The Blaisdell Blog

  Independence Day truly belongs to all Americans, in some ways it belongs to the world, but in intimate ways, it belongs to men like my husband, who had to put their lives on the line, not metaphorically, but in actuality.               Tom served with a medical evac unit in Viet Nam.   He was stationed at Quin Yan, located far north of Saigon and about due east of Pleiku.   He told me he had no war stories to tell and the worst thing that ever happened to him was losing the brakes on his jeep.   I knew from my father’s experience in World War II that you don’t press the issue when they don’t want to talk.                But occasionally, you get a glimpse of all that was going on.   After taking a helicopter tour in Hawaii I glanced at Tom’s “comments” in the guest book.   He complimented the pilot on a wonderful experience, but...

  This week we have heard much of the doomed recreational submarine taking some incredibly rich payees down to view the wreckage of the Titanic.   These men were neither adventurers, explorers, nor heroes.   They were tourists.   While I am sorry for their deaths, I see these as unforced errors.   Submariners, on the other hand, have my constant respect.   My father was Army through and through, but when he married Mom he married into Navy.   Evidently mixed marriages do work.   Keep in mind, I am talking about the men my Aunt’s married.   The force for double X chromosomes is strong in my family and there are lots of girls, who it turns out, marry mostly Navy men.   They then produce a crop of men and women who also joined the Navy.   The one thing we have never had in my family is a submariner.   Now that is a rare breed.   A person is never assigned to a submarine.   You must volunteer.   Evidently o...

  In 1964 I started my undergraduate studies, already knowing that my family structure was not the typical one shared by my fellow students.   My mother worked full time outside of the home.   She always had.   Mom had been trained in two years of Normal school, which was a two-year program that produced teachers for a growing nation that valued education for all.   When we moved from Minnesota to Colorado, she got a better paying job as a bookkeeper for the City and County of Denver.   During that same time my Dad worked in every aspect of the dairy industry. In that same year, 1964, men spent an average of 42 hours/week working for wages.   The average for women was 8.   In the current decade women make up over half the workforce.   Women’s work hours moved to 36/week by 2023 while men’s had decreased to 40.   As you might have guessed, with more women working, the other divisions of a day’s labor—specifically housework and child...

  In the past few weeks we have seen the sobering shooting of four imminently innocent young people by angry, inadequate losers who feel their ownership of a gun makes them a bigger, better man.   If you ring the wrong doorbell you get shot; if you start to get in the wrong car you get shot (not in the car, mind you, but in your own car after you apologize and hastily exit the car); if you pull in a driveway to turn around you get shot; if you chase a ball into the neighbor’s lawn you get shot.   These shootings are not justified.   Nor are they lawful.   They are not even rational, but they are predictable. Each of these shootings were conducted by someone who has been radicalized by far-right drums beating out a constant beat of fear, anger, distrust and self-entitlement.   Let me make this as clear as I possibly can: NO!!! You are not entitled to your anger.   Period.   Full stop.   Grow up.   Get over it. First, your anger it i...