COME SPRING

 Author's note: April being  National Poetry Month, this poem was one of several selected for posting on the sweet spot, April 30, on yourdailypoem.com.

COME SPRING

by Edward Hujsak

If, my father muttered,
I am still among the living,
Come Spring,
We'll plow the far corner,
Where the power lines run,
And plant barley.
I nodded, knowing
the job would be mine,
a bit reluctantly,
Because robins fed there
And nested nearby.

GREATEST NATION

(Author’s note: Trill is a fictional female acquaintance who with her questions makes it possible for me to write in a style that is for me both different and comfortable. )

My Dear Trill,

      Years ago you amazed me, writing of your adventure riding an elephant through the Khyber Pass. I don’t think you could do that safely now. And now you write of your recent travel adventure to the Antarctic and falling into the water when you leaped from the boat to the pier. You might have chosen a warmer place for a swim!

       Now you ask my opinion on a subject where I’m not an expert by a long shot, but nevertheless do think I have some answers.......some of which would however certainly be questioned by experts. As a  non-specialist, I am in the class of people about whom Murray Gel Mann of the Santa Fe Institute states: “ they dare to take a crude look at the whole.”   You do ask sweeping questions. This time, “What makes you think America is the greatest nation?” merits more than a glib response, and I will try to take you along a road that leads to that conclusion.

      You have to go way back in human history, before the last ice age, when humans were still what we describe as hunter gatherers. They were inherently people of courage, women as well as the men. They survived in two ways, by hunting, drawn in whatever direction the hunting was good, and by following the herds, living in a kind of symbiosis, with a constant source of meat, milk, and hides for clothing. Humans lived this way for thousands of years, survived the ice age and continued for thousands more. A simple calculation tells you that if they moved only ten miles a year, the whole of Earth could have been populated in a thousand years.

        These people were resourceful, but inventive only to the extent that they could do their simple things better..... improved cutting and killing devices, hide preservation, stitching technique. As nomads, what they created and possessed was constrained to what they could carry in their frequent moves. From cave drawings, ornaments, decorations on tools, there is evidence aplenty that they were both sensitive and communal. But like the Gypsies of today, their creativity was limited by the need to move on, daily or seasonally.

         After the ice age things began to change in the populated regions of North Africa and around the Mediterranean that allowed people to stay generally in the same geographic area. Jacob Bronowski writes about this in his seminal book, The Ascent of Man. He tells about the appearance of a strain of wheat that was “a happy conjunction of natural and human events that created agriculture.” It reads like a fairy tale in which a genetic accident crossed goat grass and wild wheat grass to produce a hybrid called Emmer. Emmer spread with the wind, like other grasses. In a second accident Emmer crossed with goat grass again and produced a species we call bread wheat. The beauty was that bread wheat couldn’t be propagated by the wind. It had to be harvested by man to survive, and now, as an agrarian, man had to spread the seeds for his own survival.

That changed the nature of civilization. People could settle in one area and grow culturally and economically. They could think and invent and learn and build. There was still movement, but no longer driven by the need to hunt. Over-population pressures were likely one of the drivers, causing braver elements to move on. In a way, that was nature’s way of upgrading humanity, and that may be key to the idea I am trying to develop.        

Archeologists and historians tell us that the western hemisphere got populated by a migration across the Bering Straits, possibly when the ice age had lowered the ocean levels, into Alaska and then moving south, across the northern continent and further south into Mexico and South America. It is summed up as the Clovis model, after the discovery of tools that go back as far as 13,500 years ago near Clovis, New Mexico. For eighty years, this idea got cemented into place. Recent discoveries of tools at the tip of South America, and also in North America have thrown everything into question. North and South America may have been occupied by humans before the last ice age.  

While in North America they evolved as Indian tribes and remained more or less nomadic. Further south great civilizations evolved, beginning with the Olmecs and later evolving into Mayan, Incan and Aztec populations. How they started is still something of a mystery, but it is more than just a matter of conjecture that each was begun by the braver souls of the societies. So we see the Olmecs develop a startling civilization around 1500 BC and ending around 400 BC. There is something curious about the Olmecs. There seems to be no North American archeological progression from primitive tools to the exquisite artifacts that have thus far been discovered from the Olmec civilization. Although Archeologists have still have little clue regarding the origin of the Olmecs, opinions exist that they originated in Europe, or possibly North Africa. Current scientific opinion is negative on this possibility, based on  DNA studies.  But as we have just observed with the Clovis model, scientific conclusions can be absolutely right until new information proves them wrong.

It seems not too big a stretch, considering the superb quality of artifacts that have been dug up. And why not? By 1500 BC humans were skilfully navigating the Mediterranean. The same boats could easily cross the Atlantic. And coincidentally it was a time when the Pharoahs finally brought the territories around the Nile under stiff rule. In that situation, dissidents who otherwise might have face death could have opted instead to head west. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it, when one considers that the English who landed in Plymouth in 1620 were Brownist dissenters, looking for a place where they could worship freely. I like to imagine that there were craftsmen, builders, toolmakers and architects among them. The structures of those earlier western civilizations are similar to those in Egypt. Differences  have their counterpart in present day building, with architects constantly trying new designs, though still constrained to materials and methods at hand.

America became great because it was largely created out of  populations and cultures  that represented the best from the regions from which they came. Men and women of incredible courage, vision, ambition and ability.
      
      Will Great Nation status continue? It is possible as the country continues to attract persons of great talent (expand). But on the other hand, as it has provided opportunity for some individuals and corporations to acquire great wealth, it has also left doors open for them to pervert the system, buying politicians who were elected to represent the people and subverting them into passage of legislation, or aborting needed legislation in manners that suit their particular desires and interests. This is very bad for the nation as it signals a passage of representative government into an era where a nobility rules and the rest of the people are there to serve and service them. Past experience, highlighted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, showed clearly the inhumanity of such social structures.

EDUCATORS

    Years of observation and a number of acquaintances in different fields in the community have led me to conclude that academics are by-and-large strongly egocentric, to a degree not typical of other professions. And why not? They teach, which automatically places them a notch above. It has been so since the heyday of the Greeks and the Romans, and even before that, extending to the present to tribal leaders and witch doctors.    
    Whether this is the best situation for the student, who arguably has priority over the other pursuits that occupy academics, such as publishing and research, invites examination. That privilege has a negative aspect in that it leads to hiring of low-paid  adjunct professors to do the lecturing and conducting examinations (Something like hiring Mexicans to do stoop labor).
    Academics have other advantages. The air of superiority that characterizes the egocentric favors facing a compliant, timid, if not  fearful, student body. And that environment is easily come by.
    No one informs the student, before entering college, how to manage their relationship with their teachers in order to get the most benefit from every moment of their attendance there.
     When my grandson was about to enter a university, I took him  aside and proceeded to offer this advice: First and foremost, be fearless, but courteous. Your teachers are paid to work for you, so take advantage of that fact and make the most of it. Make them come through. Get them to know you. Ask questions. Whenever possible, draw them into conversation. Timidity makes life easy for them and you come out the loser. Look for, and take advantage of opportunities they may be aware of, take them on and perform them professionally. The payoff could be substantial, and  incidentally you help the professor become a better one.
    In my grandson’s case this worked especially well, if graduating magna cum laude  from the university, and a subsequent four-year grant from the National Science Foundation for a fully paid doctorate program are any measure.
    It may be  that improved quality of teaching is an outgrowth of closer teacher/student relationship rather than administratively designed and  imposed protocol. If so, everyone wins. It’s clear though, student preparation  for interaction with academics deserves  more  attention far in advance of entering college.

HADLEY'S DEMONS- - A SHORT STORY

by Edward Hujsak

A thirty-year career in nano-engineering finally ended with Hadley retiring to the small town of Perryville, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi. He settled into a comfortable, nondescript cottage with a dog and two cats. It was not the house.... any house would do.... it was the large, clean workshop to the rear of the cottage which would do very well for a laboratory that determined his choice of residence. Over the years Hadley had acquired a collection of excellent surplus scientific equipment, all obsolete in the fast moving nano-technology field, but well suited to the tinkering he hoped to engage in. In short order he had the laboratory furnished and up and running.
Hadley’s single great achievement, although he kept it secret, was a method of extracting carbon from the atmosphere. Using the sun’s energy and a self replicating nitrile trigger molecule he developed, carbon dioxide molecules could be coaxed into releasing their oxygen to the atmosphere. In the process the carbon atoms then attached themselves to each other in three dimensional lattices that grew endlessly, as rapidly as they could attract passing carbon dioxide molecules. That was the job of the wind and natural air circulation. Hadley’s early experiments revealed that the process begins with a stalagmite growth so thin it was invisible to the eye. A person could be impaled if he tripped over it. Had he survived an upcoming disaster, he would have realized his vision of its growth as a single enormous crystal, cylindrical in shape, diamond hard, nearly indestructible and ultimately growing to hundreds of meters in diameter and kilometers in height. Depending on availability of the triggering molecules, the pillars could appear in countless numbers. They could appear anywhere on Earth.
Hadley was an ethical man. He was keenly aware that the process was a one-way phenomenon. The carbon structures would grow to enormous dimensions with nothing to stop the growth until the carbon dioxide source was depleted. Needless to say, this would ultimately be fatal to plant and animal life. Until he developed a control method that would stop the process when atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide dropped to acceptable levels, he resolved that the secret would remain with him, even should he die. Meantime, a lone black flask from his original experiments, containing trillions of trigger molecules, remained tightly sealed. It sat in a locked cupboard above a bench in his laboratory workshop.
By 2050 the dire predictions for uncomfortable living on Earth that were projected to occur by the end of the twenty-first century were already being realized. Scientists pointed to the awe- some power of positive feedback. Efforts to reverse carbon presence in the atmosphere had failed miserably. In fact the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide more than quadrupled since the turn of the century. Hot weather, violent storms, flooding of lowlands, ice cap melting and sea level rise were all consequences. Loss of life, starvation and human misery compared with nothing that had ever happened in human history. The International Gallup human misery index, defined as the spread between rates of change of births and deaths as established by the United Nations and instituted in 2020, was rising at an alarming ten percent per year.

Hadley was concerned with the urgency of doing something. Still, he balked at the thought of re- leasing his discovery until he could find a way to shut down the trigger molecule.
The dilemma was resolved by a perverse act of nature. Around midnight on a summer’s night a mile-wide tornado swept across Perryville, reducing the entire town to rubble. Hadley died as the winds reduced his cottage to kindling. Behind his home, the walls and roof of his laboratory were sucked high up into the whirlwind. When they dropped to the ground the flask containing Hadley’s trigger molecules shattered. Its contents were then swept up by the winds and carried to far places over the surrounding country, and even up into the jet stream that carried them into lands abroad.
The jet black, cylindrical stalagmites were first viewed as an oddity. They generated scattered opinions regarding their origin. Materials scientists guardedly offered to the public only that it was something nearly as hard as diamond, but strangely did not contain the trace elements common to diamond. The presence of the trigger molecule escaped them, as samples were meticulously cleaned for analyses, eliminating their presence. Some offered as pure speculation that something new had rained in from outer space. That was followed by what was at first considered an absurd speculation that as an absorber of carbon, the stalagmites may be just the device needed to reduce the carbon concentration in the atmosphere. That soon became more fact than speculation, as carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere grew perceptibly lower every year.
The casual observation that the pillars came from space was sufficient to kick off a unity of perspective from every religion around the world. The stalagmites were sent by God to save the planet. The objects, rapidly growing to exceed in size most man-made structures, became religious shrines. The most frequently visited were the kilometer high, two hundred meter diameter cylinders that rose in New York City’s Central Park, Beijing and Los Angeles.
When the news was revealed that carbon dioxide concentration had finally dropped to the comfortable levels experienced in mid-twentieth century there were huge celebrations. Then the bad news struck. There was no stopping carbon absorption by the carbon spires. Hadley’s pillars had reached the point that he had feared. Unless the absorption process was stopped, they had the potential to deplete the levels of CO2 necessary to sustain plant life, and in consequence would wipe out all terrestrial life. All manner of attempts were tried, but they remained indestructible. One method sought to topple the towering objects and bury them in trenches dug out in the vicinity, but they were too big and too heavy to move.
The end of world prophets entered their element, taking over the airwaves. The end of terrestrial life was at hand. Panic reigned. There was no place to go. For many, the rapture was close. Preparations for departure began to make sense for millions.
President Sean McAdam sat at dinner with his wife Chloe and their two children, Sandra, 7 and Arthur Alexander, 5. The usual family discussion, stories, laughter, inquiries about school were absent. The president was in somber discussion about the carbon stalagmites with Chloe. The children eyed each other across the table, toyed with their meals, looking puzzled. Finally Sandra,

who had been drawing carbon cylinders that afternoon during her art class, looked at her father. “Daddy?”
“Yes Sandy?”
“Why don’t you paint them?”
Sean McAdam stared at his daughter. His eyes opened wide. A smile broke across his face. “From the mouths of babes....”
Following dinner Sean returned to the Oval Office. His thoughts turned to the carbon cylinder growing in the Rose Garden, which in the few months since its appearance had grown to a meter in diameter and four times that in height. He lifted the phone and called for the immediate appearance of the grounds superintendent and Captain of the guard.
“I need you to keep this secret,” he began. “I need you to do this tonight. I need you to paint the cylinder with clear epoxy. Completely. Don’t forget the top. Let me know every day if cracks have appeared in the paint.
A month later Sean paid a visit to the Rose Garden cylinder. He ran his hands over the smooth exterior. His eyes searched for cracks in the paint that would indicate the cylinder had grown. He found none. He nodded with a look of satisfaction. What an interesting session this would be, when he called in his top scientists from the Foundation.
Historical records showed no knowledge of Hadley’s part in the crucial affair of the saving of Planet Earth. Quite likely, Hadley, in his search for a scientific way to inhibit his brainchild, the self-replicating nitrile molecule, would likely never have thought of paint.

A PERSIAN IMMERSION

Troubling, to say the least, is the ascension, once again, of the Neocons, in the wake of the prospective Iran Nuclear Agreement, rattling sabers in anticipation of waging a pre-emptive war with Iran......holding that we can’t trust the Iranians and war is an option. Prominent, and clearly romanced (by Netanyahu?) in this thinking is Senator Lieberman and a coterie of  (dare I say sycophant?) senators.
  
 Maybe we should just be up-front about it and invite Iran to a war! An attractive possibility would be  a re-enactment of Alexander’s famous confrontation  with the Persians on the banks of the Granicus.  This might beneficially lead to a reassessment of the various historical accounts of the event.  Anyway, the outcome would be predictable, just like Iraq.
 
 Or, we could hold the war in Texas! George W. Bush’s ranch would provide suitable terrain. We would eat their lunch there, too, assuming, of course, that George left some brush for camouflage.
 
 Cheney could be a general, but we wouldn’t let him have a gun for fear of friendly fire casualties. 
   
Pat Robertson would give morning invocations before battle, broadcasting to Iranian troops  that seventy-five virgins means that’s all there are. Seventy-five. Total. Established centuries ago and understandably a rather haggard lot by now. Is that worth dying for? That could turn the tide in our favor.   
  
It’s true. War is an option.