Marthe48
Marthe48's JournalThe crimes against POC and foreign nationals is hard to hear about every day
I think I was the only person in my family who was not overtly racist. Even after I left home, I knew I could be better, and I keep trying to be a better person. My husband and I hosted 6 exchange students, were liaisons for numerous host families and students and mentored 12 international college students from 1995 to about 2016. Becoming involved with and attached to the students we met gave us some of the best relationships we've had in our lives. On top of the one on one friendships we formed, we also got to know the natural families of the students, and local families who supported the exchange programs and made their own relationships with students hosted in our area. The bonds we formed have held up over the years.
It makes me angry that the people I met over the years, who fell in love with the U.S.A. and also the people they met are being treated like crap. Some of the students we met have legally made the U.S. their home, but I bet nothing they've done, either to be here legally or the contributions they've made since they arrived, matters to the criminals demeaning the human connections that so many of us made with people from other countries. I won't stop being how I am, but I haven't discovered how to turn the tide.
They didn't diagnose autism and diabetes back then
I'm 73. We saw our family doctor once a year, mainly to get vaccinations, and an update on height and weight. I think one of the kids in my grade school had diabetes and took insulin shots. The only reason I know is because the teacher told us why the kid had to leave the classroom occasionally. I didn't hear of any other kids who had type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
People with Type 2 diabetes were generally short-lived before the discovery of insulin and the first injection for a human in the 1920s. Maybe people with Type 1 diabetes didn't get as many chances to pass the disease along until after the life-saving, Nobel prize winning research started saving and lengthening lives.
I never heard of autism until I was in my 30s. I never heard of any of the diagnoses of mental disabilities or mental illness that we hear so much about today. Maybe that's because mental health wasn't studied until Freud, Jung and others started examining human behavior, not more than 125 years ago. Kids that needed special attention were lumped together, and, while a couple of teachers tried to explain to us why they were special, and that we should be kind, most kids in the mainstream classes weren't and the special ed. kids were mocked and shamed by people who probably grew up to be rwnj and asses.
rfk and his family got the best health care available and probably lived sheltered and exclusive lives, where illness and disability were either far removed or sanitized. Just because he didn't see illness or live with it, doesn't mean it wasn't part of the human condition. rkf is an entitled rich boy who squandered his chances and tarnished his family's good name as he destroyed his own health and mental abilities.
In the past the U.S. govt.
Or military leaders showed reluctance to use the armed forces against white Americans, unless they were trying to organize a union or protesting an unpopular war or social injustices. Under President Lincoln, Gen. McClellen was reluctant to fight the rebellious south. Pres. Obama showed a great restraint addressing the bundy crimes. And of course, the failure to crush the power behind the first attempt to install their thug in the White House. It is easy to find plenty of historical accounts of the U.S. armed forces being used against civilians, as long as they aren't white supremacists or traitors trying to destroy the country. Hoover used the military to remove the Bonus Army from D.C. in 1932. Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed protesters at Kent State. Lots of other action against Native Americans, POC, minorities that unfortunately exist side by side with civic attempts to make the rights laid out in The Constitution of the U.S.A. available to every human who lives in our country.
As Americans become freedom fighters on our soil, because they hate overreaching criminals destroying the ideals of our country, I'm pretty sure that the criminals will turn the strength and power of the military against us citizens, as they consolidate their evil desire to kill democracy.
Be careful out there. The rich don't like us. They never have.
Creamed chipped beef on toast cubes
This morning, as I got settled with my coffee, I had the strongest sensation of my Mom hugging me. I knew immediately it was her. I'm comforted and yearning by this moment. This is the first time I've had the sensation of getting hugged by my Mom. She passed away in 2007.
When I was very young, my Mom would make chipped beef on toast, and cut the toast into cubes before she put the chipped beef on. One day, she made chipped beef and put it on a whole slice of toast. I complained that the toast wasn't cut. She said I was old enough to cut the toast myself. Looking back over my most persistent memories, I realize that this was a defining moment in my personal independence. My Mom made sure then and every step of the way that I would be able to handle everything that came along. Today, she gave me a hug to remind me that I can keep going and get through this. Thanks, Mom.
I drew a conclusion years ago
and I don't feel it was that wrong. I was probably wrong blaming nixon only, but like felon, he was a tool surrounded by people interested in destroying the U.S. He was the first of a line of men willing to destroy the nation for their puppet masters.
I grew up in the 1960s, was a young adult starting a family in the 1970s. We had a rough start, but by 1973, we were doing okay. We even bought a house. Then because of nixon and kissinger, the shah raised oil prices and crashed the world economy. Aside from rampant inflation, we also got hit with a recession, and by 1975, everyone we knew in our age group was unemployed. We all shared what we had and we got through the next 2 years. My husband was laid off for 26 months.
While we were suffering through a profound rip in our life plans, I wondered why it was happening. One answer that made sense to me was that nixon hated the middle class and he especially hated the people who protested the Vietnam war. I think every economic decision he made was to put burdens on the middle class to destroy it. His policy decisions have lived on since the 70s, in spite of attempts to reverse, slow or cancel them.
I think the 70s was when so much of the evil we see now started coalescing around the right. With nixon and his inner circle, the religion fanatics, the misogynists, the bigoted, the hateful, the power hungry, the greedy, had somebody in power who would forward their sick agenda. We were saved then by elected senators and representatives who stopped the evil agenda, at least the part in view. It went under cover, but all of the parts were in place for them to keep working to dismantle the progressive agenda that had built and was building the U.S. into a more equitable country.
Notice that the power behind the throne worked overtime to destroy President Carter. The evil powerhouse got reagan elected, another chump who would go along with annihilation of the middle class. Then bush, who managed to subtly undercut even more social and economic security to derail progress we were making, not just as Americans, but as people. President Clinton and the dot com economy was a detour, as was President Obama, but the evil gang of thugs never stopped their effort to destroy the middle class. President Biden did his damnedest to block the momentum, but what power we are up against.
I look at other countries which have chosen their people over power and obscene wealth. They do fine. They have people trying to be better. They have religious fanatics, bigots, misogynists, and greedy people, but they are, so far, keeping them in check. Our country was able to have a vast safety net and still thrive as the richest country, the most powerful country. We're losing what has made us the greatest country.
I didn't expect that I'd have to be on high alert my whole life, but here we are. I want what we had for the next generations. I want to crush the evil that is destroying everything hopeful and replacing it with nothing. It is hard to fight, then fight some more and then fight some more, especially when things we thought were blood allies, like elected officials and the supreme court, have joined the evil forces determined to force us to conditions where brutality is the only thing that counts. I am counting on the inate force that has driven humans from Socrates to John Lewis to seek personal freedom that we will share with others.
*I wrote this myself, no AI involved, although I did check spelling on a few words 
If I don't respect someone, I don't capitalize their name, just an fyi.
There is no planet B
People have said this before. But as a species, we can choose overall civility, including sharing resources, or we can have a steel cage death metal match every single day. I'm sure the effete rich would get a vicarious thrill out of watching the masses kill each other. I'm sure the callous bastards cutting services and inflating prices are feeling sick pleasure as they check world meter for deaths and count their profits.
We have got to get along, if we want humans, humanity, to survive. That means we have to share resources, be content with less and control our urge to have more, be the alpha, win.
At some point in the distant past, our species went from a feeling of relief at seeing another human, to trying to enslave or kill any strangers. We went from shelters in a grassy meadow to walled villages. Many cultures devised rules and laws for their population to get along and make sure the threat wasn't from within. Someone once wrote that social security didn't just protect the people who needed it, but also protected the rich from uprisings powered by the less fortunate.
As a species, we've forgotten hard learned history. We need laws. We need social parameters that define what is acceptable behavior and what isn't. But we're in a time that anything goes. While the left is accepting differences that don't hurt anyone (such as being a minority, a woman, or LGBQT+), the right wing is encouraging behavior that can hurt anyone. Look at the changes, just in my lifetime -- relaxed gun laws, rescinding civil rights, accepting assault and torture as actions our culture can live with. We can have laws and define acceptable behavior without making our society a rigid nightmare in which our humanity can't thrive. If we don't get off this path, we are goners.
I thought we'd advanced since WWII. I understand that we aren't all Pollyannas, but western culture was making an effort to teach what is acceptable and what isn't. I'm seeing that while people might have conformed, it was only skin deep. We are human after all and trying to overcome our nature is a lifelong job. But we can't quit trying. The current leadership is encouraging us to give up and let the stronger eat the weaker, while they bet on the results.
Even if we end up fighting over scraps, we have to find a way to be kind as we struggle for survival.
felon will air every action
even if his methods cost more with fewer results.
I saw a graph last week showing the number of people deported and the cost under each U.S. president since at least Clinton. Every pres. deported more people at lower cost than felon has, either in regime 1 or currently. If I can find the graph, I'll add it.
In my opinion, just like always, others will do the work, do it fairly, and do it better, while felon flounders around like an inept swimmer trying to keep up with the champs.
While other administrations used legal methods and law to deport, felon is kidnapping Americans, seizing protected people who believed they were safe and rounding up vulnerable family groups with relatives who could legally house them. So along with the tinsel, felon is also flooding the courts with suits that didn't need to be brought. And the media will air every story, either to prove felon is doing what he said, or to keep the cruelty in front of those of us hoping that humans will be humane.
I volunteered for a h.s. student exchange organization
from 1995-2024. The program evolved the entire time I volunteered. The organization has been around since 1914 and has a remarkable history that plainly shows its dedication to peace and understanding. In the 90s, the organization had conferences to explore becoming more diverse, not just extending further from Europe and S.A. to Africa and Asia, but finding ways to include American students of all races, cultures and identity. After the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they also started working with Middle East countries, and countries that were predominantly Muslim, to promote peace and understanding between Muslim countries and secular countries (sorry, I can't think of a better description of our differences). My organization has partnered with other exchange programs, especially programs that focus on learning languages. The h.s. exchange programs in general promote peace and understanding, cultural exchange, diversity and respect. There are many exchange programs, and they are evaluated by an organization called CSIET and monitored by the State Department. As a volunteer, I had to re-certify every year and have a background check. Part of re-certifying was getting vetted by the State Department for my role, making sure I was up-to-date on their rules and regulations. Everyone who had contact with the students had to go through getting certified, interviewed, background checked, so the students and host families understood the experience they were going to undertake.
The h.s. programs have been in jeopardy before, mostly funding. This is a different kind of attack on student and cultural exchange. On a personal level, I have been changed and my life is better for having the experience of hosting and volunteering. My community is a better place, and this country is a better place for hosting students and showing them life in America. If the U.S. ends this particular method of cultural exchange, we will lose a very personal method of making friends across the world. I know several students who participated in exchanges, either Americans who studied abroad, or students who lived in the U.S. and went to school here, who have made successful careers based on language translation, international education and international business. People who choose this path in life are exceptional. If America decides to bow out of cultural exchange at any or all levels, you can bet other countries will not, because the experience and the people driving the experience are invaluable assets to any country that participates.
The exchange programs are entwined with respect and diversity. I want those qualities in my life, and I want my country to continue to embrace them.
We never see the big picture
and if we say we do, it's ego. So you don't remember every single thing you did that boosted someone else. Those things are easy to forget, but man, we sure remember the things we did wrong. And the things that didn't go the way we wanted. And the people who harmed us. I spend too much time dwelling on things that were probably not as important as I still think they are. I am always happy when I run into people I forgot about and they remind me of something nice I did. It gives me a peek at the big picture.
As for pain and loss, I've already had my share and I dread the other shoes that will drop. It helps to think that my loved ones are safe, healthy, happy, even if they aren't on this side of the veil. They are in the afterlife they imagined they would have. If they didn't go intact to Heaven, their atoms live on in that tree, those clouds, the dirt of my beloved Earth. It is easy to say hi if I miss them, even if I don't hear their voices in reply. To have them as long as I did was enough to add their essence into mine, so no one I loved is ever truly gone.
There will be another day you'll be up. My friend lived with chronic health problems almost her whole life. But she created happiness for herself. I miss the phone calls where we laughed ourselves silly over bad jokes. She died last year, but even if she is gone, I am still finding knowledge in her wisdom. Because of her, I look for joy, even if on some days, it is hard to see.
Cheers!
I've lived my whole life with a benign govt.
Can we imagine how bad it was to live through WWI, worldwide flu epidemic, the first effort of the religious right to oppress us (Prohibition) The Great Depression and WWII? It was bad enough so that world governments, including the U.S. took major steps to avoid the series of disasters happening again. And while it was bad for white people, the time was worse for POC, other minorities, disabled, really anyone who was different. As world governments pulled whites out of the quicksand, they finally started throwing ropes to others as well. I can remember the milestones we passed: civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, enforcement of legal treatment of criminals, extending help for education and medical bills.
I remember when my grandmother and great-aunt first got Medicare, in the mid-60s. My grandmother was thrilled for the sudden help for herself and her aunt.
I also remember the crushing medical debt my parents incurred when one of my siblings after another developed unusual and expensive ailments. They had no medical insurance and within a couple years, our standard of living dropped from middle class to poverty.
Maybe if every single person had a perfect life, perfect response to any problems, perfect children, perfect marriage, perfect education, the countries in the world wouldn't have to create and maintain a floor under their populations. But there is no perfection and for my whole life, the drive to ease the suffering was a benefit for all people in the world.
Somehow the human community has become perverted with the idea that a few people need to hold all the wealth and power, and the rest us can suffer, it seems, to their delight. The Spanish Inquisition didn't last forever. Margaret Thatcher's government didn't last, Poland's extreme right is failing, even if it has taken years. I hope Americans will learn from other countries how to throw off the yoke of rwnj extremists and fatally flawed billionaires and get us back to a government that has tried for half its existence to be by the people, for the people.
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Ohio
Home country: U.S.A.
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 22,286