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Welcome to the “Georgia Wasp…”

This blog is modeled on the Carolina Israelite. That was an old-time newspaper – more like a personal newsletter – written and published by Harry Golden. Back in the 1950s, people called Harry a  “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.” (For his work on the Israelite.)

That’s now my goal as well. To be a “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.”

For more on the blog-name connection, see the notes below.

In the meantime:

April 14, 2025 – A week ago I got an email from my brother in Massachusetts. He went to a rally in Boston, to protest various actions of our latest president. (Reminder: “He’s temporary.”)

The Boston rally was huge. We ended up on a knoll, north of, and above the Commons Bandstand and we could see streams of people coming in from every direction. I couldn’t believe it. When the crowd was told to start heading up to the City Hall for the rally speeches, you could barely move, barely shuffle a foot or so at a time, stop, then shuffle some more. I kept thinking, “My god, my god, look at this!” And I knew then there’s hope for our country yet. 

Then came the Twist. He got home to find the local media gave the nation’s hundreds of thousands of protesters “a quick mention and moved on to the really important stuff – sports scores and the latest Hollywood gossip.” But still, “something is happening here that’s not being covered. People are leading their leaders, showing them where we want to go.”

Which is another reason why there’s “hope for our country yet.” Including – he added – the “scale of last Saturday’s country wide rallies; 100,000 in Boston, the same in NYC and in Los Angeles. 15,000 in [Salt Lake City], Utah! Not exactly a hotbed of liberalism.”

I responded in part that Rolling Stone did an article on April 8, Massive Protests Against Trump Are Just the Beginning. “But then, what respectable person reads that rag?” (Irony or sarcasm, one.) Then added, “Who’da thunk it? Back in the early 1970’s I was the long-hair bearded weirdo with the peace sign hand-painted on the front of the puke-green hand-me-down VW micro-bus. Watching movies like ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and eventually getting the CD and listening to it at least once every Thanksgiving, remembering resistance to the draft and Vietnam.” Then:

So what’s next, a Che Guevara t-shirt? Like the kind I wore that so pissed off [a high-school classmate from West Virginia]? And continually listening to Joan Baez sing “We Shall Overcome,” and also the duet with that guy at Woodstock, “Drug-store truck-driving man.” Woodstock, about which Arlo Guthrie said, “Lotta freaks, man!” 

And finally, “‘Irony of irony, all is irony!’ (A nod to Qoheleth.)” Which points out one big difference between then and now. You know, coming of age in the 1970’s “Age of Aquarius?” (Which for many meant sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. “Yeah, I heard about that stuff!”)

Back then I thought the established church a failure; full of hypocrite fat-cat conservatives, intolerant, self-righteous, narrow-minded. (Much of which still holds true, as in the oxymoron, Christian nationalist.) I tried other ways of Coming to Terms With Life; self-hypnosis, Alpha Thinking, yoga, and other Eastern ways. Books on karate, aikido, tai chi and others like Zen in the Art of Archery. I learned about prana, chi, ki, and “the force,” as in “the force be with you.”

But as the years slid by I found myself turning back to the mainline church of my “yoot.*” In the process – especially over the past decade – I’ve become quite the Bible scholar. (Mostly because I firmly believe “you pointy-headed, bleeding-heart liberals need to start reading and studying the Bible, even if it’s only for political self-defense. Don’t concede the high ground!“)

All of which brought back a slew of memories, including that mention of my own “Che” t-shirt. Of which Tom Brokaw wrote, “Che Guevera was assassinated while unsuccessfully trying to foment a Cuba-like revolution in Bolivia, although he succeeded in launching a million t-shirts.”

Another memory? I knew Che failed in Bolivia because he didn’t follow his own rules. And how did I know? Because aside from the shirt I also got a copy of his 1961 book, Guerrilla Warfare. And may still have it “even to this day,” although it may take a while to find in the boxes of books I’ve yet to unpack – since 2017. (Then there’s Amazon Books if the need arises.) But there’s one thing we Boomers have now that we didn’t have then: Real Power.

Baby boomers are now retired, and Senior Citizens as a group have huge political clout. They’re also a lot wealthier, but a lot of it’s in Social Security, now in a state of chaos. (“Chaos, long waits at Social Security for seniors.”) Then there’s the investments. I don’t have a 401(k), but a friend of mine said hers dropped $100,000 in a month. Sounds like an invitation to Revolution to me!

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The upper image is courtesy of Che Guevara Image – Image Results. See also Che Guevara – Wikipedia, and The Inconvenient Truth Behind Revolutionary Icon Che Guevara:

Boxer Mike Tyson has a prominent Che tattoo. So does Argentine football star Diego Maradona. Omar Sharif portrayed Che in a 1969 film, and Benicio Del Toro did so to acclaim in 2008. Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen once sported a runway bikini with Che’s image on it. His face has adorned T-shirts and been on countless storefronts. It’s been on “South Park” and on “The Simpsons.” Guevara, these days, is the personification of utter cool to all those who want to defy the establishment.

Re: Christian nationalism. I figure if Jesus had been a nationalist He would have freed Israel from Roman rule. Instead, starting a decade or so after Him the “nationalists” rose up in arms. The armed revolt failed, the Romans pretty much destroyed Jerusalem and scattered the pitiful few survivors “to the winds.” (See Diaspora – Wikipedia.) “And that’s what you guys want?”

Re: “Yoot.” See Psalm 25:7, in what I call the My Cousin Vinny translation. (“Dese two yoots.”) BTW: In Bible Hub it’s Psalm 25:7. In the Book of Common Prayer it’s 25:6.

The t-shirt quote is from page 32 of the large-print version of Boom!: Talking About the Sixties: What Happened, How It Shaped Today, Lessons for Tomorrow, by Tom Brokaw.

And about Che’s book, Guerrilla Warfare: Wikipedia said while it was “intended for other revolutionary movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, it was also studied by counter-revolutionary military schools.” See also the version available at Amazon, Guerrilla Warfare: Guevara, Ernesto Che.

Re: Coming of age, “a young person‘s transition from being a child to being an adult.”

Re: Boomers’ economic and political power. For more on the first, Google “trump social security in danger.” For more on the second, see The Immense Power of the Older Voter in an Election – AARP, Why Older Citizens Are More Likely to Vote – U.S. News, and especially The Senior Citizen Vote: Key to Conservative Political Victory: Senior citizens (over 65 years) “largely vote for conservative candidates. Moreover, the November 2020 national election experience indicates that senior citizens represent the fastest-growing voting segment of the American population, now amounting to approximately 25 percent of total votes cast.” (And Trump wants to mess with that?)

Re: “Revolution.” The link is to The Beatles – Revolution – YouTube. (Sounds appropriate to me. Click on it for the full effect. “Rock out, Dude!) See also Revolution – Wikipedia.

The lower image is courtesy of Why are there so many boomers at anti-Trump protests? See also From Protest to Power: A Boomer’s Guide for the Next Generations to Challenge Authority, and Aging boomers are ready to return to their activist pasts. Or do what I did and Google “boomers return to protest.” From “Protest to Power,” here are five ways younger leaders can push back: 1) Demand Transparency and Accountability (like Boomers did for Watergate), 2) Leverage Economic Power (“When money moves, power listens”), 3) Master the System to Beat the System, 4) Control the Narrative, and 5) Build Intergenerational Alliances.

And about that lower-image caption, see Core Democratic groups are preparing to be targeted by the Trump administration. No surprise there, but while those nationwide protests were remarkably peaceful, see also Agent provocateur – Wikipedia: The French word for a “a person who actively entices another person to commit a crime that would not otherwise have been committed and then reports the person to the authorities. They may target individuals or groups.” Also:

In jurisdictions in which conspiracy is a serious crime in itself, it can be sufficient for the agent provocateur to entrap the target into discussing and planning an illegal act. It is not necessary for the illegal act to be carried out… Prevention of infiltration by agents provocateurs is part of the duty of demonstration marshals, also called stewards, deployed by organizers of large or controversial assemblies.

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Re:  The Israelite.  Harry Golden grew up in the Jewish ghetto of New York City, but eventually moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.  Thus the “Carolina Israelite.” I on the other hand am a “classic 73-year-old “WASP” – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant – and live in north Georgia. Thus the “Georgia Wasp.”    

Anyway, in North Carolina Harry wrote and published the “israelite” from the 1940s through the 1960s.  He was a “cigar-smoking, bourbon-loving raconteur.”  (He told good stories.) That also means if he was around today, the “Israelite would be done as a blog.”  But what made Harry special was his positive outlook on life.  As he got older but didn’t turn sour, like many do today.  He still got a kick out of life.  For more on the blog-name connection, see “Wasp” and/or The blog.

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For possible reference in future posts, here’s a fuller version of my “transition to adult:”

After high school, I went my way, like so many in the 1970s, in search of the “good life.”  At the time, Transcendental Meditation was a Big Trend on Campus.  It was part of the process of many Boomers “heading east” for enlightenment.  They tried various gurus and methods, which led to further ways to both expand the mind and come into closer contact with the “universal life force.”  In turn, many left the church they grew up in.

I tried self-hypnosis, Alpha Thinking, yoga, and other Eastern ways of dealing with life’s unpleasantries, my own shortcomings, and the unremitting evil and suffering each day on TV and the news.  I read books on karate, aikido, tai chi and other eastern disciplines, and books like Zen in the Art of Archery.  I learned about prana, chi, ki, and “the force,” as in “the force be with you.”  I was entranced by Transcendental Meditation and how easy “they” said it was, but balked at the price.  (At the time, it was supposed to run a week’s salary, which included a personalized Sanskrit mantra, “mine alone.”)  But I couldn’t afford a week’s salary, being a poor, bearded unemployed student.  So I kept looking, and the quest seemed to end when I found the book How to Meditate, by Lawrence LeShan…

I grew up in the “Age of Aquarius” (of sex and drugs and rock’n’roll), but now find myself settling into the cares and responsibilities of “mature” age.  [In July 2025, I will turn 74.]  And in my younger days I tried many different ways of Coming to Terms With Life.  Like other boomers, coming into Middle Age I found myself turning back to the mainline church of my youth, just like Mike Doonesbury did in 1994.I came back even though – when young – I considered the established church a failure; full of hypocrite fat-cat conservatives, intolerant, self-righteous, narrow-minded.  I still carried some baggage, some skepticism and mistrust of younger days.  I had a hard time with the “buzz words” favored by so many who call themselves Christian. 

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One of many conspiracy theories… This one from the “Summer of ’96,” on TWA Flight 800. 

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I’m working on a new E-book. It’s another novel about Florida State University football. (This one is on its current fall from grace.) It includes a chapter on the 1996 college football season. (You know, the one ending with a heart-breaking FSU loss in the national championship game? To their hated arch-rival, the Florida Gators ?)

In the process of doing research for the new book, I came across a scene from an earlier book (a novel) that I did on FSU football. It talked about that “Summer of 1996” noted above, and it may explain where and how our current raft of conspiracy theories all started.

Here’s what I wrote about that summer of 1996, as remembered in January 1997:

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My first wife Karen* and I had our grandkids visiting, along with some other child-relatives as well. (Seven or eight altogether.) At the time I owned a 28-foot Coachmen Class C Motorhome, and so for a week we took them “camping” at an RV park in Indian Rocks Beach, on Florida’s Gulf Coast. (At least Karen did. I visited from time to time, but “had” to stay home at night, so I could go to work in the morning.)

Naturally – as the week progressed – the dweeby pre-teen male cousins tried to scare the wits out of their female cousins. And they did a pretty good job of it, mostly with tales of omnivorous aliens and treacherous UFOs. Until finally, our granddaughter Heather came up to me at the campground pool. She asked, very serious, very worried, “How can God protect us from UFOs if He doesn’t know where they come from?”

At first I thought it was a pretty naïve question. Then I started wondering: “What does the world look like to my grandkids?” For one thing – and judging only by the relative coverage on TV [at the time, 1996] – it would be only logical for them to think that aliens and UFOs are more powerful than God.

They certainly get more media coverage.

Then it struck me. Like Heather, most people today are slaves to some fear. They live in fear, and because they live in fear they never really live…

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At this point I said the novel I was then working on might teach a message from God. Like in the form of a parable? (Maybe a parable of a college football team and its fans; maybe even one “moonbeam” fan?) I included a cite to Matthew 13:34, then continued:

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If there is a common emotion today, it’s fear. Everyone is afraid of something, and much of it comes from TV shows like X-Files, Sliders, and Millennium. The common premise is an impending takeover by aliens, or a massive government cover-up, or that someone besides God has power over your soul. (No wonder kids today are so messed up.)

On the other hand, these are scary times. We “of a certain age*” survived the Great Depression, World War II, Vietnam and the Cold War, but we still have the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, and TWA Flight 800. So if there’s a need today, it’s to be freed from slavery to fear.

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And now a note from the future: All that was even before “9/11” – the September 11 World Trade Center attacks – and all the other disasters that we’ve come through since 1996. (For a full list of those trials and tribulations see 21st century – Wikipedia.)

But getting back to the Summer of 1996…

As noted, one popular show back then was the X-Files. It featured such slogans as ‘The Truth Is Out There,’ ‘Trust No One,’ and ‘I Want to Believe:’

Seen as a defining series of its era, The X-Files tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions, and embraced conspiracy theories … as it centered on efforts to uncover the existence of extraterrestrial life.

And now it seems that those conspiracy theories – and that public distrust of government – have both grown exponentially. As to why – and maybe as to where it all began – consider Your Guide to the TWA 800 Conspiracy and Its New Truther Documentary.

As noted, the mysterious crash of TWO Flight 800 happened way back in 1996. But then in June of 2013 came an update, a “new Truther documentary,” which started with this:

Remember the ’90s? Snap bracelets? ‘N Sync? Friends? Accusing the Navy of taking down a U.S. passenger plane with a missile? That’s right – our favorite ’90s conspiracy theory is back, thanks to a new documentary purporting to show “new evidence” that TWA Flight 800 crashed because it was hit by a missile.

The Truther Documentary review noted that TWA Flight 800 has been the focus of numerous “rumors, alternative explanations, and conspiracy theories.” And that “’90s nostalgia is big right now,” mostly because of the internet. And finally that, “Like most conspiracy theories, TWA 800 is search-engine optimization gold.” Which is another way of saying that those conspiracy theories and that public distrust of government “have both grown exponentially.”

That is, those rumors and conspiracy theories were fueled by “speculation among conspiracy nuts, especially on message boards on the newly popular internet.”

Which leads to the subject of “Truthers.” For one definition of such people, see Truther | Definition of Truther by Merriam-Webster: “one who believes that the truth about an important subject or event is being concealed from the public by a powerful conspiracy.”

That definition included a warning that – to most people – it was “not flattering” to be called a truther. And further that the term originated, “as far as anyone can tell, to characterize people who embraced alternative explanations for the Sept. 11 attacks.” (See also Urban Dictionary: Truther, or Google the term.) But then there’s the definition from truther – Wiktionary. Aside from the definitions noted above, it includes this one: “Someone who tells the truth.”

Imagine that…

The Wiktionary site included some “see alsos,” on what seems to be the more generally accepted definition. “See alsos” include anti-vaxxer, birther, denier and flat-earther. An anti-vaxxer “opposes vaccination, as for its purported dangerous effects.” A birther is someone who believes “the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (2009–2017), was not born in that country.” A “denier” – aside from being an old French coin – is someone who “denies.” (Things like the the existence of AIDS, Global Warming, or the Holocaust.)  And “flat-earther” has two definitions.

One is of a person “who believes or advocates the theory that the planet Earth is flat.” The other is of a person “who believes or advocates an outlandish, discredited theory; a person who refuses to acknowledge the truth despite overwhelming evidence.”

All of which seems to be part of the ongoing problem. For myself, I believe that people who deny reality end up having it bite them in the ass. (An idiom which means being punished “for one’s poor judgment.”)  See also Denialism – Wikipedia, referring to the choice “to deny reality as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth.” Motivations and causes for such denial include a defence mechanism “meant to protect the psyche of the denialist against mentally disturbing facts and ideas.”

All of which translates to: The truth is indeed still out there, but more and more these days it seems that finding such Truth is like searching for “diamonds in a dung-heap.”

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The upper image is courtesy of Twa Flight 800 Conspiracy Theory – Image Results. It comes with the article, Your Guide to the TWA 800 Conspiracy and Its New Truther Documentary, dated June, 2013. 

The first link in the caption is to List of conspiracy theories – Wikipedia. That article includes a link to Wikipedia’s List of political conspiracies.  

The first image in the main text is from the Wikipedia article on FSU, captioned: “Florida State and Miami first met in 1951 and have played each year since 1966.”

Re: “My first wife Karen.” She died in 2006. 

Here’s the full quote of what I wrote, about a possible message from God: “Maybe that was one message God wanted to teach. If that’s true, what better message than by way of a parable? (Maybe a parable featuring one college football team and its fans, and maybe even one “moonbeam” fan.)  “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.  So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables…” (Matthew 13:34 NIV, emphasis added, and Mark 4:34, citing Psalm 78:2.)

“…shows like X-Files, Sliders, and Millennium.”  See the Wikipedia articles, including this:

The X-Files “originally aired from September 10, 1993 (1993-09-10) to May 19, 2002 (2002-05-19). The show was a hit … and its characters and slogans, such as ‘The Truth Is Out There,’ ‘Trust No One,’ and ‘I Want to Believe,’ became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s.  Seen as a defining series of its era, The X-Files tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions, and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality as it centered on efforts to uncover the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Sliders was a science fiction series that ran from 1995 to 2000. It followed “a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to ‘slide’ between different parallel universes.” Millenium was an American TV series “created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files,” and ran from 1996 to 1999.  The series followed the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black, a consultant “with the ability to see inside the mind of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group.”  While the first season dealt mainly “various serial killers and other murderers,” the second season featured “more overtly supernatural occurrences … with Frank often coming into conflict with forces that appeared to be apocalyptic or even demonic in nature.”

Re: “Of a certain age.” See Idioms by The Free Dictionary. Strictly speaking, my generation didn’t survive the Great Depression or World War II, but we heard about those events from our parents, and grew up watching movies and such about them.

Re: Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, and TWA Flight 800.  See the  Wikipedia articles, starting with saying the Oklahoma City bombing was an attack in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995; “It would remain the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks.” The blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children, and injured some 680 people. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a 16-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. There was an estimated $652 million worth of damage.  Within 90 minutes, Timothy McVeigh was stopped for driving without a license plate and arrested.

The Olympic Park bombing occurred on July 27, 1996 in Atlanta, during the Summer Olympics. Two people died, and 111 were injured. Trans-World Airlines Flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off New York on July 17, 1996, 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 people on board. Although a terrorist act was at first suspected, “the government” found no evidence of such a criminal act, after a 16-month investigation.  (See the X-Files note above, re: “public mistrust of governments” and/or “conspiracy theories.”)

Re: “Diamonds in a dung heap.” See Thomas Jefferson’s observation that – to him – “Certain teachings in the Bible are as diamonds in a dung-heap.” Or see Diamonds From the Dung Heap : The Life and Morals of Jesus. The latter refers to a book by Jefferson – often referred to as the Jefferson Bible – but which was apparently originally given the title “Diamonds from the dung heap,” but later simplified. “This edition is named after the first reference President Thomas Jefferson gave to this compilation, that later became referred to as the Jefferson Bible.” 

The lower image is courtesy of X-files – Image Results. The image is for an 11×14″ poster available from Etsy – Shop for handmade, vintage, custom, and unique gifts, but with a note, “Sorry, this item and shop are currently unavailable.”