CNN Town Hall Mon Night

Chris Christie laid it in on Trump! He did not avoid mentioning his name numerous times during the 1 ½ hour town hall on CNN last night. But the comment from him that I loved was “…Trump and Biden…they are past their ‘sell by dates’ ”!

The Mother’s Day Myth

Two women with wide smiles embracing each other…you know they love each other. Revelations by the daughter as to how her mom helped her through her childhood years. Daughters who credit their moms with all their successes and positive mindsets. Oh what a Hallmark time of the year!
And that is just what it is. A holiday created by a greeting card company. So why do I want to puke every Mother’s Day when I have to tolerate these photos and news broadcasts about mom as the saint in someone’s life? Because my relationship with my mother did not come close to these wonderful, joyous myths!
When I first started to admit to these negative feelings on this sacred day, I thought it was because I no longer have a mother. She passed away decades ago. Then I thought it was jealously to see these happy mother and daughter couples that I was forced to view (week before and overloaded on the day). But then the darker side of my memories reared its ugly head.
My mother was like a thousand others who were not “Hallmark” moms. She was flawed with psychological problems, selfishness, and the baggage of being an unwanted child born illegitimately in an era when illegitimacy was like having a scarlet letter branded upon her. I have very few positive memories of her from my childhood or when I tried to be the “good daughter” as an adult.
She didn’t beat me but believed in the old European adage that “spare the rod and spool the child” so for many minor infractions of her rules I’d get a paddling on the you know where. She also believed that too much praise didn’t form character and that what she wanted me to become I should be because she knew what was good for me…and of course she “loved” me in a self-centered, smothering way.
But that is my personal perspective on Mother’s Day. Upon thinking this through, finally after 72 years of life and 23 years without her presence, I realized I was also revolting against a made up stereotype of the Holy Mother Mary that each of these Mother Day moms represents. I have seen too many really broken children, read too many articles about bad mothers, listened to friends and neighbors talk about their mothers’ failures in their lives all resulting in making me feel sad that we must mythologize mothers. What about all the poor girls who were beaten to a pulp by their angry, drunk or drug addicted mothers? What about the women who now in adulthood don’t have any sense of self-esteem or hate their bodies, or hate themselves totally because of the script their mothers put in their heads? And God only knows what today’s daughters will grow into under the mothers who didn’t want them but couldn’t get an abortion, or who punish them for their sexual orientation.
At least my memories of mom aren’t that beastly.  So, I would like to create a “Dark Mother’s Day” where we reach out to all the hurt, broken daughters and give them a Hallmark moment that would help start to repair their lives instead of promulgating a myth that destroyed theirs!

Is Banning TikTok Really a Good Idea?

I don’t use TikTok except to view other people’s postings. I don’t have the ap on my phone and don’t plan to. However, my choice is not based on fear of China getting my private information. I just have no use for it! But I am “creeped out” whenever I hear of a piece of software that could track my whereabouts, discover enough private information that it could hack into my bank accounts, or that would open the doors to stalking.
Our government believes that the only solution is to put a “ban” into affect.
I don’t trust China or for that matter most foreign countries as to what they can do and what they promise not to do in the software/cyberspace realm. On the other hand, our government also isn’t sinless in this aspect. We all know that if they want to spy on someone they can, laws be damned! And if China wants our information, they currently can already get it through other channels, not just through the TikTok ap.

So what’s a really good reason to ban it? What Ezra Klien puts forth in his Opinion Piece: TikTok May Be More Dangerous Than It Looks
New York Times May 8, 2022 (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/opinion/tiktok-twitter-china-bytedance.html) is more convincing to me: that the Chinese could use TikTok to manipulate a false narratives that millions of users would buy into:

“But it [a ban] does not address other ways that China could weaponize the platform, like tweaking TikTok algorithms to increase exposure to divisive content, or adjusting the platform to seed or encourage disinformation campaigns.

Let’s call this the manipulation problem. TikTok’s real power isn’t over our data. It’s over what users watch and create. It’s over the opaque algorithm that governs what gets seen and what doesn’t.”

“TikTok has been thick with videos backing the Russian narrative on the war in Ukraine. Media Matters, for instance, tracked an apparently coordinated campaign driven by 186 Russian TikTok influencers who normally post beauty tips, prank videos and fluff…”

“Imagine a world in which the United States has a contested presidential election, as it did in 2020. If one candidate was friendlier to Chinese interests, might the Chinese Communist Party insist that ByteDance give a nudge to content favoring that candidate? Or if they wanted to weaken America rather than shape the outcome, maybe TikTok begins serving up more and more videos with election conspiracies, sowing chaos at a moment when the country is near fracture.

But that would make it all the more powerful a propaganda outlet, if deployed. And because each TikTok feed is different, we have no real way of knowing what people are seeing. It would be trivially easy to use it to shape or distort public opinion, and to do so quietly, perhaps untraceably.”

He ends with:

“In all of this, I’m suggesting a simple principle, albeit one that will not be simple to apply: Our collective attention is important. Whoever (or whatever) controls our attention controls, to a large degree, our future. The social media platforms that hold and shape our attention need to be governed in the public interest.”

On the other hand…

Fareed Zakaria’s Opinion piece, Why banning TikTok won’t do any good,
Washington Post April 7, 2023 at 7:45 a.m. EDT nicely summarized all the arguments against a ban:

“And when I look at the legislation being proposed that would enable the U.S. government to ban TikTok, I see a frightening, Orwellian law that should send chills down every American’s spine.”

“If we ban TikTok, will we also ban Chinese media companies from distributing pamphlets or books in the United States? Will we ban all Chinese video game companies, which are giants in the industry? The premise of an open society is that people should be free to consume what information they want — and that we are stronger for it.”

“A bipartisan group of senators has put forward legislation… This law would give virtually unlimited powers to the U.S. administration to prevent or punish any company that has tech or information products or services that — in the administration’s view — pose an ‘undue or unacceptable risk to U.S. national security or the safety of U.S. persons.’

We are living in times when state governments are banning books by the hundreds, when speech is considered a weapon and when politicians openly talk about shutting down dangerous ideas.”

“But the key to the United States’ success and dynamism, decade after decade, has been its openness, innovation and belief in the vigorous contest of ideas, products and services. …We should not lose that confidence in a panic over one Chinese app.”

“There is a much better way to solve this problem — a comprehensive data privacy law that would protect all Americans’ data and give people the right to stop companies from using, misusing and selling it. Unfortunately, taking on Big Tech is a much more difficult battle than bashing China.”

There you have it, point and counterpoint. Now it’s for the government and the legal people to hash out what is best for our nation. Sadly, the users of TikTok, us common citizens, will have no input in this processes or the final decision. But you can bet that if there is a ban, the lawsuits will be flying!

But maybe really why our government wants to ban TikTok is because it’s the “eye in the sky”. Millions of people have this ap on their smartphones, millions of people take photographs that show government failures or things like police beatings. Millions…you ban this and it becomes impossible for your or me to share what is going on. It’s the “share part” that probably scares the bejeezus out of our politicians, not what China could do!

NJ City covers Putin’s name on Tear Drop 9/11 memorial

Looking back on the 21^st year since 9/11, I came across this interesting news tidbit: “In support of Ukraine, on March 14 2022, Bayonne, NJ covered Putin’s name on the Tear Drop 9/11 Memorial”.
The Tear Drop 9/11 Memorial is an impressive monument inscribed with the names of the 9/11 victims and was a gift from the people of Russia to the US in 2005.
Its official name is “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism”, and is made of stone by Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli. The monument is located at the end of the former Military Ocean Terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
The mayor of Bayonne, Jimmy Davis, directed Tommy Cotter, the city’s director of public works, to cover Putin’s name on two plaques, where it appears in both English and Cryllic. “Basically what’s happening in Ukraine right now is like a form of terrorism, the invasion of that country,” Cotter told NBC New York news.
 “We will never take down this monument,” Mayor Davis said in a statement posted to social media. “We have, however, have taken steps to cover the name of Putin, due to his recent actions against the people of Ukraine.”
In my opinion, this was the best way that the people of Bayonne could honor not only the 9/11 victims inscribed upon this memorial but also all those who have died in Ukraine due to Putin’s war.

Resurrections

The Concrete Cathedral

They have returned,
This congregation of webbed feet,
Hard shells, scaly skin.
Lifting their heads to the sky
They sing praises in chirps, croaks, hisses.
Simple prayers of thanksgiving for Spring’s return.

The dry reeds replaced with green shoots;
A soft carpet of mud covers the ground.
The wind blows warm damp smells,
The wetlands own brand of incense.

Close by the New Jersey Turnpike transects
These pools and ponds.
Its concrete pilings, cathedral like archways,
Rise to the sky.

This is the time of resurrections:
Jesus from his tomb,
Small creatures from hibernation.
God’s denizens now gather to mate,
A ceremony of joy to honor their creator!

No organ or guitar music plays,
Only the rush of the wind
Or the whistle of a train can be heard.
And God is pleased
For his creations, his small creatures,
In this grand concrete cathedral
Give homage to his greatness.
Alleluia, the Resurrection is complete.

Poem for the holidays

This poem was inspired by Pink’s “What About Us” song. After all those months when hurricanes and fires were devastating peoples lives, I just felt I had to say something about those of us who won’t find this Holiday season a season of joy.

What About…?
.
What about
Those of us
Who stand alone in the night?
.
What about
Those of us
Who live in singular fright?
.
What about
Those of us
Who cannot go out
Who have no small ones
Who joyously laugh and shout?
.
Can we find
Comfort in that Holy Night
Can an event
2000 years passed
make it right?
.
What about
Those of us
In poverty and pain?
.
What about
Those of us
Who lost houses to hurricane rains?
.
What about
Those of us
Where fire burned
Who in the ashes sit alone
Who this holiday have no home?
.
What about us…
What about us…
Can the Savior save us from our pain?
Can there be a Christmas
When our tears fall like rain?
What about us?

The Season of Ghosts

The trees have dropped their mantels of orange and yellow.
Without their flaming reds, their bare up-stretched limbs
Are skeletal shadows petitioning some tree god above.
.
My clothes closet, a treasure trove of holiday times passed,
Contains mom’s maroon wedding dress, altered for a party
Attended in happier days, not worn since.
.
Pungent pine scents remind me of the fresh trees you brought me.
Your handwritten note pressed between the pages of an old journal,
Makes me cry, as I decorate without you on another Christmas Eve.
.
Unpacking my ornaments is like riding a time machine to the past:
Mom comes alive in the “Shiny Brights”, my lover in the clear ones,
The history of my life all living on in those bits of blown glass.
.
Memories of yesteryear come alive as the random play list scrolls
Its songs, jolting me away from today to vanished people and places.
Touching, as only music can, both the happy and the sad in my heart.
.
It is the season of ghosts, a time when memories jump out
From the least expected places in my life.
And on Christmas day, these ghosts will join me at my dinner table
To celebrate what once was and can never be again

The Holidays

Well, Black Friday is over and today is Cyber Monday. Shop till you drop for stuff you really don’t need or can’t afford. So I wrote this little poem about it:

To Hell With Christmas
.
It’s holiday time in America
Hanukka and Christmas be dammed.
We’re stampeding Walmart and Target,
Our SUVs will be crammed.
.
Is this what Jesus was born for,
People killed for midnight sales?
Socks or an I-Pod at half price –
Spend, spend, spend, still prevails.
.
This year the greed is for bargains.
Even Santa’s got into the act.
He sold his soul for cheap flat screens.
His partner, the devil’s, out back.
.
So come on Dancer and come on Blitzen
Trample the crèche on the lawn.
Don’t matter how we got it
As long as it’s 75% off at dawn!

Touching From a Distance

In 2 weeks it will be the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Unbelievable! Here is a poem I wrote about remembering 9/11 and coming through the pandemic:
.
Touching From a Distance
8/2/21
‘
They took you from me
In the early morning,
The sun rising blood red
Dust was on the ground.
.
It ripped you out of life
Like the Mayan’s did
A virgin’s heart, for sacrifice,
Then tossed you into the pit, forgotten.
.
Your image rises
Like that morning’s smoke.
Your face never forgotten.
For 20 years your screams fill my mind.
.
Last year we social distanced
Never touching the ones we love.
I haven’t touched you
Since the Towers fell.
.
The pandemic is over
Or so they say
But down the distance of time
I will always be touching your soul.

 

Quote of the Week

“There will never be another now – I’ll make the most of today.
There will never be another me -I’ll make the most of myself.” – Helen Keller