Honoring Memorial Day

Ignorance is bliss, sometimes that really is the truth. I was reading the New York Times online today, ( I know, I can already hear your heads collectively shaking...) and I came across a piece in the OpEd section on how the readers of the Times define America. Here, on the cusp of one of our most important American holidays, I was saddened by what I saw. I would like to say that I was shocked, but in actuality I wasn't.

The Times commentary was full of those who quite frankly hate their own country. They defined it as the land of the brainless and home of the obese. They talked about our collective delusion that we are the worlds lone Super Power. Some discussed how, in their opinion, our country enforces our morality at the end of a gun. It makes me so sorrowful to think that this is the way the majority views their country. Fortunately, I then remembered that I was reading the Times and that, in and of itself, was sure to tip the results in one direction, predominantly supporting one point of view.

Thankfully though, in the United States of America, there are many points of view. This is mine.

Let's start with Memorial Day before I address the definition of the United States of America. What does Memorial Day mean to you? Why do we honor this day and what exactly are we remembering? In what manner do we choose to celebrate?
For me, Memorial Day is a day of reflection and gratitude. It is a day to pause from our daily lives and reflect on those things that most of us take for granted every day. I have been fortunate in my life to know real heroes – the men and women of the United States military. Some of these men and women have laid down their lives – paid the ultimate price of freedom – because they love their country and all the ideals she represents. I know that Freedom isn't free. These individuals and their families have paid the price – and continue to pay the price. Today I have a friend – actually many – who is missing her husband as he defends this country. Today I have a friend that is being sent into harms way in spite of promises by our politicians to end this war. Today, I have a friend who every day mourns the loss of her only son. He gave his life so that all of us could live happy and free. Scott Vincent, and the hundreds of thousands just like him, are eternally my heroes. To them I owe the deepest debt of gratitude – one that can never be repaid. The very least that I can do for them is to take this day and remember, and to teach my children to do the same.

It is my honor to be a citizen of the greatest country this world has ever known. I was lucky to be born an American, and I will never be anything but proud of my country, I will never feel anything but the deepest love for her and all she represents. Does that mean that I do homage to the land of the brain dead and home of the obese? No. This is how I see my country:

In my normal day as an American citizen I have more freedom than most of the world will ever know. That isn't wishful thinking – it's the truth. I can go where I want to go.I can use any mode of travel that I see fit with minimal interference in my life relative to the rest of the world. I can express my opinions in almost any manner that I see fit. I can wear what I want without fear of reprisals – or worse. I don't need a male relative to escort me out of the house. I have no fear of dying in a soccer stadium because of my sex. I can go to any religious establishment and worship as I chose. Or not. Simply put, I am an American and because of that fact, I do what most of the world can only dream about. I have a voice and I have a choice.

To me, my country is about hope, choice, dreams, accomplishment and above all Freedom. The greatest compliment someone can give me is to say that I am an Idealist. It is then that I KNOW I am an American because, in the words of Woodrow Wilson, “America is the only idealistic nation in the world.” She seeks to do the right and criticizes herself for anything less than perfection. Yes, I Love my country and today, I celebrate and honor all those who paid the price for me to live in the greatest country in the world.

Don't We Have More Important Things to Worry About?

I hate telemarketers, don't you? Even worse, I dislike those who would impose their point of view and morality on others. Yesterday it was my misfortune to be on the recieving end of both of these.

I got a call, and I forget the name of the organization, but basically they wanted to know how angry I am about the fact that abortion is legal. Really? You really want to know? Here it is in a nutshell, but I can promise you that people who ask that sort of qustion aren't going to like my answer.

I am a mother. I am personally pro-life. That said, I realize that others may have a different moral belief than mine. Some do not believe that life begins at conception but rather that conception is just a possibility for life. My husband is one such a person. Many people have miscarriages and intervening events that stop the process of conception from resulting in the birth of a live child. So the idea of conception being a "possibility for life" is something that many agree with.
Whatever my own personal beliefs are, it isn't for me to tell my husband or anyone else that their differing beliefs are wrong. Isn't that part of what makes our country great - the tolerance for a multitude of differing beliefs? Since when did we become a society of morality police?

There are things about the abortion argument that I am passionate about - partial birth abortion is one example. Even so though, there are much more important issues facing our country. Our economic system is hanging on by a thread, the dollar is being devalued as we print more and more money for this bailout and the tax burden that will be passed on to my children and grandchildren because of it is almost unbelievable. We are currently facing a potential health pandemic and all some people care about it abortion.

Some people just don't get it.

"Contractually Obligated"??

I have stopped watching the news and now I am relegated to getting my news soley from the Internet. The reason for this change in behavior is that everytime I watch the news, I only find myself getting angrier and angrier. Sadly this is also the case when I read the news, but one can not put one's head in the sand.
Today, I came across this headline: "Insurance Giant AIG to Pay $165 Million in Bonuses". Does this make anyone else see red??? I mean, here AIG is, raking in $170 BILLION in tax payer dollars and they are using one tenth of OUR money to pay the executives who made the disasterous decisions leading their company to the brink of disaster BONUSES???
AIG says that they are "contractually obligated" to pay these bonuses. Failing to do so would have resulted in lawsuits, which is probably true. However, had the government allowed AIG to go into chapter 11 prior to the bailout, all bets would have been off. AIG would have had the flexibility to renegotiate their contractual obligations based on the reality of their finanacial situation. Instead, hundreds of employees who made poor choices are getting the benefit of our hard earned dollars.
Am I the only one who is angry here?

Casey Anthony is Indicative of Everything that is Wrong with our Society

If you have been anywhere near a cable news channel in the past year, you have heard the sad case of Caylee Marie Anthony. She was a little girl who lived in Central Florida with her sad excuse for a mother, Casey Anthony.
How can it be that two grandparents, who live at least part time with their grandchild, don't see said grandchild for over a month and wait that long to raise the red flag? Hello? Doesn't anyone else have a problem with this? Then you have the missing gas cans from their garage, the smell of "something dead" in the car, and you still have the incredibel audacity to believe your daughter who has lied to you about everything else. Some people are truly brain dead.
The minute I saw Casey Anthony pictured partying it up while her daughter was supposedly missing, I knew that she killed her child. THere is not a mother on the planet who would simply accept her child being missing and behave in this manner. Not unless she already knew where her child was.
Casey Anthoney gives young mothers everywhere a bad name. The fact is, she just couldn't handle the responsibility of being a mother. She wanted to be young and have fun, so she simply removed the problem - her beautiful almost three year old daughter - from her life. How truly sick.
A mother is the person who is supposed to love you more than anyone else on the planet. Now I know that many fall below this measurement but few sink to the depths of Casey Anthony's depravity.
They found the remains of Caylee Marie with duct tape around her little mouth. Her mother premeditated the act and killed her own child in cold blood. Who does that? Then, there are the pictures of the wild partying....
In our country, the fact that Casey Anthony is good looking will be to her favor. People want to believe that those who are pretty on the outside are also pretty on the iside. In reality though, often beauty hides a heinous beast underneath. That could not be more true in this particular case.
In papers across the country it is being suggested that a finger print on the duct tape will seal Casey Anthony's fate. All I can say to that is I hope so because, in my opinion, the death penalty is just too good for her.

Spending Into Oblivion - Isn't Anyone Paying Attention?

Some months ago I was sitting in front of the television late one night when the foundations of my entire world were shaken beneath my feet. I watched as the President of the United States told all of us that our economy - the economy that drives the world - was on the verge of collapse. Since then I have heard story after story about the Great Depression part two. That should be enough to wake us up, shouldn't it America?
Honestly though, since then, what have we done? Have we tightened up our belts looking for ways to really improve our country or our economy? No. We have relied on politicians - some of the very people who got us in this damn mess in the first place - to discern a way out of this economic imbroglio. Am I the only one that has a problem with this course of action??
Instead of pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps, what do we do? Well, we borrow ourselves into oblivion on the belief that more money in the economy is going to save us - it won't. It will just make digging ourselves out of this hole all that much harder. We are borrowing our tomorrows to pay for today and so many as just marching on in quiet oblivion. How is this possible in my country?
So we just passed a 750+BILLION bailout. Great. Where is that money coming from? We are going to save the housing industry, the car makers, the airlines, and anyone else asking for a handout. Even the porn industry is trying to get in on the action.
If all of that weren't bad enough, we are now looking at ANOTHER $410 Billion in spending. That's an 8% increase over last year people. Just do the simple math - you are making less, your economy is on the verge of collapse but the admission of it's own leaders, and we are spending 8% more than last year??? The comment from one of my favorite movies comes to mind: " Go sell crazy somewhere else. We're full up here!" Part of said $410 BIllion bill is a program for a measly $500,000 for what is described as a Senate "pilot program" that will defray the cost of mass mail postcards to households notifying them of a nearby town meeting to be attended by any senator. Hello? Has anyone ever heard of a newspaper? How about the interent, it's free?
We are all in big trouble here people..... Buckle up, because it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

Animal Cruelty Laws Among the Faster Growing in the United States

Finally! There is some good news to be had when I read the paper this morning. After all, isn't it time that we FINALLY become a compassionate society? Why is it ok to torture animals because we deem them somehow less than ourselves? The answer is that it isn't, and anyone who would excuse such, does it merely for their own benefit.

Look at the sad case of Michael Vick. Not long ago, when the Vick debacle happened, Whoopi Goldberg had the incredible audacity to defend Michael Vick, the NFL football player arrested for abusing and murdering dozens of dogs. Whoopi said, " from where he comes from" in the South, dogfighting isn't that unusual".

"It's like cockfighting in Puerto Rico," she said. "There are certain things that are indicative to certain parts of the country." No matter how you slice it, this statement goes BEYOND ignorant!!!

This is what a bit bull puppy looks like. They are adorable, intelligent and fiercely loyal. They have a bad reputation because some ignorant people - like Michael Vick - train some dogs to be mean. Unlike a human being, it is not in a dog's nature to be cruel. What was Michael Vick's goal? I mean, did he really need more money??? Wasn't the MILLIONS that he was already making enough for him??

This is what one of Michael Vick's pit bulls looked like after a dog fight :



From Vick's indictment for these heinous crimes: "The 27-year-old Vick, whose nickname is listed as "Ookie" in the indictment, allegedly established the Bad Newz Kennels in early-2001 in Smithfield, Virginia. It was this property, for which Vick paid $34,000, that the star athlete and his codefendants used as the "main staging area for housing and training the pit bulls involved in the dog fighting venture and hosting dog fights." According to prosecutors, Vick and his cohorts began purchasing pit bull puppies in late-2001 and would eventually "sponsor" individual dog fights with purses as high as $26,000. In the indictment's most harrowing parts, federal investigators describe what happened to some Bad Newz Kennels dogs that either lost matches or did not perform well in test fights. After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, "after consulting with Vick," electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, "executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in 'testing' sessions." These animals, the indictment claims, were killed "by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

So Whoopi, I don't care what part of the "South" you are from - inhumanity and cruelty still look the same as they do in other parts of the country. Dog fighting is illegal and there is NO EXCUSE whatsoever - not your geographical origins as Ms. Goldberg suggests - not "Culture" as actor Jamie Foxx has suggested. There is NO excuse - PERIOD. Cruelty to animals is WRONG and those that engage in it - barely register as human beings as far as I am concerned.

One of my favorite books is "The Singer" by Calvin Miller. In it he recounts life in the Garden of Eden. God walks Adam through the Garden and introduces him to the animals. " And God called down the Sparrow from the Tree and said to Adam, 'Behold your Sister ~ a life not so great as yours but precious just the same."

All life is precious - human life - canine life - it makes NO difference no matter what part of the country you live in. Whoopi should be ashamed for defending this atrocity! To find out more about how you can help animals abused in this horrible way, please visit: the Animal Charities List . Don't sit idly by and let someone like Whoopi Goldberg continue to spew ignorance. Cruelty is never OK.

Now, thanks to laws changing all across the country, people like Michael Vick are no longer going to simply get away with murder because their victim is "just an animal". Thanks to conscientious and compassionate people everywhere, real change is happening. How can we suppose to live in a society that is cruelty free if that ideal does not extend outside of our own species?

The WORST Husband in America? Stephen Fowler this is for YOU....

I don't usually watch reality tv but this caught my eye on youtube. It's difficult to believe that one human being could so successfully malign our country, our mlitary and so many other human beings all at one time. I find just about EVERYTHING about this man offensive!

The worst part of watching this wife swap preview was watching the so-called perfect family. The "mother" actually talks about how spending too much time with her children makes her unhappy. How selfish and self invovled can one couple possibly be?? It was heart-wrenching to see how unhappy their children are.

Stephen Fowler claims that his IQ is 159 or something like that. I find that highly unlikely, after all hitting it out of the ball park when it comes to being a pompous ass doesn't exactly make him Einstein.

As an American, I find this couples' behavior to be absolutely repugnant. "We are training our children to be citizens of the world..." Can you feel my eyes rolling?? This family wouldn't even acquiesce to reciting the Pledge of Allegience. In the opinion of this American, for being such "smart" people, they certainly are not very commendable people. The man especially was an embarrassment to his children, his spouse, his country and his gender. It's hard to imagine a man more grossly odious than Stephen Fowler.

Worst of all was his obvious disdain for the military. It makes me absolutely nauseous to think of the good men and women in our armed forces who put their lives on the line everyday for this piece of human excrement to have his right to make an ass out of himself. I can't believe that Uncle Sam would even allow someone so imperialistic in their thinking to become a citizen. I say we throw him back over the pond and let the British proudly claim their native son.

In addition to the horrid affront this man continually made to the United States military, claiming we needed those with lesser IQ's to "feed it" etc... he was the worst example of masoginistic thinking that I have witnessed in a long time. I'm surprised that he even allowed his wife to leave the kitchen and his expectations of his children were clearly to be seen little and heard not at all. These two so-called Americans are not WORTHY of the name and should be ashamed of themselves, I certainly am embarrassed to have to call them my countrymen.