What I've been up to

Life is busy and still a challenge right now (isn't it usually?), but I must take a few minutes to update my friends in case they come looking for me and see nothing new.

I've move down the street but I'm still on Bliss -- All together now, "Praise and thanks be to God -- Alleluiah!" -- and thanks be to Marc Crawford Leavitt who gave me the lead to my "new" place. That said, it is a bit smaller with no attic rights so I have more boxes still to deal with than I would prefer. I am making slow progress as I try to pick up on my life prior to mid-January when I learned that my old place is being sold. I must hold back even as I must do a little. I beg the understanding of my fellow activists.

Even my camera has been pretty much ignored. I did make it down to J&R to buy some new camera cords as mine have yet to surface from their safe place in some crevice of some box. I am anticipating downloading some pictures of the view from my second floor back porch (Dare I call it a balcony or a terrace? I don't want to sound high-falooting or hoity-toity.). In the meantime enjoy the pictures of Bliss Street from my Flickr.com site, linked in the title above.

I've been listening to too much Talk Radio -- the left wing feminine version of my dear ditto-head brother (who does listen to Air America on his satellite radio so perhaps he is making progress into the light. And I have blogged a little at Common Dreams and a few other places -- like the Sam Seder Show and with my Laura Flanders' friends. And I've listened more to Jon Elliott who kept me company during much of my late night packing -- but now AAR has him from midnight to 3 pm -- a little late for this usual morning person. Thank God for podcasts! (We'll get into my views of the new AAR lineup at some later time. But at least I still have "my" Thom Hartmann from noon to three.)

I've gotten angry at the Dems for caving in to Bush's demands for more money for the illegal Iraq invasion's occupation. Even those who voted no played with the rules, said another of my favorite writer/bloggers, David Sirota. ARGH!!! (Heard a good clip from Dem presidential candidate Mike Gravel on this issue -- on Jon Elliott's site: http://www.jonelliottshow.com/guests1.html. Must give Mike AND John Edwards more money. Somehow the media ranks the candidates according to contributions amassed rather than number of contributors or poll results and both Mike and John (and Dennis Kucinich) have to be taken seriously. Give money NOW.

The Dems have got to get serious with Healthcare. We need Medicare for all. I blogged this somewhere:

Last year Hillary Clinton was second in contributions from the Health and Pharmaceutical industry [shall we groan together?]. Not likely that she will be pushing much of a health care plan, is there? Unless it is really tied in to the establishment: read cost more money!!

We have to get away from business-centered healthcare and away from insurance companies -- except perhaps for auxiliary programs. What we need is universal healthcare which doesn't rely on the profit motive. Healthcare is a right. Healing is an art. Make a living, yes. Make a killing, no!

Obama's plan doesn't take this into account either. ARGH!!!

Health and healing should be open to every mother's child -- and that includes the grown ones, too!

Thanks!!

And I have cried a bit -- Casey's mom Cindy Sheehan is quite burnt out. I added this comment to the posting of her resignation letter at CommonDreams.org:

Kate Anne and Cindy Sheehan, 05-01-06 Peace March

Dearest Cindy -- be still, breathe, relax, heal, revive, retool, breathe, know that you cannot be expected to do it all. Do nothing for now except breathe, heal and feel our love and gratitude.

When and if you return to more visibility in the public eye, as your final parting messages to the people who love you on Air America Radio indicate perhaps you just may, walk forth with your own vision for peace. Don't let anyone should on you, and don't should on yourself. [Good for all of us to remember the extra commandment, "Thou shalt not 'should' on thyself today."] The only thing you should do now is heal.

I thank God for Casey's sacrifice and as Larkspur and 'aquietman' said it was not in vain because his death spurred you to to speak up for justice and peace. His death has meaning, not because it was in an illegal invasion, but because in his sacrifice Casey gave us you, and you, my dear Cindy, are a gift. If you never speak another word for peace, you have done more than most. Do what you must -- heal, revive, breathe, love and be loved. Then, do what your heart tells you to do -- but only do what you can. You, none of us, can do it all.

God bless you, my dear Cindy, mother of Casey and some beautiful other children who also need you and love you. Be there for yourself and for them. Thank you for being a blessing to us all. You are in our prayers and in our hearts. Godspeed in your life's journey, wherever it takes you next.

Peace hugs!

And my little boy Audient is planning to wed his Gina. Great news! Something to look forward to! But first gotta go to work and earn some money and then come home to a little more deboxing activity.

Peace hugs one and all,
Kate Anne

Explaining my non-renewed NOW Membership

Hi, Sherry and Shirley -- I've been a member of the National Organization for Women for years and very active for ten of those. (Ashtabula [OH] NOW of which I was founding mother just celebrated its 30th anniversary in February and I served two terms as an Ohio NOW state officer.) That said, I have not yet renewed my membership, expiring in June. Instead I wrote on the form my concern about NOW endorsing DLC Democrat Hillary Clinton. Was this discussed? Were members polled? Or was it NOW PAC who endorsed her because she is a woman?

Besides being a corporatist DLC Democrat, giving little more than lip service to the shrinking middle class, she has been a disappointment as New York's junior US Senator in other ways by not responding appropriately to those of us in the Peace and Justice movement [i.e., the "Are you listening, Hillary?" campaign]. Furthermore, not only does she NOT apologize for her war vote, but she also continues to make the stupid inane comment that if she had known then what she knows now she would not have voted to authorize the illegal Iraq invasion. (Why didn't she know it then? I did.) Bill Clinton is a rightist Democrat (as Thom Hartmann has put it, "one of the best Republican presidents we've ever had") and Hillary, sadly, has Bill as part of her baggage along with her years of serving on the Wal-Mart board and her feeble attempt at Healthcare reform where she bent over backwards to try to pass something that would keep the insurance companies happy (and they still squelched it, spending oodles of money on PR to convince people to lemmingly ask Congress to vote down even modest health care reform). The one thing political on which I and my rightist brother agree, Hillary sucks.

I care about women's rights, and I do care about NOW, but I don't care about Hillary Clinton and I truly hope I will not be forced into voting for her because she gets the nomination and I have to vote for what I perceive to be "the lesser of two evils". While my political heart is with Dennis Kucinich, I also care about John Edwards and his beautiful wife Elizabeth and I think John IS electable so I'm going with him at this point. (I didn't the last time, stuck with Dennis to the end, and ended up with John Kerry who didn't even wait for the votes to be counted -- and he really DID actually win the last election, but he didn't care enough to fight for it. Arghh!!)

Does NOW care that I haven't renewed? I am not sure that my little rebellion has even been noted by whoever opened the envelope. That's why I am writing this to you, as officers of Brooklyn Queens NOW -- and I think I will blog it. I'd like some explanation. If you supply it, perhaps I will blog that too. But I truly believe that Hillary Clinton sucks and I am so disappointed in NOW. So I am acting by not renewing NOW -- until the spirit(s) (of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and so many of our foremothers) move(s) me. Hillary Clinton does not deserve to be our first woman president -- she doesn't represent the multitude of American women. (Maggie Thatcher wasn't great for British womankind either.) NOW's endorsement is a big mistake. I feel betrayed. It saddens me, but I'm out of NOW for now.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne
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http://peacehugs.com