|
“Harry Reid has decided to trigger the nuclear option.”
And about time! I am so tired of all the back and forth arguing, the posturing and threatening. The thought that someone was doing something, anything, to try to fix our broken system was a huge relief. Fist pumping in the air, I listened as the political pundits debated this move by the Senate majority leader. And then I became depressed. Perhaps it is my own failing… needing a right answer, an answer that will make everyone happy. At my age I should know this doesn’t exist. And yet I hope. I hope that rather than this partisan bickering we could find a way toward personal and interpersonal peace. When I hear the word War it makes me think of fighting on a battlefield or in a foreign country. But war is waged, every day within each of us. We really don’t have to look any further than so many family Thanksgiving dinners. Even without the conflict that families bring, our own internal debates about the best way to keep the mashed potatoes warm can be the like a little Normandy. Peace is warm and fuzzy… it is our rose colored image of what Thanksgiving should be. But, somewhere between that image and the reality of pulling together 7 different dishes, kids and adults, silverware and stemware, I usually lose it. My Zen calm goes up in flames like the yams placed too close to the broiler. As the holiday approach, as we consider the 150 years since Gettysburg, the 50 years since JFK was assassinated, the year since we lost those precious lives at Sandyhook Elementary, may we find a new resolve to fill our lives with peace, within ourselves and with our neighbor. Do you have any good tricks for maintaining peace in the midst of strife? I’d love to hear your comments on this or any of my blog posts. And to prove it, I am going to pick one lucky commenter during the month of November and donate $10 to the charity of their choice. Just leave a comment for any of my blogs and then check back at the end of the month to see if you have won.
0 Comments
“Why can’t Obama be more like Clinton?”
Seeing as how this was coming from my very conservative father, it piqued my interest. It turns out he was comparing their positions on helping small business. It took me a couple of days to go in and do my own research on this but here is what I found: -Sept. 2010, CNN reported: President Barack Obama signed into law a $42 billion bill to aid small businesses Monday, saying it would create jobs by providing tax credits and helping banks increase loans. -Feb. 2012, CNN Money reported: The government program, one of President Obama's many attempts to pump capital into small firms, disbursed only $4 billion of the $30 billion it was allotted. The original bill, in Feb. 2012 was designed to help small businesses acquire much needed financing . Unfortunately, as one journalist points out there were two problems: small banks were using it to clear their balance sheets instead of lending it out; and small businesses weren’t convinced that demand would support expansion. -Jan. 2012, The Business Review reported: President Barack Obama’s proposal to consolidate government programs for business into one agency could make it easier for small businesses to find the information and resources they need. They also pointed out it could dilute small business’ voice… but in the near-term this is avoided, because Obama elevated the SBA administrator’s post to a Cabinet-level position... Something it hasn’t been since Clinton’s administration. To be fair, there are many very real reasons why small businesses favor Romney in the election. But comparisons of Romney to Clinton seem simplified, like reading a picture book version of Anna Karenina rather than Tolstoy’s original. This seems to me to be exactly what media would like us to do; ignore the difficult details and accept instead a snap-shot as handed to us by whatever partisan group has the money to spend. I have mentioned before that I have a penchant for wearing rose colored, historical glasses. Now I see that I may have inherited this from my father, who with the distance of time (and a lack of negative ads) has finally begun to acknowledge some of the positive things Clinton accomplished. |
Subscribe to my blog:
About Me...
Deanne WilstedLink here to Betting Jessica on Amazon.com Archives
June 2020
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
Proudly powered by Weebly