a broken country

I wrote this awhile ago

August 17, 1911

The United States of America is in a place we have not seen since the 1920s and 30s. We have so much broken and so much needs to be fixed. The government in charge of seeing that all this gets righted is the most polarized we have had in ninety years. Our congress seems more interested in party supremacy, re-elections and creating media frenzy than they do in fixing what is wrong. And we have so much wrong. They are making deals for the good of no one, except to say that their party has been victorious, and they get to say it on national television.

The financial debacle that set in motion the failure of the housing market, banking woes, and global disaster has seen no heavy handed attempt of correction. Banks are still wielding too much power and hoarding all our cash. Wall Street is still dallying in “funny money”.

Businesses can no longer easily borrow money, sell or even export their goods. Job loses continue to plummet as job skills become obsolete or as businesses can no longer financially support their employees. With most manufacturing work now done in foreign countries our cities are dying. Trade deficits indicate we no longer sell our goods oversees.

Middle class America is not buying or spending. Who else is there to support the economy?  Middle class has always been the backbone of this country and they are bearing the brunt of this country current crisis. They are losing their jobs; they are losing their houses; they spending their cash for health care, daycare, taxes, fuel, groceries--basics of life--whose costs are rising astronomically. Those that are solvent and employed are hanging on to every dollar for an unpredictable future. No one is spending except the rich--luxury cars, luxury homes, luxury living.

We are fighting very expensive wars and for the first time in history there were no revenue generating plans to support these wars. Who is paying for these wars? To keep the cost of these wars off the books was financial fraud. To ignore these cost when talking about our debt is unconscionable.

We continue to promote an antiquated educational system that is a failure. Businesses seek out the best and brightest that we are not producing. Graduates of the system no longer put us in the global competition. We need to produce top-notch workers relevant to the global job market, a market that is ever-evolving in ways not even fathomable a generation ago. Education continues to be victimized in the budget cuts. It like cutting off our nose to spite our face. Education is our children’s future, more so than any “debt.” Educating, i.e. upgrading skills of the unemployable to meet current demands would slash unemployment rates long term.

Consistently rising health care costs, talk of abolishing social security  and dire medicare reforms scare those of us on the brink of retirement. Health care reform was a disappointment.

Fuel costs and a failing infrastructure hamper all aspects of daily living in this country. Lack of usable, efficient, and technically savvy transportation systems make daily commuting, travel for business or leisure, an abomination. Research into alternative fuels, global warming appears to be nonessential.

The debt ceilings has been addressed, though with big hallyballoo. Initiating discussion on new tax revenues is apparently taboo. Why cant we tax the rich? Why cant corporations pay taxes owed? Talk of spending cuts by cutting programs that serve mostly the poor and middle class is the preferred remedy. Should we talk about lobbyists and corporocratic governing?

To label what actions that are being implemented and calling them socialistic--well, let me remind you that communism is failing around the globe. Socialism is not the evil. The most successful countries embrace a socialistic democracy as do we. We have social security, unemployment compensation, maternity leave, welfare and medicaid. Eliminate those programs and welcome yourselves to the third world.

Fixing all these ills is necessary. Even though we are the richest country on the planet, our country is failing, dying a slow death, and this fact seems imperceptible to the powers that be, our government, our Congress. Political leaders across the board are focused primarily on the politics, the party power games. They focus on buzz words that change weekly to hammer the media and the American people with their platforms. This is their goal; they want their party in power; they want their people to win elections and to those ends they are ignoring the dire state of this country. This is irresponsible. They are completely neglecting the essence of what it will take to right this country. This slow erosion of what it takes to make this country what it ought to be, unless these ills are addressed in a deliberate and conscience manner, will be its death. No worry of foreign invasions, or nuclear catastrophe. We are killing ourselves.

Our members of Congress were elected of the people, by the people and for the people. Theirs is to impose the will of the people in running the business of this country. “The People” is not “the party”. Instead their goals of our elected officials are to be egocentric celebrities, to fill the airspace with their incendiary phrases which demonize what they oppose, as they bathe in the prestige of being a cog in the wheel of the greatest governing body on the globe. They are not fit for the job we have given them. As American voters it is our duty to eliminate the incompetence in our government. Hopefully they are not the best we have with which to work? Where are the  magnanimous statesmen, the visionaries, the wise leaders who can lead this country and amend the damage.

I had great hopes in Obama election, but his burden is too big and without a cooperative legislature his job is impossible. The consequences are dire. This catastrophe is not the will of the people.

Peter the soldier

Yesterday was Veterans Day. Never paid much attention to that holiday but nowadays with Facebook, etc people are constantly singing the praises and their gratitudes to the soldiers fighting crazy wars in the Middle East--understandable because these soldiers are their children, grandchildren , nieces, nephews, etc. Lots of pictures and lots of adulations!

So I thought I would post a picture of Peter from his soldiering days in the early seventies. Most people probably do not even know we were in the Army. (I say "we" because I was with him every step of the way, no separations.) It was then I realized that I could not even remember a photo of him in any kind of army garb. I realized then that I don't think we ever took pictures of him in a uniform. That fact struck me. I think there is a class picture of him graduating from basic which was at Ft McClelland, AL. At that time it was the training center for WACS (Women's Army Corp) but also for the chemical corps which is where Peter was assigned.

He wound up in the Army not by desire but by process. He joined ROTC in college so he could get  $50 extra a month, his spending money throughout college. Soccer and Lacrosse and being a residence hall assistant covered everything else. He came out of college debt free.

In 1969 he did graduate as a second lieutenant in the US Army Corps. His two best friends, Bob Lipinski and Ron Seabold managed to avoid the service . Bob had joined ROTC for the same reasons as Peter had but he went to court after graduation and got CO (conscientious objector) status. Seabold was 4F which meant he was physically unfit. We all used to laugh because he was made ineligible on account of knee injury from playing football on Sunday afternoon with the guys behind the high school. It was kid of a joke, or a fluke. Thinking about it now and knowing how the world works his dad, a prominent community guy, probably pulled some strings. Dr Seabold was pretty much a pacifist, though a quiet one.

In 1968, Vietnam blew up and things got incredibly heated and boys were dying in droves. Seems like everyone I knew in Vietnam died, lost a limb or 2, or 3 or 4 or came back crazy. Those last two years of college were very active demonstrating against the Vietnam War. I got my first bell bottom jeans and t-shirt ( the uniform of the day) at a navy surplus store for the Memorial March in DC in the spring of '68. That was also the year Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.

When Peter graduated he toyed with the idea of doing as Bob was doing and "going CO" as we called it. But he is too well groomed with the idea that one must stand up and meet his responsibility so that never happened. Never even came close to happening.

He went active in March, 1970 and we drove to Anniston, AL to begin his army career. We had decided that if orders ever came through sending him to Vietnam we would leave the country. That ideal was never tested because those orders never materialized. As a matter of fact, he got "an early out" due to the glut of lieutenants in 1972 and the elimination of post chemical officers on most bases. Agent Orange was passe and the war was winding down, its apex being the Tet Offensive in 1968.
We had Ben in the army--Ft Cambell, KY. His hospital bill was a tad over $5. Remarkable! I learned to cook. There was nothing else to do. I tried to hang in the Officers Wives Club but didn't do that very well. Never hung much in the Officers Club which was the social hub on base.

We did belong to something called "The Concerned Officers Movement" introduced to us by a young lieutenant who lived across the street. He and his wife (I don't think they were married but they claimed to be so they could get base housing) were Cornell grads. She baked whole grain bread and introduced me to some bits of the alternative life style. We never got to be real friends. She stuck to herself mostly and I had a kid. I don't ever remember their names.

Peter was pretty vocal about his opposition the war. He and his Master Sargeant had heated and lengthy discussions frequently regarding the war during their work day. His MS used to say "what is the sense of practicing all the time if you never get to play a game." As a result of all this our phone was tapped and in the end, when Peter was due to be discharged things got very bumpy.

In those days we drove a VW bus with tie dye curtains, I wore my hair long and loose, bell bottom jeans and tee shirts. Our baby boy had long curly hair. Those were indicative of a whole other culture, one not well espoused by our army peers. In the end Peter went from being recommended for the army commendation medal to almost being dishonorably discharged. Turns out the confidential files that he was in charge of were missing some papers. These files were checked just before Peter was to be discharged. Some papers were missing. Now, when they were checked prior and when those papers were last accounted for was unknown. That fact was his salvation but it took some weeks for the Army to aquiesce. Peter was on Valium during that time to settle his stomach. Peter never takes drugs so things had to be bad.

Then we had to go through the process of checking out of our quarters. We decided not to hire the Army's sanctioned cleaning crew, a side line business of one of the army officers. We opted to clean the house ourselves. Peter took our entire stove apart, to a million pieces and scrubbed the grease off of each individual piece. We vacuumed out all the heating vents. These were the notorious places where they would flunk you and not allow clearance of quarters. Our place was spotless. But they did manage to take a razor blade to the underside of the toilet bowl and scrap up some residue and measure the grass during an ice storm and find it a quarter of inch too long. We failed! I scrubbed the toilet while Peter took a broken push mower (a wheel was jammed but he was so angry brute strength made it work) through the ice coated grass and thus we were able to leave very late in the day.
Our army career was over!

 

Whoa!

Thursday, Nov 11, 2011
I was taken aback this morning to learn that Penn State fired Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier. I am in agreement with the these actions based on the indictments of a grand jury against a former football coach. Under their watch the university administration did not meet its obligations aggressively enough, resulting in the victimization of young boys. These children would have been spared had their perpetrator been been turned in and processed through the proper legal channels.

No one is higher up on the chain of command than JoePa even though Spanier is the top official--on paper. In truth JoePa has run the show for a long time. How many of us could summon our boss to our home to discuss a crisis in the workplace as Paterno did in 2002? Or tell your boss your are not quitting yet? The shock was again evident after Joe announced his terms, that he was leaving at the end of the season; but then that decision was trumped by a phone call from the PSU Board of Trustees--a major coup in the country of Penn State. The throne has been overturned.

It is probably difficult for the ordinary person to understand the football hold on a town; but generations have have come under the tutelage of Joe Paterno in this small college town three hours from anywhere.

He has been there  since 1950 -- 61 years. He has been God's gift. Now, the king has been dethroned and the disgrace is more than the people can cope with, even if they understand the reasons. This scandal is choking them. Tim Curley grew up across the street from the campus. Schultz is a graduate of Penn State. McQueary grew up in State College AND got to play football AND was a star quarterback--an outstanding accomplishment for the locals, beyond the wildest dreams. These guys lived in Paterno world,  were groomed in the Paterno religion, the word according to Paterno. That in itself is not a bad thing. Paterno espoused great stuff and deserved to be emulated and praised. Football at Penn State was an esteemed state of being.

Until now... we have come to a place and we see the down side.

Football, at all costs, has obliterated the humaneness.

Watching Paterno speak thru the window to the press. Looks like he is breaking over the children. He has to realize that he should have taken it further. No one is higher in the chain of command at PSU than Joepa. He could have saved them. That fact is doing him in.

Lots of assumptions and misconstruments

Recently I have encountered some weirdness that only exists as a result of the internet communication.

I ran into this some years ago, in the same context, a death, but different format, email.

A friend of mine's son was killed in an accident. In her despondency and grief she continued to stay "in contact" with him by emailing him. Maybe she still does this, years later, but I don't know. I thought it strange yet I could perfectly understand the solace this routine provided for her.

Currently, I am witnessing another "internet and death" experience.

A cousin died on Monday.

Firstly, I found out this fact on Facebook.  May seem a bit callous in method but this cousin lived in another country, a relative I hardly knew. So it is not so strange as first appears. There is a family group page that has allowed many of us first contact with each other. It has really been quite amazing and a very positive experience getting to know each other over the internet.

I tried to verify the passing of this cousin but language barriers have made that that not so easy. Google translation is my main tool and askews verbiage and grammar in some peculiar ways. So it is not a definitive method but gives the geist of the conversation. "Lost in translation" becomes very relevant.

Again I relied on FB . A family group page listed a few condolences (via google translation). But then a very peculiar thing occurred. My cousin who died on Monday and "friended" me on Wednesday. I was very struck by this.  Copious amounts of pictures are being posted on her page of her life. I concluded husband or children were active on her page. This is all understandable, performing much like my friend with her dead son, performing a ritual to give relief to their grieving.

Then comes more weirdness...a week or so later, it appears that old friends, who have been recently friended as I was (I assume), are sending messages. They are glad to be in touch again, asking about where she is now living, trying to set up lunch dates, etc. They have no idea that she has passed. All those postings related to her death are pretty far down the scroll since it was a week ago. The new FB format inhibits keeping up with friends' status in my opinion.

But then my brother made a comment on her page, about all the many pictures she was posting and how he was reminiscing. I could tell he had no inking that she had died so I messaged him. He indeed did not know, verifying to me the fact that her friends could be in the same situation.

This is one of those strange fall-outs precipitated by internet and social networking...lots of assumptions and misconstruments.  

What am I doing...

Setting up a blog. Not quite sure why.

FB is irritating to me lately in the way they disseminate stuff I don't think the world needs to know about me. Thinking about dropping out of that. Plus I am not a thirty something that feels the need to talk about everything. And Twitter, well, I just don't get it.

I have never kept a diary or journal and that is something I have regretted over time. But not regretted it enough to start one...until now...maybe this is a journal. I don't know what it will be yet.
I have learned that when things nag at you there is a reason and you should pay attention. Even if I have a fleeting thought just before I embark on something, it is best not to ignore it. Like if I am packing for a trip and I wonder about taking a jacket. I dont take the jacket. Then I freeze at my destination because I didn't pack it. That happens over and over. Passing thoughts--not so insignificant--so this is has been nagging at me, this need to write stuff down.

I am hoping this endeavor is made simple on a computer. Whether I acknowledge it not, I spend a lot of time "connected"--laptop, ipad, iphone. Crazy for an old lady like me, but true. Choosing a format of the blog is contrary in light of the fact that when I was 10 and kept a diary I hid it so no one would read it. I never gave in to keeping a journal because what would they think when they read it and I was dead and gone. Here I am, now,  potentially allowing the world to share. Yikes!

So let's see where this goes...