A ROUGH RIDE TO A HAPPY ENDING

O Lord, your compassion is great and your mercies are new every morning: We give you thanks for giving Tom both relief from pain and hope of health renewed. Continue in him, we pray, the good work you have begun; that he, daily increasing in bodily strength, and rejoicing in your goodness, may so order his life and conduct that he may always think and do those things that please you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Book of Common Prayer)

Tom had surgery this past Wednesday to remove a small malignant tumor from his colon. The section of the colon where the tumor was located was removed and the ends stitched together. All went well with the surgery, and he is making an amazing recovery. Thursday evening, I rejoiced at the good news that the pathology report showed that the lymph nodes removed during surgery are all free of cancer, and he will need no further treatment. He came home Friday morning.  We've had a rough ride to a happy ending.

Thanks be to God, the doctors, the hospital staff, and the wonders of technology of surgery by robot...with a doctor standing by, of course.

Tom's recovery continues apace. Scarlett, the Cat, is a wonderful nurse and sleeps by his side every night. She's glad to have him home. I am, too.

HERE'S BARNEY!

Former Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass):

"In this terrible situation, let's be very grateful that we had a well-funded, functioning government. It is very fashionable in America ... to criticize government, to belittle public employees, talk about their pensions, talk about what people think is their excessive health care, here we saw government in two ways perform very well," Frank said on CNN's "Starting Point," noting the cooperation between state, local and federal authorities.

"No tax cut would have helped us deal with this or will help us recover," he said. "This is very expensive." (My emphasis)
....

"We're not asking people, look, do you have private health insurance or not, can you afford this or not? Maybe the government's going to have to pay for it," he said. "And this is an example of why we need -- if we want to be a civilized people -- to put some of our resources into a common pool so we are able to deal with this, and to deal with it, you can't simply be responsive once it happens."

Barney's right.  The resources to cope with such a tragic event have to be available before the disaster takes place.  And let's remember the first responders and volunteers risked their lives rushing in to help the wounded, not knowing whether there might be another explosion.

WHAT OBAMA AND THE CONGRESS SHOULD BE DOING

It was on this day in 1933 that newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a special session of Congress and began the first hundred days of enacting his New Deal legislation. For the next several months, bills were passed almost daily, beginning with the Emergency Banking Act, followed by federal programs such as the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

As part of the New Deal's cultural programs, grouped together as Federal One, the Roosevelt administration created the Federal Writers' Project, which employed more than 6,600 out-of-work writers, editors, and researchers — among them Zora Neale Hurston, John Cheever, Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, Studs Terkel, and Ralph Ellison — and paid them subsistence wages of around $20 a week. The main occupation of the Federal Writers' Project was the American Guides Series. There was an American Guide for each of the existing states of the time, as well as Alaska, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and several major cities and highways. Not mere travel guidebooks, they were also collections of essays on various subjects from geography and history to architecture and commerce.

Perhaps not these same programs, but the country needs similar stimulus to put people back to work, help them pay their bills, and put money in their pockets to buy stuff, all of which will help the economy recover.  Plus, our infrastructure is in dire needs of repair.  All the programs mentioned above left behind positive legacies.

The stock market is booming, and corporations are making record profits, but poverty in the country grows and grows.  Something is wrong with this picture, and austerity is not the answer, nor is the deficit a major concern at this time.  Those who constantly bray about reducing the deficit do not live in the real world.  If the economy recovers, the deficit will fall.

The present Republican Party is using the deficit as an excuse to meet their goal, which is to destroy social welfare programs in the country.  Of course, when their own areas are in need of federal help, the Republican politicians are first in the begging line.

 

REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS - GOOD NEWS

From the James King at the Phoenix New Times:

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords continues to be miraculous after being shot through the brain one week ago today, and doctors treating the congresswoman say her breathing tube could be removed as early as today.

"We couldn't have hoped for any better improvement than we are seeing now given the severity of her injury," Dr. Michael Lemole, a neurosurgeon at University Medical Center who has been treating Giffords.

Doctors reported yesterday that Giffords has been opening her eyes more frequently since miraculously opening them on her own for the first time since the shooting after a visit from President Barack Obama and some of her congressional colleagues.

Doctors also said Giffords was moving all of her limbs, performing more complex brain tasks, and is breathing on her own.

Thanks be to God, the medical staff and all who cared for Gabrielle, especially Daniel Hernandez, the intern in the congresswoman's office, who probably saved her life. What amazing progress for a woman who suffered injury from a bullet through the brain.

O Lord, your compassions never fail and your mercies are new every morning: We give you thanks for giving our sister Gabrielle hope of health renewed. Continue in her we pray, the good work you have begun; that she may daily increase in bodily strength, and rejoice in your goodness. Amen.