Take A History Lesson Mitt

When I heard Mitt Romney speak this morning at the Clinton Global Initiative, I could not believe what I heard.  He talked in glowing details about free enterprise being responsible for the wealth established out West in the 1800′s and how we needed to quit giving aid without work.  He said and I quote, “Before then there was terrible poverty in the West in the 1800′s and because of free enterprise we were able to bring wealth to that part of the Country.

When we realize there were few settlers in the region yet in the 1800s and Sioux Indian Wars were still raging in the plains that led to General Custer’s death in 1875, my eyebrows arched when I heard Mitt Romney say something so ridiculous. Even though treaties had been signed by the Indian Nations there were still renegade Indian Wars as well as wars between the Indian Nations and the United States Calvary still being fought out West in the 1800s.

The gold rushes that took place out West and in South Dakota did make instant millionaires out of a very few but it was the Railroads that were built by the Army and United States Government that opened up the West for trade that was responsible for the wealth that would follow.

Without either it is highly doubtful that Free Enterprise would have established the railroads that connected the West Coast with the East Coast. As a matter of fact because of claim jumpers and large landowners burning out smaller settlers,highway men or robbers,houses of ill repute and gamblers who often won the deed to other’s land in the 1800′s it has been said that anyone who got wealthy West of the Mississippi in the 1800′s did it dishonestly. The only law available in most of the West in the 1800′s was the colt 45,a rope, and the perceptions of the vigilante that was usually controlled by the large land owners. If a person so much as looked at a member of the vigilante wrong they could find the colt pulled and a bullet in their head.  So much for free enterprise’s role in the wealth of the West that Mitt was glorifying.

The construction and operations of the intercontinental railroad was authorized by the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 while the Civil War was still being fought.  Congress supported it with 30 year U.S. government bonds and extensive land grants of government-owned land.  It was the culminating success story of the 1800′s as it made possible the transportation of goods and produce from the West into the Cities of the East.  There were smaller railroad lines built by wealthy men prior to this but it was the Army that designed the first Continental railroad with government subsidies that brought both people and trade from the East Coast to the West Coast.

It is true that this was a time of great wealth for large land owners along with  oil magnates in Texas, and coal and gold mine owners in Wyoming and the Dakotas but their families, for the most part,all lived in previously established land owned by Mexico or on the East Coast during this time. Mansions of the gold miners early success did interspersed the landscape of the wealthy who struck it rich in mining but they were few and far between.  They did not share their wealth with the workers but instead paid them drastically poor wages. The railroads shipped in Chinese laborers to do what were very high risk jobs working with explosives both in transport and carving the railroad through mountain rock due to the shortage of people in the West.

American ingenuity was second to none when it came to the inventions of Edison and electricity,Bell and the telephone, and Ben Franklin’s advancement of civilization through the printing press.  The quality of work of Tiffany and Sons and various Silversmiths along with the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gen were all factors of American ingenuity. No one could hold a candle to entrepreneurship of the Americans. Cabinet makers who had arrived to the East Coast and potterers and glass makers from Ohio to Indiana made such quality work that it is still highly collectible today.

With the later invention of the automobile and assembly lines by Henry Ford making the automobile affordable to the masses and followed by the Industrial revolution,  interState systems paid for by government and invention of the technology era, we as Americans led the field, but these inventions and advancement of free enterprise were still a long way from reaching the West in the 1800′s as the majority of Americans out West were still living in squalor conditions and the American Natives were starving due to the depletion of their hunting grounds.  American ingenuity and inventions will always bring wealth through free enterprise but this was still a long way off in the West during the 1800′s.

The workers were given deplorable living conditions when they could find work and only those who worked with explosives since their lives were short-lived were given a little extra in pay.  The same was true about those hired to work the oil rigs and to work in the mines.  The only wealth that was brought to the West at the time was no different from what too many Conservative and Tea Party Republican members of the Congress and Senate are trying to accomplish today.

The owners got richer on this so-called free enterprise and the poor were replaced by other poor immigrants as they died off from deplorable working conditions, and they got even poorer. Later they would be paid in tokens that could only be used in the Company stores and by the time they paid the Company housing rents and bought food for their families they usually ended up owing the Company Store far more than they earned.

There was wealth only if you were someone who belonged to the American aristocracy such as Cornelius Vanderbilt,the Rothschilds,the Rockefellers,the Astor’s, Hunts, or a member of the Standard oil family such as Rockefeller and Flagler etc., who were worth a Billion in the 1890′s and the first monopoly or Corporation in America.  They however all lived on the East Coast and not out West. They may have been given credit for being the builders of America or the founders of American Industry, but they did not provide for the sacrifices born out of the American laborers,make up the Calvary or Military, nor provide for the hardships that went into the making of the transcontinental railroads.

That was done out of the blood,sweat,starvation,death and tears of the poor. There were only two kinds of people in the 1800′s when it came to wealth or the lack of the same.  They were either the very wealthy engineers of American progress or the very poor laborers in the 1800′s.  Too many times the artists as well as the cabinet makers along with the inventors would find their own efforts stolen from them by the wealthy because of their families own desperate situations or circumstances. There were no laws to protect the poor and even if there was they could not afford to pay a lawyer. If the 1800′s is something that Romney wants to glorify then we can understand why he does not relate to us.

When produce could be brought from the West by refrigerated cars, later,  the large land owners employed immigrant and migrant workers paying them next to nothing to do slave labor.  The housing conditions for the workers again were deplorable and in many cases not much more than a horse stable or hog shed.

The railroads helped increase the wealth of landowners because they could transport perishable items and profit from it. The smaller producers grouped together to protect their profits from the large producers by forming the Grange or Co-ops. I assure everyone who reads this, free enterprise did not bring wealth to the general masses in the West in the 1800′s. I could not believe that Mitt spoke about this as being a time in History that we must all aspire to because it was a time of great turmoil and unrest in the West.

Beginning in the later part of the 1800′s Germans,Czechoslovakians,Persians, Irish,Asians,Scottish,Swedish, Israelis,Syrians,Russians,along with many other over seas Nationalities, began to arrive through the Great Lakes or our shores to escape persecution, wars, or starvation and mostly settled in the Cities. Some came for the hope of jobs or heard stories of wealth being told about a New Country called America. Those who could farm were offered free land in return for clearing away the trees where forests existed and to make improvements on the Land in States along the Mississippi and Ohio  Rivers.

Some who were paid to fight in the Civil War to replace the sons of the American Aristocracy, arrived during the mid 1800′s and if they survived the war they bought land from the government with the $250.00 they were paid by the wealthy, once the war ended. There was a whole regiment of German-speaking men and other Nationalities who fought in the Civil War, in place of the sons of the wealthy. The African-American slaves who fought in the Civil War was amongst the lowest provided for but the bravest of the regiments. They were sent in front of the troops and suffered the worse casualties due to their bravery.

Fur traders,missionaries, and store owners who traded with the American Natives,arrived earlier and there were scattered settlements out West in the later part of the 1800′s. The French and Spanish had arrived much earlier and had owned a great part of America from Louisiana and all the way into Utah. It all belonged to the American Natives prior to our signing the Indian treaties with them that moved them to the Reservations. It would lead President Abraham Lincoln to ask in the 1800′s prior to the freeing of the African-American slaves, “Did we believe the slaves or the Indians had it worse?”  When the slaves were freed they were never given a mule nor their 40 acres that was promised them by the Republicans.Only California which was established much earlier by the Spanish, before the American and Spanish war, was a center of wealth and growth.

A large part of  the West was still anywhere but close to being established late into the 1800′s when towns or villages were just beginning to pop up few and far between alongside of the railroads. Instead workers were primarily kept in outdoor conditions or in what were called camps. California had their own established wealth from trade,gold mines and an agreeable growing season. Much of the Western Plains were deserts where only scrub brush,tumble weeds,sage brush and cactus would grow in the 1800′s.  Land that produced would turn into farmland much later with the building of dams and irrigation funded by the government.  Next to the Native Americans both the French Canadians and the Spanish were here before the majority of our ancestors arrived in the West.

Farms and towns or what we would call villages started springing up more following the early 1900′s,as government gave incentives to Americans and foreigners from other Countries to move West. They brought with them their ability to survive hardships and to do without while improving the fruit trees and farming.  It is true that many families other than the store owners or those who established banks, were poor in the West.  When the railroads arrived and they could start sending their beef and grain to the East or West Coasts, they realized better living conditions, but it was agriculture and the railroads that made it possible and certainly not free enterprise that helped them improve their living condition.

In 1904 the Kincaid Act was signed and this is what brought the majority of people West as posters were placed overseas offering free land to settlers as well as East of the Missouri.  This brought the majority of white foreigners and previous settlers to America and the West as more towns were established along the railroads, and helped establish the West further.  Anyone who would clear a section of land and build improvements on it would be given the land clear and  free.  These relatively New States of the West,  needed to establish a government and have people to pay taxes in order to do so. They did that by giving people the land in exchange for the taxes they paid into their State Governments.

To suggest that the Father’s of Industry were somehow responsible for bringing free enterprise to the West and therefore increased the wealth of the West is simply fallacy as it was the increase in population and supply and demand that brought the much-needed food supply as well as the coal for heating and the lumber for buildings to the populated areas through use of the railroads.

The Aristocracy simply owned everything in the West that added to their own personal wealth.  Without the railroads financed by government and the laborers who risked renegade and outlaw attacks,snake bites, infections,broken limbs, horse falls,starvation, yellow fever,black lung,tuberculosis,blizzards, drownings, raid attacks by the Mexican out laws,prairie fires,dust storms, heat,cold, floods,plague,diphtheria, to name a few, that took  their lives along with low pay and long hours, and gave of their own ingenuity of blacksmithing,leather making, boot repair along with their understanding of mines to solve problems, none of the progress credited to the Fathers’ of Industry, would have been feasible in the 1900′s, much less the 1800′s.  It did take all of us working together then just as it does today to solve the problems of the future.

It was not until after World War 11 that there was even a middle class in America of any substantial size.  It was the GI Bill with affordable education and housing that was provided by the government and better working and living conditions with better pay that  was  responsible for the middle class and it is what made all dreams possible for all Americans. Companies paid for workers training on the job instead of asking them to get outside training, before they hired them.  For the first time in America the poor could gain wealth through affordable education and fair pay. Our economy boomed as a result of the middle class having discretionary spending and both the Company and the workers profited.

Government initiatives combined with the formation of workers Unions brought wealth to the poor and the workers.  Education guaranteed by government and supported through fair pay laws protected through Union negotiations for the American workers played a much larger role in making wealth possible for All Americans. When free enterprise is left on its own without government controls and Union support for the workers, our pay decreases while their profits increases and our economy falters.

American workers will and are returning to  poverty because of the greed of our free enterprise system and the  lifting of regulations that became worse during the Bush Administration.  When Corporations realizes the quality of the American worker over a sub standard product,and again understand that minimum wages will not spark the economy but only fair wages will, we will again return to a strong middle class.

Companies working together in partnership with Unions,educators,government and on the road that President Obama has established, will again bring  back good paying jobs that we are trained for at our Community colleges, but it will take time to return the middle class to its rightful place. It has taken decades for the greedy to put us in this hole and it will take at least a decade to get us back out of the same hole they dug for us.  When we all have the dignity to be able to provide again, America will return to the fiscal strength my generation became accustomed to. We need to give President Obama four more years before we can see the fruition of it.

Mitt Romney is only right in that Free enterprise does play a role in giving the workers a job but to credit it with bringing wealth to the West or to the workers, when the truth is it was made possible by Government working for us, is a large factor missing in the equation. Government giving immigrants land in exchange for taxes,  government bonds that went into the railroads and the building of our infrastructure,free education provided through government and the Army who mapped out the Railroads,and the military that protected and continues to protect our Freedom,  is the main reason people could ship their product and migrate West.  Government adding armed guards to the trains and sheriffs and policemen  on our Streets so we could move West without fear of death or robbery, seems to be left out by Mitt Romney in the retelling of History.

It was not Free Enterprise that made American Dreams come true but Government being there in partnership with the poor every step of the way to work with us and help us out of poverty, that we of the middle class and many who gained their own wealth have had help from, and we need to support government through a fair and just tax system in return. Our United States Treasury is in desperate need of being replenished by all of us from Wall Street to main Street.

To rob our own government treasury, as Mitt Romney and the Republicans suggest, by adding another 5 trillion dollars to the deficit with a further drop in taxes to the wealthy only continues digging the hole deeper.  To suggest,as Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have, that some how we are dependent on the government instead of the workers having worked in partnership with government to provide for the growing needs and freedom of the American people and free enterprise, is not just an insult to us but an insult to the struggles of our and their own ancestors, as well.

When it has been both the poor and middle class who have made the wealth of free enterprise possible,when we are of all nationalities and have shed our blood and lives for the furthering of the wealth of free enterprise and helped advance our civilization,when we have paid in to our retirements both out-of-pocket and through sacrifice, when we have sacrificed blood, life and limb for a Democracy born out of our Constitution; then the insults of Mitt Romney, who was lying on the beach of France spelling out a love letter to Ann, during his deferment as a Mormon from the draft that he protested in favor of during the Viet Nam War, becomes just that more grievous to us.

The very idea of the Republican complaints against the use of food stamps now that some of us are in a temporary need, that were initiated by their own Bob Dole for a time of need, that they themselves helped create out of greed, by the lifting of regulations over free enterprise is reminiscent of another time in history.  It is attributed to Marie Antoinette that when she was told “the peasants are out of bread” she told them”let them eat cake.” The present group of Republicans led by their hopeful Mitt Romney appear to most of us to have lost sight of the reality and the truth that they themselves have created this deficit of government funds and instead have lifted the regulations that keep the greedy amongst us in check.

It has always been ALL Americans working together, with government and our elected officials working for us, that has made us the greatest and strongest Nation in the World. Jobs provided through free enterprise that only furnished slave labor,deplorable living conditions, and caused the workers to “Owe their soul to the Company Store”, is nothing that we should ever strive to return to, while the rich get richer. Stop their drive to defeat us by voting Democrat in November.

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Another Time In History

It was not that long ago, when we consider the amount of time than mankind has lived, when we or our family members were all on the list of the despised and hated.  The Republicans need to acknowledge that their time of discrimination has ended.  A new wave of acceptance has reached America.

Just as the Republican Party, the Churches, and the red necks of America fought against the acceptance of a Catholic President, a Black President,  and while other’s believed the Mormon Faith was a  cult, the last prejudice against an entire sector of people in America is falling.  Even though the Republican Party and those remaining Churches who still refuse to accept the gay population of America have many friends and colleagues that are gay, they still are denying the equality to them than no man has a right to deny any American who pays into our tax base,fights for our Country, and  is a citizen of America.

When we ourselves are victims of prejudice we have a full understanding of the ways in which we are discriminated against and the names and ways the bigots try to hide behind Christian values, as a more endearing or kinder excuse to gain acceptance of their views, over that of acknowledging prejudice.  The argument against marriage in the gay community sounds eerily the same as it did before Jews could marry into the white population or the reverse discrimination when Jews were not allowed to marry outside of their faith,before Catholics could marry Protestants or again the reverse discrimination when Protestants could not marry Catholics, and before inter-racial marriages were allowed. We all felt that discrimination or our family members did when we fell in love with someone outside of our religious convictions and were not allowed to marry them without threat of excommunication.  The very people who were discriminated against, not that many years ago and those who still are, have clearly forgotten what discrimination felt or feels like and looks like when they were denied the right to marry because discrimination has always been raised to a higher level behind the excuse of Christian values.

For those who argue that the beliefs of the Churches  is not mean-spirited, that may be true to those who do not deal with the situation on a personal level, but when I remember being a Catholic and marrying a Protestant during this period of time, I can assure you it felt like hate.  To be told that my husband as a non-Catholic could not go to Heaven or the reverse from a Protestant mother-in-law that the Catholic Church was storing guns in their basement to attack non-Catholics while she tried her damnest to break us up and to invoke her Preacher’s name; it still is very difficult for me to believe that hate did not feed into these views of prejudice. It did not even come close to the hate during that same time and the Bible being quoted against the sin of a”white woman laying down with a black man.”  The views out of the Christian communities in the past as well as against the gay population today, are very much fed on hate when we are the people who are involved with loving the person who the Churches deny us the right to marry.

The Republicans along with too many of the Churches are dead wrong on this issue.  Either we are a Country of equality for all or a few in this Nation, that call themselves Republicans, are the ruling class of America and have the right to tell the rest of American people what  their rights and place in America are.  The last I remember they were not given the power to discriminate against anyone in our Constitution but instead only in their Churches.Seperation of Church and State is the law in America.

For Romney to say,” that the gay people have rights as they can visit each other in the hospital when they are sick,” seems to be a generous concession on the part of the Republican Party who has appointed themselves as the ruling class.  Without marriage children will always be considered ill-legitimate in America.  Without marriage a committed couple remains single for life.  Without marriage siblings have a larger right in many States to the property and assets that  a committed couple spends their lifetime working together to earn.  To claim that marriage is just the right of heterosexuals and to hide behind Religion sounds a lot like it sounded when slaves were refused the right to marry on Religious convictions when inter-racial marriages were wrong because of religious convictions, and when Jews, Catholics and Mormons were burnt out of their homes for fear that one of their children would marry a white Protestant, because they were considered to be lesser than the white Protestant, by the religious convictions in the community of their day.

How far back do we have to fall or how much rule will we tolerate giving over to the Republican Party over all of us, who are ourselves or family members of discrimination,  before we all vote for equality and justice for all in America?  When the same Party denies that the gay population falls into the arena of hate crimes, while voting against it, and they have a History of yelling, “Religious Convictions,” for 200 years now, haven’t we who are or were one of those discriminated against, forgotten our own roots?  It is time to quiet that over-worn excuse that allows their hate to grow while dividing the civility of the American people. Vote for equality for all Americans in November.

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Truth About Corporate Tax And Drilling

Once more I watched Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, spread the fallacy about Corporate taxes being the highest in America than anywhere else in the World, over the weekend, and the reporter do nothing to clarify that Statement.

The following is a direct quote taken from the Center of Budget and Policy Priorities as of 2005:”The U.S. corporate tax burden is smaller than average for developed countries(1)Corporations in 19 of the member States of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developement paid 16.1 percent of their profits in taxes between 2000 and 2005,on average, while corporations in the United States paid 13.4 percent.

Neverless, some have argued that U.S. corporate tax rates unduly burden U.S. Companies by pointing to the Country’s top statutory rate which is 35%. For example a recent Wall Street Journal editorial calling for corporate tax cuts noted that this is the second highest top statutory tax rate amongst developed countries (2)While true this gives the false impression that corporate tax burden is greater here than in developed countries. Because the U.S. tax code offers so many deductions,credits, and other mechanisms by which corporations can reduce their taxes the actual percentages of profits that the U.S.corporations pay in taxes—or what analysts refer to as their effective tax rate——-is not high ,compared to other developed countries.

Because the average U.S. corporate tax burden is low,many economists believe a revenue corporate tax reform that reduces statutory corporate tax rates,while broadening the tax base by eliminating costly tax breaks could improve efficiency and likely benefit the U.S. economy."

Since the finding was published in 2005 the U.S. statutory tax rate has risen to 38% and is tied with Japan. The overall tax rates with the Bush tax cuts in place,have lowered the rates most corporations pay to even less that those of other developed Countries since this report was printed in 2005, however, with some Corporations paying 0% of their profits in taxes due to the welfare and entitlements given to Corporations by the Bush tax breaks. When the Republicans complain about high corporate taxes paid by American Corporations they or nor do reporters, that I have seen, ever point out that with the deductions they gain they pay 0 to very little in taxes along side of other developed Countries.

With the new slogan in the Republican Party being "Drill Baby Drill", when it comes to convincing the American public that gas prices will drop at the pumps, it is just another of the half truths coming out of the mouths of the Republican Party.

60% of all the increase we are paying is estimated to be as a direct result of speculators on Wall Street in the commonities market betting on if the price of oil will go up or if it will drop. Since all of our oil drilled is traded on the global market not an ounce
of it is guaranteed for U.S. consumption.

If America opened up all of our National Parks tomorrow, for Oil exploration and drilling, it would not make one drop of difference as to the price we pay at the pumps. We have so little oil in America along side of other oil producing Nations, even with totally ignoring carbons if it was all drilled tomorrow we would still need to buy on the global market. America uses 20% of all world production although that has fallen in the last 3 years by a percentage point or two. America has such little oil within the boundaries of America that Saudi Arabia would not lose sleep even with drilling both in California and Alaska. We stand to gain far more in both solar and wind power as that cannot be sold on a global market but instead can only be used within the continental United States boundaries. The Obama Administraation is pushing for more research and development of the same in order to make us energy independent from the global markets.

As it is,we are drilling for more oil and natural gas in America than at any time in our history and it has not made any difference at the gas pumps. The Republicans saying it did in 2008 are ignoring the fact that prices fell due to the drop of use during a recession. Since oil lobbyist pay an average of 8.8 billion dollars a year in contributions to legislatures, in Washington, it just pays for the Republicans who gain much of that to say, "drill baby drill." Another fallacy is the amount of jobs created by the drilling.With opened up drilling in the U.S. over the last four years only,70,000 jobs have been added.The exagerations in jobs created by both the Republicans and the billions paid in ads by the oil Companies is another one of those half truths. It has accounted for less than .01% of the drop in unemployment.

Once more the Republicans continue to play the American people for the fools that has always worked for them in the past. The Tea Party lies mixed in with their old worn out half truths in 2010,
won them a great deal of seats that none of us can any longer afford they hold in November. Vote their cronies out now and get them out in the following election so that we the American people can laugh again, and know,"We got the last laugh on them."

The Tea Party are still Republicans and instead of meaning what they say, they go the opposiite direction,no different from their other party members.Right now that is the only thing that we can count on in the Republican Party. It shouldn't be enough for any of us who go to the polls to vote on unless we are the gullible fools that they continue to play us for. Its in our hands with our votes at the polls in November. If we don't vote them out then we have no right to bitch. America needs to get back to happier times and the majority of us want you to step up to the plate and to vote for truth and Democracy for all of us.

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My Thoughts On The Anti-Movements

Today I will write on my thoughts, about those who follow the Tea Party and Conservatives and what a negative opinion on everything they have except between them they support the 1%, war,guns,water boarding, and white male supremacy,in their own opinion as well as mind. This ideology or mentality of hate is building in America, while the Republican Party announced,”All rascism in America is gone.” They must think we are all stupid or if they say it often enough,everyone will believe it.

With the exception of Ron Paul, who is against war and against everything else to do with Democracy as well, we have Republicans running like, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry, or before them, Dick Cheney and George Bush, who have never gone to war themselves nor have their children ever gone to war,nor will they ever, who are of the mentality that we owe it to ourselves to just bomb the hell out of other Countries.

They appear to enjoy flexing their muscles with the lives of other people’s children which is a sad way to run Democracy. They would not know the value of saving lives through diplomacy if it hit them in the face and nor does the idea to bring peace to the World through talking with our enemies and setting ground work first appeal to their anti-mentality. In my opinion it makes them dangerous as leaders and only adds to the hate that they build around the World.

If you read my post yesterday on “Who are the Pro-choice” then you know what I think of the conservative movements who think they have a right to force their views on women whose circumstances in life are far different from their own. They lose sight of their own arrogance that would strip the legal and moral rights away from other women who have special circumstances in their lives, that will never match the life they will ever live.

This anti-movement that has arisen in America, in my opinion, is threatening to destroy both Democracy and our freedoms for individual rights. The anti-government movement is the most anti-movement of all. They do not want government to tell them what to do but they have no problems thinking they have a God-given right to force their views,lies, and bombs on others.

The Republican movement to block Democrats from voting if they are senior citizens,minorities, and students without picture ID and more likely to vote for Barack OBama is a prime example what I am talking about. It is totally against our Constitution and we should be in an uproar over it, regardless of where our voting interests lies but instead, it appears to be just fine with those who hate. Win at all cost to Democracy, seems to be the new battle cry that is being fed by Ron Paul and the Conservative movements in America.

I feel people like Ron Paul, Rick Perry,and John Huntsman are simply running to gain electoral votes for Mitt Romney, that he would never get otherwise from the independents and conservatives, who do not like him nor would vote for him, because of his personality,lies, job history or Mormon religion. Obviously they would have dropped out of the race and left the field if they did not want to gain electoral votes that they can switch over to Mitt Romney, in order to defeat OBama, if Obama wins the popular vote.

Why else would they continue in a race that is costing them millions and have no way of winning? Sure they are posturing with their hate ads, as to be Republican requires that,sadly, in todays’ environment of Republican hate. If they don’t they will not be able to pick up those votes from people who do not like Mitt Romney. The truth about themselves and their inability to carry on their pious acts, angers them more than anything else,other than their hate for OBama.

In the final analysis they will turn over both their electoral votes as well as their followers to Romney, as the one thing that drives them all, is their hate for Obama. Rod Paul has to support Romney because if he doesn’t he will hurt the political future of his conservative son, Rand. I predict that he will not run on the Libertarian ticket for the same reason. I also predict that the the hate against Romney is strong enough that if Ron Paul had not have run, the voters who support Ron Paul, would not have even bothered to vote.

The John Birch Society, which is representative of the mentality of the Tea Party movement today, and the Right-Wing Conservatives,are claiming to be both anti-socialism and anti-communism. They would lead us to think they both exhibit clear traits of supporting both cummunism and socialism in their inevitable drive to deny the following rights to all Americans, as one or the other or both support:anti-Democracy,anti-Social Security that works, anti-medicare that works, anti-poor,anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-civil rights, anti-equal rights, anti-government, anti-NAFTA, Anti-Pro-Choice, anti Jews,anti-immigration, anti-Muslims,anti-global warming,anti-education,anti-Science,anti-Unions, Anti taxes,Anti- middle class,anti-Supreme Court Justices,anti- liberals or progressives,anti-UN,anti-OBama, and the list of what they continue to be against just continues to grow while they profess forgiveness and brotherly love.

These people aren’t against injustice,instead they create injustice, because they represent those who would eliminate jobs and are against programs that work and people who do not agree with their questionable morality. To think that our own survival and finding our own lives to be sacred enough to protect them against those who think we owe our own life and livelyhood to their demands, simply fails their mentality. Sadly they are driven more my their power to influence than they are by fair play. The more government and unions are eliminated, it is the jobs and lives the middle class and the poor, who are effected the hardest. Ultimately we all pay for the lack of protection and safety we have as a Nation, without government in our lives.

The sad thing they are not in favor of much of anything other than depleting the middle class of revenue and training minorities to work for the wealthy. Their own little narrow views and bigotry, appears to govern the idea that they will do anything out of that hate to stop Barack OBama, including stacking the electoral votes so that the election is over before “We the People,” even go to the polls to vote, in my opinion. Because of that it is important that people who would vote for Barack OBama, as Independents, who can vote in the Republican primaries, are not voting for losers or Ron Paul, as that simply gives them more electoral votes to give to Mitt Romney.

The danger, about all of this hate and anti-movements taking place amongst our young people, who are so upset with our economy, is that they are the generation who have had the most freedom and benefits over any generation before them. Unless they are willing to sacrifice, as our brave soldiers who have fought in these wars have, they will never be able to deal with the realities of life. They will unfortunately,instead, play right into the hands of those who will only worsen the economy for the middle class and defeat the future for all of us, in my opinion.

Sometimes life and the economy does “suck” and when it does, we tighten our belts and use our imaginations and brains to think positively in ways that we can help solve problems, instead of creating more through hate. If we listen, we soon hear that the great majority of people who have gone to war, do know and understand the need for diplomacy over bombs.

The anti-movements are playing into this inability for some of the young people, who seem to not understand,”that if you are not a part of the solution then you are a part of the problem.” when we choose to deny freedom and equal rights to others, we lose everything of value, along with our own freedom. By dividing them against us, we lose our own freedom and are told what our choices are instead of deciding for ourselves what our options are. We are all into this together, if we are to win as a Nation.

I totally applaud those who protest against injustice as they too are sacrificing for our Nation. Those who would deny the occupy movement that right or try to stop it, have forgotten to develop their own skills into something else other than what they originally planned, and instead they are not realizing that anti-attitudes and hate will only destroy us as a Nation and leave a far worse trail for all of us to follow.

It is through positive Nation building that both we as a Nation and our economy will start growing, at a more rapid rate than it currently has for the last 22 months, again. We do that by supporting our diversity and our Democracy by getting rid of those politicians who are putting the money into their pockets from government, while they are feeding us the hate and promoting the anti-movements and accusing us of attacks on capitalism, when it is so not about that, but their desire to cut revenue to the middle class, in order to gain profits for the oil companies and corporations, in America.

We need to ask ourselves instead, what we have to offer to make the private sector grow faster. How are we going to make our economy grow at the rates that we feel we are adding to the solutions? If you can’t get a job then offer your talent,sell apples on street corners as our ancestors did,accept a job that has a future even if it means it is out of your career range,invent something and try to promote it,sell cookies or bagels,or move to States that do have jobs available, and are begging for people to come work, but do something positive to rejuvenate the economy instead of trying to defeat,Barack OBama, who is working the hardest for you.

The sad reality is the longer you are out of work the less likely you will be hired. People who have been unemployed for six months or less are slowly being hired back. Only you have the motivation to make life work. When you stay where there are no jobs you will find for everyone like you there are ten more who are better qualified, so make it happen for you and you can still reach the American Dream.

My husband and I, along with almost every generation I have ever known, had to learn this lesson, as well as, move and lose our home, so I am not asking anything of you that we didn’t have to do. We will retire well, at the end of the year, because we did do what I ask of you. You just may have to take a different path to get there, than you planned, but it is all in believing that you can do it and being dedicated to it. We cannot ask sacrifice of others if we are not willing to do the same,ourselves.

This is all based on how I feel, as a result of knowing that young minds are being poisoned by the Tea Party and conservative movements, and as a result, it is threatening our Democracy, both inside our Country as well as outside of our boundaries.

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WELCOME HOME AMANDA KNOX!

Finally!What can I say that those of us who knew this was a miscarriage of justice, for both Amanda Knox and Raeffaele Sollecito, haven’t already been saying for almost 4 years now? On May 23, 2010, I wrote a post entitled “A Black Eye On Italian Justice,”and seriously questioned the justice of this case.

For those who do not know:on the very first day following the murder of Amanda’s roommate, Meridith Kercher of Britain, the police gathered together 100 items for forensic testing. Up to this point all was quite above-board. Those 100 items of uncontaminated forensic items clearly showed the murderer and rapist to be Rudy Guede.It would take time to get the results back as well as track down Guede,as prior to this, no one was even considering Rudy. Amanda and Raeffaele were considered suspects from the first day, although they had no evidence on either of them at this time. Guede would flee and be arrested later and then acknowledge his presence at the apartment, later.

He was considered a nuisance by the girls. Amanda barely knew him and Raeffaele did not know him at all. There are no records,witnesses, or evidence, phone or otherwise,tying Raffaele or Amanda to Rudy at anytime, much less the night in question. The District Attorney had a fascination with the Occult and a gut feeling about Amanda and Raeffaele from the start and refused to let go of them as suspects.

After the initial testing of the clean DNA, the prosecution office would wait 46 days and gather up seriously contaminated items from the crime scene. Much of this evidence was piled on top of other evidence,as well as walked on, and both would further contaminate it. This forensic evidence set and collected dust,of skin cells and hair that fly through the air in any contained apartment or home, for the 46 days, so the material collected did not even come close to fitting the International code of forensic standards nor the FBI’s, when collected, for DNA purposes.

When they found the finger prints on the knife, were those of Amanda’s, this was forensics that would be disputed by the person doing the autopsy, and it could never reach the standards set for forensic evidence if the D.A hadn’t of kept lowering the bar of acceptance lower and lower, as has been reported elsewhere. The person doing the autopsy, would say, “this knife was too large to be the murder weapon.” They would then find a totally clean pocket knife of Raeffaele’s and say, “there must have been two knifes since his was smaller.”

The so-called forensic evidence of Raeffaele’s was as poor as if he shook the hand of someone else, and those skin cells of the person he touched, or DNA, would be found on a sink he later touched or even on another’s hand. An example would be; If he used the toilet and flushed it and Meredith then followed him and flushed it, she would pick up Raeffaele’s skin cells or DNA, after she used it, and then transfer his DNA when she fastened the clasp on her own bra: this then is the same kind of forensic DNA they found of Raeffaele’s, on Meredith’s bra clasp. Three other people’s DNA would be found on this same section of her bra, as well, since it was so poorly mishandled.

These two things would convict the two of them.Even though no forensic lab in the World accepts this kind of contaminated DNA as both are way below even considering as accurate DNA standards anywhere in the World.Every forensic Scientist knows to change their gloves after touching each piece of evidence but they did not do so, as pictures showed that all of their gloves were filthy. Instead of wearing the disposable plastic gloves, they chose to wear white cloth gloves. Everything was highly transferred and contaminated,due to the absorbency of these gloves,and as a result of not changing gloves with each piece of evidence.

Amanda also showered and tracked the blood of the victim, Meredith Kercher, she later discovered on the bathroom rug, into her room with her wet feet. This along with all the forensic evidence they collected was so contaminated that no forensic laboratory would ever accept this type of DNA, either.None of the evidence after the first day even came close to qualifying in any lab in the World.

As all of we women know, when washing a knife, we will sometimes pick up a knife, while hanging onto the handle, and simply wipe off the blade and put it back in the drawer.Even if Amanda’s finger prints were not highly contaminated she would have finger prints as well as blood smears in her own apt. 4 women living together, all would have blood smears, as a result of their periods or just cutting themselves while slicing or cooking, as is fairly typical around any home or apartment.

The prosecutor in this case was found guilty of misuse of his office in another case separate from Amanda’s and kept setting the bar lower and lower on the DNA evidence and then would announce that it was uncontaminated when not a single lab in the World would have even looked at this evidence, since after the first day when they found neither Amanda’s or Raeffele’s DNA, none of the DNA, was anything but sub par to any standards set in the International forensic labs, and would never be acceptable.

They were denied lawyers and Amanda did not understand the language. When they demanded that she imagine or speculate how the murder may have happened, she had no choice, because they had kept them up for hours and even hit her on the head with books so she co-operated. The room was reportedly, filled with policemen, When she tried to speculate they accepted it as her confession and she was given 26 years with Raeffaele given 25 years both for murder.

Thanks to one judge saying.” something was not right with the DNA evidence and they needed to hear them on appeal,” she and Raeffaele won the attention of this judge on appeal and have been acquitted of murder by two judges and a jury. Appeals are all automatic in Italy just as they are in the United States. Amanda will be released and coming back to Seattle where she grew up; it is also the area that never gave up hope for her or wavered on their support of her innocence.

Yellow journalism entered the picture in both Perugia as well as Britain, and since it was Halloween,and the District Attorney was bent towards thinking in terms of the Occult, witches and satan worship, along with corruption and gossip would be speculated on as far as Amanda and Raeffaelle were concern.

Amanda, when encouraged to think in terms of the occult, would involve another person with her speculation and for that she has been fined and served the time. Sadly the same people interrogating her and Raeffaelle are experienced with interrogating the mafia and Amanda was only 20 years of age and still quite naive, along with not understanding the language.

All kinds of false information along with corruption would surround this case. Also the attitude that all American women are loose or whores would be intermingled with the case that would lead to gossip of sex games gone awry. The “Foxy Knoxy” stories coming out of Brittain, along with what was being confused with Amanda’s own behavior as to bewilderment, which all innocent people would most likely express, would also add to the stories being told.

The sad thing is they had a simple robbery that led to rape and murder with the clean DNA, collected the next day, and if Guede was not pressured to include both Amanda and Raeffaele, even though neither were there, this case would have been settled almost 4 years ago. The Meredith Kercher family could have begun their grieving almost immediately.Sadly there will now always be those who believe Amanda and Raeffaele, who are entirely innocent, are suspect.

To the Italian judge, who questioned this case and to the jury who found contaminated DNA unacceptable, we say,”Thank You! To all who put in dedication, money,sweat equity,had to deal with insults, and believed in the innocence of Amanda and Raeffaele,in this case, I salute You! I feel your joy and celebrate with you. I was hopeful 14 months ago that a higher power than these mere men would set both Amanda and Raeffaele free, but not until today could we dare say, “Welcome Home Amanda and Raeffaele!”

The world, who has both followed this case and brought pressure on those involved,as well as believed in the innocence of these two College kids, is delighted that the Italian justice system did work, eventually, in this case. My apology to all Italians and your Court system, for doubting that it would.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the Kercher family, who have suffered unmercifully and who will always have to live with unnecessary questions, and to Amanda and Raeffaele, and their loved ones who have had to suffer unjustly, and will always have to live with a cloud over their head, because of the misguided path chosen by the DA, in this case, and Judges who bought into it.

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The Risk Within

I have written many posts, at this point, on taking responsibility. My intention is to express to all, what we often find as fault or blame in others, can actually be as a result of a short coming, within ourselves.

I do not blame the victims or believe that anyone who is being mistreated should ever feel it is their fault. I simply want people to question,themselves, why they do tolerate such behavior and to find what changes they can make,to improve their own lives. Too often we never do ask ourselves what it is we can do or need to do, to improve our own lives. It is always easier to blame others than it is to look for or find solutions for ourselves.

As difficult as it is to accept,for some, the truth is that too many times we do become no different from robots, who go about our daily lives never questioning those who are controlling us or ourselves, if we have a strong urgency to control others, who do fine, without our need to control. We can become apathetic,indifferent,a bully, or too complacent or trusting with the people and power of the World that goes on around us, just as we can with ourselves.

If we simply follow routine, that we have slipped into and take programming from others in our lives, we can often wake up to discover, when the relationship ends, that we have taken too many people in our lives for granted or accepted too poor of a treatment,for ourselves.

As long as we insist that we do not care for politics or feel a need to vote, because we incorrectly think both parties are just alike,or we give our vote to another, without thought, we can often end up to discover the party that protects oil companies and big business is the same that allows Democracy to erode. We must always remember, for instance, that oil companies will and do control the politics of States where oil is King, such as Wyoming,Oklahoma and Texas.No different than what tourism is to Disneyland or Disney World.

If our daily life, ends up with our free time being limited by other’s recommendations or dedicated to the inter-net, some television and radio broadcasts that are not concerned with the truth or the news, but instead report slanted views, and we believe the lies that are often spread through the social media and paid ads, we can too often, end up believing lies over truth, not to mention, without having an original thought of our own.

Without educating ourselves, to the reality and truth over perceptions, the knowledge of which party or candidate will do the best job for us and the middle class,will be lost in ignorance or lies, when we do go to the polls and vote. When this happens it is sometimes ourselves, who are the most ill-equipped to vote,not to mention the most dangerous to Democracy.

It is easy to get caught up in our day-to-day habits and routine, to the point that we become lost to ourselves or perform as robots,never questioning the reality of what we are doing or hearing. The longer we do it the more accepting we become of things that do not make sense, when questioned.

It is not something that we are always aware of, in fact most of us do not even have a clue, until we do have trauma take place in our lives, and it forces us into acknowledging what we have accepted as truth, without questioning, a great deal of the time was merely perception, and does not even come close to being the truth.A for instance of that is, we commonly think modern medicine can cure anything until we get seriously ill, and the great majority of us are surprised at how little medicine does know about cause much less cure. Too many times, our own survival will depend on us being more honest and realistic, when dealing with our own lives.

We cannot blame those who we turned over control of our lives to, simply because we were taking comfort in our own lifestyle or stressing over what had very little real significance,in comparison to where our priorities needed to be, in our own lives, much less in the Democracy of America. We need to remain alert to both past and present history, both in ourselves and our own behavior, as well as in the world, that goes on around us.

I doubt, many of us would or could argue, that if we showed as little interests in our jobs or our families, who we have been Blessed with to guide, as we do in the maintenance of Democracy, we would not be at our current job or a reputable member of our family, for long.

Just as we need to stay on our toes, when it comes to the needs of our friends and family, we also need to be aware of how our own behavior affects those we profess to love, as well as, what happens in the World around us. When we fail to keep up with ourselves and our own needs and behavior, we often fail to keep up with the needs of those around us, as well.

We need to be comfortable in the knowledge, we gain, that our own vote just as our own behavior, can and will safeguard the equality as well as the quality of life for all of us, who do embrace freedom. If we fail to appreciate that those we love the most, ourselves included, can be a statistic tomorrow, we often risk the fact that we will deny our own freedom, when others start talking about changing the Constitution to deny others their rights.

It is too easy to think that as long as we are not complaining then those that we love do not have complaints either. If we are busy shopping and hiding the receipts from our spouses, we fail to realize the short high, that we receive, is often the long misery that they receive, when it comes to balancing the budget.

When we constantly sacrifice while our spouse spends or does nothing but argue with us or dismiss our efforts, we are not so content either.Just as we cannot continue to elect politicians who refuse to do anything for the American people, because the other Party may win. We can too many times go back to the fox guarding the hen-house when we refuse to educate ourselves, both in the future needs of our families as well as our Country.

When we all develop the attitude that we, each, are much more than a robot and the risk of both our family as well as American’s Democracy rests on the shoulders of individuals, we will prove we are all reliable to the rest of the World.We owe all those, who look to us for freedom, the responsibility of maintaining Democracy, by putting as much effort into, “Freedom for All”, as we do into our own families.

It needs to be both our goal as well as our priority to know the differences between each candidate and party,including the Tea Party, before we vote. Democracy as well as the survival of our government,of “We the People,” in America and around the World, depends on it.

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Success Or Failure?

Just as there is a fine line between love and hate there is also the same between success or failure. Both success and failure, are highly subjective, and can only be reached by our own realistic goals. If we set the bar too high or too low,as adults, we can be either successful or a failure.

A great deal of the lies, that are told in families, arise from what the family will determine to be success or failure.No one person does want to openly admit to themselves, that they have failed.Parents often do cover for the adult child,who they think is weak, but who may very well be successful by their own standards. When parents make demands on the adult child to the point the child gives in then many times they actually defeat what would have been a successful child. Parents too many times will use different measures to declare what success is to them, and then have expectations for their own adult children to follow their demands.

For instance if an adult child chooses a religion different from their own,parents many times, see this child as a failure. If a child feels that mistakes were made in their own childhood and wants to improve on it, by spending less hours on the job but more hours with their family, the parents will see their child as lazy. If this same child is content in living a different lifestyle from their parents or siblings and does not ask for or expect help, they can be the biggest success story of their entire family.

Families who think that all members should acquire the same level of lifestyle and when one child does not reach that level of income, many times they will make up the differences, are wrong in thinking this way. In doing so too many times, the child who was content living within their own boundaries of income, will be judged ungrateful, by a family who enforced their own ideology of success, on them.

Other times when children come from what Society determines highly successful families, they may feel the insecurity that will always mark comparisons, to their own accomplishments or lack of the same, to the same-sex parent. Low self-esteem is often the by-product of children who have successful parents and they feel that they will never be able to measure up to what their parents accomplished.

It is not unusual when, a family who has been able to gain their own interpretation of success through less than honorable means, will see a child who is much more morally successful than they are,a loser or failure.

Other times parents and siblings feel an entitlement to live the lifestyle that their most financially successful children or siblings live without having worked for or saved for it,because they were of the attitude, that God will provide.

Other members will feel they are a much larger success story because they have given most of what they had away to one or more of their children or siblings, who are unable to pay them back. Both fail to realize their own responsibility to care for themselves so that the innocent would not pay the price for their own failures to provide for themselves.

They will deny their own neglect of their future needs by feeling as though the child,children or sibling, who did not ask anything of them but was excluded or mistreated by them, is obligated to make it up to them, when their own lack of respect is to blame. The whole family can deteriorate due to their own sense of superiority or entitlement.The family will often accuse the successful members, who asked nothing of the other members but were mistreated by them, and helped when they could anyway, of being failures or at the very least,hateful.

Rarely will it occur fully to them or be appreciated by them; that the reason the family has failed was because of their own willful acts to take God and family for granted, or their failure to understand not all family members will be able to live the same lifestyle.

When we understand that the real success of life is the person,who can find joy and contentment,in our own Faith because we have learned to question both the status-quo as well as our own doubts that may exist, in our own Faith,and either came back stronger as a result of it or searched until we found our own worship of God, that we do Believe in, then we will understand our own success.

When we ourselves can totally base the path we need to take on following through with our own dreams,and not another’s’ demands,we understand our own maturity. If we are married, then part of maturity is understanding the dual decision that needs to be made by both our spouses as well as ourselves.

No Adults are ever the property of our parents or our siblings,nor anyone else for that matter, and as a result we cannot always wait for their Blessings nor can we use their lack of giving us their Blessings, as an excuse for our failure in life.

All of us are duty bound to find our own peace and joy and the vast majority of us do find it through forgiveness and moving on. If we have never tried to forgive, we will fail ourselves, first. Forgiving does not mean we need to hang out together or forget why we are separated from the person who we feel failed us.

Nothing is so grand, “as dreams that come true”, through our own efforts combined with,”a little hope and a prayer.” Success is meant to be appreciated, for us to be grateful for having accomplished it, and to enjoy it.When we feel success,we will often times, know it has arrived.

When we are already fortunate enough to have a complete extended family that understands this, then we truly know both our parents and we are successful! Never forget or take each other for granted or fail to say, “Thank You!” Families as well as family genetics can many times be the reason for both success and failure and the only way we solve the social ills that plague far too many is by starting at home and moving out from there in our search to improve mankind,therefore ourselves.

To have a healthy Society we need to have healthy families who as adults, are both ready and eager, to take care of their own as well as their dependent’s knowledge, of their present and future responsibility and behavior,first.Good luck to all of us!

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Don’t Bother Me

The people in our lives who never want to be bothered by others are usually the same who are bothered by everything. If they hold a job, which some never do while others never keep a job, those who do come home grab a beer or the Nintendo or Wii and start playing. Other times when they come home from the job, they grab a six-pack,several glasses of wine, or several drinks, turn on the television and spend the rest of the night in front of it, until they either fall asleep,sometimes in a stupor, in the chair or go to bed.The family will dish him/her up a plate of food and bring it to them. They never ask for or question what their spouse or children did during the day,because they have enough problems of their own, and simply do not want to be bothered.

When they are adult children; they will sleep until the afternoon get up and grab something to eat, and watch the soaps, and then the women will get ready to go out and shop,on Dad’s or Mom’s credit card, while the guys usually play video games and then both will go out to cruise the bars,casinos, or clubs, much later, again on the cash from Mom and Dad.

We see this more times in fathers who grew up as sons,being waited on by the women of the family, but it can be just as common in women. Both can and do apply to men and women who were never asked to do anything when it came to taking responsibility for their own rooms, much less, help out with the upkeep of the lawn,laundry,balancing the budget,cooking, or in the upkeep of the house, because Mom always did it. It is always much more difficult to teach children to take responsibility in a home than it is to do it ourselves, according to our own standards, and that is why they grow up to become adults who do not want to be bothered by anything.

Many times our own lack of ambition or that of our spouse, will spread onto our children who will repeat the same sloth like existence. This type of personality, often, pat themselves on their own back, as to how nothing ever bothers them and how easy-going they are, even though everyone else living with them are continuously stressed out and under pressure.

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand, all of the work and stress of keeping up the bills,the house,our children, and the lawn falls on the shoulders of the spouses or parents, if they are old enough to be out of the house on their own or holding down a job, but instead are remaining at home to be both supported and waited on by their parent or parents.It has not and will it ever occur to people, who do not take responsibility for their own lives, that it is much easier to be easy-going, when someone else is taking care of our responsibility.

In some Christian homes women are taught the men work to support them and the family, all day, so it is the women’s job to wait on the men and make certain they are kept content and happy when they return home at night. It is the job of the wife to make sure the children are well-disciplined and kept both away from their fathers, and even in some cases out of their sight, so that the man of the house is not bothered by their noise and racket. Fathers are entitled to relax and to enjoy their peace and quiet when they return home from a stressful day of work. They should not be bothered by the wife’s complaints or conversation nor by their own children.

The pathetic thing about treating adults so that they will not be bothered, is that many times when their children grow up they do become the generation most threatened by drugs and alcohol.They feel that they were both unloved and unwanted by their fathers,and why shouldn’t they feel that way?When adult children or adult men and women, do not want to be bothered by responsibility, they too, will turn to drug and alcohol to numb their own sense of worthlessness.

The great majority of mankind do find our own sense of importance from what we achieve in life. The older we get,having achieved nothing, the more cheated, we feel when we were never taught to be self-sufficient. The dysfunction that existed in the family homes, made the children feel,justifiably so, as a burden to their fathers or their mothers when they were told they should not bother mom or dad,as well.

A child does not, nor should they ever have to understand, why just being themselves, is a bother to their parents.When everything bothers us as an adult we will find out, that no one will be around to bother us, later. Being generous with our money does not equal love or parenting.

When the self-appointed-martyred parents or wife pass on, and no one is left to wait on these adult children or husbands,they will find that no one else will be as eager,naive or stupid to do so. If we were not there for our children, it is fairly certain that our children will not be there for us when they grow up,either.When we teach them that we will wait on them until they find a spouse to take our place,we teach them that they are not worth the bother, of our time or efforts, to parent them so that they can and will grow up to achieve their own purpose or success in life.

We parents do need to know that raising children always has been and always will be about,”Pay now or Pay later.” No generation can or will change the responsibility of parent to child and not come out the winner or the loser for having done the right or wrong thing by our children. We need to know, ourselves, what truly showing love, over not being bothered entails in the life of our own family.It is always different from one family to the next because we all have different personalities and value systems that we need to live by, and teach, through our own equal treatment of the same.

It has always been a disaster, to every marriage and family, when one person is left to take on all the responsibility of home and family while the others live a carefree existence in the home.Since jobs bring with it both a pay check and a 40 to 60 hour week but home life lasts 24/7 without a pay check or let up in the hours, the entire family needs to know how,when and where to assume responsibility.

It can be more difficult to live with the person, who appoints themselves or accepts total responsibility, to be the martyr, as it is to live with the person who does not want to be bothered. Neither brings peace or harmony to our homes or family.Equality in a home, where everyone takes on their own responsibility, will always bring about a more successful lifestyle for all who reside there, by freeing up the time and commitment of all of us. Equality of the genders can not go away unless, we ourselves, ask for or accept without question, injustice.

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Freeing Ourselves From Ignorance

When we accept that our children will represent both the best of us as well as the worst of us, perhaps more people would learn to like themselves and accept others, before they marry, instead of unloading their own baggage on both their marriage as well as their children.

With people waiting longer to marry we have real hope of being able to accomplish doing just that.However, with the falling numbers in the educated since the 1980′s to the drive underway to prevent acceptance of both education and Science in the Right-wing,Tea Party and the Republican platform, taking place, we are seeing an outbreak of bigotry across America instead of an improvement in acceptance of our diversity that does make us the Democracy we are.

On a lighter side perhaps Mother Nature was making us wake up when the earthquake hit the home of the politicians in Washington D.C, who will refuse to allow Science to be part of the Republican platform in 2012. Was she saying if you doubt Science is real I’ll give you a taste of just what Mother Nature still holds through science, by following up with the hurricane as well? Isn’t that the same reasoning that Pat Robertson and Michele Bachmann used to speak of God’s attack on mankind and the Baptist hate group has been using to disrupt military funerals, to show God’s displeasure against gays? Religion has used bad storms and ill-health as signs of God’s displeasure against mankind since the beginning of time and perhaps both are simply normal for the scientific circumstances that exist. I guess it is only fair that we can use it both ways, shouldn’t we think?

Our attitudes are totally dependent, many times, on what we are able to accomplish in understanding ourselves and the reasons behind why we do what we do and why we react to the stimulus in life that we do. Unless we accept Science along with Religion and educate ourselves, we will never fully understand what makes up the components of mankind much less ourselves. The understanding that we reach, through ourselves, also goes towards making huge improvements in how we raise and understand the differences in our own families. Through Science we all learn what makes us tick.

How hypocritical is it that the same party and voters will be the first to embrace modern medicine and support drug companies who base their findings on Science? Are we to believe if they or their loved ones get sick they will refuse Science then as well? Can they tell any difference between atmospheric pressure or the reality that when heat is put into the earth then it must escape somewhere else? What about what goes up must come down? What about reality,is it real?

In homes where both snobbery and bigotry or the self righteous and the intolerant, are central themes, we leave behind an indelible mark for life on our children. Growing up not understanding that to segregate ourselves from others means our own lost, on our future ability to be able to work side by side, in unison, with our fellow workers,can become one of the greatest hardships parents will visit on their children. In America we live in a World of diversity. We are not always going to be able to understand our differences in culture but if we are taught to hate or to separate ourselves from others, because we have been fed hate or told that others are inferior,our children will pay the price of our own ignorance.

Once we all realize that children form cliques in junior high often over nothing more than the brand names of the clothes on their back,because they think the way everybody else in the clique thinks, and the street address of their parents,as well as, group together out of an insecurity and fear to become the individual they are meant to be, perhaps the majority of us can mature enough to accept through Science we learn the only differences that separates all human beings, is the melanin in our skin and that which determines our gender. All mankind are directly made according to their own special genetic code and otherwise there is no difference between the rich,the poor,the races or gender orientation.

The worse kind of segregation takes place in our prisons across America. If that is not an indication of just how we cheat our own families when we choose to set ourselves up as being superior to others, then I do not know what it will take, to open our eyes to the prison we place ourselves and our children in when we can only accept those who share our shade of skin color,think what we think, or live at an address provided by their parents. It should be just a little scary to all of us.

We have not yet reached the place in America,outside of the prison walls, where we do need to depend on the safety in numbers aspect,if we arm ourselves with knowledge through educating ourselves and voting wisely while using common sense in taking precaution, unless we are under attack by criminals,terrorist or our own petty jealousy that often needs companionship, as does snobbery, bigots,and hate groups need to form to keep others out. On the other hand, none of us can deny Mother Nature will always prove to all of us how much we do need to rely on our government, of “For the people by the people,” many times, in order for us all to work together when it comes to digging ourselves out of a National disaster.

The longer we remove truth by removing Science and education from our lives,and replace it with ignorance, the more likely we will reach the point that ignorance will depict how we live. We need to get out of the funk of,” I don’t care anything about politics,” because that will be the number one reason that the ignorant (often times the intolerant or self-righteous) can and will succeed in running America, and we will all be left out of what has become the greatest Democracy of the World.

(Do I need to offer anymore proof of the ignorant ruling America other than looking any further than the Tea Party and the right-wing conservative candidates who have declared and those that may run,for President in 2012, in order to prove my point?)

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Words Do Hurt…..They Destroy

Although, I quote a great deal of cliché’s because they do ring true, who ever came up with,”Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” had to be one callous human being or had no reality based idea just how often verbal abuse can and does destroy relationships for life.

The greatest tragedy of all is that painful words used amongst children are often the number one cause of suicide amongst our young people. What children are doing to children with the use of derogatory words on their computers,cell phones,the school bus and the playground across America has risen to a new level of hate. That adults would stoop to the level of children when using the same words against their own children or others should sicken us all.

I’m always amazed when I hear mothers firing back words like”little Bitch” to their daughters or you “little bastard” to their sons and forgetting they are supposed to be the adult. Calling our daughters and sons names when it is our job to eliminate the name calling is a tragedy in more ways than one.

Even in the best of situations (if we can call it that) name calling is the one thing that women or children will never forget.When parents call their daughters little whore or slut or equally disturbing words there is never any taking the words back. The more childish we behave as adults with the name calling the more we are destroying the ability for a loved one to like us and the more damage we are doing to Society as a whole. Too often these words are being learned from parents and passed on to children.

Just as adults when the men we love or care about or our family members label us with name calling or claim we are worthless, it hurts, even when we are older. When abusers think we are just using the milder of names, there is no such thing, because under moments of high stress, if we are in the habit of name calling the worse of the worse will slip out. Words are like brands on cattle we can never take them back or remove them. All apologies will ring hollow in the ears of the verbally abused, for a lifetime.

Too many people seem to be clueless to the fact that loving each other is not the problem. Liking each other is a real struggle. The more we use words in the form of name calling or in other derogatory forms to try to end an argument the more we set ourselves up to destroy our relationships for life. Not only do we need to stop acting like children and quit using name calling as a response mechanism; our children need to be punished with cell phone or Wii removal for a period of time, or something that will cause a hardship in their lives the first time we hear the words of disrespect come out of their mouths. We can not expect our children to respect us or others, if we never teach respect.

If we are calling names ourselves then it is going to be tough for them to have any respect for us if we do it and punish them for it.”Do as I say not as I do,” has never worked and we only fool ourselves by thinking or saying,”this is my home and I can do anything I want,” or “as long as you live under my roof you will do as you are told.” Both phrases only convince them that we are either a bully or think they are stupid.

They know we not only have a moral obligation to raise our children to adulthood but a legal one as well. If our children are still living at home after they are old enough to be on their own it only tells them that we will never force them out anyway, regardless of how they speak to us.

Verbal abuse is one of the hardest forms of abuse to defend against. When we allow ourselves to stoop to the level of children by name calling we destroy the respect of our children many times for life.No different than husbands and wives do when they do the same thing.

We give to and sacrifice for our children because we love them and want to give to them,in many cases, but another well-worn phrase that means nothing to our children is,”after all the things that I have done for you.” Children are about as manipulative as they come and they get smarter every year. They also understand that if they tell us that such and such has and I don’t have…..a great deal of what we will buy for them, is many times purchased to stop the child from whining,to gain our children’s love,to make ourselves look good,to compete with our friends, or simply that they won when they got what they wanted because we were too stupid (in their minds) to know we were being played by them.

Too many people just form the idea that our children are rebelling and do not bother to do anything about it. Yes if we have done our jobs and taught them to be self-sufficient and then turn around and treat them like babies or if we haven’t done our jobs, teenagers will rebel. What too many parents do not understand is there is almost always a reason for those bad moods as well. We need to get to the bottom of why the outbursts are becoming more and more frequent. Parents who withdraw during this time of their children’s’ life thinking what ever it is they are just going to have to work it out for themselves because they are adults now, can make or break the difference in the lives of their child.

“Our children need to know we trust them,” is the most ridiculous response we can give to rebellion.What they really need to know is they have a parent in their life who gives a damn if they do make a mistake. Many times they are going through the worse struggles of their lifetimes and there will never be any time in their lives that they will need their parents more than during this time. They need our ability to guide them when they are in doubt or do not have the capacity to work themselves out of the mess they may have gotten themselves into,still often after they leave home, but definitely while they are still at home.

We must make them know we are approachable and welcome them in our lives. If we offer both a refrigerator filled with Coke or Pepsi and a private place for them to gather they will many times make our homes their “crash Pads”(sorry that is an old 60′s phrase). Other times if we are up when they come home they many times will want to talk if they know we are accessible and we are playing the adult role expected of parents.

They all have friends what they really need are parents.I do understand the difficulty of getting them to talk, sometimes is like trying to have a conversation with a porcupine, but reaching out to them at this time in their lives will often spell the difference between success or failure in their lives.If we are ever going to be the grown ups it is never more important than this time of their lives.

If we are childish enough to call them names or go after them on attack they will be at their friends houses getting the advice, many times, that will be the last thing we want them to be getting. Like for instance,” have another beer or do you want a smoke before you leave?” Our children only bring their nicest friends around to meet us. Those that they know we will never approve of but who have the connections to the”good times” are the ones we never meet.

We parents need to reach out and offer understanding during the teen years as well as be on our toes full-time as to where they are hanging out and who they are spending time with. When we do find out we need to ask questions in regards to what their thoughts are in how they plan on handling a situation and ask them if we can offer a little imput to the situation. When we go in with all barrels drawn on the attack and stinging them with name calling we will never be part of this important time of their lives.

I repeat that both children and sometimes adults, become what we say they are. The more positive you/we are towards our/your children and wives the more positive they will be in return and it works the same with negativity. Call your daughters or wife a whore and they will often prove you correct, regardless of what age they are.For all of us adults who do not already know and understand this, many times it is the person who is having the affair that yells foul the fastest and the loudest.

If we refuse to grow up our children will do the same. They are faced with so many mixed emotions as in one way they cannot wait until they leave home and in another they wouldn’t mind being a child for a lifetime if we have been generous to them while they were growing up. We have already had our chance and now its time we be the grown up who guides the family through the storm. When we guide them through the toughest parts of adolescence and their young adult years so they become the people they were meant to be,it will be the best journey we ever take when the grandchildren are placed in our arms.

(If this subject matter sounds familiar it is because I have written on it several times in the past. I will continue doing so until I quit hearing Parents say,”What can we do? They are teenagers,” Next to the new-born stages they are the most important years of our child’s development, in my opinion. Good Luck and enjoy the humbling experience they teach us all.)

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