Dear Senators...

Today, I sent emails to my Tennessee Senators: Lamar Alexander and Senator Bob Corker about meeting a gun-toting man while walking in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park this past Monday. Perhaps they will never read it - some intern will add a check mark to a column, opposed the "concealed carry reciprocity" bill, rather than for it, but it is always worth the effort, I think, to speak up and attempt to be heard, to at the very least, let our representatives know we are watching and taking notes on how they vote to preserve or change the world we live in.

What will you do to be heard this week?


Dear Senators Alexander and Corker,

My husband, son and I went walking in the Elkmont area of the Smoky Mountains National Park on Monday, February 27. Perhaps you have been there? We were checking out the old vacation homes and cabins before they disappear forever. We were having a very pleasant day, had met and talked to various other visitors and exchanged information about what to check out. We walked down the trail by Millionaire's Row about a mile and were starting back when we saw three people walking toward us, a couple in their 50s or 60s and a stocky, muscular man, perhaps in his 40s, wearing a pistol in a gun belt across his chest. While everyone else we saw met us with a smile, this man glowered at the world and kept his hand near his weapon. 

Explain to me please what reason there was for this man to be walking around carrying this weapon? Who or what did he need protection from? I did not need his protection. The bears did not need it, the daffodils, either. While those of us walking around sans weapons met the world with wonder and a smile, this man walked under a dark cloud and seemed to be keeping an eye out for danger, rather than beauty. 

I am 66 years old and have spent my life feeling pretty safe. But, now I find myself seeing people carrying guns in fast food places, in the mall, and now in the forest. Whenever I see them, I walk as far away as I can get from them. I don't feel as safe as I used to. I don't understand why their right to bear arms means their right to carry them in an intimidating manner where others congregate. I am concerned about the trend to loosen gun laws, and particularly about a new bill I've recently learned about, “concealed carry reciprocity,” that would overrule state laws and force them to allow people to be able to carry weapons in public. 

Seriously, Senator, I am way more concerned about gun violence in our schools and neighborhoods, and parks than I am about foreign terrorists or undocumented immigrants. We seem to be making it easier for home-grown terrorists to arm themselves. I do not understand the hold the NRA has over so many politicians, but I am asking you to stand up and make your vote NO be counted. It will be remembered by mothers and nature-lovers like me.

Sincerely, 

Litterbug

Don't let the pictures of natural beauty mislead you. This post is about trash and trashy people.

A few weeks ago in mid July, we drove out to see Bald River Falls in the Cherokee National Forest near Tellico Plains, Tennessee. We had heard that the falls are beautiful and easy to get to, no hiking involved, with a bridge that one could walk out on to get a good view of the falls. All true. The route to the falls runs along narrow River Road which runs along the Bald River. It was a beautiful day and cooler by about 5° in the river canyon than in the world outside, making for a very pleasant drive.

The falls are beautiful and because they are not in Smoky Mountains National Park, they do not attract the large crowds that sometimes create bumper-to-bumper traffic in the park. 

We were not alone at the falls, but it was easy to get shots that made it look like we were.

Driving back toward town, we stopped at one of two pullovers to dip our feet in the cool water and admire the rocky stream bed.

On the way back to the car, I picked up several pieces of trash, because my momma taught me to always leave a place cleaner than I found it. The closest fast food joint is nearly 40 miles away and yet here were the remains of someone's meal.

Which leads me to this request:

Bald River Falls

Gone to the dogs

Checked in on my blogs today. I didn't mean to let a couple of years go by. What happened to the me that used to check on my blogs almost daily? Twitter, Facebook and dogs.

My life experienced a paradigm shift when I retired, as I moved back to the States after 30+ years living overseas to a state and city where I knew two whole people other than my husband and son. I was no longer going in to teach daily, with the intellectual jolt and interaction with students and colleagues. I experienced culture shock. Eek. As great as it was not having to go to work each day, I also lost my reason for getting up and getting moving. I had health issues that needed to be addressed. I could have written posts about my difficult assimilation and my gall bladder issues, but I decided to spare you my misery. Are you bored with this paragraph of my life? I am. Bleach.

Moving on. I continued tweeting on Twitter. Compared to blogging, which takes hours, tweeting 140 characters is easy and fast. Feedback is quick, and plucking out interesting news, links and points of view out of the Twitter feed kept my attention much better than looking at a blank writing field and trying to fill it. But, too much Twitter made me twitch, so I even stopped doing that. Facebook kept me in touch with friends I had left behind, and it still does.

But, what mostly happened to me is that my life went to the dogs: young dogs, old dogs, puppies, shy dogs, happy-go-lucky dogs, well-behaved dogs, dogs who needed basic training.

Bogart on our deck, trying to hide under a chair.

It all started with a blurry photo posted by a new acquaintance on Facebook of a depressed young dog named Bogart curled up in the fetal position at the Blount County Animal Center where volunteers' efforts had not managed to get him to adjust to life at the shelter. He was about 7 months old and had spent his life living in the wild with his mother and brother. He wasn't eating and was skin and bones under his long hair. He was unadoptable and the outcome for him was not promising. I looked at that photo and thought, I think I can help him.

And that is a tale in itself, how I went to the shelter and registered as a foster, how Bogart would not walk on a leash and pooped and peed in fear when my son picked him up to carry him to our car, how he almost immediately escaped our fenced yard, how we tempted him back (salmon snacks), how each day for a month we focused on finding ways to help him make the small, gradual progress that eventually lead to him trusting us and us adopting him and renaming him Mr. Guster (AKA Gus, AKA Guster Longfellow).

George and Guinness, therapy pups.

Part of our therapy included bringing home a couple of bull mastiff puppies (George and Guinness) who found Guster fascinating. If he ran away, they ran after him. If he hunkered down, they climbed on top of him or hunkered down next to him. They helped him make a big leap forward into learning how to be a dog who loves humans.

After they left to be adopted through a rescue in Pennsylvania, other dogs and puppies came and went. In one year we fostered 34 dogs and puppies. Some stayed a few days, others a few months, depending on the need. Two sick little puppies did not survive. It has been an adventure that has introduced us into the world of animal shelters, rescues and dedicated volunteers who try to save as many lives as they can.

Guster, formerly Bogart, playing tug of war with shy Maxwell as Jadzia watches. Guster has moved from being the dog who needs help adjusting to the dog who helps other dogs adjust.

My screen saver shows me images of the much-loved doggy souls who have passed through our door, pooped in our yard or (in the case of puppies) on newspapers in our kitchen floor, curled up next to us on our couch and given us lots and lots of doggy kisses.

They told me when I retired, I would find something to do. It's more a case of they found me.

From left, son's dog Jadzia, rescued from an abusive airman who planned to dump her on a country road because he had orders for England and his attempts to house train her by beating her were not getting him the results he wanted; former foster dog Maxwell, another abuse victim who came to us a very shy dog, foster failure Guster who spent early life struggling to survive in the wild and has progressed from being depressed and afraid of all humans to my new BFF, Gidget, the only one in this image we acquired from a breeder, who acts as a therapy dog for many of our fosters, and current foster dog Precious who came to us looking like a plucked chicken suffering the effects of extreme neglect. She has her own Facebook page: Saving Precious

Dear Governor Haslam

It is hard to believe we are living in the 21st Century, when I look at the bills passing through the Tennessee House. Every week I hear about another bill targeting the health and welfare of women. It seems as though the women of this state are not important to those who have been elected to represent us. HB3517 is an absurd and dangerous bill.

I don't want to be partisan. I really don't, but it is an inescapable fact that these bills are coming from Republicans, so I have to say I am bothered that Republican men, who don't seem to have a clue what it is like to be a woman, feel that they have a right to make medical decisions for women and families. Republican legislators don't want to support the children born of unwanted pregnancies, pay for their births, pay for their medical bills, or pay for their upbringing. They don't care if the woman has been raped or if the fetus (or embryo) has an unsurvivable genetic disorder that may kill the mother. They do not seem to care at all about the health or circumstances of living women, only about fetuses and now, embryos. They need to move past the religious rhetoric and romanticized images of happy, healthy babies in happy, loving families, as though that is the result of every pregnancy. The real world is not a place of black or white, right or wrong; it is gray and nobody gets through it without making tough choices.

Governor, you represent all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, and women and sensible men from both parties are both watching and hoping that you will show some leadership and good sense here. The legislature must not succeed in harming their living constituents in an iron-fisted attempt to legislate how they want people to behave. 

Image from ScienceDaily.com

It is truly sad that some babies die, that some embryos are not carried to term, that there are health issues that lead some to make the difficult decision to end their pregnancies. It happened to friends of mine just a couple of months ago. They are a loving couple with three beautiful children, but the fourth pregnancy presented a danger to the wife, and the baby had no chance of survival (Trisomy 13). It was an agonizing decision to end the pregnancy, but they made that decision. And they are not bad people. They are good people. But, if this bill is signed in to law, good people like them would be declared criminals, and you could arrest them and put them in prison. What a ridiculous and horrible consequence that would be. It is the women and the families' right to make these life or death decisions, not legislatures or preachers or priests. It shows a lack of compassion to prejudge the real people who have to make decisions and prosecute them as criminals.

Both Republicans and Democrats are noticing that Republican led legislatures are wasting large amounts of time passing legislation based on moral (AKA religious) creeds, rather than on good sense and a desire to protect everyone's rights that reduce our freedom and right to make reasonable choices about our lives. Every now and then, a Republican steps away from the pack and says something sensible from his or her own conviction, but it doesn't happen often. The uniformity is Stepford Wives freaky, and it's discouraging to those of us old enough to remember when the Republican party stood for real values, and not for whatever ridiculous pseudo-cause their financiers tell them to stand for.

The secret to fewer abortions is easy access to contraception, not moralizing, pontificating and passing ridiculous laws. There have always been abortions. There always will be. Rational people understand that. The difference is whether or not abortions are safe. Abortions are not common, and should not be the concern of nosy neighbors, nor should the failure to carry a fetus to term be a crime. A woman's right to choose should be protected by the legislature and the governor, not attacked by them.

Women should be viewed as valuable and precious members of society, not as weak and untrustworthy. We are strong, and we vote, and women's issues are going to be an important part of the voting decisions we will be making in November.

I'm tired of ridiculous bills becoming laws. I'm tired of my tax dollars being wasted on persecuting innocent Tennesseans, as would happen if this becomes law. You can help stop this one in its tracks. I hope you will.

Bill authorizes prosecution for death of an embryo.

Thanks a lot, Rush

Dear Senator Alexander,

**UPDATE** After I sent my response to Senator Alexander's e-mail, I got the exact same, word-for-word e-mail response from him, which leads me to believe that my letter to the senator never got read by the Senator, possibly not by anyone. But, I made the effort, and YOU are here reading it, and come election time, YOU are the ones who are going to make a difference.


Judy


Here's the email I got from my senator today, followed by my response to him.

February 22, 2012 

Mrs. Judy Graham

Thanks very much for getting in touch with me and letting me know what’s on your mind regarding the Obama Administration’s regulations on preventive health services and the impact on religiously affiliated employers such as schools, universities, hospitals and charities.

I believe that requiring our nation’s religious institutions to defy the basic tenets of their faith shows a disturbing disregard for the Constitution’s protections on religious freedoms. The Administration’s proposed regulation and recent clarification are an unacceptable intrusion into this important constitutional freedom and I will work with my colleagues to overturn this policy.

This is why I am co-sponsoring Senator Marco Rubio’s bill, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as Senator Roy Blunt’s Respect for the Rights of Conscience Act. These bills will ensure that religious institutions will not be forced to offer, provide or purchase coverage for health services that violate their religious tenets.

I appreciate you contacting me and I’ll be sure to keep your comments in mind as these issues are discussed and debated in Washington and in Tennessee.

Sincerely,

Lamar

Dear Senator Alexander,

Thank you for responding. I'm sorry, however, to read that meeting the health care needs of American women is not your priority. Do you honestly believe that some people's access to healthcare should be determined by churches, synagogues, or mosques; by priests, rabbis or imams? Shouldn't it be up to the individual conscience, not to the corporate religious conscience, what healthcare a person should receive? I find myself in agreement with the person on Twitter who suggested we build an electric fence between the government and the church and let anyone who crosses that line get zapped.

Personally, I think that making birth control available free to all women in America is a visionary move. Avoiding unwanted pregnancies is the number one way to avoid unwanted abortions. In ten years, we are going to be looking back on this as a major milestone in improving women's lives.

While you may argue that a woman working for a religious institution can still get birth control if she is willing to pay for it, in most cases, she cannot afford it without insurance picking up most or all of the tab. So, not including it in an insurance policy is much the same thing as denying access altogether. And when poor women can't get access to birth control, as a country we end up with more poor babies that those calling for smaller government do not want to help support. 

And here's another thing, isn't this really about semantics? What we commonly refer to as birth control has many other uses. Over half of American women use contraception for reasons that have nothing to do with birth control, and if they cannot get it, they suffer. As a teenager, my daughter suffered extreme mood swings as part of PMS and painful cramps during her periods. The pill brought her great relief, and allowed her to function. She was not prescribed it for birth control, but for medical reasons. As an adult, she still uses a contraceptive for her health issues, not just to avoid pregnancy. No "religious freedom" issue should deny her or any woman inexpensive access to what is essentially essential health care.

Many American Women use Birth Control Pills for Noncontraceptive Reasons.

If you insist on trying to help religious institutions take away from women their individual freedom to choose what their healthcare needs are under the disguise of "religious freedom," be aware that women are watching and getting the irony.

Nothing has changed: churches are still free to preach whatever they want and their members still free to believe whatever they want and still free to choose to use birth control or to choose not to use birth control. The government regulation has not encroached on anyone's religious freedom. Truth is, this is a made-up issue, not a real one. It is also a sideshow and a distraction from much more serious issues facing the nation.

I'm sure you have figured out that I am not a Republican, but I am your constituent, and you do represent me in Washington. Near as I can tell, the House is a hopeless mess, but there are occasional glimmers of hope in the Senate.  As a woman, I feel strongly about this issue and ask you to reconsider your position.

Sincerely,

Judy Graham

Reliving and Reviling 2011

Thanks, Jimmy Fallon, for helping us remember the high and low lights of 2011 and putting it all in perspective in the way only good comedy can. You put the pundits to shame.

Shame.

See more on Know Your Meme

See more examples of the Pepper Spray Everything Cop
See more on Know Your Meme

This Little Light of Mine

I was reminded lately that  This Little Light of Mine is not only a children's song, but a song adopted by the Civl Right's Movement. It reminds us all that we have the power and the responsibility to make a difference in the world. Enjoy this rendition.

Color Me Home

The last two years of teaching were incredibly stressful and fall-into-bed-exhausted time intensive for me. I'm not sure if there were fewer hours in the day and more to do, or the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be just made it seem that way, but there you have it. I sacrificed writing on this blog for writing with students on a class blog and getting our house ready to sell.

Transitioning from Germany to the USA was tough for the first couple of months. We were also just as busy trying to set up our house here as we had been closing out our house in Germany. I think I should have gone on vacation first.

I also went through the whole grieving process: denial, anger, regret, and finally acceptance. I'm sure I missed a few of the steps, but it was one whole itchy-angsty period.  I think there was guilt in there, too. I'm not feeling it so much now. It seems the more mornings I sleep in, rise late, drink coffee while I read the news and check out my Facebook and Twitter feeds without worrying about a daily lesson plan, the less guilt I feel.

I miss the close friendships. The first couple of months in Tennessee was like being in the Witness Protection program. We only knew a couple of people when we moved here, if you don't count the lady who managed our property. But, it's getting better. Tennessee natives are naturally friendly. It's easy to start a conversation with a neighbor or the waitress serving our lunch.

We love the weather here, and the beautiful mountain views. Sure, it was hot during July and August, but we still enjoyed many pleasant hours out on our deck, and since September, the weather has been cool enough to be refreshing, while still warm enough to enjoy. We live close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and yesterday we drove Rich Mountain Road, a gravel road which climbs and winds from Cades Cove over the hill to Townsend. We were back home by noon-thirty. The autumn colors are perfect, and I'm so glad I am here to see them.

Hello, Tennessee. Color me home.

No Quick Fixes

While most of us are making jokes on Twitter and laughing at their expense, there is a small core of true believers who actually believe today, May 21, 2011 is Rapture Day. There's another larger group, who, while laughing smugly at the ones who think they know they have figured out the actual date and time, still believe in The Rapture and look forward misty-eyed to the day they will be taken away from the miseries of this world as a reward for their unflagging faith.


Here's what I believe about this rapture thing and a lot of other things as well: There are NO quick fixes, not in this world or the next. Nobody's going to come down and pull any of us out of the mess we've made here and carry us off to heavenly bliss. Our grandparents and great-great-great-great-great... grandparents had to tough it here on the corporeal plane out until death did them part, and so do we.


So, stick around, learn patience, breathe, enroll in a Tai Chi class, hug the ones you love. Do something meaningful today. Then do it again tomorrow.


Happy Rapture Day, everyone. 

Image from Adventure Post Office.com

The Frog Legs Restaurant

The Frog Legs Restaurant - slide show

Under the Ash Cloud

In a scenario no one expected to ever see, the skies over Europe have been shut down for days. Sorry, your flight has been canceled because Eyjafjallajokull, an Icelandic volcano a thousand miles away from your destination, is erupting is not what one expects to hear at the airport. I haven't seen any figures on how many Europeans were stranded on other continents when the airports shut down on Ash Friday, April 16, but it must number in the thousands.

For my school district, it was Spring Break, and while the majority of students, teachers and staff had traveled by car or other ground transportation on holiday, those who had flown to far-flung locales, like Turkey, Greece, the Canary Island, or Ireland, found themselves stranded and uncertain how best to manage their return. Journeys normally measured in hours, recently been measured in days.

A colleague told of sleeping on her husband's lap in an Italian train station side by side with other travelers because all the hotels were full. Others took two-day ferries to get back to Italy from Greece to spend another day on the train getting back to Germany. Flights that would normally have gone all the way to Frankfurt, Germany landed instead in cities like Prague, the Czech Republic and Salzburg, Austria. Those disembarking then continued their journey by train, car or bus. Other colleagues in Turkey still wait with bags packed for word that they have a flight and should head to the airport.

Thankfully, there have been no accidents, no airline disasters, so while some may criticize the experts and question why so much caution was applied in this case, I would rather my friends get home a week late, than not have them come home at all.

Photo from NASA.

The Pale Blue Dot

This video has been around for a couple of years, and yet fewer than a million people have seen it. I wish everyone in the world would watch it. We all need to be reminded how small our planet is in the universe, how precious it is, and not that we are insignificant, but that we need to keep ourselves and our self-importance in perspective, and that's what this video is about, perspective.

Lambchops & Ewe

Friday afternoon my friend, Mary, and I walked down to the corner of my street to get a closer look at the ewes and lambs. Up to now, my husband and I have been drive-by viewers, like tourists in a safari park. They came running over in an enthusiastic bunch and lined up expectantly. They were rewarded, but not by us, when one of the neighbors came over and threw apple peels into the field. I realized then, that just as with turkeys, you don't want to be in the middle of the flock when they are expecting dinner. They were friendly, however, and liked having their heads rubbed. The little ones are cute, but the mommas have loads of personality, and if I had the time, it would be fun to sit and observe and assign them names. I've already named one Martha Stewart. She's the dignified one that shows up near the end. See if you can spot her.

When I was a Nerd

This my painful nerd story. Every geek has one.

I was in high school in the mid 1960s. At the end of my Freshman year my school had a big awards assembly. I got a letter saying that I was to sit on the stage with other award recipients. I had no idea what award I was to receive or even what awards were to be given, but I was an above-average student, I played the violin in the school orchestra and was a National Junior Honor Society officer, so expected it would be something to do with one of those. I had also been president of the pep club during football season, more on that later.

I remember my English teacher, Mrs. Smith, a very proper lady, saying to us in a high-pitched quavery voice, Too much levity, class! whenever we got a little out of hand. I thought this was hopelessly uncool, but I never forgot the word levity. She also took us on evening field trips to a community plays, which were presented at a theater in the round. We were wonderfully close to the action. I got my picture in the newspaper when we made posters for one of the plays, You Can't Take It With You, as a class project, and my poster was displayed in the theater. Our geeky English teacher helped me develop both a love of words and of theater.

I had little in common with cheerleaders and the other girls in the pep club. I had not been in the club prior to my stint as president. Some of the cheerleaders guilted and flattered me into taking the job when they couldn't find anyone else willing to take it. I enjoyed working on the Homecoming float and thought the matching jackets we wore were kind of cool, but was glad when the football season came to an end.

Sitting on the stage of that awards ceremony, I wasn't expecting anything major to come my way, so I was surprised when I received the "Best All-Around Girl" award. They gave me a certificate and little charm, which have been lost in the dust of history. Not lost is the pain I experienced shortly after the applause ended.

I was feeling happy and even a little giddy about my award, until upon exiting the stage I overheard a group of girls, gathered in a tight circle around Carmen the Cheerleader, comforting her and lamenting the injustice of me winning the Best All-Around award, because surely it should have gone to her, the most popular girl in the Ninth Grade. Really, I'm not kidding. This was my life playing out like a scene in a cheerleader vs. the nerd movie.

Part of me thought they were pretty dimwitted for not getting that a Best All-Around award from teachers would be for students who participated in a variety of school activities and got good grades, not for the most popular girl around the locker room. Ironically, they had helped me get it when they chose me to be president of their pep club.

I realize they were probably the original source of a long string of dumb blonde jokes, but their comments stung. They did not see me standing behind them and I quickly ducked out of sight around a corner. It's not like they deliberately set out to hurt me, but my sensitive 15 year-0ld-self imagined this was what "everybody" thought.

I told myself, just forget it, but I walked into my next class, Algebra 1, as my teacher, whom I shall refer to as Mrs. Sour Lemons, was telling the class that not everyone agreed with all of the award choices, but there was nothing to be done about it. I knew from the quick flicker of her beady eyes she was talking about me. Mine was the award that not everyone agreed on. Mine was the award that had generated negative buzzing in the halls.

I remember sitting there feeling miserable, trying not to cry or let my emotions show. Somehow, I got through the class and home without breaking down, but instead of feeling fortunate and recognized, as was intended, thanks to the unkindness of the popular crowd and one teacher, I felt cheated and alone, wishing they had chosen anyone but me.


I haven't written about this before, because I don't like whining, mine or anyone else's. I have mostly happy memories of high school. But, except for a few fellow nerds, I don't miss my classmates. I haven't kept in touch with them. I moved on and out, out of the city, out of the state, out of the country. I attended one high school class reunion, and that was enough for me. Not surprisingly, I learned that Carmen the Cheerleader was between husbands, while I attended with the same man I've now been married to for 37 years. So, there is that.

It isn't easy to be a nerd/geek/dork in high school. Fortunately, it's becoming the new cool. Bill Gates has shown us that being a billionaire makes up for not being able to throw a football or do the splits. So, if you are a nerd, it's okay. Learn a few social skills and remember, you're going to be their boss some day.

If you liked the video, check out Dave and Brian's Website.

If you liked the jewelry, you can purchase it at Badali Jewelry.

Lambchops

What a nice surprise this week to see three, then four lambs among the flock in the corner paddock. How charming to see them frolicking around in the snow, full of new life, a reminder that Spring is just around the corner. The spotted one is such a darling.

The reminder from a lunchtime conversation in the teacher's lounge that lamb is quite tasty and most of us have eaten it at the Greek restaurant we favor took my enthusiasm down a notch. I hope the birth of these young ones wasn't timed for Easter dinner.

I don't eat as much meat as I used to, but I'm not a vegetarian, either. Sometimes I remember to do as the Native Americans and thank the animal for the gift of its life, which makes me feel better, but it is so after the fact, I doubt the message reaches to the animal soul.

We seldom think about the life behind the meal. Perhaps we should.

Groundhog Day 2010

I dreamed that night that there were flowers growing under the snow, and the next day my Tai Chi instructor said that she could smell Spring in the air; so, even though we were hit with a blizzard on Groundhog Day, the 8th straight day of snowfall here in Germany, I also believe that this was this Winter's last big blow.

Here is one glimpse of the big storm of 2010, as reported by me, and yes, I know I misspelled Groundhog Day in the title. Please overlook the brain fart and enjoy the images.

Priceless

This video captures one of those true meaning of life moments that are genuinely unpredictable, absolutely free, and without price.

A Concern Regarding Raccoons. from Merlin Mann on Vimeo.

Winter sheep

We pass these sheep every day on the way to and from work. Their little field lies at the entrance to our street. I wouldn't go so far as to say they recognize our car, but they seemed interested today as we drove slowly by on the very slick snow-covered road, as though to say, "We aren't concerned, but really?"