Mean Girls Grow Up

Remember those mean girls from high school? The ones who spent most of their waking hours inventing lists of those who supposedly harmed them?
They are all grown up now, alive and well, practicing their vindictiveness in the workplace.
With all the responsibilities on our plates, as adults, you would think they had more to worry about. Well apparently their miserable lives continue to be miserable and they still believe the problem is outside of themselves.
56 women work in my place of employment.
The women fight. Literally. They yell and scream (so does the boss). They accuse one another of talking behind their backs. They stomp, huff and preen.
It is enough to make one crazy.
Yesterday we were chastised like little kids. Parents I know don't demean their children is the manner we were chastised.
I am way too old for this garbage. I'm a Grandma. Life is too short.
Knock it off, women. Get therapy or shut up and do your job.
Grow up. We don't really care if you feel snubbed. Get over it. It's a grown up world for big people so stop your tantrums. You may have been cute and got away with it in high school but it isn't working for you now. All it does is tell the rest of us you aren't doing your job.

Let Occupy Wall Street Ear Cake..

Mainstream media's efforts to ignore Occupy Wall Street, minimize  or deride it is interesting. One would have to do a little research to identify the actual owners or
members of the boards, but it is telling. One has to do some real digging to find the stories. How can that be? Rome burned. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets is many countries. One would think it would make headlines!
Why encourage the masses, why incite what already exists?

For those who choose to minimize this outpouring of anger-you might want to think it through. Unheard voices, thousands of them, don't disappear because those who own the 99% of the entire pie decide those voices are unworthy of their attention.

One poster likened it to their four year old having a temper tantrum.
Really? If you ignore it -it will go away?

Our nations politicians better start paying attention.
When you call citizens of a country, speaking out about injustice "mobs", you may become right.

Have we not learned from past movements in our country? Have we not matured at all? Do we really need to return to the violence and protest of the sixties to hear the nations voices?

An enlightened society would be beyond all that. We would have been ahead of the curve. The same failed policies that got us to this point continue to be the same failed policies our politicians want to continue to enforce. Make new cheese, fools!
Have we not learned that making the same mistakes with no new results is called abject failure?

Occupy Wall Street-Hear Our Voices

The world is finally waking up. Our lives, our quality of life, should not, will not be tied to global capitalism. We cannot continue to hear we should tighten our belts and suffer for the good of of the nations while our livelihood is terminated or diminished.
The financial sectors of countries continue to reap windfall profits, citizens bail out banks and large corporations, yet our children cannot find jobs, are unable to live independently, our young children and elderly parents cannot afford or access health and dental care, and prices continue to rise.
Those who have look contemptuously upon those who are suffering. History repeats itself. Governments, corporations, banks and financial institutions need to be paying attention.
When laws fail citizens, when laws make huge exceptions for the wealthy and greedy, when governments and politicians are owned by global financial institutions we risk anarchy, we risk losing all that began as good.
Unfair practices lead to resentment and hostility. Peaceful demonstrations are occurring in some countries, violence in others.
Take note of those with violence. They are thousands of years old and have provided for their citizens well enough to keep them from resenting the rich. These countries are beyond that now-citizens will not accept meager portions of the economic pie so a few can live an impossibly wealthy lifestyle.

Our country may not experience violent protests at present. Look at our history. I am old enough to remember Watts, the Detroit Civil riots which spread to small cities. I remember the burning and looting, the frustration of a pent up black citizenry which could no longer be contained.

Our country needs to make significant changes-now.
Politicians are considered with contempt. Governments, local, state and federal are considered corrupt.

How loud do the American people need to speak to be heard?
I am hoping voices will be enough for our country to listen. The alternative is frightening.

Babyboomer Tailgaters

I am one of the babyboomer tailgaters.
Most babyboomers have reached 65. They have their retirements. They have Social Security. Their work and lives have been during a lucrative era. They smugly sit at home with retirement packages and 401k's voting in line with the Tea Party.
This generation had advantages no other generation experienced. Their parents, most gone, gave them the sense they were the most important generation of our world.
They act like it. They believe if you can't make it in this life you deserve to suffer. This generation who fought for equal rights, civil rights and helping those less fortunate are truly the most selfish of generations.
Now they don't want to pay for anything not related to their retirement lives.
As a tailgater in my fifties no benefits come my way that come close to the Boomers.
Many people in their fifties have been laid off to save money. Congress wants to screw with Social Security. People have lost jobs, homes, retirement investments and the kids come home to live because no jobs are available.
Those in their fifties are deemed not desirable to hire. They are left to figure out how to survive in a world with no safety net and no promise of Social Security.
A few years ago I bought a bed from a man losing his house. He was a rocket scientist who had been laid off from his government job after 20 years. He was moving in with his daughter and son in law.

The tailgaters hang on to whatever jobs they can, take pay cuts, work extra hours and dread retirement. What will they have? No investment money from a home. No 401k. No chance to build a lifetime of savings such as the younger generations. Continued responsibility for elderly parents, adult children.
Increasing prices in the cost of living.

Tailgaters are discriminated by age in the job market. NO protections (or little) are left to protect them in a hostile work environment.

Congress is so corrupt we have no democratic recourse to change the situation.
Tailgaters are screwed.

Sarah Palin, five minutes of fame and millions later

When you are on the road in a red, white and blue bus, stomping the important election venues with only one purpose: to rake in the high speaking fees, why would you want to run for President of the United States?
Take a pay cut?
Hopefully, the relevance of this person will decrease, knowing her loyalty to the country was a sham to begin with.

Vaccinate? Delusion or Truth?

My daughter refuses to vaccinate her 17 month old son. She reports a teacher in her school told her they were more dangerous than the possibilities.
Having grown up during a time of limited vaccines, I remember contracting the measles, mumps and chicken pox. Hepatitis wasn't even a disease.
Whooping cough and polio were still in evidence.
I can't seem to get her to understand the seriousness of these diseases.
Many of her friends feel the same way. She adamantly believes autism may be a result of vaccinations. No proof is proof for her.
That seems to be the root of many of the problems in our country today.
Truth, or proof, seems to be automatically suspect.
How did we become such an ignorant and stubborn population?
One which will destroy ourselves because we do not have the capability to sort out truth from deception.
Have we been deceived by those in positions of authority so often we have become a nation of disbelievers, regardless of the consequences??

Seniors, don't count on that drink..

Research shows elderly people live longer if they see events in their lives with  the "glass half full" attitude.
I suppose that would be true if the Republicans weren't so intent on taking the glass away from seniors and telling them to be grateful they ever had a drink in the first place.

School Districts Fail Children Not Teachers

When will the public start asking questions? Teachers have no control over the curriculum, the schedule of the curriculum or the evaluation of students.  School district administrations call the shots.
School districts are failing because no one is looking in the right direction.
When Americans scrutinize, evaluate and hold school district administrators accountable for the poor management of the thousands of competent, qualified teachers, education will change.
This nation is shooting at the wrong targets.
In the business world management heads would roll if the product was inferior.
Only in education do school administrations continue to get paid the 100,00 plus salaries with little accountability.
The inferior product is not a result of the teachers. It is a result of  poor management, high turnover, and cronyism.
What is with this country?
Start asking the right questions.
Who sets the curriculum for the district?
Who tells teachers what to teach and how?
How much actual time is set for instruction as opposed to testing and other required district and school functions? Who sets policy for homework ?
How are instructional materials acquired in a school district?
What redress do teachers have when an unethical administrator runs the school?
How does the district handle poor administration of schools?
Who oversees poor administration on a district level?
Where does the money go beyond teachers salaries?
Districts will give all kinds of pat answers to those questions. The real truth is teachers are not a part of the decision making process for what and how your children learn. It is school administrators who call the shots.
Hold them accountable.

Americans are shooting the wrong horse.