". . . and the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there . . ."
How true.
How sad.
To honor our nations' 232nd birthday Friday, I have written a letter to my state senator. Come read it at huffing.
Thursday we leave for the lake with my extended family for the holiday weekend. Have fun, be safe, and above all, figure out what you can do to make this country work.
23 comments:
Haven't quite figured it out, but there's something ironic about your Fourth post drawing spammers! Is it sad, mad or to laugh?
Sounds like a wonderful all-American weekend, Ruth. The Fourth is always insanely crowded here at the shore, so it's one weekend when I pretty much don't leave home. Should be able to get some reading done anyway!
Sigh! You do not want to get me started, Ruth....so I'll just shut up and wait till I see you in a few more hours! (But I can say this, your letter to your senator was brilliant!)
I wish you some restful downtime and enjoyable memories... happy journey and vacation!!!
Thanks for your wonderful post over at Huffing!!!!!
Love the letter, you tell em Ruth!
Have a great weekend at Hukilau:)
It's a beautiful place to gather with your family!
Laura, I can imagine it gets crazy over there. And there are dolphins I hear! Which will bring even more people! I hope you have a perfect weekend doing whatever you want.
And yeah, it was funny about the spammers! Instantly, they appeared. If they keep it up, I'll have to reinstate word verification, which gives some of my blogger friends hassles.
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Boots, Sandy, Anet, thanks so much for the support. I'd like us all to go over to the White House lawn and yell and scream.
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Gwen, thank you! I understand you're also celebrating, Canada Day. I never knew they were close like this. I'm not sure it will be quiet with the horde up there, but I expect it will be fun. Talk with you when we get back.
An excellent, clear and thoughtful appeal. Please keep up posted if and when he responds.
Have a great weekend!
Sometimes inspiration comes too late! We should have organized a wide spread citizen's refusal to celebrate on the 4th........a holiday boycott in the name of patriotism, demanding change might have ruffled a few feathers!!!
Enjoy your weekend and time with family.
(Good letter, BTW)
Dear Ruth, I want to say so much, the best thing here to do for me....I just don't say anything.
BUT...please enjoy your family gathering, I know I will see the pictures very soon.
Hartelijke groeten.
A BIG HURRAH for you!
Impeachment is not about politics but about accountability and holding our elected officials to the ideals of our country as outlined in the Constitution of the United States of America. We are on a very slippery slope and if congress doesn't draw a line in the sand I fear there will be no government of the people. We all know there are not enough votes in the senate to impeach....so what! Maybe, just maybe, some republicans will decide to be Americans and just do the right thing.
Happy 4th of July!
Wow that's an amazing picture, part of me wishes we used it for our album cover.
Ruth, wonderful letter.. your heart and soul poured out... I directed John to read it to as he is very political...
...peace...soon.. we hope!
Well done Ruth!
Three cheers from Canada!
I think every thinking North American should make time to watch (if you already haven't) the following two BBC documentaries by Adam Curtis available on Youtube; "The Trap", and "The Power of Nightmares".
Both docs help to fill in gaps of our collective knowledge of behind the scenes decision and policy making of both British and American politics of recent decades.
The 'Power of Nightmares' explains the following:
1. the rise of TV evangelicalism in the U.S. in mid - to late 70's, and acknowledgment there was a great opportunity for turning the religious right movement into a political force - one that originally was meant to combat declining family values...
2. Leo Strauss - University of Chicago professor of political philosopher created and forwarded an idea that would forever change how U.S. government propaganda would be used to convince the American public to willingly follow along. He passed away in '73, but his work has become the standard text that many Christian neo-conservatives (republicans) follow today.
Strauss hypothesized that a large mythology needed to be created to engage the public in. - a mythology, in which the ends would justified whatever means necessary. So,if the truth had to be stretched, so be it. If outright, bald-faced lies had to be invented, so be it. If these policies required a vast number of innocent lives lost, so be it... The Christians were on the side of 'good', and they would wage war against 'evil'. They used this philosophy to aid Afghan resistance fighters in their war against the invading (evil)Soviets (late 70's - early 80's).
Today, however, their original intentions have become perverted. Now, through their own hypocritical actions, they have become as 'evil' as their foes are supposedly are.
The "War on Terror', and the 'Al- Qaeda global sleeper cell' idea are simply inventions of the current U.S. Administration, and are extended part's of this mythology. What does this mean? It simply means that everyone is being lied to, and both mainstream Canada and America are not paying attention.
The media on the other hand, have been bought and paid for many years ago.
Adam Curtis also made a doc on mainstream journalistic integrity.
I also previously watched Dennis Kucinich's 40 minute impeachment attempt on Youtube. You've got to admire him, sticking his neck out there.
Ralph Nader is also on Youtube holding a petition in his hand for the impeachment of Bush & Co. He says Bush & Co. would goad Iran into an attack if impeachment was seriously attempted.
I also heard yesterday in a further erosion of civil rights that Google has been ordered to turn over its Youtube watching database to the U.S. authorities. The current argument is for copyright infringement, and protection, but you can see where this may actually be going. Can anyone say 'Big Brother is watching you'?
We really, really, really need new, strict rules for any future president, their cabinet, and the media!
Happy 4th of July, and way to go Ruth, excellent well written and to the point. Is your image an out of focus fireworks?, if so very cool idea.
belated happy independence day. 232 right, we will celebrate our 61st independence day 15th of next month.
Thanks, Sharon. Maybe next year? We'll have a new president, but not much will have changed, I'm afeared. I mean about the essentials.
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Thanks, Sanna.
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Now Astrid, I would love to hear your thoughts. But I understand. We had a great time, I'll do a post about it soon.
Peter, yeah? Cool!
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Gwen, thank you, and I love that you sent John over. Yes, peace.
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John!
I hear you, Canadian friend! Thank you so much for these recommendations, I am catching up here, and I hope I can listen to them tomorrow. I have mixed success with YouTube videos on this computer, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to watch those.
I can totally see the evangelical movement/political force. I hadn't heard about Leo Strauss!
Oh dear, the media! The really good thing is that more of us are waking up, and as we build on our base of understanding we'll get stronger at pushing back.
I really appreciate your excellent comment, you've given me new stuff to look at.
Bob! Hey there. Thank you. Yes, out of focus fireworks from last year. This year at the lake no one did fireworks, for a number of reasons. I didn't miss them, I must say!
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Sandy, I am watching "Gandhi" for the first time (shame on me, so late) - we stopped at the intermission, will finish it maybe tonight. What an inspiration. It seems to be coming at just the right time. Everyone should watch it again, or for the first time. We have to do that kind of thinking, independent of all the voices out there.
The Muse! How did I miss you?
Thank you so much for coming over! I see your paintings and 'musings' over at Sharon's blog, and I really like your work!
So yeah, you're right, so what! Sometimes we have to do the right thing, and hold our leaders to doing the right thing, regardless of results, or expected results. You never know!
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