Last Day of The Hurricane Season - Random Rants

Well... this is the view from up above http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/Lasttrpg8wvL.html

No storms, high pressure in control of the Caribbean basin and frontal flow across the upper 48. Infact if you want to see weather... there will be lots of it the next few days across the Eastern part of the country. My son in NY called to tell me there are supposed to be strong winds over Shabbos..strong, gusts to Tropical Storm force. Imagine anyone out on Long Island is going to have one heck of a Friday night as winds will race in from the south according to the last report I saw. Snow looks possible for this week ... Miriam may have to deal with snow sooner rather than later.

As for me.. down here in this "third world country" I am sitting barefoot, ankles crossed resting up on the edge of the sofa with the windows open and blowing beautiful fresh air on my back..which is partially exposed as I am in my morning tank top and long loose skirt... feeling the breeze on my neck, listening to birds and watching a pair of parrots fly across the sky. My perch on the world from a tropical paradise... its a bit chilly (must be mid 70s) and maybe I'll go put a real shirt or take a hot shower or walk barefoot across the cuban tile floor to the washer and put my clothes in the dryer. Third World? I'm sorry but I think the poor man who has to give his interview by the fireplace in November lives in a white toast world where everyone speaks English (or wherever his personal country club and golf course are) and everyone I suppose is from the right side of the tracks.

Let me explain the term THIRD WORLD. It doesn't denote a place where people speak multiple languages and have their choice of coffee or breakfast bread. In Miami we have Bagels, Corn Bread, Cuban Bread, Whole Wheat and a wide variety of breads in a wide variety of wonderful bakeries. Argentinian, Peruvian, Haitian, "American", Kosher Style, Kosher, New York, French, Italian, Creole... that is called diversity. Our three bedroom houses cost what mansions do in other places and people from all over the world to buy beautiful hi-rise loft condos overlooking the magical moon over Miami rise over beautiful Biscayne Bay. Third World country denotes a poor place where people are starving and waiting for economic aid from countries better off ... a place where people are out of work and out of the loop technologically. I sure hope this Senator isn't on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Obviously to him "Third World" = Not of English Origin.

I guess Russia and China are third world too. As for crime... shame his state botched the murder investigation of that poor little girl who was dressed up like a beauty queen at the age of 5 or so and they still can't figure out who did it.

What a world. I may often think of moving. Lately, I obsess on it all the time. Maybe I should move "up north" (as we say down south) and be closer to my kids, grandchildren who are still babies but will someday realize Grandma doesn't live here and well... be closer to my "center" so to speak in some ways. New York, New England.... somewhere that I can start over. Yet, on other days... I think... "my gosh it is so beautiful here" Yesterday I took a walk on Biscayne Blvd, looked at the light hitting the palms and banyans, watched the waves a block away on Biscayne Bay, everyone was nice, friendly, building going on everywhere, playful buildings rising high in the air, old stately mansions being remodeled or torn down to build more beautiful buildings. A row of Royal Poincianna Trees which are losing their leaves but will look so royal and gorgeous come May. The Publix down the block has every delight and the Starbucks has the best smelling coffee. I walked past a gardenia bush in bloom...or jasmine... Cars speeding, the new Opera Center opened, Mid Town Miami about to open up... doesn't look Third World to me. It looks like America.

It looks like America.. like the Melting Pot that America is.... most of America anyway. Someone get Mr. Senator from Denver a copy of Emma Lazarus please.

And as for me... this tropical baby, southern lady, jewish bubby doing a ragtime rant on the last day of the Hurricane Season... may I say to all of America.. come on down. Ain't no hurricanes no where around.

This was our Tropical Sabbatical from the Hurricane Season. Our roof tops are no longer blue, our building boom is back on track, our restaurants open, our views of Biscayne Bay are incredible and if you haven't seen a full moon rise over Miami.. you are missing one of the most magical sites in the world.

Last Day of Hurricane Season... a busted, bummer season meant for rebuilding and breathing a bit after the wilder season of 2005 and 2004. What will 2007 bring? Who knows which way the wind will blow? Someone go talk to El Nino and see what he whispers in your ear.

For anyone who wants to smile and laugh a bit... Jim Williams will be doing his thing tonight at Hurricane City. He lost a bet (more than one..) and he will be blucking, plucking..however you spell it dressed as a chicken on his end of the year Hurricane Show. Jim is a good guy.. about the best you can find around.. and he is a man of his word so... he will dress up like a chicken for the broadcast as... we didn't get to Joyce let alone to the M or N or P storm.

http://www.hurricanecity.com/live1.htm
www.hurricanecity.com check out the message board or read and learn about hurricanes because this little break was just that.. a breather and nothing more. We are in a period of heightened activity and we will continue having hurricane days again in the near future. For me..today... going to spread my wings and fly, relax, sigh, smile and enjoy the fact that I live in a diverse, multi-cultural, beautiful city neatly nestled along Biscayne Bay. Three guesses where I am going today :)

Besos Bobbi

Warm Weather Tuesday... 3 Days Left of the Atlantic Hurricane Season

Not sure which is better... days left of the Hurricane Season or how many days til Chanukah? I better start shopping or thinking or looking or cooking.. something.. Then there is Yud Tes Kislev. What to do there? Where to go?

Found an incredible book yesterday in a Jewish Library I am working at this week. A book with pictures of chassidic groups that was put together back in the early 60s; Lubavitch being a chassidic group it made the book. There I was, transported back to the hair styles and fashions of my earliest connections to Chabad.. a little before my mother actually connected but early enough to know faces and people and say "oh my gosh, that's ______ " at that Chupah in their Sukkah. Turning pages as I traveled back in time to a place I can see in my eyes, very alive, very still there somewhere in my memory I suppose. Early Crown Heights... before the young Yuppie like Chabad kids took over the "Heights" and everything changed. Turning pages, one by one and suddenly there was this picture of the Rebbe standing in front of his chair, mid-prayer and he must have turned to look at the photographer... the eyes of the Rebbe just stare right into your soul in that picture. Like so many I have seen but more so and it took me a few minutes to realize he was younger there than he had been when I met him but still he had the same look. You couldn't stop staring at the picture if you saw it... eats a hole in you and right through you. Can't say it automatically changes you but it grabs you and connects you. Okay...it's the view from where I used to daven in 770, women's side.. first shul as you walked in near Kingston and Eastern Parkway (old shul.. not the new little one they opened on the other side later) and where Chaya and I would stand on Friday nights because she shlepped me out early as soon as we lit candles to walk in my high platform 1970s heels all the way down Montgomery .. up Kingston.. UP Kingston and to 770 so we (she) had a good place with the rest of our class. Yup, that photographer had to be standing right below where I used to stand. Yes.. I am obsessing. Why? Don't know why but because it's one of those things.

Sometimes you can be transported back to a certain time or place. A sound (the wind), a scent, an aroma, a favorite movie, a favorite song... you are zoom, zoom, zoomed back in time and space to where you were standing when you saw the Rebbe, watched the Dolphins win in 72 at the Orange Bowl, Grandma's kitchen, a strong cold front blasting it's way down to Miami and walking to school... walking UP Kingston Avenue :)

Hurricane Season of 2006 is coming to a close... an end... an official end of sorts. Unofficially it ended when El Nino began to dance in colors orange and red in the Pacific Ocean early in the summer.

Holiday Season of 2006 is beginning. Choose your holiday wisely :) Decorate your home and hearth. Send cards online or offline to those you love. Concentrate on memories.. old ones, new ones, making memories. Concentrate on the power of miracles and love and happiness spreading out... yeah I sound real new Agey don't I this morning?

3 Days left of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. Give thanks to the Lord that you didn't see the likes of Joyce and Michael and all those other storms that never formed. Storm trackers will as always sit in front of old video on TWC or watch Twister or their favorite Hurricane movie and remember... but our blue roof tops are getting ready for the holidays and though there is no snow on our roof tops in Miami..somewhere, someone is getting snowed on today.

Winter is here.. even if in Miami it's warm and the Heat won last night with my Rivky in the audience (and on TV) and I am going to work in sandals today and not my suede boots.

Somewhere inside my mind it is Yud Tes Kislev and I am standing in high platform heels and a warm winter coat at 3am in the morning waiting outside in front of 770 with my class who insisted they would NOT go to school the next day but did anyway... waiting for the Rebbe to walk out after a Fahrbregen and smile at us and make with his hand and laugh as he got into his car and the driver drove away and we ... walked back UP Kingston Avenue to Montgomery Street and home... waiting to see if snow would or wouldn't fall the next day.

Memories.. misty water colored memories...of the Way We Were...

Tropical Thanksgiving

They say it's not over until it's over but I think it's probably over...

Then again... this little ball of weather has been down there for days, weeks...
I think there is a post from 2 weeks ago on HurricaneCity about this ball of convection that has settled into the SW Caribbean. Maybe it's going to stay there until El Nino leaves... til next June, til May... How long can it sit there?

So...take a look for fun but don't buy any tickets for hurricane chasing in Miami unless you are hoping to enjoy the Boat Show or Art Deco weekend or watching them light the menorah in Aventura Mall because I don't think there's a snowball's chance in Bayfront Park for this thing to form but .. it's fun to watch. Maybe it will hold some Guiness Record Book for the Longest Seated Tropical Disturbance in history.

I was listening to the news the other night getting ready to go out somewhere and almost poked my eye out putting mascara on when I heard the Channel 7 News Team say they were "watching a tropical disturbance down in the Caribbean!" My mascara has come and gone a few times since, eye shadow changed from Purple to Green and back to Purple again and still that little area of tropical weather is cradled down there in the Caribbean.

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_east_loop-12.html

On a personal note... last day of Thanksgiving vacation..

I have had a beautiful Shabbos, simply beautiful and cozy and nice... read books, magazines, newspapers, worked on a puzzle of Portland Maine Lighthouse in the snow (the way it looked when I was there last winter) and hung with my kids, loved ones, had cholent, leftovers from Thanksgiving and freshly made Guacamole and Deviled Eggs. Went to Barnes and Noble with my best friend last night and had coffee and tea and talked about life and our kids. UF beat FSU (yes... ), Larry Coker got fired (expected and not upset personally...sorry Larry but this was a worse football hurricane season than a meteorological one) and Dolphins won on Thursday! Going to watch some football today, enjoy the beautiful scenery and relax tonight before going to work. Anyone with any other ideas ... keep them to yourself. I am on vacation, on location... Tropical Thanksgiving... Don't Stop the Carnival just yet.

Love and kisses or as Dina says these days

Besos, Bobbi

Thanksgiving Weather Post.. Windy Parade Day.. Watching the Wind...

Thanksgiving morning. Nothing like Thanksgiving morning to bring out the kid in a grown adult. It's the most common denominator. Kids, parents and grandparents all wake up and think one thing ... "Macy Day Parade!"

And, they smile... filled with memories of mornings spent watching the parade and various fall/winter festivities in New York. Down south we watch and smile and wonder on what like would be like on if we lived UP NORTH somewhere and had to wear jackets and coats and waited for snowflakes to fall from the skies. On rare freebie Thanksgivings we would have cold enough weather that it actually felt like Thanksgiving! Like this week... This week in Miami it was colder during the day than it was in Denver. The daytime "high" temperature reading was colder than many places up north as the El Nino Artic-Southern Express has begun to blow and bring with it... a real winter. A consolation prize to Floridians who actually like hurricanes and tropical weather... real cold fronts!

For the weather obsessed in Florida this winter has been the "REAL THING" and it's not even winter. Everyone is a little worried this is some tease where we "think we are getting winter" and then we look back at those November Cold Fronts and wonder what happened. We have been teased and tricked before by a Halloween Cold Front, a cold November and a way too warm December. Either way the Chamber of Commerce loses because they would prefer no Hurricanes and no Cold Fronts. Silly people, don't they know that's called San Diego?? (Been there, done that.. Mission Bay and Boungenvilla... oh I love San Diego)

So..........here I am. Thanksgiving Morning. Happy like a child on a day off of school and free to do pretty much whatever I want to. I even have the computer to myself! Mendy and Rivky are at Mendy's girlfriend's house hanging out and Moe and Deborah are in Italy with their Pre-Wedding, Post-Wedding, Whatever Wedding they are up to trip that was planned way before the Wedding of the Year. Alone with Zalmy and Carmella Corleone the Austrailan Sheperd that looks just a bit like a Wolf or Huskie though Moe says she is part Dingo.. he would know, it is his dog.

Had company last night and the Dog semi-behaved. She is still in the doghouse by me but at least she didn't bark like the Russians were Coming or something.. She smelled, she sniffed and she STILL barked... little "ruff ruff" barks like she was giving me her opinon or something, comments from the Doghouse. Yes, in my wierd world where art imitates life imitating life imitating art again... I'm stuck with a psycho dog once again who wants to attack a boyfriend. I wonder if I buy doggie biscuits..or designer doggie biscuits for Moe and Deb's dog if she will shut up when I have company. Does Coach make designer doggie biscuits? I wonder.. Either way she is sitting there quietly now, hanging her head with that "yeah, yeah I know you're angry at me" look..

Either way............. I give Thanks this morning for so many people in my life and out of my life. Online, offline. Kids far away in the other part of the house and far away at friend's houses and in Italy and Israel and "Up North" where the real parade is going to go on .. if the winds are below 23 mph.. sustained. Last time it was cancelled was 1971 lol haha haha .. giggling, just heard that on the news.. figures. I probably didn't even notice that year... But either way we are watching the weather to see if the Popeye Flies...

See? Weather makes the world go round.. Everything comes down to weather.. Politics, Economics and even the Macy Day Parade!

So.. I haven't been here for a while have I? Yeah, I know ... "you" love when I write. You love to read my writing. If I talked less and wrote more would you still write? Or would you just sit there smiling and reading.. making little faces when you read something you don't like or would you write even more? Not sure. Don't know. I never can figure you out and I have long since stopped trying. Now days I just enjoy the ride you take me on... wherever you are going this year, whatever characters you wish to create, whatever city or location you are working with... like little Jeanne in her bottle taken along to work with Tony... at Tony's desk as he tap, tap, taps the keys wildly... Sometimes, you better look in your little Genie Bottle because at times... I blink myself out and do my own thing. I know, you no longer worry... you have your little spy network and either way, when you least expect it I will pop up into your Space Capsule and surprise you and Roger :P Course if I could I would blink you away to Greenland or Iceland or New Zealand or some land.. until you pay enough pennance to come back to the not real world and fly me away on your magic carpet ride again..

So here I am... home today, computer to myself in an excellent mood and not even cooking for Thanksgiving this year. Going to Roberta's and Ronnie's and even Ronnie will be there to joke around with ... kids, turkey, stupid dog... (their dog, not Carmella who is smart as a fox and knows damn well what she is doing).. Alone with Zalmy (Mommy's "baby") and might go out, might stay home, might read the paper, go visit Aunt Ada.. might just lie in bed and listen to the Country Music on my Cable TV. What a world.. how far we have come ... took decades of Cable TV for us to figure out how to use it as an old fashioned radio without commercials.. Great music, left it on last night.. all night... in the background. Today's Country. Woke up, smiled, fell back to sleep. And, always... I knew just at the edge of my conciousness... tomorrow morning... Macy Day Parade, Oh Wow!! Even if I only watch a few minutes or so of it while listening to the CD I finally found.. "Don't Stop The Carnival" or maybe I will open up Caleb's music box and play one of the two records I found at the thrift store (Red, White and Blue) ..two of my all time favorites. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Coal Miners Daughter. For real mental punishment I can try the Bryan Adams CD I found while out with Ronnie looking through some CD exchange store in Broward.
I can even make some pancakes with Maple Syrup or... French Toast... or... go out for breakfast.

Reading recipes today. Going to find five new recipes I have never made and make them this month. Found a great recipe for parsnip and potato pancakes for Chanukah. I have some blue and gold tinsel to decorate this house a bit.. not sure where but I'll put it somewhere. New house, different house, different traditions... even if I am only planning on being here temporarily. New kitchen to cook in :) Chanukah is coming. I should look for the menorahs as I have no idea where they are now that I think on it. Maybe in a box still? Reading some great stories on Southern Jews that are beyond inspiring, beyond inspirational, beyond anything you can imagine. It's like coming home and finding people who lived my life and my grandma Mary's life... and her mother's life. A world that gets ignored by most of American Jews who think the Mason Dixie Line is anything south of Philly and think oddly that those Jews in Baltimore are Southern. Not my family... when it gets to my family my grandchildren have to start using two hands to figure out how many generations American they are and they are from the South.. white toast, grits and potato latkes.

My first memories of Thanksgiving? Uncle Oscar's house and setting up the table with the little Pilgrim people and wax turkeys and table ornaments. Aunt Ada making her Southern Style Kosher Cracker Stuffing.. no egg.. she hated the way my mother made it with egg. Corn muffin like biscuits. Sweet Potatoes with marshmellow and probably kosher pickles in her relish dish. Sneaking off with my father (before he became Orthodox) to the Biscayne Restaurant on Biscayne Blvd and getting a turkey dinner with real stuffing and gravy on the mashed potatoes.. wasn't supposed to tell Mother who hated making "big dirty birds" and wanted to buy a little Kosher Empire Turkey Breast Roast that was not "big ugly dirty old bird" that she hated touching. Mother had a problem with BIG things it seems. I don't. And, I love turkey! The bigger the better and more room for more stuffing. Cornbread stuffing! Even have good memories with my ex-husband where we would sneak off every year to sara's Kosher Restaurant and get their Vegetarian Turkey Dinner which we would bitch about because they couldn't make Pumpkin Pie and had to serve some wierd applesauce for dessert. Speaking of ex-in laws.. oh wow.. Grandma Ruth (as the kids call her these days) made an incredible Turkey for Thanksgiving and for Chanukah... I should follow her lead this year and make Turkey, Latkes and prepare the cranberry sauce mixed with applesauce like she made it. I remember one year being so sick with morning sickness (which I always got at night) that I couldn't go near the Turkey for Thanksgiving and was SOOO thankful that it was gone by Chanukah when she made the turkey again and I got a second chance... and ate it all up! Yes, Thanksgiving is full of memories... of people no longer with us but happy memories all the same. Uncle Oscar, Grandma Ruth and the Biscayne Restaurant.. gone but not forgotten (I oddly have a postcard of it lol) and Jay wanting real turkey and Ronnie wanting real pumpkin pie and me wanting a real Thanksgiving... you know the kind where big goyish families somewhere in Kentucky or Missouri or somewhere on One Life to Live and As the World Turns have uncles and aunts and cousins and several sets of Grandparents who go over the river and throught he woods to Grandmother's house... Okay, my kids have that life but they are far away... and won't be here for Thanksgiving. Rivky and Mendy will get their butts to Roberta's house, Zalmy is still mine for a few years before he finds a girlfriend and divides time with Mommy and whoever and Miriam is in NY with the NY Meyers and Shayna is stuck in Philly missing her Mommy (smiling.. Mommy's oldest baby girl, very bonded to Mommy... and stop calling her Shay... it's Shayna, Esther Shayna) and Sruly is probably having turkey sushi somewhere :)


So...wherever you are this Thanksgiving Morning that has just a bit of the taste of Christmas, Chanukah and the End of the Year Holidays all rolled into it... know that I give thanks for everyone in my life (including you.. who knows who you are) and for second and third chances and for learning way too late in life to go after what I want and to take chances and oh...what is that song you always send me... Love the One Youre With? Paved paradise and put up a parking lot? Giggling.. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow? Overjoyed or Overboard? Did Jimmy Buffett ever sing a Thanksgiving song... some over the sailboat and through the pass to Grandmother's Harbor we go? IF so I am sure it is buried somewhere in my Jimmy Buffett collection.

Don't Stop the Carnival... be happy, be healthy and be full of Thanksgiving today...a great day to give thanks not just at Modeh Ani in the morning but all throughout the day for those you love, have loved and are yet to love in your life.

Love Bobbi!
ps ...not spell checking because this wireless internet connection Moishe set up is wierd and am all alone with his internet and some guy named "Ted's Internet" running nearby (within 150 feet of my house ..it says??) and often for no apparent reason I get thrown off and shut down.. so running for the endzone fast while I can before I get tackled here from behind. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.. getting more coffee and have half and half and maple syrup.. I am a thankful puppy this morning :)

Good Shabbos on a Gray Afternoon in Miami

Good Shabbos!

Plain and simple.

Nice, quiet afternoon. Gray, cool, nice. Birds are singing.

I know.. haven't blogged in the longest while.

Maybe I finally don't have anything left to say? ??? Funny, I know.

Anyways... hope everyone out there is well and happy.

Making BBQ chicken and cous goose lol however you spell it. Peas.
Israeli Salads and Green Salad and Gefilte Fish.
I think I made a salt and pepper kugel.

Anyways... can't wait to relax. Wish the weather was a drop cooler but even so.. maybe so.. it's just right the way it is.

Good Shabbos from gray, gray Miami.

Don't say I never post...

Why Do People Think Stephen King is Scary?

Personally, I don't really see how Stephen King novels are scary when you know you are reading a scary story that will scare you. Sort of like when you watch a Nora Ephron movie you expect a certain group of people living a certain life style..all sort of dressed in white with white sofas living a metropolitan lifestyle and sort of kvetching about life's foibles instead of being really happy for all they have .. including a maid to keep the neat clean white world white. When you read Nora Roberts you see a cookie cutter white bread world (ever find any major characters who are Jewish, Arabic, Seventh Day Adventist, Black or Native American?) Where does Nora Roberts or JD Robb or whoever they are live anyway?Obviously...they know their audience wants white bread and details on fashion and food along with their fiction.

It's just sort of hard to be scared when you know you are going to be scared and are turning pages for the scarier part. I don't read gothic romance novels anymore but I used to and trust me... what would be scary would be if Steve and Ginny didn't get back together in the end and Steve ran off with a flat chested, mousy, widowed farmer on the prairie with ten babies and there were no future escapes in Madagascar.. If Steve got fat, bald and a beer belly and Ginny had stretch marks and never had her clothes ripped off by ____________fill in the blank_________ who was trying to get back at Sexy Steve. Norma from Nascar doesn't exactly fit into Nora Roberts or Nora Ephron's world and probably doesn't fit into Stephen's world although he does have a fixation on cars so .. maybe that's more likely. A quirky race car that comes to life that you can't control in a demolition derby..now THAT would be scary maybe and a little fantastic if it took off the race track and zoomed away in a cloud of smoke with Bubba to Mars or Pluto or Jupiter with little aliens giving him a back rub and blowing in his ear, whispering sweet nothings about the alien Dixie waiting for him somewhere.. while all the cars on the race track are left in one bloody, battered heap... Bubba really went poof and everyone thought he was vaporized instead he was living with Dixie on Jupiter or Mars instead of driving race cars on planet Earth.


So... maybe his new book is deeper and less scary and a bit different. Don't know. I don't usually read fiction much these days. Short term memory problems :) (kidding, kidding,just kidding)

But, I do want to reiterate something that was said in a post that is now Gone With The Wind...

I think Stephen should do the economy of Maine a big favor and open up a theme park called StephenWood. Build it near the jetport in South Portland. Land is still cheap (okay, cut down some pine trees) and it's near the highway (easy access) and do what Dolly did and Jimmy did... call it Stephenville.. Lot's of scary little characters, put people to work, give them a reason to come to Maine and help the economy. Put the place on the map. There are some people who don't care about lighthouses and crab..

So... in closing (now that I am no longer in a pissy mood and sorry I wrote something that was really tasteless and mean) may I say here and now.. Steven King is an excellent story teller and an even better businessman who knows what people want to read and what will sell.

Maybe somewhere he is writing odd little stories or something under an assumed name that aren't his regular formula scary fiction stories... but the body of fiction he will leave behind is an awesome legacy and a joy for people who love to read that genre.

And, he has great taste in baseball teams.

Really. Honest.

Honest Injun!

:) Bobbi in Miami.. in a world that is not very cookie cutter or white bread but real.

Willie Nelson and Horses

Not in the mood to talk about my life... or the weather so here's some reading, enjoy...

Willie Nelson: We have a lot to learn from horses
By Willie Nelson
Special to CNN

Adjust font size:
Editor's note: Willie Nelson is a legendary singer and songwriter. His new CD is called "Songbird."

AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Will Rogers said, "You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people."

However, the horses are counting on the people more than ever now. Nearly 100,000 horses are killed annually in foreign-owned slaughterhouses in America for human consumption in other countries.

With the upcoming Senate vote on the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, Americans have a small window of opportunity to save a living legend.

Horses are all the things a truly evolved human should be. There are countless examples of their innate ability and desire to heal people.

Consider the therapeutic riding programs across the country, where horses can have more progress with children with various physical and mental disabilities than their own doctors. The most superhuman thing about horses is the contrast between their unearthly strength and inherent gentleness. Humans abuse their power while horses use theirs only for good. I'd rather be a horse.

With no disrespect to the eagle, I've always thought that the horse should be our national emblem. When horse accepted man onto his back and chose to carry his burdens, it changed the world. Horses have aided mankind through his most arduous and treacherous endeavors, from the sword to the plowshare. Humanity owes an incalculable debt to the horse. In Native American teachings, Horse enables shamans to fly through the air and reach heaven. To steal someone's horse is to steal their power.

Contrary to what some people are saying, slaughter is not a humane form of euthanasia, and these are not unwanted horses. The treatment of slaughter-bound horses is most often inhumane, and more than 90 percent of those slaughtered are young and in good health. Many are sold to slaughterhouses at closed auctions, while others are stolen pets.

Humans are not smart to eat horses. Horses are treated daily with products such as fly spray, wormers, hoof dressings, etc. These products have labels warning against use on animals used for food. Anyone with horse sense would not be exporting this toxic product.

The passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 1915) would put in place a permanent and immediate ban on both the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and the exportation of live horses for slaughter abroad.

Thanks to the Society for Animal Protective Legislation, which started the national campaign to end horse slaughter, and to those who got involved and called their legislators, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass H.R. 503. But the fight is not over. The Senate will vote on S. 1915, hopefully in November. Call or write your senators today. Each week our elected officials fail to act on this bill, thousands of horses are subjected to unimaginable cruelty.

For information on horse slaughter, to read my public letter to Congress and to find your senators, go to the Society for Animal Protective Legislation.

There has never been a better time to adopt. I just adopted 11 horses from Habitat for Horses. For information on how you can adopt a horse or give to this great cause, visit Habitat for Horses.

Join me and more than 500 leading horse industry groups, humane organizations, equine rescues and veterinarians in our effort to end horse slaughter.

What is your take on this commentary? E-mail us

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. This article is part of a series of occasional opinion pieces on CNN.com that offer a broad range of perspectives that express a variety of thoughts and points of view.