View from the rubber room

Yesterday I received a post on facebook that was a picture of President Obama exiting Marine One, He was on the phone, and had his right arm to his temple in salute, to me he looked pretty involved in this conversation as he walks down the steps of the helicopter . Two Marines, in dress blues, stand on both sides of the stair way at attention and saluting. This picture is snapped, in maybe mere second, the viewers of the picture, really have no idea what happened before that second the picture was snapped or after. Mostly it is a nice photo well taken.

The caption imposed over the picture is “These men standing guard over you will put themselves in front of a bullet for you, put the damn phone down and return the salute.

Now several things ran through my mind when I read this caption. It did not have the effect on me the creator expected it to. Which is rather obvious, the person who created this wanted me to be offended that our President was disrespecting his guard.  Of course it was designed to inflame to create controversy and make the president look bad. That is not the effect it had on me at all. I could go on about how inaccurate it is that a commander returns a salute or even acknowledge the guard presence. Though like I said we have no idea what happened before or after this picture was taken .

But that is not what got me, what got me was the commenters, several different commenters thought it would be great if they stepped aside when the bullet came. It went on in graphic detail on how great it would be to see our president get shot.     The comments got pretty graphic and rude. My feelings for the person who sent me this diminished immediately. I wondered if they just saw the picture and gave it no thought of it being a second in time or maybe what the conversation the president was having or with whom he may be speaking to that held his attention so. I wondered if they read the accompanying comments of which I read about 50 from a few hundred and if they too felt how great it would be to see the President take a bullet in the head. I wondered if they knew how they had been manipulated into the false sense that Obama was disrespecting people who would die for him. I realized it was basically a marketing ploy, a ploy to use your emotions and already set opinions to belittle this man.  Because of one second in time. I could look at this whole thing and calmly come to these questions and conclusions. Until I read the comments of the masses who had something snarky or ugly to add to make sure that the president looked an small and ugly and dead as possible, I was yes angry and inflamed not by the stupid ploy but buy the stupid reaction.

Not because of the picture or of the stupid ploy but because of the horrible and threatening comments I deleted and reported this post, I at first just hid it from my time line,  but the more I got thinking about it. I knew I had to take a stand somewhere. That is when I deleted it and reported it. I posted that I get how we all have different feelings and are on one side or the other I might like some of the stuff you send, but if you send me stuff that it a lie rude, or racist, that I think less of you and may even eliminate contact with you.

I received several nice supportive comments to my post and a very special one from my daughter who is not a person who is interested in politics but said she loved me for my passion, that was the best compliment ever. 

Following is a reply comment I posted and then turned the comment into a post.

I wanted to pass my feeling on more, so I am sending them to you,

I love how our government works; it is brilliant, when it works. But for it to work, extremes on all sides need to be checked. We the People is the ultimate goal. All of us, all of our differences, our aspirations all of our LIBERTY, all of us United as ONE. ONE NATION, UNITED! How can we be united when we are all so different? Many of us care about the same things; there IS plenty we agree about. The important thing is that every single voice counts. No one person has worth or value more than another when it comes to the right to vote and that single vote mattering. Our government was designed with checks and balances and when they are administered effectively they work. When government is manipulated for political gamesmanship we all lose. I have seen more of that in the last four years than any time in my 53 years on earth. When the systems are gamed, the use of inflammatory rhetoric and outright lies, scare tactics, innuendo and racism are the norm we have sunk pretty low. And that is when we get back to one of my favorite words in our great nations title THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA", UNITED what a great word. What a great concept, WOW. We achieve that UNITED in this government by the ELECTION the election is when we get to vote on our ideas of the best way to manage these millions of us, with all of our different ideals and priorities. Holy crap what an undertaking, what an amazing undertaking this process is.. fascinating. Think about it all that goes into putting this kind of a thing together. But it won’t work if the extremes or if money is allowed to go unchecked and game our election process. As a democracy one side wins one side loses, but we all lose if there is no compromise on issues we disagree on. The vitriol and the hate and disrespect have gone too far. UNITED means, that above all, we except that we are all different, we have different ideals and visions, but we stand united that our citizens will have a voice in how as a whole we want to do things. To do that, we must use respect above all else. Our leaders WE elect MUST respect us and we need to treat them, even when we don't like them with respect. That does not mean we don't get to voice our opinions, it sure doesn't mean we don't get to poke fun (that is my favorite part) but we need to check the extremes on both sides.

Mushers Wife Blues

I MOVED TO THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

THEN I MARRIED A MUSHER OH WHAT HAVE I DONE.

THE OLD MANS LEAD DOG EATS BETTER THAN ME

AFTER BUYING THE DOG FOOD THERE’S NO MONEY YOU SEE

I MARRIED MY HUSBAND FOR BETTER OR WORSE

BUT WORSE MUST BE COMING OR WHY WRITE THIS VERSE

THREE HOURS FOR FEEDING, FOUR HOURS TO RUN

HE’S ALWAYS SO TIRED THERE’S NO TIME FOR FUN

IN THE SUMMER WE FISH FROM MORNING TILL NIGHT

BY THE TIME WERE DONE SLIMING I’M JUST RIGHT FOR A FIGHT

HIS IDEA OF ROMANCE IS BREEDING HIS DOGS

HE KEEPS GRAPHS AND CHARTS AND GENEOLOGY LOGS

HIS CLOTHES SMELL LIKE DEAD FISH HIS BOOTS ROTTEN MEAT

AND THE SMELL ALWAYS LINGERS WHEN HE LEAVES A SEAT

SNAPS, HOOKS, AND HARNESS, COLLARS AND BOOTIES

AND ENDLESS DAYS OF DOGGIE POO DUTIES

JUST HAD TO HAVE THIS BRAND NEW SPRINT SLED

BUT I CAN’T DRIVE THE PICKUP THE BATTERY’S DEAD

THEY ARE A WHOLE PACKAGE THE SLED DOGS AND HIM

SO IF I WANTED A CHANGE THE CHANCES ARE SLIM

I SAID I CAN’T TAKE IT AND I GOTTA GO

HE SAID THAT’S TOO BAD BABE, CUZ WE'LL MISS YA SO

What Mom Says, Listen up folks!

Written by : @catyzmom Ellie Turgeon. (therubberroomhotelsmom)

To the voters of America

When people like romney say “let Detroit go bankrupt” or when they fight against bailing out auto industry, they don’t have a clue what they are saying. They don’t know the scope of the disaster of letting American Auto Industry die. The auto industry is not just production lines that turn out cars.

Start off with the buildings themselves, someone had to build them.

Take a good look at your car or truck, inside and out. Take it apart:

The people who provide the steel, the tires, the chrome trim, the door locks

The interior: the leather, fabric, vinyl for seats, dash, carpet for floors and trunk interior, the clock and radio in dashboard, the springs in seat, the buttons that make the windows open & close, all these things are supplied BY OUTSIDE  COMPANIES.

The designers and engineers who actually make the plans for new models.

The tool and die shops that make the machinery and tools, fixtures that make it possible to run a production line.

There are thousands of components that go into making cars.

Also, look around the neighborhood near factories; see across the street the restaurant where workers go for lunch? See the bar down the street where some go for a beer with their buddies after their shift? See the little grocery store or &7/11 where they stop to pick up milk and bread on the way home? All these businesses depend on a healthy auto industry to stay in business.

People who have JOBS spend MONEY, they buy cars, homes televisions, groceries.

People who don’t have JOBS don’t have money to spend on anything other than whatever it takes to live day-to-day.

Think about all these things when you go to vote this year, think about who it is that CARES whether or not you can survive without a job.

Michiganians, think about all these things when you vote in primary. Dems get your butts out there and make your voices heard. WE NEED TO ROAR!