Today Is The Day

Today is the day. My Dad changes his residence after many many years. I know it’s for the best. I know he will get the best possible care. I also know I can’t shake this sadness. It will be a transition that he has to make as well as many of us will at some point but that knowledge doesn’t soften my sadness.

The process that’s hard for me is after all the years of him being the one to turn to for help and guidance now becomes almost reversed. He’s the one who needs the help. I am many miles away so my brother has been forced into that role almost on his own. So the miles make this even more difficult.

There is no fix for this. It is time doing what it does. I now must call upon my faith once again to keep me mindful of not what I am losing but what I have been blessed with all these years. You see time can challenge us in many ways but at least for now I can also use that time in the way of memories to keep me lifted.

Keep my father in your prayers that whatever God’s plan is for him that his last and final transition is an easy one.

My Hero

As much as I hate revisiting this issue I am in need of some self-therapy so although this is of a personal nature to me I am compelled to share. My hero is about to move to an assisted living facility in Upstate NY. It is a nice place and he will be looked after much more effectively than he could live on his own. So intellectually I understand the reasoning for this. My problem is not intellectual at all.

This man is a rock. Even in his weakened state he continues to inspire anyone he touches. His will is unbending; his faith unending. My most personal difficulty is coming to the realization that he no longer can really care for himself. He is a proud man and this decision had to be a difficult one for him. He has always been a very independent person and I think part of what made him thrive was his independence. And now his body is beginning to fail him. In many ways I’m quite certain he is dealing with this better than I.

Many of my friends and relatives are also dealing with aging parents. Some close to me have already dealt with the passing of their parents. I, on the other hand, am not ready to deal with either when it comes to my hero. I can’t seem to sort my feelings. I am quite good about separating the intellectual side of this from the emotional side; however, the emotional side is still winning. It is selfish I know….it is my problem to deal with. I have started a little exercise in the evening before bed to pray for my hero and to pray for the strength to deal with what lies ahead.

So I ask you to all pray for my hero and for my family. I am not alone when it comes to having difficulties reconciling my emotions. Many have come before me and many will come after me. This fact is not really a comfort right now though. This is my hero. I love you Dad.

The Inevitable Response

OK…here it comes. I just can’t go on without commenting on what just took place in Washington. You folks who don’t like politics see ya otherwise here’s my take on everything.

What took place is a complete travesty and basically a government takeover of our country as we know it. Our “representatives” did exactly what their President paid, pressured or ultimately ordered them to do. What they did was to completely turn their backs on the electorate. This vote had absolutely nothing to do with healthcare reform. It was all about power and control. When the administration promised transparency we had no idea just how transparent they would be.

This was a good thing. There’s a new take I’ll bet. Why was it good? Let me tell you. It was good because it finally once and for all displayed just what this President is capable of doing. It displayed once and for all just how much respect this President has for the people of this country and their wishes. Now I realize there are those who think this is the greatest deal since sliced bread. You will all wake up when you find out just how much tax that bread is going to have assessed on it. This is a good thing because the Democratic majority can now own one of the most disastrous pieces of legislation to ever be penned. This is a good thing because they will no longer be able to hide behind George Bush. This bill is their baby.

What will be next? Well many are thinking it will be making illegal immigrants legal. After all where is our President going to get his votes? He will have to bribe for them and he will have to count on the dependant class he is creating. The big problem is once you open the floodgates as he has, you now will need to continue to build on it. These people that are in need of free healthcare probably need cars. How else will they find employment? Of course with the car they will need insurance and oh yes gasoline. These are all rights as far as many are concerned, at least many in Washington. Who pays for all of this….you guessed it: YOU.

When I saw speaker Pelosi carrying in the large gavel to declare the bill passed, I actually felt physically ill. This so called leadership has basically raped and pillaged the constitution. Even worse they completely have disregarded it. The standards and expectations that we have held our elected officials to, have literally evaporated before our very eyes.

There is another reason this is a good thing in my opinion. It is awakening many who in the past could care less about politics. This country’s inner strength has always been its people and not its politicians. This bill is getting at least 15 lawsuits filed by states and I’m certain many more entities are going to follow, as they should. It is completely unconstitutional what has taken place and I can’t see how it can go forward without serious challenges.

One last comment about why I think this is a good thing. My hope is it will finally awaken a conservative base to counteract this incredible display of arrogance. I make no distinction here about Republican or Democrat because I think it will only survive if it is a conservative movement not a party movement. The difficulty ahead is figuring out if a third party would help or hinder this movement. The two parties at this time hold so much power (too much) that introducing a third party might only strengthen one of the two parties that essentially exists right now and we all know it would only benefit the left. I don’t have many answers just many questions.

To close, I realize many don’t enjoy or have an interest in politics. I must, however, implore you to get yourself interested because everything invested right now will only benefit your children and your children’s children. As things stand right now, should this bill not be repealed, the debt that will be incurred will, in my opinion, spiral our economy out of control. God help us all if that unfolds.

federal courts??

I read this short paragraph in a magazine I receive in the security field and just had to reprint this little story just to comment on it so here it is:

A teacher may pursue her lawsuit against her employer for failure to accommodate her depression according to a federal appeals court. The court ruled that the school had a duty to pursue accommodation after the teacher provided a doctor’s statement that the depression was linked to a lack of windows in the teacher’s classroom.

That’s it. It was one little teaser paragraph. I read this paragraph and came away with one major conclusion and that was basically this: Are you kidding me?! I simply can’t fathom this story. Where has this country gone? I complain fairly regularly about how we have become a country of entitlists. If our federal courts can even entertain a case like this I don’t believe it bodes well for our future. If we need to bow down to everyone who has a doctor’s note about every malady, some questionable ones at that, how will we be able to even survive?

By the way, the title of the paragraph was ADA. So here’s our wonderful big papa of a government looking out for us once again. Now that I think about it my employer doesn’t provide me with windows either. THAT’S why I am so depressed! I knew there was a reason. I’m headed to my doctor Monday morning to get a note. I suggest that each of you that aren’t provided windows should do the same. Hey, it’s a federal precedent now. Where would we be without the federal courts looking out for us? I say windows for everyone!

Ok, you get my point. It’s just amazing to me how fragile we have become. Not that many years ago this would have not even been entertained in our court system. Our newly bred over-litigious society is now headed on the path of taking our country down. Our government doesn’t have the brass to even look at tort reform. This may have something to do with how many of our professional senators are lawyers…..you think?

So there you have it. Yet another example of how disjointed our government has become and how dysfunctionality is propagated to its fullest in our country. God bless the federal courts or perhaps I should say God save the federal courts!

Reality TV

I know I’m in the minority here and that’s fine because I am used to it. After all, great minds always tend to be in the minority although that fact has little to do with me. The subject I want to express my opinion about is the new craze on TV; reality TV. When did TV become so unreal that reality TV was born? It seems like everything these days falls into the classification of reality TV.

Now I am aware that there are a few curmudgeons among us that for all intensive purposes avoid TV. (Jim) This subject may be lost on them. (him) For just about as long as I can remember (no cracks there from the peanut gallery) TV has been, with the exception of sports and news and a few other meaningless shows, unreal. It has been an escape for many. Many of us deal with all too much reality every day. So I ask you what is the draw.

I think I’ve pretty much figured it out. There is a large segment of our society that thrives on the suffering of others. Many of us also receive comfort knowing that there are many people much more screwed up then we are. Why is that? Perhaps it gives people some strange sense of self worth? I avoid most all “reality TV” because I get embarrassed watching these people. I did watch a show called addiction just the other night out of a sense of curiosity. It was a hideous display of human tragedy and I can’t believe people derive any entertainment from it. A part of me wonders how these camera operators could watch someone shoot up with drugs or drink until they are only partially conscious without intervening. It really just makes no sense to me.

I don’t see this changing anytime soon. In fact, we have become so desensitized to violence, horror and personal tragedy that I can see it only getting worse. It’s almost in a way the extension of how we as a society continue to devalue life. I think we should all take a good look at this dribble on TV and start avoiding it more. Perhaps write a letter or two hundred to the sponsors of these shows and espouse our opinions upon them. I’m not trying to sound high and mighty and without my own faults and vices. I am just as flawed as the rest of us. I guess I just long for the simpler times when Gomer processed a citizen’s arrest on Barney and we all just laughed. When a little puppet on Ed Sullivan would crack up his audience by saying…”Eddie, kiss me goodnight”.

Television is headed down the wrong path in my opinion, if you haven’t deciphered that yet. I’m not saying we need to completely wipe it clean. I am saying that this reality TV trend is mostly destructive as it would seem to me it is promoting more dysfunction among us all if not to just make a few bucks displaying it to the masses.

Tell me what you think.