Guns And Mental Illness

Too often as a Nation, we over look the risks and dangers of in-action.  We too many times talk about needing to help draw attention to both guns and mental illness but then the reminders of the tragedy passes and the powerful lobbyists again, win.

The facts are: we do nothing about the out of control gun ownership in our Nation because of the lies that lead to fear tactics, told and spread by the National Rifle Associations and many of their colleagues. People who run for office know and understand that the NRA is only second in power to the American Medical Ass. or the A.M.A.  With men like the Koch brothers backing the NRA, Republicans and Conservative Democrats know they will lose their jobs or never get elected if they even whisper, “gun control”, so as a Nation we keep talking about doing something and then we forget about it until the next tragedy.

When those who claim that,”we need to  grieve first,” I am in agreement with you if that is what it will take to give you the strength later to claim your responsibility to protect the children.  I am equally supportive of those of us who express our views now, as it is when we put a time clock on our expression of anguish, that we too often fail to do anything that will be heard by those who are responsible for such a needless tragedy. In America we need to accord the grieving of all people on their own time frame, because as a Nation we all share in the grief.  When we start judging each other in how or when they grieve or express that grief, then we fail to understand our own need to stop the in-action in us.

What always amazes me is the public outrage or disbelief that these tragedies often happen in small or rural communities.  Mental illness and gun ownership is as prevalent in one area of America as the other. If we recognize that abuse happens in one out of every three homes in America regardless of the social economic situation, and a person needs to be mentally unstable on some level or suffering from depression on another, in order to commit murder/suicide, then we can and should accept that our children are not safe anywhere as long as gun enthusiasts rights are protected by the lobbyists who control our Nation and politicians.

Depression that is sometimes brought on by circumstances in our lives, holds no favorites nor does it care what the size of the community is or the type of community we reside in.  The sad thing is that mental illness is easily recognized by those who refuse to spend their lives in denial, and as equally and as readily treatable.  When Politicians, the law or the courts, or insurance companies refuse to help parents by passing laws that aid in the treatment of mental illness and carrying them long-term on insurance policies, then the public will too often suffer the consequences. We as a society should never condemn the parents for the real frustrations and sometimes fear that they are left to deal with in the interim. We instead need to point the finger at those who are more committed to profit over the safety of our children and ourselves.

We know mental illness results as much from genetics as it does from environment and just as compassionate people should not fault people for the unfortunate circumstances of many physical diseases, we should not condemn those who suffer from mental illness.  When we do not demand the coverage of Insurance Companies to cover mental illness, but too many times complain because our premium costs go up instead, then we also play into the neglect of the needs of our own or are responsible for our own in-action. When we refuse to believe that as a Nation we all must protect the needs of our children, then we fail more than just our children but we fail ourselves, as well.

As a Nation we are hearing the underpinnings of the refusal to cover the cost of the health care for our elderly,disabled, and poor even though Nations less advanced than our own cover 100% of the costs of all of its citizens, without stating as fact, that as a Nation they can no longer afford to do so. When we refuse to invest in the needs of our people, we refuse to keep our children safe as well.  In order for our children to be totally safe in America we must demand that the 17 Republican State Legislatures who passed into law the, “Stand Your Ground Laws”,over-ride the law effective, immediately.

We already have a history of knowing when lay people are not effectively trained, do pull a gun on another or fire back, too many times we will fire into a crowd wildly which leads to more death, or we will freeze up and not fire at all. Shooting at a target or a gun club does not offer us the same reality as actually shooting at another human being does. Guns in the hands of those of us who are not trained or of the mindset, only causes more death and destruction, when called on to defend ourselves or others. Even trained policemen are slow to use their guns due to the collateral damage that is often present. Using guns to protect against guns is simply another fallacy offered by The N.R.A. and those who protect the use of guns. The Stand Your Ground Laws,  have already shown that they are just another death, waiting to happen in our children.

We can no longer let the lies that the hunter will lose his guns or it is against the Constitution to interfere with the right to bear arms over ride our own common sense, while we let the power of those who run our Nation through preying on the ignorance of others to continue. It amazes me and should all of us, that the argument that if they don’t have a gun they will use a knife has led people to believe that as many people would die in as rapid succession with a knife as an assault rifle or a hand gun, has appeased the minds of those who pay membership into the NRA or those who are supposed Represent us in government.

The guns that are meant for self-defense or offense serve absolutely no needs and only adds to the destruction of the meat of the game animals and leads to the lost of human life. Military type weapons and ammunition do not belong in a home where our most innocent of people live or visit.  When the investigation is finished in New Town, Connecticut, we will do doubt hear as we always do, the guns that killed came from the home of the mother,  who was killed and who made the same mistake that too many others make and felt that a gun was safe in the home or would protect her.

Statistically, we kill many more people with guns of self-protection than lives we save as a result of owning the same. When 34 people per day or 32,000 people per year, die in America each year as a result of guns, then shouldn’t we start talking honestly about a person’s right to live over the rights of a person to own a gun?  When we compare our death rates with the use of a gun to those of 600 per year to Britain,who have much stricter gun laws, then something is terribly wrong when we don’t have meaningful dialog on the right of Americans to live over the right of a person to use a gun at will.

If we as a Nation place weapons into categories and then ban those categories we do not deny the hunter but instead deny those who would and do kill. If laws are enforced and placed on us to make us responsible for the handling of the weapon used for protection, then the unstable will not be able to own guns. When the Republican Party refused to reinstate the Brady bill in 2004 or the Violence Against Women Bill in 2011, they made it clear that it is not the people they are safe guarding and investing in, but the lobbyists instead.

When the NRA refuses to take action to ban bullets and ammunition when the only purpose they have, is to penetrate the vests of law enforcement, but instead lobbies millions into campaigns to guarantee the use of the same, then we the American public need to have our voices heard. When we demand that the responsible thing is done to keep all of us safe, then we will no longer need to ask “Why?” When irrational acts are done by those through irrational behavior, then we must as a Nation quit denying, “that guns do not kill but people do.” Without guns, irrational people cannot slaughter our young people or those who would protect them, in mass.

When guns are not kept safe in our homes or those who would use a gun to end life, knows where grandpa keeps the key, we must be held responsible for keeping guns and ammunition unprotected in our homes by the understanding that life is more precious than the need for recreational sport, with a fire arm.  Just as we wouldn’t turn rattle snakes loose in our homes or watch our children do drugs, and then deny that they would not kill, we must quit denying that guns do not kill.

There needs to be laws established to protect the gun as well as the people. If laws were made that would ban the use of a recreational gun, to those who it is not registered to and enforced by a stiff penalty of law, perhaps the most recent tragedy, just as in Columbine,would never have happened. If they refuse to pass the laws then we as responsible parents must understand that guns do kill.  Just as we do not offer our prescription drugs to children without penalty of law why would we offer a gun to anyone who it is not registered to use? Recreational guns could just as easily be stored at gun clubs or shooting ranges or stored in gun safes by responsible adults in the home. If we can put on a seat belt then surely we can safeguard the use of a gun.

We, the American People, can no longer let the memories of our children lost ,be in vain.  It does not matter if they died in Milwaukee, NewTown, Aurora, or on the streets of Detroit, Chicago or Philadelphia, their deaths just as their lives did, need to bring forward meaning to all of us. Their short-lived lives must stand for the end to the destruction done in our Nation by guns that only serve the purpose to kill our innocent people. We can no longer deny that the gun in the hands of the unstable kills.

These adults and children’s lives need to stand for the good in all of us that seeks out and demands the end to such tragedy in our Nation.  We cannot forget the trauma also experienced by the survivors in these terribly destructive killings of our loving adults and innocent children. We cannot allow such destructive behavior to continue to make our children to feel that adults do not stand for their need to feel safe. We cannot continue with the mentality that just because some one is a member of our family that their outbursts,with draw from Society, or fantasy of killing is normal.

When we as a Nation put politics, denial of reality, or sacristy of gun use in the hands of the unstable, over the sacristy of life, then we need to ask ourselves,” just how misconstrued is the American love of the gun over the value of life?”  We all need to take responsibility for common sense guiding us over a misconstrued value system.

Sadly the N.R.A. fights against any and all laws to use common sense in the handling of a gun and the storage of the same. Every lawyer knows and understands that any attempt to control the storage or use of a gun will lead to years of litigation by the N.R.A., just as every Conservative Democrats or Republican candidate understands it will lead to lost of their election run if they refuse to support the stand of the N.R.A.

Do not let the media fool you into believing it is as much Democrats as Republicans in Washington as less than 30 Democrats in Washington are Conservative out of  approximately 289 with only 47 Democrats,both liberal and Conservative in the Congress, as verses 196 Conservative Republicans including the Tea Party in the Republican Party married to the NRA.  When photo opts of our Republican leadership are taken in the presence of the NRA leadership representatives, each election year are seen as a proud moment of the Republican Party, then we need to ask, “Would our voices be louder than the lobbyists if we refused to vote for any candidate who protected or promoted the NRA and their colleagues’ memberships?”

Isn’t it going, “to take a village,” just as much as a city of people who are willing to stop the insanity of killings in our Nation and those who believe that we have a moral obligation to protect our children, to join together, to make the changes?  We have more than ample enough evidence to know that the politicians have no plan in doing anything but talking about it, because they are afraid to take a stand against the lobbyists.

Those politicians, who are committed to do otherwise, need our help and commitment to them at the election polls and need to hear our voices just as much as the law makers and politicians need to keep us safe. Do any of us even know who the Federal Judges in our States are, that we keep electing each election? I repeat:”When the voices and the votes of we the American people”, are counted and become more powerful than the lobbyists in Washington and our States, then we will have a Nation that protects its children.

If  we had spoken up as much for the rights of our children to be safe, as others did for the fetus, do any of us doubt that the politicians would act differently in the hours they put in, on the floor of the House or the Senate to protect our children against violence? When it comes to making and establishing gun laws, don’t we believe that if our voices are heard and our votes counted, that the politicians would develop more of a dialog in doing something to keep our children safe?

All the money paid the politicians by the lobbyists and men like Sam Adelson or the Koch Brothers cannot win an election for the politicians who refuse to act in the best interests of the American people if we simply refuse to vote for them or re-elect them.  The real power still lies in the hands of the common sense approach of the people, when we choose to invoke the same at the election polls.

When our voices and actions are as empty as the politicians, then the more powerful the Insurance lobbyists,NRA,and the American Insurance under writers will remain.  It is time that we make the changes in ourselves now, by moving forward instead of shaking our heads and passing the buck. I have enough faith in the power of the people to believe that we can make a difference in the safety of the lives of our children, so no other family has to ever suffer the tragedy taking place in our Nation today.

I am wishing everyone the Blessings of the Holiday Season and compassion for the grieving of those who have lost the most, along with those of us who have lost as a Nation. God Help us all.

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The Fastest Growing Wealth

Senators and Congressmen like to speak about how their salaries have been frozen at $174,000.00 a year for four years. When they tell the public that they do not tell us that they are amongst the fastest growing people in America when it comes to wealth accumulation.

When they mention their base pay they do not speak of the amounts they get in healthcare,pensions,compensation for travel expenses, housing allowances,their food allowances or entertainment costs.

They do not speak of the income they derive from insider trading on the stock market or what they gain in gifts from lobbyist. The Republicans voted not once but twice during the Bush years to allow for and to extend the gifts given to them by lobbyists.

While the middle class wages have remained stagnant or have flat lined over the past 20 years or so, the income of the Congress and Senate has grown at 150 times greater the rate of the normal American middle class citizen. The government that they are fighting to do away with has made them all wealthy.

The typical Congressman who comes into Congress with modest means, and stays for 10 to 15 years will be making on the average of $850,000.00 a year by the time they leave, once all their compensations, gifts,investments gained through the insider trading, and benefits are added up. They are amongst the largest group of those who receive entitlements in our Nation. They will leave with 5 to 6 million dollars on the average.

There perhaps are many reasons, not a few being their own wallets, as to why the Republicans refuse to lift the Bush Tax cuts that are draining our treasury and building our deficit to the point that it is bankrupting our government, of the people, for the people, and by the people. Both Parties are guilty of getting wealthy off of the middle class but only the Democrats, are fighting to save the middle class as we know it. Our government and “We the People” pay them very well.

Mitt Romney said.”He does not care about the poor who are protected by a safety net just those who fall between the holes.” How many of us think that Mitt even knows that the safety net is so pathetic that a child dies in the United States every 5 minutes due to starvation related diseases?

This is Republican speak for the constant words spoken in regards to the “haves” supporting the “have nots.” They either truly believe that the poor do not work and are dependent on the wealthy for welfare or it is politically popular to show disdain towards the poor in the current climate of “me first and only,” as represented by the Tea Party mentality. Could he be so out of touch that he truly believes the food on their table is so well provided for by the wealthy, that the safety net includes a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs,and that food stamps pay for the needs of the poor?

We can only hope that the man who believes he can represent the middle class is not that out of touch but instead, it was said to please the Tea Party as it has become so popular this year, because it plays well with the Tea Party who also believes this garbage.

If not, then it only reiterates what we all know about Mitt, and that is he does not have a clue that many of the middle class that he professes to want to help are these same poor that he says he is not concerned about.

It is not the truth and has never been the truth that the tax dollars of the “haves” pay for the “have nots” and provide them with a safety net. The truth is when the middle class and the poor do fall on hard times, because their wages keep getting cut by Corporations or they get laid off, it is the government in government subsidies that help feed the poor while the Churches or the schools, in most of the cases, distribute it free.

This has been paid for by the working poor and middle class from their taxes, while they were employed ,and it continues being paid for by the working poor and the middle class, who pay for the large percentage of the government subsidies and certainly not the wealthy. It simply is more of the bigotry that we are hearing in the Republican Party.

The wealthy do not support anyone, as they have lawyers and lobbyist that make certain that they do not pay their fair share in taxes. They have loopholes given to them by the Bush tax cuts and found for them by their lawyers, that gets them out of paying taxes that do not exist for the rest of us.

The average middle class and working poor Americans, who have raised their families, and own their home can deduct their house mortgage, a small percentage for charity,and that is all, providing they do not travel for a living. Those who do have children can deduct their children and day care. If we rent we have even less tax cuts. The wealthy have pages after pages of tax loop holes that do not exist for the rest of us, because they were not granted in the Bush tax cuts. In some cases, they pay no taxes at all. It is so common that none of us should be surprised to find that would be true if Mitt Romney was made to release his taxes back the 12 years that President Barack OBama has.

It is the working poor and the middle class who support the wealthys’ entitlements, with their loop holes and tax breaks and Corporate welfare, and yet they refuse to let go of the bigotry that they spread against the poor. Newt Gingrich is in an uproar over Mitt’s statement even though, Newt said, “The children of the poor should be taken away from their parents and placed into orphanages,” when he served in the House.

The fact that Mitt Romney has placed his wealth over seas in the Cayman Islands, and in the past in Swiss banks, and speaks in such a callous regard about the poor, who he really thinks that the wealthy are supporting, is the best indicator we all have that he will do nothing towards lifting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and it will be business as usual in the Republican Party, if he is elected.

Although the Republican candidates made their multi-millions outside of government, with the exception of Santorum and Newt, we can bet they will add to it and protect it over their claimed desire to find jobs for the middle class and working poor if elected. It is amazing just how many free entitlements the wealthy politicians feel they deserve for free, while they call the Social Security and Medicare that we paid for since the 1950′s out of each pay check we earned,at a much higher rate, than we are today, entitlements.

We can no longer afford to make politicians wealthy when they are looking out for their own best interests over our own and while bankrupting the government that employs them. It is time to throw them out and let them live a comfortable life, as Mitt has been doing for 10 years, off the interests their multi-millions make.

In passing, do we think Rick Santorum will show his taxes for 12 years? When people find out that he gained his millions off of government employ and as a lobbyist won’t that fly in the face of the idea he likes to project, and that is, he is just a regular “Joe”? Seems to me, if he does his own taxes and they are on his computer, all he has to do is load the printing carrier with paper, and press the print button.

Have a good day all and if it sucks instead, then take out time to smile at someone who has had a worse day than you have, or hug your kids, pet, or loved ones. It’s amazing the difference a smile and/ or a hug can make towards lifting our spirits. If that doesn’t work then have a dish of ice cream. It is o.k. as long as we do not make a continued habit of it.

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The Class Warfare Stupidity

The Republican’s Class Warfare Stupidity claims, along with the envy they claim the have-nots have for them, can be compared to the analogy of an undocummented Latino who is threatened with being sent back to her homeland, if she does not continue being mistreated and accepts unfair and unjust treatment, by the wealthy, for whom she works under duress.

The only class warfare that exists, in this kind of scenario, is in the mind of the wealthy family who is mistreating her, when her family comes and rescues her. The rest of us see the rescue as fairness and justice, and breathe a breath of fresh air in the sense that justice finally does occur when she no longer has to deal with the threats and unfairness of the working environment that the wealthy created.

It is when she is finally able to spend time in the arms of her loved ones, is when she and the rest of us know and understand, is the real wealth that we all seek. This is something that too many times go right over the heads of the disillusioned or those yelling class warfare in the Republican Party.

To think that these arrogant or obtuse people, would refuse to believe that the 99% have anything but disdain directed against them, and justifiably so,for the way they mistreated a woman who could not defend herself against their mistreatment, and the relief we feel when she is finally rescued, simply does not register in the minds of the home owners radar, anymore than it does in the minds of the current Republican Party.

They have been so use to feeling entitled to a life where they can order people around or treat them in any manner they wish, that the likely hood they will ever understand the difference between fairness and class warfare is next to nil. The Republican Party, does not get or understand that they are elected to serve our needs over that of their peers. That there is another world that exist and has nothing to do with either envy of them and their peers or class warfare, totally misses any level of understanding in their minds, so we will all need to show them at the ballot boxes what it is that we do mean by fairness.

There is little to nothing about any of them that we do envy, or would we waste a moment of our time to try to mess up a hair on their head. Some people are just so far removed from the rest of us that we would not cross the street to shake their hands and it is not class warfare but instead a total disinterest in the people who refuse to acknowledge our right to gain and hold onto our own dignity in order to work and provide for our families.

These are the real feelings that exist against the 1% but they are so full of themselves, that they would prefer to think that their pathetic lives and lack of compassion or empathy for anyone but their own goals or peers would hold anything other than the feeling of pity for them. For them to think otherwise, would lessen their own image of their own self-importance. Therefor like everything they do, it is better to put the onus or blame back onto the sholders of the 99% because they always have done so.

The great majority of us want to be as far away from their idea of morality as we can get. We might envy a sports figure’s ability or natural talent or a lottery winner who won the lottery ticket on the same lottery we spent a couple of dollars on, but there is not a thing about the wealthy who gain their millions to billions off of the back of workers, and then mistreats them, that we even want to go to war over, much less envy.

To blame the latino, or the 99%, or for that matter President OBama, for dividing the Country or to think it is class warfare on the part of the people under similar circumstances, is as unthinking and morally as objectible to the 99% as the Republican Party’s argument of class warfare, when President OBama and the Democrats ask them to cease and desist and to pay their fair share in taxes.

We understand that life is not always fair and that suffering is a part of life. We also understand the sacrifices we need to make for “Liberty for all”, as well as, the financial future of the working poor and middle class, and our government, is at stake. The problem is that the 1% do not understand that, or the fact that they need to make sacrifices, as well. If they were not so use to having their fanny kissed by the working poor and the middle class, then they would understand the difference between disdain,frustrations, and pain as versus envy and class warfare as versus fairness.

I am all in favor of teaching them at the polls, by re-electing Barack OBama for President, in November. I hope you agree with me and will join me at the polls to educate the Republicans, who need to know and accept the education on their behalf,without blaming those of us who do not believe in or fall for their own brand of ignorance or attempts to hide behind their deliberate moral corruption, as well.

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Who Makes Politicians?

At a time in our Country, when the polls show that only 9% of the population are pleased with the Congress we currently have, I wonder, how many of us ever ask what makes a Congressman a Congressman? Of course the answer is we do. Although it maybe questionable in States like Texas as well as when Al Gore won the popular vote against George “Dubya” Bush, the truth is, it is “we the people” who keep electing these Republicans who have made it clear they do not represent us but the 1%.

Nothing should upset us more than the people who complain and do not vote unless it is the brainwashed or those who vote while professing ignorance or vote the way their fathers or their mates do. Just as Christ spit out the luke warm so should we Americans be upset with the people who either do not vote but complain or those who vote without knowledge or conviction or worse yet the way they are told to vote. Nothing will cost the rest of us our freedom, lifestyle, or Democracy faster than those who vote with blinders over their eyes or out of indifference or ignorance.

If only 9% of us are pleased with the Congress and the other 91% are not then whose fault is it that the majority keeps electing these Republican Turkeys, if not ourselves? Help me help the 99% Occupy movement,help the AARP, or any community active in educating the voters to understand that when we elect politicians into the Congress, Senate or Presidency, they do not get to dismiss the majority of “we the people”, nor will they ever remain a politician unless we are heard.

They are elected to improve and to work for the Federal government in Washington D.C. who writes their checks and to help improve the lives of the people who elect them and are not elected to improve their own livelyhood or to work only for Party interests or those who contribute to their campaign funds. To deliberately destroy government for the sake of free enterprise or the 1% is not the purpose of a politician who is elected by “We the People.”

The mainstream media who is owned by Corporate and Murdoch, as well as the Republicans, would convince us that OBama has not been working for the people by the people since taking office and instead it is as much the Democrats refusal to give into the demands as the Republicans and vice versa, even though that is far from the truth. The Republicans are working for Corporate greed while the majority of Democrats fight for the middle class and that is the reason they do not agree.

The Democrats were able to prevent a Depression that was feared to be greater than the Great Depression and began with healthcare for everyone, even though OBama risked not being re-elected, as a result of starting there.Obama and the majority of Democrats minus the 33 Democrats who consistently vote against them, have been commited to the people from day one and that is not to say that mistakes have not been made but no one has ever had quite the mess they have had with a “Say NO” Republican base to deal with in the past. More than likely, history will treat OBama kinder than some of us have. Throughout other times in history both parties have wanted to go home to talk about what they accomplished when working together for the people during an election year. This bunch of Republicans only want to find fault and tell half truths.

When they lose sight of what their job is, it is time for we the people to lay them off.We not only bring them there, we keep them there, and have no one but ourselves to blame when people like Newt Gingrich goes into the Congress with a teacher’s wages and comes out a multi-millionaire and we then elect him to the Presidency even though his own party had to get rid of him on 44 grievances of misconduct that led to unethetical practice and a fine of $300,000 while in the Congress as House Speaker.

The best barometer of future behavior is past behavior even though he is now with his third wife and has joined the Catholic Church. He divorced his first wife when she developed cancer and his second when she developed MS and yet says God has destined him to be President. We certainly have seen enough egotistical and verbose politicians who think nothing of lying to make their own gains, when religion rarely if ever, changes the character of the man. If Newt is our next president then we truly can only blame ourselves for not stopping the travesty of injustice and the weakening of Democracy.

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Cont…..But He Is A Good Father

The two biggest arguments that women use when staying in an abusive relationship are:”I still love him,” and “He is a good father.”

If we could get through the message to people who are abused that it takes both people to show and express love and that love does not hurt then perhaps the abused would look at their relationships more realistically. I’m not sure how we do that,myself, as many times the abused have been told so many times “how worthless they are.” many are convinced that they and their children can not survive if they do leave the marriage. All I do know for certain is that telling women that they do have a duty and obligation to go back to the marriage bed and to try harder to work with their husbands and to pray does not work and often leads to tragedy to the entire family.

All the favorite meals,mood lightening, and following detail to the explicit demands of an abuser does nothing towards stopping the abuse, either. One of the other problems of abuse is many times when women do say, “I don’t have time to do what he wants today,” and he does come home and beats her,she will think it is her fault because she did not follow orders. The abused do start believing that they are as dumb,fat, and ugly as they are being told they are by the abuser. They all forgive and promise they will never do it again,of course,but it never last. During the forgiveness period many are that sweet loveable person the women fell in love with and they become convinced they are deeply in love and could never leave, all over again. Living in fear becomes a rush and if it does not become comfortable then it becomes normal for them, the longer it goes on. It becomes easier all the time to deny all of the rest.

Of course, a parent who is thinking clearly, would never say,”He mistreats me but he is a good father.” We all understand that children cannot watch turmoil between their parents and come out with anything but psychological damage as a result of it.We know that whether children are watching abuse take place on others or it being inflicted on themselves, it alters the personality of the person they were meant to be as early as 3 years of age. To cause this kind of damage to a child does not make any of us a good parent when we realize that this type of harm or damage will affect the entire life of our children. They will grow up totally confused as to how to effectively deal with a relationship and many times will abuse themselves.

Other times the children come out just as demoralized as the battered women because just as she has no self-esteem or identity beyond him neither do the children. The sons will often repeat the same disgusting names to both their mother or sisters as are coming out of the mouth of the abuser.Many times he learns that the only value women have is to wait on and look after a man. The sons learn to bully and the daughters learn to withdraw, other times sons will become intimidated and withdraw while daughters become more aggressive and tend to become more sexually active when incest, many times becomes part of the abuse as well. This is typical behavior patterns when the abused are saying.”He is a good father.” no differently than when the children are being beaten as well.

Policemen can pick up the mentally ill and have them hospitalized without family approval in cases of discovery according to the Baker law. The problem is that putting women into shelters under the same circumstances will often times jeopardize the safety of the other abused women who are in hiding. If the victims do not want to go or be there, which is often the case, they will get ahold of their abusers and let them know where they are and once the secret address of the shelter becomes known then the safety it offers for other abused victims no longer exists.

Like all of the problems that do seem unsolvable there are solutions once an entire community of experts put their heads together to come up with different ideas. Sadly that all costs money and time and too many do not have one or the other to offer to the group. I am the first to admit that I do not have much to offer in way of solution,myself. I just understand that as long as we ourselves go into denial when our friends tell us they ran into something that gave them the black eye,because we do not want to embarrass our friend,we do the abused a disservice by not discussing it. Too many are ashamed to talk about it but once confronted by understanding instead of accusations, when the relationship is a close one,many times they will want to talk.

If we educate ourselves on the knowledge available to them like going to see their Doctor or the police and enquire about getting into a shelter or they will only repeat the behavior until it becomes worse, we can help empower them. Offering sympathy will only make them feel better temporary and they will go back to the abuse. Other times they will rely on us for their courage and do nothing else, Many times when the abuser finds out the abused are relying on a confidant they will end the relationship. I repeat, we need to empower them to get help so they do not rely on our hand holding but instead rely on their own ability to seek help.

Currently in some of the States when police are being called to domestic calls, both the abuser and the victim are being arrested and spend the night in jail or at least a couple of hours until things cool down a little. I do not think putting abused victims in jail is right but if we did pass laws that made protecting abuse and abusers illegal in our State, perhaps the abused could be hospitalized and at least kept long enough to try to work with the mental damage that is often done to the entire family by an abuser. I can already see the problems that could come out of that as well, and that is why abuse is such a difficult problem to work with and to solve.

Like everything else that is preventive, we simply need to learn and educate ourselves while we are dating and making lifetime choices for a mate. If he or she strikes or hits us or throws things at us, while dating, he or she will become much worse after marriage. Dating is the time that we are on the best of behavior and any names being thrown at us while dating will go from being cute to vindictive after marriage. Anger that is not part of the grieving process very rarely subsides without being able to release it. Healthy people will talk to someone or get professional help in order to either let go or to work more effectively around it. Others hide it behind alcohol and drugs. If we are doing both with the abusers while dating then we need to understand the hell we will put our children through if we marry them and continue the same recreational behavior.

All parents need to know and understand just how important an education beyond highschool is to all of our children. Both boys and girls. Too many times the number one reason that our children do stay in an abusive situation is because of the fear that they could not financially support their children alone,as well as, they can by staying in the abusive situation. Education does not only give them the out to do that but it also establishes the confidence in our children that often leads to their knowing they deserve better and to get out before any more damage is done to their children or our grandchildren. None of the expensive birthday parties or clothes that we are currently buying them will lead to the success of their lives as an education will. Even though abuse does also exist in the educated, it is considerably less, and nothing empowers our children like an education does.

Whatever lays ahead for abuse I feel it needs to be dealt with,as it lies at the root cause of what Americans should be most ashamed of, as well as, is twin to crime, in America today. To just wash our hands and give up or worse yet to blame the victims and do nothing, when we are so much better as a Nation than that,shows poorly against us all.At the same time I applaud all of you who have dedicated their years and time working towards finding solutions only to find out that the root problem towards solutions does lie in the victims themselves, who have been so deeply brainwashed in fear or have learned to adapt to it,to the point they do refuse help offered to them,too many times.Somewhere there is a bridge that will join the gap that does lead to successful treatment and my faith is in the fact that we will find it. Thanks to all of you who are looking.

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It Matters Not–It Matters A lot!

It matters not whether we wish our fellow mankind Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas as a friendly greeting ,of any kind, is almost always warmly accepted when we are in the spirit of giving or receiving. To make or take issue with such a small matter when 50 million children, are reported,to go to bed hungry shows how petty some people have become or more about what is missing in their spirit, in my opinion.

As 2010 comes to an end, I would like to reach out and thank all of you who have taken out a moment of your time to read my blog and to comment as well. Whether you agreed with me or not,it matters a lot the large majority of you, showed real class in what the majority of we Americans represent, and that is respect of our fellow mankind to express themselves, in a free Democracy.

I began my blog on New Years’ eve 2010, and have enjoyed writing my posts. I can’t imagine what I left unsaid, and I know in areas where I am more passionate, I did repeat myself a number of times, my sentence structure and spelling left a lot to be desired at times, and you all were kind enough not to point that out. I thank you,for that, as well, as it was appreciated by me.

What has always and still does matter a lot, to me, at this time, is if 50 million children are going to bed hungry in the United States of America each night and one child is dying every 5 minutes, as a result of starvation related diseases in America, is true or a guise to contribute to not such reputable agencies? These are the figures being reported on radio, in America. I would hope someone with influence and the ability to check such figures would look into this matter.

It makes absolutely no sense to me at all, when the government gives away so much food in its surplus programs of commodities such as peanut butter and cheese, Americans contribute millions if not trillions of dollars as well as food products, through their private donations to food pantries, taxes,Churches,businesses,private organizations from Feed the children to the Red Cross to the Salvation Army (to name a very few) Corporations, and Banks that this food and the money to buy the same ,along with a great deal of food that is available free, is not reaching the hungry in America.

We are no longer living in the dark ages where hungry children could not be reached due to transportation difficulties. Every place where mail and technology can reach in America, so should food to the hungry be shipped or made feasible. So I ask again, if 50 million children are going to bed hungry and 1 child is dying every 5 minutes, why? When the buildings,sometimes utilities,upkeep,volunteer labor etc. is all offered free through volunteer efforts, where does the millions to trillions of dollars and pounds of food, donated, go and why isn’t it reaching the hungry in America?

Some children will always slip through, due to human error ratio, but we are not a third world country and to accept 50 million hungry children as well as so many children dying each day, as a norm, in a developed country such as our own should, I would think, alarm us all. If we can see every nook and cranny in America through satellite shouldn’t we also be able to make certain no child ever goes hungry in America? It is not a lack of generosity on the part of the American people or government to give, as we are the most altruistic Nation in the world. We are also the largest producer of food produce in the world. I understand a great deal of our altruism is spread around the world but shouldn’t we feed our own,first? Perhaps someone as concern as myself, with much more influence than I, can check this out in 2011 and report back to the Nation?

Since this will be the last of my posts for 2010, I again, offer my thanks to you all for taking out a little of your time to either read,curse, or hopefully perhaps, without seeming too indulgent of my own ego, to find someone who just might have understood what you were feeling. I wish each and every one of us a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! When we are generous and kind in our thoughts,speech and actions to one another, it changes negative attitudes that predispose some towards entitlement and greed,stops gossip and lies,and brings refreshment to our souls. It matters a lot!

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When Religion Controls Elections

We have all lived and felt what happens when we take the checks and balances off of any sector of Democracy. We end up with the tragedies, we now have. A Baptist Church on the hate crime list. Sarah Palin claiming the picture of, Our President of the United States, dressed in Taliban clothing on her favorites list on her Tweeter page was an accident and saying “Oops it was a mistake”. Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Bachmann claiming that OBama is spending 20 million dollars a day, when in truth, he is going to visit India to drum up trade for the aero-industry for jobs here in America. It is nothing more than spread of both hate and lies. If that wasn’t bad enough they even claim 34 warships,approximately 20% of our Navy,at a cost of 2 Billion dollars, will be on alert to protect him. No one is left to stop the lies and hate that go unchecked when Religion goes unchecked and controls power.

Greed in both the politician and Wall Street runs rampant when we take the checks and balances off both Corporate and Capitalism and we end up with not only hate and lies being condoned and in some cases paid for. Win at all cost to the spirit of Democracy, becomes the battle cry. The Churches are and can claim they are under-attack by the liberals or everyone that is not with them, are the result of the spread of Atheism. God for bid, if those Christians amongst us, should stand up against the spread of hate and lies and the organizations or groups responsible for the same, in an effort to bring back equality and respect to the name of Religion. We have the worse of humanity controlling American Democracy, when Religion gains power, and uses it against whole sectors of people.

If the Churches,namely the Catholic priest had been sent to prison, where all pedophiles belong, we would have put some form of check and balances on the Church. Instead we Americans simply chose to ignore it, at an expense to 1000 plus fellow citizens whose lives have been destroyed. Will the same happen to Reverend Long or will we just insist he is innocent as well and pay off the young boys or call them liars as well, because the rapists are Church leaders and are considered God’s Representatives, and as such can do no wrong? I assure all of us that greed,lies, and rape of the innocent, by the very people and institutions that should be protecting and protesting the loudest, is not the work of God.

Instead we allow it all to go unchecked and send the message,ourselves, that Religion is above the law. Religion Doctrine has not been able to work with Religion, much less will it protect Democracy. The different beliefs and Doctrines, as well as the struggle for supremacy in the Churches, has always divided the Religious Community with hate. It is doing the same with our politics and therefore our Democracy. What the heroes amongst us have shed blood for, has not been or will ever be, for the privilege of the powerful to threaten,hurt,bully,intimidate and use fear tactics on the truth and innocent while protecting the hate and lies that it refuses to stop from spreading,while denying or paying off the victims with cash instead of justice.

Religion is and has been at the center of the battles in the Middle East since 76AD. It is and has always been the job of Religion to serve mankind just as it is the job of government to do the same. Instead mankind serves both when Religion controls elections. We need to remind both who is in charge. Sadly Tuesday’s election was just more of the same old crap, “Of lie to them.Tell them we will cut the budget but don’t answer how or where when asked.” Neither Religion or Government are doing their jobs, nor are we.

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Why Is It………………..

Have you really listened to what the Tea Party is saying? They profess to be pro military as long as there is no draft and they or their families are not risking life by bringing back the draft. At the same time they want to do away with the Veterans Administration. They claim that they will only get back 13% of what they pay in for Social Security so why can’t they eliminate it and keep their own money to spend or save. It really has nothing to do with what is good for America but more about what they think is good for them. It is an irresponsible approach to shirking what has been the duty of generations since the 1940′s. The right wing amongst them want to lower minimum wage and take away the rights of women,minorities, and gay, by repealing both civil rights as well as the Equal Rights Amendment. How can they possibly be on the side of Americans while driven by bigotry and selfish endeavors?

We have people who filed for bankruptcy before they were 30, will pay more than a house is worth, if it has beige walls and stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops, are attending college at a lesser degree or quitting before they get their degree ,buy shoes before paying their bills, are eating out instead of cooking healthy meals, if they did go to college or buy a house, Mom and Dad paid for it or paid off their horrendous bad debt to improve their credit so they could buy a home,refuse to take minimum wage jobs, now telling us that they want privatization of Social Security so that they can make sure they do not pay out one nickel more than they need to, to take care of the same elderly people who spoiled them rotten.

If they would wake up and realize that they will pay out so much more than what they currently pay out if both the V.A. and Social Security were turned over to private citizens we would not even have to be dealing with this mentality that is poisoning the peace of mind that we are entitled to in America. The truth is that both taxes and interest rates are at an all time low since the 1950′s and that is part of the problem when it comes to paying off the deficit. Right now none of us are paying what we should be paying for because we all are paying for the irresponsible that felt that their bills did not need to be paid but the government’s did.

At the same time that they protest taking care of the elderly some of them spend more money on clothing,play, and travel than any generation before them, in some cases they are buying homes they cannot yet afford before they even get out of college and definitely before they pay off their student loans,some think that unemployment benefits over working is a right of passage even when they are offered jobs, if a builder does not build a home with large closets to house their expansive wardrobes or shoes and include granite counter tops and stainless steel this bunch of complainers will not give it a second look. It definitely is not a group of people who are going to walk in and find out that they themselves can save money by painting their own walls and by saving money to fix a home. Instead they take out home equity loans and complain that by taking out a 2nd mortgage their interests rates go up.

I do feel sorry for the responsible ones of the generation as well as all generations that do have to pay for the waste that some of this generation are imposing on all of us. It is an injustice to both have to pay for ourselves as well as all the irresponsible for 3 generations before them or after us. Those of us that saved and sacrificed for old age will be paying for it right along with you. I know that you get a bum rap in your generation just as we have always gotten in our generation. That is the main reason we do not join the irriresponsible by voting as irresponsibly as they do, because then we become one of them. Why is it, that those that are the most irresponsible amongst us, also many times, are the ones that complain the loudest?

When are we all going to start looking at ourselves as being as big of a problem as both corporate and government. Haven’t we that are responsible been paying out of the nose all along? The generation before us was given an option as to if they wanted to pay into social security or if they did not want to. Many said then that social security would not last until they retired so opted out of paying. Because so many felt that way it was made mandatory for our generation to pay into it even though everyone said there would be no funds left by the time we retired. That sadly, is true but only because the Republicans could not wait to get their hands on the surplus once they got control, and spent the surplus, withint the first two years they had control under the Bush Administration. Social Security had been working all those years prior to the greedy spending it. It had such a surplus that it would have paid benefits until 2072. Are you really planning to vote them back in?

Do we really want the greedy and irresponsible running our Country again? Tell them what we think of them at the election polls. Vote Nov. 2nd.

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Barton Exposes True Right-Wing Mentality

It is the nature of the Texan to take control and not to follow directions. Remember “Dubya’s” key word, “I’m the decider”? For Joe Barton to use the word “shakedown” to express what he thought Obama was doing to British Petroleum was no accident. Not anymore than Joe Wilson using the word Liar when expressing his views on Obama nor the message boards lighting up with the volunteers yelling mafia. Since the day that it looked like Obama could win the Presidency the right-wing conservative Republicans have made a conscious attempt to evoke the image of Obama being a Chicago thug and an outsider.

Yesterday’s action by Joe Barton was nothing more than exposure of the true belief of the right-wing conservative Republican mentality. They play the blame game and accuse Obama of the very thing that they themselves are guilty of having created. They bring in God and Country along with family values and expound virtue when their true role is as a protectionist. They no more care about American virtue nor practice it, than they care about the people who vote for them. Their real goal is to protect Corporate America at all cost to the people.

The white elephant in the room has always been Corporations that buy and pay for the Republican Party Protection. Make no mistakes about it. When the Republicans won taking the regulations off of Corporate America they shared in the greed as well. There was nothing greater to the damage done to American wealth of the middle class than what was done by deregulating American Banks and Corporations.

We as the public will be paying for that greed for decades and that is why there is such an effort being made to swing the perception of America over to the ideal that it is Obama who is the person that does not care while they fight tooth and nail to protect the interests of Corporate America. That was the true reason that no one Republican voted for the Healthcare bill and fought it “tooth and nail”.

The problem that the Republicans keep running into is that when “we the People’ elect the people who are protecting the corporations they sometimes are going to end up with elected officials that will expose their true belief system. Joe Barton did that yesterday. There is an old saying in, “water seeks its own level”. Simply put it means the corrupt will expose themselves. That is exactly what happened yesterday and is the reason the Republican Party was quick to put the pressure on Barton to apologize.

Once more I urge everyone to get acquainted with the voting records of their representatives both in their States and Washington DC. Be aware of the fact that there are right-wing conservatives amongst the members of the Democratic Party , as well, but not nearly to the extent that they are embedded in the Republican Party. With the internet it is rather easy to find the voting records and it eliminates any excuses to do so. Your vote does matter and will directly change the direction that the right-wing is trying to take in their dominance over the American workers. We owe it to the future generations to be able to share in the Democracy that we all have enjoyed.

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Now We Know Why They Like Stupid!

The Republican right-wing conservative Barton, from Texas, blasts Obama for a shake down of a poor innocent BP president and apologizes to him for the shake down he got from Obama. The messages that follow on the message boards are clearly from the stupid or those that have no ability left to register reality. The best of the stupid that I read was “It is Obama’s fault that the well blew as his energy policy would not let British Petroleum drill in shallow waters.”

These are the kinds of people who the Tea Party is getting elected. Is it any wonder that the right-wing wants the uneducated and the stupid and will do everything in their power to make home schools and their Religion only,not your’s, the way of life for all of us? In their way of thinking women belong at home and pregnant while the white males take back the jobs, women currently have, anyway.

The “no child left behind” program was without a doubt the most “dumbing up” of all programs to date on our children. Instead of bringing up the under-achievers amongst our students it pulled down the average to over-achievers and is still having the effect as the Democrats struggle to bring back the levels of education.

I have covered all the reasons in my posts as to why it is important for all of us to adapt a reason to educate ourselves in politics. The days when mom or grandma could use excuses like, “I vote like my husband does”, “I vote the way my daddy always did”, or “I just vote Party lines” are or should be way past being dead. We can’t simply sit back and think that surely no one would vote for someone who is that stupid anymore, because it is already happening.

Didn’t we just find out what a mess America can get into with just one stupid President and his greedy administration? We cannot afford to not learn from the mistakes of George “Dubya” and still survive another one. America deserves better as do we. If we are not a part of the solution then we most certainly will be part of the problem. That you can bank on.

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