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...

I was accused of being a racist one time, because I listened to the band Guns & Roses and Axl had made some pretty negative comments at the time.  Never mind that Slash was bi-racial, something the person accusing me of being a racist didn't know. I was hurt by that, because I had spent a good part of my life standing up to racists and catching flak for it.  I have a very good friend to this day who visited us every summer for 2 weeks to a month through the Fresh Air Fund.  I just loved her.  When I was about 9, the first non-white family moved into our neighborhood.  I immediately friended one of the daughters who was just a year older than me.  I didn't care what color her skin was - I just wanted another friend.  Over the years, they were very good friends too.  At that time, with "blockbusting" going on engineered by real estate companies, once a black family moved into an area, they didn't show homes there to white families.  House...

Since the Election, my profile picture on Facebook is an upside down American flag.  This is a signal of distress, which I can't think of a more appropriate sign for these times we are living in.  I've been accused a couple of times of "disrespecting" the flag, which it isn't.  In fact, several Veterans have stepped up to say so, and the first person I saw with it was a retired Navy officer. With the protests, there have been posts on some people's pages to make flag desecration a felony.  It will never happen.  It's a part of free speech.  My thought, though, is why are you so worried about the flag?  The flag is a symbol.  It is an inanimate object.  It becomes something to be proud of and revere because of what it represents. "Veterans fought for this flag. It's an insult to them." Did they really fight for the flag? Or did they fight for the ideals that it represents?  They fought because they were proud of the country they came fr...

I've seen many posts from my right-leaning friends mocking the millennial generation for "safe space" and treating them like they are "wimps."  It is apparent, they have no idea what they are talking about. "Safe space" started in the learning disability community.  Mainstreaming learning disabled kids into regular classes is a good thing.  It doesn't mean that there aren't side effects.  One of those is that these students get overwhelmed, whether it's in the classroom or by some other means, and need a place to calm themselves down.  Once they are taught this process, they'll usually know when it's happening and when they need to go to their "safe space."  Although schools now usually provide space for this, some students figure it out on their own.  My son is on the autism spectrum, and his trick was to ask to go to the bathroom. After that, "safe space" was a place to retreat from bullying.  It's pretty o...

I've been reeling from the outcome of the election.  In my head I've put so many posts together.  Abbreviated versions went on Facebook.  It's been hard to completely collect my thoughts. One thing Trump promised was to bring jobs back, and a lot of people voted for him just based on that one promise.  There was an interview with a woman who was excited because she couldn't wait for the factory in her town to open again for her husband to go back to work. Oh how the naive have been played.  They will find that out soon enough. One area that's about to be decimated is in regard to the environment.  Trump promised to lift regulations in place.  These regulations have given us cleaner air and water over the last four decades.  I grew up just outside of New York City and I remember the pollution haze that often settled over the city.  Even when I moved out in 2005, there was still such a difference in the sky between New York and the White Moun...

I have a son who is 16 and on the autism spectrum.  He's pretty high functioning, which puts him on a cusp of possibly being able to secure employment in his life and not completely disabled. He also has Crohn's Disease. Why are these two things important?  He receives infusions of the drug Remicaide every 8 weeks to keep his Crohn's in remission.  He lost 41 pounds before it went into remission after it was discovered he had it.  I saw a bill recently for those infusions.  Each one is around $13,000. Right now, he's covered by his father's health insurance, which is quite good.  So good, in fact, that we pay taxes on it now as a benefit.  I don't object.  I know how valuable it is to have health insurance and if it helps other people have it as well, that's a good thing.  Under the ACA, I have another 10 years before I have to worry about him going off the health insurance.  I wasn't even worried about that, because our Governor had exp...

The Trekkie in me has been reciting those words over and over again, especially this last week before the election.  I have my own religious faith, but that does not allow for God to fix things we humans mess up.  No matter how much we pray, God doesn't care who wins the Superbowl.  And God isn't about to step in and rig the election either. God is in our heart and stirs our hearts and we are supposed to act on those stirrings.  We can choose to be angry and channel fear and hate, or we can choose grace, forgiveness, and hope.  We can put ourselves first, or we can try to create a better world for everyone.  The choice is ours.  God won't fix that for us. This election has scared me more than I have been scared in a long time.  The last time I can remember something impacting me so much was when Korean Air Lines flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets.  I was sure we were about to experience a nuclear world war.  I didn't have the sa...

I hear a lot of talk from people lately about Uber.  I haven't used the service myself yet.  I probably will in January when I am with friends in Las Vegas, but personally I am not too keen on them. My main concern is safety. A local taxi service in town has been advertising for drivers.  I don't know if they do a drug screening at the time someone is hired, or if there are any screens while they are working for them.  However, I do know that someone who has gone through a number of jobs in town has "issues".  He wrecked his own car when he hit a moose, and allegedly he had gone for a drive to get high.  The taxi company hired him.  I don't think he made it two months before he fell asleep behind the wheel and rear-ended another vehicle.  Fortunately, no one was hurt. The taxi company fired him, of course.  This is where my question comes in - what's to stop him from getting another car and driving for Uber?  Uber guidelines state:...

Building on an earlier post about how our education system has failed us, this was today's encounter: Someone I am acquainted with through playing Facebook games posted one of those right-wing anti-Hillary Clinton memes.  My general policy is I don't bother with stuff people post on their own page.  However, this person and a bunch of her friends had ganged up on another mutual friend who had pointed out that it was a lie. I went over to Snopes.  Something I try to do before I share anything (and check it elsewhere if I don't get an answer there.  If I have doubts, I don't share.)  There it pointed out that there was a shred of truth to the original post, but as usual that grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion.  Trying to support the mutual acquaintance I posted the Snopes link and pointed out how the grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion. It doesn't matter.  I had facts and it didn't matter.  These peop...

Living in New Hampshire, we are inundated with politics.  The "first in the nation primary" state has advantages and disadvantages.  I took my son and daughter to see President Obama speak at a town hall where he took questions from the audience back in 2008 and my son shook the hand of the man who is now his Commander in Chief.  One of my daughters had the privilege to attend a future leaders of America summit in Washington where she met (then Senator) Hillary Clinton.  Fast forward two years later and she met Mrs. Clinton again during her 2008 Presidential Campaign and she actually remembered meeting my daughter and specific things about her. That's the up side to it.  There are plenty of down-sides.  One of them is the plethora of political signs that pop up for about two years straight. I don't mind the signs and I don't really object to them.  I just see them as wasteful with no real purpose.  There's so many of them!  Sometimes it s...

I don't watch much newsmedia any longer.  It's all to biased and noisy.  Most of my information I get from reading a variety of sources and then I form my own opinion.  One person I do occasionally watch is Rachel Maddow.  I like her because whatever she reports on, she will cite the sources in the show notes or on her own blog. That's something that seems to be missing from discussions of late; the ability to cite a source.  Somewhere, somehow when people were in school they didn't learn how to debate.  The idea is you make your point or share your opinion and back it up with sources that helped you arrive at that opinion, or that list the facts that you are asserting. I first noticed it several years back when a woman in discussion with friends of mine would say "look it up" when we asked for her sources.  We'd try to explain to her - no, you give us your source.  Her answer would be "well you want to know, so you go look it up."  I honestl...

After much wringing of hands and false starts, I have decided to embark on a daily blog.  Most of what I discuss will be based on current events or items of interest.  There might be a few more personal posts in between. You'll get to know a lot about me through the posts, so I'm not going to delve into my life history here. I've had many people over the past few years say I have a story to tell and I should do it.  I have also had people say things I have brought up have made an impact on their lives.  I hope to do the same here, only to a wider audience. Maybe? Eventually? In any case, welcome to the Mountain Top.