To Earnest, with Love

The accumulation of wealth is not a virtuous or even meaningful pursuit.  Sorry, it just isn't. Regardless of your faith, all of the mainstream religions are founded on the fundamental principles of love and service to others, not making a buck at other's expense for the sake of a new car, a bigger house, yet another pair of shoes (guilty), every imaginable new toy or gadget, whe ther for ourselves or our children, or any of the other material objects we devote so much of our incomes to obtaining. Every time you or I pass on making a contribution to a worthy cause - and there are so many worthy causes - so we can buy yet another adornment for ourselves or our lives, we are failing to be virtuous; we are failing our fellow humans; we are failing ourselves; and if a person of faith, we are, in addition to all of those things, also failing God. Which is not to say that you are not free to devote your life to the pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake. Hey, it's a free c...

The more I read, the more I am convinced that fracking is "safe" like smoking was safe; like thalidomide was safe; like agent orange was safe. Safe for whom? In each of those cases, billions were made by a few at the expense of thousands of lives before the sheer weight of the devastation could no longer be denied. Then, finally, came the acknowledgment by those who should have protected the public from the beginning that, not only was it not safe, but the evidence of the threat had been there all along. In the case of fracking, we are talking about the "safety" not of the individuals who voluntarily expose themselves and their property to it, but of our water supply. And by "our," I do mean, all of us. Not just this community, but our country and the world. Clean water is fast becoming the most valuable commodity of our time. Just ask Texas, Colorado, and California. We in south Louisiana, surrounded by water, deluged by it almost every s...

I grew up in a dysfunctional home.   Bored yet?  I don't know ANYONE who didn't grow up with some level of dysfunction going on.  I know there are people out there who claim to have had very normal, loving parents and families, but I've never actually met any of them.  The kids next door to me were raised by their grandmother because their mother was an alcoholic and their dad just couldn't be bothered; the kids across the street, their mom died in childbirth with the youngest, who suffered a permanent brain injury during the birth and both were raised by their heartbroken single dad and his mother; my best friend's family was like a whole season of Law and Order - someone was always being arrested, being shot, disappearing, or involved in a serious, drug related accident; another friend's father tried to stick his tongue down my throat in his garage while my friend and her mom, his wife, were inside cooking dinner.  I w...

I got married for the insurance.   I was just-turned 40 and being activated for the second gulf war and it occurred to me that if anything were to happen to me while I was on AD (in my ultra-dangerous job of writing regulations in DC) I could at least leave the man I loved a little bit of cash to help him raise his son.  It was finally a reason for marriage that made sense to me.  Of course, although he had asked me to marry him at least a half-dozen times in the first two years we were together, after being turned down cold every time, my not-yet hubby had quit asking nearly a year before.  Quitter. So, it was left up to me to do the asking, which I did late one morning as we were leaving the elementary school where we had just enrolled his son in 3rd grade.  I turned to him as we were walking down the sidewalk, with cars whooshing past us a few feet away, and the heat blasting up from the pavement (it was August in New Orleans) and said, "We sh...

As horrible as it is to accept, some people who become parents abuse their children. We all know this simply from watching the news.  Every day there's a story about a child hurt or killed by the person that was entrusted to keep them safe - their parent or parents.That's the sad truth. How many of us wish that we could go back in time and rescue Caylee Anthony from her mother, Casey? Caylee was not saved because no one realized she was in danger from the very person that was supposed to protect her - her mother. That's because abusive parents do not abuse in public; they do not tell their friends; they do not brag on facebook that they just played a sex game with their 5 year old daughter. They hide it from everyone, and if the child tells, they accuse the child of lying or of being manipulated by the other parent. Harley and her sister Zoey have been telling their mother, their doctors, their therapists, teachers, friends, and family that their daddy has been p...

Help get justice for Harley and Zoey! - The Petition Site

I am still surprised by my own reaction to footage of the WTC being hit by the planes.  Of course I can remember where I was when it happened and how surreal it was watching the towers, pouring smoke and flame, collapse one, then the other.  The images are still brutal to my psyche.  I can barely stand to watch them, and I usually avoid it. This past Saturday, I made myself watch the replay of actual footage that day.  I don't know why.  Something else went off and the "tribute" came on, and it seemed ... disrespectful ... to turn it off.  So I literally forced myself to watch.  Maybe it's that feeling of powerlessness that I find so overwhelming.  I don't do powerlessness well, though I acknowledge I am not all powerful - just for the record.  But now, every time I see footage of the events leading up to the plane crashes, or the towers crumbling, it's that sense of powerlessness that squeezes my chest.  I know what's coming and I can...