Inspiration and shame

so I was coming home from Target and I was at the light at Stage and Germantown - the busiest corner in surburia. On the sidewalk was a lone 30-something Af-Am man with a sign. A peice of poster board with the simple Shapried message "End the War." That was all - one lone voice on a busy street corner -speaking from the heart.

That's America at its finest.

I honked in support as I headed home to my cozy nook on the cove, shamed.


p.s. and Memphis choked. But hey - the REAL Tigers are moving on.

Spitfires

I'm not generally a fan of the Dixiechicks' music, but I love their moxie. Their new song is on their website - http://www.dixiechicks.com/. I don't think they're gonna get a lot of airplay in some markets. heh heh.

So - that's about all. Pat's party went well. I'm still swamped at school and can feel the ulcers forming. But hey - at least the Tigers won!

Lance is supposed to come a callin' Monday evening - that should be fun. I think I'll take him to eat Bar-B-Q or maybe Japanese. hmmm - any suggestions?

yeah so

my baby turned 9 today. wow. 9. that's almost 10; half-grown; old enough to get "the talk." man. *big grandmama sigh*

so yeah. reflecting on the passage of time, aging, lots of uplifting stuff running through my brain.

but it's been a great 9 years having the Peapod around, so there's that.

The Wrath of Ann

Here's a post I put on the myspace page. I went off a bit on my poor cousin (sorry Jen) but anyway - I am a passioante one, aren't I? She was not necessarily defending Bush/Rep actions in Katrina, did make a few remarks that hit my hot spots. SO here's one reply:

I know you would Jenny. It's all so broken but the solution is not to throw the babies out with the bathwater. Did you know the overwhleming majority of "welfare" receipients work close to or at full time? But $5.15 an hour does not meet poverty line standards, which are insanely out of whack anyway. As far as the 9th Ward, many, but not all, residents were black. Many, but not all, were poor. Many, but not all, received some form of government assistance. But so many that were poor, that were on the dole - were so desperately poor, so desperately unable to get out of the cycle of poverty, violence, and illiteracy that they had given up. Other members of that community, however, were doctors, lawyers, teachers, fireman. policemen, business owners, preachers - who CHOSE to live there, to try to help those less fortuante and because it was their home, their family and friends were there, their churches, their schools. Too many people equate poor with black and therefore with welfare queens and drug abuse when the TRUE picture is much closer to our own families than we'd like to admit. The economic and social playing field is so skewed in favor of the already rich that the poor have virtually no chance of advancement and the middle class is more likely to fall than to rise. And the solutions presented by the party in power? -Cut education funding, cut social services, lower taxes on the wealthiest while increasing them on the poorest, spend $300 BILLION on a war that orchestrated to up the profits of a select few companies that conveniently are tied closely to said administration while a major U.S. city DROWNS because the Corps has been starved for years in order to underwrite coporate tax cuts. (I could go on - but you get the point.)

I think what I meant by "Christians" are those who selectively use the Bible to advance/justify thier own personal agendas - and conveniently ignore the parts that don't mesh with their selfish interests. They're all about "Thou shalt not kill" unless its the death penalty. "Love thy neighbor," as long as they are just like you. "Do unto others," as long as it benefits you. Hypocrites, pharisees. A pox on their houses.

BTW - most Democrats are Christians as well. I really get pissed when the fountains of bile that pass for political commentators imply, or outright say, that Christianity and the Democratic Party are incompatible. Perfect example of selfish agendas - they KNOW it's a LIE, but say it anyway to fuel the flaming bigotry of their base. IMHO - what religion as person does or does not espouse is in no way reflective of their worth as a person or their ability to be a thoughtful, honest, ethical public servant. Our Constitution deliberately excluded a religious test as a qualification for office becuase the framers had witnessed first hand the decisive and destructive nature of religion in politics. Many of those framers, BTW, were deists, not Christians. Another common myth that's perpetuated by self-serving toads.

So yeah. That's what I think. :-)

Which I then followed with this:

one more thing - "these people" paid taxes, whether sales tax, property tax, income tax. "These people" are citizens of the United States, not refugees from some third-world country. "These people" are still people and deserving of help, sympathy and empathy. IMHO - the "Christian" thing to do is quit the speechifying and actually DO something. (like Jimmy Carter - a true Christian if I ever saw one and why, lookie there, a Democrat to boot!)I want to see the President with a mask on, crow bar in hand, pulling moldy sheet rock out of Lance's house, for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I want to see Dick Cheny roofing the shoutgun that was home to an elderly black woman who raised 5 kids on a washer-woman wages and suffered through segregation. I wanna see Donald Rumsfeld shelping garbage off the streets of New Orleans for $5.15 an hour. I wanna see Condi Rice picking up the tattered remnants of people's lives along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

We all have dreams. Those are mine.

yeah well, so there you have it. My first soapbox blog. *sigh*

Oh wait I have another great picture of my brother, who OFFICIALLY passed his written PhD comps. Talk about a red-diaper baby - Woody is certainly getting his activist creds early!

Throw me sumpin' mister!

Went to Mardi Gras. John, Kim and I had a realtivley low-key, but nonetheless fantabulous time. Our cousins, aunt and uncle were so accomodating. We hung out on St. Charles doing the family thing Monday night - snagged TONS of loot from Proteus and Orpheus (Scarlett Johannson is not that great in tperson - cute, but eh.) They had incredible throws - beanie babies, cool stuffed fish and excellent heavy beads - no cheap stuff. Tuesday we made it to the other end of St. Charles and set up the ladder between very eclectic groups - white physicians and families to our right and two African American families to our left. Lots of kids - which was nice to see. Every one got along well - although I think someone was pilferring throws rom us. We're missing some stuff we know we caught and placed in our bags. Oh well - just plastic crap, right? Anyways - lookie what I got - a sacred Golden Coconut from the Zulu Krewe (and no, I didn't have to "work" for it. I think it was my eyes - and my I (heart) NOLA shirt. OK, so the girls didn't hurt my chances!) I am extremely happy about that souvenir!(As I understnad it, each member of the Krewe has a set number of coconuts - the higher you are in the krewe the greater number of coconuts you get to give out. Colors matter, too - nautral is the most common, then black, then (aaahhhhh) gold. For a white chick to get a golden coconut is pretty awesome, IMHO.) Zulu wears black-face, which is kinda' freaky the first time you see it. They also had some white riders this year - in black face, too. They lost several members in Katrina and many are still displaced. I'm impressed they rolled at all.

Rex was next - they also had great throws. No one was stingy this year. Thanks to Lance's darling little boy, I snagged a stuffed Bouef Gras, a traditional symbol of the Krewe. I headed back to LaPlace with Lance after that while John and Kim headed to the Quarter. Wednesday morning, I met John and Kim at Cafe' du Monde. After beignets, we wandered around a bit, taking pictures and spending money. I bought muffalettas, mufflateta relish, t-shirts, hats, magnets. I felt compelled to buy stuff - to help out theshop owners and city. As I stuck the "I {fluer-de-lis} New Orleans" magnet on my car, some locals walked by and said "Woo hoo - tourists!"

I'm sure lots of y'all (given anyone really reads this) are wondering about the state of the city. Well, it's better than you think and worse than you can imagine. There is TONS of work being done - shops are open, buses are running, houses are being rooofed. But the sheer magnitude of the destruction is hard to comprehend. Block after block of what Jared called "dead houses." I saw Lakeview but could not bring myself to go to the 9th Ward. People want to come home, but what can they come home to other than uncertainty right now? 98,000 FEMA trailers have been requested, but so far only 45,000 have arrived - after 6 months. :( The area is pulling together, though. There was a very cool vibe in the city - and I don't just think it was because it was Mardi Gras. I hope this is the jolt the city needs to get tourists (i.e money) back south. Brian and I hope to take the kids down this summer when the aquarium and zoo reopen.

Speaking of Brian, his "band" iscoming over in a bit, so I better go start cooking! Á bientôt!