Has 9/11 Changed America’s Intelligence?

In my opinion, with an election coming up in 2014 and Congress doing absolutely nothing but forming another committee to try to find unfounded tie-ins with the Obama Administration to scandal, without any proof what-so-ever even existing, we now have another leak being promoted as proof of Government becoming Big Brother in the minds of the paranoid, far-right, far-left with strong support from defense attorneys, and the GOP.

I offer my own opinion in today’s post along with others’ who have been here and done that, and after observing years of trial and error with both the media and politics in general. I remind everyone the Obama Administration is also being accused of spying on individual citizens and the media in an effort to stop the leaks, at the very time they are accused of promoting leaks for political gain, by the exact same politicians and media.

The more the attempts were made by many of the same type of groups during the Roosevelt Administration during the recovery from the Great Depression, and later on the Clinton Administration following the decline of the 1980′s, the more FDR’s and Clinton’s popularity increased with the American public. These Presidents simply did not have as much of the made-up speculation, due to the fact the number of the Conservative and Tea Party groups and Social media have increased greatly during the Obama Administration.

Isn’t it enough that Rep. Isis is calling Eric Holder and President Obama, along with anyone who speaks for the Obama Administration and disagrees with his witch hunts, “Liars?” At no time in history has our President or Attorney General ever been shown such dis-respect by the Congress who are elected to carry out the Agenda of the President or come up with a comparable agenda of their own in order to give aide to the American people in need. Are any of us still so blinded by lies that we believe that Congress is doing their job for the American people?

“Fast and Furious”, proved nothing other than it was the Bush Administration who provided the guns that got into the hands of the drug cartels in Mexico and the Obama Administration did not act soon enough to stop the program, but stop it Eric Holder and his team did, even though the GOP, themselves, initiated the program before President Obama took office. The committee was not even formed until after Eric Holder had already stopped it. This Isis led committee, did not prevent the funding of this witch hunt, by tax payers, over a three year period while a Republican controlled Congress did nothing toward job creation.

We currently have not one but 5 different GOP Congressional committees investigating the exact same unfortunate occurrence that happened in our Embassy, while they still do nothing about job creation, making the changes that they criticize in Obama care, education, or lowering the deficit.

Corporate America is still sitting on a mountain of cash and slow to hire, not only because of European markets, but also because of the uncertainty of Congress to do something in regards to the jobs market. Luckily because of the programs by the Obama Administration, that did not require Congressional over-sight, all areas are improving and 7 conservative Governors, in their own States, are accepting Obama care. They were amongst the most vocal of all conservatives against President Obama’s health care.

9/11 changed the landscape of America forever. We are forced to accept the fact that we will all be monitored in interest of public safety, as a result of the attacks. It is our new reality. Anyone who thought we could continue as a Nation under the same lack of intelligence gathering, as was in place prior to 9/11, just were not considering how wide of a change was needed for government to gather the necessary intelligence to keep us safe.

The press comparing President Obama to George W. Bush is ridiculous except for the fact that both men knew then, as they know now,we have the capabilities to shoot down any attempts to attack America from outside of our borders but the concern must be for gathering of intelligence inside our own borders.

Government then, just as it does now, needed to put together a list of the names and telephone numbers of all of the American people as well as those who are here on visa and green cards, to have a clearer view of the contacts outside of our borders as well as those inside our borders.

Regardless of the media coverage nothing exists that government is doing anything differently from doing exactly that, and in doing so Homeland security is doing their job. Their own Agency was began by the Republican majority, as a new agency to government, following 9/11. Any thing being spoken of as fact beyond this type of gathering is nothing other than pure speculation on the part of both social media as well as previously established media.

If any of us are surprised the intelligence gathering is necessary within our own borders then just where do we think it needs to be gathered? The terrorists attacks, just as the Boston marathon attack, was done by terrorists already inside our borders. They may be influenced or brain washed by outside factions, through the internet, or over-seas visits, but it is inside our Country we need to be the most concern about protecting. I repeat: No one has a better military or defense system than America has, if anyone would decide to attack us from the outside.

Terrorist attacks did not come from outside of United States, but instead by people already here. This means that intelligence gathering occurring in the United States needs to be gathered in the United States.

We have over 1000 hate and subversive groups within our borders who are home-grown. There are any number of groups outside our borders who would work towards gaining sympathizers within our borders and gladly finance terrorism within the borders of our Nation.

In my opinion, taken from already established fact and history, all the media Bru-ha-ha over government over-reaching and paranoia spreading, over being able to trust government, is just more of the same politics being played out on the platform of the media. When they have no proof of the same and the facts speak for improvement in the economy, then attack the current Administration in office. This is especially grievous when those attacks are originating from the exact same sources who are not doing the job for which they were elected. It has always been the behavior of opposing parties but it has never before been when Government is doing their job to protect us.

Are we, as Americans, truly so paranoid we would think Government cares if Johnny is potty trained or if Aunt Mary is going to the casino or if Ethel missed Church on Sunday, and government is listening in and gathering intelligence on the same? There are not enough hours in the day or Agency’s available to spy on the pretty boring and non-eventful not to mention shallow conversations a great deal of us have on both the internet and cell phone.

The media making a mountain out of a mole-hill on a leak of intelligence gathering that should never have happened in the first place is just more of the same, in my view. Are there any Americans left who do not already know that government is hated by the far-right Conservatives, the Tea Party. and Republicans in general, and they pay their own media to promote the same?

Much of the broadcasted attempts by media found to be scandal, are the same behavior and programs that have been used and are currently being used in Corporate at their own conventions in an effort to inspire workers who must sit hours behind a computer program, and to give them a chance to let down their hair. They are seen as a reward for record profits or as a program to motivate the workers. Corporate just as government will use exercise programs to promote the health of their workers. These programs cost Corporate no different from what they do government and are used in an effort to compensate their workers for and to increase productivity.

The deficit is going down, jobs are increasing even with 10,000 Americans per week turning 65, and while many are drawing unemployment benefits until they reach the age of 66 and retire. Other seniors decided to continue to work while drawing Social Security and have since been laid off and continue to draw unemployment along with their Social Security checks. In both cases it shows up on the unemployment records or as people no longer looking for work and helps paint a gloomier unemployment number. The GOP’s refusal to prevent our going over the cliff has hurt job growth just as the uncertainty of Congress acting in regards to unemployment, a poor European market, and a slower demand for product has left big business slow to hire.

Despite All of the GOP investigating committees, instead of doing the job they were elected to do, they cannot discount the economy is coming back with 37% of big business announcing that they will be hiring thus making the economy still stronger by 2014, despite the Senate filibusters and the “do nothing” Congress. When they can’t point a finger of failure at the party in office, or the Obama Administration to be precise, then they will attempt to create scandal based on nothing other than speculation.

Housing is up, interests rates remain low on both housing and student loans, the stock market hit record highs, health care costs are going down, Social Security solvency has risen another 6 years and increased through 2032, despite the rate of retiring Seniors, People who could not buy insurance before and students are now able to buy or stay on their parents’ policies,consumer confidence is up, and Americans are about to see a greater over-all improvement in the economy ahead. America still has an economy that other Nations wish they could come close to matching and which most economist grade a medium to strong B with the majority of all economists being very optimistic about the increased growth over the next 2 years.

If the Republicans do not attack the Obama Administration now, then they will not gain the seats they want in the Senate and Congress in 2014. They and the few members of the far left have plenty of media who will suggest Government is becoming Big Brother even though intellectually they all know or should, that 9/11 changed the nature of intelligence gathering in America forever.

I remind everyone the law of our land based on common sense is, ” The hand of one is the hand of all.” Basically it means that just because the hate propaganda began out of our borders and entered into United States or was already present and home grown, all parties who conspired with or planned or will conspire with or plan attacks in the future, are as guilty as the person who plants the bombs or pulls the triggers.

If Face book, Google, Micro-soft, or Verizon or anyone, for that matter, are knowingly or unknowingly helping Government to track down criminals or terrorists, in an effort to keep Americans safe, where were our minds when it came to the future of intelligence gathering after 9/11?

These same internet groups, along with search engines when we allow them to establish cookies, monitor us anyway, and have always monitored us for far less reason. They want to find out what we like and what we buy and to pass that information on to Corporate America. Haven’t you ever asked yourselves how it is that they have any criminal records, our phone numbers, our credit rating, where we are employed, for a price and made available to anyone who pays for the same, or how they can map us exactly to the houses or apartments we live in?

Chat lines, Twitter, internet dating services, and any social media that have chatting, along with Face book,when we try to increase our friends’ list in an attempt to appear popular, know what we say to any number of strangers we include on our friends’ list. Anyone else who is part of that same Star’s, politician’s or new agencies’ repertoire also have access to what you say.

What we don’t know many times is if the name they are using is real or made up because all they need is an email address. Anyone can get those through any number of outlets such as Hotmail, AOL, I-cloud, or G-mail without showing proof of identity. We don’t even know for sure if they aren’t related to News Agencies, terrorists, criminals, or Big business. They do not just have our information and conversations but also have the same of everyone else on our friends’ list and their friends’ list as well. There was a reason our parents told us not to speak to strangers.

Clearly all of us should have known, if not then but certainly by now, that this is going on. We all need to accept as fact; every time we allow a site or search engine to set cookies, we are being monitored as to what we like, buy, or our public record, and what sites we visit.

Our Social sites very well may be monitored by the criminal element, terrorists, or Big Business, if we are angry or disgruntled Americans who promote hate we can be a candidate to be drafted by subversive or hate groups who are often very charming in their agreement with us, if we have a close relative who dies and they need their ID to use as fake ID, if we sound like people who would make good mules to take drugs across the border or into the United States without suspicion of the same, if we announce plane reservations when we are leaving America and when we are returning and even on what flights, we are often telling the World, come get me.

If we promote hate or swear, or brand others with labels, have a felony record, brag about being wiped out, stoned, or getting drunk, or put nudity in Social venues or on-line and talk about deviant sexual behavior, it can be used as a reason to fire us for our views or behavior. It can also be used as a legal reason as to not hire us in the private sector, when we are qualified in every other way, by Big Business. Americans talk entirely too much about their personal lives and research facts way too little, in life, on cell phones, and on the internet, thinking they some how have anonymity or only their friends can see it.

Government cannot do the same nor can they listen to our conversations but instead they can investigate through phone numbers and internet contacts, any correlation we may have to or with acknowledged and registered hate groups, deviant sexual behavior that is considered criminal, those who have huge potential to turn terrorists through their associations, have legal reasons to be suspected of crime or been found guilty of known criminal activity, or are already known terrorists through gathering of our telephone numbers and internet contacts. This has been the law going back to my farthest memory and way before the establishment of Homeland Security or waaaayy before the establishment of Social media or before the Obama Administration.

Do any of us really mind if government is now doing their jobs more effectively, since too many of us have been too slack in our own behavior of allowing strangers into our lives or our own children on-line? Don’t we need government to monitor or look for that kind of activity in order to keep “We the People”, safe, against our own naivety?

If we want to, instead, become out-raged and believe the media hype and speculation against the Obama Administration and those who protect us; currently being played out by the media, is not for political gain by the conservatives of both parties with strong emphasis on the Tea Party and like members of the GOP in 2014, then what can I say more, than I have already said? Not much. Have a good weekend everyone, knowing no one has the time or hours to spend listening to the mundane subjects and conversations, the great majority of us talk about or are forced to listen to, now or at any time in our lives.

Read Full Post »

400,000 Rape Kits Unprocessed

I wrote an earlier post on the rape of Steubenville, Ohio, being treated as an isolated incidence when in truth the fault lies amongst all of us who do not respond, as we should, against the crime of rape.

The news agencies are reporting the cases are old and obsolete and the technology we have today wasn’t available. I’m sure there is truth in that but it doesn’t explain the cases that happened much more recently and as recent as 4 months ago. I will report what I have read and been told many times by those who do serve in police Departments going back many years. What we will never hear reported is that a great deal of politics also lies behind the fact that the rape kits were not sent in to be processed.

To be honest, I did not watch the report done on CNN who brought it to the media attention that 400,000 rape kits were left unprocessed in our Nation. I did watch as one of the women anchors asked, “if the police could be prosecuted or sued for leaving the rape kits unprocessed?” In my own estimation this question, itself, is just more of the finger-pointing and simplifying that is done towards the crime of rape in America.

There are any number of reasons as to why police do not process rape kits, so lets be honest about it. Too many amongst us already take too much delight in finding fault or individuals to blame. I do not understand why police, who for the most part are people of honor, do put in the back breaking hours that too many times ruin their marriages, take them away from their family time and vacations, risks their lives, and often are the most under-paid amongst us, when those amongst us keep finding fault, except for the fact that the majority of the people who serve are people of character. When we point fingers and “pass the buck”, we can at the very least spread the fault out where it belongs.

There are other instances in America where the mayor gets called by the father or mother of the son, or by an alumnus who supports the sports program of their alma mater when the rapist is an athlete, friend, or family member and the Mayors pick up the phone and inform the Chief-of-Police that he will not allow his officers to investigate the crime or process the rape kits or suffer the consequences when it comes to him withdrawing his and his buddies’ monetary support during the upcoming elections.

The Chief of Police then passes the message down the line of command. Rarely is it in that terminology but the words used amount to the same definitions and do not go left unheeded when delivered by those of Status, Power or Wealth.

All these cases did not occur in Chicago, as many are trying to politicize, already. They are spread around the Nation. Just as the Mayors in some cases make the calls, so do Judges receive like calls as do prosecutors have a history of never prosecuting cases after the Police put hours into investigating the crimes and processing the kits; due to similar calls by the elitists in America with threats of withdrawal or support of monetary value at election time. The police are at the bottom of the chain of command, no matter how many would have us believe they are given a great deal of discretion, when it comes to processing rape kits. Intimidation lands the hardest on the backs of the police officers when they are threatened with dismissal if they proceed with the investigation.

If it is some one of importance that can directly influence the jobs of the police, lower their standing in the Department, or demote them to desk jobs then they do not have discretion to process rape kits and anyone who refuses to acknowledge this happens throughout police Depts. regardless of size through out our Nation then we are lieing to ourselves. The same organizations or media who are not reporting accurately, in regards to why rape kits are not processed, are also reporting less than the facts.

The bosses who will lose the political support of the benefactor if they do prosecute or don’t drop the cases are the ones who tie the hands of the police’ in directly much larger cases than it is right to do so. The police many times can only keep the kits until a better or different climate towards the understanding of the “horror” of rape is elected to office by “We the People.”

There are those who are called the “Good Old Boys”, in many but not all Police Departments, in the majority of States who know if its an appointed or elected position and a member of the Clergy or their sons then it is just the girl’s/Woman’s word against the boys/man’s word and they will and do bury rape kits. Without the investigation or rape kits the knowledge is the victims can prove nothing. The only reason many of those kits have been saved is because in many other crimes or cases the police or prosecutors are waiting for the right political climate to be able to prosecute the offenders.

In communities when it comes to the so called “right kind of People”, being charged with rape the Community itself becomes out-raged if the police or prosecutors do try to convict rapists.

As a Nation, too many amongst us still refuse to accept that wives and prostitutes as well as mistresses are indeed raped. Others in a community still refuse to accept the high number of boys who are raped and, often times, refuse to accept that incest and rape exists in the numbers of victims it does in their own families and neighborhoods or amongst their friends.

When the culture exists for adults to call friends “aunties” or “uncles” too many parents will accuse their own children of lying before they will accept that they are telling them the truth. The most protected criminals of all in a community still remains the star athletes, clergy, and “one of their own”. The unfounded belief, that is totally void of fact, is that the streets are the greatest producer of rapists and that rape does not happen in our own back yards by people we know when statistics show just the opposite to be true.(Please Read my Previous Post entitled ,”Steubenville Exposes The Ugly Truth On Rape” for a more comprehensive study as to why rape cases go unrecognized and prosecuted as the Serious Crime it is.)

Some States that are more inclined to be involved in the realities of, “the truth in reporting”, and the life-long seriousness of rape, have jettisoned into the twenty-first Century by taking away the statute of limitations when it comes to the crime of rape. Many others are still living in the dark ages as technology no longer leaves any shred of doubt as to who is telling the truth. Unless the majority of us get past the mentality of “Boys will Be Boys” and instead insist that regardless of the standing in the community; “rapist are not to be allowed special favors,” we all risk re-raping the victims in every State of the Union.

I applaud those who are at least exposing the Ugly truth of Rape but unless we as a Nation tell, “The whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth”, in a Court of Law and in reporting rape, we still bind the hands of the police or those who would prosecute rape.

I do not deny that there are crooked cops just as their are those in Universities and the military who have denied that rape exists in their ranks for generations. It is when we start pointing our fingers at the heroes of all who serve, while blaming them for the rotten apples, we become as guilty as the politicians when it comes to trying to sweep the full tragedy and facts of rape under the rug.

No matter what changes are made in the law, we still run the risk of tying the hands of the police hired to serve us when we refuse to elect those who will and do prosecute rape.

Certainly electing Conservative and Tea Party Members who try to call a child” borned of Rape”, the intent of God or those who pass bills in Congress to define rape as anything but; ” When A woman or child says “NO”, it is rape. When it is a child below the age of 14 to 16 it is always rape since they do not have the brain development to give consent regardless of the situation. When children or women have been drugged, abused, intimidated, forced into having sex it is rape”. When the largest majority of all rapes occur by neighbors, friends, family, or colleagues and we know incest is rape; then who is it that needs to be protected by defining rape? The victims as well as anyone above the age of six already knows the definition of rape

Rape isn’t anything too complicated to define when we get past those who would protect the rapists or the “Right Kind Of People.” Nothing a little common sense and decency couldn’t solve. The solution certainly isn’t to blame those whose hands we help to tie.

None of us like to admit that perhaps we, ourselves, made a mistake when we voted for a candidate and as a result we often leave them in office year after year feeling as though they are responsible for correcting the mistakes they promised to do when elected and then our responsibility is over with as our elected officials will speak for us.

In too many cases when judges are appointed or Sheriffs, and Prosecutors come up for re-election, especially, will they get left in offices before much investigation is done by us, unless they themselves are convicted of crimes or a petition is started up against their ineffectiveness. As a result some will remain in offices doing little to nothing for those of us who sent them there while paying homage to the elitists, year after year. We cannot complain if we deny or ignore the fact that the same happens and simply shrug our shoulders and simply accept the fact:” that is just the way it is.”

“We The people”, only need to be more pro-active about being honest with ourselves when it comes to rape as well as the people who we put into office to represent us,by treating every human being with an equal amount of truth and respect and demanding that all who serve, do the same when technology does not lie. Politics are almost always local and a healthy amount of skepticism, for those who we elect or leave to appoint to office, is almost always good to possess despite those who would advise us to the contrary.

We can also vote the bums out when they profess ignorance because rape hasn’t been defined clear enough. When we become pro-active enough to recognize fact over lies and when we go to the polls each election cycle, we empower the victims so they do not suffer rape again at the hands of the system.

I hope all of us have a nice evening at home tuning in on this terribly violent day of storms. May we all be protected against more devastation that is out of our control while we tune in more to positive actions towards helping those who continue to be wronged by acknowledging their pain. We can make a difference one person at a time, once we commit to the same. First of all we have to want to help.

Read Full Post »

Steubenville Exposes Ugly Truth About Rape

We currently are hearing so many feigned voices of shock and surprise about the rape in Steubenville,Ohio, after having had an election while one Republican candidate for the Senate spoke of legitimate rape after having co-sponsored the same bill with the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan in Congress, to define legitimate rape as opposed to regular rape. Another Virginia Republican candidate called rape and the children born out of the same,” The intent of God.”

If women raped men we could all bet that women would be accused of being Jezebels and inspired by Satan if the reverse happened.  We could also guarantee ourselves it would be discussed as the most evil of acts and no woman would be left severely unpunished, regardless of how the rape occurred.

Men have gotten off with the excuse of going into a blind rage in an act of murder and instead charged with manslaughter when they kill another where women are often charged with murder 1 since the judicial system does not equate fear in women with the level of rage in men.  It totally discounts the idea that women can to act out of rage after years of abuse. Where women need a well documented history of rape or abuse, men need to establish little to no history either supportive or contrary to their own word in order to get a lesser sentence of manslaughter or for lawyers to refuse prosecution for rape charges.

When women are prosecuted for twice the amount of time that men are when death occurs in a domestic dispute, but treated more justly in other charges, we do not need to even guess how much harsher Society would be on a woman rapist than they are on men. Why so much shock and surprise over a statement that has been promoted for generations by the “Good Old Boys”,caused such a stir in the elections this year is beyond me.

Let me take this time to clarify the fact that rape amongst athletes has been taking place for generations just as the mentality has existed for Centuries, “That good girls cannot get pregnant from rape”, has existed as well. for the Republican Party or Press to deny the same is what is at the root of the ignorance in America.  To feign ignorance over rape amongst athletes or the idea that a child born from rape is a “Blessing from God,” are new ideas should leave us all sickened with those who continually dismiss the truth.  These ideas have existed since the beginning of time.

In the minds of the “Good Old Boy System”, and unfortunately some women as well, a legitimate rape is one that involves Street mugging or when a rapist breaks into the home of a woman and rapes her.  Any rapes that happen when a woman is in the company of men or marriage or in the man’s Apartment, barracks, frat house or territory, provocatively dressed or drinking, and the woman is raped it is no big deal to this mentality.  To many of both genders feel when this happens a woman is just asking for sex and rape does not happen under these circumstances.This attitude has always existed over the years, and continues being the attitude of to many.

Etiquette stated years ago, and perhaps still does,”One should never speak of politics,sex, or religion while in mixed company.”  Although I believe we have developed too casual of an attitude towards good manners, I do believe that not talking about politics,sex, or religion has left too many of us brain-dead on the issues that should matter and be discussed by all of us.  When we say the subject bores us then we are the ones who lose.  This post discusses all three subjects.

Allow me to tell you,the not so uncommon stories of its’ day in regards to women and rape.   I change the names and do not name the locations but I will not tell anything but the facts in the telling of these three stories. The names or locations are not important as these stories took place across our Nation in Jane and John Does and in anywhere U.S.A. during the era in which I write, along with years in advance of the same.

One generation does not often tell these kinds of stories from previous generations because it has to often been bred into the older generations to keep secrets in the past, or perhaps with time memory does get lost, behind both denial and disease.I begin from the truth of my own memory, that is still well-preserved. I Thank You for that Dear Lord, as I also inherited the mouth to tell the truth! Way back when there were the Landers Sisters writing and publishing the Nations problems, I was nicknamed Ann Landers since both men and women felt comfortable in telling me things that they would not even tell their husbands or wives.

1. It was the Spring of 1959 and an eighth grade girl ,who was rumored to  have been molested by a family member, was dating a young man,and together they had sex,previously,to the young girl attending a keg party with highschool athletes.  She was severely gang raped that night, as a result of drinking at the party.  No local lawyer, would take her case. The young victim had a wealthy aunt who lived 75 miles distance from the town, who could afford to pay for a lawyer, so they were able to hire an out-of-town lawyer.

When the case came before the judge, the victim’s boyfriend had been rounded up and forced to acknowledge that he had sexual relations with the girl who was the victim in this story.  The Judge threw the gang rape case out of Court and his finding stated,”No young man much less young boys could be held responsible for rape when the young girl in question, had previously de-flowered herself and was drinking alcohol under age.”Nothing was said about the young boys drinking illegally,of course.

2. In the Winter of 1964 a Catholic Priest, who the Church knew had a History of molesting young women, was given dispensation from duty as a Parish Priest and instead sent on the rounds of filling in as a speaker while conducting retreats in Convents and All Girls Catholic boarding Schools.  The same happened during this time with Priests celebrating retreats in all Boys Schools, when they had a history of molesting young boys.  The Catholic Church has come clean about their history but so many other Private Schools and Colleges are still denying that this still continues in their schools.  The Penn State Coach is NOT an uncommon story but just one of many.

3.  Going back to my farthest memory, any Sports player or Coach who brought fame to their sports program whether it was highschool, college, or the pros, were entitled to take anything they wanted to take, regardless of the size of the Town, City, or Religious affiliation. If the athlete is part of the team but not a star player then they will be used as the fall guy for the stars to remain clean. Unless it was burglary, where a Store refused to drop charges but in most cases even they could be bought off, if the athlete was a star and changed his ways.  Most Teams, while traveling elsewhere to play outside of their own town or City will have a team of scouts scouting out the local scene for a Party for them to return to.  These Parties since the 1960′s have both girls of questionable morality as well as virgins rounded up to attend.

Highschool girls have always been amongst the attendees of both sports and fraternity parties. It may be cool to a 16-year-old virgin, or not, to think they look older than they do and to go ahead and drink but when these girls do, it excuses the boys from showing the girls, respect. To many believe that when a girl says “NO” they are only teasing and instead they really want sex.  Boys have been told for generations that some girls need more convincing and when they say “No”, they really mean yes. Dress and drinking in women has always been grounds for rape, if they get drunk or even if drugs have been placed in their drinks, at these parties. I certainly do not accept that this mentality has ever been right but pretending we have not only tolerated it but promoted it for generations, makes it even more deplorable now when we deny the same.

A woman or young girl who is unconscious from drugs or alcohol has never been hands off in the minds of some boys and men and to pretend that this behavior does not happen or has not happened in the past is just another lie of the “Good Old Boy System.” I do not deny that there are some girls whose morality can make some mens’ behavior, pristine, but until we accept that prostitutes are raped, then we deny reality.

We fail women and our sisters alike, when we hold all women responsible for the behavior of a few.  All women have always been held responsible for those few women; where as all men and their behavior has been excused because of the behavior of the few women, who would set up men and yell “rape.” Rape is as unpleasant for most women to have to divulge the details and to relive the rape in a Court of law, regardless of their background, as it is for a man to get his penis removed, and yet we have always blamed victims of rape, for causing rape. Women, not men, are raped again by our judicial system.

Regardless, if it is a house party or a frat house across America the boys and men of the crowd are egged on to feel that rape is justified because “Good Girls” would not be there drinking if they didn’t want sex, has always been the mentality of the “Good Old Boy System”This mentality has existed in the “bad boys” as well as the Sports teams going back at least to the 1950′s when I first heard the stories told to me by the girls who had been raped.  Going to a man’s house or apt. under the guise of having a cup of coffee or to listen to his music, has existed for just as long, as a reason for rape.  It doesn’t have to be alcohol and to pretend that it does is only promoting the same lies. I’m sure those older than myself will tell my readers the same statement of fact, if they care to be honest with their grandchildren.

For a bunch of right-wing Republican men and the media that backs them,to feign ignorance or to act flabbergasted at the same while they continue to deny women,that this has been and remains the mentality amongst the “Good Old Boy System,” for centuries, sickened me in the Republican elections this year.  The fact that the media is now pointing a finger at Steubenville,Ohio, as being small town and unique in their cover up of the most recent rape being broadcasted, leaves me equally sick.

No one who has ever served as a cheerleader or been part of the popular or un-popular group could not possibly have attended highschool and had a successful Sports team, without knowing that this behavior took and takes place whether they were or are girls or boys.  The mentality that allows whole communities to protect rape and the behavior and mentality that broadcasts,” That these women deserve to be raped”,comes from a background in which we began early, hearing these stories as always being the fault of women. Too many women who serve on Juries are even worse than male juries when it comes to pointing a finger at the rape victims. To many times the lives of all boys, girls, and women who are raped, are destroyed by the men and women who protect these lies.

To deny that as a fact, has to make all of us ask,”Just how far has America slipped into denial?’  Will we deny that 67 Republican Tea Party members attempted to hold up funding for the Hurricane Sandy victims while FEMA was saying they were going broke and could not pay back the families who had paid into their flood Insurance?

Will we remain in denial of the fact that 183 Republican Congressmen and Senators could have cared less if it cost the middle class 100s of thousands of jobs, if we had gone over the fiscal cliff?  Did we elect them because their ideology is more important to us, than are our children and elderly, who will go hungry or without effective medical care? Will we all do better living on the Republican and the N.R.A. ideology that makes us feel unsafe without a gun in our homes even though a third of all deaths of children result as our having a gun in our homes. Will their ideology make us a better Democracy if we cannot provide for our families?

Does the N.R.A. lobbying the Republican Congress, who followed through on their bidding, to disallow funding to the Disease Control Center, make us feel even safer against Disease? If this sounds like a stupid analogy to those of you who protect the Republican Congress, rape, and guns, then just think of what you, yourselves, must sound like to the rest of the World!

Will we keep denying the fact that 50 some economists outside of Washington are saying that the only thing that is stagnating the American Economy is the 67 Tea Party members voting against the needs of the people along with the far right in Congress, who clearly want to see government go broke before they serve the needs of our elderly? Even Wall Street has joined the side of the Democrats on the damage being done to Business growth and jobs by the uncertainty of the Republican Congress. How much more can we deny until denial renders us all brainless when it comes to human decency and common sense?

I ask you,”Are we now going to pass the blame on to a bunch of kids in Steubenville,Ohio, for doing what men have always done or are we going to finally acknowledge the injustice of it, ALL! The guilty in Steubenville needs to be prosecuted along with others in our Nation.  I certainly do not mean to make allowances for the people responsible for such an ugly crime in Steubenville, Ohio, but it is our Nation’s problem. We all must take responsibility for denying these problems have always existed and still do exist.

We begin by eliminating the mindset that allows us to remain in denial, to the point that those amongst us simply accept it as “Just being the way it has always been,” before another election brings in more of the same mentality that cripples us as a Democracy. To accept it as being the way it is, has always been a second crime of humanity, against both our children and women. Those who tell us they want to go back to the 1950′s morality are lying to all of us about the truth that existed then just as it does today.

I warn all parents to think twice when they think popular,”is all that,” because a cheerleader and a popular girl are twice as likely to be raped than is a less popular girl. These girls also peak early just as the ball players do, and their best memories are as children or in highschool.  They learn ,too often, to settle for less and have a far greater chance of becoming pregnant as teenagers.  The “nerds”, on the other hand, have far greater statistics when it comes to those who go on to challenging careers following a College education and happy and contented lives.  If we parents cannot consider long-term results as a priority in our lives, then how can we expect those younger than ourselves to have common sense?

When we set up our own children to continue under the system that many of us tried to stop, we punish our children for the sins of the parents.” When we lack common decency,our children lack the same.  When we make everything about ourselves then our children do as well. When we as adults deny truth of fact and our children are raised on the same, we create the monster that often leads to more half-truths and false accusations against the victims of our Society.

Ultimately the same mentality leads to an increase failure in families and a bigger concern of increased crime in children at a much younger age. We cannot deny that the viciousness of our youth crimes are not increasing with the mentality that blames the victims over the perpetrators. As a Society brain washed in gun ownership our children have emerged as the losers. We need to hold both parents responsible for the failure of the child while we increase our endeavors to spot and treat both mental illness and drug addiction as the diseases that they are.  We need to give trained professionals who recognize the need for early intervention and parents the ability to get the help these children need through our Court Systems.

Those who claim family values would not need to talk about family values, if they had any.  Conversation along the lines of family values or the worsening of morality ultimately gives our Churches a bad name for failing at their jobs. The Conservative right is doing a bang up job of destroying Religion along with the Republican Tea Party, when they are not doing it to themselves. When questionable and charismatic Religion preaches the “Prosperity Gospels” while bleeding money from the poor and middle class and then blame the poor and middle class for their own poverty due to a lack of Faith, it is time we all voice our outrage. It takes the voice of the people to stand up to the injustices taking place and have taken place under our noses for generations. It begins with placing the emphasis on the right priorities without attacking the victims.

It never solves anything to talk when we need to be acting to stop the mentality in all of the new generations while charging those,” who do not get it”,in a Court of Law.  The mentality of,”Boys will be Boys,” has always laid at the root of the corruption in morality, since the beginning of mankind. If we want to make a difference, then we must begin today in telling the younger generations, who are our future, the ugly truth of yesterday.

To tell our grandchildren that children and women experienced a kinder gentler time in History, is and always has been a lie. Any adult who refuses to accept reality, needs to also accept that they are jeopardizing the future of their children and grandchildren, when they choose denial of the facts, over the truth. When we know better then we need to do better as a Society and as a Nation of laws.

To blame Steubenville alone is ludicrous, because if we leave them carrying the bag for what has been wrong for generations,around the World, we leave all of our children unprotected against rape,guns, and our own stupidity.  For the sake of our children, we must begin with changing the mentality, that we have allowed to go on.  We can no longer deny our own behavior and motives when technology shows us the truth and refuses to tolerate lies.

Read Full Post »

The Irrational NRA Leadership

When Wayne LaPierre, Vice President of the NRA held his press conference today, and got up to speak I got so sick to my stomach of his propaganda that I hate to write this post drawing attention to his speech.  If I don’t talk about it and point out just how severely insensitive the man was then, I like to many others will let that type of mentality pass off to those who do not know the heart of the American citizen, think his brand of callousness lies in the hearts of the majority of Americans.  As expected he blamed everyone but the NRA. Politicians politicizing it, demonic behavior, gun free school zones as an advertisement for the disturbed,video games, the lack of guards in our schools, the entertainment industry and the media.

If anyone read my post yesterday entitled,”Why Do We Lead The World In Suicide’ then you know I pointed out the cultural differences that we all must share in and the responsibility we all must take to keep our children safe.  We do not need guns in schools because they offer a false sense of security to those who carry a gun.  They also offer a challenge to those like Timothy McVeigh who went to a bomb where armed guards were, instead.

The facts are that the majority of us who own a gun will not and cannot shoot to kill another human being and we will either freeze up when called on to do so or we will shoot wildly into a crowd and kill more innocent people. Even policemen, who are trained to use a gun, know to shoot their guns is the last possible choice they have to make,since we have an established record of collateral damage and more lives lost as a result of having to use a gun in a crowd, throughout our History. Armed guards in banks and air ports know not to shoot where people are gathering.  The guards only end up being another victim when a person enters the space or establishment and far more guards are killed in businesses,Court Houses, or banks than are armed robbers, because they do not want to harm the innocent around them.

I don’t know what kind of sick home Wayne LaPierre grew up in or raised his children in but his statement that,” today’s children will see 16,000 murder scenes by the time they reach the ripe old age of 18,” is so totally inaccurate that if it wasn’t such a serious subject it would be laughable.  Movies of sexual or violent content are rated in America and children who do not have an ID of proof of age cannot get into a PG13 or R rated movie.  I know that to be a fact, even when they are accompanied by an adult.

I don’t doubt there are irresponsible parents who could care less about the movies their children watch at home but to declare them as the norm is totally adding salt to the wound of parents who do not allow their children to watch these movies or play these games.  Many homes have controls on their computers and televisions that will not allow the viewing of these shows and television warns adults when something is not appropriate or wrong for children to watch as well.  Even our news programs will place a warning prior to showing it.

Facts number two are that the very same movies named and the very same video games that Wayne LaPierre named play in Countries like Britain and Japan and are the very same video games played in both Countries. A ten-year study shows that they do not influence children to kill but violence in a home acted out by parents can and does. The Industrial or Civilized Nations have as much porn and as many people who prostitute.  They work to buy and over spend as well.  All the same things we have in our culture they have as well.

Britain and Japan are as civilized and advanced as we are and have the same kind of Democracies as we do. Britain’s Military is as strong as our own. The prices and costs in Japan are extravagant along side of what we pay for the same. The raining London skies and the Cramped Tokyo Apts. lead to as much depression and thoughts of suicide in these Countries as much as they do in our own but they do not stigmatize mental illness the way we do. They have free treatment facilities where anyone who is suffering from mental illness or delusional thinking can get help free, at any hour.

What separates all other advanced or civilized Countries from the United States is they do not have a powerful lobbyist that has brain washed gun enthusiasts into believing that the right to own a gun is a higher right than the right for people to be able to live.  When murder happens they do not have a Wayne Lapierre blaming everyone and everything else but themselves for the murders in their Country because they have gun laws that lessen those deaths.  Britain averages 600 murders per year in total and Japan has practically none while the United States has 18,000 suicides or 32,000 murders per year.

The facts are that no other civilized Nation tolerates the mentality that the NRA has and the irrational thinking that they hold nor do they use the lies or the scare tactics and the despicable words the NRA uses to blame everyone but themselves. The National Rifle Association leadership, needs to convince gun enthusiasts that everyone else is wrong and they are right otherwise they may lose their own power through lost of membership dues.

They are amongst the most powerful lobbyists in the Nation and no conservative politician from either the Democrat or the Republican Party can get elected without the support of the NRA.  Other Countries refuse to fight murder and suicide by using guns to protect against guns because they are rational enough to understand that people cannot kill unless they have months of training or are disturbed enough to commit suicide/murder. These certified programs that Texas and Utah like to talk about are three-days of watching videos and training at a gun range while shooting at a target in order to get a certificate to carry a gun in school.

To give teachers and school workers,  in places like Utah and Texas a certificate of completion of  a gun training course does not qualify them for training that allows another human being to fire under threat of gun fire or to kill another human being while looking into the eyes of someone who is just a kid themselves. How much more desensitizing of our behavior towards the power of the gun over the value of life are we going to tolerate in teaching our children, as a Nation, before we yell enough! Do we really want our youngest and most innocent strapped with the knowledge or fear that their teacher or the nice man with a gun or themselves can be killed at any given moment?

Teachers are trained to keep our children safe and we want their thoughts to go first towards protecting our children, over running in fear or stopping to kill. Teachers who care are not trained to kill the next young man who walks into the building armed to shoot. Many times they are students or past students of theirs and they are not going to be able to shoot to kill.  It is irrational thinking on our part to think they can and equally as unfair as to think they should. We may think if it is our lives or the lives of a child we all can shoot to kill but it is pure and literal nonsense. Firing a gun is not like going out to the paint ball course and shooting paint balls at each other. The fear or the need to survive under pressure of assault in the untrained, takes over control of all rational thoughts that we have when our lives are not under threat of danger. We freeze,run, or if we shoot we shoot wildly injuring far more others than lives we save.  Firing at a target is not the same as looking a human being in the eyes and firing.

It takes a well trained or a disturbed mind to do so and even then that trauma follows those who are trained perfectly, the rest of their lives.  Ask any military personnel or policemen how devastating the effects are of taking another life in defense of the Country, is on their lives, even when it is done for a higher honor.  I have lived with the results of those who fought in wars and too many times they are haunted by it forever. Many come home and turn to alcohol just to live past the nightmares that enter their sleeping hours or become workaholics in an effort to forget.  Their marriages and their lives quite often fall apart.

The mistake the media made was to allow that kind of propaganda that is spread across America by the NRA and some of its followers to even be broadcasted. As soon as they knew they had been had by the National Rifle Association they should have shut them off just as they do when a politician says something that is not of their political persuasion.  When this propaganda is spread it only leads to desensitize the minds of those who are already desensitized to the point that it starts making perfectly good sense to them.

No person who hunts wild game, even after hours of target practice, will escape what is known as buck fever. It takes practice to be able to shoot game animals before becoming an accurate enough shot to make the bullet connect with the game animal being shot. Even seasoned bird hunters will experience buck fever when switching to larger game animals.  Buck fever is the name commonly given to the hunter who will both sub-consciously and automatically pull up on their gun when shooting rather than to kill the animal.

It is not an automatic reaction in clear thinking humans to kill with a gun on instinct and it requires months to train people to kill out of a necessity or a higher pursuit of justice. Both the Police Academies and Military training requires men and women shooting blanks or live rounds above the heads of those in the fields to acclimate them to the reality of being able to fire at a human being every bit as much as it takes hours to train humans to remain calm, in order to kill out of necessity in war or when under attack. These are not normal traits that we adapt to on a first reaction under attack.

The guns Mr. NRA said the media is lying about and the politicians are trying to find fame in and that are being politicized hold magazines that leads to massive deaths.  Does it really matter if they are military or assault weapons when they fire in rapid succession?  Don’t they kill just as quickly and destroy the lives of our innocent just as well. They certainly cannot be used for hunting anymore than the ammunition they protect can be used to hunt when its only purpose is to pierce the vests of policemen and police women who are killed in the act of duty by the same.

I have acknowledged that it is our culture and the love of the gun  that needs to share responsiblity with the NRA for gun deaths in America but it does not hold a candle to the deaths that are caused by people arming themselves with a false bravado of thinking they will be able to shoot to kill.   Nothing inspires the fantasy  or gives forth the power to kill more than those who are too meek to murder or encourages those who are disturbed enough to murder faster, than the thrust of a gun. The gun feeds those fantasies in the minds of the disturbed faster than anything else that they can do.

Those who will cause murder have no conscious and we cannot try to rationalize  our minds with theirs. I repeat, people who are armed are killed  far more often by the perpetrators than what the perpetrators are killed. They always have the element of surprise over us and a great many of them do not have the same fear of death because many of them are seeking out suicide by cop.

Guns in the hands of those who are not thinking realistically only offers us a false sense of security that is quickly over taken by the perpetrators. Those who are disturbed do not hear the noises and sounds we hear as many are disturbed or can only hear the voices in their own heads.  They do not even hear the screams around them that make us run out of fear but as soon as we think we can pull a gun and shoot we will be dead with or without our three-day certificate that gives us a license to carry a gun. It is a fact!

I am sick of the hate and the fear tactics of the NRA and if you viewed the same that I did and could not see that expressed yourselves, I can only respond that Americans are much more sicker than I thought.  The NRA fear and propaganda tactics are not only false but they are irrational and have no place in the power that runs America. It sickens me that such trash talk was allowed to be spoken on our media services at a time we are already sicken by the deaths of our innocent, by guns.

Instead of talking about banning ammunition and magazines that only serves to kill humans along with high powerful and assault weapons, Wayne Lapiere and the NRA paid for monkeys successfully changed the subject to arming personnel in our schools where our children would be subjected to even more violence.  Anyone who thinks the bullies or gangs who hang out in some of our schools across America would not find a gun a worthy challenge to be taken, are not being realistic about what really does go on when the disturbed are made to feel powerful behind a gun.

What can I say other than may the Season offer some design of light into the hearts and minds of all of us and may we be infused by the Holy Spirit and Guardian that guides us towards common sense and intelligence to know the difference.  May God help us all in letting the goodness in all of us shine through the insanity of it all. God Bless us and God Bless America.

Read Full Post »

Why Do We Lead The World In Suicide?

Today I will offer my own opinion along with established fact that leads me personally to believe what the problem is behind the increase in murder/suicide in America.

We are second in the World in front of other advanced Nations after Montenegro in  percentage of suicides, where such records are kept.  When we think of ourselves as the Nation that people from other Countries want to immigrate to, we have to ask ourselves as to why our suicides are so high?

We  again begin with the N.R.A. interference into gun registration and add to that Americans’ love of the gun and its accessibility to people in America.  When the NRA not only fights against gun laws but also fights against people having to show proof of the lack of mental illness or treatment for depression when buying a gun, then guns end up in the hands of too many people who should never own guns.  They spend millions in litigation to fight privacy laws in favor of gun ownership. With the sponsorship of gun shows by the NRA across the Nation that require no waiting period what-so-ever and the illegal guns of street sales, America is flooded with guns.

Living in the land of guns and honey brings along with it the stress that often goes along with keeping up with the Jones. People do not miss that which they cannot hold,own, or goes unseen in their lives. American workers work longer hours in more extended days straight than any other Nation in the World.  We have fewer and less holiday and vacation days of any other Civilized Nation. We out work all other Nations in the World. Todays’s workers work longer hours than any generation has before them.

A person who struggles to feed their family or to provide basics are not nearly as likely to feel that they are missing out as those who are accustomed to getting what they want over what they need.  If we have paid attention to school shootings at all, we must have noticed that the majority of these children are white males who come from upper middle class or wealthy homes when murder/suicide does occur. It is much easier never to have had it than it is to have had it and to lose.   Americans many times marry their jobs since they spend many more hours on the job than they do at home, and when they find their jobs pulled out from underneath them it can and does trigger murder/suicide in the work place.

We are a Capitalist Society that invests in trade over the needs of the people. We are the only civilized Nation in the World that does not pay the entire healthcare costs of 100% of its people but yet we remain the richest Nation in the World. We  subsidize commerce to a far greater degree than do all other Nations just as our costs of the greatest military in the World cost 10 times more that what the rest of the World combined pays to maintain a defense system.

We live under stress every day of the week and often with wants that we either can’t provide for or feel we need. Many of us have not learned to make sacrifices now in order to enjoy life later. The exposure to goods in America,technology,clothing stores, and all other retail stores leave us wanting or feeling we are being denied.

With the breaking of the backs of our Unions across America by men like Sam Adelson who has vowed millions to eliminate them and the Tea Party Governors along with Republican legislatures  supporting the right to work laws without the same coming up for vote in our States, the middle class are dropping $5500.00 per year. Despite the facts, 47% of the American people who are primarily middle class voted to guard the gate of the 1% by voting Republican in our past elections. Stress in America is the number one killer because of the message driven home by too many for the need to own more, at the expense of the middle class.

When we started closing down mental Institutions because of the absolute abuse that was triggered by the lack of laws protecting our citizens, we went the other way and left our loved ones defenseless when it came to getting help for mental illness.

Previously to closing down the mental Institutions across America and the passage of the Equal rights amendment husbands could declare their wives unfit to raise the children and have her committed without even a record of instability. The husbands word alone was enough and many times he could get a Dr. to agree to the same without even seeing the woman. People who suffered from vision or hearing loss or were slow learners were committed into Institutions.  When the laws were lax towards those who could commit others, so much abuse reigned across America that it led to shutting them all down.

We are now in a cycle where those who are desperate for need of treatment for mental illness cannot get the help they need.  It is too easy to prescribe drugs without any follow-up or counseling.  Some general practitioners along with chiropractors, will prescribe both narcotics and antidepressants that lead to both aggression as well as further anxiety and depression.  In America if a person knows the right people or wants to find someone who will prescribe or supply drugs or guns all things are possible.  It only takes money to get whatever an American citizen wants both legally and illegally.

Even with good counseling and a drug plan that works parents cannot force adult children to remain on their treatment program.  The very symptom of some of the most grievous of diseases that lead to bouts of severe depression is that the patient will be made to feel better and believe that they can quit treatment which only aggravates the disease and makes it worse.

Drugs are readily available in America to both Street people and those who start out life as high achievers.  We are a Country that has a high tolerance for both guns and drugs while our Conservative politicians appear to be against the same with public messages over the years. They in reality will never face off against the lobbyists or the NRA who put millions into their pockets for re-election. Illicit drugs in America makes up 33% of our Gross National Product. Many killings in America are as a result of the flow of illegal drugs and the need to protect the distribution of the same.

We have 17 Republican controlled States that have passed the “Stand Your Ground Laws” with 6 more States discussing arming teachers. Too many amongst us have no concept of the danger of guns because it has been romanticized as part of our culture and of the old Wild West. When these same States are talking about arming teachers they are ignoring that any gun on school property is susceptible to causing collateral damage even in the hands of trained policemen.  They also are denying that even guns that are safe guarded in schools can be easily over taken by the gangs of bullies who often hang out in our school systems and intimidate teachers. When sliding steel pocket doors that close instantaneously and are impenetrable to those who threaten entry  from the outside are being used in facilities across the World the mentality of the American mind instead goes to more guns to protect against guns.

When people who suffer from mental illness are not confined for their own good or their own needs because Insurance Companies refuse to pay and  Obama care is ridiculed and fought against in sectors in fits of rage, then we leave ourselves and our loved ones vulnerable to the stresses and ills along with fits of depression that can and do lead to suicide. Instead of treating our mentally ill and  drug addicts we imprison them.

Any Nation of wealth encompasses people who make comparisons because too many times the politicians themselves will belittle or blame the have-nots while promoting those who have. The Republican Party appeared to accelerate that belief this past election with attacks against the poor in their own leadership and the need to adopt the Ryan Plan in order to deny the needs or in most cases the rights of the people. When those who are feeling rejected from loss of jobs and incomes, or are being bullied by others, are made to find their own uniqueness a fault rather than a plus, we leave open the potential to not only suicide but we harbor those who would take down our children with them.

We are a Society who puts too much importance and stress on the things we own, on beauty,skin color,appearance,money, and popularity. We encourage sameness or like beliefs, over encouraging individual expression.  We too often fail to encourage value in the uniqueness of each individual to express that uniqueness but instead demand that we all share the same belief system. Those who fail to fit into a cli’que of like mentality are often shunned,ridiculed, and bullied.  We support violence in the games we play and the movies we watch.  The movie industry knows and understands that movies without sex or violence will too often fail at attendance and revenues.

Our educational system is not supported by the Conservative causes and ranks low in comparison to other civilized Nations as a result of it. Bright children are too often criticized for their superior intelligence and not supported by a system that inspires them up to their abilities to succeed, due to limited funds granted to the School districts in our States.To many amongst us push our children in all categories that will gain them popularity over education and in doing so, to often it leads to mediocrity while insisting they excel in sports.  When highschool coaches feel that winning is the only thing that will save their jobs they offer steroids and muscle enhancers to their young players and it starts a panacea of corruption in our sports’ programs. The stress to always have more and to do better leads us in advancement in many fields in the world,  but it also breeds the ravages of failure, in those who feel as though they cannot achieve or have been left behind.

We self medicate on drugs and alcohol to cover up feelings of inadequacy or pain, because we place a astigmatism against mental illness. We do not tolerate those who expose our own weaknesses. The people who cause such carnage as was done in NewTown Connecticut, are usually those who are coming down off of a bad drug trip, are feeling neglected, powerless,weak,or worthless. Behind a gun they feel omnipotent and powerful and ready to show others who they often feel have either ignored them or made them to feel less of the person than they are.

We as a Society ignore and deny the power of the gun in the hands of those who would not otherwise kill, because of the control of the N.R.A. in our Nation or the fear tactics used against us to protect ourselves. They are not the only ones who use fear tactics as home alarm companies call and exaggerate home invasions in areas where none exist along with those who promote gun sales and under ground bunkers. The home alarm companies calls are being made in homes illegally as I have received the same  even though I am on the government “Do not call list.” They get around the law by claiming to offer a free prize. People rush gun stores and buy military weapons that have no business in any of our homes each time they think they will be denied their guns by law.

Those who act out in total disregard of human life do so because they lack empathy for anyone but themselves or they feel disrespected. In neighborhoods where drugs are sold on street corners,others die over drug sales. Others feel that they have been so ridiculed that they can only seek justice behind a gun. They may suffer from irrational beliefs  but they know full well that they will leave behind pain and destruction. Many times they feel that they will be a person whose name will go down in history as having made a difference, while knowing full well the misery they cause.  We as a Nation have romanticized people like Jesse James,Billy the Kid, Bonney and Clyde, Annie Oakley and other outlaws of the old West as heroes over generations, and in doing so we have romanticized the use of the gun to settle disputes.

Those who cause a silent suicide or one that does not draw attention to the outside World often do so because they are suffering, or cannot face the future, or feel that they are a burden on their loved ones.  Others are fearful of the future because they become so steeped in Religious conviction of Armageddon, or that God wants them or their children saved  from a sinful World, or suffer severe mental illness to the point they hear voices from the devil to kill. Other suicide/murders are committed over child custody or domestic disputes when they have access to a gun. Often times those who are afraid that they are lacking because Societal norms do not accept them for the person they are, will feel that life is not worth living or are driven by the need to gain revenge and do not consider the pain they leave behind because the act of murder/suicide itself, is most often an act of “Me Only.”

People who are sensitive to those who criticize, and often times are made to feel they are inadequate or weak are made to feel powerful behind the gun. It is just as likely to be a meek personality as it is an aggressive personality that uses a gun to kill.  America has 18,000 suicides a year where other Civilized Nations, who keep records of suicide, do not reach higher than into the 200′s. In total of murders and suicides we have 32,000 people lost each year. All other advanced Nations who have a much lower suicide and murder rate offer free mental health services that give parents more control over the treatment of mental health and much stricter gun laws.  It does not take a rocket Scientist to understand why America excels in the numbers of suicides and murders over all other advanced Nations in the World

Along with the greatest Democracies in the World comes the freedom to misuse that freedom through both abuse of others and self-inflicted wounds. With freedom comes the need to protect its citizens through just laws.  Americans should have a much greater right to live over the right to own guns.  We need to do a better job in understanding that our people as well as our children should never have to feel that they are less than the need or greed of Capitalism in a free Society. If we keep electing a Republican majority in Congress and in our States, who refuses to act in the best interests of our people, then don’t we have some responsibility to bear for the same? We are coming out lacking as a Nation because of our own lack of demand and insistence on the fact that our politicians can do better.

It brings some comfort to me to see that at long last we have hope at least that those responsible will do something but the proof still remains in the pudding. I long for the days when we can again promote the many qualities of all of the American people who are supported by all of our elected politicians, instead of a few.  America is still the best Country in the World but we need to be honest about our faults in order to make much-needed changes. May all of our politicians be strong enough to stand up against the lobbyists and brave enough to bring forth all the good qualities that are representative of America.  Wishing all of us hope this Holiday Season!

Read Full Post »

Grief And Grieving

According to the process of teaching, “All truth passes through three stages, First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”–Arthur Schopenhauer

Many of us feel a genuine sorrow each time that we hear of the deaths of children or mistreatment of pets, even when we have not known or spent time with them.  Not all people do, nor do they need to feel guilt if they don’t.  Not all people bond with children or pets and cultural differences in the way we accept death, also plays a role in why some people will grieve profoundly while others feel a compassion and act differently from those who grieve the lost of strangers. This was very prevalent in the attacks of 9/11, as well. Some people also remain more resilient while they prefer to spring into action first.

The NewTown tragedy, is one of many killings of our children by those who use guns but it leaves a profound lost on all of us as a Nation, because there are so many 6 and 7 year olds who have lost their lives.  Even those who do not have any particular fondness for children, can remember those hopeful years of their own lives, and feel that this tragedy leaves them with a genuine sense of regret for the lives lost.

We generally accept the Kubler-Ross model of grieving even though it has its share of critics as well.  The study was based on people who were terminally ill and how they coped with the lost of their health and the acceptance of death and they later applied the same emotions to all lost of that which we are bonded to.  I repeat the 5 steps here;

1.  Denial—”I feel fine”

2.  Anger—-”Why me?  It’s not fair.”

3.  Bargaining–”I’ll do anything for a few more years or one more moment”.

4. Depression—”I’m so sad, why bother with anything”.

5.  Acceptance–”Its going to be o.k.”

Others have added two other emotions and they are shock which most commonly accompanies denial and leaves us feeling numb and guilt.   Guilt is common with care givers who feel they should have been able to do more or with survivors who are involved in the same act of violence or car accident or in death of any kind. It is also common is spouses and siblings,especially when a twin is lost through death or separation.  It directly affects those who fight together in wars, sometimes for the rest of their lives.

Emotions can also be very varied without fitting a pattern of any kind.  They can run from solemn to trepidation to anxiety or to rage and disgust.  Many times feelings of jealousy or envy or even hate can follow when we see other children graduate with their classes or marry or we see other spouses with their mates, even after we feel that our sadness has dissipated. It is important that those who are experiencing many ranges of emotions are not alone but instead with friends and family members until the pain or shock that often triggers these erratic or difficult to deal with emotions calm down. When we are more clear of our own emotions then we can reflect on our own if we have the capacity to do so and know our own strengths and weaknesses. Any shooting of any nature often leads to temporary trauma in all of us.

In years past, the Medical Association did  not talk about post traumatic stress disorder in other situations outside of war.  As modern techniques expose more about the human brain, it is now more generally accepted that PTSD can and does exist on many levels of trauma and often times does accompany shock when death is totally unexpected.

The important thing with grieving is that we all know that there is not a clear-cut pattern for those who grieve.  Many emotions can be involved just as the more resilient or people with a history or exposure to death will feel fewer emotions.  Some may spend days crying while others who have been exposed to death can move on with few tears and gain acceptance earlier.  It is when grieving goes on for months into years with a total sense of helplessness that we should be certain to get professional help without any sense or feeling like we are weak or a failure.

We all have different ways of coping throughout life and a different time-frame in which we grieve.  Some find genuine laughter over memories of loved ones their healing tool.  Others will memorialize their loved one while still others who are use to solving their own problems in life will remain isolated amongst family members and choose to grieve alone.  Some will feel a responsibility and duty to do something first, and then grieve later when things become more quiet. Others will turn to Religion and the hope offered through its teachings while others will commit their lives to doing for others in an effort to feel good about themselves and to help lift the veil of sadness. Some delay going back to work and grieve immediately and find it only takes a few months to reach acceptance.  Others lose themselves in work and delay their grieving, because they feel a need to analyze the reasons why, first. When they finally accept the fact that there are no answers to the why they move on to the acceptance of death.

The main thing is that we acknowledge that not all things are great and that we do understand a necessity to grieve with the understanding that it should not be a lifetime condition that brings debilitating sadness. Some people will feel better talking about the death while others will want to choose who they discuss it with, if they wish to discuss it at all.  Many times those who grieve will blame the innocent bystander or take out their bad feelings on the closest people to them.

Grieving takes a high level of understanding sometimes. We cannot excuse poor behavior as being normal,and need  to understand that we may need to learn three simple words such as:”I am sorry.” Some people become over protective or obsessive out of fear of another loss during the period of grieving.  They will sometimes use poor behavior in order to deliberately drive away others who they love because they cannot bear the lost of another person in their lives. People who have a previous history of relieving bad feelings in themselves,on those closest to them, many times should ask for help during this time, while those who are close by understand this is not a time to judge, harshly.

Too many times we get stuck in one step of grieving and rather than feel the pain or get grief counseling will turn to alcohol or drugs and only compound our own grieving.  Grieving needs to take place, as the longer we delay it, the more problems will arise in the family as a result of our doing so. It is not uncommon for parents to delay their own grieving while making sure their children are o.k. first.  It is important that we understand that if we are not well then our children will not be  either.  Alcohol and drugs in moderation may help with sleep in the earlier days but should never replace or be used to deny the feelings of pain that we need to heal from, through grieving our loss.

We can grieve while also feeling genuine appreciation for having had our loved ones in our lives, and many recover as a result of the same. Some want to leave pictures up as a reminder of their loved ones, while others want to remove all reminders of them.  Some will continue to celebrate birthdays while others will feel a need to mourn. People are all different in their expressions of sorrow and we need to respect the same, but also remain cognizant of those who need professional help in order to cope. It is o.k to find moments of laughter and to look back after a few months or a couple of years and to acknowledge that we were not always rational during our grieving process.  Very many aren’t.

It is important that we understand that various levels of grieving in a marriage often leads to disputes that can lead to divorce if one of the members in the marriage are ready to move on and remember the good moments shared by the deceased while the other mate is still asking,”Why Me?” Grieving too many times will lead to intolerance in couples while it will bring others closer together since no one else can entirely understand their shared lost as clearly as they can.

We can often times treat those closest to us, during the grieving time pretty poorly, if we do not move ahead with the grieving process.  Children as young as 18 months can feel the loss of the bond of a sibling or parent and grieve. Children who lose their best friends can withdraw and be afraid of initiating new friends because to do so feels like betrayal to them. They can not always voice their feelings, or understand them, themselves. Children grieve differently from adults in that they often times do not cry but instead will act out.

Children may have episodes of unexplained rage or with draw into themselves.  When adults grieve it is especially important that when a child loses a sibling or a friend at an early age, that we understand that the children are losing the person in their lives that has always been part of their lives that they have confided in and made plans with for a future as well.  The most neglected lost of loved ones often does lie in the lack of understanding for the death of a friend or sibling, when they lose their friend or sibling too early.

The lost of a sibling is difficult for adults to deal with, but too few amongst us, understands the difficulty as the sympathy and understanding goes more often to  the parents,spouses, or their children. Siblings are often called on to be strong and to act as spokes people instead. The loss of a twin can compare to the lost of a spouse as many ideas,hopes,jokes,love,hate,upsets,plans for the future, and people in their lives are shared from birth and through out their lives. The identity or feeling of losing half of ourselves, when we lose a twin, is most like that of losing a spouse.  No relationship is more involved or longer lasting than that of  a twin relationship when their relationship begins in the womb they share.

What we as parents need to do is to make certain that our sadness does not spread over to our children or lose patience with our children if they are not shedding tears but are acting out. It helps  instead to discuss with them what they are feeling to make them behave the way they are.  Children should not hear everything about the shootings but sadly many will hear it from other sources and we need to be aware of the fact that details often become exaggerated and lead to nightmares in our children. When questioning them we need to be careful not to offer details but instead to find out what they know or are feeling and answer them honestly.

Just as some adults will cry for days while others don’t, the same is true with children. Children,depending on age, do not clearly understand the permanence of death.  They just know that their parent,friend, or sibling is not with them now and do not understand the long-term of death but feel a real unexplained sadness in themselves. Some will need our understanding on their level to cope without us forcing our own coping measures or the lack of the same on them. Grieving needs to be age appropriate just like everything else in life does.

The tragedy effecting our Nation in NewTown,Connecticut can affect our children around the globe and it is especially important that we communicate with our children about their concerns without expressing our own concerns.  It is alright to say Mommy and Daddy are feeling sad because they know that already but they should not be made to feel as a replacement for the children lost, or be compared to them.

We are each uniquely our own person and that applies to grieving as well.  We will not always be on the same page together nor do we have a time clock running.  If we need grief counseling we most definitely need to seek it out before we are left to deal with an unnecessary guilt or a prolonged sense of hopelessness.  It is important that we also rest during this time, when we can.  Grieving is exhausting and requires that we do get sleep.

Good luck and my condolences are with all of you.  I, like the rest of the Nations around the World, are wishing you the strength to recover on your own time and in your own space knowing our prayers and thoughts are with all of you.  May the goodness of the Season offer all of us the hope that we as a Nation will do something about such needless tragedies, in the New Year. God Bless all of us!  (See my previous post,”Guns And Mental Illness”)

Read Full Post »

The Fiscal Cliff

Speaking as someone who has been the majority tax payer, and speaking for many others, it is a crime how low our taxes really are in America.  We have not paid as low of a tax rate as we are paying today since the 1950′s when a cup of coffee was a nickel and a Coke cost a dime.  We are paying the same taxes that we paid when a child could take a dime into a candy store and come out with a sack full of candy or a comic book. The cost of gasoline was 22 cents for a gallon of gas and a Ford automobile cost $1500.00.  A baby could be born in a hospital for $200 and a good quality dress cost $25.00 while we could buy dresses from stores like J.C. Penney for $5.00 each.

The average wage that was considered good pay was $1.06 per hour in the 1950′s, and was years prior to minimum wage going into effect.  When minimum wage went into effect in 1968 it started at $2.25. Companies said they would go broke and got around the law then by hiring two part time workers to replace the full-time worker.  If you were considered a service then you did not have to pay minimum wage.  There were no benefits from healthcare to 401ks. The taxes went up and climbed higher in the 1960′s,  over what we pay today.  If they and we could pay the taxes then or more than we do now, and it was long before the baby-boomers were retiring,  then something is terribly wrong when the Republicans dig in and refuse to let the taxes go higher to meet the needs of the people at today’s prices.

We do not want people going hungry in America or our children and the elderly unable to buy medicines just because a bunch of Tea Party members cheered when one of their own said that the poor in a coma should be left to die if they did not have the funds to pay their hospital bill.  The majority of us are not of the mentality of The Koch Brothers and are not the kind of people who the Republican Congress claims to be representing by not letting all of the Bush tax cuts run out.

The richest Nation on earth should be able to pay for the needs of its people without it being called socialism.  We are the only Nation  of the civilized world that currently refuses to pay for the total healthcare needs or to invest in the educational needs of its people, as a priority, because of the current Republican Party. When they put greed of Capitalism before the needs of  ”We the People”, and refuse to believe that the American people have given them a referendum to put us first, then it is time we all question their motives to do otherwise. We can no longer make excuses for them as they make excuses for themselves as well.  We are not against Capitalism but when its greed continues to be protected by the Republican Party over the needs of the people, then it is time that we tell the Congress we are watching your stall tactics and judging you accordingly.

To have a bunch of Congressmen who operate on the Grover Norquist tax pledge to continue to hold the middle class hostage in an effort to deny food stamps for the hungry or healthcare to our children or elderly is the same disgrace that is represented in the Republican Party and encouraged by the Tea Party.  The Congress has the misguided idea that they won a mandate instead of accepting the fact that they won a handful of people with the hope they would bring better clarity to their own Party in an effort to force the Congress majority into hearing the needs of the people over the greed of the Country.

Does the Republican Party believe that the middle class who have already been stuck with the fact that the Republicans spent the “lock box” on Social Security that provided for the future healthcare needs of the retirees through 2072 and were asked to bail out the greed of Wall Street, while the same Republicans refused to pay for two wars and stuck the middle class with all the same, that they can now convince the middle class that we have a Republican majority who are looking out for a balanced approach to the economic woes that we  face? Do they assume that the middle class is so out of touch as not to be aware of Republicans insistence to back the same programs that have failed us will be supported by us?

The real American majority re-elected President Obama in the hopes that the Republican Party would quit arguing amongst themselves and accept President Obama’s agenda for the middle class.  The Republican Congress do not have a leg to stand on. When people like myself, who truly do pay the highest tax rates in America, are saying we  pay too little in order to support the needs of the people and therefore we are willing to pay more in order to balance the budget in Washington, then how can the Republicans deny that they are dug in so far, in order to represent  American men such as Sam Adelson or Donald Trump, over “We the People”?.

When we add to that the  fact that Billionaires for tax increases have gone to Washington to lobby the Congress to increase their taxes then we realize the Republican Congress is operating on their own agenda and totally ignoring the mandate that they were given by “We the People.” We did not hear about the Billionaires lobbying because that was a little secret kept by many in the media in order for them to use their own fear tactics spread against the dangers of going over the fiscal cliff.  The truth is that it will cost little to nothing if we do because even the Republican Party are smart enough to know it will cost them elections for years to come, since they will be blamed for it and their own ideology is responsible for the same.  Most of what the media are reporting is just more of the Republican hype while they continue to stall.

As a Nation, none of us can any longer afford the Bush tax cuts and we are all willing to pay our fair share as long as it is fair and balanced for everyone.  If the only way we will get resolution and fairness or have the Republican Congress hear us, when we are telling them. “we are willing to pay more,”  is if we go over the fiscal cliff then I say,” let’s go over it.”  Hell lets even jump over it.  Does anyone have a  parachute or a bungee cord, they do not need? Its time we stop the bullies in Congress and if the only way we can do that is to go over the fiscal cliff, then let’s go!

Read Full Post »

What Causes People to Hate?

Hate comes from an inner turmoil within the thoughts of an individual and can commonly rise to the level of anger that explodes out of control in individuals or groups. What may begin as a neighborhood dispute between two people can end up becoming a neighborhood dispute involving the entire block if people begin taking sides. The same thing often happens in families with everyone being forced into taking sides, when any issues should remain between the two individuals to work out together.

We often find the similar thing happening in divorce cases where each of the members try to convince their friends, and sometimes their children who were the victims in a marriage, while an over-whelming amount of the time the divorce couples themselves divide the loyalty of their friends or their children’s affections. Too often because the real abusers in the relationship are often charismatic by nature, people will side with the abuser over the victims; Even when marriages remain intact children will often side with the abuser since they are so starved for affection from the parent who abuses they can be manipulated by the abuser who often with holds affection or pays them off with praises or money. Hate can arise from extreme dislike of ourselves and others.  Hate arises from:oppression,fear, envy,greed,ignorance,jealously or any number of negative feelings that arises from an individual person and can spread from that individual through a group.

In organizations,gangs,or groups that demand membership surrenders its own ability to think for themselves to the leaders of these groups, hate can spread through intimidation,brain washing techniques or come from a person who longs to be accepted.  Because these groups often seek out  individuals who feel that they have been disrespected by others all their lives, to join their group or gangs hate spreads through ignorance. When the majority of membership when left on their own really would have nothing against the groups they are trained to hate, they are taken advantage by the leadership that works them into a frenzy of hate.  What often comes out of these groups is the by-product of hate against people that they have absolutely no rational reason to dislike,much less hate.

Rarely if ever is hate based on rational feeling. Greed is involved in gang wars that kill over drug territory for instance.  People get killed without even having so much as discussed their differences with the ones they kill. Many times people who have no knowledge of the beliefs of the Hindu or Muslim Religions will hate entire groups who practice their religious belief.  We find irrational hate against both Religions because a radical, Osama Bin Laden,outside of the beliefs of Muslim Faith, attacked us on 9/11.  The Hindu Religious group in Milwaukee was attacked out of the same ignorance of what appears to be a deranged individual.  Many times people are harassed or attacked for nothing more than skin color while it is supported by law in States like Arizona.

We can hate the spread of hate and we can insist our leaders stop hate but unless mankind educates themselves to understand their own irrational fears or learns to  control  negative feelings, hate can spread like a wildfire and has been a part of history since the beginning  of human existence.

The Middle East has been at war between Religious sects that vary in their beliefs and who view the other as their enemy since 76 AD. Children are taught at a very young age there, just as they are here, who they should hate. Hate is not just a product of America but it spreads around the World with apartheid in Africa and Dictatorship in Cuba.  A mistrust always lays as the basis of hate.

When we have groups like the NRA,The White Supremacy,The Skin heads, 330 Militia Groups Of the Tea Party, gaining support in the Republican Party due to the growth of the Tea Party within its membership, then we see acceptance of hate when it should not be tolerated by government. Some believe there is a  total of 1000  hate groups currently in America.  They range from the radical of animal rights to the anarchists that often are sent to protests in our Streets from across the Canadian border. In these groups we  find the leaders working the members into a feeding frenzy of hate while telling those who already feel disenfranchised from America’s Social fabric, that they are being victimized.  When  hate is spoken about and bandied about combined with drinking cases of beer,hate often begins in one individual and spreads through an entire group of people.

Other times hate is spread against the gay community in Churches with preaching of the Bible verses against the gay population. A huge sector of the internet and social media will spread lies against the innocent or tell half-truths to try to turn people to their cause through hate. Members of hate groups will send out their hate propaganda to friends through email.  Many times gossips will do the same in offices or small communities or neighborhoods. The Conservative Republican legislature refuses to even recognize the gay community as existing, as they claim they have not been recognized by law. In many cases the Bible that was intended to be a guide to lead mankind out of hate and a guide to lead us instead into acceptance of each other, gets misused by Churches and is used instead to stir up hate against groups that they profess to be marked for, “Hell and Damnation.”

The only way any of us can stop the spread of hate is through education and acceptance of all of us.  When we have the very groups who should be helping to educate people against hate responsible for helping spread hate, then it often takes the citizenry to educate those who hate one at a time.  Even when we do we still will find that students who feel like outcasts,those who feel they are superior even though they are often times filled with fear of inadequacy themselves, and workers who get laid off will still be a threat to Society because of the irrational thinking that explodes in the individual who seeks out revenge through hate.

As a Nation we need to recognize the compassion that we have and to do a better job of dealing with the treatment of the mentally ill. Too many even in the medical profession, refuse to promote real and comprehensive reform in healthcare for those who suffer from mental illness because too many times their hands are tied due to Insurance Companies refusal to carry mental patients long-term.  Churches need to take another look at the way they handle the gay issue and abortion and be ever cognizant of those in their own midst that will use either as an excuse to be a hero in the eyes of the Church, by gong on a killing rampage.

As a Nation we need to enforce hate crimes while not enforcing them to the point that they infringe on our rights to freedom of Speech, and that is such a delicate line to cross, that often times law enforcement is damn if they do and damn if they don’t. We need to better educate people in the different religious beliefs and the history of the races without parents yelling Fowl.  We need to teach respect for all people and religions in America but too often when civil rights leaders attempt to do this they are ridiculed and derided for infringing on the rights of white  Americans.  We need to start educating and not stop even while the far right continues to fight against education.

With the younger generations coming up and making friends with people of different beliefs and skin colors we always look for hope in them teaching acceptance and educating the adults to become more tolerate but too many times schools produce the worse kind of hate because the parents accuse the teachers for promoting unity amongst their students, when the parents do not want their children co-mingling due to their own hate issues. Other times parents themselves are so desperate to have their children accepted and popular that they deliberately encourage feelings of superiority in their children when the children themselves feel an inferiority. Some children, who form cliques and are held together by hate, will spread it through phone calls or the internet when they are intimidated by the group to do so if they wish to remain a part of the group.

Due to the mixed emotions  we parents too many times instill in our own children,  groups often form in schools that learn to either co-exists or it leads to disenfranchising a whole group of children because they are not a part of the “cool group” or “one of us.” To often parents create the hate that surfaces in their own children.  This mentality exists in the parents just as bullies are a product of home environment and are a by-product of hate.

The long and short of hate is that it is very complicated and comes from all directions. Even if we could make laws to counter act hate we would have protests from another group that their rights were being infringed on.  The best solution of all is when”We The People” hear words of hate from our children or their friends we take the time to educate our children and support both our Schools and Church leaders in doing the same.  We need to be the leaders against intolerance in our own homes,neighborhoods, schools, and Churches without passing the buck onto another day or another time.  If it is going on in our schools and Churches ,then we the membership, must stand up against it by demanding that the spread of hate stops and is replaced instead by understanding our differences and acceptance of all Americans as equals.

It often only takes one of us speaking out to turn hate into acceptance in our own neighborhoods, one block at a time. We need to get started making a difference now.  Our Republican Congressmen and  Senators need to quit making excuses and start making comprehensive laws of acceptance of Native Americans, the gay population, and Hispanics that grant them rights. The Republican Senate who has filibustered it, can now rethink their previous objections, by passing the Violence Against Women Act that includes Native Americans, the gay populations and Hispanics.

Anyone who has hate issues themselves needs to get help before you help raise the next generation of people made miserable by their own intolerance and feelings of hate. One thing people who hate never find is joy or contentment.  To think that our child or grandchild will never be happy but instead only hate should spring all of us into action by stopping the spread of hate each time we hear it. The media are easy to deal with as all we need to do is switch stations or turn them off, when they spread their hate. ”We The People”, are not so easy to deal with, so we need to get started and lead by example for the next generations coming up, so they never hear the hate that we have heard escalating and spreading these last four years. The voters have spoken.  God Bless all of us!

Read Full Post »

A Message To The, “Good Old Boys”

I cannot sign off of politics until I say Thank You Voters! Three times I have watched elections, in my life time ,where the “Good Old Boys” tried to disenfranchise us. Never have I ever seen it get this close to the edge of destroying Democracy and I hope I never do again.

Until and unless, you the Republican Party, recognizes that women,African-Americans,Asians,Latinos,Hindus,Muslims,Jews,Hispanics,the gay community,American Natives,the elderly, the poor,the handicapped, the youth, and any other minority group are as protected by our Constitution and as equal to all the rights of life,liberty, and pursuit of happiness, as the white Christian male or the Plutocrat, the Republican Party will be rejected by us.   Tonight we proved to you that we are the growing majority. We are born with all the same rights as any American citizen or immigrant who comes here and works,loves,and breathes on American soil. We did send you, the Republican Party, a mandate because it is our numbers that are growing.

If anyone doubts our unity or the Republican lack of the same, all anyone needs to do is look at the tape of the limited races who were in the Romney crowd as verses the diversity of races in our President’s crowd.  The differences of representation were massive. When we join together in unity and tell you, the Republicans, that we must be recognized as equals by you, have no doubts about it, we are unified. None of us will ever deny any of the rest of us the right to our own healthcare,procreation,or equality in the job force or on the pay scale. Each of us will protect the full right to equality for all of us, and you did get a mandate from us.

As soon as our President won the elections tonight the Republicans started talking about now President Obama is going to have to make the effort to go to Congress and work with the Republicans, because he did not win a mandate.  As a member of the new majority, I think I speak for all of us when I say,” you are wrong.”  It is you who needs the new attitude adjustment.  Tonight you got a mandate from us that you will not treat our President like he is less than you are and YOU will work with him on His agenda, and compromise. We are tired of your filibusters and witch hunts and you must stop the behavior and instead use your time to help “We the People” who elects you secondarily to our President and Vice President.

If you as a Republican or one of the “Good Old Boys’ refuse to accept the fact that “We the People” spoke tonight and told you that President Barack Obama and Joe Biden are our choice, and now you must compromise, then you will find a Taxi-cab waiting at the corner for you when you come up for re-election too. We will not tolerate a Congress ran on filibusters or bills being attached that denies any of us our right to our own health decisions or our own bodies or Constitutional rights. It is clear to all of us that you refused to take our message to heart and to listen to us, the American voters, the first time we elected President Obama from your horrid disrespect of him and your refusal to hear us through him, these last four years.

We will not Tolerate another CPAC retreat where all Republican members must sign a pledge to vote against our President’s Agenda or not raise taxes on the wealthy. We will not vote for people who do not tell us the truth or whom we cannot trust because their lies are self-evident.  Too many of us would prefer to see all the Bush tax cuts run out  on those of us who can afford it, so we can replenish our Treasury.

We know that affordable health care needs more work and we expect you to make concessions and to co-operate with our President, so we can take temporary care of the unemployed middle class, the students who are our future, the abused and mistreated, the hungry, ill,elderly,handicapped and,any others of the groups you have chosen to disenfranchise, when they need a hand up.  We will not tolerate anymore bigots in our government who feel superior to anyone member or feel entitled to encourage their own to disrespect our President or any one group in our new majority nor can you ever run another campaign as dishonorable as the one that was ran this year.

We expect you to stop paper capitalism for the lobbyists, by recognizing that regulations do not eliminate profits but instead it eliminates greed. When you work together to cut the deficit you must first deny Corporate and oil company welfare, before denying us Medicare and Medicaid. We will not continue letting you convince us that the EPA is heavy-handed while we watch our children gasp for air. You must not interfere as President Obama appoints his own Federal and Supreme Court judges simply because they are not Conservative judges.

We know we will have to listen for a month at least, while you, the pundits, and Conservative media refuse to accept that you, the Republicans, lost because you offered your own party such pathetic choices both in the primaries and the general election.  I know you will never put the blame on your own backward mentality nor acknowledge the fault lies in the GOP. If you cannot eliminate the Tea Party and “Good Old Boys” from your own ranks, then we the American voters will have to do it for you. We have the power to disenfranchise you because we want to live in a United Nation where everyone is treated equal.   We much prefer that you sweep out your own trash.

Thank goodness this year and half of an election is over.  I never thought for a minute the polls were right as I know too many Republicans who said they could not vote for Mitt Romney, even while my State went 100% Republican. The Republicans were embarrassed watching the long list of right-wingers step forward in the Republican primary debates and shook their heads saying,”There isn’t a one of them I can vote for if they do win the primary,” and their minds never changed. My great concern all along was not that we didn’t want President Barack Obama and Joe Biden back but that your dirty tricks would cause them to lose.

I am always moved to tears of joy, when I see Democracy is still alive and well and that we will never be anything less than a Great Democracy,because character and hope will always win out over fraud and cynicism. No matter how hard you Republicans try to stack the deck against us, Democracy and the entitlement of freedom granted to all of us through our Constitution and Equal Rights Amendment, will eventually  always win.  We the majority, will recognize anyone who tries to return under another cloak of lies or to  deny our rights to our own health issues or equality for all.

You do not have nor will you ever have a monopoly on,”We the People.”  Good day,good luck, and happy thoughts to all of us. I am so proud of all of us regardless of how we voted because I know the hate and lies comes from them and not the majority of us! We want a strong two Party system where everyone plays by the same rules and understands and respects that we are all entitled to make our own decisions,we are Free, and we belong, regardless of the playing field. America belongs to all of us regardless of race,gender,creed,color or gender orientation.  As the 1970′s Helen Reddy song said,”Hear us Roar!

P.S. to Lars—We aren’t dead yet.  America is on its way back to being better and stronger than ever with a new majority! Just watch us as we move forward and grow by doing what Denmark has, and invest in our people.:)

Read Full Post »

The Shame Is On Romney

It seems to fail Mitt Romney entirely to what extent We the American People were affected by 9/11.  When asked how he felt about President Barack Obama’s show of strength in taking out Osama Ben Laden his reply was,”I would have done the same thing.  Even Jimmy Carter would have made the same decision.” As Americans we were suppose to ignore or forget his original statement, “That getting Osama Ben Laden was not worth moving Heaven and earth to go after him.”

While the political right fed media and the Romney/Ryan team yell about the weaknesses in the Obama Administration foreign policy, it has been the Obama Administration who  has eliminated Ben Laden along with 20 to 30 of his closest leaders that was making this reminder of 9/11 more palatable to the American public.

Certainly, this has been a show of force and resolve on the part of the Obama Administration to bring some justice to the families who both lost their loved ones, along with many  who were heroes, in the eyes of the American people.

The fact that the right-wing accuses the main stream media of giving President Obama a free ride on foreign affairs is as insane and as ludicrous as their comments are. We can all rest assured that if the Obama Administration had a record of failure, the main stream media would be reporting the same, just as the Conservative media along with the Romney campaign belittles and denies President Obama’s successes.

After ten years of looking for justice for the destruction done to our American families we were able to feel some relief from the sadness that permeated America for ten years because we have been a Country without justice until the Obama team brought us that longed for justice. The Romney team along with Mitt Romney just do not seem to understand that tarnishing that record only shows their own desperation.

Mitt Romney shooting from the lip at a time that we are again reminded of our mourning on 9/11 with the attack of our Embassy and the death of Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, before their families are even notified, only convinces those of us who do follow World events, just how incompetent and insensitive Mitt Romney truly is. The apology from the Embassy for a dreadful movie film trailer produced by a right-wing American citizen, was simply issued to stave off attacks six hours before the attacks even occurred on the American Embassy, and had nothing to do with an apology from President Obama.

When we realize that, Mitt Romney, made the same shameful remarks against the Obama Administration, while Hillary Clinton was involved in sensitive meetings working for the freedom of a Chinese dissident; he then followed that shooting from the lip by quickly insulting the Olympic committee in London; and followed that up with the insults to the Arabs in Israel; and the list of lies and misspoken statements goes on, we do need to question if Mitt Romney is even capable of leading America.

After the attacks on the World Trade Buildings, then President George W. Bush, apologized to the Muslim Nations for the blame being placed on them as a result of the radical behavior of the right-wing extremists in their land.  By Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan campaigning on the weakness of the Obama Administration on foreign affairs, they themselves, are feeding into the right-wing extremists who are part of our own Society.

Obviously to those of us who deal in reality and common sense, the poorly produced  film made under false pretenses in L.A. by an American citizen, unrelated to the Obama Administration, plays a major role in the upset feeding into the extremists on the right in the Middle East. President Obama could not have prevented the U-Tube production and has no blame to play in the role of this misguided American’s attempt to ridicule Mohammed.  At the same time it does not give extremists the right to kill and maim the people who have helped them gain their freedom, if Democracy is truly the goal of their people.We as a government under an Obama Administration would never condone such hatred against another’s religion or our own people, and this view has been stressed by the Obama Administration and was voiced by then President George W. Bush, as well.

To use a time when America is just recovering from a time of grieving to being able to feel that ever slight sense of celebration, knowing that justice has been served, and then to be placed back into that mourning by the loss of more Americans by these extremist groups, who spew hate and violence in the Middle East, is a merry-go-round of emotions for All Americans.  The fact that the Romney/Ryan team would use that to stir up hatred for the Obama Administration and to try to get political gain for themselves, only shows to what a degree of desperation they will stoop in order to win.

If we do not question the competency as well as the human decency of this behavior by both the Romney and Ryan ticket along with the media who continues to feed us the notion that the Obama Administration has gotten a free ride on foreign affairs, then we have not paid attention to the weakening of the moral fiber by the right-wing in our own Country.

We need to send a message of our own to the Republican Party who seems to ignore the moderate and the liberal amongst us, but instead prefer to feed the coffers of the right-wing extremists in our own Country, just what we think of their efforts to  destroy our moral fiber, as a Nation, at the election polls in November.

We need to go to the polls with family or friends, for a two-fold reason:  in order to both entertain ourselves in the long lines, due to the Republican voter suppression laws in our States, and to make this an election of notable history in which “We the People” take back our rights from those who do pander to the right-wing, in our Country. We will not sit back while they continue to produce so-called leaders who do not hear us or feel our pain.  It is way past time that We the American Voters place the shame on those who continuously show us their own callous disregard to our needs, in an effort to gain their own political power.  Vote

Read Full Post »