KERFUFFLE

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Notes of Concern…

         …Jackson Blair

Kerfuffle

I think there are some wonderful words in our language. Many of them get very little attention.

One of those is “kerfuffle.”

A “kerfuffle” is described by most dictionaries as a disturbance or a fuss.

Synonyms for “kerkuffle” include:

ado, alarums and excursions, ballyhoo, blather, bluster, bobbery, bother, bustle, clatter, clutter , coil, corroboree, disturbance, do , foofaraw, fun, furor, furore, fuss, helter-skelter, hoo-ha , hoopla, hubble-bubble, hubbub, hullabaloo, hurly, hurly-burly, hurricane, hurry, hurry-scurry , commotion , moil, pandemonium, pother, row, ruckus, ruction, rumpus, shindy, splore , squall, stew, stir, storm, to-do, tumult, turmoil, uproar, welter, whirl, williwaw, zoo

Now you have to admit that “kerfuffle” pretty much covers the territory and it has such a fantastic sound.

We seem these days to be involved in a lot of kerfuffles nationally and internationally. There are disturbances breaking out everywhere and certainly there are more fusses than we could possible enumerate.

There is the kerfuffle in Egypt. This is a kerfuffle of our own making. We involved ourselves in the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, in the election of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and shortly thereafter in his overthrow.

Why do we need to get involved in these things?

What a kerfuffle.

In Massachusetts the gas tax went up 3 cents recently, a change that put Massachusetts amongst the states with the largest gas tax.

What a kerfuffle this tax has become.

The President announced that the head of the Federal Reserve had stayed overly long. Then he added that he was trying to decide between two people as replacements. This put in motion an entire kerfuffle over whether a woman deserved to be the next head of the Fed or whether the former president of Harvard University deserved the job.

This was a kerfuffle that could have been, and should have been, avoided by a practicing politician.

Recently Rolling Stones Magazine attempted to hold out a Boston bomber as a nice young fellow who was led astray by his terrible brother and by a dysfunctional family.

Yep, another kerfuffle.

The Patriot’s efforts to take some good young men with bad records and make them into football professionals took a nosedive with Hernandez.

Big kerfuffle.

George Zimmerman shot a man. The police did not want to charge him. The FBI told the justice department there was no evidence to uphold a charge of racial profiling. A jury found the man innocent. And the country erupted.

A kerfuffle of huge proportions.

The world that we love has a lot of kerfuffles. In fact, hardly a day goes by without another kerfuffle.

It can only be a matter of time before TIME or some other newsmagazine labels this the Era of Kerfuffles.

In the meantime, I hope each of my readers can master the kerfuffles in his/her own life and manage to bring order to the chaos.

Who's In Charge

Notes of Concern…

                …Jackson Blair

Who’s In Charge?

I grew up in a time when I was pretty sure who was in charge.

In my extended family the elders were in charge. Siblings deferred to them and honored the years they had lived and the experience they had amassed.

In my own family, my dad was in charge of the things men typically understand better and my mother was in charge of everything else. They teamed up and they knew where their individual talents could be found.

From when I started grade school right through college I knew who was in charge at school. The principal was in charge. And later the college president was in charge. Perhaps more importantly my parents understood that someone needed to be in charge and they knew who was better qualified. They backed up the principal and the president. I am pretty sure that even when the principal and the president were wrong my parents still backed them.

When I entered the world of work I knew the boss was in charge. It was his company or the shareholders had selected him to manage their financial investment.  I knew he had forgotten more than I knew at that juncture and that I would learn from him. I also knew he held my advancement in his control.

And throughout my life I knew that in our country the president was in charge. Many times the nominee chosen by the voters was not the nominee I preferred but I found it easy to slide into support for the stated will of the people as expressed at the polls. Frankly, my parents and my extended family set that example and encouraged it. After the electoral season was over everyone stood up an saluted. Those were easier times I suppose.

By now my readers know where I am going with this.

Today there is a trend toward warehousing the elderly. In our country old people really do not have much influence. Much of this is due to the disappearance of extended families and to the fact that young people move all over the world to pursue work. If we are honest with ourselves we know that young people today are not encouraged to seek counsel from the “wise people” in our midst.

Our families over the years have become, often by necessity,  two income families. This has fogged our vision of gender related home responsibilities. It has lessened the influence of actual parents on their own children. It has created the growth of what some have called the “nanny state.” I am sympathetic here because with everyone measuring success by the number of “toys” one can acquire, and in other cases there is an inability to survive without two incomes, and in yet another scenario you have two people who really want to have careers but also would like to have children, I accept change is explainable if not preferable.

When our children head off to school often they do not see the behavior modeled by their parents as suggesting the principal is the boss. Parents are so ambitious for their children’s financial and career success they take on teachers and principals over every less than perfect grade or on fully appropriate discipline decisions.
Where I grew up teachers were respected and admired members of the broader community. I think many teachers would tell you today it is a thankless task, has very little prestige and certainly very little money, and that often the criticisms come from not only the student but from the parents.

With the growth of unions, at a time when unions were absolutely necessary, bosses lost a great deal of their autonomy. By the time the demands of many unions put large numbers of employers out of business and sent other companies abroad to find reasonable labor rates bosses joined teachers in the “barrel” of public argument. I witnessed this in my own town and state. Where one time great steel mills were ultimately left making toasters.

I could write a truly lengthy column of what has happened to the President of the United States as boss. Respect for the office regardless of the man who holds it has disappeared. We live in an age when if people could actually get to the walls of the White House they would be graffiti covered. We wail at the cost of protection for the chief executive. Well friends, who do you think he needs to be protected from? Largely his protection is not from foreign intrigue but from his fellow citizens.  The Russians did not assassinate Abraham Lincoln. The Vietnamese did not assassinate Jack Kennedy. Those three women who took shots at Jerry Ford were all homegrown. The list goes on.

We have reached a time in history where the once honored and fabled America, and all that term meant, is in decline. We have lost our way. All over the world we are seen as more than marginally off our game.

For me, and I know there will be many other worthy opinions, it ties directly to the fact that we no longer respect authority, at any level. We have come to love the fact that we can not only challenge authority (which can be a good thing when done prudently and occasionally) but are encouraged to do so at every turn.

We have lost respect for authority in our families, in our schools, in our jobs and in our country. And it is not the fault of Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians or any other political party.

We have met the enemy, and it is “We the People.”

The writer welcomes your comments, ideas and suggestions.

Please take a moment to share your views on the topic by emailing

 jacksonblair@gmail.com or leaving a comment on his blog at

www.blair-notes.blogspot.com

For further information:  jacksonblair@gmail.com