COMMON MATTERS

When You Are Unable to do anything...

what can you do?  Many folks are asking themselves this question today. This past Friday I, along with millions of other Americans, watched in anguish and horror as reports came in about a deranged young man, too young to lawfully own a gun, who murdered his mother, then slaughtered an entire classroom of children and six heroic educators in Newtown, Connecticut. It was all I could do to keep the television on.  You see, since the election hub-bub in November, I basically swore off all but local news to get the weather report.  I barely skim a newspaper, except to read the sales ads.  I've stopped reading nearly all of the internet website news feeds that I once received in my email box each day.  I unsubscribed to many of them.  I am still reeling from the reality of this world.  Too much information. Too many lies.  Too much deceit. Too much negative overload.  It was wearing me out.  I decided to start looking for good.  Because, I do believe there is good in this world.  I really do.

I read where Mister Rogers, the children's television personality, once said that when he was a little boy and fearfully questioned all the bad news he witnessed, his mother would tell him to look for the helpers.  "There are always helpers around when trouble comes."  That's so true.  Often while politicians are giving speeches, and doing photo ops, the volunteers of our country are digging out muck, repairing power lines, hauling trees, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and clothing the naked.  Some folks use a crisis to campaign or to advance a personal agenda.  Most use a crisis to aid the people enduring the crisis.  We really don't hear enough about those folks, do we?

Because of Friday's senseless tragedy, people are throwing themselves into memorial services, setting up funds to help the families of the victims.  Some are sending condolences.  Some are going to Newtown and volunteering their services as grief counselors.  Many are hugging their children a little tighter, a little longer, a little more.  Millions are praying for the survivors of the tragedy.

Sketchy reports are coming out about Adam Lanza, the shooter.  He was a disturbed young man.  Obviously, he also had a spiritual deficiency.  But he had more than one disorder: mental, emotional and physical. One teacher said he needed constant monitoring because he could not feel pain if he cut himself or burned himself.  He is described by many as a loner.  A loner has little to no social interaction with others.  Sometimes they just want to be alone, other times they are incapable of socializing.  It seems Adam's case was the latter. 

We ask why this happened, why his mother owned guns, and why she showed him how to use them?  We're hearing opinions from every sector: from Sunday School classrooms to presidential speeches.  Even late night comedians bloviate. As those babies lay in pools of blood with their parents waiting in agony to know if their child had survived, Tavis Smiley (liberal advocate and talk show host) went on Jay Leno and advocated for more laws. The shooter broke 41 laws when he slaughtered his mother and those dear children and heroic teachers.  Forty-one laws.  And the answer is more laws?  Even God knew more laws was not the answer. He had to send His only begotten Son to die on a cross to atone for our sin.  God help us to stand in His strength and rest in His grace. May we be who we need to be for our families, our communities and our nation.  May we pray for the survivors of this horrendous tragedy and walk in the light of God's love in our part of this troubled world. Hug someone today. Smile. Say good morning. Thank you. If you know someone who is lonely, reach out and befriend them.  If you are lonely, let someone know.

What Do You Think?

When I go to my facebook account, the first thing that it asks me is, “What’s on your mind?”  It’s funny what some folks write in answer to that question.  They post little ditties about their husbands, wives, children.  They really write what's on their minds. They tell about something that grates on their nerves, that annoys them, a gripe or irritation.  They talk about politics, religion and personal issues.  They post photos of everything from their newly manicured toenails to the steaks they are grilling for supper.  It’s weird.  But there on the world wide web, Facebook offers a system of communication that keeps folks connected, talking and sharing among friends, families and strangers.  It keeps me connected to folks in churches my husband pastored in Kentucky.  I love that I’m connected to dozens of pastors throughout the world.

Some folks keep their identity and “wall” private.  They have subgroups where some folks can post and others cannot.  Then some folks are wide open to the public and provide an expansive menu of their every move, thought and opinion.  They let ya know when they go to Braums, the movies, or the gas station.  They post photos of dogs sleeping on cats and cats sleeping on dogs.  They tell you about their sinus infections and migraine headaches. They talk about the weather and the traffic.  They post arguments and conversations that, well... tell the world at large, a whole lot more than they need to know-- as in TMI, (too much information).

It’s amazing how many folks think. Not everyone likes black coffee, broccoli casserole or chocolate cake, after all.  For the most part, the majority of folks I chat with, do think like I do on major issues.  But it’s interesting to see how folks answer that question Facebook asks: “What's on your mind?”

Lately, most conversations on Facebook are about politics (surprised?), patriotism and, more precisely, the slaughter of our Ambassador to Libya and 3 other Americans. The present administration would have us “think” a stupid You-Tube video caused the atrocity committed against our American Ambassador and 3 colleagues on 9-11.  The administration says a video is what caused radical religious fanatics to celebrate his death as they pulled him into the streets, shouting praise to their god. They think we believe that this was a spontaneous attack because they were offended and insulted about a film trailer that was on the internet for months and they coincidently chose  9-11 as the day to begin scaling the walls of our embassies and tearing down our flag and replacing it with one of Al-quaida. They want me and my facebook friends to believe that "it has nothing to do with America’s foreign policy, Obama’s administration, or we Americans".

What?  Terrorists planned, organized and attacked our American consulate and carried out another horrendous act on our countrymen on 9-11.  Obama's appeasement and apology tour and his policies of "understanding" did nothing to protect Ambassador Stevens. The U.S. did not have the intelligence needed to stop this act of terror.  It was under Obama's watch.  And what does Obama do?  Apologize for some idiot who posted a stupid You-tube video; that's what.  Then he went to Las Vegas to a party, and gave an interview with some guy called "A Pimp With A Limp". Seriously?  And when the Prime Minister of Israel requested a meeting to discuss Iran getting nuclear weapons and wanting to blow Israel off the face of the earth, what does our President do?  He tells him he's too busy; he has to do an interview with comedian, David Letterman. Meanwhile thousands upon thousands are demonstrating against America in multiple countries and chanting "Death to Americans."  That's what's on my mind this week.  What's on yours?

Concerned Citizen

I am concerned about the moral decline in our world, and specifically, America. It's one thing to look at other countries, such as Iran and be appalled at the fact that a young Christian pastor is about to be executed for loving Jesus in an Islamic country (/link). It's another thing entirely to consider that in America, a man would smother an 8-year-old child and dismember him (/link). It's sick, folks.

I grieve for the parents of this child...the fact that he was alone and lost on the streets of his New York neighborhood is sad and will trouble them for years to come. It was considered one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City. What this evil man did to their child will haunt them forever.

We live in a country that has legalized the slaughter of the unborn. There is no place of refuge for a child in a society that gives so little regard to life. There are no neighborhoods safe enough.

In America, each and every commandment of the Most High God is broken every day without any sense of remorse. At one time the Ten Commandments dressed the walls of every single schoolroom in the country. Today the display of those laws is considered unconstitutional. Today, they are broken and flaunted in the halls of justice--condoned, tolerated and legislated against. Though murder is offensive, it is not as offensive as dotting every "i" and crossing every "t" in the letter of man-made laws.

America's problems reach farther than the arm of the law. It rests deep in the heart of man.

Cheating in schools is no longer a problem with children; it's a problem with the educators teaching those children. Teachers seduce vulnerable children every day. Lying. Coveting. Stealing. Dishonesty. Lasciviousness. These are the character traits being exemplified to young people?

Why is it too much to expect marriage to be an institution of God between one man and one woman? It's totally unnatural to consider marriage as anything else.

Sin is something to be proud of today. We even pay money to see violence, adultery, lying and cheating and manipulation--sin glamourized in movies, television and reality shows. We purchase products that promote more of it. We have a love affair with products, clothing, and accessories that bathe us in self-gratification...with the exterior of ourselves. We are self-saturated. It's all about me and my pleasure and my comfort and my desire and my needs. It's less and less about being created in the image of God and more about being re-created in the image of man.

Should we be surprised brothers strangle their mother because they didn't want to play Yahtzee? And just because they didn't want to play a boardgame, it was perfectly okay to murder their mom and bury her body and lie about what happened to her? How awful it was of her to want to play a boardgame and infringe upon their desires! You'd think it would have been simple enough to play a couple of games to avoid prison. Wonder if they'll be playing Yahtzee in prison?

I am concerned that our relaxed state of mind about all things of God has warped our ability to reason. Common sense is losing space within the mind of man. No wonder jurors have problems understanding reasonable doubt. Everything seems to be tolerable under the right circumstances. A National Day of Prayer is exactly what is needed for our country as Gov. Rick Perry is being criticized for calling citizens to do in Texas. However, I think we need prayer every day, not just once a year. I'm concerned...are you?

WORD OF WARNING

Words are dangerous things these days.  Social-networking via internet and cell phones is a blessing and a curse.  Do you have a Facebook account?  A Twitter account?  I do and some of the posts and tweets I read blow my mind.  Know that it is not my friends and family that I am talking about.  It's those folks who befriend friends and family and then end up commenting on their spaces.  Some folks are downright mean.  And they are adults!

Many folks on the internet abuse the social-networking system to be rude.  To bully.  To inflame.  To denigrate.  Words like these are useless.  They are meant to do nothing but harm and hurt.  Kids are committing suicide over hateful internet bullying.  Venting on the internet has become the modern-day counseling service.  And the World-Wide-Web is the counselor.

Words can carry folks to heights of joy and pleasure, and propel another to encouragement and comfort.  Or they hang limp as my old hammock--without purpose or sincerity.  Apologies are like that sometimes.  Insincere.  Ever had someone apologize "if" you were offended?  They don't apologize for words, or attitude, but rather your misunderstanding of them.  Kinda falls like a lead weight in the apology department, don't you think?  In reality, the person cannot admit their wrong--only your oversensitivity.  Folks, that is really just a double insult.

Some say "honesty is the best policy".  While I agree in generality, I take exception with some specifics. You've probably had someone speak unkindly toward you or another, and when confronted for their rudeness, they quip, I'm just being honest.  Am I missing something here?  Must we always speak our minds?  Does the fact that we are honest in how we see or view something necessarily make it right to voice?

As a child I was taught to keep my words to myself if they were negative.  Perhaps I'm getting old.  It almost seems politically correct to downgrade another.  In fact, it seems it's almost expedient.  Internet conversations are followed by thousands of people just to watch what someone says in anger, when vulnerable, when tired, when betrayed. Then another "retweets" it, or "reposts" it, to exploit and expose.  Isn't that gossip?  Don't they just convict the person who is "being honest" with their own dark-hearted accusations?   Mama used to call that "choking on their own words".  Lord, knows I've choked on a few.

I have to be honest, it just clings to my soul like melted cotton candy on my fingers.  And unless I get it cleaned out of my thought processing, I'm bound to get that sticky mess of irritation on some innocent passerby--most often the innocent waitress who is a bit late to the table, the clerk who is slower than sap dripping from a maple tree, or the next driver who knows nothing about the rude driver I've just encountered.  Far worse, it seems, when I spout off something to loved ones.

I wish there were some way we could guard our children, our grandchildren against hurtful insults.  I wish folks could take the genius of cyber-space to uplift, encourage and validate.  According to a family specialist I read this week, kids text and Facebook for immediate validation of their presence in the world.  They feel good about themselves that someone would answer them. When they post on facebook and people respond, they are affirmed.  It's sad that kids must find self-worth this way.  And if they find such value in a tweet or a text, how much more damaging is it to receive an insult?  Makes me wonder how young is too young for a child to have access to phones and social media via the internet.

SHOULD TEXTING BE OUTLAWED

Did you see the video of the lady who walked straight into a water fountain at a shopping mall while texting on her phone?  It looked like a slapstick advertisement for "Funniest Home Videos" until I later saw the lady being interviewed on the news.  She literally walked over the edge and fell into the pool of coin-ladened water and was livid that the person at the mall released the embarassing moment for all the world to see.  She'd had the person fired who released the video that went viral on the internet, and was threatening to sue the mall because they didn't come to her aid.  To be honest, I don't think the person who released the video should have been fired.  From viewing the video, no one could tell who it was that walked away dripping wet.  To me, it seemed like a great public-announcement of what could happen if you text and walk and don't pay attention.

It reminded me of an incident my teenage granddaughter told me about before Christmas.  She was texting a friend as she walked at the mall in Wichita Falls and a security guard stopped her.  He told her she couldn't walk and text in the mall; it wasn't allowed.  That seemed rather bizarre to me till I thought a moment.  I told her he was probably worried she'd walk into a wall or another person.  What if that person was a little old lady on a walker?  What if they trampled on a two-year-old and busted their lip?  People walk into me and they are simply looking at the store window displays.  So I can imagine texting while walking could cause a problem.  I did wonder if the guard would have stopped an adult, though.  In light of the lady who walked into the fountain, I can see where this may be the next rule our mall puts into action.

In California, it's against the law to just talk on the phone and drive.  Last summer Gov. Swartzenneger's wife, Maria, was caught driving in California while talking on her cell-phone.  She apologized and then a few weeks later was caught talking while driving again.  While I'd hate to see that become law in Oklahoma, I really do understand why it is against the law.  It's a distraction.  And the number one cause of traffic accidents is inattentiveness.  In other words--people are not paying attention.

However, people don't want to give up the freedom to chat while driving.  So now some legislators are talking about manufacturing cars that will jam or scramble signals of cellphones if drivers try to use them in their cars.  Seems a bit extreme, but laws are not made to be broken. I suppose if we're dumb enough to text and walk into a pool of water in a shopping mall, we're dumb enough to walk into the street of an oncoming car.  And legislators have a job to do--make laws that protect the public.

It does make me wonder though.  If they will stop us from talking on phones because it is a distraction, will they make us stop driving with people in the car?  Like our toddlers who scream when they get touched by a sibling?  They already insist that we buckle-up, will the next law be to button-up and zip-it?  Will our vehicles engines shut down when activated by our singing?  Hmmmmn, it does make me wonder.

Why I Want to Clone Myself

I went to the grocery on Friday to pick up a few veggies and fruit.  As I strolled by the bananas, I overheard the produce manager tell a stockman not to forget the "USA stickers": "Make sure you use those USA stickers."

I thought about that as I picked through the peppers searching for ones with the least amount of wilt and blemish.  The sticker on one pepper said it was from Canada.  Another said it was from Holland.  Can you believe that?  Holland.  I always check to see where my fruit and vegetables come from.  I am ever amazed they come from all over the world and not here in America.  Supposedly America has more land to farm than any nation in the world.  Yet, we can't get our produce from here!  Now, I realize America is not the tropics and we won't be growing too many bananas.  However, green and red peppers?  These use to come from California, but now...now, Barbara Boxer and her cohart in crime, Nancy Pelosi, have turned off the water in California to protect a bunch of 2-inch minnows.  Therefore, we cannot have fresh beans, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower, broccoli and corn from our own country.  Instead, our food must be shipped in from foreign countries with who-knows-what kind of standards for growing the food?? 

In California, thirty-thousand unemployed folks stand in food lines where they now depend on the government to feed them powdered milk, and government-issued canned goods.  I guess that's one way to get rid of illegal immigrants from coming to California.  Destroy the farmlands that gave them jobs harvesting fruit and vegetables, huh?

Nancy Pelosi (House Speaker from San Francisco, California) blocked legislation from coming to the floor (7 times) to get the water turned back on. If she treats her own state that way, what will she do to ours if given the chance?

The federal government turned San Joquin Valley into desert wasteland.  Why?  To save a bunch of inedible fish?  I don't think so; I think it is about controlling Americans.  The Pelosi/Reid/Obama folk want government to dole out our every essential commodity (including healthcare), so that we are utterly and completely dependent upon the federal government.  They want to limit how much electricity we use, how hot or cold we keep our houses, who gets water and when.  They want control over everything--what we think, what we spend, what we own, what we teach our children, and what we eat.  Soon they will be telling us we can't hunt deer, plant vegetable gardens, or can our own beans.

I wish I could clone myself and vote in legislators who seek to provide us smaller government, fewer rules, less taxes.  I wish I could clone myself and vote out the knotheads all across our nation who seek to keep us under the thumb of bigger government, higher taxes, selective health-care, and business-stifling legislations. I want all the Barbara Boxers, Barney Franks, Nancy Pelosis, and Harry Reids voted out of government before they come capping our water to save some minnow, worm, or varmit at the expense of our livelihoods and food supply.

Yeah, I wish I could clone myself and vote a few hundred times across the nation tomorrow.  Since I can't, I'll just pray for God's intervention.  After the Tuesday votes are counted, maybe, just maybe, we'll have a new House Speaker who will bring the legislation to the floor to vote for California's water to be turned on.  At least then I won't be picking through peppers from Holland. 

What Is Rightfully Yours Is Mine, Now

Decisions, decisions.  Some of you may recall my search for health insurance. A human resources rep told me to have my husband quit his two part-time jobs, then Oklahoma would pay for our medical bills, our rent, our food, and utilities. In other words, become a societal parasite.  Nix that idea. In all good conscience we can't do that. But bear in mind; many folks are being advised to do this every day.  So, with the passage of healthcare, I imagine that advice will only increase and breed parasitical socialism.

Remember the experience I had with a group of bogus insurers touting ridiculously low fees for even more ridiculously high benefits?  Expect more of those fraudulent groups to sprout like weeds in newly tilled gardens. I finally got a quote from a reputable insurance company. It will only cost us about $10,290 a year.  Isn't that great?  Of course, that's just for me.  It doesn't include my husband.  Doesn't really matter. Insurance is unaffordable. To get a policy that will cover 50% of my medical costs, I'd have to first pay a $7,000.00 deductible.  So, why bother with insurance?  The fine Obamacare will impose won't cost near as much as insurance. The IRS will just deduct the fine from hubby's Social Security check, along with the 96-dollar fee for near-worthless Medicare we've been paying into for 40 years.

You might wonder if you'll have to absorb my medical costs should I go to the hospital.  If I went, you might.  I don't plan to go.  For anything.  Not much sense in it.  Doctors hands will be tied anyway.  Obama's watchdog panel will prohibit much of any care for a useless human being like myself. Since I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease, I am able to stand for 10 minutes at a time without the excruciating pain on my lower back.  I sit for fifteen minutes to take the pressure off, then start all over again.  I've already been told to take narcotics to address the pain.  I'm a dispensable statistical comodity.  I'm not alone in my misery. There's lots of folks with this dilemma.  I've talked to them. Will Obamacare fix our problems?  Of course; all we have to do is accept the fact that we are societal parasites.

It is great to be an American, today.  We have the "fundamental right" to sit back and do nothing to support ourselves, and make everyone who does work, pay for our "fundamental right" to do nothing but watch eagles fly and flags wave in the wind.  How does that make you taxpayers feel today?  Used?  Now, now.  Obama is just spreading the wealth around.  It's what America voted for on one cold day in November 2008.  Feeling wealthier?  Do you have more hope?  Enjoying the changes?

I apologize to our children and grandchildren for the national debt we have bestowed upon them and their children.  Economists estimate that for every dollar they earn, they'll be turning over about half to pay off the debt.  This congress is "fundamentally changing" America to rob your children of what is rightfully theirs tomorrow, to pay for things that are not "rightfully" mine today.  That's just fundamentally wrong.

THINGS WE TAKE FOR GRANTED

Last Monday morning I got up and headed to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.  My hubby was sitting with his newspaper and watching Fox and Friends.  "No coffee," he says.

"No coffee?  We're out of coffee?"  My mind reeled.

"Broke."  I looked in the kitchen.  There sat our sad little Mr. Coffee-maker and an empty pot.  Hubby offered to go to the local Philips 66 and get me a cup.  "Nah.  I'll figure something out.  I just hate you didn't get yours."   He said he'd get some at work.  He offered again to go get me some coffee.  Again I refused. "I'll just heat some water later and let it drip through the coffee-maker filter into a cup. No big deal." 

"Hmmmn, I never thought of that," he said as he tied his shoes.

I turned my attention to the TV news.  ACORN's housing counselors were being exposed with corruption. They were advising two undercover citizens on tax evasion, prostitution and trafficking underage children.  A twenty-year-old preacher's daughter, and a twenty-five year-old young man did a sting operation by draining their savings of $1,300 and video-taping the counselors.  They'd broken open a scandal of earthquake proportions within this political action group.  As a result of their innovation and courage, the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly this past week to defund millions of dollars (and possibly billions) from ACORN's organization.  The Census Bureau dropped ACORN from helping with the 2010 census.  I wondered.  How many folks take for granted the diligence and sheer guts those two young people had for uncovering corruption within an organization that Americans fund with hard-earned tax dollars?

I was so engrossed in the developments of the news story that I hardly noticed when my husband bent down to kiss me good-bye and delivered a mug of steaming coffee to me.  Yeah...he'd gone to the kitchen and made a whole pot by boiling water, then patiently letting it drip through the filter.  So much we take for granted.  The kind random acts we experience from our family, friends and spouses.  A coffee-pot that works.  A cup of hot brew.  A good-bye kiss.  The good things in life.  selahV

IF THIS COLUMN "SOUNDS FISHY", JUST FORWARD IT TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Did ya'll hear about the White House requesting information on the American people?  Seems their website wanted everyone to listen to their neighbors and anyone who hears anything "fishy" about health-care reform via emails, casual conversation, websites, and who knows?..maybe even this column, should contact the White House.  They want us to let them know who it is and what they are saying.  Say what!?  And they wonder why folks are getting hot under the collar at town-hall meetings. 

Some politicians and pundits say the folks (turning out by the hundreds to protest health-care reform), are "organized mobs" of "astro-turf" people financed by the wealthy Republicans. In other words, they are fakes.  They're called "un-American". "Infiltrators." The citizens are saying the politicians need to get out of Washington and walk amongst real folk.  Some just don't like the idea of the government controlling all their health-care and every iota of their lives.  Some folk don't like what they are hearing.  They don't want fast-track governing where our elected representatives fundamentally alter our lives with mandates and laws that "change" things that don't need changing.

Did you hear about that one man who got bullied by four thugs who didn't like him handing out flags and buttons that said, "don't tread on me"?  Yep.  Happened last week.  He was an African American Republican and those guys knocked him down to the ground and called him the "N" word.  One of the "thugs" was also African American and a member of a union SEIU (The Service Employees International Union, the largest and fastest growing union in North America, focused on uniting workers in the key service sectors).  Is that the kind of "mob" they are talking about?  Or is it just "mobs" of citizens who are tired of being ignored by their government and saying so?  You know..."mobs" of housewives, nurses, retired salesmen, and white-haired gramas?  Seems it may be the latter, because they escorted out a very vocal father who was speaking for his adult son afflicted by cerebral palsy sitting in a wheelchair in front of him.  His political representive called hin an "infiltrator" sent to disrupt the meetings.  Now this "infiltrator" is having thugs show up at his house in the middle of the night with threats against him.  Is that not sad?

I'm thinking that citizens are just fed up with the Feds feeding us pork and pipe-dreams.  So laborers, voters and veterans are turning out in droves to say so.  I'd been meaning to go to one of those town-hall meetings if one ever comes to Lawton.   And guess what?   A friend of mine told me our Congressman, Tom Cole, is having one Thursday, August 13th, at Cameron University.  So, I think I might just waddle on down there and join the "mob".  That way I can get a firsthand peek at what all the fuss is about and meet some of these mobsters.

If I get my chance at the microphone I might ask several questions.  What's national health-care mean to accessing a physician?  Will the government system be like the VA?  Will my husband still have to wait an entire year to get a follow-up on his abnormal PSA score, and find out if his thyroid medication needs to be changed again?  Will the medicine that the private physician told us would help correct his heart condition still be disallowed?  Is my husband's care considered government "waste"?  Will the publicly insured get as good a care as the privately insured? 

Hey, Washington, in case you get this column at the White House because it sounds "fishy", could you answer a few questions?  Exactly how does the national health-care system plan to operate?  Will the public get to "choose" their doctors and the hospital they want to go to for care?  Can they travel out of state for better cancer treatment; or will all the treatments in all states follow cookie-cutter instructions from that Health Advisory Board that President Obama is setting up?

By the way, no one has paid me to ask these questions.  No one has helped me "manufacture" them.  I've just been sitting here reading the paper, listening to the news, surfing the internet, and talking to every-day folks I know.  If someone shares this with you, and you answer me, I'll be sure and forward your answers to everyone I know.  I'm not angry.  I'm sickened.  Can you hear me now?  Or must I raise my voice?  [printed in THE COUNTY TIMES, Cache, OK]   selahV