Don't Lose Your Head

4th of July

Freedom, friends gathered around a backyard pool, barbecue, fireworks, and maybe a beer or two.  These are just a few of the images burned into our social conscience surrounding this holiday.  Great traditions like these form a quilt of memories that stretch back many years.  How many of you tried elusively to write your name in the sky with sparklers?

Are we instilling in ourselves and our children that along with each pound of Freedom that we enjoy in our great country, comes two pounds of responsibility?  I hope we are, but fear we are not.  What kinds of traditions can we build to communicate that our freedom, and indeed, our country are sustained only by exercising the freedoms we have to participate in self government?   Each of us should understand that when "we the people" abdicate our responsibility or act irresponsibly we weaken and endanger the freedoms we've been given.

Back to the Future in California

California is facing a $28.5 billion budget shortfall over the next 18 months.  Our state enjoys the lowest credit rating in the country.  Most of us, including myself, cannot really comprehend a number that big ... that is until it means that we take furlough days, have a cut in salary, pay more to see the doctor...  You get the picture.  Our state is bankrupt and  even Jerry Brown cannot save us from our current economic reality.  He couldn't in 1975 and and he can't in 2011.  The only long term hope we have is the return of jobs to our state.  Bitter medicine is coming down the pike--there is no doubt about it.  I hear Julie Andrews singing in my ear ... "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down ... "   I think the spoonful of sugar for many of us is that we still have a job and a source of income.  However, in the Antelope Valley 17% of us cannot even claim this solace.

Governor Brown (I like the last name by the way) has indicated that we need to protect education in this state which has been subjected to cut after cut during the past several years.  I appreciate the sentiment, but education consumes half of California's budget.  I look forward to seeing how our budget crisis can be addressed without affecting education yet again.  Many of us don't even realize that cuts made in previous years have not yet even trickled all the way down and affected us as deeply as they will.  To be sure they have already had an effect, but the full measure of the cuts was able to be somewhat cushioned through local school districts tapping into reserves.  Reduced levels of funding carry forward and will likely continue to impact students and employees in some shape or form--this does not take into account any future cuts that the state may send our direction.  

I'm confident that Governor Brown, will be friendlier to education and to the children of California than we have experienced in recent years.  However, the enormity of our budget woes will require many more bitter pills.     If the prescription label says:  "Take 2 pills a day for 14 days" I think we may only be on day 4 or 5.  We have a long way to go.   The cure won't kill us but it will be painful.  Many of us and our family members already know that.

Welcome Back Jerry and Good Luck!

Health Care: Take II

President, Dr. Obama

If the first health care debate was not enough for you, get ready for the 2011 version coming to a TV, web page, and newspaper near you soon.  Repeal of Obamacare is at the top of the new Republican Congress' agenda and they will not waste a moment to bring it to the floor of the House for debate and a vote.  It will undoubtedly pass the House as new members raise their teacups in a toast to celebrate their recent victory and flex their muscle; but I question whether everyday Americans like you and I will be impressed.  It is highly unlikely that it will be passed in the Senate and even if it were, it would not escape the scrutiny of the President's veto pen.

I am by  no means an expert on the new health care law.  However, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, the non partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the new law will reduce the budget deficit by $140 billion dollars over the next ten years, and senior citizens are subsidized in their purchase of needed prescription medications.  If this information were on Facebook I would most certainly press the "like" button--what about you?  Undoubtedly there are provisions in the law that I do not completely understand and some that are ill-advised--I am committed to educating myself more fully.

What is the primary motivation for the new Congress to renew this fight and pick up the boxing gloves again?  Number one, many new members campaigned on the promise to repeal Obamacare and they must fulfill their promise to their electorate.  It is wise for them to move on this issue quickly, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful--it will give their constituents plenty of time to forget before the next election.  We voters are notorious for our short memories--our politicians, including our President, count on it.  In addition to fulfilling a campaign promise, the new Republican Congress wants to flex its muscle prior to the President's State of the Union Address in order to, what they believe, will weaken and embarrass him.

Calculating politicians often miscalculate the position and response of the public to the actions they are hell bent on taking.  While Republicans were successful earlier this year in convincing many Americans that health care was a manifestation of the evil, socialist agenda of the President, I'm not so sure that they remain convinced.  I'm skeptical that the new law will really reduce the deficit--but I don't know more than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.  Who can argue with not being denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition,? Certainly not me.

Immigration: Undocumented Workers and their Dreams

I woke before dawn.  My mind would not allow sleep to continue; it was arrested before first light.  I pushed the sheet aside which separated my stacked cinderblock home into two rooms and stepped carefully over my three children.  The hunger in my stomach begged me to partake of the crusts of bread that Ana, my wife, had placed in the aluminum pot and covered and placed carefully in the corner.  The decision was made easier. The candlelight revealed that one of the children had kicked the lid off during the night.  The rats, I'm sure were thankful for their feast.

Today, I will walk Gabriel, Hector, and Helena to the local market that tourists frequent and will pray that they remember the lessons they observed yesterday.  Receiving compassion (and money for food) is an art and a skill.  Today, please do not let them be hungry.  Today, I will make my way to the airport and carry luggage for arriving tourists and businessmen and women.  In recent weeks this has been the most successful way to make money, but it has been nearly impossible to save. I cannot allow my family to starve, but if I am ever to escape this unending and repeating cycle I must save enough money to pay for our passage to the United States.  I'm walking a tight rope and I'm consumed by guilt.  My children are barefoot and hungry.  I know that if this is ever to change, we will continue to only survive.  My family will forego the luxury of a full stomach and shoes on their feet until we arrive in America.  

I dream that one day my children will go to school and learn to read and write; maybe even attend a university.  Gabriel is already 9 years old and has had to work to help support himself and the family.  Other children will have a head start on him, but he is a bright boy.  In America all things are possible, or so they say.  I want my children to have shoes to wear, food to eat, a bed instead of the hard plywood floor, and electricity.

 My dreams are not too big; my dreams are real; my dreams are for my family.

Clutter -- The Iceberg Theory

I'm watching a show on people who have an extreme amount of clutter filling up their home. It's incredible to see how "stuff" (and I should use a different word) has literally filled up their home to the point that people are unable to negotiate the rooms. There is no place to sit and it's difficult to get from one end of the room to the other. Its incomprehensible that one can be that much out of control that they allow that to happen ...

However, it really isn't that incomprehensible. Our physical world is an extension of our mental and spiritual world. When our mind is cluttered and disorganized, our living space will be a reflection of that in some way shape or form. I'm not talking about the variations within what is considered normal. Some people are neat freaks and others tend to the messy side of the spectrum, but all fall within the normal range. When extreme clutter overtakes our lives it is a reflection that something much deeper is going on. The clutter is the part of the iceberg sticking out of the water, but the unseen part of the iceberg beneath the surface of the water is much larger. Both parts are real and are part of the same whole.

If we only deal with the physical and clean up the clutter, it will likely return if we do not take care of the unseen mental and spiritual issues that literally give rise to the problem. Think about what would happen with a real iceberg if we in some way destroyed the part that is bobbing above the surface of the water. As soon as that piece protruding above the water is gone there would be a natural rebalancing--the piece of the iceberg below the water would push up and there would be a reemergence of part of the iceberg above the surface. The laws of nature will always prevail.

The only way to get rid of clutter permanently is to deal with the entire iceberg.

Barack Obama, a Muslim???

Barack Obama, a Muslim .... really? Come on now, have we really grown so unintelligent as a people that we have such a high percentage of our population believing this. It's obvious that the reason the number believing this lie has increased so much is due to the President's defense of the rights of those who wish to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

It scares me that we have so many people in our country willing to abandon constitutional GUARANTEES so quickly. I agree with the outrage and think its a horrible idea to build a mosque a new mosque ... however, the right to do so must be defended. I hope they change their minds and/or I hope that those workers and unions that would be involved will put a stop to it.

I for one and THANKFUL that our President is fulfilling his obligation to the Constitution of the United States. This is what makes us different, and yes, BETTER than other countries. We are not subjected to the whims of an angry mob when they're unhappy with a particular group, religion, etc ....

When we fail to protect the rights of all, we attack the rights of all and it puts our constitutional guarantees on very shaky ground.