Imagination

 

While I was finishing up my degree at Fresno State University in 1999, I posted my first blog post on a new Google application called Blogger. At the time, I felt it was a good place for me to practice my writing skills, share my writings and hopefully gain some insight and pointers about public writing from people of all walks of life. That one blog post blossomed into what is now almost a dozen blogs on various aspects of my life and the interests those aspects have sparked.

I guess I like to write. I'm always at my keyboard, I like to sit and just imagine. Most of the time, those "imagination" articles make sense only to me. Imagination operates both spontaneously while daydreaming or during sparks of creativity and deliberately during planning or design. Imagination relies on memory, attention and associative thinking. I also just sit and daydream at my keyboard, most of those articles don't even make sense to me. Humanity owes a lot to imagination and dreams. Most of our discoveries and inventions were once a dream in someone's imagination. Much like President Kennedy's dream: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." 

I wonder what the world would be like if every person was an academic nerd? I doubt that we would have landed on the moon. Ask anyone at NASA and they will tell you that not all answers come from math, physics and chemistry because sometimes even the problem has to be imagined with solutions coming from an engineer's dream. ... That is how we achieved President Kennedy's dream.

I also write about places I've been and places that interest me. Somewhere on my hard drive is an story about me landing on Pluto, you know, the planet we threw away.  My imagination kind of "ran away" in that article. Although I have not published any of those imaginative and daydream articles, I often go back to them when I am writing factual articles from my research about technology.  After many years spent in technology, I find that dreams and imagination actually lead discovery, fact and solution. So, the next time you see me daydreaming, we could be on our way to Pluto (I'm an engineer ... Retired!). 

I love to research technology. I used to be a "retro" guy, Writing about the old computers and software on a card. I still do, but lately, I have turned to writing about Artificial Intelligence. If you want to let your imagination and dreams run wild, AI is the place to be. 

Take a moment right now, ask yourself, can you get through a day without using any type of computing hardware or software? Everything in your kitchen except, pots, pans, dishes and maybe a 5 year old toaster, has a CPU in it. Your garage door has a CPU, your television and radio have a CPU, your car has multiple CPUs, traffic lights are controlled by a CPU, almost everything in our world today has a CPU (even toothbrushes?). Now, sit back in your chair and daydream and imagine yourself living in the 1800s. Could you do it? The only problem with THAT daydream is that some idiot is going to come along and dream up a CPU, RAM and build a "computer" and you will be back where you started. Sitting back in your chair surrounded by CPUs. 

The hardest thing for me to write about is myself. We are all different. We have different experiences and even if two people have the same experience, they will both interpret it differently. It seems sometimes I always make someone angry with a post. There are many aspects of being human. There's the hardware, consisting of your skin, organs, muscle, and bones; software, consisting of electrical charges, chemistry, and nerve connections in the brain; and firmware of blood and water. Then there are the "feelings". Where do they come from? how are they made? Probably, they come from that same unknown factor that generates imagination and dreams (remember, attention and associative thinking are part of imagination).

 

 

Some folks say I am a contradiction within myself. My early life was hardened by living in a world of racial chaos, war and drugs. Even during those times that didn't know who I was or why I was here, I desperately wanted the ideals that John Lennon sang of. I wanted peace, unity of mankind and serenity in my life. They say John Lennon wrote this song for the world, but I think he probably wrote it for himself. We should not have to imagine a world in peace, we should live it. 

In the 60s, above the roar of race riots, the shouting in Congress and the cries of our men dying in Vietnam, you could hear the shout of the young "All we are saying is give peace a chance."

We achieved Kennedy's dream by pulling together, helping each other out and forgetting our differences. We can do the same for our dream of peace (we all have it!) by stopping our one-up-manship and forgetting our differences. If we can do that on an individual basis, we will all be pulling together, pulling in the same direction because it won't be a choice, it will be the only thing we can do. 

My Generation

The turbulent 60s, the generation I grew up in. Marked by intense social upheaval, political conflicts like the Vietnam War and Cold War tensions, the booming Civil Rights Movement, countercultural shifts challenging traditional values, assassinations of key leaders (JFK, MLK Jr., Malcolm X), and major protests, all leading to widespread activism, cultural experimentation, and deep divisions in America and globally. 

"Many have passed away, and those who are still here are called "the elderly.""

We were born in the 40s-50s-60s. We grew up in the 50's-60's-70's. We studied in the 60s-70s-80s.

We were together in the 70s-80s-90s. We got married or not and discovered the world in the 70s-80s-90s. Adventuring into the 80s - 90s

We're settling in to the 2000s. We became wiser in 2010s. And we’re going strong into 2020 and beyond.

Turns out we went through EIGHT different decades... TWO different centuries... TWO different millennials...

We've gone from phone with operator for long distance calls, pay booths, video calls worldwide. We’ve gone from slides to YouTube, vinyls to online music, handwritten letters to emails and Whats App.

Live games on the radio, black and white TV, color TV, then HD 3D TV. We went to the video store and now watching Netflix.

We've known the first computers, punch cards, disks and now we have gigabytes and megabytes on our smartphones. 

We wore shorts all through our childhood, then trousers, ep pants or mini-skirts, Oxfords, Clarks, Palestinian scarves, jumpsuits, and blue jeans.

We avoided childhood paralysis, meningitis, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, swine flu and now COVID-19.

We've done roller skating, roller skating, tricycle, bicycle, moped, gasoline or diesel and now we drive hybrids or electric.

We played with the little ones. Horses and checkers, ostrich and marbles, 1000 threshold and monopoly, now there's candy crush on our smartphones

And we read... much. And our schoolmates religion was not a subject...

We used to drink tap water and lemonade in glass bottles, and the vegetables on our plate were always fresh, today we get meals delivered. 

Yes, we have been through a lot but what a beautiful life we have had!

They might describe us as “ex-annuals”; people who were born in this 50s world, who had an analog childhood and digital adulthood.

We should add the Biological Revolution that we have witnessed. In 1960, biology was very descriptive. We have witnessed the event of Molecular Biology: the molecules of Life have been discovered: DNA, RNA etc. When you see everything that has come from it: gene therapy, gene fingerprints, and others the progress is considerable.

We kind of have "seen it all"! Our generation has literally lived and witnessed more than any other in every dimension of life. This is our generation that has literally adapted to "CHANGE".

A big congratulations to all the members of a very special generation, which will be UNIQUE.. "

It's really sad that much of the popular music of the 60s, still rings true today.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

What defines my generation?

Although I wasn't there, I would have to say

WOODSTOCK 1969! 

 

 

On the third day of the festival, just before Joe Cocker's early afternoon set, Max Yasgur, the humble farmer who lent his land for the occasion  addressed the crowd at Woodstock:

 

"I'm a farmer. I don't know how to speak to twenty people at one time, let alone a crowd like this. But I think you people have proven something to the world — not only to the Town of Bethel, or Sullivan County, or New York State; you've proven something to the world. This is the largest group of people ever assembled in one place. We have had no idea that there would be this size group, and because of that you've had quite a few inconveniences as far as water, food, and so forth. Your producers have done a mammoth job to see that you're taken care of... they'd enjoy a vote of thanks. But above that, the important thing that you've proven to the world is that a half a million kids — and I call you kids because I have children that are older than you are — a half million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music, and I – God bless you for it!"

 

 ... Max Yasgur, said this on stage the last day of Woodstock as America was sending Kids to Vietnam to die. 

 

My generation of the 1960s could land a man on the moon and bring him back safely, but we could not stop a war that no one wanted or look upon a people freed in the 1800s as our equals. Today is in the year 2026 and nothing has changed. We are headed for the moon again, in a war that no one wants and driving people who are not white from our country. It saddens me to think that in all these years America has still not learned what our fore fathers tried to teach us.  

 

Imagine all the people living life in peace. As we did at Woodstock.  

 

The Answers are Still Blowing in the Wind

 

I was thinking today about how life has changed since I graduated High School and how it hasn't. Much can be told of the '60s from the popular music of that time. Songs like "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield. Released in 1967, the words of that song still apply to what is happening in the United States today (1/18/26). "Blowin in the Wind" by Bob Dylan could have been written yesterday, it's still that relevant to what is happening today. 

In the '60s when I was 16, 17, and 18, I didn't really pay attention to what the words of the songs were. I just listen to it because my peers listened to it. But, as I listen today, I hear in the songs of the '60s, the things I saw on the 6:00 o'clock news tonight. Civil rights are being violated by armed government militias, the US is threatening war on countries, there are riots in some of our largest cities against civil rights and marches against war and government policies, when will we ever learn? I think The answers we seek are still blowing in the wind.

 

Society today hasn't changed much from the '60s.  I grew up first on the South Side of Chicago, then in Oaklawn, about 10 miles south; then on to New Lenox, about another 10 miles south of Chicago. I still remember going to the large Sears store and Montgomery Ward store in Downtown Chicago where there were signs over the restroom doors; "Whites Only" and "colored". Separate but equal is what our government (and white America) called it. From what I remember, most of "Downtown Chicago" was "Whites Only". Things are supposed to be different now, anyone can go anywhere, but just because you "can" go somewhere, it doesn't mean you will be welcome. Chicago along with most other big cities is still segregated. There are areas where whites live, areas where blacks live, areas for Latinos, Italians, Irish, Puerto Recons, etc... Still today, you are only really welcome in your designated area. I always lived in the white side of town, went to schools that were "Whites Only", went to churches that were all white. Sometimes, it seemed to me that we were still fighting the Civil War. 

 

I live in Winterville North Carolina now, society is still segregated; not by race now, but by economic status. Greenville is broken up into rich, middle and poor communities. Again, just because you can cross community boundaries, it doesn't mean you will be welcome. What is really sad is that although races can intermix within their economic communities, race still seems to be a factor among whites. I still don't understand how our rich white forefathers who owned many slaves, could write in a Declaration of Independence that all men are free and equal when they, themselves did not believe it. They were good at talking the talk, but they did not walk the walk.  

 

Where ever you are now, look around. Do you see freedom and equality? Or do you see segregation and lack of respect. What our forefathers did not understand was that before we can be truly free, we must have respect for those around us. And before we can have equality, we must respect the race, religious beliefs and economic status of those around us. 

  

"How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind."  

There's Something Happening Here

"There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
A-telling me I got to beware"

 

We're reliving the '60s. In America it was a time of lawlessness, shootings, mass killings, thievery, widespread corruption and denouncing the President. It was all over a war that our government perpetuated over the will of the people. It's happening again, the government perpetuating many things over the will of the people. 

 

Those lines above come from a protest song from the '60s. “For What It’s Worth” is one of the most widely known protest songs of the 1960s. Recorded by Buffalo Springfield as a single, it was eventually released in 1967 on their self-titled album. It has transcended its origin story to become one of pop’s most-covered protest songs – a sort of “We Shall Overcome” of its time, its references to police, guns and paranoia remaining continually relevant even to this day.  

 

Buffalo Springfield was the house band for LA’s famous Whiskey A Go Go Club during the time of the LA riots, which led Stephen Stills to pen the song.

 

“For What It’s Worth” was penned solely by Stills in response to the Sunset Strip curfew riots in Los Angeles in 1966. It all started in the mid-1960s when hippies and young people associated with rock and roll culture would frequently gather on the famous street in West Hollywood. The commercial merchants on Sunset Boulevard decided that the element of young people on the street every night was not conducive to commercial enterprise. When bunch of kids got together on a street corner and said we aren’t moving, the local government put in place curfew and anti-loitering laws to stop people from congregating at the behest of local businesses.

 

This tension between the free-spirited culture and local government came to a head in November and December 1966 when protesters clashed with police, particularly on the night of November 12 when a local radio station announced there would be a protest over the closing of Pandora’s Box, a popular nightclub for young people. Roughly 1,000 people showed up to protest. Three busloads of Los Angeles police showed up, who looked very much like storm troopers. 

 

According to reports, a fight broke out for reasons having nothing to do with the curfew; a car carrying a group of Marines was bumped by another vehicle. Egged on by that fight, the protesters (some of whom carried placards that read “We’re Your Children! Don’t Destroy Us”) trashed a city bus and threw bottles and rocks at storefronts. 

  

The LAPD instigated a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone under 18. 

 

 

The riot was really four different things intertwined, including the war and the absurdity of what was happening on the Strip. 

 

Despite having a reputation as being an anti-war song, as it was also written during the Vietnam War, Stills said that “For What It’s Worth” was mostly written in response to the Sunset Strip riots. 

 

“It was really four different things intertwined, including the war and the absurdity of what was happening on the Strip,” Stills explained in an archived interview, according to the Los Angeles Times. “But I knew I had to skedaddle and headed back to Topanga, where I wrote my song in about 15 minutes. For me, there was no riot. It was basically a cop dance. … Riot is a ridiculous name. It was a funeral for Pandora’s Box. But it looked like a revolution.” 

  

The beginning of the song is a study in understatement. An electric guitar plays two notes, slowly repeated, with tremolo. The drums set up a quiet pulse-like beat. An acoustic guitar enters, strumming two chords, then beginning a quiet riff that is a definition of laid-back L.A. funk. (Audio clip – 80K.) Finally Steve Stills’ voice enters, in a quiet, conversational tone. (Audio clip – 64K.) 

 

[Verse 1]
There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
A-telling me I got to beware

[Chorus]
I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down

[Verse 2]
There's battle lines being drawn
And nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Are gettin' so much resistance from behind

[Chorus]
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down

[Verse 3]
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and a-carryin' signs
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" 

[Chorus]
It's time we stopped
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down

[Verse 4]
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life, it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away

[Chorus]
We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better stop
Now, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going
We better stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down

While watching the news today, this song from my past came to mind and has not left. Once again we have riots in LA, and beginning to start in other cities. We have battle lines being drawn between Trump supporters and Trump non-supporters; Republicans and Democrats; those who want peace and those who want to take peace. When will we learn that nobody's right if everybody's wrong?

We teach our young people to "speak their mind" but we forget to teach them to consider those around them before they speak. Our "freedom of speech" does not give us the right to trespass, steal or destroy other people's property. Our "freedom of speech" does not give us the right to bully or demean any other human.

Nearly 50 years later, and in very different times, we still haven't learned from our mistakes of the 1960s.

 

Imagine By John Lennon

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No Hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people livin' for today
Ah, ah, ah-ah

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothin' to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people livin' life in peace
Yoo, hoo, oo-oo

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharin' all the world
Yoo, hoo, oo-oo

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

  

Our Natinal Anthem - As You Have Never Heard It Before

The story of the United States of America National Arnhem, as you have never heard before.

To celebrate their victory over British forces during the War of 1812, U.S. soldiers raised a large American flag at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 14, 1814.

Poet Francis Scott Key was inspired by seeing the flag after witnessing the fort’s bombardment. He wrote a poem called "Defense of Fort M'Henry." This eventually became the Star-Spangled Banner and the United States national anthem.

Defence of Fort M'Henry

By Francis Scott Key

O! say can you see, by the dawn's early light,

    What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

    O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

        And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

        Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there —

            O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave

            O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,

    Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,

    As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

        Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

        In full glory reflected now shines on the stream —

            'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

            O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

    That the havock of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

    Their blood has wash'd out their foul foot-steps' pollution,

        No refuge could save the hireling and slave,

        From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave;

            And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

            O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

    Between their lov'd home, and the war's desolation,

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land

    Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

        Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

        And this be our motto — "In God is our trust!"

            And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

            O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

 The story behind the song

 The Flag that inspired the song 

Behind the lyrics of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'