Angry Single Mom

Every Kid Deserves a Summer Vacation

2011-06-19T21:59:00.000-07:00

As a rural dweller, I know how difficult it is to teach city folks about rural living, about the wide-open prairies, the proximity to animals, and the beauty of our pristine natural resources.

Unfortunately, many urban children can only see nature on television or in the concrete and iron confines of a local zoo. Children who don't experience the natural environment often don't understand how and why conservation of our precious natural resources affects all of us.

The Fresh Air Fund hosts inner-city children who spend their summer vacations on farms and in rural areas. The fund needs the support of volunteers, host families, and adequate funding to provide a unique and unforgettable experience for urban children.

Remember those lazy days of summer, pickup baseball games, fishing in the creek, and grilled hot dogs eaten in the shade of grandma's giant oak tree? You can share those memories with an inner-city child. Consider donating or volunteering today.

More from my mobile life

2011-04-01T13:02:00.001-07:00

I'm at the Grand Island Public Library reading The Nation and listening to a Spanish-language feed for the Diamondbacks-Rockies game on my Android. Very cool.

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Obama Honors Slain El Salvadoran Archbishop

2011-03-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=823&Itemid=1

El Salvador, then and now

Rest for the Weary

2011-03-20T15:49:00.001-07:00

Come To me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. -- Matthew 11:28 (NRSV)

Please Lord, be quick! We are getting worn out.

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St Paul Weighs in on Weak v Strong

2011-03-20T15:26:00.001-07:00

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong -- 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NIV)

Greed is weak. And greed will be the downfall of the ultra rich. However, the working class must guarantee that politicians will not all the rich to fail and have the negative consequences fall solely on the shoulders of the working class this time.

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Wisconsin Bank Closes Doors to Avoid Union Pension Fund Run

2011-03-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

Wisconsin’s M&I Bank Fears Bank Run By Union Supporters, Shuts Doors

Even when obviously wrong, the banks run away. Backed the wrong horse, eh?

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Prayers for Japan

2011-03-13T21:51:00.001-07:00

Paul Coehlo's blog is a good place to start.

Isaiah 58:9-14

2011-03-12T13:54:00.001-08:00

Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;
Then the LORD will guide you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
He will renew your strength,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake,
and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up;
“Repairer of the breach,” they shall call you,
“Restorer of ruined homesteads.”If you hold back your foot on the sabbath
from following your own pursuits on my holy day;
If you call the sabbath a delight,
and the LORD’s holy day honorable;
If you honor it by not following your ways,
seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice
Then you shall delight in the LORD,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father,
for the mouth of the LORD has says the LORD:

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Fight on, union brothers and sisters. You are the last bulwark of the middle class in America.

Psalm of the Day March 12, 2011

2011-03-12T10:12:00.001-08:00

Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
Psalms 94:16 (NIV)

"Thou Shalt have no other gods before Me"

This is the time for all Christians to stand up for truth and justice, to expose those hypochristrians who worship money and power over God.

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God's Promise of Comfort

2011-02-26T10:24:00.001-08:00

Dedicated to my union brothers and sisters, as we confront Satan's henchmen:

For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones -- Isaiah 49:1-7

We The People

2011-02-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

In order to form a more perfect union....

America lives because the little masses formed a union against an oppressive king. They did it again in the first half of the 20th century, forming labor unions to protect workers from the Robber Barons, the Trusts, and the monopolies, to force better pay, working conditions, job safety, and to outlaw the abhorrent practice of child slavery.

This week's labor battles in Wisconsin are merely the spark lighting the fuse of worker unrest throughout the country. Working families will no longer be sheep. The plutocrats have unmasked themselves and their true agenda. Do we join Orwell's world, or do we save ourselves?

Mark Sumner writes on the Daily Kos website about the word and the concept of union.

United we stand, divided the Republic falls to plutocracy. Make your stand now or die a slave. History waits.

Listen Up, Rich Douchebags!

2011-02-13T18:55:00.001-08:00

Give everyone what you owe him. If you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. -- Romans 13:7

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Nebraska's Court of Industrial Relations = Basic Fairness for Public Workers

2011-02-13T18:52:00.001-08:00

CIR Reform Must Not Become Assault On Workers' Rights

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The Koch Brothers-Funded Cato Institute Misses The Mark on Social Repsonsibility

2011-02-07T17:06:00.001-08:00

Phony Solutions for Real Social Ills by David Boaz

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Mobile Blogging

2011-01-24T16:18:00.001-08:00

I love the mobile life. From my phone, in line at the grocery store, waiting at the doctor's office, or stuck at a red light I can read the news, glance at my calendar, or check my email.

Right now I am at Cold Stone Creamery enjoying a very rich Oreo cookie filling ice cream with -- you guessed it -- Oreo cookies added in. I reviewed my calendar for tonight and the rest of the week. I noted an upcoming conference in April and emailed myself some notes. I read a book chapter on Kindle for Android. And I downloaded Jewels from the Android market. I looked up game stats as my teenage son continued to agonize over Saturday's disappointing Jayhawk loss at the hands of the Longhorns.

I do miss those reflective moments that have become more illusive. I miss the feel of pen on paper. I miss the temporary suspension of input, those precious minutes needed to interpret and make sense of the daily information overload. I miss looking out the window and not wondering if I am missing an important tweet.

But I refuse to give up Angry Birds.

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The Democratic Process

2011-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Democracy is slow. Many times it is sloppy. But it is the best we have. Let's not screw it up.

Schoolyard taunts won't fix this country's problems. This isn't a snowball fight -- this is a struggle for the future.

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty"

2010-01-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

Miep Gies, the woman credited with hiding Anne Frank's family and supplying them with food and medicines for two years has died in Amsterdam. She was 100 years old.

Gies helped the Frank family and four friends hide in an annex behind Otto Frank's business. After the Nazis discovered the hiding place she kept Anne Frank's diary and other personal family papers in a safe. The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most read novels in history and has inspired several theater and movie adaptions.

Gies never accepted the praise bestowed on her internationally. Instead she insisted that she acted only as another human being ought to have acted, given the circumstances. She vigorously rejected the label "hero," explaining that the word is not applicable to those who perform their "human duty."
In this post-9/11 era when the word hero is tossed about like empty, dried-up cornstalks in the wind, her candor is refreshing. The woman who protected Jews from the Nazi horrors in the Netherlands yet who never sought recognition for her actions while endangering her own life, meets our definition of a hero. The city worker who saves a kitten from a storm drain is not a hero.

Perhaps Gies' greatest legacy will be a rediscovery of "human duty," "decency," and "modest." Those values have gone into hiding in our current political climate. She outlived the entire Frank family although ultimately she could not save them from the death camps. She will be remembered for saving the diary of a solitary 15 year-old Dutch girl named Anne, the foundation of a book that exposed the terror of Nazism on Europe's citizens, a horror cruelly expressed in the mass murder of millions.

Bookstores and libraries around the world now carry the message of humanity, of Gies' own actions which threatened exposure and death at the hands of the SS. She will live so long as there are books, those rare but special books written by the humble and which illuminate the "human duty."

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“The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars" -- Carl Sagan

2009-12-28T17:16:00.001-08:00

How to Be Irrational

2009-12-21T19:25:00.001-08:00

An interesting article from Daily Kos on winning an argument. The author posits that the best strategy is to first understand the opponent's arguments and counter accordingly. Seems obvious? Apparently not for those screaming talking heads found primarily on Fox News and other cable poltical shows. Thoughtful discourse is a relic of the past. Howling like a banshee and vile, baseless attacks now rule the airwaves. Will our descendents look back on our time with disdain like we do the Dark Ages? Will our great grandchildren pity our narrowmindedness and hate? Will they lament our squandered opportunities to create an open, honest society, safeguarded by the First Amendment for all, and not just for those who share the same point of view?

Angry Single Mom Is Shifting Gears

2009-11-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

After a period of reflection I have decided to change gears. Being angry at evangelicals was easy enough when they were running roughshod over the American people as puppet masters to the Bush Administration. The nastiness and brought by Fox News and the newly unemployed Lou Dobbs continues to whip up the fringe right, those who believe that America is God's own holy creation, greater than even the glories of Old Testament Israel. The melting pot is simmering and may soon boil over into more violence than even the most hard core urban dweller ever feared.

I do not wish to be a part of the anger and resentment any longer. It is time to grow up and remember my responsibilities to my son, my community, and even myself.

Welcome