It's coming.

2013.

2012 went way too fast and this year may just do the same.....the question is....am I ready?

Well, ready or not, here it comes!

My best to each of you this coming year.

Well,2012 was quite a year!  Well, obviously it WAS a year, but in terms of what set us off, it was quite a year.

Politics:

Obviously, an election year brings out the (best, worst, whatever) in all of us.  After all, we are bombarded with the election at every turn, even to the point of driving us screaming from any room we find ourselves in, including the outdoors.  And it is amazing how we have so many evil people running for office and how the country will go to you know where in a hand basket if so and so is elected/reelected.  And it happens, the hoopla rises then crashes on the day after the elections and life goes on.  The President presides, the Congress does nothing and your local elected officials go back to whatever they were doing prior to the election, probably raising money for their re-election.

Arguments over political positions which were the cause of families splitting and mass un-friending on Facebook become just another drama event. Drama moves back to where it belongs, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend/friend, parents/children.

Television returns to ads for products which grow hair/eliminate hair, clean everything, repair everything, and the ever popular, personal care products, which, depending on your age, all seem to be interested in one part of your body-right below your belly button and right above the tops of your thighs.  In advertising dollars, that area seems to be the most profitable part of the human body.  If it leaks, it needs covering for it.

Economy:

In January, we are given last minute hints on how to optimize our tax returns.  The rest of the year, we are told how taxes are the death of us all-in terms of economic growth, personal fortune, and politics.  The rest of the year, we work to earn money to keep the tax base working.  This lead some to talk of "givers and takers" as segments of society.  We all give.  We give the government something to focus on and to create work to address.  We are also all takers.  We use the roads, bridges, medicines, and systems the government provides.  We are the "us" in US.  While the balance in our giving and taking is never 50/50, it is also never 100/0.  We all give and we all take.

The Congress on the other hand......

Environment:

The ice shelf in both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere is falling apart and drifting away.  There is a big message there that we just cannot seem to grasp.  If only polar bears spoke English.....

Mother Nature appears to be suffering from a slow motion hot flash.  And, like many hot flash sufferers, she wants to spread the misery around.

"One band - One sound" may be a great theme for a marching band, but "One brand - One crop" should be a wakeup call to us all.  Does the Irish Potato Famine ring a bell with anyone? Diversity is strongly encouraged in our society but not in our crop fields.  We need to pay attention to that.

Many things were performing "die offs".  Pods of marine mammals, squid in large numbers, birds falling from the sky, starfish, and on and on.  If animal life is committing suicide, should we not pay attention?

Crime:

Angry people shooting up public spaces with tragic results.  We are broken and do not even realize the extent of our brokenness.  500+ murders in Chicago alone and we shrug our collective shoulders.  Our callous regard for our fellow man should frighten us.

Entertainment:

Female actors (apparently actress is no longer used...) had babies this year.  Ok.  Tell me again why this news stops the presses?  Why are we as a society more interested in a script interpreting person's baby bump than in the millions that happen to everyday females?  Male actors seemed to have lost their sense of how razors work and how to dress.  But then, it wasn't in the script.....

Royalty:

The Queen has been...queen...for half a century.  If she was not her own boss, she would have given herself retirement papers and a gold watch by now.  The heirling's wife is expecting.  Good for them.  Too bad for the nurse who inadvertently was fooled by two fools from a radio program.  She couldn't take the joke-not being tricked, but being seen as a fool.  Too bad the fools on the radio were not smarter in the first place.  And let's call them what they were, shall we?  Bullies.... Oh, and the princesses B and E have lost their rent free living spaces.  Somehow it is easy to see where the thousands of folks who were foreclosed on will be sympathetic.

Passing on:

This year saw a lot of folks pass on, just as in other years.  They were the folks who entertained us, led us, inspired us and annoyed us.  What have we learned from them?  And what will we have left for others when we pass on?

Space:

We watched an ATV roam Mars, a man "skydive" from space, a shuttle be retired, and a space station amaze.  Photos from space still amaze us and lots of us stood outside to watch moons rise, meteors zip by, Northern and Southern lights and planets align.  Perhaps it still amazes us because it works so well and we are not in charge of it.

The future:

January 1 will come with hoopla and with celebration.  January 2 will come with a "back to work" attitude and life will go on.  Hopefully, 2013 will bring us all hope and peace.  I suspect it will bring us a lot of what has already been listed above. 

Best wishes to you and yours in 2013.

It's nice to have a week off around Christmas.  If the weather is bad, like it is here today, then there is absolutely no guilt about sitting around reading.  I've just finished Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds which is a collection of blog posts written by an inner city London ambulance driver.  I highly recommend it.

Waiting in the wings is the latest Rita Mae Brown in her "Sister Jane" myster series, Fox Tracks.  It's a good series about foxhunting in Virginia and the proud and loyal people who participate in this heart pounding sport.

After that, I have three slim volumes from the Burpee See Company, Flowers, Vegetables,and Old Time Gardening Hints.  While the snow piles up outside, I can dream inside of warm weather, dirt on my hands, and the beauty of growing things.

Somewhere in there, I also need to read the manual for my new digital camera. 

I think I'm going to be busy.....

The day after Christmas is a relief!  Time to just chill, eat way too many goodies and relax.

I hope you are doing the same......

I'm going to pull away from Xanga for a few days to concentrate on the real reason for the season.

I wish you all peace and joy and that you find the light of Christ to light your way.....

Yesterday, the NRA broke its silence about the tragedy at Newtown, CT.  Well, sort of.

Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA (National Rifle Association) proclaimed from his bully pulpit that it was not the fault of guns, but of music videos, video games, etc. that  leads society to pick up arms and massacre one another.

Mr. LaPierre also called for schools to all have armed guards in them because "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.".  I'm sure that gun manufacturers and gun shops all around the nation cheered him mightily. More guns, yep, yep, yep, more guns - that is what we need.  (To me, that sounds  like an addict saying, More drugs, more drugs, that's what we need!  That is how we can all feel better~

If you read this blog, you know my thoughts about guns in schools, particularly teachers and guns.

So let's talk about those other guards, shall we?

Schools are so tightly crunched for money now, where would they get the money to pay for guards?  What else would have to be sacrificed to pay for the guards?

And let's face it, even if the money can be found, the pay offered would not be much more than minimum wage.  So who would that attract?

 Former policemen.  This bunch would go out of their mind around teenagers pretty quickly, I would imagine.  Teenagers have a dim view of rent a cops, even if they used to be professional cops. 

Retired guys.  That's who we use as "security" at school events now and I can tell you that ambition and paying attention to things are not their strong points.  I had to point out to them at graduation that they needed to post a guard at the room where the students left their valuables for the ceremony after I chased out some sketchy individuals who were hanging around it.

Rent a cops.  Think mall cop only with less brains. Give them a tin badge and suddenly they are the sherriff in town, throwing their weight around and strutting.  Comical and not very useful. 

Unemployed former military.  See the enemy, dispatch the enemy.  Hopefully they would not suffer from PSTD.  Hopefully, they could keep their hands and eyes off of the girls (since many of them would be in their 20s.....).

"Volunteers".  Shudder.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to volunteer to guard a school?  Get past the idea of "saving the children" and get closer to "easy meat to hunt".  The news is reporting about the former Marine who is volunteering to stand in front of his kids elementary school as a symbol of safety.  There aren't a lot of those to go around.   Now think of the just short of bat crazy types your town has who are around with all kinds of time on their hands.  Children are told about "stranger danger" but the real danger often comes from people they are familiar with and providing potential predators with easy access to children is wrong.

Mr. LaPierre firmly believes that schools must be defended.  On this, he is correct.  He blames gun free zones for creating "hunting zones" for the crazy bent on destruction.  He just doesn't see that putting guns in schools is risking more than it will save.

Because, sometimes, it's really hard to tell the good guys with guns from the bad guys with guns.

I am a teacher.

I also own guns.

I know how to use them and while not afraid of them, I do respect them.

I do not believe that they belong in a classroom.

Let me explain. 

I had someone tell me the other day that I needed a gun in my desk so I could grab it in times of danger.

Obviously, this person has not been in a classroom in quite a while.

It is rare that I am anywhere near my desk.  I'm circling the room, offering instruction and assistance.  The taxpayers do not pay me to sit on my keister all day.

This would render "getting the gun" rather a dicey proposition.

But it is not the main reason.

My first priority in a dangerous situation is the safety of my students, my kids.

That is job one to me.  Nothing else is as important.

My second priority is to provide comfort and leadership until help comes.  I do not see that happening if I am waving a gun around.

A gun in a classroom invites all sorts of problems.

Gun in a desk?  Gun in a closet?  Gun on my person?

What about the ammunition?  Near the gun?  Away from the gun?  Blanks?

What do you do when a group of students decide that they are taking the gun from you? 

How do you know that if I had a gun, that when I shot, I would hit my target and not a kid who darted into the frame?

What on earth makes you think I am a gun toting warrior?  I am not a wimp, but I am not a soldier either.

There are voices that bleating on and on about armed teachers would prevent problems.

What if the teacher snaps?

It has happened more than once.

I worked with a husband and wife teaching couple.

He is in prison.

She is in the ground.

It is a good thing he was not armed in school.

Nobody saw the tragedy coming.  Nobody can forget that it did.

Armed teachers?  Nope......

Today I struggle to find the words to express what I feel about the tragedy that happened in Newtown, CT. yesterday.

Part of me was stunned.  Part of me was angry.  Part of me was crying.  Part of me shut down.

I read the words online.  I read them again, unable to believe the number and the age of the victims.  I read again, hoping I had read it all wrong.

Then I got angry.  That's probably an expected response to such a thing, but it surprised me.  I was so angered that I felt the symptoms of my blood pressure rising. 

And then I cried.  And I will admit that I have not wept like that for a long, long time.

Then came the numbness, the shutting down.  Unable to take one more word, image, conversation.....numb.

Today, I am better equipped (if that is possible) to process all of this.  Today I am just sad.

The news blares away about gun control, better mental health care, and violent entertainment.  They are missing one key ingredient.

It's not the parents, guns, or entertainment.

It's not arming school workers.

It's not being more watchful.

It's mental health.  And it is how this country treats mental health, or better, does not treat it.  There is this idea that integrating the mentally ill into all parts of society and society just has to deal with it because their aberrant behavior is a "manifestation of their disability".  They have rights which are rigorously defended by advocates and lawyers.  Society and the safety of society is secondary

This must change before gunfire erupts yet again and the innocent among us die as collateral damage to a disability.

I'm of two minds today. 

Part of me is upset that the nurse who was pranked by the idiot DJs has killed herself.  I'm sure that by now you have heard about the prank played on the nurses while Prince William's wife Kate was hospitalized recently with a bad bout of morning sickness.  One of the nurses who took the call from the DJs was found dead today, most likely of a suicide.

 I'm astounded at how many are not wanting to hold the DJs culpable in anyway as in "after all, She killed herself!". While they may not have handed her the pills or whatever the action was that took her life, by exposing her to ridicule around the world, they played a hand in this tragedy. Actions have consequences folks.....

The second thing that has me wondering about my own response to life came about because of a tragedy much closer to home.  A man, wanting revenge on his former girlfriend, set fire to a house where he was convinced that she was staying.  The residents of the house were a family of four.  The husband was at work, the wife was in bed, as was a three year old and a two year old.  As the fire took hold in the old house, the woman tried to get herself and her kids out, but the littlest one, a boy, let go of her hand and disappeared.  She had no choice but to jump from a second floor bedroom with the older child, a girl, in her arms.  Upon landing, she broke her back but jumped up and was screaming for help and managed to wake the other two college aged residents on the other side of the duplex. The man who set the fire, upon hearing that there was a death, celebrated, believing that he had killed the ex girlfriend who had jilted him.  (The ex had a PFA against him and was moving from place to place to avoid him.)  This morning, the arsonist was found hanging in his cell.  He had committed suicide. 

My "other mind" was appalled because when I heard that the man who set the fire that killed the little boy had hung himself in jail, was that my first response was to be glad about that.  That was jarring, since I usually feel that the person who kills themself must be in a deep, dark place....

Suicide is a difficult subject to discuss.  We do not know the mind of the person who tries/succeeds it, but we assume that they are in a deep dark place.  I guess some people are in a deep dark place long before that desire to end it all takes place.

I am just dismayed that for a moment, I was glad that someone had died because I thought he deserved it.  Maybe I'm not so good of a person as I thought....

Having the first batch of freezin drizzle/rain this morning.

I think, of all the weather we get around here, I fear this the most.  Living where the land is rarely flat, you are either slipping/sliding down the hills or struggling to get up them.

Ugh.