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.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
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.
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.
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