Blog 1811 – 09.08.2020

Wheedle on the Needle

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QVUf7gFk-hB0hv5Re5I54wNvBy0co-XM/view?usp=drivesdk

Wheedle on the Needle

One of the fondest memories of time spent with my son, Jonathan, now thirty, when he was a boy is of a long walk that he and I took from our hotel in Seattle to the Space Needle. We took the elevator to the top and walked around the outside in the cool wet strong wind. We did after that strenuous walk take the monorail back most of the way to our hotel, only having to walk a couple of blocks from Nordstroms, the nearest stop to where we were staying. We were in Seattle with my lovely and loving wife Linda, Jay’s beloved mom, tagging along with her on one of her rare business trips. Her work seminar had already begun so she missed the walk, the Space Needle tour, and the monorail ride with us, but we had several other adventures, the three of us, the weekend before the seminar began and evenings after her sessions.

As a boy myself, I first recall seeing the Space Needle close up in an Elvis movie that came out in 1963 called “It Happened At The World’s Fair.” Seattle’s Space Needle and its monorail were both constructed for the 1962 World’s Fair that was held there, fifty eight years ago. My, how time flies when you are having a good time and even when you are not. This year with COVID-19 and the deep division particularly in this country over how to deal best with the pandemic, the economy, saving the planet, political issues, and of more immediate importance continuing systemic racial discrimination (Some hardliners deny it exists, some even that it ever did), seems far nearer the worst of times than the best of times. We have as a nation and as a world weathered terrible storms before and come through them together. I hope we will this time too.

Holding the hand of my small son as we walked more than a few blocks, keeping the Space Needle in our sights, I remember thinking I hope his life has many adventures with heights that top all the lows. It is a wish all parents, of all countries, colors and creeds everywhere, hope comes true for their children. We are bound together by way more than the few surface differences that some sad and bad politicians like to use to drive a deeper wedge between us and distract us from their own selfish obedience and allegiance to a few rich power friends. In the U.S. we have long believed that our government was established to represent all of the people and not just the rich and powerful or even one’s party base. Do keep that in mind as you cast your vote in November. I am not trying to needle anyone at all, just to remind us that all lives matter especially the least wealthy, the least powerful among us, and the most vulnerable. Over 184,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in the U.S. alone, millions more to addiction, and numbers of lives shockingly hard to imagine still stunted and wasted by a systemic lack of equity and opportunity, should trump insincere calls for law and order from those who laugh at law and order, and equity, even taunting us with their complete disregard for those they laughing call losers – minorities, immigrants, and even the brave military people who have laid down their lives and continue to believing they are serving their people, their country.

Jonathan and I, on top of the Seattle Space Needle, marveled how clearly and far we could see, even in the misty blowing wind. We all have that high place within our hearts from which we can, if we choose to, see above partisan issues to the really important issues regarding the welfare, the common defense, and the greater good of all. How I hope we rise to the occasion in these, the times that try men’s souls.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GuPkdAMahSTid7CQmzu5e_NPXNVNETZW/view?usp=drivesdk

Bring Him Home