As wide-eyed as a toddler’s giggle,
I muddle through the changes
Of Motherhood and Teacher
Learning more than teaching
Loving more than liking
Sharing more than taking
Giving more than Losing
I skin my knees and falling
Find the hands of those
Who parent even when aging
From grandparent to great
I toddle through vast hurtles
Of changing and growing
To keep that sense of wonder
That at 8 I still was knowing.
This election thing, what is it all about anyway? Why do we get so hot and bothered? It can’t just be Republican and Democratic parties. Something else has to matter, because this whole Democrat/Liberal and Republican/Conservative thing is getting stodgy and seem to have lost their impact. What is there that we can talk about that would make sense so that we could select our leaders based on the US Constitutional plan established for us a very long time ago?
Let me set a few things straight as a Civics teacher. First of all, Americans have always valued their liberty. Indeed, they valued that liberty more than religion. What is so important about the concept of liberty? We wanted a say in the type of government that would represent us. We had these lovely colonies that would become states. What was the reason for establishing a bicameral government with an established system of checks and balances? The answer is freedom. All citizens of the U.S. are guaranteed certain rights and yes, even some restrictions so that if we travel between the states we have knowledge of what we are going to face. Imagine, you can travel from Hawaii to Virginia and the basic rights of man are guaranteed. We don’t get stopped at the border of each state to have our cars searched. We’re a nation. Guess what, the EU decided that the plan they are using should do the same thing between their nations. And it works. It does for us, as well.
The Preamble of the Constitution lets you know the immediate concern of our founding fathers. That we the people of these United (means we hang together through good and bad weather) States (we don’t have to lose our individual identities from where we live to live equally), in order to create a more perfect union…the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. They used big flowing letters and wrote so that we of the future could easily read their plan. This Constitution wasn’t based on RELIGION. No, I hear Congressional staff use the words that our “Forefathers” wanted us to be a christian nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. They could have written Property instead of Happiness, but they didn’t. They gave us the power to choose what makes us happy without requiring us to be one thing or the other. Some are happy being inventors, some preaching, some legislating, some owning a house, some…get the picture?
Then there is the government’s structure. We are a Republic, we chose legislators to govern for us. They are supposed to do what their voters say to do, but they can act in what they believe to be the best interests of their communities. Not everyone will always agree, but some sort of consensus or majority ideals should be acted upon. The Congress was set up with two houses of the legislative branch. One is the Senate, one is the House of Representatives. Both branches are elected by “We the People.” They make the laws.
Next is the Justice department. They insure that our laws meet the basis of the constitution and basic justice for hearing cases between citizens. This judicial branch mandates the judging of the actions of people based upon our laws. Sedition, which isn’t prosecuted much anymore, is one law that is constantly being reevaluated. Jefferson was of the opinion that a little rebellion is a good thing. A little rebellion should be evaluated. If we were forced to give up our rights, we would have the right to protest and protect them. We are not entitled to over throw our government through violent means, we must use the voter’s booth. There are provisions to make sure that decisions can be reviewed and Laws can be reviewed. It’s important. If a president violates a law, they can be tried in the Senate. The outcome can be reviewed by the Judicial branch.
The president’s job is to enforce the laws and to use his office to protect the citizens of the US. This branch is also divided into levels and jobs and has changed only in size as the population of the US grew. I hear people cussing and swearing at Mr. Obama, mostly because how dare he be black. In the initial application of the Constitution, black men and women were only counted at 5/8th of a human person. That application changed when Lincoln was in office. Women were added to the voting population after the Civil War (which was not) and after President Wilson was elected. Can you imagine that women were treated as lesser humans because of our sense of compassion toward others? Women are problem solvers just as men are. Although the equal rights Amendment wasn’t ratified by enough states, we haven’t stopped our resolve to be who we are. Not decorations to sit upon a stage or be abused but as competent sensible humans. Look at how far we have come. And our set up of our government inspired many other nations to join in similar systems.
The First Ten Amendments to the Constitution were added because the founders of our government looked at history and they wanted to bluntly protect certain actions. Amendment One, the freedom of religion, speech, and assembly. If you are Muslim and I am Catholic, we have the right to believe in our religions. The signers of the Constitution had many signers who were Deists. They believed in God, but not necessarily in a church. They couldn’t involve the church in civil matters. They made this abundantly clear. We are a nation of many people from many places. This hatred that is going around, it’s not right. For everyone of us came from somewhere. Bullies pick on victims because they want to suspend our rights to speak, worship and to gather in peaceful assemblies. We need to be louder in our protection of these three things.
The second amendment is something everyone gets twitchy about. It was designed so that we could have the equivalent of the National Guard to protect our homes. We used guns to hunt. Guns were needed to put food on the table because it was a wild world. The founders never saw the weapons we are capable of making. It will be up to the Supreme Court and the Legislative Branch to sort that mess out.
Then the 3rd provision that the armed forces cannot move into your house against your will. That will not happen, not anymore. We have bases and money to handle our billets.
Four, five, six, seven and eight are about the rights we have if charged with, arrested, or held in the possible commission of a crime. You know the “You have the right” quotes. Did you know that the Supreme Court has said that they no longer have to be read to you? If you say you know your rights, that’s good enough for a court. Search and seizure, there has to be a warrant which means there has to be adequate evidence of wrong doing. There are means to enter a property of life or limb are at risk, but you had better be right as anything you find if there isn’t cause, makes it an illegal search and seizure. There is penalty must fit the crime. This is a matter of hot debate because there is ample concern and evidence that your race will affect your treatment and the length of your sentence. Non-violent offenders are spending longer in jail than Norway’s capitol crimes of 21 years. BTW Norway bases its treatment of prisoners on our Amendments. No cruel or unusual punishment.
Then the ninth states that rights not in the Constitution are protected.
The tenth states that federalism is defined by the Constitution in the laws that the federal government is allowed unless laws are voted into play by the states or representatives of those states.
We are a community, all together in our strengths and flaws. We should be actively involved in making life better for the people in our lives and for the strangers who have a need. I so admire Warren Buffet and his family for realizing that while having money is nice, using it to make the world a better place is priceless.
We put our decorations up yesterday. Lights, some monsters, day of the dead posters, a wreath. We celebrate October as a family. We have two writers, a teacher’s aide (who hates anything I love), a UPS driver, and a government employee. Oh, don’t forget the lock smith, always handy on Halloween. Why do we put things up two weeks before Halloween? It gets me through the tough time of my father’s death. He died on Oct. 30th, telling me he didn’t want to ruin Halloween for my school aged children, and he died. But Halloween is the time when we can be gracious to the neighborhood kids who are always over-scheduled. Heck, we wouldn’t know our neighbors anymore if it weren’t for Halloween. I understand that the family next door celebrates All Saints Day and that’s cool. My uncle died on All Saints Day and he was one who worked with alcoholics across the US and Canada. He believed in the idea of service, of giving hope and opportunity to those who needed the message. He believed in the union workers that he serviced working for Firestone and the idea that a working man or woman deserve to be whole, healthy, happy. I celebrate Halloween not as a day when the nasties come out, but when the children can be silly and parents proud of their little ones dressed in all kinds of costumes. I celebrate the ‘tweens and their rebellion in a save way. I like seeing the people in our neighborhood have fun and feel safe. We take it down after Halloween of course. And Christmas goes up a week before Christmas and stays up for the 12 days of Christmas. We celebrate all of mankind then. I think it’s just what you chose to make the holidays about.
THE IMPORTANCE OF KINDNESS
Many years ago I was driving behind a minibus along Barbican Road, heading towards Barbican Square. The conductor was standing on the bus step, half hanging out of the bus as it moved along in the …
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/shine/
How many of us remember the shine that engaged us in childhood. It was this memory that returned to me fully when touring Winterthur Museum, Garden and Park. This is one of the DuPont family museums open to the public. At Christmastime, rooms of displays decorated the way the would have been decorated go on display, and what a display.
http://thebrandywine.com/attractions/winter.html
I remember that shine of childhood. I was practically always in my own world as a child, my vision was so poor. I had glasses by the time I was two and a half. My memories were of the shining lights, my mother’s dresses which shown like a magical wave of fabric. As I grew older, I would remove my glasses and magic would return and encircle me and encompass my heart and soul. For St. Lucia’s day, we stood at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a celebration of heritage, the snow shone, the music shone, the tradition we learned that day enhanced that sense of power and a faith in the tradition of the humanity expressed in that shine, for it was hope and love. That was a gift from my parents to me, my sister, my brothers.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/shine/
Dragons like shiny balls. Lights shine on mirrors, ornaments and Christmas trees. Lights shine independently and in the dark of night. They shine on castles in Budapest.
But the best thing that shines is my daughter with happiness in the dress she made for her wedding…three years ago. She still shines with that happiness today.
I’m a good friend of Murphy’s, indeed, I know him quite well. I’m always ready to receive him when he visits, but I dread those visits. He causes me a vexation of spirit and planning every time he drops into my life. First, it was a nudge and sleeping through a class. Then it was being late for a music lesson and running face first into a door. That door was never locked, it was the main lobby door, for heaven’s sake. But someone thought it was a security problem, they hadn’t had any incidents in the past, but it was 1979, and it was the end of an era. I broke my glasses, and I’m so far sighted that I couldn’t see a thing for the next month, while I tried to get new glasses. I finally put them back together with masking tape. It didn’t help my image, self or otherwise.
I normally don’t think about the million and one things that have gone wrong at the last minute, but I should. One was waiting on a bus corner when my parents were out of town. I missed the bus, and instead, met up with some friends who went dancing and then out to breakfast, the whole time insisting that because I was 18, I could hang out with them before they finally gave me a ride home. Guess who came home when they couldn’t reach me on the phone. But Murphy was good to me that night, on my bus corner someone was murdered. My dad was furious, but when he heard the story, he wasn’t so mad at Murphy after all. Me? Well, he was my dad. He was entitled. I tried really hard not to turn his hair white, I did try, but he turned white anyway, and his forehead was extended to the back of his head. The four children in our family never looked into who caused him all that stress, for we each had some level of guilt.
I’m well past just being a grownup now, and I’ve had lots of Murphy time. I’m almost done with Ruckus, 63,000 words of sarcastic humor about transitions and running off to Fairy. I want to make sure that nothing goes wrong along the way to meeting with an agent or a publisher. So, looking on the internet, I saw the most incredible opportunity. “A Winter Escape” was listed on Twitter and I saw it. Eagerly looking up the site, I found The Seymour Agency was going on a winter cruise with writers, agents, movie producers and more. There would be classes from the Writer’s Digest about all sorts of topics, from writing a proposal for a book to writing the book itself. It said to book with Vacations to Go, a prominent vacation broker, and sign up for Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Sea’s trip in February. So, I asked my husband, and he practically bounced off his chair and into the air with joy. “I think you have a winner,” he said, “I believe in you.” So, we agreed to go on a five day cruise. (If it had been a three day cruise, I would have passed. I watched Gilligan’s Island as a child, so I was forewarned about that option.)
I signed up with Vacations to Go and paid the deposit. Right after that, Murphy arrived. My air conditioner died. That was a thousand dollars, then my father-in-laws a.c. died. That was the same weekend. We help my father-in-law when he needs it, after all, he’s a great guy, and it’s the right thing to do. So we slid toward the second deadline for the convention and classes with very little room to spare. I sent an e-mail to the Agency, and bless her heart, Nicole said it would not be a problem if the check got there before our payroll check did. I sent the check in the mail. I gave it four days to arrive. Then it was quiet. A little to quiet, Murphy quiet. The deadlines passed ,and so did October. I thought it might be a good thing to check up on life in the fast lane.
It was a good thing I had. Murphy had not signed me into the proper dinner shift, in fact, he seems to have signed me out. I wasn’t listed anywhere on the manifest list and was almost in tears, as the man in charge told me that I could probably go to the classes, but…
It all came to right with Nicole’s help. She reassured me that I was going to have a great time on the cruise. I felt much better after her e-mail. So I decided to write about the experience of the oopses that life gives us, the ones that auto-correct spellings and aids by changing those spellings that had nothing to do with content I was typing. The phone rang, and my mother told me that I had written a check on the wrong account. Murphy!!! She followed that by saying that it was better that I had used the account I did, the other was needed for other things. So, Murphy, it’s okay this time, but stop sitting over there on the couch making the lights blink on and off. You’re starting to wear away my patience. Where is that save button? And give me back my commas!
He’s got the best smile to go with this poem. Go visit him on Scribbled Verse.
Imagine my surprise when I signed on this evening to have received a circular award for being unique in my blogging, but the surprise is who the award came from. There is a young lady named Tooki, https://tookii.com.au/2016/10/21/unique-blogger-award/ from Australia. She’s young, enthusiastic and all about families. She also is under 13 years I believe, in that in between age of 9 and 13 anyway. If I’m wrong, Tooki, please forgive me and feel free to correct me. This young lady blogs about swing seats, clothes, kitties, and KITTIES, her mum, family, family trips and adventures. If I were to meet her in person, I am pretty sure I’d be met with a barrage of questions, a listening ear and maybe even a game of cards or chess. She’s the type of kid that makes you want to be her age again. Full of the world and carefully protected by her parents, she lets people know about the business that the family started together. And she makes me laugh, even when I’m blue. I’d love her to meet Annie from Australia who is another contact I’ve made on WordPress.
She answers her questions on the link I typed above, then she gives her nominees three different questions and requests that I answer them. SO I will…
Who are you in a crisis? (ie the crier, the fixer, the organizer, to name a few) I’m a fixer. I run toward the fire, accident or where I’m needed. I don’t think, I act. Time for panic and tears when all done.
Do you prefer a story with pictures or left up to your own imagination. I love art. I love to paint, sketch, use pastels and crayons. Every person has their own art within them. I think the two are so linked that my imagination comes out when I create pictures. Most of the books I read now are no longer full of great art. So I have to make the pictures in my mind. I dream the books I read and colorful art arrives and changes. Enjoy the pictures while others provide them, and be ready to dream your pictures when you get the chance.
If you could speak any language, which? And why? Chinese, it’s a language of great subtlety. It lacks the articles English uses: the, a, an. There is less emphasis on things being male or female or neuter. It uses characters instead of letters. I’ve heard it takes forever to learn if you aren’t born into a Chinese family.
Now I am supposed to pick my nominees.
thechangingpalette A talented artist and photographer at thechangingpalette.com
Danny of https://dreambigdreamoften.co His blogs are so varied that I am pleased to follow him into many different areas.
Dozhub (for the love of the Cat) https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/50864660/posts/1194991743
Sueashby7 Perpetual essence, a talented poet https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/40439798/posts/119497987
A Not So Jaded Life, another talented poet https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/16973930/posts/1194168249
MKvecchio, yes, another poet https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/2558296/posts/1194920608
My three questions for each of you:
Rules:
Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nominating you.
Answer the questions.
In the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family, nominate 8-13 people for the same award.
Ask them 3 questions.
Ann WJ White 