Woman, 82, Get Ticket for Slow Crossing

I saw this story on the news last night...
I live where I live and I can't speak to how things are elsewhere, but there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that is in such a damn hurry that it can't wait for a person to cross the damn street.
Yeah,, they picked the lady with the unusual attire and walking staff to headline and interview on camera, but she's not the only one to get a ticket and I'm not sure I could have sprinted across Foothill Blvd. up in the Valley even before I broke my leg a year ago last Sunday. Five lanes in under ten seconds? Even less after you wait for the red-light runners to clear the intersection.
Some of us have some explaining to do when we come to judgment for the way we treat people.

A Few Words Regarding HM3 Marcques Nettles

Update: Petty Officer Nettle's body was recovered last Sunday, April 16.
It may seem a little thing to some that his body has been found... that now he can be properly laid to rest.... but it is important. He died in the line of duty, and he deserved better than a DUSTWUN designation. He deserved, at least, to come home.
Semper Fi

Getting killed has to suck. A catastrophic injury might suck even worse. On April 2 a bunch of Marines and Doc Nettles in a 7-ton truck got swept off the road in a flash flood in Iraq. Six Marines were killed and their bodies recovered. Doc Nettles and one of his Marines haven't been found yet... "Duty Status - Whereabouts Unknown." That just might take the prize.
I keep thinking if Buford was over there... missing eight days... knowing that can't be a good thing... lost in the muck in some crap stream bed in Iraq... and my heart goes out to the families of Petty Officer Nettles and the missing Marine, and to all who care(d) about them.

Happy Birthday, Ronni!

There were two blogs that pushed me to start mine, and Time Goes By was one of them.
If you haven't already, please pop in on Ronni and wish her a well-deserved Happy Birthday!

A Shameful Moment of Pettiness

Okay, listening to this story as I type this...
is anyone else wondering who really asked for all of that data from Google and what they wanted to use it for?

In Memory of Hospitalman Geovani Padilla-Aleman

Hospitalman Geovani Padilla-Aleman, 20, of South Gate, Calif., died Apr. 2 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.
He was permanently assigned to Bethesda Naval Hospital, USNS Comfort Detachment and operationally assigned to Third Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, 2/28 Brigade Combat Team.
Semper Fi

Thoughts on Perspective

I wish I could remember who pointed me to this:

"If we divide into two camps--even into violent and the nonviolent--and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence within ourselves. We must work on ourselves and also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact." - Ayya Khema, "Be An Island"

When I reflect on issues I like to superimpose them onto a three-inch marble I keep on my desk. We live on a sphere in an unbounded universe. Earth rotates on an axis so I must admit there are poles and an equator. Early explorers, living in one hemisphere, drew their maps with their hemisphere on top. East and west are entirely relative, and borders exist only to the extent that we believe that they exist. There is one atmosphere, one sea, and one human race.
The propagandists would have us believe that the issue is illegal immigration, as if sealing our borders against the other five billion people would keep the three hundred million of us safe, happy and secure... as if American consumers would pay two to three times more for fresh produce... as if international business wouldn't immediately outsource America's last means of production - our agricultural capacity - to offshore suppliers rather than pay minimum wages and benefits for unskilled labor.
The other day I saw this article by Bob Sullivan for MSNBC which speaks to, and expands upon, some of my thoughts on the whole issue of "illegal" immigrants and their status as taxpayers. The only people who come to my mind who have been harmed by undocumented workers are those who are dependent on the government financing of social service programs... uncompensated health care comes to mind. For those folks, increasing the pool of people in need without a corresponding increase in funding represents a loss of benefits. What if the taxes being withheld for which no returns were filed were applied to providing social services instead of... let's say the Global War on Terrorism?
For how many years and in how many countries have governments been blaming their mistakes and malfeasance on powerless minorities instead of simply stating and dealing in truth? Why does it still work? Lucy sets up the football, and Charlie Brown comes tearing up to kick it over and over and over again.