Random Thoughts

Well, friends and fellow travelers. I wonder who is reading this thing.  There must be an as yet undiscovered spot where I can see the number of people who have looked at it.  Thank the Lord I am not trying to earn money at this endeavor.  I have been thinking about a few little things this morning.  For instance, I used the following phrase to describe myself this morning in a journal entry: "I feel that I am warding off bats while trying to walk a tight rope across a giant vat of barracudas."  Auntie Mame, as portrayed by the great Rosalind Russell might say, "How very vivid.".  I also thought about the phrase, "Fear disguised as love."  Anyway these are my personal musings.  In the meantime,  over the weekend Steve and I saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman's last movie, "The Most Wanted Man", a John LeCarre' story.  It is really all about the idea that the truth is often hidden  in the gray areas of reality.  Reminded me that I am easily sold a bill of goods if I just listen to the surface of things, such as can be found on network news or mediocre newspapers.  That if I want to be a citizen of the planet, that I need to find a wide variety of ways to be informed about the goings on of humanity.  Then there's Phillip Seymour, himself.  What loss to the world of his gift to the terrible disease of addiction.  I hope he woke up in a place that looks sort of like the picture above.  "Needle and the damage done, the little part of it in everyone". Neil Young got that one right.   Til next time....

And Another Damn Thing... re: Otter's crazy letter

I've included a link here that is admittedly from Huffington Post, a progressive mouthpiece if there ever was one.  But it does a little better job of spreading the blame around for how the mess with child refugees coming into the country came about than Otter's allegation that it is all the fault of the Obama Administration.  Let us strive to be halfway informed citizens so that we can properly participate in what is supposed to be the greatest democracy on the planet.  At least that is what we tell ourselves...What do you think?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/refugee-crisis-border_n_5596125.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

You have got to be kidding, Gov. Otter!!

Okay my friends.  So today I wake up and start to peruse my email only to find to a blog with a link to a letter sent by our beloved Butch Otter to federal authorities re: his enlightened views on the humanitarian crisis on our border with Mexico.  I have enclosed it in this post for your edification.  I immediately sent an email to Otter protesting his nastiness.  I invite you to do the same, no matter where you live on the planet.  You know, it is not as if the situation isn't bad and complicated enough without hillbilly, backwoods nincompoops firing off letters about how Idaho isn't going to be "actively involved in addressing the humanitarian crisis the federal government has created."  There's team playing for you.  What kind of government official makes a statement that he or his state is not going to help to solve a national or international problem?  No sir, count Idaho out of that equation.  Let's use the misfortune of children as another opportunity to denigrate the President of the United States. He names Obama by name as the one responsible for all our immigration problems.  (well technically he does say "the Obama administration"). If it wasn't for the fact that we had the audacity as voting Americans to go and elect a black person as president, not once but twice, for goodness sake, all this wouldn't be happening.  That's the real message under the the message.  Sane persons out there, and I know you are there, make your voices heard! Stand up for your country lest it be taken over by a bunch of true nut cases.


http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2014/jul/23/otter-fires-letter-feds-saying-idaho-wont-take-any-immigrant-kids-captured-southern-border/

More on citizenship/refugees/evil and all kinds of stuff

This whole thing about how we treat our refugees really comes home to roost when we look at the way children arriving here as refugees from Central America are being greeted.  I have included a link today that was sent to me via Moveon.org from other concerned people.  I included the whole message as I couldn't figure out how to insert just the link.  Sometimes we all feel overwhelmed by the evil perpetrated by our government or by individuals.  This link provides a way to make a modest contribution to a solution and sanity.  

Dear MoveOn member,

Thousands of children fleeing violence from their home countries have come to the United States—sometimes traveling long distances without their parents—seeking refuge. This humanitarian crisis has overwhelmed the existing support the United States provides for children who have been victimized by violence.

These children—some just barely older than toddlers—are crowded into temporary shelters, detention centers, and even facilities on military bases.

United States immigration law guarantees all children from certain Central American countries due process, including an asylum hearing in front of an immigration judge. These hearings are crucial to protecting refugee children. Sending some of these kids back could be, in the words of Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, "to send them back to certain death."¹

During the hearings, an immigration judge hears from each child and determines if that child is eligible for refugee status or humanitarian protection. But these children aren't guaranteed legal representation when they face the court and could find themselves alone in the hearing that will determine the rest of their lives.

That's why we're coming together as a MoveOn community to raise funds for Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization dedicated to providing legal support to children. We'll give every penny of your contribution to KIND. 

Can you chip in to make sure these refugee children get the legal counsel and representation they need?

Yes, I can contribute $20 to help a child seeking refuge from violence receive legal support. 

Since 2012, the number of children seeking refuge in the United States has soared from three Central American countries: Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Stories of the violence these children are fleeing are chilling. This region, known as the Northern Triangle, has some of the highest murder rates in the world, and children may come to the United States having witnessed family members and friends hurt, raped, or killed in rampant outbreaks of gang violence.²

For many of these children, what happens during these immigration hearings could be the difference between life or death. No child should be forced to appear in court alone.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that nearly two-thirds of the children and families from Central America may be eligible for humanitarian protection under international guidelines³—but we are treating them like criminals. 

Can you contribute $20 to make sure these children have legal representation when they appear before an immigration judge?

MoveOn members across the country have stepped up before to provide support for those impacted by major humanitarian crisis. When Hurricane Sandy left thousands without power, food, and shelter, MoveOn members opened their homes to help. And MoveOn members helped provide temporary housing for more than 30,000 people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

By making a contribution now, you can help again, and make sure children looking to the United States for protection from deadly violence receive the chance they are legally guaranteed to share their stories and plead their cases.

Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Stephen, Matt, Maria, and the rest of the team 

Sources:

1. "O'Malley: U.S. shouldn't send immigrant children back to 'certain death,'" CNN, July 11, 2014

http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=299998&id=98878-22123988-FR%3D34Vx&t=4

2. "Why are so many minors fleeing Central America for the U.S. border?" KSHB, July 16, 2014 
 http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=299999&id=98878-22123988-FR%3D34Vx&t=6

3. "Children on the Run," United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees, March 12, 2014 
 http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=300000&id=98878-22123988-FR%3D34Vx&t=8 

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

A conversation I had last night with some young friends caused me to reflect this morning on the nature of evil.  They were talking about some, likely, sociopath with grand schemes. The world looks on in horror in the aftermath of the passenger jet shot out of the sky, it would appear, by a bunch of drunken "rebels" in Ukraine. Evil shows up in so many different forms.   From the sociopath in our midst with the grand schemes to the violence perpetrated upon the innocent. To the darkness in our own hearts.  Makes me think of Yeats poem, "The Second Coming".

"...The best lack all conviction, while the worst 
Are full of passionate intensity."

He wrote that poem, I believe about World War I. 

"... And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

The conversation last night caused me to reflect on my own brush with evil in the form of a charismatic charlaton I met back in the 70's.  He was this incrediably good looking man who came up here from California to train a bunch of young naive people working in what was then the substance abuse program through the state Department of Health and Welfare.  It was the days of "est" training and all that new age nonsense.  He said he had been a trainer for it and we were all wowed by his cliches and bullshit.  Eventually he relocated to Idaho and became a bigwig in the Department of Health and Welfare until it was learned that he had lied about his credentials and experience and was subsequently fired.  He was one of these terribly seductive people, able to gather a following.  I would have gladly followed him right off the end of the Earth, if it hadn't been for the fact that Steve and I had to move out of Boise for Steve to continue school at the University of Idaho.  In the ensuing years, I learned more about this guy's shenanigans and subsequent downfall.  The evil for me was that I was tempted to give myself away and follow his lead into who knows where.  I was so willing to ignore myself and my own deepest instincts.  That was a form of evil rearing it's ugly head in my own psyche.  My Jungian training and therapy causes me to ask myself the question, "What aspect of myself is the charlaton or the crazy drunken rebels?" Jung wrote that it is the task of this age to find the unity of darkness and light within us.  To resist projecting evil onto something out there.  In my best moments, I believe that.   What do you think?  

More on posting comments: 

It looks like to me that once you comment with either Anonymous or with an URL (Facebook time line address), you don't have to do it a second time.  Carry on!

Hi all,  I deleted a post on citizenship issues, as I got some feedback that it might have been violating confidentiality.  While I didn't agree with the concern, best to err on the side of caution.  Here's what the post was about:  I was present to support a friend on his third try for citizenship and he made it.  I was pleased to be present for such a hard earned prize.  Having worked with refugees for the last 10 years of my career, I know first hand that obtaining citizenship is a milestone for many on the long and arduous journey to safety.  It takes a long time and people have to jump through many hoops.  One of the hoops is the requirement to learn English well enough to take a citizenship test that includes questions about our form of government and geography and all that hoo hah.  I think it is an unreasonable requirement, given that the majority of Americans do not know a language other than English and that many of us don't know who the fricking  vice president of the United States is.  Did any of you see video posted on Facebook about this guy who went around to random people, born and educated here, and asked some of the questions from the citizenship test?  It was embarrassing and amazing to say the very least.  Americans are amazingly stupid I am sorry to say.  Bless our hearts.  Then in the meantime, we have vigilantes down on the border with Mexico waving the flag, while trying to block buses bringing mostly women and children into the country.  This is a humanitarian crisis and this is how ordinary Americans are responding.  We are turning refugees away at the border, or trying to.  At the same time, thank the Lord for the people down there who are protesting the protesters and trying to present a different face to the children on the buses.  It's all just one step too close to the crazy ass crackers in the South yelling racial epitaphs at children trying to integrate schools in Little Rock.  What the hell is the matter with white people anyway? My cousin in law is going down to help the refugees for a few days later in the summer.  Thank God for her and for others just like her.  We don't hear much about these folks.  But they are there, always have been I think and hope.  Always will be and eventually the good guys usually win.  But foolish ignorance is always trying to rear it's god awful head.  Sane persons must be vigilant about that reality.  

How to comment on this blog

Okay.  If you have found me, you may have found that it is very complicated or nearly impossible to comment.  Here are two options:

1. When you get to the bottom of the blog entry and to the comment place, click on it.  You will see a drop down menu.  Click on that then you can do one of two things: choose the URL/name one.  In that case it will ask for your name then a URL address.  If you have Facebook, you can put in your Facebook URL address which can be found by going to your timeline page on your Facebook site.  If you look in the address bar you will see www.facebook.com/______That is your Facebook URL address.  You type that in the URL address place and then you will be signed up to be able to comment.

2. The other way to do it is to choose Anonymous and then you are in as Anonymous,  If you choose that one, please tell me who you are unless you want to leave a snarky comment.  Other than that the only thing I can think of it to go out and get a PhD in physics and figure it out for me.  Smooth sailing and more later.

Hello again.  I have been told that yesterday people were not able to comment.  I have attempted to correct that.  Please let me know if you try to comment but can't.  Okay here is my thought for the day.  This is a poem that became one of my favorites several years ago.  I have shared it previously, but wanted to in this format.  The poem was shared with a group of women I was a part of led by a woman, Josephine Jones, a writer and wonder, who now lives in Colorado.  Anyway, the poem was the beginning of a writing group called the Heroine's Journey.  Here it is and I hope I am not violating some copyright or other type of law that will land me in jail without any gingerbread...

House of Changes by Jeni Couzyn

My body is a wide house

A commune

Of bickering women, hearing

their own breathing

denying each other.

Nearest the door

ready in her black leather

is Vulnerable. She lives in the hall

her face painted with care

her black boots reaching her crotch

her black hair shining

her skin milky and soft as butter.

If you should ring the doorbell

she would answer

and a wound would open across her eyes

as she touched your hand.

On the stairs, glossy and determined

is Mindful. She's the boss, handing out

Punishments and rations and examination

papers with precise

justice.  She keeps her perceptions in a huge

album under her arm

her debts in the garden with the weedkill

friends in card-index

on the windowsill of the sitting room

and a tape-recording of the world

on earphones

which she plays to herself over and over

assessing her life

writing summaries.

In the kitchen is Commendable.

The only lady in the house who

dresses in florals

she is always busy, always doing something

for someone she had a lot of friends. Her hands are quick and

cunning as blackbirds her pantry is stuffed with loaves and fishes

she knows the times of trains

and mends fuses and makes 

a lot of noise with the vacuum cleaner.

In her linen cupboard, newly-ironed and neatly

folded, she keeps her resentments like

wedding presents-each week

takes them out for counting not to

lose any but would never think of

using any being a lady.

Upstairs in a white room is

my favorite. She is Equivocal

has no flesh on her bones

that are changeable as yarrow stalks.

She hears her green plants talking

watches the bad dreams under the world

unfolding

spends her days and night

arranging her symbols

never sleeps

never eats hamburgers

never lets anyone into her room

never asks for anything.

In the basement is Harmful.

She is the keeper of weapons

the watchdog. Keeps intruders at bay

but the others keep her

locked up in the daytime and when she escapes

she comes out screaming

smoke streaming from her nostrils

flames on her tongue

razor blades for fingernails

skewers for eyes.

I am Imminent

live out in the street

watching them. I lodge myself in other people's

heads with a sleeping bag

strapped to my back.

One day I'll perhaps get to like them enough

those rough, truthful women

to move in.  One by one

I'm making friends with them all

unobstrusively, slow and steady

slow and steady

And so it begins....

Hello from Wonderland.  I have decided after reading the wonderful novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that I would start a blog.  That book is Americanah and I recommend it to anyone even vaguely interested in just about anything.  From how someone from another country views the U.S. to the journey of love to race issues in the U.S.  She is a wonderful writer.  In the book she writes a blog all about her observations about the U.S., particularly observations about African Americans and people immigrating from Africa.  It's beautiful and it inspired me to start a blog.  See, I sometimes get kind of carried away writing way too long posts on Facebook, because I get fired up about one thing or another and feel compelled to write.  I have many opinions about many things.  And since I have fallen down the rabbit hole of retirement, I now have more time to do it. So today I start.  Just wanted to get going with the thing.  More to come I hope.  Here I am in my dotage: