I am writing this to various Congressmen who are, as of now, against a public option.

Dear Senator: I am writing you now after Senator Kennedy’s death to appeal to what, I think, is our common ground. When I was a young woman at Boston University in 1968, I heard Senator Kennedy speak. He told an audience of young people who sported often very long hair that some would have to cut their hair if they were going to credibly reach out to persuade the American public. I think that experience then defined Senator Kennedy for me. He was about the art of compromise so that adversaries could be persuaded. Some in the audience booed at his suggestion. Much later, as a mature adult, I saw exactly what he meant. It is in that spirit of understanding that I appeal to you now.

Our Constitution is our guide to fair play. It is our compass to show us the way to govern. It has been, though, at times, opaque and has forced our nation to make choices as to the role of government. When should go vernment act and when should it not have been our history’s conundrum.

In the politics of this era those sides have become divided as the Democratic and Republican parties retreat to their separate corners. Many, of course, think that government should play a very limited role in the life of the governed. Others, at critical times in our history, have seen government as the vehicle, the only vehicle, capable of addressing often life and death issues of a nation. In this time of combined health care and economic crises government must act to provide the life jacket for a suffering people.

There is no doubt that the concerns of reducing our federal deficit and enormous debt are of consequence. Our country, however, is obviously different than the Founders envisioned. A country of over 300 million people demands government oversight. Class distinctions are widening significantly and cannot be left to just simply work themselves out. Se nator Kennedy believed that providing health care reform with a strong public option would help, among other things, provide our country a systemic as well as an economic lifeboat which ultimately would help bring the soaring deficit down . He believed that by providing life-saving health care for all we could help save our nation from further economic catastrophe in the process.

I urge Republicans and Democrats alike who are against health care reform with a strong public option to rethink your position and join with your colleagues who support it to pass the kind of health care reform that Teddy Kennedy worked so very hard for nearly all of his life in the Senate to do. As former colleagues and friends of Senator Kennedy I fervently ask you to support his version of health care reform so that, finally, on this issue at this time we can join together and find some common ground to provide for the general welfare and the common defense of our nation as our Constitution instructs.

The Lion's Roar is Silenced: I cannot remember a time when MY life and our nation's political life was not filled with and touched by Kennedys. Memories flood my mind of Jack, Bobby and Ted teaming with life, running around playing touch football in Hyannisport. Those were the best of times.

We know what the worst of times bestowed upon them but Teddy had the good fortune to live much longer than his brothers. We the people of Massachusetts, the nation and, indeed, the world have been the beneficiaries of that.

I stand in amazement at a man who suffered so much but was an example for all of us when we experience the vicissitudes of life to simply persevere and go on. I will miss him as I miss his brothers still. I am so grateful that he was on the side of the poor and the dispossessed. I continue to hope that a health care public option bill for which he so long and so tirelessly worked to extend medical care to all Americans will have his name on it.

I thank this lion of the Senate and so many in the Kennedy family for what they have given and continue to give to our nation. I extend my heartfelt condolences to them all!

I wrote this on the New York Times blog after reading Frank Rich, its genius columnist's, editorial "The Guns of August" about the president's courting of those who are trying to, truthfully, kill him (Link at the bottom). President Obama tries to reach out to those Republican members of Congress who actually make excuses for the crazies who turn out with loaded guns where the president is speaking!! Rich lays part of the blame at the feet of Obama himself who bewilderingly makes nice to those who would love nothing more than to destroy him ... LITERALLY!


http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/opinion/23rich.html#bozoanchor

The Horizon of Hope is Drifting: I am staggered and incredulous by what I read every day. I do not understand if the real Barack Obama was submerged until he reached the presidency and morphed into a different being, the one he really was or if this is a brilliant strategy carved by a phenomenally adept administration and that in the long run he will not disappoint those of us in his base who worked either by writing or on foot SO hard for him. We are not privy to the behind-the-scenes machinations and even the best journalist has no access to everything.

I still have hope. I have written many times at pinnacles of Obama's success how dazzled I was that the tide had seemingly turned. Night seemed to be turning into day. The tide, though, has gone out and I do not see it coming back any time soon. I'm depressed and I am sad. Maybe hope on the horizon but so far I don't see it.

I am sure the president is reading the New York Times especially vacationing in Martha's Vineyard while it is having a tropical storm. This is an apt metaphor.

If he sees these comments and he reads mine I say to him: Mr. President, remember us, your base, the ones who LOVED you? Like Kate Winslet said when the Titanic was sinking and her lover was floating away in the icy sea -- COME BACK, COME BACK, COME BACK!!

Tevya's Response to Roman Catholic Leaders: Tevya of Fiddler on the Roof fame has been rolling around in his brain the latest mind numbing statement out of the Holy See and the response from major Jewish groups and rabbis:

On the one hand Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport Connecticut says "While the Catholic church does not proselytize the Jewish people, neither does she fail to witness to them her faith in Christ, nor to welcome them to share in that same faith whenever appropriate."

Tevya says: "On the other hand -- There is no other hand!! NO NO NO NO NO!"

Pope Benedict, what part of that response do you not understand?

Seeing CCFILE: I have, at times, listened to and watched CCFILE online to give its view a fair hearing. While I thought CCFILE made some believable points, I generally thought it often absurd, sometimes disgusting and generally an embarrassment. Its lack of articulate excellence is most pronounced. It is imbued with propaganda for the extreme right's point of view IRRESPECTIVE of their claim that they are "only about illegal immigration." I believe, they are NOT ONLY about ILLEGAL immigration. The tenor underneath the rhetoric is a deep-seated anger against those who may oppose their political points and to the immigrant community in this town from especially Brazil (legal or illegal) for the mere sin of simply being, most especially, here. I believe those that run CCFILE harbor a threatening hostility toward those whom they perceive to be the other but would never, of course, admit to that directly.

Who is not against illegal immigration? Most are against it and some views they espouse, as said, have credence but THAT show is more than about simply illegal immigration. The racism and other messages of hate not admitted as such on the show are clear for ANYONE who wants to really hear them.

I listened to a so called historian, interspersed on one show, lecture about his view of the history of US immigration. He explained that in his view the history of immigration was about letting into this nation those from countries other than Western Europe who posed an attendant danger by subverting the heretofore American Anglo (white Christian implied) way of life. He interjected, too, an oft articulated view by many in the anti-immigration movement, an anti-Semitism which sees the Jew, too, of course, as just another part of the many forms of the other who have invaded the American culture emasculating its Anglo roots and tradition, subverting our Founders’ original intent.

I thought it humorous, too, that the mouthpieces of a show that rails against immigrants who do not speak proper English were, in fact, guilty of gross grammatical error and poor English sentence structure themselves. At least new immigrants illegal or otherwise have an excuse. Since the narrators of the programs are self professed “true Americans” what is THEIR excuse? As Christ is alleged to have said “Judge not lest you be judged … why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Matthew 7.15

CCFILE is about illegal immigration yes BUT it is also about the halt, exclusion and even erasure of the influence of the other from, as they see it, the "American way of life." It is, I believe, this etiological essence that makes me cringe. All one must do is listen to the episodic content to hear what CCFILE has to say. Its message is often bombastic and confrontational. That, I believe, is the REAL threat plaguing our nation today.

This article in The Nation by Jeremy Scahill, link below, is chilling. Another article appears in the NYTimes today regarding the CIA paid connection to Blackwater linked below as well. If you do not want to read this please at least scroll down to the Department of Defense war statistics.

Erik Prince of the Blackwater fame is the president of the mercenary army the Bush administration hired to supplement US forces in Iraq and allowed to run wild. Blackwater has been a law unto itself accountable to no one. He is the closest thing to a true American fascist (I do not use that term lightly) I have seen who is actually employed by our government in Iraq especially under Bush. How much he operates now I do not know but it would not shock me to find his nefarious fingerprints in many places. He is a Christian crusader and because of a civil suit filed by Iraqis in the US Court in Virginia is being investigated for NUMEROUS murders of innocents in Iraq and is alleged to have committed possible murders of his own men who were potential whistle blowers. He allegedly has threatened many in his own organization with death and it is alleged had others murdered as depositions which are currently being taken under oath indicate as The Nation artic le below illuminates. We do not know if a grand jury has been convened to investigate these alleged dastardly activities as secrecy laws pertaining to grand jury investigations prevail. In addition, as the article states, he is known to use a variety of money laundering techniques skimming funds off for himself eluding criminal prosecution. The tide MAY be changing emphasis on may.

One HOPES that he will get a post haste criminal prosecution. His crimes truly are reminiscent of fascistic international exploits of the Nazi variety except his crusade is against innocent Muslims in Iraq and really against Muslims no matter who they are everywhere. His hatred of and threat to those who oppose him even in his own organization are legendary. Blackwater's actions do NOT add to US interests internationally and that is an understatement, in fact, they contribute negatively to our already quite tainted image. I have seen him interviewed and he is the mind numbing prototype of a Knights Templar Christian crusader. What makes him truly frightening is he has access to a plethora of weaponry and even illegal weaponry such as grenades and explosives that detonate AFTER they are projected into the person. See Jeremy Scahill's book Blackwater:The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army for more information on this truly horrific entity that the Bush administration used with gusto and is an organization I have read which perhaps is STILL shockingly operating in Iraq and elsewhere.

All Christians, Jews, Muslims and non believers alike should be disgusted. Erik Prince is still a free man loaded for bear and he still wants to Christianize the entire world! Urge news organizations and especially news commentators to report on these issues, write the Congress, the President and the Justice Department or anyone you think to encourage bringing this man to justice for the crimes he is alleged to have committed and meet out the punishment he, in my opinion, so justly deserves!

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32484932/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/


See DOD (Department of Defense) statistics of a war in which the nation Iraq the United States invaded did NOTHING absolutely NOTHING to us to warrant it.

WAS IRAQ WORTH ALL THIS? Stats from DOD Derived from web site: http://antiwar.com/casualties/

See: http://antiwar.com/casualties/

I think most may agree with me. The Iraq War was NOT worth it and now the total number of lives it cost far exceeds the 9/11 deaths. This is an immoral, illegal horror show and those in power who began it unlawfully based on lies should be held accountable.

The fact that many of us in the beginning (including, I am sad to say, me) supported it because I believed the administration knew more than I. Most of our Congress voted to fund it (including Democrats) is a fact to be ashamed of for the rest of our lives AND it is the reason that in the future before a leader takes a country and serves up its young and its finest to be slaughtered there better be a DAMN good highly INVESTIGATED reason why we should do so! The MORAL of the story which I SHOULD have learned long ago: Never believe power. ALWAYS question it!

Evidence of a miracle?: I was in rational SHOCK as I read the August 15, 2009 Boston Globe Letter to the Editor of Judi Scherban entitled "Evidence of a Miracle." She espouses actual proof of the truth of Eucharistic adoration of the blood and body of Christ. What is this proof? Alleged by her a "miracle occurred in the year 700 in Lanciano, Italy when a priest plagued with doubt witnessed, before his congregation, the bread change into human flesh and the wine into human blood." Moreover, she says, this blood (type AB) and human flesh (muscular heart tissue)was subject to scientific analysis around 1971." So this blood Type AB and fresh human muscular heart tissue defied the laws of molecular biology and did not decay after 1277 years? I wonder, too, just who this priest was who had his vision. Perhaps he was merely schizophrenic? Perhaps, too, it was also determined that proteins were like those found in "fresh blood" because someone in 1971 tested a fresh sample? Does anyone question the events surrounding this preposterous so called "proof"?

Her belief she says is proven without question but question I do. This is yet again evidence of the dogmatic, unquestioning and blind acceptance of postulations of faith that keeps people ignorant. I hypothesize it will be the downfall of man who was given a natural cerebral synaptic brain so he can question, reason, and determine by scientific inquiry what the truth really is. Made up stories shot full of holes abound in all religions but this one, I must say, is a doosey!

Health Care Histrionics: Recently an editorial at the Metro West News decried the health care protesters as ones who are taking a page out of the left wing rants, sit ins and obstructionist tactics of the anti Vietnam War and civil rights struggle of the late 60's. I was among those who sympathized with the late 60's left wing demonstrators although I never was present at an office sit in and certainly I was NOT violent. Still, I empathized. So I rethought those days and wondered about the difference between the right obstructing at the health care forums and the left obstructing at an office sit-in of that era. I came to the conclusion that the philosophical issues of the left WERE different -- MUCH different -- BUT the ability to shut down debate whether from the right OR the left (although I am much more sympathetic to the left's cause) is still the same. It's unproductive and it gets one nowhere.

I believe the confrontational tactics of the left in the 60's was responsible for the election of Richard Nixon and a slew of right wing presidents that meant the ultimate ruination of our country. Further, it solidifies our divide as the anti bellum pre Civil War cause did. I believe, too, and said so last evening to a political ally, that the right is sewing their own demise. They may LOOK powerful as the demonstrators in the 1960's did but real power will allude them. This country is NOT extreme left or extreme right and the demographics are changing. Elections are won by winning over moderates and moderates do NOT like the health care histrionics they see on the 6:30 p.m. news. They like rational debate. That wins the day. The so called tea baggers will lose their cause for themselves.

I should not be so revelatory because, of course, I WANT them to lose. So I rephrase what I just said. Keep going, tea bags, its fun to watch you tactically hang yourself as THIS time the opposition will not be silent either. The president has tried for six months to reach out much to our liberal chagrin but his hand keeps getting slapped every single time. The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. One thing THIS president is NOT is stupid so I am hoping he soon will learn. His base like I and millions of others count. So tea baggers keep doing what your doing, it plays right into our left wing hands!

Question Asked: The president is having forums even today and throughout August. MSNBC has a place to ask a question on the recovery. This is what I asked. It probably will not be asked of him but if I do say so myself I think it is a good one and it does not hurt to try. Even though they probably will not pose it if you happen to catch it on any station please let me know.


I am thrilled by your election. Having said that I worry about our economy. I worry because it seems you have put at the helm of our recovery efforts many of those people who were instrumental in actually causing the economic disaster you inherited. I worry that those people who were at the Wall Street pinnacles of power when the bubble burst are entrusted with our recovery. Indeed, Wall Street continues to reap enormous profits and bonuses from TARP even while most Americans on Main Street suffer. What efforts have you made to ensure that the economic policies which Mr. Geither, Mr. Summers or their mentors espoused creating the endless bubble and bursting bubble scenario we now face, will never happen again?

Happy Birthday, Mr. President: Happy birthday, President Barack Obama, indeed! Although I criticize policy from time to time I am thrilled Barack Obama is our president. I have to pinch myself every time I hear the words Mr. President and know they are talking about Barack Obama and not Bush. Bush’s nightmare is often embedded in my synapses like a recurring nightmare. I have to keep telling myself over and over again Barack Obama is president Barack Obama is president. My next nightmare would be Bush’s return in another form. THIS time Democrats EVERYWHERE must ensure, as Jews do about the Holocaust, NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN.

This country could not recover from the insanity of another Republican presidency. We must uncover their lies and continuing efforts to subvert democratic ideals by phony Republican bought-and-paid-for efforts to numb and control the public mind. We must stop their manipulation of town hall discussion forums and their multi-million dollar campaign to usurp the corporate media. We must contribute to Democratic causes and oppose through our own strong voices their attempts to subvert justice and promote immorality. Finally, we must ensure another Bush-like presidency with a Republican-elected Congress cost NO more in blood and treasure. Control of the American seats of power by the inundation of extremist right wing politics and its attendant Constitutional subversion must NEVER happen again. I remain ALWAYS vigilant!

Miracle in North Korea: I do not know how anyone on planet earth cannot think the release of the two journalists from a twelve-year prison sentence at hard labor is anything but great. Here is a nation with a nuclear arsenal threatening that region even threatening our west coast and former Ambassador Bolton from the Bush administration thinks it was a bad idea to negotiate with terrorists? When would he like to negotiate with a nuclear power when it has launched its first attack? If it were HIS daughter would he feel differently? I suspect so.

Bill Clinton negotiating the prisoners' release is a wonderful thing and I believe there is an opportunity opening up to talk with an enemy no matter how obnoxious the smell. The fact is lives could be saved. Sometimes nations like people simply want to be acknowledged. Let's acknowledge them. War with a nuclear armed nation is NOT an option.