Words to Live By

Two incidents have recently caught the eyes of the nation. Both are related to the upcoming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Both are completely permissible and legal. Initiators of both events are well within their rights to move forward with their plans.

And personally, I don't think either should take place.

I am, of course, talking about the proposed mosque/Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero and the Quran Burning planned by Terry Jones, a Christian pastor in Florida. Both have met with significant opposition, as well as support.

I find it interesting that both events share the common ground of 9/11. Both organizers have publicly decried the events of 9/11. Both are proposing events that, while legal in the strictest sense of the word, are causing great controversy among Americans. On the surface, it would seem that they would be on the "same side", so to speak.

And honestly, that's really what it comes down to. The fact that one wants to build a religious/community structure and one wants to burn holy books from that same religion is really irrelevant.

Both are legal.

But with such an emotionally charged event looming large in the background of both, organizers should pause before pursuing either project.

And while great historical thinkers and doers have not necessarily been stopped by public opinion or emotion, they have certainly considered it.

And perhaps remembered two things:

Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Being LEGAL doesn't make something RIGHT.

Good Luck

I'm not superstitious. At all. I don't believe that Friday the 13th is a particularly unlucky day. Just the fact that it's Friday should be cause for celebration!

So in celebration, I did what any blogger worth her salt would do. I swiped this idea from a fellow blogger. Jenny from Chased by Children did a 13 blog today. And so I give you my Random 13.

1. I was 13 for 6 months in 1982 and 6 months in 1983.

2. 13 years ago I was teaching high school band and music appreciation.

3. I've never seen any of the Friday the 13th movies. I don't do horror and gore.

4. This was my 13th blog post.

5. Sweet Son #1 will turn 13 in 2013. I have a friend who always said she wanted to have a baby in 2000 so she'd always remember how old the kid was. She didn't. I did.

6. Many high rise buildings don't have a 13th floor. Floors are numbered sequentially "...11, 12, 14, 15..."

7. Mary Kay Ash started her business on Friday, September 13th in 1963. MK Corporate Headquarters is a 13 story building and has 13 elevators. She felt 13 was a lucky number for her.

8. Apollo 13 is one of my favorite movies. 2. The actual Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date's digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). Luckily, the crew all returned safely to earth.

9. There will be three Friday the 13th occurrences this year. February, March and November all have them.

10. Apparently, superstitious dining parties of 13 in Paris can hire a professional 14th guest, called a quatorzieme.

11. 13 of anything (not just bread) is known as a "Baker's Dozen". Henry III was serious about customer service.

12. The 13 letter of the alphabet is M.

13. If you were born on February 13th, 1996, today is your Golden Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

In case you've been under a rock, or you don't happen to live in Kentucky or Illinois, today is the bicentennial celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. I never really thought too much about our sixteenth president, with the exception of the annual President's Day holiday from school.

But 200 years is a pretty significant milestone, and since I do live in the "Land of Lincoln" (it says so on my license plate!), I thought a little tribute was in order.

In college I developed a love for the music of composer Aaron Copland. He was a creative genius and I could listen to his music all day. We had the privilege of playing "Lincoln Portrait" during my junior or senior year in Wind Ensemble. It's an incredible piece of music that has a text, read by a narrator.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history."

That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe Lincoln said.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall, and this is what he said.

He said: "It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]

Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a melancholy man. But when he spoke of democracy, this is what he said.

He said: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen. For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he said:

He said: "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Here is an incredible rendition of "Lincoln Portrait" by Fred Child and the U.S. Marine Band.

Enjoy.

Reruns

Originally posted on June 25, 2008...

Found on many blogs, Mrs. Decker's among them.

***

I am from books and potato fields, wallpaper paste and Norwegian painting.

I am from base housing and farmhouses, brick homes on the Cape and brick homes in subdivisions.

I am from the peonies and bird houses, hostas, roses and pine strewn forests.

I am from creamed herring on New Year's, octegenarian and nonegenarian women, from Hilja and Tuulikki, Alvin and Eugene, Justina and Sylvia.

I am from stubbornness and short legs.

From quiet Finns and sitting in the garage watching the thunderstorms.

I am from Schubert's "Ave Maria" and "Yes, Sister Mary Heliadora", May Crownings and "Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary".

I am from Wisconsin and Germany, Bohemia and Finland, Switzerland and Minnesota, from pulla and kolaches.

From the saunas of Ely, Minnesota and the pride of the U.S. Air Force.

I am from painters and nurses, teachers and factory workers, and and a library janitor smarter than all of us put together.

I am from letters to a young mother from a father in Alaska and photos sent to proud family members hundreds of miles away, unconditional love and a German Mother's Medal stolen from the Nazis by my Great-Uncle during WWII.

I am love and life, music and silence, joys and sorrows, friendship and passion.

And me.

***

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.
I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it).
Further description.I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Don't worry about following form exactly. Can't wait to read everyone's!

Who are you?

Rush to Judgment

I'd just like to start out with a quick little prayer that Diva Papa and Diva Nana don't disown me after this post. The Diva Grands have a long and honorable history of voting Republican. Very Republican. Very. Very. Republican.

That being said, I've mentioned before that I didn't vote for Barack Obama as President. I didn't vote for him as Illinois Senator either, but that's another election.

I did, however, watch the Inauguration today. It was pretty cool, sitting in the dining hall at Diva U. with probably 300 students, watching history in the making. He is, after all the President of the United States of America, not just the President of the Democrats, so I'll give him all the respect due a man of his office.

Besides, I'm an event coordinator by profession and a Presidential Inauguration? Is one wicked cool event. So although Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi made me want to hurl, I could even chalk it up to professional development if I felt the need to justify my viewing.

Which I don't.

But the fact that I watched (and was impressed by) the Inauguration isn't really the point here.

On the way back to my office, I flipped on the radio to a local talk radio station. It's got a reputation for being the "conservative" station in the Windy City, and the normal show on in that particular time slot is Rush Limbaugh.

Now I realize that a good percentage of his comments are designed to elicit interest from listeners. And don't forget that I agree with a lot of his positions. But today, I was so irritated by his running commentary on the Inauguration, that I turned it off in a huff.

It's probably no surprise to anyone that Rush Limbaugh didn't vote for President Obama. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. And the man makes his living being a bit outspoken. But seriously, Obama won the election fair and square. And while you certainly don't have to be happy that he won, sometimes it's better to follow a mother's advice.

If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Bad form, Rush. Bad form.