Quote of the Week: The chief cause of human errors is to be found in the prejudices picked up in childhood. ~Rene Descartes
I am stunned to even be thinking it's already the end of Aug and I'm oh so very glad NOT to be going back to school! The delight in working at home is not having to put on shoes....awesome! Life IS good!
I'm totally immersed in course writing (signed on to write lectures and instructional aids for 6 MBA classes for the University of Sydney with a Pearson Education team of three other women--one in Austin, TX, another in Oregon, and my wonderful Canadian twin who lives with her mother in Barbados! This weekend I was delighted to sublet some of the work to Rosemary--she's 'local' and the topic is perfect--Cross-Cultural Management! Could there BE anyone more experienced? So--anyway, I felt like I could blog a bit before finishing another lesson.
It's keeping me busy day and night--the pace on this one has been brutal!!! It's bringing in some ca$h--so I can get on the road again :-) hopefully to visit each of them in person, because they're living at working in great locations. I'm thinking also of needing rum and Red Bull in Barbados with all the work arrives. Maybe I can wait for Barbados as a January kick off for 2010, then Portland and maybe a trip to Texas :-) to visit the Bush library to explore his legacy! Or better yet to Switzerland--by cruise boat so Bill goes, or in the air with whomever can get away to enjoy my somewhat controversial, baby boy Bob who always consistently seeks peace joy & happiness. And, just for the record, they will be here Sept. 27 through Oct 22. Hm, that's a reason to get Margaret & Dik to Charlotte--October 17 & 22 b'days. :-) We will be in IN/OH Oct 3 or thereabouts for Farmers Fair and near enough to Bob Krider's big day--Sept 30th--for at least a gallon of Graeters!!)
Ok--hit delete now to protect yourself from reading my rant! Did you even think I wouldn't want to respond to GOP commentary and fear mongering about losing Medicare and the horrors of socialized medicine? Yikes--I just started getting mine. OK--here I go:
Who believes that Obama can or will take away Medicare. A procrastinating, do-nothing Congress and accepting that the "status quo is the way to go" is what will do us in economically. It seems totally bogus, destructive and unproductive to think that we'll "lose" Medicare, or be denied our already limited choice of doctors. Limted not by government intervention or "socialized medicine" but because they "can't afford" to continue to practice medicine. We certainly don't need some government takeover to an already dismal, expensive, sickness model of a healthcare delivery system.
We have so much work that needs to be done to change and make simpler our lives. "Yes I have" the ability to live, enjoy the freedom and consequences of my own choices in pursuit of happiness. But it's so exhausting in this complex context of greedy, distrustful, dysfunctional, disabled justice and legislative systems--local to federal levels. It's such powerfully negative mis-trust to watch and hear media fueled fears of "don't-do-anything" name calling and to witness the bullying of intolerance. Glen Beck, Obama's not a name-calling racist. YOU ARE!
One of my least favorite sound bites is to hear someone preach that we must say no to spending any more money. We must stop healthcare/insurance reform because "we're going to leave our grandchildren in trillions of dollars in debt."
I believe my three grandsons are more likely to thank me if I leave them in debt for healthcare as an alternative to leaving them in debt for funding F-22's or un-necessary wars and multi-national stockpiles of US-funded, owned and operated weapons of mass destruction. Not to mention the choices made to go into local, county and state debt to spend $30,000 per prisoner or increasing numbers of cops on the streets while shelters are closed and children are shuffled and bused from school to school instead of being able to trust that wherever they go they will be able to walk or ride a bike home at 3:00, sit down to supper to tell their families "here's what I learned today." Yep, I'd rather leave my grandchildren in debt for funding greenways and school recess, art classes and sports and curing cancer than having politicians spend even one hour of the precious commodity, time discussing "the right to bear arms" as justification for selling automatic weapons or high powered hand guns to folks who will then use the guns to "protect themselves" against assault, domestic violence, pimps and drug dealers.
I digress, of course, but this is my rant and I get oh so pumped by politics. Talking politics is my verbal, mentally challenging international sport of kings and queens; it's powerfully competitive, anyone can play, there are always winners and losers, ties sometimes get accepted, and there's money in it. OK, back to healthcare, and losing my Medicare....
"What we have is working just fine arguments" especially when it comes to healthcare, leave me less protected from that which I fear most: individual, uncontrolled anger that is rooted in hatred, envy and greed. Oh yeah, I also fear nuclear war, and the day to day denials of justice and opportunity to the most vulnerable among us. What we do have is an imperative to repair our broken healthcare system--and to reform our "killer" insurance/politically self-serving systems. Politics is so about power and money, we all know that--it's the American way. I choose to spend money and use my individual and collective political power for personal gain, to develop relationships, to pursue and to fight for and respect folks around the world whose very existence "earns" them those same choices.
I'm committed to my belief that Obama is an American born (Rosemary & Erika visited his his home & saw the hosptial while THEY were in Hawaii!!) President who is doing his job. Working overtime, always in high gear, taking his wife and kids with him to squeeze in some family time and "local pleasured" during Shasa & Malia's summer vacation. Being oh so touched at Kennedy's funeral--he must have seen Ted as such a father/grandfather role model for all the right reasons.
How can anyone ever say he's taken on "too much" when there is so much to be done? Obama is young, bi-racial, intellectually and physically fit. He's a charismatic leader, good looking husband who listens to his wife, a super smart dad and knows himself as a spiritually grounded citizen of the world--I think he can handle it!
How can anyone ever say he's taken on "too much" when there is so much to be done? Obama is young, bi-racial, intellectually and physically fit. He's a charismatic leader, good looking husband who listens to his wife, a super smart dad and knows himself as a spiritually grounded citizen of the world--I think he can handle it!
