Sunday, April 26, 2009

Just Thinking

I spent most of the day outside in the garden. It is a beautiful spring day, cool but sunny, and everything is erupting with growth and color. Most of all I love the glowing greens of spring, as trees and shrubs and perennials begin the leaf out, and the grass is lush. I want my spirit to soar with the beauty of the season, but I feel like there is a cloud over me much of the time. At my last visit to physical therapy, I was given an exercise that has aggravated my back problem. I had the nerve pressure under control, but now it is back. I'm having trouble sitting anywhere but my recliner without feeling symptoms in my foot and leg. It nags at me as I try to go about my normal activities. I am conflicted about the national debate over what to do about the wrong doings of the previous administration. We tortured people, probably to extract false evidence for justifying a disastrous war. Should the people responsible go free? I personally don't need severe punishment or revenge, but I do need to have the whole truth told, the facts revealed. These are crimes we do not want to have repeated. As bad as war and torture are, we have an even bigger problem. We live in a violent society, with more than a thousand deaths per year in the last ten years due to gun violence. And yet we dare not take on the gun lobby? We're going to let criminals and crazy people buy guns at gun shows without background checks? It's OK to let them have assault weapons? Even if our police are being out gunned? This is not OK with me. As a retired teacher, I shudder over the cuts that will have to be made in the schools in our state because of the downturn in the economy. We all know that free public education is the foundation of our democracy, and that we have more and more severe problems to deal with in public schools. Our schools are under-resourced now, let alone after more cuts. And yet we have people staging "tea parties", objecting to paying their taxes. They don't like this, they don't like that, they don't approve of the bail out. They don't know what they're talking about, and they revel in perpetuating their own ignorance. Well, the sun is still shining. I'll go for a walk after dinner. Then we'll pack up and be ready to head for Whidbey Island tomorrow for a few days. The problems won't be solved while I'm gone, but I'm going to work on ignoring them for a while. See you later.

11 comments:

  1. problems are always there but focusing on spring and new growth and all that is going well helps. hope your back feels better

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  2. Sorry your back is hurting. I think back pain is one of the worst.

    Like you I'm bothered by a lot of what I see. I can't believe this country is being held hostage by the gun lobbies but apparently it's true. Disturbing.

    I read today in The Oregonian about what the stimulus money would go for related to education and it made me fighting mad. Public school funding is the only thing I've found about Oregon that I don't like and I really don't like it. These people need to get together and come up with some tax money to pay for education. I was shocked when I got here. I thought Oregon would have the best and most progressive schools in the country. What a disappointment.

    Have some fun while you're gone. Try not to think about all this. The problems will still be here when you return unfortunately.

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  3. Excellent post, Linda. My thoughts are along the same lines as yours.
    Enjoy Whidbey and take care of that back. MB

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  4. I'm so sorry your back is acting up - I know how frustrating it is when you take care of one thing and something else starts to bother you

    I am with you in all your thought with the exception of harsh punishment for cheney/bush - I want the book thrown at them - and I do not say this out of partisan revenge - I say it because their actions and their fear mongering and their day to day words and deeds hurt this country terribly and did so much to create the divide among us that I fear may never heal.

    I hope your few days away help your healing
    I send gentle hugs

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  5. Oh, Linda! There is nothing more frustrating and debilitating than back pain. If your back is hurting, your body just cannot do the things you want to do. I hope it is better soon.

    Florida has a horrible attitude towards education, and I don't see any change in sight. The people in control would like nothing better than to see an end to public education, and that (IMO) is nothing short of lunacy.

    I am so conflicted about the torture revelations (not that I was particularly surprised). I don't know what the right thing to do is, but I do know that these people will answer to a higher authority.

    Ugh, guns. Another problem my state has in spades, and the NRA (literally) runs the Republican Party in my district. An 8 year old girl was killed in her own bed by someone shooting wildly in the street outside her home. And yet, when the police chief in the area dared suggest perhaps AR15 assault rifles should NOT be legal (that was the murder weapon), he was attacked by the NRA as *anti-gun.*

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  6. It's so frustrating when a back problem returns , I'm so sorry !
    I love the way spring is unfolding here in Illinois too. Everything is so green...really changing a lot over night!

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  7. Linda..it is awful when you have to make adjustments to what you could normally do and have pain with it. I am sorry about that..

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  8. I'm so sad to hear that you're pain seems to be accelerating... It's hellish to wake up and walk around permanently "bent". There are too many days when I feel like the "crooked little man in his crooked little house" I hope you can find some relief soon.

    Relief for the country's ills? I fear it's more complicated than most of us realize and may take longer than any of us would hope for.

    BUT... Spring is showing her pretty face and that is something that certainly can brighten any troubled day.

    You have a great attitude, Linda.

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  9. A call to action.

    If you don't like a particular TV program, you call their sponsors and tell them you will boycott them until the program either goes off the air or changes to your liking. This works similar with
    political parties, politicians and their sponsors (campaign contributors).

    If you have a blog please post this on your blog. I want to get at least 100,000 people to sign these petitions, the first one which you can demand single payer health care and a fix to the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

    Read and sign these legislative petitions please and get hundreds of people to sign them and they will automatically go to Republican minority leaders Sen. McConnell and Rep. Boehner right away once you sign the petiton.

    http://action.democratz.org

    http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_congress_and_the_president_enact_single_payer_universal_health_care

    http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_congress_and_the_president_enact_the_employee_free_choice_act

    http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_that_the_congress_and_the_president_enact_a_10_an_hour_minimum_wage_into_law

    http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_that_norm_coleman_concede_the_senate_race

    http://www.change.org/actions/view/i_demand_that_the_congress_and_the_president_enact_the_womens_freedom_of_choice_act_into_law


    Oh and I created this parody t shirt about medicare part D that uses a familiar symbol.

    See it here.

    http://www.zazzle.com/http_action_democratz_org_tshirt-235693652310223019?group=mens&lifeStyle=all&rf=238083065491105452

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  10. Stopped by to see how your back was feeling

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  11. What an interesting and insightful reading. I continue to be amazed at the power of the lobbyists in Washington...guns...tobacco...the pharmaceutical industry. It's unbelievable. I think about education, the kids, our country, the lack of conscience in doing what is right regardless of what's in it for you.

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