DUMB . . . AND GETTING DUMBER!

Several recent incidents in the news concern me. On two separate occasions, very young police officers in their twenties accosted Bob Dylan and Neil Diamond and asked them for I.D. None of those officers had a clue who those men were. Surely the cops' parents or grandparents would have been aware of the two folksingers. Or perhaps the cops had been home-schooled by fundamentalist parents. Not very likely in Brooklyn or on the Jersey Shore. Those cops were intelligent enough to pass police exams, and they are probably well-versed in the local street-smarts and quirks of the areas where they patrol. But I'll bet they're ignorant about lots of general American culture, common-sense information that gets shoved aside by a media focus on mass entertainment and celebrities. This pervades our society and increases the dumbing-down process that is harming our people.
We all know that our public schools are in crisis: too many kids dropping out and semi-literate people graduating who can't write a decent sentence, let alone handle their finances. The base of common-sense information--life skills neceessary for people to function in our society has eroded sharply over the years. Schools were also under attack fifty years ago for academic deficiencies that left their graduates unprepared for the academic rigors of college. Blame was placed on "progressive education" philosophies and methods, which shifted the focus from academics to the student as a psychological and a social being. That's when the "dumbing down" of our schools began. Over the years, it has continued. Now that academic content has mostly flown out the window, life skills information is also vanishing. Even in our current recession, there are jobs that can't be filled, with employers seeking applicants from outside our country because not enough of our own graduates are qualified. Where is this all going to end?

FAVORITE NCR COLUMNISTS AND FOLLOWERS

I spend lots of time engaging with the National Catholic Reporter, both paper and online editions. Favorite NCR columnists of mine are Sr. Joan Chittister, Editor John L. Allen, Jr., Bishop Gumbleton, and John Dear. The wide range of reader comments following their articles is just as interesting as the columns themselves.

Reader comments following each article might as well be blogs. Comments are fairly even in their balance between conservative Traditional Catholics and progressive/liberal Catholics. These blogging readers range from pre-Vatican II traditionalists to ticked-off Catholics ready to leave the church, and also include some who have left, plus some Protestants.

John L. Allen's recent column on President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI was a masterpiece that showcased Obama's and Pope Benedict's deft handling of a very touchy subject: societal changes and strategies which could reduce pressures for abortion. Prior to Vatican II, some would have regarded Barak Obama as belonging to the "soul of the church," a term seldom heard in 2009. Our President's remarks about Chicago's late Chicago Cardinal Bernardin really showed up some of our current Cardinals and Archbishops--narcissistic, power-happy, reactionary, black/white thinkers who make the current Pope appear liberal by comparison. I avoid getting in over my head in any online arguments, but I do take occasional pot-shots at some Bishops along the way.

Recent news items about Ireland's own sex abuse scandal, with her Bishops merely transferring offending clergy in a cloud of secrecy, really rile me up. Some suspect the American scandal of being an Irish import, but I doubt it. My sense is that this scandal has been endemic in Europe (and in some missionary areas) for at least several centuries. It didn't just come out of the blue. I'm particularly angered by the actions of a former St. Louis Archbishop who seems excessively threatened by anything female and went on an excommunication binge before being "kicked upstairs" to the Vatican and rewarded with a Prefect position. I think his spelling sucks, never mind his misogynistic actions and fulminations.

Well, I can't wreck my health brooding about the "bad boys of the hierarchy 24/7, so I'll focus on handwhistling for awhile. I'm leaving town Saturday to work in a six-day kids' summer camp session where we'll integrate environmental values and what Scripture says about caring for God's Creation.--back before the hierarchy had developed and solidified into its present state. I'll be doing a handwhistling workshop for middle-school kids, of whom several can already handwhistle more than one note. I'll also present some YouTube videos of other handwhistlers, plus two of my own. And of course I'll plug my Website, http://www.handmelodies.com/ .

Whistling and Circque du Soleil

My whistling friend Robert is currently performing as the Ringmaster in a Cirque du Soleil production in Japan. I saw the show last year in Portland and got to spend some time with Robert during the show's six-week run. His predecessor in the Ringmaster role is Sean Lomax, another whistler. This evening, Robert called me on SKYPE and introduced me to Sean Lomax. Sean told me an interesting tidbit about Fred Bradna, the longtime ringmaster in Ringling and Barnum and Bailey circuses. His book, The Big Top, was required reading for Mr. Lomax when he undertook the role. And whistling was very relevant to old-time circus ringmasters, too. They used a system of whistled signals to coordinate the different rings or components of the circus, much like a sheepherder whistles a system of commands to the sheepdogs in maneuvering the sheep. Like the sheepherders, Robert and Sean both use pucker whistling, while the old-time Ringmasters used a golden whistle on a gold chain.

Whistling News and July 4th Music Jam

Hi again,

I installed a SKYPE phone on my computer recently, and have had some interesting phone and online typed conversations with members of my whistling community. Several times three of us have had a 3-way conversation. Other whistlers, including some from India, have given me their SKYPE info. As soon as we can find a time compatible with most of our time zones, we will try to do some group whistling in SKYPE.

My SKYPE whistling friend in Japan advised me today about getting some sound clips added to my http://www.handmelodies.com/ Website, which I will try to have ready for people to hear soon.

July 4th found me and my household and some friends at a neighborhood block party held in a blocked-off three-way intersection. We hauled over our potluck food, lawn furniture, and music instruments. Our family band had a fiddle, guitar, ukulele, my assorted recorders and tin whistles, and, of course, my hands. Mostly I just used the uke and my hands, and we warmed up with "I'm A Yankee Doodle Dandy," and if the pitch was too low, I just switched from my cupped hands to the uke. Good news about the uke. Arthritis has limited my uke-playing in recent years, but on July 4, 2009, most of the arthritis in my hands vanished while we were making music. I had such a good time and now feel encouraged to do more with the ukulele.

Time to quit now and see if I can figure out how to get set up to put a few ads on here.

Introducing Myself

Hi There,

I'm a Pacific Northwest retiree who likes to listen to and make music. Most people know me as a handwhistler, but I also play the recorder, tin whistle, ukulele and washtub string bass, also known as the "gutbucket." I'm a fumbling beginner on the autoharp, and my current one is too big and causes carpal tunnel symptoms. So my plan is to get it fixed up, sell it, and get a smaller one.

Most of the music I perform is Celtic, folk, classical, and liturgical, meaning the wide variety of hymns in the Oregon Catholic Press Breaking Bread. There's a broad variety of melodies in that paperback hymnal. It includes Gregorian chant, of course, but also has lots of good old Protestant standards, plus Celtic tunes, folk hymns, African American, Spanish hymns, and contemporary hymns(from the Sixties up to now).

I enjoy listening to ragtime, Dixieland, Big Band Swing, Bluegrass, and early Rock. Any Rock music beyond early Beatles music and that of their contemporaries nauseates me.

I love to surf the Net and find other handwhistlers like myself, and they are multiplying like jackrabbits on www.YouTube.com . There are also two videos of my handwhistling. I'll provide more links after I learn how; I'm a newbie at creating blogs. .

I also love to write, and I privately published a book of memoirs several years ago. E-mail me at dunsidhe1@msn.com if you'd like more info. Lots of other writing projects reside inside my computer awaiting completion, and I may share some of it on this blog.

I do a variety of things to supplement retirement income, like word-processing college term papers. (Students' computers sometimes crash and lines for the computer lab get too long).

Time to knock off for the day and get some snooze time,

Sally



Check out www.handmelodies.com if you'd like to see some photos. Some areas of that Website are still under construction, but that will change soon.