Elephants & Asses

Elephants and asses sitting up on a hill,
Want to make me swallow
a bitter and costly pill

They stammer and they stutter
Then frustrated, they shout
'You fool, if you don't the world will crumble'
But, I try to spit it out.

They played their hand, ran the table
and now they're out of trumps.
Why should I pay for their folly?
For their riches now defunct?

I'm a single middle class working mother
And nobody gives me a break
I'm left to eat chili daily
while the fat cat's eating steak

10 hours a day, no health care, the mortgage payments due
There's no gas for me to fill the the tank
Yeah, they've played me for a fool

So, why should I try to keep afloat
A system that didn't work for me?
That left me to pull up by my boot straps
and was fueled by simple greed?

700 billion dollars
For the wealthy man's payday
In the end I know they'll tax me
and there's little I can say

My short stick keeps getting shorter
It's a bitter pill for sure
The saddest part is knowing
It's just a stop gap, not a cure.

'Cause the illness that we really suffer
is "them that's got shall get"
and nobody's willing to upturn the cart
to really fix it yet.

Take good care...

The World As I Know It

I am more disgusted with government than I have ever been and that is saying a lot.

I have listened to the Sec'y of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, Jr. explain why we need to bail out the financial industry, and I support that strategy, with conditions. But, I have also heard him say that there will be no constraints on earnings for CEOs. They will be free to evidence poor performance and still receive millions in compensation. Hearing that I am left to wonder how that can make sense to anyone.

Paulson is right when he says we don't have a lot of time to figure this out. But, I wonder why he and the rest of the Republicans kept telling us everything was okay, this past year. Don't worry about the price of oil, don't worry about the downward slide of the market, don't worry about the mortgage markets, it'll all be fine. Don't worry, be happy?

I predict that if we maintain the status quo (the conservative dog-eat-dog-I-got-mine-tough-shit-if-you-didn't-get-any policies of the past 30 years), those who made millions off of the predatory lending practices (inclusive of credit card debt) and extraordinary gas profits (another cause of our current state) will likely continue to prosper while the average American will see her taxes increase enormously while her standard of living plummets.

The concentration of wealth in this country has been squeezing the middle class and poor for so long that I think most people believe this is how it should be. And, as long as we could be kept happy, with that new house and new car and new debt, we were willing to go along. Well, that is our shame. But, who bears/bares the shame for laying the table full of nothing but dessert and pretending it's a nutritious meal? Yes, we ate the eclairs but veggies were never really an option when the government made all its decisions based on protecting and advancing the interests of the wealthy.

Today, there is a lot of outrage and, on the part of the financial leaders who have robbed us for so long, a huge sense of fear. Save us, they cry, or Life as we know it will fall apart. They are asking the American people to share the burden of their folly.

THEY WANT YOU AND I TO SHARE THE BURDEN!!

But these same people cried foul when asked to create programs that would share wealth with the poor or the middle class; they believed we should cut back on funding education, public hospitals and social programs. Now, they want us to share? And I know that we will, because we are so afraid that the little we have will become far less if we don't.

I believe that more than any other mental construct, this is our national shame. Not that we serve our self-interest but, that we so narrowly define our self-interest. We have never really believed that we are deeply interconnected. Even though we attend church services and drop our dollars into the collection plate, we still don't believe. Like Cain, we ask "Am I my brother's keeper?" And shamefully we believe the answer to be no.

In what has been known as the greatest nation on earth we are willing to throw our homeless in jail to get them off the street rather than pay additional taxes to support changing their lives positively and for the long term. We look at our failing neighbor and assume he or she is solely responsible for their lot in Life; unwilling to make the societal changes needed to fundamentally change his/her condition. In this time of crisis, many of us are willing to vote an inexperienced and unqualified woman into office rather than tackle the real and difficult problems of women in poverty (Information on women in poverty).

Our national shame is that we are willing to be coldhearted, calloused and even violent when it comes to anyone we consider to be outside our circle. We saw it shortly after 911 (and continue to see it) when anyone looking remotely like a Muslim was subject to attack. We see it when the subject of welfare mothers is raised (and I am not in favor of long term or generational subsistence policies). The entire world saw it when the global climate change realities (created by consumption patterns that kept the middle class feeling falsely secure and made the rich much richer) hit the poor of New Orleans.

Here, in my town, we have a large group of people on the north side who want to separate from the rest of the city and create a new one. Their reasoning is that they shouldn't have to fund public schools, hospitals or other infrastructure for the poor. Why should we have to pay taxes to support a school system when our kids go to private school, or pay for hospital services for people who can't afford them, they ask. Why, indeed.

The why, in my mind is obvious. Because we are all connected, one mass of humanity struggling to survive on a damaged planet. You cannot ignore the needs and realities of your brothers and sisters and expect to have a healthy family. It is simply not possible.

But, until we can answer Cain's question positively and resoundingly; until we can stand for the least of us as quickly as we will jump to bailout the financial elite, we will continue to bear the consequences of our narrowly defined self-interest.

I know many of my fellow US citizens are thinking seriously about how to vote in this election. There has been talk of elitism and a disconnect from the everyday man and woman on the part of Senator Obama. I'd like to ask you to consider the following:

The challenges we face are far too complex to be managed by an everyday guy or gal. This is the time when you want the smartest, the most level-headed, the least prone to snap decisions, the most thoughtful leader you can find. Now is the time to move away from the legacy of fear and narrow self-interest within which we have been spinning. Now is the time for each of us and all of us to change, deeply; to reconsider our knee-jerk responses to crises and conflict, to move away from the panic button and be thoughtful about our approach to the future.

What we have done in the past 30 years has brought us to this time. Let's face it squarely with strength of heart and truth.

I'm voting for Barack Obama in November because the world as I know it is in trouble and I don't trust the creators of that trouble to help me find my way out.

I am voting for Barack Obama because I believe he can help us become better than we have been.

I am voting for Barack Obama because the answer always shows itself and it seems clear that Obama is part of the answer.

Take good care, one and all...

Life is Fragile and It Keeps on Coming, Too

This weekend was very interesting. I must remember to ask my friend Audrey if Mercury is/was retrograde.

Friday night I was the person designated to get my neighbor, Julie, to her surprise birthday party. It was quite a struggle because I had 3 things to do, all around the same time. My daughter had to get to her first high school football game by 6:00 pm. My Mom had to go to the doctor by 5:30 pm and the neighbor had to be at her party by 7:30 pm.

For the better part of the day I was in a staff retreat that went really well but, kept me from the high level phone use I needed to coordinate this madness called my Life. Feeling stretched in a hundred different directions I started to decide what had to be lopped-off.

The baby girl still hasn't forgiven me because, after 5 calls to other Moms, I couldn't find anyone else going to the game that could bring her home. I promised that I would move heaven and earth for the next one.

Mom called and left a voice mail (that I didn't pick-up until too late) that informed me she was driving herself to the doctor. Unfortunately, she gets turned around very easily and, it turns out, she was headed to the wrong office. If I had listened to the message I could have gotten to her in time. But, I was trying to speak with her directly so I kept calling her w/o checking voicemail. She, on the other hand, never answered the phone. Not 1 out of the 5 times I called that day.

When I finally did listen to the messages, she was shouting at me on the last one to listen to the messages! "I'm driving myself, you can go get baby girl and do whatever else you need to do. I will get to the Cooperville Office on my own." I'm not sure why she was so frustrated, probably the stress of deciding to go it alone. I tried to call her to tell her that she was making a mistake, but she didn't answer. By the time I got home she was livid, having missed her 5:30 pm at the Southgrove Office.

Then, Julie was being completely uncooperative. She didn't want to go out, she wanted to stay at home and play Rummikub. I worked my butt off to convince her that we needed to go out. I talked about my successes this week and how I just wanted to go out to a nice place and have a small bite and a few drinks.

Meanwhile, my secret plan was to have my baby girl take Julie's youngest for a walk then call me to say she (my daughter) had twisted her ankle. This would give me a good excuse to drive my neighbor to the pool area where we were staging her party.

Finally, something was going to go right. We ladies were nicely dressed and ready. The kids had started off on their walk. She went upstairs to her bathroom to put on a little make-up and I went out to the car to pass her husband (who had just driven up) the wine.

As I closed the car door I felt a little pinch on the middle toe of my right foot. Thinking I got caught by a mosquito I kept walking to hand off the wine. In the 3 minutes that it took to put the wine in the back seat of their SUV and walk back into the house I could feel that something was wrong.

My lips were tingling and then they started to hurt. My ears were hot and my entire head began to hurt from the inside out and the feeling was moving to my arms and chest. It was under the skin and everything was burning and hurting and hives began to appear. I could feel my eyes and mouth swelling and when I ran to the mirror I was treated to a sight that I can only describe as Will Smith's scene in "Hitch". Only, it was a lot funnier in the movie.

I called out to Julie to see if she had any Benadryl and thankfully, she did. I took 2 quick dissolving strips (the doctors later told me that they prefer the quick strips to the tablets) and hoped that I wouldn't explode before they had time to work. While my breathing never became labored, I could feel myself on the verge of hyperventilating from the stress of it all. This is when all that meditation comes in handy. I did the deep breath, Zen thing and kept myself calm.

Just as I walk over to the sofa to sit down, my phone rings. It's my baby girl, right on time. I couldn't help but laugh (to myself, of course) and sent my neighbor off to scoop up my falsely crippled child and enjoy her party.

Having seen my condition, Julie wanted to come back to her house and see about me. I managed to convince her to send someone else back with my daughter and immediately called my health care provider. The very pleasant nurse practitioner told me to go to the hospital immediately. She stayed on the line with me until my daughter arrived and I got in touch with another neighbor to take me to the hospital.

By the time I got there a good bit of the swelling had subsided but, they wasted no time before stabbing me 4 times in unsuccessful attempts to start an IV. It was at this point that I looked around, read the signs and realized that I was in a teaching hospital for nurses. Yep, I was a pin cushion.

I believe the term they used was infiltrated, when the pain in my arm became so severe I thought I would shout a mouthful of cuss words at the next medical staff person to pass by. Finally, they took the damn IV needle out and advised me that I would be there for a few hours of observation.

I'm guessing the look on my face (and my adamant pronouncements to the contrary) made them change their minds because within 15 min I had discharge orders and my freedom.

Now you might think that all's well that ends well but, the next day my daughter had a hair appointment to get the tips of her locks dyed.

All I will say is this - orange, yellow, tears and two dye jobs at home to correct it.

Life...
You gotta Love it!