Victims

Yesterday's emails from gun safety groups implored me to watch Gabrielle Giffords' "inspiring" testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  While I understand the use of this adjective as it describes her courage and perseverance, my adjective would be different: "heartbreaking"comes closer to the presentation I watched.  For this once lively, articulate Congresswoman from Arizona could barely read better than the children gunned down last month in Connecticut.

The victims of gun violence in America include many more than those who actually die each year.  Disabilities abound as lives are shattered every day.  Emotional trauma passes from one generation to the next in families destroyed by this scourge.  And communities are torn apart by the dangers of an armed society.

Whenever I'm asked to sign a gun safety petition, I always write in the comment section, "End the madness."  For this is what it is.  Our arrogance and stupidity are breathtaking--that we don't look to other countries as models, that we disregard the views of our police and public safety officers, and that we think the rights of gun owners supersede the safety of the rest of us.

Wayne LaPierre said yesterday that "it's time to throw an immediate blanket of security around our children" by installing armed security officers in schools.  How about throwing a blanket around guns instead, keeping them in as few hands as possible with strict regulations?

I for one would feel a lot safer.

The Garden in Winter

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius."
- Pietro Aretino

"When the bold branches
Bid farewell to rainbow leaves --
Welcome wool sweaters."
- B. Cybrill

"'Hear! Hear!' screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, 'winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.'"
- Henry David Thoreau

We the People

This week the wind seemed to shift.  From President Obama's inaugural speech to Hillary Clinton's testimony to the Pentagon's lifted combat ban, progressives are no longer obsolete.  Bob Dylan must know how we feel.  Sing to the tune of "The Times They Are A-Changin'":

Come gather round people
Our time is at hand
A new breeze is blowin'
Across the whole land
Our president spoke
And he made a command
That it's time for us to start livin'
The words that our forefathers wrote long ago
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
Get out of the way
If you can't accept all
For the tent that's our country
Grows bigger
And the sooner you get it the better we'll be
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The sides are made clear
Cling to the past
Source of all fear
Block out the noises
You don't want to hear
The old world is
Gradually fadin'
Freedom and rights always win in the end
For the times they are a-changin'.

And The Winner Is. . .

Yesterday's hearings on the attacks in Benghazi featured many aspiring actors.  Here are my Oscar winners:

The "Pontificating Attack Dog" Award to Rand Paul for puffing himself up as he blasted Secretary Clinton.

The "Grumpy, Tired Old Man" Award to John McCain for being exactly that.

The "Diplomat With Dignity" Award to Hillary Clinton for intelligence, clarity, and grace.

The "We Know Better Than You, Little Lady" Award to most of the Republicans, especially Senator Ron Johnson, Representative Joe Wilson, and Representative Dana Rohrabacher for their obnoxious denigration of Secretary Clinton.

The "Most Overstated and Irrelevant Part of the Story" Award to Susan Rice's appearances on the Sunday morning news shows, a red herring if there ever was one.

A Dog's Life: Cassidy

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

- Anatole France

Clarence Thomas Speaks

In the midst of an historic week in Washington--as President Obama took on gun violence and the NRA--came this unrelated nugget: Clarence Thomas was heard speaking during a Supreme Court session, breaking seven years of silence.  Imagine.  As one of our more bizarre public figures, Thomas gets his own song today.  Sing to the tune of "Three Blind Mice":

One mute judge,
One mute judge,
Finally talked,
Finally talked.
The other day he told a joke,
We all were shocked that he really spoke,
This guy who's known for drinking a Coke
Is one mute judge.

At Long Last

The NRA and its supporters can wrap themselves in the second amendment all they want and stand on the wrong--and immoral--side of history.  President Obama and Vice President Biden have done what's right.

Leadership at last.

Binders Full of Statesmen

The various flaps over President Obama's cabinet picks are off the mark, I think.  I'm glad he chose John Kerry for Secretary of State (and not Susan Rice) and Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense (and not Michele Flournoy).  I'm also glad he's tapping Vice President Biden for major initiatives.  Why?  We live in extraordinary times and face extraordinary challenges, and we need larger-than-life people with lots of experience as public servants to do the work.  I'm only sorry we don't have more such people.

We especially don't have many women.  Hillary Clinton is one of the few right now who fit the description, and she has served impeccably.  Olympia Snow is another woman currently not in government who has the requisite stature and experience.

The fact is, we need people who are more than "really smart" or "really talented."  We need experienced statesmen and, where possible, stateswomen who have worked in government for decades and who understand Washington.

That the resulting selections are white men may be regrettable.  But if they can do the work, that's what really matters.

Joe Biden Rising

Here's to Joe Biden.  He's emerged as President Obama's best emissary and negotiator during both the fiscal cliff talks and now in discussions on gun violence.  Perhaps this development is a sign that the President will use the executive branch more in his second term rather than defer to our hapless Congress.

With the American folk song "Old Joe Clark" as our guide, we salute the Vice President (and hope that he continues to take charge--rather than the Congressional leaders who've gotten us nowhere):

Joe Biden he made a deal
With the other side,
Stepped into a big old mess
Of talks that had just died.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Harry Reid,
Hello Joe Biden
It's time for you to lead.

Joe Biden he is our man
Taking on tough stuff,
Trying to enact a ban
'Cause we've had enough.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Nancy P,
Hello Joe Biden
You now hold the key.

Joe Biden he listens well
Gets along with all,
Doesn't demonize his foes
Up and down the Mall.

Hello Joe Biden
Good-bye Mitch and John,
Hello Joe Biden
We're so glad you won.

Medical Malarkey

A headline on nytimes.com last night caught my attention: "Test for Cervical Cancer May Detect Other Types."  I clicked on the article eager to learn which cancers might now be treatable.  The news sounded promising.

I should have known better, for a few sentences later came the usual let-down: "But the research is early, years away from being used in medical practice, and there are caveats."

Sometimes I feel like telling medical researchers to keep their work to themselves until they have proven methods of treatment.  Such thoughts are ignorant, I realize, for disseminating information is crucial to advancing knowledge.  Nonetheless, we read these sorts of stories over and over again, raising false hopes for what's available now.

Medical research and its accompanying reporting are full of misleading, confusing information.  Take this recent one, for example.  After being told for years that most of us need to lose weight, we read in The Times that a "Study Suggests Lower Mortality Risk for Overweight People."  "Fat per se is not as bad as we thought," says one researcher, while another says, "We wouldn't want  people to think, 'Well, I can take a pass and gain more weight.'"

The contradictions are almost laughable.  It's hard to know what to do.  But continuing to view our medical profession as somehow holier than thou is misguided. 

I think the emperor wears no clothes.

A Dog Lover's Life

I had intended to gather interesting quotations from the weekend and post them this morning.  I was prompted by Maureen Dowd's column yesterday in The New York Times, where she rightly applauded Joe Biden's negotiations with Congress and ended by saying, "He knows how to stoop to conquer."  I'm sure I could have found other such observations.  But then life intruded and I got one of those remarks from our dog's vet that makes time stop.  "I'm concerned that he has a brain tumor," he said of our beloved Cassidy.

I've heard similar diagnoses before in my life, sometimes directed at me and sometimes told to me about those I love.  The effect is always the same: the taste of food dulls, the light around me sharpens, and memories flood in.  Life in the moment and on the edge.

In the midst of this, I appreciate above all the kindness of our vet, the love of family and friends, and the wondrous and wonderful companionship of our two dogs, Cassidy and Sundance.  They've brought to my life miracles beyond anything I could ever have imagined, gifts of a lifetime.

Living on the edge is the least I can do for them.

The Fools on the Hill

On New Year's Eve our local PBS station broadcast the original film of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour.  Wild and wacky, it features a segment where Paul McCartney sings "The Fool on the Hill."  How amusing to hear this song on the very eve that our Republican-led House of Representatives attempted to steer us over the cliff, veering dangerously towards the extreme views of its party.

Day after day,
"At work" on the Hill,
The men of the Tea Party keep thwarting
bill after bill
And most of us just don't get them,
We can see that they're really fools,
'Cause they never give an answer

'Cept to keep the rich untaxed,
For they don't understand,
And the eyes in their head,
See their world giving way.

Full of themselves,
Heads in a cloud,
These men of unreasoned voices talking perfectly loud
And very few want to hear them,
Or the sound they appear to make,
'Cause they never give an answer

'Cept to keep the rich untaxed,
For they don't understand,
And the eyes in their head,
See their world giving way.

And even John Boehner irks them,
They won't do what he wants them to,
'Cause they have their own agenda,

All these fools on the Hill,
See the sun going down,
And the eyes in their head,
See their world giving way.

Winter Landscape: The Interloper