When Words Are Used Differently

As may be well-known by now, I'm not exactly a tRump-fan. Actually, I find him a disaster in every aspects of life and politics. That's why I didn't feel that it was so very strange, or even unexpected, that over time he has received several threats on his life. Maybe, it was a wee-bit "strange" that one of those who presumably wanted to kill him, was the former FBI-director, James Comey. On the other hand, noooo, it wasn't all that strange as he, in his position within the System, really was sitting in the front row with a clear view of what was going on in tRump-land.

However, to me it seemed very weird that the above combination of numbers, presented in sea shells, should post a genuine threat, but if "86" is mobster-slang for "kill", and tRump, strange as it is, is the 47the (as well as 45th) president of the USA, which he is, then it can't be denied that this may be a kind of murder threat. Of course, one needs to know the slang to get the message, and one might ask how the sitting American president would get to know that kind of things. Is he a gangster? Does he have some mob-connections? That shouldn't be beyond me to suspect - and even worse, actually much worse. 

Somehow, tRump and his henchmen fail to see that what they themselves do to annoy, threaten or ridicule everyone not a tRumpified Republican is as much of a crime as all that they accuse the Dems of. It was to be expected, but still, it makes them look very naive and even totally ridiculous. One thing it doesn't make them look like is INNOCENT, because their unfounded accusations make people come to think of some of their grave misdeeds, like for instance the AI-picture of a hog-tied president Joe Biden. 

 

How could something like that make its way into an election-situation? In my opinion, it's the lowest of the lowest, and now that we are talking of threats, then this is a genuine threat of murder which the numbers 8647 isn't without some kind of "translation". Biden didn't deserve anything like that, as he and his party, contrary to tRump and the Republicans, delivered what might be expected in a decent and honorable American president.  

As to the orange Menace, it seems that even dogs know what kind of person he is.  

 

 

Crushed by The Dust Bowl

 

OK, these tRumpified times are hard, but one shouldn't forget that they have been even worse, not all that long ago. tRump's ongoing war on science and recent closure of several kinds of science departments made me think of a very difficult time period: The days of the "Dust Bowl" in the 1930s that sent good and hard-working people down a depressing social slope. Many families left the hardest hit regions in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and Colorado to make a new life in other parts of America: They went west, hoping for the best, even though they may have wanted to stay on what had been fertile land.

 

The reason for this disaster was severe drought, wind erosion, and violent storms. All the way to the coast of the Atlantic coasts there were risks of darkening skies and suffocating dust-filled air. It has been said that the Dust Bowl covered 100 million acres in 1935, but by 1940 it had declined to approxiate 20-25 million acres, but still the lands were desert-like, also for the lack of rain.

People suffered both mentally, physically and socially, one of the reasons for this evil "spiral downwards" being that science seemingly wasn't up to this situation. There should have been warnings several years before it happened, as there would be today when made possible. I don't say that there will be new Dust Bowls or other just as serious or even worse natural catastrophes, only that tRump's war on science is very, very short-sighted. After all, natural disasters may happen, and our only protection against them is vigilance and highly educated scientists.

Ironically enough, what really brought attention to the desperate situation was, that in 1934 a lot of dust fell on the Mall and The White House in Washington, D.C.. The same year The Dalhart Wind Erosion Control Project was established. Also there were measures, for instance in form of loans, to make the farmers protect their land, but still, many chose to leave their homes: Between 1935 and 1937 over 34 percent of the farmers in the area left. I take it that some of these were those who had been known as more or less slack farmers. After all, the Dust Bowl wasn't only a natural disaster, but - up to a point - also a human lack of diligence and reliability. Many seem to have given up on the art of agriculture, so to speak. They let the grass, that kept the soil where it belonged, get destroyed, both by having too many cattle feed on it, and ploughing it too hard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl 

 

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dust-bowl

 

Poem by Else Cederborg: "Soaring"

 

 Caught me a bird today - or maybe not?

Was it more like the bird catching me?

After all, it came from nowhere

circling high up, far, far above me

flew away, came back 

and then it may have perched upon my shoulder  

 

There I was, caught by something that soars at will

feeling grounded by strong talons keeping me tight, in place 

I, once more the captive of what was nothing, but a dream of soaring

 

All Rights Reserved©Else Cederborg 

 

 

 

 

 

A War Heroine In Nursing

 

Anna Etheridge (1839-1913) had been a nurse for her sick father as well as at a common hospital before she started her real career as what's called a "camp follower". That happened when she followed her Union soldier husband as he entered the American Civil War, but when he deserted, she stayed on, and became one of the only 2 women who were given the Kearny Cross. Not being in favor of wars of any kind I ought not praise Anna, but it's obvious from all accounts that she was a dedicated as well as very brave woman who made it her duty to see to it that the wounded soldiers were saved from the battlefield and treated when possible. The soldiers called her "Gentle Annie" and she was held in high esteem by them. 

She was armed with two pistols which she knew how to use, and she had her own horse, but she doesn't seem to have taken part in the battles as anything, but a very dedicated nurse. However, there are reports of her being present on the battlefields, even when the fights were at their fiercest with bullets and shrapnel flying everywhere. I've seen no indications that she herself became wounded, except for a wound in one of her hands, but her bravery as a nurse has been praised by many. The government didn't approve of women in the field, and she, as well as other women, decided to serve on transport ships, but sometimes she had to enter enemy territory to retrieve the wounded. It seems that she had some close calls both before and after this interim in her years of service, but was neither caught nor seriously wounded.  
 

After her first husband deserted she was divorced and free to marry her second husband, James Etheridge. Their marriage ended with the war, but she married once more after meeting her new husband, Corporal Charles Hook, some time afterwards. They stayed married until his death in 1910, and three years later she herself died. At that time she was on an army pension which had been approved by the Congress in 1887.

https://miwf.org/celebrating-women/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame/annie-etheridge/

 

Wikipedia

Short Story By Else Cederborg: "Floating" (Previously published)

Floating

This wasn't the best way to start the day. Everything went on in slow motion and Valerie couldn't make herself move. She just lay there, stuck, flat on her back even when trailing her arms and legs over the white sheets of the bed. The sharp, metallic sounds from nowhere and everywhere blended in with the wallpaper quality of anonymity in this room that wasn't hers, not even her choice. She was brought here and vaguely remembered when they lifted her off the pavement and put her on the stretcher.

"Careful, careful," someone yelled, perhaps the one who had called 911, when he found her, "poor creature, looks like a stroke."

Yeah, she thought with something like a subdued giggle, more like a blow to the head. More like something-out-of-nowhere that made my head spin, my legs fold, and my soul slither down my spine, untying each chakra as it went. When I fell, I was dead, and when someone grabbed my purse and kicked me in the stomach before running off, the pain brought me back to the bleak realities of being robbed and not being able to move.

She had a feeling that she ought to be grateful for that revival, but somehow she couldn't and later on, when those two came to visit her, lying there, she even regretted having got hold of her chakras and survived.

Over and over she thought of their visit and she kept repeating one sentence that had harbored her mind: Were those people really her close relatives? The one in black and purple looked nightmarish, like a ghoul or a vampire, and she even kissed her and called her "My dear". The other one, so stiff in her facial features that they almost creaked when they were set into movement with something that vaguely resembled a smile, called her "Mom". 

 When Valerie thought of her she was appalled: This creaky one came from ME? Then what was - or am - I to have produced anything like that robotic creature?

This thought made her spin in the white room with all the instruments, the syringes by the bed, and all those the people in white whipping in and out the door. How did that happen in my world of wavering colors, sounds like deep sea murmurings and floatings in and out of flowery realms? Not me, no, not the one without any anchors in the world of necessity. All that was left on that pavement and now brought back as a rerun of old movies, something in black and white that was so far back in the past that it felt quite creepy as all the actors were gone long ago.

Still, that stiff face did hurt, only she didn't know why.

They talked of chances, life expectancies, of treatments, hopelessness and of insurances. The discussion even got heated, stiff-face cracked and the word "money" escaped those thin, thin lips, but black-and-purple said "hope". Valerie knew that meant new syringes, new treatments and new floatings somewhere out of their reach and into that world of colors and sounds, anchored by chakras.

 

Else Cederborg

All Rights Reserved  

 

Blackmailing By Death Threats

 

She wants to jump - or so she says - but no, the police will have none of that

To end up dead isn't all that that unusual. Actually, that's what we are supposed to do sooner or later no matter what: At one point the planet Earth wants to shake off those living organisms that aren't young and
fertile anymore. However, some chose not to wait for that day, but hasten towards it. Knowing that is the same as knowing that those threats of suicide that some of us have experienced from friends or relatives may turn into a reality. 

Evelyn McHale leapt to her death in 1947 when she jumped from The Empire State Building

Yes, some really do seek this premature ending whether it's because they find everything in life too difficult, too burdensome or not worthwhile. Others may seek death, more or less in mock, or to blackmail someone to do something this person doesn't want to do. We may not believe that Ms
X, who threatens to kill herself once in a while, will ever do so, but on the other hand, she MIGHT and that would lead to boosts of sorrow and regrets in us that we want to elude as best we can. According to Ms X the only way to do so is to do what she wants us to do and that may not be what we ourselves want to engage in.

 

Her blackmailing - and blackmail it is - may have started out as a mock-threat, but ended up being genuine. She really kills herself and that situation is very difficult for the person who was blackmailed, especially if he or she can't check up on the blackmailer. Many thoughts and fears rush through the mind of the victim of the blackmailer. Also a certain amount of annoyance as this shouldn't happen: It's not fair and it doesn't change so very much as what has been obtained through blackmail isn't the same as what was given freely. Besides being dead the blackmailer doesn't even see how his or her exploits as a blackmailer ended up. 

The Helping Hand And Its Limitations

 

For some time I've had the non-pleasure of needing a hand now and then, simply because some everyday actions don't work out as they should and how they did some time ago. It's annoying because one of the very big pleasures of life is to be able to do what's needed when it's needed. Of course it's nice that most people do lend me that needed hand. Actually, it's touching, and I appreciate it, but I would prefer that it wasn't needed, and that I could just go on as usual.

However, I think that all situations - good or bad - may further a lesson, something to teach us humans something important. One lesson for me has been the realization that one shouldn't demand too much of helpful people. Actually, one should try to one's needs before they turn into DEMANDS which may happen quite soon as it's so much easier to ask someone to do something than to try doing it oneself ....