Family Politics.

I am from a military family.  My father was in the Navy and became a Police Officer after that.  My husband was active duty in the Navy for nine years and stayed in the Reserve long enough to earn full retirement benefits which have benefited us, now in our later years, very greatly.  He was called up for a Special Operation in the Persian Gulf about twenty years ago.  Two years after that there was a mention of "The Secret War" in Time magazine in about a three inch square block with a picture of his duty station showing all his comrades and probably him standing on the deck, but it was too small to tell.  But it is not like he served KP all those years. I am extremely prejudiced and very supportive of our Military as a whole.  I get upset about the subcontracting and other things that I feel are negatives in the practical operations of the system, but the Star Spangled Banner at the fireworks show on the Navy Base and the Jeff Daniels video (which I will try to link to) cause tears to run down my face and a catch to form in my throat.

I have surrendered a friendship of many years standing over politics.  I feel so helpless sometimes.  I try to speak out, but I have so many fears.  My two brothers are at polar opposite ends of the political spectrum, and I am currently in the process of switching one of my psychoactive  drugs, so I am a mess.  There are so many people I do not want to alienate because I love them.  But I am so physically sick and tired of everyone standing around and doing nothing, saying nothing.  Why does this process have  to be so full of fear and hurt for me?  Please don't say "Take a chill pill, honey" as that seems to be what too many people are doing.

I am a bear about voting.  Ask my grandchildren.  If I can get them in that booth I feel pretty much the same way I did at Fran's college graduation.  They say vote fraud has a huge impact, and I would like to think I make a difference but when you know the guy across the street or your cousin or your friend or your brother are cancelling out your vote, it seems so futile. I try to mend my own fences, because I have heard things would be better if everyone did that.  But now it seems that the whole has crumbled.  Stoning in Dearborn, Michigan, the whole country of Holland (some are still trying to uphold their ideals and some are being killed in the streets over it) , another city in Texas (of ALL places) the name of which escapes me--write offs. (Ted Nugent, get on with it.) And we sit and do nothing.

I have always wondered about the mentality of the suicide bomber.

I need to get back on my Xanax fast.

Hey, did you know that George Soros funds Snopes?

This is the link to the Jeff Daniels video:  (I can't click through.  If you cannot, pasting will take you there.  And you should go there.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3nvATF-U8&feature=player_detailpage