nations.

December 7, 1941
Japan launches a surprise attack on American soil and bombs Hawaii’s naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu. More than 2,300 American soldiers and sailors die in the attack, and another 1,100 are wounded.

December 8, 1941
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requests, and subsequently receives, a declaration of war against Japan. With approval from Congress, the United States begins the mobilization of civilian defense groups on the home front.

December 11, 1941
In response to the United States’ war declaration on Japan, and as part of the Axis Powers Tripartite agreement, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The previously neutral United States reciprocates the declarations, officially entering World War II as part of the Allied Powers.

February 19, 1942, began the interment of Americans of Japanese Ancestry, in what I believe to be one of the biggest unconstitutional moves against American citizens in American History. They did not receive due process which was granted to them in the Bill of Rights.  This shows what. happens to otherwise rational people when fear and panic take over. (FYI, Roosevelt was a Democrat - D)

May 13, 1943 After a three-year stalemate in North Africa, Axis troops surrender to Allied forces in Tunisia.

September 8, 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces Italy’s surrender to the Allies, which had been signed five days earlier in Sicily. Italy becomes the first of the Axis Powers to break and substantially weaken the Tripartite Pact.

June 6, 1944, the Allies launched Operation Overlord, the plan to invade the beaches at Normandy to drive the Germans out of France.  This became known as D-Day, the first huge step to liberate Europe from German control.

February 2, 1943 German troops surrender to the Soviet Red Army in Stalingrad, USSR. The early onset of the brutal Russian winter and the fact that Germany was spending her resources on the Western Front and those on the Eastern Front were starving and frozen from lack of food, clothing, blankets, and ammunition.

May 7, 1945 Germany surrenders to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II in Europe, known as V-E Day.

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America’s strategic plan all along was the throw most of her weight on Germany initially, because Hitler posed the biggest threat.  Once the Nazis were defeated, the United States turned its military might on Japan.  American scientists had been working on an atomic weapon under the code name, The Manhattan Project.  By the time the US was ready to make the big push against Japan, two weapons were ready, Big Boy and Little Boy.  The Allies continued to battle Japan, island by island, back across the Pacific at a tremendous loss of life.

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By July 1945, war projections were anticipating months of bloody conflict with a loss of life in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, both Japanese and American dead.  Japan had to “save face” and would never surrender until her last soldier died.  Knowing that this was inevitable was a key factor in President Truman’s (D) decision that it was time to end this war before that could happen.  He authorized the use of the Atomic Bomb against Japan

August 6, 1945 The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, becoming the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry in a wartime effort. The bomb’s immediate impact takes the lives of an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 Japanese, American, and Korean inhabitants. In the months following the explosion, the total fatalities rise to an estimated 135,000 as a direct or indirect result of the bomb.

The Japanese still refused to surrender, and so the decision was made to drop the second bomb.

August 9, 1945 The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.  An estimated 40,000 to 75,000 people die immediately following the explosion, while an additional 60,000 people suffer severe injuries. By the end of 1945, the total death count reaches an estimated 80,000.

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Horrific losses, but on the balance, it was still a lower human cost than traditional warfare with projected losses being far greater.  It was not an easy decision for President Truman to make.

I am glad that they ended the war when they did for personal reasons because my dad was getting ready to be deployed to the Pacific Theater. I don’t know that he would have come back from that. But in doing so they unleased a fiery dragon, the results of which no one could have even imagined in 1945.

As to the moral dilemma, I am torn.  It was, in my opinion, inhumane, but how do you determine humanity and inhumanity in such a war as that one, or of any war? Additionally, it created an arms race between the US and Western Europe and the Soviet Union that terrified everyone for nearly 3 decades.  No one knew up front the long-term health issues with victims or the long-term political effects it would have.

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September 2, 1945 Japan formally surrenders to the Allies and signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, aboard the deck of the battleship, USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, effectively ending World War II in its entirety.

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I’ll pick this up later when I talk about the second half of the decade when I was alive and more cognizant of what was going on around me.

Aunt Kath

copyright Gebara Education, October 2018

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[1] BTW, Roosevelt was a Democrat.  I’m going to indicate party with an (R) or (D)

Social Media

Social media is a place where everyone has an opinion. Unfortunately, most people express those opinions with anger, name calling, even threats.  It's as if your screaming loud enough or long enough, will make you right and the other guy wrong. It's a place where manners and even basic civility go out the window.  It's a place where obnoxious anger is confused with conviction or justice!

Personally, I love Facebook as a quick way to stay in touch with friends and family, but I have noticed lately that it does cause contentious feelings to arise in my heart, more often than I would like to admit.  I'm a lot like my dad who used to write "scathing" letters to people who said or did things he found to be contrary to his personal belief system.  Fortunately for my dad, he had some cool-off time to decide whether or not to mail them.  That's not an option on Social Media!  It is out of my head and onto my timeline before I have time to think!

No one wants to hear himself called a bigot, homophobic, a misogynist, even a Nazi. It is verbally abusive.  Personally, I am none of those things!  I am a loving, kind, compassionate, and patient person. I'm relatively intelligent, yet here I am letting a total stranger vent his or her spleen on me on social media.  I would not allow that kind of abuse in person.  Why do I rise to the bait when I see it in print? Just being on Facebook doesn't mean it is true!  I have to go to a more spiritual source for truth, and that can't happen is I allow myself to be goaded into my own anger by someone who doesn't even know me.

I was very ill last month and very depressed. I'd use my phone to connect to the world.  But because of my illness, my punch-roller wasn't working well (as in "roll with the punches?") I'd let something get to me and make me miserable for hours.  Why would any sane person do that to herself?

I have, therefore, decided that I am not going to post my opinions on Facebook - at least not in a disrespectful tone.  I am going to address my personal issues with what I see in the media that really bothers me.

#1 issue is listening to people with liberal viewpoints present vitriolic rants that are just a copy of other vitriolic rants when, most of the time, they don't have a clue what they are talking about. Even if they have good points, screaming those points at an inappropriate time or at the wrong venue. They often don't know their history, like the college student who tried to convince me that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in retribution for Hiroshima and Nagasaki!

If you were born after 1950 and didn't pay attention in history class (or weren't taught in history class) don't call anyone a Nazi, especially the President of the United States. You don't have to personally like the man to give respect to the office he holds.

I am not going to argue with anyone about what I am about to write.  It is my opinion and viewpoint based on my experiences in almost 74 years on this earth.  And, yes, I did pay attention in history class and have gone on to study historical issues that interest me like, the rise and fall of Hitler and the Third Reich. So I'm going to share my world by decades, beginning in the 1940s (and please note: I am a war baby, not a boomer.) 

I can't promise to post on a regular basis, but I will let you know on Facebook when there is a new post.  

Here we go!

copyright 2018 Kathleen R. Danielson

Shifting the Kaleidoscope

I had just spent 2 days at Disneyland with my grandson, his wife, and three little girls, and was on my way home.  I had to catch the shuttle to the airport early because of the schedule, so I had more time than usual waiting at the airport.  I was trying to forward a text message to my grandson and didn't know how to do that.

There was a young man sitting to my right.  I wondered whether I could approach him for help.  He had a computer in his lap, so I could tell he was probably tech savy, but I hesitated a moment.  His head was shaved on on side and the other side was long and dyed pink.  His arms were covered with tats he had a skateboard on the chair next to him.  My hesitation melted away when he looked up and smiled a kind and friendly smile that went all the way to his eyes.

I asked for help with my text and he showed me how to do it.  We struck up a conversation and had a wonderful exchange of ideas during our hour wait.  I found out that his name was Manny and that he had a 6 year-old son.  He showed me their Disneyland pictures and I showed him mine.  I also found out that he was a professional skater and had quite a fan following.  He was also a graphic artist who designed logos for skateboards.  He told me that he had a lot of young fans who would write to him and tell him their problems.  He always responds with sound advice about staying clean, being positive, preparing for life, and giving back to your family and community.  I was impressed.

They called me to the podium for a seat change and when I returned, Manny was talking to his girlfriend.  I heard him telling her that he was talking to the most amazing 73 year-old woman.  He told me that he had been shocked when I told him how old I was.  He said he thought I was younger because I was so bright and pleasant and engaged in our conversation.  He thought people my age had shut down on life and were just marking time.

It was an amazing conversation.  Manny is on a spiritual journey in his life to find out who he was in relationship to the universe.  We talked about Jesus Christ (he is not a Christian) and Buddha (he is not a Buddhist either.) He was touched by many of the things I said and found affirmation in my saying as he found himself, he would also find his higher power in God. 

As the hour progressed, it was amazing to find out how we had much more in common than I would have thought.  I saw a beautiful soul in a young Puerto Rican man with pink hair and an amazing smile, and he found an interesting woman, as old as his grandmother, who was still 100% alive.  The kaleidoscope shifted for both of us that day.

Don't you love it when that happens?

Beware the Ides of March!

According to Wikipedia, and I quote: The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. It was marked by several religious observations and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar.

From what I remember of the tale, Caesar was warned not to go the Senate that day.  His wife had a nightmare on the fourteenth of March that it would be dangerous for Caesar to do so.  He ignored her warning as superstitious nonsense.  This is a perfect example of what happens when a man fails to heed the counsel of his wife! He was stabbed to death on the floor of the senate.  Hence the statement "Beware the Ides of March" from the play "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare.

Beginning in 1861, when Abraham Lincoln established the first federal income tax, the phrase took on a new meaning.  For almost 100 years, the tax deadline date was March 15 - the Ides of March! 

In 1955, the deadline was moved from March to April.  I think I know why.  The tax code, which began as a simple thing has become so complex that it fills volumes!  I believe that something is wrong when it takes the average citizen hours upon hours and a PhD in mathematics to plow through it!

Last year I paid a tax pro several hundred dollars and ended up owing a couple of thousand dollars!  The two years before that, I hired a CPA, who also charge big bucks, and was audited - and fined - both years!  So this year, I bought a $50 tax program at Costco and spent that last 4 days going through a year's worth of financial junk (which I hate) just to get it finished.  Hallelujah!  According to Turbo Tax, I'm getting a refund.

They say the devil is in the details, but I think he is in the US Tax Code!  

I seriously need ideas for better organization of my tax-applicable documents!  Keeping receipts in a shoe box isn't hacking it anymore!

Help!  Don't leave me hanging!

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March

Gebara Education copyright March 14, 2018

"The Bug" Finally Caught Me!

It is a beautiful Sunday morning, slightly overcast with a little soft rain.  Just the kind of a day I love.

BUT - I am home, in bed, feeling crummy, to put it mildly.

Yes, the family bug finally caught me.  I didn't catch it because I wasn't chasing it!  In fact, I was doing everything I could to stay away.  

But it flies too fast and lands on every touchable surface in the house!

At first, I thought I just had a chest cold, not uncommon for me with my asthma, but when I took into account my symptoms as a whole, I'm pretty sure that it is not a simple cold.  

However, the past two days with my body aches have been so awful that I've craved codeine (and I HATE codeine!)  No such luck.  

I didn't go to the doctor because, at first, I didn't think it was more than a cold and the only cure for that is time and lots of liquids.  By the time it really took hold of me, it was too late for the anti-flu medicine.  So I am doing Advil, alternating with Tylenol, lots of fluids and sleep! I know I must have a fever, because it breaks at night and I have to wring out my pillows.  I guess that's why you have to drink fluids when you're sick - you sweat them all out!

I had a flu shot in the fall, but I've since learned that there is a strain of flu that sneaks past the vaccine.  I guess I got caught by a sneaker!

I'd like to kick it out of my bed and my body!

YUCK!!!

Family Home Evening: Choices and Consequences

During my almost 20 years as an elementary school counselor, one of the biggest challenges facing the teachers was the fact that so many of their students did not understand the simple concept that choices have consequences.  Once you make the choice, the consequence will - sooner of later- follow.  I spent a lot of time in classrooms teaching children that very thing.

With the younger students, I had a stick puppet named "Mr. Consequences." (No, he wasn't Fred Astaire; he just dressed like him!)He was drawn by a former colleague of mine and all of the elementary counselors used him.  He was a very sober looking fellow in a tuxedo with a bowler hat.  There were two of him - one with a happy face and one with a sad face.  The two sides were glued back to back on a ruler (he was about 8" tall) and I would tell the children stories with different scenarios and different choices.  They would then tell me which face Mr. Consequence would have as a result of the choice.  I made up my own stories so I could tailor-make them to the needs of the particular students.  The children loved the game.

Today, there are so many wonderful images on the internet that parents could print and make stick puppets with craft sticks.  Here are some ideas that could be used that express other uncomfortable emotions than just sad.  In a family with several children, you could give each child a different puppet.  It would make a wonderful Family Home Evening lesson.

I found these pictures on https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images.  Think up some stories that are relative to you family - because all families are different - and make the puppets.  Let me know how it goes.