#82 An add on thought

In Blog 79 I wrote about the Mom vs. Mom show done by Dr. Phil. I missed this excellent article in the New York Times Magazine. It is not on-line but is summarized and critiqued here.

81

Is Terri Schiavo Dead? Eat, drink, and vegetate

Ronald Bailey at Reasononline.com believes because Terri Schiavo is severely disabled, cognitively impaired, will never return to normal or be useful to society, she should have her feeding tube removed to starve to death.

I volunteered for a number of years with a woman who had a brain aneurysm which left her completely paralyzed, blind, and unable to generate thought. Like Terri, she has only involuntary movements. She is tube fed a balanced diet like Terri. However, unlike Terri, she has had physical therapy and a lot of attention from volunteers and family who feed her, wash her hair, put on make-up, do her nails and talk to her. She enjoys TV and being read to, particularly mysteries. Although she can't generate thought, she can respond to it. She is not unhappy--although those who love her have suffered terribly for 25 years from her condition.

If you read the accounts of Terri's story, her husband won a large malpractice settlement so she could get the proper care, but she didn't get it. My friend, with whom I volunteered, is able to take food by mouth, like ice cream, mashed potatoes, Jell-O, etc., but it is done only for her enjoyment and to maintain some limited ability. Caretakers are extremely careful, because the food has to be placed in her mouth and then you have to wait for involuntary muscles to allow her to swallow. If you go too fast, the soft food can be inhaled causing choking.

The surgically inserted tube is for the convenience of the nursing home staff. It would take hours to get enough nutrition in a severely brain injured person by mouth. But Terri's husband didn't and wouldn't allow her to receive even water by mouth so she could learn.

Frankly, I'm not sure why the method of nutrition matters so much to people in determining Terri’s value as a human being, but if she were being fed by mouth and still in the same condition otherwise, would Bailey still want her starved to death? No one expects her to return to her 1990 self, but she is a sentient human being who is not without value.

The best solution in my opinion is to have Mr. Schiavo get a divorce and let her parents restore some dignity and privacy to her limited life. This would be best for her and for her husband who wants to get on with his life with his girlfriend and child. (Although if I were the girlfriend, I’d think twice before going to the altar with this guy.) The settlement money is mostly gone anyway.

80 Veteran’s Day, November 11

When I was visiting my father in May 2000, I painted a watercolor of his right shoe, black leather high-top and well-worn, surrounded by dandelions. It was an instant hit with the family, because those shoes and Dad’s hatred and attacks on any dandelion that would have the audacity to appear in our yard were legend. He died in May 2002. For his 90th birthday I wrote the following verses to go with the watercolor which I had scanned to notecards. The second verse is based on the last line from the Marine Hymn.

“If the Army or the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes,
they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.”











Daddy-lions
March 2003

My Daddy hated dandelions
They seemed to like our lawn,
Soon their little yellow faces,
Were destined to be gone.

My Daddy was a brave Marine,
at eighty-nine he died.
I know Dad guards the gates of heav’n--
No dandelions inside.

#78 Miller's book reviewed

In blog 70 I mention Zell Miller, a Democrat, who is supporting President Bush. There is a review of his book at Greg's Opinion, a blog about which I know little except it is based in Houston. As a Southerner and a Democrat, he has some advice for Miller, also a Southern Democrat.

#77 A child’s viewpoint

In August we traveled by Amtrak from Toledo to LA and back, stopping also at Flagstaff, AZ and East Glacier, MT. Before we got to Chicago the first day, the train had stopped to let another train pass. It was a beautiful day and we were traveling coach sitting near a large family. I overheard the pre-school boy and his older teen-age brother talking as we sat in the observation car while the train was paused beside a very lovely cemetery in Indiana with beautiful old trees and statuary.

“What’s that?”
“It’s a cemetery. Where they bury dead people.”
“What happened to them? Why did they die?”
“I don’t know. They just died.”
“Well, maybe. . maybe. . . maybe they all got together for a picnic here, and someone started a war, and everyone died, so somebody else came and buried them.”

#76 A response to blog 70 or

“Why I am a Democrat” by kdiaz1@ameritech.net

Well, I certainly recognize that having children changes perspectives. I remember holding my daughter, my first-born, in my arms the first time, and having an overwhelming sense that my beliefs in her self-determination, and freedom over her own body were more important concerns for me now more than ever.

I believe this self determination should also regulate any relationships she has (she should have too much respect for herself than to be exploited by anyone) as well affording her the ability to make her own decisions about how to manage mistakes she has made or hardships life has brought her. As a parent, I see that it is my responsibility to infuse her with as much confidence, self esteem and self respect as I can. But, I don't want the govt. coming along when she is 18 or 20 and suddenly telling her that her judgement over her own life and body is not good enough. (Nor do I want some guy doing that for her.)

Perhaps legalizing abortion has not done great things for society...but it has provided more self determination for individuals. Having multi-billionaires in our society while others are starving has done nothing to better society, and yet no one is curtailing these individuals rights to accumulate beyond all possible semblance of justice.

I also can't characterize George Bush as being "smart" in his handling of this dilemma we face with terrorism. I am not demoralized or angered because I think he is showing strength I didn't expect of him. On Sept. 12, 2001 he had me in the palm of his hand. I was ready to follow. I was prepared for him to be strong.

When he asked me to go shopping as a sacrifice for my nation I felt terribly disappointed that I was not needed for anything other than consumerism. When he took us into a war and my nephew into Iraq I felt sad, scared, and wondered if this was really necessary. When I found out that in fact there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that in fact he realized the threat was not as imminent as he portrayed I felt betrayed.

When I was told I should be happy anyway because a horrible dictator had fallen and we had freed a people, I wondered why I was not trusted enough to be told that was the reason we were going in the first place. When I was told this would be easy I thought these people in Washington were full of arrogance and ignorance to think that simply by removing a dictator (with no weapons to speak of) you could build "America light" in a region of the world where the culture is completely different from our own. When he asked for $87 billion I wondered how much debt we were going to pass on to our children and how much assistance we were going to deny our own impoverished citizens and educational systems. (And how much of this money is going to Halliburton?!)

My sister owns a small business, so I understand the tax burden of which you speak. I agree that small businesses should get a break. However, why should the multi-billion dollar corporations who are taking all their jobs overseas get a tax break? Why is it so wrong for them to support the infrastructure of this nation (the phone lines, electric grids, educated masses, highways, middle class consumers, etc) that has allowed them to accumulate beyond belief? Why is it so wrong for them to handle the financial spending our govt must do now...rather than requiring that my children and their children should pay for things they never saw or enjoyed the benefit of?

I send my kids off to Columbus Public Schools every day. I want my tax dollars to go toward making those schools better, not siphoned off to the Catholic church to propagate their dogma in the name of halfway decent education. Why can't education in public schools be halfway decent? We want immigrants to this country to blend? How are we going to do that without public education? That is how all the generations before us were assimilated. How will my children learn about differences among people if they are not led through the public halls of society?

And while I long for a truly color blind society...it just ain't reality. A people that has been enslaved and exploited for 300 years (what is that...5,6,7, 10 generations?) who have never been given any sort of proper restitution for this atrocity is just supposed to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and move on in one or two generations?

And even so, it's not like they are taking over the country. The percentages of African Americans who graduate from college is actually slipping in recent years. The percentage of African Americans living in poverty is still higher than the percentage of whites. Affirmative Action is not about enabling unqualified or lazy people. It's about putting in the minds of people to reach their own true potential. Making it doable. It's about diversifying schools and workplaces so all cultures can learn from each other. OSU has created a more diverse AS WELL AS more prepared class of entering freshman than ever before. It didn't happen by chance. It was planned and worked for.

However, if George Bush has done one thing for me, he has made me a more political being who can not keep quiet. All this and I am not a secular humanist. I'm a deacon in a Presbyterian Church...full of like-minded souls I might add.

#75 Librarians miss the obvious danger.

The subheading on an ALA (American Library Association) page is taken from an article in the New York Times, “Ashcroft Mocks Librarians and Others Who Oppose Parts of Counterterrorism Law" (September 15, 2003)

So I went to the source. John Ashcroft speaking at a meeting of the National Restaurant Association presented a fictional hyperbolic scenario. His little story was no where near as hysterical as some I’ve read on the blogs of the pundit-left and library professionals who are offering Patriot Act workshops to worried library staff.

Ashcroft said: “If you were to listen to some in Washington, you might believe the hysteria behind this claim: "Your local library has been surrounded by the FBI." Agents are working round-the-clock. Like the X-Files, they are dressed in raincoats, dark suits, and sporting sunglasses. They stop patrons and librarians and interrogate everyone like Joe Friday. In a dull monotone they ask every person exiting the library, "Why were you at the library? What were you reading? Did you see anything suspicious?"

He continues: “According to these breathless reports and baseless hysteria, some have convinced the American Library Association that under the bipartisan Patriot Act, the FBI is not fighting terrorism. Instead, agents are checking how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.”

“Now you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong. Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No. The law enforcement community has no interest in your reading habits. Tracking reading habits would betray our high regard for the First Amendment. And even if someone in the government wanted to do so, it would represent an impossible workload and a waste of law enforcement resources.”

Ashcroft never actually says the hysteria is from librarians, as the web page reports. He says “some in Washington.” He uses ALA's statistics of over a billion people visiting the libraries in a year to point out that it would be a poor use of manpower to focus his 11,000 agents on libraries.

After all the hysteria Ashcroft’s speech generated, librarians were “shocked” to find out 3 days later the Patriot Act had never been used in connection with a library. Zero, zip, nada. And here they’d been busy wasting tax dollars organizing opposition and destroying records. Somehow, I wasn’t shocked at all. I was pretty sure the Justice Department didn’t want to know that yesterday I checked out a book on American lighthouse inns and one on the China Burma India theater of WWII.

If libraries want to thwart the federal government, they might start by removing our social security numbers from our patron record! It would sure make me feel better about identity theft potential.

#74 Get over it. It’s not going to change.

It is such a little thing. Why does it bother me? The title of the research journal published by the American Medical Association is "JAMA.” That’s it. Four letters. An acronym. Officially, the title changed over 40 years ago. But it still is listed incorrectly in many medical sites on the Web.

For instance: “Researchers find that a gene involved in the size of cholesterol particles may be associated with human longevity. The study appears in the October 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.” http://www.heartcenteronline.com [Oct. 31, 2003]

In libraries that arrange their journals by subject rather than title, it is not a terrible problem--but alphabetically, JA is a long way from JO when you consider how many titles begin with “Journal of. . .”

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association is referred to as JAVMA, and that is the boldest word on the web site. However, that isn’t its actual title, and you would be incorrect if you cited an article in “JAVMA.” But JAMA is JAMA--a meaningless word that is gibberish to anyone outside the medical field. Which probably explains why in consumer literature or sites like Heart Center Online it is called “Journal of the American Medical Association.”

73 Photographs and memory

In my genealogy group yesterday the discussion was about photograph albums and scrapbooks with a review of the book Suspended Conversations; the Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums by Martha Langford. The publisher's abstract states: ". . . photographic albums tell intimate and revealing stories about individuals and families. Contrary to those who isolate the individual photograph, treat albums as texts, or argue that photography has supplanted memory, she shows that the photographic album must be taken as a whole and interpreted as a visual and verbal performance that extends oral consciousness."

We were asked to bring along our own albums as an illustration of the author's thesis that albums are for the retelling of family histories and traditions. One woman brought along an album that contained photos and memorabilia of her parents (born in the 1880s) and grandparents. Showing us the wedding photo of her grandparents, she told us the story of how she almost didn't come into existence.

After their marriage (her grandmother was about 16) her grandparents walked with other pioneers from southeastern Wisconsin to Minnesota, with all their belongings in a horse drawn cart. The horse was owned by another man, and he left them stranded on the road when he took the horse and went on without them when her grandmother was about to give birth to her first child. Her husband went in search of help and found a family to take them in. Meanwhile, the group that had left them stranded were all killed in the New Ulm Massacre.

Her grandmother gave birth to a healthy baby, and five more through the years, and they married and had families (many photos), and finally one of the youngest of the grandchildren of this couple who had married during the Civil War and missed a massacre through the thoughtlessness of others, retold the story through a photograph album.

#72 Artistic freedom

Speaking of Reagan (blog #71), I didn’t give up a lucrative career to blog on the internet, but Barbra Striesand has. And she is screaming “artistic freedom” over CBS’s decision to drop her husband’s comeback movie about Ronald Reagan. I won’t give you her website because it is not that hard to find by googling it.

Can you imagine her rant if a bio pic (just a movie, as she says, not a documentary) chose Britney Spears, who looks just a bit WASPish, to play the famous Barbra, then having the character mouthing anti-Israel hate speech, also depicting Barbra’s son Jason (with husband Elliot Gould) as homophobic, and her performing as an off-key alto with no nasal tones? And the final insult. Law suit big time--if the producers put the “A” back in her name just for authenticity and balance.

#71 When Howard met Ron

My father grew up on a tenant farm in an unincorporated area called Pine Creek, Illinois, just a few miles from Dixon. When he was at Mt. Morris College, he played football against the future president, Ronald Reagan, and enjoyed saying, “and we beat ‘em too!” I’ve just looked at the college yearbook and see that on November 15, 1930 MMC beat Eureka 21 to zip. The next year on November 14, neither team scored.

MMC had a disastrous fire on Easter of 1931, struggled to stay open for the 1931-32 school year, and then closed. Technically and legally it merged with Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana, which retains MMC‘s archives and student records. Dad was very smart, but not a very good student. However, he was also very poor and he could play football--thus he was on scholarship. My mother was an excellent student from a formerly wealthy family devastated by the Depression, so she didn’t have a scholarship and worked in 1932 as a domestic in Chicago.

The small college gridiron wasn’t the first place Howard and Ron met. When Dad was in high school a neighbor took an interest in his future--Dad had worked on his farm. Dad had a loan from the Polo Women’s Club (for the worthy poor, he told me, and he paid it all back) to go to college but hadn’t decided where he wanted to go. I doubt that he had ever been out of the county. He was only seventeen years old and that year (1930) had seen a bathroom for the first time in a private home while visiting a town friend. The neighbor took him to Dixon to meet nineteen year old Ronald Reagan, who was at Eureka. Apparently there was no spark, and besides later in the summer he met my mother on a blind date and she was planning to go MMC.

I don’t recall that my father, a life long Republican, was ever enthusiastic about Reagan. To him I suppose it was a “can anything good come from Nazareth” bias. Or it could have been the Hollywood stigma. Or remembering that Reagan had once been a Democrat. Or that he wasn’t a very good football player. No, I never heard Dad say anything about Reagan except “and we beat ‘em too.”

#70 Why Today I’m not a Democrat

Journalists and public figures like Zell Miller are paid to tell why they switch parties. No one cares why a retired librarian in 2002 registered as a Republican for the first time. It was a long time coming--about 15 years.

In Al-Anon in the 80s, I learned our well-intentioned plans to change others for their own good are damaging. We kill initiative, ambition and make people resentful. The fall of the Soviet Union and most of eastern Europe sinking into a hopeless morass in the early 90s unable to stave off the criminal element also contributed to my changed thinking. Then the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings demonstrated what a mess our race and gender policies had become.

Safe, legal abortions (which I never supported but the Democrats did) were to “give women a choice.” Well, by 1991 we'd aborted 25 million babies and 58% of women with children under 6 were in the labor force. In 1950, only 12% of women with children under 6 were working. Were families really better off with women out of the home, I wondered? By the 90s there was more violence against women, more child abuse, and the surplus of women in all age groups was shrinking, not because men were living longer, but because women were dying at a faster rate than they used to.

In September 1992, I was a Democrat who was considering George H. W. Bush, for three reasons: abortion, Communism’s defeat, and Bush‘s resume for international politics was superior to Clinton‘s. But I lost confidence in Bush--his staff seemed in disarray, nothing had been said about the mess in the Balkans, and there was actually good news about the economy, but he seemed unable to address it. Anyway, I ended up voting for Clinton. In the next election I didn’t make that mistake. I was not a True Believer.

The Democrats continued to break up Americans into special interest groups--blacks, Hispanics, gays, Asians, Native peoples, etc. What we fought for in the 60s and 70s, being blind to race, is now reversed and called affirmative action. Our schools were held hostage by teachers’ unions and procedures and rules that encourage chaos.

Rich Democrats bankrolled liberal policies in environmentalism and animal rights that actually hurt the poor, like land restrictions which deprive the poor and minorities of housing in the cities and drive small farmers off the land. A Jessie Jackson or a Ted Kennedy can send his kids to private schools, but Democrats don’t want a poor or minority child given the same chance through school vouchers.

Working in the academic world where the 70s radicals were in power, also turned me against many of the liberal/socialist policies of my party. The political correctness, the lack of intellectual freedom, the blather and holier-than-thou attitudes, and layers of bureaucracy were stifling. But starting our own business in 1994 and actually experiencing the chunk of taxation we have at the local, state and federal level was the real wake-up call.

I was not particularly enthusiastic in 2000 about George W. Bush during his candidacy, but thought Gore was tainted by Clinton. Neither were effective campaigners. Now I believe Bush is far more in-charge, smart and tough than his detractors could ever have imagined. It has demoralized and angered the Democrats. I believe President Bush is doing the right thing in going after Saddam Hussein because we made promises to the Iraqi people and to the American people when we won the Gulf War. These promises were not kept, and we’re paying now. Hussein is another Stalin or Hitler or Mao, a leader who murders his own people. More Iraqis’ lives would have been lost if he had remained in power than through the 2nd Gulf War.

Zell Miller, a Democratic Senator from Georgia, said, “This is a president who understands the price of freedom. He understands that leaders throughout history often have had to choose between good and evil, tyranny and freedom. . . . This is also a president who understands that tax cuts are not just something that all taxpayers deserve, but also the best way to curb government spending. It is the best kind of tax reform. If the money never reaches the table, Congress can't gobble it up.”

I agree with a Democrat for the first time in years.

#69 With the water of false doctrine

At five points this morning all traffic stopped. A fire engine’s siren could be heard in the distance. We waited, it passed, we proceeded with our day. Safe. When the Unification Church rolls through, blowing a whistle, sounding an alarm, Christians need to stop at a respectful distance and let it pass. This particular siren might be clearing the way to hell with the water of false doctrine that won‘t put out the fire. The man who wants to be Jesus for our generation now wants Christian churches to take down the cross. Over 200 pastors who claim (I assume) to be Christians actually got taken in by the oldest trick recorded in the Book--“Indeed, has God said. . .?” And on Easter, no less.

Moonies and the cross: “Christians have traditionally believed that Jesus’ death on the cross was predestined as the original plan of God. No, it was not! It was a grievous error to crucify Jesus Christ. Death on the cross was not the mission that God had originally intended for Jesus, his Son" (Outline of The Principle: Level 4, pp. 79, 81).

John Calvin and the cross: "Therefore, although the preaching of the cross does not agree with our human inclination, if we desire to return to God our Author and Maker, from whom we have been estranged, in order that he may again begin to be our Father, we ought nevertheless to embrace it humbly." --Calvin, Institutes, 2.6.1

Luther and the cross: "Luther's theology of the cross assumed its new significance [after the Second World War] because it was the theology which addressed the question which could not be ignored: is God really there, amidst the devastation and dereliction of civilization? ... Rarely, if ever, has a sixteenth-century idea found such a powerful response in twentieth-century man." --Alister McGrath, Luther's Theology of the Cross, 179-180

#68 Vote today!

Today we go to the polls. It is really low-key around here. A few judgeships (Tweedledum running against Tweedledee) are getting most of the TV ads. There is a jobs program our Republican governor wants to have passed. It is to bring high tech jobs to Ohio--the third frontier he calls it, agriculture being the first, and manufacturering the second.

In one of the races I noticed "non-practicing Methodist" listed beside the Religion category for a candidate. It seems a little odd to list religion in secular election bios, but if you have to put something, I don't think "non-practicing" sounds like a good recommendation for a politician. Sleeps in? Hasn't paid his pledge? Doesn't like the choir? Got mad at a committee meeting because he couldn't have his own way?

67 The ghost of William B. McKinley

In #65 I said I don’t believe in ghosts, however, Mr. McKinley seemed everywhere when I was at the University of Illinois. I lived in Hannah McKinley Hall (see blog 54), attended McKinley Presbyterian Church, recovered from mono at McKinley Hospital, walked on McKinley Avenue, and taught Spanish at Urbana High School which had a McKinley field. Who was this mysterious McKinley whose name was everywhere?

William B. McKinley was the son of a Presbyterian minister who made his fortune in public works. After learning the banking business with his uncle, in 1884 he entered the field of public utilities, building the first water works to supply Champaign and Urbana. Soon after, he also built the first electric lighting plant for the two cities, housing the generators in the water works buildings. In 1890, he bought, electrified, and expanded the horse car line between Urbana and Champaign. He also bought the gas and electric plants in Defiance, Ohio, and built a street railway there. In 1892, he sold his utilities holdings in Champaign-Urbana, and bought and electrified horse car lines in Springfield, Ohio and Bay City, Michigan. He became involved in rail lines in many Illinois and some Indiana cities.

In 1902, William McKinley running as a Republican was elected to a seat on the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. He served in that post until 1905 and first ran for Congress in 1904. The Champaign and Urbana newspapers supported him, and he was elected easily and then reelected three times. McKinley ran the re-election campaign of William Howard Taft in 1912 against independent candidate Teddy Roosevelt and Democrat Woodrow Wilson. He served seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (59th through the 66th Congresses, missing the 63rd). In 1921 he was elected to the Senate.

William McKinley believed that the wealthy had an obligation to pay back to the community in both service and dollars. He donated nearly $1 million for the hospital, the University YWCA McKinley Hall and the McKinley Presbyterian Church, 809 S. Fifth St., Champaign, to honor his parents, according to an article in the Daily Illini. McKinley Foundation at the Presbyterian church had speakers, retreats, dinners and activities for students.

McKinley Health Center was named for his father after he donated $250,000 in 1925 to build and equip a hospital for students and staff. McKinley Athletic Fields at both the Urbana and the Champaign High Schools were named for him and there is also a Champaign street named for his father. There is a chair in economics named for William B. McKinley at the U. of I. funded by an endowment.

Senator McKinley also donated money to Blackburn College in Carlinville, IL. When he died in 1926, several months away from completing his Senate term, McKinley's gifts to Blackburn totaled $150,000. His last gift was the money to build the charming brick home found on the corner of Nicholas Street and College Avenue where the President lives. He also donated the pipe organ at the Presbyterian Church of Petersburg, IL in 1917 in memory of his father.

It's a stretch to call him a ghost, especially since I don't believe in ghosts, but an assignment is an assignment. Besides, he sheltered me, took care of me when I was sick, ministered to my spiritual needs, walked with me, and hung around when I was teaching. Perhaps he qualified as a ghost.

Sources: Twin Cities Traction by H. George Friedman, Jr., 2001
http://www-faculty.cs.uiuc.edu/~friedman/champaign-urbana/Chapter18.htm
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress 1774-present
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biod

#66 When your still life stinks

I went to watercolor workshop Friday morning. I haven't picked up a pen or brush since August 21 at Lakeside. Elaine called Thursday night and said, "where have you been girlfriend?" So Friday morning I put on my black cat apron, packed my bag with way too many things, and I was out of here at 9 a.m.

During the summer I had seen a painting in an art book of a still life of an eggplant, turnip and pepper placed on a cutwork doily. The rich purple, delicate pink and green appealed to me, so I went to the store and bought similar vegetables.

They all rotted in the garage refrigerator before I got around to painting them. So this time, I just copied the exercise from the book. I'm supposed to be in an art show November 15. I could title this: "My vegetables rotted, so I made this copy." Aggravates me when artists enter copies in shows unidentified. Especially if they get the blue ribbon or best of show.

#65 Ghost in the family

Four new people showed up in writing class, so the instructor said, "Let's all go around and introduce ourselves." I was first, said 2 sentences (I know that is hard to believe, but true)."My name is Norma and I'm a retired OSU librarian. I write essays and poetry." This group is full of a lot of wisdom and life experience, and more than a little loneliness. Each person told a little bit more, then the next one more, and it took 50 minutes of a 2 hour class to get through the introductions.

After a few readings of the former assignment, which we didn't have time to finish in that class, we did a few of this week's (my Rachel and Nancy story in my blog, #20 I think). We worked right through the rest room break!

Then there were 2 minutes left and she said, "Write about a ghost in your family." Yes, that's our next assignment for writing class. Don't have one. Don't believe in it. Not into that spiritualism, navel gazing, seance stuff. So I'll stretch the boundaries a bit and write about someone who was everywhere I went and lived.

#64 Index to themes, topics, passing thoughts, and ideas, updated

academe, libraries 10,  26, 29, 38, 54,67, 70, 75
art and artists  54, 66
blogging  1,  32,  46,  56
books and journals  2,  29,  31,  47,  51, 53,  57, 74
condo living  40, 42
culture  31, 41
economy, finances  7, 13, 33, 43,  61
entertainment 72
faith and values  14, 30, 31, 32, 37,  46,  50,  63,  62, 68, 69, 87
family  2, 4, 6, 21, 24, 28, 34, 36, 39,  55, 59, 67, 79, 80, 82, 86, 89
fashion  21,  55
food, recipes, eating out  3, 8, 10, 11, 25, 35, 36, 42, 56,  59
friends  9, 10, 21, 50,  54
genealogy  19, 20, 24,  44, 67, 71, 73
health  23, 25, 36, 39,  48,  53,  61,  60, 81, 83, 88
history 85
Illinois  44,  54,  63, 67
Internet, Usenet, computers  26, 32, 33, 37,  62
nature  31, 42,  58,  57
observations, misc.  5, 12, 15,  49,  52,  
Ohio  20, 40
pets  27, 39,  56
poetry  14, 22, 44,  55,  63, 80
politics  9, 43, 70, 76, 78, 87
science  2, 16, 29
women  20, 23, 44, 63
writing  19, 62, 65, 67

#63 Today is All Saints' Sunday

Today is the day Christians celebrate that those who have died in Christ live forever. During "pass the peace" in church today we were asked to share who we were remembering. The ones I shook hands with were remembering their mothers, or parents. In the 1990s I realized I was losing many of the "mothers of my childhood," although my own mother was still living (she died in 2000). I wrote this poem in memory of these precious saints.

The Mothers of Our Childhood
February 20, 1997

I have filed a report
and sounded the alarm.
We are missing the Mothers:
They're nowhere to be found.

Strong women disappeared while
I was living away.
Perhaps a moment ago,
a year or a decade.

Housewife, retailer, artist;
teacher, farmer and clerk.
Secretary, volunteer;
No doctor, lawyer, chief.

Velda, Gladys, Marian, Millie;
Rosalie, Reta, Rose, and Ruth;
Alice, Hazel, Ada, and Esther:
Born during the century's youth.

Finish this list of Mothers
while I go look around.
No, the veil closed behind them;
they're gone. We are alone.

* * * *

For Rosalie Balluff, Ruth Crowell, Rose Fleming, Gladys Johnson, Mildred Lamm, Esther Masterson, Marian Miller, Velda Plum, Hazel Potter, Ruth Rothermel, Reta Saunders, Ada Thomas, Alice Zickuhr and all the other Mothers of unwritten verses.

One had no children.
One was my scout leader.
One was my employer.
One reached out in sorrow.
Two were sisters-in-law.
Two were sisters of my father.
Two had daughters married to the sons of two others.
Three lived on our block when I was a pre-schooler.
Three died before I was married.
Three died this past year.
Four were members of my church.
Ten were mothers of my classmates.
Thirteen lived in Mt. Morris.

#62 Paul predicts chat on the internet

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women. . .” 2 Tim 3: 2-6 NIV

There are many ugly words to describe some of the functions on the Internet. Web, spider, virus, abort, hack and worm being the first to come to mind. Even the word World (as in world wide web) is used in scripture as the term for Satan’s kingdom. The internet is a wonderful source of information, but has contributed to all sorts of criminal, illegal and immoral behaviors, by making them easier to hide and perpetrate, like pornography, pedophilia, infidelity, identity theft, financial scams and the destruction and theft of intellectual property.

As downloads become faster and appetites increase for larger and more instantaneous files, the internet has contributed personally to my shorter attention span, growing impatience and weight gain, with broadband being aptly named for the spreading hips and thighs of long sessions surfing the net.

A peek into any chat room, discussion group or usenet forum reveals rude behavior, trash talk and ugly feuds beyond anything we find in real life. Even religious and hobby forums have this problem. This level of conversation is spilling over into the commons of every city and town in the world.

I like to write and frequently contribute to a writers’ group on Usenet. I started in 1994 or 1995, left after about two years, popped back in once in awhile, participated in 2002, stopped for a year, and started up again this fall. Only occasionally are there writing discussions from which I can learn. Often the most casual remark turns into a flame war particularly among regulars.

Although I like to write, I get little out of the squabbles and personality conflicts in the group, whether they are debating the war in Iraq or Harry Potter. Still, I get suckered into arguments and drawn in to taking sides. Then I can be as careless with my words as the next person who is talking to a faceless group. Beth Moore says you have to put down the stones (you plan to throw) in order to have your hands free to accept the good things God has to offer. So I’m signing off. . . again.