Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass January 26, 2006........... In 1692 the good people of Salem executed twenty people and two dogs for engaging in witchcraft to the delight of those who watched the nineteen who were hanged swing over the gallows. One old man in his 80's was crushed to death by a method known as squeezing, or being placed under wood then stacking rocks on top until the life was squeezed out of him. I couldn't find record of how the dogs were done in. Of course we know now that such charges would be ridiculous in our world and laughed out of court. But, a closer examination of the internet reveals a lot of people who very much believe in the art of witchcraft. A hundred years later found those who wanted to travel anywhere in a carriage or on the back of the beast. Then another hundred years later the automobile was struggling to get out of the idea stage and in ten years the assembly line was a reality. We were advancing in technology. Then one year later in 1903 the Wright Brothers would soar through the air in a powered aircraft forever more changing the lives of millions. On the day The Wright Brothers leaped into a concept so huge it couldn't be imagined. Many rural Americans as a normal practice would slaughter animals for food in their front yards and do away with unneeded dogs rather than feed them. At the turn of the twentieth century those in Afghanistan were living and traveling by horseback as they had for thousands of years. As we grew in maturity the rest of the world wasn't on the same schedule with us as demonstrated by the Nazi's, Fascist's, and Japan's behaviour and brutality of WW2. I believe that advancement and maturity is much misunderstood by most of us and if we look we can see evidence of the damage it can do when we don't all grow together. When a young couple reach the stage in relationship that living arrangements are rearranged, if they don't grow together then the one who matures will look on the one who didn't with disdain and soon whatever the magic was they once enjoyed will be replaced with frustration and what ever behaviour that might have been unimportant once upon a time will become monumental and if understanding isn't reached the relationship will not likely have a long future. We in America have enjoyed the most advanced society to have ever occupied this earth and our first 200 years established us as the major power on earth that ruled ourselves with maturity and wisdom and understood those who had not advanced as we had. But that seems to have changed and we no longer have the same scope of understanding as we continue on to our destiny. While we are preoccupied with which pill the television says we should take and what program can the government give us to allow us to do even less, we should be aware most of Afghanistan still rides their horses wherever they go, and in fact, one of the popular games they play is when a group gets together on horseback and toss the decapitated head of a horse freshly slaughtered at each other. The one who gets the bloodiest loses. Afghanistan did not advance at the same rate we did. And we think we understand them and others like them? It is a problem between us and most of the world. We don't have to tolerate anything. But to prevail we must understand everything....... and we're not doing very good at that.........