Dads

Here’s my dad, holding my younger brother and me. He was in his mid-forties when I was born, the first of five. He had a vitality that kept him younger longer in life. So did his 6th great-grandfather, Thomas Carrier.

Thomas Morgan adopted the name Carrier in the mid-seventeenth century, probably to avoid retribution for his involvement in the regicide of King Charles the 1st. He may have helped behead that king. I wrote of him in No More Kings! He was also in his forties when he married Martha, with whom he went on to sire five children. She was hanged for not admitting to being a witch, which she wasn’t. She was a principled, strong-willed woman. Her body was tossed into the rocks. I wrote of her iconic role in American history, with her as an example of what a church-state alliance can do. Both lives led towards the American Revolution.

Nor were they the only in my genetic inheritance involved in our country’s formation. Jesse fought in the Revolution. John fought with his Pennsylvania regiment in the Civil War. Both grandfathers on my mother’s side, stepfather Frank, as a White Polar Bear in WW I, and John, the genetic father of my mother, in WW II. But soldering isn’t the only way to serve. Lots of men and women put their lives in the service of family, farm, and friendship. I’ve a bit of the outspoken citizen in me too, as expressed here last month.

I was intending to round up my re-reading of Thomas Paine during my visit to Florida, but I had a bike crash. The more I know of Paine, the more I admire him. All I intended to address is scattered.

It is hard to type this. Literally. My right arm has a small radial head fracture that makes it hard to grasp anything, even a guitar pick, or even to feed myself. (Or worse than that, which I won’t describe.) My left thumb tip can’t type. The crash a few weeks ago resulted in my third concussion, a broken arm, a slightly separated shoulder, scabs, and a weakened condition.

But that’s not what’s ailing me.

I ache for how utterly lost our society, journalism, and government have become due to the deliberate coup that Trump and his cronies have inflicted on us for decades. It sickens me how lost we are lately, reeling in and out of the utterly and only stupid and cruel

Still with me? Or had you stopped reading, bristling at yet another diatribe? Some might object, saying I’m too divisive, too negative.

Too bad. The racist slaughter in Gaza, the many nameless killed in Iran and in the Caribbean, the mockery of clean, renewable energy, the silly resistance to electric vehicles, and the befuddling of “people of faith” in order to do it all, all of this to me exemplifies the worst of our Judeo-Christian Heritage.

I was raised in that heritage, but I’ve grown increasingly skeptical of it. There is a big difference between Jesus and Christianity. Christ is not and was not Jesus’ last name. It was a title applied to him by Paul and others who came far later and insisted on using Jesus’s unfortunate execution (and fortunate escape, led by Mother Mary and Mary of Magdeline, I believe). Good as Jesus apparently was, the shadow of his cross has often darkened the Christian message – from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the persecution of supposed witches, to the invasion and decimation of native Americans, to Gaza. It’s all “God on our side” deviltry.

When Mark Twain wrote his war prayer, it was sarcastic. When Pete Hegseth prayed much the same thing, it was ignorant, arrogant, immoral, and embarrassing. Our demented president threatened the entire Iranian civilization, yet so innured we’ve become to his bombast and lies, it barely caused mention. I am sick of those who excuse, mask, and further his vile lunacy.

My dad was a Republican, but not of the recent sort. Back to dad.

Dad wanted to be a pianist but had three of his fingers squashed in a huge press in Detroit. Having come from the practicality of the farm, he was a mechanical engineer. We moved a lot in my boyhood, but finally purchased a summer cottage on Oakland Lake in Michigan.

Note the downstairs and upstairs open porches. Dad decided to enclose both with large windows.

The hardest part of the project was extending a gas line to the outer porch. Dad expected we’d need the extra heat. Surprise! Those windows faced south, so they were very good at capturing sunlight as heat, often heating the rest of the house. Solar power wasn’t known yet. Used for centuries, it wasn’t designed into our systems. Nor had the photovoltaic revolution hit. Now, heating, cooling, hot water, and electricity are all working together to afford our comfort and progress.

There are more new solar panels generating clean, free electricity than any fossil fuel, coal, or gas. There are cars like the Aptera that can drive on sunlight only. Yet Trump has mocked and blocked solar, wind, and EVs at every turn. The U.S. consumer probably doesn’t know how much cheaper and better Chinese EVs are, but the rest of the world is learning. China is establishing markets for its cars, trucks, and buses worldwide. Our auto industry has backed the stall. They lobby and advertise to delay the transition. They invest in denial and delay. When they discover all the stranded assets they’ve invested in, they’ll probably seek governmental rescue.

Dad’s dad helped dig the foundation of the early auto factories in Detroit. That fit the needs and abilities of the time. Now we know the gasoline and diesel that powered our vehicles have been contributing to the “greenhouse effect,” unnaturally warming our atmosphere and oceans. Rockefeller helped ignore the early electric cars in favor of fossil fuels. We became addicted to what we assumed was the only answer. Truth is, far superior electric cars will supplant the older technology with cheaper, stronger, cleaner transport. Engineering and manufacturing haven’t ended; both are needed to rescue us from needless heat woes. From laborers to CEOs, we need to make this salvific change.

My dad and his, all the way back to Thomas, did what they could to be decent citizens. I’ve tried in my way, too. I churn out this little, awkward essay knowing only a few loyal readers ever get this far. But I’m a dad and a grandpa, too. My sons and theirs will have the blessing of sunlight and the intelligent, ethical use of it. Will they also inherit a free and fair democracy? Maybe not. All the progress of all our ancestors could be ruined, given over to corporations and kings more corrupt than any in our history.

Need I list the huge intended prisons, the astonishing profiteering from insider trading, the across-the-board buyout of our social media and TV stations, the ignored reality of global overheating?

Sorry, I’m too sore and worn to elaborate on the danger and its cure. My little bike crash is only a bit of the turmoil and injury our society is enduring. Waste energy to start a needless war to keep wasting energy? Deplorable.

We have to stand up to our time. We’ve inherited vast benefits. Will we cherish and steer them? What is our task and opportunity?