For the Soldiers ~

I took these pictures in Vergas Minnesota. Summer of 2002.

I had never seen so many flags in one place and felt in awe and very patriotic. I believe honor and thankfulness and more are due to our soldiers, those both living and dead. Yet, I feel so much anger and sadness over the fact that we have all been lied to, all made to believe that this war was necessary. Though I am lacking in words I have found these quotes below to share on my blog.

"War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it."
~Martin Luther quotes (German priest and scholar whose questioning of certain church practices led to the Protestant Reformation. 1483-1546)

"The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own"
~Aldous Huxley quotes (English novelist and critic, 1894-1963)


"President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I'm thinking, well, hell, he didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either."
~David Letterman quotes

"If war is ever lawful, then peace is sometimes sinful"
~ C.S. Lewis quotes (British scholar and novelist. 1898-1963)

~"Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education... no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both."
~Abraham Flexner quotes

"The world is full enough of hurts and mischance without wars to multiply them."
~J.R.R. Tolkien quotes (English writer and author of richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, 1892-1973)


"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon.' Need I say more?"
~Chris Rock quotes

"He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death"
~Thomas Paine quotes (English born American writer and political pamphleteer, whose 'Common Sense' and 'Crisis' papers were important influences on the American Revolution. 1737-1809)


"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
~George McGovern quotes (American politician. b.1922)

"Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, [who] infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How will I know? For this I have done. And I am Julius Caesar."
~Julius Caesar quotes (Roman general and statesman, emperor of Rome, 100-44 B.C.)

  ¶ 5/30/2005 09:16:00 PM 4 comments

  Saturday on Belmont ~Saturday on Belmont.
I told my daughter Anna I was going to go home and blog about this. She reminded me gently that it was in fact Thursday on Alberta. We were at a street fair that is well known as The Last Thursday Art Walk. Though my sales were next to nil, I had such a wonderful time. Unfortunately Jessie couldn't make it, but I was surrounded by my three other daughters, Anna, Leah, and Emily. Some of the things I want to write about might cause some readers to assume that I'm either racist, bigoted, homophobic or any other such nonsense, which I'm not.

Growing up in a small town and living in very conservative areas most of my life I have not been immersed in any culture that might be construed as "alternative" so please forgive my eye popping and jaw dropping observations as I sat behind our little table on Alberta.

We had a late start as Emily, Leah, and I were looking around in all the cute shops under Anna's apartment, Anna had resorted to come looking for us. There are so many awesome shops in her neighborhood one of which is thankfully a wonderful Espresso place. We checked out vintage resell shops, a very up-scale grocery, and stores with names like, Spoink, Blue Monk, etc...Actually I can't remember the other ones. Like I said we had somewhat of a late start but this didn't deter our enthusiasm for the rest of our day.

The sun was very high and very hot, Alberta was moving somewhat slowly as we made our way looking for a spot to set up. We found a nice little niche between two Artists. As I have no confidence in my ability to display my wares I left this up to my daughters, Anna and Leah. Emily and I decided to meander down the sidewalk looking for some iced tea and to watch other's setting up. There was only one grocery store that we came across. Inside we discovered it was more or less catered to the Mexican population in the area as everything was labeled in Spanish. My Spanish from school is now absent from my mind but we did find that they had no Iced tea, but many other interesting things that I couldn't figure out. We settled on some Spanish soda and plenty of water bottles.

On our walk we were introduced to Art we've not seen the likes of before. You know there are so many creative people out there, it just amazes me. You can practically sell anything if you add a personal touch to to it. Paint the inside of those globes that surround your ceiling lights and people grab them up for a gazing globe to put in their garden. You can make hanging planters out of motorcycle chains and rims from a bicycle, the guy next to us did simple drawings on scrap wood, simple pencil and crayon with a twist. The other people next to our table had all kinds of different sizes and shapes of wood, most looked like they weren't good for anything but kindling, but they managed to paint very interesting pictures on them and people were just buying them up right and left.

Someone used the 6 ft tall chain link fence around an abandoned lot to hang their beautiful blown glass vases, the more vases she hung the better they looked because the fence was curving over and giving them the proper hanging position. There were people on street corners selling clothes and handbags, baby clothes, knitted bikini's, and some guys cleared out there old bookstore and sold books for a dollar. When I passed they hadn't unpacked yet, and it was probably better that way. They would have had to drag me away screaming once I started going through them. We came across homemade soaps with names like "Filthy Viking", "Essence of Marilyn" and so forth. Hand forged rod iron made into many useful things.

After visiting with many vendors about their wares and after obtaining much inspiration and encouragement and many new ideas we figured it was time to get back and see if any action had hit our table.

We all sat for a bit and took turns walking the street to check out the other artists. I pretty much stayed there the rest of the night as I looked in awe and wonder at all the amazing people. Like I said before, this was all so new to me and but I came to understand why my daughter Anna loves living in Portland.

I sat in the hub of all this creative expression and marveled at the acceptance that was bestowed on everyone around me. I was a witness to hand holding by gay women, more then a few times. Women covered in tattoos, even women my age! There were girls running around in old hippie skirts that I used to live in, little tattoos sneaking out from underneath to curve gently up their backs. Women who proudly wore their large tattoos on their arms. And of course because I am a "face watcher" I looked at the faces of those people that surrounded these women. Not once did I see a judgmental face. I didn't see shock or mistrust. And while I tried not to appear to have dropped my jaw a few times, or to have let my eyes pop out of my head a few times, I couldn't get over the fact that this was normal here. And though I sat at my table with my pink striped hair no one seemed to bat an eye about it. This is not so where I live. I saw the most marvelous dread locks on both women and men, they were elegant, and I envied them. Not so much for the fact that they had beautiful dread locks but for their carefree manner in wearing them. On occasion my youngest would playfully ask men if they had girlfriends, or wives that might be interested in a gift of jewelry, and again more then once these men looked at each other and said, "no, we have no girlfriends." After they left, I had to remind Emily and myself that this was Portland and perhaps these men were gay, after which Emily threw her hand to her mouth and laughed in embarrassment. We both did.

Down the street they were handing out free beer, we had musicians across the street from us singing up a storm. As night fell we brought out candles and lanterns as did everyone else around us. Though the weather was hot and there were people everywhere I heard no sounds of violence, no arguments. There was one time I heard a stir in the crowd, this was happening as a woman and her troupe marched down the sidewalk, her wearing a George Bush mask with a crown that said "The Emperor has no clothes" while she is in thigh high white boots, star's and stripes underwear and her upper torso clothing consisted of two blue pasties. My daughter
managed to get a couple of photos of this, which you can see if you go to my sidebar and look at Anna's Photo's.

Many people stopped to look at my jewelry and I heard many complements. I was also able to learn some helpful hints regarding the use of display cases, velvet, perhaps changing the prices. Some even suggested that my stuff might do better on the first Thursday which is held in the Pearl District. This was not on my mind as we packed it up for the night. My thoughts were on the woman who stopped to visit and was my age. She had fled Boston with her son in 1993 from which she simply stated as domestic violence, she said no more on that. She showed me her driver's license where she had changed her last name to DIYG, which she said stood for Do It Yourself with God. I felt an instant bond with this woman who walked with her head held high, who had found a place where she was accepted and was thriving.

This next paragraph is "The History" copied from the back of a flyer distributed through out Portland regarding "Alberta Street ~ Where LIfe and Art Meet":
"Alberta Street's name was likely a tribute to England's Princess Alberta. The area was first settled by working class German, Irish, Russian, Scandinavian, Jewish and Polish immigrants who came to fill the jobs provided by the Albina rail yards in the mid 1880's. The Vanport Flood in 1948 displaced many African-Americans who had come to work in the shipyards during World War II, some moving to the Alberta Street area. It was a place where people could find affordable, single family homes. From the 1960's through the early 1990's disinvestment in the surrounding neighborhood started a spiral of decline. By the mid 1990's, new and long time residents of the neighborhood began working together to revitalize Alberta Street, now a vibrant multicultural community of people and small businesses full of creativity and talent."  ¶ 5/30/2005 11:37:00 AM 3 comments

  I have Pink Hair!!!!   ¶ 5/29/2005 07:17:00 PM 3 comments

  Here's one for the books By MICHAEL VIRTANEN,
Associated Press Writer
46 minutes ago

ALBANY, N.Y. - Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, in a letter Sunday to "take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers."

A call to Leavitt's office was not immediately returned Sunday.

According to Hevesi, the problem is an unintended consequence of a 1998 directive from federal officials telling states that Medicaid prescription programs must include Viagra. His office discovered that the state was helping sex offenders pay for Viagra by checking Medicaid pharmacy expenditures against the state's sex offender registry.

New York's two senators said Sunday the problem should be corrected.

Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement that it was "deeply disturbing and runs contrary to the purpose of Medicaid, which is to provide health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals." Clinton, a Democrat, urged Leavitt to look into the matter, and said she would explore legislative options.

New York's other senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said at a press conference in New York City that he hoped the issue could be resolved without a bill, but he's prepared to offer one if needed.

"While I believe that HHS did not do this intentionally, when the government pays for Viagra for sex offenders, it could well hurt many innocent people," he said.

New York auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders, Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt said.

While the auditors didn't review the situation on Viagra reimbursement by Medicaid in other states, he said they have no indication that the policies are different elsewhere.

___

On the Net:

New York Comptroller's Office: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/  ¶ 5/22/2005 08:20:00 PM 4 comments

  Up for your consideration..... I have two powerful posts I would like to refer reader's to. Both are at Samizdat1
one is in regards to Mother's Day, and the other is to the Bush Economic Report Card. I think you'll find like me that they are both very enlightening.  ¶ 5/09/2005 01:32:00 PM 0 comments

  trucks passing in traffic "my other toy has tits"
Yes the writing is very small, the reason is because some small minded people made a bumper sticker out of the above quote.


As my daughter Leah and I were down in Newport driving in after work traffic, not much of that here by the way, we happened to be behind this truck that had the above mentioned sticker, not on his bumper but right at eye level stuck to the middle of his rear window.
I wanted to jump out of my daughter's truck and rip it off that young kids truck. The bumper sticker looked brand new, so my daughter and I imagined that it must not have been there long.... Not enough woman had seen it yet. Of course I didn't rip it off, but as we got in the other lane and became side by side I did let that kid know it was not a good idea. No, I didn't yell at him, I wanted too. But instead I held my head in that motherly way shaking my head no, you know the way mother's do that let's their kids know they've done bad?

I'm not one of those people who can speak the right thing at the right time, so it's best sometimes just to leave my mouth shut, so I'm hoping that he got my message. What would you guys have done?


  ¶ 5/05/2005 09:57:00 PM 7 comments