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Reporting on Homo Sapiens' desperate struggle to avoid killing themselves, either by waging Total War or by failing to pass the basic course in Earth Stewardship.

~ Calgary, Saturday, April 25th, 2009 ~

Interestingly, the online dictionary entry includes links to sites offering help:

1. Brookhaven Retreat, Depression care for Women located on 48 Acres in the Smokies. [2]

2. Calgary PTSD Help, Effective Treatment is Available. A Better Future Begins Today. [3]

3. Stop Being So Negative. Learn simple tricks to stay calm, happy & live in the present moment. [4]

4. Depression Relief Today, Drug Free. Work With the Cause. Free Introductory Wellness Session. [5]

The Globe And Mail reports that the investigation of the death of Major Michelle Mendes is ongoing, but "all evidence points toward a self-inflicted gunshot wound." In the actual newspaper, to the right of that article is one titled "Stressed soldiers lack support, ex-chaplain maintains." On the bottom of the page is a list of eleven other non-combat deaths that occurred in Afghanistan, two of which resulted from self-inflicted gunshots. [6]

Wikipedia reports that the term PTSD was coined in the 70's and formally recognized in 1980. [7]

Also:

Reports of battle-associated stress appear as early as the 6th century BC.[89] Although PTSD-like symptoms have also been recognized in combat veterans of many military conflicts since, the modern understanding of PTSD dates from the 1970s, largely as a result of the problems that were still being experienced by Vietnam veterans.[89]

And:

One of the first descriptions of PTSD was made by the Greek historian Herodotus. In 490 BCE he described, during the Battle of Marathon, an Athenian soldier who suffered no injury from war but became permanently blind after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier.[90]

So we humans have been inducing PTSD into other humans for quite some time, presumably since Cain slew able Abel.

According to ancient Palestinian and Turkish folklore, Eve also had two daughters, one Cain's twin and the other Abel's. [8]

Uh oh, varied reports about Creation!

In any case, perhaps those First Sisters were the first victims of PTSD.

Returning to the present, we could say that most Americans suffer from a disorder that, considering our collective national trauma, could be titled the "9/11 syndrome". Couple that with our learning much more about the torture business; couple that with our being in a recession that might really be a depression; couple that with our likely sending more soldiers off for more Cain & Abel action resulting in more Herodotus reports, and soon we may all be laid waste by a new, more powerful syndrome that needs a new, more colorful acronym.

We shall see.

Perhaps we all have the inner strength to disenthral and act.

Maybe not.

And truly, if we don't, more pictures like this one [9] will arrive.

Always...

~ Dubuque, Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 ~

Soon we'll explain why our education process focuses on Young Folks who are now fourteen years old and will therefore be eighteen and eligible to vote in 2012, well after it becomes painfully apparent that the Democrat/Republican Conglomerate [2] has fooled us again.

Remember that Washington, the synecdoche, is the place where principles go to die.

Keeping that in mind, today we'll simply add one picture [3] that illustrates how Washington's machinations and subsequent glorious campaigns for empire always end.

Always...

~ Dubuque, Monday, March 30th, 2009 ~

Soon we'll have a page that will include reviews of the various endeavors Human Beings undertake when inspired by one or more of the Muses and Graces [2].

We shall welcome and post commentary from Folks about the myriad manifestations that result from the myriad inspirations.

For example, because I am only mildly qualified to comment on Igor Stravinsky's leap into primitivism with his composition Le Sacre du Printemps, I repeat welcoming someone who can brilliantly surmise which Graces and Muses had the greatest effect on that particular composer, who composed that particular piece, which caused that particular Parisian riot [3].

I consider myself more qualified to comment about films and may occasionally do so, perhaps beginning with an appraisal [4] of the high level of Mega-Schlock that often drowns out the meaning -- what little there might be -- of the film itself. To wit:

"Batman Revisited Again, The Newly Repeated Journey, Reprise IV, all segments pre-launched on YouTube, starring nineteen of your favorite Easily Recognizable and Obscenely Paid Stars, all of whom have Oscars or want one, co-produced and directed by a plethora of Producers and Directors, all of whom have Oscars or want one, pre-touted excessively by all bleating network Hollywood-Beat Meisters and Mistresses, with catering provided by Director One's cousin Bernie, whose dog is actually the real star, because Little Fluffy often leads the Drooling Viewer into the yellow-taped areas of the 13 crime scenes, in which the usual shocking Crowd-Pleasers are the usual red piles of Extreme Effluvia plopped together by that Mob of Producer-Directors who grovel before their Media Gods of Sex, Violence, Profanity, Mayhem, and Smoking, the last of which requires each member of that Traveling Star-Pack to inhale throughout the entire multi-corporate-sponsored film, in which you can always read the label on the Pack's cig packs and beer cans; in which Director Four mandates gallons of blood enough to fill the biggest Beverly Hills pool; in which Producer Seven requires a Hefner-Mansion-full of Barbie-Nubile Girls to run around in skimpy underwear screaming their usually blonde heads off; in which Director Eight demands profanity enough to please the Youngsters and to make a Sailor blush; in which Producer Six stocks weaponry arsenals big enough to arm a third-world country; and in which the body parts from the various car crashes, train wrecks, missile dismemberments, and farm implement disasters, surely enough to fill dumpsters of seven or eight hospitals, are provided by Director One's estranged 11th wife, who wants to be an Oscar-Winning Producer/Director, and who long ago wrote the pre-nup that allows for an award of 13.6 million dollars and custody of Little Fluffy who, because he has been designated a Highly Paid Dog Star, is provided the highest level of Animal Waste Control by the Third Grip's Darling, Oscar-Anxious Nephew who, choosing tidying over consuming, dutifully cleans up the poodle poop."

Additionally, although Batman Etc. has been cursed by the Vatican, it has been happily insured by AIG and certified to be "Exhilarating" by War-Prone Washington [5].

Sigh.

"Oh, please"

~ Dubuque, Sunday, March 15th, 2009 ~

That's what Webster's says about the word 'disenthrall' or 'disenthral'. Also, An Etymological Dictionary says the word means "to free from thraldom" [2], and the word 'thrall' means 'slave'.

Incidentally, I try to remember that 'entomology' has an 'n' in it, as does 'insect', and using that memory cue is important because I like bugs almost as much as I like words.

Recently we celebrated the birthday of someone who must have found today's word useful because he said, in nothing less than his December 1st, 1862, message to Congress, "We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

Uh oh, he suggests we free ourselves.

Free ourselves from what? What does he mean?

And his sentence preceding that one?

"As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

Uh oh, his words are beginning to sound pertinent to our disastrous times, to our dreadful national condition.

And his sentence before that?

"The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion."

Uh oh, now his words sound like a polite suggestion that Citizens rise up off their butts.

And his sentence before that?

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present."

Uh oh, that sounds like a bold and serious challenge to both the Citizen's personal and to our country's national psyches [3].

Imagine that.

So who was this guy anyway?

Easy question, but I'd enjoy watching Jay Leno rattle off a few of these lines to see how many men and women on the street would recognize the lines and know the speaker [4].

Well, for you, much more to follow: Over the next several days, we'll be placing many more quotes on our site, all of which will be pertinent to Now, and we guarantee the quotes and their sources will be much more difficult and thought-provoking.

For example, from another man's diaries -- filled with delicately phrased, almost poetic sentences fraught with love for his children, his wife, his superior, the arts, the mission, the regime, and the nation -- comes this entry about that superior:

"Afterwards, [he] will remain in office for a few years, carrying through social reforms and his building projects, and then retire. Then let the others try their hands. He intends to act only only as a benevolent spirit hovering over the political world. And write down everything that he is in the thick of now. A Bible of National Socialism, so to speak."

I've used red ink because after the good Doctor and his beloved Benevolence failed in their bloody mission, and their bloody regime fell, the keeper of the diaries, Joseph, and his wife Magda arranged to have their six children killed and then committed suicide...

Inside the bunker, then outside the bunker...

In 1945.

"Oh, for Heaven or Hell's sake, I've given it away."

~ Sunday, March 8th, 2009 ~

Rainy and Contemplative in Dubuque...

Perhaps I'd not mentioned that I am pleased to be the recipient of an endowment from Andrew Carnegie.

Sort of.

The library in Dubuque, pictured here, was the result of the combined efforts of Mayor Frank Stout, who donated the site, and Andrew Carnegie, who provided the money.

The Library has a beautiful rotunda, owns two of Grant Wood's paintings, and is currently being renovated, which is how I came to receive my endowment.

Sort of.

First, to say that I am a bibliophile is to understate: When I read that Wahrenbrock's of San Diego had a fire, and many books were destroyed, I, with tears welling, took a deep breath and sighed deeply at the loss.

Regarding my endowment: No, I did not receive a call from Andrew himself, and unless I hire a skilled medium to contact him, my conversing with him is as likely as my speaking with Harry Houdini, although, come to think of it, Harry has many more séances held on the anniversary of his death than does Andrew, so I may soon attend one.

On what day should I go?

As you think about that, I'll tell you the rest of the endowment story.

After the renovation, I asked one of the directors if a time was coming when someone could come down -- I used 'down' because I live on a hill that overlooks the downtown area -- with boxes to retrieve those books that are removed from the shelves and stamped "withdrawn", and she said, "Yes." Well, over a two month period, I drove my little Honda down to the library with boxes.

A couple of times...

No, several times...

No, many, many times: Driving down, filling boxes, driving back, emptying boxes, often carefully tipping the boxes onto the floors of living room, dining room, hallway and office.

Uh oh. The low estimate is over a thousand hardback books.

Laughably, I have no shelves, so there are a couple of stacks...

No, several...

No, many, many, many.

Despite the biblio-chaos, it is delightful to rummage around and discover what I've acquired. Arbitrarily picked from randomly chosen stacks, listed in no particular order:

1. The Money Game, 'Adam Smith'.

2. The New Dare To Discipline, Dr. James Dobson.

3. Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris

4. Reincarnation and Immortality, Rudolf Steiner.

5. The Phantom Prince, My Life with Ted Bundy, Elizabeth Kendall.

6. The Young Jefferson, 1743-1789, Claude G. Bowers.

7. Puttin' On Ole Massa, Gilbert Osofsky, Ed.

8. Bhagavad-Gita, As It Is, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

In addition to single books, I also have sets: Happily, I now can refer to the nineteen-volume set titled Human Behavior, The Cavendish Encyclopedia of Personal Relationships. Needless to say, I wish I'd begun the first volume long ago. Ah well, I'll work through them all, and then I'll see what the Good Swami has to say.

I've dragged most of the heavy reference books upstairs, and already they've come in handy: A few days ago, as I was chatting with a utility company representative named Galen: Asked him if he knew about the original guy, who was born in 138 A.D. and who is considered the first doctor, as such, whereas Hippocrates (5th to 4th centuries B.C.) is considered the "Father of Medicine".

Needless to say if those two and Jesus showed up today, they would each have much to say about our miserable UnhealthyCare System.

Anyway, the present-day Galen said he'd heard a bit about him, and I said, "Wait a second," and then I walked over to a pile of arbitrarily stacked books on a table in my office, and grabbed the third one down, a little-bitty green book titled Galen on the Natural Faculties, which includes a preface by the translator that is dated 1916.

Talk about the Inimitable Serendipitous Gemini way...

A friend of mine once termed his and my condition "biblio-lust" and stated firmly that "books always raise in me a cerebral erection."

Not one to argue, I replied, "Yes, regarding that, we're both quite well endowed."

He has always threatened to open his own store and call it Wernicke's Browsing Emporium, but has yet to do so.

"More to follow."

~ Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 ~

Sunny and Beautiful in Dubuque...

Spurred by new studies that indicate the numbers may be higher than previously supposed, new and always vigorous discussions about beings from other planets are taking place, especially because the new estimates developed by Edinburgh scientists indicate that there may be as many as 38,000 civilizations in our own galaxy. That's taking into account that our Home Galaxy is 13.2 billion years old -- plenty of time for brewing creatures -- and in our Milky Way, which is 100,000 light years wide, there are about 400 billion suns that would readily heat the creature kettle.

More here: < http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Scientists-claim-our-galaxy-could.4948538.jp >

In moments optimistic and hopeful, I imagine they might someday visit and join us for a chat; however, in moments pessimistic and cynical, I am convinced they come, and then, after witnessing our impossibly silly and terminally brutal behavior, they go, performing as they depart their own very animated version of "bent over double in hysterics", whatever that looks like.

"Are Aliens watching you?"

My name is John H. Miller Jr., and I have developed this site myself, am completely responsible for its content, and can assure you that no animals were or will be harmed during its development.

The whole point of this site is to chronicle the coming very critical years of Human existence and to encourage Folks to participate in this desperate struggle for survival, so we can -- however you wish to phrase it -- actually avoid "doing ourselves in", avoid "shooting ourselves in the collective foot", and avoid "pulling the plug" on our fragile species.

I believe we have the capacity to do so, but what you believe, and more important, what you do during this struggle is the key to the success of this rather complicated mission.

After I left the Navy as a conscientious objector in the early 80's, I founded a non-profit organization called Peace Engineering, Inc. Later in the mid-80's, my public relations mentor suggested that I run for president as an independent, and in 1988, I did exactly that, announcing my candidacy from an airplane as we flew over the geographical center of the contiguous United States. Since then I have run as an independent every four years, and I shall probably run again in 2012, despite the failure of this attempt.

With your help, I'll become more well known during the next four years, but more important, with your increased participation in the democratic process, more of you Folks will show up to vote in 2012. After all, when emerging countries first offer the ballot box to the citizens, often greater than 90% of the new voters show up, often risking their lives to do so. When we examine the disastrous selection process of November 2000 and the potential for future disasters, we note obvious dangers, like having people of the wrong color discouraged from voting, like having huge garbage bags of ballots stuffed into dumpsters, and like having the ballots gathered by laughably hackable electronic voting machines. Nevertheless, these dangers are surmountable and can indeed be eliminated when more than 55% of the citizens of all ages participate in an "election system cleansing process".

More on cleansing later.

As you can see, GotCourage is a rather simple site as compared with those fancy ones of other candidates, those powerful ones of the mainstream media, and those monstrous ones of the corporations. There may be a few changes as this Chronicle expands as the election nears, but we shall always try to keep it quite people-friendly.

As the man, who knew rather a lot about Earth Stewardship, said, "Simplify, simplify."

In Civil Disobedience, in addition to his saying something about the government that governs the least, he notes the dangers of a large, unjust governmental machine and recommends that we each of us consider this:

He said, "Let your life be a counter-friction to the machine."

Let us know if you'd like to contribute to this Chronicle, or better yet, let us know if you can gather the courage to begin a life of counter-friction and then perhaps participate in whatever you'd like to call it: The Difficult Struggle, or The Peaceful Revolution, or The Magnificent Revaissance that lies ahead.

Please send your questions, comments, experiences, and ideas to jmill2k@earthlink.net or call us at 563-564-6221.

~  Updated April 25th, 2009. Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, Peace Engineering, Inc.  ~