It's All About Freedom

Yes, celebrating the "Fourth" is wonderful fun. What we are really celebrating is our independence from the rule of a king. In their wisdom, our founders gave us, and the world, a new "idea". It was that the people would rule themselves and that their rights come from God, not from kings, tyrants and dictators.

That idea was the first time it had ever been tried. There is no other nation who has done it. That is the real reason why we are called, "exceptional". That word is misunderstood, even by those who call themselves Constitutional scholars.

Thank God, that after 241 years, we still have a Republic. Although, in my opinion, our rights and freedoms are under attack. Our founders made sure that our rights could never be taken from us. They stated clearly in our Constitution that those rights come from God, not politicians. So, you'd think that all would be OK, right?

Not from my point of view. Our rights are being removed one little bit at a time. Remember when it was OK to have the kids play games at school? School curricula and grading methods have been changed and mandated. We are also being told what we can eat and what we can say. Political Correctness, a precept of Marxism, is effecting every aspect of our lives.

Just look at the nations in the world whose people want freedom and are having to shed their blood trying to get it. The sad thing is that they don't ever get it! Tyrants who are in power do not give up their power without a fight. We've seen that they will kill their own people to hold onto it. So, let's all remember that if we were ever to lose our freedom, that would happen to us. We would have to fight to be free all over again, as we did in the Revolutionary War.

So, while we watch the fireworks and the parades, let's remember why we are celebrating - it's about our freedom.

South Philly

                                      Philly Cheese Steaks    
                               Geno's or Pat's

Being raised in South Philadelphia in the 30's was an incredible experience. There were many different nationalities arriving from Europe in those days. Each new group would seek out people from their country and join together with them in established neighborhood "ghettos". There was the Italian neighborhood, the German, the black, Jewish, Irish and others. Everyone knew the streets where those neighborhoods began and ended. There were no problems - it was a peaceful existence.

In the Italian ghetto, us young boys were told to stay in school and learn all you can. They told us what the alternatives were. "If you can't sing or box, you'll probably end up in jail". Well, most of the kids listened and my neighborhood had its share of singers and actors producing a lot of show-biz celebrities.

 

 Fabian

 Frankie Avalon
 Buddy Greco

Joey Bishop

Bobby Rydell
Mario Lanza

 

My brother, Vito Christi, went directly to Broadway and enjoyed a long career on the stage.

Oh yes, we had boxers, as well.

Tony Galento

Us kids who were being raised in South Philly, had fun running up the Art Museum steps before Sly Stallone did the movie "Rocky". 

From there we could see William Penn sitting on top of City Hall.

September Song

Walter Houston sang,  "the days grow short when you reach September".

Well, I'm now old enough to relate to the lyrics of that song. So, it may be appropriate for me to spend some time reviewing my life. 

I have wonderful memories of family and of my work, but my interest right now, is in what I think I've learned in all these years of life. 

When I was just beginning my career, I was keen on learning all I could from the more experienced people. When an older colleague would reach retirement age, I would ask the question, "What have you learned after all of these years?" Well, now that I'm the old guy in the room, it's my turn to address that question. Nobody is asking, but I thought I'd share my thoughts about the two most significant decades of my life, and maybe, in yours too.

The 1930's (An American Beginning)

I was born in 1930, right smack into the Great Depression. My parents had been new immigrants from Italy only a few years before. Our large family (eight) was a real challenge for my hard-working parents. My Mom was very busy keeping us all well fed and clothed. My Pop, brothers and sisters all had jobs. Those years must have been very difficult for them, but I knew nothing of discomfort or poverty. Their hard work and love created a good kid and a happy family. But things were a lot tougher for lots of other people.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president. There were a huge number of people out of work. He knew that the country needed a way to provide paying jobs. He created some government programs to help people get through the depression. Jobs were available to build America's  roads, tunnels and dams. In my neighborhood, trucks would arrive every morning to pick up any able-bodied men who were willing to work. They could then earn money that allowed them to keep their families intact and to keep the country strong.

All of the responsible family men showed up every day. Despite those difficult times, most families survived. As I see it, there were certain ingredients present that not only built this country, but proved something about how to lead it out of desperate times. There were people of every race, religion and color in those trucks. Many could hardly speak the language and had little formal education. Despite all of their differences, that diverse group had successful outcomes. They were all so different, but there was much that they had in common. They had intact families, a work ethic, a sense of personal responsibility and a unifying belief in a higher power. The firm foundation that they represented was their belief in God, duty and family.

The depression was soon under control, but an even greater challenge faced those very same people. There was a war to be fought. There was no shortage of patriotic Americans who were willing and able to protect the country. They would face a very difficult time, once again. Food was scarce and rationed. There was much hard work ahead and sons and relatives would be killed. But families stayed together and the world was saved. There would be peace for a while longer. The traditional American way of life went on.

The 1960's (The End of the Beginning)

There has been more written about this decade than any other. This was the decade when everything started changing. A book, "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan was published. Newspapers and TV were filled with images of women burning their bras and appearing to be really angry at something. Men were in the streets burning draft cards. They were angry too. Images of black people rioting in the streets were everywhere. They were also very angry. And then there was the fear. It gripped every American. Leaders were being assassinated; Russian missiles were found in Cuba; School kids were doing, "Duck and Cover" drills fearing a nuclear assault; Wives and husbands were building underground atomic shelters for family protection. 

Students were rioting in the universities. They occupied administrative offices and burned library books as Hitler did in Nazi Germany (Columbia U.). For the first time in my life I saw a student on campus killed by another American (National Guard) who had been called in to quell the riot (Kent State U.) Changes in curricula were being demanded, as was free love, drugs, birth control pills, a relative morality and a desire for no more rules. Woodstock showed us their new mores. Rock and Roll got angrier. Protest songs became the hymns of the day. I won't go on. Let's just say that this decade changed a lot and it is having a lasting effect on the country. 

But, there was one major event that, in my opinion, sounded the death knell for what had been traditional in America. It was June, 1963 and the Supreme Court was considering a case brought by Madelyn Murray O'Hare, an atheist. The court upheld her argument and everything began to change.

It was no longer permitted to say God's name. The Bible and the Ten Commandments were now forbidden. School prayer was eliminated, as were any religious displays and Nativity plays. The celebrations of Christmas, Easter and Good Friday were put in jeopardy. Up until that decision, Judea-Christian principles had been the stabilizing effect on the nation's morality and civility.    

So what have I learned?  That the importance of family, belief in something greater than one's self and a sense of duty are vital to a nation's survival. Families will always be the "building blocks" for any society. Buildings without foundations are hard to erect and they fall down easily. If we are ever faced with a major depression again or have to save our country from a major onslaught from man or nature, we will need the strength provided by families to keep us together.

Without the common ethos of patriotic families and duty bound citizens, failure is a real possibility. With no guidance from above and no moral compass of their own, many citizens may decide that they just "don't care or don't want to". We may even hear, "I will not serve"; "I don't want to work"; "I won't get on that truck". 

God bless America

 

 

 

Eggs and Little Birds

My good friend, Chet is an artist who draws beautiful portraits of birds that he sees at his New Jersey location. Recently, his feeder attracted a Hummingbird. Along with drawing the bird, he has written poems to it.

Well, that little bird got me to thinking about an old adage, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg". That had never been such a big question in my mind. I was always clear about the chicken needing to be there first.

As an engineer, it was always obvious that if you wanted to create something, you had to design it before you could build it. The procedure starts with designing, in advance, what it is that you want to create. There is no question about what you'd get without a design or plan - junk. An engineer works with a plan to create what he wants a machine or a building to look like.

Let's look at the chicken and that egg. Chickens would not have survived if that egg had to depend on evolution and natural selection. Good engineering would require it to be designed ahead of time. How hard should the shell be? - Did it turn out too thick? - sorry, the chick gets trapped inside - game over. There must be food (yolk) and water (albumen) available for the chick to develop inside the egg - not enough water? - the yolk too small to hold enough food? - no more tries - game over - no chicken. Even if the egg got as far as a chick really being able to develop in there - a horn-like protrusion on the chick's beak would be necessary to help it breakout through the shell (it disappears after birth, by the way). It wasn't provided? - chick doesn't make it - chickens don't make it - game over.

Now, about that Hummingbird. When God was busy creating all of those beautiful flowers, he arranged for bugs and bees to help with pollination and gathering nectar. He had already created the birds that could fly so that they could eat insects and seeds. When He took a look at the trumpet shaped flowers, He realized that He'd have to do a little more creating.

Many blossoms were too narrow for His bees to enter. Just as a good engineer would do, He asked, "What do I need?". I need an insect or animal that can fly. Bees fly, but I can't use them for these flowers. Well, birds fly, so I could use a bird - right? But, I need one that can both fly and hover like a bee can. OK, I can do that. Hovering will use up a lot more of the bird's energy. So, I'll make sure that it knows to take a whole bunch of the nectar, saving more than half for it's own nourishment. "What do I need next?" The bird will need a long, skinny beak that is able to enter the narrow bloom - OK, no problem. 

Hmmm, how to get the nectar out? The beak would have to be soft if it is going to be able to suck out the nectar - that won't work, it's got to be stiff and rigid to enter the bloom. So, I'll have to design a completely different bird thing - a long tongue - not just a long one, but one that is forked at the end, and movable, so it can "grab" the nectar and "hold" it. OK - that's what I'll do. Design accomplished.

Thank God for the Hummingbird. If it hadn't been designed, we would be missing a lot of pretty blossoms and these little winged miracles.

Oh yes, one more thing - do Hummingbirds lay eggs? Yep, and they're really tiny, but they have been designed extremely well by a master engineer.

iPhones, Planes and Poems

I recently visited a museum exhibit that featured machines designed by Leonardo DaVinci. His sketches were used as the plans for building several wooden models that were on display. These machines were clever and his ideas were way ahead of his time. By watching birds in flight, he'd even designed flying machines. It took hundreds of years before we developed airplanes. After I left the museum, I got to thinking about machines. Here's a story about how technology has developed in one area, in only about 50 years.

Come back with me to 1955 BC (Before Computers). I was a Customer Engineer with IBM. In those days IBM would rent (!) their machines to companies who needed to do their accounting (payroll, inventory, accounts receivable, et al). These were large, heavy electro-mechanical machines designed to do just one basic operation each, like printing, calculating (add, subtract, etc.). There were so many varieties, that they would cover entire company floors.

My job was to visit our customer locations to diagnose and remedy any troubles they were having with any of these machines. I was totally in awe of those magnificent old machines (new at the time). Like a medical doctor, I got to know them as patients whom I had helped cure. I got to love those machines. Here's a look at one - the 402. It's basic function was to print reports after doing some calculating. A printer! Think of today's.

 It was able to print one whole line at a time. Just like an old fashioned typewriter used to do - each piece of type had to be pushed into an inked ribbon to make its impression. That required a typeface for every alphabetic and numeric character for every single print position. So there were 42 typebars across the front of the paper. Each would run up and down looking much like they were "sawing".                  

For me, I thought it was just as ingenious a machine as those I saw at the Da Vinci exhibit. I liked everything about the 402. There was one thing, though. It had a most complicated electrical circuit. It would take me a long time to search out a problem using the machine's circuit diagram. It was a fan-folded document that when unfolded was 10 feet long! OK, I still loved it. So, lovers write poetry to their loved one - right? I did.

 

  402 CIRUITS

                There's real beauty that I cant deny

                in clouds undulating about the sky;

                a winding road with a torturous climb

                tendrils seeking hold for a coiling vine.

                The intricate currents in whirling streams

                the complex patterns of twisted dreams;

                but, the beauty that leaves me quite in a daze

                is that curling, twirling 402 maze.