Not to be a downer, but...

[Atman]

In all the fuss about the explosives smackdown and the general fall of the Bush regime, I've remembered a few sad facts. Probably part of the plan all along but we must remember the serious looting that went on over the past four years. Not just of money, but of our entire system of government, and our nation's infrastructure.

John Snow got his faltering railroad back on track via nationwide rail shipments of nuclear waste to Nevada.

Halliburton got the okay to fast-track construction of nuclear plants, with no safety inspections, guaranteed by the U.S. taxpayer.

KBR and many other companies still have massive contracts to build the super-embassy in Iraq, among other things.

The Patriot Act still exists.

The wealthiest 1% have our money, and what is left is being given to churches and religious schools.

The environmental laws have all been gutted to the point of uselessness, or worse.

It is too early to celebrate, as we still don't know what evil awaits over the next few days, and it troubles me that the Iraq debacle is going to be such a drain on Kerry that the permanent damage, as mentioned above, will not get the attention needed to have them overturned, or at least a moratorium placed on them, in a timely manner.

So there. Sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled amazement at the day's news events.

[phaseolus]

1. For the next 45 years...

...every time the WH changes from Democratic to Republican and back again, each new president will spend the first year or two undoing what his predecessor did...

[Atman]

4. I'm thinkin' Bush has given the DNC enough ammo

to last for the next several campaigns. If America is stupid enough to vote the republicans back in again, we may as well hang it up anyway.

[Cozmosis]

7. That's why we work in keeping it in our hands

Won't be a problem.

[Eloriel]

17. That's if we last that long as a nation

And I have my doubts, frankly. we'll see how this election turns out -- not who WINS (I'm pretty sure it will be Kerry), but how it all turns out.

Edited: ANd then, of course, if Kerry does win, we have to see what additonal destruction BushCo concocts before he's out of office. A Kerry win on Tuesday is in so many ways just the beginning.

[CarolynEC]

2. "You're enjoying your day, everything's going your way...

... Then, along comes Debbie Downer!
Always there to tell you about a new disease
A car accident or killer bees.
You'll beg her to spare you, "Debbie, please."
But you can't stop Debbie Downer!"

[NinetySix]

16. Exactly! n/t

[skylarmae]

3. Maybe it's things like this that John Edwards could take care

of. It might be right up his alley.

[keopeli]

5. I burst into tears listening to Kay talk about explosives used on troops

My friends are over there!

Yes, we are at the bottom of the barrel, but this is a celebration of a turning point.

And, I disagree about the 45 year prediction. If the Republicans loose this election, they will be split. They will never use this divisive approach in the same way.

If they win, then maybe your prediction would be correct.

Keo

[Kanary]

6. HUD has been gutted, and 2005 thousands and thousands of people

will no longer have homes.

:cry:

That MUST be dealt with..... PRONTO!1

Kanary

[m berst]

8. not a downer

Lots of work ahead. I'm not tired or down. Just getting warmed up.

The damage that has been done is horrific, here and in Iraq and around the world. We can wish that it weren't so for the sake of being "up" or we can get ready for the challenge.

After the Kerry win we will all be like first responders at a terrible disaster - sad, yes. But not a downer. It is an opportunity to clean up the mess, fix what is broken and heal the people who are hurting. That is the good work and we have been given the job.

We also have a chance to do better than fix things, we can improve things. The nation has had a scare, and that can be sobering and help us to put things in perspective.

Many, many people have been hurt - are hurting - worse than most of us here. Let's commit ourselves to looking after them and to not forgetting or neglecting them.

Minorities, the poor, the elderly, the infirm, the children, the people of Iraq - people are in desperate need and we argue about Eminem or worry about our mood and anxiety level.

We are living in the heart of an immense tragedy, and the sooner we are quiet and accept the reality - and the duty the reality calls us to - the sooner we will have peace in our own hearts.

Feeling sadness, pain and fear about what is happening is not a downer. It is a reminder that we are human and that we are alive. It is just the alarm clock going off, and it seems a little jarring because we were so deeply asleep.

Thanks. I was feeling sorry for myself and needed that reminder.

[Kanary]

9. Very beautifully put!

Eye firmly on the priorities! errrr, prize..... :hi:

Some of us spend so much energy trying to program what we feel.... it works so much better as it was intended: feel what we feel, and figure out what it means we need to do about it.

I need for you to keep posting this, 'K?

Kanary, who is past warmed up..... overheated and boiling over..... ~~gigglesnort~~ :)
edited to ask, because ignorant... who is your picture? I know I should know....
Asking, because I want to see your 100th post! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[m berst]

11. The Greatest American Hero

“On my underground railroad, I never ran my train off the track. And I never lost a passenger.”

Harriet Tubman
Abolitionist
1821 - 1913

Harriet Ross was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in Dorchester County, Maryland. Given the names of her two parents, both held in slavery, she was of purely African ancestry. She was raised under harsh conditions, and subjected to whippings even as a small child. At the age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head, inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to assist in tying up a man who had attempted escape.

Tubman was given a piece of paper by a white neighbor with two names, and told how to find the first house on her path to freedom. At the first house she was put into a wagon, covered with a sack, and driven to her next destination. Following the route to Pennsylvania, she initially settled in Philadelphia, where she met William Still, the Philadelphia Stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. With the assistance of Still, and other members of the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society, she learned about the workings of the UGRR.

After freeing herself from slavery, Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland to rescue other members of her family. In all she is believed to have conducted approximately 300 persons to freedom in the North. The tales of her exploits reveal her highly spiritual nature, as well as a grim determination to protect her charges and those who aided them. She always expressed confidence that God would aid her efforts, and threatened to shoot any of her charges who thought to turn back.

Tubman was closely associated with Abolitionist John Brown, and was well acquainted with the other Upstate abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, Jermain Loguen, and Gerrit Smith.She worked closely with Brown, and reportedly missed the raid on Harper's Ferry only because of illness.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Tubman served as a soldier, spy, and a nurse, for a time serving at Fortress Monroe, where Jefferson Davis would later be imprisoned. While guiding a group of black soldiers in South Carolina, she met Nelson Davis, who was ten years her junior. Denied payment for her wartime service, Tubman was forced, after a bruising fight, to ride in a baggage car on her return to Auburn.

Much, much more to the story. These snips are from this page:
http://www.nyhistory.com/harriettubman/life.htm




on edit - little formatting issues

[Kanary]

12. Congrats on the Milestone!!

:toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

You've made it over 100, now! Hurrah!

:bounce: :bounce: :party: :bounce: :bounce: :party: :bounce: :bounce: :party:

:yourock:

Kanary, who was waiting for a party tonight.... :hi:

[Kanary]

13. Harriet Tubman has been a sheroe of mine for over 35 years......

Her story is so inspiring, and so sad.

I guess her picture didn't stay in my mind.....

Thanks for posting the larger picture, and her story. It's one we should all be familiar with!

:thumbsup:

Kanary

[m berst]

14. thanks!

I got to 100 posts pretty quickly. Big blabbermouth I guess!

Harriet Tubman's life is a great inspiration and she is not celebrated enough.

Another overlooked hero is Angelina Grimke. A few of her words -

"I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand what we are praying for."

"If a law commands me to sin I will break it; if it calls me to suffer, I will let it take its course unresistingly."

"The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians."

<snip>
Angelina Grimke, the daughter of slaveholding judge from Charleston, South Carolina, was born on 20th February, 1805. Sarah and her sister, Sarah Grimke, both developed an early dislike of slavery and after moving to Philadelphia in 1819, joined the Society of Friends.

In 1835 Angelina had a letter against slavery published by William Lloyd Garrison, in his newspaper, The Liberator. She followed this with the pamphlet, An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South. Sarah Grimke followed her example by publishing An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States. These pamphlets were publicly burned by officials in South Carolina and the sisters were warned that they would be arrested if they ever returned home.

The sisters moved to New York where they became the first women to lecture for the Anti-Slavery Society. This brought attacks from religious leaders who disapproved of women speaking in public. Sarah Grimke wrote bitterly that men were attempting to "drive women from almost every sphere of moral action" and called on women "to rise from that degradation and bondage to which the faculties of our minds have been prevented from expanding to their full growth and are sometimes wholly crushed." Refusing to give up their campaign, the sisters now became pioneers in the struggle for women's rights.
<snip>

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASgrimke.htm

[Massacure]

10. How long it takes to repair it depends on if we can grab the Senate

Grabbing the Senate will make it easier. Perhaps we can take the House in 2006 as well.

[JSJ]

15. 1.3 trillion looted from pentagon coffers in last 5 years