U.S. skeletons rattle again

Despite the problems the United States has, I believe most people reading this are grateful to live in our country. We enjoy a level of freedom that a lot of people do not enjoy around the world.

Still, we have our struggles.

Our federal government is too large and inefficient. The government also probes our personal lives in ways that make us feel uncomfortable. However, I think most would agree that life could be a whole lot worse.

Of course, this does not mean that our government does not have skeletons in its closet. A vivid reminder of that occurred last week.

Last week, federal officials apologized for medical experiments performed more than 60 years ago that were both shocking and ghastly.

From 1946-48, the U.S. government participated in a medical study that deliberately infected hundreds of mentally ill patients and prisoners in Guatemala. The clinical trial that involved the U.S. Public Health Service and was co-sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the Pan American Health Sanitary Bureau and the Guatemalan government, exposed almost 700 people to such sexually transmitted diseases as syphilis and gonorrhea.

In a joint statement, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius stated: "We are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices."

Wow. If news like this does not send a cold chill down a person's spine, then I do not know what will.

Incredibly, there have been similar experiments that have been exposed in the past. For example, President Bill Clinton apologized in 1997 for studies that saw American citizens treated like the people in Guatemala.

Known as the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male," the study started in 1932 and followed the conditions of 400 black men who contracted syphilis. The men were not treated and were only told that they suffered from "bad blood."

"To determine the natural course of syphilis, the researchers withheld from the infected men what was then the standard treatment -- mercury and arsenic compounds," the New York Times reported in 1997. "Then, in 1947, when penicillin was found to be an effective treatment for syphilis, it too was withheld.

"Federal researchers eventually went so far as to get local physicians to promise not to provide antibiotics to individuals in the study,” according to the Times.

These examples of medical studies gone wild should provoke us to consider a lot of issues.

First of all, a lot of time has passed since these studies took place. Therefore, it is impossible to hold those accountable who directed these studies. However, these experiments should help us understand why some mistrust the government.

When people rebuke minority groups who claim the system is racist, we should understand that this mistrust is rooted in situations like this. Remember, these studies picked on people that the government should have been protecting. The government exploited these people and now must suffer the scorn of public opinion.

Additionally, examples like this should remind us that we must remain vigilant when keeping an eye on our federal government. We are in an election season and negativity continues to run rampant in our country.

It is not like people need much of a reason to be cynical toward the government. When we hear of stories like this, it is like heaping coal on a blazing fire.

The bottom line is that situations like these should make us shake our head with disbelief.

Now, all we can do is make sure this never happens again.

Is 'Blood on the Tracks' Bob Dylan's greatest album?

There is no disputing that Blood on the Tracks deserves to be in the discussion regarding what Bob Dylan's best album is. The big question is whether or not it is the best.

Answering this question is a tricky proposition. Dylan has gone through so many stylistic changes in his career that it seems almost unfair to compare certain albums. For example, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is a whole lot different album than Blonde on Blonde. Both are undeniably great, but it is difficult to compare the two because of their differences.

To reduce this to a cliché, comparing Dylan's music in 1962 to his music in 1966 is like comparing apples to oranges. Each phase of his career represents his development as an artist to the point that he was not the same artist when each phase ended. Dylan is unique in this respect because his career has been so long. As he has grown as a man and an artist, we have seen him change into a 'new Bob Dylan' in each phase.

Therefore, it really is a waste of time and effort when trying to determine which of his albums is the greatest. When it comes to Blood on the Tracks, all we have to do is accept that it is great as we absorb ourselves in it.

When it was released in 1975, it arrived at a time when the leaders of the great musical era of the Sixties were withering on the vine. Dylan had begun the Seventies with a thud with Self-Portrait. In the years that followed, he made excellent but sometimes erratic music (the fragmented New Morning comes to mind). When Blood on the Tracks arrived, it arrived with a jolt.

The album deals with love on lots of different levels. Many believe the inspiration and passion that comes through on the album was because of problems in his marriage. I have always been a little hesitant when people try to pin intimate songs like these to specific events in an artist's life. However, there is no denying that there is both joy and weariness in these songs. Both are common traits when studying what love is and what it is not.

The album begins with the remarkable 'Tangled Up in Blue.' The universal appeal of this song is that it deals with the past, present, and future of love. We all reach a point in our lives where we reflect on past relationships. When we do this, we look at where love has taken us and how it helped bring us to our current point in life. In Dylan's presentation of this, he walks us through the singer's experiences, which had taken him all over the world. Dylan closes the song simply by singing that he is going down the road 'heading for another joint.' In one form or another, we all do the same.

The volcanic 'Idiot Wind' is about romantic failure that borders on the apocalyptic when it comes to its imagery. It is similar to 'Like a Rolling Stone' in that the listener can revel somewhat in the attack on the other party. The venom in which Dylan delivers his vocals drags the listener through the song with uncommon passion. It is hard for the listener not to think of times in their own lives when events were out of control and emotions have been reduced to a howl or scream. The song is great but not for the faint of heart.

'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' follows 'Idiot Wind,' and it is an excellent example of sequencing songs. As full of rage as 'Idiot Wind' is, 'You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go' is light and breezy like a pleasant afternoon during springtime. It presents love at its most naïve and playful. It represents the honeymoon phase that most relationships go through and provides a much needed breath of fresh air after the intensity of 'Idiot Wind.'

'Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts' is a long love story drenched in imagery from the Wild West. 'Simple Twist of Fate' is a song of regret. 'You're a Big Girl Now' offers more of the same.

However, one of the most interesting songs considered for Blood on the Tracks is one that did not make the final cut. 'Up to Me' is a remarkable ballad that was eventually released on Biograph in 1985. According to Cameron Crowe's liner notes for Biograph, it was written as a companion piece for 'Shelter from the Storm' that appeared on Blood on the Tracks.

Crowe wrote: "The song also toys with his (Dylan's) own inscrutable persona. 'If we never meet again, baby, remember me,' he sings in the final verse, 'How my lone guitar played sweet for you, that old time melody. And the harmonica around my neck, I blew it for you free. No one else could play that tune. You know it was up to me.'"

Commented Dylan: "I don't think of myself as Bob Dylan. It's like Rimbaud said, 'I is another.'"

As good as Blood on the Tracks is, the inclusion of 'Up to Me' would have taken it to another level. It cried out to be the closing track on the album but turned out to be a lost opportunity. Then again, 'Up to Me' was one of the major reasons Biograph was such a fantastic boxed set.

If nothing else, Blood on the Tracks is a mature record. The songs deal with love in a three-dimensional way. Dylan was in his mid-30s when it was released, and by this age, most of us have seen the pros and cons of what love can bring.

Dylan brought this home in perhaps the most literate way ever presented in rock and roll. The album can best be described as an eruption of emotion and talent. He has not produced another album quite like it, but given the subject matter, it would be tough for any artist to repeat this twice.

Life is a whirlwind

When describing life, one of the most common clichés used is that most people experience many seasons to their lives.

Going back to the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament and moving forward, it is an analogy that writers have repeatedly used to describe the ups and downs of life.

For every season of prosperity and beauty, there will be a season of drought and despair. This is a fact that can be counted on as surely as the falling of leaves in autumn. It is one of the inarguable facts of life. I guess this analogy is a little more than a cliché then, right?

For people paying attention the last couple of weeks, we know that there have been unspeakable crimes and deaths that have taken place in our community. They are usually the types of crimes that we read about taking place in big cities instead of a small, lovely town like Manchester.

I will not recount the events. They are already burned into our souls so there is no need to endure these facts one more time. All that will be said is that those who passed away are greatly loved, and the family members who remain are just as loved.

We understand that no place is protected when an evil whirlwind blows through a community. Sometimes the power of the whirlwind is so strong that all people can do is lift their hands to shield their eyes. And pray.

Among the frustrating aspects of an event like this is the feeling that those impacted (directly or indirectly) have to just sit there and take it. The fury of the moment takes place and lots of people have to deal with the aftermath.

However, there is good news. People do not have to just sit there and take it. And from what I have observed, the people involved in this situation have not sat there and taken it.

This is because for every evil whirlwind that passes through there is a good whirlwind as well. It is a whirlwind filled with love, compassion, and togetherness. The power of those three things becomes a lot more obvious during times like these.

It makes me wonder why we do not spend more time investing in them when times are good. I guess we believe we always will have tomorrow to get around to that, but of course, tomorrow does not always come.

If nothing else, events like this demonstrate that we will all face the end of our physical lives some day. Why don't people put as much thought into that as they do other parts of their lives? I don't know.

Most folks spend a lot of time planning for retirement. They save their dollars so they can live a lifestyle that will suit their needs. Physical fitness is a big part of this retirement preparation as well.

Still, I do not believe people spend a lot of time contemplating death. We can save all the money we want and work out until our feet ache, but there is no guarantee we will sail past retirement age.

The bottom line is a whirlwind could blow through our lives with no notice. When that happens, all the best intentions that people have about preparing for the afterlife are pretty much out the door.

Most people reading this are likely doing so on Saturday morning or afternoon. I hate to be Captain Bringdown when it comes to your weekend, but time does not wait.

Decisions need to be made.

What are you going to do? Trusting Jesus as your Savior would be a good start.