Signs of the times

Yesterday we received a letter in the mail from the local car dealership that we like. The letter said that they would no longer be selling cars and trucks, but would continue to service vehicles in their garage. It was nice to know that you could call Mike or whomever and tell them that you were in the market for a vehicle and actually know the person you were talking to and he knew you lived on a gravel road and needed 4 wheel drive to get to work--knew just what we might need. I hope that scaling down to just mechanics work (and heaven knows we need good mechanics) is not a precursor to closing their doors, but in our area that is happening more and more.
I have an entry level secretary vacancy in my office. Ordinarily, HR would have sent maybe 15 resumes for me to look through and pick out interviewees. I received the totals on Monday. There were 115 applicants! This is for a $10.00 an hour job to start with benefits. There were applicants with Masters degrees, numerous bachelors degrees, untold associate degrees! I had people calling me about the position who have retired on what was supposed to be a comfortable retirement, only to realize that they had lost 40% of their retirement when the stock market collapsed or when they found that medical insurance was completely beyond their retirement budget! This job was traditionally for a young woman/man who is just starting out in the employment world with computer skills they may have learned in high school! That’s how it is.

One More Week

“In one week”………..I heard those words this morning when I watched a video of Barack Obama in Canton, Ohio yesterday. He was reminding the country that in one week we could be on the road to change. I felt great pride and hope as I remembered the changes that were initiated by Franklin Roosevelt when we faced the most daunting challenge of the last century. Roosevelt went part of the way and now we can go further. Notwithstanding the fact that all humans are fallible and wanting to get these things accomplished is not the same as getting them it done, I have great hope for changing this country. I believe that there are fundamental rights that all human beings should have—the right to live in dignity with decent food, shelter, education, and healthcare. These things we must have and provide for others if we are to call ourselves human beings. It has been a long 21 months, but it will be worth it when we finally get on the road to where we should go.

This is how it all started...........

This is how it all started a couple of weeks ago. I am not sure that posterity will note this in the annals of the most important things that have happened to human beings, but....................................

My daughter Katie (getting her Ph.D. at Wayne State) e-mailed me with this comment Subject: Finally!!!
Finally someone has brought this up!! It took a woman to have enough balls to stand up and say that this is stupid - who freakin' cares if Obama WERE Muslim! I'm so sick of Christians acting like they own this country!
Make sure you click on the link to her actual commentary within the article ('Watch Campell's Commentary'). Also, I would like to point out that these Christians don't even think about the fact that there have been people from their own religion who have done 'terrorist-like' acts - people standing outside of abortion clinics and killing women, for instance! Why are people thinking that just because some people who claimed to be Muslim (I say claimed because people of Muslim faith will note that the people who did this were not acting in a Muslim way) and attached on 9/11- we think that every Muslim is a terrorist! I'm just so sick of ignorant people.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

Then, I e-mailed back to her my response....."Right on, Katie. There are also radical Christians in this country who claim that they can see Russia from Alaska, who think that Canada is a suspicious foreign nation, who think that they must be purged to keep the 'witches' away, and who incite hatred and violence in the name of the Lord (Christian Lord of course). I might remind those people that it was the 'good Christian nation of Germany' who initiated the holocaust! Now tell me that a radical Christian is somehow better than a radical jihadist! You're right----------FINALLY!!!!! I AM SO PROUD THAT I RAISED A THINKING PERSON!!!

Then Katie e-mailed her cousin Missy (getting her Ph.D. at Auburn University) and Missy wrote me saying "Do it aunt Jane! Start a blog. I would definately subscribe to it...ahh the wise women in our family;)

So you see, it was definitely a family project. I am not sure about the 'wise women in our family' part, but what the heck!

Thoughts on an October Sunday afternoon

I am tired of worrying about the election. Insulted by the 'one woman fits all' that the Republicans have decided would be their answer to equality. Worried that we will have 4 more years of the same or, if that isn't bad enough, that if McCain wins and then dies that we will have someone with so little experience and knowledge that I wouldn't have nomiated her for a PTA committee chair. And I am also afraid that if Obama loses the election and there is a shadow of a doubt that the election was not quite honest that I will seriously wonder if my vote means anything. My family has always treated the vote as the most serious and effective duty of all Americans, and I will not give it up willingly, but sadly as I see the passing of our time.

Beautiful fall day, a bit windy but sunny. Spinach still refuses to die and I picked broccoli shoots from the big stems that have already given me large broccoli heads. On a day like this I can pretend that winter will not bring the hardships that are sure to come with our economic crisis (I guess I should call it honestly--depression). I am finishing the baby blanket that I am knitting for my niece's first born who should be with us sometime in December.

Jane