Dearest Readers,
The monster is inside the gate. Ebola. How did it get inside the United States? That's easy. We left the gate wide open. We have left all the gates wide open. When you go to bed at night do you lock the front door? Of course. You wouldn't think of leaving it open would you? Of course not. Well, all the doors and all the windows of the United States of America have been left open while we have been in bed asleep. While we were sleeping millions and millions of people have illegally come on in! Now are you awake???
In 1990 my husband Walker and I adopted twin baby girls from the country of Honduras. That was back when there were still rules. That was back when our elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, cared about the health and safety of the citizens of the United States of America. Back then we actually had to prove that our babies were healthy before we could fly back to the United States. Tuberculosis was still active in Honduras. Our babies had to be vaccinated for TB. I didn't complain. I was not offended. It seemed like common sense to me. I had no desire to bring TB back into my homeland. Boy have times changed!
Let's take a look back in time to 1918. That was the last year of World War One. In Philadelphia, people were coming down with a strange sickness. It seemed that it was "just influenza". But, this was no ordinary influenza. It turned its victims black. They bled out of their noses, eyes, mouths.... It killed fast. Very fast. It killed mostly young, strong, healthy people between twenty and forty years of age. The dead in Philadelphia piled up like stiff dry cord wood on front porches while mass graves were dug. The city officials played it down! Imagine that! They didn't want people to worry. The health care officials wanted to get the word out that this was something horrible, something dangerous... they were shushed....
The World War continued. Health officials warned AGAINST our infected soldiers being sent to Europe. The politicians ignored them. The president, Woodrow Wilson, allowed the boys to be sent on over the water.... sick boys. But, after all it was just influenza.... The influenza was spread by unrestricted travel. Stupid politicians that knew nothing about health issues allowed the flu to spread by UNRESTRICTED TRAVEL. They were concerned about winning World War One. Guess what? The great influenza killed many more people than the war. A staggering one hundred million people globally died in one year. Whole groups of native peoples were completely wiped out all over the world. An estimated 650,000 Americans died in one year. President Wilson came down with the influenza. His wife ran the country while he was sick. She kept his illness secret while she took over his job. Scary stuff.
Now there is another monster inside our gate. Ebola. How are we going to stop it? Stop thinking of yourself as a liberal or conservative. Get over it! Stop thinking of yourself as gay or straight. Get over it! Stop thinking of yourself as white, black, Asian, Hispanic etc. GET OVER IT!!! Ebola is over it. Ebola doesn't care about any of those things. It will infect you no matter what color you are. It will infect you no matter how much money you have or haven't got. It will infect you gay or straight. It will infect whether you are a Republican or Democrat!!! You are nothing but a host to feed on to this disease. So we have to throw all our petty differences aside and all get back to being AMERICANS.
Now how are we going to respond to Tom Friedan, Director of the Centers For Disease Control? He says that restricting travel between the United States and West Africa, where Ebola is coming from, would most likely "backfire" and put America at more risk of contracting Ebola. His reasoning is that Ebola needs to be wiped out at the source, in Africa. Restricting Americans from going to West Africa would restrict getting help to the sick in Africa, which would allow it to spread more rapidly.
I understand his reasoning- to a point. If there are Americans who want to go help with medical assistance in Africa, they will at some point want to come home, and there is nothing wrong with requiring that those people be quarantined for the recommended twenty one day period (or longer) before they are allowed to come back into the United States. Visitors from the infected countries, though, are a different matter completely and should not be allowed in at their own pleasure. That is not asking too much Mr. Friedan!!! The CDC is not supposed to be worried about hurting anybody's feelings!!! The CDC is supposed to be protecting the people of the United States of America!!! People of all colors, politics, sexual orientation, education etc. will die in this country if travel is not restricted. NOBODY needs to be allowed into the United States from West Africa unless they have been held in quarantine for twenty-one days, or more if needed.
What blows my mind is that in1918 the health officials were screaming for limited travel, and that was before air travel. Now in 2014, with the example of the great influenza pandemic to use as a BAD example our major health official Tom Friedan says NOT to restrict travel!!! What is wrong with this picture??? With no air travel in existence in 1918, we had a global pandemic that killed 100,000,000 people. Now what will happen with unrestricted air travel???
Ebola is spread by blood, semen, vomit, feces, saliva, tears and SWEAT. When you go to the gym tomorrow make sure that sweat soaked towel you pick up and wipe your face with is your own. I hope it wasn't dropped by someone who just got back from West Africa. Think about it my fellow Americans....
Please forward this blog site
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7253354042404414819#editor/target=post;postID=2556270141285380936
on to all your contacts. Call your elected representatives! Call the CDC! Let's all stand together and stop the spread of this disease.
Love, Suzan
Friday, October 3, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Morty Loves Stella
Walker and I had a lovely Valentine's Day. We were driving back from St. Petersburg, Florida where we had spent the week on the beach with his sister and her husband. It was just what the doctor ordered. I've been feeling really really tired lately. Sitting on the balcony of the condo just watching the water and the people walking on the beach was very therapeutic. People watching has always been one of my favorite spectator sports.
Beach people are so much fun to watch. The wind was really whipping when out trudged "Morty". Poor Morty was carrying a cooler, a huge beach umbrella, two short-legged folding chairs and himself. He had a job ahead of him! Poor Morty struggled for thirty minutes to get that umbrella stood up in that sand. It kept blowing away and he kept chasing it down the beach until, bless his heart, he gave up. He decided to lay the opened umbrella on its side. He secured it with the cooler. There! He had a wind shield. He set up the two chairs and weighted one down with all kinds of assorted beach stuff. Then he set up his chair and carefully held on to it while he very gingerly turned his three hundred pounds around and lowered himself down into the chair. He did it! Yea! I wanted to holler, "Way to go, Morty!" from the balcony. Then I saw "Stella" approaching Morty from behind. She wasn't carrying anything... Will she approve of Morty's engineering? Will she complain that he didn't do it right? I was so relieved! Little fat Stella hugged big fat Morty. He cleared off her chair, she maneuvered into it. He opened the cooler, took out a beer, poured it into a cup and gave it to her. She kissed him.... I was about to cry. This is why all the Yankees retire in Florida, because life is good where the sun is warm...
Beach people are so much fun to watch. The wind was really whipping when out trudged "Morty". Poor Morty was carrying a cooler, a huge beach umbrella, two short-legged folding chairs and himself. He had a job ahead of him! Poor Morty struggled for thirty minutes to get that umbrella stood up in that sand. It kept blowing away and he kept chasing it down the beach until, bless his heart, he gave up. He decided to lay the opened umbrella on its side. He secured it with the cooler. There! He had a wind shield. He set up the two chairs and weighted one down with all kinds of assorted beach stuff. Then he set up his chair and carefully held on to it while he very gingerly turned his three hundred pounds around and lowered himself down into the chair. He did it! Yea! I wanted to holler, "Way to go, Morty!" from the balcony. Then I saw "Stella" approaching Morty from behind. She wasn't carrying anything... Will she approve of Morty's engineering? Will she complain that he didn't do it right? I was so relieved! Little fat Stella hugged big fat Morty. He cleared off her chair, she maneuvered into it. He opened the cooler, took out a beer, poured it into a cup and gave it to her. She kissed him.... I was about to cry. This is why all the Yankees retire in Florida, because life is good where the sun is warm...
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Are you moldy too?
Dear Gentle Readers,
I think I am going to mold!!! This wet rainy weather is draining the life out of me, all I want to do is sleep...ZZZ...ZZZ...ZZZ...ZZZ.... Being a writer is a tricky business. I have a million stories in my head. Some of them are true and some are made up. The tricky part is just sitting down and putting them on paper. We all have a million stories in our heads. We all have things we experienced that we want to share. We all have feelings that we want to express. We are all writers. The only difference between a "real writer" and everybody else is that a "real writer" just takes the time to put his thoughts down on paper. I think the reason most people don't do that is because they think writing is supposed to be some kind of high and lofty endeavor. It absolutely should not be high and lofty unless YOU are high and lofty. Some of the "best" writers of all time are extremely hard to read and hard to understand. So why does that make them "the best"? Maybe we think, "Boy he must be really deep, way too smart for me! He must be a great writer!" If I have to read every sentence three or four times to figure out what the writer is trying to say, I toss the book! Writing is about communication. If the writer is only concerned about sounding scholarly, then it may be that he is not really communicating what he wants the reader to learn.
Your writing should sound like you. You should not try to sound like William Faulkner because you are not William Faulkner. Just write like you think. Write like you talk. Don't try to be some one on paper that you are not in real life. If you do try to "put on airs" in your writing you will come off sounding foolish. Just be yourself. People love you just the way you are. And they will love your writing if you just sound like yourself.
It is a New Year. And because it is raining and gray and dreary outside, I feel lazy. Nope. I am not in the creative mood, so I am going to share some of my favorite quotes with you. All of these people wrote in such a way that we connect immediately with what they are trying to say. So enjoy these my friend, and then go write something that sounds like YOU and nobody else!
"Everyday of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Charles Swindoll
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless" Mother Teresa
"The greatest motivational act that one person can do for another is to listen." Roy Moody
"Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker." Zig Ziglar
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt
"I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle." Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterward." Vernon Law
"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves." Thomas Edison
"Kindness is the noblest of weapons to conquer with." Unknown
"There is no such thing in anybody's life as an unimportant day." Alexander Woolcott
"The best things in life aren't things." Art Buchwald
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence." Vincent T. Lombardi
"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." William James
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." Unknown
"No one knows what he can do until he tries." Publilius Syrus
"One hundred per cent of the shots you don't take don't go in." Wayne Gretsky
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." Albert Einstein
And so you see this is great writing. Short. Simple. It packs a punch that could change your life. And on that note I am going to get up and keep moving as Mr. Einstein suggested. Happy New Year to all of you writers. It is time to just pull those thoughts out of your head and put them down on paper!!!
Love and Kisses to all and to all a good write....
Suzan with a "Z"
I think I am going to mold!!! This wet rainy weather is draining the life out of me, all I want to do is sleep...ZZZ...ZZZ...ZZZ...ZZZ.... Being a writer is a tricky business. I have a million stories in my head. Some of them are true and some are made up. The tricky part is just sitting down and putting them on paper. We all have a million stories in our heads. We all have things we experienced that we want to share. We all have feelings that we want to express. We are all writers. The only difference between a "real writer" and everybody else is that a "real writer" just takes the time to put his thoughts down on paper. I think the reason most people don't do that is because they think writing is supposed to be some kind of high and lofty endeavor. It absolutely should not be high and lofty unless YOU are high and lofty. Some of the "best" writers of all time are extremely hard to read and hard to understand. So why does that make them "the best"? Maybe we think, "Boy he must be really deep, way too smart for me! He must be a great writer!" If I have to read every sentence three or four times to figure out what the writer is trying to say, I toss the book! Writing is about communication. If the writer is only concerned about sounding scholarly, then it may be that he is not really communicating what he wants the reader to learn.
Your writing should sound like you. You should not try to sound like William Faulkner because you are not William Faulkner. Just write like you think. Write like you talk. Don't try to be some one on paper that you are not in real life. If you do try to "put on airs" in your writing you will come off sounding foolish. Just be yourself. People love you just the way you are. And they will love your writing if you just sound like yourself.
It is a New Year. And because it is raining and gray and dreary outside, I feel lazy. Nope. I am not in the creative mood, so I am going to share some of my favorite quotes with you. All of these people wrote in such a way that we connect immediately with what they are trying to say. So enjoy these my friend, and then go write something that sounds like YOU and nobody else!
"Everyday of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Charles Swindoll
"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless" Mother Teresa
"The greatest motivational act that one person can do for another is to listen." Roy Moody
"Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker." Zig Ziglar
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt
"I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle." Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lessons afterward." Vernon Law
"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Ralph Waldo Emerson
"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves." Thomas Edison
"Kindness is the noblest of weapons to conquer with." Unknown
"There is no such thing in anybody's life as an unimportant day." Alexander Woolcott
"The best things in life aren't things." Art Buchwald
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence." Vincent T. Lombardi
"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it." William James
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." Unknown
"No one knows what he can do until he tries." Publilius Syrus
"One hundred per cent of the shots you don't take don't go in." Wayne Gretsky
"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." Albert Einstein
And so you see this is great writing. Short. Simple. It packs a punch that could change your life. And on that note I am going to get up and keep moving as Mr. Einstein suggested. Happy New Year to all of you writers. It is time to just pull those thoughts out of your head and put them down on paper!!!
Love and Kisses to all and to all a good write....
Suzan with a "Z"
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