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Showing posts from October 6, 2013

What I Believe In

What I Believe (Not an exhaustive list) I believe in autumn with its cozy evenings and crisp mornings, its falling leaves and fading colors, its slow pace and its call to long forgotten memories. I believe in movies and the movie theater with its dark anticipation and couples huddled around a box of popcorn sharing a large soda, its giant screen and high back seats, its opportunity for escape and the chance to be transformed in 90 minutes. I believe in children with their shining eyes and raspy voices and endless giggles, their open arms and sparkling unblemished hearts, their enduring energy and their flawless uninterrupted sleep. I believe in the Christmas of my childhood with its manger scene beneath the tree, its limited gifts, its shiny foil icicles, its wintry feel, its reverence for something no marketing scheme could ever match. I believe in Roe vs. Wade, in Gay rights including the right to marry, in Equal Rights, in Civil Rights, in a woman’s right to choose with

This is the Record of Your Time

“This is a record of your time. This is your movie. Live out your dreams and fantasies. Whisper questions to the Sphinx at night. Sit for hours at sidewalk cafes and drink with your heroes. Make pilgrimages. Look up and down. Believe in the unknown for it is there. Live in many places. Live with flowers and music and books and paintings and sculpture. Keep a record of your time. Learn to read well. Learn to listen and speak well. Know your country, know your world, know your history, know yourself. Take care of yourself physically and mentally. You owe it to your-self. Be good to those around you. And do all of these things with passion. Give all that you can. Remember, Life is short and Death is long.” —Fritz Shoulder, Native American Artist

When Fiction Becomes Reality

The Affordable Care Act, which the Tea Party Republicans named ObamaCare, is law, is so popular that at its opening last week it overwhelmed the system with some 8 million people looking for coverage. It had some glitches but is up and running. The glitches are fewer. The program is doing well. More and more are signing up and the people signing up seem pleased. Meanwhile, the Republican Tea Party, led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, remains puzzled and disoriented and delirious and berserk and weird and infantile and enraged because the frame-up is not working, the blackmail has fallen apart, and the swaggering bullying is no longer a scare tactic the Democrats pay any attention to. This brings to mind Captain Ahab’s dictum in “Moby Dick”—“I don’t give reasons. I give orders!” The perfect cry of the Tea Party Republican leaders. Mr. Cruz, why do you keep fighting ObamaCare? “I don’t give reasons. I give orders!” Mr. Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner,