Thursday, November 28, 2013

Harry Chapin, World Hunger & hunger right here in our area!


Thanksgiving is over…and for some it never was.

December 7th is a well-known date to historians…Pearl Harbor Day – A day that will live in infamy!  Musicians might remember it as the day Harry Chapin was born in 1942.

Chapin was a musician/songwriter/world class humanitarian & a reformer of sorts.  Not that he preached for political change… but that he sang' performed and gave his heart to a cause that has been in the forefront of the news lately – Hunger!

On the political front he was an important part of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977.

His efforts on behalf of all causes was the result of a self - propelling will to make a difference in this "world" with his life. He championed even small causes like a benefit concert for the Landmark Theater here in Syracuse, a thing he did twice.

Harry became an inspiration for hunger causes not only around the world but also because he worked to bring out the plight of the hungry here in the United States… A hunger that has not gone away but has gotten worse!!

I recently worked on a hunger study because of the cancellation of dollars for SNAP (food stamps –WIC) programs.  I was shocked to read the figures and I was shocked by the hypocrisy of politicians giving so many tax breaks and subsidies to "big" agriculture and ridiculously placing a humanitarian program in the same funding category.

One humorous thesis I read was - that if you own a home, a car and a color TV then you can afford to feed your children. 

!1-   Who really owns their own home?  Loans, insurance, and taxes on a fixed income...count for what here??? 

  2 – Car?  A good majority of the poor live in rural areas where an old car of any type is a necessity, needed not only to run around in… but to get to stores to buy food, to go to doctors, and to get to WORK since there is no real rural transportation! 

 3 – A color TV?  Everyone who has children or needs to be informed has a TV… people give them away for free… as they upgrade to huge flat screens!!

Chapin realized the importance of not only having events to raise money but to work to find the root causes of the problem so he affiliated with FOOD FIRST an organization that claims “abundance not scarcity best describes the world’s food supply“… for information visit their site... www.foodfirst.org.

I think it is high time the foolish politicians who fuel hateful remarks about the poor being lazy and worthless are voted out of office… and also that the people who foolishly believe all “poor and elderly on SS are takers”  get called out… Harry would have wanted it.

For his effort Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold medal for his work… and what interests me most is he carried a humanitarian message with him to his grave…  a message we should all heed and strive to achieve.  On his gravestone is carved his motto from one of his song “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World”:

Oh if man tried
To take his time on earth
And prove before he died
What one man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen to this World!

He died on July 16th 1981…too bad we don’t have him now to fight against politicians whose programs and greed promote hunger and poverty not eliminate it!

Listen to the songs and enjoy!






Saturday, November 23, 2013

My crazy week with my thoughts & singing Blood, Sweat and Tears...

This has been an exhaustive week for me.  Personal troubles... people with grudges who are too stubborn to listen to reason, mechanical difficulties, and people with money who are too cheap to help them self feel better and live safer!  There was animal abuse, child abuse, drug sellers in the area, reliving Kennedy’s death, chopping wood, no money, no gas, no minutes... and so I started singing Blood, Sweat and Tears….ME a folk music fan. 
I'm not scared of dying
… And I don't really care..
. If it's peace you find in dying
… Well, then let the time be near..
If it's peace you find in dying…
And if dying time is here…  just bundle up my coffin
'..Cause it's cold way down there
… I hear that it's cold way down there
... Yeah, crazy cold way down there.
I have friends and neighbors with serious troubles I wish I could help, my cat whose is sick that I may have to put down, Thanksgiving coming and a snow storm and fridgid cold arriving after my pellet stove quit in the middle of the night. 
So I spent the cold night and day tearing it up to fix it.  Found a rubber band in the pellets… a new bag!  It set up the auger… God I hate people who can’t do one job right!  Made me think of that old story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and I could have been Jabez Stone who sold his soul for prosperity!
Now troubles are many, they're as deep as a well… 
I can swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell…
Swear there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell
…But I'll never know by living, only my dying will tell
…Yes, only my dying will tell, yeah, only my dying will tell…
So I looked to the bright side.  I at least am free to continue to work.  I have two new books coming out this week - one a cookbook the other a Madison County History Coloring Book for young folk.  I have the knowledge to fix most anything I own… and a crazy group of friends who I drag along on this bumpy ride in life that I am “thankful for!”  So…
Give me my freedom for as long as I be
…All I ask of living is to have no chains on me…
All I ask of living is to have no chains on me…
And all I ask of dying is to go naturally… 
Oh, I want to go naturally…
So I guess it’s on to another week…
I hope you all have a good one!  I hope you stay home and enjoy your family and or friends.  If you are alone - I hope you enjoy remembering only the good and fun times.  If you are ill - I wish you good health.  To our soldiers - I hope you are safe. 
My life’s mantra has been “You can’t go back you can only go Forward…to wherever or whatever that is.”
Don't want to go by the devil..
. Don't want to go by demon… 
Don't want to go by Satan… 
Don't want to die uneasy… 
Just let me go naturally!
Life goes on… really it does - you can see it in the eyes of the children watching the parades on TV, old folk looking at the turkey and remembering good times when their children were children!
And when I die and when I'm dead, dead and gone
… There'll be one child born..
. In our world to carry on, to carry on!
Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Lyrics by Laura Nyro!!!!













Friday, November 22, 2013

Where were you when....Camelot ceased to exist?


Today is a day that time forgot.  We have one or two for every generation.  For my mother and father’s generation it was Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th, 1941… for mine it was November 22, 1963…the day President Kennedy was shot…  for those younger “9-11”.

For the most part people can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on the moment they found out that Kennedy was shot in Dallas. They can remember Cronkite on TV, sitting in school, walking with friends or just being shocked when someone on the street shouted ‘Did you hear...the President has been shot!”.

I remember how unfathomable it all was…President Kennedy shot dead!!!  Somehow I think that today this shock would not be so great… I think we have lost our innocence, our surprise at shootings and death!  How sad….

We will never really know what happened... or who really planned it... or if in fact it was a single crazy man’s idea to politically cleanse.  We do know however…that this scenario has become all to familiar whether at school shootings, street shootings, mall shootings, or just random acts of violence.  Murder has become out national way of life.  Yes it happened before...but before this there was no 24-hour coverage and continual barrage of information via the MEDIA!

I realize we can never go back… we can only go forward.    I just wish we could return to a simpler time… “Camelot”.. .when we talked about hope for a better “World” …sad it died with a bullet to our consciousness on November 22, 1963.











Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Local history and the Gettysburg Address


This is a sad and important week in America’s history.  It is certainly a well-remembered week for many history buffs and especially for the people of Gettysburg, PA.
A local man, Horatio Seymour a Utica native and Governor of the State of New York, was one of those privileged to hear in person one of America’s greatest speeches.  On November 19, 1863 he sat with 5 other northern state governors in Gettysburg, the speech to be delivered by President Lincoln at the dedication of the Gettysburg Cemetery.
This November 19th the speech called “The Gettysburg Address” became 150 years old.
The battle, which lasted three days, killed over 7,000 men and over 300 horses that lay on the ground decaying in the heat of July.  The battle had wounded another 40,000 or so men and the people of Gettysburg - that only numbered 2,400 had the ungodly job of burying the dead and burning the horse carcasses.
It is the people of Gettysburg, with an attorney David Wills, who petitioned the Governor of Pennsylvania to get federal funding to buy land (17 acres for $2,475) to turn into a final fitting-resting place for the fallen.  Throughout the ensuing months bodies were exhumed from the battlefield and buried in the nearby cemetery and on November 19th 1863, was the day it was to be dedicated.
The main orator was to be the famous Edward Everett delivering a 13,000 plus word oration, followed by music and then the President who delivered only 300 words. Those 300 words however, have lived forever, and to this day are quoted by many school children that have memorized it.
Lincoln’s purpose in the speech was to bring the importance of keeping the Union together and finishing the war as one “Nation” to the people. At this point in the war Lincoln had become unpopular as over a quarter of a million men died already and debate on the draft was raging.
 We are still one Union and the Gettysburg Address is indeed one of America's greatest speeches. 
*Of interest to us Madison County people is that Horatio Seymour was born in Pompey, New York and moved to Utica at 10 years old, his sister Clarissa married Ledyard Lincklaen her second cousin and lived her days out at Lorenzo in Cazenovia.

Listen to a recreation of the speech!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Veteran's Day, my dad and the Patriot's Dream...


National Cemetery in Elmira, NY

 On Veteran's day I always think of my dad Captain Domenic J. Messere who was a veteran.   Dad served in so many different capacities that it is unbelievable to me.  He was an original member of the 27th Infantry that was a Federal National Guard started in 1940.  He then was assigned to the 108th regular Army Infantry and Signal Corps in Europe, and then he went on to the 1301 Engineers with Patton and still on to the Pacific being in Japan’s waters when the surrender was signed. 

When he came back to the states he returned to the National Guard again.. this time with the 208th Tank Battalion serving as second in command of the Armory in Syracuse (This is the one I enjoyed)  eventually ending up in the Reitred Reserve attached to the 10th Mountain Division.

As a child I would go with him to when he visited the different Armories (Oswego-Rome-Oneida) when they had special occasions.  From his office in Syracuse I can remember looking down to the large room below and watching them drill and practice.

My favorite "Army" memory was the time my brother and I riding in a jeep with his Sargent driving ...at a parade in Syracuse where the Guard had set up communications…  We couldn’t believe we were in a jeep!

Dad also took us to Arlington Cemetery and this trip I will never forget.  Visiting the graves of men who had died some in battles he fought in.  Thousands and thousands of white markers in rows lying in the gleaming sun.

We saw the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers an occasion that brought tears and sadness to me.   To this day visiting a National Cemetery does the same thing.

Dad survived…but so many more didn’t.  600,000 died in the Civil War, thousands and thousands since… all in Wars to end all Wars, which of course can never end. 

It is human nature I guess.  People can’t get along with their associates or neighbors let alone with other countries and other cultures.

My dad’s ideas in spending time with us and in taking us traveling I think was not to make us rich… but to make us “Cosmopolitan”…  This word and view has been forgotten, but today it is a reality in our world that is shrinking because of media and fast transportation…Cosmopolitan – a person of the world – diverse – well traveled- cultured…  and understanding in depth the world around us not just our little corner of it.

Here is a video and a clip from a Gordon Lightfoot song I have always wanted to do a video of..maybe I will some day.. 

The songs of the Wars are as old as the hills, 
they cling like the rust on the cold steel that kills
they tell of the boys who went down to the tracks...
in a Patriot manner with the cold steel on their backs..

Listen to the words...it is a trilogy of sorts so follow it to the end..written during the Viet Nam era..it is a treasure telling the truth..straight out..not a protest...














Monday, November 4, 2013

November 5th..an election day & the birthday of Leonard Slye!


Its Election Day, November 5th a date that has a ton of history attached to it… everything from  Woodrow Wilson and Ulyssus Grant being elected President, to Susan B. Anthony casting the first women's vote..  To me however…the best piece of history for this day (in this crazy world) is an escape into the past…. November 5th is the Birthday of Leonard Slye!

Leonard Slye came from a poor hard working family.  He was born on this day in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1911, to unusual parents who at one point moved by building a houseboat and floating to another place.  Fate literally carried them and the houseboat to a piece of property that they bought.  When a flood occurred it floated their houseboat on to the property and instead of building a house, and they lived in it.

Leonard and his father worked driving trucks, worked in a shoe factory, or did anything they could find as the Great Depression took its toll on whole families including theirs.  When his sister Mary married and moved to California, the rest of the Slye family followed.  Len decided to become a singer and joined a group of men who sang at the different local camps filled with people camping and picking fruits and vegetables, families just trying to survive.  In later years he was often quoted as saying that the movie and book “Grapes of Wrath” was a true portrayal of the times he lived in… in every way.

He broke into the movies playing a cowboy in Gene Autrey films until one year Autrey pulled out his contract.  So here an opportunity arose… and with the help of Will Rodgers he was renamed Roy Rogers and became a star. 

From there he gained fame with recordings with his music group The Sons of the Pioneers. He stared in 100 movies, becoming a Radio Star, and Television Star.  His marriage to Dale Evans took him, her, his horse Trigger and German Shepard dog Bullet into the hearts and homes of every family in America.

As a humanitarian he supported all types of causes for children becoming a Shriner and Mason.  To this day his name evokes a kind of smile at what America idolized and what its children longed to be…. a cowboy or a cowgirl.  When we grew up, many of us wanted to own a horse and to ride into the sunset to strains of “Happy Trails to You!”
Sing Along America!









Sunday, November 3, 2013

Floods, Madison County Archives & history, and Voting!


My driveway the river!

Well what a WEEK or so!  Everything that could go wrong has.  I have gone broke going to the hospital in Syracuse from here in Eaton... to see a friend...  and the parking Garage fees.... YIKES.

The political makeup of this time of year has gone from low key to bizarre and has used up all of the minutes on my phone...so I am minuteless as well!  Is minuteless a word????

The truth of the matter is politics in Madison County is as far from reality and you can go.  Many of the small races in the towns are what we call "un-opposed”.  In other words you have NO CHOICE!  In my town the most important part of the race is un-opposed… Highway Department head.  My issue with him is not having the culverts cleaned on this street that I live on for all these years, and my peeve was watching the town truck slowly go by looking at us fools trying to pump the floodwater out of our lives.  Not once… but twice this year.  I guess the flooding was just an... Oh Well in Eaton!

The ditch is still not dug...so for old Back Street Mary it will be back to the shovel time....

The only candidate I truly know and care about is Denise Roe… who is running for the job she has actually been doing for eight years as the Deputy Madison County Clerk.

Denise and I met when I was the Historian for Madison County and we started the “Archives Project".  The project mushroomed into scanning, saving, cleaning, organizing and going forward into the computer world with Madison County's business and history.

Denise and one of our "history Stars" Pat Utter
This was an awesome challenge that required for the history preservation - volunteers, grants, and ingenuity... The result is amazing and today Denise is on the NYS Advisory Board for Region 6.

As Deputy County Clerk she has had to work to manage, preserve records, and make them available to the public...  records that include land records, court records, DMV and passport service, business records and Governmentally required records.

Add to that the coordination of the personnel in the office, participation with people interested in accessing records for genealogical purposes, and taking care of the vast financial responsibilities of the office, and you have a job description of a very important public servant.

The other odd reason I will vote for Denise is I am tight with my tax buck!!!!  Yes money!!!  I refuse to pay for someone to learn a job that someone is doing well and has been doing well for 8 years...  That is why the Deputy Clerks eventually become Clerks.

So that is it for politics for me... I ran once and the candidate I ran against had never been elected...she was appointed to the position when the town supervisor resigned and never had an opponent!  So I ran...everyone should!

And the supervisors race…that is another story. I suspect a good number of them run to get insurance...10 years on in this part-time job…and free insurance for life!!!!! What a deal!

So get out and vote…it is our job as a citizen…even if at times we have few good choices. "Denise Roe is a Good Choice!"