Friday, January 29, 2016
By Our Teachers We Are Taught......
Lessons take many forms.
Learning early that we are more alike than different. Lucky kids!
Sunday, January 24, 2016
One More Square Checked Off
So there was a meeting at our VA from someone in Washington. We were thrown a bone. We got an extra 30 day extension to submit our comments to the EIS, refuting their findings and stating why we wanted our VA to remain in Hot Springs.
Some believe it is a hopeful sign, others say it is a political move, and we know what that means.
Either way, after all of these years since they first announced the closure of our VA, we are still open. Smaller, to be sure, with the slow bleeding of services and staff, but we are here. We are still fighting the bureaucracy, for our veterans and for our town. After all, we are the Veteran's Town.
Some believe it is a hopeful sign, others say it is a political move, and we know what that means.
Either way, after all of these years since they first announced the closure of our VA, we are still open. Smaller, to be sure, with the slow bleeding of services and staff, but we are here. We are still fighting the bureaucracy, for our veterans and for our town. After all, we are the Veteran's Town.
At the end of the battle, whatever the outcome, I want to be able to say, "I fought the battle. I did all that I could do." And, in the end, what more can anyone say?
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Love, Not Hate
By our parents and our teachers we are taught.
My granddaughter and her classmates are learning to care about others. They have made blankets to send to servicemen in Afghanistan, Africa and Saudi Arabia. Lucky children. Their parents and teachers have taught them to reach out to others. They have inspired hope.
They are being taught love, not hate. They are our promise for a hopeful future.
My granddaughter and her classmates are learning to care about others. They have made blankets to send to servicemen in Afghanistan, Africa and Saudi Arabia. Lucky children. Their parents and teachers have taught them to reach out to others. They have inspired hope.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
It's a Puzzlement!
Three months ago Penny laid the last egg of the season. We thought we would have to buy eggs for the winter. But, wonder of wonders, yesterday Henny laid an egg, with a loud announcement to the neighborhood. Then another wonder! Today Penny laid a beautiful blue egg. It was her first of the season and she was on the nest for several hours.
Three months only without our fresh eggs! They stopped laying in mid-October and started in mid-January. Now according to the experts, chickens do not lay during the dark winter months unless they are supplied with artificial lights for about 14 hours a day. Well, we did not furnish lights. So, how do we account for this strange behavior by our two older hens?
We can't and so we won't. We are just grateful that our fussy hens are supplying us with fresh, organic, delicious, nutritious eggs. We might ask the question but, so far, no one has the answer.
Thank you Henny and Penny. You are worth the time and effort of caring for you, cleaning your messes and feeding and watering you daily. Perhaps you appreciate our efforts and decided to pay us back. Whatever, we will eat your eggs with gratitude and enjoyment.
Each day when I go out to do the chicken chores, I will feel the thrill of anticipation of hoping to gather a beautiful blue egg lying snuggly in the straw.
Three months only without our fresh eggs! They stopped laying in mid-October and started in mid-January. Now according to the experts, chickens do not lay during the dark winter months unless they are supplied with artificial lights for about 14 hours a day. Well, we did not furnish lights. So, how do we account for this strange behavior by our two older hens?
We can't and so we won't. We are just grateful that our fussy hens are supplying us with fresh, organic, delicious, nutritious eggs. We might ask the question but, so far, no one has the answer.
Thank you Henny and Penny. You are worth the time and effort of caring for you, cleaning your messes and feeding and watering you daily. Perhaps you appreciate our efforts and decided to pay us back. Whatever, we will eat your eggs with gratitude and enjoyment.
Each day when I go out to do the chicken chores, I will feel the thrill of anticipation of hoping to gather a beautiful blue egg lying snuggly in the straw.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
The Other Side of the Story
More hope!
As I wrote in my last blog, I intend to focus more on hopeful stories than the negative. (While still keeping informed on everything, including the negative, difficult to ignore when inundated by the media.)
Let's travel to St. Louis, MO. In the 1840's there were brawls when the Germans were against the Irish immigrants. It happened again with the newly arrived Italians. In the late 20th century there was tension with the influx of Hispanic and Asian immigrants.
It was the same story when the Bosnian refugees, fleeing civil war in Yugoslavia, settled in St. Louis in the 1990's. Most of them were Muslims and the citizens were fearful and resentful of these latest immigrants.
This fear and suspicion lasted for several years during which time these immigrants built their new lives. Soon they owned businesses, earned college degrees and transformed a former crime-ridden area with abandoned buildings into a thriving community in south St. Louis. Their community has lower crime and unemployment rates than among the general population. They started more businesses, are more skilled and are more likely to have an advanced degree. They are also less likely to be on welfare, food stamps or assistance from the government.
Today the mayor of St. Louis is welcoming Syrian refugees in spite of the backlash from terrorists attacks in Paris and California. So far only 29 have settled there. The 1950's census made St. Louis one of the larges cities in the United States. By 2010 the city had lost over half of its population due to the decline in manufacturing and the ensuing flight to the suburbs. The mayor knows from history that the refugees can revitalize the city.
There have been some immigrant Bosnians who supported the terrorists in Iraq and Syria, but they have been the minority. The mayor of St. Louis has a vision for a revitalized city. It happened with the Bosnian refugees and his hope is it will happen again with the Syrians fleeing war, poverty, hunger and scarce opportunities for an education.
With this attitude of a mayor who knows his history and looks toward a re-energized city, there is hope for the latest refugees pursuing refuge in our United States, a land of immigrants and a land of opportunity for all. From the beginning we have been a country of those fleeing war, religious or political persecution or those seeking for more opportunities for themselves and their children.
Way to go, St. Louis!
As I wrote in my last blog, I intend to focus more on hopeful stories than the negative. (While still keeping informed on everything, including the negative, difficult to ignore when inundated by the media.)
Let's travel to St. Louis, MO. In the 1840's there were brawls when the Germans were against the Irish immigrants. It happened again with the newly arrived Italians. In the late 20th century there was tension with the influx of Hispanic and Asian immigrants.
It was the same story when the Bosnian refugees, fleeing civil war in Yugoslavia, settled in St. Louis in the 1990's. Most of them were Muslims and the citizens were fearful and resentful of these latest immigrants.
This fear and suspicion lasted for several years during which time these immigrants built their new lives. Soon they owned businesses, earned college degrees and transformed a former crime-ridden area with abandoned buildings into a thriving community in south St. Louis. Their community has lower crime and unemployment rates than among the general population. They started more businesses, are more skilled and are more likely to have an advanced degree. They are also less likely to be on welfare, food stamps or assistance from the government.
Today the mayor of St. Louis is welcoming Syrian refugees in spite of the backlash from terrorists attacks in Paris and California. So far only 29 have settled there. The 1950's census made St. Louis one of the larges cities in the United States. By 2010 the city had lost over half of its population due to the decline in manufacturing and the ensuing flight to the suburbs. The mayor knows from history that the refugees can revitalize the city.
There have been some immigrant Bosnians who supported the terrorists in Iraq and Syria, but they have been the minority. The mayor of St. Louis has a vision for a revitalized city. It happened with the Bosnian refugees and his hope is it will happen again with the Syrians fleeing war, poverty, hunger and scarce opportunities for an education.
With this attitude of a mayor who knows his history and looks toward a re-energized city, there is hope for the latest refugees pursuing refuge in our United States, a land of immigrants and a land of opportunity for all. From the beginning we have been a country of those fleeing war, religious or political persecution or those seeking for more opportunities for themselves and their children.
Way to go, St. Louis!
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Working Together to Preserve Knowledge
So we welcome in another new year! For me, I look to hope, often difficult to find these days. But there is a story that has inspired me to continue my search for hope amid the darkness.
The stories of those who want to destroy and separate people flood the news. But, there are other quiet stories that often go unnoticed. Those under-the-radar tales are the ones I want to focus on for this new year of 2016.
This one is a gem of inspiration. The Catholic monks from St. Johns in Collegeville, MN are helping to save a trove of ancient manuscripts, presently at risk, the ones most at danger, Islamic literary treasures that have survived floods, heat and invasions over the centuries.
Islamists have been ruthless with libraries and holy sites. Evacuations to save these ancient treasures have been on-going since 2012. Presently many ancient texts are being stored in five different places throughout our world. St. John's Abbey monk, Father Columba, travels to Ethiopia, Mali, India, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon to join with Dr. Haidara of Timbuktu and other stewards of learning to save manuscripts of music, science, logic, rhetoric, remedies and learning for perpetuity. The teams photographed 50,000 endangered volumes in a decade.
Back in Minnesota in the basement of the Abby, manuscripts from the culture of Europe are stored. Today machines are copying more efficiently. Over one and a half millennia, knowledge has been a matter of survival for the Benedictines. Their longevity is rooted in their intellectual abilities. So, as a policy, any relevant text was copied. Through the centuries of threats, from the Vikings, the Reformation, Napoleonic wars and World War II, all were destructive to the libraries of Europe. What happened in Europe in the 20th century is now happening in other places in the 21st. "It is the same mix of ignorance and barbarism, but more heavily armed," says Father Columba.
So at this time, following their history of preserving philosophy, science and all knowledge, St. John's Abbey has a team of latter-day scribes scattered throughout the world, risking their lives to save images of ancient texts on microfilm. The majority of manuscripts are Korans, Hadiths and studies on grammar and rhetoric, but the scanners capture everything, including those dealing with human rights, health and law.
When people look at what the Benedictines are doing with Muslim communities, they ask them why they do this. Father Columba responds, "this is the time God has given us. We can't pretend we live in the sixth century when Benedict wrote his rule. or the 13th, or the 1950's, before the sexual revolution. We live now. and part of the reality is cultures which are threatened trying to figure out how to work together on this fragile planet."
The stories of those who want to destroy and separate people flood the news. But, there are other quiet stories that often go unnoticed. Those under-the-radar tales are the ones I want to focus on for this new year of 2016.
This one is a gem of inspiration. The Catholic monks from St. Johns in Collegeville, MN are helping to save a trove of ancient manuscripts, presently at risk, the ones most at danger, Islamic literary treasures that have survived floods, heat and invasions over the centuries.
Islamists have been ruthless with libraries and holy sites. Evacuations to save these ancient treasures have been on-going since 2012. Presently many ancient texts are being stored in five different places throughout our world. St. John's Abbey monk, Father Columba, travels to Ethiopia, Mali, India, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon to join with Dr. Haidara of Timbuktu and other stewards of learning to save manuscripts of music, science, logic, rhetoric, remedies and learning for perpetuity. The teams photographed 50,000 endangered volumes in a decade.
Back in Minnesota in the basement of the Abby, manuscripts from the culture of Europe are stored. Today machines are copying more efficiently. Over one and a half millennia, knowledge has been a matter of survival for the Benedictines. Their longevity is rooted in their intellectual abilities. So, as a policy, any relevant text was copied. Through the centuries of threats, from the Vikings, the Reformation, Napoleonic wars and World War II, all were destructive to the libraries of Europe. What happened in Europe in the 20th century is now happening in other places in the 21st. "It is the same mix of ignorance and barbarism, but more heavily armed," says Father Columba.
So at this time, following their history of preserving philosophy, science and all knowledge, St. John's Abbey has a team of latter-day scribes scattered throughout the world, risking their lives to save images of ancient texts on microfilm. The majority of manuscripts are Korans, Hadiths and studies on grammar and rhetoric, but the scanners capture everything, including those dealing with human rights, health and law.
When people look at what the Benedictines are doing with Muslim communities, they ask them why they do this. Father Columba responds, "this is the time God has given us. We can't pretend we live in the sixth century when Benedict wrote his rule. or the 13th, or the 1950's, before the sexual revolution. We live now. and part of the reality is cultures which are threatened trying to figure out how to work together on this fragile planet."
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