Baby Boomers: We are the new 60, how do we own it?
***
What is important?
Where do we cross the line from self-absorption,
to what we can contribute to society and the planet?
I’m looking for a global view of healing vs. destruction.
What have the last 60 years meant for humanity,
how have we transformed our values,
across world cultures, or within our family?
***
What are we going to pass on to our children;
does anyone matter beyond ourselves?
Is there any hope of making a real difference?
How would this look like?
Is there anyone doing what needs to be done?
***
Visionary artist’s, prophet’s, and scientist’s reveal where we are going.
What appears from artist’s brushes, poet’s words,
or the prophet’s speech is a mystery.
The shaman heals, the philosopher writes, and we have no understanding.
Matters are pressing, time is short, careers are built, fortunes made,
fortunes lost,
poverty extends to future generations.
Where is the mystery in your life?
What do we value?
***
Is there any meaning for our life? Was there ever?
Has the earth just been our playground, our battlefield for
our life dramas, the setting,
the stage, for the brief flash of our lives?
Or, is it our chance to shine, reflect the stars, love as best we can,
be kind, share, and play nicely.
***
How do I relate this to turning 60? These might be questions
we want to ask ourselves.
If we can consider being open, if for even a moment,
consider a different way of viewing our life,
however uncomfortable this makes us,
a clear moment of understanding might change the course of our life.
Our generation is facing a new reality.
Greed has destroyed industrialized nations, also the unpaid wars
we have been fighting for the last 10 years, have come due.
Our good ol’e USA greed has just pulled socialized Europe
and the Euro down.
We should look toward what countries are becoming,
traditional Muslim countries,
oppressed by their leaders are rising up, freedom fighters,
inspired youth, actually initializing real change.
***
This is how I see 60.
I see us holding on; trying to maintain our lives against reality.
The wealthy want more wealth, yet are faced with dwindling income.
The poor are struggling as always, and are moving aside (or down)
to make room for the ‘new poor’.
The ‘old poor’ know how to live within their means, they have had no choice.
But the 60+’s in the middle class have had it good for so long,
we have no idea how to be poor.
The vast majority of us are overfed, out of shape, uninspired,
unprepared for reality, and turning grey from the inside out.
(ouch!)
What happened Baby Boomers? What are our inner voices saying?
You know the voice that over speaks our spirit, dictation of self-justification,
eating the mantra of the same stories, explanations, excuses,
talking to our superficial selves.
***
I am asking us to break into that old conversation,
interrupt it for an important message, as our spirit awaits.
***
Our circular, redundant thinking is getting us nowhere,
self-justification is self-negation.
I am asking that we wake up to reality.
Just look around with new eyes. Do one positive thing, Help one person.
Our parents, children of the ‘Great Depression’ and the Great World War II,
are exiting the planet.
That leaves us to carry the torch of humanity.
***
60: Baby Boomers Guide for Healing our planet.
Claiming responsibility, not denial. Let’s fix it now!
***
World in 1950’s: The world that our grandparent’s gave us as children.
World in 2013: The world that we are giving our grandchildren.
***
Four generations of change, what did we do to help ourselves with our dealt hand?
Did we look to profit, or prophet to help us?
Our spirit says, save our planet. A direct command, save it or lose it.
***
Let us each choose one solution: Pick one cure for the toxic earth.
Be leaders, from the level that we are on.
No corporations need apply, unless they are ready for a change.
Let’s do one small thing, make a recommendation,
find a solution, talk with others.
Choose life.
***
Let us save our planet now. Do not count on anyone else.
Save our planet now.
It is up to us to fix this mess that we all have contributed to.
Industrialized nations have ‘messed’ our planet up.
Let’s get out the broom, sweep it clean NOW!
Let us rise up, rebel against mediocrity to help pull us up
from our downward spiral.
This is the time, as no other.
We the people, in order to make a more perfect world……
“Take a stand, for the earth or against it”.
“Get off your duff, and get to work”.
What are we going to do about:
War
Hungry children
Conflict
Famine
Terror
Economic disruption
Polluted air
Polluted lakes
Polluted rivers
Polluted water
Polluted ocean
Acid rain
Nuclear waste
*
The over Harvested Destruction of Land:
Over fished
Over mining
Toxic waste
Oil spills
Polluted tap water
Sewage in streams & rivers
Floating waste (ocean)
Species at risk of extinction in land, air and sea
Disappearing habitat of all other species
Melting icecap
Signs of global warming
***
People at Risk:
Aids, starvation, drought
Human trafficking
Homeless
Sex slaves, women and children
Crimes against women
Slaughter houses
Pollution from harvest ships
Coal mining
GMO (genetically modified crops & patented seed)
Natural destruction
***
***
WORLD NEWS
The world we were born into:
January 7
- French Plevin government falls.
January 14
- Snow storm in Sierra Nevada kills 26.
January 20
- British army occupies Ismailiya, Suez Canal Zone.
January 21
- Nehru’s Congress party wins general election in India.
January 22
- The first Jet airliner (the de Havilland Comet) enters service for BOAC.
January 30
- Lehmer verifies 2^521-1 and 2^607-1 (183 ciphers) Mersenne-prime numbers.
February 1
- General strike against French colonial management in Tunisia.
February 6
- King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham at age 56.
February 19
- French offensive at Hanoi, Vietnam.
February 21
- Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement).
February 26
- Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has its own atomic bomb.
March 1
- Heligoland, in North Sea, returned to West Germany by Britain.
March 3
- Puerto Rico approves their first self-written constitution.
March 10
- Military coup by General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.
March 16
- Greatest 24-hour rainfall: 187 cm in Cilaos, Réunion, in the Indian Ocean.
March 18
- First plastic lens for cataract patients fitted (Philadelphia).
- Communist offensive in Korea.
March 20
- US Senate’s final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan.
March 21
- A J Pieters, SS-Untersturmführer, is executed.
- Alan Freed presents Moondog Coronation Ball at old Cleveland Arena, 25,000 attend first rock and roll concert ever.
- Tornadoes in Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky cause 343 deaths.
- Wilhelm Albrecht, German SD-chief, is executed.
March 24
- Great demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa.
March 27
- Failed assassination attempt of German Chancellor Adenauer.
April 1
- Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe and Gamow.
April 9
- Popular uprising in Bolivia.
April 15
- Franklin National Bank issues first bank credit card.
- US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
April 21
- BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) begins first passenger service with jets (London-Rome route).
April 22
- First atomic explosion on network news, Nob Nevada.
April 23
- Oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Banias completed.
April 28
- Japan and the United States sign a formal peace treaty.
May 1
- US Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada.
- “Mr Potato Head” toy is introduced; first toy advertised on television.
May 2
- The world’s first-ever jet airliner (the BOAC De Havilland Comet 1) makes its maiden voyage, flying from London to Johannesburg.
May 3
- First landing by an airplane at geographic North Pole.
May 5
- Pulitzer prize awarded to Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny).
May 8
May 13
- Pandit Nehru becomes premier of India.
May 18
- Professor WF Libby says Stonehenge dates back to 1848 BCE.
May 28
- The women of Greece are given sufferage. (Really!)
June 29
- First aircraft carrier to sail around Cape Horn – USS Oriskany.
July 15
- First transatlantic helicopter flight begins.
July 22
- Polish constitution is adopted.
July 23
- A military junta in Egypt under command of Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrows King Farouk.
July 25
- Puerto Rico officially becomes a U.S commonwealth.
July 29
- First nonstop transpacific flight by a jet.
August 11
- Hussein proclaimed king of Jordan.
September 11
- West German Chancellor Adenauer signs a reparation pact for Jews.
September 15
- United Nations turns over Eritrea to Ethiopia.
October 1
- First ultra-high frequency (UHF) television station, Portland, Oregon, USA.
October 3
- First video recording on magnetic tape, Los Angeles, California.
October 23
- German former Army Commander-in-Chief Albert Kesslering is pardoned and freed from British captivity.
October 24
- Arab Liberation Movement becomes the only party of Syria.
November 1
- First hydrogen device exploded by US at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
November 4
- A 9.0-magnitude earthquake strikes Kamchatka off the east coast of Russia, causing 30-foot waves in Hawaii.
- Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) elected 34th US President beating Adlai Stevenson (Democrat).
November 29
- US President-elect Dwight Eisenhower visits Korea to assess the war.
December 2
- First human birth televised to public (KOA-TV Denver, Colorado, USA).
December 3
- Marcos Perez Jiménez elected President of Venezuela.
December 4
- Killer fogs begin in London England; “Smog” becomes a word. Over 4000 die.
- There was a build up of toxic substances into the atmosphere through the combustion of coke,
- oil and coal products due to the large number of factories in operation throughout London.
- The London Smog of 1952 –The Great Smog of London as it is called befell London starting on December 4, 1952, and lasted until March of 1953. It was a great disaster that killed thousands and formed an important impetus to the modern environmental movement.
- The large number of deaths caused by the worst environmental disaster in UK history leads to the The Clean Air Act of 1956 which required smokeless fuels must be used in heavily populated area’s including cleaner coals, electricity, and gas, reducing the amount of smoke pollution and sulphur dioxide from household fires.
December 6
- Czechoslovakian government tells Israeli ambassador he is persona non grata.
December 8
- French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die.
- Isaak Ben-Zwi elected President of Israel.
December 14
- Uprising of captives in Pongam, South Korea; 82 die.
December 15
- Christine Jorgenson is first person to undergo a sex-change operation.
- Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Orientales Ecclesias.
December 25
- German former army commander Wilhelm List is pardoned and freed from captivity.
December 29
- First transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford, New York).
December 30
- Tuskegee Institute reports 1952 as first year in 71 years with no lynchings in USA.
-
HIROSHIMA, Japan, Nov. 18 (Agence France-Presse) — Hiroshima authorities said this week they will conduct studies for the first time on the children of the surviving victims of the atomic bomb dropped on the city on August 6, 1945.
***
Breaking News….
1952: British radar engineer Geoffrey Dummer introduces the concept of the integrated circuit at a tech conference in the United States. The world is about to change.
***
1945-1952: The Early Cold War
The United States emerged from World War II as one of the foremost economic, political, and military powers in the world. Wartime production pulled the economy out of depression and propelled it to great profits. In the interest of avoiding another global war, for the first time the United States began to use economic assistance as a strategic element of its foreign policy and offered significant assistance to countries in Europe and Asia struggling to rebuild their shattered economies.
***
Fiftieth anniversary of the conquest of Everest:
“Geneva – Everest 1952 – 2002”
On the trail of the Genevan expedition of 1952
Geneva, March 18th, 2002 – Exactly fifty years ago, for the first time in history, Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, two members of an expedition composed entirely of Genevan (Swiss) alpinists, climbed to within 200 meters/660 feet of the summit of Mount Everest without the aid of oxygen. One year later, in 1953, an English expedition led by John Hunt, with Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay once again, reached the roof of the world following the famous South Col route discovered by the team from Geneva. Upon their return, they met with world acclaim, they sent this message to the Genevan team: “A good half of the glory goes to you.”
***
NEW WORLD ORDER PLAN TO PATROL THE WORLD
In 1952, in London, the Illuminati sponsored a meeting to re-draw the world into military regions after the One-World Government had been established. In the early 1920’s, Russian Communist leaders learned a very valuable lesson: they learned that ethnic troops could not be depended upon to be brutal to their own people . Therefore, Russian Communists devised a plan whereby Muslim Russian troops would be stationed in non-Muslim areas, and vice versa. Therefore, troops would have no difficulty oppressing, jailing, and murdering people not their own. As you will shortly see, this plan applies these lessons worldwide. We have much to fear, as you will see in just a few moments.
In 1952, the World Association of Parliamentarians for World Government decided which areas of the world would be occupied and patrolled by which troops. These worldwide forces would be commanded by a World Director, who would have an organization of 8 zone directors and 51 regional directors. No regional director would ever be responsible for his own country, and no military troops would ever be stationed within his own country. [This information taken from the National Economic Council of New York City, 1962]
***
In August 1952 the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) was founded. At that moment organized modern humanism already had a tradition of at least a hundred years, including other international federations that are reckoned among the humanist tradition. One can discern four ‘generations’ of modern humanism, originating around 1850, 1890, 1918 and 1945, three of which came together in IHEU in 1952.
***
Minimum standards for social security
The Philadelphia Declaration (1944) sets out ILO’s role with regard to social protection, an area in which the Organization has been active since its inception in 1919, adopting several conventions and recommendations. It was in 1952, however, when it adopted the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, which entered into force in 1955, that it took decisive action. The convention allows derogations for countries “whose economy and medical facilities are insufficiently developed”, but it nevertheless marked a fundamental shift in international social security law in that it introduced the new concept of a general level of social security theMember States should attain.
***
***
The Soviet Union returned to the Olympic fold in 1952 after a 40-year absence, a period of time that included a revolution and two world wars. Ironically, the Soviets chose to make their comeback in Finland, a country they had invaded twice during World War II.
This time it was the United States that was surprised by the Soviets, and the USA had to scramble on the last day of competition to hold off the USSR’s assault on first place in the overall standings. It was the beginning of an all-consuming 36-year Cold War rivalry.
***
1952 Washington D.C. Sightings
During the dawn of Ufology in the United States, unidentified flying objects made themselves known to the leaders of the free world in 1952, buzzing over the White House, the Capitol building, and the Pentagon. Seemingly the unknown objects were defying the very governmental agencies sworn to protect the United States from foreign powers.
Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base picked up a number of UFOs on their radar screens on July 19, 1952, beginning a wave of sightings still unexplained to this day.These blips were objects traveling at about 100 m.p.h. but with the ability to accelerate to the unbelievable speed of 7,200 m.p.h. The Washington National sighting was confirmed by other local radar, and then Andrews Air Force Base was contacted.
***
A team of GM scientists and engineers developed the mechanical heart pump that made possible the world’s first open heart surgery. The device was developed and donated by GM at no cost to the heart surgery team at Wayne State University in Detroit.
The Opening of the Commercial Jet Era
Like perhaps no other single technology, the jet engine revolutionized air travel around the world. Unlike the old propeller-driven planes that were powered by piston engines, jet planes could fly at tremendous speeds, thus cutting down travel time. Jet-equipped airplanes also could climb faster and fly higher. Both the U.S. Air Force and civil aircraft builders found these capabilities attractive in the years after World War II when international contacts stretched across the globe. There were, however, major concerns about transferring jet engine technology to the commercial aviation sector. Airline executives in the postwar era were aware that, although jet engines were simpler than the old piston engines, they also had high operating temperatures that required very expensive metal alloy components that ultimately would affect an aircraft’s longevity and reliability. Moreover, jet engines used far greater amounts of fuel. The initially low takeoff speed would also require longer runways. All of this added up to increased costs. As a result, U.S. passenger air carriers did not support the building of jet airliners in the immediate postwar years, and adopted a “wait-and-see” approach before embarking on this risky path.
The British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), the national British carrier, first introduced a commercial jet airliner into service. The 36-seat Comet 1, built by De Havilland, flew for the first time on July 27, 1949. BOAC inaugurated the world’s first commercial jet service on May 2, 1952. Initial flights took passengers from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, with stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum (in Sudan), Entebbe (in Kenya), and Livingstone, near Victoria Falls. At the time, the top cruising speed of the most well known piston-engine aircraft, the DC-3, was about 180 miles per hour (290 kilometers per hour). With the Comet, passengers could travel comfortably at 480 miles per hour (772 kilometers per hour), making it a revolutionary leap in air travel. The Comet also provided conditions that contrasted sharply to piston-engine planes: the planes were vibration-free and relatively quiet.
***
The Nobel Peace Prize 1952:
Albert Schweitzer
***
The first oral contraceptive!
***
| 1952 Mau Mau Begin Terrorists Actions A state of emergency was declared by the British Governor of Kenya as the Mau Mau began an open uprising against British rule. The British arrested hundreds of Kikuyu tribesman — among them Jomo Kenyatta, who went on to become the first Prime Minister of Kenya. |
1952 King Farouk Adbicates Young army officers, disgusted by widespread corruption in Egypt, staged a revolt against King Farouk. The revolt was led by General Mohammed Neguib and Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser. Neguib became leader of Egypt. He remained in control until 1954, when Nasser – the real power behind the revolt – took power.EGYPT TORN BY CRISIS:Almost exactly fifty-nine years ago, on January 26, 1952, downtown Cairo was in flames. Cinemas, department stores, and hotels were set alight by rioters in the streets. The identity of these rioters would become the focus of enormous speculation: Were they revolutionaries who sought the expulsion of British colonial rule from Egypt, or rather, were they counterrevolutionary forces who were giving the then-Egyptian regime or the army a pretext to intervene? Whatever the case, within a matter of six months, that regime – which the vast majority of Egyptians saw as corrupt, unrepresentative, and brutal in its repression of peaceful protest – was overthrown by a cadre of young military men known as the “Free Officers,” led by the charismatic Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser.***
EGYPT – Despite bloody riots that bring death to scores and flaming destruction to many famed landmarks, hopes for an amicable settlement of the thorny Suez problem rise in the land of the Nile. At the height of the fighting, British troops blast Egyptian police from their barricades. |
***
| 1952 Polio Vaccine Invented A vaccine that prevented polio was developed in 1952 by Jonas Salk. |
***
1952: New immigration Quotas The Congress overrode a Presidential veto and vetoed to restrict immigration into the United States to 154,657 immigrants per year. This was the most restrictive policy in American history to date. Foreigners with technical training and high education would receive priority under the law.
***
JAPAN -Allied occupation, 1945-1952
***
This book is a record of the Congress Of The Peoples For Peace – Vienna December 12th-19th, 1952.
The Congress brought together people from 85 different countries.
My father Alexander Mckechnie was a member of the Congress presiding committee, alongside Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Robeson, Pablo Neruda, Diego Rivera, Louis Aragon & others.
I was given the middle name Paul after Paul Robeson.
***
TROUBLE IN TUNISIA:
TUNIS – Tunisia in revolt! Martial law follows sabotage and riots in the French North African protectorate. Train is wrecked in desert by Arab extremists, as French troops battle to restore order in the trouble zone. Nationalistic feeling runs high as local revolutionizes seek greater autonomy from France.
***
First Nuclear Power Accident: 1952
33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations since
the first recorded one in 1952 at Chalk River in Ontario, Canada.
***
On this day [14th June 1952]: Nautilus the world’s first nuclear submarine was dedicated.
***
The results of antigenic studies of the viruses received at the World Influenza Centre from the 1952-3 influenza epidemic are described. As in 1950-1, two main antigenic groups of influenza A viruses could be distinguished. One group, called Liverpool, contained strains closely related to 1950-1 Liverpool strains. The other, called Scandinavian, contained strains related to but not identical with 1950-1 Scandinavian viruses. Altogether, 175 Scandinavian, 33 Liverpool, and 4 influenza B virus strains were examined.
***
Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of the Toyota Motor Corporation, which in 2008 surpassed America’s General Motors as the world’s largest automaker, dies at the age of 57 in Japan on this day 1952.
***
Actors and actresses who were born in 1952 included: Maria Schneider (March 27 in Paris), Liam Neeson (June 7 in Ireland), Isabella Rossellini (June 18 in Rome), Robin Williams (July 21 in Chicago), Patrick Swayze (August 18 in Texas), Christopher Reeve (Sept. 25 in New York), Paul Rubens (a.k.a. Pee Wee Herman, August 27 in New York), Jeff Goldblum (Oct. 22 in Pittsburgh), Angelica Huston (in Ireland).
***
TV shows included: I’ve Got a Secret, The Lone Ranger, The Groucho Marx Show,
The Dinah Shore Show,
The Burns and Allen Show, Art Linkletter’s House Party,
The Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, Arthur
Godfrey Time, Howdy Doody, Amos and Andy,
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Twenty Questions,
Dragnet, The Perry Como Show, The Wheel of Fortune, This Is Your Life.
***
In Washington, D.C., Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican from Wisconsin,
continued his efforts to
expose communists in government, attempting to discredit the
Truman administration. A wave of anticommunism,
known as “McCarthyism,” swept the country.
***
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, was published in 1952.
John Steinbeck’s novel,
East of Eden, was published in 1952.
In 1952, the Korean War continued. The U.S. launched bombing attacks against North Korea.
Evita Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, died.
Albert Schweitzer won the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.
François Mauriac won the 1952 Nobel prize for Literature.
***
The 100th monkey: IMO – THE FIRST MONKEY
The behaviour of the Japanese monkey Macaco fuscata has been studied intensely for more than thirty years in a number of wild colonies. One of these is isolated on the island of Koshima just off the east coast of Kyushu, and it was here in 1952 that man provided the monkeys with the right sort of evolutionary nudge. Provision stations were established at selected sites in the range of the troop. Normally young monkeys learn feeding habits from their mothers who teach them by example what to eat and how to deal with it, and in these macaques the behaviour had grown to a complex tradition involving the buds, fruits, leaves, shoots and bark of well over a hundred species of plants. So they approached the new artificial food supplies equipped with a formidable array of behavioural predispositions, but nothing in their established repertoire enabled them to deal effectively with raw sweet potatoes covered with sand and grit.
***
The world in 1952, a good ‘Baby Boomer’ year.
A TIME MACHINE: http://www.centex.net/~elliott/1952.html
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Friend Nature: Artist D.A. Hartley 