Baby surrendered to firefighters

Men sometimes get a bad rap.

Sometimes they are called distant. Sometimes they seem angry.

I was just thinking of this as I read a CNN story about a woman who surrendered her newborn baby to firefighters, who I believe to be males, at a Los Angeles fire station. They named the baby "Noel" and made sure she got to a hospital and received medical attention.

Across our country, loving and brave men man our fire stations. They stand ready to rescue the elderly from flames, respond to accidents, and take in the most vulnerable - newborn infants.

Raise up your holiday toasts to the brave people who man fire stations around our nation.

These folks are doing great work. We rely on them in crisis and we trust them with the most vulnerable among us.

DADT & 8 Republicans

Good for the eight Republicans - Collins, Murkowski, Kirk, et al. - who voted to rescind Don't Ask Don't Tell, the odious bill that made gay/lesbian military members the subject of witch hunts. Thousands of these patriots have been rooted out and sent home as a result of one of the worst pieces of legislation to come out of the Clinton years.

Although he was only keeping up with the zeitgeist of the era and the legislation was a major policy evolution, it still was lamentable as it forced people to lie about who they were.

Thank God things have changed.

As more openness has made society realize that the gay community is made up of our friends, neighbors, brothers, and sisters our culture has become much more accepting and tolerant. In 1980, gay "union" ceremonies were spoken of in whispers. In 2010, they are a cause for celebration at a neighbors' house.

The bill also suggests that, despite all the lying and partisan histrionics that characterize Washington, we are moving to an era of bipartisanship, although many more Repubs should have signed onto this legislation.

Obama, the ultimate pragmatist, seems to be working in itty bitty increments to bring people together to enact significant changes for our society.

I am very sorry that he had to adopt continued tax cuts for billionaires in exchange for an extension of unemployment benefits and other aids for the lower and middle classes. But, he didn't have the votes to fight this compromise. Although we would have loved to see him stand up and fight, we know what the outcome still would have been.

I say F*(k the billionaires. Yeah some of them they may have worked their asses off for that money. But, we live in a society where those who have must help those who have not.

Sometimes government is the engine that keeps that idea working. Many folks find that unacceptable, but it is really what keeps us strong as a united democracy.

Cat in Cold Weather

We've been hit with blizzard conditions—blowing snow and temperatures hovering around the zero mark. We keep the thermostat at about 59 degrees. This means that the kitchen, with cold air pouring in around the foundation, stays at about 45 and the bathroom, which has an insulation problem, hovers around 41. We keep a pencil stream of water flowing in both rooms. We also keep the sink cabinet doors open and fans blowing (slightly) warmer air in.

The sparrows, doves, blue jays, cardinals, juncos, and flickers are starving. I created a pen around a table to feed them on. I don't want the big white cat, Blaze, to have easy pickings. He kills enough without help.

But today something weird happened. The black Labs, Banjo and Meisha, went outside and, when I called them in, found them, hackles up, hovering around the cat door at the side of the porch. I thought the stray black kittie must have visited again.

But, I worried when I called Blaze and he didn't come. I thought he should have been quite cold by now.

I went out 30 minutes later and called. No blaze.

When darkness fell, I took a flashlight and shone it beneath the porch. Here comes poor, scared Blaze. He came in, skipped his food bowl, and went right to his basket by the fire. He looked scared and uncomfortable. I picked him up and petted him. He then curled up more peacefully.

I think some animal, lured by the birdseed, must have scared him.

This is a dangerous time of year as everyone tries to survive.

The Republicans

OK, let's understand this.

The Republicans swept into Congress in November 2010 on a platform of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and deficit reduction.

In their first major negotiation with the Obama administration they wrangle continued tax cuts for billionaires and a limited tax rate for the wealthiest Americans who inherit estates from their elders in exchange for 13 months worth of continued unemployment payments to citizens who have been looking for work for over 99 weeks.

This deal will add billions to the deficit. We need to extend the unemployment benefits because we have been unable to stimulate the economy. All of that money will be spent and will help jobs and the economy. Billionaires, however, have not proven that over the past ten years that they have used their tax cuts to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Has anyone looked at the unemployment rate recently?

Billionaires will sock this money away.

I don't know that the $250,000 cut off for married couples really works. People in that income range spend lots of their money and probably do help create jobs. Big difference between $250,000 and one million in terms of income levels.

Perhaps we could continue the tax cuts for those making under one million. I could accept an argument that that would help create jobs.

Over one million, however, I am less convinced. This only adds to the deficit and continues to press a burden on future generations.

Republicans are amazing in their ability to speak from both sides of their mouths. They insist we must reduce the deficit but at the same time advocate for deficit-increasing tax cuts for billionaires.

Hello?

three-minute fiction contest

I entered National Public Radio's most recent "Three Minute Fiction" contest. My little story didn't make it into the favorites, so I'll share it with you here.

Keep writing, keep trying, keep striving, and, most of all, keep dreaming.

Draw the Shades

Some people swore that the house was haunted.

Not me. I wasn’t afraid of the wrought iron fence, the eyebrow window, or even the wild cats that lived under the expansive front porch.

When I passed the Murphy house on my way home from school, I walked nonchalantly.

Except last Thursday. I heard someone crying. It sounded like a kitten at first but I knew it was a girl. Who was she? This was an ordinary small town with a few old two-story houses sitting squat down in the middle. They stood out like parade floats. Murphy had been the piano teacher and her house was one of them. I listened.

Murphy died last winter and everyone said her daughters would hold an auction come spring. The older girls had left town years ago. Since her death, people walking or driving past the towering house claimed to hear sounds and even music from the piano. I wondered how many kids, like me, had waited in the dark, sunless parlor to play at the worn keyboard.

“God love us,” my mom said as we drove home from the IGA, hearing music from the Murphy place.

To my mom, who loved a good haunting, and to Emma, who was willing to believe anything, and to her ever-worrisome mother, I said emphatically, “It’s not a ghost, it’s a girl.”

Maybe she’s Murph’s daughter, the one nobody talked about after eighth grade. She was just gone one day. Maybe she’s a girl who stopped here on her way to somewhere else.

I stated boldly, after dinner at Emma’s house, that we would go there tonight. We’d miss the Friday night football game. I’d save Emma from a date with Brendon. She didn’t understand that  “B” stood, frankly, for bad news. Emma believed that kindness could cure anything, and I couldn’t dissuade her. I’d forgo a date with Mark the Magnificent. He’d make fun of my Goodwill clothes. I could live without it. Emma would don her best Nancy Drew and go with me. She was my best friend.

After loading the dishwasher, Emma and I walked across the church parking lot to the Murphy place. We killed our flashlights as we got close. We heard humming. We looked up into the heavily draped first floor window, from which emanated a beautiful waltz.

Emma asked, “do you think she’s back?”

They had been friends in grade school. If she knew, Emma never said why she went away or where she had gone. Mom hinted at reasons, and they didn’t sound pretty. I remember hearing isolated words as she talked on the phone: father, fork, blood, middle of night, crazy. None of it made any sense to me as a kid—nonsense that I tried to ignore over wheaty-oats and milk.

But that night Emma and I sank down into the foxtails growing along the fence. We listened to the piano for a long time and panicked when we heard crying.

“Linda was a sweet girl,” Emma said. I grabbed her as she stood up. “I know she was.” We sat close to each other as the sobs turned into humming.

We watched the cars driving back from the football field and avoided their headlights as we walked home.

Sometimes we can piece together the past and sometimes we can understand it. The future, however, is something else entirely.

I will always love Emma for her kindness and her unwavering acceptance of those she loves.

But, it took many years to understand why, between us, nothing was ever the same again after that.

Democrats Lose the House… and Perhaps the Senate

Conventional Wisdom has written this headline.

Obama has lost all of his momentum they say. He's in the gutter with us.

Has President Obama executed a flawless first term? No.

Was he handed an impossible situation? Yes.

Obama and Pelosi and Reid stumbled many times over the past couple of years. But given the problems left to them by Bush II (deficit, wars, economic devastation) they've done pretty damned well overall.

Please come out in full force on Tuesday.

Vote.

And drag your friends, brothers, spouse, housemates, and coworkers with you.

We can do this!!

We must not allow the right wing to take over our country.

Schock takes us for granted

Please watch the debate at WTVP between Congressman Aaron Schock, his Democratic opponent, the wildly capable attorney DK Hirner, and the "watchdog," Green Party Candidate Sheldon Shafer, master of the Lakeview Planetarium and popular physics instructor at Bradley University.


http://www.wtvp.org/programming/ai/atissue.asp#2309

What most strikes me about this race is that Aaron Schock appears to be a shoo in. He has sent no mailers to our home and has racked up no annoying robo calls.

Shock believes so strongly in the polls that he feels he doesn't have to do much work to earn our votes. He believes he is returning to Washington no matter what.

Voters of the "Fighting" Eighteenth District, let's make him think again!!

He voted against health care, against stimulus spending (although he glad handed every ribbon cutting in his district), Wall Street reform, and TARP. He was a just say "no" Republican, defying the President purely for partisan politics. After having done NOTHING, he still feels sure that you will vote with him. He must have pocketed all that Bush and Gingrich campaign cash, because he sure hasn't spent it in the district.

Why vote for Aaron? He has only said "no." He has given no positive steps forward and offers no new ideas. Vote for Hirner or vote for Shafer. Either of these candidates is more knowledgeable and more capable than "Six Pack." And they don't take your vote for granted.