The Blaisdell Blog

What do Tonga , Kuwait and Zimbabwe have in common?   They are the only three countries in the world which did not see a reduction in deaths in children under 5 years old in the last 20 years.   These three countries don’t get to blame poverty for their poor showing in infant mortality.   A mammoth study, “The Global Burden of Disease” published in The Lancet , takes into account every country on earth.   Think of all of the bastions of poverty, inept government, violence and corruption that dot this planet like a pox.   Yet, in each of these countries, save the three mentioned, early childhood deaths have been reduced—by a lot.   For example, Bangladesh dropped its under 5 death rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2010.   In Africa, Malawi reduced mortality by 56.6%, in Asia, Laos saw a 55.6% decrease, in Central America , Nicaragua reduced their deaths by 61.9%.   The list goes on, thank God.             In a year that has seen precious little to be joyful about con

Christmas is not my favorite religious holiday.   I like Christmas and I do not mind the mixture of secular with religious messages that it holds.   It is just that for religious significance Easter and Reformation Day hold stronger messages.   But today is Christmas Eve and I am enjoying the spirit of the season despite the above disclaimers and a personally difficult year.             Few could say that this has been a banner year for the Butler household.   There has been too much loss, both on a personal and national level.   But, despite all of this, as my pastor so aptly reminded us, “…the Lord is near…” (Philippians 4:4-8).   It is that Bible verse, and all it means, that makes me more than comfortable with the parts of Christmas that deal only with its temporal celebration.   A person can live his faith, but we manifest that faith in worldly terms all the time.   I love Christmas trees (pagan), Christmas cards and letters (Hallmark), Santa Claus (a Turkish monk), and

I stand before you both chastened and ashamed.   I have lived with the assumption that my opinions about greater gun control were a matter of personal preference.   I did little to further gun control politically and simply assumed that right would win eventually.   My sins of omission became part of the problem.   I became part of the problem.   I choose not to follow that path any longer.    Friends know that I am no gun lover.   I’m fine with hunting and have a grandmother’s pride in my grandson and granddaughter’s first deer kills.   But that is as far as my tolerance goes.   I don’t understand the preoccupation with hand guns and see absolutely no need for semi-automatic weapons.   If the only purpose of a gun is to murder human beings, I am quite certain that the world is better off without it.   We have too many guns in this country.   Here are a few examples of how a few civilized, educated, culturally sophisticated countries stack up on gun ownership: United State

I am moving back and forth between rage and tears, fear and sorrow.             The shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School falls too close to my sphere to be viewed with the sympathetic detachment that generally accompanies these oft-repeated tragedies.    Besides being the Grandmother of six children, five of whom are in elementary school, I taught for 30 years in elementary school, eventually becoming a principal.   I have had to confront and detain a student believed to have a gun (thankfully, he did not).    But today’s news has brought me to my emotional knees.               I am willing to bet that a few things will come to light in a few days: 1.        The killer will be emotionally unstable with a history of small but escalating violent episodes. 2.       The family will be in denial about the severity of all of this. 3.       Medication will be required but frequently skipped, missed and excused. 4.       There will be frequent use of violent g

In September of 2010 a news crew in Detroit , Michigan filmed more than a dozen auto workers at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant drinking beer and smoking pot on what was supposed to be their, “break” from work.   Call me hopelessly mired in the straight life, but for my working career, a break meant a hasty trip to the bathroom and a chance to catch up on paper work.               These wasted losers where busy getting high as kites and not the least bit worried about how their creepy behavior was going to impact their job performance.   They didn’t have to, they belong to a union.   When the tape hit the air Chrysler did the right thing and fired their asses.   Who would want to buy a Chrysler product after seeing who is putting it together?   Unfortunately, while these men deserved (needed…where begging for…had richly earned…) being fired, the union played every sleazy card in their deck and this week, two years after their dismissal, these spoiled snots were allowed back

On December 7, 1787 Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution, thus earning its nickname, “The First State.”   This Mid-Atlantic state is a gem of history and typically American success stories.   Yes, I know it gave us Vice President Joe Biden, but it also gave us Caesar Rodney (more on him later).             I love the state of Delaware for very personal reasons.   Thanks to a grant from DuPont (via Conoco) I was invited to earn my second master’s degree (in economics) from the University of Delaware at Newark .   They paid for my tuition, books, room and board, transportation, even a generous stipend for two summers of work.   I filled in the rest of the requirements with doctoral classes at home, produced a 5 part television series on economic education in the elementary classroom, and a thesis, “The Economic Impact of Acid Rain Remediation on Coal Fired Utilities in Missouri” (a piece of work comparing mils of revenue to microns of emissi

If it pleases you to worry about a coming apocalypse on December 21, 2012, I can’t stop you.   Personally, I think there are better emotional choices.    The word, “apocalypse” doesn’t literally mean a cataclysmic devastation, of course.   It comes from the Greek and means to, “reveal.”    So if you want to hoard, pray and hope for some familial exemption from the December 21 st revelation , feel free.   But, trust me; if things are going to stop spinning on the 21st, it is way out of our hands.   Lutherans don’t worry about the end times; we worry about whether or not there is coffee in Heaven, and do we want to go if the answer is, “no.”   I did, however, have a revelation of my own the other day when the papers and news shows were in a dither about the multi-million dollar Powerball possibilities.   It occurred to me that buying a lottery ticket and doomsday fascinations have a great deal in common.   And, in a strange way they both deal with optimism.   Either way, things are

December 1 st was World AIDS Day.   AIDS is a rotten disease—not that there are any good ones.     Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the last stage of HIV infection.   The human immunodeficiency virus gradually destroys the immune system, making it harder for the body to fight infections.   It is a wasting disease.   It works slowly, allowing its victim to unknowingly spread its ugly self from person to person before anyone realizes that a killer has been loosed on the unsuspecting.               There are equally vicious diseases that can become pandemic, but most of them are so quick to kill that they literally outrun their supply lines, killing off their hosts so efficiently that the victims can not spread the disease before dying.   Ebola, the almost mythic hemorrhagic fever of the 70’s, was like this.   It would sweep down on an African village and kill off the entire population before people, walking on foot, could carry the disease to another village many kilometers

Angus T. Jones is 19 years old and the highest paid child actor in Hollywood .   He was 8 years old when he joined the sitcom, Two and a Half Men then starring Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer.   At age 8 Angus was a chubby, round faced little boy.   Now he is a slim, athletic looking, but still round faced young man.   Two and a Half Men was clearly, “adult” humor when Sheen was the lead actor.   I enjoyed the show, but was always a little worried about how the general tenor of the set would affect an impressionable young boy.   Then Sheen had his melt down and was replaced by Ashton Kutcher.   At this point the show turned deadly dull and turned to sophomoric humor.   You have to be concerned when a child actor is only brought on stage to make a joke about smoking pot, masturbating or blowing off school.             Well, as it turns out, I don’t have to be worried about Angus T. Jones.   He appears to have seen the insanity and inanity of the adults around him and decided that he

For those who may not know, the latest face to be carved on the idiots’ wall of shame is that of Lindsey Stone.   Judging from her photo, she is 30-ish woman who posted a picture on Facebook so offensive that it ultimately cost her job.   It seems our little Lindsey was on a trip (paid for by her employer, by the way) to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in Arlington , VA.   There is a sign at the tomb that asks for both quiet and respect.   Ms Stone, clever soul that she is, decided that this was her opportunity to mug for the camera.   After all, what cries for comic relief more than a monument to soldiers who have died in active service in so unhappy a fashion that their remains can not be identified?    Ms Stone is photographed pretending to shout and giving the, “finger” to the sign (the Monument?...the soldiers guarding the Monument?...those of us who revere what it stands for?)               When a furor arose over this obvious insult she tried to smooth things over by pos

Everyone has a favorite holiday.   Mine has always— always —been Thanksgiving.   As a child it meant the best food, unremitting talk, games and play.   As an adult it means ever so much more.             In my years of making Thanksgiving dinner I have come to believe that Thanksgiving is a feminine holiday.   I don’t mean that it isn’t enjoyed equally by both men and women.   I certainly don’t mean that the deeper meaning of Thanksgiving isn’t appreciated and revered equally by both men and women.   I just mean that the essence of the holiday is feminine.   It is a day centered on two things, the meal and the meaning.   These are feminine strengths.               Men are great cooks, but they aren’t likely to plan a meal for a week, get the baking done the day before, set the table with matching candlesticks and get up at 4:30 a.m. to get the meal started.   Men are much more the spontaneous, “slap” it on the grill type.   And I haven’t found a man yet who didn’t see an adva

This summer I took part in the Genographic Project sponsored by National Geographic.   For a modest sum I was sent a kit to collect skin cells from the inside of my cheek.   These cells allowed me to learn the path my ancestors took in their long journey from past to present.   They also allowed the Genographic Project to add my DNA to its bank of information on the human species.   I am now a part of original research, and I know a little more about my story. Of course, there are some things that are obvious to anyone even casually aware of modern anthropology.   We know that all humans evolved in Africa starting 2.5 million years ago with Homo sapiens appearing some 200,000 years ago amidst dramatic climatic changes.   We know that humans traveled slowly but constantly out of Africa, into Asia and Europe developing differences in body type, coloring and health propensities as random genetic mutations favored certain individuals.   An easy example of this is the long, thin, s

Yesterday, my husband and I went to see the movie, Lincoln , by Steven Spielberg.   It was spectacular.   It was historically spot on, clearly presented, and the acting was so good that you were aware of how good it was even while totally immersed in the characters.   The movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln , Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as the fiery, complex and barely controlled Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania .   The list of excellent actors, each perfectly suited to the character portrayed, is as long as the credits at the end of the film.   Much of the movie centers on the passage of the 13 th Amendment to the Constitution, banning slavery forever in the United States of America .     I have read the biography, Lincoln , by David Herbert Donald and Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln , by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the book from which much of the movie was taken.   They bear out the accuracy of the film. Daniel Day-Lewi

Poor CIA Director, David Petraeus.   After a lifetime of meritorious service, honorable conduct and outstanding achievement he is now out of work, living in the dog house and is a media buffoon.   At the age of 60 Petraeus fell for the charms of a raven haired, athletic beauty 20 years his junior.   I am quite certain that Gen. Petraeus has no plans to divorce his wife and marry this woman.   There is nothing like day-to-day routine to suck the life out of an affair.   I would also assume that his mistress, Paula Broadwell, (now that, my friends, is an unfortunate surname) has little to offer other than the affair itself.   I have heard her speak and, frankly, it just isn’t there.   Petraeus undoubtedly knows that he has a life partner in his current wife, Holly.   He also knows that he owes her more than any divorce court could ever assign for being the glue that held his family together during the peripatetic life of a rising military star.   For heavens sake, the family moved

There is a photograph on the wall of my sister’s home that is both precious and haunting to me.   It is a restored, blown up and framed photo of my father on his way to the South Pacific during World War II.   It was taken by an Army photographer from a small tender craft as my Dad’s ship, the S.S. Monterey, left harbor.   In a happy accident, the picture was taken with a close up of Pfc. Frank G. Yatckoske front and center.   He is in the midst of a host of soldiers leaning over the rail, all smiling and mugging for the camera.   My father is leaning out from the rest, his arms braced on the rail of the ship, his smile—a straight, wide grin filled with mischief—is set in a young, lean, handsome face.   Every man on that ship seems filled with enthusiasm, bonhomie, even a sense of adventure. Those poor young men didn’t have a clue.               I don’t want to contemplate what happened to most of those men.   I know that “I” Company of the 63 rd Infantry, 6 th Division wen