It shouldn't be this way

Religion

2011-01-02T11:29:00.002-05:00

This is just a mini rant. I seem to be on a tear today and I might as well get it all out!

There are a lot of people who wear their religion or lack thereof on their sleeves. That is, I know proseletyzing Christians and proseletyzing atheists, but not usually other faiths or non-faiths. I know preseletyzing Oprah fans, too, as well as Republicans who are constantly sending me their Ronald Reagan idolizing junk in emails. So I just want to say here that it isn't any of my business how you believe or don't believe. Since it isn't my business, please don't try to make it my business, and don't ask me about my faith or lack thereof. Because that isn't your business, regardless of whether your god tells you to preach the word.

Musings

2011-01-02T08:55:00.003-05:00

I am on the verge of offending some people whom I consider friends. I don't mean to offend or hurt them. I am just fed up.
Fed up? Really? Why? I am fed up with Oprah. I find her narcissistic. There seems to be a cult of Oprah. It crosses the whole political, religious, sexual orientation spectrum, since I have friends of every stripe who find her fascinating, entertaining, educational, inspirational. I don't get it. I've seen her show, or rather, bits of it, and while I enjoyed the guests I was watching I didn't find her to be an incredible interviewer. I don't find her personally appealing. I have been switching back and forth since last night to check out her personal tv network and haven't seen anything yet that I couldn't see on A&E, TLC, Bravo, Lifetime, MSNBC Lockup or any other network I don't watch. Here's the deal for me: I don't talk about my religious beliefs, because they're mine, and I don't really care about yours, because they're personal to you. I don't want to know about other people's sex lives; if I wanted one, I'd have one, and if I wanted a partner, I'd look for one, but I don't care about other peoples' issues (unless it's my friend, that's a whole different thing). If I want to see hoarding, I'll just look at my spare room or garage or attic, and rather than sit and watch other people deal with their issues with hoarding I need to tackle my own cleaning (which I am). Maybe I am overly hostile about this, but I am inclined to think that if people spent the same amount of time living their own lives as they spend watching shows about other peoples' problems, their lives would be so much better. I watch a lot of television, I admit it. My preferences are, however, for fictional shows-cop shows, romantic comedies, old movies, science fiction. Not horror. Not personal non-fiction train-wreck shows. And to me, that is what Oprah's new network, much like her current talk show, is all about. A combination of celebrities (whose work appeals to me but not their personal lives) and non-celebrity train wrecks. I do like celebrities on talk shows when they are talking about their current projects or when they are just funny people, but I don't care about their lives too much.
Well, for what it's worth I've gotten that off my chest. Maybe at some point I'll find something on Oprah's new network that will appeal to me. But in the years she's had her magazine, nothing in it has compelled me to buy it or even read it, and I do buy women's magazines.

I don't really know why this stuff bugs me so much. Maybe because the whole idea of people turning to celebrities for their opinions and advice is so crazy to me. I will just use this one example, Glenn Beck. If you, for example, are a Baptist, then you wouldn't turn to a Mormon for religious guidance. In fact, you would slam the door on Mormon missionaries who came to your house. Yet millions of listeners think Glenn Beck, a Mormon convert, is brilliant. If he is that brilliant, those millions should be immediately searching out their nearest LDS church and signing up for conversion classes. Are they? If he is brilliant about politics then obviously his brilliance extends to his religious beliefs. So if you follow him politically because he is so brilliant, you should follow him in all things. But if he so disastrously wrong in his religious beliefs as you might assume, given that you aren't changing your religion to follow him, then why isn't he wrong politically? It is this cognitive dissonance that is so infuriating to me.

This example came to me because I just switched over to OWN and saw a bit with John Travolta. Scientology is a very odd religious belief system to most people, and most people don't follow John Travolta or Tom Cruise or any other celebrity into it, so that didn't fit into my analogy, but it triggered the whole thing. I don't watch Travolta's movies because I like his politics or his religious beliefs but because I enjoy his movies. So I don't have a huge desire to see him anywhere except in a movie. If he appears on a talk show I'm not tuning to the talk show to see him. On the other hand, I will watch George Clooney on some talk shows because he is very involved in some fine work in Africa, most especially the Sudan, and he has been working there for many years trying to improve those peoples' lives. That is important, and interesting to me. It doesn't hurt that he is easy to look at, but if he were just there talking about his current love life or his religion or his personal life at all, I wouldn't be watching. It is his work that draws and holds my interest. And he does a lot of that work quietly, only drawing attention to it in order to engage other people. I admire people who quietly do good works, donate money or otherwise try to help people who have not been as fortunate. What I find so unappealing about Oprah is that when she does good work it seems to be as much about promoting Oprah as it is about doing the good work.

New Year, New Plan

2011-01-01T14:09:00.002-05:00

So for the new year I am planning to write more regularly here, on whatever topic comes to mind, and to craft my way out of my household clutter. I have so many unfinished (and unbegun!) projects that haunt me, and I really want to de-clutter so I am going to only give gifts this year that are either crafted or rescued. I'll post pictures as I go along, here on my blog, so I can track my progress.

I also hope to be kinder. And more organized. And work on my breathing.

Happy New Year!

Post-election thoughts

2010-11-03T17:03:00.006-04:00

I had a brief conversation today with my mother about the election. She told me about going to hear a preacher last night who told the congregation that the health care bill would require us all to have black disks (think microchips) implanted that would enable the government to know all about us. I am not surprised. This crowd that seems to be the loudest and most likely to vote in our state only listen to Fox, only read emails with crazy shit like this, and believe what they're told as long as it gives them an excuse to hate the Democrats and fear the President. This is insane.
Anyone could have seen this sort of thing coming. Years ago the "Christian" Coalition determined that for the religious right in this country to gain the power they felt they deserved, they needed to start at the bottom. That meant that school boards, town and county councils, any local office, would become ground zero in their fight to take control. Gradually, at least in South Carolina, these people got elected. Often by using issues like abortion and gay rights, and subtly injecting racism, they became the ones who set school budgets, policy and curriculum standards. Rupurt Murdoch happily jumped into this by establishing Fox News, which has over the years descended into the right wing pool further and further, until this year his News Corp actually contributed money outright to the Republican party. One million dollars, at least. That is so unabashedly biased, and so inappropriate for a news organization, that it boggles the mind. But it wasn't a surprise that he did it, just a surprise that he did it so blatantly. This gradual takeover by the far-right has been the real reason our education system has been failing our students. Not the lack of prayer, as the more vocal would have us think, not the lack of bible reading, none of that. But the lack of critical thought. Many teachers have bought into this idea of "bad liberal, good conservative", and I honestly can't tell you why.
And another thing before I forget again-this idea of "American exceptionalism". I find it arrogant beyond belief that we look to our leaders to talk about our country as if it is the only "good" country on earth. If someone said to you, USC is the only university in the country where a person can get a good education, you would laugh him out of the room, even if you weren't a Clemson person. That is just a ridiculous thing to say. So to say, America is the only country on the planet where a person can have a good life-isn't that just as absurd? Everyone loves his/her country. Even those who are forced to leave their countries because of the political or economical climate love their home. So while people may come here for economic opportunities or asylum, they go to other countries besides the good old USA for those same reasons. People move. I love South Carolina, but I am not about to tell you that it is inherently better than North Carolina or Virginia or New York. It is better for me (although sometimes I wonder), but that doesn't make it the best for everyone. Same for our country. We have a great system, but other countries have emulated that system, some may have even improved upon it, and we have flaws just like everywhere. So I am fed up with the criticism of anyone just because they don't think America is "the greatest strongest country in the world" (thanks for that, Jon and Stephen!).
Okay, more later. Just a little vent for the day after elections that I think have taken our state-and maybe our country-in a totally wrong direction.

Changes

2010-08-03T23:14:00.002-04:00

So, the snake has moved out. His stuff is still here, because even though he had notice nearly two months ago that he would have to move at the end of summer, he still made no effort to find employment. I finally had all I could take and let him know in mid-July that summer ended at the end of July (he of course wanted to argue that no, it ended mid-September). He still made very little effort to find work or shelter, so I don't know exactly where he is sleeping (although he emailed his sister that he slept on a park bench the first night). I hope to think I am a compassionate woman, but as to him, I really do not care. He had time (five months!) to find work and try to prepare for life on his own, and he chose instead to live like a hermit. I finally decided he wasn't really drinking (at least not so I could tell after a couple of times) but just holing up in his room, lying on the gradually flattening air mattress I had bought for him (because I couldn't afford a mattress for the bed he was using) and being too lazy or shiftless or whatever to even blow up the mattress-with an electric pump! By the time he left that mattress was nearly flat (and it doesn't leak, it was brand new).
Okay, now I can resume posts that are good for me, and quit obsessing about him. I look forward to my writing again.

Attitude

2010-05-12T20:56:00.003-04:00

I am, at the moment, furious and trying not to be. I made the mistake of kindness. It is a mistake I often make. Remember the Al Wilson song about the woman bringing in the snake? I feel like the woman. Although he hasn't bitten me, he is disrupting my moods, and I hate it.

What happened is this. I had a friend, from many years ago, with whom I had been corresponding for a year or so. He got in a bad place (he was living in California). I had more or less casually commented before this that if he couldn't find a job there and should want to come back to South Carolina he could stay with me. He became unemployed in California, and didn't have success finding another job (based on his behavior since arriving here, I doubt he tried very hard). He asked if he could come here. I emailed his sister and told her I had concerns because he had been a heavy drinker in the past; she assured me that he didn't drink anymore. He assured me he would look for a job right away, that he had no intention of acting, as he put it, "as if he were on vacation". May I say, HA!! SNAKE!!

Since he came he has primarily stayed in his room. He sells plasma for money. He hasn't ONCE filled out a job application anywhere, and he doesn't even have his birth certificate with him (which is a requirement for a South Carolina ID card or a job)! I think he uses the plasma money for wine because I haven't seen but $50 in over two months.

I can't even stand to look at him at this point, because over the weekend I talked to him about all this and since then he is, if possible, worse. Years ago I swore I would never take anyone else in, and I should have stuck to it. I hate being lied to and used.

Civilization and Westerns

2009-08-30T15:25:00.002-04:00

I have watched Westerns all my life. My father really liked them, and so I watched a lot of TV shows and movies about the settling of the western part of the US. Something that strikes me about these old shows is that usually one of the first things the new marshall or new sherrif does when they take office in a "wild" town involves guns. They don't give all the upstanding citizens guns and tell them to defend themselves. They don't go on a "war against crime". They make a law that no one in the town can be carrying a gun. They check the guns at the door, so to speak. The people who don't choose to cooperate are locked up, and their guns taken from them. The lack of guns is what establishes the beginnings of a town where people can walk the streets in peace.

So as our population moved westward, the towns began, and as decent, civilized people moved into them, the guns disappeared. Gunfights were discouraged, the rule of law established, and those who wanted to take the law into their own hands were arrested. I am not talking about having a gun in your own home for self-defense, foolish as I think that may be. I am not talking about England, where the police don't generally carry guns. I am talking about walking around with a six-shooter strapped to your leg or an AK-47 slung across your back. Those are things I expect to see in countries where there is constant warfare, or in the uncivilized west, or in the movies. To see it at Presidential events, at Town Hall Meetings held by Congressmen for their constituents, gives me the impression that there are those in this country who want to return not to the ideals of our founding fathers, but to the reckless behavior of the men who thought to take the west for themselves, with no thought for the civilized settlers who had just as much right to live on those lands. It gives me the impression that there are those in our country who want to return to those wild west days, with no civilization or law enforcement. And that is truly frightening.

New car

2009-08-25T22:29:00.004-04:00

Wow, I have been slack. There have been a lot of stressful moments since I last wrote. On August 8, my truck transmission conked out on me (or it may be the clutch, either way it's stuck in fourth gear). I got home okay, but it won't be traveling under its own steam for a while. So I resumed driving my Sunbird, but it kept running hot, and I kept having to add water every time I drove. Finally it was nearly pouring water out as I poured it in, so I took it to the mechanic. In the meantime, of course, I had been looking at cars. But I didn't think I could get financing and I didn't have enough cash to buy anything even semi-decent, so I was hoping to fix the little car. My mechanic changed a hose, but discovered the water pump was leaking, so I was to bring it back the next day for that (he didn't have time to get to it that day). Well, the next day it ran hot on the way to work, even though it had plenty of water, and I had it towed to the mechanic after I got to my job. He called me, way too soon for the water pump to be replaced, and gave me the bad news. Head gasket at least, but most likely a cracked head. Well, that did it. I love that little car, but I couldn't justify $1200-$1500 when it had other problems, such as a leaky manifold and a mysterious oil leak. So I bit the bullet and started serious car shopping.

After trying to buy a 2001 Taurus (too old for financing, great shape, low mileage but overpriced), a 2003 Focus (again, too old for financing, but great shape, low mileage and great price) and a 2005 Taurus (got financing, but dealer sold car before financing was approved, it was at the other dealership owned by same people), here is my result. A deep red, 2006 Mustang (not a GT, though). Since everything fell into place for me to buy this particular car and not the others, I figure it was meant to be my car. And I so love it! The interest rate is ridiculously high (not a long credit history, I haven't bought anything big on credit besides my house for 30 years), but hopefully I can get it refinanced after a year or so, and hopefully can sell some trees from the farm to help pay it off. It gets about 20 miles to the gallon just driving to work and around, don't know yet on the highway. It's clean, one owner, 36000 or so miles, great shape, with a 100,000 mile warranty on the engine and drive train. I am thrilled.

It's been a while

2009-07-26T09:58:00.004-04:00

It's been a long while since I made any entries here. I have been computer-challenged, and even though I have had a lot to say it hasn't made it's way to the keyboard.
I have been re-connecting with people from high school and college on facebook quite a bit. It's been fun. Memories and regrets, all mingle to make the reconnections important. We all choose paths when we are young that we can't retrace, and which take us places we might never have wanted to see. My life seems to have been more convoluted than some. Many of my friends have married (and stayed married), had children, stayed close to home with lifelong careers. Others have traveled far away. Some are divorced, some never married and some married more than once. The people from my past exhibit the entire spectrum of the lives of everyone else in the world.

We don't carry the same memories of each other, not surprisingly. Some things that I had forgotten have been recalled to me by friends. People I didn't think noticed me that much remember me with fondness, and saw things I about me that I didn't realize were there, and for that I am grateful. It is a wonderful thing, this reconnection, and I hope to continue doing it! I hope I can do as much for these friends as they have done for me.

Rambling thoughts

2009-03-09T23:07:00.004-04:00

The weather is warm, which is nice. It was so very cold last week, amazing how quickly it got warm. Steven and I washed the car and truck yesterday, and my car is so clean, it looks wonderful (well, the outside, the inside needs some work!) It is usually hard to get him to help with things, but he enjoyed washing the car, so that was a plus.

I am being encouraged by an old friend to write a book. Not the first time it's been suggested, but now I am seriously considering it. I write mainly essay type stuff, like this blog, so I am thinking of something like David Sedaris, although I am nowhere near as funny as he. I have to ponder this bit longer.

I have resolved, or at least postponed, the current issue with the neighbor who hates me. The house needs work and he is a complainer, so he calls the city, which has the power to write tickets and charge me fines. The solution for now was to get a building permit for repairs, and now I can proceed to buy material and paint and start work. But the building permit is good for six months (actually, I have six months to get started, nothing about how long I have to finish) so I have time to do it as I can afford it, I hope.

Last week was my brother's birthday. He would be 50 this year, if he hadn't died at 15. One of his old girlfriends is now a friend on Facebook, and I was very touched that she remembered him. He has been gone such a long time now, but I miss him still. And Daddy. And Tracey, every day.

I don't have enough to do at work, and it is frustrating. I have some things on my desk to deal with tomorrow, which is good. I am not sure what I would do without my work, probably go home to my mother. She has more than one house, so we wouldn't have to live together (we might scream at each other a lot). I am nearly always at peace there, so that might be nice. But that's because I don't have to deal with cranky neighbors and it is basically vacation. If I were there all the time I might not like it at all!

I love watching Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. He is actually a good interviewer, and will invite anyone on the show. He is funny and serious at the same time, which is very useful in diffusing any potential acrimony, and also disarms his more conservative guests. Colbert is great, too, but in a different way, because no matter who he interviews he maintains his faux Bill O'Reilly character, and those who get it are hilarious and the ones who don't are not sure what to say, which is in its own way hilarious too.

I have craft stuff everywhere, and really need to get organized. It's hard to get anything done when you have to spend time looking for things. The PTO at Steven's school is having a yard sale in a couple of weeks so I hope to get some stuff together to give to that, although I don't usually have anything that I don't want to keep!

Back to my mother, she likes to go places, and it is hard to know where she is at any given moment. She has a cell phone but only turns it on when she wants to make a call, so if she isn't at home, forget it. She is going to be spending time in a house with no phone, so I hope she starts keeping it turned on when she's there anyway.

I need to go to bed, I suppose, so enough of this. Good night.

My chair

2009-02-17T00:51:00.001-05:00

This is the chair I redid. I painted it and covered the seat and back. I need to redo the seat, it is a little bunchy, but it's a comfortable chair and I didn't want to throw it out just because it had stains on the fabric. I hate to see still-useful stuff thrown away.

Time and musings

2009-02-15T20:58:00.004-05:00

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I wrote here. I write my weekly (well, semi-weekly now) email for Drinking Liberally Charleston and have started administering a group for that on Facebook (where I can also be found). Then there is just life, catching up to me. My grandson Adam is having difficulties. I hate it, because I feel he has not been dealt a very good hand in life. That's trite sounding, but his father committed suicide when Adam was not quite 4, then we found out six months later that he has Type I diabetes, and on top of those things he has ADHD and suffers from depression. He may be bi-polar, too, but I don't know. He has difficulty getting along with his stepfather, and I can see both sides of that. Adam is a challenging child, but full of love and needing a lot of it. He is much like his father, and I have been trying to spend more time with him. I wish-I hope-he gets through all this.

I have been looking for and finding old friends, too. In a way I guess I am trying to make amends, or get things right that I didn't the first time. I feel that I haven't been a good friend to people; I let them go easily when I move forward, and that isn't a good thing. As I get older I miss spending time with other people, although I am the type of person who could become a hermit without much effort. But even though I am confortable going to movies or to eat alone, and reading books without discussions to follow, it would be nice sometimes to share those interests. And since I don't think I get to have a second life, maybe should make more of an effort. Unfortunately these old friends are usually far away. So I guess I should be trying to spend more time with local friends!

I took my first train ride and went to my first college bowl game this year. I loved the train, and want to take more trips, it was so relaxing. I think my son and I should take an actual vacation this year; we haven't done that for years, and he will be grown before I know it. I have to save for some house repairs, and a car, but I hope we can swing at least a long weekend trip somewhere besides my mother's house.

I like to do crafts, and have recently redone a chair. I sew, paint stuff, knit a little, crochet a little, various things. I have some lawn furniture that was my grandmothers' and plan to paint it this week, having finally found the color paint I want for it. I'd probably get more done if I didn't spend time on the computer! I only do a little bit of several things, not a lot of anything, so I don't get expert at anything! Oh, and I love to take pictures; my mom got a digital camera for me for 2007 Christmas and I love it! I take pictures everywhere I go. I love movies, especially old ones, TCM being my favorite all time television network, and new drama series, like Leverage and The Closer and Burn Notice.

Okay, now this is starting to sound like a personal ad, time to knock it off for the night. If you've read this far, sleep well.

President-elect Barack Obama

2008-11-05T00:19:00.002-05:00

I am watching C-Span, and President-elect Obama just gave his acceptance speech. Once again, as he has done throughout this campaign, his speech wasn't about him. It was about us, about the United States of America. And as the families of President-elect Obama (I just love writing that!) and Vice-President-elect Biden came out on the stage, and as I watched the faces of the people in the crowd, it wasn't a black and white America I saw. It was every color, every race, every nationality that makes up our country. I saw families who obviously love each other on the stage, two couples who genuinely love each other. And men who love this country, and who will do their very best for all of us. I cried tonight when the results were announced. All the pent up nervousness I had suffered over the last few weeks just released itself, because despite the attacks, despite the vicious emails, the robocalls, the truly despicable campaign run by the Republican campaign machine, Americans had elected a man they had witnessed over the last two years remain unflappable, unstoppable, and dedicated to the belief that in this country, anything is possible.
Even as he began his speech, Obama was more gracious in victory than I could have been toward John McCain. I am not one of those people who used to love McCain, I never even liked him much, but even I had been stunned lately by the way his campaign was run. I even checked the comments on FoxNews.com, and the racism I read there was awful. I am not talking about any kind of code words; I am talking "did they really think a black man could ever become President?" That isn't about Barack Obama's politics, or his positions, or his policies; this is about his skin color. And America is better than that.
Or we will be. Give us four years.

Chores and musings

2008-09-27T23:08:00.004-04:00

I have a willow chair, or rattan, or whatever it is. I'm thinking it's willow, but anyway, it needs refurbishing. I got the seat off okay, and it is ready to recover. But the back is giving me fits. It is a padded and upholstered piece of cardboard stapled into the opening, and the staples are really hard to get out. I want to paint the chair, so I need to sand it (my cats were using it for a scratching post), and before I do any of that the staples have to come out, so I can recover it with the fabric I have chosen. I am thinking I will paint it purple, since I already have the paint and it will match my (future) bedroom colors. I have a green fabric for the seat and back, because I love those colors together. The purple I have is a lighter shade, not quite lavender, and the green is a sagey color, so they will go well together. I am using wire cutter pliers at the moment, and they are hurting my hands, but it will be okay. I need to find a staple remover.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, nothing really, but I am avoiding something and that is when I get stuff done. I have written a blog already about what I'm avoiding, but won't publish it at this point. So the chair is a substitute. And it also is about reusing, reordering, getting my house in order. Nesting, in a sense.
More about this later.

Food and mothers and home

2008-09-23T21:31:00.003-04:00

Food links us to our past and provides context in our present. Tonight I cooked corn, grown by my mother on land that has belonged to my father's family for over 60 or so years. My uncle plowed the land, my mother planted the seed and hoed the rows and watered the corn (not to mention the other vegetables she grows) and when it was time she picked it, shucked it and cut it off the cob, to be placed in the freezer until I retrieved it, brought it the 200 miles or so from Abbeville to North Charleston and cooked it in a cast iron frying pan, the way she has done for these 50 some odd years. In another pan, a birthday gift from my father thirty some years ago, I browned hamburger for tacos, a food never served in my childhood home. I sliced and diced tomatoes, grown in that same garden and picked by me two days ago. And I ate the tacos, with the tomatoes on top, and the corn in a plate that once held food prepared by my father's mother, my granny, grown on that same land. This was an obvious link to the past.
Just now, I finished squeezing the pulp from a big bowl of muscadines, picked by me, my mother and my aunt from vines in her pasture, two days ago. I put the hulls in freezer bags, ready for pie, and the pulp in another, ready for cooking into juice for jelly. They wait now in my freezer, linking the future to the past and to today. None of this is important, of course. It's just food, after all.
But here's the thing. I know where the corn and the muscadines and the tomatoes grew. I know who tended the plants, who watered and hoed and cared for them. And more than that, those are the foods of my childhood. My grandparents, my mother's parents, had a farm too, although it has passed out of family hands now. There were muscadines and scuppurnongs and figs and pears and apples in late spring and early fall. Green beans, corn, butterbeans, crowder peas, okra, squash, all grew there. In the spring there were strawberries. And in summer, tomatoes, glorious red full-flavored tomatoes, like nothing you buy in the store, and with apologies to all those Johns Islanders, like nothing I ever got from there. My mother still grows those things, and she has introduced fruits to my father's farm that weren't there before, the apples and plums and figs. Her pear tree this year is full of green pears, which are crisp and sweet and juicy in your hand as you take big, crunchy bites of them, fresh from the tree. And the pecan trees are loaded with green hulled pecans, waiting for the colder weather to turn brown and drop from the tree, ready for pies and cakes and toppings for the sweet potatoes she is now digging from the garden. I can eat home grown food every day of my life. I know when certain foods are in season and when their growing time has passed and it is time to eat from the freezer or the jars.
I don't really have a point here, I guess, unless it is that we are too accustomed to food in packages and cans, in neat little bins in the produce section. We forget whether they grow in the ground or on a vine, on a bush or a tree. We don't know what pesticides or herbicides are used to facilitate their growth, and how that leaches into the groundwater. I don't shop at Whole Foods, I shop from my mother's garden, and I am wealthier for it. My father used to talk about how much it cost to grow all this stuff, but he never stopped growing it. My mother keeps doing it. And one day I hope to grow food in that same earth. Meantime, I love that I can eat it.

Celebrity?- My Barack Obama Ad 8/3/08

2008-08-15T23:27:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note

2008-06-01T23:54:00.002-04:00

This is a quick post, my friend Jason has a new blog, Time to End Poverty (linked to this title). You should check it out. You should also check out http://halfinten.com/, John Edwards new campaign to cut poverty in half in ten years.

I haven't written much lately; time to get back to this!!

Fried Bologna

2008-05-07T01:07:00.004-04:00

So tonight for supper I was frying bologna. Mundane, but my son and I both love it. We had it with some canned sweet potatoes and with green beans my mother grew, picked, broke and canned. Good stuff.

And why am I writing about bologna? Because I never eat it without thinking of my father. When I was young, I forget how old, maybe 11 or 12, we went on vacation to Florida. We almost never stayed in motels, and at that point we didn't camp either. We would pull over when Daddy got sleepy and sleep in the car. On this trip we had gone to Isle of Palms for a day, then driven down through Florida. We stopped at Silver Springs, in Ocala, went on the glass bottom boat and the jungle cruise. The picture of us on the jungle cruise boat is still around somewhere. Anyway, we got to Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral and before we got a chance to sightsee at all it started pouring down rain. Daddy parked at a store and went inside, bought bread, cheese and unsliced bologna (first time I had seen that) and we ate sandwiches in the car, watching the rain.

We didn't spend a lot of money on these vacations, because I guess we didn't have a lot of extra money. By not staying in motels, we had money for the glass bottom boat. We had a camp stove, and we would stop at picnic areas and cook our meals, so we didn't spend money eating out.

When Matthew and Tracey were younger, and the grocery money had stretched as far as it would go, I would open a jar of tomatoes (grown by my father and canned by my mother), pour them in a pot and add rice and a little chili powder, and then open a jar of green beans (same source) and heat them, and feed my little family. They enjoyed it and didn't think it had anything to do with the empty cabinets in our house. And I knew, as long as my father and mother were alive and able, my children would never be hungry, no matter what happened to me.

My point with all this, which I really had a grasp on as I was frying that bologna tonight, is that money didn't matter then to the family relationships we had. Another thing--as long as my father was awake and driving the car, I slept peacefully in the back. But when he stopped to sleep, I woke up and couldn't sleep as long as we were still. Maybe I was keeping watch, I don't know. But I miss him every minute of every day, and wish I had him back, driving the car.

A Song For My Brother

2008-05-07T00:49:00.001-04:00

I have the album this song is on. After my brother died, in 1974, I listened to it over and over. And tonight it came to me, and I googled the lyrics, and after 34 years I still could sing the tune, remembered it. Life is entirely too short, and we take too much for granted, and I know that is cliche but it is true, true, true. I wish we could understand that truth from our beginnings, and live our lives aware of it.

Random Midnight Thoughts

2008-04-28T23:36:00.003-04:00

I made a mulberry pie tonight. For those who don't know, mulberries are kind of like blackberries but they grow on a tree. They aren't as round as blackberries, more of an oval shape. Very sweet, not as seedy as blackberries. Anyway, I have a tree by my front door, and whether because of the cats or their own generosity, the birds are leaving the mulberries for me this year. My son and I have been eating them, but at last there were enough ripe to make a cobbler (the easy way, what I call cuppa cuppa cuppa.) It was sooo good.

Obviously this isn't political. But mulberries are a memory of my youth. When I was a child my mother worked, and we didn't go to daycare but one summer. (I hated it). The rest of the time we had babysitters. One summer the teenage daughter of our babysitter introduced me to solitaire, soap operas and mulberries. It was a great summer.

Later, when I was a divorced mother of two attending Clemson, a friend and I ate mulberries from a tree on campus. The four years I was there, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the sweet fruits, and I introduced friends to the tree.

I never eat them now without thinking of these two most peaceful times in my life. I am so lucky to have this tree in my yard-it met me when I came, but I didn't know what it was until the spring, and some springs I am lucky enough to get a few berries. The pie this year has been an unexpected blessing.

Elizabeth Edwards on health care

2008-04-22T10:48:00.001-04:00

I cannot add to what she says in this blog. We are at a critical point in this country when it comes to health care, to the use of energy and to the conservation of our planet. As we mark Earth Day today, we need to think about how we care for others and for the planet. Please consider this when you talk to friends, when you pass on emails, when you vote and when you read and listen to the news and to the mass media. We are being cossetted by the media into thinking that celebrities are important and the economy, the wars and the election aren't. And the President is trying to convince us that what we have to worry about is whether terrorists are coming here to blow us up, rather than whether corporations (not all) are trying to take us over and make enormous profits at our expense.

PAY ATTENTION.

Charleston Animal Society

2008-04-08T19:20:00.001-04:00

Isn't this better than eHarmony? Doesn't it make you just want to run out and adopt a pet? I love my cats and they love me. Pets are much more accepting than people.

In defense of Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright

2008-03-20T07:54:00.002-04:00

Actually, more in defense of Senator Obama's relationship with him. I haven't heard this aspect brought out at all; I didn't listen to the "speech", so I don't know if it was mentioned by the senator. I haven't read everything written, haven't listened to all the pundits. This is just my take on it.
I was a single mother, and even though I had been married to the father of my older children, he wasn't a participant in their lives except sporadically. My father, their grandfather, was the male role model most present in their lives. He showed them how a man treats his family, his job, his friends. He was not perfect, but no matter what, he was their father figure, and they would no more reject him than they would me.
Barack Obama was raised by a single white woman, and his white grandparents were the other stable adults in his life, according to what I know of him. The role models he had for living life as a black man in the US (and trust me, no matter the color of his mother's skin, he was going to live his life as a black man in this country, we are not yet color blind) were few. And he has developed a strong bond with Pastor Wright, as a spiritual advisor and I would imagine in some sense as a surrogate father. The people in our lives who fill those spaces are not easily denounced or rejected. Whether perfect (no one is) or not, we accept their failings short-sightedness, prejudices and anger and love them anyway. Many people have said angry, hateful things but still love the country, still love their friends and children, still do good work. I don't want to point out all the religious leaders that John McCain has embraced, because I think he does that for political reasons. Senator Obama and Pastor Wright have a different relationship. They don't have a bond for political reasons; it seems to be deeply personal. If it were his father saying these things would we expect him to denounce him? It is possible that he didn't really hear these things the same way many people listening to the clips do, because we don't always hear things said by people we love the same way others do. We hear the underlying message, not the rhetoric.
I can't go back and tell you everything my father ever said; I can tell you how he loved me, how he taught me right from wrong, and how he showed me to respect others. I am sure that for Senator Obama, he can tell you all the good Pastor Wright has done, and he would be right.

So now torture is okay?

2008-03-09T11:31:00.002-04:00

(Click title to link to NY Times article)

President Bush vetoed a bill which would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding as an interrogation technique. His entire Presidency has been devoted to increasing the powers of the executive branch, and this is just one more step. If we elect another Republican to the presidency, in a few years this will not be a representative republic but an empire, with the president as emperor.
If for no other reason this is why we must put a Democrat in the White House.

Recent shootings

2008-03-05T21:46:00.002-05:00

I couldn't link to all of them if I wanted, but it seems that lately there is a shooting almost every day somewhere. And almost all of them are with legally obtained weapons. We even had a deputy solicitor here in Charleston who pulled a gun on a fellow driver (pointing at her while they were driving). He lost his job and his law license has been suspended.
But one thing I would like to point out. Every time one of these shootings happens, at Wendy's or a school or wherever, someone who is opposed to any type of gun control makes the observation that one armed person could stop the attack. Well, I differ. Especially since most of these people kill themselves, after a few minutes of shooting. I doubt any of them would be deterred by the thought or even the knowledge that someone in the room could have a gun and shoot them. These shootings are not the argument for less gun control that the "let everyone have a gun" crowd would like us to believe.

So the Government is only spying on the bad guys?

2008-03-05T20:56:00.003-05:00

"FBI Director Robert Mueller says an upcoming Justice Department report will show the bureau improperly used national security letters to obtain personal data on Americans during terror and spy investigations."
(click on the title for the whole story)
Yet we have been repeatedly told that the only people being investigated were people who had some kind of ties to terrorists. Who did they think they were fooling? Oh, right, the 20-30 percent of people who still think George W. Bush is a great president, the ones who are so frightened of the bad men in the turbans that they would vote for the devil himself if they thought he would keep them safe.

Education?

2008-03-01T13:27:00.002-05:00

My son's science teacher is a Hillary Clinton supporter, and while I am happy she's a Democrat, I don't think she should bring it in the classroom. Whether it is politics or religion or even vegetables, should a teacher's personal preferences be part of the curriculum?

Miscellaneous Musings

2008-02-24T10:45:00.002-05:00

I babysat my 2 year old granddaughter last night. She is such a cutie, and I always enjoy spending time with any of my grandchildren. They are not all easy children, and they have not had easy lives. We seem to take life the hard way somehow, and yet we go forward. Except for my one poor son, who somehow lost his ability to hold on, but I think that was a temporary lapse, and if he hadn't had the ability to leave this world, he would have stayed and been okay. I have him on my mind often, and he has interrupted my sleep the last couple of nights. I wish I could relive that one day, and maybe a few others, and let him know how very much I love him.

New Responsibility

2008-02-24T10:28:00.004-05:00

I have accepted a new responsibility. There is a rather informal group, centered around living liberally, that meets in different cities called drinking liberally. Our group here in Charleston has been rather quiet for a month or so, and in the need for regrouping I was asked if I would be interested in helping revive it and keep it going. I always have enjoyed hanging out and talking politics and life with this group, and so agreed to help. It mostly involves writing an email every week and going out to eat pizza and drink with like minded friends. If this sounds appealing, you should go the national website and look for a chapter near you. It's a great way to keep your spirits up, when you think there aren't any other liberals around.

Frightening Children

2008-02-17T08:22:00.003-05:00

I got involved in a facebook discussion last night, and it was truly frightening. Of course, facebook is overpopulated with high school and college students, so that weighs into the naivete of the conversation that was happening. The original question posed that drew me in was whether the telecom companies should get retroactive immunity for cooperating with the warrantless surveillance of American citizen. Being the liberal that I am of course I answered no. They should be sued within an inch of their corporate solvency, as far as I am concerned. But I noticed that someone had started a thread that asserted that the "libs" answering no to the question had misread it. I started reading and ended up posting, and I realize I would never change the mind of the confused boy who started the thread, but I hoped I could at least make some of the other young people think about the issue. The reason I say it was frightening is because so many of the young people involved in the discussion were willing to give up their civil liberties at the whim of the president in order to be "safe", one even going as far as seeming to want the president to have total power. I hope they aren't representative of the next generation.

Craig Ferguson

2008-02-16T18:02:00.003-05:00

Craig Ferguson is a lovely man, and very funny. I didn't see this when it aired on his show, and I happened to see it today on youtube. I miss my own father terribly, and could relate to this and thought many others could also.

$7 Million on January 18 for John Edwards

2008-01-17T12:28:00.000-05:00

TOMORROW IS OUR DAY! WILL YOU STAND UP?

Click the Edwards for President link on my page and donate, we want to raise $7 million in one day for the Edwards campaign!

Grassroots for Edwards

2008-01-12T20:15:00.000-05:00

Edwards supporters need to check out http://www.dailykos.com/ and http://crooksandliars.com/, you will find encouraging diaries there, to help you make your points with your friends. We need to do what in my childhood church was called holding each other up in prayer, whether you call it prayer or good thoughts or encouraging words. We need to tell each other about the good we find, the positive coverage we find, and as one commenter on CrooksandLiars said, we have to be the media for John because the mainstream media isn't going to do it. He is a true grassroots candidate now, because the corporations that run this country don't want people to hear his message. And the other two campaigns make calls and send out canvassers giving the impression that there are only candidates and that neither of them is John Edwards . Speak out! Write blogs, diaries, bulletins, post videos and comments on www.youtube.com , go to sites like dailykos, crooksandliars, www.huffingtonpost.com , www.truthout.org , http://ichoosejohn.com, http://itshouldntbethisway.blogspot.com/ , any others you can find or know of and spread the word among like minded people that the Edwards campaign is neither dead nor dying. Give what money you can at www.johnedwards.com. We have to do whatever it takes to get out the word. Go Edwards, our best hope for the future 2008!

Glucose for a diabetic?

2008-01-12T09:49:00.000-05:00

If you are a diabetic and need an iv to get your meds, don't you think the staff should pay attention to what the medium is? And how long should your blood sugar readings be out of whack before someone realizes that there is glucose in your iv bag?
And if you were in the right hospital, and not the insurance company's choice of hospital, maybe this would have been a non-issue.
It is past time for this to all change. Let there be a single payer system,, so that nurses can nurses, doctors can doctor, and people can get the proper care.

New links

2008-01-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

I am adding a couple of links to my page, and I wanted to post a message here to make you all aware of them.
John Edwards gets much less media coverage than the other candidates. It is absurd that he came in second in Iowa, beating Hillary Clinton, and the story on all the networks was still Obama/Clinton. So we need to let the networks know that their job is not to decide, but to report. (Unlike Fox, which although their motto is "we report, you decide", reports in such a way as to make the decision for you). So I have linked to FairMediaNow.com, a fellow blogspot poster.
Also, for people who have decided to vote for Edwards and for people who haven't, there is ichoosejohn.com, also a blogspot post, with comments to read and post.
Enjoy, but remember to vote in the primary for your state!!

John Edwards - You can't

2008-01-08T21:01:00.001-05:00

FOX ATTACKS! Obama Staffer

2008-01-08T07:44:00.001-05:00

Fox non-news, where anchors introduce stories about flooding with laughter and hosts assault Presidential candidates staffers--who can believe anything "reported" on that network?

Another health care story

2008-01-04T19:07:00.000-05:00

I wrote about my attorney with the back problem before. Today he got the okay for his back surgery, his diabetes is controlled enough for him to get the surgery. So now there is the issue of what hospital the insurance company will allow him to use (he can use any hospital he wants, obviously, as many will point out, but if he wants the insurance that he pays premiums on to pay, he has to let it choose). He was on hold for a nurse for about 20 minutes; then she said, no, the hospital your orthopaedist (who is in their "network" by the way) wants to use is not "preferred". So now he has to go to a hospital that isn't the one his doctor prefers, but the one the insurance company prefers.
When people criticize single payer universal health care they always want to say, "you won't be able to choose your doctor or hospital". Well, who has chosen my boss's doctor and hospital? Not the patient, not even the doctor, but the insurance company. When did they get to make these decisions for patients they haven't ever seen?
This has to change.

Iowa

2008-01-04T18:57:00.000-05:00

John Edwards came in second in the Iowa caucuses. That may sound bad, but I am so very excited, because he came in ahead of Hillary. He didn't come out incredibly far ahead of her, but it is still good. Yet the mainstream media is STILL talking as if it were an Obama/Hillary race, as if JRE isn't even part of the race, to a certain extent. I am so tired of that. He has spent much less than Clinton or Obama, and I hope people in New Hampshire listen to what he has to say. He has plans for everything, he has ideas to change the country. And i don't really want to hear this bipartisanship stuff, I am sick and tired of the majority of the Republicans in Congress who do nothing but block any progressive. It is time for change, for real progressive ideas to be executed,and by electing John Edwards as President, and maybe Obama as VP, and having a real majority in Congress, as I hope we will when all is said and done, we can get there.

New Year

2007-12-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

Well, it is near the end of the old year. I am trying to change, to not be in constant mourning for things I cannot change. I have tried to become a better person, to improve myself and get out in the world more. Most of all I have tried not to live in the past. But at this time of year it is hard not to feel a certain melancholy for lost family and friends. I miss my son, my father, my stepson, my grandparents. I think about old friends who have been missing from my life for a long time. I recently made a facebook page, and the first friend I added was a man I went to high school with. He still is friends, and I mean active friends, with people he knew in school. I am in contact with a couple of people from my past, but as for seeing or talking to them, or hanging out with them, that doesn't happen. Distance has a part in that, but more it is the nature of me to let things slide, to not reach out to people. It is a flaw; I need to change that, be more friendly with my friends. That will be my New Year's Resolution.

Bowie Meets Crosby

2007-12-25T12:53:00.001-05:00

nat king cole - the christmas song

2007-12-22T10:32:00.001-05:00

Beautiful song, beautiful man.

Vanessa Williams

2007-12-22T10:28:00.001-05:00

'please come home for christmas' (Eagles)

2007-12-22T10:20:00.001-05:00

John Edwards Volunteers Go Door-to-Door in Iowa

2007-12-17T23:07:00.001-05:00

These are devoted people. I wish I could go there, but I do what I can here.

A Republican John Edwards Volunteer

2007-12-16T08:53:00.001-05:00

Health care is the issue that will decide this election--most of us are more afraid of our health care costs than we are of some annonymous terrorist, and we should be.

John Edwards - A New Year's Wish

2007-12-16T08:44:00.001-05:00

speaks for itself

John Edwards and Tim Robbins in Iowa

2007-12-16T08:39:00.001-05:00

It's not inevitable that HRC or BHO will get the nomination--John Edwards is the candidate who is in it for us, not himself.

We are the world

2007-12-15T19:13:00.000-05:00

I watched this video yet again, and I am moved by it all over again. None of the people who worked on this song were or are perfect. Michael Jackson, for one, if not a pedophile is just flat out weird. But they did this one really good thing, to help people less fortunate than themselves. They didn't get paid, as I recall. They volunteered their time, their talents, their hearts, to raise money for children in Africa.

I don't think everything is a liberal/conservative thing. I think there are a lot of people who consider themselves conservatives who give liberally of their time, their money and their prayers for others. They vote for Republicans because the Republican party has a lot of leaders who are very good dissemblers. The leaders convince these voters that they share their concerns about high taxes, about abortion, about "Christian values". Maybe some do. But I think more of them are concerned with power, with running things the way that will benefit themselves and those like them--and if you think Joe the farmer in overalls is someone who even registers in the mind of someone like Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani or almost any other Republican candidate as his equal, I can sell you a bridge...

Stone Soup

2007-12-15T07:25:00.000-05:00

I thought last night of a story I read as a child. There's a hobo, traveling through a village. He stops at house after house, asking for a bit of supper, and at every house the inhabitants tell him they don't have enough for themselves, much less enough to share. Finally he stops in a field and builds a cooking fire. He sets up his cookpot and puts in water, a stone, and some salt and pepper he carries in his knapsack.
As his water boils, he hums a little song to himself. Soon a villager stops by, and asks what is in the pot? I thought you were without food, why did you ask me for supper when you had food all along? Well, says the hobo, this is stone soup. It's really good, but with a little extra it would be even better. The villager suggests that he has some potatoes he could add, he will run and fetch them. Soon other villagers stop by and each adds something to the pot. Eventually the stone soup becomes a lovely pot of soup, and there is enough for everyone.

This isn't to advocate socialism. Whatever my utopian ideals, I am practical enough to realize that the human race could not make socialism work. And I admit it, I have stuff I really like too! But in some areas, when the good of the individual also is the good of society, as it is in the matter of health care, it is past time for some sort of collective approach.

Insurance

2007-12-13T20:36:00.000-05:00

I am trying to change my son's insurance to something cheaper. I filled out the application online and am waiting to hear. Hopefully it will save me some money until the Democrats take charge and set us up with a national health plan.

My life as an activist

2007-12-09T23:48:00.000-05:00

I am a shy person by nature. People who know me will say I talk a lot, sometimes too much. My children will point out that I will talk to complete strangers in stores, even on the street. But despite those undeniable facts, I am shy. I often get sick when I am supposed to go to parties with people I know, because being with people in a work situation and in a social situation are so totally different. Thursday night I went to a Democratic Women's Council Holiday party, even though I don't go to the monthly meetings, so that I could meet John Edwards. I have wanted to meet him for years, and was so determined that I overcame my normal shyness for it. It turned out better than I could have ever dreamed, and it was good that I was there, in a sense, because someone I know who really doesn't know that many people in Charleston was also there, and seeing me and having someone to talk to helped him.

I started this to kind of explain how I act on behalf of candidates. Last year I very bravely (for me) volunteered to make telephone calls for the congressional races in Ohio and another state, I can't remember off the bat which one. It was great, because I did it from home, using my computer and my telephone, and I felt that I was helping (even though I didn't really talk to that many people). Tonight I wrote letters to people in Iowa, and maybe they will throw them out or maybe they won't but for me it was a pretty brave thing.

Years ago, when Bill Clinton first ran for president, I felt hope when I heard him talk about change for America. I haven't felt that hope for a long time, but when I hear John Edwards talk about the things we need to change, and what he will do to help bring it about, hope once again stirs, and even stronger than back then. He has the courage of his convictions. And he is fearless. When you have lost a child, as he and Elizabeth have (and incidentally as I have), you realize that life can't throw anything worse at you, and you start to know what is really important. Losing my child has made me braver, just as losing my outgoing brother inspired me to talk to strangers in stores. Death is not the ideal cure for shyness, but death and the fear of what the Republicans have done to this country over the last two decades (and even before) have given me courage. Unlike me, JRE is not afraid of the Republicans, because he has faith that Americans are ready to do the right thing and throw them out. I pray he is right.

Introduction to

2007-12-09T10:23:00.001-05:00

This is the intro to the song below, it explains a lot.

Christmas in Fallujah - Cass Dillon and Billy Joel

2007-12-09T10:17:00.001-05:00

We have asked so much of our soldiers, and they have given so much, and to what end? Is this really how we ought to be using our precious resources, our young people?

Harry Belafonte - Mary's Boy Child

2007-12-08T13:45:00.001-05:00

someone mentioned this song to Mr.
Belafonte in my presence; I had forgotten how beautiful it is, and found this video to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sting - Gabriel's Message

2007-12-08T13:34:00.001-05:00

I love this song, I think one of the most beautiful sting has ever recorded. Merry Christmas, everyone.

we are the world

2007-12-08T13:18:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that this is 22 years old. And yet we still have so many people dying, starving, suffering. What have we learned in those 22 years?

John Edwards - Hair

2007-12-08T11:53:00.001-05:00

John Edwards in South Carolina: Newsclip 12.07.07

2007-12-08T10:20:00.001-05:00

My moment--the woman in purple!

Excited

2007-12-06T22:21:00.000-05:00

I am so excited. I met John Edwards tonight at a local event. Harry Belafonte was there with him. John made some wonderful remarks, and even though many of them were things I had heard him say before it was still exciting to hear him in person, and to speak with him. This is the man who should be our next president.

Guess what I heard about today

2007-11-26T21:19:00.000-05:00

Colonoscopies are recommended for people over 50 as a diagnostic, preventive tool. Katie Couric had one on tv so everyone could see how much fun they are. Insurance companies send out brochures to their customers encouraging them to get one. BUT...

Today I heard about my friend's sister. She made an appointment for a colonoscopy. She is 60. It's a routine test, so the insurance company said sure, we'll pay, no problem.

During the test, the doctor found a polyp. As is routine, since he's already there, he snips it out.

Now, the routine colonoscopy has become a surgical procedure. Guess what the insurance company says?

We won't pay, this was not pre-approved.

Big surprise, hmmmm?

Diabetes types 1 and 2

2007-11-25T15:42:00.000-05:00

Everyone hears about Type 2 diabetes from the news, from magazines, from television. Type 2 is related to lifestyle choices, by all accounts. It can often be managed by reversing those choices. But Type 1 doesn't get so much coverage, because it is more rare and maybe because it affects children more than adults, at least in its initial diagnosis. As I have already written, my 8 year old grandson has Type 1 diabetes. We found out when he was 4. No lifestyle choices make any difference in whether a person gets Type 1 diabetes or not. No lifestyle choices can reverse it. It just appears, and while researchers have a lot of theories, they don't really know why any individual becomes diabetic. All that is well and good, but unfortunately for people like my grandson, since newscasters and others don't differentiate when they talk about diabetes between type 1 and type 2, people who don't know any better could get the impression that somehow all people who have diabetes have it because of their own actions. And considering the state of health care in this country, and the problems convincing people that universal health care should be an important issue, the difference might matter.

The true cost of health

2007-11-24T20:05:00.000-05:00

I had an asthma attack yesterday in Belk. My mother was with me and it lead to a discussion about health care, because obviously my mother is concerned and thinks I need to see the doctor. That is probably true (no, definitely true) but honestly I am afraid to go. There is the co-pay, which with my insurance is $25. But what if there is something more wrong and I need tests? Those are not generally covered until I have met my deductible, which is $1500. Then there is the issue of steroids, which is the general treatment for asthma and which frightens me. But what if something else is going on? What if it turns out to be more serious and less treatable than asthma?
Oh, well. It is time to visit the doctor and take whatever comes.

Rivalry

2007-11-24T19:57:00.000-05:00

So today is the big Clemson/Carolina football game. It seems important now, of course. I went to school at Clemson, and it means a lot to me, but it isn't the be-all and end-all, of course. After Monday, when the fans of the winners get to grin at the fans of the losers, it is done. For most of us, anyway. But the bigger rivalry, that between those who see government as the absolute problem and those who see certain government interventions as the potential solution, will continue. And those of us who worry about what will happen in the future, who are concerned about the health care situation in this country, will continue to fight for what we think is the right thing, the only reasonable thing to do.

Another day in paradise

2007-11-20T23:54:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of this Phil Collins song by a young man today. And also today, I listened to a friend who is worried about her daughter. Her daughter is in her late teens, early twenties. She has type 1 diabetes, which of course means that nothing she did caused the disease; nothing she did could have prevented it. Partly because of the disease, she can't get health insurance easily. She doesn't have the kind of job that offers group coverage, and of course private insurance companies can pick and choose who they cover, and how much they charge. So she makes do as best she can. In a previous post I talked about my grandson, who is 8 and also has type 1 diabetes, so this friend of mine has been a source of information and comfort for me as I travel this path with my grandson. Anyway, my friend's daughter has MRSA in her thumb, and may lose it, and to hear her experiences of the last few days made me want to scream. And aside from the MRSA, her mother thinks she may be in ketoacidosis (look it up), which basically means her blood sugar is extremely, dangerously out of whack. And part of the reason this may be so is because those little strips she uses to check her blood sugar, which basically are just a means to deliver the blood to the meter, cost $1.50 EACH. And a person with type 1 diabetes (and I imagine also type 2) uses as many as 200 of those little strips per month (I know Adam checks his sugar level at least 5 times per day). That translates into over $200/month just to find out what her blood sugar level is, not including the necessary insulin to maintain it at a healthy level.
And with all this, the most ironic thing for me is that her mother votes republican as far as I know. What is wrong with this picture? My friend loves her child, yet I am sure she doesn't think there should be universal health care. I love her, and my heart breaks for her and for her child, and my vote, MY VOTE, will go to those who will make this better.

And another thing

2007-10-25T23:01:00.000-04:00

I met a lawyer the other night who is fairly new in town, and so he takes all kinds of cases at this point. One aspect of his practice is to go after insurance companies for patient claims. So instead of using hospital resources to treat patients, the hospital is paying an attorney to make insurance companies (the profiteers) pay claims for their customers, the patients. How ridiculous is that? He, being left leaning himself, says he would be happy if he could vote himself out of that particular aspect of his practice.
So, if we went to universal health care, we could eliminate having this aspect of lawyers' practices, not to mention accountants, insurance clerks, claims adjusters, and half of most medical staffs. Wow. And if we didn't have to pay all those people, plus profits for the insurance company, how much less would health care cost? As a percentage of our GDP?

Read The Rainmaker, John Grisham. Fiction, yes, but if you think it doesn't happen you are fooling yourself.

What gives?

2007-10-25T22:50:00.000-04:00

One of the arguments made against universal health care, single payer, is that it takes a long time to see a doctor. Another is that the government is going to be making your health care decisions for you, instead of the doctor. To both of these, I offer an example:

A friend of mine hurt his back a couple of weeks ago. He was taking pain medicine but it got worse, so he went to an orthopedic doctor (he had to wait a day or so for the appointment). The ortho doctor told him he needs an MRI to find out why he is in all this pain. The doctor said the radiologist would call in a day or so to set up his appointment. That's all fine. But the next day the radiologist's office called. Because of my friend's insurance, he couldn't get the MRI yet. The insurance company, which is in business to make a profit (see previous post) requires pre-approval for the MRI, and in order to approve it, they have to see the records, so that they can second guess the doctor. It will be at least two weeks before he gets his MRI, and in the meantime he is taking percoset, for the pain, which is affecting his quality of life. Now, how is this better than universal health care?

Another day, another story

2007-10-23T07:09:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ex=1350792000&en=8834ae50a0292bc1&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Okay, so this is an opinion piece in the New York Times. And yet it is not full of opinion; it is a recital of one family's story. One of the arguments I often hear made against universal, single payer health care is that most of the people who don't have health insurance are young and healthy and don't want to pay for insurance because they would rather take the chance. To be honest with you, I don't really believe that. I think they may be young, they may be healthy, and even those with children are taking the chance, but I don't think that they always take the chance because they don't want the insurance. I think they are taking the chance because they want a good life for themselves and their children, and they don't want their children or themselves to miss out on food, clothing or shelter so that they can pay the $300 or $500 or $1000 per month for health insurance. Or maybe they have tried to get health insurance and have been turned down, which is how the profit making insurance companies maintain their profit. We have laws requiring insurance companies to provide some type of coverage for bad drivers, even at really high costs. There are no such laws for insurance companies, although some states do mandate coverage for certain pre-existing conditions, so there are those who cannot get coverage at any price.
My employer pays for mine, and I pay the $300 or so for my ONE child, but I miss that money. Fortunately there are only the 2 of us and we can live just fine on my income, but I cannot imagine trying to manage a family of 4 or more with the income I have, and it is well above poverty level. If there were more of us, and I was the sole provider, that health insurance cost would look more and more optional.

Terrorism and me (and maybe you)

2007-10-22T23:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I have been trying to work out this analogy in my head. Just in the past week we have heard of the study that 19,000 people died in 2005 from an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. Now of course this is partly the fault of all of us, because so many people run to the doctor every time they sneeze and demand an antibiotic. This, I hope, has changed in the last few years. But maybe not in time.
So 19,000 dead in 2005 from this bug. I don't know how many died from other causes that year. But I bet no one died on US soil from a terrorist attack in 2005. And to be honest, I don't believe that has anything to do with Bush and Cheney and the then-Republican Congress protecting us. I think it has to do with the fact that it takes time to plan a coordinated attack, and maybe some good law enforcement work. And the last attack, the 9/11 attack, killed about 3000 people. I am not saying it wasn't awful, because of course it was. I am saying that I am more likely to encounter this horrible staph infection (and in fact, I already know people who have had it) than I am a terrorist.
So to the analogy--if there is a guy at my door with a gun, and he has already killed some of my neighbors, and the police tell me they can't deal with that guy because they have to prepare for the guy from Maine (I live in the south) who is coming next month, that is just stupid. And that is what we have going on with Bush--they didn't want to deal with Katrina, or the housing bust, or the sub prime mortgage debacle, or the pending water crisis in Atlanta, because they are too busy convincing us to be afraid of the guy who is coming next month.

End of the day

2007-10-21T23:22:00.000-04:00

So it is Sunday night, the end of the weekend. Tomorrow we go to our jobs and our schools, and being our weeks again. During the course of the day, if it goes like most of my days, I will once again hear or read a story about the health care crisis in this country.

There is my 82 year old aunt who came home the same day she had a colon biopsy, thankfully, because she doesn't have supplemental medical insurance.
There is my 8 year old grandson with diabetes and ADHD, who receives not state of the art care but minimum care because he has no health insurance, and to get it at this point would cost more than his mother and stepfather can afford.
There is my friend at work who doesn't get the stress test her doctor recommends because she doesn't have the $6000 to pay for it (and believe it or not, she has insurance, paid for by our employer).
There is a woman I used to know at work who has MS, and I don't know how she is doing, but I know that she didn't have health insurance at the time she was diagnosed, and that they lost their house this year.
The cost of one chemo drug for one year is more than my income, and to be honest, I couldn't afford to have cancer. I don't have savings to live on or credit cards. Health insurance has caps (check yours if you don't believe me) ranging from a couple of hundred thousand/year up to maybe a lifetime cap of a million. One catastrophic illness could wipe that out.
IT SHOULDN'T BE THIS WAY. These are small examples. Every day in your world, as in mine, you can find even more serious examples. Like my friend whose husband has been in the hospital for over two months, much of it in intensive care. Some friends had a fundraiser for the family, raised around eleven thousand dollars, but some of the medication that was given to him at the hospital cost 6000/dose. How do they pay for this? He has insurance, but that won't cover everything, and what happens if he hits the cap? Not to mention the lost work for his wife (he is retired, but takes care of their two small children).
When I speak of universal health care, I am not talking about breast implants for strippers. I am not ruling out that someone who has the money can get whatever private care they want. But if you think that government control would be the problem, who do you think makes the decisions now as to what health insurance will and won't pay for? Accountants, because insurance companies are publicly traded, for the most part, which means they are not in business to pay your bills, but to make money for shareholders. Would you want your fire department to operate that way? Your police? So that the less calls they made, the less money that was spent on them, the better? Health care should not be profit driven.

New Postage Stamp (joke alert)

2007-10-21T08:49:00.000-04:00

New Postage Stamp

The Postal Service created a 41-cent first-class postage stamp with a picture of President Bush. The stamp was not sticking to envelopes, which enraged the President, who demanded a full investigation (at taxpayers' expense).

After a month of testing, a special presidential commission presentedthe following findings:
1. The stamp is in perfect order.
2. There is nothing wrong with the applied adhesive.
3. People are spitting on the wrong side.

I don't know the source of this, I got it from a friend, but it is funny. I laugh when those to the right of me say that we on the left are obsessed with hating President Bush, and usually what is said is pretty mild. Like they didn't call President Clinton a murderer, a rapist, call for his assasination, stuff like that. Of course, that was okay, because they really thought it was true!!

First post

2007-10-20T15:19:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I have decided to start blogging. I read a lot of stuff, political and otherwise, and always have things I want to say. My co workers are too busy to listen to my rantings, and I am too busy to rant at work, so I am putting them out on the web. If nothing else, it will get my thoughts out of my head and into the world.
First, the title of my blog. This is my mantra lately. Our country has been abused and misused and treated like a private bank for those with the secret password. It has been going on for too long, and it is time it changed. We, the everyday people, can change it, so people who are not registered to vote need to register, and everyone needs to PAY ATTENTION. Read blogs, left and right, read the newspaper, watch cnn, msnbc and even foxnews, but sift it all and see how it matches and how it fits with your own ideas and observations. Don't depend on any single source for your information, get it from everywhere.
I will admit I lean so far left it is a wonder I don't fall over. If you don't, then that is fine, I still want you to be involved. Of course I have a candidate already picked out, but look at every one for yourself. I'll share my choice, and why, in another post.
Enough for a beginning. I hope someone reads this, I hope someone enjoys it.