My Thoughts
Four Essays
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The significance of boundaries first became evident to me during college studies concerning the physical world and the history of human occupation of the Earth. No doubt, my employment by municipalities, and work in city planning, led to increased awareness concerning the importance of boundaries and settlements. Observing the world news and the workings of government organizations at all levels advanced my knowledge and appreciation for the desirability of well-located boundaries. The purpose of this essay is to offer a methodology for improvement of designated jurisdictional boundaries at all levels of government. To do so, it is helpful to understand how both human settlements and their governmental organizations originally came into existence. (Excerpt from "Settlements and Boundaries") If linguists were to simplify and universalize the symbols used to denote specific sounds, the learning of new languages (especially Western European languages) would become much easier. A system of precise symbols for sounds in the English language would make possible more precise spelling and pronunciation of words and names by all users of the language -- and all those seeking to learn the language. (Excerpt from "Toward More Precise Written Language") Over time, proposals have been made to improve upon the Gregorian solar calendar, now in use throughout the world for civic purposes, by dividing the calendar year into a different arrangement of days, weeks, and months... A permanet solar calendar can be made with a simple change in the Gregorian solar calendar: adopting a 364-day year, with the inclusion of an unnumbered Year End Day, and an unnumbered Leap Year Day at certain four-year intervals. (Excerpt from "A Permanent Annual Calendar") Although mythology, stargazing, astrology, religion, and ultimately science have each attempted to explain the incomprehensible, humans often continue to be drawn to supernatural explanation. Thought has continued to center on a hypothesis that life is influence by supernatural, cyclical impacts. The purpose of this essay is to examine the development of this hypothesis, and to test its application on one facet of American political history: United States presidencies. (Excerpt from "The Possibility of Cycles")
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About the Book
Born in Gering, Nebraska on May 2, 1920, Dale Cannady has witnessed a dramatically changing world. Using the GI Bill to gain his college education at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dale rose to be Assistant City Planning Director in Portland, Oregon. My Thoughts is the culmination of 92 years of experience and observation.
About the Author
Dale Cannady was born in Gering, Nebraska, on May 2, 1920. In his 92 years of life, he has witnessed many changes in the United States and the world. From 1924 until 1932 Dale’s parents farmed near the town of Morrill, Nebraska and the village of McGrew, Nebraska. He attended kindergarten in a one room rural schoolhouse. He attended elementary school in the village of McGrew. The 1920s saw the last active and lively years of American villages. That era witnessed the rapid rise of farm mechanization, the automobile, and the airplane. In 1932, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, Dale’s family was forced to leave the farm and moved into the village of McGrew. Dale’s father supported the family with income from seasonal farm labor, service as village night watchman in the winter, and the New Deal’s WPA. During those years villages died, and small towns in America became less vigorous and lively. The family remained in McGrew until Dale graduated from high school in a class of six in 1938. In 1938 the family moved to Bayard, Nebraska, and continued the efforts required for survival in the Depression’s gloomy years. Dale’s limited employment, begun in his teens, was in seasonal labor on farms. One summer he went with friends and was a “fruit tramp” in northern Californian orchards. He was also employed for a time each autumn in the beet sugar mill in Bayard, and sporadically on New Deal National Youth Administration projects. Dale’s life in the Great Depression ended with the onset of World War II, when he migrated to the Pacific Northwest. to gain full time employment at Boeing Airplane Co in Seattle, Washington. As a riveter on B17s and B29s Dale joined many men and women in building America’s war machinery. After being drafted into the US Army he completed Air Force basic training at Shepherd Field (now Shepherd Air Force Base) in Texas and training at Counter Intelligence Corps school in Baltimore Maryland. He served in CIC in the American zone of occupation in Austria, where he met his future wife, Maria Neulinger. Dale took advantage of the GI Bill to attend and graduate cum laude from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1950 at the age of 30, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. His career in city planning began in Seattle and included 15 years as Assistant Planning Director in Portland, Oregon. During a 63 year marriage Dale and his wife, Mitzi, have been blessed with three wonderful children, nine grandchildren, and six great grandchildren.