A DEMOCRATIC PLAN IDEA FOR IRAQ

It appears that President Bush actually called 60 Minutes for an interview. In the interview he presented a challenge to the Democrats thinking of opposing his “troop surge” plan. He said that if they cut off funding for the surge, they better be prepared to tell the American public THEIR plan for Iraq.

He has a point. The Democrats, as of now, only plan to oppose HIS plan; they have NO plan of their own.

This is to say that pulling our troops out and letting the Iraqis conclude their de-facto CIVIL WAR is not an acceptable plan or is it. Bush says that just pulling out would allow our enemies to control Iraq and that would endanger the U.S. down the road.

What he is actually talking about is IRAN and there are indications that Iran is supporting the Shia majority in Iraq with weapons, etc. A nuclear Iran / Iraq partnership under the current Iranian leadership, would pose a much greater danger to the U.S. than poor ole’ Saddam ever did.

Condoleezza Rice is frantically traveling in the Middle East trying to drum up support for Bush’s plan by waving the possibility of a U.S. pull out with the inevitable rise of Iran as the big bully in the Middle East; something the Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia, et. al. are deathly scared of. Rice is saying – help us contain Iran or suffer the consequences!

Rice is also now trying to help the Israelis and Palestinians reach some type of accord; something Bush never gave a shit about before BUT NOW when he is desperate, he is saying, see - if you help us we will help the Palestinians – finally! I guess he is begging!

In the interview on 60 Minutes, I sensed that Bush knows he fucked up but believes his intentions were good and in the best interest of the country. He is desperate to find a clean solution to this nightmare but is willing to prolong the suffering until his presidency is over and THEN it becomes the problem of the next guy.

I did not sense that he believed a victory was possible AT ALL. He now sees that the Iraqi/Shia government is just waiting for the Americans to leave so they can finish the job and consolidate power under a THEOCRACY like that in Iran. That fat little cleric SADR is licking his chops already at the prospect of total power!

So what can the Democrats do? Senator Levin already voiced his concern about shutting Bush down and Levin is a big cheese in the Senate. Without a plan to hang their hats on they would appear just silly obstructionists and worse, allowing the remaining troops to be cannon fodder; not a good political position for retaking the presidency in 2008.

I say force the idiot to adopt the recommendations of the “Iraq Study Group”; instead of just shooting people, look for a political solution. Talk to the surrounding countries; see what they have to say. Explore a division along religious and ethnic lines: Kurd, Shia and Sunni. Allow them self determination in their respective regions but join them into a “weak” confederation that would JUST be there to distribute oil revenues – equally based on a per capita basis.

And here is the biggie; the U.S. would have to guarantee, militarily, that this loose confederation will be left alone by all other countries. This would entail leaving a small military force inside Iraq for a long time like we have in Germany, Japan and Korea – but the shooting will stop.

This plan may entail the disarming of the SHIA militias as well as the smaller Sunni militias – hey, it’s the price of peace – anyone have a better plan?

MAKE UNIONS FOLLOW THE LAW

I hate to get started on unionism because it gets my blood pressure up so high but I must. Detroit or shall I say the State of Michigan is union country. My family and friends are union people and I admit that unions were good for us ONCE but that was a long time ago.

Union membership has plummeted dramatically and most union leaders see the writing on the wall but they are not disappearing without a last stand.

Democrats are in power and union leaders are saying they put them in power. Reality says the Iraq war put the Democrats in power. Union leaders say the Democrats owe them and the Democrats will probably agree.

The unions want the Democrats to pass labor legislation to allow unions to organize companies by just collecting signatures, not votes. The unions have been stymied in the past when workers voted NOT to unionize. By not allowing the decision to unionize to be voted on, they can unionize a company on the sly.

Don’t understand? Unions can always get workers to sign a card to unionize, they just twist their arms, threaten their families, burn their cars, kill their dogs; need I go on. Those things don’t happen any more? Oh contraire, the unions have not changed a lick and they, after all, are fighting for their very lives.

James P Hoffa (Teamster) is leading the charge to ban voting or as they call it, allow unionization through signature collection “Employees Free Choice Act”; what a bunch of horseshit.

Write your Congressman, especially if he or she is a Democrat.

HEALTHCARE PLAN IS ROLLING

Long ago I voiced my recommendations to help fix the health system in this country. My words fell on deaf ears until Mitt Romney in Massachusetts called for UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE.

He did not mean SOCIALIZED MEDICINE as in Europe and Canada; those systems I have explained countless times are failing and should not be embraced here.

No he specifically called for MANDATORY HEALTH COVERAGE; you must have health insurance just like you must have auto insurance.

No Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California has called for the same proposal to be enacted in his state. I am starting to like that guy and his views, too bad he cannot run for president.

Briefly, the plan would allow many competing health insurance policies with a variety of options at various prices from the lowest priced to the deluxe, something for every wallet.

Medicaid would still be available for the poor and Medicare for the elderly. The state would also subsidize those who are “working poor” with kids who need help.

In my thinking, eliminating the uninsured would eliminate the high cost of treating them (legally you have to treat them) when they use the emergency room (highest cost of treatment) for every little ill.

In this way, preventive medicine could actually be practiced on the currently uninsured and the insured would not have to be burdened with ever increasing insurance premiums in an effort to pay for the uninsured.

The Terminator does it again.

ADIOS SENATOR McCAIN!

Senator John McCain has lost my support for the presidency in 2008. He won my support when he stood up to President Bush in the last campaign. He stood up to the religious right; he was a man for all seasons and for all parties. Democrats wanted to run him for vice president; imagine a Republican running for vice president on the Democratic ticket? He was THAT attractive.

What happened? Well for one, he started kissing Jerry Falwell’s ass (Religious Right) something you thought he would never do, I mean make friends but don’t bend over?

And recently, he came out strong in support of President Bush and his new “surge” plan for Iraq.

To me, supporting Bush’s new plan is abandoning all reason and forgetting everything that has transpired in Iraq to date. One would have to be allowing politics to come before the welfare of this country and that, a true American, should NEVER do.

You may argue that McCain believes leaving Iraq is unacceptable and he has voiced that opinion and so he should propose his own plan on ending this quagmire but to simply agree with Bush’s totally preposterous rationale indicates, to me at least, that McCain does not have the smarts to lead this country.

Adios Amigo!

BUSH'S FLAWED LOGIC

What has the water cooler crowd in your office been saying about last night’s address by President Bush and his new way forward in Iraq?

My crowd was down. We had a few staunch Bush supporters before but now, to the man / woman, all are against him and want the madness to end. Some are calling him an alien sent from Mars to disrupt the world as we know it.

It was painful to watch him. ABC News showed, before his speech, clips of his pronouncements in the past; all now proven to be false or outright lies. I think Bush himself felt that his words are now empty, without meaning because he has lost all credibility with the American people.

He set no time table but his military advisor suggested two (2) years; all Bush has left in his presidential term.

I did detect a warning in his speech. He warned Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf States that they face extreme danger if they do not support his plan. The countries mentioned are Sunni and if the U.S. pulls out, Shiite Iran will take over and make Iraq into a Shiite partner country; a formidable front against the Sunni nations.

Sunni nations like Saudi Arabia have admittedly been supporting the Sunni militias in Iraq. Bush’s warning is to cease and desist. Once that happens then the Iraqi army will be able to neutralize the Shiite militias and peace will reign over the country or at least Baghdad.

With the violence stopped, the Iraqi government can now get on with rebuilding the country into a democratic showcase.

This logic assumes that the Iraq government and army are Iraqi first and Sunni or Shiite second. Well, that is impossible and will never be possible; therefore the logic behind his plan is flawed and unrealistic.

Maliki, his government and his army and police are Shiite – no Sunnis need apply. They will work with the Americans to wipe out all the Sunnis. Once done, the Shiite clerics will solidify their power (theocracy) and then turn on the Kurds. Once the oil is safely in their hands, they will declare with Iran a new Persian Empire, now with atomic weapons.

I think the Sunni nations mentioned above, know this and they will continue to supply Iraq’s Sunnis with weapons and anything else they need to keep the Shiites from taking over the country so the violence will continue no matter what we do.

My wife asked can we just leave. What would happen? The country would revert back to what it was before Winston Churchill drew a pencil line on the map and called it Iraq; into Kurd, Shiite and Sunni areas.

THE CHURCH IN POLAND - Communist spies!

Things are happening in Poland that are of great interest to me and in my view, may change the way the Catholic Church is treated and perceived in that oh, so Catholic country.

I am of Polish heritage, do business in Poland and have visited the country on many occasions. I also am a religious history nut as you know, especially Christianity, Catholicism and their roles today.

Poland has always been VERY Catholic. The people were/ are totally brainwashed and manipulated by the Church in Poland. The Church IS part of the government even though not elected and holds enormous influence in all sectors of Polish life and always has.

Priests in Poland are like royalty, their hands kissed by old ladies, every wish met and boy do the live the high life; the best of everything paid for by the citizens of Poland, some who can not afford to give but MUST.

The first modern non-Italian Pope was a Pole. He was also credited with destroying Communism in Poland as well as contributing to its demise in general.

Under the many years of communist dictatorship in Poland, the Catholic Church stood firm in opposition to the godless bastards. Cardinal Wyszynski spent many years under arrest just because he would not give in to the communist government demands; he was a saint in the eyes of Poles.

Recently Cardinal Glemp, the primate of Poland for 25 years decided to retire. He appointed Archbishop Wielgus to take his place. Just before he was to be installed as the primate of Poland a newspaper accused him of serving as a spy for the Polish Communist Secret Police during the 1970s.

He denied it – they produced documents with his signatures – he confessed but said he did not inform on anyone, he just did it to get permission to study abroad.

The papers screamed LIAR and HYPOCRIT and ordinary Poles started getting up in church and saying GO TO HELL.

The Church organization started spinning the matter and said the MEDIA is making this all up and also forging papers (but he confessed). Glemp said to ‘forget about it’ – it means nothing.

The Vatican panicked and told Wielgus to resign / step down; someone else has to take his place. The Church called out all the brainwashed peasants telling them Media is “trying to destroy your Church”. The peasants went to the media capital, Warsaw and started rioting, beating up all who opposed them or the Church. The Archbishop resigned.

Let me throw in another related issue. Another Bishop named “Janusz” of all things, just resigned also. Documents were found that also implicated him cooperating with the secret police. He informed on people buying masses (prayers) to free Poland from the communist oppression. I wonder what the secret police did with those holy Poles praying for freedom. The Bishop obviously did not care he got what he wanted; whatever that was.

To understand the emotions this issue is bringing out in Poland you have to empathize a little. Here you are being oppressed by the communists and the only Polish institution standing up to them is the Church. Going to church is YOUR ONLY way to protest the occupation.

You go to confession because that what a good Catholic is suppose to do and you confess your sins or maybe even crimes against the state, to a holy man, a confidant that is on your side, the side of God who will eventually defeat the communists. Now you find out he may have gone to the secret police to tell them about your crimes or anything else you may have said against the state –wow – what a revelation. Do you see why Poles are PISSED?

My mother, who is very Catholic, is also pissed. She always considered priests as MEN who behaved like MEN. She continues to pray to the Virgin Mary because she can “trust her” to help her; priests and the Church cannot be counted on – they are after all, human creations.

I have been talking to my friends in Poland and they admit that this is BIG and may change how the Church operates in Poland. The Church is strong and has the brainless droids it controls. This should be quite exiting – more as the story develops.

WHAT IF DADDY BUSH DEPOSED SADDAM?

In the midst of the Iraq war debate, I was asked if George Bush Sr. could have prevented the current debacle by going after Saddam when he had the chance.

As you remember, we had a pretty easy time in Desert Storm and basically dispatched the Iraqi army within the first hundred hours of engagement. They never really put up a defense and either gave up or ran. Our air force caught the remnants jammed on the highway to Baghdad and basically annihilated them; burned out shells of tanks and trucks littered the road.

Many people here said, you got them, now finish the job by going to Baghdad and overthrowing Saddam and his cohorts. Bush Senior declined and called our troops back. Was this a good decision?

Allowing our troops to go after Saddam meant we were invading Iraq and not merely throwing them out of Kuwait. Our Arab coalition partners would have objected and so would have the United Nations; they authorized only freeing Kuwait of Iraqi invaders.

Bush did signal to the Shiites and Kurds in Iraq that this is their chance to overthrow Saddam and when they tried, Saddam crushed them and Bush did nothing to help them; they assumed he would.

Bush was scared that if he had deposed Saddam, neighboring nations like Iran, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia would move into the void and partition Iraq and therefore destabilize the region. Bush thought it would be better to allow Saddam to at least keep Iraq in one piece and stable, even though hundreds of Kurds were gassed and hundreds of Southern Shiites were executed to keep Iraq stable and under his boot.

If Bush Sr. did depose Saddam after Desert Storm the country would have broken up into Kurd, Shiite and Sunni regions and a civil war would have ensued mainly for control of the oil revenues and we now know how the rest of the story would have developed; we are seeing it develop right now.

So Bush Sr. probably made the right decision at that time and he did, belatedly, try to help the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south by establishing two (2) “no fly zones”; a little late but at least it was something.

If Bush Junior did not invade Iraq but contained and pressured Saddam while concentrating on wiping out Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and trying to make that country a self reliant democratic nation – well that would be a different story, one that could possible have seen a victory for all concerned but obviously, that is not how it happened.

STOP THE BASTARD!

President Bush will be revealing his new plan for Iraq this Wednesday.

We know what it will be as I mentioned before; more troops, more money, until they become perfect, peaceful democrats.

Anyway, the talk now is; how do we stop him. How do we get out? We cannot have another two (2) years of this stupidity.

Some Democrats are conceding that not much can be done in Congress because, after all Congress authorized the invasion of Iraq.

But Congress authorized the invasion based on faulty information; remember weapons of mass destruction? If Congress was duped into approving the invasion, can’t they go back and declare the vote null and void because Bush lied? I think this is possible.

They can also deny Bush money to fund the war. They can only do that if they repeal their invasion vote.

The last possible move is to impeach President Bush for violating our Constitution. It would be tough but hey, it can be done. This Sunday is the first time I have heard calls for impeachment in the main media.

If Clinton can be impeached for getting a blow-job and lying about it how about a president that did not get a blow-job but lied his ass off to Congress and the country and then killed 3,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis AND violated our civil rights. I bet we can find all sorts of things he violated.

I say STOP THE BASTARD before he does any more harm.

PRODUCT OF A VICIOUS CYCLE!

A recent murder in Detroit got me thinking.

Chris Chelios, a hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings, had two restaurants, one in Detroit next to the Comerica Ball Park.

A few days ago, a young (17), former bus boy at the restaurant that was fired for bad performance of duties, came to ask for his job back; he was black. The white kitchen manager said no so the kid stabbed him with a butcher knife 10 times. A white female manager heard the commotion and came to investigate and she was stabbed 10 times.

I don’t think race had anything to do with the crime but I mention it because I think it does have something to do with the whole affair.

The kid ran but was recognized and was picked up by the police a short time later – he confessed.

Our female, black police chief said something that struck me. She said that our kids (black kids in Detroit) are not taught peaceful conflict resolution. They are not taught how to interact with society. They are not taught basic rules of behavior.

The only family member that could be found was a grandfather. We will see if a caring father even exists or for that matter, a mother. The 17 year old kid said his girlfriend was pregnant and he needed a job. She too worked at Chelios but was fired for not doing her job.

Bill Cosby has been in Detroit numerous times lecturing on responsibility in the black community; a responsibility to raise responsible children that would create responsible families, etc.

I think a vicious cycle exists and the cycle is hard to break and unless we break it, these types of senseless crimes will just continue. Please give a thought to the two victims who were 52 and 49, at a time in their lives where they have achieved some success and were now just enjoying life –gone.

The cycle starts with this kid. He is 17 and has a pregnant girlfriend. He will go to jail for life and she will give birth and raise another black kid that will have basically no parents and therefore no guidance – and the cycle will repeat again when that kid goes to jail after getting his 14 year-old girlfriend pregnant and so on and so on.

Stop the pregnancies! Easier said than done; this is a democracy and people have civil rights BUT children? Well, define the age of consent! Plus getting pregnant in the black community is the normal thing to do. It is so accepted that there is no stigma for getting pregnant out of wedlock – also true for the white community.

Teach them responsibility in school? - Sex education? I don’t think so; teachers have trouble enough just keeping order in the classroom.

Is there a realistic way to break the cycle? Realistic means obeying the law so we cannot force specific behavior.

The answer starts with blacks being able to and forming family units, units that nurture a culture
of normalcy with rules and regulations of behavior that can be passed on and on. I am not saying the problem does not exist in the white community but we are talking about Detroit specifically.

I don’t have an answer but I will let you know when and if, I do.

THE AMERICAN VOTER SAID GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ!

President Bush realizes that the American voter is sick of the war in Iraq and wants him to do something about it. Next week he will tell us his new plan.

He has been leaking information about the new plan just to gauge what will fly with the voter and the new Democratic controlled Congress.

His plan is to make the Maliki Government work. To do this he will send more troops to Baghdad to stop sectarian (Shiite vs. Sunni) violence. He then will give the Maliki government billions of dollars to create a job for every Iraqi and put a lamb in every Iraqi pot. This will make them happy and they will quit killing each other and live happily ever after in a democratic nirvana.

In his “New Way Forward” plan he will win the war in Iraq and be crowned king of the world. He has also replaced his entire military command in Iraq since the current commanders think his plans were worth shit all along.

I don’t think his plan will work and I will tell you why.

We are not at war. We invaded Iraq to get rid of Saddam so we could then make them into a democratic nation. We were too stupid to realize we were only opening a can of worms.

So we cannot win a war that does not exist. There is a civil war going on and only one side can win that we are not one of the sides; only Shiites and Sunnis are and they will continue to fight until one side wins.

Bush feels that if he can stabilize the current Iraqi government (Maliki) then the whole country will stabilize.

The Maliki government is Shiite. Government Shiite troops have been involved in killing Sunnis. Maliki himself is known to have been involved in killing Sunnis. He may say he is for all Iraqis but he would be lying.

The clerics run the country and they will always run the country so a democracy is impossible – period. These clerics have huge militias. The Shiites are supported by Iran and the Sunnis are supported by Saudi Arabia. The government military is worthless and most of them belong to militias anyway so you know where their loyalty lies.

The Shiite majority will take all our money and still kill Sunnis until none are left.

The democrats say bring the troops home and just leave some to train the Iraqi army. Well, that’s better than the Bush plan because it will allow the Iraqi civil war to reach an end. The outcome is not in doubt and it will not result in a peaceful Iraqi democracy – never! BUT it would stop our soldiers from dying every day for a hopeless cause.

My original plan to divide the country into Shiite, Sunni and Kurd with a weak central government to distribute oil revenues equally (based on population) was rejected by Bush. Too bad, it would have worked.

The voters have spoken – GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ! I just hope the democrats have enough balls to do what we asked them to do, even if they have to impeach Bush as a danger to our democracy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR?

The start of a New Year has always been celebrated, even in ancient times. People look to the new year with anticipation and promise; a new chance! Let’s make this year the best ever!!!

Some of us look forward with trepidation. Is this year the year we lose our parents? We are also getting older so will my body hold up? Will my brain serve me well?

We celebrate at a hall with family and friends, dance, drink, eat and wish everyone the best possible New Year at the stroke of midnight; everyone is happy but also drunk.

The next day serious thoughts and plans start entering your brain; you can’t keep them out.

During the New Year Celebration the number of dead American soldiers in Iraq crept over 3,000. President Bush has promised a new Iraq strategy but experts say it will be the same ole’ “stay the course” nightmare and more and more American soldiers will die. Bush has two more years left; can the Democrats do something to stop the madness?

President Ford died while we celebrated the holidays. He was called a good and decent man that was needed after Watergate and Vietnam to unify us and bind up the nation’s wounds. We need such a man right now. Watergate was bullshit compared to what is happening now! Is there such a man or woman waiting in the wings to step forward?

Listening to all the eulogies at President Ford’s funeral I was mad at myself for not knowing how much Ford actually did for the nation. Saturday Night Live made fun of him and the perception of a klutz stuck with many including me. He did make that very stupid statement during his debate with Carter about Eastern Europe being NOT under Communist influence; it hurt him.

His pardon of President Nixon was justified and timely. The nation did not want this to drag out. Watergate became a media game and was never a serious, evil crime anyway.

We need to be optimistic. We have to be optimistic for the alternative is unacceptable. Personally, I CAN control myself and my surroundings. We can also influence or at least try to influence what goes on in our city and our country and in so doing, help influence what goes on in the world.

We have to believe that each of us can make a difference, even if miniscule.

Yup, I’ll perk up and face the New Year with joy and optimism; after all, my favorite quote is from Dylan Thomas:

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light”.

APOCALYPTO - MUST SEE MOVIE!

During this holiday movie season I saw Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO and all I have to say is wow!

Mel Gibson may be, no IS an ass, but boy can he make a movie.

I will warn the faint of heart that this is one hell of a bloody, violent movie but I think, it is true to history and offers a realistic view of Mayan civilization as it was at one point on the Yucatan Peninsula. The fact that I have studied this civilization and have actually visited Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula made the movie that much more thrilling for me.

People that see the movie will come away with varied impressions. The main story is of one man, his tribe and his horrific adventure. I am not sure what Mel was trying to say if anything but I got some messages from it.

It tells of families and friends, peace and joy and also of man’s inhumanity to man, death and suffering.

The Mayans were extremely advanced in astronomy, building, writing, math, etc. but their religion was violent and oh so bloody. When things went bad like drought or sickness, the priests called for sacrifice to the gods. They would capture warriors of small tribes and subject them to a sacrificial ritual where their beating hearts are cut out of their bodies and offered up to the gods in the hope that this would appease the gods and restore tranquility.

Sacrificing to the gods is actually a common ritual among human societies throughout our history even up to the present. We may not be as violent in our sacrificial rituals where prayers are offered instead of bleeding hearts but our recent history is filled with acts of violence in the name of god(s) so really, things may not be as different as we want to believe.

The Mayans sacrificed out of ignorance. They did not know why a drought occurred or why people contracted disease, the priests assumed the gods were punishing them for some transgression and they wanted to appease those gods. The Jews followed a similar belief, blaming themselves for their awful plight including the Holocaust, some still hold to that belief.

Religious and political leaders use the people’s ignorance and superstition to their own advantage – to this day.

At the end of the movie, the main character and his family see strange looking ships and people landing on their shores. This was the Spanish invasion and on the landing craft you saw monks holding large crosses. The man’s wife asks if they should go to these people and greet them and he replies, no let us go back into the jungle and start a new beginning.

History tells us that the Spaniards brought small pox that decimated the remaining Mayan population and they did not come to win new souls for Christ, they really came for gold and they would kill for it.

I mentioned that the Mayan civilization was very advanced and left many objects for us to study but alas we will NEVER be able to know their meaning because we cannot translate their images.

You see the holy Spanish Christian/ Catholic monks considered the books that would have enabled us to translate the Mayan symbols as products of paganism that would insult the Catholic God and so they BURNED every one of the thousands of books of an entire civilization.

You see those monks were also acting in ignorance and I feel religions to this day, base their operations on people’s ignorance and superstition a subject I will be addressing more fully in the coming year.

So did Mel, the devout Catholic have an anti-religion message in his book? I don’t know. He may have just made a good movie with a compelling story. I will keep my eyes open for other reviewers of this movie to see what they speculate.

A MUST see movie ! ! !

AND SO SADDAM IS DEAD!

And so Saddam Hussein is dead. How come I don’t feel any joy? It appears many of us in the U.S. don’t see how his death will have any affect on the miserable situation we and Iraq are in.

Bush made such a big deal about Saddam and why we have to invade Iraq but we now know it was all about Bush; Saddam just provided a convenient excuse that Americans bought hook, line and sinker.

Saddam was evil and ruthless and deserved execution for his crimes against his own people but 3,000 American soldiers did not need to die to bring Saddam to justice, his own people would have eventually seen to that.

Former President Ford, in interviews that could only be released upon his death, told President Bush not to go freeing oppressed people around the world unless there is a direct threat to our national security. We now know that Saddam was never a threat to our national security.

Maybe President Ford should have voiced his opinions while still alive, maybe his words would have done some good but alas, Gerald Ford was too nice of a guy.

TYPICAL POLITICIAN FROM DETROIT

Saturday, December 30, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “Conyers to monitor staff”, Dec. 30.

I found your headline “Conyers to monitor staff” amusing since it is his staff that turned him in for ethical misconduct. Shouldn’t your headline read: staff to monitor Conyers?

THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE?

Saturday, December 30, 2006

To: The Detroit Free Press
Re: “U.S. panel rejects a delay for Prop 2”, Dec. 30.

George Washington, an attorney for the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary had the nerve to call a federal appeals court’s ruling against delaying the implementation of Proposal 2 an “arrogant opinion”. To me, the height of arrogance is in trying to block and undermine the expressed will of the people of Michigan.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

To: The Detroit News
Re: “Military weighs adding more noncitizen soldiers”, Dec. 28.

Upon reading “Military weighs adding more noncitizen soldiers”, Dec. 28, I was reminded that a big factor in the downfall of the Roman Empire was reliance on armies populated primarily by non Romans.

THE POPE AND HIS CHURCH IRRELEVANT!

Can’t let ole’ Benedict XVI off the hook this Christmas season; he and the Vatican need a slap on the head.

An Italian named Pier Giorgio Welby (60) lay dying of muscular dystrophy. He asked his doctor to unplug his respirator because he has had enough. His doctor did and the Pope immediately denied him a religious burial ceremony.

When the Pope delivered his annual Christmas message “Urbi et Orbi” some in the audience held up signs saying “Church, shame on you” and I second that sentiment.

My mother who is a loyal and devout Catholic said what is wrong with them. She expressly put in her will a proviso that I would have the power to pull the plug on her if I felt it necessary. She does not want to vegetate – she said that is not living.

Mr. Welby’s case maybe a little different; yes, he was dying and muscular dystrophy made his body useless but his mind was sound and he made a decision of sound mind to no longer live his life in his body. The Pope has always said that only God can end life and obviously the Pope speaks for God and so Mr. Welby committed a sin by going against Church teaching and he needs to be denied a Church burial so he can go straight to Hell – lovely.

The Pope said “What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life”. He is a smart man, a theologian and philosopher and he can’t see why a person would want to give up their life of suffering and go out as a real person and not a vegetable? I guess the Pope, of sound body and mind, cannot stoop to empathize with a suffering, dying human being.

The Catholic Church is painting itself into a corner. Most practicing U.S. Catholics do not follow Church doctrine; they consider it devoid of common sense. The Pope and his Church are in danger of becoming irrelevant.

MUSLIMS IN CONGRESS! RUN!!!

A note about the Muslim congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, about whom I have written before; he’s the one that wants to use the Quran instead of the Bible in his swearing –in ceremony:

Remember that Ellison is actually a black from Detroit that converted to Islam while attending college so we are not talking about Osama here or even an immigrant.

Representative Virgil Goode of Virginia (R) sent out a letter to his constituents telling them to wake up to the Muslim invasion of Congress (Ellison was the first and only one in our history).

If we don’t stop Muslims from immigrating here we will have many more in Congress which would endanger the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.

Keith Ellison was legally elected by voters in his Minnesota district, the majority of who were not Muslims.

Virgil Goode is a good example of a mindless reactionary that is a member of our Congress. It is hard to judge if he is using xenophobic scare tactics for his own political benefit or if he really believes in what he is saying.

Number one, we freely vote for our representatives. Is he saying that Muslims will trick us into voting for them? Or that people in Dearborn, Michigan (largest Middle Eastern population in the U.S.) cannot elect some one like them to represent them?

Here in Detroit, the Polish community in the past has always voted for one of their own – had to have a “ski” at the end of their surname; same for the Irish, Italians, and etc. but that was some time ago, we don’t really have specific European communities like we used to.

But new immigrants do appear to congregate in communities by ethnicity and/or religion. They are doing what Poles, Germans, Irish and etc. did hundreds of years ago.

Is that the problem with Virgil Goode; he is scared Europeans/Christians are being diluted into minority status by them thar’ non-Christian feriners? – Probably so.

Mr. Goode would rather things didn’t change; we were a nation of immigrants and our immigrant forefathers build this country and their kin (us) helped make it the greatest country in the world.

But we cannot be a nation of immigrants anymore? We must stop the influx on non-Europeans?

I will be the first to admit that we as a nation we have immigration problems – big time – and something has to be done about illegal immigration first and tightening up and policing legal immigration second but we cannot just close the door!

Immigrants are what made this country great and new immigrants will make it greater.

I can kind of understand where Representative Goode is coming from and I feel that religion plays a big factor in his anger but I personally fear fundamentalist Christians like Bush and his hordes a lot more than I do Muslims, Buddhists or any other religious groups.

Keith Ellison the Muslim from Minnesota has sworn to defend our Constitution above all else and I believe he will. The Bush Administration, on the other hand, has abused our Constitution and the rights it grants us. If Bush won’t defend our Constitution, maybe a Muslim from Minnesota will.

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!

“I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams”. The words of one of my favorite carols always bring a tear to my eye. I feel very sad for people that cannot be home for Christmas.

I remember a time when I could not be home for Christmas. I was in the Air Force in the 60s. I don’t remember why but I was not granted leave and even though I celebrated with my buddies that were stuck along with me, far away from home, my thoughts were always of home and my family.

Since we celebrate a very traditional Polish Wigilia in my family, you can actually visualize the gathering and smell and taste the traditional foods.

My heart goes out to especially the soldiers far away from home. I know that we have a volunteer military and it is their chosen profession unlike the draftees in our previous wars, but still they are at the mercy of a lunatic president that thinks nothing about placing them in harm’s way, far, far away from home on Christmas for reasons only he apparently knows.

In a quiet moment this holiday week, I will raise a glass of the best vodka and drink a toast to those who cannot be home for Christmas.

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE #1

Here it is, Christmas 2006. How do I feel? Well, I feel many different ways.

It’s raining so no white Christmas but I don’t really care. The family is here and all will attend our traditional Polish Wigilia celebration which is a Christmas Eve gathering we have been doing like forever – I really care about that.

Part of the tradition is a ceremony called OPLATEK. Everyone takes a piece of special wafer (oplatek) and exchanges pieces of this wafer with everyone in the family. During the exchange you wish each other a great new year. Traditionally at this ceremony, all hard feelings are put to rest between family members; start fresh and happy, all is forgiven. Anyway, that is the way it is suppose to happen.

We have a lot of children in the family and keep adding new ones each year; we celebrate that and rejoice at the growing of the family. This year my first grandson BEN will be celebrating his first Christmas.

We also have the elders. My father-in-law is 86 and my mother is 84 – wow, how many Christmases have they celebrated and how many more will they celebrate. That does enter my thoughts more and more these days. In my usual speech before dinner I mention the family members that have departed and my mother says a prayer in Polish for them, for us and in thanks for the dinner we are about to enjoy.

My mother is probably the last member of the family that adds some religious content to our holiday celebrations and of course the Polish language.

We used to be 100% Polish and then through marriage we have become somewhat international. My niece married a Frenchman and my daughter a Scotsman. We have had both families over and the French have attended a few Wigilia celebrations – it was nice to have them.

The dinner is different because no meat is served. We have a variety of fish dishes (pickled herring being my favorite). Everyone brings a dish of some sort and by tradition kielbasa and ham are available after midnight.

The midnight Catholic Mass tradition has gone and caroling is not really done. When my father was alive, everyone gathered around the piano and sang Polish carols, he of course led the singing.

Children open a few presents after dinner and then play with them. The grownups spend time talking about their lives with relatives that they do not see as often as one would like – we are all sooooooooooo busy.

So if I was to say what is Christmas to me, I would have to say FAMILY above all else and our hope is that our children will carry on the WIGILIA tradition long after we are no longer here.