MAKE HISTORY - HISTORY IS A STORY SO WHY NOT BE PART OF IT?

MAKE HISTORY – HISTORY IS A STORY SO WHY NOT BE PART OF IT?

Where to start?

Make a statement such as “I represent my ancestors” and then tell a bit about them before getting to you.

Write your own obituary.

Use a historical timeline such as: “I was born just before Pearl Harbor was bombed”.  “I grew up loving Elvis” or “for a kid who was born before television isn’t it remarkable to have Google? ”

Include any special family sayings.  My grandmother always said, “A cat can eat a grind stone one nibble at a time.”

Collect family memorabilia and include it.  Pictures are very important.

As you write a theme will come to mind that will give you a title. 

Lulu has stock covers that you can customize or if you are adventurous do your own art work.

Both suggested methods of publishing are free.  You can use Lulu.com or publish a blog. The blog can be made into printed material or simply exist in the ether.

Go to Lulu.com and watch the Demo.  Type Woodrough into the search box to see what I’ve written or helped publish.  All of the covers are my own design, but you can use Lulu.com templates. 

The easiest way to make a blog for yourself is to go to mine chihuahuasforchange.blogspot.com and in the upper right you will see “make new blog” Click on that and you will be asked to make an account.  Follow the bouncing ball.  Be sure to note the URL of you blog so you can get back to it.

If you get stuck, give me a call and I’ll walk you through it. Margot 898-9003.

Here’s my favorite quote – you may want to use it as a jumping off place for your story.

"My character or nature is made up of infinite particles of inherited tendencies from my ancestors – a little seed of laziness came from this grandfather, some remote grandmother has stamped me with a fear of dogs and a love of horses; there may be in me a bit of outlawry from a pirate forefather, and a dash of piety from one who was a saint. My so-called particularities, my gestures, my ways and manners, I borrow them all, without exceptions. So everything in me passes on through my children. I am sewn between ancestry and posterity."

Oliver Wendall Holmes

DONALD TRUMP

We have been so distressed at Donald Trump.  Paul Krugman hit the nail on the head with this piece.
I have been reading my previous posts and it is quite clear this has been coming for years.  I am so glad that I will be released from this life soon. I weep for the kidlets.

The party of Lincoln is now the party of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Southern slave owners who decided to kill fellow Americans so that they could keep men, women and children enslaved. The Republican Party, in other words, has obliterated its entire historical legacy and become the party of the Enemies of Lincoln.

And let’s be clear: Republicans cannot say, “That’s not us — that’s just President Trump.” They supported him, they elected him, they defended him and they gave him the aura of a normal presidency. They cannot be the party of Lincoln and be the party of Trump. In that vein, we can dispense with Republicans’ “outrage,” “frustration,” “anger” and all other meaningless expressions of internal sentiment. Unless and until they are prepared to do something — not just send tweets — to politically disown Trump, the party is toast and none of its members should be elected or reelected.

How would they do this? First, elected officials must deny Trump the audience he so desperately craves. They need not appear with him, nor invite him to the Hill. (The State of the Union can be delivered from the White House or in writing; he would besmirch the House by appearing there.) Lawmakers and state officials should not troop to the White House for photo ops. They can communicate with the White House by phone or through aides. In short, Trump must be shunned and ostracized. He is not fit for polite company, let alone the presidency. He has demolished the rules of civilized behavior, and therefore should enjoy none of the ceremonial niceties that are extended to normal presidents.

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Second, beyond resolutions condemning Trump’s remarks, every member of Congress should do his or her utmost to remove the neo-Nazi iconography in their districts and states. Neo-Nazis have claimed the Confederacy as their own — and therefore have reminded the rest of us that the Confederate statues are not tributes to patriotism, gallantry or liberty but to treason, inhumanity and slavery. That is why neo-Nazis identify with these symbols of the Old South. That is why they have no place in a democratic society built on the principle that “All men are created equal.” State and local officials need to carefully examine school curriculum to make sure students are not confused as to the heroes and the villains in the Civil War. Every student should learn to spot and debunk the “Lost Cause” propaganda. Perhaps April 9 should be a national holiday commemorating the Confederacy’s surrender and the magnanimity displayed by President Abraham Lincoln and U.S. generals toward their defeated foes.

Third, Cabinet members, sub-Cabinet officials, staffers and outside participants on councils, commissions and committees must leave the administration. It’s not enough, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, to look on with a pained expression as the president declares that some of the white nationalists were “very fine” folks. He deceived you and others as to what he would say and he has shown himself unfit. You cannot serve in the administration of a neo-Nazi sympathizer. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, why stay in an administration in which you command so little respect and in which you must lend your own reputation to a disgraceful president? (Defense Secretary Jim Mattis should remain, a final backstop to prevent a military disaster.)

Fourth, Republicans must treat the president as they would someone not of their party — for he is not, to repeat, of the party of Lincoln. If Hillary Clinton refused to release her tax returns, hired unqualified relatives, kept business ventures that posed a conflict of interest and violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause, Republicans would commence hearings and pass legislation to put an end to all of it. It’s long past the time that Trump should be permitted to escape the kind of inquiry Republicans would insist upon for any Democratic president. By refusing to do so, the GOP is saying: “He’s one of ours. He’s a Republican, so we don’t rock the boat.”

Fifth, now would be a fine time for formation of a third party, one that can at the end of the Trump presidency repeal and replace the GOP. The Free Republican Party, the Appomattox Republicans (It cannot be said enough: The Confederates were losers) or whatever ex-Republicans in the center-right call themselves can endorse for office defectors from the GOP and reclaim Republicans who have disassociated themselves with the GOP thanks to Trump. Moderate Republican House members of the Tuesday Group, the new Centrist Project (dedicated to backing independent candidates), members of Stand Up Republic (founded by 2016 conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin and his former running mate, Mindy Finn) and others have the chance to stake their claim as the true successors to the party of Lincoln. Those who have wrestled with the question as to whether the GOP could be reformed or whether it should be discarded in light of Trump’s GOP takeover have their answer. If they cannot disgorge him, they must start over.

In sum, Republicans’ words are insufficient and, at this point, insufferable. When we look back at this time, the only thing people will ask is: “What did you do?” Republicans will need a better answer than “I was outraged and gave tough quotes — on background.”

PALE BLUE DOT

We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there – on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

[...] To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

— Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994

DOLPHIN CAY and FAB Fiber

Three years ago we sold our two units at The Florencia in order to buy one last home.  The "kidlets" were getting so big and needed room to roam.  One of the units brought enough money to purchase the house.  I made a You Tube so the "kidlets" would remember the place.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=UMTp82KS_qY

For the first time in my life I have a housekeeper who comes monthly to keep the place up.  Last year Amy and Jamy moved into the garage apartment.  Amy comes three times a week to keep my feathers fluffed with an hour's worth of exercise.

The next biggest excitement was the creation of Fab Fiber at 5708 Gulfport Blvd.

My dear partner Elizabeth Neily

Seventy-fifth Trip Around the Sun

My Seventy Fifth Trip Around the Sun

So far this was the worst birthday ever. Below is a letter I wrote to Greystone Home Health. I can not describe my 75^th birthday any better:

My husband and I have used Greystone three times in the past and written glowing reviews. In fact we had a particularly nice relationship with Sheri Blume whom I understand is no longer with Greystone. We are equally fond of Aycha and Prisca.

Our most recent experience has been a nightmare of epic proportions. On Saturday July July 15^th my husband was near a wall that collapsed and lacerate his leg. 911 was called and he was taken to St. Anthony’s emergency room. I spoke with him by phone while he was being stitched up and told him to get an order for home health. It was about 6:00pm and knowing it was the weekend I called Greystone to give them a scheduling heads up. I was told that the order needed to come from his primary doctor so I called Dr. Gross’s office (Baycare Medical Group) and got the “on call” physician who said she couldn’t issue the order. On Sunday the wound started bleeding through the bandage making a spot about the size of an orange. I again called primary and got same “on call” doctor who was rather short with me saying: Mrs. Woodrough I told you last night I cannot write the order. (one wonders why she didn’t contact Dr. Gross but I didn’t think to ask at the time).

By now I was frantic as was my husband. He is 80 years old recovering from recent back surgery and not very mobile with the wound. I spoke with Donna at Greystone and she said nothing could be done without an order. I was left with no alternative except to call an acquaintance who is a retired nurse. She came and changed the bandage Sunday and Monday.

On Monday I started calling Dr. Gross’s office early and the line was constantly busy. About noon I finally got through to the office and made my request. When I received no response in the afternoon I started calling again and getting the same busy signal. Finally toward the end of the day I received a message that Dr. Gross (primary) was not going to issue an order since there was a referral from St. Anthony’s for Steve to see a wound care specialist (Dr. Murphy) on Tuesday. Dr. Murphy saw Steve on Tuesday and faxed the order to Greystone early afternoon of Tuesday the 18^th of July. Both Steve and I made several follow up calls to Greystone Tuesday afternoon and were told they were waiting of a form 485 (? I think that is the number I was told) and a third piece of paper. Steve seems to be of the impression you were still waiting for a referral from Primary Dr. Gross (whose phone continued to be busy) It was late Tuesday the 18^th that the paperwork apparently was all in place. (On Wednesday July 19^th both Steve and I spoke with our insurance company and were assured that there was coverage. Steve and I both asked that the customer service representative contact Greystone which they did.)

However, no one from Greystone came until Thursday the 20th when Prisca came. (I told Prisca about the nightmare and she said I should talk to you.) (I did get a call from Donna but it was unproductive.) Yesterday Leasa came to dress the wound and complete the paperwork and we are now on a sound footing with Greystone. I told Leasa of the trouble and she encouraged me to talk with you. I asked her to have you call me at your convenience.

Please tell me for future reference how this nightmare could have been avoided. (I must have a very sound heart as the stress would surely have killed me last week.)

After sixteen years of luxury living our precious Little Libby died in her sleep in June. May was an interesting month with the visit of the Woodroughs for the Derby Party, the party itself followed by Steve's back surgery then a visit from the McDermotts.

All of the kidlets are growing up to be lovely people.  their parents have raised them well.

After Libby's death I searched for another long hair chihuahua and found a dream dog in Isla.  She joined our family in August and is truly the best dog in the world.

I cannot bring myself to detail the emotional distress that Donald Trump has inflicted on the country.  As I write this august 16th 2017 it appears that Republicans are finally getting the message, but it has been a long time coming.  Unfortunately, the damage done to our country may never be repaired.  Last weekend there were racist riots in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The Tea Party and radical right have split the country in ways that remind me of the Civil War.

I've said it before and will repeat that I am ready for my life to be over.  No regrets.

Bi Centennial 1976 DUNWOODY GEORGIA

History is a story and a story must have a beginning, but where?  My genealogy research was born of the Bi Centennial celebration of 1976. It is a story of America as seen through some of its most notable people.  You will not find these most of these people listed in history books.  However, they are no less important.  These are the people who make up the whole of the United States.  It is they, collectively, who are America and they are notable and worthy of remembrance.  Their names may not be known but their spirit is.  I researched the family back following all the paths.  Here is a remembrance of July4, 1976.

Today is the Fourth of July 1976 – two hundred years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. Celebrations are planned across the country, but in Atlanta they will be smaller as the rain is pouring ceaselessly.  Atlanta seems to be the only rainy place in the country this Independence day.  Yesterday the Dunwoody Community parade passed through the small but growing crossroads north of Atlanta.  Most observers and parade participants were not from either Atlanta or the south.  Most residents of Dunwoody are from other parts of the United States and particularly from the north.  They are new immigrants to this growing center of business activity.  The climate is agreeable and the people still unspoiled and friendly.  It seems everyone wants to come to Atlanta and Dunwoody is one of Atlanta’s better neighborhoods.

Today the people of Dunwoody cannot attend a picnic, go to Lake Lanier or even attend a fireworks display at Stone Mountain.  July 4^th 1976 is sodden with an unremitting cold rain.  The only alternative is enjoying the activity of others as seen on the day-long coast to coast coverage on the three networks.  But, perhaps that is not so bad after all.  How else could one get such a marvelous overview of the whole country’s activities and taste the entire buffet of activity: from the blood chilling entrance of the tall ships into New York harbor; the reenactment of the battle of Gettysburg; to the playing of the 1812 Overture by the Boston Symphony complete with real cannon and fireworks.  The grand finale was the magnificent firework display at the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.  It was an exhilarating day and while the rain restricted our physical movements perhaps it provided us with a bonus bird’s eye view.

What a country and what a people.  How did it come to be?  Who are these people? How are we one? In personal terms, exactly what did independence mean to people two hundred years ago?  Do we still share the same feelings, hopes and fears as they?  Let’s take a look and as we look keep in mind that two hundred years passes quickly.  Will our descendants two hundred years hence ask the same questions?  We must be sure to leave something worthy of their backward glance.

We are a family of four living in Dunwoody Georgia.  The children are Stephens Blakely Woodrough age 13 and Page Annette Woodrough age 5 this Bi Centennial year.  These future adults are presently blessed with a relatively stable world and it does not look as though Stephens, Jr. will face military draft.  Page lives in a time of women’s liberation and will be free to be exactly the person she wishes.  Once she finishes her education she will be free from the prejudices that have restricted women for thousands of years.  The future is full of hope; there will be problems, but it appears that the country is headed in a forward direction.

The parents are Margaret Vollmer Woodrough and Stephens Blakely Woodrough who live at 1823 Trowbridge Drive in a lovely spacious home full of various projects and interests of the senior Woodroughs.  Both Steve and Margot are immensely interested in life.  They are curious, searching, thinking people and have been active in the community.  They were married in the year that John Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas Texas.  Their early years together were tormented by the escalating Vietnam War.  Inflation was rising but in general things were economically sound and income kept pace with rising costs.

Politically things were worsened by the election of Richard Nixon as President.  Neither Woodrough voted for him but somehow in spite of the odds a majority of citizens did. Nixon’s story over the next six years is most important as it tested the constitution and the resolve of the founding fathers.  With Nixon’s resignation and the new presidency of James Carter there is much hope.  Time will tell.

Steve and Margot Woodrough were married at St. Stephens Martyr Church in Washington D.C on Pennsylvania Avenue.  It is a lovely new church which was recently built to replace an older outdated structure.  St. Stephens was the parish church for the Kennedys while they were in the White House.  At the time of her marriage Margaret Vollmer was living at 2411 H Street NW in a little townhouse that was recently renovated. This area of the city was gentrified and called “Foggy Bottom”.  Previously it housed some of the worst slums and the city’s gas tanks.  The gas tank land remained vacant for many years and it was on this site that the infamous “Watergate” apartment and office building building of Nixon’s Watergate scandal was built.  Down the street was the once  infamous (of Watergate fame) Howard Johnson Hotel where one could go for a drink after work and a quick pack of cigarettes.  A little further down Virginia Avenue was the Harry T. Thompson Water Sports Center.  It was the perfect summer meeting spot where one could bicycle up the C and O Canal tow path, or take a canoe to Theodore Roosevelt Island and marvel at the fact that once Indians stalked its trails.  On summer evenings there were concerts at the Watergate Concert barge at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial Bridge. These were the tag ends of a calm peaceful simple time.

Change was coming, but we didn’t know it.  In 1963 the “Poor Peoples March” on Washington launched Martin Luther King into national conscious followed by his assassination and student protest over the Vietnam War.  It was these events that made the Bi-centennial year appear serene and special.  Had we finally come together?

THOMAS PAINE

I like this quote very much.

71st TRIP AROUND THE SUN

71^st TRIP AROUND THE SUN  -  July 16, 2013

When I was a child, before television, I listened to a radio program called “No School Today” that used a song called “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” as a theme song. This was a special birthday.  I was serenaded by the “kidlets” with “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”.  Earlier in the year I recalled the song and looked it up and found several renditions sending the cutest to the McDermotts.  They remembered and rehearsed it as a surprise What fun!

The past year has been very interesting; The McDermott’s returned from Okinawa in March; Kelly was born July 11; and on the same day Mark found a job in Washington D.C. Shannon celebrated her 11^th birthday while at our home this year in St. Pete.  I asked her if it was the best birthday ever and her reply was that this year was the second best.  Her 10^th birthday was the best ever since that was the day her father learned about his new position and their move to Washington D.C.

The special treat this year was the arrival of the “kidlets” for a month long visit and their participation in the sailing program at the SPYC.  In between sailing lessons they learned to spin fiber to their great delight.

The McDermotts have lived in their new home for almost a year.  I haven’t visited, but don’t feel the need to be there as I know every inch from seeing pictures when they were considering buying and seeing pictures since they moved in.  I don’t do stairs as easily as before and the only full bath is upstairs.  However, I am so happy for them.

My best accomplishment this year was introducing the “kidlets” to Wagner in particular “The Ring Cycle”.  I was fortunate to find a book written for children detailing the complete story.  I read it to Shannon, Brigid and Molly and they loved it.  I also showed them a bit of the Met’s most recent production.  They were simply enchanted with the story.  As they mature this will be a treasure that will only get deeper and more significant.

My second best accomplishment was getting a large portion of the coral reef project to a permanent home at Great Explorations.

I have a gnawing sadness for our country.  So much could be accomplished if it were not for the stubborn Republican Party that is determined to thwart the President no matter what the cost.  We continue in two ill thought out wars that drain our treasury.  We barely escaped a financial meltdown and nothing is being done about global warming.  I regret the mess we are leaving for our kidlets to clean up.  The possibilities for the future could be so bright with our wonderful technology if only we could get past our age old hostilities.  And, don’t even get me started on religion.  The Bible is a bunch of Fairy Tales written by ignorant old men. The Jews invented guilt and Catholics perfected it.  I am tired of living. Perhaps this will be my last trip around the sun.

THE PLOT THICKENS AND POPE IS IN THE SOUP

Pope Benedict retired after inquiry into 'Vatican gay officials', says paper

Pope's staff decline to confirm or deny La Repubblica claims linking 'Vatileaks' affair and discovery of 'blackmailed gay clergy'

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• John Hooper in Rome
• The Guardian, Thursday 21 February 2013 12.27 EST

The Vatican is awhirl with rumours about the pope's decision to retire. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders.

The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica.

The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair.

Last May Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with having stolen and leaked papal correspondence that depicted the Vatican as a seething hotbed of intrigue and infighting.

According to La Repubblica, the dossier comprising "two volumes of almost 300 pages – bound in red" had been consigned to a safe in the papal apartments and would be delivered to the pope's successor upon his election.

The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were "united by sexual orientation".

In an apparent quotation from the report, La Repubblica said some Vatican officials had been subject to "external influence" from laymen with whom they had links of a "worldly nature". The paper said this was a clear reference to blackmail.

It quoted a source "very close to those who wrote [the cardinal's report]" as saying: "Everything revolves around the non-observance of the sixth and seventh commandments."

The seventh enjoins against theft. The sixth forbids adultery, but is linked in Catholic doctrine to the proscribing of homosexual acts.

La Repubblica said the cardinals' report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said: "Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this."

He added that interpretations of the report were creating "a tension that is the opposite of what the pope and the church want" in the approach to the conclave of cardinals that will elect Benedict's successor. Another Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, alluded to the dossier soon after the pope announced his resignation on 11 February, describing its contents as "disturbing".

The three-man commission of inquiry into the Vatileaks affair was headed by a Spanish cardinal, Julián Herranz. He was assisted by Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, a former archbishop of Palermo, and the Slovak cardinal Jozef Tomko, who once headed the Vatican's department for missionaries.

Pope Benedict has said he will stand down at the end of this month; the first pope to resign voluntarily since Celestine V more than seven centuries ago. Since announcing his departure he has twice apparently referred to machinations inside the Vatican, saying that divisions "mar the face of the church", and warned against "the temptations of power".

La Repubblica's report was the latest in a string of claims that a gay network exists in the Vatican. In 2007 a senior official was suspended from the congregation, or department, for the priesthood, after he was filmed in a "sting" organised by an Italian television programme while apparently making sexual overtures to a younger man.

In 2010 a chorister was dismissed for allegedly procuring male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting. A few months later a weekly news magazine used hidden cameras to record priests visiting gay clubs and bars and having sex.

The Vatican does not condemn homosexuals. But it teaches that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered". Pope Benedict has barred sexually active gay men from studying for the priesthood.

70th trip around the Sun - update

May 24, 2012

My upcoming 70^th birthday has been on my mind for at least the last six months.  I’ve been keenly aware that the end is near – at least I hope it is. When I look at pictures of the “kidlets” taken six short years ago I come face to face with the fleeting nature of time.  In one of my most recent projects, translating Alla’s book from French, I can see a huge picture of humanity that staggers my mind.  Alla’s book traces her ancestors back to just before the first millennium detailing thousands of people and their struggles to live and order their lives.  Each was born struggled and died.  I remember when my dear father got close to the end he had a desire to divest himself of possessions.  My thoughts are in that direction as well.

My world is closing in and I am happy with that.  I really do not want to go anywhere except home.  I am happy doing my projects, knitting, spinning, writing and tidying up my lifelong genealogy project.

This morning I finished reading Carl Sagan’s book “Contact”.  I think I needed it at just this time in my life.  It’s been on the shelf unread for years, but as always Sagan has helped put things in perspective.  I am a mote on top of a pile of motes going back and forward forever.  My life has been much better than most and my problems pale.  Just as I needed the words I found the above quote from Anne Frank.

The past year has been emotionally tough.  No good is served by rehashing a story that everyone knows.

As always, I have sought to know the truth.  I’ve also tried to share hard won knowledge. 

It’s inconceivable to me that Sarah Palin and Fox News still represent information to so many individuals.  The hypocrisy of the Republican Party is stupdifying.  I fear for our country and the future for the “Kidlets”.  I fear the divisiveness of the Catholic Church that has no business interfering in government and would do well to govern themselves. An institution so full of the rot of child molesters has no standing in my eyes.  Ask yourself what would Jesus say or think to see the pope, bishops and priests marching around in splendor will ignoring the poor and abused?  

I fear that relying on The Bible as the unerring word of God will ultimately be civilizations’ undoing.  The Bible is an anthology of tales written by people with little knowledge of science and it is used to control people and marginalize a huge segment of the population.  It is full of hatred and wrath.  Thomas Jefferson discovered that over two hundred years ago.

My faith is rooted not in fear of punishment, but rather in seeing how I can be helpful.  I get great pleasure performing good works in secret.

I have no idea how many more birthdays lie ahead.  I know for sure that I’ve accomplished all I’ve ever dreamed of doing and if this is my last birthday I am content. I could leave this life easily. I am certain that I will never seek to cling to life.  I guess I am getting ready.

I am sure I will never win the lottery as I’ve had my chance at luck and struck gold.  Lexus gave me a brand new car this year.  Quelle surprise!

I am enormously grateful to have had the advantage of computers and the internet.  When I look back at how genealogy was done in 1976 when I started I am amazed at the technology we have today.

One last item.  I’m reading “The Edge of Infinity” and it suggests that huge leaps are on the horizon.  We must drop our fear and hypocrisy as we march forward.
We all live with the objective of being happy;
our lives are all different and yet the same.
- Anne Frank

Today is October 12^th 2012 and I am three months into my 70^th trip around the sun. I have survived, but it has been a roller coaster ride and I am hoping to coast gently to the end from here.  A great joy for me was helping Mark and Page find a home that appears perfect.  I always like doing this and the personal experience was fascinating and rewarding.  We’ve come a long way from the old days of MLS when all information was controlled.  Now it is possible to almost buy a home sight unseen on the internet.  Page and the children came for a six week visit while they await their furniture.  It was a magical time to see the three oldest girls so enthusiastic about sewing and knitting.  The baby is very sweet and no trouble at all.  Daniel almost killed himself by pulling over a heavy lamp and my house is a chaotic mess.  Add to that the virus we all developed and the days of misery and it’s fair to say the visit was not uneventful.

The girls are thrilled with their new rooms and eager to decorate them.  While they were here I completed my “Doodles Cute Wair” knitting book and the girls made several successful pieces.

I sought something momentous to mark July 16^th 2012 and it was that day that I signed my non-disclosure agreement with Audrey in anticipation of helping her publish Fred’s book on Sarah Palin. (looking back from October I must report that the project withered on the vine.)  However, a new memorial raised its head in the form of the Coral Reef Project.  When I learned that it was to be dismantled and sold off piece by piece, I offered to buy a large section and donate it to the Great Explorations Children’s Museum.  This is a very suitable marker for my 70^th birthday.

Kelly was born July 9^th.  It was a difficult situation for me, but it seems that was more in my mind than in fact.  She is a lovely child and may be the best of the bunch.  This summer I pulled my spinning project together and sent it off to Vermont.  Haven’t had any door buster sales yet, but I am having fun imaging solutions to tags, advertising and display

July 4^th was a red letter day with the confirmation of the Higgs Boson particle.  I am greatly saddened to hear my daughter say she doubts the theory of evolution, but I must press on.  Science not superstition will be our savior if there is any.

I finally pulled the Affaired d’Art Chihully project off to benefit the Museum of Fine Arts and some of our finer glass pieces have been on six month display celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Art Glass movement.

I continue to read with one of my favorites being “Catherine the Great”.  In addition I discovered that I have a better knowledge of French than I realized.  I interpreted Alla’s genealogy for her.

As is my habit I looked for another human being to help – someone from whom I expected nothing.  This year is was Mark Guidici – the gentleman who came to repair appliances and was a bit depressed.  I wrote his resume for him and suggested advertising tactics.  I continued to encourage Dena my manicurist and she continues to hold on.

Of course the visit last fall of Page and the children was a blessing and a strain – but that is life.  The surprise of it threw my life into a tornado that only now six months later has seen the debris settle.  Her unexpected pregnancy and the secrecy of it caused me to seek professional help.  Through my doctors and friends I learned that her actions were based on the sure knowledge that I would never abandon her.  In a way I suppose my sufferings were a privilege that only a mother can receive.  The pregnancy caused me to reexamine the issue of birth control and the Catholic Church.  I intend to write extensively on the topic elsewhere as I am in the process of research.  The most revealing and shocking is “In The Name of God” by David Yallop

My health is good but each day I note obituaries and know that one day my time will be up – I am ready.  My biggest regret is the emotional trauma the kidlets will suffer when they come to know, as I did, that their religion is full of politics and corruptions.  I do not say this lightly, but after six months of intensive readings I’ve come to know  that the truth about the papacy is disgusting and that’s before you talk of the child molestations.

Our election is in less that six weeks and things are not looking good for our president.  He is an honest man who seeks reconciliation.  He simply cannot believe that Mitt Romney would stand on stage and lie through his teeth.  Unfortunately many Americans watch Fox news and believe all of the vitriol that is spewed.  Case in point is that four years later Sarah Palin is still a very potent force for evil.

I think this will be my last birthday commemoration.  Page and family are back and settled, I’ve had many opportunities to know all the kidlets and they to know me.

Update – February 21, 2013

I am in the process of cleaning up my files and in doing so found an opportunity to reread my comments.  Since there have been significant events I feel they need to be included.  Most significant is the fact that the pope resigned!!!!!!!!!!!!  Being my usual curious self I sought to find the reason.  In a nutshell it seems that the child abuse scandal is about to blow sky high.  A California judge ordered the release of 12,000 pages of documents that show how Bishop Mahoney begged and pleaded with the pope to take action even going so far as making a personal visit to Rome.  The pope did nothing.  Meanwhile Mahoney is accused in civil actions of continuing the cover up and will be deposed before he can go to Rome to vote on the new pope.  Think of it as a circular firing squad.

Benedict has been deep in the cover up since before he was pope and things are starting to unravel.  It first came to light with his butler leaking private papers last spring.  It really reminds me of Watergate.  Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it cannot be put back.  Unfortunately this scandal of scandals concerns the spiritual well-being of many people.  As a child in Catholic school I was taught by the nuns that the worst sin one could commit was to bring scandal to the church; the next worst was hypocrisy.  I can say no more.

The next significant event was the reelection of President Obama and his realization that there was no way he could bargain with the present Republican Party.  I predict that Obama will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents.  The Republicans lost the election and the party is dead on the vine.  It appears that Hillary Clinton my run in 2016 and her thinking is described as being similar to that of the former Republican Party before it was hijacked by the extreme right wing “tea party”.

The very vile Sarah Palin is no longer on Fox News, but still no one will call her on her stunning fake pregnancy.

Recently scientists suggest that the Higgs Boson may indicate that in several billion years the universe will cease to exist.  I guess it just comes and goes endlessly and why not?  I wonder where heaven fits into all of this.  Perhaps I am right – heaven is within each of us all along – we make our own heaven or hell and experience it daily.  I hope to make a bibliography that might interest someone exploring the same idea.

I continue to spin yarn and sold my entire inventory last week at FAB.

I've been meaning to write this myself, but Matthew Fox  has done a far better job.

Margot

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The Dark Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI

Posted: 02/20/2013 12:32 pm

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Catholic Church , Clergy Sex Abuse , New Pope , Opus Dei , Pope Benedict Resignation ,Renewal Of Christianity , The Pope's War , Vatican , Vatican Corruption , Religion News

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The pope has chosen to step down, the first pope in seven centuries to do so. As a Christian, I witness his legacy, and that of his predecessor, with profoundly mixed feelings: outrage over the crimes committed against the people of God, and relief that the masks covering the corruption of the papacy have at last been removed.

I see that the 42-year reign of the past two popes has so destroyed the church we once knew that now the Holy Spirit can give birth to a community far more attuned to the revolutionary Gospel of Jesus than the current and dying structures ever could be. More than ever, we recognize the warning of historian Lord Acton after Vatican Council I defined papal infallibility: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

We have witnessed how Cardinal Martini on his deathbed, issued a damning call to action to a church "200 years behind the times." We have witnessed the retaliation of the past two popes against theologians and pastoral ministers who have dared to dissent for the sake of social justice, eco-justice, gender and gender preference justice: 105 and more have been and continue to be hounded, silenced and expelled.

So as one of these dissidents, speaking now from outside the Vatican's punitive reach, I offer a short list of some of the issues for which history will hold Ratzinger accountable, both as cardinal and as pope (I offer page numbers of my study on his life and papacy in my book, "The Pope's War: How Ratzinger's Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved," to see the backup evidence).

1. His silence for years about the notorious pedophile priest Father Maciel, who was so close to Pope John Paul II that he was often invited on the papal plane -- and who sexually abused dozens of his seminarians, had two wives on the side and sexually abused his own children. Fr. Maciel was not fully investigated until 2005 even though a New York bishop reported his actions to Ratzinger's office in 1995 (125-130).
2. His attacks while head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly "Office of the Holy Inquisition") on theologians and pastoral leaders the world over who dared to do their job which is to think (they are listed on page 238-241 but the list keeps growing).
3. His (and his predecessor's) bringing back the Inquisition and dumbing-down the church, educing theology to 1) a catechism and 2) agreement with the dictates of the pope and his curia. History does not remember Torquemada as a theologian; neither will they remember Ratzinger as one.
4. His unrelenting attacks on base communities and Liberation Theology even though this movement, like the civil rights movement of the U.S., was the most Christ-like movement for democracy and justice and freedom in centuries (41-62).
5. His (and the previous pope's) promotion of neo-fascist sects as the new "religious orders," including Opus Dei, which is now embedded in places of great power including the financial headquarters of E.U., the U.S. Supreme Court, the CIA (especially under George Bush the first), FBI and the U.S. mainstream media (106-124).
6. His and the previous pope's support for extreme right wing groups from Maciel's Legion of Christ to Communion and Liberation to Opus Dei (130-144). Opus Dei members are being placed as bishops and cardinals in Latin America and now in North America: Los Angeles, the biggest North American diocese, is run by an Opus Dei bishop. Likewise the diocese of Kansas City, whose bishop is convicted of covering up for a predatory priest but refuses to step down.
7. His destroying the integrity of the canonization process by eliminating the role of "devil's advocate" in pointing out the shadow side of the candidate. With this obstacle out of the way, Ratzinger pushed through the canonization of the founder of Opus Dei, Fr. Escriva -- a recognized fascist who praised Hitler -- faster than any saint in history (106-125).
8. His covering up the scandal of pedophile clergy and putting the image of the Catholic church ahead of the rights of young children in the U.S., in Ireland and elsewhere. The recent HBO film "Mea Maxima Culpa" tells the facts about some of these horrors and how the buck stopped with Ratzinger (134-174).
9. His public disrespect for other faiths and disavowal of religious ecumenism. Ratzinger as pope managed to insult Islam, Judaism, all Protestant churches (saying they are not churches) and the mind-body-spirit practice of yoga. As cardinal he presaged this anti-ecumenical attitude, unbelievably calling the globally revered Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, "the anti-Christ" (260).
10. His absolute reaffirmation of a "morality" of sexism (no women priests ever; Catholic sisters in America are now being subjected to inquisitions as theologians have been; priests who support women are dismissed -- but pedophile priests are not!).
11. His un-Christlike diatribes against gay persons, borne out in not one but two documents: his ignoring scientific research on homosexuality has created another Galileo moment in church history.
12. His irresponsible positions against condoms even in an age of AIDS and against birth control in a time of excessive human population on a crowded planet. His positions on sexuality are all about St. Augustine's antiquated ethics and not anything Jesus ever taught.
13. His interference in the presidential election of 2004, wherein Ratzinger instructed American bishops that any "Catholic politician" (i.e. Kerry) who did not denounce gays and abortion could not receive communion. This resulted in three states having very unusual Republican votes from Catholics -- if just one of them had had a more normal Catholic vote, Kerry, not Bush, would have been president.

With such a track record as this, Father Ratzinger is right to retire. Unfortunately, because he and his predecessor appointed only yes men as cardinals, one should not expect any improvement in the next pope.

Instead, we should recognize that history has passed the papacy by. Now is the time for the Holy Spirit to push the restart button on Christianity -- both Catholic and Protestant versions -- so as to strip down to the essence of Jesus' teaching and the Cosmic Christ tradition.

Christianity can be rebuilt without basilicas on our backs but mere backpacks. Travel lightly. Walk humbly. Do justice. And peace will follow.