The leaves bloweth away-eth

Fall has arrived to erase the exploding colors away, revealing my neighbors to me. Hi everyone from the backyard vantage points!

child abuse.....

I just read a Denver news article about a woman who, in what they call a "road rage" incident, was charged with "child abuse" because she threw a cup of water at the other vehicle and some of the water hit a toddler in the back seat. Child abuse. I no longer understand the term "child abuse."

I began my non-understanding of the term in 2004 with a low-level criminal case against a mom who required her teenager to sleep out on the deck at their home during the Colorado summer on the front range (with sleeping bag and a lot of camping equipment) because he continually kept stealing from family members when they all slept and had been caught yet again after making all kinds of contracts and promises not to do it. She was charged with child abuse.

Shortly thereafter, I learned that if a driver is cited with a DUI (Drinking Under the Influence), and the driver has a child or children in the car, then the driver will also receive a charge of "child abuse" for each of the children in the car. I think of my dad all those years ago, requiring us to get in that huge brown Chevy sedan to go get ice cream while he was so drunk that he passed out at the wheel while driving. The house was on a hill above a park, with no walls to stop a drop down the hill. Sometimes my drunk stepmother was there to correct things....and sometimes we had to do it from the back seat. I am fairly certain this was the beginning of my ulcers forming. As we kids got older, we developed all sorts of coping skills, including learning to drive at absurdly young ages, to endure the ice cream adventures from the hill house driveway and still love dad. Was he a "child abuser" in my mind? No. Was he stupid? Probably. Was I stupid for getting in the car? Yep. But him a "child abuser"? I'm not there yet.

The jury eventually came back with a not guilty verdict in the case of the mom, but not before a LOT of confusing testimony that painted this mother as a religious nut and terrorist parent. This 15 year old boy had a long history of increasingly serious missteps with authority and the law, but of course most of that information is not generally allowed into evidence in a trial for various important reasons. Certainly the prosecution did not want that information to be let in because then the jury would also get to hear all of the measures this mom (and her subsequent new husband) had gone to help the son.

Nonetheless, this mom agonized through this trial, suffering all kinds of what I would call systemic bullying..... and all because she was desperate to find a solution to her son's bad behaviors. Various expensive therapists had not helped. Threats of jail to the son had not helped. Various programs in the community had not helped. The mom had been cited for allowing her son to be truant from school. Family and intervention therapies had not helped. She had gone the next step when no community resources could help....she acted in what I was taught in the 80's was called "tough love." You act badly, you get the consequences of those bad actions. In this case, he kept stealing inside the house. He was not allowed in the house. Pay no mind that there was nowhere left for him to go. No community programs wanted him. He was incorrigible. Look that $10 word up.

And so somewhere along the line, our civil, proscriptive society decided she was a child abuser and she had to go on trial for it.

Yeah, so that is why I am confused about that term. Apparently bad parenting or failed parenting or desperate parenting is child abuse. Apparently parenting and guiding a strong-willed child who ends up making bad decisions in his teen development necessarily means YOU the parent are an abuser of children. Watch out for how you raise your children.

Balance people; we need a little balance.

Toss up......installment #2 in WTF Files - blondes or Muslims.

Some days, the human experience as reflected through the eyes of our media, just astounds me, Pinky. Today, two examples of what rots my brain if I read too much "news" and accept any of it as "fact."

First, an article on a Maldives resort planned by a Lithuanian firm, which will only hire blondes (women of course) and will have "an education [center] called 'Pretty Women' -- [to]'teach female guests to always be perfect and look great,' said the company's Giedre Pukiene." Even as I type, I see that CNN has demoted the article from its "don't miss" section to the "Editor's Choice" section below that. I'm fairly certain there has been more outrage expressed in the wee hours of the morning than just on my Facebook post. It is all rather distasteful, but easily pegged as distasteful and called out for what it is. The link for your enjoyment: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/11/blond.resort.maldives/index.html?hpt=Mid

Second, and closer to my personal experience, is a story not as easily pegged as distasteful and revolting. I see a video posted from Anderson Cooper's 360 (I find I appreciate his work as a balance more and more) which addresses an apparent "issue" raised by Sharron Angle, Republican senatorial nominee from NEVADA (Yes, Libby, your state again) that Sharia law is "being forced on Americans" in Frankford, Texas and Dearborn, Michigan. Anderson Cooper then researches the claims, as he agrees forcing Sharia (Islamic Law) on Americans would be serious. "Turns out, she does not have her facts straight." He plays the audio recording of what Sharon Angle says. He reports that Frankford, Texas does not even exist, has nothing more than an old church and a graveyard, and was annexed by the city of Dallas in 1975. He then reports that Dearborn, Michigan is one of America's oldest and largest Arab communities, but its mayor is not Arab or Muslim, and is "pretty angry at Sharon Angle and has written her a letter, saying in part and I quote, 'Muslims have been practicing their faith in our community for almost 90 years without incident or conflict.' "

Says Anderson Cooper, "Now, we invited Sharon Angle on to defend herself, and she chose not to."

When asked if Sharia Law had been discussed in Dearborn, the mayor responded, "This is an invention by some people who have ... as their goal...you know, they believe the Muslim faith is a false faith, it's dishonest, and they really belive at the heart of it by their own advocation that if Muslims won't convert, they should be removed from America."

I think that last paragraph pretty much sums up the frustration I see on a daily basis in my community anyway. Do not kid yourselves that in America there is religious "freedom." You may be "free" to practice certain prescribed versions of Christianity, some versions of Judaism perhaps (as long as you do not promote them too much in communities outside your own) but you may not be a Muslim and live out your faith in peace.

No wonder I am having constant dreams about the Salem witch trials lately. We vote people with this kind of belief system into political office all the time, and I think that is a very lazy and criminal use of our voting right.

Here's the link, if you want to check my recitation of events. I am unsure how to post links properly on my blog yet, so cut/paste it is! http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/10/12/ac.sharia.law.in.michigan.cnn?hpt=C2

Some days are Screamers....

Not in the Halloween sense, mind you, but in the general emotional, experiential sense, some days are just screamers.

We have a choice... scream, or don't scream. Keep trying to make things work, swimming up river, or scream.

Scream is better. I scream you scream we all scream for .... peace and tranquility. haha! Now, to figure out how to put the picture that goes with the post on to the blog page.

Suzanne Marie LaPointe

I just read that Suzanne Marie LaPointe died a couple days ago here. She died on the same day as my Aunt actually. I did not know her. I read that she had a wonderful husband, though they divorced, and fabulous children and grandchildren. She was a registered nurse and worked at our local hospital. Hospice and her family assisted her at the end.

Here's the thing though: She died of ovarian cancer, and I'm thinking....wow, that could have been me. Well, me without the fabulous husband whom I divorced or the grandkids. That could have been me just as well as any survivor of that stuff.

I think I need to be more productive to the world. I lived. For however long I continue to live, I think what I do on this earth ought to matter. Get off they duff, Cyn.

WTF File #1 - Hillary and Barak Apologize for the 1940's

Here's the long and short of the WTF Files:

Long ago, no telling how long ago, my BFF Libby (Libby-from-law-school-Libby) and I began exchanging morning emails as we upstarted our day's work. Invariably, we would find the most unusual and bizarre life situations repeated in the public forum we now know as online news. I have found such a news article today that causes me so much consternation on a Saturday morning, that I will email it to her directly, but have chosen to share the gist here.

I believe that this articule fully justifies any and all paranoia about our government....sadly dating back farther than I would have liked. Nonetheless, we aparently purposely used Guatamalan "sex workers" to test penicilin efficacy for sexually transmitted diseases. I am disgusted and sick in the pit o' me stomach. Found on CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.guatemala.apology/index.html?hpt=T2, it reads in part:

"The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study in which people in Guatemala were intentionally infected with sexually transmitted diseases."

" 'Though it happened 64 years ago, it really is a profound violation of human rights,' said Colom [president], who said the report took him by surprise."

"The scientific investigation, called the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study of 1946-1948, aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin in treating or preventing syphilis after subjects were exposed to the disease. Gonorrhea and chancres were also studied. Penicillin was a relatively new drug at the time.

"The tests were carried out on female commercial sex workers, prisoners in the national penitentiary, patients in the national mental hospital and soldiers. According to the study, more than 1,600 people were infected: 696 with syphilis, 772 with gonorrhea and 142 with chancres."

I cannot go on any further. I cannot imagine in this universe where a mere apology is meaningful in this situation. Perhaps when you spill a cup of milk, or forget to tell Grandma thanks for a birthday gift...but intentionally inflicting gonorrhea into the populace of a 3rd world country's primarily uneducated populace in order to find a cure for your puritanical and educated folks (who have the SAME DISEASES I might point out).... I can't do this...I gotta get a fresh cup of coffee....

Darjeeling to Kathmandu.....

Dare I broach this door with him? Uggh, but he could help them. He could actually do some good on his fake birthday for them. Now that my sights are in a different direction, I get ripped back to this one AGAIN.

Why would a lucrative businessman buy an American girl a ticket from Darjeeling to Kathmandu? I need ideas based on knowledge and experience, regardless of where those ideas take us.