Poetry Thursday #8

This week's (completely and totally optional) idea for Poetry Thursday is this phrase: "the body knows." I'm submitting here a poem I wrote in January. One of the ways (other than aches and pains) that our bodies speak to us is discreetly via a mirror--maybe it's in the bathroom or a department store cubicle, or the quick glance in the rear view mirror as we travel to work, sipping the latte, skipping through and humming along with the radio.

Mirror, mirror on the wall
January 26, 2007
by Norma Bruce

You used to be my friend.
We’d hang out together
for hours of girly talk,
share secrets, giggle over
girdles and bobbi pins,
lipstick, powder and mascara.

You used to wait for me.
Chat in the dressing room,
whispering gossip
at the counter where
we’d go to order
double chocolate cherry cokes.

When did you change?
Sometimes I feel you’ve joined
the witness protection program,
embarrassed to see me.
Now you’re pious and prim--
no longer zealous for my best.

Oh, how I miss you, dear heart!
Your face isn’t clear when I squint,
your motives are obscured.
What did I do to offend?
Can’t we go back to the old days,
make silly faces and stay out late?

Here are two others I wrote this week; if you've got a moment. . .:
The vows
When you're falling in love

3515 Maid in the USA

It's been suggested by a sibling I'm a bit of a pack-rat. If so, I'm a tidy one (except for my office). I have small, intimate, personal collections--like Hull pottery, first issues of magazines, glass children's dishes, a few household items from my great-grandparents' home, some of my high school dresses, my grandmother's scrapbooks, sewing patterns from the 1950s, and my mother's handwritten recipe cards. But today proves it. I am wearing a pair of jeans with a "Made in the USA" tag that I'm pretty sure my daughter gave me in 1986. She was either losing weight or gaining it--don't remember--and for some reason gave me 4 or 5 pair of her jeans. She was 19 and living on her own, buying clothes with every paycheck. So maybe she was just tired of them. I remember selling one pair at a yard sale because they were so small I never could get them on--and I'm not sure what happened to the others. The pair I'm wearing today is really tough--the denim is very heavy. I remember wearing them in the late 80s when my library (Veterinary Medicine, OSU) was recarpeted and painted and I had to move a 50,000 volume collection. I think they've been on a few bike rides on my no-speed 1968, white-side-wall, fat tire bicycle. I don't have much occasion to wear jeans--although I grew up in them--but these seem just about right for a cold, foggy February morning and wondering about whatever happened to the U.S. textile and clothing industry.

3514 The global slave trade

Last night I watched an interesting program on the misogyny, criminality and homoeroticism in hip-hop music. Would you believe one guy interviewed actually found a way to tie the problem to President Bush? Then today I was reading "The new Global slave trade," by Ethan B. Kapstein, Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2006. There were clues in the first four paragraphs whose fault it would be (the United States because we have the powers of physical force to stop it), but I asked myself, "How far will he go before it is George W. Bush's fault?" Paragraph Five.

"Meanwhile, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have made some bold pronouncements about eliminating slavery, but the U.S. administration is so focused on the war on terror that Bush and Rice rarely press matters such as slavery at meetings with relevant governments." (p. 104)

Eighty percent of the slaves are women and children, 43% of which are being used in prostitution. Multinational criminal gangs capture, transport and sell them for huge profits, estimated at $10 billion a year--much higher than the 18th century slave trade--with the protection of their own governments. Incidentally, I don't know where the UN and Kapstein have been all these years, but this has been reported for at least 15 years in Christian magazines and websites because that's where I first read about it.

As you move through the article, you learn that the U.S. is the ONLY country speaking out about this abomination, President Bush is the only world leader to include it in a major speech, that the UN has passed its usual resolutions and then done nothing, and that other countries have tried legalizing prostitution, regulating prostitution, criminalizing prostitution, promoting economic growth, condemning economic growth and tried "naming and shaming" sanctions. The U.S. actually prosecutes the traffickers (unless they are from you know where). Any guess what country the California police are complaining about when they say they arrest the slave traffickers but they just get deported? (The author doesn't cite a source for this comment.)

The author, who condemns the war on terror, wants to see the United States use FORCE against, India, Russia, China and any wealthy Mideastern country using camel jockeys (there goes the economic theory) as well as about 30 other countries including Algeria, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, South Africa, North Korea, Syria, and Zimbabwe.

World wide the author estimates possibly 800,000 people are subjected to bondage each year. The Department of Justice estimates about 17,500 come to the United States each year. Still and yet, Kapstein persists in his wrong headed belief that if it just weren't for this pesky old war on terror, Bush would be mopping this problem up with the police, intelligence and military force of the United States.

3513 On-line genealogy and tourism

Is on-line research about our ancestors hurting the tourist business in Ireland?

"In the last decade, with the increase in the digitization of genealogical documents and the prevalence of the Internet across the globe, online genealogical research has become a popular pastime among the citizens of the western countries. While this increase in popularity has been an economic boost for online companies that specialize in genealogy, it has had the unintended consequence on Ireland of decreasing the incoming revenue of the genealogy tourism industry." Read article here.

What about Scotland and Germany?

My Social Security and yours

It's been mentioned here before that although I am retired, I am not eligible under my own or my husband's Social Security account for any pension from our "trust fund". But illegals who worked in the U.S. using false documents are. My case is because I have a Teacher's Pension (STRS Ohio), and since the mid-80s (I returned to work in 1986), this has been considered "double dipping." The teacher glitch is not a mistake or a loophole; it was intentional. It is OK for Congress to double dip, but not teachers. The case for the illegals is because of a loophole.

"After numerous refusals over three and a half years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The government made the disclosure in response to lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million member nonpartisan seniors advocacy group.

The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund.

A loophole in current Social Security law could allow millions of today's Mexican workers to eventually collect billions of dollars worth of Social Security benefits for earnings under fraudulent or "non-work authorized" Social Security numbers, putting huge new pressures on the Social Security Trust Fund.

If an illegal worker working in the United States today gets a "work authorized" Social Security number through guest worker immigration legislation, the Totalization Agreement, or perhaps just over time, that worker could eventually apply for Social Security benefits once he or she has met eligibility requirements.

In addition, that worker could be able to claim credits for work performed while in the U.S. illegally. The SSA maintains an "earnings suspense file," which tracks wages that cannot be posted to individual workers' records because there is no match for a name and Social Security number. Once an immigrant gains access to a work authorized Social Security number -- whether a legal citizen or not -- wages earned while in the U.S. unlawfully could be reinstated to the worker's new Social Security account."
Source: "U.S.-Mexico Social Security Agreement Released After 3 Year FOIA Battle; Mexican Illegals Could Get Billions of Social Security Dollars." The America's Intelligence Wire, 01/04/2007 via "Access my Library."

We have an agreement with a number of countries, and some of the benefits are more generous than for our own citizens. But the difference with Mexico can be found here, along with the information on stopping it.

3511 Trip Tales, Haiti #4

Read part #1. Read part #2. Read part #3. Here are some scenes of the town of Ouanaminthe, Haiti, an area of about 100,000 residents, on the very northeast corner of Haiti, bordering the Dominican Republic.

Women on their way to set up shop at. . .
the market where you can buy food, clothing, art, and household goods
But there are also small businesses in buildings.
The customers of this barber also enjoyed some music.

3510 Trip Tales, Haiti #3

Read part #1. Read part #2. In addition to working construction jobs, many of the team members also offered special classes for the children at the school--art classes, tin whistle classes, perspective drawing classes and a bicycle repair clinic. My husband taught the upper grades perspective drawing and he says they were outstanding students who caught on very quickly. Most classes had a translator, but one class didn't (the students were all learning English) and he said they had no problem. He'd prepared a multi-page handout ahead of time for the 75 students.


On Friday the children performed with their tin whistles. A red shirt indicated academic excellence.
The bicycle repair clinic was very popular. Bicycles are a major means of transportation.

3509 Trip Tales, Haiti #2

Read part #1. The mission team's purpose was to help with construction at the school--building platforms for the school rooms (European style with the teacher somewhat elevated) and wiring for lighting. The heavier pieces of lumber and equipment had been coordinated and sent ahead by Howard, who before retirement was a construction manager. The younger men primarily worked with the wiring (crawling around above the ceiling) and the older men built the platforms with help from some local men. The dirt and dust (no paved roads) plus the heat was almost overwhelming, so some of the men had breathing difficulties by the end of the week.

Howard and his crew building the platforms
Lunch was in the main cafeteria with the children--beans and brown rice, or rice and beans, and there was plenty for all.
Exterior of the school
In the U.S., we having vending machines in schools; in Haiti, the vendors set up shop in the school compound.

3508 Autism statistics

Many of us over age-50 parents are stunned by the autism statistics we see in the TV PSAs and news stories. Where were all these autistic kids when we were growing up or when our children were in school? Children with learning problems were not hidden away in the 1970s--they were side by side with my children, and I was a volunteer in the classroom. For one thing, there has been a redefinition--now thousands of children that use to be called retarded (or one of the challenged words), or ADD or ADHD, are now being called autistic. It seems that any kind of attention deficit or repetitive behavior has to be pathologized, which then qualifies a child for special classes or teachers or programs. A pediatrician, David Safir, had a letter in the USAToday last week saying that in the 1990s the definition of autism began to include many children with a milder collection of symptoms--now called autism spectrum disorder, and this new umbrella definition has created hysteria and an epidemic of austism.

I checked his letter on-line, and he is being attacked by the true believers, the blame the vaccines crowd. I wonder how loud they'd be yelling if they lived in the days when children were mutilated by small pox eating their flesh, or crippled by polio? And this mommy has the best advice: "My son will never die from Autism, but he could die from childhood diseases if not vaccinated. Or he could die from the flu, as has 4 other children already this season in the state I live, because they did not vaccinate. Stop arguing and start helping our little ones to be accepted and to get the proper therapies they need."

3507 Deere John

Earnings are up at John Deere--a wet finger in the wind senses alternative fuel--which means new demand for large farm equipment (which can be used only on huge farms, with huge government subsidies). You've got to hand it to the greenies and tree huggers. They pave the way for new technology and profits for business. Located in Moline, IL, John Deere's focus on ethanol probably makes the unions, big-ag and investors rejoice.

The company started in Grand Detour, Illinois, where the river takes a mighty turn, or detour. Deere found a way to open up the prairie sod with a better blade to cut through the deep, matted roots of the grass. I think my grandparents were living on a farm there when my dad was born (and the doctor never filled in his name on the birth certificate so he found out at age 65 when applying for Social Security that he was "baby boy" in the county record.) We used to take our children to the John Deere Museum in Grand Detour (between Dixon and Oregon) in the 1970s.

3506 Trip tales: Haiti #1

When the team arrived at the airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, they were greeted by Dave and Pam, our pastor and wife, who are on assignment there at Institution Univers school, and the school director Hugues. Because it was a large team, they all boarded a school bus, and the luggage went into a truck. They headed for the border between DR and Haiti where they would spend the night--normally a four hour trip. But the truck broke down, so the bus had to tow it, slowing things down to a bumpy crawl, and six and a half hours.
Pam and Hugues

The border between Dominican Republic and Haiti
The day they entered Haiti was Sunday, so they went directly to the school and mission house where they would be living, and then walked to church.

The mission house was very nice with modern facilities including plumbing and electricity (part of the day).
Despite the extreme poverty, the Haitians are a proud people and dress well--the women in dresses and hats, and the men in white shirts and ties--to attend church.
The service was jammed (Baptist Church) and lasted for 2 hours, with a lot of beautiful singing and a full choir.
It wasn't unusual to see partially completed buildings in use. They make the cement blocks or bricks by hand, and when they have enough, the building constuction continues.

How many anti-Bush books does one library need?

While browsing the new book shelves at the Upper Arlington Public Library today I glanced through the 973.931 section. In the Dewey classification system this is "Administration of George W. Bush, 2001- ." On the shelf were 1) Pretentions to an empire, 2) Impeachment of George W. Bush, 3) Static; government liars, media cheerleaders and the people who fight back, 4) Voting to kill, 5) U.S. v. George W. Bush, 6) How Bush rules, 7) Vice; Dick Cheney and the hijacking of the American presidency, 8) The architect; Karl Rove and the master plan for absolute power, preceded by two Clinton books, a his and hers (positive, glowing) in 973.927.

Just out of curiosity, I went into the stacks and checked this class number--the Bush years. There were 4 packed shelves, about 30 books to a shelf (ca. 120 books), and only four were positive, balanced or fair to the President of the United States. Some titles had multiple copies. Within this class are also the books on 9/11, ranging from touching to wild to absurd, John Kerry's campaign hype, a bio of Tommy Franks, an anti-Bush women title and two on Hillary Clinton, but compared to the anti-Bush tirades, they don't account for much space. Included in the stacks were items like Gore Vidal's Dreaming War, Woodward's Plan of attack, and James Bovard's Bush betrayal. The previous 5 shelves (ca. 150 books) covered the presidencies of Carter, Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton (973.926-973.929).

Someone at UAPL REALLY believes in the power of print, because I'm guessing that well over half of the voting residents within our city limits are Republicans. I used to be a Democrat--voted right across the street from the library at St. Mark's Episcopal, and I never ever had to wait in line. Those poor poll attendants looked like the Maytag repairman. Now I'm a registered Republican voting at a Catholic church further north, and there is always a wait. So it appears that either the director or her bibliographer-in-charge of current events thinks if they just buy enough anti-Bush titles they can move this white, suburban, business class community on the edge of the University to the left. Meanwhile, they aren't serving the people who vote on their bond issues.

Book banning begins with the publishers, then moves to the reviewers at LJ, PW and NYT who act as gatekeepers for the public, and then on to the libraries where the few conservative titles that squeak through are carefully scrutinized to make sure they are safe and politically bland.

3504 Will Bush be blamed?

Women soared ahead of men in the U.S. job market in this decade. They posted a net increase of 1.7 million jobs paying above the median salary and 52.5% of the total increase in jobs.

The myth still persists that there is a wage gap between the genders, but studies show when you adjust for career track behavior, sometimes women are ahead of the men who won't move, won't apply for advancement, won't take additional courses, and won't take risks.

This report (which appears in WSJ today) might leave reporters in a rut, but fortunately for them, illegal immigrants continue to depress many wage and social indicators, so they are a two-fer for the media who need to trot out sad stories of working class America about every six weeks and also report on how heartless we are not to want an open border policy.

My indiscretions

While my husband was in Haiti, I committed a few acts of random wildness. The first Sunday, I walked right into Talbot's and bought a pair of size 8 fashion jeans on sale that started out near $100 last fall and I got them for $18. All sorts of shiny beads, bangles and appliqued leaves and stuff. Then on Monday, while shopping at Meijer's for groceries, I picked up a package of mini-Tater Tots! I enjoyed them four nights for dinner, while eating alone--twice with steak. On Thursday I stopped at a book sale and blew $2.00 on a frayed copy of That Printer of Udell's, by Harold Bell Wright--rumored to be President Reagan's favorite book. The following Sunday I just skipped church altogether! Then on Monday I bought two chartreuse pillows for the couch, because I'd sat by myself through an entire show on HGTV about decorating a living room for $5,000 copying one that cost $50,000. The room was monochromatic with splashes of color, the two chartreuse pillows on a tan couch particularly caught my eye. So here's my poem about my new pillows.

The Vows

Polyester pillow chartreuse chamois,
in accordance with the law
Federal RN# 57893
[or is it Reg. No UT 1417 (MO)],
I will not cut off your precious tag
until we are one,
or bleach you
or place you on the furniture
or on the floor
while you are wet.

And you in turn vow that you
are 100% polyester,
certified by your manufacturer,
that the materials of which you are made
are described in accordance with law,
exclusive of ornamentation,
and that you are 19-21284CSE,
Key 67, $9.99, bar code 0 86268 05831 1
and that you were made in China
and are bilingual in Spanish.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Flight Delays

My husband's trip home from Haiti has been delayed twice, and now the word is, "Don't come to the airport until I call you as we get off the plane." In Columbus, this is not hard to do--it's an awfully easy city to get around in--unless I'm driving. I usually start out about an hour early for this 20 minute drive so I can ask directions after I get lost. I double checked with my friend AZ on how to get onto 670 this morning. She even offered to ride along to direct me, but I think the arrival is a bit too iffy.

However, when I talked to him this morning, not even an unexpected night in New York could dampen his enthusiasm. I asked him if he wanted to go back to Haiti, and he said, "It's not IF, it's WHEN."

Speaking of driving, last week I had another one of those rude men in a pick-up roll down his window and scream at me. And I do mean screaming--his face was purple, my windows were rolled up and the radio was on, but I could hear him. I guess he had been behind me until the stop light for which I had slowed down in order not to rear end the car in front of me. I was driving the speed-limit--seems he wanted to go faster. I just gave him the "Yo mama wears combat boots" look.

Monday Memories--Salt Dough

Are your kids home on winter/bad weather break? In central Ohio schools were closed 3 days due to cold two weeks ago, and then the following week we got snow, then sleet, then more snow, so they closed again, along with some businesses and malls. Well, turn off the TV and computer and make some Salt Dough. I guarantee a good time with lots of built-in memories for their future winters. My mom used to make this for us kids by the bowlful when we were bored and couldn't play outside, and I used it with my kids too. You can add food coloring. Or maybe kids are so high tech these days that they no longer say (in a whiny voice), "Mommy, there's nothing to do!" This recipe is small, but it can be doubled.

Salt Dough

1 c salt
4 c flour
1 1/2 c water
4 T oil

Mix salt and flour. Add water and oil. After making objects or shapes, bake 45 min at 350 degrees. Paint if you wish. But most of the fun is in the sticky, gooey shaping.

I was reminded of this reading through In the kitchen with Krista.

View More Monday Memories Participants
Not many will be doing this meme today, but here are links to those I'll visit to see what's going on: Chelle, Chelle Y., Cozy Reader, Friday's Child, Gracey, Irish Church Lady, Janene, Janene in Ohio, Jen, Katia, Lady Bug, Lazy Daisy, Ma, Mrs. Lifecruiser, Melli, Michelle, Paul, Susan, Viamarie,

3500 Donating books to a library

If your public library is worth diddly squat, you shouldn't have to donate books which balance, common sense and current events require be on the shelves. CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America has a list at its website of suggested titles for you to purchase and donate to your public library. First of all, donations are not "free"--it costs a lot of money to process and add a book to a collection; second, why should your library, supported by your tax money, be taking sides on the middle east question? If they've bought everything President Carter and leftist, anti-semitic organizations have written on the topic in multiple copies, why shouldn't they include some titles from the pro-Israeli camp? Third, I think this list needs some updating.

Do your homework, and then submit the list to the library director. If you get no response, ask some questions about fairness when the next bond issue comes up. Librarians, as a profession, lean heavily to the left, and occasionally have to be reminded about what they learned in library school.

The puzzling media frenzy

The hype about Ms. Smith's death has really puzzled me. She had a talent only for getting herself in the news, even at the end, so I suppose that's something. I'm guessing that a few more potential dads will step forward for the riches of her daughter, but then DNA will show she wasn't the biological mother, so the brainless, aimless coverage will heat up even more. Still, it seems unfortunate to be a blonde celebrity, or at least one who posed for Playboy. Jayne Mansfield. Marilyn Monroe. Anna Nicole. All dead before 40. And the earlier blondes didn't fare all that well, either. Jean Harlow dead at 26. Betty Grable, bless her beautiful legs, did make it to 56.

These paper dolls I think may have belonged originally to my sister Carol, who passed them down to me when she moved on to movie magazines and photos. Also, they are pretty beat up--there's ancient scotch tape holding some of the limbs together. I've also got Mary Martin and Marguerite O'Brien, but as collections go, it's pretty sad.

Betty Grable, paper dolls, celebrity, Anna Nicole Smith

3498 A poem about love and marriage

Today I read a story in our paper about a couple married in 1943 when he was still in uniform, who were both living in a nursing home at the end--she from Alzheimer’s and he from a fall. They died at the same time on Valentine’s Day this week.

When you’re falling in love
Feb. 18, 2007
by Norma Bruce

When you’re falling in love
you probably don’t think about
pre-nups and the rug color
that you’ll argue about some day.

When you’re falling in love
you might think about
romantic dinners for two
and not KFC in front of the TV.

When you’re falling in love
you probably don’t think about
why her mother is obese
or his dad is such a gossip.

When you’re falling in love
you might think about
an Hawaiian cruise and moonlight
and not the small lake when he fishes.

When you’re falling in love
you probably don’t think about
her toddler who will be a teen someday
or that he’s changed jobs so often.

When you’re falling in love
you might think about
a cute house with a picket fence
and not missing where you grew up.

When you’re falling in love
you probably don’t think about
when he is old and deaf
and when she’s forgotten your name.

These are the building blocks of love
you probably should think about,
you might want to think about
when you’re falling in love today.


Technorati: poems, love, marriage

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Western culture

I've enjoyed watching Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Book-TV talking about her new book, Infidel, and then answering questions from the audience. Ali, a Somali with Dutch citizenship, commented on Europeans' lack of appreciation for freedom and individual liberty (said she hadn't been in the U.S. long enough to make a judgement about us). She said Europeans have little appreciation for their advantages because they've never been denied it or had to fight for it (speaking of the post WWII generation). A woman in the audience who had attended college in Cairo said women there were beginning to cover their heads. Ms. Ali said the belief behind covering of women was so that men would not become inflamed and out of control at the sight of a woman's body. Wouldn't it be better, she said, for men to learn to control themselves and develop some discipline rather than depend the women to keep them reined in. (Obviously, I'm paraphrasing.) When the prophet developed these guidelines for dress it was the 7th century--and things have changed. She received a rather hostile comment from a male Muslim in the audience who thought she was disparaging Muslim culture while claiming to be Muslim. He asked about poverty [in the West?], and she responded, "I would rather be poor and free, than poor and a slave." She also suggested to him that he try that question in a Muslim country--that only in the U.S. would he not be in danger and only laughed at.

Also, when she was asked about the difference between Muslim and Christian immigrants (in Holland), she said the first and second generation immigrant Muslims were better integrated than the third, but with the Christians it was just the opposite--they had a hard time with the first generation fitting in, but by the third, all the performance and attitudes was the same as the native Dutch. She said that Americans are too concerned with the growing Muslim population in Europe, but that the Muslim culture is growing much faster in Latin America. Radical Muslims in the U.S. she says, are very well funded, and very patient. She also said Americans are much too apologetic when trying to have an open dialogue with Muslims. She suggests treating Muslims as equals who will understand what you say.