Lest we forget

A friend sent me this link which goes along well with Memorial Day and expresses how many of us feel: Thank you, soldiers

Arizona

Assuming all has gone well with sheep hoof trimming, worming and we don't lose any more cattle (lost two for different reasons last week), we are driving south to Tucson to get some work done on our house there followed by a short vacation in the red rock country of Northern Arizona and southern Utah.

Our time for any of it is limited as we have to leave the cats and all livestock here. Hopefully the fences will hold as our neighbor, who will keep an eye on the farm, would appreciate it as would we.

We also hope the new alfalfa feeder works that Farm Boss designed and made to feed the sheep alfalfa by a kind of a system that lets it drop down as they eat. The key thing there is that it lets fresh alfalfa drop down. The tallest bale is above my head and weighs 125 lbs. Since I hadn't been there when he put it up, I asked how he did it. When he said the old-fashioned way, I was impressed. If he expected anybody else to fill it (as in me), he'll have to come up with an easier loading system. It does look good though.

One drawback to turning our Tucson house into a vacation rental has been we now (tax laws) can only spend two weeks a year there for pleasure which is one reason we aren't taking the cats (the other is they hated it last time). Other than that, any trips have to be for maintenance. There is plenty of that to go once or twice a year but then what fun is it when it's all about work? Actually even before it became a vacation rental, we did seem to spend most time there doing maintenance.

This particular trip originally had been planned to get the air conditioning working as the evaporative (affectionately known as swamp) cooler is fine for most of the year (actually I prefer it), but no good at all come June through sometime in September when the high humidity makes an evaporative cooler not evaporate and swamp cooler becomes an unaffectionate term.

With our budget limitations, we had hoped that repair wouldn't be too costly; but from phone calls, it looked like it would require replacing the unit which is four times what we had available to spend. With all the talk about people boycotting Arizona we decided we cannot afford to put anything into the house that isn't required until we see how that all falls out.

Originally we had figured next year we'd get the same number of renters we had this winter and spring which would be enough to cover repair cost (plus property taxes, insurance, pool upkeep, and whatever else might be needed). But with all this talk of boycotts, what if nobody comes? What if current reservations are canceled? Responsibly speaking and because we don't operate on credit with anything, we had to cancel the job.

So the boycott talk has then already accomplished a goal of hurting an Arizona air conditioning business. Now the fact that those business owners likely had nothing to do with the law or that it might even be owned by Hispanics, well who cares. Boycotts are about making somebody else feel righteous who has no real interest in whether it accomplishes anything beyond that. I've read of plenty of them from right wingers; so only fair that here comes the left wing with one.

From a standpoint of someone who has had a hard time getting reservations at the Grand Canyon, I had at first thought selfishly the boycott might have some advantages for me; but then I saw one writer suggesting ways to visit there (federally owned and all the feds have done on the immigration issue is ignore it leading to our current situation) and not spend a penny in Arizona thereby punishing business owners and making sure state tax revenue takes a drop. Way to go!

Since, as an Arizona property owner but Oregon resident, I have no vote if this law is put to a referendum (which seems likely), there is no point in getting myself bent out of shape over what happens. I can see where some Arizona businesses though might not be so sanguine about now.

From what I am reading I think (besides those who are angry at Arizona) there are some who now fear Arizona is the Wild West which actually it kind of can be and always has been. You know it's a hard terrain, a land that has always known violence and traditionally at least demanded a tough people to hold onto it. I have said it's a land held by blood, and historically that's not far off the mark especially where it comes to the border.

[As an aside: There has been a lot of media hype over Arizona right now. It sometimes sounds like the rest of the country has come to believe Arizona is made up of racists, bigots, and those eager to abuse innocent people.

So for those of you who don't know the state, 28% of its lands are owned by Native Americans which includes many tribes but the largest reservation is Navajo in that red rock country which l will soon be enjoying again. Incidentally, such reservations regard themselves as separate nations with their own set of laws and regulations for who can be where. They do have real borders that are enforced. Approximately 42% of Arizona is federally owned, 13% state owned and only 17% privately owned. (These figures vary a little depending on where you see them but that is the general breakdown.)

Today, Arizona's population is estimated to be 6,595,778, but that won't be known for sure until the 2010 census comes out. It had also been estimated to have almost half a million people living there illegally (although with our employment problems, that might be less today). Of its population, most are white and by that I mean 60% of non-Latino descent and 30% white with Latino or Hispanic ancestry. (Hispanic/Latinos have, at least in the past, been considered white for purposes of census).

This issue is not about legal immigration as last year one million people, from all around the world became naturalized citizens. Most of those were from Mexico.

One could logically ask what Arizona was trying to do with this law. [Frank Rich did], but the facts are that there is a violent problem along its border with Mexico. Some compare it to our border with Canada, but how many gang shootings of police officers happen in Vancouver, BC? What is going on in Mexico is very different, and a lot of it does relate to drug traffic but not all of it. Unfortunately for America, the two problems are difficult to separate because those who bring up the illegal drugs also bring up those hoping for jobs. If you don't stop the traffic in one, you cannot in the other.

Americans have ignored a lot of this. Even some Arizonans haven't paid much attention if they avoid the rough border country and stick to their safe neighborhoods-- at least for now safe. Those who do understand what has been going on in neighborhoods closer to the problem sometimes see it otherwise: [An Arizona Hispanic's opinion on the Immigration Law].

I feel a little irritated with the view of Arizona that other states appear to be getting because most Arizonans peacefully live and work with those of other descents and cultures more than likely those naysayers. You go into any business in at least my part of Tucson and it's as likely to be owned or managed by an Hispanic as anybody else. Sure there are bigots in Arizona. Do you know anywhere there aren't?

When Farm Boss was going to Graduate School at the University of Arizona, we lived in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood (Barrio), attended a Catholic Church there, at night walked down for 19 cent hamburgers (which was a dinner out). None of it was different than living in any other neighborhood. But that was back before the border problems erupted, before those same homes had to put bars on their windows and fence even their front yards. It was back when you could visit Nogales, Sonora for a day of fun and not worry about being shot.

What Arizona has today is for now a small extension of what is going on in Mexico with the drug cartel wars which have led to killings, shooting police, beheadings and kidnappings-- just across a line that is still pretty porous too many places. [What led to this for those who haven't been keeping up on the news].

Now, not being an Arizona voter, all I know about the Arizona legislators who passed this law is they were all GOP (and most also voted for a birther bill until they backed off on it after the national outrage over their papers bill). If these Republicans were reacting to keeping their constituents safe or they were haters of all people not like themselves, I don't have any way to know.

The fact is that something is badly wrong in Arizona when you have things like this: [Smugglers found after shooting deputy]. Not many states would look kindly on having a gang that size shooting it out with their police using AK-47s. I have talked before about how the border region has changed and how much more careful you have to be when going there.

One example is a rugged, beautiful desert area a bit northwest of Tucson which, over many many years, I have spent a lot of time exploring arroyos, looking for photo ops, sketching, finding interesting rocks, or just driving the gravel roads. We were there with our children when they were small as we wanted them to have a love of the desert also. That was before it became a corridor for the illegal traffic. A couple of years ago, in that same area, I read about the executions of a 'cargo' of humans probably in a dispute between rival coyotes. (And cargo is how coyotes regard and treat humans-- just like the drugs they also bring across.) As you can imagine, when I go there now, as I still do occasionally, it's with a lot more caution.

A Pinal County (between Tucson and Phoenix) police officer spoke on a news program saying that about 16-17% of the illegals his county detains have criminal records. I frankly do not think that would be anywhere near that high in Oregon which means a lot of the traffic in that area is about the drug trade and its community.

If the Arizona law is either repealed by voters or overturned by the courts, which seems pretty likely to me, will the nation then do something about the problem which as it stands is unfair both to Arizona and the workers? Or will it feel sanctimonious as it continues to profit from the unfair situation that it has helped create through its illegal drug use and desire for cheap labor? ]

For those who don't know it, Tucson itself is multicultural. Its heritage is Native American (Tohono O'odham, Yaqui, Pima, Apache, and prehistorically Hohokam), Mexican, and the Old West all of which it proudly celebrates whenever it gets a chance. I love it and have called it my soul home; but one that I may have to release because of its distance from Oregon. It's just so far to drive and leaving a vehicle there didn't prove to be practical due to predation-- pack rat predation that is.

Anyway our reason now for going is taking down a rug that we purchased through eBay to replace the living room rug which has sadly deteriorated from age and maybe the heat. The new one is also an Oriental rug but should last better. We hope. The other one has been putting red dust from its weave all over everything.

We will also make sure the drip irrigation is working well, as best we can with javelina and rabbits that can so easily disrupt it, work on the xeriscape desert landscaping, and try to get the ducting in the house thoroughly cleaned to make it easier for our neighbor to do the cleaning between guests in the future-- assuming there are any.

After that it's indefinite where we will go except for one for sure destination--Monument Valley. We may stop at Kayenta and see Betatakin also but that will depend on the available time. Everything will depend on how fast we can get the work done and maybe whether anybody actually canceled their reservations at Bright Angel Lodge, you know, the rim cabins with a fireplace, looking out over the Grand Canyon where they are booked up years in advance. Actually I'm kidding. It's out of our way, over our budget, so we won't really go there; but not kidding I'd like to stay in one of them someday.

Although I will take desert photos when in Tucson, because of being busy with work, and uncertainty about internet access, I plan to take the next month off from blogging. I wanted to let regular readers know that all is well, but I feel I need a break.

****************

When I wrote what is above, I thought I was done with this topic and then along came something else which some may rant about as further evidence of Arizona's bigotry toward Hispanic/Latinos: [Arizona rules regarding Ethnic Study Classes]. Since I don't want to repeat it all here, please read it, and then come back.

I understand the value of teaching people to be proud of their heritage; but typically, other than world and United States history, that used to be done by the family and community. I don't remember any classes in French heritage when I was in school or Irish when my children were. How many such classes would it take considering that most Americans, like myself, are cultural mongrels.

Of course, in this case, we are talking about probably the largest minority in the United States which could even someday become the majority. I heard Bill Richardson, ex-governor of New Mexico, who is Hispanic, discussing the Arizona immigration law (which he didn't like) and citizenship rules which he said should include the ability to speak English. Some probably would disagree with that. Well, if someday the Spanish speaking community is the largest, they can rethink the rules of what the dominant language is. For now, it's English and it does not help children to stop them from learning to speak it fluently. If someday it's Spanish, I will think then everybody should be able to speak it.

The questions being raised in all of this though bring up a more salient point for Americans. What does it mean to be an American? We have always had a great pride in coming from many places but then becoming Americans. Is that still true? Should a public school teach separatism or encourage revolution? If your answer is, it is fine to do that or it doesn't matter as youths explore many things, would you say the same thing if it was coming from tea partiers?

What Americans need to consider is a cultural question for us all. Is it really xenophobic to want to have an American culture made up of many cultural dynamics but predominantly an American one? Is it even possible anymore?

Then in this particular order from the governor, can someone teach an English class who cannot speak English without an accent difficult to understand? Is such a rule onerous?

The questions raised by Arizona in education is one not just for them. Is there an American culture anymore? Should there be one? Do we want to be one nation or do we want to be a series of cultural enclaves where we all feel safe? Can schools impact any of this? If we don't want to break apart as a nation, we maybe better figure out how we avoid that because the desire to separate isn't just coming from one sector.

Personally, I think too often schools are not spending enough time on the basic subjects that youths will need to compete in the world (whatever ethnicity they are). Yes, I also understand the need for children to feel cultural pride; but I'm an old woman raised on the idea that we should be Americans first and our cultural pride in our ancestry comes after that. It's why our families came here, isn't it? Or it is really just about money?

You could make a case that Arizona even having such a rule for ethnic classes shows how xenophobic they are. I mean why would anybody even think teachers would be encouraging revolution? Except, for a long time I have read, and pretty much dismissed, the concern regarding a separatist movement within the Hispanic community where the talk was supposedly of taking back what they feel was theirs and forming a nation called [Aztlan]. How likely this possibility is might be debated, but the issue here is should such thinking be promoted in any public school? If you don't think it should, then there is no problem with Arizona's rules.

Anyone who raises questions like these is being called names like bigot, xenophobe, or hater. I know I am not. I consider all people to be just people; and they prove their worth by what they do, not by skin color, accent, or who their parents were. My own family is proudly multi-racial as are many American families. I want for all children a good education that enables them to someday support themselves with good jobs-- assuming our country gets those back.

Anyway on this topic, there can be no debate from readers, at least not here, because since I will be gone a month, I am going to temporarily turn off comments. This is to avoid my email being swamped by spam requests when I get my few chances to be online and because of my inability to respond here on this topic or any from the past). So I posed these questions simply as something for readers to think about. Deciding where we stand, once we get past the hyperbole, is important for our country.

I know most of you already know this, but most media is there to get ratings. Newspapers and those on the air generally care more about those numbers than whether they help us improve our lives. Since they are advertising based, they must. Sadly, they profit from rage. It's up to us to recognize hype when we hear it, use our commonsense, and sometimes just turn the anger talk off.

In the month ahead, I am looking forward to spending time in nature, taking lots of photographs, maybe doing a painting or two, listening to good music, digging in the dirt, planting some plants, hiking, cleaning a house, and seeking hozho. I am going to try hard to forget about politics because for now there's not a darned thing I can do about any of it except get mad and that only hurts me. I am sure I'll get online off and on, read emails, check Facebook, and read a few blogs even when not posting here; but if you are writing about politics or anger, I'll skip that as, especially given the horror of the oil spill in the Gulf, I am sick of it all.

And one more thing that I don't say as often as I think it. I appreciate all of you who read this blog, who sometimes comment here. If you have a blog of your own, you know how much the comments mean whether they agree or disagree. But whether you comment or not, it's that you come and check it out that makes me feel good, and I thank you. Hopefully see you in June with some photos of the Arizona I love. Hasta luego.

Something to read

Not that I want to come across as consistently spreading a negative message, but I had this one scheduled for awhile before I realized I should write about the one before it. They actually do go together.

The following link is a comparative history of what happened in the Soviet Union with what appears, to the author, a Russian immigrant who is now a citizen of the United States, to be happening here. If you don't have time to read this entire essay, skip to the end as it has some possible suggestions to consider if the worst happens. The way we are going-- left and right, the worst might well be here sooner than we might have wished.

Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century by Dmitry Orlov

People who think something like that could never happen here are those who have never studied the history of other cultures. It seems to me that a lot of our country has not only gone soft but nutty without a real grasp of what it takes to survive in the world. People think they can live forever on past techniques for prospering.

Chaos from our information sources is almost total. You can choose to listen to somebody who will tell you exactly what you want to hear (Fox & MSNBC equal opportunity anger machines), but can you get real information?

Some folks are counting on a cosmic Santa to provide for them (and that isn't just among believers in a god). People feel removed from a more elemental time of cause and effect where consequences were more apparent or came faster. It's kind of amazing how fast this happened, how few generations it took to get here. If you assume the way it always was is the way it always will be, you are unprepared for change.

Politically, I think there is a lot wrong with our system for dealing realistically with any problem. Everything is phrased in partisan terms which makes it hard to fix anything which means most of it won't be fixed even though it will publicized that it was-- until the next catastrophe. The divide between rich and poor grows. The divide between left and right has widened. Frankly I am not thrilled with for what either party stands leaving people like me in a kind of unmarked territory-- political orphans.

Ignoring the current political paralysis, just think about the economic travails, climate shifts, possible pandemics, natural disasters, violent bomb attacks, and who knows what could come. I hope Orlov is wrong, but he's worth reading just in case he's not. It's not about paranoia. It's about preparedness, a practical awareness that sometimes we have to look after ourselves and nobody else will do it for us.

Most people are woefully unprepared for any kind of difficult time. They count on grocery stores always being open, gasoline in plentiful time, safe water from their tap, mass communication, banks supplying trading cash, electricity, police showing up to protect them, and medical care that works. It has not always been that way. For an assortment of reasons, there might come a time ahead where it won't be again.

I know people prefer reading something more upbeat. It can be enervating to think on how vulnerable our way of life might be; but not facing things won't help if bad times lie ahead. Having a plan, being prepared might make the difference between sitting and waiting to die or surviving, and it doesn't do a thing to ruin today.

The pair of geese at the top have been coming (or their offspring) to the farm in the spring for years now. Last year there were six of them but this year I have only seen this pair. They are always so alert to danger even when seemingly resting. If one does nap, the other watches. The cattle and sheep mix with them and no problem; but they know where the real risks might come-- and it's from humans.

Under the blue mango

Once in awhile I add a new blog to my blog rolls (if you will notice I have two lists). The newest additions most frequently go into the top list. Very rarely do I mention them, but this time, I feel I should say something about Joe Bageant.

I was given a head's up to it from a friend. Although I had heard of the book this author had written, I had never read it-- 'Deer Hunting for Jesus' which is about the class wars in the United States. I guess I should get a copy but for now I am reading his blog.

He's rough. He's outspoken. He says exactly what he thinks, and political correctedness be damned. He's no fan of the United States' political system. He appears to think that anybody who reaches the presidency has already sold out to corporations.

After I read his most recent post, I started picking and choosing from the list of previous blogs. His outlook is interesting, his stories carry you along, and give you something to chew on. Warning though-- he pulls no punches. Absolutely none.

Bageant sees our country as heading down a slope with no way to stop the slide. He thinks Conservatives know it and are just getting all they can before our economy totally collapses. It might seem that is a view without hope but then again, maybe it's just realism and there is something we can personally do about it-- as in accept a lighter footstep on the earth, help those we come across when we can, and recognize that the life we lead today might not be sustainable.

It's really not about guilt or fear. It's about facing situations squarely, not letting ourselves be carried away with what we cannot change-- but changing what we can.

I still don't know how much I will agree with him. He might not end up permanently on my lists, but he definitely has a viewpoint. Of course, like all bloggers, it's all just his opinion.

Whether you read anything else by Joe Bageant, you might try: Under the Blue Mango. It is about life in Belize and his attempt to make a difference.

and what about Facebook?

And what about Facebook? I wish I knew. For a long time, I had put off joining it because at one time I had gone into MySpace. After getting requests from strangers to add me, I thought what the heck am I doing here, and deleted my profile. It kept me from joining Facebook also until--

My daughter-in-law talked about being in there and how it's cool. It seemed it had more purpose; so I joined, dragging Farm Boss along with me. Where I have experimented with chat rooms in the past and assorted other communication oriented groups, he hasn't had interest in any of it. Not to say he is that active on Facebook but he has reconnected with some high school friends. Maybe he'll do more with his account when he has more time.

For me it's mostly about posting photos of the family and occasionally, very occasionally writing something on my wall or commenting on what someone else has posted.

What I worry about with Facebook is their desire to connect the whole Internet, to be a big player on many levels. As a member there, someone who doesn't want everything personal being broadcast, I regularly check privacy settings, as well as read any warnings about it, to be sure permissions haven't been changed.

One idea was they'd link us there to other sites we visit online. We could opt out but we would have to opt out. I didn't like that even though I don't visit anywhere I'd be embarrassed to have others know. I don't like thinking they can track me and likely do even without the permission to post. Frankly, I wouldn't even want to read where my friends and family visit.

I also am not crazy about the groups they can form which can end up being hate groups like that one-- . [Facebook group praying for Obama's death]. I can see where it has value as a way for politicians to grow their base, put out their ideas, but are groups like that one accomplishing anything for anybody? Of course, I don't have to participate in them either but still... I guess there is still one praising the guy who flew his plane into the IRS building as a tax protest which killed innocent people. Can Facebook be a place to promote terrorism?

Other than read things that turn up on my Wall and sometimes click 'hide' to prevent seeing them again when they are game related, I have liked Facebook for connecting me to others in a different way. Because I limited my list to people I trust, I feel it's a safe place to share photos of my grandchildren of whom I am naturally very proud. Because I have my settings to only showing my photos to 'friends'-- not 'friends of friends', I feel I can do that without worrying about a pervert pulling them offline for nefarious purposes and that's only paranoia if it couldn't and doesn't happen. If Facebook ever stops protecting privacy there, I'll stop posting that kind of picture.

Facebook is fun for me to see what friends and family are doing, the latest book they read, something funny that happened, and any other tidbit they might want to share. I have seen it as a more intimate adjunct to the blog, like the next level because there I use my real name and anyone I have added does likewise.

Anyway if you are on Facebook, using your real name there, are a regular here, I would be happy to have you add me to your list (I use the email that is here at the blog). Please identify yourself, as to who you are either in your own blog or here, because I turn down people I don't know. Warning though, I won't be helpful on any game playing as I am working on a farm here, not there.

Cutie on the Farm

Some readers might wonder why I don't use more photos of our livestock. There are blogs that are totally about their farm animals, and I really love reading them; but I use photos of ours sparingly and there's a reason.

It seems every time I photograph a really cute animal to share, something happens to it. I know it's not really every time. That's an exaggeration. Still it does happen and makes me sad which I usually don't share with readers because it's bad enough I am sad, and it's not like you'd know if I didn't tell you. I work on not singling out any of them to name or be aware of-- and not always successfully.

But we have this real little cutie of a lamb that I definitely do want to share and hope for the best that she makes it past the bad luck of being a star here. She is a pinto sheep which means her spots aren't just on her face. She was born to a ewe with speckled face but no spots like these. We had pintos some years back and sold them all; so I have to think that the genetic trait lingered hidden until this little beauty.


I think pintos might be the sheep in the Old Testament story of Jacob (they can be called Jacob sheep) when he was able to build his flock in a way that befuddled his father-in-law as each year the patterns would favor him having those lambs to add to his own flock.


It didn't take long of photographing her until she was onto me. She wasn't really afraid. More it was she didn't like her picture being taken-- and I took a lot. She will keep that tail as it really doesn't make them less clean... although shearers don't like them much and may be why they are so often cut off.

She has the benefit of being a single lamb to a good mother which is why the sweet pudgy little baby body. We will put a bell on her and hope that secures her living to be a ewe herself someday.
The rest of the sheep got onto me too and demanded I either open the gate to the bigger pastures or give them the alfalfa handout that Farm Boss usually gives. Since the bigger pasture is where the coyotes make their kills, I delay them going out there until afternoon. (These are triplets. Doesn't their mom look tired?)

I learned as soon as I tried to get into the stock trailer (where the alfalfa is sheltered) that I didn't know how to open the big doors. I thought sure I did and kept trying to figure out their combination of shifting this to that while hearing a cacophony of baaas ringing in my ears. It's not musical, let me tell you.

Finally I got in a side door and was able to toss out enough flakes to satisfy them until they are allowed out into the main pastures-- wish I could figure out a way to let the ewes go but keep their babies back.

One other thing was discovered Monday morning-- what's been happening to my ferns. I have a garden that is fenced off from sheep. It's where all the delectable things they would love to eat grow and bloom. I knew this year that my sword ferns weren't doing well which had mystified me until I watched a small black lamb slip between the gate and the post and begin contentedly nibbling. After I voiced my disapproval and she vacated, I barricaded it with a strawberry pot until something more permanent can be done by the boss of this place.

Politics, Taxes and Mount Rushmore

Politics straight ahead
this time, it's righties who might want to come back another day since I probably offended 3/4 of my readers with the last one, might as well get the rest

To the right wing, Reagan not only was the greatest president we ever had but he's not really gone as his philosophies are still with us. The largest of these and probably the most damaging, although there are two which fall in line, is that government is the bad guy. Reagan had a famous quote about how evil government is and how whenever it says it is here to help us, we should be suspicious. He set about doing what he could to ruin government as a power for any kind of social programs. His philosophy on government was definitely part of Bush's agenda during his 8 years in power.

Reagan only liked big military and anything else was supposedly not needed. So forget regulating banks, checking on quality of food, building freeways, taking care of the sick, elderly or poor. A Reaganite will typically see all of that as something the private sector should do. You know, the good guys who take care of us all so well through their corporate and financial maneuvering.

To say Reagan is no longer president and therefore is insignificant today is to ignore what has gone wrong with the Republican party-- even the part that actually does have good intentions. The right wing sees him as so wonderful that they'd like to carve his face into Mt. Rushmore. (The photo was by the way among the negatives that I recently scanned from old family pictures. This one obviously when my family visited there and Mt. Rushmore was still being created.)

The corollary to government is the bad guy is his saying that if we cut taxes, we will have more revenue. I am pretty sure Bush believed that one at least he said he did. It turns out that if you look at the fine print it says if you cut taxes on the richest people and increase them on everybody else, your debt will still go up and the richest will get richer which is where we are today.

There was some talk about trickle down as a way to solve the problem of the poor. You cut taxes on the richest and it trickles down to everybody else. Turns out that didn't work so well. What the richest did was to buy multiple homes which made housing values go up and when possible, they put their money in offshore banks to avoid even the taxes they were paying. They pushed paper around to create more wealth for themselves and nothing trickled down to the point where with our current income tax situation 47% of Americans don't pay federal income taxes.

Now they don't pay them for assorted reasons. Some are elderly, disabled, or very poor. Some make a good living but have large large families. A long time ago it was decided that everybody who had a child should get a tax exemption. That adds up for some families.

However you look at the reasons, half this country is not only not paying but isn't making enough by government reasoning to have to pay (although, if they work, they do pay SS and Medicare taxes). Agree with that reasoning or not, it means a lot of people are not doing all that well-- a lot more than back when Reagan began the tax cut thinking that was engraved in stone for Republicans and makes even Democrats fearful of raising taxes.

Now we have a bunch of people marching around the country complaining about their taxes... except unless they made over $250,000, they didn't pay more taxes last year. They paid less. So maybe their marching really isn't about taxes but we won't go into that for the purposes of this topic.

What I heard a week or two ago that blew me away and then I began to think yes, it's so. We should roll back the Reagan tax cuts. Not just the Bush tax cuts but the Reagan ones too.

You won't hear any Democrat say that either although some writers, like Michael Moore, have expressed it as a way to begin to build bridges again, to get our infrastructure repaired, to pay down our debt. There is though a better reason for rolling them back.

When taxes are higher on the richest people, they can leave the country; but most don't want to do that. What they will do instead is look for ways to cut their taxes and that would be where the benefit of raising them comes in.

They will invest in new technologies and manufacturing. If their fancy home won't earn an exemption, and it should not, then they might put it into an inventor with a new idea for improving energy. If they can't get a tax break for investing in pushing paper around, they will invest in what made our country strong to begin. If they can't keep it, they will either have it taken by the government or they will begin to rebuild our country.

You know, the four men whose faces are carved into Mt. Rushmore did believe in this country and the government. They invested heavily in their belief.

George Washington physically fought a war to make it a reality and became our first president refusing to be named a king.

Thomas Jefferson wrote our Declaration of Independence and helped create the Constitution that still governs us today. He invested into this country the idea of freedom from oppressive religions.

Abraham Lincoln invested his whole being in keeping this country together and recognizing that nobody here should be a slave. When he gave the Gettysburg Address, he really was putting into words our foundation and the creed that many of us would claim our government was here to secure for all citizens.

Theodore Roosevelt really was our first environmentalist president as he helped create a park system that left us beauty for future generations to enjoy. He spoke on many subjects Almanac of Roosevelt Speeches (try the one called Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine for a lot more responsible attitude toward foreign affairs than we see today from a lot of the right).

Ronald Reagan doesn't deserve to be in such company on Mt. Rushmore because what he grew was an attitude that has led to some wanting to destroy what the other four worked so hard to build. He called himself a patriot and used (or allowed to be used) underhanded methods to achieve foreign affair aims which we are still suffering under today. One example was the Iran Contra Affair. I think the day will come where the negative things that happened under Reagan will be obvious to all but it won't be today with the right wing. They still want another Reagan.

Lincoln ended his Gettysburg speech with these words: "--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

It's what we should still demand from our government but people don't. They only want things for themselves. Today they don't even want to pay their share of keeping this country going, to keep strong what so many died to secure. 30% didn't fill out the census form. Some were encouraged to not do so by people like Representative Michelle Bachmann. The census is decreed by our Constitution, you know that thing they claim they value so much, with the rule that it be done every 10 years to be sure the people were being represented.

And with all of that some of those people proudly call themselves tea partiers as though they have any concept at all of what patriotism means. If we can't sacrifice now by agreeing to raise those taxes to get our country back in control if its own destiny, we don't deserve those in our past who fought for it with their own blood.

Politics again

Politics
and this time it might be lefties who want to come back another day as I'd hate to lose all my readers over my political views and as a moderate I know that is possible as I tend to agree with conservatives on some things and liberals on most.
The thing is I don't even enjoy writing about politics. This particular issue is one that makes me sad more than angry. Writing about it is a lose lose for me as it offends some readers and doesn't begin to convince the others; but I feel an obligation to address things I think are important-- popular viewpoint or not.

Every so often an issue arises that puts me squarely on the opposite side of an issue from my liberal friends. United States border control is one of these. Arizona has stepped firmly into the immigration mess and aroused the anger of liberals and yes, surprising as it might be to liberals, some conservatives all the way across the world. [Civil Rights Advocates Attack Arizona's Immigration Law]The assumption is that this new law demanding people carry proof of citizenship is about racial prejudice, and Arizona will have to pay the price by boycotts and the anger of the country for what it has done.

The thing is the issue of immigration has not been addressed by the country. Most of those who want an open border with no controls haven't stopped to think what that will mean. It sounds noble and charitable even to open your door to everyone. I am not sure it's very practical.

Others have less noble reasons. They want open borders for reasons I have mentioned before-- it's more profitable not to address it. The result of the United States policy is something that has been escalating in a very frightening way. Mexico's problems are not the problems of Wisconsin, but they are the problems of all the border states. Arizona is on the front line of this issue. It's not abstract down there and frankly it impacts legal citizens no matter what their origins.

When you see things like-- Phoenix kidnapping capital of the country? or Seven Ciudad Juarez policemen killed in ambush, I suspect it doesn't worry people who don't live along the border. Heck those kidnappings only happen to those involved in the drug traffic. The fact that in Mexico kidnappings also can involve successful citizens isn't worrisome. Hasn't happened here yet. It might not even worry those who live in what they consider safe regions of Arizona. It should.

I don't really know that the new law that will take effect in August will pass Constitutional muster. It might not be a fair or good approach. They estimate there are almost half a million Mexican people in Arizona illegally. Many more than that in California. Farm Boss and I were guessing possibly a hundred thousand or so in Oregon (not all illegals come from south of the border) although many of those in agricultural work come and go. Statistically experts are guessing there may be as many as twelve million in the country as a whole.

Illegal immigrants got here because the border has not been protected. They, and those who buy illegal drugs, are part of what has been growing along the border as coyotes bring across human and illegal drug cargo. The end result has been escalating violence.

If we do make a path to legal citizenship, this alone won't change the illegal traffic at all. It will do what it did during Reagan's era-- legalize a lot of people who are already here. Their jobs and position in society will be replaced by new illegal citizens.

Sadly, there is a reason it's profitable to keep a considerable population here illegally -- it's called cheaper service and agricultural jobs. A lot of people profit from the illegals and they aren't all coyotes. Some just want a maid at a low wage or they want workers in their yard or they like cheap food.

I agree with what Obama said about this. What Arizona has done might have been wrong, might be unenforceable, definitely will hurt Arizona, but it happened because the federal government has failed to act.

Obama suggested a several prong approach which would mean stricter border control, a functional legal worker program, and a path to citizenship for those already here. Not all who work in the United States want to be citizens. A legal path to coming here for work would end the profit in at least that part of the coyote business. BUT if we don't stop the border traffic, the violence down there will spread.

When we let half a million people in say Arizona have citizenship, enable them to qualify for all the social programs that citizens can file for, we will find a big change in everything for awhile. Perhaps it will mean less access to doctors, more expensive groceries, but maybe it has to happen because other generations failed to act. If we don't control the border though, this problem will grow and legalizing people already here won't solve it.

Nobody on the left will probably like what I am going to say next, but I also think we have to end the policy of giving citizenship automatically to any person born in this country. It only serves to break apart families. I don't think you'd be automatically a citizen of any other country just for being born there. If at least one parent is a citizen, then your birth would make you one; but when it is as it is now, it lets a child be pulled apart from parents or people come across just to have their child born here. We can't undo what has been done with the current law, but we could change it for the future.

And I think we probably have to face national ID cards. Many countries in Europe, like France, already have such regulations and do request ID to be carried and shown when an official asks to see them. I resisted this idea, have felt it was going to be a government infringement on our freedom but without that then we are necessarily targeting only certain people for having to provide proof of citizenship.

There is evidently also something called veri something or other which could validate for anybody hiring someone whether they have a legal right to work here. It can be done if people want it done. With green cards permitting legally working here, people coming up won't have to use the coyotes. They also won't have to hide and be afraid of reporting it when they have been criminally victimized as the situation is now.

In Arizona there are many Hispanics who have lived there longer than any European settler. Everybody came from somewhere sometime. In my family some of them came in the 1800s and others in the 1600s but they all came over from somewhere. Immigration has been our history, but the thing is when it's illegal what is it doing to our country? When it involves a criminal class to bring in the people, what does that do to us? That is what Arizona has faced to so much condemnation.

When I go back to Arizona this time, I plan to take proof of my citizenship with me in my passport. Whenever I drive down toward the border, actually when I cross into Arizona, I can and have been asked for such ID. Anytime I have ever gone to Canada, I have had to carry birth certificates for the whole family (even before the law changed for getting back into the US requiring a passport). I don't feel it infringes on my freedoms to have it or to be asked to show it. I will have to get used to the idea that neither does a national ID card. I have not liked it one bit, but I like the alternative less.

To Photoshop or not to Photoshop Faces

In the world of the computer and digital photograph, ordinary people are faced with choices they never had in the past. Once upon a time only photographers had access to the ultimate face changing tools. Today with all the places we are asked to put up profile photos, all the people who don't really know us, our options have grown.

Even before I received more photos of my grandparents, I had a few old ones, the kind they paid a photographer to take as anniversary photos. At first I hadn't realized what had been done to the one below and then I had to ask-- is that even Grandpa? Well it wasn't the grandpa I had seen in earlier and later photos. The photography studio had given him a new nose.
The question would be why? Didn't people who paid for a photograph want it to look like themselves? Did some photographer decide they should look like an idealized 'them'? If you are going to straighten a nose, why not add hair? Well maybe they did although the next photo was obviously taken years later. I included it so you can see the shape his nose should have been.


This link below talks about the problems professional photographers face with their own photos of celebrities where even young people are photo shopped until they look like dolls.

Please Don't Retouch Me

Vanity Fair's January 2010 issue had an excellent example of the outrageousness of this. Meryl Streep was being featured with the question of how she has managed, at 60, to still be playing romantic leads in hit movies.

Clearly the photographer or magazine decided the only way she could was a photo face lift. That cover photo (and the supposedly current ones inside) aren't what Streep looks like in her films or anywhere else. Whether the photographer made the choice or the magazine, it undercut their entire article which was supposed to be how women of a certain age, who have not had major reconstructive work, can still play romantic leads.

In her films, at any award shows, Streep looks her age. She also looks beautiful. She has proudly indicated she has not had a face lift. I don't know if she has had eye work, little tweaks, or some Botox; but to me she looks like a woman 60 years old. That Vanity Fair cover, supposedly recently taken, did not look like a woman even 40 years old. Why write an article of a woman being proud she can still play a love interest at 60 and then make her look 30 in the photos? Never mind the question of why women need to continue to look 30 and for some even that is regarded as too old.

Average, ordinary people have the face lift option where it comes to their own digital photos. It is possible to use tools that take out every wrinkle, every line and (except for having friends who'd know) it'd be darned tempting except back to the original question-- what was the point of taking or sharing a photo to begin?

Photographs of today are a lot more revealing than those little 3x5s I grew up seeing. These are big and sometimes on a big screen with lots of light. We see every flaw far too clearly. Sometimes the digitizing even creates those flaws by its unique method of putting together an image.

Today even amateur photographers can 'adjust' photos if they so choose. There is no reason to apologize for using photoshop either as, in my opinion, it is part of what creates a photo that goes beyond the 'catalog' (as in recording an event or person) type. How we crop, light, tweak colors, and sharpen can turn an average photo into something special. It also can change what we saw so greatly that the subject is unrecognizable.

What I try to do, where it comes to photos of myself, is look in the mirror and decide what I see. If the camera put in a dark shadow that isn't there, I have been known to soften (but not eliminate) the shadow. Sometimes the photo is the product of a combination of reality and what lighting does.

From one of our beach trips, I had such a picture that I liked except... it clearly showed my eyes looking my age. The sunlight was indeed harsh but when I checked in the mirror, yes, my eyes do have some sagging. Heck, I am going to be 67 this fall, why not some lines?

Suppose though I wanted to change it-- take out those lines, lift some sags. After all my digital painting, I can do it (and I don't even have a fancy photo program. I use Corel Photo-Paint7).

Below you see the results of a few minutes using clone and smoothing tools. I could have even straightened my own nose had I wanted to do so. Our faces change with age; and although I didn't have the sagging at 30, I also didn't really look like that photo then or now. So, what would be the point of changing it? Would I fool anybody here, who knew no way did that look nearly 67, if I 'adjusted' it? Certainly not friends who have met me in person.

This whole issue is the one magazines are beginning to face up to. Plastic isn't better. A photo should look like us... lighting carefully selected or not... or what is the point?

mothering

My life, as it is for most of us, seems a mix of trying to meet the needs of others, which for me can mean animals under my care, family, friends, the bigger picture of community and balancing that with meeting my own needs. Heck sometimes just trying to figure out my own needs.

As I get deeper into old age, I think more about the years that might be left and what am I going to do with them. I also think about whether what I am doing today is creating a tomorrow I will want.

I visualize myself as a very old woman with long white hair who chops her own firewood. Never mind that I am afraid of sharp objects and don't chop it now. Mostly, other than easy kindling creation, I just stack, carry and build fires with it, does that count?

It's more the mental imagery of staying strong virtually until the end and not the kind of strong that comes from working out at a gym but one that comes from real physical labor, keeping a garden, tending a few animals, involved with my own sustenance. The imagining of a place where everything is done for me is not on my old age list. I might be forced to accept that someday. I am realistic. If it comes, it won't be because I want it.

Some years ago, I wrote a poem when I really got to thinking about how today builds tomorrow. I then went looking for a photograph to illustrate it. This week I took that photograph and used it as a digital painting and backdrop for the concept.

Whatever we do today prepares the ground for tomorrow. For our whole life span, we can be looking for fertile ground, breaking soil, plowing, sowing, watering, harvesting, or we can allow weeds to crowd out our growth and production. We can plant and then forget to harvest. It really is a cycle of life and is no less true when we have fewer days ahead than when we are young with what seemed the world in front of us.

Click on the first digital painting to read the poem. The digital painting below is what I would like to be in the future. I want old woman energy to flow through me in the most positive way. If I was a man, that'd be old man energy.

Old woman energy has memories, experience, a lifetime behind it. Yes, it has less days ahead but whatever might be, that's what old woman energy is still nurturing. Old woman energy is still mother to her future.

Creative Juices

On the subject of creativity, which we might or might not have been on, I really liked something I read from Daily Om April 1, 2010, about embracing our inner muse. It fit with a conversation I had with a friend about how such ideas come into being for me.

For me, to connect with creativity, the first tip is simple-- start. Even without an idea in mind, just start. Daily Om said basically that part of that start is embracing our inner muse which is with us all the time and it's when we embrace what it is giving that we will create. The results will flow.

The ancient Greeks believed creativity came from the goddesses, and some still think they need to connect with a particular goddess to get that creative spark. I tried that, but the only goddess that ever comes to mind for me is Isis. If you know the stories of Isis, it's not hard to see why that one might not appeal to me to claim... Although maybe I have done it without thinking of it. The thing is if the goddesses are our muses, they connect with us, not us with them. We simply recognize what is happening and let ourselves work with it.

Daily Om on April 1 suggested that instead of thinking of muses as necessarily supernatural, we instead consider them as all the things that come into our lives which could be people, photographs, movies, books, nature. For me, movies are excellent inspirations not only for their imagery but the stories. They open me up with different kinds of possibilities depending on what I chose.Some people claim they just are not creative. But maybe it's more they have feared opening up their creative valves. I don't believe creativity is a gift given to only a few. I think it is part of humankind. Some might be more 'gifted' in their expression but often that is based on how often they open themselves to it. Respecting and encouraging our unique expression is part of the creative life.

If it seems difficult to find your muse, recognize that it might be it is more than one thing. Some might be with us forever but others come and go. Inspiration comes for a certain thing and time but then a different inspiration waits in the wings. What if we try to cling to the first and ignore the second? I think that is a problem many artists face.

Following a muse to wherever it goes, being open to the next one, that is also part of a vital life. When the right stream is coming through, we will find our courage growing and our willingness to stretch ourselves. Try something. So what if it fails!

There are, of course dry times in any artist's life. But maybe those are the times to experiment with a new medium. It is suggested during such times we surround ourselves with people who support our creativity, keep the tools for creativity handy, dive into ideas and inspirational materials, find frequent times in nature, and take time to let all experiences soak in. Let it go where it will, and don't let the inner critic stop that flow.
It is possible that what we create will not be appreciated or embraced by the rest of the world. Is that a reason to stop doing it or to step back into something easier? I don't think so. I think creativity is the juice of life and whether the world rewards or even punishes it, it should not be stifled.

The photos are from Sunday at Beazell and Finley when the Pacific Northwest finally hit 70 something and spring was totally in the air. YES!!!!! I would be willing to claim either of these gorgeous birds as my muse!

Nurturing Nature

One of the things I did when it was raining so much outside, while I had been dealing with some winter (which was lasting a tad too long) depression, while trying to figure out what I want in my life, was to create slide shows with music.

Art has often been a thing that helps me heal, but oil painting wasn't doing that so much as I kept thinking I had to have a product when I was finished. With digital, that's not so much an issue. I can do things for the fun or to express something inside for which I cannot find words. Digital art, for me, can be like keeping a journal would be for someone else.

Music has proven to be part of this process recently even though I am not a person to always have music going. In my home, I like silence most of the time to let my own thinking flow but also so I will hear if anything is going wrong outside. Sometimes though music really speaks to my soul and I go through a period where I play it a lot.

A few years back, I had seen a friend's photographs put into slide shows with music and I really liked that idea. It wasn't until I got involved with [Picasa] that I realized I had a tool that would let me do the same thing. First it was for my photographs and I shared some of that here. Then I realized it would work with my digital paintings. The next idea was-- what about creating art just for a piece of music?

That's what this is, a mix of my own ideas and some that I created especially to go along with a song. The song is from the children's movie, Pocahontas (which I have incidentally never seen) but I have the song on a Disney CD. The lyrics are [here]. I have loved its message and melody since I first heard it as it's about seeing the beauty around us, responsibility to nature, and understanding that we are all connected. The Nurturing Land is about two things-- how nature nurtures us and we nurture it.

[The Nurturing Land]

The art in this video is all mine, a combination of digital and oil paintings with the emphasis on digital. With two exception (the imaginary wolf howling at the moon and the painting of dancing around the medicine wheel) they are all places I have been, inspired from photographs I (or Farm Boss) have taken.

I have been fortunate in my life to have been allowed to richly experience a part of the world that I love so much. It's still here in places, open and wild, because earlier generations fought to keep it that way. I hope future generations will be able to say the same thing.

Whalen Island

On the week-end, Farm Boss and I drove to the beach for a one day outing. We didn't plan what we'd do but just headed down after the morning chores. We left the farm a little after 10, got to Newport, found a place for a light lunch to eat while watching the waves, and then began to drive north along the coast.

While I had expected stormy weather, it turned out to be a wonderful day in the low 60s with lots of sunshine. After stopping at Neskowin to walk on the sand getting some photos of Proposal Rock and some wonderful wave action, wading a bit in the ocean, we drove a bit farther north.

When we came to the Little Nestucca River, I became curious about how much farther it would take to get to a place that was part of my childhood-- Pacific City.

When I was a little girl, I was in Woods (a tiny community a mile up the Nestucca River from Pacific City) quite often. Granddad had built a small home there. My grandparents actually lived one year in basically what was a wood-floored, cabin type tent with a big wood cookstove for heat while he built their small two bedroom cottage looking toward the river. A path led to the dock where he kept a little boat.

To walk to the beach, we could take a trail over the hill and through some dunes. Saturday I found some of that still looks the same and some has changed completely-- not surprising considering how many years it's been.

There were other beaches driving distance where you crossed forested ground to what seemed like pristine beaches, never touched by humans (well so it seemed) and where after storms, you could find, besides lots of shells, the big glass balls that the Japanese fishermen used to secure their nets and which had ridden the currents to land on our beaches. One still sets in my living room.

Part of being down there was a place called Sand Lake owned by one family. The daughter lived out there while her parents lived near my grandparents. Sand Lake was a special place. Talk about energy vortexes and it could well be one of them although its natural beauty could also explain the energy there. Years later Farm Boss and I camped there with our children when for awhile it was a campground still run by that family.Saturday when we crossed the bridge to the island, we didn't know that the family who had owned the land all those years had worked together with government entities to secure it forever as a combination of sanctuary for humans and wildlife. It is one of only two natural, non-agricultural estuaries still left along the Oregon Coast.

After we had parked and looked around, Farm Boss and I didn't know where the trail would go, or even how long it would be, but we started walking. It wound through the forest with views off and on through the trees of the estuary to our right. Finally it arrived at the sand where beyond we could see the ocean. It wasn't a long walk as the island is only about one mile long. I am not sure how we would have gotten to the ocean waves other than maybe swimming the creek although with a higher tide, it might have been nearer to us. I will be going back often to check it out in various tides and seasons.
We learned more about its history after we got home and did some internet research. It could have all ended up the homes of the rich. It's such a beautiful piece of land that it would be easy to have seen that happening. Instead, it, like many other natural wonders along Oregon's coastline, is there for all time as an example of government working together with individuals to secure space for future generations to experience what I got to experience as a child.
Today, with a nice parking area, no fees, picnic tables, pit toilets, Whalen Island (I never knew it by that name) presents a lovely place to reconnect with nature. It was inspiring to me how that one family, through its generations, managed to hold the land together in such a way that my Saturday exploration would be possible. It is visible evidence of what government can and does do for us all.

(Other than ocean waves and Proposal Rock, all photos are from Whalen Island)

Negatives into Positives

When I was given a box of old photos of my family, there was also an envelope filled with hundreds of original negatives. At first I didn't think too much about that as I wasn't sure what I could do with them. When I got the idea of scanning them and creating positive images, it opened up a whole new world as well as took up hours of my days for awhile as I figured out which ones would be important to scan.

Through these photos I saw my ancestors, many of whom I didn't know their names but they were together for big gatherings, picnics, celebrations, and they were having fun. The old, the young, they were all valued and it shows. Sometimes I can figure out names based on other labeled photos, but many I will never know. It didn't matter really as I became immersed in their world. The clothing, relationships to each other, the background, the things they valued, those were what mattered more than names. I wish I knew more of their stories, but some aren't hard to guess from their positions in the photos.

How different the world was back then. Think about it as it's not all that many years. Probably 100 at the most and generally more like 70 or 80. It was a world so very different and yet in basics, weren't needs still a lot the same?

The photo at the top was not one of the negatives. I got it as a print and it was labeled. It was my father's grandfather sitting on his porch with what is my great great grandmother, the mother of their ten children, some of whom lived to be old and some who died prematurely. These people came from those who had come to America in the 1600s, who had worked to establish lives for themselves and spread across the continent. I have known only a few things about them based on some of my own genealogy research a few years ago.

Based on that research, the man in the picture was born in Indiana in the mid 1800s. He left there for Nebraska and then South Dakota and he basically had children born in both states, most in Nebraska as the family traveled to where he could find work. The picture above is likely close to the end of his life. He (and most of my family from that era) was buried in Hill City, South Dakota.

In a 1900 census, my great grandfather labeled himself a hard rock miner. He probably had very little formal education and learned what he did in the world of hard work. I know he was one of the first in the Black Hills working for the mines as my grandfather was (according to family legend) in 1880 the first white child born there when it was illegal to be there.

If that strong looking old man had gotten too old to work, he'd have had to hope his family would take care of him and his wife as he would have had no company pension and there was no Social Security. Medicare? You jest. Unemployment? You went hungry. Illnesses, well there wasn't a lot they could do anyway for illnesses-- doctors affordable or not. Great Grandfather died at 65 in Deadwood S.D. He likely worked until the end. What choice did most like him have?

This blog is not about him but about all of those like him, the working people; and it's about the purported evils of government in all those emails that seem to circulate regularly. You know the ones that see a bad guy out there intending to take away this country's good life. The emails ignore the good government has done for working people. Those angry words ignore all the ways it has changed our lives from what my family would have expected back then.

Without government helping, would you have a free internet today? What about television? Suppose the radio wavelengths had no regulation, how well would that work? And banks. Well they just failed sometimes and you lost all your savings. Schools? Most just got through eighth grade if they made it that far. People had to go to work much younger than today. Owning their own homes? Some did but those homes didn't have inside plumbing and often weren't much more than wood structures. Building standards? Who would have guaranteed them? Electric wiring? What for?

Vacations? Well if someone got any days off, they were likely without pay. I remember my family vacations. You drove as fast as you could from place to place, and you didn't go far because you couldn't afford to. Freeways to get farther faster? Not back then. Eisenhower really instigated the national freeway system. For all the evils that are being screamed about Social Security, now people don't have to fear disability or old age. It's not like either give much money but just enough to subsist when people cannot work.

I am incredibly proud of the people from whom I came. Every picture I scan of them reminds me over again what a tough and hardy people they were. They knew how to play and their photos show how much. They knew how to work hard and most did it their whole lives. They all came from Europe whether early or later but they came with the hope that they could make a better living for themselves in this country.

Most of us today have had that good life as we went through a very good time for the middle class; but there is a group in this country who is determined to end that and they are getting help from an unlikely source, the very ones who do need government.

You know, multibillionaires didn't lose out during this recession/depression. When the government pulled back from regulating financial practices, a lot of people made a lot of money by just pushing money around. The richest did not lose theirs. What dip they had went right back up and beyond.

Basically we need more government, not less and we need it to be more effective and aimed at helping people with better lives. Government, which is the sharing of a small part of our resources for a better America, needs to be held accountable. I am not saying I don't have concern for the current deficit, but I blame that on those who want everything for nothing. They see a program they like, say a state of the art military or building highways and whatever it is, they expect it to be paid for by manna from heaven.

It's worth repeating. Government is meant to be all of us working together to share some of our wealth to make life better for us all. It should be run by elected representatives who express our views, people who care about laws, fairness, wisdom, and yes, how the weakest are treated. It should not be bought and paid for by the corporate interests.

Michael Moore, who is so hated by the right wing, did an excellent documentary on what has been happening to us. Capitalism: A Love Story will not be watched by the right wing, nor by the ones who claim to love this country but are currently inciting a revolution. People like that don't want to see anything he puts out. They still believe the-- we can have it all if we just get back in power-- mantra. They are not aware how much they are being used and not to their profit.

In the documentary, Moore had only one place that I thought he was wrong (not blaming Clinton for a lot of what went wrong with financial regulations) but in the end, it was more about what is happening now and what can we do about it. He said it well-- he can't fix it. Obama can't fix it either. If more people don't start caring, it won't be fixed. Too many people in government are being paid off by those who do care enough. Moore though in general made it very clear that what we are facing right now is a mutual sell-out by both parties in power.

We can turn this around but it won't happen by putting down government as the bad guy. It will happen when we force government to be what it should be for the good of the people and not just the rich. We could turn it around by paying attention to what the Constitution really says.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."