The Writing Bug!


      I started a new book to read yesterday, after I bought it for my Nook E-reader. I bought Steven King‘s 11/22/63, a what if book that has so many possibilities I was interested in what he thought the world would look like if it went as he says. So far he takes an approach to the opening which I think is great from a writer’s perspective, and pulls the reader in slowly, like a fish being lured. I just began so far, but in my opinion the man can write well.

      Dan Brown wrote his books also on the Symbols of Religion by using Da-Vinci and others and Angels and Demons, his reasearch had to be pretty intense to get so deeply into the bible, catholic ways and thoughts and mysteries of the Vatican and it’s city.  While these fantasies and mysteries and what ifs, are entertaining and fun to read I was always a history person. I have read books on many famous times, places, and people in the world and expanded my knowledge and interests in many ways.

       It is said writers are a reclusive bunch and they write but are not very public people. I believe that to be true in many ways and interesting. Many writers they say drink or take drugs, or just avoid reality to get to the stories they write. Letting the mind transverse across time and space to find the motivation and inspiration of what they write.

       Others research history and facts and dump them in their stories to use, as points of interest, or starting points or basis for the story itself. I believe that where ever one gets the idea for a story, it is vital to stick to the central plot you write about and I am sure most writers will agree.

        But my question is simple now, is writing becoming a dead art form, as books as books themselves are becoming? I see Book Stores closing down, Borders went bye, bye, Barnes and Noble now looks like it is in trouble too, is it fast becoming so electronic a world that no one has time or room for an old-fashioned bound hard cover book anymore?

         The texture and feel of a book in your hands as you stare and devour each word someone wrote dragging you deeper into the story and facts. Whether we speak History, Biographies, Mysteries,Science fiction, or a compelling book of Poetry, half the experience has always been the feel of the cover and pages in ones hands has it not?

         E-books and E-readers are great devices for traveling and reading on the go, because you don’t carry the bulk of a book with you, I agree. Yet at home I keep book shelves full of novels, and more written by some of the best Authors in the world, and I review and reread them now and again when bored. Why, because, their works in my mind became the classics for me, in my heart.

       Jack London  was one of the greatest in my book, He wrote stories so vivid and real about the Alaska Yukon, White Fang I could read over and over again. Then there were Authors who didn’t deal in imagination at all, Doris Kearns Goodwin brings to life Lincoln and his death and cabinet. How he banded together all his adversaries to run a country divided by war and overcame prior to being shot and the loyalty he gained from them.

       Robert Ludlum had and wrote some of the best mysteries and adventures I ever read filled with the Jason Bourne character he invented. He chases things around a world filled with suspense, adventure and fights that drag you from one chapter to another.  Mark Twain did the same with his Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and more. They each had an ability to drag the reader into the story and to have you cheering or crying for the main character and wanting to see how it turned out.

        Writing my friends is a matter of finding the words to say what you have in your mind, in such a way as to make it interesting and vivid to the reader. The more detail and realistic the descriptions of the persons and events and surroundings, the deeper a person gets into the story. Characters become someone you worry about, you cry about, you cheer for, or hope for. They become someone your drawn to follow, because they show the inner thoughts of the person who is chased, running, fighting etc. Interesting isn’t it?

       Writing is a lost art if done correctly, and it becomes something so concrete people want it on paper, so they can read it again and again. That my friends is what makes writing worth the effort!.

Assasinations/ Mysteries


      As time has gone on many mysteries and theories about events in real life continue to come about and discussed. assassinations of American Presidents is always a topic among many, who make up theories and conspiracies and then tell their tales. We all know many of the more famous ones, current times we all discuss what happened to the Kennedy Brothers John and Robert. What happened to Martin Luther King Jr., who really killed these famous men who were affecting the American scene and the world? The wonder of did they investigate fully enough, did the Government and Agencies involved, tell us the truth, or did they hide facts?

     Since we are in an Election Year and getting ready to elect a new President or Reelect the one we have, what of the ones before this? What of the Presidents shot and killed, assassinated and forgotten maybe?. Medical science may have been able to save at least one, if it had been up to speed as we all know, President James Garfield.  President Lincoln died from a serious gun shot would to his head by Booth, but did the legal authorities really get Booth in that barn?. As the years went by, we had many attempts to kill Presidents, but, John Kennedy was indeed shot and killed and we all believe it was Lee Harvey Oswald, right? At least that is what all the testimony says and what was released by our Government. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot also, again a lone assassin did it right? Robert F. Kennedy another one shot dead in a LA. Kitchen in a hotel, by a lone assassin correct?. Well is it all correct or is there conspiracies throughout American History to eliminate certain people due to fear of what they can do by their voices and actions?

      I read history as presented in history books, and find many things interesting and keeping my attention, but none more than the assassinations of people important in American History  who could have made big differences for America and the world. As these men, grew more important to people, suddenly, they are removed from the world stage and things slide back a bit to where it is comfortable for the world to go on.

       The Kennedy Brothers, I can fully discuss their assassinations because I studied them and they were in my lifetimes as was Martin Luther King Jr.. Each of these men were killed under suspicious circumstances and taken out for political reasons beyond a doubt.  Each taken out by a lone assassin who just happened to be able to do the murders by being in the right place?

    Yet historic facts do not align properly for the facts to really be true. President John Kennedy‘s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t have the marksmanship skills to pull off the shot he is given credit for, the audio tapes of November 22, 1963, prove there were at least four shots.

       Robert Kennedy’s assassian  claimed and the audio and video tapes confirm at least 8 shots in the kitchen in that LA Hotel, why? Martin Luther King Jr’s assassin said it himself, there was no way he could have committed the assassination without help. So why were these events in American history, so, sudden and strong with the effects afterwards?.

        Each of these three individuals led the people down a path of correcting what was currently wrong with the society we live in. Plus each of them had flaws also, but in the end, each comes up in history as a hero to the people.  Amazingly,  three men in history during one decade gone, who were leaders and valuable to the world.  I wonder today, as I have since November 22, 1963, when I was in Elementary School and only 7 years old,and saw President Kennedy shot on television, why and who really did this? Who started this decade long killing spree of Americans, and got away with it for real?

         Who really benefitted from these killings and assassinations? What did they accomplish by getting these three individuals killed and out-of-the-way and why? And who really would benefit, from it all?

        American History shows me a few things, JFK’s murder, changed some courses in American history beyond belief. It is like a domino effect over the sixties, if you examine it closely.  Plus so many wanted him dead for different reasons, as suggested by books and newspaper articles. You have LBJ, you have the Mob, you have The Cubans, and more, each with a  solid reason to want him removed. RFK same thing politics and legal antics led to his death in 1968. Martin Luther King was killed for his racial views, his calls for equality and his womanizing ways. We all know the truth, yet history depicts each in its own way and light, why?

        When you look back at these killings who really benefitted? The answers may surprise the world and Americans everywhere! In JFK’s instance, take a look as who followed him into office, the Warren Commission members, and the real results of it all. Mentioned but never pointed at are two American Presidents at least who followed Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.  Amazing isn’t it how one was Kennedy’s nemesis and became President five years after his death, and the Second Ford became President when Nixon fell!.

      So I talk President Kennedy’s death because I studied it, it affected me, it affected my life, my history my vision of America. Did the killings of these three men affect yours and how?  And will America ever be given the full truths of these assassinations and how they were committed and why, and what effect will it have in the end on world and American history?

 

Heart To Heart- a Poem by Me.


Heart to Heart

By: William

Did you ever take a walk in the woods,

Go to a place just to have fun,

Wander around and just be you,

And suddenly you’re not alone.

 

A brief smile you see, or a look,

And you start to say something, yes just to chat,

And all of a sudden, one heart is touching another,

You feel you have found a sister or a brother!

 

It’s their gentle ways, or their polite manner,

Maybe the way they laugh, or cry,

But suddenly you are heart to heart with someone,

It not a thing that happens, nor do I know how it happens or is done.

 

Your heart begins to open, and it blooms,

You feel special, wanted, needed,

And you know you have touched,

Heart to Heart  for you feel it,

Yes deep inside, in that special part.

 

Suddenly you know,

This is the one person,

 

That’s what you call, Heart To Heart,

And what we all seek to be a part.

Syrian Disaster and Iran’s Nuke Threat


Syrian Disaster and Iran’s Nuke Threat.

Syrian Disaster and Iran’s Nuke Threat


      In the Middle East where very few countries tend to live in peace, Syria is now at total unrest and the people are being beaten upon and killed by their own leader and his military. People die daily by big numbers and the press both written and spoken on television, report the facts of a brutal killing spree by Assad and his Government.

       As a American while i disbelieve in what the Assad Government is doing to the Syrian people, I do not see America doing more than getting friends and neighboring countries to help those being oppressed. While we do not believe in what is occurring at all, we can not risk our forces going to war there, nor can we afford another war zone for our own sake or our troops.

         We can negotiate, we can supply through others support for those being beaten upon and killed and like all Americans I know this will happen for we are America. The death tolls mount daily as the Syrian people struggle to survive under a government and man, who shows no mercy for his own people. Sad indeed that he thinks the only way to control the people is to beat and kill them in this way, others in history who did this are now defeated and dead, can’t Assad see what is coming soon?

        The Middle East is a hot bed of burning coals all waiting for a match to ignite their part of the world and burn it up. Israel is not the problem the jewish community and country only tries to stay a country and take care of its own. Their neighbors and enemies refuse to believe the jewish people have a right to live and that is pure crap.

         Now the countries that surround Syria, and the powers that be in the Middle East, need to get together and stop Assad while they can. Then ultimately others must be slowed or stopped also.

           Iran is becoming what may be  the biggest threat in the Middle East by trying to go nuclear. If they create a bomb, a huge nuke in the hands of the people there, it could be a deady deal, that can wipe out billions. Again though it is not our place to negotiate through this with Iran alone we need allies in all phases of this. As some of America’s strongest  and most willed Presidents in the past have said, United will get us somewhere, divided we can fall. Lets all stand together stop what can be the biggest disaster in the world if Iran, gets the nukes it wants, before it happens.

         The headlines fly daily, even hourly out of the Middle East about Syria, its current problems and killings of its own people and suppression of their lives and rights. More stories come about Iran getting a nuke program that will make them a world power and in the end probably kill billions because they have very little if any self-control. One push of a button and these people can blow away large parts of the world at their discretion, nope that has to be stopped you ask me. How, United Nations Sanctions and powers that be must  step in and force Iran to cease creating a nuke weapon, or the world will face destruction like before the cold war that ended starts once more.

      The world not just America, the world and the countries that are the Middle Eastern ones, need to now stand tall, stop Iran while it can be stopped, and step in and stop Assad in Syria too. For in the end, you Middle Eastern people need to police your own neighborhood now and show you can handle it all. America can not and will not be your police force anymore, we will fight our own battles to survive, but we can no longer give help like we used to. Financial troubles abound for America, and on top of it, we can not and should not stay in any war zones again, we need to pull back and defend our own.

       We will stand by our allies and friends and of course support them all we can, but there does come a time when the big dog in military might and political leadership, needs to step back and regroup and take care of itself, that time is now. We don’t need a war in Syria, we don’t need a war in Iran, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, what we need is peace. Assad ultimately will face the justice of his own Syrian people, and go the way of Hussein, Gaddafi, Hitler and others before him. His own people are now figuring ways to remove him from power seeking outside help and getting it and in the end the mass of Syrians will out number him and his people and overthrow him too. While America, doe snot approve of this behavior by the Assad Administration and will continue to tell the world so and expose all of it, we can not be drawn into the fighting of this war, or situation. Sadly it is with great regret, I must say, maybe now Americans have finally learned after Iraq, and now Afghanistan, that we can not and should not be the police force of the world!

 

Children Center Lessons and Years


On June 18th, 1965, I was sitting in an old 1956 Cadillac, yellow with a green roof, it was 10 am in the morning, and I was with my Step-father, and, my two brothers. We were parked outside Saint Mary’s Hospital, awaiting my mother and the newest addition to our family, a baby girl. The birth of my sister meant some changes for us all as a family. The first girl in any family is always special and it was no different for all of us. A new sibling is always a big moment in anyone’s life.

One year later, as my sister was turning one years old, things turned for me also. I was now, ten years old and a loner as well as looked at as the black sheep of my family. I didn’t get along with my elder brother at all and the incessant teasing and mind games he continued to play on me came to a boiling head that summer.  I remember it well the incident that would force my mother to call in the State Social Workers and make me a ward of the state. I didn’t mean to harm anyone, but anger got the better of me as a ten-year old and it cost me, two years of institutional time, in a place, called the Children’s Center, in Hamden, Connecticut. All I wanted at the time was to get in the house, but my elder brother never let up on me with his incessant teasing and mind games, and as I tried to get in he stood behind the screen door window and just laughed at me. I begged, I pleaded, until I could no more that summer day, then I finally had enough. I reached down and picked up a rock and threw it at my elder brother right through that window. The glass shattered everywhere, and unbeknown to me so would my life. It turns out in my anger, I never saw him holding my baby sister. The glass flew everywhere. Luckily for me, she wasn’t hurt and neither was he. But, that started the end for me for the next two years.

I was told I was emotionally disturbed by my mother, and her decision was to get help from the State Social Workers. Meetings started shortly after in July 1966. The Social Worker would pull up in her little black State car, and come in to talk to me and the family. The meetings started as a round table type thing where we would all gather and talk about the family and me in particular. For me these never worked, because I was intimidated by the presence of my elder brother and my step-father. I was scared to speak my mind and be honest. I knew what would happen once the Social Worker left our home, so I kept quiet.

By August 1966, the meetings were failing to get anywhere with the problems or me, and my mother kept saying, she couldn’t handle me anymore. So one day before bed she told me, she had, had enough of me and couldn’t handle me anymore. Then she looked me in the eyes as she put me to bed and told me the State Social worker is coming to get you and take you away for a while. The time had come for a separation from my family and more counseling with social workers. The following day, I was dressed in pink and white stripped shorts, a bright white pull over shirt and new sneakers. Then I was told to await the Social Worker, who was on the way. I didn’t want to go anywhere, so, I escaped out the front door of our home and ran. That day, I ran as hard as I could trying to escape everyone my mother sent after me, including my elder brother and all his friends. No one would catch me that day, until late at night, the next town over. I ran and ran that day into the night as I remember it. But ultimately, it was the police who brought me home that evening. And the next day, the State car pulled up and I was packed off, clothes and all and driven to Hamden, Connecticut, and The Children Center.

The Children’s Center is a state-run institution, located on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut. Next to it on one side is Quinnipiac College and across from it is a state reservoir. The front gates are open and made of black iron, around the institution is an eight foot high fence. When you arrive you see the Administration Building to the slight right, and a workshop for crafts. Then as you look up you see more brick buildings that are dormitories for the children. The institution included tennis courts which were used for basketball and ice skating. A gymnasium was also on the premises. A large green was in the center of it all, much like the green in any small town. And this would become my home for the next two years. Whether good or bad, I was tuck and had nowhere to go. I remember rebelling the first week I was in The Children’s Center, throwing a tantrum big time. Their reaction was simple, clear all the kids out of the room and let me go crazy. Then when I finished, they made me clean it all up and put me to bed. End of the traumas for sure.

The Children’s Center is a place where I saw many things for the first time in my life. And Learned many things in my life, that I would never, have seen at home, or anywhere else.  I was introduced to different sports, tennis, basketball, shop classes such as woodworking, music, reading which I already loved, and then things no one should be introduced to at 10 years old.

There were violent children who wanted to seriously hurt others; there were drug users, thieves, and more in this institution. And each of us were all marked as emotionally unstable is what they said. But 1966 and the end of the 1960s, medical knowledge was not what it is today. Today, it is known that, this so-called emotionally unstable child they called all of us then, are actually children with Attention Deficient Disorder and Hyper-Activity. Times do change as do the knowledge levels of the Doctors.

My two years in the Children Center had many events and incidents that affected me and from which I learned some things I have never forgot to this day. 1) Self-control, always keep self control was drummed into me for these two years. 2) Fight for what you really believe in or you will never get it. 3) I learned lessons in love and hate also. 3) Just because you’re in this type of situation, fight back if you’re right and in the end they will find out you are right.

During these two years I went from 10 years old to twelve years old and grew up in more ways than one. I learned that no matter what self-control was primary. I learned to play pool, cards, swim, woodworking, tennis, basketball and hunted down turtles in the reservoir next door. Yeah I know sounds silly but it did happen. I also learned about drugs and not to take them, alcohol and what it does to people. I learned I didn’t know anything about the opposite sex or kissing even though I tried it with a few girls. But in the end, I never grew any connections to the people there or the other kids. I was then as I have always been a bit of a lone wolf type.

In the second year of my time in The Children’s Center, somethings  were tried. First I was shipped out to a school in Hamden to attend. The idea was to see how I would handle being among other children my own age and if I could do so. Of course I could I was a normal kid really.  As I attended that school I remember one incident I had with a girl and a ring. As I was out on the playground that year, I found a wedding band that someone had lost. I had no idea what the ring really was of course. And I put the ring in my pocket and returned to class. While in class I gave the ring to a red-haired girl I liked. The teasing started immediately of course for both of us and we laughed our way through it all. What ever happened to that ring and that girl I will never know, I only attended that school for that one year.

At the same time, questions arose as to whether I would ever go home to my real family again for some reason. My understanding now, is that my mother questioned whether I wanted to come home or not and whether she could handle me again. So, the State of Connecticut, tried two things. First they sent me for a weekend with a family in Hamden to see how I would cope. Could I behave and get along with others, would I survive in a family atmosphere? As I remember it, it went extremely well and I had a good time with that family. They didn’t want to keep me of course they were a family the State used and paid to evaluate kids and the stages they were at.

Shortly after this weekend trip to spend time with this family, I was called to my social workers office in the Administration Building. The reason was, the State had been looking for a family to adopt me, which I had no idea about. It seems my mother decided she wasn’t sure, she wanted me back home. Why? I guess I never asked her. Anyway I remember that day clearly. They were a nice young couple, and I never really met them. I was called to the office and as I entered the office area I overheard the conversation between the social worker and this couple. Upon hearing that they were up to be my foster parents I left and hid. I didn’t need a foster family, and didn’t care to have one either.

The following day, became a big day for me at The Children’s Center. I found myself recalled to the Social Workers office to discuss why I ran and hid and refused to meet this couple. I refused to answer the social worker. So she sat there with me for an hour at least, waiting for me to talk to her. When I didn’t talk, she finally had to go to the womens room to relieve herself and told me to wait for her. As soon as she left, I went into action.

Behind the social workers desk on one side was a table with a Dictaphone machine. I turned it on and made a speech onto the Dictaphone belt. I told the social worker I didn’t want a new family and all I wanted to do was go home to my own family, it was a tearfully expressed statement. When I finished I left and never saw the social worker again. Next I knew I was released back to my family and returned home. I clearly remember certain things that occurred during these two years in the Children Center. I remember my mother and father coming to see me in the summer months, and my step-father siting me down on the curb to talk to me. His speech went this way, he told me sometimes a person plants a seed, but doesn’t stick around to nurture and feed the seed, and someone else takes over and brings it to full growth. He said such was the case with him, and me, and if I wanted to he would legally change my last name to his. I stopped and looked at him for a few moments without saying a word. He waited and then I said no I was born with the name I have and I will keep it thank you, he never mentioned it again.

So The Children Center experience wasn’t all bad, but in the end it wasn’t all good either. I remember the first year I was there, and they held an event and my mother took part in it. The State put on a dance for all the kids in the gym. My mother came in as a volunteer to help with it all. It only led to a confrontation between her and I, and in the end she never did it again. Looking back, if I had a mother who was nurturing, loving and cared to show it more I think my life would have been different. But, as my step-father told my mother numerous times over the years, she had no mothering instincts at all and four of her five children felt and knew it. And the ones she ignored and overlooked knew it and felt it believe you me.

Today, my mother and step-father are both passed on and long gone. The Children Center still stands on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut, doing it’s best for kids. Out of the five children my mother gave birth to, my elder brother lives now in the South, isolated from his siblings because he grew up a selfish person, I survived as the black sheep of the family and live with my second wife, my sister is alive, healthy and doing well and the youngest son is doing ok as an artist and worker. But one son didn’t make it past 32 years old he died in California from drugs. So, it goes to show, no family is perfect doesn’t it.? And places like The Children Center and state social workers are not always right!

Election 2012 and Dreams


  Dreams I was told as a child, are for sleeping people not for those awake and bold!. Dreams are supposed to be magical dimensions filled with happy thoughts of what you want to be when you grow up, or you want to happen in the world, to make it better. Then why, Lord, why, are so many dreams shattered while we are too young to realize them?

        I dreamed as a child of a home, with kids of my own, and a big yard and swings for them to play on and a white picket fence surrounding it all. A peaceful place where relaxation, and no pain would occur, and we could dream and reach for more. America has such places across its land, at least it did you see, for now, for many, they get nightmares instead. People can’t afford to eat, keep their homes, pay for their oil, and they stand on street corners holding signs, will work for food!. This is America folks, someone needs to change it back to the land of dreams.

       Four men will climb a stage tonight and debate who is best to be President of the United States of America. Four Republicans, who have played a silly game of never really answering the questions Americans need answered this year. Romney, Santorum,Gingrich and Paul, have never faced nor answered the real issues so far important to the American People. 1) How will you create jobs and what is your plan to do so and how will it work? 2) Will you be able to turn around an economy that is now falling behind the world markets? 3)Can you even the Trade Markets for Americans, can you get our exports to out weigh our imports, returning us to the top of the heap? 4) Will you redo the Trade Agreements and take away China and Japan‘s advantages and even the playing field so Americans can compete in the world market? 5) Can you find a way to bring back the manufacturing base that kept America strong for so long and create more jobs that way and when will it happen? 6) Will you create a school system safe from perverts and sex offenders and teach our children to be the best they can be, safely? 7) Let women decide women’s issues we have no say in the women’s reproductive system, or how they should treat their own bodies, why are people not allowing them their say in their own issues and to decide it all on their own? 8) I have lived through so many Presidents, and so many years now I wonder, why, oh why, no current candidate can be what those before them were, decent men who believed in America and had decent ideas?. Can we get just one out of this years candidates? 9) Stop taking from Social Security and borrowing, stop attacking Medicare and Medicaid or Veteran’s benefits or any other program meant to help the people, find a way to balance the budget by cutting worthless programs that really waste money!. 10) The big question that should be asked of all Candidates this year, is a simple one really; Did you have a big Holiday Season in 2011, did your house have bright lights,Christmas Trees, presents and plenty of food to eat? Did your holidays bring joy and gifts and family unity? Did anyone in your house or family stand on the streets, sleep in cardboard boxes, or beg for food with signs? If not, then why can’t all Americans have what you have, and if you say they can from hard work, then, do your damn jobs and create jobs for us all!.  I have watched this Republican show of candidates this election cycle since they began, I have seen silly speeches, on subjects no one cares about now,and it is time for it to change.

       If Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul can not begin to give solid based answers on how to turn our economy around, how to create jobs, how to help the American people keep their homes and not walk the streets hungry or sleep in cardboard boxes, then they don’t deserve to be President.

       In the end I am still left to look at this Election Cycle as the Stooges vs The President. President Obama has not done everything right, but he at least presents solutions, thinks some up and puts them forward and tries to correct what is wrong. Again looking at the Republicans, we face a choice of one of the Stooges, getting elected to the highest and most powerful position in the world, is that what Americans want?

       Tonight in Arizona, four grown men will walk on stage to Debate the Issues affecting the USA. Watch them closely, they act like the Stooges of the old days. Romney plays Moe the straight guy, Gingrich plays Curly the silly one who tries to make the world laugh,Santorum is like Larry Fine he has the answers but is never really right, and Paul is like Shemp, he takes the hit every debate and smiles through and carries on, like a good little one. Someone needs to tell the Stooges, the silent movies and shorts are over, and make them come into reality and face the real problems we need solved!

       Americans, lets face the facts, among those we have a choice to vote for the Presidency come November, is there anyone who can equal, a Washington, a Jefferson, a Lincoln, Eisenhower or Kennedy, or even a Nixon or Regan? Nope, what we get instead are four stooges running against one President who gives us at least respect while he is in the office across the globe. No answers from the Republicans, should lead and give President Barrack Obama his four more years. I say reelect what you have, when the choices on the opposite side are far worse.