Fiatlux Redux

Background and Experience

Your editor is B. J. Fine, product of the Great Depression (1929), that moment in American history when the American economic system hit bottom and people who were financially ruined were jumping out of windows or off of rooftops. My parents were so poor at the time that they couldn't be financially ruined.

My father was a food distributor with one small truck. He wholesaled food products to grocery stores. The stores then were small neighborhood Mom and Pop operations. No self-service. No super markets. Mom or Pop would "wait" on you while engaging you in conversations about neighborhood events or your or their families. Shopping was a social event. The grocer was your neighbor.

When I was 8, I started going with my dad on his routes during summer vacations. There were days when we would be gone from 7 A.M. until 7 P.M. and come home with less than ten dollars. From that, my dad had to buy gas for the truck, feed the family and pay the rent. I was an only child, skinny and didn't eat much, so that probably helped. I mention this to indicate that I know something about being poor and scrounging for a living and what kind of man (or woman) it is who gets up every workday and uncomplainingly goes out again and again to support a family with little reward and not much chance for betterment. I also know others have had it worse, much worse, but I feel that you can trust me when I talk about poverty, joblessness and working people.

When I was 11 years old I got a strep throat. There were no antibiotics, so I was in bed for four months and barely survived. That experience plus having a mother and two wives who had cancer plus working as I did in a military-medical setting for twenty years has left me with much insight into illness, hospitals, nurses, physicians, the costs and quality of medical treatment and the need for better medical insurance coverage for everyone. Again, there are many people with worse experiences than mine, but I feel that you can trust me when I talk about the medical establishment, health insurance and medical coverage.

The first President I voted for was Franklin D. Roosevelt. In my opinion, our presidency has been going downhill since Roosevelt. His concern for the people, his ability to communicate effectively and his fortitude in the face of serious personal debilitation all impressed me deeply. There's been nothing like it since FDR. He had shortcomings, many of them, but a comparison of FDR with other presidents in my lifetime, especially Reagan, the two Bushes, Clinton and Nixon is like comparing some of our present ball players with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio. You really had to be there to appreciate FDR's leadership. I was.

I know that others have worked harder physically than I, but I do know what hard work is. When I was 16, my father got me a summer job at the Springfield (MA) Armory where the Garand Rifle was manufactured. I worked in the shop where crates for shipping the rifles were made. I was on the 3-11 shift, six days a week, either behind a large, noisy machine retrieving parts or handling large, very heavy crates. It was a life-defining experience, both because I knew that I was really contributing to the war effort and because I was the only lad midst a large group of older, experienced men. I learned what hard work was and what blue-collar workers were like. That experience and visiting the grocery stores with my father gave me insight into the meaning and importance of cultural diversity and differences between individuals. I became acquainted with Italians, Greeks, Poles, French, Germans and other nationalities. I could sense with eyes and ears the different cultures through the contents of their stores and their stories, how they spoke and gestured, their jokes, the way they expressed sadness and joy, and, even with my nose, the different odors of the food in their stores. I could see that most people brought something different and fine and good to the table. I became aware that they all trusted my father and that he thought the world of them. His customers were his life. Thus, when I talk about the importance of diversity and the possibility of all sorts of people getting along together, I have seen it in action. Trust me. It's America at its best.

The following summer I worked in the U. S. Post Office as a substitute letter carrier, having had that experience during two previous Christmas vacations. The job provided me with insight into the workings of the Postal Service and acquaintance with lower middle-class men, mailmen, who in those days trudged their long routes in rain or shine, two trips a day, sometimes three on business routes. Regardless of the weather, the mail always got through or someone (perhaps the Postmaster himself) would let you know about it. The job help me learn to persist, to achieve goals, to live up to standards and to appreciate how dedicated some people can be.

I was drafted into the Army in February, 1945. This was primarily a drafted army. I was 18 and trained not only with kids like myself, but with men over 35 who had left families behind. I soon noted the caring on the part of many of the older men for us kids. I learned from that. Roosevelt died during my Basic Training and Harry Truman became President. I probably owe my life to Harry Truman. He ordered that no 18 year olds would see combat. The war in Europe was over in May of 1945, but the war in the Pacific was still on and I had expected to be sent there after basic training to be part of an invasion of Japan. However, my birthday was in November, so I was still 18, too young to be cannon fodder. So us "kids" were sent for advanced infantry training where, for 6 weeks, we practiced assaulting mock Japanese villages. At the end of training, we were real killers ready to go. Because I had earned a sharpshooters medal, I knew what my job would be and that I was a probable goner. Believe me, I know what it's like to be transformed from a rather blank, "air-head" high school kid into a rather blank "air-head" trained killer in a few months.

Immediately after finishing advanced basic training, in August 1945, I was on a ship headed for what we knew was the invasion of Japan. However, I wouldn't be 19 and fit to be cannon fodder until November. The silly thought occurred to me that maybe they were going to attack Japan according to the birth order of the troops. The older guys with families first and then the kids according to their date of birth, but then Truman dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war was over. I missed what would have been a truly horrific combat experience by only a matter of days or weeks. The morality of the act of dropping the bombs and the consequent saving of American soldier's lives at the expense of so many thousands of Japanese lives has ever since been a nagging point in my mind. The trained killer was left without anything to kill. I felt relieved that I didn't have to go into combat yet curious about what it would have been like. Probably because of that, I've read widely about the war in Europe and the Pacific, particularly with regard to personal combat, wondering how I would have fared. I've read the bloodiest accounts of war that I could find and even read books on the Surgery of Battle Wounds, with their graphic photographs of war-related injuries, to see what that was like. That and my subsequent work experience with the military, including many combat vets, coupled with a very vivid imagination have enabled me to in a sense re-live the combat experiences of others. Believe me, I'm fully aware that one has to be there to know what combat is really like. I'm not so foolish as to think that I can imagine actual combat experience, but I think I come closer than most people. I then spent 3 weeks in the Philippine Islands and a week or so in Okinawa and ultimately landed in Korea as part of the first U.S. troops liberating that country from the Japanese. I had no combat experience, but did live through two typhoons, one while camped on a beach in Okinawa (fortunately no tidal wave) and another while on a ship headed for Korea. Being in mid-ocean on a large ship that literally was rolling from rail to rail, 24 hours a day for 4-5 days had it's own horror. I'd rather take my chances in combat on land than experience that again.

I landed in Korea as an infantry replacement in the 40th Division. I then had the opportunity to join the Division Band, having had previous musical training. By the time I left Korea, in 14 months, I had been transferred to 24th Corps. and became leader of the larger 282nd Army Ground Forces Band. I returned to the states and started college, earning a B.S. in Business Administration, a M.S. in Public Relations, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology. Next came a job at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. facility in Natick, MA. as a research scientist. I remained at Natick until retiring in 1993. I was fortunate there because the Natick facility reorganized many times over the years and offered many opportunities to advance my career without relocating. For the latter part of my career, I worked at the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine where I rose to a position of a Senior Scientist. During this period, I was responsible for research on soldier's abilities to perform their jobs under adverse conditions while wearing Chemical and Biological Protective Clothing and became an expert in that area. My interests focused primarily on perception, cognition and differences between soldiers in the ability to perform under stress. Much of the research was interdisciplinary, involving physiology, medicine, biochemistry and biophysics in addition to psychology.. For 38 years, until my retirement, I worked with and among young soldiers every working day. I emphasize this because I want you to know that I know a great deal and care a great deal about soldiers. . . your children. I have a better knowledge than most people in or out of the military about what our soldiers are like and how they will or will not perform in stressful situations. My research has been with a variety of troops including Special Forces, 82nd Airborne, Army Security Agency, Rangers, and support troops such as Headquarters, Transportation, Medical, and Supply. I also have 38 years experience interacting with military officers, both junior and senior. I have nearly 100 publications in scientific journals and am a Fellow in three major scientific organizations. Trust me, then, when I write about the military and understand why I feel that those who are advocates for war should know what that experience and its consequences are like before they commit to sending their own and other people's children to participate in one. Trust me, as well, when I write about science and research and human behavior. Those areas have been my working life.

In other aspects of my life, I have been a professional musician, a concert presenter (18 years), president of a church and president of the board of trustees of a town library as well as a member of many professional organizations and have served as a volunteer on local community committees and projects and in a hospital.

I apologize for the long bio, but because Fiat Lux stands for honesty and openness, I want you to know about my background, including the military, unlike many politicians and commentators who decline to discuss their own backgrounds in detail. Of greater importance, I want you to understand that all of my experience over a long period of time leads me to believe that our country now is in serious trouble. Our major threat is not terrorism but ourselves. I believe that patriotism in a democracy is not based on blindly following a leader. I believe that being a patriot is not so simple as supporting the President whether he is right or wrong. I believe that blindly following a leader because he is charming, good-looking or acts macho is unpatriotic and immoral. I believe that blindly advocating war for your country without knowing the circumstances and consequences of it is unpatriotic and immoral. Those are the paths of ignorance and when followed have always led to disaster. Those are the paths followed in dictatorships.

Democracy is not a given. You have to learn it and earn it. That's why it is so difficult to foist democracy onto countries that haven't experienced it. They are not given the time or encouragement to learn it and earn it. There are no short cuts. We have to become informed about the many issues that confront us as citizens. The only way to become informed is to work at it. We have to read, ask questions, discuss, study, learn. We have to want to know what really is going on, what the problems are, before we can do something about them. And then we have to do that something . . . speak out and let our voices be heard. Above all, at this time we have to learn to question authority.

Why so?

Because there are far too many con men and women among us now who can look us in the eye and smile while, at the same time, they exploit and hustle us. These folks have a hidden agenda and are spinning out of control. They have been and still are conning us out of our livelihoods, our happiness, and our own and our children's lives and futures. They do this to enhance their own egos and/or achieve their personal economic and political goals, most of which are not consistent with the democratic values most of us cherish. I believe that we pretty much have reached the limit. I believe that we the people do not exist to make fortunes for the rich nor for bringing business to Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown and Root or the Carlyle Group. I believe that We The People do not exist to furnish cannon fodder for military misadventures dreamt up by pretentious, egotistical ideologues who make false claims about being in the service of God or of all humanity. We The People do not exist to be trickled down to, talked down to, lied to, manipulated, exploited, gouged, subjugated and stifled by corporate greed or to have our environments poisoned and our children denied decent educations while being told that all is well. It's time that WE THE PEOPLE, ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE do something about it WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, not just for the select few, but FOR ALL, regardless of race, creed, gender, national origin or social or economic position. It is time for us to fight for our Democracy, together, now, before we lose it.

Enjoy the Site.

			Background and Experience Your editor is B. J. Fine, product of the Great Depression (1929), that moment in American history when the American economic system hit bottom and people who were financially ruined were jumping out of windows or off of rooftops. My parents were so poor at the time that they couldn't be financially ruined. My father was a food distributor with one small truck. He wholesaled food products to grocery stores. The stores then were small neighborhood Mom and Pop operations. No self-service. No super markets. Mom or Pop would "wait" on you while engaging you in conversations about neighborhood events or your or their families. Shopping was a social event. The grocer was your neighbor. When I was 8, I started going with my dad on his routes during summer vacations. There were days when we would be gone from 7 A.M. until 7 P.M. and come home with less than ten dollars. From that, my dad had to buy gas for the truck, feed the family and pay the rent. I was an only child, skinny and didn't eat much, so that probably helped. I mention this to indicate that I know something about being poor and scrounging for a living and what kind of man (or woman) it is who gets up every workday and uncomplainingly goes out again and again to support a family with little reward and not much chance for betterment. I also know others have had it worse, much worse, but I feel that you can trust me when I talk about poverty, joblessness and working people. When I was 11 years old I got a strep throat. There were no antibiotics, so I was in bed for four months and barely survived. That experience plus having a mother and two wives who had cancer plus working as I did in a military-medical setting for twenty years has left me with much insight into illness, hospitals, nurses, physicians, the costs and quality of medical treatment and the need for better medical insurance coverage for everyone. Again, there are many people with worse experiences than mine, but I feel that you can trust me when I talk about the medical establishment, health insurance and medical coverage. The first President I voted for was Franklin D. Roosevelt. In my opinion, our presidency has been going downhill since Roosevelt. His concern for the people, his ability to communicate effectively and his fortitude in the face of serious personal debilitation all impressed me deeply. There's been nothing like it since FDR. He had shortcomings, many of them, but a comparison of FDR with other presidents in my lifetime, especially Reagan, the two Bushes, Clinton and Nixon is like comparing some of our present ball players with Babe Ruth, Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio. You really had to be there to appreciate FDR's leadership. I was. I know that others have worked harder physically than I, but I do know what hard work is. When I was 16, my father got me a summer job at the Springfield (MA) Armory where the Garand Rifle was manufactured. I worked in the shop where crates for shipping the rifles were made. I was on the 3-11 shift, six days a week, either behind a large, noisy machine retrieving parts or handling large, very heavy crates. It was a life-defining experience, both because I knew that I was really contributing to the war effort and because I was the only lad midst a large group of older, experienced men. I learned what hard work was and what blue-collar workers were like. That experience and visiting the grocery stores with my father gave me insight into the meaning and importance of cultural diversity and differences between individuals. I became acquainted with Italians, Greeks, Poles, French, Germans and other nationalities. I could sense with eyes and ears the different cultures through the contents of their stores and their stories, how they spoke and gestured, their jokes, the way they expressed sadness and joy, and, even with my nose, the different odors of the food in their stores. I could see that most people brought something different and fine and good to the table. I became aware that they all trusted my father and that he thought the world of them. His customers were his life. Thus, when I talk about the importance of diversity and the possibility of all sorts of people getting along together, I have seen it in action. Trust me. It's America at its best. The following summer I worked in the U. S. Post Office as a substitute letter carrier, having had that experience during two previous Christmas vacations. The job provided me with insight into the workings of the Postal Service and acquaintance with lower middle-class men, mailmen, who in those days trudged their long routes in rain or shine, two trips a day, sometimes three on business routes. Regardless of the weather, the mail always got through or someone (perhaps the Postmaster himself) would let you know about it. The job help me learn to persist, to achieve goals, to live up to standards and to appreciate how dedicated some people can be. I was drafted into the Army in February, 1945. This was primarily a drafted army. I was 18 and trained not only with kids like myself, but with men over 35 who had left families behind. I soon noted the caring on the part of many of the older men for us kids. I learned from that. Roosevelt died during my Basic Training and Harry Truman became President. I probably owe my life to Harry Truman. He ordered that no 18 year olds would see combat. The war in Europe was over in May of 1945, but the war in the Pacific was still on and I had expected to be sent there after basic training to be part of an invasion of Japan. However, my birthday was in November, so I was still 18, too young to be cannon fodder. So us "kids" were sent for advanced infantry training where, for 6 weeks, we practiced assaulting mock Japanese villages. At the end of training, we were real killers ready to go. Because I had earned a sharpshooters medal, I knew what my job would be and that I was a probable goner. Believe me, I know what it's like to be transformed from a rather blank, "air-head" high school kid into a rather blank "air-head" trained killer in a few months. Immediately after finishing advanced basic training, in August 1945, I was on a ship headed for what we knew was the invasion of Japan. However, I wouldn't be 19 and fit to be cannon fodder until November. The silly thought occurred to me that maybe they were going to attack Japan according to the birth order of the troops. The older guys with families first and then the kids according to their date of birth, but then Truman dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war was over. I missed what would have been a truly horrific combat experience by only a matter of days or weeks. The morality of the act of dropping the bombs and the consequent saving of American soldier's lives at the expense of so many thousands of Japanese lives has ever since been a nagging point in my mind. The trained killer was left without anything to kill. I felt relieved that I didn't have to go into combat yet curious about what it would have been like. Probably because of that, I've read widely about the war in Europe and the Pacific, particularly with regard to personal combat, wondering how I would have fared. I've read the bloodiest accounts of war that I could find and even read books on the Surgery of Battle Wounds, with their graphic photographs of war-related injuries, to see what that was like. That and my subsequent work experience with the military, including many combat vets, coupled with a very vivid imagination have enabled me to in a sense re-live the combat experiences of others. Believe me, I'm fully aware that one has to be there to know what combat is really like. I'm not so foolish as to think that I can imagine actual combat experience, but I think I come closer than most people. I then spent 3 weeks in the Philippine Islands and a week or so in Okinawa and ultimately landed in Korea as part of the first U.S. troops liberating that country from the Japanese. I had no combat experience, but did live through two typhoons, one while camped on a beach in Okinawa (fortunately no tidal wave) and another while on a ship headed for Korea. Being in mid-ocean on a large ship that literally was rolling from rail to rail, 24 hours a day for 4-5 days had it's own horror. I'd rather take my chances in combat on land than experience that again. I landed in Korea as an infantry replacement in the 40th Division. I then had the opportunity to join the Division Band, having had previous musical training. By the time I left Korea, in 14 months, I had been transferred to 24th Corps. and became leader of the larger 282nd Army Ground Forces Band. I returned to the states and started college, earning a B.S. in Business Administration, a M.S. in Public Relations, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology. Next came a job at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. facility in Natick, MA. as a research scientist. I remained at Natick until retiring in 1993. I was fortunate there because the Natick facility reorganized many times over the years and offered many opportunities to advance my career without relocating. For the latter part of my career, I worked at the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine where I rose to a position of a Senior Scientist. During this period, I was responsible for research on soldier's abilities to perform their jobs under adverse conditions while wearing Chemical and Biological Protective Clothing and became an expert in that area. My interests focused primarily on perception, cognition and differences between soldiers in the ability to perform under stress. Much of the research was interdisciplinary, involving physiology, medicine, biochemistry and biophysics in addition to psychology.. For 38 years, until my retirement, I worked with and among young soldiers every working day. I emphasize this because I want you to know that I know a great deal and care a great deal about soldiers. . . your children. I have a better knowledge than most people in or out of the military about what our soldiers are like and how they will or will not perform in stressful situations. My research has been with a variety of troops including Special Forces, 82nd Airborne, Army Security Agency, Rangers, and support troops such as Headquarters, Transportation, Medical, and Supply. I also have 38 years experience interacting with military officers, both junior and senior. I have nearly 100 publications in scientific journals and am a Fellow in three major scientific organizations. Trust me, then, when I write about the military and understand why I feel that those who are advocates for war should know what that experience and its consequences are like before they commit to sending their own and other people's children to participate in one. Trust me, as well, when I write about science and research and human behavior. Those areas have been my working life. In other aspects of my life, I have been a professional musician, a concert presenter (18 years), president of a church and president of the board of trustees of a town library as well as a member of many professional organizations and have served as a volunteer on local community committees and projects and in a hospital. I apologize for the long bio, but because Fiat Lux stands for honesty and openness, I want you to know about my background, including the military, unlike many politicians and commentators who decline to discuss their own backgrounds in detail. Of greater importance, I want you to understand that all of my experience over a long period of time leads me to believe that our country now is in serious trouble. Our major threat is not terrorism but ourselves. I believe that patriotism in a democracy is not based on blindly following a leader. I believe that being a patriot is not so simple as supporting the President whether he is right or wrong. I believe that blindly following a leader because he is charming, good-looking or acts macho is unpatriotic and immoral. I believe that blindly advocating war for your country without knowing the circumstances and consequences of it is unpatriotic and immoral. Those are the paths of ignorance and when followed have always led to disaster. Those are the paths followed in dictatorships. Democracy is not a given. You have to learn it and earn it. That's why it is so difficult to foist democracy onto countries that haven't experienced it. They are not given the time or encouragement to learn it and earn it. There are no short cuts. We have to become informed about the many issues that confront us as citizens. The only way to become informed is to work at it. We have to read, ask questions, discuss, study, learn. We have to want to know what really is going on, what the problems are, before we can do something about them. And then we have to do that something . . . speak out and let our voices be heard. Above all, at this time we have to learn to question authority. Why so? Because there are far too many con men and women among us now who can look us in the eye and smile while, at the same time, they exploit and hustle us. These folks have a hidden agenda and are spinning out of control. They have been and still are conning us out of our livelihoods, our happiness, and our own and our children's lives and futures. They do this to enhance their own egos and/or achieve their personal economic and political goals, most of which are not consistent with the democratic values most of us cherish. I believe that we pretty much have reached the limit. I believe that we the people do not exist to make fortunes for the rich nor for bringing business to Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown and Root or the Carlyle Group. I believe that We The People do not exist to furnish cannon fodder for military misadventures dreamt up by pretentious, egotistical ideologues who make false claims about being in the service of God or of all humanity. We The People do not exist to be trickled down to, talked down to, lied to, manipulated, exploited, gouged, subjugated and stifled by corporate greed or to have our environments poisoned and our children denied decent educations while being told that all is well. It's time that WE THE PEOPLE, ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE do something about it WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, not just for the select few, but FOR ALL, regardless of race, creed, gender, national origin or social or economic position. It is time for us to fight for our Democracy, together, now, before we lose it. Enjoy the Site.
		Home About Us Fair Use Past Issues Reality Show Archives Links Contact Us © Fiat Lux 2004 - 2005