Very, Very Down. Wake Up American and Start Smelling the Coffee

Very down. Very, very down. Very, very, very down.

There's a great song in the musical "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" where the kids have to write a book report with lots of words. Hard to sing, funny song... when I can't write or think of words I think of that song.

Peter Rabbit is a stupid book about a stupid rabbit who steals vegetables from other people's gardens.. 1..2..3..4.. Peter Rabbit is a very stupid book about a very stupid rabbit who steals.. Well you get the idea.

Very, very, very, very down.

Some man (a black man from Jamaica) asked me today very politely trying to understand but upset.. "why they keep calling them refugees?" Apparently this has been interpreted as some form of slur. I told him because they lost their homes, they will not be allowed to return to the flooded city for a long time.. months. They may not ever be able to return as the homes may be bulldozed. They are homeless refugees from the flooded City of New Orleans. He thought on it and said, thanks for explaining it. I told him it's like that reporter that used a word "atlantis" and everyone keeps repeating it.. over and over. But, they are refugees in that sense of the word. Does not mean second class.. means they were forced to leave their home (ie homeless) and didn't get to take anything but a backpack with them. Storm refugees.

No matter how much we would like not to go there.. seems the whole world is divided along color line still. Which makes me very, very, very down.

Would like to get past that crap. Sick of it. I'm the little girl who moved into a neighborhood in Miami once called "little Georgia" which was the polite way of saying it was full of poor white trash and some little girl came over and peered in through the front door jalousies and asked wide eyed and curious, "Are you really Jewish? I've never seen Jews before?" Nice little girl, she didn't mean it nasty.. she just had never seen jews living on the block before. They were by the way.. from Georgia. Nice people. Mother took care of me when my mother went into labor in the house (water broke) with my brother Jay. They had a pick up truck and a canoe type boat and would come back with stuff to eat on Sunday afternoon after huntin in the Glades and we'd made real old fashioned tutti fruti ice cream in a wooden ice cream maker with a crank. Once they brought back a porcupine to play with. Or.. maybe they ate it who knows.
Thought in the year 2005 every word we use, every breath we take would not be measured by the terms and found to be white or black. Heard it said white people were said to be "looking for food" and blacks were "looting." Don't know.. I know I told someone that if "they" were taking food... or clothes.. who cares, let them take it. I said "they" as in people. Never once did I see white or black. I was yelled at online in some boards for being some commie leftist who doens't care if the moral fiber of our society is breaking down by thugs and animals. Okay.. Well, I do care about the moral fiber of our society I just figure like this.. am very practical. Everything is gone or going to be gone. It has been written off value wise or lost. Non recoverable. Who the hell cares if some child who is living on someone else's rooftop grabbed some fake designer clothes from Wal-Mart. As for the plasma tv and ipods well... bet reality hasn't settled in that they will have to leave it behind. Maybe if they do get it out of the city some Uncle Bob who doesn't really like their sorry ass will allow them to stay in St. Louis a few weeks cause they have a few Ipods on them.

Let's move on. Words are words.. let's just move on.

This whole weekend makes me want to vomit in ways. Even though I don't feel nauseous. Just like over my head. Done.

We are living in a world where... no one can deal with reality.

We have tons of people in online dating sites...that type away in chat rooms looking for some perfect person but don't want to put clothes on and let the not perfect person see their frailities. Their bald spots, extra weight, gray hair, bad teeth or saggy breasts. Women put on pictures from ten years earlier. Varicose veins and stained teeth from too many years of smoking. Leathery skin. Beer bellies. You look through pictures that are way too old and hear too much bullshit.

No one wants to deal with reality.

I cannot get hysterical or cry for some old man who lived a full life and refused to get off the bench like some of those people in New Orleans refuse to leave their shacks.. in disbelief the water won't go away.

I am not going to get political. He was a good man, bad man, great judge.. too this ..too that.. I don't care if he gave equal rights to martians visiting on refugee status from Jupiter. He was too damn old to be sitting on the bench of the highest court in the land because he refused to get off the bench. And, for political reasons..no less. Judging on topics that he cannot in any way really fully comprehend. The man had to be what? Helped from the hospital to be sworn in.. and couldn't talk. The man was NOT functioning but there are no term limits..

I have heard people say .. supporters of Bush.. "that poor man has to find someone to take his position now" BULLSHIT. If Bush doens't know for sure who is going to name for that spot he is indeed totally out of it (which this week does seem to make you wonder) and should retire.. leave.. take a long vacation or something. Because Bush knew he was dying.. Bush knew it was a matter of time and Bush should have the name already of who he is putting there.

Don't you see?

It's the same thing as New Orleans.

They knew it would flood. They knew it would fill with human feces, dead bodies, chemicals and they have ONE CRANE working on the repairs in one part of the levee. Saw it on tv.. a few channels.. one crane. I think the reporter said, "is that the sorriest sight you have ever seen? One crane."

They knew. We knew. We also knew he was dying and should have stepped down and this is no big shock. Mourn his life if you like him.. fine.

The system is broken.

We all wait til the horse is out of the stable to wonder where to find him.

We are not proactive anymore in any way.

Then man who asked me about why they call them refugees. He asked me what I thought about the levee and New Orleans. I asked him how old he was. I said they knew since 1980 officially, first big government report. He said, "I was one year old then." Mind you he is a BIG GUY.. GROWN UP.. a man with a family and a wedding ring and a job and.............. His whole entire life they knew the city would flood in such a storm.

Didn't take a brain surgeon to know that the judge was going to die any day, any week.
I think if you can work.. you should work. No one should be forced to retire at 62 or 64 or 66 but EIGHTY???? The most important job in the land second to the President...

No term limits. No mandatory retirement at say... age 70? 75?

No money to fix the levee.

Some day he will die.. just wait it out.

Some day New Orleans won't dodge the bullet.

Why are we all waiting for someday to fix all the things that are broken?

There is a great saying. If it aint broke..don't fix it. The other part of that is.. if it is broke.. FIX IT.

This is a no brainer.

I voted. I voted for Kerry. I worked for Kerry.

I have been a republican since I registered to vote in the 1970s. I am very conservative politically. Takes a lot for me to re-register to be a democrat but I did.

I did so because I wanted to sleep at night and know that in my heart of hearts.. my deepest part of my soul I felt I at least tried to do something. I didn't just say "oh well" and "what can I do" and when I went to bed at night I voted my consience.

Do I love Kerry? No.. but I would bet you all money.. all of you that he would have been there in 2 or 3 days .. no longer. And, he would have done more from the start.

Yes, President Bush is my President. I didn't vote for him. I did the first time. I didn't the second time. I'm not going to follow him blindly because he has the title. And, I hope we are much more careful choosing the next time around.

And... when all the committees are done meeting..all he hearings.. we will realize what we knew deep down... there is only so much money to go around and money gets juggled and New Orleans didn't get any... not enough. Someone else did and the money went somewhere else.
Give charity at home.

Says in the Torah.
First you help a poor man who comes to you.
Second you help your family, syblings, parents.
Third you help your community.
Fourth.. you give to the poor people of Israel.
Apply that however you want.

Think Global. Act Local.

There is so much to do in this country to help people it should be our first concern.
And, this is from the girl with the degree in International Relations.

FEMA was for Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires.. not for Homeland Security to be used as a private, conditional slush fund. It should not be a part of Homeland Security.

And... that is my opinon.

I don't feel this way because I am suddenly a registered democrat.
If Bush would have flown to Baton Rouge on his plane after that speech in San Diego. Gotten into a Presidential Helicopter and flown over the flooding city of New Orleans and the battered landscape of Mississippi several days ago.. I would not be so bitter today.

My bitterness is not because of my party affiliation. I vote the man. I always did.. or the woman. My bitterness is because of what I saw this week and the weakness that exists in American Leadership.

We can do better.
We must do better.

We must stop hiding from reality and hoping we never will have to deal with an 80 year old, ill, Supreme Court Judge dying and we must stop hiding from a scenario that was listed as one of the top 3 most likely disasters in America today.
1 was a Terror Attack on NY
1 was New Orleans being hit by a big Cane and the levee breaking.

Would someone tell me please what the 3rd biggie is and how they will fix it and make it right?
I'm beginning to wonder what that 3rd one was in the report.

Take care.. give money... give time if you can... take contol of your life and go after what you want while you are alive to do it and let your kids or friends learn a lesson that you don't sit around waiting and regretting.

.. oh.. my son just came in.
The young one, the baby.. age 11 and he says watching the TWC local forecast.. radar on the 8s.. "Wo.. Mommy do we have a hurricane forming?"

Chuckled.. he can read radar. Yes, Zalmy.. we have a low forming off shore and there is low confidence in the models.

Teach... your children well..