The Wrong Lilies

The Wrong Lilies

Thursday, October 31, 2013

LIVING ON THE EDGE



The United States, because of its size, is both blessed and cursed, with a tremendous about of coastal exposure, all along our eastern, southern, and western boundaries.   The blessing, of course, lies in access to fishing waters, and to the natural beauties found all along our coastal edges.  As one who simply finds sea air among the most wonderful of fragrances and the beauty of waves and the sound of surf wonderfully healing to one’s spirit, I can well understand the loyalty of those who love the ocean and want to live there.  The curse, of course, is our vulnerability along those same coasts. 

There seem to be so many considerations:  exposure to natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, just for example; exposure to man-made disasters such as the monstrous oil spill in our southern gulf; the difficulties, even with our excellent Coast Guard, in keeping out unwanted human invaders; the deposit of ocean debris from such events as the tsunami in Japan; the normal beach erosion plus the sort that is now being experienced because of higher tides.

The fact that communities have been built along the waters’ edges in almost every area of our massive coast line means that over and over there has been destruction and rebuilding for centuries.  And make no mistake, our entire society bears the brunt of helping to recover from coastal disasters and of helping to rebuild.  Insurance money, tax money from all levels of government, charitable assistance:  all of these must be available.

The real dilemma is whether we can keep on rebuilding and rebuilding along our
beautiful and vulnerable and huge coastlines. Certain areas such as New York City can perhaps devise systems to handle storm surges but the entire length of the East Coast and all along the Gulf Coast and all along the West Coast?  The dilemma is whether or not protective wetlands should be allowed and coastal development should be re-thought and restructured so that our coasts will be protected rather than settled as they are now.  Living on the edge of the water is a choice and no economy can fund that sort of choice.   If we as a society really love our coastlines, we must protect them from ourselves.


Monday, October 28, 2013

The Leaves Are Back!


Well, it’s that time of year, and so those leaves which provided precious shade during the heat and glare of summer are now cascading down everywhere … again.

The other day, after a weary time of raking, chopping, mowing, vacuuming and bagging so many leaves, we made a semi-serious offer to our mailman.  “Wouldn’t you like to take a few bags of leaves home with you?”  we inquired.  


THE CRISIS CAMPAIGN AGAINST US



Franklin Roosevelt said, regarding events during the Great Depression, “Better the occasional mistake of a government that cares, than the constant omission of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.” 

The Obama Administration seems to be trying to do the things needed doing for our country.   But there are many who seem to be not only blocking every initiative, whether it be a jobs program, a public-private partnership to repair infrastructure, immigration reform, gun safety laws or providing health care for the uninsured.   The constant obstruction is bad enough, but these same individuals, unfortunately from the fragmented Republican Party, are also constantly trying to create fear and crisis in the American public.  The moment these individuals run into a brick wall, as happened with the government shutdown when it was realized, after almost three weeks, that they could not do what they thought they could do, they immediately brought out all the crazies, again, and started in, again, on the NSA ‘scandal’, the Benghazi ‘scandal’, the ACA rollout ‘scandal’, and whatever else they can scrape up that would turn attention toward the Presidency and away from their own behavior.

There are many who would ask what sort of behavior the Republican Party is really exhibiting?  Our concern is that the Republican Party has become like a snake swallowing its own tail, at a time when we need discussion and dissent and intelligent decisions in our government.  In other words, we need a credible Republican Party to keep the Democratic Party balanced and credible as well.  And you cannot create credibility by simply creating and/or promoting one crisis after another. 

When enough voters wake up and find reasonable candidates to replace as many as possible of the GOP House and Senate members who either sponsored the government shutdown or simply went along for the ride at our country's expense, then and only then will the GOP realize that lies don't work, doing nothing doesn't work, and that the American voters simply want a government that works for them.  It is, after all, OUR government, yours and mine.

Friday, October 18, 2013

DON'T BLAME POOR TED CRUZ



Everyone seems to be blaming Poor Ted Cruz for the government shutdown.  And goodness knows, he put his face everywhere encouraging it.  But he is just one poor, stupid, foolish man with a big mouth.

If you want to blame anyone, blame all the folks who put Poor Ted Cruz in a powerful place in our government with their votes.  And blame all the stupid, pathetic, mindless sheep in the House of Representatives who followed Poor Ted Cruz down an unnecessary path.  And blame all the sources of huge amounts of money who made these foolish, stupid people confident they could do whatever they wanted without penalty at the ballot box.  And blame the Supreme Court, who made that dazzling decision that corporations are people.
 

And what about the rest of us, who blindly accept candidates without checking them out, letting the local political machinery pick and choose, and not making the effort to find a candidate that will do a good job, and then not supporting that candidate sufficiently.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, folks.


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The truth about the actions of the US House of Representatives

The following link shows a video and commentary, which explains more than I can, the change in House Standing Rule XXII and what it has contributed to the current shut down:

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/14/Change-in-lesser-known-House-rule-a-big-hit-on-YouTube/UPI-90621381784392/?spt=rln&or=1

We are so very frightened for our country.  We are so very vulnerable right now to every sort of attack:  economic, terrorist, anything.  We and everyone who has a computer has now seen the story on U-Tube about the Rules Committee of the House changing Standing Rule XXII in the middle of the night to prevent any member of the House bringing a Senate bill to a vote.  This is a terrible miscarry of power and we are sharing this information with everyone we know, hoping that they in turn will share it as well.  We are frightened.

Monday, October 14, 2013

SIMPLE QUESTIONS FOR CONGRESS



Has the Republican Party realized that independent moderates such as ourselves have solidified our opposition to the Republican Party because of all this extremist behavior, because we know, and we know that the Republican Party knows, that there are and always have been direct and specific options to introducing legislation to improve any deficiencies in the ACA, without one single moment of a shut down?  That private-public coalitions to improve our infrastructure and create jobs could have been created and supported in just one of the 47 votes to repeal the ACA, leaving the remaining 46 votes to fix other problems we have, such as immigration, education, working on acceptable budgets and the list is long.

Has anyone considered that in the eyes of the other major industrialized nations in the world, the fact that our government would be shut down in an attempt to block health care in the only major industrialized nation which does not have it might appear bizarre behavior?  That those other nations have provided health care and food and shelter for their most vulnerable citizens for decades and done it successfully with far less resources that America has, even after this Republican behavior?

Has anyone considered that in the eyes of the poor nations of the world, all of those who aspire to be as rich and powerful as America, they are shocked that a branch of our government would vote 47 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and be willing to actually damage America, when that same branch has the responsibility for providing for America?

Has the Republican Party realized that the tiny and shrinking approval rate they now retain consists of either voters whom they have deceived, or voters simply too foolish to be informed?  And that by this behavior they have alienated so many veterans, government workers, the poor, the folks who love national parks, the elderly and the ill, indeed everyone either affected by the shut down OR those who are worried and upset about the government shut down.  And the list is very long.