Thoughts from the Mountain Top

When watching a Disney movie, I don't expect much realism.  As "real" as the settings might be, it's a fairy tale.  One of my baby granddaughter's favorite movies is The Princess and the Frog, set in 1920s New Orleans.  It received a lot of attention as "Disney's first African-American Princess."  I don't know if this is the reason it seemed to get less fanfare and adoration among the public as I never saw it until I picked it up to watch it with her.  It's a good film. As I watched it the first time, and many others, scenes would appear which would make me say "that would never happen."  Yes, that's the jaded real-world liberal in me.  I thought the film was a little too indifferent to the boundaries that existed between the "colored people" at the time and the whites.  It seemed to show an existence where everything was peachy-keen, an ordinary girl could become a princess, and live happily ever after. However,...

Generally, when certain people try to preach an end to any kind of safety net, they'll point to the HELP WANTED ads and say "there's plenty of jobs there. People don't want to work." Their brains can't wrap around the fact that its not quite as cut-and-dried as it seems. A friend who has been a hard worker all his life and never shied away from hard work is in his 60's.  In his late 50's he landed a job as a custodian in a local school district.  For him and his family, it was the perfect job.  They finally had benefits which were desperately needed.  At the school, the children loved him, the teachers loved him, the staff loved him.  There was not a single mark against him on his record.  Just shy of a decade of work there, he was let go with no explanation. The explanation came later that summer before school began again, when his position was advertised in the local newspaper.  Only instead of one full-time worker with benefits, the position...

One reason I liked the idea of moving from Long Island, New York to northern New England was the difference in community and the sense of independence.  I was nervous about what actually came to fruition after Hurricane Sandy - getting supplies into Long Island and surviving if something like that, or even worse, happened.  I remember when people were afraid of Y2k some of them stocked up on things like firewood.  My thought on that is "how quaint." Here I am surrounded by farms.  With the type of winter that you could be socked in for a few days, most people are pragmatic about supplies.  Most homes have a heat source that doesn't need power, whether their primary heat source or secondary.  Even if we were without power for a few days, I could take a few things from my pantry, toss it in a cast-iron Dutch oven, and let it cook on top of my wood stove as we rode it out.  I also felt that as a community, we would come together and help each other out....

Why is this ok with any of you? That was a question asked recently.  About what you might ask.  Well, does it really matter?  There are just so many things that are not okay at the present moment in this country I would be hard-pressed to choose one ultimate thing. And that's one of the things that's hard right now for people who are used to fighting the good fight.  There are so many things wrong. Want to be not okay with Russia interfering in our elections? Want to be not okay with the likelihood there will be no investigation into Russia interfering in our elections? Want to be not okay with a President-elect who doesn't read intelligence briefings? Want to be not okay with a President-elect who's going to send us to war with China because he can't control his use of Twitter? Want to be not okay with a President-elect who's already using his position to enrich himself? Want to be not okay with a President-elect who threatens his detractors, promising retribut...