Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

Early Closing

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , on January 17, 2013| 4 Comments »

Schools are closing early today because snow is in the air. Things are getting back to normal, it’s winter so bring it. The fire is on and I’ve got all-wheel drive, and even though I don’t have little ones coming home early for lunch, still, I couldn’t help thinking of Newtown.

Yesterday I was nearly crying at the gym, thereby ignoring one of the first rules I set down for the kids – Never Cry in Public! But I was on the bike without earphones, reading The New Yorker US magazine, when I became aware that something was happening on the big screen over the treadmill. Putting aside my need to know why Bethenny was divorcing her cute and rather normal hubby, I looked up and there was the VP about to introduce the President on CNN. Lucky for me, it had its closed captioning switch turned on, so unlike the other day when all I could do was listen to Mr Obama on NPR, I could now watch him and read what he was saying…about guns.

Thank you Mr President. Thanks for starting off the conversation about research, and how knowledge is good and go right ahead CDC. I’m telling you to study gun violence. I’m glad he puts the public’s health ahead of a lobbyist’s agenda. Thank you for signing 23 unilateral orders,  of which research is #14 Oh, and thanks for revisiting and clarifying the Affordable Care Act such that doctors ARE allowed to ask about guns in the home #16. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/01/obama-executive-actions-gun-list/61075/. Closing loopholes like gun shows and requiring law enforcement to run full background checks “… on an individual before returning a seized gun” just seem like no-brainers.

But along with telling our doctors what to say, and trying to stop all research into gun violence, did you know that gun manufacturers and dealers cannot be sued? It’s like they hold some huge, unspoken grip on our legislators, that grip that tightened when the clause to give the Assault Weapon Ban an expiration date was introduced back in 1994. OK we know that ‘Arms used in the theatre of war must not be used in movie theaters’ – one of my favorite lines btw – but somebody thought that maybe they just might want to kill about 60 ducks in one minute? Like the .223-caliber Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle with a drum clip that could hold up to 100 rounds and was used in Colorado?

Back to lawyers, there’s a little known clause in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that says that the people who manufacture these guns and their dealers are immune to prosecution for negligence and product liability. Should I say this again? No lawsuits allowed! Which means even if you are a ‘law-abiding’ gun owner and your gun misfires due to no fault of your own and blows off your face say, or your hand, you cannot sue. Am I alone in thinking this is nutso? This week, Rep. Adam Schiff, (D-Calif) will introduce legislation to roll back legal immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers. Thank you Rep Schiff http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/14/adam-schiff-gun-bill_n_2471863.html

Here’s a thought. Maybe if we can keep the right side of Congress busy trying to figure out how to dodge and weave around gun control legislation, they will be too tired to introduce personhood bills? It’s funny how the GOP is so intent on being known as the Pro-Life Party, while it condones our 2nd Amendment Right to kill as many people as fast as we like. Oh wait, that’s not what the founders meant, was it?

I got choked up in the middle of Obama’s speech, then the Bride called me with fun news. So I stopped watching CNN and listened to her plan to get the Love Bug an exercise saucer. When we were done, happiness mixed with sadness, trying to read the last part of his speech through my tears. Grace McDonnell. A little girl who deserved to live.  A gorgeous little girl with a bright future, “…I think about how, when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, we must act now — for Grace. For the 25 other innocent children and devoted educators who had so much left to give.” Thank you President Obama.

121218041346-ac-grace-mcdonnell-parents-00000413-horizontal-gallery

7 year old Grace McDonnell

In every vote that is cast to curb gun violence, please make them a roll call vote. I want to know who’s thinking about our children’s safety. And who isn’t.

Read Full Post »

Radio Hour

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2013| 1 Comment »

A few days ago our television died. How old was that thing anyway? We bought it when we built this house, about 5 years ago, then I started wondering how long should a TV last. While I was busy lamenting, Bob of course, started researching the latest wired-to-the-internet models while also taking apart our measly 37″ flat screen Magnavox and finding the culprit. Yep, it’s a capacitor problem in the power board! He happily showed me the leaky, cracked caps! I had no idea what he was talking about, but like a good wife, I feigned interest. photo copy

I’ve always said that there’s just something on that Y gene that gives our guys the power to pull stuff apart and put it back together again with impunity. Now I know this sounds sexist, but just follow along. Once I brought home a beautiful antique chandelier – it was a bargain. Only it didn’t work. Well, before long, Bob had all the pieces lined up across our dining room table, and wouldn’t you know it, he re-wired the thing. I asked him if he’d ever done that before, he just looked at me, smiled, and said, “No.”

My foster father Jim liked to fix things too. This may sound arcane, but I distinctly remember him behind our old 1950s era black and white TV cabinet, taking the back off and removing its mysterious vacuum tubes. Then I’d accompany him to the hardware store where he’d test them in some gizmo; I remember them lighting up and the buzzing sound they would make. We’d buy only as many as were damaged. At home, he’d replace the tubes, screw the back on the cabinet and hop up on the roof to adjust the antennae. Nell would tell me when to yell, “Stop” out the window.

Now our TV had to go into the one shop in town that does “TV and VCR” repair work, simply because Bob didn’t want to solder onto the mini=computer board the $8.95 capacitors he could buy at Radio Shack. Thankfully, he knows his limits. It will cost less than a hundred dollars to fix and save us close to a thousand to replace with the latest in LCD wizardry. Which is great. But what’s better is we’ve been listening to the radio at home, NPR to be precise. And yesterday while listening to our President address the nation about the debt ceiling, I liked his tone. I am hoping he’ll deliver his ‘take no prisoners we’re not a deadbeat nation’ message later in the week to Congress about gun violence. I really liked his delivery as I sat there, knitting a rose colored dress for the Love Bug, and feeling like a 1930s era housewife. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. photo

Read Full Post »

A Gun Gag

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 9, 2013| 2 Comments »

I remember the first time I went to see my regular doctor at UVA for a general physical exam. The Bride had recommended him and it turns out he is a real life Dr McDreamy. Handsome and smart, plenty of time to answer my questions, not in any rush to shoo me out the door. Maybe this is what academic medicine is all about? I was surprised that he ordered tests for blood and bone density, mammography – and he didn’t actually touch me. I guess my Irish ancestors get the prize for giving me all the right numbers in blood pressure, and remember I didn’t come in with a problem. But my first surprise was the nursing assessment before Dr McDreamy walked in; she asked me if, “I feel safe at home?”

Bob tells me that this is a relatively new question in the battery of things we patients must divulge when we are putting our lives into the hands of someone. I understood, I suppose if I was a battered and abused woman maybe I’d feel safe enough here to break down and tell? It made me wonder what protocol they use if a woman or man answered that question in a different way. How much do we drink, do we smoke, and btw how do we feel in our home? I remember when Bob worked on a baby who had drowned in a hot tub. I’m pretty sure they weren’t asking questions back then about pools and hot tubs.

Last month I accompanied the Love Bug to her 4 month Peds check-up. How’s the nursing going, sleeping? And political junkie that I am, I thought about the small battle that was waged last year to gag doctors in FL. Legislators there were fighting to silence their pediatricians’ general wellness questions; in particular, one question, “Are there guns in the home?” Yes sir, politics has slipped inside that HIPPA protected wall of the doctor/patient relationship – one I liken to a priest/confessor – and is yet again telling our health care professionals what to do.

“The way some doctors see it, asking patients whether they own a gun is no more politically loaded than any other health-related question they ask. So when a Florida law that prohibited them from discussing gun ownership with patients passed last year, they moved to fight it. A federal judge issued a permanent injunction blocking enforcement of the law in July.” http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/27/165985266/taking-aim-at-restrictions-on-medical-questions-about-gun-ownership

I relaxed. I thought this will never do, it just can’t happen, if a federal judge in FL blocked this inane law, then it’s over. But no, it isn’t over.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2013/01/09/ac-acosta-gupta-health-care-guns.cnn?iref=allsearch

A little known 5 sentence provision was slipped onto the end of the Affordable Care Act. Legislators agreed to slash the language of the bill until all health care professionals could do was ask about guns – there is to be

NO documenting of their conversation about guns,
NO collection of data on guns, and
NO research on gun ownership as it relates to injuries…

Legislators argued and preened around the policy, taking out the part about doctors being jailed if they so much as ask about guns, or even losing their license. As many as 8 states are still fighting to reinstate this criminal provision. Remember the good old days when all we worried about was a transvaginal ultrasound? http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2013/01/09/ac-acosta-gupta-health-care-guns.cnn?iref=allsearch

Why should we care? 1 in 5 deaths of children in our country under age 20 is directly related to firearms – 1 in 5. In a 2 year study, for children ages 5 – 14, guns were shown to be the third leading cause of death. And now, the powerful NRA has basically stopped all research into this public health and safety problem. Let the newspapers print the names and addresses of gun owners. How many more rights are we willing to give up for the almighty money of the gun lobby?

Here is a picture of the graffiti that has appeared on our new bridge over the Rivanna River. “Love” on one side, and “Peace and Faith” on the other. I hope it stays there for awhile, that free speech travels upriver.
photo

Read Full Post »

A Rape is a Rape

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , on January 4, 2013| 1 Comment »

My news sabbatical is over. While nursing this cold I’ve taken to watching CNN in the morning with my oatmeal, tylenol and Vicks scented tissues. And somehow I thought that maybe everything on a Facebook news feed wasn’t necessarily true. Yet there it was, a story I’d merely glanced at online because it made my stomache churn, was now being reported as fact on morning TV: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/04/justice/ohio-rape-online-video/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

This story hits all the wrong notes – the high school football team of Steubenville, Ohio is somehow implicated in a gang rape of an unconscious 16 year old girl. Two 16 year old football players are identified and charged with rape, but the real question is was the town and its police force trying to cover this up since it happened in August? And what sets this rape apart from any other is the evidence; it’s not just he said, she said. A hacking activist group called Anonymous has posted video of a drunken boy boasting about the crime, along with pictures of the girl…which is why I saw it online before national media picked it up.

Now juxtapose these two images: CNN reporters interviewing Steubenville shopkeepers about how we mustn’t judge the whole town by the actions of a few, with the protests from India. A 23 year old medical student died after being brutally gang raped on a bus in New Delhi on December 16th. There have been daily protests in the streets since that day calling for justice and the men to be hanged. Five, possibly six men have been charged with “… murder, kidnapping and rape… voluntarily causing harm during a robbery, armed robbery with murder, and destruction of evidence.” http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/03/world/asia/india-rape-case/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

I know our legislators have much to do after their first day back on the Hill. They must keep kicking the can down the road of fiscal temerity; they must agree with some form of realistic gun control; they have to pass a budget, and oh BTW, thanks for that last minute Super Storm Sandy pass…on the heels of your humiliating first vote. And it saddens me that Congress could not reauthorize the 2012 version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). It seems the GOP balked when language was added to include “…expanded provisions to protect victims even if they’re gay, illegal immigrants or Native Americans living in tribal jurisdictions.” Rumor has it that R-VA Eric Cantor balked at the LGBT provisions, but a rape is a rape is a rape, no matter who you are or where you live. I am hopeful that the increasing number of women in the new 113th Congress can make this happen.
SCENE-articleLarge

Read Full Post »

Slow Knitting

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , on December 23, 2012| 6 Comments »

While I was searching for some old pictures, I pulled down a big Frye boot box from the top of my closet. Inside I discovered the purple sweater that my Nana knit, probably around the turn of the last century. It was chock full of cables, an Aryan style, and since I knew it was a tight fit at 16, almost six decades later I didn’t have to try it on. I want to give it to the Bride; and I want to teach the Love Bug how to knit like a laidback knitter when she gets older!

Yesterday I walked into the Haus of Yarn in search of a certain size needle and walked out with this book, “10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitters, A Guide to Holistic Knitting, Yarn and Life,” by Vicki Stiefel and Lisa Souza. Post Christmas sales were in the air, (as in, “Come back on Wednesday when everything is half off”) and a woman was delivering a big box from Nothing Bundt Cakes, http://www.nothingbundtcakes.com I love this knitting store, they had fudge in the back and invited me to their Thursday night knit club. Back to the book, there are all different kinds of knitters, on a spectrum from the up-tight anxious type seeking perfection all the way to someone who knits in a recliner and doesn’t mind a dropped stitch.

I have to admit, I don’t like making mistakes, but I’m aware that what I want to be is a laidback knitter. And now I know how! I may never do any spinning or roving, but I do know where most of the yarn I use comes from. And I can still walk down the road to the Rivanna River Alpaca farm and say “Hey” to my friend DeeDee. Her animals make the softest fiber in the world. Thanks to The Knitting Lady, I don’t fear dropping stitches or even ripping out rows of wool with abandon. I can say with satisfaction, I am the slowest knitter ever! “Slow” in the sense of the slow food movement; and to be fair, in the sense of time spent on a project…

Have a slow moving Sunday y’all. As our President said, “Drink some eggnog.” I’m working on a rosy pink dress for my little Bout de Chou – translation “tiny piece of cauliflower!” I intend to keep knitting…and writing about gun control, in light of the tone deaf statements of the NRA. Let’s bring our voices to Washington via petitions, phone calls and those really hard to ignore, snail mail letters. Slow and steady will win this race.
photo copy

Read Full Post »

If Not Now, When?

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , on December 15, 2012| 2 Comments »

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?”

But I don’t want to know his name
Or that he wore combat armour
That he lived with his mother
Or they seemed like a normal family

I don’t want to know the number
The size or make of the guns
Or that there will be 20 brighter
Stars in heaven this Christmas

I don’t want to know “Why”
What motivated a man to
Wake up one morning and
Cowardly mow down children

Because it doesn’t matter
All that doesn’t begin to explain
The unexplainable or to stem
The tide of grief and anguish
Still to come in this nightmare

What matters is that we
Wake Up
And take a collective sigh
And make gun violence a priority

“And if I am only for myself, then what am I?”
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-address-issue-gun-control-through-introduction-legislation-congress/2tgcXzQC
“The signatures on this petition represent a collective demand for a bipartisan discussion resulting in a set of laws that regulates how a citizen obtains a gun.”

Our society will always have mentally ill people; they will go to a classroom at VA Tech or Columbine High School, they will walk into a shopping mall or a movie theatre. They will get into a taxi, then stroll into a parking lot and shoot a congresswoman. I must be crazy to think that the overwhelming factor in this national carnage isn’t the shooter – so let’s lock all our doors and live in fear, and btw let’s arm ourselves?

NO, the problem is GUNS…the abundance of guns in our country and their easy access. The United States loses 87 people a day to gun violence. Yesterday we lost 27 people in a small New England town, including the shooter and his mother. Let’s not play the blame game, and ask how he got into the school, or if somebody heard his threats. Without those guns in his hands, he would have injured his mother, with a knife or a heavy object or his own hands, and maybe, just maybe that would have been all? We place second in the world to gun ownership per citizen, next to Yemen.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/20/gun-violence.html

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” Rabbi Hillel
1342791222395.cached

Read Full Post »

Pro Worker or Pro Union?

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , on December 11, 2012| 2 Comments »

Call me crazy, but I’m a little befuddled by the “Right-to-Work” movement. Union members are swarming over the Michigan State House, protesting the bills that were introduced during a lame duck session last week seeking to strip unions of their power. “Proponents say the measure would bring more jobs and economic benefits to Michigan, while opponents say the laws are designed to weaken unions and would lead to lower wages.” The Governor said to BBC news, “This is about being pro-worker.”

If passed, Michigan would become the 24th Right-to-Work state. My Great Grandmother helped to unionize coal mines in PA, after losing one husband after another to mine accidents. I understand their historic significance. I also believe that police and firefighters will not have a choice in Michigan today, they will continue to belong to their unions. I guess legislators don’t want to take on those union members. Two school districts have closed around Lansing in order for their teachers to be present at the vote later today.

I’ve had two close and personal encounters with unions. One when I was teaching pre-school at a Head Start program in Jersey City. Some heavy playground equipment was delivered early one morning when I was taking the 6 am shift, alone for an hour. The trucker said he could not help me get the equipment off the truck! That wasn’t his job. So we had to wait around until more teachers and aides showed up so we could gingerly unload the boxes. It was an “Aha” moment for me. The second time was before I started student teaching, I was unaware that I would automatically be signed up for the teacher’s union.

And that seemed wrong to 20+ me then, that I didn’t have the choice. Most likely I would have joined. But I also felt that if teachers’ wanted to gain respect and higher wages, if they wanted their jobs to be viewed as a “profession,” then wouldn’t a union be unnecessary? It’s a conundrum, supposedly the union keeps the superintendents from filling jobs with his cronies, but it also tends to keep incompetent teachers in the classroom.

The President has said that Right-to-Work bills are about giving you the right to work for less money. I tend to agree. So many of our manufacturing jobs have shipped overseas because of the cost of doing business in this country. We no longer employ children, our sweat shops have closed and unions help American garment workers earn a living wage; which is why Walmart has its clothes made in China, or Indonesia, or Vietnam.

I would always include a gift of Lenox fine china when I sent a gift overseas, because it was made in Trenton, NJ. No longer, after many mergers and acquisitions even Lenox is made in China.

But wait, there is one Lenox plant left in the states – in Kinston, NC. A Right-to-Work state.
Unknown

Read Full Post »

More Balloons

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2012| 7 Comments »

This morning Ms Bean started barking again. I looked out for deer, but looked up to find another hot air balloon coasting down the ridgeline. Good girl! Her ruff was up, and she pranced around the deck protecting us from that big monstrosity. I wonder what she’s thinking. We’ve had a number of them now, it’s not like she hasn’t seen one before in her almost 3 years on this planet mountain. They are all brightly colored, and they all make a strange noise when the flame appears in the sky.

I was surprised to find that the Facebook site I mentioned in the last post turned political rather quickly. The woman who wants to be able to drive legally in Saudi Arabia sent her sympathies to the Muslim women and children in Gaza. I almost chimed in, but restraint and common sense took hold and I held my fingers in check. There is no use arguing with people who think they know God’s will. I’ve begun the hard work of deleting “friends” from Facebook; I have no use for their racist and Nazi/quoting/end/of/the/world pronouncements about our election. As flawed as our democracy is, it’s all we’ve got.

We’re packing for our Big Chill Thanksgiving, in FL this year. These are our true friends, people we’ve known since we were teens. Smart people. There are 2 new grandbabies to introduce to the group, and another engagement to celebrate. I’m going to ask them to sign up for “Global Zero.” http://www.globalzero.org And you may want to check it out too…it’s a movement that asks the world to rethink our nuclear strategy, to “help seize a historic chance to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.” Call me crazy, but sometimes I think we might all want to choose peace.

Read Full Post »

The Art of Driving in the Sand

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2012| 2 Comments »

I’ve had enough of the General failures – old men and their sexual peccadillos. Hamas and Gaza are in the news this morning. Could the fragile MidEast peace crumble; what would it look like, to have Israel and Palestine peacefully co-exist? I’m becoming more and more of a pacifist, deploring war of any kind and for any reason. I’ve followed the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt via Facebook. But yesterday comments turned ugly, anti-semitic diatribes quoting wikipedia articles about which tribe actually owns their sacred land. Luckily, this morning by way of an Atlantic article, I found a different Facebook page, “Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself.”
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Teach-me-how-to-drive-so-I-can-protect-myself/132205866854879?ref=ts&fref=ts

A 32 year old IT consultant, Manal al-Sharif, started this page after deciding she should be able to drive a car around her home country of Saudi Arabia. She posted a video of herself ranting away while driving about the utter ridiculousness of this ban on women drivers. She was arrested, then released. Her Facebook page had 12,000 fans, and now it has 8,019 – hmmm, I wonder who’s been censoring her readership? Although well educated women in Saudi Arabia are not finding any jobs, simply because of their gender, female lawyers have recently been allowed to practice in the kingdom. Change is coming, just not fast enough for some.

Saudi Princess opens up about women’s rights in her country

Here is a video about the freedom project in the Arab world. It is poignant, it is timely and it asks us to think about what choices we might have if we were born in Japan, or Mexico. The arbitrary nature of life on earth; we sometimes forget how our opinions have been formed over years of culture and family like a smooth stone. When old men send the young to war, over boundaries, over religion, over oil, what if we were all to stand strong and say, “No.” This is the existential crisis of our time. We women need to drive that conversation.

Read Full Post »

Leadership vs Followship

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2012| 1 Comment »

What are the qualities of leadership? Are true leaders born, or are they made? I was listening intently to Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham at Monticello this past weekend. He was launching his latest 500 page book, “Thomas Jefferson the Art of Power.” The third President, I learned, was a master at seduction. He had dinner parties at his home here in Charlottesville, and at the nation’s new White House; however he would invite only members of the same party. He didn’t like argument in his private life, but in this way he made friends of his political enemies – maybe the first colonial frenemies? Jefferson was the master of mutual concessions; he managed to win over Federalists by the pure force of his personality. He knew how to build compromise and encourage coalitions. In fact, Meacham likened him to Bill Clinton. One of very few presidents who could not only maneuver politically, but could govern while also thinking philosophically.

“…but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principles. We are all Republicans. We are all Federalists.”

Who does that remind you of? We are not blue states and red states? Always paranoid about the British returning, which of course they did, Jefferson practiced the politics of optimism. And optimism, I believe, is something you are born with. He knew that politics is inherently contentious, yet he dared to depart from the dogma of his party. Is there one Republican member of the house today who might dare vote to increase taxes?

The Greek tragedy of General David Petraeus’ resignation was unfolding while we listened to Meacham, and to his credit, he never mentioned it. But I couldn’t help think of the juxtaposition; how Jefferson’s legacy has been tainted by his relationship with the enslaved Sally Hemings. Petraeus’ reputation, some might say, was a great veil that the Pentagon wanted to protect because we Americans like to think he helped to “win” the war in Iraq. However, after reading this Atlantic article, titled “General Failure” by Thomas E Hicks,
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/11/general-failure/309148/ …we learn how widespread the failure in our military leadership truly is, and why those two wars (one that was sold to us by lying about nuclear weapons) were doomed from the start. Hicks barely mentions Petraeus, only to say he came in near the end and helped to arm the Iraqi army, thereby inciting more civil war. The General who threw it all away over a woman 20 years his junior, it turns out, was flawed like the rest of us.

Meacham said of Jefferson, “If flawed people can do the good work he did, then maybe we can too.”

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »