Chicken and Sponge

The David Letterman Scandal

I will say it up-front: I am a big David Letterman fan.  I always have been.  I imagine I always will be.  I was a Letterman fan when he had a daytime TV show.  Remember?  Yes, eons ago.  I don't watch religiously.  In fact, I rarely watch at all anymore.  I have a bedtime.

So what do I think about the David Letterman Sex Scandal?  Did anyone notice that a person has allegedly tried to extort money from Dave?  That this person is allegedly blackmailing Dave?  Do people realize that that is actually a crime? 

I feel the same way about the David Letterman Sex Scandal as I did about President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, John Edwards and whoever, and every other celebrity, politician, or common person who is involved in a sex scandal.  How do I feel?  YAWN.

I'm sorry, but I just don't care.  Unless the person is forcing someone, having sex with a child or with my dog...I DON'T CARE.  Really.

If anyone had filed charges against Dave for sexual harassment, my answer would be different.  But that isn't what has happened.  What is happening now is that the media (and I usually defend the media just to be contrary to popular opinion) is speculating about what if David Letterman pressured these women or used his position to...What if...What if...What if...

What if no one comes forward and says they were sexually harassed?  What if this were truly consensual?Well, then, I hope the focus would shift from David Letterman aka the VICTIM, to the  actual alleged crime of extortion...

I'm not holding my breath, though.  People in this country, in spite of the prevalence of "racy" advertising and entertainment, are essentially a bunch of prudish, little sex-obsessed pilgrims.  Let me correct that, we're a nation of dirty capitalist, sex-obsessed pilgrims.  I'm sure that there are many people who see nothing wrong with blackmailing a person and attempting to extort money from them IF THEY DESERVE IT.

But it is wrong, oh so wrong.  As much as we like to judge one another, and hey, we are all GUILTY of constantly judging everyone and everything around us, we have laws and courts of laws to define the parameters and define what is actually legal or illegal (which should not be mistaken with what is right or wrong--when we're lucky they're one and the same thing, but not always).

I am of that generation that kind of straddles generations and movements.  I consider myself a feminist, but I'm not really comfortable with that label and less comfortable with how many different things that label means to different people.  I don't always jump on the side of the woman.  I don't assume the woman is always right or that the woman is always the victim.  I know plenty of stupid people of both sexes.  Oh, and by the way, pay me the same for the same job AND you can hold my door open for me and I'll love you for it.  I don't think that is contradictory.  Equality doesn't mean that manners and custom fly out the door.  Manners and fairness and common sense are of value to me.  In fact, men with good manners are gold.

I like men.  I'm no man-hater.  Just can't do it.  I sincerely like them.  I couldn't tell you why and there are days when I might really scratch my head to try to find an answer to that one.  But essentially, on a day-to-day basis, I like men.  There are many individuals that I don't like and there are many TYPES of people, for example racists, that I openly and unapologetically dislike.  But I don't hate or distrust half the population based on gender. And I don't assume that men are pigs.

I also don't assume that women are victims.  I don't assume that women get involved with men because they were coerced OR that they were trying to further their careers.  Sometimes people get involved because, well...they want to be involved.  They need that human connection.  The attraction, the intimacy, the comfort.  Gee, how horrible.  How insidious, how criminal.  No wait...that was the other guy.  The one who is actually being charged with a crime.

I like David Letterman.  I admire the way he has handled this situation.  I think he has done so with honesty and class.  He seems a little naked right now, vulnerable, still humorous, but it's self-deprecating humor to say the least.  No matter how he feels inside, no matter what is being said or felt in his household, he has been fearless in his candor.  I don't know how anyone could not admire him at this moment.  Your child steals a piece of candy from the store and you make him take it back and confess his crime and everyone pats everyone on the back and says, "good job.  That was hard to do, but I'm proud of you for doing it."

So whether or not anyone thinks I'm a traitor to my sex, I'm proud of Dave.  I don't think he could have handled this any better.  That doesn't make it any easier for him.  I hope the sex and scandal-obsessed will wake up and smell the crime.  I hope they will get off of Dave's case and focus their attention where it belongs.  Yeah, good luck on that one, Dave.  Truly, good luck.

Have You Been Affected By Violent Crime?

This is for Jenny...and Cliff...and Tony...and Archie...and Marvett...

Just to warn you:  this isn't my usual post.  But when I can't get something off my mind and it's not too personal and embarrassing, it makes more sense to just bring it out in the open and discuss it.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from my dear, long-lost friend Chris--a woman that I spent my freshman and sophomore years of high school with and who,  after  not speaking to for 28 years  just  seems a day away.  Great friend.

Chris had run into a sister of a good high school friend on Facebook.  Naturally she inquired about Jenny.  Sadly, the sister relayed that her sister had died in 1992.  No further details. 

Chris wrote me, knowing that I'd want to know because we were both GOOD friends with Jenny.  That emphasis on GOOD is in no way an exaggeration.  Yes, we'd lost touch.  I'd lost touch with Chris, too, yet here we are, 28 years later, like no time has passed.  Jenny would have been the same kind of friend, except for 1992.

Let me tell you a little about Jenny.  The first words that come to mind are WHIMSICAL, the definition of that word would be illustrated by a photo of her, TALENTED, a fine, fine musician on the  flute,  and KIND, oh, so very, very, KIND, and FUNNY.  A gentle, but swift, sense of humor to go with the rest of her.

Chris got an email the other day from Jenny's sister.  Let me say, even though Jenny was the youngest, and we were ALL in high school together, we knew her sisters fairly well, too.   They too were intelligent, kind, funny, and talented.  All those girls had musical talent and regardless of how popular they were, they didn't have a mean, snotty, or stuck-up bone in their bodies.  All quality women.

So... Chris's email...Jenny died in 1992.  It was officially a self-inflicted gun-shot wound.  And not a one of us believes that.  Not for a second.

Jenny was a kind-hearted soul, a very nurturing woman.  That is what had led her to become a much-loved elementary school teacher.  ADORED by her students, their parents, and fellow faculty. 

But that kind heart had led her to wed a man of questionable background and mental stability.  A man who was very controlling and isolating, allowing Jenny very little contact with her family...a scary man.

I have some experience in this area.  This is something I never like to talk about, though my family is too aware, having been a good family and supportive, encouraging me to break the ties and get AWAY from him.  But you can't make anyone do something they don't want to and often women feel that they are the only ones that can help these men.  And these men lead the women to believe that THEY are the only ones who will love these women--because these women are so LOW, so INADEQUATE.

Jenny's  family is sure, and I am too, that Jenny's husband murdered her.  Hey, how many of you think Drew Peterson is innocent?  NOT !!!!  These men exist; they move around society; they marry us; and they murder us.  That is reality and it is the kindest-hearted women, the most giving, most trusting, who are most often the victims.

No, I don't have a solution.  I don't have a sermon.  Unless it's to make your daughters strong and be as FORCEFUL as necessary.  I was lucky.  My parents got a little vocal, but left it up to me.  I was lucky because my  victimizer became weary and decided it would behoove him to move on and find new victims.  That was just left to chance.  We all want to believe that people are better than that and are moral--but don't fool yourselves--many are NOT.

Jenny  is not the only murder victim I've known.  Yes, I'm assuming murder and not suicide, but as I've said, not a doubt in my brain about that one.  When I was pregnant with Sam, two months away from my due date, I received a phone call that the most influential   man in my educational life had been murdered.  He'd been shot with buck-shot in the face during a home invasion.

This was Cliff Nelson.  He'd been my 7th grade teacher.  I'd written an essay my freshman year that had helped him to win Montana's 1980's (?) teacher of the year award.  I can't sing this man's praises enough.  He had such a huge influence that there simply aren't words to tell you how much he meant to me.  His memorial, his funeral revealed what an influence, what a force he'd been in so many lives.  He wrote to many, many students at Christmas.  So many that we were all on alternating years for receiving letters.  And we were all fine with that.

I realize this is getting long.  I could probably make several posts out of this and we'll see.  I usually hope to entertain on some level--though when I think I'm sharing something funny, my mother is usually drowning in pity...

My ruminations tonight have centered on violent crime.  I've known five (?) people who have been murdered and possibly two people who were murderers.Is that a lot?

What is this ache in my heart?  This empty hole?  This profound disillusionment for those whom I knew who could do something so unspeakable?  How could they not only end a life, but spiritually wound the survivors?  How, oh how, could they possibly not care?

And I end tonight with no answers, only questions.  Man's inhumanity to man is beyond comprehension.

Jenny, Cliff, Tony, Archie, and Marvett---I'm sorry.  And we miss you.

Four Products That Will Protect You From Swine 'Flu

 

This picture doesn't have much to do with today's topic, except that I will do everything in my power to keep my daughters healthy, without the benefit of health insurance.

Today the government announced that the swine 'flu is considered a level 5 health emergency.  That is out of a possible of  six levels.  I decided to devote today's post to talking briefly about health care options and what we can do for ourselves to stay healthy.

My family of four is among the forty million Americans who have no health care coverage.  When we lived in Alaska my daughters were covered by a state plan known as Denali Kidcare.  In Oregon they call it the Oregon Health Plan, but we don't qualify.  We are just one more family that slips through the cracks.  They ( the state) say we've made too much money.  We don't see how that can even be possible, (we certainly don't see any money around here), but that is what they've declared and there is little sense in arguing with them.  To add insult to injury, when we first moved down to Oregon after my birth-mother had died, there was a little more money and I did apply for health care insurance for my family.  Only to find that three different companies outright refused to cover Mick or Samantha.  Although Mick hasn't smoked in more than 10 years, they didn't want to cover him.  Because Sam is autistic, they seemed to feel that that was a good enough reason to not cover her.  Shameful. Everybody kept saying, "Have you applied for SSI?  Have you applied for Oregon Health Plan?"  Well, we did.  After being clearly denied in no uncertain terms, and not being willing to give up my house to live in a hovel, I didn't feel like tackling all that paper work again.  State and federal government agencies win these battles by burying applicants in paperwork.

However, I didn't despair.  I got ticked off, but then I got over it.  How willing was I to go to the doctor anyway?  Before you conclude that I'm one of those people who is afraid of the doctor and therefore reluctant to go, let me explain.  I'm one of those people who has seen friends go to doctor after doctor and get a different diagnosis each time.  I'm someone who has seen people given multiple prescriptions for drugs that then leave them battling unpleasant and sometimes serious side effects. I'm someone who has watched people not get better after spending tons of money looking for relief.

When we lived in Alaska, we lived below the poverty level and in a fairly isolated location with minimal health care.  Luckily, one day when I was in the Pelican Library, a woman from an area known as Phonograph, heard me talking about some health problems I had at the time.  She told me her own tale of woe, having been desperately sick, she had flown all over Southeast Alaska to different doctors and not received any real help. What she received was about seven different diagnoses.

What saved her life is the Herbal Healer Academy.  I know some people are very suspicious about alternative medicine and unwilling to trust or try anything of this nature.  That is fine.  It's a personal choice and far be it for me to try to insist that someone venture outside their comfort zone.  I had little choice.  To go see a doctor while we lived in Alaska was not only the cost of the office visit and any prescriptions, but also a round-trip flight, hotel, cab fare, and meals.  Plus I ran the risk of getting weathered in and having these expenses double every day that I was stuck.  People up there try to schedule appointments around the ferry, usually wanting to return to their village on the ferry so that they don't get stuck, but sometimes an illness or a doctor's schedule doesn't cooperate.

I feel like Herbal Healer has saved my life more than once.  Since I didn't go to a doctor, I can't give you an exact diagnosis of what was wrong with me.  Besides, if I'd gone to two or three doctors, I might have been able to give you two or three completely different diagnoses.  But I wasn't well.  I ached, had NO energy, couldn't eat most foods ( at one time that included: milk, eggs, all nuts, flour, pop, alcohol...), I'm forgetting some, but suffice it to say that when I did ingest any of these foods, within minutes raging red hives would erupt all over my face and remain for days, thick, scaly, and miserably uncomfortable.  Later the hives migrated to other body parts.  I was the picture of misery.  I was also willing to try anything.

So I borrowed my new friend's catalog from the Herbal Healer Academy and started reading.  I can't remember what I purchased that first time.  I believe it was the grapefruit seed extract that I took --two drops a day in juice, just once a day, for 30 days.  I later found out from my sister Deanna, who had traveled to India a couple of times, that grapefruit seed extract is highly recommended when traveling in some of these other countries with compromised sanitation.

The Herbal Healer Academy is available on-line.  Membership is required, but sometimes the fee is waived, and if not, the one-time, life-time membership fee (it was $20 when I joined), is well worth it.  Marijah McCain, who is the naturopathic doctor behind the academy, has a very informative site, and is also available through the website to answer questions to your health problems once a week.  Check the site for hours of availability.  That is located toward the bottom of the home page with a graphic of Peanuts' Lucy sitting in her stand with "the doctor is in" sign. 

When I have written to Dr. McCain, I simply told her what I thought my pertinent information was, my age, sex, and symptoms.  She replied within a day or two with a recommended protocol of which supplements to buy and how much and how often to take them.  Herbal Healer ships quickly and everything is well-packed.

Besides grapefruit seed extract, another great product that can help with numerous complaints is the colloidal silver.  Many people saw the blue man on TV this past year whose skin turned blue after using colloidal silver.  That won't happen with this colloidal silver.  That man was using a system where he made his own and he applied it topically.  Herbal Healer colloidal silver is of the highest and purest quality and you ingest it, not rub it on your skin.  This stuff is great when you have a cold or virus or just for general health.  It prevents one-celled organisms from reproducing and leaves the "good stuff" alone in your gut.

Four-herb tea, bought in bulk that you brew yourself, is an amazing tonic.  Many people with cancer have been cured after taking the four-herb tea religiously.  I know.  Those are fighting words to some, and I'm not saying it cures all cancers or for everyone, but the literature is there.  Originally known as Essiac, go to Herbal Healer and read of the nurse who originally developed this tea and the history of its use and effectiveness.  Not a boring story, it reads like an international espionage thriller.  What I like about four-herb tea is that it is an all-over tonic for the body.  It doesn't just treat one symptom or illness, but strengthens the entire body.  If you have any kind of chronic condition, you can take this tea and it doesn't interfere with any medications that you may already be taking.  It will just make your body stronger.  However, buy the tea in bulk, not the capsules or the concentrate.  Those are just to use for maintenance or when traveling.

My number one recommendation from Herbal Healer is called "Physician's Strength Oregacillin". This is powerful stuff for immune support.  Here is what the back of the bottle says, and I say they are telling us the truth:  "Oregacillin is the most powerful oregano and spice extract available for maximum immune support.  Oregacillin is made from natural herbs and spices, including the proprietary P73 wild Oregano blend.  Georgetown University and independent laboratory research prove that Oregacillin kills a wide range of germs, including bacteria, viruses and fungi.  It is also a powerful antioxidant which helps protect cells from toxic damage..."  I have used this Oregacillin when nothing else would seem to help.  It is particularly effective for respiratory illnesses.

I realize that a lot of people prefer to go to their doctor and that is fine.  We do things a little differently in our family and I try to stay educated and find ways to keep my family healthy.  The Herbal Healer Academy has been instrumental in that and I can't sing their praises enough.  Check it out.  Go to www.herbalhealer.com.  Stay healthy, everyone.