FDR for President

On Jan. 6, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt addressed the U.S. Congress stating, "In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms...everywhere in the world." He represented the freedoms of speech and expression; freedom to worship God our own ways; freedom from want, meaning economic security; and freedom from fear from physical aggression.

Which 2012 candidate currently stumping for their parties' endorsements for U.S. president represents these same ethics and morals emphasized by FDR that long ago day?

Since 1979 a Great Depression, better known as the Economic Malaise, has affected too many lives cast into a downward spiral,a black pit of loss and despair. Who has a viable plan to turn around the economic decline, the Malaise, of the past 33 years?

As I prepared to vote at the Ohio primary on Super Tuesday, I was faced with a choice. I voted for the underdog, Ron Paul. Why? I have to ask myself how a wealthy woman like Mrs. Romney could actually say, and expect people to believe, "I don't look at myself as wealthy." When is the last time she had to do without things she needed? And why did news reports advise that Mitt Romney's sons were keeping a low profile "this time"? The discussions of women who take birth control, the remarks that throw us backwards to a time when women were extremely regarded as second class citizens (not sure how much that has changed)...We are supposed to be moving forward!

The secrecy around Mr. Obama's birth, his beliefs and associations with the Muslim world, the rumors of what ObamaCare is going to do to our civil rights...There are too many questions, too many violations of the public trust.

FDR, where are you?

by YourLocalSecurity.com

Switching over to fiction

When I started this blog I was going to do my complaining here. Eh, who wants to read complaints? That only prevents you looking at the bright side of things. So, I got to thinking that Patchwork and Petticoats is a great book title. I will explore a novel with that title. In fact, I think I'm going to write it here. Cathy (c) 2012 Cathy Thomas Brownfield

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Move over, Clint. There are some things we need to talk about.

Who really wants to waste time complaining? Where is it going to get us? I have this thing I say when someone grumbles that something happened and ruined the whole day. If someone ruined five minutes of your day, why would you want that to spoil the other 1,435 minutes in your day? That gives a different spin to attitude, huh?

But there are so many issues!

Iran is threatening the U.S. Navy? I have to believe the ayatollah doesn't want to blow up the world any more than we do. But what can power--the desire for power and authority--do to anyone?

There is a growing wealth gap between U.S. Congress and the constituency. (Constituency--that's you an me.) Congress was never supposed to be a career job. Perhaps it has gone on too long to fix. Limited terms were instituted for a reason. But power. Authority. Wealth...See the problem? No? Well, take a look: Congress and Constituency. But just to whet your appetite:

* 1984: Median net worth of House member, $280,000. (Adjusted for inflation.)

* 2009: Median net worth of House member, $725,000. (160 percent increase over 25 years.)

* 2009: Median income average American, $20,500. (Decreased over the same 25 years.)

* 2010: Annual base pay, Congressman, $176,000.

* 2010: Mean annual salary, employed, $44,410.

An economic boom in Ohio has been anticipated. The means? Marcellus Shale. However, last weekend (12/31/2011) an earthquake hit the Youngstown-Girard, Ohio area. The epicenter of the 4.0 quake was set at 1/10 of a mile from the site of a brine injection well. Published reports say the "Brine waste water from oil and gas drilling operations is often disposed of in...injection wells." 

Prior to drilling starting there were no earthquakes on record in the area. There have been 11 quakes since drilling began last spring. Another report advises that when this happened in Ashtabula County, Ohio, there were quakes for nine years after the drilling stopped, according to a news report.

Athena Anne KitchenFlint writes in West Virginia Highlands Voice: The blog of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, "...America's demand for natural gas is continually increasing. While American dependence has shifted toward foreign oil over the years, native oil companies continue to fight for market share...[T]o do this...around the turn of the millennium, the Marcellus Shale formation that is positioned under a good portion of the northeastern states...a sort of modern gold rush."

Which is most important...physical or economic health?

KitchenFlint describes the Marcellus Shale AND the process of fracking. She quotes John Manuel's article about fracking, "Some of these deposits, such as the Marcellus Shale running under the Appalachian Basin, lie beneath water tables supplying drinking water to millions of people."

"Things are in fact going wrong," KitchenFlint writes.

Bob Hagan, State Representative, D-65th, of Youngstown, supported Gov. Kasich's move to stop drilling until an investigation is completed. He said he wants to keep jobs in the area, but it's also about protecting Ohio's natural resources. (Do natural resources include people?)

With all the controversy near and far, there is a positive bit of news. In November, ABC New broadcast a story about stem cell research:

"There is promising news for people at risk for heart failure after U.S. researchers found stem cell therapy in humans has been surprisingly successful in replacing damaged muscle and getting the heart to pump better."

A friend of mine had a massive heart attack in June 2009. After too many middle-ofo-the-night ambulance runs to the ER, the doctors at Duke University stabilized Jay's medications enough to stop the middle of the night emergency runs, but he has been on the heart transplant list for about two years. He reads everything he can about stem cell research. He contacts programs for trials and would like to take part, receiving stem cells he believes can give him a second chance at living again. He has a Civil War novel he wants to writer. And he'd like to dance at his grandchildren's weddings with Camilla, his wife of 39 years (Jan. 5, 2012).

And the beat goes on... 

 

Thoughts

Well, there are certainly a lot of things going on "out there." Enough to keep a body upset and battling high blood pressure every day, every minute. People are tempted by paranoia on a lot of things, but there was that episode of The X-Files in which the woman, just before she went missing, advised, "If you think you're too paranoid, you probably aren't paranoid enough." My grandson and I read To Kill a Mockingbird together. Atticus Finch says courage is doing what you know is right, even if you know you aren't going to win. And I know that must be one of the reasons why the book is on the Banned Book List. And would I teach my grandson from anything else than banned books that are banned for a reason and we are darned well going to know why? Atticus wanted his children, Jem and Scout, to know that "courage is more than a man holding a gun." I'm looking for the movie version with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. And our next read will be Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's also on the banned book list. (Ref. above remarks.) For the same reason. Am I dangerous? A threat to homeland security? No. But I am a patriot. (To me that's different than patriarchy, but to some it is not.) I will exercise my right to free speech when I need to speak up. I applied for a job. Didn't get it. I'm thinking politics has something to do with not getting it, but that's OK. I'm remembering a conversation I had with someone who works at village hall. This person retired but stayed on at the position so she can collect her pension and still pull a paycheck. "Why shouldn't I? Everyone else does it!" Well, I didn't go into it with her, but I thought about how my mother taught my brothers and me that two wrongs do not make a right. And double-dipping is wrong. And it's destroying the tapestry of America. It's dishonest. It's greedy. It's an abuse of the taxpayers and it eliminates job opportunities for others who could really use paychecks to take care of their families. But, well, it's all about #1, isn't it?

Do we really wanna go there?

What make a woman caustic? Maybe we don’t really want to go there. Lately I think I’ve been pretty critical. And though I say, “Please, God, don’t let me be like my dad in that respect,” I have seen my father’s daughter of late. It seems that people just don’t have any common sense any more. Doesn’t anyone think further than the ends of their noses? Use their heads for something besides hat racks? Consider the consequences for actions BEFORE the actions are done?

I remember when life was good, and a lot simpler. Anyone who wanted to work had a job. If you went job hunting first thing in the morning, by the time you got home you had a job…the same day! A young man and a young woman could get married, buy a car, a house, have a family and put food on the table. One full time job for everyone. A chicken in every pot.

Families—four generations—gathered together to celebrate holidays with big dinners or cookouts, and children actually knew some of their relatives, extended families included.

I don’t know if we have the world by the tail or if the tail has us. Who are slaves? What are we slaves to? (OK. Grammatically correct: To what are we slaves?) Do we own our possessions or do our possessions own us? Are all of those things WE THINK WE NEED more important than the things WE NEED? What DO we need? When we are on our death beds breathing our last, what do you suppose we’ll think about? What will be most important then? Why isn’t that what’s most important now while we can live the gift of life?

What do parents teach their children? What did our parents teach us and their parents teach them? And what will our children teach their children? What do we want history to say about us? Or are we so fatalistic that we don’t think it matters because the world will end 12/21/2012? When will the floating stop?

A Woman's Duty

Women do what needs to be done. We see with our eyes what needs tending to and we do it because it has to be done and someone has to do it. When we're looking for something we move things to see if what we're seeking might be behind. But children and husbands will insist the thing they are looking for isn't where you say. And when you go and move something, there it is behind. "Where did you find that?" they ask.

Women make do much of the time. How can we do anything but make do when we don't have resources to do more? We do the best we can and, often, hope for the best.

Sometimes there are rewards. And is there really any satisfaction from the knowledge that a husband who thought his wife might not be very good at budgeting but discovered she was much more efficient with what she had to work with than he?

All any of us can do is our best. That's all there is.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy. Until I went back to college in 2007 I hadn't thought about its application to the Patriarchs, Old Testament variety. And when I think about how women are to be treated with the respect such as Jesus addressed women, when I think about how women are to be, I think of the Noble Wife in Proverbs 31. I consider the stories of Naomi and Ruth, Esther and Martha. They were strong women who commanded the respect of the men in their lives.

Problems arise when men don't respect and appreciate their women. They have difficulty understanding that God made man, both male and female, in his image. Each is a part and when two parts are joined they become one whole unit, equally-yoked and working toward the same goals. Men do not own the market on Intelligence.

When one of the parts isn't working properly, that part is hurting the whole unit. When a part on a machine fails to do what it is supposed to do, it is replaced by a new part for the machine to work properly. Many husbands have been replaced. The work or job is not the only obligation of the worker.

In thinking about how, as a nation, we moved from an agricultural to an industrial society we need to look at the whole picture. Prior to the Industrial Revolution husbands and wives worked together on their farms to produce what they needed for their family's survival. WORKED TOGETHER. When Pa took a job working in the factory for a paycheck, everything at home fell on the shoulders of the wife. And eventually we have evolved to where we are today...Ma is working for a paycheck and too many of us have all the burden of responsibility at home, too.

Take a look at good, old Benjamin Franklin. Who ran his business and kept the home fires burning in Philadelphia, Pa. USA while he lived with another woman in England and spent the last 12 years of his wife's life living in Europe? He came home only after Debra's death and only because she wasn't alive to run his business ventures for him. She waited for him all of those years.

For centuries men have abused the meaning of a woman answering to her husband. Jesus said the man is to be the head over his wife, as Jesus was the head of his church. He loved his church (the people, not a building) so much he was willing to lay down his life for it. The OTHER part of that? The part so many seem not to recall? The husband is to love his wife just as Jesus loved his church. He never intended that women not speak what they thought, rather, that there would be peace in the household when the husband and wife discuss things and make the right decisions together. Husbands are to be responsible, to stand up and be men rather than place blame for all bad things on their women.

Does that sound like women get a fair deal with their men?