Patriotism and America

When I consider the kind of citizen I have been in my life, I’d say I was the usual. I closed my eyes and ears to political parties. I chose one but I never worked for that party or even debated the pros and cons of a certain candidate. I knew in the Indiana County where I grew up there were mostly Democrats. My family had always registered Democratic. When I married my husband was a Democrat, though I am certain his party affiliation was not a factor in loving him.

For most of my working life I was too busy to really consider the ramifications of voting for this person or that one. I had no knowledge of or curiosity about how the parties mounted and ran elections. I thought my decisions were mine alone. This lazy way or being a citizen has changed.

During the 1970’s I worked for a man who supported Richard Nixon for President. He told me I was going to donate to the man’s campaign and I did. I mean this man could make my working life difficult. I got reimbursed through the company’s petty cash. I find out now that Richard Nixon with the help of Patrick Buchanan, a 27 year old erstwhile editorial writer for a St. Louis newspaper, designed what was the Southern Strategy. Their method was to delve deeply into the inherent bigotry and xenophobia in the South thereby disenfranchising Democrats. This was not an accident. This was a calculated act.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/26/080526fa_fact_packer

Once conservatives were Republicans, but the Republican Party became something other than conservative.

We have endured eight years in this last reincarnation of the Republican lead country. The national debt is near $10 trillion, over three times what it was in 2000. We are in the midst of a war started under the Bush Doctrine, which says in part that we have the right to invade a country that has not in any way invaded us. Iraq did not send terrorists seven years ago. In fact, no sovereign country did. The 9/11 men were Saudi’s. The leader of this band of killers fled to Afghanistan to hide. We attack Iraq, which puts us in the middle of a civil war that seven years later costs our country $10 billion a month and the lives of thousands of our children, husbands, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers.

In the next six weeks we will be harangued by special interest groups who are pushing a man and woman to lead the country from the same party that played fast and loose in the past two elections. These groups will not be working to inform us of the positive attributes of these candidates. They will spread rumors, point out foibles of the opposition and outright lie pushing us to think negatively and buy into our fears.

This is the party that used to be for a small government and conservative ideals about money and its use in the private sector. Conservatives want small government and everyone to stand on their own two feet. I don’t know what you would call the people who pushed deregulation of our financial institutions and railed against universal health care for all citizens and then gave almost a trillion dollars to corporations who played fast and loose with their depositors money.

If I am going to own a bank, mortgage company and Insurance Company, I expect some shares of stock in the mail. No. I won’t be waiting with baited breath for that to happen. What I will do is go to work, take care of my responsibilities and pay my taxes. And another thing, I will work to make certain me and mine focus on the reality of things and vote for what is good for the country not the special interests.

Vote

When the Presidential election year comes around we’ve already endured at least two years of announcements for candidates to run and then the primaries. In England an election is a choice for the party. The party then chooses the Prime Minister. This is accomplished in a fortnight or two weeks.

I’m weary of the election. I was weary of it in 2000 and also in 2004. At first I was hopeful we would choose a President who would consider his task to be accomplishing a well run country and working for the betterment of the citizens. Both times I was disappointed. Both times hate and innuendo and outright lies were told which distracted the voters and the majority voted from a position of fear.

This same kind of campaign is almost always run on the local and state level too. The national Congressional Offices are filled based more on blood in the water than fact. Voting becomes a reactionary exercise instead of a well reasoned choice based on what you learn about the candidates.

I have always voted. I started as soon as I was old enough and the activity of voting has always been very rewarding for me. I had relatives and friends who died in the nation’s wars. If I didn’t feel I could be bothered to vote as a patriotic citizen, I would vote to acknowledge their sacrifice.

The last few years I’ve worked at the polls and one year I worked driving people without transportation to vote. It’s a tiring day but I feel I am doing something to support the country. I’m not sure why more people don’t work at the polls and volunteer to help others vote, but if asked most would say they’re too busy or don’t think it has an effect on things. They would be wrong.

Encourage everyone to be certain they are registered to vote. Know where your polling place is and how to get there. You can verify you are properly registered through your board of elections or your local clerk’s office. In most cases these agencies have forms to register, available for download. Another way is this link: http://www.voteforchange.com/index_obama.php . Print off a few copies and put them in your purse or car to give to people you meet.

Every single vote is important. If you consider yourself a patriot, the way to prove it is to have a voice in your government by voting.

GO Lance GO

A remarkable image appeared on a story about Lance Armstrong deciding to work toward competing in the 2009 Tour de France. So another world class athlete is deciding to return to competition after retiring. And of all those lately in the news for doing this, Lance is probably the most deserving to rest on his laurels. After all he’s a twelve year cancer survivor. He won seven Tours since then. He’s raised almost $300 million for cancer research through his foundation.

A great article in this month’s Vanity Fair recounts a dinner at Lance’s home with Vanity Fair’s contributing editor Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University. "http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/09/armstrong200809?currentPage=5"

Mr. Brinkley happens to live literally in Lance’s neighborhood and finagled a dinner. Lance speaks of many issues from Texas politics to what his local paper had to say about his water consumption. But through what seems to have been a relaxed evening of conversation he makes it plain he has not forgotten the accusations of doping that surrounded his titles. He doesn’t like that taint. He doesn’t want to leave things as they are. He wants to win again and do so under the highest scrutiny.

I wish the man well. I don’t believe he was doping when he won his titles and I don't think we will start now. My last words are about the picture that initially caught my eye on the evening news.

Go Lance go!!!

The Back of the House

Sitting on my bench I see the back of the house. I like the back more than the front. The front is what those living there imagine all seeing. The front is formal and neat. The toys are put up in the front yard and no one would think to leave out the garden hose there. All window curtains and shades are directed to the eye of the invited guest and uninvited sales representative. Only those intimate with the people are allowed through the side or the back.

The back of the house has the laundry line and there hang the red shirt and pants and underwear. There hang the bedspread that is fraying around the edges and only used for picnics and that one time we spent a Sunday afternoon in the shade of a maple tree on the berm of the lake, talking and dozing and making love.

The back of the house shows me the reality of the people living there. I enjoy sitting at the back and recalling all memory revealed there.

Any road to profit.

On my mind this week even more than a bright hope of a better America, has been the idea that a corporation, even in a capitalistic economy, should not take any road to profit. This question leads in an Associated Press article this past Thursday:

What does a company do when there's anecdotal evidence that two of its drugs are equally effective in treating a leading cause of blindness in the elderly, one costing patients $60 per treatment and the other $2,000?

What this corporation did was not seek FDA approval for the less expensive drug. They chose outrageous profit over making available a cure for blindness in a wider population. The whole article is here for you to read:

Those two carat flawless square cuts that women are told they must have to marry Mr. Right are still dug out of the earth with slave labor. This story was well documented in the movie Blood Diamond. The corporation, concerned with they profit, accumulated diamonds and withheld them so that they could control the market and get the highest price.

Along the shore of a remote country derelict ships are abandoned by design. Imagine being the pilot of a ship you are driving to its death. Children work in breaking up the ship. The parts are sold for scrap. The corporation has no care about the consequences. The children have no childhood. The corporation gets the profit without the responsibility for their actions.

This activity is done worldwide. When American corporations do this, it makes me mad. We should be better than that.

I am not finisihed.

Dara is back home today. She had been away from her daughter for seven weeks while she worked to win a medal at the 2008 Olympics. This morning it was back to making breakfast and taking her daughter to school for her first day of pre-school. When Dara walked down the school hall to her daughter’s classroom, the teachers applauded.

Later in the morning she went to the aquatic center. Her friends there congratulated her as she showed them her medal. After that she began training again. She says she is not finished and is thinking of competing in the 2009 World Games. A forty-one year old Florida mother is going to lift weights and swim and train and I have no doubt that she will swim and win and give an example to many of just what you can accomplish with hard work and determination.

Oh, and next month she’s speaking to the AARP !

A place to sit.

The bench I finally moved from the garage to the tree, calls to me each day. It’s the only spot I can enjoy outside, as there’s nothing like it near where I live. Hidden, unless you know where to look, yet affording me a full view of the place. I sit with my newspaper after I return from the mall and if I’ve been forward thinking enough, I have a cup of McDonald’s coffee with me. Evenings, I’ll bring a glass of wine or a cup of water and ice, sit reading my Audacity of Hope book. If it is a humid evening, I’ll light a citron candle to discourage the flying bugs.

In the mornings the sun rises behind me, over the berm that protects the land in this holler. In the evenings the sun sits behind the building and in both times the bench is in shade. I’ve thought of putting a metal mobile fire pit nearby so I may enjoy the bench later in the year when evenings are cool, even cold. I may do that.