Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

2010-06-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Play is the topic for the program aired 6-22-10 and available as a podcast at www.yttshow.org. Adults sometimes totally forget about the way they played as children and the way the world was then as compared to current times. Those older depression era G.I. Generation children grew up with play as a secondary and sometimes non-existent part of their lives. Boomers, on the other hand, were very spoiled and have even gone on to spoil their grandchildren Millenials and Homelanders even more. Play to the younger generation is very isolated and not socially interactive, unlike the common misconception that they are interactive. They often set aside in groups and do not volunteer their participation very well.
The most revealing thing that I learned from this program came from our older generation guest, J.J. Lacey, who described how the very act of play was also discriminated between blacks and whites when he was a child. They had two YMCA's and did not mix at all. His explanation is much better than mine, so give a listen.

2010-05-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Blogging may be something many can do daily and it is no big deal, but for me, with all that it takes to work and produce this program...I generally forget to update this thing. However, I just finished editing a great program on Peace Advocacy and want to get this off my mind before I do get swallowed up in tomorrow. This program is available as a podcast at www.yttshow.org and will remain active for about 15 weeks. After that you can request a copy at yttkuar@gmail.com.

OK...what came out of the taping for me is that the older generation, those over 70, are still worried most about nuclear matters. Rightfully so too. As I see it and heard from my guests Caroline Stephenson (W.A.N.D.) and Betty Bumpers, wife of ret. Sen. Dale Bumpers, that even though so much time has passed since the Soviet Union and the Cold War threats have passed, we still have enough active missiles to totally destroy the human race. Their major concern is that the successive generations are not as tuned in or concerned with the nuclear issues.
David Norman from Winrock International, speaking from the middle generation perspective, came of age after the draft was ended and his generation, even though they were brought up in a post Viet Nam era with all the strident movements for peace, were allowed to begin lives, families and businesses without all that terror. Malcolm Glover, the younger generation guest and morning news anchor on KUAR Public Radio in Little Rock, has nor connection to the draft, Viet Nam or WWII. However, speaking from his perspective, young people are just as concerned about peace as we Boomer's were at that time, but they have so many various avenues of service. Their concerns about peace revolve around finding solutions to those issues that formerly led to war when not addressed.
The podcast has so much more detail, but if are interested in Peace Advocacy...give a listen.

As for me, I remember the peace movement as a very active and volatile time when the cause of peace was fueled by the inner knowledge that our nation had taken the wrong path and we tried our best to intervene...my fear is that today's younger generation will someday face a trying situation that will render their peaceful lives threatened and they will have to serve once again in a non-peaceful manner to preserve peace for the future.

If you would like to learn more about our weekly program, check our site at www.yttshow.org

2009-10-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Our program this week was on Domestic Violence and if you are or someone you know is dealing with this very serious problem...you can download the podcast at www.yttshow.org. Our special guest was Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of 'Crazy Love.' She along with Charlotte Carrrol and Amanda White spoke from their own experiences with domestic violence...and so did I. Yes, men are victims too. I must tell you that his was one of the most difficult topics we have covered because it is so painful to relive. If you have not experienced this very destructive violence, be thankful, because it really does go deep into your memories and can affect your later life relationships. Since our program compares the generational aspects of each topic, I must be honest and tell you that...up to now...little has changed. To hear our older guest's experience and then the middle followed by the younger...they sound the same. Will we ever rid our society of domestic violence? It does not look like it will be soon at all. If there is one thing they all agreed on it is that the only way to stop domestic violence is to LEAVE and LEAVE as soon as you can. It does not get better with the abuser...EVER! They do not change and you must get to a shelter or another place. As Leslie Morgan Steiner told us about how she thought loving him would change him...it did not. It did not for Charlotte...it did not for Amanda...it did not for me, and IT WILL NOT FOR YOU EITHER. This was a very hard topic for all of us, but talking about it does help so talk to someone now. If you want more information please check Leslie's website. It is great. www.lesliemorgansteiner.com/

2009-10-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

Our program this week is on Masculinity and what a topic to try an cover! My guests were UALR Sociology Chair Dr. Jeff Nash speaking from the older generation along with Penn State Prof. of Sociology Dr. Derek Kreager in the middle generation and from UC Berkeley Dr. Robb Willer, author of 'Men Overcompensate When Masculinity Is Challenged,' (Science Daily 2005).
We had a very good discussion covering many areas and issues. I think most striking about the program, from my perspective as host, is that the older generation, while aware of the changes over their time frame, has largely ignored the need for their own change, leaving that to the younger men...why bother...the ask? In addition, the younger generation, while aware of their new roles, freed from the stereotypes, or so it seems, is not fully engaged. Rather they seem to be in a limbo between what they may think masculinity is now, and what they see as their future role in so far as their relationship with women is concerned. I guess the take away is that in older generations, in fact many, many older generations ago, the roles were not even questioned and masculinity was a given, whereas now...who knows what we men are suppose to be. As Dr. Nash observed, industrialization has had a major impact taking men from hunting and farming and leading the home to city life and middle class responsibilities, all of which, over time, has changed the masculine/feminine dynamic. I think he has a great point. In fact, those of us who have never lived on a farm or been out of urban life, have a struggle to imagine the day to day life men must have lived eons ago. I guess the best example (and it is a poor on at that) is in some of the old time movie depictions where, by observing the fashions and backdrops, we can extrapolate what it must have been like.
It was a great discussion and you can access the podcast at www.yttshow.org. Next week I will re-air a program we did back in 2004 - 'Men's Thoughts On Women' - hearing this after masculinity will be a treat.

2009-09-20T05:07:00.000-07:00

Our topic this week was Civility and it airs Tuesday at 7 pm Central. You can listen then live at www.kuar.org, but that is the 29 minute version. The longer (1 hr 5sec) Podcast is already posted on our site at www.yttshow.org. My guests are Dr. Jeff Nash, Chair of Sociology here at UALR. The middle generation guest is Richard Bird from Columbus, Ohio and he is the author of 'The Collapse of Civility'. Our younger generation guest is Kelli Zellner from Elkridge, MD and she is with the Howard County Public Library project called ChooseCivility.org. I have posted their sites on our Archive page.
So much has been said about Civility over the last couple of weeks, but as far as I have been able to determine, the only discussion that compares what the older, middle and younger generations think about Civility, is on this program. It is a very interesting discussion and if you are using Itunes we are listed there too. The fastest way to find it there is to enter Phil Mariage in the search box...if you think about it, not too many people have Mariage as a last name????
Next week our program guests are descendants of the 1896 Supreme Court decision Plessy vs. Ferguson, which is the Separate but Equal case that seemed to be one of the first shots fired in our nation's racial growth to where we are today.

2009-09-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

September 8,2009 Program topic - CRIME

This week we discussed the nature of Crime from a generational and philosophical perspective. With so many types of crimes committed, it was really just impossible to speak about specific crimes. Rather, we tried to compare what Crime means to each generation. Paula Stittz with the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC) spoke from the older generation and she emphasized that crime, while terrible in any instance, has a victim and a perpetrator and that person who commits the crime must be prosecuted and punished appropriatly, but that there is value in rehab. Not so with our younger generation guest, Rick Stallings, also with ACIC. His generation does not place much confidence in rehab and more importantly, his generation also does not have confidence in the criminal justice system itself. They find that, for the most part, criminals have little fear of punishment and therefore feel imboldened to keep committing whatever crimes they want.
The middle generation, spoken about by Brad Cazort, also with ACIC, is kind of in the middle feeling fear from crimes and disappointment in punishent and at the same time hoping that the rehab, trusted by the older generation and scoffed at by the younger, should still be tried...at least for some.
For me, as host of the program and now a memeber of the older generation, I agree with Brad's assessment. It is getting worse. There seems to be little control. I fear being a victim, but I think we have to try still to stop the causes of crime.
In all three generations there was agreement that no new crimes are being committed these days...only the coverage and awareness seems to have been stressed in the media. Also, there is agreement that it probably will be just the same when the younger generation is the older generation. There, I tend to differ. I think it will be much worse to the point of vigilanty groups and gangs being even stronger. I hope I am wrong.
Check us next week after the program. Phil

2009-08-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

I know this is not supposed to be an annual thing about posting, but I swear I did not realize that a year had gone by. This last year has seen many positive things happen for the program, so I want to bring the Blog up to date.
First, and probably best of all, we are now a weekly program. For the first 8+ years we were on every other week, and that was fine. But to finally become a weekly program makes all the difference. With over 180 past programs in the Archive, all of which are unique topics, it gives us a deeper connection to time as it passes so quickly. I produce a new topic every other program and bring pertinent past programs back on the other two weeks. Nine and a half years on the air is almost the time each of our generations has progressed half way to the next age group. If you were 20 in our first year, you are now almost 30...still young, but your life is certainly different at 30 isn't it? Another great aspect of bringing older topics back, is that we have a chance to actually hear the changes, even in that short time, for some of our relevant topics. For example, we recently rebroadcast a program on Health Insurance and tomorrow we bring back a program on Prescription Drugs. Both programs originally aired in 2003. With all the talk in Washington and around the country on Health Care Reform, it is very interesting to listen to what my guests were saying about those topics back then.
We have also increased our Podcast coverage on Itunes and PRX. All of our programs are taped and usually are about 50 minutes long. For many, they do not have time to stay tuned for an hour program. I edit down to 29 minutes and Pocast the longer version for those who really want to hear more. Those Podcasts are available at www.yttshow.org.
I hope you can join us every Tuesday at 7 PM CDT on KUAR FM89 and we stream live on the web at www.kuar.org.

2008-08-24T17:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last posting from our program topics. The truth is that when you produce a Public Radio program, find the guests, tape and edit the program, post the Podcasts and then still have a day job...blogging sort of gets put on the back burner, if you know what I mean.
I do want to share my thoughts though on 3 of our recent topics. If you have listened to any of our Podcasts then you know that our program is dedicated to the preservation of comparative generational thought. Our topics run the gamut from silly to serious.
In this blog I want to focus on 3 of our recent topics.
These 3 are very important and I did have a method to my madness.
Back in June, on the 3rd we did a program on Oil. On the 17th our topic was Population and on the 1st of July our topic was Pollution. These Podcasts are still posted, by the way and you can listen to them at www.ualr.edu/ytt and click on Podcasts. Or you can get them off itunes too.
Anyway, taken together these 3 topics represent, in my mind, the problems and solutions to the future for all generations. Kind of a bold statement, right? Here's why I say that.
Oil is the one of the most important reasons we are about to ruin our planet. We waste it, we fight over it, we pollute with it...and without it the world's economies would fail.
Population, and overpopulation, is the cause of our eventual demise. No one wants to admit it, but if we would control population growth we could possibly prolong the inevitable...but we won't and we can't. So I will go ahead and tell you what I think. The final truth to why the human race will destroy our life on this planet, no matter how you look at it, is overpopulation.
Now the proof of my contention is in the last of the three programs...Pollution!
I don't need to reiterate the lists of pollutants and those who do the polluting. We all know them by now. The point is that oil is the driving resource that every nation needs, seeks, and builds it's economy around. Oil and its products are the main pollutants. And the ever increasing demand by an overpopulated world will not slow down, no matter what we try. We might slow it all down a little, but eventually the overpopulated world will collapse on itself. What then???

My guests for all three programs brought our very good points and I think you will enjoy the programs. However, no one wants to admit the obvious...we, as a species, are responsible for this mess. I am reminded of the words of Bertrand Russell when he said, 'Since the beginning of time, man has committed every folly for which he has been capable." We have, haven't we? And we still do!!

2008-02-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

Topic: Dentistry

Air Date: 2-5-08

Guests:

Older Generation – Dr. Lynde Bollen Sr. - retired from Jacksonville, Ar 84 years old
began practice in 1959

Middle Generation – Dr. Lynde Bollen Jr. - retired and now Assoc. Prof. Dentistry at UAMS

Younger Generation – Dr. Jordan Cooper – 26 graduate of dental school 2006 – began Central Arkansas Dental Associates in Jacksonville

Phil's thoughts:

As a 58 year old Boomer, I can remember my first trip to the dentist (or at least I think he was a dentist) back when I was in the 1st grade. His office was above the dime store and was small and dark with no attendant and certainly no sharp drill. He pulled one tooth with no shot and all I remember is after he finished my mother stopped in at the dime store below for something while I was out at the curb bleeding into the gutter. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, if you think that story is unique you should tune into the podcast at www.ualr.edu/ytt and click on Podcasts.
My older generation guest, who goes back to the Depression era, tells of just how archaic dentistry was then compared to now. His son, who practiced for his entire career with his dad has memories similar to mine. Our young guest, Dr. Jordan Cooper, and members of the younger generation, have absolutely no connection to the pain associated with dentistry in those earlier years.
We didn't just tell horror stories during the program. Dentistry is now a very high tech operation and even those older folks whose memories are warlike, now find the trip to the dentist to be without pain and very satisfying. One of the often repeated statements they use to hear that spoke of the older days when people didn't care for their teeth was, 'Well they're just teeth!”. Now, everyone knows that they very well be 'just teeth', but they are the only ones we ever get, so we better take care of them.
So...brush your teeth often, and as far as my guests are concerned, one of the best bits of advice they gave was to FLOSS!
Check the podcast, I think you will enjoy it.

2008-01-15T05:10:00.000-08:00

Topic: SAVING

Air Date: 1-15-08

Guests: Older Generation – Dr. Larry Holland – UALR Prof. Finance

Middle Generation – Bob Williams – Senior V.P./Managing Director

Delta-Trusts Investments

Younger Generation- Jason Holland – triple major at UALR – Financing,

Accounting and Economics

Phil’s Thoughts:

This was a great topic to begin our 8^th year on the air. If you haven’t heard the Podcast you should because we covered many very relevant areas affecting all the generations. I was most impressed in listening to the middle and younger generation guests as they spoke about their respective generation’s willingness to save. That may be true, but by all accounts I have heard, we are not saving as a nation, no matter which generation you consider.

Dr. Holland recounted how the older generation has always saved no matter what. I think that is essential…the life long commitment to save. Even though I know that is true and commendable, I can’t help but think that a great deal of that commitment comes from FEAR. Fear of total loss as they actually experienced and no other generation has. Bob Williams recounted how the middle generation, while knowing about the need to save, has not saved enough. Jason Holland, while himself aware of the need to save, sees his generation preferring to use credit as a savings tool.

All three, but especially the older generation, are aware of the devastating impact health care crushes savings. All three are aware and stated emphatically that saving, no matter how much you think you might have saved, is not enough.

My thought, after hearing their discussion, is that we have chosen immediate lifestyle comforts over responsible preparation for our extended life span. Even the older generation has become dependant on being saved by medicare. The middle generation has become dependant on passing the costs to the future and the younger generation has become dependant on the charge card.

As bad as it sounds to say, I fear for the future generations, who will have to suffer the most when, not only will they not be able to afford to save anything at all, but the supporting social structures, which we now abuse, will be totally dismantled. As anyone who has ever been late on a payment knows…sooner or later the phone rings or someone comes to the door and demands payment…or repossession. We have to ask ourselves as a nation…who is going to demand payment or who will repossess us?

2007-12-18T04:57:00.000-08:00

Topic: KWANZA

Air Date: 12-18-07

Guests: Older Generation – Dr. Adjoa Aiyetoro – UALR Law Prof.

Middle Generation – Garbo Hearne – Hearne Fine Art Gallery

Younger Generation – Nicholas Norfolk – UALR student body

Chief Justice Student Assoc.

Phil’s Thoughts:

Of all the topics we have covered over the last 8 years, this is the first topic that only been experienced by the living generations. Kwanza was established in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga and has only been widely accepted for the last 15 to 20 years. So how has Kwanza faired in these early decades? For the most part it has been very slow to gain momentum. I suppose this is the case with any new celebration. For example, when Dr. King was assassinated it took several years before national attention was focused on a Dr. King holiday. We live in the fast paced present and sometimes we expect immediate results, but holiday celebrations take time to evolve into family and national traditions. Just look at the Christmas tree or even Santa Claus.

I asked my guests about the misconceptions surrounding Kwanza and there have been many. It is not a religious holiday, it is not only for African Americans and it is not based on gift giving. What it is is a wonderful family based celebration of future hope and confidence. I find it to be so refreshing and uplifting. I hope it grows to become as important as the other holidays. In fact, where I differ from my guests’ view of the future is that I see Kwanza’s message filtering into and overcoming the crass materialism of our current holiday habits. I hope that it becomes even more practiced by other peoples to the point where in some future years, Kwanza will be referred to as having its initial roots in the African American celebration, but becoming the main expression for many Americans.

My fear is that it will be swallowed up by religious groups and lose its non-religious focus. If that happens Kwanza will become diluted and as meaningless as the current holiday traditions. It may even take on materialism and expectations that render it weak.

Let’s hope not!

What do you think?

2007-12-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Topic - Pharmacy

Air Date 12-4-07 program #139

Guests:
Older Generation - George Wimberley - former mayor of Little Rock 1971-76
88 years old- active pharmicist
Middle Generation - Mark Riley - Director Arkansas Pharmacists Association
Yonger Generation - Scott Pace - Associate Executive Director Arkansas
Pharmacists Association

Phil's thoughts -

While I enjoyed 88 year old George Wimberley speak about the work experience of Pharmacists during the depression era, I really wasn't surprised...just moved by his humanity. What I really was surprised to learn from all three guests was just how 'caught in the middle' our pharmacists are as it relates to the high cost of prescription drugs. It seems to me that these fine professionals are being surrounded by financial barriers that strangle their businesses while at the same time force their clients to forgo their services because of high costs.
I just assumed that the pharmacist was somehow excluded from the actual sacrifices required by these huge costs. However, they are really being crushed by big moneyed interests.
With more than 40% of our citizens unable to afford insurance, those that do are also caught in this deadly upward spiral that no one can escape.
How will my grandchildren be able to afford prescription drugs when they are middle and old aged? I don't see how they can. It almost sounds like we are inevitably headed toward a colapse of our health care services...especially for the middle and lower economic strata of our society.

What do you think?...

2007-10-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Topic Homosexuality

Air Date 10-25-07

Guests: Older Generation - Norman Jones - owner 'Backstreet' an 'Discovery' - gay bars
Middle Generation- Randi Romo - Director of CAR - lesbian
Younger Generation - Timothy Kessler - Miss Gay Little Rock America

Phil's thoughts on the program:

Phil’s thoughts….

On the topic of Homosexuality, I must admit that I was a little unsure about how this program would be received. As I noted in the introduction to the program, this is one of the more controversial topics we have discussed and no matter what was said, there were sure to be many who agreed and just as many, if not more, who disagreed with the comments of the guests.
As with all our topics though, ours is really not a debate format…ours is a mature discussion with guests who are actively involved in whatever the topic may be. We do point out areas of controversy or disagreement, but our goal is to let the guests from those areas and particular generations, speak from those perspectives and generations. The comparative process is better served that way, I believe. And on top of that, I really believe that the listener can decide his or her own belief about the topic.

OK…as to what I gained from the discussion…first, I was amazed and surprised that each of the guests really did not see attitudes toward homosexuals changing as we go forward into the next few generations. For the most part they stated that prejudices and negativity would remain about as it always has been. With all the exposition of homosexuals in our media and everyday lives, I would have expected them to say that the future would no doubt be brighter for homosexuals. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
The other area of the discussion that sort of surprised me was the impact religion has had on homosexuality over the generations. Each of the guests spoke about how, in their early years, their respective religions were very influential on their lives. Even today they speak of having a personal faith despite the various ‘churches leaving them and not them leaving their churches’.
Overall, it was a very cordial, open and passionate discussion of some of the more important issues facing homosexuals today. If you didn’t hear the program, you can download the Podcast at www.kuar.org by clicking on Podcasts or if you are into itunes, the podcast is there too. That is the longer version with lots of material you might enjoy on the topic from these 3 fine guests.

2006-08-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Topic – Gambling

Date Aired – 8-15-06

Guests –

Older Generation: Orval Allbritton
Middle Generation: Jeff Tucker
Younger Generation: Daniel Kelsey

Comments from Phil –
Our discussion stayed away from the right or wrong aspects of gambling. There are plenty of talk shows that seem to want to dwell on only the moral issues of topics like this. Let them waste their time doing it if they want to. Since the dawn of mankind on this earth we have always found a way to play games of chance. We always will.
Orval Allbritton has a very unique perspective on the gambling days gone by. His father was a fireman in Hot Springs during the hey day of gambling back in the 1920’s and 30’s. He recalled the open gambling followed by attempts to crack down and how this went back and forth till the 50’s.
Jeff Tucker’s experience is more contemporary and has nothing to do with the mob related days. In fact, his is more of a business approach coupled with the entertainment aspects that everyone seems to desire.
Daniel Kelsey is typical of the younger generation members who see gambling solely as an entertainment and sports activity. While they are fully aware of the dangers and habits of chronic gambling, they are not burdened by the guilt associated with Orval’s time. In fact, they are much more inclined to gamble as a couple or even family fun time.

Personally, I would be the person an avid gamble would like to play against, since I know nothing about the games. My best efforts are restricted to the nickel slots in Tunica. Although I did do pretty good one time in New Orleans on the quarter slots. As with so many things in life, moderation and self control are the best ways to enjoy gambling. As Orval recalled, many times as a young boy he would see the very same people gambling in the establishments in Hot Springs all week, who were in the pews on Sunday railing against the vice of gambling. Some things never change.

2006-07-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

Topic – Physical Fitness

Date Aired – 8-1-06

Guests –

Older Generation: Nash Abrams (82)
Middle Generation: Phyllis Hodges
Younger Generation: Jean-Paul Franceour

Links – Jean-Paul Franceour’s site is nationally recognized for fitness related internet group Forums - www.jpfitness.com

Phyllis Hodges founded Fit-4-Life Wellness Center –
www.carouselfit-4-life.org

Comments from Phil –

I must admit that this topic really leaves one with the undeniable truth that as a society we have seen better days. Nash Abrams, speaking from the older generation, related that his generation lived a lifestyle that was totally consistent with good, normal physical fitness. From diet and exercise to just plain living habits, his generation has built a life with fitness in mind…even in their senior years.
The middle generation not only capitalized on the modern conveniences they were presented with, they passed on to their own children an even more addictive lifestyle that relegated physical fitness to TV shows and celebrity personalities.
I must agree with Nash and Jean-Paul that unless some extreme event necessitates changes similar to the starkness of the older generation’s earlier years…our younger generation will not age with physical fitness standards sufficient to sustain long lives. They have not been given a sustainable lifestyle and that is the bottom line!!!

E-mail comments –

2006-07-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Topic – Balancing Work & Family - Women

Date Aired – 7-18-06

Guests –

Older Generation: Billie Anne Myers – Pres. Ark. AARP
Middle Generation: Leslie Morgan Steiner – Author – “Mommy Wars” – writer, Washington Post – ‘On Balance’
www.washingtonpost.com/onbalance
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400064155/qid=1152964030/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9254329-7750300?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Younger Generation: Laura Cameron – listener who suggested program topic – Civil Engineer –mother

Links –
http://www.lesliemorgansteiner.com/

Comments from Phil –
What I came away with is the strong impression that each generation has had to address the need to seek balance with the pragmatic reality that it probably won’t be achieved. The older generation faced demands that gave them little choice, the middle generation was given the opportunity to open new choices and the younger generation is now adapting these choices to a very demanding lifestyle. No generation has achieved Balance, but as the word itself implies…it’s a back and forth. Who knows what the next few generations will face? I only hope they have the same optimism and desire to try.

Please check Leslie Morgan Steiner’s site if you would like to learn more about this topic. She has some great information.

E-mail comments –

2006-07-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Topic – Balancing Work and Family - Men

Date Aired – 7-4-06

Guests –

Older Generation: Homer Jones (83)
Middle Generation: Keith Hammonds
Younger Generation: Perry Steiner

Links – Keith Hammonds - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4486919

Perry Steiner - http://www.arlingtoncap.com/steiner.html

Comments from Phil –
Let me start with a little inside radio – when we taped this program Homer Jones was in the studio and Keith Hammonds and Perry Steiner joined us by phone. As we were getting ready, Homer was having a little problem hearing the other guests. I tried to turn the volume up and our engineer Travis Hill came in and tried a few other buttons. We finally asked Homer to try his hearing aids – ahhh that seemed to help. We taped the program and when it was all done I looked at the wave file. I couldn’t believe it…Keith and Perry were fine and their levels were great, but Homer and I were just noise! How could this have happened? What happened? Travis came in and we tried to find the glitch…nothing…everything was just fine and we couldn’t figure out why part of the file was fine and the other was trash. Then we kind of looked at each other at the same time and realized that the only thing out of the ordinary was Homer’s hearing aid. We were puzzled, so Travis Googled ‘hearing aid interference’ and sure enough…that was it. You would think that someone would have known that hearing aids set up interference inside the headphones that nullifies a signal….but we didn’t…now we do. So if you listen to the Podcast and wonder why there seems to be a little weirdness…now you know. We all learned something from this taping.

As to the topic itself…as a Boomer myself, I have always thought, even from my earliest adult years, that finding a working balance for family and work was essential. Too bad life didn’t always cooperate! If you listen to the Podcast and Homer Jones from the older generation, you will hear how for many men, we want to have a balance, but are often forced to prepare for extended periods of time where we are anything but balanced. In our program we found ourselves coming back to the priorities of work and survival. One of the more interesting parts of our discussion had to do with whether or not the younger generation men could give up their relatively balanced family lives if a major change forced them to. They reluctantly would, but with the same reservations that Homer Jones spoke of…namely that you do what you have to do to provide for your family first and foremost…then you try to regain lost time and balance.
The middle generation has had an extended period of time without life spoiling events. We in the middle are blessed in deed and we may or may not live to see our children enjoy the same peace. As Homer spoke about the depression…I know it happened and my father grew up during that time…but I really don’t know what extreme poverty and hopelessness would feel like. There are many who expect trials of that scope to be in our future, maybe not for the Boomers, X’ers or Millennials…but certainly one of the near future generations.
What do you think? Is your generation of men living a balanced family life with work or are you in a whirlwind? Add you thoughts to the Blog and catch the next program on July, 18th. We stream live at www.kuar.org and of course you can hear the long version of the program on the Podcast, also at kuar.org.

E-mail comments –

2006-06-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Topic – Pornography

Date Aired – 6-20-06

Guests –

Older Generation: Dr. Joseph Slade – Author- Pornography In America, & Pornography and Sexual Representation: A Reference Guide – 3 Vols. – Athens, Ohio
Middle Generation: Jan La Rue – Chief Counsel & Legal Studies Director for - Concerned Women for America - author – Protecting Your Child in an X-Rated World – Washington, D.C.
Younger Generation: Ben Shapiro – author – Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth & Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future

Links – Joseph Slade - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0313275688/103-2312939-4586220?v=glance&n=283155

Jan La Rue - http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=3468&department=CWA&categoryid=

Ben Shapiro - http://www.benjaminshapiro.com/

Comments from Phil –

Here are several postings related to our program on Pornography. My guests are so steeped in understanding this volatile topic and they have produced many very relevant articles. I wanted to post them here for your information. Please check the website for the longer version of the actual program. www.kuar.org – click on Podcast and then Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. We record a much longer version, sometimes well over an hour. Our KUAR broadcast is half an hour in length, but this additional material is mainly overflow from our exuberance and the fact that there is so much material to cover.

After editing the long version down to the half hour format for YTT in Little Rock, I can only tell you that there is so much more great information on the Podcast, which is over an hour in length.
I came away from the program with the perception that Pornography means roughly the same thing to each generation and that child porn is by far the most reprehensible form. Additionally, each guest warns that as time goes on, child porn, if not controlled, will seed very destructive outcomes for our society in the future.
As you might expect, the older generation, having not had the ready access to porn that the younger generation has, is not as disturbed and in some circles may even feel a little left out when it comes to prurient satisfaction. The middle generation is caught in between a youth where anything went and a mature adulthood where they now see that when everything goes…often what comes back in later years is not so wonderful after all.
And for me…the most alarming thing about this topic is that the younger generation is so very de-sensitized to the problem of porn…they really don’t see the problem.

Generational Breakdown: Pornography

GI’s – 1901-1924 - Porn was not as available and was not a problem – those who are still alive today, really have not had their society influenced by a porn problem.
SILENT – 1925-1942 – did not see a social change and had no real reason to be alarmed by a growing problem introduced as they raised their children.
BOOMERS – 1943-1960 – brought on the ‘sexual revolution’ and discarded the norms of the GI and Silent generations. Loosened the reigns on their children and allowed porn easy access to technological advances. They became the first generation to be addicted to porn as we know it today.
X’ers – 1961-1981 – Today’s rising adults who are beginning to react to the uncontrolled porn society. These adults, some of whom are OK with porn and others who are very disturbed, will endure throughout their lives the struggles porn has brought to our culture and they will probably not be able to control it.
Millennials -1982-2000 – Young adults who are more like the GI’s in the sense that their civic response will, hopefully, thrust them into a real control of porn. They will most certainly try! Just look at how well these young people are serving our nation in these troubles times.

E-mail comments – send to kuarfm89@cablelynx.com

2005-09-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

Since my last posting we have presented programs on Nursing Homes, Football, Funerals and now one on Patience. I really have to find more time to keep this up!
The last two on Funerals and Patience were rather timely given all that has transpired on the Gulf. What struck me the most about funerals was that with all the coverage from A to Z, no one talked about how funerals were going to be handled. Can you imagine what it must be like to know that one of your loved ones has been killed in this tragedy and have no way to pay your respects to that person? And the other aspect came from my guests who, being funeral directors, knew that the funeral busineses were destroyed too and that they would not be able to serve their communities. Such a tragedy for so many families!
We then did our latest program on Patience. Our society has certainly had their patience tried in these last few months. Gas prices, health care, Katrina, Iraq....the list keeps growing long and our patience thin.
Here are the thoughts of my email guests on Patience...hope you enjoy them and you can hear the program at www.ualr.edu/~ytt anytime.

From Joan Szabo -Kingwood, TX
Patience Middle Generation:
1. What is the patience level of your generation?
The nature of patience has changed. As American modern society moves further away from its agrarian and manufacturing roots and more into the information age the pace of life has picked up. Patience in an agrarian society largely meant dealing with the crop and weather cycles, waiting out the bad times holding on best you could, and rejoicing in the good times. Mastering hand crafts and music making were ways of passing the time and embellishing life. Patience in a manufacturing society largely meant enduring long hours in often oppressive and/or dangerous conditions in order to purchase goods and services to sustain and enhance life. Patience in the information age means learning how to be competent and centered in a fast changing work environment in order to buy goods and services, as well as time for yourself and your family to participate in activities of interest.
In the information age we are waiting out global business cycles and the advent of the next new big thing more than the weather. We are slowly educating ourselves to be reasonably literate with fast moving technological advances, and we are patiently tolerating having to move an average of every five years in order to stay employed. We are learning to be our own contractors when we grew up expecting companies to give us employment and benefits. We are helping our children and grandchildren who are moving back in with us just when we had expectations of enjoying trips to Cancun and moving into a retirement park in South Texas for the winter.
We are less patient than our foremothers and forefathers in making handmade goods and in learning new things. We have expectations of instant “perfect” results. We’ve seen the experts perform on TV without the benefit of watching them struggle. We wonder why we can’t do that too, and generally prefer to be in awe than to learn the discipline. We have forgotten that we were the ones who championed the arts and crafts blossoming of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s that was in large part a backlash to cheap manufactured goods like we now embrace at Wal Mart.
We are less patient with driving than our predecessors. We grew up with paved roads, big motors and cheap, available gas. We didn’t have to know much about machines to make cars run, and run fast. We now generally want comfortable seats, air conditioning, tilt steering, whisper quiet motors, multi-media surround sound, 0-60 mph in a heart beat acceleration, push-button whatever’s, as well as room for the grandkids’ surf board and the luggage. We barely remember the old stiff bench seats, static radio stations, club coupe back shelves, and knee action shock absorbers of our parents’ cars and the cars of our youth. Long gone are the hippie camping trips in VW busses on the roadside at Big Sur and Muir Woods. Now we’re thinking of motor homes with microwaves and satellite dishes and plug-ins with sewer disposal.
We have less patience with paper based media than we did only a few years ago, and are now making a shift toward dependence on computers. We have not done so easily, and are generally far outstripped in computer literacy by our younger generation. We are getting used to knowing what we want to know when we want to know it. We sometimes take vacations to get away from that—usually with the cell phone in the suitcase just in case. Most of us aren’t into wi-fi yet. We are just-in-time learners, and we haven’t yet had the patience to learn skills that we don’t think we need to know to function.
We, of all people, have lack of patience with our crops of young adults who want to skip over the old paradigms for learning and the old values, and just get to where they want to go. This is a very old recording that was played to us in our own youth.
We are trying to be patient with our elders, who are getting even for how we tried them when we were young. This, too, is a very old recording, but with some re-engineering. The impatience and disconnect are aggravated. The knowledge and experience of elders tends to appear less and less relevant to contemporary conditions due to the fast paced changes in technology, communication, and societal norms. Elders are living longer, and living lives that are often separated from youth and nuclear family life.
2. Were you taught patience or is an acquired taste?
Patience, like other traits, seems to me to be a balance of nature and nurture. There is evidence that people are wired differently from birth in terms of how much stimulation they need to feel satisfaction. Hot wired persons by nature gravitate with little patience toward situations that give them the ups and downs that they desire, and on it goes chicken and egg style. Hot wired people tend to have more children earlier, so it is not surprising to see a population shift away from patience in a society where patience is becoming less and less of a necessary function in daily life.
A behavioral piece of the puzzle is opportunity for youth to observe admired adults struggling and patiently overcoming difficulty in terms the youth can understand. All adults have struggled (some patiently), and many have taken pains to shield children from the pain. Too much shielding can leave children without models, good, bad or indifferent. Even a bad model may be better than no model, as bad models can inspire one to think individually and go the other way.
We segregate our youth into age groups at school where the adults are the experts. There are no adult peer learners to act as emotionally mature models for the youth as they struggle with basic educational skills and basic social skills. There are precious few opportunities where youth and adults get to work through problems together as a team. Instead the kids are quite on their own in dealing with learning habits and group behaviors. Teachers exhibit varying degrees of patience toward students, but at school, students are very tempted to see their teachers in an “us vs. them” situation where teacher patience may be interpreted as weakness in leadership.
Those kids who gravitate toward an adult personal mentor that teaches them a skill and is willing to share the struggle to learn the discipline are probably the kids who have the best chance to learn to be patient. In an agrarian society where extended families lived together and worked together on the same projects there were more opportunities for such mentoring. There were also more opportunities for dysfunction and abuse!
To answer your question more directly about the learning piece, I personally am still learning patience from a number of main sources that I recognize at this time. One is from my favorite aunt from rural Maine, who taught me to read for fun, to love nature, and to walk in the woods mindfully. One is from my life long love of horses where my equine teachers continue to help me learn the benefits of making an effort to perceive the world through the sensibilities of other beings. One is from practicing the discipline of making art, which still teaches me to embrace my limitations, let go of expectations, and be in the moment. Another is caring for someone with significant mental impairments who struggles enormously. I must be aware of my boundaries to avoid being sucked in to terrible unhappiness, and my boundaries must include compassion in large doses just to keep my own mental balance. When I fail, I need patience with myself. Another is the discipline of doing professional social work where one patiently aids others to reach their own goals despite bureaucracy, relapses into destructive behavior, and other internal and external obstacles of all sorts.
3. What are the areas of life that your generation is particularly patient with and what areas drive you crazy with impatience?
My now “mature” generation seems patient, or is it complacent (?) with letting politics go where it may. We who rose up against the Viet Nam war are just rolling our eyes at Iraq. We who risked our careers and even lives on civil rights activism, hippie clothing and long hair, are patient with those in government who would check our library records and tell our science teachers what to say to students about science. We who led the women’s movement are patient with those in government who would take a woman’s right to choose her own reproductive destiny away. We who were the very model of impatience with the old guard have become the old guard.
Now we are impatient with youth. We of the hippie generation don’t like hip-hop and rap and cracks showing over jeans. We don’t like tagging and we are afraid of kids having the drugs we once thought were a gateway to new consciousness. Some of us might still have some weed now and again, but that’s different. This is a very old recording using only slightly different lyrics.
Most of us that have come home and bought into middle class values after being hippies as youth have become intolerant of those with different values, and impatient with them for not seeing the world the way that we do. We may talk about equality and political correctness, and we have put much in place in the rule structure about that. Still, we will not hire people with too many rings in their lips or who have process orientation instead of goal orientation. We do not want to live next to them, and we do not want our children around them.
How has modern life affected patience?
The ability to have instant communications has given rise to the expectation that one should be available all of the time, both to family and for work. The many up sides of communication are balanced by blurring of personal boundaries and impatience when one does not get to speak with the person they want when they want to. People talk on cell phones during performances and in classrooms, engendering impatience from others who would like to be where they are for what they came for, rather than overhearing someone else’s personal conversation.
The modern “customer service” orientation of this country did not occur to me as something special until I went elsewhere. People in less developed countries and persons here from generational poverty may wait for hours for nothing, and learn to expect to do so with no apologies. Many people, particularly those with means, in our country feel entitled to quick service, and may feel justified to get very ugly if their expectations go unmet.
Somehow we seem to be drifting toward being meaner and meaner with one another, showing less compassion and less patience in the media. TV shows that were about building wonderful homes are now fierce competitions with teams pitted against each other to build homes. “Reality” shows have people treating others horribly as part of “entertainment.” If a humorist isn’t demeaning someone or using foul language, then s/he doesn’t get media attention. It is no wonder that we have set the stage for things like road rage where impatient people think that the rest of the world should move off the road so they can break the law by speeding.
Winning has somehow begun to supplant dignity as the be all and end all in modern American life. It is no wonder that people have difficulty finding a respectful form of discourse where they can talk patiently and politely about concerns they have with one another. The expectation has become that one is a loser and one a winner, rather than that there could be a mutually respectful solution. People may be impatient to win and may resort to verbal or even physical abuse to make a point, and feel justified in so doing.
The rise in fundamentalist religion rather than promoting compassion and patience with working out differences, to me appears to have promoted a right and wrong, black and white dichotomy. One side feels they have god-given right to the truth and the other will burn in hell. Patience and tolerance have gone out the window in the name of god in favor of burning abortion clinics, bullying young women, and murdering doctors who risk their lives to do what they think is the right thing, as well as murdering people by stealing aircraft and flying into buildings, starting wars, just to mention a few things.
5. Has all the technology to make life easier helped in patience levels or just made it worse?
I think that the labor saving devices have spoiled us to have expectations of instant results, but that relative wealth and buying on credit have really done away with the need for patience when it comes to durable goods.
I am old enough to remember the pre-wash and wear, pre-dryer, pre-fabric softener days when it was a woman’s job to do all the family ironing. The wrinkled look was an anathema. The washing was done in a wringer-washer, and hung off the fire escape or in the yard to dry. It was tedious, never-ending work. I felt shackled, not patient. I learned how to accept feeling shackled like a prisoner learns how to do time, but I wouldn’t call it patience.
Patience came from making my own riding coat on a treadle sewing machine. I couldn’t afford a store bought fancy riding coat. I wanted a special coat very badly, so I learned how to make one even though I had never sewn before. I made many mistakes and sought help again and again until it came out right. Now I don’t need patience to get riding clothes. I just go to the store or the horse auction, or even a thrift store and buy what I want right away. I just bought a cool pair of gorgeous rough out leather chaps at the horse auction last week for a song—less than it would cost to buy the raw materials. I do have the money (or I wouldn’t buy), but if I weren’t such a stick about debt for non-essentials/non-investments, I could buy what I wanted on credit and pay later. I wouldn’t even need to save up, much less make my own! Patience? Save it for the horse.
6. Is your generation more or less patient with the older and younger generation?
My generation has its share of guilt about how we raised our kids. Guilt can be a motivator to loosen boundaries. If we feel guilty about how we raised our kids, we may be willing to spoil them in some other way to make up for it. Our generation has more and more kids moving themselves and their families back in with their parents. If we are not patient, some of us are at least tolerant of the change in expectations for independence.
My generation has marginalized elders and made fun of changes in mental status that sometimes come with aging. We have not looked at aging as a learning opportunity, or thought much about how we will be as we get there. We have not had the patience to sit with elders, especially those who are full of complaints and unhappiness. We have not seen it as a privilege to wait for elders in our activities. Our elders have not seen it as their role to teach us humility and to show us how to slow down for a fellow traveler.
7. Do you expect to gain patience for the rest of your life…or lose it?
Elders that I have known have both gained and lost patience. Anxiety and frustration are not unexpected outcomes from inexorable loss of function. Those who get stuck in anxiety and frustration find the barriers to function increase. An elder can become too nervous to learn how to operate new technology, too frustrated to get past the loss of dignity at being a beginner again, too overwhelmed by loss of function to face a new challenge. On the other hand, some elders find freedom in not worrying about being the best at everything. They relish their status as someone who has nothing left to prove. They accept that their lives have narrowed with grace and gratitude for the time they have had and will still have. Those elders pick through the battles that they need to fight and let the rest go. I hope that I do my mental health homework well enough to face the challenges of aging like making a riding coat, not like being shackled to an ironing board in the hot summer with no air conditioning.

Duane Mariage - Springfield, MO
Middle Generation:
1. What is the patience level of your generation? As I find myself in the middle age group I also find my patience level very high. I can see the mistakes made in younger ages by being "inpatient". I now see the advantage of waiting and watching instead of jumping in so fast.
2. Were you taught patience or is an acquired taste? Both, taught as a virtue to obtain, acquired thru seeing the effect time has on everything.
3. What are the areas of life that your generation is particularly patient with and what areas drive you crazy with impatience? We're patient with aging, we know it's coming but not in a hurry to get there. What drives us crazy is the "throw away" mind set of today. We'll consider fixing something that's not working right and the young people simply want to throw it away and buy a new one.
4. How has modern life affected patience? Modern life seems to discard patience because newer, faster, bigger would never sell if people were patient.
5. Has all the technology to make life easier helped in patience levels or just made it worse? Technology has definitely made life easier, however it's also made us dependent on that easier lifestyle. So, if the technology that makes our life easier fails, we rush to get it fixed as fast as we can. But, if the cost of fixing it is more than we can afford, we fall back into "putting up with" having to be patient until we can get it fixed.
6. Is your generation more or less patient with the older and younger generation? We're impatient with both. The older should already know how, and the younger don't seem to care.
7. Do you expect to gain patience for the rest of your life…or lose it? Gain, remember we were taught that "it" was a virtue, we've discovered that "it" is a necessity, and we see "it" as the way to delay the inevitable.

2005-07-05T04:19:00.000-07:00

Our program on War Injuries was one of the most moving that I have done. All four of my guests have endured suffering that I can not even begin to feel. These four represent only an immeasurable fraction of the sacrifices so many have given for our freedom. I hope anyone who heard the half hour program will download the full version. We air just half of all that we tape and editing is very difficult when so much is meaningful.

The email response is from Joann Szabo of Kingswood College in Texas and I really appreciate her taking the time to respond.

War Injuries—Middle Generation

1. Vietnam is the war your generation remembers most and would like to forget. What was the most common injury and what was the most feared?
The most common war injury for US soldiers in my own unscientific perception as a young college woman at the time was extreme loss of faith and trust, followed closely by substance addiction.
I do not know what the most common injury was of our Vietnamese allies, nor of our foes. The media played images of the scariest and most horrible devastation in that country that one could imagine. There were unforgettable images of naked children with their skin burned off, and of our guys shooting women, children and old men. There were terrifying pictures of huge patches of forest burning in an instant with incendiary Napalm, engulfing whole villages in enormous flames. There were stories about how “Charlie” appeared as innocent women and small children carrying bombs to kill GI’s in suicide attacks.
The worst injury legacies that I can think of now in Vietnam are the land mines that still blow up unsuspecting people these many years after the war, and the chemical residues that have poisoned the land, not to mention the social and economic response to the death of a million people in a small country. Clear Path International states that about once a week someone in the former DMZ still gets blown up with unexploded ordinance (UXO). Quang Tri Province alone reports 500 children dead and over 4000 injured since 1975. UXO look like toys, so children herding buffalo pick up pieces of UXO not expecting them to explode.
The government has played numbers games in the political turmoil surrounding the war, so it is hard to have faith in published numbers. The Vets Memorial web site has these data about the very height of the protracted war: “December 31, 1968, the breakdown of allied forces were as follows: 536,100 U.S. military personnel, with 30,610 U.S. military having been killed to date; 65,000 Free World Forces personnel; 820,000 South Vietnam Armed Forces (SVNAF) with 88,343 having been killed to date. At the war's end there were approximately 2,200 U.S. missing in action (MIA) or prisoner of war (POW).” Maybe three quarters of a million heavy combat ‘Nam Vets are still alive today. Out of that a quarter million are suffering from symptoms of post traumatic stress, according to Jonathan Shay, who wrote the book “Achilles in Vietnam—Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.” In any case there are a lot of guys still around suffering. Soldiers afflicted with PTSD and/or substance abuse have a significant ripple effect on their families, and on their families’ families, who also suffer enormously. That bumps the numbers of those suffering from combat injury up quite a bit on all sides.
The most feared injury for US soldiers from the point of view of those back home at the time was MIA, followed by death. The most feared injury from the point of view of US soldiers at the time seemed to be physical disability.
I had the privilege of doing an internship as a social worker at a Vet’s hospital, working both on a medical floor and on a psychiatric floor. The psych floor treated mainly soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress symptoms. There was also a substantial group of HIV positive Vietnam era soldiers, some with full-blown AIDS. Those men were getting help with both mental and physical problems, and it was prior to the time when there were effective cocktails of drugs to knock down the virus. All of the hospital work was very compelling. The number of homeless Vietnam Vets using, or attempting to use hospital services was outrageous. Homelessness is one common outcome for those with PTSD and/or substance abuse.
The loss of innocence was the worst injury for most of the Vets that I have known, physically injured or not. Our country and our army had moral force. Our young men who fought were motivated enough by that to face death repeatedly. When there is a victory, death, no matter how terrible, is anchored to meaning. The US in Vietnam won the battles, but lost the war, and lost in on moral grounds. Death had no meaning, and the “unanchored” dead visited the survivors to tell them about it. The returning survivors were not honored. The US dead were not honored until later either.
The warlords perpetrating the war were thousands of miles away, out of danger during the fighting. The on-site bureaucracy was so cumbersome that life and death decisions made by leaders consistently made no sense to the soldiers. Leaders in the battlefield were rotated in and out every six months, so they learned their job at soldiers’ expense, literally.
Modern soldiers have extreme dependency on their army. When systems fail due to an enemy, soldiers have legendary stoicism. When systems fail due to incompetence of superiors, it is a different story from the soldier’s point of view.
The picture of disenchantment gets clearer when the system failure kills treasured comrades needlessly and repeatedly. The loss of comrades gets more intense with survivor guilt—it should have been me; I should have done more to save him! I’ll never forget a ‘Nam Vet describing to me how under fire he held the headless corpse of his buddy until the blood stopped spurting and then let the warm body sink out of sight into the rice paddy. The Vet was reliving the experience and took me with him.
Soldiers can recover from horror, but recovery from loss of doing what is right for the right reasons is a harder pill to swallow. Combat under these conditions destroys the capacity for social trust. Prolonged contact with enemies, especially not knowing exactly who the enemies are as in a guerilla war like Vietnam was, demolishes a soldier’s faith in his or her own mental functioning.
Here’s the mix then: Detachment from moral and social restraint via betrayal + survivor guilt + the sense of being already dead and deserving to be dead = a soldier who started out normal and who is now a potential monster. He goes berserk and feels powerful, like God!
Bring that guy home after he has had a chance to go berserk and tell him that he is a monster and a loser. Imagine how that guy functions post war as a father, a husband, a son, a neighbor, a friend, an employee. Now you have a start at understanding the depth of a common war injury suffered by many Vietnam vets. Compound the nature of the injury with the fact that minorities and persons from poverty backgrounds were recruited and served in higher proportion than people of the dominant culture.
Jonathan Shay states, “More than 40 percent of Vietnam combat veterans sampled in the late 1980’s by the congressionally mandated National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study reported engaging in violent acts three times of more in the previous year. We’re talking about 300,000 men here. The percentage of combat veterans who reported averaging more than one violent act a month was almost five times higher than among the sample of civilian counterparts.”
2. Had medical attention in battle zones changed for your generation?
Vietnam had MASH units and speedy evacuation available by helicopter, which were major advances in helping wounded persons return to the battle. Persons with terrible injuries that would have died in other wars often did not die. Even still, the Washington Post cites that 24% of wounded soldiers did not survive in the Vietnam War.
One of the biggest long term impacts of the MASH system on civilian life was the ascendancy of the Physician’s Assistant as a viable post war profession born from systematic re-education of MASH medical personnel.
3. Fought in and around civilians, were civilian injuries a major part of your war experiences?
As a young American woman I did not fight in the war, however my father was one of the many US men who took advantage of civilian opportunities to work for corporations that contracted for the military to build air bases and other infrastructure. He left home and was gone for two years. He sent a few very descriptive letters back, leaving out much of the horror he had to have seen. His efforts helped our family financially, but not without emotional cost. I am sure that much money was made on the war by the civilian industrial complex. It would have been interesting to know more about the influence of the private business sector involved in the war on the political decision to remain in the war for as long as we did.
4. Much has been written and said about the lasting affects of the Vietnam soldier’s lives. How have those war injuries healed…both physical and emotional?
I can only hope that we as a society have learned not to treat our returning soldiers poorly in response to political disagreements about the justification of the war in which they served. I think that the distrust of government engendered during the political upheaval during the war has contributed to lack of participation in political processes on the part of many every day Americans. I fear that those who would use governmental power to further their social agendas have rushed into the participation vacuum and are changing the balance of those freedoms and privileges that we as a society have taken for granted, and for which our soldiers have fought. I fear that the violence, abuse and distrust that has cascaded down from the Vietnam War experiences of our soldiers has spread wide and far in our society, and has made us a meaner and less generous society than we were when we felt that our war efforts at least had a noble, defendable cause. I worry that our failure to win the Vietnam War has contributed to making us as a society value winning over other strategies for happiness in life. Certainly the substance abuse habits brought back by legions of Vietnam Veterans has had a cascade effect on society at large, and has contributed to the size of the “drug war” prohibition effort that is so hopeless and expensive for us.
5. Now that you are the parents of the Gulf and Iraq war soldiers, how do you respond to those who are injured? Have medical advances made any difference?
I am not a parent of a soldier. It chills me as a citizen to hear of our young soldiers in a war where they have to raid scrap heaps to armor their vehicles while others wear state of the art body armor. It chills me to hear about tours of duty extended, knowing what I know about what happens to one’s character with extensive contact with enemies. I fear for the mental health of our soldiers when I hear that we have found no Weapons of Mass Destruction to justify the deaths of so many soldiers and civilians on both sides in a guerilla war where Iraqi’s themselves want us out. One advance that may help is the fact that PTSD is now recognized by the American Psychological Association as a true diagnosis, and the armed forces also recognize it as a true, disabling disorder caused by reactions to abnormal circumstances. I can’t imagine the pain of soldiers in many previous wars who bore the stigma of the disorder and its cascade of personal consequences without any legitimization or efficacious treatments.
On the physical side, the Washington Post cites figures that only 10% of Iraq war soldiers injured die of their injuries, as opposed to nearly a quarter of those injured dying in the Gulf War and in Vietnam. The Post also states that 10,300 US soldiers have been injured with 1000 dead so far. In Vietnam it took about 45 days for a wounded soldier to get to a US hospital, whereas at the beginning of the Iraq war it was 8 days. Now it is 4. Blinding incidents are up, due to soldiers’ refusal to wear protective gear, and severe head and extremity lesions predominate in the physical side of injury. I haven’t seen numbers on PTSD for Iraq yet. The Abu Grebe violations seem to me to be the tip of an ice burg, showing us, if we will only see that decent human beings can turn into monsters in war. No amount of medical advance will stop that, the gravest of injury.

2005-04-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

The next 3 programs will compare the generations on Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Check the focus questions at www.ualr.edu/~ytt/ and send me a comment. The first program on Chrisitanity will air on 4-19-05 at 6:05 CDT and is streamed at www.kuar.org . Judaism will air on 5-3-05 and Islam on 5-17-05. Later in the year on 9-20-05 we will do a program on Atheism. The full unedited version of our last program on American Culture is on the website...just click on 'Listen to the latest program'.

2004-12-05T05:57:00.000-08:00

Google

Our topic on the program we aired Tues. Dec. 7th, 2004 was Suicide. My guests were- from the older generation, Dr. David A. Liptschitz; from the middle generation, Dr. Terry Richard and from the younger generation was Dr. Lanny Berman. All three are very respected individual experts in the field of suicide. We focused on the reality that suicide is a consistent part of every generation's experience and that for the most part it has been a group predominantly populated by white males over 40. Dr. Berman pointed out, however that as time is marching on, the younger generation is beginning to increase its numbers in suicides each year. Dr. Richard explained that the middle generation has suicide victims who have not dealt well with the depressions caused by loss of relationships, jobs, financial security and other social disasters that befall us in those middle years. Dr. Lipschitz then brought home the idea that as older generation members reach other health and social family issues, this is often the final straw and the older generation then acts our a Pathology that, as he says, has been brewing for a lifetime.

Personally, as I prepared the program, I remembered as a 10 year old boy hearing that George Reeves had committed suicide. For those of you my age, he was 'Superman'. In a couple of more years I remember sitting by the radio one Saturday morning in 1962 as the news was broadcast that Marilyn Monroe had committed suicide. As a 12 year old boy, and with here pictures in LIFE and LOOK magazine, it was hard to believe that such a young and beautiful woman could possibly commit suicide. Anyway, those two early suicides seem to mark a growing up period in my life as I tried to understand this part of death. It was one thing to see my older grandparents die, but to see Superman and a very beautiful woman die because of their own acts...it was just hard to believe.

I am sure that everyone has a similar struggle with suicide victims they know. It was a topic that I think is important NOT to overlook for this program.

2004-11-16T03:57:00.000-08:00

Well...since I have been on the air in Little Rock for over 4 years now, I am finding new ways to expand the programs reach. My first publishing to the blog was back in February of 2004 and that was basically on a lark...like, what's this do? As of right now I have produced 68 programs that cover all kinds of topics. Ours is a comparative generational discussion program and I try to stay way back in the background as far as my thoughts and opinions go...but I woke up early this morning (4:00 am) and thought...why not put my opinions on the blog? So from here on out I will post my personal thoughts on our topics here. I hold my tongue several times because public radio is often thought to be liberally biased(a thought I do not share) and more often than not I probably do have a liberal philosophy, but hey, most progressive ideas begin as liberal thoughts and are processed over time by patience and conservative considerations and finally end up as good advances...take Social Security...started out as a liberal idea, was pooh poohed by conservatives and now has been tweeked over the years to the point that no one in their right mind would want to totally eliminate it. Anyway...after each new program, I'll share (or vent!) my own thoughts. Maybe you'll want to share your thoughts too. By the way, you can listen to the latest program by going to www.ualr.edu/~ytt/ and click on 'Listen to the latest program' that will give you a Real Audio version of the program that is actually longer than that which was aired. The next topic is Suicide, which will air 12/7/04 and you can add your comments to the program by checking the topic questions on the website above.

2004-02-07T21:48:00.001-08:00

Be a part of each program by accessing our web site at www.kuar.org and follow the links to the Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow page. You can follow each program throughout the year and send your generation's thoughts. I will include them in our program. We are heard statewide in Arkansas the first and third Tuesdays each month at 6:05 pm. Check it out and add your thoughts.