An Impressive Lame Duck Session

Congress just concluded one of the most impressive lame duck sessions in history.  Surprisingly, nearly every piece of major legislation that urgently needed to be passed was in fact passed, all with some measure of bipartisan support.  I am not exactly clear on how it was that the Democrats were finally able to get some Republicans to go from the party of no and footdraggers to responsible lawmakers who took some responsibility for the state of the nation, but it happened, and I'm glad. Two of these were our own Tennessee senators, who had been voted in as moderates, but had been acting like extremist over the past two years.  I would like to think the perhaps far left Democrats finally realized they would have to join ranks with moderates to be able to achieve anything before the Republicans took over and that outgoing moderate Republicans that had lost to TPers decided to make a statement, and those that remained realized that they would be held responsible for the state of the Union now, so that compromise happened, but I am not sure that really was the case.  Regardless, it suggests that the next two years may not be a complete stalemate, and I think that gives hope for what had looked to be a dark and gloomy time.

One ongoing worry for me will be the continued cutback in federal investment in science research.  Some of the new TPers have come in breathing fire about slashing research funding, which means that successful funding of research grants, already 60% lower than historical averages may go to 30% of the historical average.  Since the economic return on investment in research is conservatively estimated at 15:1, this is the typically short sighted penny-wise, pound foolish thinking that so frequently seems to be associated with this political group.  Of course, the major return on investment for the American people, and the world, from investment in biomedical research comes from our understanding of disease processes and finding effective treatments.  To those who have little understanding of science (and seem unwilling to invest time in understanding it or seem inherently suspicious of it because it doesn't fit with their ideology) progress seems remarkably slow.  But for anyone who realizes how little of many the important biological process we currently really understand, the progress is nothing sort of amazing.  It was only 60 years ago that we finally discovered the molecular mechanism behind an age-old mystery, how parents pass on their traits to their children.  In the 60 years since cracking the DNA code, we have made amazing strides in identifying the genes that lie behind many inherited diseases and understanding how these defects lead to disease.  This as eventually lead to a great many diagnostic tests, and in the case of some cancers, has directly led to treatments.  But finding ways to cure diseases caused by genetic defects is not an easy thing.  To date, direct attempts to fix the genetic defects have failed.  This is not necessarily surprising giving all that we have learned about how the cells in the body defend themselves from foreign invaders like viruses that are constantly trying to hijack the normal working of the cells to their own end by inserting their own DNA.  So it may well be that direct gene therapy will never work.  But there are many other potential "work arounds" that are being explored.  Most will fail, but I am confident based on historical results that some will eventually provide benefit.

A key to success in understanding disease is understanding the system.  For some systems, like metabolism, we might confidently say that we understand the bulk process reasonably well, sort of like a grainy black and white tv picture.  But its the little details (the high resolution color picture) that we will need to understand if we are to effectively go beyond our current treatment strategies.  So, for instance, we know how to lower cholesterol in persons with relatively modest elevations reasonably well, but that by itself does not prevent heart disease.  It reduces its risk, but it doesn't cure it.  The processes that lead to atherosclerosis turn out to be very complex and touch on a wide range of physiological response that are crucial to how our bodies respond to all the inputs and insults they have to deal with everyday.
For other processes, like memory and mental disease, I'm not sure we can even claim that we have a grainy black and white picture.  We have made dramatic and fundamental breakthroughs in the last twenty years, but not surprisingly, the biological processes that underlies our most important capability as humans, our ability to think, is really, really complicated.  So there are not going to be any magic bullets, and its going to take a lot of hard work to understand and to finally come up with some effective treatments for mental illness.  But I have dealt with enough people struggling with mental illness to say I think it is worth our investing in it.


So my overall point is this.  Maybe when you go to the voting booth, you might think twice about going with the easy choice of the candidate who promises that cutting federal spending (which includes investment in research) will make everyone's lives better.  Yes, paying taxes that will be used to invest in biomedical research will mean that you have to give up about $4 each year, so it involves some sacrifice.  And if you feel like the dark ages or even the 1980s were the high point of the human condition, that might be the appropriate choice, but we have real health problems in this world, that have real world consequences for a large part of humanity.  Our best hope for solving these problems is to invest in trying to understand them and to solve them, not to stand idly by and let others suffer while believing that it isn't our problem or our responsibility.

Handel and the Messiah

This past Sunday on the 19th of December our church held a community sing-in with Handel's Messiah. It was both a beautiful and exciting performance by the choir and soloists, and was definitely a good use of two hours. I even brought along one of friends, who has a vast interest in music and could really appreciate the power of the music.

Before going to the event, I researched a bit on the man behind the music, George Frideric Handel. It turns out Handel had a very interesting and perhaps difficult life leading up to this great work. He was born in 1685, in Brandenburg-Prussia to Georg and Dorothea Handel. From early on Handel had a knack for music and soon became extremely enthused. His dad wanted his son to practice law and felt that a career in music was not suitable for him, so he banned Handel from playing music. Being a natural rebel, Handel found a way to play anyways, by sneaking a clavichord into a top room and playing there while his father slept. Eventually his secret got out, but by then so many people had taken an interest in Handel's playing that his dad was forced to lift his ban.

Handel would go on to compose many great operas and oratorios. Most of his works were very successful. However, a string of harsh critics and serious health problems brought the composer into a state of depression. That's when he began to set important Biblical verses to music and so composed his Messiah. The oratorio linked together a multitude of verses (mostly the words of Isaiah) that proclaimed Christ's coming. Once it first debuted in 1742, it became an instant success and soon became a classic that has withstood the test of time.

With parts such as the 'Hallelujah' chorus Handel's Messiah uses very powerful and moving music and verses to communicate to the audience the beauty of Christ. It certainly made for a memorable night for me and everyone else.

Let It SNOW!

The first snow of the Christmas season has arrived in town, with perfect timing too. Exams were scheduled for this week, but with several inches of snow and ice on Sunday we have managed to squeeze our way out of school on Monday AND Tuesday. Procrastination and nature at their finest!

Outside, snow blanketed the backyard.

Here are some pictures of the remains on Tuesday:

Our backyard patio

Our statue all decked out for the holidays.

15 (20) authors that have influenced my life

A friend of mine recently posted a list of the 15 authors who have influenced him.  His were mostly Latin American, in keeping with his profession, but here is my list off the top of my head (and in no particular order):  I can't count, so I ended up with 20.  Looking at this list, I recognize that authors/books read late in high school and early in college seem to be more influential in the development of my thinking than many read later in life.  Maybe others will come to mind later.

1. Dostoyevsky--When I was young, mostly Crime and Punishment, the Idiot, and Notes from the Underground, but later the Brothers Karamazov probably became my favorite.

2. Leo Tolstoy-I didn't like War and Peace that much, but Resurrection and Anna Karina were both powerful and moving.  Also his short story, "How much land does a man need?"

3.  Mark Twain-when I was young, it was his short stories and Tom Sawyer, as I got a bit older Huckleberry Finn.

4. John Steinbeck-certainly Of Mice and Men was one of the first books were death seemed very real.  I didn't read Grapes of Wrath until I was a graduate student, but oh my, what a book!

5. Robert Pirsig-his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was probably my favorite book in high school and as an undergraduate.  Quality stuff.

6.  Ray Bradbury-Just recently re-read Fahrenheit 451, and loved it.  When I was young, Dandelion Wine was probably the most influential.

7.  Arthur Miller-By far my favorite playwright when I was young, with Death of a Salesmen being the primary reason, but I loved All My Sons and the Crucible nearly as well.

8. August Wilson-Another influential playwright in my late adolescence and early adulthood.  Primarily for Fences and later The Piano Lesson.

9.  Henrik Ibsen-Another playwright.  Originally for Ghosts, one of my all time favorites plays.  But then for A Doll's House, Enemy of the People, and for the bizarre Peer Gynt.

10.  Ernest Hemingway-Old Man and the Sea still remains as one of the most powerful books that I have ever read.  But Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Moveable Feast certainly still resonate.

11.  Graham Greene-The Power and the Glory was pretty influential in high school, and The Quiet American in college.

12.  Orson Scott Card-I read the original Ender's Game series early on during college (rather late for most Mormon boys, I know) and found Speaker for the Death quite moving.  The notion of truly understanding the motivation for a person and speaking the truth about their strengths and failures still resonates with me.

13.  Isaac Asimov- Primarily because of the Foundation Series and the thinking about what it takes to predict and control political forces and for the clever thoughts of behavior regulation in I, Robot.

14.  Wallace Stegner-I only became aware of him in graduate school, but his writing about the West reshaped much of my thinking of the place I still think of as my home. 

15.  J.R.R Tolkien-Lord of the Rings is still one of my favorite books.

16.  Toni Morrison-originally because of Beloved, but also Sula and the Song of Solomon.

17.  Ralph Ellison-Invisible Man

18.  Joseph Conrad-Heart of Darkness 

19.  Albert Camus-primarily because of the doctor character in the Plague

20.  Charles Dickens- primarily for Tall of Two Cities, but also A Christmas Carol, both of which are powerful stories of redemption.

Others Hawthorne-the Scarlet Letter, Crane-Red Badge of Courage, Jack London-Call of the Wild, Walt Whitman-Leaves of Grass.

Gettysburg

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ...

 May 1863, after successful victories over the Army of the Potomac in Northern Virginia, General Robert E. Lee decides to end the war by invading Pennsylvania, destroying support infrastructure for the Union army, and thus sapping the will of the Northern States to continue their efforts to subdue the rebellion.  His troops move unopposed and undetected through the Shenandoah Valley.  Gen. Hooker, as always, is slow to respond, but finally begins moving Union troops to head off the invasion.  He is relieved of command by President Lincoln.  On June 30, 1863 Union Calvary General Buford, riding well in advance of the main Union forces, runs into elements of Confederate forces scavenging around Gettysburg for supplies and engages in brief skirmish.   Early the next morning, July 1, Confederate Gen. Pettigrew decides to engage Buford troops to determine their size and strength.  Buford men, reinforced by Reynolds troops, are slowly driven out of Gettyburg, but occupy and hold the large rolling hills including Culp's Hill southeast of the town.  Throughout the day and into the night both Confederate and Union troops send hurried word to their main armies to move quickly before the other can gain the decisive advantage. Lee decides this is the place he can finish off the Union army and engages all his forces.  General Hancock, the de facto commanding general in the field, decides this is the place the Union army must hold or perish.  So suddenly, unexpectedly, the two armies are fully engaged.  

Observation Tower from Confederate lines looking at Round Tops.  We used it to watch for the Goates.

On the morning of July 2, Confederate forces form a large arc coming from the northwest, while Union troops form a fishhook with Culp's Hill most northern position, and occupy Cemetery Ridge in the the center of the fishhook.  Union Gen. Warren surveys the area,  recognizes the vulnerability of the Union flank, sends a regiment to hold at all c occupy Little Round Top at their southern most flank.  Confederate forces under Longstreet  sweep through Devil's Den and the wheatfields at the lower slopes of the Round Tops and nearly completely surround the Union flanks at Little Round Top, but at the end of the day, the Union troops still possess the high ground thanks to the 20th Maine and Josh Chamberlain desperate bayonet counter charge.   Thousands of men lie dead strewn everywhere on the battlefield. 

ME looking out over Devil's Den from the crest of Big Round Top, the labyrinth of rocks that slowed the Confederate advance , but cost many lives to defend.

 

 

Another view from Big Round Top

Gen. Warren statue

Deep into the night, the Confederate generals decide on their strategy.  Against the advice of Longstreet, Lee decides he will engage in an all-out frontal assault of the Union center.  His plan is to overwhelm and destroy the Army of the Potomac.  The copse of trees at the center of Cemetery Ridge will be the reference point for the attack.  Union Gen. Hancock's men defend the center.  His dear friend, Confederate Gen. Armistead under the command of Gen. Pickett leads the charge against Union center,.  Against devastating cannon and musket fire, the confederate troops advance, losing men with every step.  For a brief moment, Armistead and a small group of men break through, but they arequickly shot down or captured.  The battle is over. 

The Angle, point of the Confederate breakthrough.

The copse of trees.  Landmark used for Confederate advance.

The open fields through which Pickett's men charged.

The Pennsylvania Monument to Union Troops who defended the center line.

23,000 Union troops are dead, wounded, or captured.  About the same number of Confederate troops are casualties.   As the Confederate troops retreat, the Union troops follow and the town of Gettysburg is left to bury the dead.  The stench of death is everywhere.  Many of the dead can not by identified.  Confederate dead thrown together in large burial trench.  

Some of headstones for Union Troops

Several months later, the town ask President Lincoln to attend a ceremony honoring the buried dead and a newly erected memorial to these dead.  He speaks briefly.  His words will be remembered for eternity.

The monument Lincoln came to dedicate.

I highly recommend the Museum for those 12 and over.  Its a bit pricey to do the film, cyclorama, and museum, but we've been to lots of Civil War museums and few invest in telling the story of the conflict, not just the single battle, in the great detail of this one.

The girls sit with Abe.

Photo of the cyclorama depicting Pickett's Charge.

The museum had a large section detailing the political debate and actions that finally resulted in the armed rebellion by Southerns against their federal government.  It is hard not to hear echos of the sentiments of the political debate today in the violent rhetoric and hyperbole thrown at Lincoln and arguing for succession.  There are those who would claim that the federal government seeks to enslave them, to trample on their rights, and who threaten open rebellion against the federal government.  To those that espouse this rhetoric, I beg of them to come to Gettysburg, to let its spirit distill into them and to come away resolved that these honored dead shall not have died in vain and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. 

It is worth remembering Lincoln's earlier words:

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

More Washington, D.C. Photos

AM standing by Giuseppe Arcimboldo's art "WINTER"

Lincoln Memorial (wow my 2 older kids are taller than me)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Why we went to Washington.

We had talked about a Washington D.C. trip during fall break last year, before JP band scheduled practices throughout the break.  This year they didn’t have practiced schedule so we were debating whether we should.  The deciding factor was a conversation I had with JA a few weeks ago, where I mentioned to her something about Thomas Jefferson and she looked at me blankly and said, “Who was Thomas Jefferson”. I probed deeper and found that she knew almost nothing about the Declaration of Independence, what the three branches of government were, or such.  Now I had previously realized that we have horrible public schools here in Tennessee, but I had not realized how bad.  So my mission was to teach her about the origins of our government and those who had shaped it for good or ill.  So in my mind our trip became a four day civic lesson.

In the book store of the National Archives we picked up one of those President’s Brain Quest games that has lots of questions about various presidents and historical events. I am happy to report that now on our way home she can answer probably over 90% of them. So I feel our mission was accomplished.

An overview of what we did and saw.
National Art Gallery (East wing.
Sculpture Gardens.
Air and Space Museum (including a Wright Brothers glider, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, Space Ship One.)
Competitive Kickball tournament.
US History Museum (including the Star-Spangled Banner).
Viet Nam War Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Gettysburg Battlefield ( including the Visitor Center film, cyclorama, and Museum and stops at Big and Little Round Top, the Pennsylvania Memorial, the High Mark of Pickett’s Charge, and the Solider’s Monument where the Gettysburg Address was given.)
Shippensberg.
A Mennonite market (to pick up some extremely tasty apples).
Turkey Run State Park (for an emergency pit stop.)
U.S. Capitol building (which has a beautiful new visitor center.)
Library of Congress
Supreme Court (walked by only.)
National Archives (houses original copies of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.)
Smithsonian Natural History Museum (including the Hope Diamond and lots of bones.)
Jefferson Memorial.
George Mason Memorial.
Trip up to top of Washington Memorial (except AM who is afraid of heights)
World War II Memorial


Some general travel tips we got out of it:
Expect to walk about five miles each day, probably good to get the kids prepped for this with regular work-outs carrying 10 pound packs.
In the fall, the Smithsonians and most other locations open at 10 am and close at 5:30 pm. Everything is much less crowded after the summer season, so it’s a much better time to go. Memorials are open until 9 pm (perhaps later in some cases.) so these are best visited in the evening or early morning.
All major sites require screening, which mostly consists of metal detector and bag x-ray. In general, small backpacks are allowed and you can bring unopened food and water bottles inside. U.S. capitol is more strict. Cameras are allowed everywhere, but there are some exhibits that one can not photograph. The Declaration and Constitution can no longer be photographed.


Making reservations for visits. You can get a better tour if your arrange with your Congressman for tours of the Capitol building or the White House, but this needs to be done 30-60 days in advance, so plan ahead.(We didn’t, so we didn’t get to go inside the White House but it will be in friendly hands for at least another two years.)

Hotels near the National Mall usually range from $200-$350 per night. Much cheaper to stay outside the beltway and commute in. It is slightly cheaper for a family to park in Washington D.C. than to take the Metro.All day parking on weekends is $10, and for weekdays is $18. Metro fares are $2.50 one way, for off hours and $5 for peak hours which is pretty much when you will be traveling. There is free 3 hr parking on the perimeter of the National Mall is you arrive promptly at 9:30 am (you can’t park before then). Might be available after 9:35 am if you are very lucky. Later on in the evening it might be possible to find spots as well.