A walk in the woods

Why we are so pissed off........

I don't know why so many in the media are too dense to understand why people are so pissed off and deciding to occupy Wall Street.  It is very simple. The banking industry has been playing craps with our money and a fixed roll of dice.

Our own government provides documentation of the unfairness of our system.The CIA World Fact Book is a wonderful compendium of information. They publish an index that measures the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income in a country.  According to our government's own figures, the United States is more unequal a society than either Tunisia or Egypt.

(When you read the chart, remember that the bigger the GINI index the more unequal a country's income distribution).

Somehow, the news people "get" the frustrations of the people in the streets of Egypt but want to hold their heads in the sand about the frustration driving protests here.I avoid tv news now....it just makes me want to stick pins into voodoo dolls.


Some more depressing figures.....

The 400 wealthiest Americans have a greater combined net worth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

The top 1 percent of Americans possess more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent.

In the Bush expansion from 2002 to 2007, 65 percent of economic gains went to the richest 1 percent.

We have allowed the mis-regulated financial system lead us toward catastrophe. And adding insult to injury, today it is reported that Citigroup Earnings Rise 74% to $3.8 Billion!

At this point I'm ready for Dylan Ratigan to run for president.....at least he is in tune.  Watch this video:

God, religon.....taboo stuff

I do not believe in supernatural miracles, the inerrancy of scriptures,the trinity,etc.  In that manner I line up with many of the deists that helped found our country (Jefferson, Washington, etc.).

I admit the possibility of a god while also admitting the possibility of no god. I see no reason for people to think that god would have to be the creator of all things. Why couldn't there be a god that did not create the world, but is instead a force or energy shared between people and the world....or simply put, part of the world? 

I exposed my children to multiple religious views. I also used modern day parables and personal life stories to teach much about life. One story, or perhaps it should be called a question, that I had posed to my children when they were growing up is this:

If you were walking down the street and a person came up to you and said that you had to believe what they believed in and that if you didn't do so they would pour a can of gasoline on you and light a match...... well what would you do? 

And if you then said you believed what they believed .......would that really be belief? Would it truly be your belief? Would it be a memory that started so young it felt like your idea?

I would ask questions like: if this is how someone tries to get you to believe their religion, what do you feel about that? Does it make you understand them more?....do you want to love and cherish their beliefs?........are they accepted as your boss or leader or teacher because that is what you want or because they have power over you?   What is terrorism? Is this a form of terrorism?

These discussions would be gentle and interesting and different with each child. I taught my children to think for themselves and let them create their own belief systems.  I raised my children to be caring people.  My kids grew up with terrorism in the headlines. I would discuss terrorism with them and pointed out its more subtle forms.  They know that I feel it is a perverse form of child abuse to teach small children to be afraid of a boiling oil hell in order for them to line up with their parent's religion.  Who, how and why else is anyone ever allowed to terrorize children like that with permission from a civil society? My children knew terrorism was being associated with the Muslim religion........they also knew this often unrecognized association with the Christian religion.

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My twenty year old cat Daisy

My cat Daisy......I often called her Daisy Crabby Cat......She stayed on my lap sleeping most of the day yesterday and passed away today.  She was my oldest daughters kitty.....so many memories get tied up in a pet that you have had for twenty years. I will see her ghost (in my mind) for many days to come, I am sure.