Litany Against Fear

from Herbert's Dune

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Occasionally, we all need to be reminded that we do have the power to overcome our fears.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Back to Work

I had a bee try to attack me. Yes, a bee. And yes, it tried to attack me.

I was minding my own business walking up to the door to get in to work. I was at least three to four feet away from said bee and moving away from it. It flew up in front of me, moving back and forth but getting closer and closer to me. I backed up thinking it would go back off to the side where it had come from. It kept coming at me like that -- back and forth, back and forth, closer and closer. I kept backing up until it had me back in the middle of the driveway. I turned around to see where I was going. When I turned back around the bee was gone. I grabbed my badge real quick and rushed up the stairs and into the building. Stupid bee! I think it might have been agitated by the warning sirens (monthly test). Bees apparently are very sensitive to noise and vibration. It might have upset the bee.





Anyhow, I am now safe and sound in the building with the air conditioning -- safe from bees and allergens.

Today I finally got out to lunch with a coworker. We've been trying to make these plans happen for over a month now. Who knew lunch could be so difficult? The upside is that we got to go whereever we wanted versus the limited options of eating with our picky boss. We chose Big Bowl. We chose wisely. It was good.

I startled the waitress a bit I think. They have a sweet ginger peppermint tea, but only hot. Well, 'tis the season for iced tea! I asked if they could do it iced for me. She looked confused and said, "No, I think we only offer it hot." I smiled and ordered the pot of hot sweet ginger peppermint tea and a large glass of ice. I made my own iced tea. And it was delicious. I'm thinking I might be able to duplicate it at home with candied ginger bits and peppermint easily enough. They had used crystalized ginger and I can probably find that too if I look around a bit.




On the way home, I mean, back to work, I was listening to MPR as I am wont to do. They are celebrating the 65th Anniversary of D-Day. They were reading a letter from Leonard Parker, who is now 85 and a prominent Twin Cities architect. He was one of the soldiers who first arrived at Dachau. It was a very interesting piece, brought tears to my eyes as he described what they found and the greeting they received from the prisoners. Going to try to embed the media here:

Or you can read the letter ...here.


War is hell, but at that time we knew who the enemy was, where to find them and how to eradicate them. If it were only that easy now.



Today, bin Laden has released another tape. Obama is speaking in Cairo. He's upset the Isrealis. He's trying to rein them in. Yes, you have had lots of wrong done to you. But you have done lots of wrong too. Peace will come to most of the Middle East with a two-state peace plan. Still have al Qeada and the Taliban to deal with but most Middle East governments will be okay. So far Obama's steps seem to have worried al Qaeda though. I think that is a good thing. Two press releases in two days before Obama speaks to the Muslim world. Yep, he's worried that he'll lose ground with this American President looking to make peace and demonstrates acceptance and acknowledgement of other religions.



In other news, it looks like the Saturn brand will live on. Thank goodness! I love my Saturn. Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid. I am also very relieved that the extended warranty and service plan that I bought will be fulfilled by somebody. Just wish I knew who!



Anyhow, I am running out of words and time

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott Heron

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

Interesting Tidbit

I was looking at the CDC info today -- 4300+ cases of flu. I wanted to compare that to the # of people in the US to find what % people have H1N1 flu. Needless to say, it is a teeny, tiny % of infected people. But I thought the way the population info was broken down was interesting.


U.S. POPClock Projection

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the resident population of the United States, projected to 05/14/09 at 16:17 GMT (EST+5) is

306,426,934

COMPONENT SETTINGS FOR MAY 2009
One birth every.................................. 7 seconds
One death every.................................. 13 seconds
One international migrant (net) every............ 36 seconds
Net gain of one person every..................... 12 seconds



The U.S. population clock is based on the national population estimates. The U.S. Census Bureau produces national population estimates annually using the latest available data on births, deaths, and international migration. Each year, we recalibrate the population clock when we release the new set of population estimates. For more information on the methodology for producing national estimates, see http://www.census.gov/popest/topics/methodology/2008-nat-meth.pdf [PDF].

My Rant about Social Services in the US

Yes -- I'm a liberal and now you get to hear one of the many reasons why.


Minneapolis has School Choice. And in January (Jan 10) to be exact, I downloaded the School Choice card, filled it out and immediately put it in the mail. I wanted to get my daughter signed up for the High Five Program as suggested by the Early Childhood Screening group for MPLS Public Schools (MPS). You have to get it in right away they said. So I did. It is always a bit of a gamble to get the kids in the school you want here, especially since we live in an Open Choice Area which means that there is no assigned school for them -- no community school.

You've heard me previously say that I like the community school idea. It causes me a great deal of stress not knowing where my kids will be going to school. I do like that I can pull them out and drive them some place else if I feel the need.

Anyhow, back to today's rant.

I did everything I was supposed to do. I called a couple of times when they were supposed to be doing the assignments and was told that High Five was done later. I waited until and called. Not done yet. I called again today.

My daughter was not placed. I asked at our first choice school? Not placed at first school. Why? The program was full. What about our second choice school? Again program full. What about any of the schools? I am willing to drive her wherever and I've got a friend who I am fairly sure would pick her up and earn a little extra cash. Nope, no space. Not in any of the schools.

Now, I'm getting a little angry. I told him that I'd done all the things I was told I had to do to get her in. I sent in our card right away. I called in to follow up. Why wasn't she placed?

We make too much money.

Yep, we both work to barely make ends meet. Like most of America, we are a couple of paychecks away from homeless. But because we are not already on government assistance, we can not get in to this program that is open to ALL MPS kids.

I really dislike that our government and its laws and rules only subsidizes the very poor and the very wealthy. And all of us who are in the middle are SOL. Even if I had no job, we still wouldn't qualify for the program. Not that we'd be able to live off of the one income. I wouldn't have any idea how we'd feed our family but we'd be too rich to get any aid.

It makes me very angry that I have to be destitute and homeless or very wealthy to actually gain any benefits from my country and all the money that we pay in taxes. I get screwed. My family gets screwed. Most of you reading this have gotten screwed. You may not have even known it. You may have gone through life like my parents have and I will -- struggling to get the basic needs of your kids met on a day to day basis.

Once again, I'll go back to the drawing board and find a way to cut expenses here and there and find the money for us to send Itty Bitty to preschool.





Note: I certainly do not think the poor should lose their benefits. I think that the wealthiest 1 to 2% that hold most of the wealth in this country need to pay more taxes so that the social services can really help out everyone who needs a helping hand... Like I should be able to get my kid in the MPS school assignments!!!