GAYLE - GONE SEVEN YEARS TODAY

My sister Gayle

I love Gayle, and I still miss her, and I expect I always will. The picture shows her getting ready for a party, and Gayle loved parties. She's wearing a tuxedo, which was the style for women some years ago.  Gayle and Frank, her husband, came to visit us, and apparently we were to attend a party.  When she unpacked her tux, I said, "Gayle, come see."  I went to my closet and took out a nearly identical tuxedo.  Too funny.  If I remember correctly, we did not wear our tuxedos to the same party.

Gayle was the person closest to me whom I've lost.  I love my mother, but we were not really close, although we were together quite a lot.  She was a good mother and, in many ways, a strong woman, as good as she could be under the adverse conditions of our family life as we were growing up, but she was emotionally distant.  My youngest sister died too young.  I love her, too, but for many years she was estranged from our family, so when she died, I grieved, especially that we were out of touch for so many years, but I didn't miss her constant presence.  I finally forgave my father before he died, but to say we were in any way close would be a lie.  We were on speaking terms, and that's the good news.  There you have our family life.

Though Gayle lived in Kansas City, we were in touch nearly every day, either by phone or by email.  I'd guess we would be communicating on Facebook if she was alive today.  I think of her often and wish so much that we could talk.  Gayle's husband, Frank, and her children, Donna, Gretchen, and Eric miss her presence, too.

Rather than resting in peace, I hope Gayle is partying in the great beyond.  I wrote the poem below on the anniversary of her death five years ago.  

Why Couldn't You Stay?

You walked away; you left us
Bereft, bereaved.
How could you go?
It wasn't your doing,
I know, I know.
Yet, how could you go?

Two years passed and gone,
Slipped away.
After you left, I'd think
I'll call her; I'll email.
Oh no! None of that!
You won't answer.

Now I know you're gone.
No thoughts of visits to come,
Seeing your face, hearing your voice,
The sound of your laughter.
Sadness lingers, emptiness remains.
Why couldn't you stay?

June Butler - 04-27-08

The photo above was taken in the Tower of London when Gayle and I traveled together a good many years ago.  The picture makes me sad, but it's the perfect metaphor for me for her death.  She was full of life, and she would have wanted more time, as we all would have wanted more time with her, but go she did.  God bless us every one.

LITTLE RICHARD - "KEEP A-KNOCKIN'"

I promised, so here's Little Richard.  At first, with the all the bad news from the sequestration, I thought the video might be inappropriate, but, strangely enough, the lyrics seem appropriate.

UPDATE: I laughed at one of the comments at YouTube: "any music made after the 60's is worthless." I don't agree, but I do believe after the 1950s and early 1960s it's been downhill for rock 'n roll, with a few exceptions.  Of course, I may be prejudiced, having come of age during the 1950s.
 

DEMOCRATS LOSE SEQUESTRATION GAME OF CHICKEN

The Democrats have lost on sequestration.

That’s the simple reality of Friday’s vote to ease the pain for the Federal Aviation Administration. By assenting to it, Democrats have agreed to sequestration for the foreseeable future.
....

In effect, what Democrats said Friday was that in any case where the political pain caused by sequestration becomes unbearable, they will agree to cancel that particular piece of the bill while leaving the rest of the law untouched. The result is that sequestration is no longer particularly politically threatening, but it’s even more unbalanced: Cuts to programs used by the politically powerful will be addressed, but cuts to programs that affects the politically powerless will persist. It’s worth saying this clearly: The pain of sequestration will be concentrated on those who lack political power.  (My emphasis)

There you have it.   If you're not a member of Congress, or if you're not wealthy or influential, forget about relief from consequences of the sequester.  If you're poor, or unemployed, or on Medicaid or Medicare, too bad for you.  Funding for scientific and medical research will be cut.  Good-bye to grants for art, music, and writing. 

So, Democrats, what's the plan?   Why did the sequester seem like a good idea?  Will you pull a magic rabbit out of a hat to fix the sorry mess the sequester has created?

Cuts in housing vouchers to 140,000 low-income families
Elimination of 70,000 Head Start slots
Cuts to Vista, which will hurt the program that performs antipoverty work in many states
An 11 percent cut in unemployment benefits for millions of jobless workers
Cuts of about $25 million from a program to provide free school breakfasts.
Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients

What about cutting your salaries by 10%, members of Congress and Mr President?  I read somewhere that Obama had voluntarily taken a 5% cut in his salary, so he'd only need to volunteer another 5%. 

What are the chances that the cries of those who suffer severe consequences as a result of the sequester cuts will be heard?  Slim to none, I'd say.  Republicans like nothing better than cuts to programs that help "the least of these", and Democrats no longer seem to care.   

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, ARE YOU LISTENING?

My dear friend Margaret wrote the following letter to her senators and representative:

Dear....,

My name is Margaret. I am the Episcopal priest serving the Cheyenne River Reservation. It is a difficult job, at best, but I have never felt more fully alive than when serving the good people of South Dakota.

Here is my concern: The "Sequester" cuts have cut to the bone here on the Reservation. Our Social Services workers will be working without a direct office supervisor, and will be expected to absorb the work load of their supervisor when she is laid off beginning May 1. They already each have over 150 clients. I have heard one serves more than 260 clients --adding more is going to make a difficult job impossible.

But more importantly, the clients themselves have been cut off --they have received no monies since the beginning of March. They are coming to my door asking for heating fuel, food, clothes, diapers. Children are at risk. There are no Tribal programs that can assist these folks, they are mostly disabled, elderly with grandchildren in the home, or are desperate for work. Last night, after a funeral, I delivered left over food to people's homes. Funeral food to a family of six of baloney sandwiches, biscuits, two apples, two oranges and some chocolate cake.

I cannot afford to feed all the people who come to my door asking for help. I have emptied my own freezer, my own cupboard in order to help these desperate folks.

I would like to invite you and any one else who is interested to come and stay here for ten days. Just ten days. I would like you to open my door and hear the stories, see the faces, see the desperation and despair. I would like you to feed the people from my freezer --and when it is empty explain to them why it is they have to go hungry and cold.

I would like you to attend the funeral I would probably do sometime in that 10 days and see the faithfulness, the generosity, the generational grief. I would like you to come with me on home visits and see the extreme poverty out of which that faithfulness and generosity and grief springs.

In the last six months, I have done 40 funerals --six infants, two teen suicides, and many, many folks under the age 40.

And food, shelter and heat are not the only problems here --the Indian Health Services were also part of the Sequester cuts. And the cuts are affecting the Head Start programs.

Have you all become so twisted up in your political lives that you have forgotten the people you have been called to serve?

I think so.

Look, it's really easy --have no cap on Social Security payments --everyone pays, all the way up. Including you. Don't make me pay 25% and more on taxes while the ultra-rich pay 15%. Don't give yourself healthcare benefits and raises and then deny them to others.

Don't punish the children and the elderly and the poor and the disabled by cutting the programs that at least keep them alive at poverty levels.  Oh, and by the way, don't sacrifice the environment for monetary gain --that will kill us all.

I'll say it again: Don't exempt yourselves from the burden the poor must bear every day.

I can only say I am shocked and depressed by my own government. Do better than this. The people you are supposed to serve deserve better.

Shocked and depressed,
The Rev. Margaret Watson

For you members of Congress who apparently believe that the inconvenience of delayed flights is the most serious consequence of the Sequester,  may I remind you of your oath upon assuming your offices?

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

The very first words of the Constitution are as follows:

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. (My emphasis)

When Native American citizens of  the richest country in the world live as Margaret describes the situation of her parishioners, something is very wrong.  In the best of times, her people number among the poorest.  In bad times such as these, their plight is desperate.

My prayer for you is that the words from the song of the prophet Ezekiel become the reality for you that will move you to exercise your power to end the Sequester and relieve the suffering people in these United States of America.

A new heart I will give you
and a new spirit put within you.
I will take the stone heart from your chest
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will help you walk in my laws
and cherish my commandments and do them.
You shall be my people,
and I will be your God.

(Ezekiel 36:26-28)

FULL MOON

 

Great ball shining bright 
Rolling on dark night's ceiling 
Sun's light brings to earth

ENEMY COMBATANT?

Sen. Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham (Benghazi! Benghazi!) is up for reelection in South Carolina next year, and there are rumors that the Tea Party may support a candidate to challenge him forcing him into a Republican Party primary run-off.  Thus Graham may think he has to prove his manly-man creds with combative stances against President Obama's policies, which he has admitted are "good politics".

Even though the man suspected of detonating two bombs during the Boston Marathon has already received his Miranda rights, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham Monday continued to press for the suspect to be "interrogated" and treated as an "enemy combatant" for intelligence-gathering purposes. But Graham said the information gathered shouldn't be used in court because the suspect is a U.S. citizen.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Kyrgyzstan, was charged Monday in federal court for last week's bombing, which he allegedly set off with his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed last week during a police search for the suspects.

Dzhokhar Tsnarnaev

The Justice Department has declined to treat Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as an enemy combatant, which would have allowed authorities to question him without an attorney present.

The authorities questioned Tsarnaev for 16 hours before he was read his Miranda rights.  During that time, he confessed to the crimes, thus the confession cannot be used in court to make the case against him.  Once he was read his Miranda rights, Tsarnaev stopped talking.  Since there's probably enough evidence besides the confession, the prosecutors probably still have a strong case for Tsarnaev's conviction as one of the Boston bombers. 

It’s...dismaying that authorities dribbled out bits of Tsarnaev’s confession Monday and Tuesday after saying he’d been read his rights. They never directly said he kept talking after he’d been Mirandized, but they created that impression.

I've read elsewhere that the confession came after the reading of Miranda rights, and I see the source of the information now.  Was this deliberate obfuscation by the authorities intended to confuse?

Despite previous statements about Tsarnaev's capture, it now appears he had no gun, and the authorities won't say what all the gunfire at the scene was about.

Although police feared he was heavily armed, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing had no firearms when he came under a barrage of police gunfire that struck the boat where he was hiding, according to multiple federal law enforcement officials.

Authorities said they were desperate to capture Dzhokhar Tsarnaev so he could be questioned. The FBI, however, declined to discuss what prompted the gunfire.

In time, I trust all the information in the news reports will be sorted out.  I intended my post to be about Graham and his call for Tsarnaev to be treated as an enemy combatant, but as I heard and read more news, the post grew longer.  

NO SUCCESS

 

Trying without success to avoid press coverage of the opening of the monument to George W Bush on the campus of Southern Methodist University.  SMU should have sent Bush packing when he approached them.  The library is a blight on the campus.

UPDATE: Or as Adrastos at First Draft said yesterday, "The Bush lieberry is opening tomorrow in Dallas."

TEXAS OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is on a four-day recruitment trip to California this week, trying to lure Golden State businesses to set up shop in the Lone Star state.

The trip, which began Sunday, will take Perry to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County, but the recruitment started last Monday when Perry made an ad buy in California inviting Golden State businesses to enjoy the tax and regulatory benefits available to them in Texas.

“Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California is next to impossible.  This is Texas Governor Rick Perry, and I have a message for California businesses. Come check out Texas,” Perry says in the 30-second ad.  “There are plenty of reasons Texas has been named the best state for doing business for eight years running. Visit texaswideopenforbusiness.com and see why our low taxes, sensible regulations and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving to Texas.”

Go to Texas (wide open for business) where you can pollute as you please and operate a dangerous business with little regulation or oversight.  Or come to Louisiana where similar policies allow you to do business in whatever way you like.

Meanwhile in West, Texas:

The number of people who died in a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, last week now stands at 15, officials said Tuesday. Some earlier reports had indicated that 14 people had lost their lives. At least 200 more were injured.

Governor Perry tours disaster zone

I AM NOT A SHEEP

 

The Good Shepherd, mosaic in Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna,
1st half of 5th century

The Good Shepherd metaphor no longer works all that well for me, though at one time, it did, for I loved the idea that the Lord was my shepherd.  The Good Shepherd is not the problem, but I no longer relate to being a sheep.  Though sheep are not dumb animals, as is widely believed, they do tend to herd, and my inclination is more toward being a loner than a member of a herd.  I'd be the sheep who strays away, and the Good Shepherd would have to leave the other 99 to come to look for me.  After a while, I'm sure even the Good Shepherd, the Best Shepherd of all, would be annoyed by my behavior.  Mind you, I have not thought through the theological implications of not wanting to be a sheep.  What I've written is sort of an extended thought for the day, about which I could change my mind once I consider further the consequences of not being a sheep.

I should add that I love the looks of Scottish Blackface sheep.

The mosaic pictured above is lovely, isn't it?

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

HOPE FOR BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR GUN SALES?

 

Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune, resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association on Thursday, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, "I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable." (My emphasis)
....

"The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established," wrote Busch. "Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members."

How much more insane commentary will the members have to hear from Wayne LaPierre before there is a stampede out of the National Rifle Association?  How many more cowardly retreats from voting for background checks by members of Congress before they awaken to the fact that 90% of the citizens of the US favor background checks?  For whom do the craven Congress critters work?  The citizens or the NRA?  I think we know. 

NASA: THREE YEARS OF SUN IN THREE MINUTES

In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun's rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day.

Amazing and beautiful.  The musical accompaniment is "A Lady's Errand of Love" by Martin Lass.

Thanks to Paul (A.).

FEAR ITSELF

MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
Last Judgment (detail)
Fresco
Cappella Sistina, Vatican

Fear Itself

Fear itself …
that is the thing explaining
why bombers bomb
why we cannot control guns
why the Pope suppresses nuns
speaking “radical” humanist words
why “real men” loathe nerds
and arm themselves against
delusions of apocalypse.
Fear is the power of coercion
trumping all notions
of civility, compassion “fittest” assumed to mean
the ruthlessness of nihilists
protecting their own small niche
at the expense of all “soft” targets
“not my problem”
“take care of our own”
dismissing the thoughtful
the adaptive, the truly strong
who mean it when they say
life itself is sacred.
Fear is the tool of men
protesting too much, claiming
to be defenders of liberty
when what they are protecting
is their consumption of advantage
their right to shoot, to profit
to procreate any way they choose
but not you, not you
you must be frightened into
compliance with their rule
their privilege, their proprietary
fist enforcing the lie of superiority
“emotion” labeled “girly” “useless”
except when it is “manly anger”
an excuse to pretend the violence
is just … but it is just their fear
their adrenaline addiction
raging, tolerated, “just the way it is”
not inevitable
just the way things will be
until the greater we
says no
passes the laws that prevent
paranoid bullies from expecting
and getting
our cooperation in their death industry
fear itself.

(Marthe G. Walsh)

Image from the Web Gallery of Art.

EARTH DAY - APRIL 22, 2013

Amen. Thanks to Ellie on Facebook.

WHO WOULD LIKE TO ADOPT SEVEN AFRICAN VIOLET PLANTS?

 

 

Confession: The two in the pictures are the prettiest, but with better tending loving care, all the plants could be as pretty.

The African violets sit on top of my sewing machine in the only suitable spot with proper exposure, which means I must move all seven plants in order to sew.  Also, in the interest of full disclosure, two of the plants need repotting, because the roots have grown above the soil.  

THE BABIES

Last week was tough all around the world, but sometimes you have to take a laugh break.  

A woman who is three months pregnant falls into a deep coma.

Six months later, she awakens and asks the doctor to see her baby.

The doctor: You had twins, a boy and a girl. Luckily, your brother named them for you.

The Woman: Oh, no! Not my brother! He's an idiot. What did he name the girl??

Doctor: Denise.

Woman: Well it isn't so bad, and what did he call the boy?

Doctor: Denephew.

CHECHEN ROCK GROUP GTOWN SING THE BLUES BROTHERS "NEW ORLEANS"

Another view of Chechens.  New Orleens (sic) is my home town. I was just reflecting that there are those who have already widened their circle of ethnic groups who must be feared to include Chechens. Alas…

Thanks to Juan Cole for sharing the video.