Everybody Might Just Be One Big Soul

 "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

"Now Tom said, 'Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me.'"

"The Ghost of Tom Joad" is the title cut from the eleventh studio album (1995) by Bruce Springsteen. Most people realize that Tom Joad is the protagonist of John Steinbeck's 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath. The impact of Steinbeck's work continues to help color an important pigment of the American poor.

Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on a poor family of sharecroppers, the Joads, driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, and changes in the agriculture industry. In a nearly hopeless situation, they set out for California's Salinas Valley along with thousands of other "Okies" in search of land, jobs and dignity. The result is the stark confrontation with the impossibility of any realization of their dreams. California is not the land of "milk and honey" for the unfortunate Joads.

In response to the exploitation of laborers, the workers begin to join unions.The surviving members of the family unknowingly work as strikebreakers on an orchard involved in a strike that eventually turns violent, killing the preacher Casy and forcing Tom Joad to kill again and become a fugitive. He bids farewell to his mother, promising that no matter where he runs, he will be a tireless advocate for the oppressed.

In the end of the novel, the dreamy teenage daughter turned mature woman, Rose of Sharon, whose baby is still born, commits the only act in the book that is not futile: she breast feeds a man too sick from starvation to eat solid food, still trying to show hope in humanity after her own negative experience. 

A film version starring Henry Fonda, in turn inspired the famous folk singer Woody Guthrie to pen “The Ballad Of Tom Joad.” In an attempt to capitalize upon the success of the movie version of The Grapes of Wrath , Victor Recording Company asked Guthrie to write a song about the movie. At the house of Alan Lomax (famous folk historian and folk preservationist), Guthrie listened to "John Henry" by the Carters “so many times that he wore the shellac from the record.” (Ed Cray, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, 2004)

According to Joe Klein and Pete Seeger, the narrative song, a seventeen verse ballad, was written in New York one night by Guthrie with the aid of a friend's typewriter and a gallon of wine.The song was recorded by Guthrie in RCA Studios, Camden, N.J. in April 1940. It was sung to the tune of "John Henry." Guthrie's song ends with the following:

"Ev’rybody might be just one big soul
Well it looks that-a way to me
Everywhere that you look in the day or night
That’s where I’ gonna be, ma
That’s where I’m gonna be

Wherever little children are hungry and cry
Wherever people ain’t free
Wherever men are fightin’ for their rights,
Thats where I’m gonna be, ma
That’s where I’m gonna be"

Springsteen had read the book, watched the John Ford film of the novel, and heard the Guthrie song before being inspired to write his song (and album) "The Ghost of Tom Joad." The result was true to Guthrie's tradition. (Mark Allan Jackson, Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie, 2007) Springsteen is said to have identified with 1930s social activism and sought to give his voice to "the invisible and unheard, the destitute and the disenfranchised." (Jeffery B. Symynkywicz, The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen: Rock and Redemption, from Asbury Park to Magic, 2008)


The rest of the album, The Ghost of Tom Joad, is set in the early-to-mid-1990s, with contemporary times being likened to Dust Bowl images. Symynkywicz relates, "Even President George H.W. Bush's 'New World Order' gains ironic mention, as in the contemporary demographic migration to the Southwest United States." The chorus makes the allusion:

The highway is alive tonight —

But where it's headed, everybody knows.

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

 

The Ghost of Tom Joad is essentially a modern day folk album exploring the underbelly of society. Although Springsteen is a huge, wealthy star, he can explore the depths of the American working class soul so well. His music challenges all to face and understand poverty and the downtrodden.

Joshua Wolf Shenk of Washington Monthly (Jan-Feb, 1997) says Springsteen's music is about the struggle to engage - ourselves, our families, and the larger community with which we are bound. "Economic injustice," he said in a 1987 interview, "falls on everybody's head and steals everyone's freedom. Your wife can't walk down the street at night. People keep guns in their homes. They live with a greater sense of apprehension, anxiety, and fear than they would in a more just and open society."

Charles Taylor (www.bostonphoenix.com, November 23 1995) reported, "The focus (of Springsteen's work) is often on immigrants, who, Springsteen knows, have become our new scapegoats. The title's reference to the hero of The Grapes of Wrath draws a parallel between the Depression and today. The Mexican brothers of "Sinaloa Cowboys" who cross the border and work as migrant fruit pickers might be right out of Steinbeck, if Springsteen didn't collapse five decades in the course of a few lines and have the brothers wind up cooking methamphetamine." The details make explicit the meaner side of the world in which this album takes place.

Thanks to social stratification, many never rub shoulders with those whose thrift-store clothes are a necessity. Their lack of experience with the poor gives them no reminders for remorse. And, those who do have the opportunity to mingle with those on the "wrong side of the tracks" often choose to ignore the plight of the less fortunate. Selfish reasons for inaction and unconcern are cheap and popular.

However, the art -- the novel, the film, the song -- giving life to the Joads is impossible to avoid and unforgettable when encountered. The irony is apparent: the association with fiction is stronger than the needs of reality. Still, doesn't the important artistic message require a reactionary change in its human audience?

For nearly four decades Bruce Springsteen has been a rock & roll working-class hero: a plainspoken visionary. A fervent and sincere romantic, Springsteen's insights into everyday lives — especially in America's small-town, working-class heartland — have earned him these lofty comparisons to John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie. Fictional character Tom Joad or musical artist Bruce Springsteen -- "look in their eyes, Mom, and you'll see someone strugglin' to be free." And, thank God someone is continuing to sharpen that crystal reflection.

"Poor men wanna be rich, rich men wanna be kings, 
And a king ain't satisfied till he rules everything."        
 -- Bruce Springsteen

Is the Music Over?

"Well, the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end,
Until the end..."     --The Doors, "When the Music's Over"

The End of Music?

Glenn Branca has composed 13 symphonies: six for electric guitars, three for harmonic series instruments, three for orchestra and one, No. 13, for 100 guitars. The first movement of No. 14 was premiered by The St Louis Symphony in 2008. He is recording a new album, "The Ascension: The Sequel." I find his commentary compelling and illustrative of the music industry.

Branca comments on the current state of the quality of music in The New York Times ("The End of Music," November 24 2009). Branca states, "For more than half a century we’ve seen incredible advances in sound technology but very little if any advance in the quality of music. In this case the paradigm shift may not be a shift but a dead stop. Is it that people just don’t want to hear anything new? Or is it that composers and musicians have simply swallowed the pomo (postmodern) line that nothing else new can be done, which ironically is really just the 'old, old story.'"

While Branca believes music itself is not dead, he believes we will continue to hear "something approximating it" in malls and retail outlets where it will "mesmerize" consumers into spending money. Muzak is not a new form; however, the general public and even many composers and songwriters can't tell the difference between music and Muzak. The bigger the intended audience, the more the "message" has to be watered down according to Branca. And, if Muzak is paying the bill for musicians, it will likely continue.

As This Relates to Recordings


Suhas Sreedhar (spectrum.ieee.org, Inside Technology, August 2007) states, "The loudness war, what many audiophiles refer to as an assault on music (and ears), has been an open secret of the recording industry for nearly the past two decades and has garnered more attention in recent years as CDs have pushed the limits of loudness thanks to advances in digital technology. The ”war” refers to the competition among record companies to make louder and louder albums. But the loudness war could be doing more than simply pumping up the volume and angering aficionados--it could be responsible for halting technological advances in sound quality for years to come."
 
Overcompression: The Beginnings

Sreedhar believes the main factor in the loudness war is the difference between the waveforms of songs 20 years ago and now.

Music, like speech, is dynamic. Quiet and loud moments serve to accentuate each other and convey meaning by their relative levels of loudness. Sreedhar says, "For instance, if someone is talking and suddenly shouts, the loudness of the shout, in addition to the content, conveys a message--be it a sense of urgency, surprise, or anger."

But when the dynamic range of a song is heavily reduced for the sake of achieving loudness, the sound becomes analogous to someone constantly shouting everything he or she says. Impact is lost and sound fatigue begins. Why, then, is loudness important in the recordings of today?

In the early 1960s, record companies began engaging in a loudness battle when they observed that louder songs in jukeboxes tended to garner more attention than quieter ones. To maintain their competitive edge, record companies demanded raising the loudness of their songs. Vinyl records presented physical limitations to the engineers' ability to keep increase loudness.

A louder vinyl song required a wider groove in the transcription. And, because only a limited amount of usable surface area per vinyl disc existed, gaining loudness meant sacrificing playing time, especially on a long playing (LP) record where upwards of six songs were often fit on each side of the disc.

Machines called compressors were used to boost the loudness of songs to higher-than-average levels. Mastering engineers accomplished this task by reducing the dynamic range of a song so that the entire song could be amplified to a greater extent before it pushed the physical limits of the medium. Shreedhar said, "This became known as 'hot' mastering and was typically done on singles where each side of the record only contained one song. Generally, however, the average level of songs and albums stayed relatively the same throughout the period."

Then came digital audio technology, which removed many of the physical restrictions vinyl had imposed, such as concerns about surface noise (caused by dust, scratches, the lacquer itself, and so on) and limited dynamic range. The CD was capable of supporting a dynamic range of about 96 dB. For most of the 1980s, when CDs were still high-end products and mastering engineers largely did not have access to digital signal-processing technologies, albums released on CD tended to make use of this better dynamic range.

In the 1980s, CDs were mastered so that songs generally peaked at about -6 dBFS with their root mean square (RMS)--or average levels--hovering around -20 dBFS to -18 dBFS. As multidisc CD changers began to gain prominence in households toward the end of the decade, the same jukebox-type loudness competition started all over again as record companies wanted their CDs to stick out more than their competitors'. (spectrum.ieee.org, Inside Technology, August 2007)

Pushing Loudness Limits

But, by the end of the 1980s, songs on CDs were often amplified to the point where their peaks started pushing the loudness limit of 0 dBFS. At this point, the only way to raise the average levels of songs without having their loudest parts clipped--the digital equivalent of distortion, where information is lost because it exceeds the bit capacity--was to compress the peaks.

Technology marched on and as mastering engineers began to get hold of digital signal-processing tools, they were able to ”hot” master songs even more. The result? The entire waveform was amplified until the (now reduced) peaks once again reached 0 dBFS, so the average level of the entire song increased.

The 1990s saw average amplitude levels go from around -15 dBFS to as much as -6 dBFS in extreme cases. Most songs in this decade, however, remained at around -12 dBFS. The 2000s saw the loudness war reach its height, with most current songs having an average level of -9 dBFS or higher.

From the mid 1980s to now, the average loudness of CDs increased by a factor of 10, and the peaks of songs are now one-tenth of what they used to be. The loudness war is also not just confined to the big four record companies (Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony BMG, and Universal Music Group). Overcompression is now widespread and performed by independent labels and international record companies.

Reasons For The Change To "Loud!"


1. With more than 100 million iPods sold worldwide as of early this year, more and more people are listening to music on the go rather than at their home stereos. People seek overcompression for on-the-go music.

2. Even though the CD might be in its death throes, most digital music available online was mastered for CDs. Popular formats like MP3, AAC, and Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) merely use data-compression techniques (not to be confused with dynamic-range compression) to reduce the amount of data a song encoded in PCM takes up. People get overcompression from formats mastered for CDs.

3. If people are listening to songs in a noisy environment--such as in their cars, on trains, in airport waiting rooms, at work, or in a dormitory--the music needs to be louder to compensate. Dynamic-range compression does just that and more. Not only does it raise the average loudness of the song, but by doing so it eliminates all the quiet moments of a song as well.

4. But many listeners have subconsciously felt the effects of overcompressed songs in the form of auditory fatigue, where it actually becomes tiring to continue listening to the music. They have grown accustomed to the condition and accept it.

The Future of Recorded Music

Audiophiles looking to the future for relief from overcompression see a very unclear picture. DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD), two high-fidelity formats thought to be solutions to the loudness war, offer not only a greater dynamic range than CD but also higher sampling rates.

Since their introduction in 2000, however, neither format has taken hold. An overwhelming majority of releases have been of the classical music genre, which has generally not been subject to overcompression to begin with. So, even if audiophiles want to spend upward of $300 for a DVD-Audio or SACD player, chances are they won't be able to buy their favorite popular albums in either medium.


Since music has gone online, the possibility of having high-fidelity digital files remains, and formats such as FLAC are capable of supporting 24-bit audio. Slim Devices, a company acquired last year by Logitech, has created two products--the Squeezebox and the Transporter--that wirelessly stream digital files from a computer or the Internet to high-end stereo receivers. Both are capable of handling 24-bit audio, but the problem, says Sean Adams, former CEO of Slim Devices, is lack of content. The recording industries are not producing the music due to low demand


With the average consumer being either completely unaware of, or only subconsciously irritated by, the current state of overcompressed music, there is little incentive for sound quality to progress. Consequently, all the potential benefits of higher-quality audio--lifelike dynamic range, greater frequency response, and multichannel surround sound--remain unseen, even though the technology exists today.

But there might still be hope for getting out of the loudness war. RMS (average) normalization algorithms, such as Replay Gain, have been implemented in many digital audio players and work to bring all songs in a digital library to the same average level. With Replay Gain enabled, songs originating from many CDs are processed and played back at a consistent average level of loudness. This helps listeners because they no longer have to adjust their volume each time they go from one album to another.

Sudhas Sreedhar  http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-future-of-music

Reality Show At the White House

Just when you thought you had witnessed the most perverted, greedy reality show stunt with the whole "Balloon Boy" incident, another potentially more dangerous caper appears. By now, everyone on the planet with an eye on the news has been exposed to the exploits of Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couple who crashed the White House state dinner, the most exclusive party in Washington, D.C., if not the world.

What the Crashers Were Able To Do

The Salahis passed through the same security checkpoints as invited guests -- and even met Obama in the receiving line, a White House official told Fox News -- but they were never threat to Obama, the Secret Service has said. (FOXNews.com, November 27 2009)

Edwin Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said the couple went through the same security screening used for other invited guests. Donovan said the officers at the checkpoint did not follow proper procedure when the Salahis arrived and when it was determined they had not been invited. He declined to reveal the levels of security screening at the White House, and he would not comment on how long they were on the White House grounds or any other details of the investigation. (www.huffingtonpost.com, November 27 2009)

What were the Salahis able to accomplish at the White House? They managed not only to pass through the Secret Service security checkpoint but also to snap photos with dozens of high-profile attendees, including Vice President Joe Biden, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and CBS News anchor Katie Couric. They left the 300+ event before dinner was served.

  
More Information Comes To Light


Reporters have found evidence that Michaele Salahi is claiming (1) that she was a former NFL cheerleader, (2) that she once modeled for Victoria's Secret, and (3) that she could be seen in top fashion and women's magazines. All of Sahahi's claims have been denied by the parties involved. Her resume as a Virginia socialite is looking more and more like a fantasy. She even claims she was a former Miss U.S.A. (unconfirmed)

Meanwhile, the couple's attorney, Paul Gardner, says the Salahis were authorized to attend Tuesday's star-studded event honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but Gardner didn't elaborate. "My clients were cleared, by the White House, to be there," attorney Paul Gardner said. "More information is forthcoming." (FOXNews.com, November 27 2009)

And, further inquiries have led to the discovery that Michaele Salahi had reportedly auditioned for the Bravo reality TV show "Real Housewives of D.C."

According to Samuel Goldsmith (New York Daily News, November 25 2009), Bravo had announced in May that the "Real Housewives" program's next stop would be Washington and they would be "scouting the D.C. area to identify...women who have their pulse on the most important cultural events, political galas, gallery openings and fund-raisers in Washington society."

 

It seems the Salahis came to the state dinner armed with a professional camera crew and a makeup artist. On the day of the dinner the Salahis were being filmed around Washington by Half Yard Productions, the producer of the "Real Housewives..." program. "Half Yard Productions was told by Michaele and Tareq Salahi that they had been invited to the state dinner. We took them at their word and filmed their preparations for the event. Half Yard Productions had no part in planning their presence at the event," said Abby Greensfelder of Half Yard Productions. (Darlene Superville, news.aol.com)

 


NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who was an invited guest at the dinner, told the "Today" show that he saw the couple's SUV being turned away from the White House's East Gate entrance, adding, “Actually the first ring of Secret Service security had worked. After their vehicle was turned away, they hopped out.” He confirmed that he had seen the camera crew and makeup artist accompanying the Salahis. (Helene Cooper and Brian Stelter, The New York Times, November 26 2009)

The Aftermath

James Hohmann (Washington Post, November 29 2009) reported, "The Virginia socialites who apparently crashed the White House state dinner last week remained elusive Saturday, as reports surfaced that the aspiring reality-TV stars were trying to sell their story for hundreds of thousands of dollars and CNN said the couple's upcoming appearance on "Larry King Live" had been cancelled.

The Associated Press said that Tareq and Michaele Salahi were offering to talk to broadcast networks about their experiences while looking for a payment in the mid-six figures range. This information was attributed to a television executive it did not name. According to the report, representatives for the couple contacted networks to urge them to "get their bids in" for an interview.

"They are asking for best offers from all the networks," The New York Times said. Network news divisions generally do not pay for interviews. CNN reported the couple's appearance on Monday had been canceled after producers were told that the Salahis were postponing.

Edmund L. Andrews and Brian Stelter (The New York Times, November 28 2009) discovered that for years, the Salahis have publicized their own adventures in the social and sporting scenes of Washington and its outlying horse country. They have left behind a record of lawsuits and unpaid bills. The couple had suffered the bankruptcy of the family vineyard after extended litigation between Mr. Salahi and his parents.

Even the upscale salon where Mrs. Salahi, with TV cameras in tow, was prepared for the big event had never been paid for its previous services in 2002, when the couple were married, the salon’s operators said in interviews. (The New York Times, November 28 2009)

 
And the Rumor Mill

Another unconfirmed theory on the Salahis' ability to crash the dinner came from gawker.com. Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Indian Embassy, may have invited the Salahis to the dinner as a reward for their work on the India Vs. U.S. polo match organized by Tareq Salahi and co-sponsored by Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar.

In an article in the October edition of the Indian Embassy's newsletter, Michaele Salahi is quoted as saying the match "aspires to bring the love of the game to a wider audience and bring international cultures together..." It seems that the Singh/Salahi polo connection has deep ties.

And in an astounding article, Judi McLeod (canadafreepress.com, November 28 2009) reported, "While the big gun media and American Secret Service are out there investigating “party crashers,” Tareq and Michaele Salahi, no one’s telling the truth: Obama knew the Salahis when he was still an Illinois senator...We do know for a fact that among the slew of memberships on charitable boards, Tareq Salahi is a former member of The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP)." McLeod claims the relationship between President Obama and the Salahis is five years old.

Conclusion

Here is the bottom line. A leggy, attractive blonde (aided by an aspiring assistant) obsessed with being the center of the spotlight could have put the President in real harm's way. Should the Secret Service now be as concerned with glitz and glam as bullets and bombs? I feel terrible about the Keystone Kops breach of security; however, I feel offended by the reality-show mentality of those who wish to abuse trust for big bucks. Let's see what penalties, if any, are accessed for such selfish actions.

I Hear You

 "Touch a scientist and you touch a child."
-- Ray Bradbury

One Sense Can Be Deceiving

In 1976 scientists discovered the importance of the eyes to the sense of hearing by demonstrating that the eyes could fool the ears in a peculiar phenomenon named the McGurk effect. (Harry McGurk and John MacDonald, "Hearing Lips and Seeing Voices," Nature, 1976) The effect shows that people can't help but integrate visual speech into what they "hear." The McGurk effect shows that visual articulatory information is integrated into perception of speech automatically and unconsciously. The syllable that people perceive depends on the strength of the auditory and visual information, and whether some compromise can be achieved. (Audiovisual Speech Web Lab)

When participants watched a video in which a person was saying "ga" but the audio was playing "ba," people thought they heard a completely different sound—"da." Now, by mixing audio with the tactile sense of airflow, researchers have found that our perception of certain sounds relies, in part, on being able to feel these sounds.

Do Only Ears Hear?

Natalie James (www.themoneytimes.com, November 26, 2009) reports the new Canadian research findings prove humans hear not just with ears but also with their skin and hair follicles. Sensations on the skin surface help in understanding what is being said. The research was carried out by Bryan Gick and colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (Nature, November 26, 2009)

The brain grasps and integrates information from various senses to build a single picture of a person's surroundings. "It gets integrated into a single event in your mind," quotes Gick in Nature.

Gick says people have traditionally believed that "we see with our eyes, and we hear with our ears, and we feel with our skin and so on, and that there are parts of the brain that only deal with seeing and only deal with hearing." (Richard J. Dalton Jr., Canwest News Service, November 27 2009) "Recent research, including ours, has been leading in a different direction," Gick continues. "We are naturally multimodal, very versatile perceivers, and we can use any part of our body to pick up information about objects and events around us in our environment."

The Gick researchers found that when a puff of air (air blown onto the neck) was paired with the aspirated word, people got better at identifying the sound. When the puff of air was paired with “ba’’ or “da,’’ accuracy declined. “This is a very intriguing finding, raising lots of theoretical possibilities and future studies,’’ reports Shinsuke Shimojo, head of a psychophysics laboratory at California Institute of Technology. He believes it is interesting that the puff seems to be an implicit signal for one sound over another. (Carolyn Y. Johnson, www.boston.com, November 26 2009)

"Standing a foot or closer to someone speaking normally should produce tactile puffs," Gick says. However, if the conversation were taking place on a windy street, this sensory input would be destroyed. Carina Storrs (www.scientificamerican.com, November 26 2009) concludes that although people can hear sounds in the absence of airflow, these sensory cues could make it easier to distinguish between two words, such as "tall" and "doll," especially if there is a lot of ambient noise.

What Applications the Research May Have

The feel of sounds could be applied in devices for groups such as the hearing impaired. Gick is in the early stages of exploring how to incorporate into hearing aids airflow-detecting sensors that would produce a synthetic puff to the side of the neck. Because the skin mechanoreceptors among the hearing impaired typically function normally, Gick says, this additional tactile stimulus could help the person wearing the device perceive sounds. A similar concept could aid pilots in their noisy work environments.

Charlotte Reed, a senior research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specializes in researching the ways in which touch can be used to interpret speech, by studying deaf-blind people who learn the Tadoma method -- a way of learning to talk and hear by placing a hand on the neck and mouth of a speaker. “We know the auditory and tactile senses interact,’’ Reed said.

Reed says this tactile idea is used in a machine called the "tactuator" to turn speech into something people feel. The idea is to create an aid for lipreading, and eventually to use the information gleaned from the bulky, three-pronged device to create software that could one day be used to turn a simple device like a cellphone into a prosthetic for deaf people. The microphone on a cellphone could translate a speaker’s voice into tactile signals that could help a person understand someone as they were lip-reading. (Carolyn Y. Johnson, www.boston.com, November 26 2009)

What would be worst sense to lose? Many people believe that losing the sense of sight would be the most devastating. But, in reality, which would be worse -- losing your sense of sight or your sense of touch? Very little research has been done on the importance of the sense of touch as it relates to the other senses. Recent findings may change the direction of future investigation and find new importance in touch.

Who Are You Calling a "Turkey"?

 Let's talk turkey. Yea, you, turkey! You, the large, gallinaceous bird that graces the American holiday table. Some say you're one of the dumbest fowls around while others praise you for your natural wiles. How did you become the choice of holiday entrees in the New World of game aplenty? With deer, buffalo and other game in abundance, the turkey took the honor of being the center of holiday attention.

First of all, wild varieties boast two types of ancestors, both strong fliers (up to 55 mph for short distances) and strong runners (15-30 mph). One type is originally from Yucatan and Guatemala (Agriocharis ocellata; family - Phasianidae) and the other is from Mexico and the U.S. (Meleagris gallopavo; family -Phasianidae).We have fossil records to show turkeys diverged from pheasants 11 million years ago and were likely distributed continuously from middle latitudes of North America to northern South America during the Pleistocene. 

In North America, tribes like the Navajo first encountered wild turkeys after they had trouble keeping the hungry birds away from their scanty desert crops. Losing the battle to bar them from the cornfields, the tribes decided instead to feed the turkeys and fence them in. By barging in and refusing to leave, the invading turkeys unwittingly provided a controlled source of protein and ornamental feathers. Instead of pests, they became symbols of friendship and providence. (www.wildturkeyzone.com)

The Eastern turkey subspecies Meleagris gallopavo spread to the Northeast where nomadic Indians did not bother to domesticate the bird who enjoyed the abundant vegetation and thrived without agricultural welfare. Tribes like the Wampanoags hunted wild turkeys with bows and arrows. The turkeys were "called up" by imitating their calls, and then grabbed by a child hiding behind some logs or in a pit, or shot with bow and arrow.

 The wild turkey were probably then domesticated by native Mexicans, and then Spaniards brought tame Mexican turkeys to Europe in 1519, and they reached England by 1524. The Pilgrims actually brought several turkeys to America on the voyage in 1620.

The colonists were surprised to see turkey cocks gobbling and strutting on this land similar to the domesticated ones they brought from England. The delicious meat of the wild turkey was an important, abundant food supply for both Indians and settlers. Soon, the New World Pilgrims were cross breeding both stocks of turkeys at the Plymouth Plantation.

Since that time, turkeys have been extensively raised because of the excellent quality of their meat and eggs. Some of the common breeds of turkey in the United States today are the Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, and Bourbon Red.

The Name Turkey

Where the name turkey originated is a point of contention. Some trace the name to a case of mistaken identity and being named after the country, Turkey.  These historians believe when the Spanish first found the bird in the Americas more than 400 years ago, they brought it back to Europe. The English mistakenly thought it was a bird they called a turkey, so they gave it the same name. This other bird was actually from Africa, but came to England by way of Turkey (lots of shipping went through Turkey at the time). The name stuck even when they realized the birds weren't the same.

Other history buffs say Christopher Columbus named turkeys tuka, the Tamil word for peacock. Considering Columbus thought he was in India at the time of the alleged naming, not in the New World where he actually was, this definition seems fairly plausible. Another suggestion is that Luis de Torres, a physician who served under Columbus, named the bird tukki, which translates to "big bird" in Hebrew. Some say the North American Indians called the bird "firkee." If so, it's a word everyone else has mispronounced the past 508 years.  

As one of the most famous birds in North America, Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the wild turkey, not the bald eagle, the national bird of the United States. Franklin actually felt that the turkey, though "vain and silly," was a better choice than the bald eagle. He felt that the eagle was "a coward." His plea, however, was too late since it occurred two years after the official American seal had been adorned with the likeness of the bald eagle.

Franklin wrote, " For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing-hawk; and, when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this injustice he is never in good case; but, like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward; the little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district."

Franklin continued his argument, "I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries, but the turkey was peculiar to ours; the first of the species seen in Europe, being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth. He is, besides (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat on."

The University of Illinois Extension reports that turkeys are extremely curious creatures by nature. Groups of domesticated turkey have been seen standing in the rain with their beaks pointed straight up toward the sky. What are they doing? According to poultry research at the University of Illinois, it is unclear.

Some turkey experts speculate that these birds are curiously looking at raindrops falling from the sky. Or could they be attempting to get a drink of water? We are still not sure! An old wives tale suggests that turkeys have been known to actually drown in this position.

While this has not be substantiated at the University of Illinois, we do know that without guidance, some domestic turkeys do not know enough to come in out of the rain. If they are young and still covered with down instead of their true feathers, they are much more likely to suffer from exposure than from drowning. Not having enough sense to come in out of the rain may be an understatement in this situation.

 A Few Interesting Turkey Facts

1. Only male turkeys (toms) gobble. On the other hand females make a clicking noise. A gobble is a seasonal call during the spring and fall. Wild toms love to gobble when they hear loud sounds or settle in for the night.

2. The heaviest turkey ever raised weighed in at 86 pounds -- about the size of a large German Shepherd -- and was grown in England, according to Dr. Sarah Birkhold, poultry specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. (www.baltimoremd.com, 1997)

3. Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets. (www.infoplease.com)

4. Big Bird of Sesame Street is actually dressed in turkey feathers. Big Bird is not a turkey, but his costume is made of nearly 4,000 white turkey feathers, which have been dyed bright yellow.

Survival of the Turkey

With colonization, the American wild turkey population was nearly extinguished. According to research (James Earl Kennamer, Mary C. Kennamer, and Ron Brenneman, NWTF Wildlife Bulletin No. 15),the lowest numbers were between the end of the 19th century and the 1930s.

In the early 1900s, only around 30,000 turkeys remained in America. But around 1920, things began to change for the better. Millions of acres cleared by pioneers began to regenerate into woodlands. Also, some farsighted leaders began enacting more and more conservation laws. In 1937 the Roosevelt Administration passed the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson Act) which placed an excise tax on firearms, ammunition and other hunting equipment. The billions of dollars raised by this tax have been used in part to rebuild the wild turkey population.

The University of Illinois Extension reports it wasn't until the 1960s that the restoration of wild turkey was heralded as a wildlife management comeback. As the result of restoration efforts, sportsmen have been able to hunt wild turkeys since 1981. Current estimates place the entire wild turkey population at 7 million individuals.

Azure Christmas

The holiday season -- good will, elation, anticipation. The holiday season -- peace, love, understanding. Thanksgiving, for most Americans, marks the beginning of "the most wonderful time of the year." Religion, family and tradition are elements of the holidays that make each observance of these special occasions a celebration to be cherished and fondly remembered. Love and joy abound. 

Yet, for many, the holidays may be more aptly expressed in the lyrics of "Blue Christmas." Many factors can cause the “holiday blues”: stress, fatigue, unrealistic expectations, over-commercialization, financial constraints, and the inability to be with one’s family and friends. In addition, the demands of shopping, parties, family reunions and house guests also contribute to feelings of tension. In some cases, the holidays are doomed to disappointment even under the best conditions.

 

The result? People develop other stress responses such as headaches, excessive drinking, over-eating and difficulty sleeping. Even more people experience post-holiday let down after January 1. This can result from disappointments during the preceding months compounded by the excess fatigue and stress. ("What Causes Holiday Blues?" Mental Health America, 2009)

 

In fact, Rebel Taylor (www.cbn.com, 2009) reported that a survey by the National Women’s Health Resource Center states that two-thirds of women report depression during the holidays. Dr. Kenneth Johnson, a psychiatrist at Columbia St. Mary’s, stated in a 2003 article, “Depression is higher in the winter months in general, but the biggest cause of holiday depression is unmet expectations."

 

Many holiday participants seem to struggle with this issue. They make Thanksgiving or Christmas “the event” and pressure themselves to make “the event” a super-spiritual, picture-perfect memory instead of a day set apart to enjoy family and simply turn our attention to the Creator of the holiday. Unrealistic expectations cause pain.

 

Families often stress over the perfect gift, the perfect dinner, rushing from Christmas programs to parties, from house to house, squeezing in a candlelight service before rushing home to get the last minute gifts wrapped. Of course, none of these activities are wrong; however, too many stressful events contribute to a time filled with more mayhem than simplicity. Many people actually find themselves self-destroying the very meaning of the season they had hoped to celebrate.

The Mayo Clinic Staff  (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 1998-2009) found that depression during the holidays can take on many forms and have many causes, and according to a study reported in 2007 by the Mayo Clinic, there are a few recognizable triggers. The study did find that depression brought on or intensified by the holidays often is started by these three factors:


1. Relationships. Relationships can cause turmoil, conflict or stress at any time, but tensions are often heightened during the holidays. Family misunderstandings and conflicts can intensify — especially if people are thrust together for several days. Most people have a tendency to expect relationships to be perfect during the holidays, yet, unfortunately, this is often not the case. Masks of kindness disintegrate and relationships blow up.

2. Finances. With the added expenses of gifts, travel, food and entertainment, the holidays can put a strain on a budget — and family peace of mind, not to mention that overspending now can mean financial worries for months to come. The pressure to buy gifts, support charitable opportunities at every store, engage in holiday travel, and consume extra food can cause anyone to feel overwhelmed, hopeless, and sad. The end result may be financial disaster.

3. Physical demands. Even die-hard holiday enthusiasts may find that the extra shopping and socializing can leave them wiped out. Being exhausted increases stress, creating a vicious cycle. During the holidays, exercise and sleep may take a back seat to shopping, decorating and errands. Do people cram the holidays with emphasis on quantity over quality?

Stress, depression, and boredom may befall people at the most inopportune times. One person's joy may elicit feelings of misunderstood sadness in another person. The heightened emotional nature of the season can release complex associations that become difficult to mask. Finding and showing happiness in these times can be quite a task.

Here are some suggestions for coping with the holiday blues:

1. Be prepared to experience a full range of emotion, from happiness to sadness, joy to anger, but remember that these feelings will be more intense than usual because of the season.

2. Use common sense in how you express your feelings, but give yourself permission to feel. For example, let yourself be righteously indignant about our society's response to the needy, if that is how you feel. Let yourself be close, sharing, and joyful, if that is how you feel. 

3. Expect sadness and grief in some circumstances as normal and not to be feared. Those who have lost a loved one during the course of the year can expect to have a rough time because the holidays bring back memories of better days.

4. If you've gone through the loss of a loved one or suffered some similar blow to your psychological balance this year, you may get some comfort from reflecting that such pain does diminish, with time. Otherwise, try to open yourself up to those around you who may want to try to ease your pain but don't know how. Or seek out someone in a similar situation who may appreciate your company. Just spend time with others--go bowling, make cookies, go for a walk, but do it in the company of those who may care about you.

5. Show elders special attention during the holidays. Remember that the elderly may be isolated and feel forgotten by their families; a card and a phone call only go so far. Resulting renewed fellowships are invaluable.

6. Befriend others less fortunate than you. This activity may be spiritually rewarding for all parties. Remember that people whose economic condition has worsened may feel ashamed or inadequate that they can't provide for their families as they did in the past.

Born Again -- After 23 Years In a Coma

 Dr. Steven Laureys, head of the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital, wrote about the astounding case of Rom Houben, a Belgian engineering student, who was thought to have slipped into a persistent vegetative state 23 years ago. Houben was injured in an auto accident in 1983 when he was 20. Doctors said he fell into a coma at first, then went into a vegetative state.

Houben, trapped in his paralyzed body the entire time, had no way of letting friends and family know he could hear every word they were saying. Houben described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them - but could make no sound. "I screamed, but there was nothing to hear," said Mr. Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. (Allan Hall, www.dailymail.co.uk, November 23 2009)

During Houben's two lost decades, his eyesight was poor, but experts said he could hear doctors, nurses and visitors to his bedside, and feel the touch of a relative. Rom said that during that time, he heard his father had died, but he was unable to show any emotion. At first I was angry, then I learned to live with it," he tapped out on to a screen during an interview with the Belgian network, AP reported.

 Over the years, his faithful mother, who was skeptical of medical opinions, took him to the United States five times for tests. More searching got her in touch with Dr. Laureys, neurological expert, who put Houben through a PET scan, a specialized type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s. (MSNBC, November 23, 2009) Houben's mother, Fina, never once gave a thought to letting him die. She was vindicated when the truth finally surfaced.

About three years ago, Dr. Laureys discovered the misdiagnosis of the vegetative state. (Sky News, November 23 2009) Raf Casert (www.comcast.net, November 23, 2009) reported that it only recently came to light after publication of a study on the misdiagnosis of people with consciousness disorders led by Dr. Laureys. Houben's condition has since been diagnosed as a form of "locked-in syndrome," in which people are unable to speak or move but can think and reason.

The breakthrough came when it became clear that Houben could indicate yes and no with his foot. Released from his torture, Houben was found to have a brain that was functioning almost normally. "Medical advances caught up with him," said Dr Laureys, who believes there may be many similar cases of false comas around the world.

The 46-year-old can now tap out computerized messages and read books on a device above his hospital bed. "All that time I literally dreamed of a better life. 

Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt," Houben said. "I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me — it was my second birth. I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy life now people know I am not dead." He also has developed some movement with the help of intense physiotherapy over the last three years. (Kate Connolly, guardian.co.uk., November 23 2009)

For twenty-three years, Rom survived an incredible existence. "I dreamed myself away," he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer."I became the witness to my own suffering as doctors and nurses tried to speak to me and eventually gave up," he said.

Kate Connolly (guardian.co.uk., November 23 2009) reported that during his "dream time," Houben, who speaks four languages, said he coped with being effectively trapped in his own body by meditating. He told doctors he had "travelled with my thoughts into the past, or into another existence altogether." Sometimes, he said, "I was only my consciousness and nothing else."

The disclosure will renew the right-to-die debate over whether people in comas are truly unconscious.

Dr. Laureys said, "In Germany alone each year some 100,000 people suffer from severe traumatic brain injury.
About 20,000 are followed by a coma of three weeks or longer. Some of them die, others regain health.
But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year remain trapped in an intermediate stage - they go on living without ever coming back again." (Sky News, November 23 2009) The issue is fraught with difficult medical and ethical questions.

Belgian doctors had used an internationally-accepted scale to monitor Houben's state over the years. Known as the Glasgow Coma Scale, it required assessment of the eyes, verbal and motor responses. But they failed to assess him correctly and missed signs that his brain was still functioning.

Houben hopes to write a book detailing his trauma and his "rebirth."

Separation -- The Views of Church and State

A discussion has true meaning in that it will not change a truth; however, by exchanging opinions we can interpret a then meaning of any truth. We tend to start any argument by focusing on simple facts, yet by the end of the argument, we generally have lost sight of the original factual support because special issues and interpretations cloud the path. It is so with anything worthy of argumentation. The key to learning is listening, responding, and deep thinking. Only after ample time has been given to this process can we consider a strong point of view.

Our Government and Religion

Today, headlines highlight many issues about the Constitution of the United States and religion. Leonard Levy, (Origins of the Bill of Rights, Yale University Press, 1999) amd Akhil Reed Amar  (The Bill of Rights, Yale University Press, 1998) cite a few recent developments:

1. "The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is removed from office for refusing to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from his court house building.

2. A California atheist sues to remove the words under God from the Pledge of Allegiance and loses; then wins on appeal; then loses in the Supreme Court.

3. President George W. Bush is criticized for his idea of the Faith-Based Initiative, where faith-based organizations could get federal funds where previously they had been barred.

4. Public school bus drivers are required to remove holiday decorations from their busses after complaints of 'offended' parents."

We are a nation of many religious faiths and the fact that many of us work for the local, state, and federal governments prohibits actual physical separation of people and their various governmental and religious roles.
A driving question from the beginnings of the nation was: "Can religion and government co-exist without crossing over each others' boundaries?"

Before we all blow our gaskets, let's look at the facts in the beginning. Perhaps, we can clear up some misunderstandings that date back to over a couple of hundred years ago. Here is a brief history of religion as it pertains to the government of America.

 1. Words of the Original Constitution

The original Constitution made only one direct reference to religion that seemed to point to a desire for some degree of religious freedom.

A.  United States Constitution, Article 6, (End of Third Clause)

"[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

True, without exception, the Framers were Christian or, at the very least, believed in God (Deism). There were no Jews or Muslims, no Hindus or atheists, and only two Roman Catholics. They were members of more than a half-dozen sects of the Protestant side of Christianity, though. Still, nothing is mentioned about religious belief and office qualification in Article 6.

A simple, straight-forward statement that applied to all offices in the entire United States, both state and federal, the clause simply meant that no public position could be required to be held by a person of any religious denomination. For example, the President could not be required to be a Methodist or the mayor could not be required to be a Jew. Also, any groups that some in the country would have liked to prevent from holding office in any governmental jurisdiction in the United States, such as Muslims or atheists, were, indeed, allowed that right by law.

B. The Presidential Oath of Office is codified in the Constitution in this way:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Of course, this wording (or affirm) allowed any person (even the unreligious) to take the oath of highest office with the same force of personal responsibility that swearing would have for a religious person. The oath was all-inclusive and, as stated, religion-neutral. No mention was made of a commitment to God for its sanctity of truth. The President personally affirmed the execution of duties and the defense of the Constitution.

C. The Year of Constitutional Creation

The Constitution refers to the year that the Convention created the document as

"the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven."

Some have argued that the use of the term Lord in this way is indicative of something, but its use is related to standards of history at the time. The language was a conventional way of stating a date on a document of the period. It seems extremely connotative to imply a religious connection to a calendar date.

2. Words of the Bill of Rights

U.S. Constitution - Amendment 1


"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress (remedy) of grievances."

Before the passage of the Bill of Rights, most all of the individual state constitutions contained their own bill of rights — rights that the people of the states were guaranteed to enjoy regardless of any law or rule to the contrary. Interestingly, most Constitutional supporters felt that a federal bill of rights was unnecessary. After all, the federal government was not allowed to legislate on issues that it had no direct mandate to do so. Also, a bill of rights could severely limit the rights of the people.

In the end, however, many supporters of the Constitution, including one prominent person, James Madison, agreed to support a bill of rights in the Constitution, if it could be ratified.

The authors agreed (1) that no national religion should be established, in contrast to several European nations of the time (and to this day) which have an official state church, (2) that no one sect of any religion be favored by the government, and (3) that all persons should be free to worship in whatever manner they deemed appropriate for them. After much debate concerning the language and meaning of the document, the government ratified the Bill of Rights .

The "free exercise" clause undoubtedly referred to an individual right. It protected the right of the individual to choose to worship, or not, as he or she saw fit. The "establishment" clause referred to a state power. This clause not only prohibited the federal government from establishing a national religion, but also prohibited government aid to any religion, even on a non-preferential basis.The First Amendment also prevented the federal government from forcing a state to disestablish any state religion.

The "establishment of religion"  took on a whole new meaning in America. Several attempts were made in several states to have and maintain official churches. Essentially, the Bill of Rights had no effect on how a state treated its churches. 

At the time of ratification, the states were still free to establish and maintain churches, to direct church taxes be paid, and even to require attendance in church, all within the bounds of the state's own constitution. And, many did. But with so many denominations, it became increasingly difficult to do so.

Steve Mount (www.usconstitution.net) reported, "If a state established the Congregationalist Church and required taxes be paid to it, it was not long before Lutherans or Baptists began to refuse to pay the tax. By the time the Constitution was ratified, several states had official state churches, but not official state denominations. In other words, a state would charter a church as it would a business today, but it would have no other formal role in the running of the church. Even that practice was waning, with only six states incorporating churches in any way by 1789. Clearly, the trend in church/state relations was towards no relationship at all."

3. Jefferson's Wall of Separation

It did not take long after the passage and ratification of the 1st Amendment for people to start interpreting it to simply mean that that federal government had no business getting mixed into religion. Of course, there was more to it than that, especially when it came to the individual right part of the amendment. Yet, argue, people did.

Nothing in the Constitution specifically said a "Wall of Separation" existed between religion and government. The Wall, however, was a nice shorthand metaphor for non-establishment.


Thomas Jefferson had deep religious convictions, but convictions that religion was a very personal matter, one which the government had no business getting involved in. He was vilified by some for his criticism of such Biblical truths as the Great Flood and the theological age of the Earth. As President, he discontinued the practice started by his predecessors George Washington and John Adams of proclaiming days of fasting and thanksgiving. He was a staunch believer in the separation of church and state

Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 to answer a letter from them written in October 1801. They had complained that in their state, the religious liberties they enjoyed were not seen as immutable rights, but as privileges granted by the legislature — as "favors granted."

The letter contains the phrase "wall of separation between church and state," which led to the short-hand for the Establishment Clause that we use today: "Separation of church and state."

Jefferson consulted a couple of New England politicians to assure that his words would not offend while still conveying his message: "it was not the place of the Congress or the Executive to do anything that might be misconstrued as the establishment of religion."

Here is a that letter (www.usconstitution.net) with Jefferson's spelling and punctuation:

Mr. President

To messers Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem & approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful & zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more & more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. [Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from presenting even occasional performances of devotion presented indeed legally where an Executive is the legal head of a national church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect.] Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

(signed) Thomas Jefferson
Jan.1.1802.