What a beautiful morning here in the desert. We had a rare sprinkle of rain last night and it left the morning cool (90) and full of birds and insects flying all around. I have hummingbird feeders everywhere and they now come several times a day to my kitchen window to feed. I love it.
I went out and worked on my morning glory vines I have trained along my front yard fence. It is beautiful and it was a beautiful morning to be out in the yard appreciating all the wondrous plants and wildlife we have in the desert.
I was raised in the desert. My Dad used to love to go out hiking in the middle of no where looking for arrow heads and indian pottery. We would occasionally find some and I beleive he still has some put somewhere. This is a valley surrounded by mountains of red, purple and blues, like no where else on the planet. In the winter the mountains are snow capped and beautiful.
I see the spendor of the desert and I do my best to protect it. What a shame that people who have moved here think the desert is barren, ugly and a good place to dump a old couch or their construction renovation trash. Makes me sick!
I will never understand why people take this beautiful planet for granted. Makes no sense at all. When I hear that man is the only species that trashes and destroys it's own home you realize we really are not too smart. I recall the old commercial of the 1970's where a Indian chief stands looking over his beautiful wilderness, then you see trash thrown all around and they pan to his face which now has a tear running down his face. I feel like that sometimes. How sad it is. How can people be so stupid, so uncaring and so thoughtless? I don't care if people call me a tree hugger.
I'd rather hug a tree than a CEO!
Hey, maybe Sierra Club needs me to email this comment to them to use in their causes! As a matter of fact I'd rather hug a whale or a owl or a viscous Hyena than a CEO and I am sure i would come out ahead and better off than if I had hugged the CEO of any conglomerate corporation we have in this nation today.
If all the corporations went away today we would still have the beautiful streams and mountains. We would still have birds flying overhead and fish in the ocean but the same is not true the other way around. It seems no matter what part of the world you go to there is a corporation destroying SOMETHING....A lake, a entire Ocean, the air or the trees.
How can anyone think that is okay all in the name of greed? How can anyone think it is right and respectful of our home, Mother Earth? Makes no sense. As you can see the environment is one of my top priorities. I vow to fight for it and do what I can to protect it. I recycle more than anyone within a mile radius of where I live. I do not go driving all around Willy Nilly from one place to the next just for the fun of it. Many weeks my car stays unmoved for the entire week. I love that. I live in a town with little to no public transportation so the car is king here but I always try to make the best of my route which I try to plan ahead of time so i am not being wasteful. When i am forced to drive across town I think what else is over there i have been meaning to do so I can make the best of that trip. Teenagers cruising around town just because they have a car makes me crazy! Parents need to teach responsibility in this regard. It is NOT a American tradition to continue on with.Oil is too valuable, to precious. I beleive in teaching kids to be responsible stewards of our resources not users and abusers...Oh well, there I go again...Tree Hugger! :)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Oh to be young again
My daughter has a longtime friend over swimming today. To my 11 year old life is just one play date after another. Summer is all fun and no school. I have a very good memory and i recall those days too. So anxious to grow up. Not knowing that childhood is the few years that real fun and idleness is allowed and accepted without question. I tell my daughter all the time that it has only been a very short time in American history that even kids were allowed to not contribute to the family in some way be it working on the family farm feeding animals or working as a servant or in a factory to earn money. They say that it was not until Queen Victoria that this idea of just letting kids be kids came into vogue. Prior to that kids were expected to do their part and being too small was no excuse. So when we think that it has just been 100 years in the history of our planet that kids in America get to swim and play all summer long it was not that long ago that kids worked 16 hour days in factories and had no protection under the law. I am glad my daughter has a childhood. I glad I had one too. But i know many kids across this nation are not swimming and are not playing with friends this very day. They are sitting bored and hungry in a unairconditioned room. No cable, no food. maybe their job is to watch their brothers and sisters if Mom is lucky enough to have a job. I feel blessed. I remind my daughter she needs to feel blessed too. I don't want my child to be ungrateful, unconcerned or oblivious to how lucky we are. I believe compassion is nurtured and empathy learned. It is my job to not allow arrogance or lack of compassion to take over as the teen years loom. Too many snotty little teens who worry more about designer jeans than the things that really matter. My daughter is a compassionate girl. A very loving girl who is very appreciative for the most part but she has her moments too. I am quick to remind her how lucky we are, how we can always do more for others and why it important not to get too full of ourselves. I think this is the right thing to do. We will have issues and conflicts no matter what, but at least she knows in the end her parents are people of conviction. People of purpose and people who always try to think of others. That's our job.
People paying bills late make the best workers!
http://weakonomics.com/2010/07/27/credit-checks-for-pre-employment-screening-good-or-bad/
What a concept! People who are not paying their bills on time are the best employees you ever had by arriving to work everyday on time willing and able to put in a good days work with value and integrity because they appreciate the opportunity to support their families as opposed to people who paid J.C. Penny's $10.00 dollar min payment due back in 08 being denied the opportunity to work for the next 7-10 years
What a concept! People who are not paying their bills on time are the best employees you ever had by arriving to work everyday on time willing and able to put in a good days work with value and integrity because they appreciate the opportunity to support their families as opposed to people who paid J.C. Penny's $10.00 dollar min payment due back in 08 being denied the opportunity to work for the next 7-10 years
Candidiates stance on HR3149
I just called both Sharon Angle of Nevada the Tea party candidate who has been recorded stating she does not see her job as a US Senator to have anything to do about getting people jobs if she would endorse HR3149 The Equal Opportunity For All Act. I am waiting for a call back. In the meantime i emailed California Governor want to be Meg Whitman, former CEO of Ebay as to weather she supports HR3149 because during her statement today On Good Morning America she reported the number of unemployed in California to be that of 15 states total population currently. I miss quoted this figure earlier stating it was the population of only 13 states. It is my hope these candidates will endorse passage of this vital jobs bill so that incumbent politicians will see the value in supporting it as well and hopefully widespread support from both parties will ensure it is quickly heard and voted on so we can get people back to work now when we need it most.
Poverty in America
What's a radical Mom doing on a warm summer day? Making Fig Jam from my very own fig tree. My first attempt. I love trying new things like blogging and cooking as well as learning all sorts of new thing. On Sunday night I learned that there are far more starving people in the USA than I ever imagined. Dateline NBC did a special on Ohio's poverty and I was taken back. As I mashed and mixed and cooked my Jam this morning I thought of how fortunate I was to be smelling these wonderful smells of fresh food cooking in my kitchen and realizing how privileged I am to be able to do so.
Yesterday I heard that Chefs for Humanity, who I will be writing today, collected MILLIONS for Haiti which just last week was reported to be totally unimproved after 6 months despite all the aid we have poured into this poor nation. The corrupt government and officials have just wasted all our dollars and the people have seen little to no benefit what so ever.
So it makes me really angry that so many celebrities and groups have given so much to other nations in their time of need and have totally ignored what is in our own back yard.
People are starving in the USA! Today, right now. I just heard Meg Whitman candidate in California state that there are more people out of work in California than the entire population of 13 states! There's alot of hungry people in California where stars dine on Rodeo Drive and look out their Malibu windows to a pristine sea. But blocks away homeless people push carts and panhandle on the corner. We need to get a handle on the extreme wealth and the extreme poor in this nation. People need to do more. Before you give one cent to ANY nation make sure you divide those dollars up. Half to them, half to a local food bank right here in the USA!
Where I live people pay $40,000 a night for suite. They pay $400.00 a bottle for Vodka just to have a place to sit at a dance club. They wear their designer clothes they paid thousands for and Jimmy Choo's they paid hundreds for. They eat $400.00 gold covered cupcakes and yet this city has the highest forclosure and bankrupcy rates in the nation! We have many homeless families here and the very places they are hanging out in wining and dinig are responsible of laying off many workers despite making huge profits.I am going to make it my mission to contact each celebrity I see mentioned in the "society" or Entertainment page of my local paper and I am going to ask... Do you realise what you spent on just one night of partying could have supplied several food pantry's for a entire YEAR?
These wealthy people need to do more. When was the last time they had a telethon for AMERICA?
Just like cooking and taking care of a family, everything must blend together and work harmoniously to work effectively. One problem effects the entire flow of things. It upsets the apple cart so to speak. It is the same with our nation and how so many issues are interconnected. Like jobs and starvation. Like credit checks keeping people from working which keeps people from being able to provide for their families. Like corporate greed keeping people down by lobbyist doing everything they can do to not get HR3149 The Equal Opportunity For All bills from ever being heard.
I hear political candidates say tax cuts will bring more jobs. Do not believe it for a minute! Do you know American corporation are HOARDING mass amounts of CASH? Over a 100 TRILLION dollars instead of reinvesting it in expansion, new hires, research and development or any other use. This has been widely reported in the last two weeks and I will site The Bloomberg Report as just one source which i read this fact in.
Just HOARDING the cash. If these corporations get anymore tax breaks they will not put people back to work! They will give their investors higher dividend checks and report RECORD profits, which by the way many corporations are doing right now today while people in this nation are starving and yet they say they are "afraid" to hire. That is bull, a lie pure and simple.
The level of greed we are experiencing in this day and age by huge conglomerate corporations knows no boundaries. They could CARE LESS about putting this nation back to work. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a job then please give back something. Help those less fortunate than yourself. I am a stay at home Mom. My husband has a reasonable job. We are not rich. We are the soon to be extinct, middle class. But we are very lucky none the less. He has a job. He goes to work everyday when some days he wished he didn't have to. He is no spring chicken either. Anything could happen any day and we have no savings. I am not afraid to share that because that is like the bulk of this nation right now. We live paycheck to pay check, simple as that. Our situation could change for the worse very quickly. So I am grateful. I am humbled and I am going to help whoever I can when ever I can.
And I ask that if you are reading this you do the same. Don't wait till the Holidays to get that warm fuzzy feeling to help. Don't wait for your church to tell you what to do. Just do it!
Help someone, just one person a day! And before you waste $5.00 on a Starbucks coffee make a pot at home and give the $4.50 to a food bank!
Don't just drive by the person standing on the corner asking for food. DO Something! So even if you think your credit is great and you have tons of dollars in the bank, know it and know it now that could radically change IN A HEART BEAT!
You may not be able to find work for 7-10 years because of ONE bill paid late! Credit checks in the workplace is destroying opportunity and advancement for 22 million people in this nation right now today! These are families. These are people who need to work to have a place to live and money to feed their families. We as a nation must demand HR3149 gets heard, passed and implemented today before one more child goes hungry tonight, it is as simple as that. If you are endorsing this practice then you need to educate yourself. It is wrong on every level. We are humans not numbers and credit reports say NOTHING about who you are as a human being or you ability to perform a job well with competency and honesty.
Credit scores are the mark of the beast we have all been warned about and I am not Christian but I believe this number is determining your future, your hopes and your dreams on a daily basis and it must stop.
A number that determines who will eat and who will not cannot be accepted in our society at any time ever. If you call yourself a good Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu there is no WAY this can be condoned. Credit reports were NEVER intended to keep people from employment. Please outlaw this practice now and call or write your Senator, Congressman or the White House and let them know you want this practice outlawed NOW. I hope you don't think I am too "Radical" but this who I am and what I believe and I am willing to spend my days working on something as important as children starving in America and i will not apologize for it! Please go out and do something for a starving American today!
Yesterday I heard that Chefs for Humanity, who I will be writing today, collected MILLIONS for Haiti which just last week was reported to be totally unimproved after 6 months despite all the aid we have poured into this poor nation. The corrupt government and officials have just wasted all our dollars and the people have seen little to no benefit what so ever.
So it makes me really angry that so many celebrities and groups have given so much to other nations in their time of need and have totally ignored what is in our own back yard.
People are starving in the USA! Today, right now. I just heard Meg Whitman candidate in California state that there are more people out of work in California than the entire population of 13 states! There's alot of hungry people in California where stars dine on Rodeo Drive and look out their Malibu windows to a pristine sea. But blocks away homeless people push carts and panhandle on the corner. We need to get a handle on the extreme wealth and the extreme poor in this nation. People need to do more. Before you give one cent to ANY nation make sure you divide those dollars up. Half to them, half to a local food bank right here in the USA!
Where I live people pay $40,000 a night for suite. They pay $400.00 a bottle for Vodka just to have a place to sit at a dance club. They wear their designer clothes they paid thousands for and Jimmy Choo's they paid hundreds for. They eat $400.00 gold covered cupcakes and yet this city has the highest forclosure and bankrupcy rates in the nation! We have many homeless families here and the very places they are hanging out in wining and dinig are responsible of laying off many workers despite making huge profits.I am going to make it my mission to contact each celebrity I see mentioned in the "society" or Entertainment page of my local paper and I am going to ask... Do you realise what you spent on just one night of partying could have supplied several food pantry's for a entire YEAR?
These wealthy people need to do more. When was the last time they had a telethon for AMERICA?
Just like cooking and taking care of a family, everything must blend together and work harmoniously to work effectively. One problem effects the entire flow of things. It upsets the apple cart so to speak. It is the same with our nation and how so many issues are interconnected. Like jobs and starvation. Like credit checks keeping people from working which keeps people from being able to provide for their families. Like corporate greed keeping people down by lobbyist doing everything they can do to not get HR3149 The Equal Opportunity For All bills from ever being heard.
I hear political candidates say tax cuts will bring more jobs. Do not believe it for a minute! Do you know American corporation are HOARDING mass amounts of CASH? Over a 100 TRILLION dollars instead of reinvesting it in expansion, new hires, research and development or any other use. This has been widely reported in the last two weeks and I will site The Bloomberg Report as just one source which i read this fact in.
Just HOARDING the cash. If these corporations get anymore tax breaks they will not put people back to work! They will give their investors higher dividend checks and report RECORD profits, which by the way many corporations are doing right now today while people in this nation are starving and yet they say they are "afraid" to hire. That is bull, a lie pure and simple.
The level of greed we are experiencing in this day and age by huge conglomerate corporations knows no boundaries. They could CARE LESS about putting this nation back to work. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a job then please give back something. Help those less fortunate than yourself. I am a stay at home Mom. My husband has a reasonable job. We are not rich. We are the soon to be extinct, middle class. But we are very lucky none the less. He has a job. He goes to work everyday when some days he wished he didn't have to. He is no spring chicken either. Anything could happen any day and we have no savings. I am not afraid to share that because that is like the bulk of this nation right now. We live paycheck to pay check, simple as that. Our situation could change for the worse very quickly. So I am grateful. I am humbled and I am going to help whoever I can when ever I can.
And I ask that if you are reading this you do the same. Don't wait till the Holidays to get that warm fuzzy feeling to help. Don't wait for your church to tell you what to do. Just do it!
Help someone, just one person a day! And before you waste $5.00 on a Starbucks coffee make a pot at home and give the $4.50 to a food bank!
Don't just drive by the person standing on the corner asking for food. DO Something! So even if you think your credit is great and you have tons of dollars in the bank, know it and know it now that could radically change IN A HEART BEAT!
You may not be able to find work for 7-10 years because of ONE bill paid late! Credit checks in the workplace is destroying opportunity and advancement for 22 million people in this nation right now today! These are families. These are people who need to work to have a place to live and money to feed their families. We as a nation must demand HR3149 gets heard, passed and implemented today before one more child goes hungry tonight, it is as simple as that. If you are endorsing this practice then you need to educate yourself. It is wrong on every level. We are humans not numbers and credit reports say NOTHING about who you are as a human being or you ability to perform a job well with competency and honesty.
Credit scores are the mark of the beast we have all been warned about and I am not Christian but I believe this number is determining your future, your hopes and your dreams on a daily basis and it must stop.
A number that determines who will eat and who will not cannot be accepted in our society at any time ever. If you call yourself a good Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu there is no WAY this can be condoned. Credit reports were NEVER intended to keep people from employment. Please outlaw this practice now and call or write your Senator, Congressman or the White House and let them know you want this practice outlawed NOW. I hope you don't think I am too "Radical" but this who I am and what I believe and I am willing to spend my days working on something as important as children starving in America and i will not apologize for it! Please go out and do something for a starving American today!
Monday, July 26, 2010
My life as a Mom and political advocate
Where to start? Well, I have been a mother for many years. I have a 37 years old son who is married and has four children of his own. Then 11 years ago I gave birth to a daughter. The difference in their ages is the point of many jokes and starnge remarks but the truth of the matter is it has given me a perpective on life few have ever experienced. First, the value of time and truely fast it does go and once it is gone there is no amount of money, power or influence that redeem it back to you. People always say "if they had it to do over " they would do things differently. I did have that and I DID do things very differently over the past 11 years. I VALUED the time differently. I tried to be more patient. Things like that. And though I was and have always been very interested in my right to vote and such I never was involved in politics and policy changes the way I am now. I grew up in the 1960's with groups like The Black Panthers and Abby Hoffman making the news and making change. It was a turbulent time in our nation and one that I though had made alot of lasting change. Boy, was I wrong! In today's America I see and hear so many people absolutly disgusted with what is going on. I have been asked to run for Mayor, Senator and Congressperson by many who know my views and involvement in trying to make positive change for people in our nation and not the corporations who are now running virtually every aspect of our government. I think it is a frightning trend and one that sacrifices our freedom, liberty and very way of life for virtually every American out there. I no longer "belong" to any party affiliation. I resent labels such as liberal or conservative because they never truly explain in one word who we really are. I beleive in the death penalty and a right to bear arms. I belive in a womans right to choose. I believe in freedom...Freedom for the peoplenot for corporations. I believe in regulations, laws and mandates to keep us all safe, and to keep all forms of business on the up and up. I believe people should pay taxes to run our infrastructure but multi billion corporations need to pay more than we do. I believe that this country is worth fighting for, dying for but not one single corporation is worth dying for. No industry is worth dying for. If a business goes away another will come in to replace it just as the shoe cobbler and candlestick maker of the past came and went so will the many other businesses that technology and time have seen their usefulness come and go.
I spent a few years in the financial services industry and during that time i learned alot as I wore many hats over those years and it really was a education of a lifetime. One of the things i saw come and go was the personal banker at the local town bank. Kind of like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful life. The days when you had a personal relationship with a banker and he made lending decisions on a hand shake and faith that you would do the right thing and pay back what you borrowed one way or another. Then came Mr Issaic and Mr Fair who decided more needed to be done. Mathmatics was the answer! Formulas and quotients was what was needed to make these decisions so they devised the credit score. Sure, everyone thought they were crazy and no one used their wacky system having little to no faith in it until almost 20 years later when just one bank decided to give it a whirl! The next thing you know it was follow the leader and one bank after another started to use it too because now the personal banker was being phased out. His personal decision making was no longer valued as towns and bank grew larger and less and less people knew one another. In walks the credit score. Out walks trust and common sense. It would be another 20 years before credit checks began to impact the lives of every man and woman age 18 and older. I personally witnessed this change in direction credit checks were making in our society and how it was effecting the masses. In August of 2007 then President Bush began discussing providing TARP money to bail out the large financial institutions in our nation. Iwrote the President, Barnet Frank of The House Financial Services Committee and my local Senator Harry Reid asking them to demand reforms in the financial services industry in exchange for the money taxpayers were providing and I asked for comprehensive reform of the three major credit reporting agencies, specifically credit reporting and credit scoring. Though the buraues are not part of banking they are now so tightly bonded they have meshed into one hand that definitely feeds the other. Restricting how banks utilize credit reports would be one solution. Restricting the bureaus themselves would be the best course of action. I was most applauded at how credit checks were being used in the workplace and demanded this be eliminated right away as our country was just entering into a recession. I could this in the future as a major obstacle to hiring and therefore a catch 22 for the American worker who was struggling to stay a float. My letters went unanswered but I continued on writing, calling and trying to find others who felt the way i did about credit checks. Nothing. One year went by and I did everything I could. Attended Democratic strategy meetings, Caucuses and other events but everywhere I went I got no respect. I was shocked how few people knew of this practice and how few thought it to be a issue at all. I persevered. Another year came and went with no help, no support, no other supporters. Then in January of 2010 I found a union is San Fran who was publishing some web materials and a facebook group that was beginning to focus on this issue as a organized labor issue. I wrote to him and we hit it off. I was so glad to find even one other person who believed as I did and who was working toward change in this regard on a daily basis as I was. Then I met Ron Congress on Facebook and he had started a group called HR3149 named after a piece of federal legislation proposed by TN congressman Steve Cohen to stop credit checks in the workplace. What a Godsend! The congressman who lives in a prodominatly AfroAmerican district was approached by constituents who could not get work in this district due to credit checks in the workplace. So in July of 2009 he wrote the bill to bann them and quickly gained the support of many other members of congress. In the mean time, 16 other states took up this issue. Hawaii and Washington State Passed the legislation to ban it. Oregon heard the bill in January of 2010 and it passed there and began being enforced in July 2010. So it sound like things are just moving right along, right? Not at all.....In comes the credit reporting agencies, private investigators, lobbyists and the US Chamber of Commerce all wanting their piece of the 700 billion dollar pie credit checks generate each year. What's a Radical Mom to do?
I spent a few years in the financial services industry and during that time i learned alot as I wore many hats over those years and it really was a education of a lifetime. One of the things i saw come and go was the personal banker at the local town bank. Kind of like Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful life. The days when you had a personal relationship with a banker and he made lending decisions on a hand shake and faith that you would do the right thing and pay back what you borrowed one way or another. Then came Mr Issaic and Mr Fair who decided more needed to be done. Mathmatics was the answer! Formulas and quotients was what was needed to make these decisions so they devised the credit score. Sure, everyone thought they were crazy and no one used their wacky system having little to no faith in it until almost 20 years later when just one bank decided to give it a whirl! The next thing you know it was follow the leader and one bank after another started to use it too because now the personal banker was being phased out. His personal decision making was no longer valued as towns and bank grew larger and less and less people knew one another. In walks the credit score. Out walks trust and common sense. It would be another 20 years before credit checks began to impact the lives of every man and woman age 18 and older. I personally witnessed this change in direction credit checks were making in our society and how it was effecting the masses. In August of 2007 then President Bush began discussing providing TARP money to bail out the large financial institutions in our nation. Iwrote the President, Barnet Frank of The House Financial Services Committee and my local Senator Harry Reid asking them to demand reforms in the financial services industry in exchange for the money taxpayers were providing and I asked for comprehensive reform of the three major credit reporting agencies, specifically credit reporting and credit scoring. Though the buraues are not part of banking they are now so tightly bonded they have meshed into one hand that definitely feeds the other. Restricting how banks utilize credit reports would be one solution. Restricting the bureaus themselves would be the best course of action. I was most applauded at how credit checks were being used in the workplace and demanded this be eliminated right away as our country was just entering into a recession. I could this in the future as a major obstacle to hiring and therefore a catch 22 for the American worker who was struggling to stay a float. My letters went unanswered but I continued on writing, calling and trying to find others who felt the way i did about credit checks. Nothing. One year went by and I did everything I could. Attended Democratic strategy meetings, Caucuses and other events but everywhere I went I got no respect. I was shocked how few people knew of this practice and how few thought it to be a issue at all. I persevered. Another year came and went with no help, no support, no other supporters. Then in January of 2010 I found a union is San Fran who was publishing some web materials and a facebook group that was beginning to focus on this issue as a organized labor issue. I wrote to him and we hit it off. I was so glad to find even one other person who believed as I did and who was working toward change in this regard on a daily basis as I was. Then I met Ron Congress on Facebook and he had started a group called HR3149 named after a piece of federal legislation proposed by TN congressman Steve Cohen to stop credit checks in the workplace. What a Godsend! The congressman who lives in a prodominatly AfroAmerican district was approached by constituents who could not get work in this district due to credit checks in the workplace. So in July of 2009 he wrote the bill to bann them and quickly gained the support of many other members of congress. In the mean time, 16 other states took up this issue. Hawaii and Washington State Passed the legislation to ban it. Oregon heard the bill in January of 2010 and it passed there and began being enforced in July 2010. So it sound like things are just moving right along, right? Not at all.....In comes the credit reporting agencies, private investigators, lobbyists and the US Chamber of Commerce all wanting their piece of the 700 billion dollar pie credit checks generate each year. What's a Radical Mom to do?
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