Proof of citizenship

I am tired. I went on a trip with my father for a week. We really had a great time. Five years ago I would not have taken time off work to go on a trip. My father wanted to take a trip down memory lane and kept talking about going for a final trip. So I went.

We went to Honolulu. While visiting the Arizona, my father tried to hide his tears but he couldn’t do it. He took his time to read the names of all of the people who had died on the Arizona and later after going back to Contemplation Point, he read the names of the soldiers, sailors, marines and civilians who died during the attack.

A few days later we went to Fort DeRussy Museum and looked at the exhibits that dealt with Hawaii’s military history. While the United States was locking Japanese Americans in camps for national security reasons, Japanese American soldiers took some of the highest casualties of any American military unit in World War II. They had to prove that they were loyal Americans.

Likewise, African-American soldiers served. The Tuskegee Airmen flew missions to protect American Bombers and were segregated from the rest of the Army Air Corp. They had to prove that they were as skilled, as capable and as dedicated as their White counterparts. While they were fighting to liberate Europe from oppression, their families suffered oppression here in the States.

Native Americans operated as “code-talkers” and served with distinction trying to prove that they were also equally “American.” While fighting for the United States, their families were on reservations and were treated as incapable of handling their own affairs by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Historically, minority groups have had to fight harder to “prove” their worthiness to be an American and to prove their loyalty. We have fought for liberty without extending the complete rights of citizenship and liberty to those who were citizens.
As a nation, we have come a long way toward looking at people based on character and not on race, religion, or gender. We still have a long way to go.

Today, on the news there was a report on the rise of racists groups in the United States. This bothers me. In order to keep our democracy secure, we need to practice tolerance. We cannot deny one group rights without putting our own rights in jeopardy. It is frequently our differences that our strength is built on. Evil cannot succeed when good men and women speak out against it.

Ship of State is sinking

Jimmy McMillan, who is running for Governor of NY, is a candidate for the “Rent is 2 damn high” party. A lot of people have been listening to him on Youtube. It would be a great laugh, if the economic situation wasn’t so dire. Unfortunately, not only is the rent too high in most places, the general cost of living is steadily rising as incomes continue to plummet. There doesn’t seem to be much growth in the economy. At this rate the United States will be a third world county in less than 10 years.

Maybe that is what the power behind the power wants. Education is in the toilet, good jobs are overseas or filled with people from overseas. Outsourcing, removal of tariffs, accountable talk without accountable action, laws that aren’t understandable, and politicians that are either corrupt or indifferent represent only the tip of the economic iceberg that our ship of state has hit.

Like the Titanic survivors, we are going to have to tough and lucky to survive the icy waters of this new economic reality. I hope that it isn’t like the real Titanic where the Wealthy were guaranteed survival and the poor were locked in the bowels of the sinking ship depending on going out the windows and breaking through barred doors.

With every election in the United States, we have a new opportunity to express our will and our consent. As we move toward the mid-term election we need to ask ourselves whether the people running for office at the local, state and federal level of government are taking care of us or themselves.

We are in a world of hurt right now. Be sure to vote carefully after researching the background of the candidates or we might be worse off.

The lies of children and politicians

I went with my father to Hawaii last week. It was a trip down memory lane. My father has fond memories of being stationed at Hickam Air Force Base. I have fond memories of my father.

My father has always taken great pride in his flowers and his yard. I was little when we lived at Hickam. My father would come home and find his flowers had been dug up. I would have the Hawaiian red dirt on me and one of the kitchen spoons would most likely be found in the flower bed.

When Dad would ask me if I had been digging in his flower bed, I would assure him that it wasn’t me. There is a great deal of research done on young children and lying. Children, as young as three years old, can make a deliberate decision to lie in order to hide their misdeeds.

My father had recently bought a movie camera and when he saw me digging in the flower bed, he got the camera and slipped around the edge of the house to film me. When the film came back from being processed, the whole family was sitting in the living room watching the film.

The moment I saw the footage of myself digging in the flower bed, I immediately said “Daddy, look at that other little Debbie digging in your flower bed.” Even with clear evidence that I was the guilty party, I denied that I had been digging in the flower bed.

While the first lies that children learn to tell are to conceal misdeeds, the second lies they learn to tell are the ones make false claims in order to make themselves look good.

What does this have to do with politics? Children grow up!

The democrats have recently accused the Chamber of Commerce (which is supporting Republican candidates) of using contributions from foreign contributors to fund the Anti-democratic. Looking into the matter, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau said: "A closer examination shows that there is little evidence that what the chamber does in collecting overseas dues is improper or even unusual, according to both liberal and conservative election-law lawyers and campaign finance documents.”

When President Obama’s senior advisor, David Axelrod, was asked by CBS’ Bob Schieffer if he had any evidence that the chamber was using secret foreign funds to influence the election, Axelrod responded ''Well, do you have any evidence that it's not, Bob?'' Mr. Axelrod said. ''The fact is that the chamber has asserted that, but they won't release any information about where their campaign money is coming from. And that's at the core of the problem here.''

The skills learned by children to tell lies in order to hide misdeeds and of making false claims to look good has been taken to the political level. Mr. Axelrod has just made the Chamber of Commerce appear criminal without any evidence. His argument is simply that there isn’t any evidence that they aren’t doing something wrong.

Save me from this type of politics.

Queen of the World

Do you remember playing King of the Hill when you were younger? I do! Right now I am mentally playing Queen of the World in my head. If I were Queen of the World what would I do?

If the children weren’t playing well together and were constantly fighting, I would send them to their rooms and isolate them. This practice involved making sure that the children didn’t share a room.

Well the same principle could work in international affairs. Right now we are on the edge of calamity in the Middle East. The children aren’t playing well together. With the Israeli and Palestinian people both seeking solutions to problems, violence has played a role in the problem resolution/escalation.

If both children had their own room, then they could be separated and isolated until they could deal with each other without violence.

The Palestinian areas are impoverished places to live. According to the CIA the Gaza strip has a 40% unemployment rate and 70% of the people are impoverished. If I believed my children were without hope of surviving, I would be angry. The Palestinians, need freedom from Israel. Obviously sharing room doesn’t work for them
Israel has to sleep with a gun beside them for fear of attacks. Obviously sharing a room isn’t working out for them either.

The objective of compromise is for each side to give up something in order to gain something they really want.

Both sides need to give up claims to land just like my children had to give up claims to disputed toys. At the same time, Palestine gains freedom and real hope to develop their country. Israel gains a greater sense of security and hope that their children can walk the streets safely. It is a win/win situation.

Mothers in both countries could celebrate brighter futures for their children.

If I were Queen of the World, I would send them to separate rooms.

The media and politics

Words are frequently spoken that we wish we could pull back. They come back to haunt us. All we can do is apologize and keep going forward. Sometimes we speak out of ignorance and sometimes we just get our words crossed up. Politicians have to be very careful that they don’t do the first and when they do the second they are crucified by the press.

So far in my blog I’ve talked about the poor choices of politicians. As I’ve stopped to ponder the poor choices we have in the election pool this year, I believe that anyone with integrity would absolutely refuse to run for public office. The media creates images of people by playing and replaying mistakes and goofs as if the person running for an office is an imbecile. The media has a lot to answer for in the failure of our political system.

With great efforts the media idealizes or demonizes candidates and potential candidates. Every misdeed going back to birth is exposed. Family issues which are best left private are revealed and speculated about. Who in their right mind would run for office and face the sensational media circus that follows candidates.

I respect the media and believe that they should report events and news accurately. Their job is to keep us informed. They should continue to do so but they should stop all this speculation, sensationalism and replaying of unimportant stuff. Their job is not to make the news, only to report it.

Talking too much

My youngest son didn’t learn to talk during the first two years. He had been very sick when he was a new born and as he approached two years old without speaking, the doctor speculated that the speech center might have been affected. I took him to the developmental evaluation center and they confirmed that he couldn’t speak.

Every day I prayed “Dear God, please let Charlie speak!” God has a good sense of humor. Charlie’s first words were in a sentence and they were obscene. I faced the same challenge most parents face at one time or another - do I beat him or do I praise him? I praised him. After that, I bribed him to talk.

We tend to create our own monsters. Today, Charlie can’t shut up. He talks constantly and I nod as he talks. I don’t understand a fraction of what he talks about but I listen anyway. When I get tired of listening, I go to another room and close the door. I think he is still secretly waiting for my approval and praise as he talks.

Politicians have the same problem. They talk constantly. The more nervous they are, the more they talk. They want our approval. Unfortunately, like my son, they talk too much and they don’t listen or take action very often.

Republican Senator Voinovich said that republicans have been blocking a vote on a small business bill since July. In an interview with the Washington Post, he said that the GOP's opposition "didn't have anything to do with the bill," but was about political "messaging." The republicans are more interested in playing party politics and talking about what needs to be done rather than taking action and doing what is best for the people. Good for Voinovich. He isn’t interested in just talking about taking action. He is willing to separate himself from the political machine that is still sitting on idle while the country goes down the drain economically.

Likewise, Democratic Representative Glenn Nye of Virginia broke with President Obama and stated that he would vote to extend the Bush tax cuts to everyone and not just families making less than $250,000 per year. He said that he was voting the way his constituents wanted him to vote. Imagine that! A politician has heard the alarm bells ringing and has stopped talking in order to listen to the desires of the people who elected him.

Other politicians need to stop talking and start listening. The voters will be heard.

There is nothing like a hurricane

Since Hurricane Camille, I become a little revved up when a Category 3,4 or 5 hurricane is announced. There is something about the anticipation of danger that intrigues me at the same time that it frightens me. My children tease me about recording the weather channel during hurricane season. I do like to keep track of what is going on in the tropics.

I also like to keep track of what is going on in the economy and the political sphere. As we approach the November election, it feels more like the approach of a cat 5 hurricane than it does an election. The problem with category 5 hurricanes is that they cause unbelievable destruction in their path if they land in heavily populated areas or come in at high tide. Their destructive power is felt inland as tornadoes are spawned and floods occur. Camille was felt all the way to Nova Scotia.

The frustration in the US with elected officials is developing a tremendous storm surge and the winds of distrust of elected officials are gaining momentum. American citizens are tired of riding the waves of corruption, party politics as usual, meaningless rhetoric, and name calling. If the electoral storm momentum continues to gain force, citizens will vote in record numbers for a mid-term election and in January the American citizens will watch a new congress sworn in. The storm will damage existing political stalemates, create a mess with for good old boys who are running things in both political parties and call attention to the fact that the people can still get their point across.