Happy Halloween!

Boo!  Much to think and cringe about today. To get us started is Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame:

“Republicans: the number 1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.”

And the rest of the world is right in thinking so! Americans have allowed idle thoughts and actions to take a toll on our national functioning and reputation. The world has it right; we don’t. Republicans have the right to think as they will; they do not have the right to get away with senseless actions that hurt our nation.

Here’s another topic:

            “Prayer was never banned form our public schools.

 In fact, the courts have repeatedly upheld the right of student prayer. (It just can’t be led in any way or required by the school.)

We trust our teachers to provide education, not indoctrination.”

Religion is a freedom. Let’s keep it that way!” – Author Unknown

I remember getting used to Massachusetts public schools when I was a new resident from California at age 11. We were required to recite the Lord’s Prayer every morning at the beginning of the day. Trouble was, most students were Roman Catholic and said a shortened prayer compared to Protestants. The RC’s laughed at us and talked through our prayer ending disrespectfully. This was a constant feature of school prayer in those days in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As native Californians we had never been exposed to this type of discrimination before! We well appreciated the Supreme Court ruling restricting such practices.

Thomas Paine offered this thought a few centuries ago:

“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

Useless. Futile. Talking to the wall. Stubborn people who think not and do not open their minds to differing opinions are a scourge among us. Worthy of a Halloween Boo as we enter this holiday of All Saints Day. Scary how some wander their journey’s path.

As you go to work today, or as you return home from another day’s labor, think upon this statement from Living Blue in a Red State:

“If people earning minimum wage need welfare and food stamps to get by, they aren't the takers; the companies employing them are.”

A good reminder each day we begin our work! We earn our keep. We pay our way. If we are asked to pay more than what we earn, then something is wrong with the employer establishment. Might it be unfairly favored by the government establishment?  One wonders.

In closing this blog of potential nightmares we all face day after day, here’s an anonymous classic:

“Entitlements? I paid cash for my Social Security insurance. Our benefits are NOT some kind of charity or handout! Congressional benefits…premium federal healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days! – Now THAT’s Welfare!  And they have the nerve to call my retirement an entitlement???

I think all elected officials of the federal government ought to live on the same benefits the rest of us do. Now that’s equality and justice; for all!

Boo to them!

October 31, 2013