Quote For The Day - Stop the Hissy Fit, People - YOU LOST

There was a huge, okay, semi-huge march on Washington this past Saturday organized by people who want read change and fiscal responsibility brought to government. Though they lack concrete ideas about how to get it, that had all kinds of cute paranoid printed items claiming Obama is the cause of ALL the problems in this country.  How fresh, how new...really!   Some of the signage was down right sicko....but that is another story.  Here  is Andrew Sullivan's response to one such tea-bagger.  Thank you, Mr. Sullivan.

The protestors keep saying that they want their country back. Sorry, my fellow small-governmenters, but this country is a democracy, and you didn't lose your country, you just lost an election. You had your chance for eight years. You blew it, and you lost. What Obama is doing is what he was elected to do. The principled response is not a massive, extremist-riddled hissy fit a few months in, but a constructive set of proposals to build on universal care for a more market-friendly and cost-conscious system in the future. You have to win some political credibility for that; and then you have to beat the man you lost so badly to last year. That's the civil and civilized way forward for the right. It also seems, alas, to be the one they are currently refusing to take.

Quote for the Day

 Heh...found this on my own blog!  How appropriate...

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.
                                               Mahatma Gandhi

Remember, Reflect, Serve

As I spoke to the children about today, they openly wondered why we were 'celebrating' such a sad day in our history?  My daughter's friend lost her dad in the towers and to them, it was like having a funeral over and over again. It didn't make sense to them why we would want to remember.

Ready to head out the door for school, I hardly felt like I had an appropriate answer - except to say that when we remember, we honor those whose lives were lost - and yes, it is sad but not a bad sad.

Then, I reminded them that the President wants to make 9/11 become a day of service for all.  We serve, reach out to others to help -- just as so many did on that tragic day. 

Later in the day, I read this by Ryan Sager of Neuroworld

Why do we pull the memory of 9/11 out of a box once a year, as a nation, and run our fingers over it? Not to advance the story. Not to deepen our understanding. But to keep the memory accessible. To make sure we know where it is. To remember where we were that day. To trigger little details that might be lost forever if we don’t touch them again this year.

So, as 9/11 becomes more distant, and you ask yourself why we should bother remembering at all, remember this: We don’t remember to learn; we don’t remember to stay angry; we don’t remember to keep from moving on; we remember because we’re human, and that’s how we process our world and keep from coming unmoored.

We remember because that is what humans do -- and it grounds us and reminds us of who we are, and how we want to proceed in the future. To turn the pain of the past into energy for service strikes me as just right.

 

Minister Mom Back To Work

 

I may be brief in the days to come as head back to parish ministry (on a part-time temporary basis).  Even 10-15 hours a week may feel like A LOT with all the other things on the plate.

But the call came. I can think of a thousand spiritual 'reasons' why I said yes...maybe none say it so well as the famous Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“If you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”  

Some food for thought and I begin again what I probably never really stopped in the first place.

--------------------

       He has showed you, O man, what is good.
       And what does the LORD require of you?
       To act justly and to love mercy
       and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

If It Works For America's Heros...

 

We are big...HUGE Firefighter fans in this household.  With a respect bordering on reverence, the men (and some women) in this profession are a topic of conversation nearly every day.  Out of the mouth of our three year old, the praise is real and we are all in accord.

Perhaps that is why THIS opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof captured my attention today.

It is a piece about HEALTH CARE in which he recounts all the single payer government programs that WORK in our country.  The ones on which we rely daily (as in every time you get your mail...).  Among them, he reminds, is our nation's vast network of FIREFIGHTERS.

It is well worth a read.  I learned something I did not know: 

Until the mid-19th century, firefighting was left mostly to a mishmash of volunteer crews and private fire insurance companies. In New York City, according to accounts in The New York Times in the 1850s and 1860s, firefighting often descended into chaos, with drunkenness and looting.
So almost every country moved to what today’s health insurance lobbyists might label “socialized firefighting.” In effect, we have a single-payer system of public fire departments.

I dare say that if we stop listening to all the fear mongering...or Glen Becking...and begin thinking a bit more clearly about all the good government does for this country, we may well end up creating a generation of politicians as trustworthy and heroic as firefighters.

 

A Visit To The Brattleboro Fire Station, Vermont

 

TORTUOUS NEWS OF THE DAY

I had been reading rumors the somebody somewhere began to float the idea the Dick Cheney should run for president in 2012.

Well, I found the source here.  It was an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal.

Geneva Convention be damned...Rule of Law...watch out!  President Cheney's gonna set you straight.  

OMG...that is all I can think to say.

September Song

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you

****************

Well, those political approval ratings may be dropping fast -- and if I were going by the news, I could easily declare that the country was in an anxious 'change back' tailspin.   From my perspective America, as the media portrays her, is behaving like a recalcitrant teenager.

THANK GOODNESS....our summer was filled with much more...for without the energy and optimism of our children, their constant questions, demands, interests, tears and laughter I'm quite sure my approval ratings on the first of this month would also be taking a nosedive.

Instead, we've had so many precious, summer days -- I can hardly believe it is September again.