The last few days have been beautiful outside.  Bright sun, comforting warm breezes. The tulips and daffodills are beginning to show their green. Even though it snowed last weekend and last night huge snowflakes blew in from somewhere, Spring seems to have arrived. This morning there was no sign of the snow, just the Easter Bunny with a basket of eggs. I managed to get a quick shot of him before he spotted me. I guess he is practicing for Easter Sunday.

I think there is one word which describes today’s Republicans far better than the word “conservative”. That word is “anachronistic”. The minimal government which they advocate harkens back to the early 19th Century in the United States when there were boundless natural resources and little restraints, minimal access to transportation, little possibility of control of people who could just keep moving Westward across the continent and take what they wanted according to their might and whim. Also, there was little concern for, or understanding of, the consequences.

“The intentional use of older, often obsolete cultural artifacts may be regarded as anachronistic. For example, it could be considered anachronistic for a modern-day person to wear a top hat, write with a quill, or carry on a conversation in Latin. Such choices may reflect an eccentricity, or an aesthetic preference” –Quoted from Wikipedia–I might add, also, and/or might reflect a philosophical preference.

The “terrifying national debt” was run up to “terrifying” levels during the Bush administration, largely due to two unfunded wars, tax cuts for the rich, and the Prescription Drug Benefit. Prior to the Bush years, Mr. Clinton presided over the rise of a surplus which Mr. Bush quickly squandered. Other Republican administrations have been also fiscally irresponsible; if you doubt me, look at history, going all the way back to one of my heroes, President Ulysses Grant, who, whatever moral virtues he may have had, definitely was no financial whiz kid.

The idea that Republicans know what they are doing fiscally is a MYTH. In fact, it is one of the greatest myths that has ever been visited upon the American people.

Last year about this time, the first Baby Boomer turned 65. If you count the beginning of the baby boom from the first babies born following the end of World War II in Europe, VE Day, Celebrated on May 7th or 8th, depending on where you are, then the babies born approximately 9 months later, beginning in January or February of 1946 began what would come to be called the “Post-War Baby Boom”.  That Boom might be considered to be the result of the euphoria and prosperity that was ignited following the victory of the free world over tyranny.  It also might properly be considered to have ended with the day in 1963, November 22, that President John F. Kennedy was shot, as that changed the optimism that characterized the American spirit.

Nonetheless, the euphoria and hope, progress and prosperity, lasted for 17 years. Babies born during that time grew up in a world of unprecedented security. Many of these children started life very poor, in houses that did not have indoor toilets, but, by the time they reached their teen years their fathers, thanks in great part to the GI Bill, had gotten better educations, great jobs, and they were able to move up and out to the suburbs to homes with, not only plumbing, but separate bedrooms for each child and in addition to a living room, a den, dining room and modern kitchen and a backyard patio, and, more and more frequently, their own in-ground swimming pool–something to which only the extremely wealthy had had access in the past.

The youngest of the Baby Boomers, those born in the 60’s, more than likely did not know the poverty that their older siblings had experienced, and took for granted the luxury in which they were born. By the time they reached some degree of self-awareness the cynicism which visited upon the American populace following the assasinations of, not only John F. Kennedy, but also Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. had begun to settle upon the land.

So, where am I going with this. I was actually thinking of this as a gift to Baby Boomers, being one myself. And, in spite of the fact that some of other generations blame Boomers for the ills of the planet, we are all in this together and no one generation deserves more blame, or more credit, than another. Many of the goods of the planet are also due to to work of Baby Boomers.  We all need to work together to make the future more secure for all.

I read a very hateful post a few days ago in a letter to one of the newspapers online.  It went something like, “We (the speaker was a self-described millenial) are being buried in old people”…as though the elderly and the aging are the enemy. If we are lucky, all of us will be old some day. It behooves us to respect the wisdom of age. My sister’s grandchild, now just 2 years and 3 months old, loves her grandmother dearly. I was speaking with her and her mom on Skype the other day and she said, “but, where’s grandma?”, since, when she usually Skypes it is to her grandmother, not to me. We owe much to the generations that have preceeded us. Had it not been for the fact that my sister was such a good mother, her granddaughter would not have such a good mother and would not be the happy, secure child she is today.

So, as a tribute to my sister and my own mother, I write this. My sister’s birthday is today. The second anniversary of my mother’s death was yesterday. In her memory I remember the good things that she and all the neighbors of her generation taught me. I remember my grandmother, also, and all her good friends who lost so many of their children to early deaths, and how they struggled to keep their families alive, in the days before good sanitation and decent medical care. I salute and praise them all and hope that younger generations will remember ours also kindly.

It behooves us as people of conscience to prevail upon the airwaves to free us from the tyranny of hate speech. Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are the engine that drives the hate speech. He needs to be taken down from his pedestal and shown the door to oblivion.

Women and men who care for women and all who care for civility, let us join together and a turn off our radios and TV’s whenever and wherever they allow his brand of hateful discourse. The American political system has been stymied and virtually destroyed by the mushrooming fungus of hate spewing from his mouth. Men have become more and more insensitive to the needs of women and children. It has become fashionable to rant and rave against people of sensitivity and taste, and to replace civil discourse, with wanton spewing of hate-filled hyperbole.

A return to reality and graciousness is in order. If we want to live in a better world, we need to make it better by refusing to listen to those who would destroy our better natures. If it doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t. If you don’t think your great-granny would have wanted you to hear it when you were 8 years old, then it probably is not a respectful thing to say. If we do not demand the building up of community and the promise of a better world for our children and grandchildren, then who will?

We need to take a Brillo pad to the airwaves and rid them of Rush. Free speech ends when it crosses the line and foments hatred and hurts others. Many people have been fired for saying less incendiary things about other groups. Why is hate speech against women tolerated? Our world and our society deserve better. We are better people than this. Limbaugh should be fired.

 Thoughts regarding Rush Limbaugh’s diatribe against women this past week

Other people have been fired for doing and/or saying far less damaging and outrageous things than this intentional insulting diatribe of Limbaugh’s.  Even his so-called “apology” was a backstabbing insult. Remember Helen Thomas’ relatively benign, inappropriate comments in 2010 about Israel, as a newswoman approaching 90 years of age?  She was dismissed from Hearst News immediately. This man, Rush Limbaugh, needs to be fired. Why is it appropriate to insult women and pound them into the ground, but no other group? Who does he work for?  Who is his employer? Is he a syndicated radio program?  If so, stations need to “just say NO to Rush”! If American Family Radio’s many stations are carrying this unchristian and uncharitable language, then shame on them! Would you want your children to be in the car when this was being aired? This man needs to go and he needs to go NOW! Crush Rush! Rush Limbaugh is a cancer on the throat of free speech. Out! The American people can no longer tolerate this hate-filled speech.