Ranting Again

It would seem as if the democratic party is abandoning me. Whatever shall I do? We need a women's party obviously since those democrats are so eager to throw us, once again, under the bus. If a woman can not control her body then she is not free. We do not control our bodies if we are forced to bare children we do not want--plain and simple. And it isn't JUST abortion here. No, it is also birth control as well. Make excuses if you will but I can not compromise on this--my body. And if you think it's alright for women to give up the rights of their own bodies than you, my fucking friend, are really fucked up and no friend of mine. I OWN my body--it is mine. If you won't defend my right to myself than I am obviously in the wrong party.

Hope, Courage, and Faith

Hope, courage, and faith. Don't I need those qualities and in abundance I might add. Sometimes I lose hope that we will, as a species, even be here in a hundred years. It takes courage to go on reproducing the next generation and helping the generations that come after that. As for faith, well, with my lack of faith I have little hope so maybe I ought to get more of that faith stuff to sustain me.

This award was given to me awhile back by Susan of phantsythat. Susan is a very intelligent, sensible woman who just happens to be a very creative and fabulous artist. I count myself lucky to have her as a blog friend.

There are no instructions involved with this award and I can pass it to whomever I choose. I am going to pass it on to those who I've met in the blogging world that I have known for awhile and who still come to visit me on a regular basis because as the award states: "[ for those] who came and never left your side." That should narrow it down some!

So without further ado let me give this prestigious award to:

Randal of L'ennui mélodieux because he has been a great blogging buddy. Once he starts reading you he comes back again and again. BIG smooches to you Randal! I admire your dedication, your loyalty, your profession (wink, wink) and your love of music and poetry. Don't mind the award being named after a chick okay?

Another guy I want to pass this on to is Steve of Monkey Muck. He started coming over here several years ago and although we don't always see eye to eye on every subject he is a loyal and devoted liberal willing to put his ideas to blog and shout out about it, which I admire very much.

Mnmon of Happy to be From Iowa is a true friend indeed. When I get my pity party on and I think that no one cares Mnmom comes over and leaves a great therapeutic comment meant to put some salve on the wound. Now THAT is a good friend to have! She needs some of the same herself from time to time as corporate America does their best to screw over her family.

I hope this little gift from me to thee cheers you up or makes your day. And thanks Susan for making mine!

Food, Inc

Why do I spend so much money on my food? Why am I a vegetarian? Why do I care? Watch this, please!



This is just a preview of a film you have got to see.

Magazines

At least once a month I go to the Bloomington public library just because it is one of the best damn libraries around. I have to spend $30.00 a year in order to use it but I gladly pay that fee and consider it money well spent. So anyway, we went to the library today and I got a Ms. Magazine, two Communities magazines, about communal living, and two Library Journal magazines as well. I read that last magazine, in addition to several other professional publications, but we have to share between staff and it might be months before I get to read the latest issue. Since these newest issues were there I had to pick them up. Our library system prefers to save money and buy more books for the collection so we only get one copy of each magazine that we have to share, big deal. I ain't complaining about that at all. I like buying books for the collection too.

The books I got from the library are:

The Case For Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton,
The Accidental Librarian by Pamela H. MacKellar
Cat Power by Elizabeth Goodman
and I renewed The Menopause Thyroid Solution by Mary J. Shomon

I have an appointment with my OB/GYN because I am going to return to using bio identical hormones. At first when I stopped taking the hormones it didn't seem so bad. Sure my skin was drier and lines around my mouth were forming, and I gained a few pounds but these side effects were at least somewhat tolerable to me. At least I wasn't having problem periods anymore and bleeding all over the place, I wasn't having too many hot flashes and I could sleep through the night. But obviously, I just didn't wait long enough for those symptoms to show up, because now I feel like a red light bulb and I haven't had a good nights sleep in over a week. I wake up every hour, usually because I'm burning up, and then have a hell of a time getting back to bed. Anyway, I was getting way too cranky. So I broke down and called for an appointment.

My friend from Vermont came to visit last weekend so we went out to eat and ran around in Bloomington. We ate at the Trojan Horse. One of my nieces works there. Thank the goddess that my friend has grandchildren she has to come back to visit or we would probably had already lost touch with each other as the years go on since she moved away. When she first moved away we sent each other letters, with pictures, and talked on the phone at least every month or so. However, this last year we only spoke a few times by phone, sent each other emails (and I'll say she's a lot less political than she used to be), but we didn't write letters or send pictures as that is all done on the computer now. I did take a week off for vacation and went out to visit her a few years back but usually she comes back to Indiana to visit her two sons and see her grandchildren.

She has two part time jobs, one of which she is the main librarian for her town. That library is small and only opened a few days each week. Then she works at the local school as the children's librarian. At any rate, she works full time. She asked me if I got my own subscription to the Booklist magazine and I told her no, I had to share it with the rest of the staff. Had I seen this month's magazine yet she asked and I told her no. So she said she only takes a week to read her copy and she is going to start mailing me hers which would mean I could pass our copy along right away to the next staff person on the list (the director, the reference librarian, the adult circulation manager, the children's librarian, and the three branch managers of which I am one--in other words we who buy for the collection). I am going to have to send her money for postage so she doesn't forget to mail it out to me.

But back to the magazines I got today. When I got home I had to do some work around the house and put away groceries and make something to eat before I could settle down with my newly acquired goodies. I looked at the Communities magazine first. I've always been drawn to communal living although I have never lived in a commune. I like the idea of it I must admit. Especially the ones featured in this magazine. These communes are all about living simply, without wasting resources, and eating organically. They also stress the values of fairness, giving to others, working for peace, and share a vision of living well and in harmony upon the Earth and with other living beings.

Magazine info:
COMMUNITIES
Life in Cooperative Culture
RR1 Box 156
Rutledge MO 63563; 660-883-5545
www.ic.org

Did you have a Happy Halloween? We did. There was a party at the library that was well attended. I spoke to my grandchildren by phone before they went out trick-or-treating. Then after hubby came home from work we went up to visit his sister who is now out of the hospital. She goes in three times a week for physical therapy but she is doing very well. It is really remarkable how much progress she has made since her surgery.

So I'm going get going here--another hot flash, time to peel off a layer of clothing...:)

On the eve of eve

This gloomy time of year when the bloom of Earth's crust is well on it's way to fading out, on death's door with it's cold and bitter winds coming to blow upon us, I bid you happy eve of the eve. And what better way to get into the proper frame of mind for the coming holiday than by having some great morbid poetry by the Master himself: Edgar Allan Poe.

Lenore

Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll!- a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river;
And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no tear?- weep now or nevermore!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read- the funeral song be sung!-
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young-
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.

"Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her- that she died!
How shall the ritual, then, be read?- the requiem how be sung
By you- by yours, the evil eye,- by yours, the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?"

Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong.
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before," with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy
bride.
For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes
The life still there, upon her hair- the death upon her eyes.

"Avaunt! avaunt! from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven-
From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven-
From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of
Heaven!
Let no bell toll, then,- lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damned Earth!
And I!- to-night my heart is light!- no dirge will I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a Paean of old days!"

Hallowe'en pictures

At the library one of the books I ordered has just came in, it is titled The Truth About Jack-O-Lanterns edited by Blue Lantern Studios. It is full of older Halloween pictures and is just the neatest little book.

Halloween is right around the corner so I thought I'd post some appropriate pictures just to get in the mood...







Binky wants you to know that he has not been moonlighting on the job around our house. But apparently there are impostors about!

Digital Libraries of the Future and Library Conferences

Ray Bradbury, bless his heart, loves libraries.

"When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years," he said. "I read everything in the library. I read everything. I took out 10 books a week so I had a couple of hundred books a year I read, on literature, poetry, plays, and I read all the great short stories, hundreds of them. I graduated from the library when I was 28 years old. That library educated me, not the college."

Now that is someone who used the library and loved it for all it is worth!

On Monday the director and I went up to Fort Wayne to the Indiana Library Federation conference and collected an award for the library. I wasn't sure how big of a deal it would be so I over prepared myself. I went out and bought a brand new outfit and a new pair of boots as well as a new coat. I didn't really need the coat as it has been very warm the past couple of days but it is nice to have a new coat all the same. We drove up to Fort Wayne and, oh wow, it was a big deal!

First of all, I ran into several people that I knew. I saw the director of the Bloomington public library and we spoke at length. I just had to let her know how much I love that library system! I also saw a fellow student who is the director of a small public library and who has been working on her master's degree, which she now has. She got the award for librarian of the year! I had to go and congratulate her. I saw a few other people that I knew from school but I didn't get the chance to talk to them as it was busy and crowded.

After the dinner banquet, there was a keynote speaker, an author of numerous children's books, who spoke to us. She discussed the importance of books and storytelling for children the world over. Then she spoke of libraries and their programs for children and how important it is for our children to have libraries in their lives. As I followed the speech I was nodding my head; yes, yes, that is what we do! And to think that libraries are almost socialist! What with everyone chipping in their money so that a library can exist and buy books and stuff for everyone to read!

Then the awards were given out. We were somewhere in the middle. I was slightly nervous. The director, in her acceptance speech, said that I was the face of this branch library and I just smiled and held the plaque. I had practiced saying a thank you and to accept on behalf of our loyal patrons but I plum forgot to say anything at all and since she was doing the talking that was fine by me. Then we had our picture taken and we watched other libraries and librarians get awards until the event was finally over. Our plaque states that our branch library is the library of the year, one that exemplifies best practices in public librarianship. It turned out to be a really nice affair altogether.

Don't you just love the library? I know I do. And I don't like all this talk of Kindle's and other electronic devices that are used to download books. Personally, I think this will screw up public libraries. It will get to be too expensive to have really nice libraries if we go over to this format. And if everything is digital why would you need a library, a building in the community, anyway? Maybe I'm being paranoid, it's entirely possible, but I can't help but wonder if libraries might soon be a thing of the past if everything is digital and good golly how horrible would that be!

Served

On the radio I heard the news that more of our troops are dying in the "wars on terror" going on in the Middle East. How long will this government make these young people go over to another land to kill people and/or be killed? I've heard that Biden is wanting to slow things down and I'm all for that. Biden surprises me but I have to say I am pleasantly so.

Dulce Et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! --- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime ---
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,---
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

This war is for the rich yet it is the working and middle classes who make up the military and are out there dying like pawns on a chess board.

The Dehumanization the Military Promotes

This is directly from my inbox and sent to you! I remember how we were told we are there to help the women who are oppressed by the Taliban but as you can read here yourself we have done our fair share of oppressing these women. I contribute to a variety of causes when I can. $20.00 from each of us would go a long way so if you can contribute, please do.

How can the US military save Afghan women, when 1 in 3 of its own female members are raped by their fellow soldiers and Marines?

I was in Times Square today as Sandra Lee, her voice shaking, and with great courage, told what she's gone through since being raped in Iraq in 2004. She is an Army staff sergeant, and the attacker was a fellow soldier. She spent years not knowing what to do, and wanting to die, but somehow found her voice and spoke publicly about the attack for the first time today.

Her story is much more common than the military admits. Veterans for Peace today launched a week of events to raise the issue, quoting a former soldier, "There are only three things the guys let you be if you're a girl in the military - a bitch, a ho, or a dyke." Ann Wright & Leah Bolger of Vets for Peace, and Eve Ensler, who has dedicated her life to stopping violence against women, joined Sandra.

Elaine Brower wrote today, "Sexual assault and rape of women and men in the US military increased so dramatically during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that in 2005 then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld formed a task force on sexual assault; however, the task force did not meet until 2008. Nearly one-third of a nationwide sample of women veterans who sought health care through the Veterans Administration said they experienced rape or attempted rape during their service. Of that group, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times and 14 percent reported they were gang-raped.

"The Department of Defense has been reluctant to release statistics on sexual assault of men in the military, but anecdotal evidence indicates that the statistics are alarmingly high. Over the past 10 years, more than 700 US Army Recruiters have been accused of sexual misconduct or rape. Sixty years of US military studies and task forces since women began entering the military in larger numbers have not lessened the incidents of assault and rape."

One can't talk about the rape of American soldiers without looking at the war crimes perpetrated on Iraqi and Afghan women in the course of these occupations. Veterans report that pornography is encouraged in the war zone; women are de-humanized. There's speculation that the photographs of detainee abuse the Obama administration now refuses to release include images of rapes. The rest of the world knows this is an integral part of the US occupations. It's the American people who are largely blind to it. To glimpse the reality of US rape in Iraq...and it's gruesome...look at these photos, which may be among those suppressed by Obama.

Remember that George Bush, and Laura, Hilary Clinton and feminist leaders sold the invasion of Afghanistan to the world as a mission to "save" the women of Afghanistan from the Taliban and the burka. I heard Zoya, from the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, speak last week. She said that under the Americans, Afghanistan is a "free country...a free country for rapists, opium runners, warlords and foreign troops." She spoke bitterly of the Taliban years, but said that Hamid Karzai's government has notorious warlord ministers he pardoned for notorious rapes, and that people hate the US occupation and Karzai so much they are going back to support the Taliban. "In the past few years, only some cosmetic changes have been made regarding women's rights," Zoya said, critiquing eight years of occupation by U.S. and NATO troops. "The burka is not any more in the papers, in the law, but because there is so much insecurity, so much rape and violence, many women still wear the burka."

PBS is showing a Frontline episode called Obama's War tonight on the fighting this summer in Afghanistan. As I write, I'm watching US troops meeting with Afghan men twice their age, in a culture they don't begin, or try, to understand, instructing them in how to "cooperate" in stopping the Taliban, "for their own good." Occupying imperialist, armies can't do any good. The shame is that there are people justifying such immoral, unjust occupations, and that Peace Prizes are given for expanding them.

Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
World Can't Wait - info@worldcantwait.org - 866.973.4463 - 305 W. Broadway #185, NY, NY 10013
Send checks or money orders, payable to "World Can't Wait":
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Book Shopping

Boy hasn't this year been flying by! It's almost mid October already, soon enough it will be Christmas time once again, and then the New Year and it will be 2010 not 2009 anymore. Of course my turning another year older not too long ago makes me all the more aware of the passage of time. The weather turning colder and the leaves turning bright yellow, orange, and red and falling on the ground makes me aware that the year is almost over and another year around the bend. All that is to say: Fuck! I'm getting older! I don't think I'm going to be one of those people who grows old gracefully. Nope, I'll be yelling, kicking and screaming all the way I think. I will not go easily into that goodnight.

I just finished reading Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and have just started The Year of the Flood by her as well. We have gone to several bookstores this month as it is not only my birthday, but my hubby's as well, and he likes buying books. We went to several privately run bookstores last week in Bloomington, right before we went to see Capitalism: A Love Story. There aren't as many independent bookstores in Bloomington as there used to be. Now there are more restaurants there than anything else. The more artsy or intellectual shops are almost all gone. Oh sure, there are still many neat shops to check out there as compared to the shops at any of the small towns around Bloomington, just not as many as there used to be. With MORE students attending IU than ever before you'd think these shops might get some business and could stay open but no....Too bad. Everyone likes to eat I suppose and so these places become restaurants instead with some special focus. Some are vegan eateries, others organic which is great but I miss those independent bookstores I gotta tell you.

We also went to a Border's bookstore and they offered a 30% discount to us just because I work at a library. This discount is also offered to teachers. Business has not been as good for them in this economic downturn. I mention this because at another bookstore I also got a discount for working at a library. Maybe they can get us library people in there to buy books for the libraries they are thinking. How else to sell these books that aren't moving off the shelves quick enough?

This weekend we ventured over to Half Price Bookstores. I like that chain because I can get some good DVDs there. Musicals, documentaries, stuff that didn't sell to the masses because it is weird, intellectual, or avant-garde. Well I love that kind of stuff and buying it half price isn't bad either. Nor did this trip prove disappointing. I got the musical Hair and the documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. Then I also bought a book entitled Woody Guthrie: Art Works for $3.00! It contains "the journals, drawings, and sketchbooks of an American original" I also was able to get a large oversize hardback book showing Frida Kahlo's artwork for only $1! Gee whiz is what I gotta say. And then they gave me a 20% discount on account of my working for the library on top of that! But even as I am amazed at the good deals I have found, I am also dismayed. Buy books people is all I gotta say. People's jobs are at stake here and a bookstore is worth keeping in the community.

National Information Literacy Awareness Month

Yeah, this was in my email inbox and I am passing it along to you and to all the library nerds out there who care. Notice the dig at the bloggers in this proclamation. Oh well, there are those who just post opinion and don't base that opinion on fact.

NATIONAL INFORMATION LITERACY AWARENESS MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Every day, we are inundated with vast amounts of information. A 24-hour news cycle and thousands of global television and radio networks, coupled with an immense array of online resources, have challenged our long-held perceptions of information management. Rather than merely possessing data, we must also learn the skills necessary to acquire, collate, and evaluate information for any situation. This new type of literacy also requires competency with communication technologies, including computers and mobile devices that can help in our day-to-day decisionmaking. National Information Literacy Awareness Month highlights the need for all Americans to be adept in the skills necessary to effectively navigate the Information Age.

Though we may know how to find the information we need, we must also know how to evaluate it. Over the past decade, we have seen a crisis of authenticity emerge. We now live in a world where anyone can publish an opinion or perspective, whether true or not, and have that opinion amplified within the information marketplace. At the same time, Americans have unprecedented access to the diverse and independent sources of information, as well as institutions such as libraries and universities, that can help separate truth from fiction and signal from noise.

Our Nation's educators and institutions of learning must be aware of -- and adjust to -- these new realities. In addition to the basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it is equally important that our students are given the tools required to take advantage of the information available to them. The ability to seek, find, and decipher information can be applied to countless life decisions, whether financial, medical, educational, or technical.

This month, we dedicate ourselves to increasing information literacy awareness so that all citizens understand its vital importance. An informed and educated citizenry is essential to the functioning of our modern democratic society, and I encourage educational and community institutions across the country to help Americans find and evaluate the information they seek, in all its forms.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2009 as National Information Literacy Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

Capitalism

Tonight hubby and I ventured to Bloomington in order to go see the newest Michael Moore film Capitalism: A Love Story. Of course this film wouldn't be playing in most theaters in this area of Indiana. We checked, if only to save gas. It was Broadripple or Bloomington and I like Bloomington better. Moore's newest documentary is bound to be thought provoking and in this he did not disappoint.

Anyway you must go see this movie. I'd let the stupid previews and commercials air first before moseying down to your seat. Damn but they are so loud and obnoxious. I actually put ear plugs in but it was still overwhelming. Are you people so dumb that you just actually sit there and be blasted with corporate propaganda like that? Sorry, but it only pisses me off. A Disney preview was so loud I deliberately shut my eyes and refused to watch as well as try to block out the overwhelming sounds. Jesus but they are way too obnoxious altogether!!! But after that, the actual movie is alright and not way too loud--as it is mostly people talking and not car crashes/machine guns/cybergeneratedwhateverthefuck.

The part that struck me as the best and most hopeful portion of this documentary was his clip on FDR. I had never heard of or seen the footage he's shown here. It is the most significant meme we can get out to the public and spread far and wide. I recommend you go see the film now and take your friends with you.

Petition

Please sign the petition "Art Does Not Excuse Rape". A grown man drugs and rapes a 13 year old girl and he admits it in a court of law. He then runs away when he realizes he will be held accountable. And people support that? Just because he's famous and rich and, some will say, talented, that makes it okay? Not by me it doesn't!

Justice

Yesterday was President Carter's birthday, he turned 85 years old. Since President Carter has left office, he has done his best to promote peace in the world. He won the Nobel Peace Prize because of these efforts. He still continues to promote peace and I am also glad to say that he denounces the "measures" Israel has taken in order to promote their security--namely violate the human rights of Palestinians: treating another group much like they had been treated in Europe for many centuries and which culminated in WWII. Remember, two wrongs never make a right and Israel has no right to commit war crimes against another group of humans. They use the excuse that the Arabs hatred for Israel gives them the right to debase other humans, because those humans are Arabs too. Israel is the biggest hypocrite amongst other hypocrites on the world's stage, namely this country. Bravo for President Carter for standing for what is right no matter how unpopular such a stance could be.

During the Iran hostage crisis, I was merely a teen and I remember the patriotism that swirled around our high school, the local area, and in the media. Somehow, even then, I felt that I was being manipulated and it turns out to be so. Even then, the republicans were behind the scenes manipulating the public, the media, and key political figures in order to "win" office. I've always felt that President Carter was treated unfairly during that time. I had a lot of questions about what was going on.

First off, why did the Iranians hold American hostages? I was never given a better reason than that they hated Americans and that didn't make sense to me. You don't hate someone without a reason. I was young but already I was thinking politically. And when it emerged that Reagan was running for president, and if half of what I read about him were true, than our country was in big trouble. Since I was only 16, I couldn't vote in that election but I made damn sure to vote in the next one and I was voting as much AGAINST Reagan's reelection as much as anything else.

It wasn't the first time, nor the last, that republicans would steal the office and commit war crimes in direct violation of our government's constitution. (UGH!)

Carter was at the time dealing with the Iran hostage crisis and the hostile regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Those who aver that a deal was made allege that certain Republicans with CIA connections, including George H. W. Bush, arranged to have the hostages held through October, until Reagan could defeat Carter in early November, and then be released. The hostages were in fact released on the very day of Reagan's inauguration, twenty minutes after his inaugral address. If the timing was a double-cross that was meant to tip off the American public to the game, it failed to elicit much commentary.

AND

In the 1980s, U.S.-backed forces committed widespread massacres, political murders and torture. Tens of thousands of civilians died. Many of the dead were children. Soldiers routinely raped women before executing them.

There can be no doubt, too, that President Reagan was an avid supporter of the implicated military forces, that he supplied them with weapons and that he actively sought to discredit human rights investigators and journalists who exposed the crimes. While the CIA reported secretly on the massacres, Reagan publicly claimed that the Guatemalan government was getting a “bum rap” on human rights.

And it goes on in other countries as much as it does here. The world's political situation will continue to deteriorate if we don't do something about the power money holds and our world's dwindling natural resources as well as the impact of climate change

Anyway, happy birthday to President Carter and also happy birthday to Gandhi today. Gandhi was another man who sought justice for the people. He never won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts though which seems just wrong to me.

Medicare for all

Remember the film by Michael Moore's called Sicko? Well here is one of the people who was in the film and she is asking some tough questions about the proposed health care reform currently being considered. She wants to know if this health care legislation is going to make any difference at all. Watch:



Gee, what a surprise right? Nothing is going to be different except that the insurance companies are going to have the entire country captive and will make even higher profits. Is that what we are asking for?

I'm a dinosaur!

Yesterday Wyatt was buried. At the funeral the pastor began to speak about Wyatt and he put up one hand like a claw in front of his face and used his other arm to prop it up and he roared, " I'm a dinosaur!" he said. I remembered how Wyatt used to do this all the time when he was four years old and I laughed in spite of myself as tears flowed down my face.

I remember when Wyatt first did this in the library and his grandma hastened to explain how Wyatt was a T-Rex. Of course Wyatt was a T-Rex! How could I have missed it? By the time Wyatt was five he was no longer himself a dinosaur and he didn't enter and leave the library roaring and stomping as he once did. Anyway, I totally forgot about Wyatt pretending to be a T-Rex. I remember that Wyatt roamed up and down the creek in front of our house looking for crawdads and salamanders though. He loved bugs, snakes, reptiles--all kinds of animals. I wasn't a bit surprised when the pastor shared that Wyatt dreamed of growing up to be a veterinarian. Of course Wyatt was going to be a veterinarian! How could he grow up to be anything else?--as smart as he was and as much as he loved all kinds of animals. RIP dear Wyatt. We miss your smiling face and beautiful spirit.

Reacting

Hey everyone. I haven't been around much. That little boy I was telling you about passed away on Sunday at 12:35 pm. His name is Wyatt and he was only six years old. I don't have much to post about and I'm not even wanting to blip. But I'll be back after awhile and then I'll go visit you.

I'm so upset that I couldn't even finish that web designing class I was taking. I dropped out. Right now everything feels out of control and I can't concentrate worth a damn. During class I couldn't keep up with the lecture and I was hopelessly lost on my computer. The first assignment I turned in last week sucked really badly too. I got completely frustrated when I realized I didn't know what in the fuck the guy was lecturing about and moreover, that I could care even less. At that point I got my stuff together and walked out. I went home, got on the computer and dropped the class.

At least at work I can go on automatic pretty much. Order these books, call the maintenance man about that issue over there, run anti virus checks and defrag these computers, bla, bla, bla. This week I'm weeding out VHS and cassette tapes from our library collection.

I know my reaction seems pretty extreme even to myself which tells me something I think.
So anyway...I've known him since he was a tiny newborn baby. When he was three years old his grandma started bringing him to the library every week to get books. He always wanted more books and she'd have to put a limit on it. 20 books and no more. When a new kids book would come in that I think he'd like I'd show it to him. He liked books about animals, dinosaurs, bugs, big machines--typical boy stuff. Last Christmas I got him books as presents. I got all the kids books for Christmas, however, he was the only one who REALLY liked getting books. He was so full of energy and he always was smiling and talking and asking questions. He was one of those special kids I felt a bond with because he was so curious about everything and wanted to learn. He was a bright and peppy kid you know. And then he got the flu, a regular flu bug. He just started first grade. And now he's gone--just like that.

Riley Hospital says they've only seen 10 cases, including his, where the para influenza virus attacks the heart, the lining of the brain, and other internal organs and they say there is about 100 known cases like this in all of known medical history. I looked through four medical databases and couldn't come up with anything terribly bad about the para influenza virus--except in young kids/babies they could get croup and in older people they could get pneumonia.

On Saturday I went up to see him and I didn't even recognize him. They had performed two brain surgeries on him and they had drilled a hole in his heart. He had been through so much in the past ten days. His head was so swollen that you couldn't even see where they had performed the surgeries earlier in the week. He had all this equipment around him--it looked like a space station or something in that room. I could see that the readings from his brain were zero--flat lined and so he was already gone. His daddy had to pull the plug on Sunday and he was an absolute basket case later on. His momma was shaking like a leaf. She's lost weight and couldn't keep anything down even if she could manage to eat something. She wasn't getting very good sleep either. She said every time she'd start to fall asleep she'd hear him crying and calling to her. My heart is just broken right now. He's not my baby and I'm not hurting nearly as bad as his parents are, but I am just broken hearted all the same.