Rest In Peace, Corporal D. Kevin Cusack

A SC Highway Patrol Trooper, Corporal Kevin Cusack passed this morning in a traffic collision.  It is still under investigation.  He was a veteran of 21 years.  God bless him and his family.  I was going to write about the 2010 Heartwalk this morning because even though today turned out beautiful for us.  It's not always the same for others.

Her Letter

The envelope lay with the address side face down so

that it would be protected from onlookers. Looking at its back

I felt an emptiness that showed no character, no feeling.

She was hunched so intently over the letter that her position

seemed discomforting to this observer.

One trembling hand was holding the letter

while the other held her head.

Not even her eyes released any emotion

that could be judged.

This observer walked several times

in front of the quaint outdoor café. The bare wrought iron tables

and stark display of the scene

gave a surrealistic, melancholy, feeling to the unsmiling,

unemotional, attractive young woman.

Her beautiful, smooth, young face showed

no signs of happiness or sorrow.

Almost as if she believed by succumbing to the reading it would

cause her to be duped into something

she was unwilling to participate.

Somewhere in the all of this,

life was still for her.

She was oblivious to her surroundings, which

seemed to meld with her mood absolutely.

What she was going through, this observer will never know.

She appeared to stare at every word as if expecting them

to their true meanings.

Around the block, this observer walked, and yet each time,

she was seen reading the letter over again.

I sensed a of kind of sadness deep within her

but it was only a guess.

Something was not right.

When I came around again, she and the few pages were gone.

The wrought iron table in front of the café was again empty.

A Part of Things

By Ejothian S. Litman

March 24th & Thursdays

March 24th marked the two anniversary of my mother's passing.  It also marked the 7 year anniversary of Lt. Wilson's father.  I have also learned that it is the day that a co-worker in another department, lost her father, too!  Now we all will have to encourage each other as LT supported me last Wednesday.  But I have a problem with Thursdays now, I can't sleep.

Opinions Are Like *******s, All Of Us Got One!

Efforts were made to pass this historical health care reform bill recently. It wasn’t perfect but it was a start. After nearly a hundred years, the nation has once again made a leap into the future. The problem is resistance to change. It wouldn’t have mattered if we had the same benefits our politicians have, the bill would have still been wrong. Someone will still complain about it. I will address that later. Everyone has an opinion but where these same people years ago? Reform does not come easy and change is even harder. Even in the Clinton years when the bill failed, why didn’t people speak out? Those of us that have insurance see it costing more every year and we’re not getting any cost of living raises at all. Yet, we’re not cursing and spitting on anyone. We’re not even calling our local representatives, and heaven forbid that we call our state representatives and senators. Why didn’t we raise all of this raucous during the Bush years? Where were the Tea Party folks then? I can make an educated guess. It appeared that once Obama became President, the Republicans made a concentrated, strategic decision to find ways to make the administration fail. Words of Waterloo and I hope he fails became a mantra among the ultra-conservatives. Who by the way, no longer consider moderate republicans as republicans. These mindless, Rush Limbaugh followers only complained about everything this president did. They offered many complaints but were unwilling or unable to offer solutions. They lied about willing to work with the president, it was a front. All along hidden forces and even conservative networks and radio stations begin agitating the ultra conservatives, who never like the president and will never like him, into a boisterous, mean, hate-filled, and combative mob. And while this baby was being born, our republican leaders stood on the sidelines and watch this undisciplined baby grow. Yet, they did not even bother to intervene when the newborn became threatening, disrespectful, and mean towards anyone that did not look like them. Stir them up! So are our politicians representing only certain groups? Then if so, they are not standing up for the people! If these politicians were thinking about the people even a year ago when the debate began, why didn’t they offer us the same federal benefits they have? How can they call this bill unconstitutional? Of course, they said that about the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Seems to me, these politicians are only representing a certain segment of the people. I guess they don’t realize that minorities voted for them, too! I am too disgusted. I can’t believe that these educated representatives of the people can’t stand up to the Limbaughs, O’Reillys, and Becks or anyone that preach divisiveness or teach hate. I’m guessing because these media personalities have a large listening audience that will mindlessly obey them who to vote for. We can all make rational decisions between right and wrong but we don’t. Who tells the best lie or who makes the best case even though it is still a lie will determine the votes. Education is so important but too many people just won’t read. And we can’t believe everything we read except the Bible. We believe that if so and so said it, it must be the truth. I say it’s time to vote them out and find representatives that can work together for the good of this nation. The world will leave us behind and we’ll wind up looking like a bunch of dummies. The lobbyists have paid these chaps too much money and it is time for them to go! Violence is not the answer but it’s being pumped up and the media seems to walk this kind of news.

Days Gone By - Leave Them Be!

Night riders, Sons of the Confederacy, Ku Klux Klan, and others are just few of the reminders of hatred and the use of fear at its best to keep minorities in place. Horrible deaths towards blacks were accepted or were not even considered illegal because blacks were considered animals or second class citizens. Catholics and Jews were a little better off because many of them around these thugs denounced their religions and/or changed their names to be accepted among the supremacists. They didn’t have to change their skin color to be recognized. These techniques worked and state rights were held sovereign. Those people were determined to maintain the status quo, keep things as they are and vowed never to change. Look around you and you can see that there are still those unwilling to change and accept peace. They miss those old days where they had power and everyone knew their place. Well, those days are gone and believe me they will never come back! Media personalities, politicians are hiding behind their podiums secretly supporting these hate filled mongrels. They are closet racists because they are afraid to admit who they really are. They are outnumbers by peaceful human beings and know that their fate is cancerous and only destroying themselves. So now they are vowing to destroy what is good for the country, making their last stand, while enticing the gullible to follow them into oblivion, but at the same time making an excuse that they are doing what is right for the people. These fake politicians are doing only what is good for them and using others. We see that they are not interested in civility, decorum, or respect. Rush Limbaugh wants to wipe out the peaceful folk because he has a radio platform to reach the undecided. If he didn’t have that who would Rush Limbaugh be? Peace does come at a price. While we are fighting against each other here in the United States for equal opportunities, our soldiers, men and women, are dying abroad. The freedom we once held so dear is also a barrier that is beginning to surround us.  When will we ever learn that being insensitive and oblivious to our fellowman’s plight will eventually affect us?  Horace Mann once said, ""Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge."  Education is so important to progress without it, you won't be able to determine rationally who's right or wrong.  John Avion a writer for The Daily Beast said, "We are playing with dynamite by demonizing our president and dividing the United States in the process. What might be good for ratings is bad for the country."  Too many of us can't see that someone is making a ton of money off of others and calling it news rather than it's true name, entertainment.  Pray for our President, leaders, country, each other and ourselves!

It's Done! Health Care Reform Passed!

Like I said in earlier blogs, we are given the opportunity to live in historical times!  The Health Care Reform was passed by Congress!  This has marked almost 100 years since 1912 when first introduced.  It has taken this long for our nation to look at other people needs and deficiencies.  What is worse, some people truly believe as long as they got theirs, let others worry about themselves.  No man is an island, but we tend to believe that we can make it on our own.  Yep, we still like to fool ourselves, most of the time lying.  Somewhere in this hodgepodge of "we say, they say", we'll find the truth.  Some people will never come together.  This time it looks like our political parties and representatives won't either.

What Is Wrong With a Little Respect?

This is a day of historical proportions! Today is March 21, 2010, the day the Health Care Reform will be decided for the better or worse. And all of the stops have been pulled out. I’m not even looking at the news. The last I read was that some Tea Party activists had spit on a congressman, called a few minority congressmen the n-word, and called another the f-word for homosexuals. As I have always said, many of these so-called activists are really opportunists who’s using healthcare as a front for their racial and hateful agenda. What is worse is that the opposing party knew that this racial groundswell will be uncontrollable and never bothered to keep them in check from the very start. Yet, we here so much how they are representing the American people who want them to block the reform. Never mind, polarizing the races and classes, this is the time for another Waterloo and collateral damage will be necessary. This is not the party of Lincoln but of hypocrites and I am ashamed of them.

My opinion is this. It goes back quite far, too. It doesn’t matter if our people (Africans) sold us into slavery. The slave traders brought us here via the trade routes and finally to America under the worse conditions ever imagined and done to a people for the purpose of using Africans as slaves. When these slaves arrived they were still treated unacceptably worse than the indentured servants that left Europe. The differences were one group treated as humans, the other; as animals. The slave descendants remained under that same label even today. Not all people are prejudiced and bigots, which was soon exhibited with the Civil War. Even after being freed, the slaves were still treated as second class citizens are as animals in some places. An effort was made after Reconstruction for freed slaves to serve in the political arena but again a surge by the hate groups fought against it by using the same fear and lie tactics that are being used today. Any advances to progress were halted and stalled until the 60’s with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Laws. Now if the playing field was equal and level from the very beginning, I think that either we would have a true representation of all in the tea parties or there wouldn’t be any tea parties in the first place. Voting Rights? Yes, we are still the only minority that can vote provided that laws are passed to allow us to vote. How equal is that? Government takeover! The government is too big and getting into everybody’s business, right? If it wasn’t for the federal government, I guess Wallace would have had his way; schools in the south would remain segregated and impoverished. Oops, many are still that way! Freedom fighters would still be dying and the KKK sheets would still be flying. They still are, too! Again a level playing field is still pretty hard to obtain even in this day and age. To me, if the federal government doesn’t step in, we would stay in slavery days. Now we’ve come to one of the biggest showdowns since OJ. So don’t ask me how I feel. Accept the fact that because we all have been brought up in different circumstances that we all will think differently. It’s call respect, something quite a few people seems to be lacking right now.