"Southern Roots" - NASCAR in Greensboro

There are many things which can legitimately claim association with the label "southern roots"..........pecan pie, magnolia trees, story telling, college basketball, country music, beach music, Sunday school, baseball, mountain dew, on and on. But few activities are more closely related, or more instantly related, to the term "southern roots" than old-time stock car racing.

Above is an great image of a stock car race at the Greensboro Fairgrounds dirt track in 1948. The Greensboro Coliseum Complex now sits on the old Greensboro Fairgrounds property. As a youngster, I can recall being taken to a few dirt track races at The Fairgrounds in the early 1950s by an uncle. Great excitement! And "southern roots" indeed.  I haven't been back to auto race since.  I hope to someday.  

Mt. Hood, Oregon - A Dormant Volcano

Earth's crammed with heaven,

\And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love Thy Neighbor

Abe Lincoln Portrait

Extraordinary portrait of extraordinary Abraham Lincoln.

Historic Tax Rates on the Top Tax Bracket

No, I do not think the trend will lead to a Great Depression II as the graphic suggests.  I do think it is interesting to chart the rate on the top bracket historically.  Simply returning to the Clinton era rate of 38% on the top bracket would reduce the current national deficit by approximately one-third.  Makes sense to me.  If low rates on the top bracket was a jobs creator as we are told by conservatives, we would be awash in jobs.  Of course, we are not.

After the November election, my guess is we will get serious about this option, as well as many others, in a concerted effort to get the national deficit under control.

The Howdy Doody Show

Now this is a great picture. This is my good neighborhood friend Mike Warner (I hope he is still my friend after this post) with Howdy Doody. Howdy Doody was a children's TV program which ran on NBC from 1947 to 1960.  It was a pioneer program in children's TV as well as color TV. It was produced at NBC in historic Rockefeller Center in Studio 3A.

I remember the show well and it was a joy for kids in the 1950s.  I would date this picture in the early 1950s.  It appears Mike may have been on the show.  I will have to check with him on that. Thanks Mike!

Hypocrisy in Sports and in America

I never cease to be amazed at our society's hypocrisy around athletics and sports at all levels. Youth sports are said to foster sportsmanship and team play, yet we see parents bicker among themselves, and Dads press their children to uncover that aggressive side of the child. As we have seen at North Carolina, college Presidents turn a blind eye to abuses in their programs for fear alumni might not fill their coffers if the football program doesn't get to a bowl game or the basketball team doesn't make the NCAA tournament.

There is the issue of admission of college athletes of questionable academic ability who can win games. We pay coaches millions of dollars a year without any oversight. There's the fact that college athletics is a multi-billion dollar operation, as evidenced by the new BCS football national championship playoff, while players  are often unable to afford to a blazer for away trips or a meal beyond a fast food restaurant.

But the area of hypocrisy that galls me most is the simple conflict between what we say we treasure, what we say is important to us, versus where we spend our money, how and where we spend our time. We are all guilty.  The whole question revolves around our values, around what we say we value as a people and a society, versus what we do.

At the heart of nearly all issues in America is money. We are capitalists, flat and simple. What we say we value, good schools, strong churches, public safety, programs to uplift those who can't make it in our system........none are revenue generators. Therefore, in America, they suffer.  So it is with us capitalists.

But obviously, in spite of our hypocrisy, in spite of the conflict between what we say and what we do, in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of what amounts to our problem with public integrity, we've built a great nation............a nation with the highest standard of living, for the most people, in the history of the world.  But, no doubt, we can do better.  Each of us needs to do self-examination, to do our part more honestly and effectively.