Wednesday, January 13, 2016

A Slow Day and a Busy Mind

We got off to a slow start today. It was raining hard and there was no need to hurry.

It was 11:00 before we finally went off to the grocery store. Tom never goes with me to shop for groceries, except the last two times. He went so he could buy Powerball tickets. I guess we'll have something to listen for this evening. Last time we got one number match out of three tickets. Dream on.

Last evening we listened to, and watched the President give his SOTU speech. I was inspired and uplifted by his words and his presentation. I know many don't agree with his politics, but how he can be so despised and hated confounds me. He is truly a GOOD man. 

I loved some of his lines. These are not exact quotes, because I don't feel like taking the time to look them up again:
     Food stamp recipients didn't cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did.
     When there's trouble anywhere else in the world, they don't call China or Russia, they call US. 

He talked about wanting everyone to vote, not suppressing voting, and drawing district lines that reflected the people living there, not manipulated for political party outcomes. 

I thought he was especially strong in appealing to our better natures. The current political climate is so toxic, so riddled with hate speech and fear mongering.

And yet, I fear this is the case far too often. 

How did I spend the rest of my day? Well, I worked for a while on my photo sorting project. That can be a subject for another day. And I did a lot of reading.

I like to follow politics and current affairs. We get a daily newspaper and I skim read the headlines throughout, and select some articles to read more thoroughly. I usually find one or two editorials to read. 

I also read a lot on line. Facebook links lead me to more than I have time to puruse. One link I have subscribed to now comes to me via email, the Opinion section of the New York Times. There I read today an interesting editorial about how we need to stop evaluating teachers based on testing, and instead consider teachers as learners, look at how we teach them in college, how lacking the on-the-job training and mentoring are, and begin to institute year long paid internships for teachers. Yes!

I got into a debate on Facebook over an editorial written by David Brooks called "The Brutality of Ted Cruz" that I shared on Facebook.  It's very good.

Thomas Friedman wrote today about "The Age of Protest" and the concern that when you raise your voice in protest, you need to settle more quietly into a discussion of the issues before calling for reactive action. 

Paul Krugman writes to assure us that the economy is not tanking and under President Obama things are a whole lot better than they were, even if we have a lot to do to level out the income inequality.

That's some of what's rolling around in my brain today. I did manage to do 11 miles on the stationary bike out in the garage, while reading a novel just for entertainment.

Now it's dark and time to cook dinner. I'll see if I can get my mind going in a different direction. 


15 comments:

  1. Well those 11 miles stuck with me. I pat myself on the back when I do 4!! And that takes me over 40 minutes which is a lot of time on my elliptical. I have to watch Netflix or some such as I hate just walking away!

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    1. 11 miles on a stationary bike, sitting down, takes 50 minutes and is not nearly the workout you would get on an elliptical, which is much more of a whole body, walking type exercise. You're good.

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  2. My husband and I enjoyed President Obama's SOTU speech, too. We admire him greatly and are dumbfounded by the vitriolic attitudes toward him. The cartoon you included says it all.

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  3. It is amazing to me that Obama has managed to do so much is a hostile environment. He's almost done, and I thank him every day for his service to our country. Well, maybe not EVERY day, but just about. I read some opinions and I read that article you linked by Brooks. It was very good and quite scary, too. Your slow days would make many people tired, Linda! :-)

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  4. My mind is in a total spin these days. Politics does that to me. Right now I'm having great fun watching the Republicans. Not sure if my nerves will be able to stand it once there's only two candidates tearing each other apart. I will grieve when Obama leaves the Whit House.

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  5. Dream on is right. We got one number out of four Powerball tickets.

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  6. Ejoyed the SOTU speech too. I don't get the animosity towards him either. I'm bracing for the election.

    No winning tickets at all for me, we had a discussion at a family dinner about the giant prize and discovered out everyone else found the idea of being a "billionaire" a little intimidating. How would it affect our kids, our grandkids, etc. Would we have to live in a bunker ;-)? Made for an interesting conversation after all. No one said they would refuse it though, ha, ha.

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  7. From my situation from afar, you've got your politics right. There's so much hate and fear that they completely miss the important this is governing for all.

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  8. We turned the channel. I will be glad when he takes off to Hawaii for good :)

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  9. I wonder why people tend to forget what a mess that man inherited. I think he has done an amazing job considering the original mess and having to battle Congress. I hate politics but try to stay informed and ALWAYS vote.

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  10. I have said I would move to Canada if Trump should somehow become president, but, really, I would want to move to the moon is Ted Cruz should win. He scares me.

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  11. It absolutely mystifies me why some people hate President Obama so much too. I really think he's done so much to correct the sorry situation our country was in when he was elected. And I think that cartoon says it all. How can people like Trump? And they're saying Trump was so lucky to get the endorsement of Sarah Palin. Seriously? Can you imagine a ticket with the both of them. Now that is scarrrrry. And Ted Cruz? Sigh...

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  12. It is really important to stay informed. I admit that I want to hide my head way to often. It scares or worries me and I want to hide. I used to have strong feelings but with age I don't feel as well informed or determined to help and it should be the opposite way. But I keep listening and learning and do the best I can.

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