on being out of touch

One of the really nice things about living out of my suitcase this summer has been the total lack of contact with TV. It’s a rule that, when in the DR, the TV stays off. There are no TVs at camp, nor was there a TV at Hatteras. So I’ve been blessedly clueless as to what’s been going on in Washington this summer.

Until this week.

Good grief.

The federal government running health care in America?

The president of the United States insulting the entire law enforcement population because one officer dared to do his job and an F.O.B. got his feelings hurt and created a disturbance?

Congress critters considering signing a 1000-page bill, that they haven’t read…wait, this sounds familiar. Health care, or economic stimulus? Does it matter??

There’s a fine line between being entirely clueless and being so overwhelmed with what’s happening that paralysis sets in.

Must find that line.

But, for now, clueless works. As does the ‘off’ button.

 

What happened to the money?

A few years back, North Carolina implemented the “North Carolina Education Lottery”. All proceeds from the lottery go to benefit public education in the Old North State. The same idea had been institutued in Virginia; the problem was that public education in Virginia never seemed to be receiving any benefits from said lottery. When the idea started to gain popularity in NC, I sent a note to the local newspaper and, amazingly enough, it was published.

I wanted to know if the officials touting the benefits of a NC lottery for education had done any research on the success of the program in Virginia or South Carolina.

Never really got an answer.

Fast forward to now.

Last week NC governor Bev Perdue announced a salary cut for NC teachers of, wait for it….one-half of one percent.

So, let’s pick an arbitrary salary amount, say, $32000 per year. The cut amounts to a whopping, wait for it…$160 bucks.

This measure was implemented to help offset a $3 billion budget shortfall.

I’m doing the math, and it don’t add up.

It gets better.

Yesterday there was a protest in Raleigh. Teachers from all over the state were present, protesting their salary cut.

I could talk about some of the things I heard these teachers saying at their protest, as broadcasted on the news last night. But I won’t.

I could also question how much money some of the teachers at the protest spent to get there as a percentage of their respective cut in salary. But I won’t.

Because something even more interesting happened during the broadcast of yesterday’s protest last night.

The winning numbers for last night’s drawing for the NC Education Lottery came across the news crawl at the bottom of the screen, during the coverage of the Raleigh protest.

There was something really, um, special about the juxtaposition of ideas displayed there on the little screen.

Wasn’t the lottery supposed to HELP public education?

Where’s the money?

I’m so confused.

 

Excuse me?

So this morning I’m going to see the fibromyalgia doctor and I stopped at McD’s for an “Egg McMuffin” (insert registered trademark symbol here) and I started thinking about how this little breakfast sammich has been a stable of my diet since high school, when I’d stop at McD’s on Lee Highway on Saturday mornings on my way to piano lessons. Then I started thinking about what else I could identify as a constant in my daily life since then, and about how I could maybe write this up into something marginally interesting, seeing that the words are starting to think about flowing again.

Then my husband comes home and says “Don’t write anything bad about the government on your blog ’cause you might get in trouble with Washington.”

Excuse me?

Then he mentions something called The CyberSecurity Act of 2009.

So I go off into the nether regions of the internet to see what the fuss is about.

At the risk of upsetting some family members who read this blog on occasion:

DAMN.

I’d like to think this nightmare will eventually end, that folks will maybe start to understand what’s happening.

I’d like to be able to give appropriate voice to my concerns regarding the current state of affairs in America: I’ve never been able to spend my way out of debt, but I’m supposed to believe that the government can, just because the President says it will be so; I’ve never been afraid to exercise my first amendment right to free speech, but now if I say, or write, anything that is not completely flattering to this administration I am immediately branded as a bigot or just plain stupid; if I hold to conservative values and Christian beliefs then DHS calls me a terrorist, and again I’m labeled just plan stupid because Christians are stupid (just ask most professors currently “teaching” at any state university); All we have to do to end our fear of terrorist acts perpetrated on American soil is to let the criminals out of military prison (so they can do it again), and just try to understand the terrorists, that if we release those prisoners then Bin Laden and his followers will like us??????

Why is it now OK for a Democrat (Rockefeller, D-WV) to propose this bill when it wasn’t OK for a Republican (Coleman, R-MN) to sponsor similar legislation last year? Could it be that the Democrats were opposed to it when there was a Republican in the White House, but now that there’s a Democrat there and a Democratic super-majority in Congress they can silence anyone who disagrees with them?

Nah, can’t be that. Stuff like that only happens in countries governed by dictators, not here in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave….

Maybe it’s because Coleman was so inept a representative that MN had to wake up and elect…Al Franken?

Well.

That last sentence there makes sense in this upside-down mess.

Excuse me?

 

Who knew?

Well.

Apparently, I’m a terrorist.

In a Homeland Security memo released this week, Janet Napolitano said “those that are mainly anti-governmental, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely” should be watched more closely by police because they are more likely to become involved with terrorist activity.

Really?

Let me think. That description does sound a bit familiar. I know I’ve heard something like it somewhere. (scratches head)

Wait….

U.S. History class, 11th grade. Yep, that’s it.

The American experiment was created by…..terrorists.

I don’t think my history book said that.

But I’m pretty sure my daughter’s does.

 

the Freedom project

So, I haven’t been around here for a couple of weeks…mostly because of pain issues.

But, to be honest, I don’t feel much like writing.

Every day I see the changes taking place and I wonder, what happened to America?

If this is the “change” everyone was sooooo excited about, then count me out, not that I was “in” in the first place. I didn’t vote for this; I didn’t ask for this.

Government taking over private industry? Banks? Telling me I have to suffer while Congress gets its yearly pay increase, and the new White House having Wednesday evening “cocktail parties”? Government giving money that we don’t have to people who are responsible for screwing things up, and telling them to “fix it”? FIX IT?? They can’t FIX IT, because they SCREWED IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

Back in my career days I had a small part in the process of outsourcing my own job to overseas contractors. Some of my co-workers were doing nothing BUT training contractors to take their jobs. It was not fun. We, the employees, kept asking anyone who would listen, “What makes you think a contractor can learn this stuff any faster than we did?”, because the truth was that they couldn’t; they didn’t. The project of outsourcing our system maintenance was planned to take 3 months. In 3 months the contractors said they would be able to maintain and sundown an entire insurance policy administration system. I was good, really good, at my job; it took me about a year to become adequately sufficient at working on this system with any level of confidence. After that year I was mentoring and training people who had been there longer than me. We were smart. What made the contractors more capable than us??

Nothing. They weren’t smarter, or more capable.

They were CHEAPER.

This was one of the company’s “freedom” projects. If they could just get free of having to pay us our exorbitant salaries and benefits, and just pay a pittance to the contractors, then the bottom line wouldn’t suffer.

Yeah, right. Like we, a handful of programmers and systems analysts, could bankrupt a company affiliated with one of the largest corporations in the world.

Had the contracting company been able to actually deliver on its commitment of taking over in 3 months, the company would have saved a boatload of money by getting rid of us and using them.

But, they couldn’t deliver because they weren’t any better than us. Just cheaper.

So, for 3 years after I left, the company was still trying to get those contractors up to speed. That system was scheduled to sundown within 5 years of the beginning of the outsourcing project. Three years in, no closer to sundown, but lots of money spent paying contractors AND employees.

We knew this would happen; we told them it would happen.This “freedom” project wound up costing the company 3 years of paying our salaries AND the contractors’ salaries as well.

How many times has anyone actually gotten MORE than what they paid for on anything? When something sounds too good to be true, there’s a reason: it IS.

So, what does this have to do with anything, with what’s going on in our country?

This.

At work, we knew that project was going to fail. We said so. When it did fail, we said, “Told you!”

But, until the failure was complete, we felt as if we had no voice, because, well, we had no voice.

I see what’s happening now and say, “Told you!”

But, I feel like I have no voice, because,well, I don’t. We have a new senator here in NC, a freshman Democrat. She announced over the weekend that she had “serious issues” with this president’s new budget plan. I have “serious issues” with it too. Everyone I know has issues with it.

Will she actually vote against it? Probably not, because, well, she’s a freshman Democrat.

Does this mean that we’re going to have to wait for the entire “project” to fail before anyone with any power admits that we were right?

I hope not, because that “project”, flawed though it may be, is still the best thing going on this planet.

America, the freedom project. Please don’t let it fail.

Is anyone listening?

 

Ummmm, there’s a word…

Hope? No, not that one….

Change? No, not that one either (but it’s all I have left in my sweaty pocket…)

“Yes We Can”?….No, we can’t.

Wait…it’s coming to me…

CRISIS!!!!!

As Lucy van Pelt stated so eloquently in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”:

THAT’S IT!!!!!!

(Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.)

 

mockery

Seems I can’t stay away from the politics……

Why is Obama insulting his opponent for “fighting for Joe the plumber”?

Why are the people behind Obama laughing about it?

What happens when you take Obama’s sentence mocking McCain and the plumber and change the name and occupation?

McCain’s fighting for

Joe the Plumber.

Doug the technical designer.

Andy the HVAC guy.

Kathy the administrative assistant.

Mike the teacher.

Tim the minister.

Chris the mechanic.

Ann the social worker.

These are my friends, neighbors, relatives. One of them is my husband. No, they don’t make $250,000, but the last time I checked these folks were Americans who want a president to care about their needs, not mock them while the audience laughs in condescension. Some of them work for small businesses that do make more than $250,000 that Obama plans to tax. Will those folks still have their jobs when their employers’ taxes go through the roof?

I don’t get it, but I’m afraid that, depending on who wins this election, I may get it all too well.

 

going to Cielo in my mind

A month or so ago I was really torn about writing anything political. I didn’t want to blog politics. But, the more I heard, the lies, distortions, denials…..as I watched the economic crisis unfold, and I watched President Bush push congress into spending 700+ billion dollars of taxpayer money to prop up an economy that had been destabilized by bad banking practices, encouraged by congressional entities and congress-critters, more Democrats that Republicans….watched the fight over a bad bail-out bill that gives the very critters who created this mess full access to MORE money to “fix” it…..argue if you want about whose fault this is. I think it’s a fair bet to say that if the chairman of the House Banking Committee was a Republican, he or she would have been speared, roasted over an open fire, and the bones of the carcass picked clean by Democrats eager to say it wasn’t their fault. Can you say “Enron to the nth degree????”

Didn’t think so.

Now that I have that off my chest…..

I just pulled out my pink sweater. I’m recalculating it using a great website, Knitting Fool and starting over. My first attempt was going to be too large, and I wanted to adjust the lace pattern a little. If you’re really into knitting, Knitting Fool has hundreds of stitch patterns, a sweater wheel (calculator for creating basic sweater patterns) and I’ve found it to be worth paying the extra $10/year to get more than the freebies.

And I’m sending my brain to Cielo. We’re meeting next week to discuss the January Women’s ministry trip, so I’m officially giving myself permission to get energized.

In light of all that, I’ve added a page to my blog called “Cielo” (DUH!) that explains the ministry.

Forgive me for being a bitter person clinging to my (water)guns and my religion faith and check it out.

 

it speaks for itself

 

slavery

There’s been a lot of talk this political season about racism in America, so let’s talk.

“Come now, let us reason.” Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.” Isaiah 1:18 (The Message)

It’s been repeated over and over in the media that whites in America are racists, arguing that they will not vote for Barak Obama because he’s black. I agree that any person, white, orange, purple-striped, that says “I will not vote for <whoever> because s/he is black.” is making a racist judgement. But, is it not also true to say that those who say “I am voting for Barak Obama BECAUSE he is black.” are also making a racist judgement?

The fact of the matter is that race has absolutely nothing to do with anyone’s ability to serve in government or anywhere else. Honesty, integrity, character, experience, ability…..those are the important qualities.

But, I’m talking about race, because everyone else is, so let’s keep talking.

When you hear the term “African-American” in our country, what does that mean, exactly? The label “African-American” is most often associated with American citizens who are descendents of African slaves brought here by Europeans and others during the 17th – 19th centuries. We all know the history, at least the part about the white Europeans using slave labor to build their wealth in America. But let’s not forget that there were also Africans involved in the capture, buying and selling of their own countrymen. This was not a “white-on-black” crime against humanity, it was a crime against humanity, period. And the slave trade was finally abolished, due in large part to the work of a white Englishman, William Wilburforce, a Christian.

In both the claims of racism in politics, and racism in the persistance of the slave trade, there is guilt on either side.

Barak Obama, if elected, will be the first “African-American” president in U.S. history. His father was Kenyan, his mother a white American. His ancestral heritage, though, is not “African-American” in the way the label is commonly understood, although he portrays himself to be such.

A minor detail, right? Well, maybe, but let’s go back to that word “honesty.” We all know that politics is nasty business, but does that mean that we should give up on our desire for honesty and character in our leadership? I believe not. I’ve read portions of Obama’s “autobiography” Dreams from my Father: A story of race and inheritance, and The Audacity of Hope, and I can say without hesitation that I can’t vote for this man.

Not because he’s black, but because his vision for change in America is, at best, ambiguous. He isn’t who he wants me to believe he is, and if he can’t be honest about his true heritage then I have to wonder what else he is not being honest about.

But, this is so much bigger than politics. The more I learn about Obama, his life experience, background, associations, and ambitions, the clearer it becomes to me that his vision for change in America is to change America from what it was founded to be, a “shining city on a hill”, a place where we all have the freedom to choose to become the best we can be, or to choose to do nothing and suffer the consequences; the freedom to accept personal responsibility for our own destiny…into a country no different than any other, where government rules and the people follow, if not by choice then by “persuasion” that the government knows what’s best for the people and will impose that knowledge, whether the people want it or not.

That sounds like slavery to me.