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.)
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