MoxieLife

The New Little Rock 9 - Health Care in Arkansas

I live in a state where the federal government had to force the people to integrate. The brave souls of the Little Rock 9 had to walk through a crowd of people who were jeering, yelling and displaying rage and hate. Their act is considered one of the most important features of the civil rights movement and it happened in a place where the majority of the people didn't want it to happen. They were forced to be fair.

Knowing that I look at the landscape of people shouting about health care and I wonder if this is a similar case. A case where the people will need to be forced to do the right thing. My senators are both reluctant to vote for health care, even though a large percentage of our states population are already on some form of federal health care system (AR Kids, Medicare). They are afraid that those that oppose the "right" to health care won't vote for them and that their jobs will be lost over this decision. I say that they need to stand up and do the right thing and that sometimes the people need to be forced - an unfortunate thing, but one that has been proven in our states history.

We all have the opportunity to be on the right side of this debate and go down in history as a people who cares for the whole - or we can stand on the sidelines and shout hatred. The choice is ours to make - or it will be made for us.

Challenge Updates and the OMG Award of the Week

Challenge Update:

I wrote my Tuesday poem - this is much more challenging then I thought. The process, for me, is to think about it for a couple of days. Write it on that Tuesday some time in the mid day in a quick dash. Edit it to something poem like. Call Lynn and read it to her voice mail. And then check it off on the calendar. I can see where I could forget this on a busy Tuesday - but I am trying to add it to my To Do list so it doesn't fall off the track. It is interesting that it takes several days for some idea to percolate - nothing to earth shattering, but something that would be easily captured in a few brief lines. Again, I am grateful that I am reading them to her voicemail because I would be TOO shy to read them to her in person.

Other updates: Went to yoga, wrote letters, did a after Olympic gymnastic hands in the air happy dance after hiking through a trail I had never hiked in Lake Leatherwood, wrote two friends about creating a retreat, designed the coolest To Do list, and have not figured out how to exercise everyday other then walking to the mail box.

Donors Choose Challenge:

Well, it is the 17th of October. I have just a few days left to raise enough to help ONE MORE CLASSROOM and if you are reading this you know I am talking to you. It takes MINUTES to do and it goes DIRECTLY into a classroom. If you don't know Arkansas 37.4% schools failed - we are ranked 48 out of 50. Your $5 donation goes DIRECTLY into classrooms that are desperate for help.

I know you have a million organizations asking you for your money. I know that this has been a hard year, but if you could help one child wouldn't you? If you knew that your money would make a real difference wouldn't you give it? With Donors Choose it does - the teacher gets it for projects that are meaningful to their students.

So, go look under your couch, in your change bowl, and at the bottom of you purse and give that much. Thank  you.

OMG Award of the Week:

This was tough because we had the ridiculous parents who thought their child went up in their hot air balloon, but really just seek crazy amounts of media attention, but the award goes to the Louisiana judge who denied the interracial couple their marriage license because of what it would do to the children. See, this is what living in the South is like folks.

Getting Comfortable

I have been thinking lately of the idea around comfort. Why people need/want comfort. Where they get comfort. What are comforting thoughts. Of course, my thinking swirls around people who need god as part of their comfort and why I don't need that. And how I feel about them needing that.

It is true that I don't need the comfort of knowing there is a plan, god, or divine reason for anything that happens. I am comfortable knowing that it is either a process or just random chaos. Either way is fine with me. I am not sure WHY that is fine with me, but it is. I lose no sleep knowing that bad things happen, people die, or the world doesn't work the way I want it to. Granted I fret over those things day to day as they happen, but it is ok that there isn't some divine plan making them happen that way.

It seems though that other people need to think there is a divine plan. They need to know there is a reason for both good and bad. They need god.

A part of me, and I have discussed this before, thinks that this is a childish need (don't berate me again about it.). My thought is that they are either trying to replicate the loving father/mother that they had or grasping for one that they didn't have on a large scale. That would mean, to me, that they haven't processed those needs that developed very young and are attached to them. Which, on some level, is fine because we all are where we are.

I also think that some people just have a need to have answers... and god and the comfort of having a god who is in control at some level provides those answers.  I wonder if on some level there isn't so much a god gene, but rather a need for comfort gene. Or a need for answers gene.

So, where do I find comfort? In my friends, in knowing I have tried my best, in sleep, in rice pudding. Simple things bring me great comfort. I don't look outside much (except for that pudding)... I try to tap the well within that can bring me both comfort and suffering. It seems to replenish at a rapid rate and is always accessible.

What about you? Where do you find comfort? Do you need comfort?

Support ARKANSAS Teachers!

There is a saying in Arkansas: Thank god for Mississippi. (I hear they say thank god for Arkansas.) What that is usually referring to is EDUCATION. When I moved here I got to see the resources and salaries of the teachers in the natural state... and to put it mildly it can be lacking.

So, in honor of both my father who was a teacher for 32 years and to my daughter who is now an education major in Arkansas I participate in the DonorsChoose.org Social Media Challenge. My goal is to fund at least 2 projects in Arkansas this year. Last year I was successful at getting one classroom funded and I know that we can fund one more.

Even if you have just $10 you can help fund a teacher's project. The money goes right to them and they are able to create a positive change immediately. A feel good for everyone!

You can visit my Giving Page, http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=23807, to make a donation or grab my widget from the page and add it to your own blog.  Together, we can make a larger impact than all of the other blogs this year!

Thanks for your support,
Jacqueline

This is La La Land - Can Christians Take Back Christianity?

Just a quick link about the La La Land that is being run by the "village idiot" from the Rachel Maddow show. Love to hear your thoughts. Remember, I live near and around these folks... this is the reality I see each day.

Good without God.

I love the idea of billboards that shout out the idea that you can be Good without God. Brilliant. It seems to me that many aren't sure if you can be good without a divine power asking you to be, and I think they would be surprised that you can be.

I recently got back from a conference in El Dorado, AR. The farthest south I have ever been (not including Southern California)... we are talking "the south". It is a lovely town with a bustling historic district, oil money, and an incredible school system. It is also very southern. As a "Yankee" and believe me they still think of people in those terms, I could see the "southerness" in many aspects of the town.

• Sambo's Liquor store: when I mentioned that this was offensive my traveling partners (3 from the south) all said that it was probably someones name and it wasn't a big deal. Me, I couldn't believe it.
• We watched a reenactment of a shoot out on the town square complete with hymns and prayer - granted this was what it was like in 1928, but those songs were sung with ferfor... and it seemed like the whole crowd knew them except me.
• The town is 50% African American and I can tell you that where I was staying I didn't see any except as "help". Now granted I wasn't in town for long and only explored the conference area - but integration isn't evident. I am SURE it is better, but it isn't perfect.

Note: it is a LOVELY town. The people LOVE their town. They are NICE people. They would help you on the side of the road if you needed help, but would they tolerate a sign that said "Atheists are people too"... I am not so sure.

Take this conversation between two women and then myself: "My daughter lives in your town," says one woman. "Really, what church does she go to?" asks the woman from town two. "Methodist - downtown." "OH, I should know her, but I don't get there as often as I should," shares town two. "Well, you are really busy running the downtown," I say. "That is no excuse not to go to church," she says.

These conversations happen at every meeting: where do you go to church, where do your parents go, etc... if I mention that I am UU - that is a raised eyebrow, but if I were to say I was Atheist... just how would that go in these southern towns? I don't know because I, like SO MANY, are silent about it.

At least they didn't pray at our meeting (which was, of course, held in the Baptist teen center.)