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Thursday, December 28, 2006

If I Lived in New York


If I lived in New York City, this morning, I'd take the subway to the Apollo Theatre and pay tribute to James Brown. As a white girl growing up in suburban Detroit, soul music was the only antidote to the stifling, perky, Peter-pan collared, young womanhood to which I was supposed to aspire. But, fortunately, I found a very small group of like-minded girlfriends who would accompany me to the Fox Theatre every Christmas vacation to see the Motown Stars. Can I get a witness???

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

They Wanted a Challenge


I'm really very saddened that the body of one of the climbers of Mt. Hood was found yesterday. Like everyone else, I had hoped that they would be found alive and triumphant--having overcome the elements. On the other hand, I'm very angry! Three bright young men needed excitement and challenge so much that they left their families just prior to the holidays and went mountain climbing. While other members were shopping, decorating, planning holiday menus and wrapping presents, they chose the worst time of year to challenge Mt. Hood.

Now, I have a little experience with that mountain. An over eager friend took some of us hiking one summer and we got a little too far out... and on the way back, my hip began to throb and ache (and I was only 23)--so much so that I had to be carried back to the lodge in the dark. So much for taking a risk!

What strikes me is this...why is climbing any mountain considered such a challenge that men (mostly) are willing to spend time, money and risk their lives trying to climb it? Why don't they come into Detroit (or any major city)--empty out the crack houses, bust up the gangs, and disarm the drug lords? Talk about a challenge! Or maybe they could figure out a way to end homelessness. Perhaps they could aim their talents toward a real challenge: reduce child abuse, attack the high illiteracy rates, overhaul the foster care programs, figure out how we can get quality health care to all our children. If that's all too easy, how about the mental health system? There are so many real challenges out there, why go looking for a manufactured one?

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings!


"I don't understand why anyone is against Walmart. . .If the workers don't like their jobs, why don't they work somewhere else? And anyway, poor people need to have a place to shop where the prices are low. . ." (a "real" quote from a "real" person)

I'm tired. It hardly seems worth the effort to try and explain how we are all connected, blah, blah, blah, and how wage suppression and globalization work to make more poor folks poorer and rich folks richer. The very idea of social justice is viewed as incendiary in this country. And truth has taken a long sabbatical.

Yesterday, the government published a report on the "media bias" on reporting global climate change. This packet of propaganda was probably paid for by our tax dollars with a few little side contributions. Evidently, the government has a vested interest in making us believe that global warming is a bunch of hysterical nonsense. Gee--I just wonder whose interest this serves?

Meanwhile, Yale's most famous C student, tries to read the Irag report--probably without a dictionary. So don't do any holiday shopping at Walmart--stay home (save the planet) and order used books from Amazon. While you're at it, send a dictionary to the White House.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Make a List

Everyone should make a "Top 10 List of Things I'm Grateful For. . ."

1. Turkey sandwich on sourdough bread, with mayo, cranberry chutney and leftover dressing
2. Turkey soup
3. emails from friends and the friends themselves
4. health insurance
5. parents who are still living
6. a joyful 36-year marriage
7. healthy kids
8. the best job I've ever had
9. the view from my back sunroom
10. good skin

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Today on Mars. . .


While customizing my Google Home page, I became absolutely entranced with the NASA site and the amazing pictures that are available to us in this century. This picture was taken TODAY!!! While I cleaned my office, did laundry, and organized my family photos, this little human-built Rover was taking a Sunday drive on the surface of Mars and sending pictures back to us. As Plato once wrote: "What if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure, unalloyed, stripped of mortality and all its pollution, stains, and vanities, unchanging, divine, . . .would that be a life to disregard?"

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Brown Sticks and Mud


This is the time of year I find it really hard to justify staying in Michigan for the next 10 years. . . the hills around St. Remy beckon and the spirit, if not the body, is more than willing to participate in the grape and lavender harvests. I would live, happily, without a car, preferably above a bakery. The walking would certainly mitigate the extra calories. I'd take my bicycle to the market and I'd spend time sketching the countryside or writing.

Interestingly, we had old friends in from "up north" this week, and the topic of our children and their lives came up, as it always does. They have a son and niece who are "freegans." I have never heard this term before, so they explained. These young people live in a commune together where they all pool resources. They walk dogs to pay the rent and utility bills, but everything else they need is traded for, or they buy it resale. They eschew anything new--including shoes--and they get all their food from dumpsters. They find perfectly good things thrown away all the time. Additionally, the house is substance-free (something you tell your parents to calm them down.) Now, I don't think I'm longing for a lifestyle that radical, but these kids are onto something, I think.

And this time of year, my mind wanders to the far ends of how to live.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Frozen Pigs on the Highway

I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing about things that I see or hear every day--the weird stuff that sticks in my brain like the "hook" from Eminem's "Lose Yourself." Admit it, you might really hate rap, but you loved that song. His rhetorical strategies rock.

So, that's what this image of frozen pigs has been. I wish I hadn't seen the picture, but I was taking my mid-day newsbreak and there it was...an arial shot of about 50 frozen, full-grown pig carcasses strewn all over the southbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway. Now, I am not your average meat eater. I've actually raised piglets from cute little bundles of wiggles to large lumbering hogs, and I've participated in the slaughter, butchering and smoking of the hams and bacon. I've rendered lard until every doorknob in the house glistened with pig grease. (It makes the best pie crust ever!) Despite my experiences with pork, this picture was really disturbing for some reason. Maybe I'll have to arrange an antedotal viewing of "Babe."

Thursday, November 09, 2006

A Long Vacation

I took a long vacation from blogging not because I didn't have a lot to say, I was just saying it some place else. After a heavy load of teaching this fall, I'm recommitting to blogging for several reasons: one, it makes be feel young, hip and cool; and two, I should be doing it because I teach writing and I nag my students to write. I like the idea of having a place in cyberspace where I can pull together different items and create a collage of expression. So here I am again--please be kind.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

I'm Gonna Move Up to the Country and Paint My Mailbox Blue

I enjoyed my tomatoes, eggplants, beans and basil so much this year that I've been shopping for a place with a little land to it. My current front yard is large, but it's in a very formal neighborhood where corn stalks would probably set off a riot. So I'm searching for just the right combination of land to house ratio--something small enough to clean in 3 hours, but large enough to accomodate weekend guests. Enough trees to provide shade and privacy, but a patch of ground that gets sunlight all day long. A little creek and a small barn might work, too.

On the other hand, a loft downtown appeals to the part of me that loves this city and is enjoying it's current rebirth, however slow and small. I suppose the perfect setting would be a loft on the riverfront with a rooftop garden where I could grow corn. . .but then there's the issue of the blue mailbox

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Get Off My Back!


I've been too busy to post and besides if you have time to miss me, you need to get a life! Just kidding...

Late August evokes a kind of mood we used to call "high school Sundays." Those days are bittersweet, in that the weekend is over and you didn't have quite as much fun as you would have liked to have had; and furthermore, you didn't even begin to do that 20-page research paper that's due on Monday.

Summer's almost over and I only kayaked once, only swam once, and only picnicked once. I worked a lot, as most of us do, but didn't get around to that 20-page research paper (the novel, the poems the paintings) that I really meant to do. Fall is in the air, the acorns are littering the sidewalk, and it's time for sweaters already.

I don't even want to talk about the larger world, the Katrina anniversary pageant that Bush rolled out, the continuing corporate pimping of democracy--it's all too ugly.

Instead, I'll revel in the fun of new notebooks, the smell of the paper, the pencil boxes, the crack of new textbook bindings, the feel of a new ink pen.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Quagmire Accomplished

Over a week ago, as the bombs were dropping in Lebanon, I was scheduled to meet a young student of mine who struggles with writing in English--because it is his third language. He's from Lebanon--and when I got to class to meet him, he wasn't there. I proceeded to prepare and make copies and other things I do to get ready to teach a class.

When he came in, he was ashen and could barely speak. My hearing is so bad and his accent so thick that when he breathlessly uttered, "My cousin has been killed,” I heard "hurt." His eyes widened and I quickly realized I had not responded in a way consistent with the seriousness of the situation. He clarified in a louder voice and I nodded my understanding.

Others were filing into class, and so he took his seat. During our discussions about our personal missions and how we see ourselves as citizens in the world, he was passionate and wanting to help his country. But, he's, thankfully, stuck here.

The horror of what is being done in the name of "freedom" by our country and all the others who still believe that violence will bring about peace--is unfathomable! These entrenched hatreds, fueled by fundamentalists on BOTH sides--will continue and threatens to send all of us into a worldwide conflict. I've been feeling no less horrified and hopeless as my student.

Then, I read about an inter-faith group of Arabs and Jews who meet regularly to discuss (peacefully) the problems in the Middle East. Here, in the Detroit area, where we have the largest population of Arab immigrants in the USA, they all live and work side by side--they go to movies, out to eat, they worship and raise families right next door to each other and next door to Jews and Christians--and sometimes the occasional Buddhist.

The point is, there must be a better way for the USA to influence the world toward peaceful coexistence than the route the neo-conservatives have mapped out. The foundation of their beliefs is so flawed, so laden with a lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance, that I fear for all of our futures.

We simply have not absorbed the lessons of the past. In the same way that the Ku Klux Klan was absorbed into Southern culture after Reconstruction, these terrorist groups all over the Middle East are often the only perceived "protection" these people have. When southern whites felt that the "system" in place would not protect them, they wrongfully embraced (sometimes in secret) those whom they believed had their best interests at heart. In the same way that people trapped in inner city poverty will look the other way when the drug kingpin hands out dollar bills to the children, civilians caught in this tragic crossfire are faced with a similar moral dilemma. In the absence of an infrastructure that is vigilantly attacking poverty and injustice, people will turn to the next worst thing. And here we are.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Protesters at Wayne State in the 1960's



I was conducting a little research today and ran across this incredible picture. It really struck me! Compare your image of 1960's war protesters with the young people in this picture. Anti-war demonstrators were, of course, villified during that time. They were tear gassed, infiltrated, spied upon, spat upon, arrested, and at least one I know was almost run down by a pick up truck that deliberately swerved onto the sidewalk where she was handing out leaflets for the Student Mobilization Committee. I wonder where these students are today and I wonder if they still view war as a failure of the collective imagination.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Corn in the Front Yard

I remember knowing eccentric old women--one who had a talking myna bird named "Tammy"--another who kept all of her past copies of the New York Times and every shopping bag she'd ever gotten. I always found these women charming, but I never anticipated modeling myself after them--at least not intentionally.

This spring, however, I found myself wanting to grow corn in my sunny front lawn--even though the street is lined with large formal Tudors. To accommodate this urge, I allowed my father, the most steadfast and intense gardener I know, to put in eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, dill, basil and beans right in the front perennial beds. From the street, no one can tell that a little kitchen garden is being tended. But I feel a bit funny when the Jaguar convertibles and Cadillac Escalades cruise by when I'm out weeding and hoeing. My front yard is supposed to betray any sense of practicality--everyone irrigates chemically-fed grass and well-pruned, but useless bushes. The front yard is merely for show.

The mailman comes on foot every day and he often looks longingly at my garden--as if conjuring up some distant memory of warm tomatoes--freshly picked. I think I'm becoming the eccentric woman in his life.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Flag Burning or Flag Waving??

Do we really need a constitutional amendment to tell us how to be patriotic? I find it ironic that the very people who have actively and cheerfully dismantled our democracy and destroyed any government "for the people" want to propose that people be prosecuted for burning the flag. These political hacks should be villified for waving flags while promoting unjust labor policies, preemptive wars, and environmental devastation worldwide. But I guess this is what our flag stands for now--it's a symbol that is now held hostage by mega-corporate interests. These same politicians have no problem when the Nascar crowd bundles up in flag jackets and red, white, and blue striped capri pants. Next time I'm at the track, I think I'll light my capri pants on fire and see what happens.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Keep on Rockin'


While cleaning the attic yesterday, I finally found the pictures of the very first Rolling Stones concert in Detroit. It was 1965--Olympia Stadium. I was in the 2nd row and there were only around 300 people there. Six months later, they "blew up"-- as they say these days. Anyway, the most interesting thing about one picture is the police officer in the foreground. He looks bored. I guess he never imagined that 40 years later Mick Jagger would still be rockin'--

Thursday, June 08, 2006

We Got 'em!

This morning the news is filled with self-satisfied pronouncements by our leaders declaring we killed the leader of the terrorists in Iran. It's a little like declaring victory over kudzu (a particularly invasive plant) because you were able to yank up a few vines.

Many Americans still believe that close examination of the structural, economic, and political causes of terrorism is like blaming the victims. Even though the young woman who stayed out too late, drank too much, and was raped and murdered by the bar's security guard can't be blamed for her own tragic demise--we must begin to recognize the possible consequences of our country's naive and simplistic world view. This view can be encapsulated in Bush's declaration, "They hate us because we're free!" But how free can Americans be if we can't travel to other countries without fear of reprisals for our government's misguided adventures? How "free" are we to pursue happiness if, as our jobs are disappearing overseas, the price of gasoline eats into a family budget constricted by falling wages and a loss of benefits? This is "homeland security?"

It's a real shell game the conservatives are playing now. Quick, look over here--some gay people might want to get married! Oh yeah, and we killed a big, bad terrorist!!!! Mission accomplished, indeed.

Meanwhile, our children's futures have been mortgaged, the infrastructure neglected, jobs exported, and the environment destroyed by people who find it so easy, perhaps even laudable, to put their hands into our pockets.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Word Power to the People

This is one of the most inspiring signs of hope I've run across... No wonder corporate media is scrambling to get its tentacles around the Internet.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/31/1330245

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Marshmallows and Public Policy


David Brooks writes, in the Times, about Walter Mischel's classic marshmallow test, the one in which 4-year olds were left alone with a marshmallow and told that if they could wait until the tester came back, they could have two. The children were video taped and Mischel reported that those who were able to exercise self-control, distract themselves and wait for the marshmallows went on to achieve higher SAT scores and better lives all around. The problem is this, however. Brooks uses this outcome to pummel educators and public policy makers who want to reduce poverty, improve test scores by reducing class size, increase teacher pay and mandate universal day care. Amazing that a simple marshmallow could be conflated into so much bullshit.

Brooks goes on, however, to contradict himself when he says: "The ability to delay gratification, like most skills, correlates with socioeconomic status and parenting styles," and he cites Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis" that asserts the "creating stable, predictable environments for children, in which good behavior pays off. . ." is what "works."

In my mind, a stable, predictable environment just might include at least the following: safe and affordable housing (not relocating every 3-4 months), enough healthy food to eat, heat and water that doesn't get cut off every winter, basic health care so that the emergency room isn't the only time a child sees a doctor, clean air--so that poor children who have the highest incidents of asthma can spend a few more days in school, a good job--so Mom and Dad don't both have to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Universal day care--as high quality as our military training.

We might also increase teacher pay so that some of the best and brightest will go into teaching and stay there. (I'm a teacher and I've never made enough money to support a family of four above poverty level--and sadly, I don't recommend it to young people.) Most teachers leave after 5 years--and no wonder. We get tired of not being respected or listened to--simply because we've chosen to do the impossible--educate children in a society that doesn't respect knowledge at all--only dollars. Years and years of solid research (on bi-lingual education, class size, writing skills, reading, etc.) is dismissed in a right-wing wave and a sneer. Our textbooks, when we get them, are sanitized and sugercoat history. We have to spend our own money! Americans fund schools with property taxes and so the children who need the most help, get the least. And this is justice? Every poor child left behind--along with their schools.

Brooks dismisses these "structural reforms" that we "obsess over. . ." and accuses educators and policy makers of ignoring the "moral and psychological traits that are at the heart of actual success." These traits, however, can be learned in a stable, predictable environment--one in which a child knows he will be fed, he will be sleeping in his own bed, and that someone who is being well compensated for vital work will be tucking him in. There are other countries that have figured this out--but we're still busy playing the blame game. We expect 3- year olds to have "personal responsibility" without giving them the tools--and we punish them by pointing to the exceptions. . . and their considerable bootstraps.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Hold on China: The Real Revolution is Here






Does it cheer anyone else up that China just made a deal with Harley Davidson? I don't know, but I think that they are about to experience the '60's--and it's going to be a bumpy ride! I love the new punk rockers in Bejing--they refuse to live "normal factory lives" and all they want to do is rock out in their basements and garages. (Do they have garages?) With their pink hair and tatoos, black clothing and anarchist attitudes--they are the hope of a nation! Cool!





Friday, April 07, 2006

Tom Delay Awaiting Canonization

There's Nothing Worse than the Former House Majority Leader Pretending to be a Christian

Dear Tom,

I heard what you said to Chris Matthews (re: Sen. Clinton) in an unguarded moment. . . which says as much about him as it does about you..."There's nothing worse than a know-it-all-woman." I'm quite sure you meant that the only thing worse than that might be a stripper who thinks she doesn't deserve to be raped by upstanding members of the Duke University LaCrosse team. Or maybe there's nothing worse than a low-life, lying, power-hungry, hypocritical creep pretending to be a Christian.

Friday, March 31, 2006

You know you're upper middle class when. . .


  1. You have to call your massage therapist because you lost your appointment card and you forgot to put the appointment in your calendar.
  2. You have a closet for just your winter clothes.
  3. Leftovers consist of seared tuna and arugela salad.
  4. It bothers you to carry a black purse while wearing tan sandals.
  5. Bush's grammar faux pas make your skin crawl.
  6. You use phrases like "faux pas."
  7. Your hairdresser calls your cell phone when you are late for a cut.
  8. You worry that the newly installed copper gutters aren't turning verdi gris fast enough.
  9. You know exactly what color "verdi gris" is.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Stormy Kromer


Every once in a while a really perfect thing comes along and its very existence is satisfying. We were visiting the U.P (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) this last winter and went into a small shop that sat almost on Lake Huron. It was 10 degrees and sunny--the town was almost empty save a few pickup trucks and a snowmobile or two. That's where I got my "Stormy Kromer." It's the greatest winter hat $25 can buy. And it has a history--written inside the cap--on the label. I won't spoil it for you. It's made in Michigan--all the better. Sadly, it's probably too warm to wear in the spring--but anything that can make me look forward to next winter is a really blessing. Thanks, Stormy.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Spring in the City


My great grandmother's peonies are sprouting--a sure sign that most of the worst of winter is probably over. I've been sorting through old cards, letters, pictures, etc. and I found the picture that best depicts Detroit to me. When it was taken, I was driving along John R on my way home from work one day a few years ago, and I stopped to photograph this magnificent rose bush. You can see that it is growing up against and through the fence that surrounds an abandoned building. It hasn't been pruned or fed or sprayed, I'm sure. And yet, it is wildly abundant in blooms and has the most magnificent color. What a cliche'--but I love it anyway.

Friday, March 10, 2006

George W Comes Out


There are still people clinging to the illusion that just because one gets elected, one is smart enough to run the country. I think the only way those last few folks would ever turn against GWB is if he came out.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Growing Old Gracefully


Sorting and sifting stuff--reflecting on life and aging--ran across this picture I tore out of a magazine some time ago. Tried to throw it away--not successful. So I scanned it, played with it and here it is. My new logo. Forever young--as Bob Dylan says.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Cleaning out the Closets

In preparation for downsizing (a euphemism for getting into a house you don't have to starve to own), I've been cleaning a closet or a drawer, daily, for the last few months. I've found some interesting things that I know are not mine and I don't have a clue how they got here--a man's black umbrella, an orange beach towel, a tri-pod, a fur-trimmed hood from a blue coat and a CD by David Cross entitled "It's Not Funny." Somehow I can't get the vision of myself wrapped in the orange beach towel, wearing the fur-trimmed hood, standing next to the tri-pod upon which the David Cross CD is balanced. It would make a good album cover.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Just Asking

Am I missing something? Why would anyone think it was a good idea to let someone else run several of our major ports? If it's not a good idea to let a few folks talk on the phone to potential terrorists or surf the net for subversive information, how in the world can this plan be a solid one? What I want to know is who gets rich off of this deal. Let me guess! Could it be the Vice President or some of his buddies? Give me a list! Follow the money. I'm serious. Who does this benefit?

Friday, February 17, 2006

Is There Any Hope for the Irony Impaired?

Recently, Leonard Pitts, a columnist from Miami, referred to those impassioned Islamics who are violently protesting the cartoon in which Muhammad was depicted with a bomb in his turban as "irony impaired." So today, I received an email asking me to join the drive to "stop shoot first in Michigan." After the Vice President's little accident, I find this somewhat ironic. Perhaps, "stop shoot first in Texas" would be more appropriate. Honestly, the VP's hunting accident doesn't tell me anything about his or his cronies' behavior that I didn't already know--reckless and secretive. But there are more important issues to focus on--war, torture, global warming, post-Katrina analysis, and elections that don't seem to go our way. So, I think I'll curl up and watch another rerun of West Wing. It's all that's left.

Friday, February 03, 2006

What if George W. Bush had been born black?


It's always interesting to me to imagine some absurd thing like what if the president was born black instead of white. If I had a large staff of researchers on a payroll, the first thing I'd do is get actuarial tables and make fruitful comparisions. I'd trace each significant factor in GWB's life and imagine how those factors would play out if he had been born black. More than likely, our black GWB would have ended up in Viet Nam--probably would have been injured and sent home with his pant leg pinned up. A not so bright black kid with an obvious langauge impediment most probably wouldn't have gotten into Yale--even with affirmative action. If he drank alot, like our own GWB, I'll bet no black Laura would have married him--let alone put up with him for so many years. One coke bust and a few DUI's and our man would probably have done a little jail time...instead of Yale time. In fact, that homeless guy on the corner, yeah, the one with one leg--with just a little twist of luck, he could have been president! What a country!

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Make Your Parents Proud


I ran across this on one of the many Detroit booster sites that I lurk around and it made me laugh out loud. I'm sure my parents never expected that I would live in Detroit when they moved me to Michigan in 1962--they selected Beverly Hills, a bucolic suburb with the blandness of vanilla pudding. As soon as I was old enough to talk my friends into driving me, we would skip school and venture into the city--to Belle Isle, the Detroit Public Library, the Lafayette Coney Island. We regularly attended the Fox Theater holiday Motown shows--in fact, we were often the only white girls there...utterly devoted to Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gaye, "Little" Stevie Wonder and the rest. One summer, we met the Supremes outside their trailer at the State Fair grounds and got autographs. They were so skinny and small under those huge bouffant hairdos.

That same year, we saw the Beatles at Olympia stadium--not once but twice. We hid in a suite for the time between the 2 p.m. show and the 6 p.m. The tickets looked the same! The Stones came next--but only 300 people were at that first show.

Each time we ventured into the city, we became more and more comfortable, convinced that all the fear other people expressed was just stupid. Now, having lived here over 10 years, I can honestly say we have had fewer brushes with crime than our country living counterparts. My friends who have been burglarized live in the country. Cars that have been broken into were parked in the suburbs. Yet, the fear remains.

This week I hope that SuperBowl XL makes our parents proud--this city has so much to offer--such a creative place with so much talent.

Monday, January 30, 2006

An Economics Lesson

This is just in from my friends at the Michigan Democratic Party. First these creeps steal the election, now they are lying about our governor.

"The DeVos for Governor Campaign and the MI GOP are trying to mislead people about the jobs numbers in Michigan. Why? Because the Bush economic and trade policies that DeVos supports have helped cause the economic problems in Michigan. DeVos himself, while head of Amway, laid off 1,400 Michigan employees and created tens of thousands of jobs in China.

The Republicans have put out three different numbers on Michigan jobs statistics in two days. What they haven't disclosed is the number of Michigan jobs lost due to their outsourcing policies, nor have they mentioned the number of jobs created or retained under Governor Granholm.

Here are the facts:
FACT 1: Republican trade and tax policies encouraging outsourcing devastate Michigan.
Since President Bush took office in 2001, Michigan has lost 203,287 jobs due to outsourcing.
Over: 1826 days
That's: 111 jobs per day
4.62 jobs an hour
1 job every 13 minutes
Source - http://www.techsunite.org/offshore/index.cfm

FACT 2: Republicans are arguing among themselves about the jobs numbers.
In the last couple of days they've put out numbers that don’t add up, and aren’t consistent.

FACT 3: More people are working today than when Governor Granholm took office in 2003
During the first three years of the Granholm Administration, total employment in Michigan increased by 99,000 (with employment increasing by 87,000 in 2005, alone)
Month Employment
2005 (Dec) 4,795,000 2003 (Jan) 4,696,000
Employment growth + 99,000
Source: Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Development http://www.michlmi.org/LMI/lmadata/laus/2005/misa78-05.htm

Fact 4: Governor Granholm has a plan to secure Michigan's Future. The contrasts are very clear. Last night Governor Granholm clearly showed that she has a plan for Michigan's economy and that it is beginning to work. Don't let the Republicans play politics with our jobs. They caused our economic problems and she's working to move Michigan forward."

She's been busy trying to overcome THREE terms of Republican Gov. Engler who all but destroyed the state. Sometimes I wish WE had a Karl Rove--

Thursday, January 26, 2006

SuperBowl Countdown


I'll be rooting for the Steelers in SuperBowl XL because Jerome Bettis is our hometown boy. Football is only interesting if you know someone who is playing--I found that out when my son began to play in 9th grade. Before that time, football looked like chaos to me--I could not distinguish between the offense and the defense, couldn't spot an offsides, or a holding on the offense. Now, I sometimes make the call before the officials do.

There are a lot of things in life that people dismiss as boring. On the other hand, I always wonder what is it that makes something interesting to someone else. If someone finds stamp collecting fascinating, I want to know why! How is it that people can watch golf on TV? Why would anyone do crossword puzzles? What are they seeing that I'm not?

I am reminded of a quotation that my favorite Humanities teacher put on the board one day: "A book is like a mirror; if an ass peers in, don't expect an angel to peer out." Perhaps this could be applied to a lot of things. If I'm bored by something, maybe I just don't know enough about it yet. On the other hand, maybe it's really just mind-numbingly boring.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Camille Claudel and Rodin


A little affirmative action back in Rodin's day might have kept his protege, Camille Claudel, out of the asylum where she spent the last 30 years of her life. Frustrated by her own creativity and "demons" (according to the narrative on the audio tour of the exhibition), she became paranoid and increasingly unable to function. Demons! What a quaint way to describe rampant and unrelenting sexism in 19th century French society.

Anyone who sees the current exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts cannot help but notice that her sculptures are as powerful and evocative as his. But Rodin was considered a genius and praised and courted by French society, while Camille worked behind the scenes mostly unnoticed. Women were not considered creative, nor artistic and certainly not capable of genius.

I'll bet that asylum was filled with some of the most intelligent, talented women French society had ever produced. We'll never know.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Scraping by on a $20 Lunch

What will it take to wake up the sleeping masses of sheep? Perhaps Trent Lott's comment yesterday will incite a few people to riot or even better--to vote the bums out of office. He was complaining about the possible lobbying restrictions in an interview and commented that a$20 limit was ridiculous--"Where ya gonna go? McDonalds?"

I wonder how many families have to live on $20 a day in groceries. The federal government budget for school lunches also comes to mind as a fruitful (pun intended) comparison--remember Ronald Regan's "ketchup as a vegetable" pronouncement?

Pat Robertson expressed sympathy for these poor members of congress who have to maintain two houses--no wonder they have to eat lunch with lobbyists!

I have a better solution! Put them all in Public Housing! Let them travel coach! Let them pay for their own health insurance, prescription drugs, lunches and vacations! They might start seeing the wisdom of rethinking an economic system that is totally market driven and look to any other progressive country for solutions to social problems.

There are too many hands in the pockets of the military/industrial/evangelical complex. This unholy alliance has a stranglehold on our country and has all but killed the American dream. We elect these people to make thoughtful, reflective, informed and critical decisions about what kind of country we will be. But they are for sale--and their decisions are tainted by corruption. What's it going to take to make us fight back?

Monday, January 16, 2006

In Praise of Rit Dye


I'm sure the housewives of the 1950's could tell a better tale than this, but I just have to share. It's messy, but I have spent the last few days dying old white and dingy grey towels and a few old throw rugs to use in our cabin up north. Rather than toss them or tear them into rags, I bought several boxes (and it now comes in bottles, too) of Rit dye and followed the directions. Ever the artist, I mixed a denim blue and forest green dye and threw in a dozen or so towels. A few hours later, the most lovely shade of dusty teal had replaced dingy. Positively energized and feeling self-righteous about the sheer thriftiness of such activity, I began to hunt for other things I could dye--Today two ugly tan throw rugs will succumb to the hot Rit bath and emerge newly teal. There should be some kind of metaphor here, but I'll leave that to the English teachers of the world.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Brown Sticks and Mud

This is the time of year I wonder how anyone can live here--it's cold, gray and there is only a dusting of dirty snow to cover the trash that has blown up against the fences and bushes. My daughter lives in the perpetual sunshine of L.A., near the ocean--but as she points out--since it is always there, you rarely decide to go swimming--you can always go another day.

I think this is how being young felt...there was always another day--another month--another year. The sense of urgency just wasn't there. We'll go to Greece one day--I'll get an MFA. We'll build our own house--visit Singapore, rent a small farm in Italy for the summer.

So, Detroit winters are a great time to get out the world atlas, the travel brochures, collect house plans from the Internet, read the seed catalogs. Forced indoors, we are also forced a bit inside ourselves. This isn't the worst thing that can happen--The worst thing is have no plans ready for when those brown sticks start to bud and that mud begins to sprout green.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Where the rain never falls, and the sun never shines...

I wonder how the mine owners and the industry insiders that Bush appointed to "oversee" mine safety sleep at night. What do you do if you suddenly realize that your whole career is built on a carefully constructed house of cards, one that has recently destroyed a dozen or so families? Accidents don't just happen--they are usually the result of cutting corners. It takes a lot of corner cutting to pay for all those golf outings, second homes, first-class tickets, and courtside seats.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Happy New Year

Things better get better or else I'm leaving!