Remember the Victims, Reject the Violence By Bill Moyers, PLEASE READ

If you want to see the Bill Moyers video click here or on the link below OR simply read his opinion I pasted below this.  It is brilliant.  I love Bill Moyers and nearly always share his opinion.  He says it, though, so much better than I ever could.  I urge you to read or view it.  

It is at least in part a solution for our time to the horrific gun violence and puts an addendum on my own opinion which I thought incomplete, posted yesterday.  Please give Mr. Moyers's opinion at least one read or viewing.  It is important for you, for your children and grandchildren if you have them and for our democracy whose roots are withering.  We have a chance to do the right thing.  Do it and be glad you did. Scroll down.

BILL MOYERS: Welcome. The bells rang for the lost: Charlotte Bacon, Olivia Engel, Ana Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley, Madeline Hsu, Catherine Hubbard, Jesse Lewis, James Mattioli, Emilie Parker, Jack Pinto, Noah Pozner, Caroline Previdi, Jessica Rekos, Avielle Richman, Benjamin Wheeler, and Allison Wyatt. All were six years old.

Daniel Barden, Josephine Gay, Chase Kowalski, and Grace McDonnell were 7.

Six adults died with them: Mary Sherlach, Anne Marie Murphy, Dawn Hochsprung, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel D'Avino, Victoria Soto.

It helps to say their names, to rescue them from the statistical anonymity that always settles over these awful events. It helps those of us distanced from the loss to imagine, even grieve, the emptiness in the homes and hearts of those who loved them. They will never forget. We mourn, move on, and too soon forget. And then it will happen again one day, and we will scratch our heads and ask ourselves, "Was the last time Newtown? Or Columbine? Was it Aurora? Or that college in Virginia?" And once again we will mourn, move on, and too soon forget.

There is an old Hassidic saying that, "In remembrance is the secret of redemption." But America forgets quickly, and gives no lasting indication it seeks redemption from its fetish with guns, its romance with the free market of violence. With the sport of it all. The show must go on. It's our right. At any price. What were their names again? Oh, yes, Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Dylan, Allison, Dawn. Poor things, such a tragedy. Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.

And so we make our peace with violence. And make ourselves over in its image. A state senator in Missouri, a life-time member of the National Rifle Association, is pushing a bill to require that all first graders be enrolled in the NRA's gun safety course. First-graders. Six and seven years old. Pledge Allegiance to the flag. Lock and Load. Our new Head Start.

A state senator in Tennessee's Republican legislature says he will introduce a bill that would allow the state to pay for secretly armed teachers in classrooms. Saintly Miss Simpson, packing heat. Hey, Mr. Russell, it's show and tell, can we see your Glock 9? After the Newtown killings, a sixth-grader at an elementary school near Salt Lake City brought a gun to school, saying he wanted to protect himself and his friends. Instead, allegedly, he used it to threaten some classmates. As The Good Book says, get with it, "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Ready. Aim. Fire.

And for the child who has everything this season, how about body armor? A Utah company named Amendment II offers a new line of it for kids. Mother Jones Magazine reports sales have tripled in one week. A Massachusetts company is promoting The Bullet Blocker, a "rugged computer backpack designed for work or play." Made of the same materials used in bullet-proof police vests, currently on sale for the holidays for $199.99. And on Facebook, an outfit called Black Dragon Tactical that sells vests and other combat gear sent this message: "Arm the teachers, in the meantime, bulletproof the kids."

This market never closes. America's turned violence into a profit center. And if you haven't finished your Christmas shopping, no need to wait for Santa; his sleigh couldn't even hold the heavy weapons. Step this way. Black Friday is every day. And we have something for everyone, from cradle to grave. From cradle to grave.

Surely this can't go on. This spilling of innocent blood, this bleeding of democracy's soul. We're losing faith in ourselves, acting as subjects, not citizens, no longer believing that it is in our power to do the right thing. We Americans are not smarter than other people, and certainly no more virtuous. Our exceptionalism is our capacity for self-correction. To reach the bridge of the ship, point to the iceberg dead ahead, and demand of the captain a change of course before it's too late. "They," the gun industry, its profiteers, zealots and apologists, its political stooges, fabulists, and constitutional originalists, who would have us think the "well-regulated militia" of a sparsely-populated frontier nation in the 18th century really means tolerating a perpetual wild west here in the 21st century. "They" say, "don't tread on us, get off our well-armed backs, there's nothing you can do."

Of course there is. Register all guns. License all gun owners. Require stringent background checks. Get tough on assault weapons of any kind. Crack down on high-capacity ammunition as the President has now proposed. And then, enforce the laws. Yes, I know, determined killers will always find a way. But we can minimize the opportunities, and scale back the scope of destruction. Why do we accept the need for driver's licenses? Or submit to the sometimes humiliating body scans at airports? Because it's the law, and deep down we know we're safer for the inconvenience of the law.

Good laws are hard to come by. Civilization, just as hard. The rough and tumble of politics makes them so. But democracy aims for a moral order as just as humanly possible, which means laws that protect the weak and not just the strong. Lest we forget.

If you want to hear the above video espousing his views or read it below.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/436-2nd-amendment-rights/15158-remember-the-victims-reject-the-violence

The Genie is Out of the Bottle – a reaction to Wayne LaPierre’s NRA response to the Newtown violence:

Mr. LaPierre said that we should arm teachers, we should arm principles and we should think about armed security in our schools in answer to the Newtown slaughter of 26 young innocents. What could possibly go wrong? I am incredulous at the words Mr. LaPierre spoke. They stun my imagination.

I am capable, though, of selecting the axioms about which he talked and agreeing at least in part, to some. He addressed his speech to the culture of violence in the nation and I agree with many of his points. Video games, talk radio, film, television's all pervasive saturated culture of violence is out there for all to see and companies make billions from it. Little violence or sexual licentiousness is prohibited nay more is encouraged and accentuated. There are FEW boundaries any longer. The late iconic intellectual of the 1950’s, Steve Allen, once said in the title of his book "Vulgarians at the Gate" that the culture has become saturated with vulgarity and we are comfortable with that vulgarity. Left and right; red state or blue we are comfortable with it. I ask why.

As a young adult in the late 60's I protested against war and worked for a more permissive culture with respect to women, sexual mores, and free speech but I ask now where did our message go askew and what did we unleash? There is no insult now that is too profane, there is no decibel utterance too loud and there is no limit to the expression of hate. Our boundaries of what is permissible and what is not have been erased. There is, as I call it, an anarchy of the human essence.

I fear the culture of violence, I fear a culture of irrational thought, I fear the culture of unbridled greed, I fear a culture of hate and I fear a cultural garb rent with division. I was not asking for this world I worry I helped shape. I know I am as guilty as any of political thought and speech permeated with emotional passion, uncompromising and immutable. For that I, singularly, can hope only to do better.

I fear though the genie has been let out of the bottle decades ago. I suspect it cannot be returned and THAT is my biggest fear of all!

Represenative Chaffetz -- a Judas in Our Time

Representative Jason Chaffetz (R) from Utah went on The Today Show and said he was against gun control and thought that the slaughter at Newtown was a mental health problem rather than a gun control issue. Funny how Republicans are against the president’s Affordable Health Care Act which includes treatment for mental health but think further horrific killings like the one at Newtown should be treated as a mental health problem.

Representative Chaffetz’s views on the Today Show were an abomination. Republican Representative Chaffetz is willing to trade 16 pieces of silver to give to the corporate gun lobbyists their pound of flesh rather than eliminate the weapons of war used solely for mass killings in a civilian population. Representative Chaffetz wants PSYCHOLOGISTS to pick out every deranged person rather than ridding the nation of guns used solely to kill massive numbers of people.

Most youth and others if troubled, especially males, will not seek psychological help for their mental health problems. Taking assault weaponry, extended bullet clips OFF the market and making background checks mandatory for ALL private gun show transactions is asking little to save a life. Would Representative Chaffetz not think that IF his own family was at risk and he had the chance to save them by enacting stricter gun control laws?

The issue of wholesale slaughter of children by guns is both a mental health issue AND a gun issue. Perhaps Representative Chaffetz fears the NRA gun lobby will boot him from office. Indeed, who donates to Representative Chaffetz’s election coffers? My guess is corporate gun manufacturers do. That means he does NOT care a whit about innocent life but cares more about the bucks he gets for his next campaign from the corporate behemoths who fill his coffers with money.

Representative Chaffetz and the Republican Party are part of the problem not the solution. I will do everything I can to expose those who oppose strict gun control legislation and label them as those who stand against humanity and not for it; as those who stand against children and not for them; as those who stand against the survival of our nation and not for it.

I hope the 16 pieces of silver Representative Chaffetz and other Republicans trade for the lives of our people makes them MISERABLE and that he and his cronies of corporate gun greed think twice about the death they have inflicted on all of us. THEY WILL LOSE AS THIS TIME THIS GUN VIOLENCE IS DIFFERENT -- 20 children were the lambs slaughtered by a mentally disturbed person with access to an assault rifle pumping 11 shots into one of them. MAYBE it will take this tragedy for our country to come to its senses and support those who support sane restrictions on the lethality of guns rather than Congresspersons who look for the next lobbying position to make them millions at our expense!

Purge

Newtown, more than anything else, offers us a reason why in 2014 Democrats MUST take it all.  The other party is devoid of humanness and probably will STILL try even in view of this horrific tragedy to play into the ugly corporate hands of the gun industry.  That this should be EVEN a possibility that this Republican party, devoid of human compassion, could do this makes our task CRYSTAL clear   

This Republican Party as it exists today MUST be purged from the House, must be purged from the Senate and must NEVER occupy the presidency.  For this purpose I have committed my life so that these innocent children gunned down by a sickening assault rifle, the ban of which Republican President George W. Bush lifted, will not have died in vain.

Hebrew Prayer of Mourning

Rabbi Shaul Praver, as stated in The Jewish Daily Forward "moved many to tears when he recited El Maleh Rachamim, a prayer of mourning."  I post it here and below for you to hear if you did not hear it last evening or to hear it again if you did.

 

It is a gorgeous chant sung magnificently by Rabbi Praver.  Judaism is my heritage.  Despite all the doubts I may have, in the final analysis, tears streamed down my face as the familiar sound of the chant, like many chants in the Jewish tradition, was sung in a sad minor key which found its way to pierce my heart.  It is a plaintive cry as we beg God to protect our loved one and, for me, offers a wish that a higher power somewhere hears our cry and heals our collectively broken hearts.

 

As a Jewish symbol of loss of the closest relatives we rent part of our clothing.  It is a representation that a piece of them was torn from us.  I symbolically do that to reflect that a part of OUR national family has been torn from us as well.

 

As was so beautifully said by all the clergy and so many others in Newtown, the nation and around the world we mourn those innocent dead as our own.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/167820/newtown-rabbis-prayer-for-the-fallen/#ixzz2FLLGNXZO

 

Gun Violence in America

I am attaching a document here written by a relative of mine which is about gun violence in America. I believe it is nearly perfect. I will post it but one wonders if those to who view this blog will take the time to read it. It says it all and says it well. One SHOULD read it.

The ONLY thing on which we differ -- and ONLY because I am a pragmatist -- is that I advocate within the parts of the system that can, I think, work for progressive views. I believe the best way to do that since there are NO third parties nor will there be any of consequence at least in my lifetime is through one of the two parties within our electoral system -- The Democratic Party.

At this moment the Democratic Party is the ONLY party whose membership reflects realistically the hue of the nation and at least gives credence to most of my views. Therefore I want to use that to advocate for the most humane progressive policies I can. I am a 100% non violent advocate for change.

Stephen does not agree with my sentiments about the Democratic Party but I think he errs on that point. He and I see things differently on other policies as well but on gun violence we agree. I believe we can do only what we can do now and use the vehicles available to us to do them. Otherwise I agree with this article 99.999999% -- it is EXCELLENTLY written and EVERYONE SHOULD read it in these most terrible times.

If Not Now When?

The nation has suffered a near 9/11 emotional loss.  The impact of 20 young children in an elementary school being slaughtered senselessly by insanity carrying guns and assault weapons is, for me, too much to bear.  

 

In my opinion three changes in the gun laws, at the least, should be mandated:

 

1.  Banning of all assault rifles and other military style assault weapons that are more than weaponry used for hunting and are intended only for the taking of massive numbers of innocent human life.

 

2.  Banning high-capacity semi-automatic-weapon magazines such as that used by the shooter in the Arizona rampage critically wounding Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

 

3.  The registration, background checks and waiting periods for ALL gun purchases not only applying to registered gun dealers but also to private gun shows where a gun can now be purchased no questions asked.  

 

It is true not every killer will be stopped by stringent gun laws but we know many will. The Bush administration with Congress allowed the ban that was in force against assault weapons to expire.  The ban and the aforementioned restrictions MUST be reinstated.

 

This shooting should break the camel's back.  If the overrated power of the NRA gun lobby through their massive money buyout of mostly Republican but some Democratic Congressmen too must be shown as the paper tiger it is.  Most in this country approve of sane gun restrictions. This does NOT mean banning the beloved-by-some (not me) Second Amendment but ensuring that the Second Amendment mean something different than it did in 1776.  Our Founders presided over 13 colonies that numbered around 2 million people in a mostly agrarian society.  Our country is comprised now of 50 states numbering about 350 MILLION people.  There are nearly 300 MILLION guns in the nation today -- nearly one gun per person in the US. 

 

The Second Amendment:  A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

 

The first graders of Sandy Brook School hardly fell into the well regulated militia category.  The Founders wanted to prevent the tyranny they had seen and experienced in Europewhere power had all the weaponry and the citizens had none.  They did NOT envision high powered Bushwacker military assault weapons saturating a technologically sophisticated democratic nation and one which is beyond anything they ever could have imagined.  I believe they would be appalled at the tragedy that occurred Friday in Newtown, CT taking the lives of so many innocent children.  

 

I urge you to write your senator, write your representative, write Republican representatives as well and write the president.  Unlike what Press Secretary Jay Carney said now IS the time to make changes in the gun laws.  If not NOW when?

 

A Few Words When There are No Words to be Found

I still have no words for the killing yesterday of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT. I am stunned, I am overwhelmed, sickened, and sad. I do not know what has happened to my country one that I knew to be so safe, so secure, so benevolent and the one which saved Europe from tyranny. I walked, as a child all around my neighborhood. I went everywhere with no fear. School was a blessing, a sanctuary of learning surprising me even then that I felt so free.

Now schools are locked and one enters at one's own risk even in an elementary school. Where did we go so askew, how did we come to be so violent, and what has happened to this nation?

I am sad today and mourn with Newtown. Newtown -- a Dickensian name for a town. It is anything but new now -- it has grown old fast, sad, and stunned as I am. I am sorry for you Newtown and wish I could make the horror go away.

I WILL pray today and work for gun control tomorrow because there is nothing else I can do. The many are with you, Newtown, more than you can ever know!

My Hero

Yet again my hero Paul Krugman gets it right.  I link his NYT editorial  here or below. I was elated until the very last paragraph which says:

"The G.O.P. is lost and rudderless, bitter and angry, but it still controls the House and, therefore, retains the ability to do a lot of harm, as it lashes out in the death throes of the conservative dream. Our best hope is that business interests will use their influence to limit the damage. But the odds are that the next few years will be very, very ugly."

How long must I wait for those "few years" to pass? I have been waiting since 1968! I want to see the death of the Republican right wing religious fascistic Party and I want to see it NOW!!!  NEVER vote Republican for ANY office -- not even dog catcher --
ANYWHERE in the nation. 

Pass this around to encourage others to do the same i.e NOT vote RepuGlican!! The ONLY way the Republican Party will learn is to put this Party of know nothing racists in the corner for a BIG permanent time out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/opinion/krugman-the-gops-existential-crisis.html?hp&_r=0

Susan Rice -- Ed Markey v. Brown

Sadly, with the removal of the utterly qualified Susan Rice's name for the possible Secretary of State position, John Kerry it seems is all but assured the nomination for this position. This means, of course, that Governor Deval Patrick will appoint someone in the interim and 150 days from that point an election will be held. Obviously, Scott Brown has his eyes set on returning to the Senate seat Elizabeth Warren trounced him to get.

Word is Ed Markey will run for that seat against yet again Scott Brown. Just when we thought the Brown albatross was removed from our collective Massachusetts necks, here it is again. This is just a warning that we MUST defend that seat for the Democrat. I cannot think of a better candidate who has served the longest in the House and who would be more qualified for that seat than Ed Markey.

Yet again, we will be in a position to work our respective posteriors off to MAKE SURE the inept, unqualified, intellectually inferior Scott Brown NEVER see the inside of a Massachusetts national Senate office again. If it is Ed Markey (and I hope that it is) then we should give him our absolute and unequivocal support treating him the same as we did Elizabeth Warren. I aver Republicans should never be allowed to see the inside of Congress in any capacity again!


ONWARD

JOIN A UNION, PAY THE DUES—AND DO NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN EVER!

Several things are being attempted by mendacious Republicans at the STATE level. They are trying to CHEAT Democrats who clearly outnumber Republicans in many swing states so that the state remains Republican red even though the state in the national presidential election voted Democrat blue. Governors like Synder of Michigan, Walker of Wisconsin, Kasich of Ohio and others with Republican legislatures are doing this in several ways and MUST be fought. It must be fought by the electorate at the voting booth and it must be fought in the courts. It must be fought by progressive media where progressive media can be found and also must be fought nonviolently by protests with feet in the streets.

Republicans are attempting three malevolent, unfair and in some cases, I believe, illegal things to attempt to ensure Republican majorities forever. They are doing the following:

1. Gerrymandering: Republicans are trying to create majorities in the state and even the federal legislatures by gerrymandering the vote. This means that Republican state legislatures with Republican governors when in power carve out districts in their state so that those districts are skewed for Republican majorities even IF the state has been a traditionally Democratic state. Since the 2010 election many state legislatures heretofore blue turned inanely red. Once Republican red and IF they had a Republican governor with his cronies in tow these nefarious and unfair activities overturning in some cases the 1964 Civil Rights one man one vote Act take place. Republicans are, of course, trying to not only exact revenge on President Obama's crushing victory they are also trying to ensure Republican future victories by scurrilous tactics changing the legislature in perpetuity to red well beyond Barack Obama.

2. Right to Work for Less: Republicans are trying to undermine the middle and working classes relegating these classes to serf status by passing so called "Right to Work" laws. This means they are trying to make unions irrelevant and when they do all studies have shown, as the president said it is NOT the right to work BUT "THE RIGHT TO WORK FOR LESS!"

When one undermines unions not only will one work for less money and no benefits, as no union will be there to protect workers' rights, but if the collection of dues is compromised that will also undermine the ability of unions to function at all. Unions are heavy contributors to the Democratic Party. It is clear “Right to Work” means crushing unions which are a significant source of Democratic money in this Citizens’ United era. Republicans are, of course, in pertinent part, trying to crush the Democratic Party.

Moreover, other things come with Republicans. Hard-fought-for-rights for women such as equal pay for equal work, the right of women to determine their own reproductive health, right to vote for minorities and the right of equal marriage protection for all can be undermined. All it takes is for Republicans to gain power in the state legislatures, the governorships and a Supreme Court that has fallen back in love with the states' rights argument of Civil War fame. We know it truthfully is not principle for which Republicans work but obviously is their an unfair power grab by any means necessary.

3. The Electoral college: As if the prior rationales for Republican usurpation of power though what should be clearly unconstitutional means were not enough Republicans are AUDACIOUSLY trying, as Secretary of State Husted of Ohio is attempting, to divide up states into many districts assigning EVEN presidential separate electoral votes to those districts. Romney would have won Ohio if that were the case and EVEN if Democrats win the popular vote. It means that even presidential electoral votes of swing states will be divided up so that someone like the president or any Democrat will take only a partial electoral vote in a heretofore blue state. It could and possibly would ensure a Republican election for president.

These are power grabbing dastardly schemes. For all these reasons we must URGE the electorate if they hold a middle class or working class job to beat Republicans at their own game. JOIN A UNION AND PAY THE DUES. The electorate MUST be convinced that the Republican Party is NOT about most of them. It is about the 1% richest. The greatest weapon we the people possess is our vote.

The mantra should now be JOIN A UNION, PAY THE DUES—AND DO NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN EVER!

Write your Congressmen, write your governors, write the President and write Attorney General Eric Holder asking them through the power of their offices to legally act and protect the people’s civil rights!

Two Tiered Justice System

Glenn Greenwald writes many articles for "The Guardian" and for "Reader Supported News." He is a constitutional law scholar and has written the book "With Liberty and Justice for Some."

His opinion piece is not shocking as nothing shocks me about our country much anymore but it is certainly dismaying. Read the following here or below and pass it on if you like.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/304-justice/14989-focus-hsbc-new-poster-child-for-two-tiered-justice-system

The new normal (on the Corporate Equality Index) COMPANIES FROM WHICH TO BUY

If you scroll down to the link below there are MANY companies the Human Rights Campaign Fund suggests from which to buy goods. These companies (and there are dozens) are LGBT friendly and supportive. They are given color coded ratings and percentage ratings as well. 100% is of course the best. For all the companies who are not supportive there are many which are one simply has to look.

The movement for equality has taken on a life of its own. With all the sometimes negative press like Justice Scalia's rancid and insulting comments that are so discouraging it is refreshing to get a dose of reality and know there are many more who think opposite from the ignorant justice.

One must simply look and realize it without allowing the inhumane, ignorant, unfeeling and uncaring to send negative karma to one's soul!

If you click on the link below and scroll down you will be amazed at how many categories of business that support this humane cause. I suggest you look at some, examine the color coding and the percentage and consider when the need arises buying from them!
Companies that are AOK! The NEW NORMAL

LGBT equality in the workplace is the new normal. HRC just published the 2013 Corporate Equality Index and more companies than ever scored 100 percent. Check out how your favorite brands and companies stack up in this year's Buying for Workplace Equality Guide: For American companies, 100 percent is the new normal. That's not a sales figure or a stock value. That's the perfect score that 252 companies earned when we evaluated their workplace policies for LGBT employees in this year's Corporate Equality Index (CEI). When we started the CEI 11 years ago, there were just 13 perfect scores. So while the federal government and many state governments lag behind, American businesses continue to make great strides on LGBT equality. The result is a total transformation in the lives of millions of LGBT employees and their families. Bring the CEI home by checking out HRC's 2013 Buyer's Guide – a helpful holiday shopping tool to see   which brands are best on LGBT equality. HRC's goal with the CEI has always been to provide companies with a roadmap to fair policies. As more and more businesses compete to retain top talent, LGBT-inclusive policies have become a corporate standard – just 11 years after our first edition. There's a lot more good news out of this year's CEI. Here are some of the other amazing stats and what they mean for equality: A record 74 businesses actively and publicly supported pro-equality legislation at the state and federal levels. Without their help, victories like marriage equality in Washington may not have been possible. 2013 saw the largest growth in the survey's history, with 54 new businesses participating – up to 688 this year, more than double the number that participated in the CEI's first year. Last year, we insisted that companies include transgender-inclusive healthcare coverage if they wanted to earn a perfect 100 percent score. Now an impressive 42 percent of CEI participants offer it, up from 19 percent last year. Enacting these company policies isn't just the right thing to do – it's good for business and makes an enormous difference in the lives of millions. But there's still quite a bit of work left. While the average score of companies who participate in the CEI is 84 (in the green), the average score for corporations who chose not to participate in the CEI this year is a disappointing 11. And that's the biggest problem – a full quarter of businesses in the CEI are in the red, just because they didn't respond. Now you can take part by downloading the 2013 Buying for Workplace Equality Guide that'll show you how your favorite stores and companies treat their LGBT staff. (There's even an app for that!) Don't wait until you're finished shopping – check out the CEI and the Buyer's Guide online, by downloading the mobile app onto your iPhone, or by texting SHOP and the company name to 30644 today. Thanks for taking a minute to look through and share this encouraging and great news. With pride, Chad Griffin President This link is specific to you, so send your message before you forward to your friends. Having trouble clicking on the links above? Simply copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar to reach the action page: http://www.hrc.org/apps/buyersguide/index.php

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Right to Work for LESS -- BEAT THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME

Why cannot workers beat these Republican bastards at their own game much like the voters did in voter suppression states that made sure they registered to vote, came out to vote and stood in line seven hours if necessary to vote? And they fought those laws in the courts.

In this case since there is a freedom to join a union AND there is the freedom to PAY YOUR DUES to the union, PAY IT VOLUNTARILY with no contract. Why cannot there be a HUGE effort at signing workers up in unions making sure through the media, through unions themselves through television programming and advertisements to VOLUNTARILY PAY THEIR DUES?

Then organize to throw Republicans the hell out of state legislatures and governorships. When people vote in Republicans the people lose and the 1% richest win. They MUST be made to see that. So on two levels beat those swine at their own game. REGISTER in unions and then pay a fair fee so that the unions can survive to assist workers. If workers pay then unions survive and help themselves in the process.

The next order of business is to get out the Democratic vote like we did in 2012 and in 2014 beat those shameful loathsome jerks at their own game. That is the way to do it. They make a law so obey the law but make sure that you pay your dues!

My Statement to Justice Scalia--On Homosexuality

The Supreme Court has a comment section. I left a few choice off the cuff words on it for Justice Scalia.

Justice Scalia: You are quoted as having said the following: 

"IF WE CAN'T HAVE MORAL FEELINGS AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY, CAN WE AGAINST MURDER?"

You are equating feelings against homosexuality with feelings against murder? I would say we can have feelings against most anything we find objectionable EVEN blacks marrying whites or feelings against integration of blacks and whites and our Constitution could be seen as supporting that and has OR not and now does not. The homosexuals I know do not even kill a fly or kill any living thing and are some of the kindest, most brilliant and creative people I know but you, sir, are lumping them in with a feeling against MURDER or murderers? 

Respectfully, Sir, you insult me. I stand incredulous that a Supreme Court Justice would say something so unintelligent that I cannot believe this person sits on the highest court of the land. To lump a feeling against homosexuality with a feeling against murder is simply utterly absurd.

If one finds oneself loving a member of one's own sex then what should one do? Murder oneself? Feelings that you espouse against homosexuality have been used as a justification for murdering THEM. But hey, according to you there is no difference between murder and homosexuality. Homosexuals are the victims of murderers and NOT the perpetrators of murder. Feelings that you express are the rationale for killing them.

Can one have a feeling against, well, Italians and equate it with a feeling against homosexuality after all so many Italians were in the Mafia? Should we have the ability to discriminate against them because of that? This is how absurd your comment is.

I ask you to reconsider that statement and to apologize to an entire group of people you insult by lumping them in the same category of murder. You offend, hurt and debase a group of people who are often among the best and the brightest and who hurt no one. Shame on you, Sir, for your hateful comment.

Who I will print

Warning:   I am NOT posting comments that are rude, vitriolic and just plain nasty.  If you want to argue policy or points on MY view great.  I will be glad to entertain them BUT they must be written since they are directed at one person, with cogent, polite commentary.

My views are not directed to a person but rather groups that are trying to influence policy and not in ways I deem humane.  My viewpoint is I will give you passionate but to an individual I NEVER insult and if I have I apologize for that.

Fine you want to post opposing opinion I will be more than glad to post it but I will not be made to feel personally bad.  It's my OPINION that is ALL it is.  I hold NO elective office, I wield NO power except through my pen and I do not ever hope of holding elective office.  Frankly, I do not know how those who hold office do it ESPECIALLY progressives who generally, like me, simply want to help their fellow man who needs the help ONLY government can provide.

If you oppose that fine. Say it decently and I will print it!

An Important Link

I have now DVR'd Democracy Now which appears on my local cable station on Fios Channel 43

I am enclosing a link here and below to this incredible independent news network which gives information and the TRUTH on the vital questions and occurrences of the day WITHOUT corporate influence skewing the news and showing you ONLY what the corporate sponsors WANT you to see. You may THINK you are getting the news from sources such as NBC Brian Williams and all the other corporate clones but you are NOT.

Look at the cover page of Democracy Now and see how you can obtain a live stream from your own cable network. It's as easy as sitting in front of your own cable TV and turning to the station that carries it.

At this moment Amy Goodman from Democracy Now is reporting on a live stream feed from the climate change summit and reporting about the devastation in the Philippines of a massive typhoon which has already killed 500 and injured thousands depriving millions of homes. It is a catastrophe CLOSELY related to our own climate change catastrophes we have witnessed ALL over the country most recently New York City and surrounding areas. This is a global problem and we TRULY are all in this together.

Mother nature knows NO politics and will proceed with the science construct of man as it is. It is ONLY man who can reverse this deadly trend and we can ONLY do that with the information we have. I enclose the link below which will enable you to find the many stations there that carry Democracy Now. Demand your cable network carry this important true reality based news.


Share this with anyone you like.

http://www.democracynow.org/

Crème DeMint or Tea and Toast

If one follows politics as I do one knows Jim DeMint, Tea Party senator extraordinaire from South Carolina has resigned. He is not serving out his second term in the senate a short month after his reelection. Many are stunned and more still are trying to decipher whether this is a good thing or bad for Democrats. Does this mean another Civil War is erupting this time within the Republican Party trying to purge itself of its moronic madness that exists on the far right? Or will it give an opportunity for the king of the Teas to wined up and throw many more pitches over the plate simply thinking at the Heritage Foundation think tank to create Tea Party policy at a reported one million a year.

The question remains because Tea Baggers are nearly incapable of winning a national election what could Crème Jim DeMint pour into his drink to sweeten it making it more palatable to the American electorate?

The formation of the Tea Party began after passage of the Affordable Health Care Act. It was made up of many middle class mostly whites who carried signs like "Keep your hands off my Medicare" and wore hats with tea bags hanging off of them like one's Aunt Millie from the Ozarks. I thought this would be a movement that could step on the heads of Wall Street who rode rough shod over the world's economy since they were mighty angry at the bailouts too. Instead, the Republican hierarchy seized upon the chance of capturing millions of disaffected white voters convincing them that government spending on programs for the poor was the problem using so called Obamacare as evidence.

They herded these low information voters and watchers of Fox No News News corralling them into believing the Republican Party cared about them because it was against spending especially for the poor (meaning minorities and blacks of course.) It wasn't about helping these middle class whites but it was about deluding the old Moral Majority of the Nixon years making them work FOR Wall Street and not against it.

The necessary vital life-giving ingredient to the Tea Party Republican pie of white was the middle class white hot hatred of a black president and his black family walking into the very white house. As one election sign of a supporter of Mitt Romney said, "Let's keep the White House white!"

What the reality Tea Partiers failed to see and the Republican hierarchy ignored was, of course, demographics. The demographics of the nation are changing. The white man will soon be in the minority and no amount of gerrymandering or Sheldon Adelson and Koch brothers stuffed pockets of money will help.

The racist religious fascist cranks of the Tea Party Taliban have gotten our attention and continue to try to gum up the works for anything with the name Obama attached to it even if that man won a crushing victory against them. I believe it is this that is at the heart of the Tea Party movement despite the one or two token African Americans who on occasion showed up at a Romney rally drowning in a sea of white! In the final analysis I think it will not matter if Crème Jim DeMint sits at the throne of the conservative new “think tank” Heritage Foundation or occupies a seat in the United States Senate. His tea baggers and the toxicity they bring to the nation will, ultimately, make them toast!

A Link to Senators who Opposed the Treaty on Disabilities

I am posting the link below or here that gives you how particular senators voted on treaty ratification of the Americans with Disability Act to extend throughout the world by treaty signature. G.W. Bush began and signed it as did President Obama.

I urge you IF you have time to contact as many Republican senators who voted NAY on the list. The list is divided so you can see who voted nay on this all important treaty. We are the ONLY developed nation not to have signed it. It needs 67 votes for treaty ratification and Tea Baggers dumped it. This small group of Republicans must NOT be allowed to hijack not only this treaty but economic policy that is good for the country and the world. They MUST NOT be allowed to subvert the president at every turn.

Here is the list below. By simply Googling their last name and hit contact you will be given a form for policy comments that has auto fil. Once you fill in your name, etc. on every other one you click on it will be automatically be put in. It saves much time.

We MUST show Republicans and the heartless Tea Baggers within that Party that we will be dedicated to replacing them.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=2&vote=00219#top

A National Disgrace

The Republican Party yesterday — mainly Tea Baggers — disgraced fellow Republicans, the United States Senate, United States Servicemen and women AND the United States of America while kicking sand into the global community's eyes by refusing to ratify a treaty for the disabled that was begun by George W. Bush to extend our own American with Disabilities Act to other nations.  The American with Disabilities Act passed into law by President H.W. Bush the elder and the treaty of it put forth by George W. Bush was signed by him and President Obama to help this cause.

 

The elder statesman and WWII veteran, former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, came literally off his death bed in a wheel chair to the floor of the Senate as did many other senators, congressmen and veterans to ratify this treaty.  

 

It takes 67 votes to ratify a treaty.  It failed 61 to 38.  It lost because of Tea Party Republican intransigents who refused to vote for it because it was attached to the UN and Tea Party perceived loss of American sovereignty and world government crank fears.  This was truly an abomination and proof positive that all of us, Republican and Democrat, alike must work hard to send a message loud and clear that these inhumane deluded excuses for humanity Tea Baggers will LOSE their respective seats in both the House and the Senate in 2014. This minority MUST not be allowed to hold the United States of America hostage to their rancid poisonous philosophical malevolence.

 

If this simple treaty could not be ratified how on God's earth is one going to navigate the so called fiscal cliff?  They stood intransigent, I believe, to show they will never do as the majority of Americans have commanded and as reflected by the president's resounding win.  The Tea Bag party, the party of stupidity and treason secessionists, the party of birthers and 911 conspiratorial ranters has become a GREAT evil in the American political scene. A minority party of viral low information voters within the Republican Party has taken this country close to the abyss.  How did these cerebral nincompoops gain so much power that they can make the United States of America look anemic to the world? 

 

A part of the Republican Party is insipid and will never in its present form win ANYTHING major again. They are a dead party as they exist today.  Republicans need to kick the Tea Baggers into the ash bin of history, place them in the dump and close the lid. Let's have the funeral for them and be done with it to get the American Congress moving once again. 

 

Sen. Hatch, Sen. Graham, Sen. Shelby, and 35 other senators SHAME ON YOU for not ratifying a simple treaty for the disabled around the world.  You are a disgrace to veterans, you are a disgrace to your own colleagues who have given their lives in service, you are a disgrace to the disabled everywhere and you are most of all a disgrace to the nation you are supposed to serve!

 

Suppressing the Vote Yet Again!

As you can see from the link here and below the Republican liars are at it again attempting to make voter ID law in Wisconsin (and I am sure other states) enshrined in state constitutional law not because it is necessary but because it will suppress the Democratic vote. Democrats everywhere need to mount a HUGE challenge in the courts and by organizing protests of honest people wherever this is attempted before 2014 mid-term elections when Republicans stand to lose dramatically. If Republicans attempt voter suppression by making voter ID’s a state constitutional mandate then it will be on the Democratic Party across the nation to make sure legally this does not happen.

The Republican attempts at this are a ruse, brazen, unethical and just plain WRONG because there is NO voter fraud. Wisconsin has one of the highest voter turnouts in the country. Apparently Republicans in Wisconsin are against high voter turnout. The rationales they give for needing Voter ID's are FALSE. They are designed to make it harder for the elderly, minorities, the disabled and the poor to vote. It has nothing to do with alleged voter fraud which is non-existent but has EVERYTHING to do with suppressing the Democratic vote.

We need to beat Republicans at their charlatan game and ensure they do not do this by taking it to the people and the Courts to reject. The Republican Party will be the most vulnerable in 2014 and they know it as the president is making a great case for Democratic economic policy taking it to the people all over the country as to why the top 2% richest should contribute more and why the middle class is deserving of tax relief growing the economy NOT from the top down which was tried and failed but from the middle class out. Taking your case and explaining it to the people works!

Beyond that we also know other social issues from a women's right to choose her health care including birth control are in the mix. Republicans will regressively push our country backwards in draconian fashion attempting to return us to another era. They MUST BE STOPPED by any means necessary including forming a massive campaign to sign up voters and to GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE (GOTV) when the time comes! In the meantime do NOT let Republicans constitutionally enshrine Voter ID laws!

Maintaining our democracy takes work and oversight and it did not end by our crushing victory in 2012. Make no mistake the Republican Party will stop at nothing to win even through illegal conduct if they deem it necessary. We must not allow this to happen. There is too much at stake.

WHY ELECTING DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE BOARD IN LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL ELECTIONS IS NOT ONLY NECESSARY BUT MANDATORY.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/wisconsin-voter-id-state-constitution_n_2233319.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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Light Through the Darkness

The article below appeared in the G Section of the Boston Globe on Saturday, December 1. It is entitled: "He Saved Me, Too: the story of an unlikely friendship that of a Holocaust survivor and a woman" by Bella English here or below.

The article, I think, conveys the ability of human beings to connect with one another, give a part of each to the other filing voids many of us feel as we travel through the difficulties of life. Victor Frankl chronicler of his Holocaust experience in his famous work “Man's Search for Meaning” said, even then, in the darkest hour the will to live was endemic in most. Where no meaning seemingly exists we seek to find one, to give reason to the unreasonable, to replace the darkness with light, and seek happiness despite our despair. Rabbi Harold Kushner in his work “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People” says when hope seems the most elusive one human being can help the other assisting us through our tragic moments. Indeed, he says, this is God in the human experience.

The meeting of the aging Holocaust survivor, Aron Lieb, former Dachau resident who lost his family to fires of Auschwitz and the new mother saddled with post partum depression was unforeseen. Each filled a void in the other. He lived here with no family, no wife, and no children of his own save the stranger he acquired in a meeting of chance. He provided for her a way and a why out of depression. She would provide for him the family he never knew and the daughter who would sit beside him at 91 when he died.

The story is, I think, about hope where seemingly there is none and where there is the love of friendship in an often loveless world. Its tale is a message for all of us who have endured the vicissitudes and tears of life but go on nonetheless finding meaning in those we love and who love us through it all. He assured her if there is life after death he would send a sign. You must read the article to find out if he did.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2012/11/30/saved-too-story-unlikely-friendship/m0D4GHpZUub8EOol3SNI3H/comments.html

The Cure

Before you ignore this opinion below please give it some thought. It is not very long and it truly means saving our country's economic life. After you read it contact as many legislators as you can especially if they are Republicans. You must let them know you understand their game.

A preface from Wiki: Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. He is on the faculty of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Policy. Since then, he has taught a popular course called Wealth and Poverty. In addition to his professorship, Reich is also a Member of the Board of Trustees for the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. The Center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world.

I believe he speaks truth. WHY cannot this country with all its talent get it and why was there not someone screaming this especially in 2010 when the Tea Party cancer struck? We needed the president selling his policies, in that time on Obamacare, as he is now explaining his program for economic growth, fiscal so called "cliff" avoidance and why the Republican austerity plan is NOT a cure for our nation's economic woes but a death knell.

If I can understand Mr. Reich anyone can because I am afflicted with some kind of genetic malady for math or its associates. Languages yes, math no but what Mr. Reich says makes perfect sense even to me and, I believe, he is spot on correct.

The remedy for our economic woes since the Bush induced Great Recession is staring us right in the face but some of the electorate duped by all things Republican continues to vote for these charlatans as it did in 2010 handing the Republican Party of fiscal death power in the Congressional House and individual state legislatures as well. Republicans sell themselves as the cure for a sound economy but they are the crank poison. It is like having the cure for cancer before you and instead of the cure you choose a diet Coke which will kill you. I paste Mr. Reich's article from Reader Supported News below. Please consider reading it and, like Paul Revere, pass it on to every village and farm! The link for it with reader commentary is here or below.

Why We Should Stop Obsessing About The Federal Budget Deficit
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
19 November 12

wish President Obama and the Democrats would explain to the nation that the federal budget deficit isn't the nation's major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn't be our major goal. Our problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth, and our goal must be to revive both.

Deficit reduction leads us in the opposite direction - away from jobs and growth. The reason the "fiscal cliff" is dangerous (and, yes, I know - it's not really a "cliff" but more like a hill) is because it's too much deficit reduction, too quickly. It would suck too much demand out of the economy.

But more jobs and growth will help reduce the deficit. With more jobs and faster growth, the deficit will shrink as a proportion of the overall economy. Recall the 1990s when the Clinton administration balanced the budget ahead of the schedule it had set with Congress because of faster job growth than anyone expected - bringing in more tax revenues than anyone had forecast. Europe offers the same lesson in reverse: Their deficits are ballooning because their austerity policies have caused their economies to sink.

The best way to generate jobs and growth is for the government to spend more, not less. And for taxes to stay low - or become even lower - on the middle class.

(Higher taxes on the rich won't slow the economy because the rich will keep spending anyway. After all, being rich means spending whatever you want to spend. By the same token, higher taxes won't reduce their incentive to save and invest because they're already doing as much saving and investing as they want. Remember: they're taking home a near record share of the nation's total income and have a record share of total wealth.)

Why don't our politicians and media get this? Because an entire deficit-cutting political industry has grown up in recent years - starting with Ross Perot's third party in the 1992 election, extending through Peter Petersen's Institute and other think-tanks funded by Wall Street and big business, embracing the eat-your-spinach deficit hawk crowd in the Democratic Party, and culminating in the Simpson-Bowles Commission that President Obama created in order to appease the hawks but which only legitimized them further.

Most of the media have bought into the narrative that our economic problems stem from an out-of-control budget deficit. They're repeating this hokum even now, when we're staring at a fiscal cliff that illustrates just how dangerous deficit reduction can be.
Deficit hawks routinely warn unless the deficit is trimmed we'll fall prey to inflation and rising interest rates. But there's no sign of inflation anywhere. The world is awash in underutilized capacity As for interest rates, the yield on the ten-year Treasury bill is now around 1.26 percent - lower than it's been in living memory.
In fact, if there was ever a time for America to borrow more in order to put our people back to work repairing our crumbling infrastructure and rebuilding our schools, it's now.

Public investments that spur future job-growth and productivity shouldn't even be included in measures of government spending to begin with. They're justifiable as long as the return on those investments - a more educated and productive workforce, and a more efficient infrastructure, both generating more and better goods and services with fewer scarce resources - is higher than the cost of those investments.

In fact, we'd be nuts not to make these investments under these circumstances. No sane family equates spending on vacations with investing in their kids' education. Yet that's what we do in our federal budget.

Finally, the biggest driver of future deficits is overstated - rising health-care costs that underlie projections for Medicare and Medicaid spending. The rate of growth of health-care costs is slowing because of the Affordable Care Act and increasing pressures on health providers to hold down costs. Yet projections of future budget deficits haven't yet factored in this slowdown.
So can we please stop obsessing about future budget deficits? They're distracting our attention from what we should be obsessing about - jobs and growth.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/14611-why-we-should-stop-obsessing-about-the-federal-budget-deficit

Michael D’Antuono’s painting“The Truth,”

I love this painting below and think the artist has great talent. I think this painting has merit as political commentary. It is in my opinion, excellent. I agree with the artist. The president has received the most heinous criticism and even worse from a right wing extremist Republican base and beyond. The president must at times feel like he is crucified. 

I say it is FREE SPEECH. How does the religious right like it when THEY think it's "blasphemy" about THEIR religion? 

I do not. I do NOT think it about Christianity.  I think it is about things political and I think it valid empathy for a president like no other in American history who has received a critical onslaught no matter what he does!

Bunker Hill Community College displays controversial painting depicting Obama as Jesus

Print | Comments (97)Posted by Your Town  November 27, 2012 01:16 PM

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"The Truth" by Michael D’Antuono

A Method to Their Madness -- The bulldozing of Susan Rice

Republicans blathering against Susan Rice is utterly ridiculous and immoral. To attack an innocent qualified person who WILL be Secretary of State over NOTHING is deplorable.   There, however, is a method to their madness. Republicans want John Kerry's Senate seat for Scott Brown if Kerry leaves it to become Secretary of State if Susan Rice has a problem securing it. Scott Brown though will NEVER get that seat. He is THROUGH! McCain, Graham and Ayotte want to block Rice by any means necessary no matter if they run over her with a bulldozer. 

McCain is aged, mean and a shadow of what he was. He is full of anger and revenge because his attempts at the presidency were foiled at every turn. He is washed up and knows it. Graham is a remnant from the Confederacy or tries to be. He is a HYPOCRITE. Bush's Condoleza Rice advocates for a phony war killing THOUSANDS and destabilizing a region but he had no problem with that. 

PAAAHLEESE give me a break. We are NOT stupid. They sock it to the eminently qualified black woman because they THINK Republican Scott Brown (remember him?) can get Kerry's seat if Kerry becomes Secretary of State. NO WAY! WE MUST NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN. Mass. hopefully came its senses since the 2010 fluke election of Brown because Democrats were not paying attention. We will NOT NOT NOT be asleep again.

Write or contact John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte and tell them they look like bullies in their attempt to crush Susan Rice. They will NOT be successful as the president has said. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire as Santas's helper looks like a Stepford Wife token female in support of her men. Tell them to LEAVE SUSAN RICE ALONE. Tell them NOT to hope for Scott Brown. I thought we just had an election telling him he is THROUGH! WE NEED TO MAKE SURE HE IS!

Nailed to a Cross

What I want to know is HOW MUCH are they going to take out of the hide of the little guy -- ME -- as to Social Security and Medicare. My goodness these so called "Christian" Republicans want to back humongous corporations so THEY do not have to be the ones to shoulder the main tax burden. Taxing them an extra minuscule percent to them will mean NOTHING. They will NOT I assure you be in a soup line but those of us who are part of the 99% if there are significant cuts to Soc. Sec., Medicare or Medicaid then it WILL mean something placing our lives at risk.

As one whose family's life was saved by Social Security and Medicare I KNOW how wonderful these programs are and they were NOT free. We paid into them for decades. The president should NOT budge on the social safety nets.

I bet Jesus Christ himself would want to sock it to the behemoth corporations, Wall Street and the big guys who will NOT suffer one inch by a slight increase in taxes and closed loopholes, shutting off incentives to tax evade but the poor will be nailed to the proverbial cross that WILL kill us!

WRITE TO CONGRESS, SPEAKER BOEHNER AND THE PRESIDENT TELLING THEM NO TO DECREASES IN SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE!

The Real Apocalypse

I urge you to read and heed this excellent article Stand Still for the Apocalypse by Chris Hedges in TruthDig on climate change if not for you then for future generations and URGE power everywhere to act and act NOW before it is too late!

here or below.

http://readersupportednews.org/off-site-opinion-section/54-54/14730-focus-stand-still-for-the-apocalypse 

Thanksgiving

I labored long as to how I would write this opinion. I decided to merely write that which I think about often and am thankful for every day. I think about how lucky I am through accident of birth to enjoy a warm shower, to brush my teeth, and to have indoor plumbing. I am thankful for these simple things which much of the world does not have and things we often take for granted. These things keep us safe, clean and free from disease. In another time or place this would not be so.

Yes, I am thankful, too, for the garbage collectors, for selfless firemen and police who like doctors keep us safe from that which could destroy us. I am thankful for a country which, although divided, manages to still govern transferring power bloodlessly. I am thankful for our country’s Founding Fathers who wrote documents so prescient and so well written that we still celebrate their genius centuries after our nation’s birth. I am thankful for Lady Liberty symbolically lighting the way for ships carrying men and women like my grandfathers and grandmothers who would have died with all the other Jews of Nazi-infected Europe.

How lucky I am that in my extended family there are two doctors, one speech therapist, one Harvard graduate, one Wellesley graduate, one Stanford Medical and Johns Hopkins graduate, one in the White House, and others whose successes are too numerous to mention. I am lucky to have wonderful family and friends whose intellect I value and whose advice I cherish. I am lucky to have family who continued the line of my grandparents by raising wonderful children some of whom have had their own children extending the line further still.

I am lucky to have been born in a nation where even sixty years ago accorded me excellent treatment for polio, a disease which often deforms avoiding that deformity by receiving the best care even without a national healthcare plan. I am thankful for that. I am thankful that my father went to law school, made a living, bought a house, bought many cars and never could have dreamed that life possible for a Jew anywhere else on earth. I am thankful for all those things.

I am thankful my father bestowed upon me a love of history, a love of FDR, and a love of country. Although we had many policy disagreements we both shared a love of that. I am so thankful for the education I received, for the colleges I attended, for the many teaches and professors who shaped my education and my political views. I am thankful I can write and say most anything I please without the fear of a knock at the door or prison without trial. I am thankful for all those things. I am thankful to live in a nation blessed by geography which has allowed it to prosper and which allows me to hope a warless nation continues to be its fate. I am thankful that change of policy is possible without violence and that I can continue to hope for the change of its foreign policy as well.

I am thankful I bore witness to the election and then the re-election of the first African American president along with Massachusetts’s first brilliant woman senator. I am thankful for all the civil liberties I enjoy that allowed me to find a partner of my choice and realize things which were once beyond my capacity to hope. I am thankful for fate giving me a window to the beauty of the planet and the span of man’s history upon it. I hope that I, in some small way, can contribute to the easing of suffering through political policy that can make it so.

For all these things I am eternally grateful and why the national holiday of Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of all.