Hope for the hopeless

It was announced that the California Prison system has to be reduced by 55,000 within three years. This means that some inmates will be released because the state can no longer afford to incarcerate some of the prison population. What a great time to be an inmate!

Of course it isn't all rosy. Getting out of jail means they will have to find a job. With jobs hard to find and a prison record on their application, that begins to look like a recipe for recidivism, but will the prison take them back? Maybe they will take them back and release the next in line and give them a shot at a work-free world. 

It gives a new meaning to the revolving door of prison. 

Business as usual

I am getting close to uttering the pronouncement "TELLWICHALLOFYA!" 

President Obama says in selling his stimulus package, "if we don't move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe!"

In response Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee says "Democrats have controlled both branches of government  for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads. For the last two weeks, they have been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief."

These statements were taken from the internet source:  http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/02/pitched_partisa.html

Have we not learned anything from the last election? The country was voting for change. I don't see change here.  What I see is politicians betting on our memory being short. I was hoping things could turn around with President Obama. I was taking a chance. I realize that it is quite soon to be too judgmental on progress but the road signs for the future don't look hopeful. 

President Obama you say "catastrophic!" Is that your message of hope? (Thanks to Charles Krauthammer for this in "The Fierce Urgency of Pork", By Charles Krauthammer, Friday, February 6, 2009; A17 Washington Post) Is this how you  are changing the dialogue in Washington? It sounds like what we went through the last 8 years. In fact that was almost the SAME verbage President Bush uttered in selling us on TARP!

Michael Steele, is this how the RNC is going to deal with the present administration? Hurl insults into the Democratic camp and hope it sticks. You talk about irresponsible spending on the part of the Democrats. And yet it was your Republican president who threw almost a TRILLION dollars with very little oversight into TARP bank bail-out. We were told we had to do it or the consequences will be disastrous. Your accusations sound a bit hypocritical. 

I voted for President Obama. I do not regret my vote. I don't think Senator McCain, if elected, would have done anything substantially different. Both the Republicans and the Democrats are starting to look identical. I also fear that our politicians are as careless and clueless as the CEOs of the banks they bailed out.

Maybe the first order of business of our elected leaders should be to fan across the country interviewing the thousands that are out of work.  Maybe lessons could be taken back to Capitol Hill from the unemployed who have had to greatly scale back their lives to survive, and won't be bailed out.

I'm fearing that I've been had. I have a sinking feeling that what we are looking at is business as usual... again. 

Lesson from a latte

In the mornings I have developed a relatively recent routine. I stop at Dunn Brothers Coffee in the morning after dropping children at school and before I am to be at work. I get a small latte in a ceramic mug and then contemplate meeting the day.

The perfect latte has a stiff foam that can support sugar crystals sprinkled on top. It has a swirl of dark and light foam that snakes around the parameter of the mug. It is a sight of wonder and beauty. I usually miss the artistry by getting it in a to-go cup with a plastic lid.

Today I am sitting at the coffee house looking down at this pathetic latte. It looks limp as it lounges in the cup. I sprinkle sugar crystals on the surface which promptly sink to the bottom of the mug. I take an unenthusiastic sip. Alas, it is most uninteresting. The barista looks bored. Shortly after sitting down to indulge in my drink, the employee roasting beans loses interest in his job. While he is talking to the barista, beans spill on the floor. A customer has to go to the counter to point it out to the  employee, to get the spillage to cease.

How I approach life matters.  Making sure that all I do has a quality output is important because it tells others about who I am and my approach to life. The old saying rings true. "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well."

Thanks Barista for your lesson about life. 

Garbage truck awareness

This morning as I was driving girls to school traffic was stopped because a garbage truck was blocking our side of the road and there was no break in traffic going the other way to be able to move around it. So we stopped.

My first feeling was annoyance. And then I started looking around. On the side of the road were cat tails sticking out of the icy snow cover. I looked at them with a sense of wonder at the simple beauty. I have driven this stretch of road and never seen this sight. 

And it took a garbage truck to give me permission to see it.

Drill happy

On the way to church yesterday I passed a billboard advertising Lowes Hardware Center and the fact that they had drills for sale. There was a picture of a drill with a candy cane for a bit. It looked so festive.

I had recently finished a book called "The Forever War" by Dexter Filkins. During his time in Iraq he described finding bodies with drill holes in it. He talked about allegations that prisoners were being tortured with hand drills, a method used by some Shia dominated police forces against Sunni prisoners. 

Knowing that fact sort of changed the way I viewed the Lowes billboard.

A Foxworthy-like approach to religion

It's not a religion it's a relationship. That is what I've heard from numbers of people in the Christian community, usually when they are proselytizing . Is there a way to analyze the accuracy of that statement?

In channeling the wit of Jeff Foxworthy:

• It may be religion if you keep your personal failures and faults to yourself.
  
• It may be religion if you demand that others believe EXACTLY like you do.
  
• It may be religion if fear and shame are the glue that holds people together.

I heard it said by someone that religion works best and religious people succeed when people hide who they are.

So the question I ask myself as a professed follower of God is, is what I am experiencing a religion, or a relationship?