A fantastic visit long in the making

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arguments, friends, politics, postaday2014, visit

Today I made the point of driving out to Chicopee to see my best friend Debbie and her husband Jim, who is also one of my best friends, but our dynamic is so very different. While Debbie and I are like sisters; Jim and I are like two toddlers constantly fighting over the same thing every time we see each. We never fight mean spiritedly, we hug it out every time, but boy does it get heated. Today I left Jim in a lather LOL.

Debbie and I were talking about everything under the sun as we always do while Jim was supposedly sleeping; I said one negative thing about Walmart and how they exploit their workers and Jim started arguing with me from where he was slouched over on the couch and we picked up right where we left off since the last time we argued over politics when they lived next door to me, several years ago. It is how I said, we are like two toddlers arguing over the same thing time and time again, today wasn’t different. He is a die hard republican and I am an impassioned progressive so we are like oil and water, but it never gets to the point of getting nasty or name calling, it just gets loud, poor Debbie.

We end each visit with I love you kiddo and I reply I love you too Jim. Debbie and I just laugh at Jim like Lucy and Ethel used to laugh at Ricky and Fred. That is what friendship is all about, knowing how to agree to disagree and remembering that there is more to someone than just their politics, there are shared experiences and memories that make a foundation and that is what counts in the end.

Today is election day

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elections, politics, postaday2014, vote

Today my husband and I exercised our right to vote. I have to say with a heavy heart that both of my children decided not to exercise their right to participate. Our daughter forgot to register for an absentee ballot and according to my husband when he spoke to her today, she wouldn’t have voted anyway. I had a passionate argument with my son today and it didn’t sway his decision at all. I brought up several facts such as the fact that people marched, protested and died for the right to vote and even today there are several states in our union who are purposefully putting roadblocks in place to deny the disenfranchised the right to vote. Texas requires a specific voter i.d to vote and there are very limited places to get one, some people have to travel over two hours to get that specific i.d. These types of restrictive i.d regulations makes it onerous to vote and it is done to dissuade certain demographic groups and they are primarily made up of the minority populations.

He argued that his vote doesn’t matter, I countered that au contraire it did. There are historical outcomes that prove him incorrect; some have been quite recent. All of this to no avail, he decided to be apathetic to the voting process. He did say that his mood may not be permanent, he could change next election year. That did little to cheer me up, I was sad that my arguments didn’t move him whatsoever and I know that my daughter would have been similarly unfazed.

We don’t have much power in this country and our vote is one of the last things that we have left to make our voice heard and leave an imprint of our decision as to which way our country should be governed and to know that I have two who don’t care and feel disassociated with their responsibilities makes me sad.

Daily prompt: Avant Garde

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health, politics, postaday2014

From your musical tastes to your political views, were you ever way ahead of the rest of us, adopting the new and the emerging before everyone else?

Politics: I was very intrigued by the whole process since my teens; history was my favorite subject and politics can’t be understood without historical context so I grabbed both with both hands and sank my teeth wholeheartedly into both areas of study. Is that avant garde? I don’t know, but I wasn’t shy about speaking my mind regarding my political convictions with adults at the table. I learned a lot during those discussions at the dinner table with my parents and their friends; I was amazingly blessed that my parents and their friends never made me feel out of place in these discussions or that my opinions weren’t important and valid. That was one of the best gifts that they could have ever given me, making me feel important and of value.

On a sadder note, lately the term thigh gap has been talked about in the news and for some it is a whole new concept. Women bent on getting a large enough gap between their thighs and overdoing it on exercise and diet. I am glad that it is getting attention in the news because it is part and parcel of the unhealthy obsession that many women face over their weight and honestly between fashion magazines and Hollywood, women receive the worst kinds of beauty related messages; hopefully with the conversations going on in the news, things will change for the better. Years ago, when I was in full blown anorexia, I decided that I needed my thigh gap to be as wide as possible, long before anyone was ever talking about it, it was my gauge as to how much more weight I needed to lose, honestly and sadly, I never could be skinny enough ever in my mind. I am now too tired to ever put myself through that again and I am so thankful for that. These days, I don’t have a thigh gap and I will never have one and I am resigned to that. It is fine.

Editing is a lot of work

Tags

books, essays, politics, postaday2014

I am getting close to the finish of where I want my political essay book to be, but it is quite tiring. I had forgotten how tiring editing is from way back when I used to write term papers in school.

I do have to say that by going through all of my essays, day by day, I am really surprised as to how relevant my words still are today. It gives me hope that my book might get noticed by a publisher, but it makes me sad as a politically interested person because it shows that we haven’t made a lot of progress as of today.

I actually yelled at myself a few times today because there were a few times during the day when I was feeling tired that I said “really you had to comment five times in one day?” Instead of just 30 days of comments, it has been closer to 50 to 60 comments a month to go through, I have a lot to say and I am quite opinionated lol.

I do feel really good about my work on this book and that is what counts.

A new project

Tags

politics, postaday2014, posts

I know that I have been neglecting my novel, but I am not going to beat myself over it, I am stuck for now and I will deal with it. Onwards and forwards. Today while my husband and I were driving back up North, I had a thought. What if I gathered all of my political posts chronologically and polish them up a bit and see if they would interest the publishing world. I have 3 and a half years worth of posts commenting on the state of political affairs. Someone might be interested.

This post will be short because I have been compiling my posts since we arrived and I am a little cross-eyed at the moment I am excited about this.

Daily Prompt: Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Tags

consumerism, economics, politics, postaday2013

Imagine, in great detail, an invention that could help reverse pollution — describe for us how your invention works and how it will help save the planet.

I have liked Inhabitat on Facebook for over a year and they post many articles about inventions made by so many young people in Africa, it is really exciting to read about them. Most of the inventions are low cost, made from local materials and are all related to important needs of their communities such as clean water access to electricity. I am nowhere near as talented or inclined to think outside the box as these amazing young people do, so I will let them save our planet. I highly recommend that everyone at least checkout Inhabitat once, if only to see how inventions are alive and well in the world of young people.

My contribution to eliminating pollution would be to scale back the rampant consumerism and materialism. If we stopped buying the cheap products and instead saved our resources to buy high quality products and when they break down , get them fixed instead of instantly throwing them away, that would make for less waste. I know that I am preaching heresy, consumerism and materialism is what keeps our global economy chugging along and for me to say stop buying is tantamount to sedition at the marketplace. I like to think of the old days when you bought something, it was made to last and if it needed repairs, there were repair shops easily found. Granted the time that I am looking at pre-dates Walmart, Target and discount stores, I am thinking of the age of the Mom and Pop store and when there was manufacturing in the States. The throw away culture wasn’t born yet.

I have been reading of dump sites located in China and in India for old computers and other electronic devices, and they are all near small villages, these villagers are exposed to fumes and runoff since they are tasked with destroying them. However there is a father and son operation that has come up with ways to recycle most of the discarded components into other viable materials for a whole slew of other products. They are the exception rather than the norm.

I really think that we need to steer away from the pervasive throw away culture that the new generation has already embraced since they don’t know any better. A planet made up of hazardous waste will only lead us down a path that we seriously don’t want to travel. There is still time to turn it around and making less waste is never a bad thing.

Why the dislike of government?

Tags

distress, government, personal, politics, postaday2013

Why do I feel that I am in the tiny minority of liking government? When it is well thought out and held in respect, government is a positive entity. It is how we govern ourselves into a manageable society. We can not all be our own security, fire fighter, medic, regulator and educator. Abraham Lincoln summed it up eloquently when he said that government is for those actions that can’t be done by the individual. I think that former President Reagan did our nation a huge disservice when he said that “government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem”. Government is only the problem when the elected officials collude to make it the problem by doing precisely what the tea party republicans are doing right now; refusing to reopen our government and bringing our government to the precipice of default. Apparently the 80 or so conservative republicans are very comfortable with the idea of defaulting if only to make a point in upholding their ideologies and principles.

If these republicans had won the election in 2012, I would understand their justification or if the ultra conservative Supreme Court had deemed the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, then I would understand their behavior but none of these things had happened. The Republican Party is ready to throw our economy and the world’s economy into the air and let the pieces fall where they may because they lost, they do not want to allow most Americans the choice to buy affordable health care insurance on their own if they must without fear of being denied for having preexisting conditions or being dropped because the limits were surpassed.

I know that I had promised not to write about my political inclinations on this my personal blog but I am really upset by the impasse we find ourselves at and playing chicken with other people’s lives and livelihood is morally wrong and morally contemptible. I am sincerely hoping that this is the last time that I will feel compelled to write about my distress over the political reality of my country.

There are things that I will never understand

Tags

politics, postaday2013, social media, technology, Twitter

As I was reading the news for the past few days, the focus was on two topics, topics diametrically opposed to each other; one was an extremely happy event, the birth of the Royal Prince, (hello Prince George!) and the other the most embarrassing political scandal once again perpetrated by former congressman Anthony Wiener, who is currently running for Mayor of New York City. He resigned in 2011 because he was caught on social media via Twitter with literally, his pants down; he was sending pictures of himself in his boxer briefs to young ladies who weren’t his wife. He admitted he had a problem after he tried to deny it at first and then resigned to go work on himself and his marriage. Fast forward to a few months ago when he announced his running for Mayor of New York City and it appeared that all was forgiven and he was given a second chance until now. He apparently never got the help that he so desperately needed, he instead, continued sending lewd photos of himself and this time without the boxer briefs and he isn’t stepping away from the race. It is so embarrassing for New Yorkers, it is embarrassing for his wife and for his friends and family. The oppositional nature of these two events is mind boggling, on one hand we have such a wonderful sharing through social media of the birth of a beautiful baby boy who happens to be the third in line of the throne of England and on the other hand, again through the lens of social media, we have the manifestation of a sick addiction of a politician, who cannot seem to admit that he has a serious problem and is letting his ego hurt the woman in his life, who is his wife and partner. Unbelievable how social media can be both a wonderful platform and a horrible platform, depending solely on the person sharing whatever content they so choose at any given moment.

The State of the Union

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cynicism, hopeful, politics, postaday2013, reactions, thoughts

Last night our President gave his State of the Union as mandated by our constitution. It was hopeful and uplifting in terms of the progress that we have made since the 2007 Great Recession. He laid out a progressive plan for the congress; the pundits have taken to calling it a “laundry list” of measures that the congress should work on making a reality. There was a call for gun control, environmental action and a commitment to educational reform. There was much more but my brain has since fogged over.

What struck me the most was the loyal applause from all the democrats and the stony silences of the republicans. It was sort of depressing because by their stony silence, the republicans let it be known that they will not do anything to help our country to govern itself. It makes me sad and weary; there are so many potentially great things that can be done, but when you have a House that is stubborn in its desire to obstruct everything that the President and his party are striving to do, everyone loses. We, the nation, lose in the fact that nothing gets done and we simply drift forward on the waves of slow economic progression, but essentially rudderless and without purpose.

I don’t know how this will ever change, it seems action is determinate on blind ideology instead of fact based thinking with an ideological blush in the background. When the facts don’t support your ideological bent than it is time to rethink your ideology, not bend the facts to suit your ideology, which is precisely what the republicans are doing these days.

Today I am not even cautiously optimistic, which is not the usual mood for me, perhaps I am a little tired but all this politicking makes me apprehensive for our future. I need to watch some escapist t.v. That will brighten my outlook. 🙂

Where do you hope to be in three years time?

Tags

Boston, loft apartment, novel, politics, postaday2012, publish, writing

Where do you hope to be in three years?

June 14, 2012

Where I Hope to Be in 3 Years

Villa in Cap Ferret, Arcachon Bay

In three years, I hope to be writing for a political publication, perhaps be a published author of my novel that is currently being written. My hubby and I would perhaps be living full time in a loft apartment somewhere in Boston. The possibility of having a second home in the southwest of France would also be nice.