THANK YOU!
For all the lovely birthday wishes and hopes for a Happy New Year. I've been more than lax in reading and writing since my birthday, but I do wish all the best for all y'all in 2019. Lord knows 2018 was a bitch and a half damn near everywhere on this planet!
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So, on we go moving towards the next year, moving ever closer to our pitiful end as a species (wow, that's depressing) achieving a far more positive and fruitful experience between today and December 31st, 2019. But it's becoming increasingly more difficult to keep a positive attitude in these uncertain days. It's not only the politics of life here, but the more personal day to day difficulties that seem to wear on a person.
My little town is a military town. We have Coast Guard families that are looking at no pay and no idea what's going to happen to them next. This is, according to the Guard, the first time in American history that serving military has not been paid while in service.* (It also extends to retirees who depend on their Coast Guard pensions.) Food banks here are already under stress because of a 26% poverty rate, so adding families that need help is adding more pressure to already pressed agencies. Looking at the national news and seeing people standing in lines to receive a sandwich from a restaurant or seeing bags of food being delivered curbside to TSA workers in Miami is heartbreaking and also, frightening. Frightening because what happens when the food banks or private charities can't help any longer, what then? That's just food, what about poor people whose landlords get rent subsides from the government being evicted for non-payment of rent? Same goes for those who can't pay their rent because they aren't getting paid. What about them? Mortgages foreclosed on for non-payment? Medical treatments suspended because government payments are uncertain or for those who can pay, the question is how will they without an income? Missed payments on utilities? How many utility companies will let payments slide because of the shutdown? (Which of course bring to mind the fact that the White House has not paid its water bill during the shutdown, but DC decided not to shut them off.) Credit scores, that are the basis for so many transactions, being ruined will not have an asterisk attached that say it was because of the longest shutdown in American history and that the fluctuation was an anomaly and should not be considered. No, it will remain there long after the shutdown ends. So much of what is happening here will have repercussions we can not even begin to imagine. The repercussions will be felt far beyond our borders because global economies are intertwined far deeper that the current administration seems to understand.
Sometimes, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is all you can say!
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On top of everything else, this weekend two things happened (OK, quite a few other things happened, but I'm only talking about THESE two right now) that made me peeved**. The incident in D.C. that occurred between a group of Catholic school male students and a Native American Vietnam Vet once again showed me that white male privilege is so deeply imbedded in the psyche of America that these juniors and seniors are being called boys and need to be excused while black boys of the same age are shot down because they were thugs/criminals/threatening MEN, not boys. I applaud the Catholic diocese on Covington, Kentucky for saying that they will handle the situation and investigate what happened. We shall see what transpires next.
The other has to do with American Football. All y'all know this is a diehard New Orleans Saints house, so that part doesn't need any further explanation, BUT, the playoff game this past Sunday was totally beyond belief in that there was a missed called that TOTALLY cost the Saints the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship and their rightful place in Super Bowl LVIII in February! I know that everybody who reads my blog isn't as crazy about (American) football as I am, but Sweet Mary Sunshine, the missed call was seen on TV, called by every single commentator who saw it, the Rams player who caused it, and get this even the NFL (National Football League) office called the Saints coach to tell him it was a missed called and a mistake! Damn, damn, damn, and yeah, that pissed me off. I'm done with football until next season. I didn't watch the American Football Conference game (AFC), the Kansas City Chiefs v. The New England Patriots (Pats) because I didn't care. I won't watch the Super Bowl*** either because as far as I'm concerned the NFL has a history of bad calls and I hate the Pats anyway.
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Happier note (too late I know) here are some recent pics of BBC and BGM!
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| I think he was channeling Peter Pan from the top bunk! |
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| No clue, except she's wearing the Elsa costume I sent when she was 3 over her pj's! |
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Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
*“Today you will not be receiving your regularly scheduled mid-month paycheck,” wrote Admiral Schultz. “To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time in our Nation’s history that service members in a U.S. Armed Force have not been paid during a lapse in government appropriations.”
** I say peeved because how I really felt/feel tends toward vulgar and incendiary language.
*** The Super Bowl is the game between the AFC and NFC championship winners. I put this here, so that those who don't follow the game sort of know what I was talking about. Also, the Pats suck big time!
