Back to the Future II

I thought I was going to write something nice about last night's Boston Pops Christmas concert (it was my first of the season) and I will later, but torture has taken over my mind. CNN is my homepage and there is always a poll of some sort. I know it is not scientific in any way because it appears you can vote as often as you like. But yesterday's caught my attention. Apparently 55% of the respondents think waterboarding/torture is o.k. under some circumstances. Why I should be shocked, I don't know, but I am. I am very, very sad that fear has taken over. The BIG LIE has won out and we as a people apparently now believe it is o.k. (See
What Would Machiavelli Do? The Big Lie Lives On by Thom Hartmann http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0826-02.htm ) Waterboarding is torture. Torture is cruel and does not lead to truthful responses. In case you are pragmatist and aren't against torture because it is harmful to your own humanity, you should be against it because it places our own troops in danger.

Watch this story to see waterboarding...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/11/agent.tapes/index.html

I pray we choose a President who will stop this madness.

Slow down, you move too fast...

We have come to the second Sunday of Advent which means two more to Christmas. A friend from church gave me a wonderful Advent Calendar. It is titled "Slowdown. Quiet. It's Advent!" It is reminding me that in the midst of all the rush, rush to try (yes, try) to take at least a moment each day to think about what is of true importance in life.

What have I thought about today? When I was little I loved a Golden Book that I remember as being titled "I Like Bugs" (it's in my favorites list). Every couple of pages began with "I like..." The list included bugs, dogs, cars, and more, but ended up with "I like people." That is how I think all of us start out. Loving people or all kinds. That is how I still feel. It isn't stuff or things that have brought me the most happiness. It is people. Everyone from Mr. and Mrs. McGlaughlin who ran the hardware store in my town and who I remember from probably the age of 3 and Louie the butcher in the little grocery who gave me slices of bologna whenever my mother was at the meat counter to my newest singing friends. Maybe I should start a people blog. (How may blogs can one person have?) It would be a constant reminder of what is important in life.

The Silly Season has begun...

How did it get to be December already? We just had our Gingerbread Village for Habitat for Humanity at All Saints' Church. The hall was filled with every kind of gingerbread house one could imagine, including Fenway Park! Our town newspaper editor was wonderful and ran photos of our run-away Gingerbread Man for several weeks before the event. This year the theme was "A train runs through it..." There were electric trains running through the village in the center of the hall where the replica gingerbread buildings were set up. The librarians made the Adams Library and it looked just like the real thing. There were several church replicas, a school house, and the community college. Next year the theme will be Hansel & Gretel (or maybe fairy tales in general) to go along with the production of the opera Hansel & Gretel which will be the same weekend.

This week starts my grueling rehearsal schedule for two productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Boston Pops Christmas concerts, and coming in to the home stretch of Verdi's Requiem. I love, love, love singing, but this may be a bit much. It is a relief though from the woes of the world and the Presidential campaign.

St. Nicholas Day is coming up, which marks my 32nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe a life-time has gone by so quickly.

Back to the Future...

Welcome to the Spanish Inquisition...So, our new Attorney General can't say whether "waterboarding" is torture. I think the committee should have used it on him and then asked him if his opinion had changed. It might have helped clarify his thinking. If our soldiers had this inflicted on them I am sure we would define it as torture. What person in their right mind would think otherwise? What's next? The Catherine's Wheel?

At this point I am with Mercutio - A plague on both their houses. Those who do not believe it is torture and those who believe it is, but still supported the nominee, cannot be trusted.

I am so done with the Democratic leadership. I am ashamed of my party for its lack of leadership on the most important issues of the day. It is not enough to sit back and point the finger at the Republicans. It isn't an original idea, but if they aren't fixing the problem, they are the problem and it is time for them to go.

What a country II continued

I guess I spoke too soon about the student response to the Taser event. There have been marches and protests. It makes me feel a bit better, but not much.

An e-mail went out this morning to Democratic organizers in our congressional district exhorting us to work on the congressional campaign and saying that Bill Clinton will be in Lowell campaigning on behalf of the female candidate...right. We all know the only reason he will be here is because of his wife. As I said before, I highly doubt that a Republican has a snow ball's chance of winning. The only thing here for Bill is garnering votes for Hillary. Side note: I had lunch with a friend yesterday and when I asked him who he supported now for President, he said none. He too is tired of holding his nose at the polling booth. Here's a highly intelligent, educated guy who sees no point in voting. He's my latest recruit to my "if you don't like the candidates, go to the polls to show you care, and turn in an unmarked ballot" plan.

Re Bill (and by association, Hillary): I have Clinton fatigue, although every time I see him or hear him speak on television I do get a rush, but it is the kind you have if you see an old badboy boyfriend. If you are sane you realize it is just nostalgia and fantasy, not reality. Reality is that he slept with your best friend, has since left her, and is with the new flavor of the month. Who need's Mr. Baskin Robbins?

What a country II

In the last couple of days there have been three news stories that have made me think that from the bottom to the top we have lost our bearings.

Story 1: A 70 year old woman in Orem, Utah was hand-cuffed and arrested because she didn't tell police who were on her property who she was and resisted arrest for..........................................
NOT WATERING HER LAWN! C'mon, arrested for having a brown lawn? What were these people thinking? And I want to know why she had any duty at all to answer any questions? Uh, maybe they had an arrest warrant already? A well-known attorney is now representing the lady. This should be on Court TV.

Story 2: Security guards at a college event where our Senator, John Kerry, was speaking, found it necessary to TASER a young man who wouldn't give up the microphone fast enough. They tasered him after about 4 security guards had him on the ground and he was crying out, "Bro', don't Taser me, don't Taser me." No one in the audience seemed the least bit outraged by this. Kerry didn't move and said (prior to the Taser jolt), something like, "I'll answer his question. It's ok." Gee, how forceful, what clout. This whole fiasco made my heart hurt. It seems this young man has pulled "pranks" before, but so what? There has to be a better way of dealing with someone like this than inflicting an electrical shock. If college students don't react to this, I know we are now a nation of sheep. Educated sheep, perhaps, but sheep all the same. It wasn't Kent State to be sure, but back then the student body as a whole had conviction and passion and were willing to stand up for something. Apparently not any more....baaaaa

Story 3: When did we come to be ho-hum about our country out-sourcing our military? Blackwater is a private "security" company working, in among other hot spots, Iraq. Or at least they were until yesterday when the Iraqi government banned them after a firefight that killed 8 civilians. I always knew Blackwater was there, but I thought they were protecting the private contractors (not that I thought that was a good idea). Boy, was I jolted to read that Blackwater was protecting our Ambassador. I thought that was the job of the Marines and the Diplomatic Security Services. Those are the guys and gals I would trust with my life, not the folks from Blackwater who could be from any country in the world. It is completely shocking to me that we can't even provide protection for our own diplomats. If anything would send a signal showing weakness, this would be it. Soldiers of fortune types have always been linked to thug dictators in my mind. Just when I thought things couldn't get much worse, I now guess George Bush can be added to the list...

What are we voting for?

We just had a primary election to fill the seat of our Congressman who stepped down to take a job in the public sector. There were 5 Democrats to choose from and 2 Republicans. The candidate I was supporting was the only true progressive, the only candidate who has always been against the war, and the only candidate who supports single payer health insurance AND the only Clean Elections candidate ever elected to the House of Representatives in Massachusetts. He lost and in true Democratic unity style he was out campaigning for the victor the next day. Not me.

I am disgusted that only 20% of the electorate bothered to vote. I'm disgusted that lots of people didn't even know there was an election. I'm disgusted that money and family name recognition trumps all. I am ready to start a campaign for all those people who say they don't like any of the candidates, for all those who are tired of voting while holding their noses. Here it is: If you want to send a real message follow these steps -

1. Register to vote
2. If you don't like any of the candidates go to the polls anyway
and pull a ballot, but don't vote for anyone.

The records will show that you cared enough to go to vote, but you didn't want to vote for the lesser of two evils or to hold your nose. If we keep being "good Democrats" (or Republicans) and voting for whomever our Party's candidate is no matter what, we get what we deserve as much as the people who don't vote get what they deserve.

Sammy Kahn (I think) wrote a song that applies to my feelings about my beloved Democratic Party after this election:

"I'm through with love
I'll never fall again.
Said adieu to love
Don't ever call again.
For I must have you or no one
And so I'm through with love..."