Abe's Point

I think that not all people who are arrested and incarcerated are bad to the bones. I think that some people who are arrested and put into servitude are lucky that some one finally notices them enough to have a look and try to help them.

For every person hardened enough that nothing can help them, there must be a thousand who need some some to look their way. Sometimes the idea of self respect is over looked. It is my experience that people who have no respect for others, have no respect for themselves. They are arrogant, defiant, but under all that sappy hate is a lack of self respect.



It is as impossible to teach self respect as it is to teach how to love. It has to be a changeling experience. Not impossible, I am here to tell you all, but it takes a powerful, powerful, powerful lot of love that needs no stroking, no return, just love that is. Let it be.



Love,

Betty

Love is great, but, murderers are unpredictable. They can be loved from afar.

They can be behind bars--just in case.

In my opinion.

9/14/2011


Have we lost our total freedom in this society !
Or have we gone stark raving mad! Read on..

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/shoshana-hebshi-passenger_n_961369.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2|95389


Cheers..Joe

When they do profiling, I wonder what criteria they use to determine what an American is supposed to look like?

Interesting question, isn't it, Abe. Because that little school where I taught was a magnet school, we were required to keep our "Ethnic" proportions the same as the rest of the district, so, twice a year, each teacher was required to turn in an "ethnic count." I was always annoyed by it, because before I had been there a full year, I realized that I didn't see "color" any more. Black, brown, yellow, white - they all merged together, and I didn't notice, so I would have to stop and think sometimes while I was putting the count together.

And every year, there would be at very least one like the incredibly beautiful young man who had kinky carrot-red hair, green eyes, a golden-toned skin scattered with a few freckles, and whose last name was Rodriguez.

He had to go under the tab called "other."

Maybe someday we will live in a world where everybody is an other, and yet we are all the same.

Ann

That stuff grinds me too. Most of the people I know have multiple ethnic origins. My origins are Norway, Sweden, Ireland and England. However, I have some distant memory of someone saying there was French and German.

I can see tracking immigrants as they enter the country. nd Once a person becomes a U.S. citizen, ethnic origins only have import as regards specific medical conditions that are specific to an ethnic group - and that's between a doctor and patient.

My friend from Jamaica is a U.S. citizen. Her parents were Irish and English (just like me) and African. That's three places of origin; yet, she's supposed to mark the form "black" because her skin color is dark? She's probably more Irish and English than I am. How about her grandchild whose mother is from Thailand? Is he Asian or black? His skin is white as snow.

And "Hispanic?" What's that? There's a lot of intermarriage among African, Spanish and English in the Caribbean. Cubans are not Mexicans.

I used to hear that Brazil had overcome these labeling issues because they, too, have a society of many mixed races. In Brazil, you are Brazilian. I don't know if that is for certain - just something I heard.

If a person chooses to emphasize their heritage, that's a different matter of pride. It's self-declared; not a government mandate.

I think in protest, every U.S. citizen should mark the census "other."

9/14/2011


DK..

When ever I have done the census I put " None Of Your
Business," Then I write " American 4th generation- German-
French And English !"

I had a good friend in NYC who passed away at 97 , I
use to complain that I got sick and tired of people asking me
my back ground , she said tell them this !

" I'm a cross between a bull bitch and a window shade !"

She was something else, she was Irish and Scotch.


Cheers..Joe

If a person is neither a pedophile nor a murderer or a sadist they are all right in my book.

Phew! You had me worried there for a minute.

The problem with the census is the problem of funding in this country. Funding is by labels - so much carved out for this group and so much carved out for that one. So much for this project and so much for that. The amount of money is dependent on the number of people in poverty or the number of minorities, or the number of special needs...so long as money is based on the census data, answering the questions with "other" may prevent some very deserving classses of people from receiving funds.

I heard on the news this morning that 15% of Americans are in poverty. What is poverty?

I think I heard it's around $23,000 annually for a family of four.

On Monday, the price for recycled aluminum cans was .95 a pound.



On country roads, such as the one I live on, are a free for all dumping ground for beer cans and old mattresses, sofas, worn out tires, boats with the numbers cut out, and dead animal carcasses that have the hams cut off.



This week, I have noticed a couple of young men going through the garbage cans that have been put out for collection by the county. They were looking for aluminum cans. If they were to do that in the town, any number of people would be reporting them for going through their garbage. We all do the recycling boxes that the county provides. I thought it was an enterprising way to collect aluminum cans. To me, I would rather they got the aluminum than the county.

Alas! Our trash is void of aluminum. We save it up and take it off to the junk man our own self.

Love,

Betty

9/14/2011


The census should be changed ! One line American,
that's the problem in this country everything is divided
by groups ethnic ...We're all Americans..


Cheers..Joe

I don't see a problem with knowing and remembering our cultural and ethnic roots. It only becomes a problem when our differences aren't accepted and respected.

My ancestors came here from Northern Ireland, Lowland Scotland, and sveral parts of England - mostly from the north of Englad, so I could probably call myself a Celtic American. I very likely have some native blood in me, as more than one of my ancestors are rumored to be Cherokee. It's probably true, since those British ancestors mostly settled in the backwoods of this country. There is a fascinating book out there called Albion's Seed, which traces patterns of migration from the British Isles to America, and indicates that the settlers kept to their roots when they came over the big pond.

this website focuses on one of those groups, the backwoods settlers. It describes my ancestors, at least as far back as I can remember them or heard stories about them, very accurately.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/albion/albion3.html

Quote :

When the people of this borderland immigrated to America, they carried their culture with them. They settled most often in America's backcountry, since it was geographically and politically parallel to the borders from whence they came. There arose, therefore, in the backcountry of America, a culture much like the one seen on the Anglo-Scottish borders.

We should all be able to take pride in where we came from.

Ann

I have no problem with delineating ancestry - and I am proud of my heritage as each of us should be. The problem lies in the government forcing people to choose one of their heritage characteristics to define them statistically.