Great Point

This is from another Lucy and I salute her!  She nails it.  Here's something we can all take to the Thanksgiving table if Uncle Festus or Auntie Boo declare all "Muslims" are terrorists.  

I will not let anyone equate, in my presence, all Muslims with Isis/radical Islam/terrorism.  And this differentiation is a great way to stop the distorted thinking.

Give Me...Your Huddled Masses....

NRA and many conservative thinkers perpetuate the hypocrisy.  On and on.  And they can't see it.  Won't see it.  Either way, it's hypocritical.  

 

Paris—the city I always think of as love-filled—was hit by terrorist attacks last Friday, November 13.   Nine men in groups of 3 targeted a packed theater during a rock concert , restaurants, and a stadium where the French president was in the crowd. 

It looks like one of the terrorists had ID from or was one of the immigrants from Syria.  That one situation has sent too many Americans into a state of amnesia.  Fear apparently makes us forget that we are a kind, caring, and generous people.  I'd bet many of the fear-motivated people believe in "American exceptionalism."   Maybe we all need to pause and think about what that term means.  What makes us "exceptional" and whether we are. 

No Shortage of Hypocrisy

Besides the hypocrisy factor,  note it's a man who's demanding time with his family as a condition of taking the job of House Speaker—which would make him 2nd in line to become President of the U.S.   Imagine, if you can, a woman making that same demand--even that request!  OMG.   Yep it's hard to imagine because it's something that is beyond unlikely to ever happen.  Ever.  A woman could not get past such a statement/demand and be allowed to serve in any high-level position, much less the one Mr. Ryan just might be occupying soon.

The disparity in expectations is something all too familiar; it's not news.  Just something to note.  And remember.  

Good Point

 

Would be helpful to candidate Bernie Sanders if people understood the difference.

Boo!

The Flood We Won't Forget

Columbia, South Carolina - October 6, 2015

 

We've got a mess here in the Palmetto State.  They're saying a flood like this comes only once in a thousand years.  And that's too soon.  I will have more to say about it, including positive notes about rescue workers, law enforcement, FEMA, volunteers, and more.

 

Now it's after 2 a.m. and I need sleep.  But before I turn off the light again—thankful for having electricity— I need to get something off my chest, calm down enough to turn off the anger noises in my head.  

 

Remember Hurricane Sandy,  the devastation in New Jersey?  Of course you do.  Do you remember how members of South Carolina's Congressional Delegation voted on funding disaster relief for victims there?  

 

 

Fortunately, these Republican men do NOT reflect the generous spirit of most South Carolinians.  These men flap their jaws about "values" but were unwilling to follow the most basic of core values, the Golden Rule.  

 

It's a good thing our Federal Government doesn't forget its mission is to serve all citizens fairly.  Federal employees wasted no time showing up for South Carolina. Thank you, Mr. President,  FEMA, members of the military.   We're damn lucky you don't believe in Karma. 

My #2 Sweetheart

He might have been my #1 at one time, but I figured he might be hard-to-get.  Can't help lovin' Pope Francis though!  Did you note the structure of his visit?  How he puts out his strong message to Congress and the American people, moves on to do the same to world leaders at the UN, goes to the site of  the horrendous 9/11 to show what "killing one another" means.  How he says his piece, hits all the right notes with great tenderness and clarity—and without scolding?   At the UN I heard him say to all delegates:  "I love each of you from my heart."  And you just know he means it.  Did you hear him asking the crowd, stretched far beyond the White House, to please pray for him...and asking those who might not be "believers" to send him good wishes?  He was recognizing that not all humans share his belief...and yet he sees and hears them, too. Does not exclude them from his good will.  

This made me laugh when I saw it on Facebook.

(This image from The Everlasting GOP Stoppers on FB)

Surely people who experienced any part of the Pope's visit must have felt great respect for this gentle, open-hearted man.  So many reasons to appreciate him and what he's all about.  Leaning out of the FIAT as far as possible to get close to the people.  Requesting to go to the 9/11 Memorial  when it wasn't on his original demanding schedule (added to schedule before he arrived in the US); there, after what would have been an exhausting day for a far younger man on Red Bull,  this 78-year-old— with one lung and a bad hip—talked with 20 survivors, spending a brief time with each of them.  Yes, I think most Americans were charmed and warmed by the Pope's visit.  Of course there were some critics (thought hard for me to imagine).  And they were, from all I can gather, Republicans or hard right wingers.  Naysayers to climate change...and most anything else.  In the address to the joint session of Congress,  he talked (along with the climate crisis in our "common home" and peace) about the sanctity of all lives; that's when Republican eyes lighted up.  When His Holiness moved almost immediately to abolishing the death penalty, they got a little twitchy.  

(Meme GOP)

Thought I'd leave you smiling with that meme.  Have a wondrous weekend!

VOTE!

...and we're not in some other states in our "free" country either.   We are negatively impacted by the Republican worldview, their war on women, and their votes in Congress and state legislatures...deeply impacted.  We need to VOTE, contribute, volunteer for Democrats who respect women and our rights.  Think of the Supreme Court.  Think of women's health choices.  Think of your children and grandchildren.  Daughters and granddaughters.  VOTE.  Every time the polls open.  VOTE as a woman!  VOTE as a man who respects women. VOTE!

From 1993!

(Lee Lorenz created this clever cartoon that appeared in The New Yorker in '93.)

Have I been dreaming these past couple of months?  Sometimes it all seems real, that Donald Trump actually is running for President.  As a Republican.  And he is leading in the field of thirteen, yes 13, candidates.  Is it a dream or nightmare?  Unclear.  Either way, it has been stunning.  And sometimes entertaining.  Get this: Docta Ben Carson was in second place—definitely a nightmare.  (I think he donated his brain to a patient at some point.)  Geeeez.  

...and several months ago – even before her email mess— I had a gut feeling that Hillary won't be President.  No clue why.  Given the field of Republicans, well...how could she not?  And then Bernie Sanders came along and knocked our socks off with his no frills, no nuance straight talk.  With policies I embrace...and policies he has embraced for years.  Nothing seems ginned up to make him electable.  (There are a few things on my Bernie wish list— including a strong stand on gun control, greater understanding of our black and hispanic communities...that's the big stuff.)  And I truly like him.  He's authentic; there is no artifice.  And that's delicious!  The crowds he's drawing have been amazing.  Yet I don't see him in the oval office.  Just don't have a sense it will come to pass.

Now I'm waiting for Joe's decision.  And my heart aches thinking of the energy, the life force it would take for him to make it a YES.  If he does, it would be next to impossible not to support him.  I'm not sure there's ever been a candidate with so much of the right stuff—his temperament, the big, inclusive heart, the good sense, and the deep experience....  Most of all, I love him.  I love him enough to be conflicted about his decision, to want what's best for him personally a little more than what might be best for America and the world.  He is with the Unions today in Pittsburgh though and apparently revved up for events there.  Soon we will know what he will do.  He wants to be sure.  But how can he be?  Grief is relentless and unpredictable.  If he runs, grief will be his partner.  Tough, tough decision.

Whatever happens, this Yellow Dog Dem will rally behind the nominee, knowing we'll be better off with any Democrat than one of the cast-of-thousands Republicans.  I want some heart and soul along with intelligence and sound mental health in my candidate. 

Labor Day 2015

You. Are. Not. Her. Candidate.

 

And neither are the other twelve Republicans.  Was it Gloria Steinham who said, "If men could become pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament"?   Yep!

  (Shared on Facebook.  Attribution on meme)

 

August 18, 1920

The 19th amendment was ratified, and women in this Democracy finally were granted the right to vote.   Here we are in 2015 and still fighting for our rights.  The right-wing "War on Women" is no myth.  And we will win if we realize we can't afford to be complacent.  Vigilance, my sisters. And brothers!

Thanks to the Democratic Party for this image.

New England Journal of Medicine

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/08/new-england-journal-of-medicine-planned-parenthood/

   ...shakes up the Planned Parenthood controversy.  A must-read.  

 

 Wish I could win the lottery and fund Planned Parenthood myself.   Let's support them in every way we can!

Simple Sermon

           (From Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh)

Weekend Kickoff

Lucy's been pretty much horizontal for the past week.  I'm diligent about staying well during cold and flu season, but August?!  This gnarly bronchial/ear/throat/cold/whatever came out of nowhere and has barely loosened its grip.  I'm inching my way back to full speed though.  As for you, please take care and have an excellent weekend.

Some memes that got my attention on Facebook today: 

(From Jerome Russell Lewis in Official Animal Rights Activist Group)

(From Forward Progressives)

(From US Uncut)

Powerful

The link below is a video accompanying Langston Hughes's poem, Kids Who Die, read by Danny Glover.  South Carolina's Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth— social justice advocate and fine author—posted it on Facebook.  She urges us to watch, listen, share and take action.

 

This is one of those times I feel too deeply about a subject to express myself through poetry.  Have tried and just—can't do it justice.  Not now anyway.  Interesting I use the word "justice" here.   I will attempt to share thoughts in prose soon.  

 

http://colorofchange.org/amovementgrows/?sp_ref=141215504.176.15109.f.62145.2&source=fb_sp

Interesting Interview

in the LA Times with Susan Robinson, MD.  A brave woman who has been working half of each month in Kansas at the clinic of the late Dr. George Tiller.  You will remember that he was killed simply for doing his work with skill and compassion.  Murdered by a Christian extremist.  

 

With yet another sting video opening the Congressional doors to "defund Planned Parenthood" — again—this piece is especially timely.  If you've watched any sound-bite size debates on cable news, you probably have noticed that facts don't deter the "Conservative" spokespersons from repeating what they generally know to be false.  They just continue to interrupt, then talk louder than, the Pro Choice person sharing the guest spot. 

 

Here it is:  http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-abortion-doctor-20150807-column.html?utm_source=nar.al&utm_medium=urlshortener&utm_campaign=FB#page=1

 

...and did you see this good news for Planned Parenthood today?

 

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/08/08/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-donates-millions-to-planned-parenthood-as-gop-tries-to-defund-it/    

Farewell, Jon.

Thanks to the unbeatable New Yorker for this Facebook post, a gift to Jon Stewart fans.  I'm definitely in a grief funk over his departure. How will we get through the campaigns, the elections without his wise wit and clever take on all the outrages, all the craziness?  How can we be without his courage— just about impossible to find in "real" news reports.  And at the moment, the only show I can think of with research efforts as impressive as the "The Daily Show" is Rachel Maddow on MSNBC.  But it's not the same.  Don't get me wrong:  There are a few TV personalities I like.  But there's nobody, nobody, nobody like Jon Stewart.  What a beautiful farewell he gave us last night.   My advice:  Rest up for a couple of weeks and consider it?  No joke, Jon.  Think about it, Mr. President.  President Stewart.  

 

Know why this is unlikely to happen, ever?  Not because Stewart couldn't hold his own  intellectually with any candidate on either side.  Actually he'd run circles around them.  He has the courage, sharp mind, sensitivity, ethics...and so much more that would make him a fine leader.  I think he could raise the money.  Why is this dream unlikely to come true?  It's because of something he lacks and something he has in abundance.  His deficiency is a colossal EGO—his seems normal with some humility.  Not big enough to lure him into politics.   And his abundance of honest-to-goodness family values would also be a huge deterrent.  So...I suppose we should enjoy the fantasy, then set him free from our desires for his future.  

Jonny, we can't say "We hardly knew ye" because we do, or feel like we do.  We feel like you're among our circle of friends.  Thank you for letting us see the deliciously fine human being you are.  Shine on however, wherever; we'll continue to feel your Light. 

 

 

Planned Parenthood

Here's a good presentation on why every person should support Planned Parenthood.  We need to be able to defend this long-time provider of women's health services.  Yep, including terminating pregnancies (aka "abortion").   We all  know (well all Lefties, I'd guess) that Federal funds are prohibited by law from being used for abortion procedures.  That includes those performed (legally, I hasten to add; it's legal!) under the auspices of Planned Parenthood.

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/becoming-supermommy/2015/08/why-every-person-should-support-planned-parenthood/ 

Yes, the video of the lunch conversation was "distrubing" to me, as it was to Hillary Clinton.   The tone of those captured in the video was casual, cavalier...hard.  And hard to hear.  But a crass and misleading video does not mean Planned Parenthood is or has ever "sold baby body parts."  Nor have they profited from any transactions involving fetal tissue.  A nonprofit organization must meet expenses just like a for-profit business.  And from all I've read and heard, fetal tissue is needed for research studies, efforts to eradicate diseases in this country and around the world.  Fetal tissue is is provided to such researchers with the permission of women whose pregnancies have been terminated.  It's an option they are offered.  A choice.  Cecile Richards—where the buck stops at Planned Parenthood—has assured us that fees collected for fetal tissue are for covering expenses.  Surely Republican  business whizzes would understand meeting expenses.  That is, if playing dumb weren't paying off politically.   Have a look at this.

Preemptive Corrections

Thanks, Rachel.  Republican debaters should probably use this fact-checker before slamming the Prez tonight.  

It's Thursday!

That means the red car is in Cleveland!

 

Never thought I'd need to know where Fox Noise is on my telly.  Hope it's included in basic cable.  If not, I'll watch it online.  Big night.  First debate for Republican candidates.  Sure is  early for all this hoopla, don't you think?  Who'd have believed Donald Trump would be in the running—and leading the pack?  For damn sure I didn't.  One of the few political delights in the recent past has been watching Trump create controversy with his outrageous comments, most of which have no basis in fact or truth and no substance whatsoever.  It's not the comments themselves that have been my primary source of Trump-sponsored laughfests—but the fun comes from watching the other candidates (16 now or 17, is it?) scrambling to do something even more outrageous than the fellow who's way ahead of them.  To trump Trump, so to speak.  That way, they can hope to get a few minutes of air/talk/Twitter time.  

(Thanks to friends for posting this.  Attributed to Stephanie Miller Show Fan Club FB page.  Now can't find it to check whether someone's name was attached.  If so, my thanks and apology!)

I have a feeling (as do a couple of talking heads I heard earlier) that Mr. Trump will be on good behavior tonight.  And we will be a little disappointed, won't we?  Yeah, a little.  However it goes, I'm sure Fox's ratings will be higher than ever after tonight.  Surely do hate to add my viewing to their bonanza.   But I won't worry about that right now.  The task at hand is to chill a couple of brews and try not to dip into the popcorn too early.  

Begin— Again?

Long time,  no posts.  If I'd had any idea how long it would take to get back to Lucy Left, I would at least have said "Fare ye well for a while."   I've missed you, Lefty friends.

 

I'll try to skip the most maddening parts of my "journey."   I put my Lowcountry home on the market (after getting it in shape) and got a condo in the Midlands so I can be geographically closer to my mother.  She's 91 and fragile, in bed most of the time, needs help getting in and out of a wheelchair.  She's lost most of her physical strength, but her will and sense of humor remain strong. Thankfully, she has 24/7 care, but there are still things to be done.  I appointed myself "Director of Life Enrichment."  Since the two of us always have been close, it's a good role for me; I know what she enjoys, people she enjoys, etc. I know where her "buttons" are, just as she knows mine.  I drive up 2 or 3 times a week for visits and see for myself how the caregivers are caring for her and how she's responding to them. So far, they're doing a good job, and she likes them all.  She made it clear for years that her own home is where she wanted to spend her last years.  No nursing home.  (I can relate!)  My siblings and I have managed to make that happen.

As I prepared to sell my home—my version of Walden Pond—there were truckloads of emotions to sort and some to heal.  It was there Mother Nature had fed and nurtured my spirit for a decade.  I thought of the Cypress trees in the lake as my guardian goddesses.  I watched seven egrets fly from the Bay across the lake at sundown every single day, and named my giant gator neighbor "Tank."  I will hold all the sunsets I enjoyed in my fondest memories.

 

My mother loved visiting there.  She wanted me to know that if she should die at Belle Isle she would die happy—and if I needed to commune with her, I should look out my bedroom window and know she'd be right there near the massive Magnolia.  I wrote a lot about that home and what it meant to me in Dancing on Mars.  And there I was, about to let it go.  (I did buy a few lottery tickets hoping to be able to have two places, but that wasn't meant to be.) The letting-go process seemed endless and stretched my physical capacities to the limit a number of times; foolishly, I went beyond them a time or two.  But finally I got it all done--and my home sold. I continued to pack and move to Columbia in stages until closing day.  My son came down from PA so he and a generous cousin could help me do the final move with a rental truck for the bigger furniture.  I won't attempt detailing all the work that went into leaving the Lowcountry home and getting the new condo to the point where it might  someday feel like home.  All the while I was doing the sale, the move, etc. I was driving back and forth to my mother's—only 35 minutes from the new place, 3.5 hours from the one I let go.  That part is easier, for sure.

Also during the past year,  a precious friend and mentor who called herself my "other mother" died; my brother suffered through a long illness and passed away.  On the day he died, Mama fell and broke a hip and a shoulder.  There was in-facility rehab for a couple of months, and she did do PT.  She was home and just beginning to use a frame walker when she fell again and broke the other hip.  More surgery but no more PT.  

 

I won't ramble about  other challenges since I last posted because I might never get back to politics and current events, and that's what I'm here to share. Guess I just want you to know I haven't been slack without reason.  Nor am I without gratitude that I'm able to be with you now.   Even now Lucy Left isn't likely to have new posts each day.  Still, I do hope you'll stop by when you can and leave comments if you're inclined. 

 

It's good to be back.  So much has happened, is happening.  Where o where do I start?

Reality: Hunger Is No Game

Full Disclosure: I haven't read the book or seen the movie, so probably I shouldn't be using that particular play on words.  But that aside, games are supposed to be fun, right?  Light-hearted. People who suffer from poverty-induced hunger are not light-hearted.  Let's call out the right-wing myths about the government benefits that offer a hand up to hungry Americans.  Hunger is a tragedy.  A shame.  And a sad reality in the USA.  Time to stop the lies about programs that strive to make the pangs less painful.

 

Thanks to all who work, in the public and private sectors, to eliminate hunger in our society. Yours is holy work.