Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Fun Day!
After church this morning I went to lunch at Yen Ching Restaurant in Tacoma on South Tacoma Way with Pastors Pat and Nils Leksen. What a treat! We had a great visit and a great meal!
I also met with a woman whose civil rights-era experiences as a young black child in the deep South during the 50s and 60s were horrendous and historic. I'm going to be collaborating with her to get her story into print. Pastor Pat put me in touch with her and am I ever glad! It's going to be an amazing book. She remembers seeing John Lewis (now a Congressman) with his head wrapped in bandages after some thugs almost beat him to death during their freedom walks.
I was just a kid then, living in the Pacific Northwest (an almost totally-white world at the time). The only blacks I knew then were my wonderful Sunday School teacher and her son Walter, so I was completely comfortable with black people and totally unaware of the undercurrent of racism that enveloped the continent.
All that changed for me the summer southern police officers were shown on TV turning police dogs and firehoses loose on black men, women and children. Stunned, I asked my mom, "What country is that happening in?!!!" When she told me it was OUR country, I was flabbergasted and angry. So I well remember the struggles my friend endured... albeit from afar. Watching TV that summer turned me into a Kennedy Democrat and a progressive!
So it's going to be an honor -- and difficult -- to revisit those times with my new friend. I'll learn more about her grandparents who endured slavery and the tearing apart of children from mothers and fathers... the lynchings... the whole gamut. It will become more than a distant, remembered outrage to me. I don't think I will sleep much while helping with her book (editing). I do know it's important that her story be told, both as an example of how far a nation can travel in 60 years and why we're still saddled with racism that needs to be expunged.
I think much of the vitriol levied against Obama is racist in nature. When I was calling voters during his campaign, numerous people proclaimed, "I will never vote for a black man." WOW!
The underbelly of racism has not been ripped out and won't disappear until more old people die (not all old people are racist -- a lot of white people joined the freedom marches and lost their lives doing the right thing) and the younger ones are educated and exposed to mutually-respectful and honorable cultural diversity.
The back of racism is being broken, slowly but surely. And since people of color will become the majority by 2050 (already are in several states), it's high time it happened. I just pray the new majorities won't treat whites the way whites treated them when they were in the minority -- or even we "innocent whites" are going to be paying for majority rule intolerance and perversity for a very long time.
Am I afraid of that happening? Maybe a little. And maybe with good cause. A guilty conscience does that to people. And yes, innocent whites do have guilty consciences -- at least I do because of the way so many whites treated blacks for centuries! I think our consciences are supposed to indict and convict us. That's what God put it there for -- so we could choose to repent and seek forgiveness for looking the other way for so long...
We all need to treat each other with love and respect.
I also met with a woman whose civil rights-era experiences as a young black child in the deep South during the 50s and 60s were horrendous and historic. I'm going to be collaborating with her to get her story into print. Pastor Pat put me in touch with her and am I ever glad! It's going to be an amazing book. She remembers seeing John Lewis (now a Congressman) with his head wrapped in bandages after some thugs almost beat him to death during their freedom walks.
I was just a kid then, living in the Pacific Northwest (an almost totally-white world at the time). The only blacks I knew then were my wonderful Sunday School teacher and her son Walter, so I was completely comfortable with black people and totally unaware of the undercurrent of racism that enveloped the continent.
All that changed for me the summer southern police officers were shown on TV turning police dogs and firehoses loose on black men, women and children. Stunned, I asked my mom, "What country is that happening in?!!!" When she told me it was OUR country, I was flabbergasted and angry. So I well remember the struggles my friend endured... albeit from afar. Watching TV that summer turned me into a Kennedy Democrat and a progressive!
So it's going to be an honor -- and difficult -- to revisit those times with my new friend. I'll learn more about her grandparents who endured slavery and the tearing apart of children from mothers and fathers... the lynchings... the whole gamut. It will become more than a distant, remembered outrage to me. I don't think I will sleep much while helping with her book (editing). I do know it's important that her story be told, both as an example of how far a nation can travel in 60 years and why we're still saddled with racism that needs to be expunged.
I think much of the vitriol levied against Obama is racist in nature. When I was calling voters during his campaign, numerous people proclaimed, "I will never vote for a black man." WOW!
The underbelly of racism has not been ripped out and won't disappear until more old people die (not all old people are racist -- a lot of white people joined the freedom marches and lost their lives doing the right thing) and the younger ones are educated and exposed to mutually-respectful and honorable cultural diversity.
The back of racism is being broken, slowly but surely. And since people of color will become the majority by 2050 (already are in several states), it's high time it happened. I just pray the new majorities won't treat whites the way whites treated them when they were in the minority -- or even we "innocent whites" are going to be paying for majority rule intolerance and perversity for a very long time.
Am I afraid of that happening? Maybe a little. And maybe with good cause. A guilty conscience does that to people. And yes, innocent whites do have guilty consciences -- at least I do because of the way so many whites treated blacks for centuries! I think our consciences are supposed to indict and convict us. That's what God put it there for -- so we could choose to repent and seek forgiveness for looking the other way for so long...
We all need to treat each other with love and respect.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
UNBelievable!
I say vote them all (GOP) out in November. Obstructionist government is folly.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/gop-senators-refusing-to_n_511639.html
Read it and weep... then pray for our country.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/gop-senators-refusing-to_n_511639.html
Read it and weep... then pray for our country.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Confused or Scared about the New Health Care Reform Bill?
Here's the rundown on the effects it will have on you, and how soon.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34609984/ns/health-health_care/?GT1=43001
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34609984/ns/health-health_care/?GT1=43001
Saturday, March 20, 2010
I Have a New Follower! Welcome, Fibro Witch!
To find out more about her, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on her photo (the first one in line to the left).
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Lunch With Mary Jo Today
Mary Jo treated me to lunch at The Ram. She also spoiled me with a few little birthday goodies, some edible, one for the puppies (that the puppies may never see because I love it so, and because they're little teeth might rip it apart, which would not be a good thing because then they could swallow the pieces and get sick). SO I GET TO KEEP IT -- AT LEAST UNTIL THE KIDS SEE IT AND TRY TO ABSCOND WITH IT. It's a ball that lights up when you bounce it... rather addidtive, if you ask me!
After lunch we walked around Waughop Lake (twice) while we looked at birds, dodged other walkers and their dogs, and caught up on each other's doings. The time went too fast, but we both had to get back to work. Alas.
Tonight Phil and Wendy and the girls are coming over and we're having pizza for dinner. I hope I'm hungry again by then. I only had half a sandwich and half a salad at The Ram, but it's staying with me, even after a two mile walk...
Tomorrow I'm having lunch with Yvonne at Red Robin (I have a free birthday coupon there) and Tuesday I'm having lunch with Pastor Pat Leksen at Shari's Restaurant. I'm already stuffed just thinking about it all! This is what happens around birthday time. After that, it's back to once every blue moon... which is a good thing or I'd be bigger than I already am! LOVE the camaraderie, though, if not the calories!
After lunch we walked around Waughop Lake (twice) while we looked at birds, dodged other walkers and their dogs, and caught up on each other's doings. The time went too fast, but we both had to get back to work. Alas.
Tonight Phil and Wendy and the girls are coming over and we're having pizza for dinner. I hope I'm hungry again by then. I only had half a sandwich and half a salad at The Ram, but it's staying with me, even after a two mile walk...
Tomorrow I'm having lunch with Yvonne at Red Robin (I have a free birthday coupon there) and Tuesday I'm having lunch with Pastor Pat Leksen at Shari's Restaurant. I'm already stuffed just thinking about it all! This is what happens around birthday time. After that, it's back to once every blue moon... which is a good thing or I'd be bigger than I already am! LOVE the camaraderie, though, if not the calories!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Nightly News
The walk around Waughop Lake this afternoon was a real eye-opener. Mary Jane is a birder so I learned to tell the difference between different species of ducks, cranes, and other birds... shovelers, wood ducks, creepers, great blue herons...
Mary Jane says Waughop Lake (near Pierce College -- nee Ft Steilacoom Community College back in the day) is the best place in Pierce County to go bird-watching. It was just full of feathery "folk"!
She headed back about a third of the way around (she's recovering from hip surgery) so Judi and I went the rest of the way around, walking faster and seeing less as a result. But it was a terrific time, whether we were going fast or not-so-fast. I wish I had taken a camera. Next time!
Mary Jane says Waughop Lake (near Pierce College -- nee Ft Steilacoom Community College back in the day) is the best place in Pierce County to go bird-watching. It was just full of feathery "folk"!
She headed back about a third of the way around (she's recovering from hip surgery) so Judi and I went the rest of the way around, walking faster and seeing less as a result. But it was a terrific time, whether we were going fast or not-so-fast. I wish I had taken a camera. Next time!
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