Listen first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1DKJEk-EkE
Christmas.
Such a hard time for so many. Women. Men.
Where there should be joy there is sadness and pain and loss.
Wish I could help. You. Me.
But my heart is low, my heart is so low.
I wish for you joy. I wish for you peace.
Watch the women who make the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3nLjGQpUOU
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas!
To each of you who read this digital epistle I wish you a very Merry Christmas!
I believe the most precious Christmas gift arrived 2,000 years ago to two poor, working class people. I believe the love behind that gift should be the model for the way we treat each other. I believe the most precious gift I can give to anyone is my friendship, my caring, my love. I believe the most precious gift I can receive is your friendship, you caring and your love. I am blessed by those who both give and receive these gifts. Thank you.
I wish for you faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. May today and the coming year be all that you want it to be.
Eileen Good
I believe the most precious Christmas gift arrived 2,000 years ago to two poor, working class people. I believe the love behind that gift should be the model for the way we treat each other. I believe the most precious gift I can give to anyone is my friendship, my caring, my love. I believe the most precious gift I can receive is your friendship, you caring and your love. I am blessed by those who both give and receive these gifts. Thank you.
I wish for you faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love. May today and the coming year be all that you want it to be.
Eileen Good
Friday, December 21, 2012
My Christmas Wish
Dear Santa,
This is all I want for Christmas:
I wish I could be a conservative. I wish I could think like conservatives think. I wish I could vote Republican like everyone else around here. I wish my deep religious beliefs did not so influence my political and philosophical beliefs. I wish all I know about economics I was able to put aside and vote conservative. I wish all I know about the moneyed special interest groups I could put aside and vote conservative. I wish all I know about establishing aristocracies at the expense of the working class would simply exit my brain. I wish I were dumber. I wish I could passionately support what I hear on one-sided media and believe it to be true. I wish I were less rational and thoughtful and more emotional. I wish I was not so much a person of conscience. I wish I did not care about those with less than I have, I wish I did not care about equity, I wish I did not care about civil rights, I wish I did not care about democracy and public schools and public welfare, etc., etc. I wish I did not believe that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. I wish I didn't know you can't take it with you. I wish that I could ignore the reason for this season, the ultimate gift to an undeserving humanity, and think like conservatives think. Then perhaps I would not always feel like I am swimming upstream. Perhaps then I could be happy. Perhaps then I could really be me.
Not gonna happen.
But thanks for listening, Santa.
(Free toys for boys and girls world-wide? Sleighs me. Santa, you must be a liberal too!)
Friday, December 14, 2012
Shooting Children
I am not at the grieving stage yet, I am angry. Very angry. How dare someone walk into a school and shoot and kill children and shoot and kill the adults who work with those children? How dare him!
Schools are to be sanctuaries for learning. Kids are to be safe there. Now some idiot will suggest that if Kindergartners were carrying firearms this would not have been as bad. Or, that if all the teachers were armed. Or, if we just had metal detectors and razor wire fences and double entry doors so we can check ID’s before anyone gets inside. In other words, let’s make schools prisons designed to keep folks out and leave the folks within armed and ready.
And somewhere is a fleet of superintendents getting calls from local papers and TV stations wanting to know what they are doing to keep kids safe and what they might do in the future. So sad.
I have been watching this phenomenon closely since Columbine and I have reached the following conclusions:
1. No one ever got shot at a school when the perpetrator did not have a gun.
2. No safety measure creates safety. It creates the illusion of safety to pacify the panicked.
3. The problem lies in the community, not the school. This is not school violence; this is violence that walked into a school. The solution must lie in the community.
So, what would I do? Make owning a handgun extremely difficult if not impossible. Make owning an assault rifle impossible. Spend more money on community services instead of cutting them. If any of the now infamous perpetrators of this brand of violence had a readily available professional counselor we would see much less of this. And, lest we not forget, Virginia Tech and Columbine were violent acts committed by students there. We need more money for more teachers so teachers can develop good relationships with their children so we will get a “heads up” if one of them plans to start shooting.
As long as disturbed and sick people have ready access to firearms we will continue to have this. We will continue to see people shooting children.
So sad.
Schools are to be sanctuaries for learning. Kids are to be safe there. Now some idiot will suggest that if Kindergartners were carrying firearms this would not have been as bad. Or, that if all the teachers were armed. Or, if we just had metal detectors and razor wire fences and double entry doors so we can check ID’s before anyone gets inside. In other words, let’s make schools prisons designed to keep folks out and leave the folks within armed and ready.
And somewhere is a fleet of superintendents getting calls from local papers and TV stations wanting to know what they are doing to keep kids safe and what they might do in the future. So sad.
I have been watching this phenomenon closely since Columbine and I have reached the following conclusions:
1. No one ever got shot at a school when the perpetrator did not have a gun.
2. No safety measure creates safety. It creates the illusion of safety to pacify the panicked.
3. The problem lies in the community, not the school. This is not school violence; this is violence that walked into a school. The solution must lie in the community.
So, what would I do? Make owning a handgun extremely difficult if not impossible. Make owning an assault rifle impossible. Spend more money on community services instead of cutting them. If any of the now infamous perpetrators of this brand of violence had a readily available professional counselor we would see much less of this. And, lest we not forget, Virginia Tech and Columbine were violent acts committed by students there. We need more money for more teachers so teachers can develop good relationships with their children so we will get a “heads up” if one of them plans to start shooting.
As long as disturbed and sick people have ready access to firearms we will continue to have this. We will continue to see people shooting children.
So sad.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Gotta Love a Little Joy in the Midst of Anger
Susan Rice is withdrawing her candidacy as Secretary of State. She is a brilliant woman. And she is being attacked prior to ever getting the nomination.
Diane Ravitch said it best: The same people who thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be Vice President are attacking Susan Rice.
LMAO!
(I'm not supposed to know what that means, but it seems appropriate.)
Diane Ravitch said it best: The same people who thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be Vice President are attacking Susan Rice.
LMAO!
(I'm not supposed to know what that means, but it seems appropriate.)
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thanksgiving Eve
As I prepare for tomorrow, a day now associated with a national full-fledged endorsement of gluttony and the eve of a commercial extravaganza known as Black Friday, I am amazed we celebrate this day at all. Where are the voices waging war against childhood obesity? Where are the voices warning us about diabetes? Where are the voices warning us about high cholesterol? Where are the voices warning us about heart disease? I suspect they have all gathered at a table somewhere and are pigging out.
And, you have to admit, it is kind of funny that this whole notion began because a group of illegal immigrants received welfare from the local government. In 1621 Europeans were illegal immigrants, and the previous illegal immigrants were now the native population. Without the help of the native population, the entire expedition might have failed and the new wave of illegal immigrants might have died.
Enjoy your gluttony and celebrate the 17th Century equivalent of food stamps!
What a wonderful, liberal holiday!
And, you have to admit, it is kind of funny that this whole notion began because a group of illegal immigrants received welfare from the local government. In 1621 Europeans were illegal immigrants, and the previous illegal immigrants were now the native population. Without the help of the native population, the entire expedition might have failed and the new wave of illegal immigrants might have died.
Enjoy your gluttony and celebrate the 17th Century equivalent of food stamps!
What a wonderful, liberal holiday!
Saturday, November 17, 2012
If and Why
I am heart sick at the conflict, the war, the death on our planet carried out in the name of religious belief. Warring people who deeply believe in a god that sends them to do harm to others who do not believe the same way they do. Are we so petty that if you do not believe what I believe you must be evil? Why do we do this in the name of faith, any faith? It is, of course, faith as there is no scientific evidence of a God, of a heaven or a hell. Are our wars data driven, selfish driven, or faith driven? And if faith driven, what are we to ultimately believe?
If there is no God, what is blasphemy? Is it OK to point out to others that there is no God? Why are cartoons of prophets so sacred? If there is no after life, this is all we get, then why should we do what is right, what is moral, what is good? If we do it out of fear of punishment or pursuing reward are the behaviorists ultimately right? Is it the better man who does what is right because it is right, rather than out of fear?
If there is a heaven and a hell, where are they? Is there a supernatural plane that we cannot perceive? Is there a human spirit we cannot measure? Are there GPS coordinates for such places? Is there really a parallel universe where the spirits of “good” folks dwell forever in joy and without want, and another place where the spirits of evil folks are punished forever? Would an almighty God actually allow such a place to exist? Is he so petty that he cannot forgive the evil? Why does he allow evil?
Why are all the “holy” books written by men but treated as divine? Why not assume Shakespeare was inspired by God, or Huxley, or Hemmingway, or whomever? Why these passages and why so holy? Does God dictate narrative? If so, why not send each of us a memo?
Why do those who claim the deepest faith seem to have license to do the most harm? If God is on my side and I claim to love him, shall I now have free reign to persecute others? Why don’t the strongest zealots of each faith recognize that they have more in common with each other than differences as they experience the same intense belief? Why do they lead the charge against the infidels and each other? Why do they insist that their values, their beliefs become the law of the land?
If I do not go to the church picnic this afternoon am I going to hell? Why?
Just wondering.
If there is no God, what is blasphemy? Is it OK to point out to others that there is no God? Why are cartoons of prophets so sacred? If there is no after life, this is all we get, then why should we do what is right, what is moral, what is good? If we do it out of fear of punishment or pursuing reward are the behaviorists ultimately right? Is it the better man who does what is right because it is right, rather than out of fear?
If there is a heaven and a hell, where are they? Is there a supernatural plane that we cannot perceive? Is there a human spirit we cannot measure? Are there GPS coordinates for such places? Is there really a parallel universe where the spirits of “good” folks dwell forever in joy and without want, and another place where the spirits of evil folks are punished forever? Would an almighty God actually allow such a place to exist? Is he so petty that he cannot forgive the evil? Why does he allow evil?
Why are all the “holy” books written by men but treated as divine? Why not assume Shakespeare was inspired by God, or Huxley, or Hemmingway, or whomever? Why these passages and why so holy? Does God dictate narrative? If so, why not send each of us a memo?
Why do those who claim the deepest faith seem to have license to do the most harm? If God is on my side and I claim to love him, shall I now have free reign to persecute others? Why don’t the strongest zealots of each faith recognize that they have more in common with each other than differences as they experience the same intense belief? Why do they lead the charge against the infidels and each other? Why do they insist that their values, their beliefs become the law of the land?
If I do not go to the church picnic this afternoon am I going to hell? Why?
Just wondering.
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