The Blaisdell Blog

In January of 1958 I had just turned eleven years old.   I was in sixth grade, and had already had my first lesson in racism.   We had moved to Denver , Colorado two years before and I had wanted to go to a certain amusement park.   It was, “restricted” and my mother made it clear that we would NEVER go to that amusement park until they opened it to (my mother’s word), “Negros.”   Now, the interesting thing is that my mother harbored lots of stereotypical ideas about Blacks.   She was, after all, a child of her era, just as I am a child of mine.   But to her, discrimination was, “un-American” (also her word).   I had learned my first lesson in civic morality.   There are some things that are morally wrong and a morally right person does not do those things.               One time zone to the west, in sunny southern California , some adults (who had not been raised as well as my mother) were demonstrating 1950’s style racism.   The object of their mean spirited bigotry was a ver

A family photo of my macro clan would look primarily white, Nordic and remarkably like an advertisement for an optician.   But by the time my youngest grandchild approaches 30 years old, my family won’t look at all the same.   By that year America will be a, “majority/minority” nation.   That means that while Americans of European ancestry will be a plurality, they won’t be a majority.       By 2044 White’s will make up 49.7% of the United States population.   Hispanics will account for 25%; Blacks 12.7%; Asians will make up 7.9% of the population; and that leaves 3.7% in a multi-racial catch all.    One reason for this is a decreasing birth rates among Whites.   Then, the years from 2014-2060 will see a doubling in the rate of Asian and Hispanic members of our society; most of that increase will come from Asians.   Multi-racial people will triple.   As with all new, poor and struggling minorities, birth rates will be high at first and drop as economic stability is achieved and

As I have frequently said, Christmas is not my favorite holiday.   I enjoy it, but from a religious aspect, Easter and Reformation Day hold a stronger message.   But, today is Christmas Eve and I am enjoying the spirit of the season despite the above disclaimers.   It is Christmas’s secular trappings that always draw me in. I love Christmas trees (pagan), Christmas cards and letters (Hallmark), Santa Claus (a Turkish monk), and all the glitter of wrapped gifts.    Oddly, I hate opening the packages.   They look so lovely, their contents a magical mystery of endless conjure.   Even as a child I would sit back and watch everyone else open their gifts and I would defer, defer, defer.   I still do.   There is an endless supply of great Christmas movies.   George C. Scott is amazing in A Christmas Carol.   Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life; the musical schmaltz of Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas.   And there is nothing that hits the nostalgia

A prisoner was taken from the field of battle, already suffering from fractures in the right leg and both arms.    Before even getting to a cell a rifle butt was brought down on his shoulder, shattering it, but he hardly noticed that after a bayonet was sent through the ankle of his already broken leg.               The prisoner was finally thrown on the floor of a cold, filthy cell.   He was denied medical treatment.   Things changed when they discovered he was, “well connected” with the enemy leadership.   At that time he was given both medical attention—meager but life saving—and more intense interrogation.   Over a period of two years, the prisoner was kept in extended solitary confinement; he was beaten; he was kept hungry and filthy, sometimes not being allowed to bath for months on end.               Over one period of four days he was beaten every two or three hours by teams of men.   His arms were trussed up behind him so the weight of his body dislocated both should

If, on December 25, we are celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, then we are off on both the day and the year.   The consensus of most theologians and historians is that Christ was probably born around 4 B.C.   That means this year should actually be 2018 instead of 2014.   [This means that all of the nuts who were fretting about what would happen when the Mayan calendar gets to 2012 were wasting paranoia, 2012 had come and gone long before that particular conspiracy theory scare began.]   We have a pretty good fix on the year because, while we don’t know when Jesus was born, we do know when Herod lived and died.   We also have that pesky reference to shepherds watching their flocks by night.   Usually this would be something done during lambing time, which indicates a spring birth for Jesus, not December 25.    So, we have Christmas being a rather arbitrary date, set to celebrate the birth of a poor, lowly born carpenter’s son, who became the pivotal character in the creation

Has your eye ever been captured by the beauty of a pearl, the milky sheen with just a hint—almost imagined—of blush?    That blush makes pearls seem to be living things.   When I first learned what a pearl was and how it was made I thought it was a grand mystery.   I got my mother’s pearls out of the drawer where they were kept, carefully wrapped in tissue and velvet, and stared intently at the large center pearl of the strand.   I imagined myself growing very, very small and diving through the layers of nacre to the center of the pearl.   There I would live in my own tiny world.   In my mind, when I sat on the center grain of sand that was my pearly home and looked at the curved sky of solid, yet seemingly transparent white, to the curved shell of pearly heaven, my world always seemed very large to me, even though I was a spec and my universe only a pearl.               When I study astronomy, I feel like I am back inside that pearl.   Physicists understand what it is like to b

On April 16, 1846, nine covered wagons left Springfield , Illinois on the 2500 mile trek to California .   Almost half of the 87 men, women and children of the Donner-Reed party were doomed before the first revolution of the wheels.   The group of emigrants was led by James Fraser Reed.   He was influenced in his decisions by a book, The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California, written by Landsford W. Hastings.   The book touted a new route, referred to as the, “ Hastings ’ Cutoff.”   This route was supposed to save almost 400 miles and be over easy terrain.   In fact, the route had never been traveled, by Hastings .   His book was a fraud—a moral if not a legal crime—and he misled his readers intentionally.               Certainly, some of the blame falls on Donner and Reed.   Common sense should tell us that a route 400 miles shorter and easier than the one currently being used would be the rule, rather than the exception.               When the group arrived in Ft. L