Let's Build a Cathedral

Yes, I've been to the United Kingdom and noticed the churches over there. Absolutely magnificent. You could go to the United Kingdom (and I suspect much of Europe) and do nothing but tour churches. They are simply breathtaking.

The thing that really struck me was the stone. How did they ever quarry so much stone, transport it and stack it so high? That really hit me in Chester. The Romans built it. There's a stone wall, 20-30 feet high, that runs 2 miles around the city. These walls aren't made of rubble -- they're cut stone. How in the world did they do this so long ago? With ropes and pulleys, levers and sweat? And how did they afford it all?

The rich guys back then must have really been rich. The stone work is amazing in a brutal way but when you move into the cathedral, the artwork will leave you in awe. Everything is chiseled, carved and decorated. Tapestries. Paintings. Sculptures in wood, stone and metal. The wood carvings. Forests of carved wood. It's unreal. I guess when you're as rich as a King, you can afford these things.

And then it hit me -- what makes a King rich? Actually, that's the wrong avenue of thinking to take. You can suss it out on your own but let's just skip to the end and say "taxes" make a King rich. The King gets a little (or a lot) of everything that people create. It adds up in a hurry. If Facebook only made a dollar a month off of all their subscribers that'd be $500 million a month. I'm pretty sure you could build a cathedral with that. You and I could scarcely dream of spending 3 trillion a year.



The correct way to think about this is not how much it costs but how much will it takes to get it done. The Romans built the fortress. The English built the cathedral. It can physically be done. Certainly with the tools at our disposal we could build even greater things. But we don't. Why?

Again, it isn't the cost. It's the will. Think about the size of the population that built these things. They're tiny in comparison to us. Any average-sized city in America could build a cathedral. All it would take would be the political will to say, "We are going to pay the taxes that will support 500 workers for 50 years in order to build this thing."

That's an interesting dynamic to think about isn't it? Could you imagine anybody in America thinking that they were going to work on one project for 50 years? Yes, that is a life time. Add to that the idea that you were going to spend your entire working life on something that was going to last a thousand years. And you weren't going to use the cheapest materials -- you were going to use the best. How would an idea like that transform America?

The trick is, instead of one man (the King) having the political will to see such a project through, in a democracy you'd have to generate the political will from several thousand voters. Or a few million.

The Romans built a fortress. The English built a cathedral. Americans went to the Moon. What should America do next? What would your cathedral be? Pick something. Anything is better than listening to the fools that tell us we can't afford to do anything except watch it all crumble into dust.

Don Brown
August 1, 2014

God Save the Queen

Something strange happened on the transition back from the United Kingdom to Middle Georgia. The level of ignorance was shocking. I wasn't expecting that. As Fareed Zakaria always says, "Let me explain".

I'm a Georgia redneck. Anybody that knows me knows that I don't speak properly. I don't even try anymore. Anyone that reads my blog knows that I don't know the rules of proper grammar. I never paid attention to English in school. I'm not proud of it, but that's the way it is.

And there's the point. I'm not proud of it. Yet so many people down here are. So, naturally, I commenced to thinking about this. And here's what I came up with.

In Amurica, we have this idea that all men are created equal. Somehow, this has transformed into the idea that anybody is as good as anybody else. (Well, unless you really are white trash and then you cling to the illusion that "those people" will never be as good as you are. Even if they do speak better, hold a college degree from a first-rate university and become President of the United States.) This, in turn, has somehow transformed into the bizarre notion that all ideas are created equal. That your thoughts, manners and tastes are just as good as anybody's. Even when they clearly are not.

And who's to argue? In America, nobody. In the United Kingdom, the Queen. In the United Kingdom (it's hard to not just say England), the Queen is the standard. She speaks properly. She acts properly. She is properly. You may be a great person -- educated, smart, kind and articulate -- but you have a standard to live up to in the UK. A standard of behavior to emulate. In America, you get to pick your own hero. Your own standard. Your own model. Even if you pick poorly.

I met plenty of normal people in the Untied Kingdom; "Commoners". Hard-working people. Gracious people. Of all races and ethnic backgrounds. I even met a religious nutcase. Not one of them was proud of being ignorant. They were proud of being English, Scot, Welsh, Arab, Catholic, "Scouse" and Londoners. But they were never proud of being ignorant (and most of them weren't.) I wish that were true of where I live.

No, I don't want a Queen. But I could do with a little less ignorance. Hey! That reminds me; How 'bout them Dawgs!??

Don Brown
August 1, 2014

Just Show Up

This had to be one of the prettiest mornings of my life.



Don Brown
July 17, 2014

Fate and Fear

I had no idea Lockerbie, Scotland was along our route through the United Kingdom. It felt like fate to find it. Not a good fate. But fate nevertheless.

When you're younger (or at least when I was younger) you don't dwell on the enormity of a disaster like Pan Am 103. You don't realize the enormity of losing a parent, much less a son or a daughter. You recognize that it's a horror. But you don't know the full weight of it.

The town of Lockerbie has done a good job of dealing with it. The Garden of Remembrance is a beautiful place, in a beautiful land. Hopefully fate will be kinder to the town in the future. The fear should stay to keep us vigilant. Hopefully a distant memory. But a memory still.



Don Brown
July 6, 2014

A Post From Afar

Fate reaches across the ocean. My friend that I'm touring the United Kingdom with has family in Brechin, Scotland. Brechin is the home of Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt -- the man that oversaw the creation of the Chain Home at the start of World War II. You can read on your own, but, in short, he's the inventor of the modern radar system. The town has just erected a new statue of him.



I guess it's appropriate that the sky was overcast.

Don Brown
July 6, 2014

In Good Hands

Let's face it: I don't get to write like I used to. Part of that is that I'm no longer a Subject Matter Expert (God help me -- FAAisms still infect my brain). Air Traffic Control moves on and I am left further and further behind.

But for these last few days, I have been forcing myself to catch up on Krugman. And then, this morning, while I was trying to find a piece from Fareed Zakaria, I got lost on James Fallows' page for an hour. Or two. I was really struck by this one. Find me another author with an audience this bright, willing to debate in civil language, and I'll give them a read. I'm sure there actually are others. Just as I am sure we all don't have the time to read them all. We have to choose. And the older I get, the more I realize how important the choice of whom we give our limited time to is.

Which is what inspired me to write this. Looking back, I'm proud of the choices I have presented to you. Paul Krugman. James Fallows. Robert Reich. I think each has held up well over these years we've spent together. Looking over my blog, I see that I will have to update it. (Big DUH.) Podcasts have become my main media these days. I can't read as I walk and take pictures but I can listen. Rachel Maddow and Kai Ryssdal's MarketPlace are a daily routine now. Bill Moyers' podcast is becoming almost a weekly spiritual ritual. All I can say is he appeals to our better nature. There are many others but these are the best.

By the way, here's the segment on Farred Zakaria's Global Public Square I was searching for.



In closing, I'll remind you that in the archives here at Get the Flick is a review of the book "A Peace to End All Peace" about how the borders of the Middle East were set after World War I, a review of James Fallows' "Blind Into Baghdad" detailing our foolish rush to war and a review of Thomas Ricks' book "Fiasco" about the disastrous implementation of our foolish policy. The disaster of our involvement in Iraq didn't "just happen", it wasn't fate and don't let anyone tell you that no one saw it coming. It was a choice. A bad one.

Choose the voices you allow in your head wisely.

Don Brown
June 21, 2014

Add A Little Heat

A really nice sunrise this morning. This was only the start.



Don Brown
June 7, 2014

Still My First Love

Rodeo is fun but my heart still belongs to the sky.



Don Brown
June 5, 2014

Rodeo Addiction

This might get out of hand.



Don Brown
May 31, 2014