Tom Glenn's Blog, page 13

Biden’s Classified Document Scandal

Press reports over the last few days have told of improperly stored classified documents found last November and again this month in spaces belonging to President Biden. They were top secret and SCI—sensitive compartmented information—and dealt with Ukraine, Iran, and the United Kingdom.

This follows the quantities of classified material found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and outcries demanding that Trump be prosecuted.

I remind the reader that I spent thirty-five years in the government service handling classified material, including codeword, SCI, and special access. Had I taken even one document out of controlled areas for anything other than official business, I would have been arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison. Why are Trump and now Biden above the law?

Ordinary citizens without clearances have no idea of the enormous damage that can be done by the revelation of national secrets to foreign governments. I think it’s high time that we review and tighten our rules and procedures for handling classified information and require that everyone, even the president of the United States, abide by them.

Republican Book Bans

Republican and conservative efforts to ban books they disagree with are taking off. PEN America, an organization devoted to protecting free expression in literature, reports that there are at least 50 groups across the country working to remove books they object to from libraries. During the 2021-22 school year, 138 school districts in 32 states banned more than 2,500 books. These districts include 5,049 schools and in total enroll almost 4 million students.

Texas and Florida lead the nation in book bans. The books most frequently targeted have been by or about Black or L.G.B.T.Q. people, according to the American Library Association. 

To my way of thinking, these efforts are in direct violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which protects freedom of speech. The conservatives, well-to-do and powerful, are trying to suppress those they look down on, especially women, blacks and other racial minorities, and those with sexual identities that depart from the conservative norm. In a nation devoted to freedom and democracy, in which all are equal, there is no despised faction of inferiors to be subjugated.

It is incumbent upon all of us to fight book bans. They strike at the very heart of our freedom. Let’s unify against them.

Words Again (2)

Back to it:

Archive: an accumulation of historical records or materials—in any medium—or the physical facility in which they are located. The etymology is straightforward. The word in its modern usage first appeared around 1600. It derives from the French archif, sixteenth century, from Late Latin archivum (plural archiva), “written records” or the place where they are kept, from Greek ta arkheia, “public records.”

Flabbergast: According to Merriam-Webster, the word means to overcome with shock, surprise, or wonder. It lists its origin as “unknown.” Even the Online Etymology Dictionary can only guess at the word’s origin, suggesting that it is an arbitrary formation—somebody just made it up.

Hornswoggle: Merriam-Webster says the word means to bamboozle or hoax. It gives no etymology. The Online Etymology Dictionary says it’s probably a “fanciful formation,” again suggesting that somebody just made it up. Other sources offer various guesses but no firm evidence of origin.

Irk: Merriam-Webster says “irk” means is to irritate or disgust but offers no etymology. The Online Etymology Dictionary says the word comes from the early fifteenth century verb, irken, “to trouble (someone), disturb, hinder, annoy.”

Rare: As a verb, the word means for a horse to rise on two legs. None of the sources I checked could provide a firm etymology. The best guess is that the word comes from the verb rear.

Mordant: According to Merriam-Webster, the word means biting or caustic in thought, manner, or style. It comes from the French word mordre, to bite.

Scofflaw: According to Merriam-Webster, a contemptuous lawbreaker, especially one who ignores parking tickets. It is a made-up word formed by combining the verb scoff with the noun law. The Online Etymology Dictionary says that word originated in 1924. It was the winning entry (from among more than 25,000) in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally.

More when the spirit moves me.

Words Again

Yeah, I know, I’m at it again. Words continue to fascinate me. And here are some more:

Nug: A mysterious word with several possible meanings—a piece of marijuana or a super cute person that everyone just wants to cuddle and love being the most cited. The Century Dictionary says it means a rude unshaped piece of timber; a block; a knob or protuberance; in mining, the dull sound caused by the breaking of subsiding strata. The word’s etymology remains a mystery. The best guess is that it derives from the word nugget.

Cripe: Merriam-Webster defines the word as “a mild oath” and says that in the plural, cripes, it’s euphemism for “Christ.”

Gobsmack: Chiefly British slang, it means to overwhelm with wonder, surprise, or shock; to astound. It derives from putting together “gob,” meaning mouth, and “smack,” meaning to strike or slap.

Glum: frowning, sad, sullen, moody. It derives from the Middle English verb gloumen, which means to look glum or sullen; look displeased; scowl, frown.

Gut: As a noun, the word means bowels or entrails; in the plural, “guts,” it means strength or force of character it. As a verb, it means to eviscerate or totally destroy. It derives from the Old English guttas (plural) meaning bowels, entrails. Its meaning in the singular was a channel.

Ahem: a throat-clearing sound used to attract attention. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word results from seventeenth century word hem, which is imitative of clearing one’s throat (as if about to speak).

Rig: The word has a variety of meanings, all derived from different sources. So I’ll be selective. As a transitive verb, derived from the Middle English ridden, it means to fit out or provide with needed tackle, clothing, or gear; or to put in working order. As a noun, it most commonly means equipage or dress. But other derivations have other meanings. The full etymology, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, is complex: the word has existed in its present form since the late fifteenth century, originally nautical, meaning “to fit (a ship) with necessary tackle, make (a ship) ready for sea.” The word of is obscure origin, probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Danish, Norwegian rigge “to equip,” Swedish rigga “to rig, harness”)—though these words may be from English. The word is perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European reig-, “to bind.”  

Gander: The word has two meanings: a male goose or a look or glance. It’s origin in its first meaning, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, is the Old English gandra, “male goose,” from Proto-Germanic gan(d)ron (source also of Dutch gander, Middle Low German ganre). The origin of the second meaning is slang from 1886. It derives from the idea of craning one’s neck like a goose. An earlier meaning for the word, from the 1680s, was “to wander foolishly.”

More next time.

Presentation Coming Up

On Tuesday, January 17, at 2:00 p.m., I’ll be offering my workshop with slides, “The Forgotten Discipline: Fiction Craftsmanship,” at the Palette and the Page, 120 East Main Street, Elkton, Maryland (21921). It’s a class intended for writers of fiction, to help them get published. The class covers required reference material, formatting, copy editing, structure/wording, and dialogue. I’m charging ten dollars for each participant.

If writing fiction is your thing, give it a try.

Support Ukraine!

The war waged by Russia against Ukraine is now approaching its first anniversary. Thus far, the U.S. has directed nearly $50 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute. Some Americans, especially Republicans who now control the House of Representatives, are complaining about the cost and proposing that we reduce our expenditures in support of Ukraine. My position is that we should, if anything, increase them.

Let us remember what’s at stake here. Vladimir Putin, the dictator with iron control over Russia, invaded Ukraine last February without provocation. His purpose was to conquer his tiny neighbor and annex its territory. None of us expected that Ukraine would survive more than a few weeks or months. To the amazement of the world, spunky little Ukraine not only blunted the Russian invasion but even seized back territory that Russia captured in the beginning. Meanwhile, nearly the whole world sided with Ukraine against Russia and has been contributing to the Ukrainian effort to hold off and eventually drive out the Russians.

My best guess is that Russia will eventually prevail and will hold much of what once was the independent nation of Ukraine. But the feisty Ukrainians won’t surrender. They will resort to guerrilla warfare and wear down the Russians until they give up and withdraw.

So I urge my fellow Americans not to falter in their assistance to Ukraine. That noble little country deserves every penny we can give them in aid. And Russia needs to learn that it cannot invade with impunity.

Hang in there, folks. The long-term result will be well worth the cost.

Brady PAC Data on Gun Violence

The Brady PAC was formed leading up to the 2018 midterm elections. It was created to serve as a counterweight to “dark money” Super PACs created by the gun industry. It upholds the policy ideals that have been championed by its sister organization, Brady—one of the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention grassroots advocacy organizations.

Brady, United Against Gun Violence (formerly Handgun Control, Inc., the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and against gun violence. It is named after James “Jim” Brady, who was permanently disabled and later died in 2014 as a result of the Ronald Reagan assassination attempt of 1981, and his wife Sarah Brady, who was a chairwoman of the organization from 1989 until her death in 2015.

According to information that Brady PAC just released, there are over 393 million guns in America. An average of 110 people die from guns every day in the U.S. Moreover, guns are the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. About 3 million American children are exposed to gun violence each year. And more than a million Americans have been shot in the last decade.

The only way we can reduce gun deaths and violence in the U.S. is to reduce the number of guns in the hands of Americans. We have 120.5 guns for every 100 people—we have more guns than people. The ratio between the number of guns held and the number killed by guns is largely uniform throughout the world: the more guns in the hands of the population, the more people who are killed by guns.

In 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is well past time that we find a way to reduce the number of firearms in American hands. Until we do, we will continue killing off our population.

Demise of the GOP

The struggle by Kevin McCarthy to be elected by his colleagues as Speaker of the House of Representatives—he finally got there after fifteen, count them, fifteen, tries— exposes to the attention of all how far the Republican party has sunk, thanks largely to Donald Trump. The GOP traditionally favored limited government and lower taxes and always fought Democratic efforts to enlarge the scope of federal power. Now it is divided between those who still support Trump and those who silently ignore him. As I have written here several times, I think the Republican Party as we have known it is a thing of the past. And it is apparent to me that Democratic victories in the future will be major.

Further evidence of the forthcoming GOP downfall comes from the 2022 election. Normally, in a mid-term election, the party holding the White House loses ground with the opposition party gaining. That didn’t happen last year. The Democrats actually won the Senate, and in the House, Republicans ended up with 222 seats while the Democrats have 213—a tiny majority.

My best guess as to what will happen is that, as the GOP recedes, the Democrats will eventually divide into two parties representing the more progressive and the more moderate elements. Historians will write of this period as the time of the great debacle which very nearly destroyed American democracy.

Fighting for the Guy Next to You

Sometime ago, I wrote in this blog about who and what men fight for in combat. The reasoning that got them them—patriotism, a sense of duty, a desire to do the right thing—falls away under the pressure of the moment, and they fight to save the life of the man fighting next to them. I observed that phenomenon repeatedly during my years in combat in Vietnam and elsewhere. When the chips were down, I was there to save the man fighting next to me, and he was there for me.

That experience always brought back to me the biblical words (King James Version, John 15:13), “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” That indeed was my experience. We men are hesitant to use the word “love” for that feeling, because referring to men loving one another has tinges of homosexuality. But that’s what it is, the strongest love I have ever experienced.

Hence the grief that comes from the death of fellow combatant is among the most intense we ever feel. To this day, I grieve over the men I lost on the battlefield. I remember them vividly even though I can’t recall their names—in some cases, I didn’t even know their names. The loss of them will be with me as long as I live.

One of the saddest elements of my memories is the age of those young men. Most were eighteen or nineteen years old. Their lives were destroyed before they had even begun to live.

Books and Presentations

In response to a request from a reader, I offer the following summary on my books and presentations:

I am the author of six published books. You can learn about them at https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Glenn/e/B009GGNYUM%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share  I do readings from all six books, though Last of the Annamese is the most popular.

Here are data about my presentations:

“The Forgotten Discipline: Fiction Craftsmanship,” a workshop with slides and handouts. Creativity is innate and can’t be learned, but craftsmanship can. Intended to help writers get published, the presentation focuses on the mechanics of fiction—formatting, copy editing, wording/structure, and dialogue.

“The Cassandra Effect: The Battle of Dak To,” a lecture with slides on my involvement in one of the largest battles of the Vietnam War. I was there on the ground collecting intelligence. I warned U.S. military commanders of the forthcoming attack and wasn’t believed.

 “Bitter Memories: The Fall of Saigon,” a lecture with slides, my most popular presentation, given more than seventy times. A speaker of Vietnamese, Chinese, and French, I spent thirteen years as a National Security Agency operative trundling between the U.S. and South Vietnam, working under cover with army and Marine combat units on the battlefield. I was caught in Saigon when it fell to the North Vietnamese and escaped under fire.

“Post-Traumatic Stress Injury: A Warrior’s Malady,” a discussion of injury to the soul suffered by combatants. My years of assisting forces on the battlefield plagued me with the mental disorder that results from witnessing death in combat. I discuss my efforts at coping.

I do all these presentations except “Fiction Craftsmanship” at no charge.                          

If you’d like me to speak at a gathering, email me at tomglenn3@gmail.com