Back on My Feet Again

By John Waite...

I was so lonely until I met you
Told myself I'd get by without love
Drownin' my sorrows
Avoiding tomorrows
Kind of felt that I just had enough

You light up my face with your jokes and your smiles
And the way that you came here tonight
Don't know what you got
But I'm sure glad I found you
Could be wrong but it sure feels right

And here I am, I'm back on my feet again
Here I am I'm back on my feet again
Surprised at myself for the way that I feel
So happy that you're here with me
Some women I've known, they've left me with nothing
But I guess that was just meant to be
And here I am, I'm back on my feet again
Here I am, I'm back on my feet again

I was down for the count, I was down, I was beat
I was cryin', I was cornered and hurt, I was hidin' my face
Sittin' there cryin'
I was so lonely until I met you
Told myself I'd get by without love
Drownin' my sorrows, avoiding tomorrows
Kind of felt that I just had enough
And here I am, I'm back on my feet again
Here I am, I'm back on my feet again.
Yes here I am, I'm back on my feet again
Here I am, I'm back on my feet again

Freedom

Our country was founded, at least in part, on the principle of religious freedom. That's what we all learned in history class in first grade and on through senior year, right? Pilgrims came over here from England so they could be free to practice their religion, etc. etc. But sometimes it doesn't quite work out that way.

Take the Stewarts. Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, shot down and killed over Afghanistan last September, was a Wiccan. His dog tags stated so; that is considered an "approved religion" for the Army's purposes in that form of identification. Sgt. Stewart was in the Nevada National Guard this time around, but had served in the Army during Desert Storm. Sgt Stewart was a good man and a fine soldier, posthumously awarded both a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. But his space on a Veteran's Memorial Wall in Nevada is blank, devoid of a grave marker. Why? Because although Wicca is an approved religion for his dog tags, there is no symbol approved by the VA to mark his grave.

There are 38 official symbols, many of which are Christian in theme. Also included are the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, and the nine-pointed star of Bahai. There is even a symbol for atheists. But for Wiccans, nothing. And his widow Roberta refuses to let the VA simply install a plaque with his name but no symbol. It would be too easy, she says, for them to simply move on afterward. Me, I see it as a giant slap in the face, that a hero killed in combat, whose religion was good enough for his dog tags and good enough that the military allows Wiccan services on its bases, is being shown such disrespect in his death.

For 9 years now, the Wiccan symbol of a pentacle has been "pending approval" for use as a grave symbol. In that time, 11 other symbols have been approved, but still the Wiccans wait. You may wonder why it's such a big deal... one soldier out of millions? No. Over 1800 Wiccans currently serve on active duty in the military - and that number comes from the Pentagon.

This isn't just a story pulled out of the papers, though if you Google "Patrick Stewart Wiccan" you will find many references. You see, my good friend and fellow troop supporter, Miss Ruth - Patrick was one of hers. They were friends. And Miss Ruth is still in touch with Patrick's widow, who asked her to add her voice to the issue. Miss Ruth and some of her friends, including myself, have made our voices heard. I'd like to ask you to do the same. It's not about whether or not you believe in Wicca. (And please spare me the protestations about Wicca being evil, witchcraft, devil worship, etc. Do your research before you jump to any conclusions, all right?) It's about whether or not you believe in freedom of religion, of the right to worship what you choose and how you choose, of respect for the dead and respect for the grieving. Sgt. Patrick Stewart gave his life defending the very freedom he is now being denied. Don't allow something this disgraceful to go on unprotested.

You can write to the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs by going to www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ and clicking on the "Federal Agencies" link to the far left. Select "Department of Veteran's Affairs" from the drop-down list. It will give you an e mail address, phone number, mailing address, and even a handy button you can click to send either an e mail or a printed letter. At this same site you can find the contact information for all of your elected officials, to contact them regarding any issue you feel is important. I'm asking... imploring... BEGGING you to take action on this. There is no better way to honor a fallen hero, and the country he died defending, than to defend the Constitutional right he is being denied in death.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

It's past midnight here, and I just looked at my computer and realized that it's August 19.

Fifteen years ago today, I moved to Texas to start college.

Eleven years ago today I got married.

I've finally remedied the first situation - I won't call that one a mistake, since moving to Texas set off a chain reaction of events that have made me who I am today. And I like who I am. At least I do today LOL ask me again tomorrow...

The second situation, I still need to remedy. Can't really call it a mistake either. In one sense I might - I should never have actually married him. Childbearing is one things, marriage is a whole 'nother level. (And thankfully, I also skipped the "getting his name tattooed on me" level. Mama didn't raise no fool!) But as I've said before, if I hadn't married him, Red would probably not have been born. The Clone was on the way already, I still could have backed out, but I think I would have wised up and walked away before Red was a twinkle in her father's eye, had I not been legally bound to him. At least, I would hope I would have.

Well. So. Happy Anniversary to me. Now I just need to save up for that darn legal divorce!

Leave It To My Uncle...

to send me a joke like this:


Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you either hear, or are about to repeat a rumor.

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC) Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test.
It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?" replied the acquaintance.

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my student let's take
a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, even though
you're not certain it's true?" The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued. "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter -
the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and ashamed.

This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem. It also explains why he never found out that Plato was banging his wife.

Rally

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_UfnBE0hPA

Take a look; this was a rally held by Colorado ACORN (our partners/the offices where I'm housed) when they collected enough petition signatures to get a referendum on the Colorado ballot to raise minimum wage to $6.85...

Leech No More!!!

I am now officially employed... here's what went down... I was offered the job last night, had a few questions for him, and asked if I could have until close of business today to get back to him with my decision. I'd had an interview for another job on Monday and been told that they wanted to make a decision by the end of this week. I also had an interview scheduled for today. Now, going into the day I was already 99% sure I was going to take the offer anyway, but I figured I had committed to the other interview first, and should at least see how it went. I talked it over with my family, since the long hours and low pay of this job will impact the whole household... but the potential long-term benefits would impact us all too, positively. I got their blessing and their pledge of support, and readied myself for my interview today.

I got a call from the staffing company this morning, telling me that the job I was supposed to interview for was temporarily suspended, but suggesting another company I could interview with. So I told the guy that, to be honest, I had been offered a job last night and I was pretty sure I was going to take it. Shortly after getting off that phone call, I called the guy who I guess is my new boss, and left him a message to call me back regarding the offer. Then I merrily went about the rest of the day's business. While I was in the grocery store, my phone rang... it was the woman with whom I'd had my second phone interview for this position, wanting to know if she could answer any questions for me, or if I needed any more information to help me make my decision. I told her I had a message in to her supervisor and was waiting for him to call me back. She asked again if she could help me, and I told her that I had already made the decision. She asked if I would mind telling her, and she almost sounded like she thought my answer was no... which maybe she did. But instead I told her that I would be honored to accept their offer, and boy, was she happy about that!!! So if nothing else, I know I'm really going to enjoy the people I work with, because they have ALL been so pleasant, cheerful, witty and warm all along... And apparently, I'm going to a retreat in Washington, DC at the end of the month to meet fellow staff members from around the nation, and strategize!!!

Mind you, I still haven't heard back from the boss man, but when I got home I already had an e mail message from Miss Sunshine, with information about the retreat... So now I guess it's fairly well official, and now I guess I can give more information... I will be working with Project Vote as an Election Administrator... You can read more about it here, if you like: http://projectvote.org/our-work-pages/our-work/election-administration.html but basically it's an incredible opportunity, and everything in me is telling me that this is THE way to go...

Woo HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Yay me!!!

Blog Snob

I never mean to be one, but the fact is, I'm a snob. I grammar-and-spelling snob (or as I call it, Grammar Nazi), a cooking snob, and now apparently a blog snob. Except in this case, I think it's justified.

See, I have another blog besides this one, on Yahoo! 360... and part of having a 360 profile is that you can see the new blog posts of your Yahoo! friends. Which I love. But there are an awful lot of people, apparently, who use the "RSS feed" feature. I don't even completely understand how that works, all I know is that I get excited because I see people have new posts... except it turns out to be news stories and such from other websites. Blogs not even of the person's own creation. I can understand every now and then, if there's an interesting story you'd like to share with other people... but if half the "blog posts" on my Yahoo! 360, are really just feeds of stories on the Yahoo! News page... well... I feel a little cheated. (I guess the same way some people must feel cheated when one of my posts is just song lyrics, but at least I try to make them rare/interesting.)

*sigh* One more thing for me to snob about...

Land of the Living

Who else?

by Don Henley

Well, it's up in the mornin'
Everybody off and runnin'
Everybody got some place to be
Some people never go walkin'
Some people just stop talkin'
When I was slippin' away
You came and pulled me through
I wanna stay in the land of the living with you

I wanna stay in the land of the living, I wanna stay here with you
I wanna stay in the land of the living, I wanna stay here with you

You know we work and we worry
This old world's in such a hurry
So many things we just don't see
Some people always cryin'
Some people just stop tryin'
When I was slippin' away
You came and pulled me through
I wanna stay in the land of the living with you

We got to do what we can about all this pain and sorrow
But try to live just a little, we could all be gone tomorrow
When I look at you girl, my heart rejoices
You taught me somethin': Considering the choices-

I wanna stay in the land of the living, I wanna stay here with you
I wanna stay in the land of the living, I wanna stay here with you

No More Cloudy Days

(Do you believe in second chances?)

by the Eagles...

Sitting by a foggy window
Staring at the pouring rain
Falling down like lonely teardrops
Memories of love in vain
These cloudy days, make you wanna cry
It breaks your heart when someone leaves and you don’t know why

I can see that you’ve been hurting, maybe I’ve been lonely too
I’ve been out here lost and searching, looking for a girl like you
Now I believe the sun is gonna shine
Don’t you be afraid to love again, put your hand in mine…

Baby, I would never make you cry
I would never make you blue
I would never let you down
I would never be untrue
I know a place where we can go where true love always stays
There’s no more stormy nights, no more cloudy days

I believe in second chances
I believe in angels, too
I believe in new romances
Baby, I believe in you
These cloudy days are coming to an end
And you don’t have to be afraid to fall in love again

Baby, I would never make you cry
I would never make you blue
I would never turn away
I would never be untrue
I know a place where we can go where true love always stays
There’s no more stormy nights, no more cloudy days

Alert CPS!!!

"I get paid $500,000 dollars to go to Las Vegas or Japan and wave at crowds or go to a party. All the time. Only this week I met a family at the airport who wanted me to drop in to their daughter's 16th birthday party for $100,000, because I'm her idol. So I will."

That's a quote from Paris Hilton, folks.

Let's see.. the kid is 16, and if the parents can afford that kind of money for a party guest, I'm guessing they weren't exactly teen parents themselves... more like in their later 40s to early 50s now... so what kind of parents, seemingly at an age whereby they might have some maturity, would encourage their teenage daughter's idolization of Paris Hilton?

If somehow, in the next 5 years, I become rich enough to be able to drop 100 grand on a celebrity guest for my daughter's Sweet Sixteen... she'd better not ask for Paris Hilton (or Jessica Simpson or Lindsay Lohan or anyone else like that), or she won't be getting a Sweet Sixteen party, she'll be getting a frontal lobotomy!

I'm Confused

I don't watch the news anymore (no TV here at all), and I guess I just haven't been reading the papers or news clips online enough to understand... I know we're at war in the Middle East, which we have been for years... something's going on with North Korea, or at least it was... now there's something with Israel and someone else... and now something going on with Cuba? Plus, of course, National Guard troops at the US/Mexico border. I may be going out on a limb here, but... aren't we spreading ourselves a little thin? Does ANYBODY like us anymore?!?!?!

Shamelessly Lifted, but For a Good Cause

I pulled this address off someone else's blog, but for a good reason. She writes about a soldier who was very badly injured in Iraq, and needs encouragement. As she indicated in her post, IF YOU DO NOT LIKE/SUPPORT THE MILITARY, DO NOT SEND ANYTHING THAT WOULD FURTHER DISCOURAGE HIM!!! But if you love and support the troops as I do, and if you have the time to do it, please send a little pick-me-up (letters and cards are great) to:

Sgt. Keven Downs
4 East Brooke Army Medical Center, Bldg. 3600
3851 Roger Brooke Dr.
Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234-6200


THANKS!!!!