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This timezone sucks!
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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 RE: This timezone sucks! (in reply to Anders Eliasson)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Anders Eliasson
One day, when you get older, you´ll start thinking about where you can imagine yourself being old. thats where I am myself and its very weird.
Since I will be 75 the day before Christmas, I no longer have to imagine myself being old.
The secret is to keep moving. We're planning a trip to Europe in May. Larisa has to be back at work in ten days, but I'm going to stay about six weeks. I've been buying clothes, reserving hotels and cars, learning Italian, brushing up on German. I'm already beginning to think of a trip next year to see old friends in Alaska. I'm learning some more mathematics and getting up to date on recent developments in physics.
I imagined myself being old back here in Texas. Well, here I am. But Texas has changed since I last lived here. It is now at the furthest rightmost extreme of US politics and religion, except here in Austin.
It's pretty discouraging. Over the last fifty years I've gone from being flat broke to ending up better off financially than most, but the greed of some of the wealthy, the constant fight to keep the creationists and historical revisionists off the State Board of Education, and the Legislature's need to pass Draconian laws about women's bodies are all pretty discouraging.
Being old is not that bad, so far. I'm having a lot of fun being retired. What's weird is thinking about the possibility of being senile. My parents held up well into their late 80s and early 90s. One of my good friends turned 90 yesterday. He's still sharp and active. But I've seen quite a few go the other way. Carpe diem!
RNJ
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Apr. 18 2012 17:25:17
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: This timezone sucks! (in reply to HolyEvil)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: HolyEvil
isn't that going to be like christian version of the taliban?
Texas has had an ambivalent relation to the dark side of the Force, at least since we gringos showed up in the early 19th century. My grandfather used to say, about our ancestors, "We made our money the old-fashioned way. We came and stole land from the Mexicans."
The Texas Rangers are the elite part of the state police. They are selected on the highest standards of ability, training and personal ethics. As an organization they are descended from the extravagantly gallant irregular militia that fought the Indians and defended the border against Mexico. They are still seen as heroes by most gringos. Not so much by Mexican- and African-American people, though there are now people of both heritages, as well as women in the Rangers. I knew Texas Rangers my father's age who wore their grandfathers' badges. They were made from silver five-peso pieces taken off the first Mexican they killed.
Before the Civil War there was slavery. Afterward there was racism and "Jim Crow" segregation laws, though perhaps not the fully rabid version in states further east.
Overt racism is gone, though I suspect the covert variety still exists among a minority.
The ambivalence is evident from the fact that almost everyone you meet is honest, friendly, helpful and respectful of individual differences. The character that I find disappointing emerges only when all the votes are counted. Ironically, the great majority of present day Texans are either from somewhere else, mostly in the USA, or the children of people from somewhwere else.
I hope that Texas is proof against a Taliban-like regime. Texans are still highly individualistic and suspicious of authority, strongly oriented toward personal freedom. Given my situation, I'm not so much concerned about politics as I am disappointed.
If I were a schoolteacher, a person trying to make a living at a service job or a woman, I'd be concerned.
RNJ
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Apr. 19 2012 1:24:18
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