geometry

Mathematical proof — is an argument that begins with known facts, proceeds from there through a series of logical deductions, and ends with the thing you’re trying to prove.

Geometry proofs follow a series of intermediate conclusions that lead to a final conclusion: Beginning with some given facts, say A and B, you go on to say therefore, C; then therefore, D; then therefore, E; and so on till you get to your final conclusion.

I was never great nor good with Mathematics. I was not even average and thank God I ever passed my year of Geometry in High School. (To this day I can only assume it was a Miracle from the heavens). To make matters worse for me and my inability with Math, I had Mr. Valenti as my Geometry teacher, a man who loved to use torture to teach. He invented the Sweat Test, a test to make the strong tremble, and the weak completely crumble. 

The Sweat Test was simple in its approach. A student would be called to stand at the chalkboard. Written on that board was a Proof. The student would place one hand on the board as Mr. Valenti asked that student to not only solve that Proof but then ask various other Geometry questions. If by the time the interrogation was finished and the student standing in the line of fire left no sweaty hand print he was applauded. If the student left an outline of his handprint detailed with the veins and capillaries Mr. Valenti would add insult to injury by asking even more questions. For some this was a walk in a park a well lit, manicured park. For others, like me this was more like drowning in quicksand in a very dark and dingy neighborhood with people shooting drugs in alley ways carrying guns and knives. 

My turn at the chalkboard was all about reciting the Givens as a part of the Proof. And once I ran out of that ammunition I was lost in a handful of sweat. I did grasp the concept of A equals B equals C so eventually there will be a sane reason why all of those letters will lead to the endless flurry of consonant and vowels resulting in an answer. But I tried in vane to make sense of what seemed so simple.

And now I face a new sweat test almost everyday, not with my hand against the chalkboard, but my conscience and gut against the hypocrisy from the idiots leading us down some road of political implosion.

We have a Proof to solve trying to understand why all Americans receiving  fair and equal access for their own health care is wrong. Why is that an industry established on the grounds that healthy living is essential, healthier Americans work longer and harder, healthy families raise healthy kids should not do all of that healthy stuff at a fair price with less restrictions. Why is it that those who go to Church and pray for their Lord and Saviors creations, demand that those created should have to pay for healthy living or go without it? That once the zygote becomes a life, no one need care for how they live, how long they live and at one standard they live?

Another Proof is millionaires and some billionaires have established a platform by which they want the Republican/Tea Party to govern this nation. Smartly they have hired a smarmy, sleaze ball, Karl Rove, another millionaire to lead the way like a Pied Piper to direct the lemming to the cliff. Rove’s lemming being the poor, the uneducated, the ignorant, those whose own lives are barren of good jobs, fair pay, proper living and decent health care.Yet those who are the most opposite of the upper 1% of this Nation are permitting people unlike them leading the way. Why do those who have less think people who have much more know anything at all about their restricted lives? Why do they embrace the master while maintaing their own slavery?

And then there is the Proof as to why Corporations insist any lawsuit against their handling of the environment, product quality, working conditions, workplace discrimination all about a bunch of lawyers wanting to earn undue fees from UnGodly lawsuits? Why is that these same corporations have a cadre of at least two dozen attorneys to fight what they refer to as frivolous  in nature. Why is that John or Jane Doe hiring a lawyer makes no sense while these same Corporations have a stable of lions ready to attack in the Coliseum. And why do these same Corporations proudly support a candidate hoping their bribes will provide favorable results, but seem too shy to announce to the public they are doing so? And why, if America is to grow do these same Corporations find it so difficult to pay their fair share in taxes, while insisting less jobs, less pay for anyone but them makes sense for the future?

Geometry, I am told is a stable way to prove a point and understand the world around us. I am told this but still have little understanding of just exactly how that works. I see A, B, C’s floating around hopelessly looking for a D to find closure. But somehow in this Geometry problem called America 2012 I see no resolution no solving of a problem that seems easy to resolve. All I see are more questions.