The Road Not Chosen

The Week That Was

Whew! Last week was, as my grandma used to say. a doozy! If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you know the major events but I thought I would do a more detailed recap because we sometimes think the headlines are all there is.

My husband, Harold, has made a major career change. He quit selling insurance, which wasn’t going great guns anyway, and is devoting his time to making a long-awaited worship CD called “To Carry The Glory”. The CD contains all original songs written by my gifted guy. He is also making video blogs that have some of his wonderful teaching on worship. You can check it out at www.onevoiceworship.org. 

As exciting as that is, the whole stepping into one’s destiny thing doesn’t come with an income at the moment. We have tightened our belts as tight as they will go and we pray a lot. So it was with great humbleness that we received some money which will come to us monthly for a while. God and the church are always faithful.

That was the good start to the week, which actually happened 8 days ago. My work week was total insanity between getting acclimated again to teaching a class and working on budget adjustments with my boss. It seemed that I was standing in the middle of a whirlwind of invoices, financial reports, and essays. The weather here was and is insane, acting more like fall than the last week of August. Rainy, chilly, etc. And that riled up the fibromyalgia in my body, causing me to have to deal with increasingly worse pain as the week wore on.

Then there was Thursday. I got in my car that morning to go to work. The inside of my car was a mess (I keep a clean car, thank you very much!). The glove box was open, the owner’s manual was in the passenger set, other misc. things were strewn on the floor. My first thought was “What the heck did Harold do to my car?” So before I pulled out of the drive I called him to see if he needed the owner’s manual. That confused him. I looked down at my side and then it hit me. Someone had been in my car and stolen my case of CD’s worth about $400! We called the police who responded almost immediately because he was one block over taking a report from someone who had the same thing happen to them. Nice to have company I guess.

Next came Friday. Evan was home sick with a yucky cough and, by afternoon, a high fever. Harold was an hour away with our friend, Dan, who has been helping him with the CD. Evan’s immune system isn’t what it used to be before a life-threatening staph infection 2 years ago. I called his doctor to see if he needed to be seen. Indeed he did…in the E.R.  By that time Harold had just gotten home and off we all went.

Our close friend Jerry was the doc that night (hooray). Ev was tested for influenza and H1N1 (which has been roaming around our town). All the tests came back negative, which is a blessing that we do not AT ALL take lightly. (The last time Jerry had seen Ev in the E.R. was during the onset of the staph infection. Jerry had to get our son life-flighted to St Louis and break the news to us that he was in very critical condition. Jerry said last Friday’s visit was much nicer!)

All through the week Harold & I had to keep reminding each other that good things were happening to us. There were blessings mixed among the craziness and harassment of the devil. After the car mess, I said, “Well, at least they didn’t break the window”. And the only CD they didn’t take was the one in the player which is now out of print. After the E.R. visit we were obviously happy that Evan just had a respiratory infection.  Over the weekend, as I took increasingly stronger pain meds and missed church, I reminded myself that I had been well enough to go to church 4 Sunday’s in a row, which was better than none.

This week we will again be thankful for our blessings, both hidden and visible, and remind ourselves to look beyond the headlines.

Ruthless Pragmatism

Ruthless (def) without pity or compassion; cruel; merciless. (That is the dictionary definition. I didn’t make it up to push a political point.)

Pragmatism (def) a philosophical movement or system having various forms, but generally stressing practical consequences as constituting the essential criterion in determining meaning, truth, or value.

From The Bloomberg Report on April 29, 2009

President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.

The president’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, had a hip replaced after she was diagnosed with cancer, Obama said in an interview with the New York Times magazine that was published today. Dunham, who lived in Honolulu, died at the age of 86 on Nov. 2, 2008, two days before her grandson’s election victory.

“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Obama said in the interview. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother.”

Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.  (My comment: some terminally ill people actually live a long time. Elizabeth Edwards is a prime example of this.)

“That’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said in the April 14 interview. “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here.” …

Obama also said his economic advisers aren’t constrained by ideology or connections to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. “What I’ve been constantly searching for is a ruthless pragmatism when it comes to economic policy,” he said, in the interview…

When I read this today I thought of the Roman Christians in 165AD. When plague swept the country, the Roman’s, who thought illness was caused by evil spirits,  left the sick to fend for themselves, not wanting to risk the spirits attacking them. While this is an understandable human response during that time, the Christians had other ideas. They took care of the sick and dying. They were more concerned with treating people with dignity and compassion, risking death themselves, rather than going the “ruthlessly pragmatic” way of the Romans.

None of us, even the Congress or the President, really knows what the consequences of the Health Care bill will end up being. No one knows what form it will eventually take. No matter what happens we have to remember that as Christians we are called to follow the example of Christ in all we do. The Church today could do a much better job caring for today’s infirm and dying. Perhaps we should be practically showing compassion now so that if things get more dire, we will be experienced at meeting the needs of a sick and dying humanity.

From The Dr’s Point of View

I have a lot of Dr. friends. These are caring people who aren’t in it just for the money. I know. I’ve seen them treat people (lots of people) for free and pay out of their own pockets to help those in need. All of my doc friends are vehemently against the proposed healthcare plan. They know that there needs to be reform but have legitimate fears that it will end up as screwed up as Medicaid.

I thought I’d post this story “Physicians speak out on health care bill” from The Houston Chronicle.

Physicians jammed a town hall meeting in The Woodlands on Thursday, expressing fears about the cost and effectiveness of a health care reform bill that could come up for a vote in Congress as early as September.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, hosted the meeting attended by about 90 physicians at Memorial Hermann Hospital-The Woodlands.

“The bottom line is that doctors don't want socialized medicine — another flawed health care system like Medicare. They don't believe it will lower the costs or improve quality,” Brady said. “Medicare is already going bankrupt and not quality care. It also shifts medical costs onto other paying customers. It needs to be fixed first.”

The bill is designed to insure 94 percent of all Americans (excluding those covered by Medicare, which kicks in at age 65) and would cost an estimated $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The revenue to pay for it would come from $544 billion over the next decade in income taxes on single people making more than $280,000 annually and couples making more than $350,000 annually; $37 billion in business taxes; $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; and sizable penalties paid by individuals and employers who don't obtain coverage.

“I am very concerned about what this will cost us in terms of dollars,” said Dr. William Parker, the chief medical officer where the meeting was held. “Before this week, they did not tell us any details of the plan. We've had too little time to read, digest and discuss something that will be such a major overhaul of the health care system.”

U.S. Rep. Gene Green, a Democrat who represents a blue-collar area from Baytown to Denver Harbor east of Houston, has held four meetings on the health care plan and received mixed reviews.

“There seems to be an organized Republican effort to have people come to a Democrat's town meeting and dominate the discussions,” Green said. “Some have admitted they don't live in my area. This has never happened to me before.” (Side note: doesn’t he represent everyone in his district? Are only Dem’s allowed to attend? I’m confused.)

He plans to hold more meetings and only admit those who live in his district. Green said many citizens seem to have misconceptions about the plan. He said it will be a boost for his lower-income district, which has many more uninsured residents than The Woodlands…

Hey! We’re The Only Ones Who Can Protest!!

Wow! Protests are breaking out all over. Finally! Here is a link to the latest protest in my state which occurred yesterday. 

The Associated Press reports “White House advises Dems on health care protests”. I find that title hilarious. Like the Democrats who came into their own during the protests of the ‘60’s have forgotten what that was like? Or do they think their party is the only one who can organize protest marches, disrupt meetings, shout down speakers, etc.? Protest is allowed under our Constitution, no matter what party you belong to. I think they’re just p.o.’d that Republicans would have the audacity (hey, haven’t we heard that word before?) to protest in a manner that the Dem’s thought they had copyrighted.

The lead sentence in the AP story is this:

“Top White House officials counseled Democratic senators Thursday on coping with disruptions at public events on health care this summer, officials said, and promised the party and allies would respond with twice the force if any individual lawmaker is criticized in television advertising.”

What the heck? I get it, now we can’t criticize politicians in TV advertising. This party can sure dish it out but they can’t take an ounce of pushback! These are the people who have demonized anyone who did not and does not see it their way.

I’d like to remind you of what conservative citizens in California have suffered by the hands of Democrats when Prop 8 was on the ballot. People who donated money or otherwise supported the proposition against same sex marriage had their names and addresses published in liberal newspapers and on the Internet. Their businesses were boycotted, their churches, synagogues and mosques were desecrated. They endured threats to their lives. Now that’s something a political party can be proud of! (I will say for the record that some members of the gay community condemned these tactics.)

Peggy Noonan wrote this in her Wall Street Journal column yesterday, which was subtitled “Voters send a message to Washington and get an ugly response”:

And so the shock on the faces of Congressmen who’ve faced the grillings back home. And really, their shock is the first thing you see in the videos. They had no idea how people were feeling…

The passions of the protesters, on the other hand, are not a surprise. They hired a man to represent them in Washington. They give him a big office, a huge staff and the power to tell people what to do. They give him a car and a driver, sometimes a security detail, and a special pin showing he’s a congressman. And all they ask in return is that he see to their interests and not terrify them too much. Really, that’s all people ask. Expectations are very low. What the protesters are saying is, “You are terrifying us.”

What has been most unsettling is not the congressmen’s surprise but a hard new tone that emerged this week. The leftosphere and the liberal commentariat charged that the town hall meetings weren’t authentic, the crowds were ginned up by insurance companies, lobbyists and the Republican National Committee. But you can’t get people to leave their homes and go to a meeting with a congressman (of all people) unless they are engaged to the point of passion. And what tends to agitate people most is the idea of loss—loss of money hard earned, loss of autonomy, loss of the few things that work in a great sweeping away of those that don’t.

People are not automatons. They show up only if they care.

But most damagingly to political civility, and even our political tradition, was the new White House email address to which citizens are asked to report instances of “disinformation” in the health-care debate: If you receive an email or see something on the Web about health-care reform that seems “fishy,” you can send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. The White House said it was merely trying to fight “intentionally misleading” information. (Aside. I have a friend who suggested we all report our own blogs! I’m actually thinking about doing that. Hmmm.)

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Wednesday wrote to the president saying he feared that citizens’ engagement could be “chilled” by the effort. He’s right, it could. He also accused the White House of compiling an “enemies list.” If so, they’re being awfully public about it, but as Byron York at the Washington Examiner pointed, the emails collected could become a “dissident database.”

All of this is unnecessarily and unhelpfully divisive and provocative. They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants?

The president should call in his troops and his Congress and announce a rethinking. There are too many different bills, they’re all a thousand pages long, no one has time to read them, no one knows what’s going to be in the final one, the public is agitated, the nation’s in crisis, the timing is wrong, we’ll turn to it again—but not now. We’ll take a little longer, ponder every aspect, and make clear every complication.

You know what would happen if he did this? His numbers would go up. Even Congress’s would. Because they’d look responsive, deliberative and even wise. Discretion is the better part of valor…

Being a child of the ‘60’s who cut her political teeth on public protest & civil disobedience, I know that protests can indeed go too far. I would like to see less shouting from those opposing the current healthcare legislation and more sit-ins, which I feel would be very effective.

Remember the ‘90’s and the Operation Rescue protests at abortion clinics? We weren’t afraid to have a sit-in, get arrested and go to jail to make a point. We need to protest loudly and effectively. It worked for Gandhi, the Civil Rights Movement and it can work now.

Those who hold public office have to realize that they will lose their job if they do not represent their constituents. As I say every week: speak up! Besides, as Christians, we might as well get use to really putting ourselves on the line.

Ya Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

My office is in the same area as our daycare. (No comments please!) When I got to work this morning the preschoolers were sitting around their snack table bickering about something. I decided to check it out as it sounded pretty heated. (Well, as heated as 4 yr olds can be anyway.)

Preschooler #1 - “What is 2 + 10?”

Preschooler #2 - “It’s 9. Everyone knows that!” (rolls eyes)

Preschooler #1 - “Oh yeah? (hands on little hips) Well, what’s 20 + 10 then?”

Preschooler #2 - “How do you expect me to know that?! (holds up hands in exasperated motion) NO ONE knows that!!”

At least they were arguing about math & not politics!

Friend Quote of the Day

Make up is needed for highlighting the natural beauty that a woman has. From a guys perspective its like washing a car and not putting dressing on the tires (Armorall),the car still looks good clean but looks better with definition and contrast. like mowing the grass and not weed eating, like windows with no curtains, etc etc...... make up should only be used to highlight not to completely cover. Too much make up is over kill and unnecessary.

Jeff J. (who is married to the beautiful and never over made-up Nicole)

Two Heaping’s of Crazy

Here are two new items that made me say “There is a tsunami of crazy headin’ our way!”

 Yet Another Reason to Move Out of California, Mom and Dad

In a decision that could dramatically reshape California's criminal justice system, a panel of federal judges on Tuesday ordered Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators to find ways to cut the prison population by 40,000, or about one-quarter of all inmates.

I thought today is Aug. 4th, but it surely must be April 1st. What have these judges been smoking? Or drinking? Or ingesting? Are they just trying to make California into what New York was like in “Escape From New York” staring Kurt Russell. If you’re too young to remember that movie, all the criminals & crazies were all living on Manhattan island, free to terrorize each other. I’m seriously thinking about investing in barbed wire manufacturing because Cali is going to need a bunch of it if they let 40,000 criminals out.

And from the White House blog

Facts Are Stubborn Things  (Click on link to see entire blog entry)

Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things."

Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

What exactly is the White House going to do with the reported items? I really cannot fully explain the creepy feeling I got when I read this. Even if the W.H. has harmless intentions, do they not have the sense to see that this request is unprecedented? Are we going to go back to the McCarthy era when people were reporting fellow citizens as “Communist sympathizers”?

 

We need to remember our not-so-distant American history. During WWII we intered (nice word for imprisoned) Americans of Japanese decent ‘just in case” they might be spies. The McCarthy lead Committee on Un-American Activities in the ‘50’s resulted in American citizen’s losing their jobs, being “black listed” just because they were accused of being sympathetic to Communism, not because they were convicted of any crime.

Below is the comment I sent to the White House regarding this matter.

I was extremely concerned today when I read the following on the White House blog under the title "Facts Are Stubborn Things" - "There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.... If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

I want an explanation of exactly the White House plans to do with the "fishy" items that are sent to them. Do you not realize how this can be interpreted? Germans were urged to report those that were deemed inferior by Hitler. The Soviet Union has a long history of urging citizens to report on each other.

I'm not saying that is what the intent of the above request is but it adds to an overall impression that the White House has an us vs them mentality, "us" being the Democrats and "them" being whoever may disagree with the agenda being put forth by this administration.

There must be open discussion and debate about items that are being put forth by the administration. Asking people to "turn in" e-mails, etc. that are "fishy" is a ridiculous thing to do. If you want to correct what you feel are errors then do that. Don't ask citizens to forward other citizens e-mails, etc. to the White House. That is just, well, creepy.

I take the opportunity to send my comments and opinions to the White House and to my representatives on a regular basis, as I have mentioned here before.  And as I say a lot here, please do the same. Speak now while we still can.