Turning back the tide of bigotry

(My letter to the editor of the Tampa Times)

The letter writer who praised Arizona governor Jan Brewer totally missed the point of her rejection of the bill which allowed businesses to discriminate on religious grounds. 

Brewer should not be praised for rejecting it. The State of Arizona was under attack from numerous large organizations and national businesses which threatened to boycott the state if the bill was signed by the governor. She saw the handwriting on the wall and vetoed the bill, but not because she was against it.

I personally think there is never a reason to praise Jan Brewer on anything after having read many times about her passion for trampling on the human rights of lawful citizens in her state, the same as the trampling’s rightly attributed to Sheriff Arpaio.

The above is my response to another letter to the editor of our newspaper. The writer praised the governor for the wrong thing. The rest of his letter showed his feelings about blatant trampling on civil rights. I especially like his quote from Sinclair Lewis "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped a flag and waving a cross"

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

How in the world can a jury not convict a man for killing an unarmed young black man? How in the world can an armed man with a history of violence toward two ex-wives get away with murder?

After George Zimmerman got away with the murder of Treyvon Martin which he justified by saying he was in fear for his life, although the teenager was only holding a bag of skittles, you would have thought another jury would see through the lies told by another defense attorney on behalf of his client. Another young black man had no gun, but it took them four days and they still couldn’t convict this murderer, either.

Soon, a seventy year old retired police officer will be on trial for killing an unarmed man, the loving father of a young child. He too felt threatened by a man who was only holding a cell phone and a bag of popcorn.

All three of these brave men had a concealed license permit because this is a cruel world and they have every right to shoot their gun on a whim and call it self-defense.

Wouldn’t it for once be nice to hear one, two or three of these men just for once say they made a grave mistake and beg for mercy from a judge after pleading “Guilty”?

Most responsible parents try to teach their children to own up to their mistakes! It would be a better world if all parents taught their children to respect others by setting a good example themselves.

FLORIDA ONCE AGAIN

You all know I live in Florida the home of “Stand Your Ground Laws” which means you can murder anyone you want and because of the NRA backed Republican Party, you can get away with it.

Today, we’re awaiting the verdict in the latest trial where a white man killed an unarmed black teenager because loud music disturbed him. After firing many bullets into the car, his fiancée came out of the convenience store where both cars were parked.

The two drove away from the scene of the bullet riddled car, which contained the body of the unarmed black boy and the unharmed ones still in the car. Did they call the police?

No, they did not.  They drove away and spent the night in a motel where they ordered pizza, drank wine and watched a movie.

And the jury is now in their third day of deliberations. That’s Florida for yah!

DON’T BOTHER ME I’M ON THE ICE

In the days of the Winter Olympics when everyone knew Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Scott Hamilton, I sat mesmerized watching every spin, jump and spiral they did. I would say to the children “don’t bother me I’m on the ice”.

No one could ever compare with the sensational skating team of Torvill and Dean as far as I’m concerned. I became disillusioned with what had happened to the beautiful, lyrical skating done by our past Olympic champions.

Skaters now had to compete with other countries who introduced triple and quadruple jumps which scored higher points. Now every skater had to work to get the new jumps into their repertoire and the true beauty of figure skating became lost. If you watched the last few years of competitions, you’d see skater’s spending all their time getting ready for the next jump and there was not much beauty involved.

Last month I discovered our own USA Ice dancers, Davis and White by accident. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Something of supreme beauty happened when they performed. I fell in love with figure skating again when I saw them skating in virtual unison to their chosen music and making continuous beautiful moves.

These two are considered favorites for the gold metal. Our other skaters are not far behind, so try to see them if you can and don’t bother me because I’ll be on the ice again.  

MY BIRTHDAY COMES AGAIN 

I think the last I spoke of my birthday was when I reached the landmark age of 80. My birthday present from the family was the memorable trip to the Steinhatchee Landing Resort. We saw pictures of that exciting time just a few weeks ago and I was filled warm feelings about how happy everyone seemed.

Now I’m 83. What can I say? I keep thinking about all the years of growing up and still dream of my Mother. A frequent one is that she is in a nursing home and I’ve not called or visited her and I feel so guilty forgetting about her. I don’t think I ever dream of my Dad.

I had a marvelous time with part of the family yesterday. We visited the Miniature Art show and saw five of our daughter’s pieces. Then we had dinner with Melissa, Chris, Jen and Steve as well as their two beautiful daughters. Chris brought brownies to the restaurant and lit two candles. I had always thought that anyone 80 years old was decrepit and living in a fog. I know I’m decrepit but I don’t live in a fog.

Today our only son, wife and grandson are arriving this evening with gifts of Greek Food. How lucky I am.

One thing that might surprise you is, I’m starting to write a book of fiction. Why not, I have a title and two characters kind of mapped out. At first I wanted it to be a mystery and filled with humor, now I’m not sure. I read the first page to my husband and we really laughed about some of the stuff. Now I think that what is funny could also be taken as serious. I had planned to ask the rest of the family to read it and suggest a mystery plot but now decided to go my own way. 

I’m telling you this because if I let you know about it, then I’ll have to continue and try to finish it. It might end up a short story, a novella or a book. Who knows, but my imagination continues on.

What would really be funny is if something happens to me, mentally or physically, everyone would get to write their own finished version.

Anyways, Happy Birthday to Me.

LOSING ONE’S POWER

You’ve read all about the retired policeman who killed a man for ostensibly throwing a bag of popcorn at him. His lawyer says for people not to judge him because he feared for his life in that dark theater and this is where the “stand your ground law” comes into effect. I don’t think even our local sheriff’s department is going to agree with that alibi.

In my estimation, the real reason is that the retired policeman had “lost his power” and couldn’t deal with it. It’s possible that proof comes in the form of a previous moviegoer who had the same experience with him, saying he really frightened her.

Consider how a highly regarded person used to commanding respect has to deal with the fact he’s lost his power at retirement and doesn’t get the respect he feels he deserves.

This particular person, a former police officer, has many friends who cannot believe this man could become so enraged that he would kill someone simply for texting. Those many friends, family and neighbors can’t understand this helpful person doing such a dreadful thing. But when he is outside of that circle of friends and can’t deal with the reality that “he’s lost his power” does he carry a gun to prove he still has it?

Unfortunately, in Florida we residents are surrounded by people who have no power except for guns, guns, guns.

 

HEADLINE NEWS

I so enjoy reading the headlines on magazines at the checkout lanes in grocery stores. When I read a small article in today’s newspaper, I started to imagine what would appear on next month’s supermarket editions. The article I’m speaking of comes from Honolulu and the headline states “Michele Obama extends her vacation”.

Can’t you just imagine the gasps of shoppers as they’re about to pay for their groceries and they see “OBAMA LEAVES MICHELLE” or “FIRST DAUGHTERS ARE SEEN LAUGHING AT THE LAST SIGHTOF THEIR MOTHER”? Or maybe “THE PRESIDENT STRANDS MICHELLE ON AN ISLAND”. Possibly “AT 50 IS MICHELLE NO LONGER INTERESTED IN AN AGING PRESIDENT?”