Editor,
As I write, conservatives are doing a victory dance over what they perceive to be the corpse of meaningful healthcare reform. Congress’s recess gives them, and the insurance lobbies, time to scare people with lies and misrepresentations; healthcare rationing, lack of choice in your healthcare, government bureaucrats (rather than corporate bureaucrats) making healthcare decisions, and the most ridiculous canard, proposed euthanization of senior citizens. My fellow Democrats are we going to let them get away with this again?
Remember the caucuses when so many people showed up that schools were scrambling to find extra rooms for us? Remember the convention at Central High? It was standing room only.
We got Salazar and Udall elected. We knocked on doors and made phone calls and donated way more than we could afford to put these people in office. Why? Because even in 2007 we could see the damage conservatives had wrought to the economy, to our freedom, our safety, our civil liberties, our standing in the world, and to our society in general.
Remind your representatives that conservatives are never going to vote for them no matter what happens with healthcare reform. And worse yet, if we don’t pass healthcare reform that contains a strong public option, then 2010 will see another republican revolution. Successful healthcare reform will bring the independent votes back.
If our representatives want to keep their jobs, remind them who put them in office. Salazar’s voice mail is full right now but I’m going to keep calling and calling and calling. His number is 202-225-4761. (My thanks to Mark Brown for this information.) You need to call, email, fax, whatever it takes.
What are you waiting for? Get busy. There’s still a lot of work to do!
Joan Cron
Clifton
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
My Letter to anyone who will listen. (All my representatives are male.)
Well, hello there. I am a Democrat and an activist. During the last election I knocked on doors and made phone calls to get DEMOCRATS elected. Why? Because republicans, with their trickle down economics, open market theories, and invasions on countries that did not attack us have landed us in an unsustainable and dangerous position.
And now, sir, I fear you are going to join them and their flawed rationales. Did you know that government healthcare was merely a ruse to euthanize senior citizens? Sir the Health Insurance lobby is spending 1.??? Million dollars a day to make sure lies and misrepresentations like these make it into the public consciousness and influence your vote.
However, none of the gullible people who believe these lies are ever going to work for, lobby for, or vote for you. So stop grabbing your toes and letting them have their way with you.
I have a genetic metabolic bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. My mother had it, my sisters have it, my daughter and my son have it, and my beautiful twin granddaughters have it. It’s what’s known as a pre-existing condition. My husband and I once tried to start our own business. This is America, right, where we are free to make our own choices? Where capitalism gives poor people the opportunity to make something of themselves? Well not if you have OI. We quickly learned that we could NOT get medical insurance. Now insurance companies have to comply with a waiting period for pre-existing conditions, but they can charge you exorbitant amounts.
My daughter and her husband have their own business in Chicago, and they pay $1,500 a month for insurance. That’s more than my take-home pay. And they are fortunate to live near a Shriners’ Hospital. But what’s going to happen to my daughter if she breaks her hip and the insurance company denies the claim? She’s 33-years-old and has spent a good deal of her life in body-casts. I’m trying to recover from my third broken hip. My fist was when I was 10-years-old, my second when I was 28. We had insurance through our employers. We had to pay $100 out of pocket for coverage.
If I had to cover my husband it would cost me $800 a month, for a family it would be $1,600 out of my pocket when I take home $1,200 a month. I am the Assistant Business Manager for the Museum of Western Colorado, and our premium for a single employee is $620 a MONTH. Small businesses are getting it up the back-side. If they’re the engine of our economy then prepare for third world status, because they are getting screwed. Our health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the past 5 years. The businesses responsible enough to try to cover their employees are making difficult choices. No small business can afford to cover dependants. And people who work for a living are penalized for making too much money. They do not qualify for Medicaid.
Who pays for their children’s broken bones, leukemia, and muscular-dystrophy? Tax-payers.
Now we discover that you have not committed to a public option. Why is that? To court your conservative constituents? They wouldn’t vote for you if you tattooed and giant S on your chest and captured Osama bin Laden single-handedly.
I, sir, am the one who will get you re-elected, and I ask, no DEMAND, that you support a meaningful public option, that you require employers to cover their employees and families (that will level that playing-field, so don’t let them tell you it will hurt their ability to compete), and that you require that every American has health insurance. Every single one of us. We have the most expensive healthcare in the world, yet thousands of people lose their coverage every day.
I will be watching, knocking on doors, calling, and donating. I voted for you, now it’s your turn to vote for me.
Respectfully,
Joan E. Cron.
And now, sir, I fear you are going to join them and their flawed rationales. Did you know that government healthcare was merely a ruse to euthanize senior citizens? Sir the Health Insurance lobby is spending 1.??? Million dollars a day to make sure lies and misrepresentations like these make it into the public consciousness and influence your vote.
However, none of the gullible people who believe these lies are ever going to work for, lobby for, or vote for you. So stop grabbing your toes and letting them have their way with you.
I have a genetic metabolic bone disease, osteogenesis imperfecta. My mother had it, my sisters have it, my daughter and my son have it, and my beautiful twin granddaughters have it. It’s what’s known as a pre-existing condition. My husband and I once tried to start our own business. This is America, right, where we are free to make our own choices? Where capitalism gives poor people the opportunity to make something of themselves? Well not if you have OI. We quickly learned that we could NOT get medical insurance. Now insurance companies have to comply with a waiting period for pre-existing conditions, but they can charge you exorbitant amounts.
My daughter and her husband have their own business in Chicago, and they pay $1,500 a month for insurance. That’s more than my take-home pay. And they are fortunate to live near a Shriners’ Hospital. But what’s going to happen to my daughter if she breaks her hip and the insurance company denies the claim? She’s 33-years-old and has spent a good deal of her life in body-casts. I’m trying to recover from my third broken hip. My fist was when I was 10-years-old, my second when I was 28. We had insurance through our employers. We had to pay $100 out of pocket for coverage.
If I had to cover my husband it would cost me $800 a month, for a family it would be $1,600 out of my pocket when I take home $1,200 a month. I am the Assistant Business Manager for the Museum of Western Colorado, and our premium for a single employee is $620 a MONTH. Small businesses are getting it up the back-side. If they’re the engine of our economy then prepare for third world status, because they are getting screwed. Our health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the past 5 years. The businesses responsible enough to try to cover their employees are making difficult choices. No small business can afford to cover dependants. And people who work for a living are penalized for making too much money. They do not qualify for Medicaid.
Who pays for their children’s broken bones, leukemia, and muscular-dystrophy? Tax-payers.
Now we discover that you have not committed to a public option. Why is that? To court your conservative constituents? They wouldn’t vote for you if you tattooed and giant S on your chest and captured Osama bin Laden single-handedly.
I, sir, am the one who will get you re-elected, and I ask, no DEMAND, that you support a meaningful public option, that you require employers to cover their employees and families (that will level that playing-field, so don’t let them tell you it will hurt their ability to compete), and that you require that every American has health insurance. Every single one of us. We have the most expensive healthcare in the world, yet thousands of people lose their coverage every day.
I will be watching, knocking on doors, calling, and donating. I voted for you, now it’s your turn to vote for me.
Respectfully,
Joan E. Cron.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Jett Thomas Logsdon
Birth – January 24, 1918, Strong City Oklahoma
Mother, Addie Irene Guest Logsdon
Father, Hiram Jett Logsdon
Death – April 10, 1973, Denver, Colorado
Addie died in the spring of 1918, a victim of the flu epidemic. Hiram put his infant son in an orphanage in Strong City, Oklahoma. Dad’s maternal grandparents, James M. Guest and Mary Walker Guest, drove through a blizzard in a horse-drawn buggy to rescue their grandson.
Since Dad was raised by his grandparents, he referred to them as Mom and Dad, and he considered his aunts and uncles siblings. His youngest aunt, Hazel, was only seven-years-old at the time. Dad always called Aunt Hazel “Sis.”
Mary suffered from asthma, so when Dad was 3-years-old the family moved around looking for a healthier climate. They travelled by horse and oxen drawn Conestoga wagons enabling them to bring their belongings and livestock. They made biscuits in a four-legged cast iron Dutch oven over an open camp fire. My brother’s son Tommy is entrusted with that Dutch oven.
They first moved to Maricopa, Arizona, but eventually settled in south-eastern Colorado; first in Vroman, but the family farmed in Rocky Ford and Rye.
Dad dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and became a steel worker at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Pueblo, Colorado. This was the heart of The Great Depression, and eventually Dad joined the Civilian Conservation Corp. He was involved in building the Lake Pueblo reservoir.
Dad enlisted in the Army, Coastal Artillery Corp, Philippine Department in 1941. He was stationed on Corregidor. The horrifying events that followed are well documented.
When Corregidor fell, the Japanese transported Dad in Hell ships, first to Cabanatuan, then to Mukden, Manchuria.
Dad spoke of great hunger; the men were so hungry it became necessary to put guards on the morgue. The only thing he couldn’t eat was a monkey arm; it looked too much like a baby’s arm.
While imprisoned, Dad suffered from Dengue Fever. When he had out-breaks his friend, Rudy, would steal quinine for Dad. Dad, when the need arose, stole food for Rudy.
A Japanese guard executed one of Dad’s friends, I don’t know why and I don’t know the friend’s name, by hitting him in the head with his scabbarded sword.
After the Japanese surrendered, Russian troops came through and liberated the camps. Upon learning the fate of my Dad’s friend, the Russians put the guard and my Dad alone in a room together. They fully expected Dad to kill the guard, Dad expected to kill him too, but he couldn’t do it. Instead, he took the man’s (monster’s?) sword. The sword, with the dented scabbard, is now entrusted to my brother, Tom.
The Russians took statements from all the POWs, but that information has never been released. The POWs managed to escape, this time from their Russian liberators. I don’t know the history here.
Dad spoke of riding a train to the ships that would take him home. The men were served French rations. In the dark and Dad couldn’t see what he was eating, but feeling around the tray, he found some delicious “pickles.” In daylight the saw that the “pickles” were pickled eels. He couldn’t bring himself to eat them after that. He had the feeling they were looking at him.
Dad was listed as “dead” so he had to ride home on one of the ships that carried the bodies of fallen POWs. Dad landed at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. As soon as he could, he found a phone booth and called home. That’s when he learned from is sister, Hazel, that his mother had died while he was held prisoner.
While waiting for transportation from San Francisco to Colorado, Dad stood in line in the rain for at least an hour to see Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He never wanted to watch sad movies or war pictures. He’d seen enough of that.
Aunt Hazel and her husband Ole Davis lived across the alley from Dixon and Alice Burkett in Pueblo, Colorado. Alice Burkett helped Hazel care for her dying mother.
The Burketts had a twenty-year-old daughter, Martha Jean “Jean” Burkett. It must have been love at first sight, because my Dad and Jean, my Mom, were engaged after two weeks. They married six weeks later, on February 1, 1946. Because of Dad’s early death, they only had 27 years together, but they were very much in love. They had trials and difficulties, but overall it was a happy, successful marriage.
Like all veterans, Dad was anxious to start a family, and my sister Barbara Ann, was born December 3, 1946. Dad felt too much of his life had already been wasted. He got on with the business of living. There were 4 of us. Barbara Ann, born December 3, 1946, Thomas Dixon, born January 7, 1948, Joan Elizabeth, me, born August 5, 1952, and Jean Lee (Jeanie), born September 30, 1955.
Uncle Ole helped Dad get a job at Mountain States Telephone Company, then part of the Bell System. Dad worked his way up from construction, to installer, to foreman of the test frame crew in the office. This was in the days of analogue; thousands of little switches clicked on and off as calls all over Pueblo made their connections. Dad was a whiz at electronics and technology. He took classes in computer programming. Digital was in its infant stage, the transistor was the smallest switch and computers took up whole buildings.
In 1956 we moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. In the mid 60s, Dad’s friend Rudy and his family came for about a 4 day visit. Rudy was a farmer in the mid-west. A year after the visit, Rudy’s wife sent a letter informing us that Rudy had died. He must have been in his early 40s.
In 1966, Dad was promoted to supervisor of the Rifle, Colorado telephone office. My sister Jeanie and I graduated from Rifle High School.
When we moved to Rifle, the local newspaper, The Rifle Telegram, published Dad’s bio. Leonard Robinson, pastor of the Rifle Baptist Church, contacted my Dad after reading the bio. Dad explained to Pastor Robinson that he appreciated the effort, but we were Episcopalians. But Pastor Robinson contacted Dad because Robinson had been on the Bataan Death March.
Pastor Robinson remained a great spiritual comfort to Dad. He never, ever, tried to convert Dad, but he came by the house often, especially when my brother Tom was in Viet Nam, and prayed with us. When Dad died, Pastor Robinson participated in the Funeral at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Grand Junction, Colorado. My memory is so foggy, but Pastor performed military honors and gave the folded American flag that had been draped over my father’s coffin to my mother. That flag has been entrusted to me.
I married and left home in 1971. My first child, David, was born in 1973 in Fairfield, California when my husband was in the Navy and stationed at Mare Island in Vallejo.
In April 1973, Dad was admitted for double bypass surgery to St. Joseph’s hospital in Denver. This was a fairly routine operation even then, so everyone told me not to leave my six-week-old baby and come to Denver for the surgery. The day after Dad’s surgery I got a call saying things were not going well. My wonderful sisters-in-law took my son while my husband and I flew to Denver. I got to see Dad one time. He smiled at me around his ventilator. I was 20-years-old and I didn’t know that was the last time I would ever see Daddy. He had always been so strong that losing him just seemed impossible. We slept in the waiting room, then when Dad seemed a little more stable, went to the adjacent hotel for some much needed rest. There we got a call that we were needed in the ICU. On the way there, Mom dropped her purse and everything scattered. She stopped to pick things up, but I told her to go, I would take care of it. When my husband arrived in the waiting room, my mother and family were gathered in a circle sobbing. The doctor informed us that Dad had died.
What kind of man was my Dad? He’d been a sportsman, hunter and fisher in his younger years. He loved our beautiful Colorado high country. We spent many memorable vacations camping in a rented camper and visiting small mining towns and old ghost towns. We saw so much beauty.
Dad loved animals. He kept a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder outside the dining room window. He made the hummingbird feeders out of wire and empty whiskey bottles and built the bird feeders. He was very good with his hands. He used to love to watch the hummingbirds dive-bomb each other. He bought books on birds and learned the names and habits of the many migratory species that stopped for a meal at his feeding station.
Though Dad had been a hunter, and had no problem with hunting, he decided he no longer wanted to shoot deer with a gun. When Tom was in Viet Nam, he helped Dad buy a very nice Minolta camera with lots of lenses; telephoto, portrait . . . you name it. Dad still shot deer, but now it was with his camera. He set the camera up at the dining room window and got beautiful shots of the birds. He’d seen so much death and tragedy that he took great joy in capturing natural life in photographs.
Dad loved to cook. He did all the grocery shopping and the cooking. Mom was a nurse who worked weird shifts and long hours. The cooking and shopping were Dad’s way of helping around the house. Not a common trait in men at that time. I learned to cook from my Dad. He always encouraged me.
Dad tried to take over the laundry, but after blue and pink underwear, and shrunken sweaters, Mom convinced him to leave the laundry to her.
My younger sister Jeanie and I loved music. I was a singer, a good one if I do say so myself, and Jeanie was an equally good singer and very talented musician. Dad couldn’t carry and tune in a bucket, but he always supported us. Because we lived in a small town, all the events and competitions that come with high school music happened in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a sixty mile drive from Rifle. Dad never missed a concert and happily (at least he looked happy) drove us all over the place to our competitions and performances. My children are all musical. Dad must have looked down from Heaven and laughed as I rushed home from work, begged for time off, snuck out when I could, to watch my children’s performances or get them to their music lessons. I loved it, but it wore me out.
Dad was 55-years-old when he died. Since my oldest son was only 6-weeks-old when Dad died, I was not able to bring him to the hospital. I grieve that he never knew my children. He wasn’t big on babies, they scared him, but he was great with toddlers and little kids. It would have been such a joy to see him interact with his grandchildren.
Birth – January 24, 1918, Strong City Oklahoma
Mother, Addie Irene Guest Logsdon
Father, Hiram Jett Logsdon
Death – April 10, 1973, Denver, Colorado
Addie died in the spring of 1918, a victim of the flu epidemic. Hiram put his infant son in an orphanage in Strong City, Oklahoma. Dad’s maternal grandparents, James M. Guest and Mary Walker Guest, drove through a blizzard in a horse-drawn buggy to rescue their grandson.
Since Dad was raised by his grandparents, he referred to them as Mom and Dad, and he considered his aunts and uncles siblings. His youngest aunt, Hazel, was only seven-years-old at the time. Dad always called Aunt Hazel “Sis.”
Mary suffered from asthma, so when Dad was 3-years-old the family moved around looking for a healthier climate. They travelled by horse and oxen drawn Conestoga wagons enabling them to bring their belongings and livestock. They made biscuits in a four-legged cast iron Dutch oven over an open camp fire. My brother’s son Tommy is entrusted with that Dutch oven.
They first moved to Maricopa, Arizona, but eventually settled in south-eastern Colorado; first in Vroman, but the family farmed in Rocky Ford and Rye.
Dad dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and became a steel worker at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Pueblo, Colorado. This was the heart of The Great Depression, and eventually Dad joined the Civilian Conservation Corp. He was involved in building the Lake Pueblo reservoir.
Dad enlisted in the Army, Coastal Artillery Corp, Philippine Department in 1941. He was stationed on Corregidor. The horrifying events that followed are well documented.
When Corregidor fell, the Japanese transported Dad in Hell ships, first to Cabanatuan, then to Mukden, Manchuria.
Dad spoke of great hunger; the men were so hungry it became necessary to put guards on the morgue. The only thing he couldn’t eat was a monkey arm; it looked too much like a baby’s arm.
While imprisoned, Dad suffered from Dengue Fever. When he had out-breaks his friend, Rudy, would steal quinine for Dad. Dad, when the need arose, stole food for Rudy.
A Japanese guard executed one of Dad’s friends, I don’t know why and I don’t know the friend’s name, by hitting him in the head with his scabbarded sword.
After the Japanese surrendered, Russian troops came through and liberated the camps. Upon learning the fate of my Dad’s friend, the Russians put the guard and my Dad alone in a room together. They fully expected Dad to kill the guard, Dad expected to kill him too, but he couldn’t do it. Instead, he took the man’s (monster’s?) sword. The sword, with the dented scabbard, is now entrusted to my brother, Tom.
The Russians took statements from all the POWs, but that information has never been released. The POWs managed to escape, this time from their Russian liberators. I don’t know the history here.
Dad spoke of riding a train to the ships that would take him home. The men were served French rations. In the dark and Dad couldn’t see what he was eating, but feeling around the tray, he found some delicious “pickles.” In daylight the saw that the “pickles” were pickled eels. He couldn’t bring himself to eat them after that. He had the feeling they were looking at him.
Dad was listed as “dead” so he had to ride home on one of the ships that carried the bodies of fallen POWs. Dad landed at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. As soon as he could, he found a phone booth and called home. That’s when he learned from is sister, Hazel, that his mother had died while he was held prisoner.
While waiting for transportation from San Francisco to Colorado, Dad stood in line in the rain for at least an hour to see Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He never wanted to watch sad movies or war pictures. He’d seen enough of that.
Aunt Hazel and her husband Ole Davis lived across the alley from Dixon and Alice Burkett in Pueblo, Colorado. Alice Burkett helped Hazel care for her dying mother.
The Burketts had a twenty-year-old daughter, Martha Jean “Jean” Burkett. It must have been love at first sight, because my Dad and Jean, my Mom, were engaged after two weeks. They married six weeks later, on February 1, 1946. Because of Dad’s early death, they only had 27 years together, but they were very much in love. They had trials and difficulties, but overall it was a happy, successful marriage.
Like all veterans, Dad was anxious to start a family, and my sister Barbara Ann, was born December 3, 1946. Dad felt too much of his life had already been wasted. He got on with the business of living. There were 4 of us. Barbara Ann, born December 3, 1946, Thomas Dixon, born January 7, 1948, Joan Elizabeth, me, born August 5, 1952, and Jean Lee (Jeanie), born September 30, 1955.
Uncle Ole helped Dad get a job at Mountain States Telephone Company, then part of the Bell System. Dad worked his way up from construction, to installer, to foreman of the test frame crew in the office. This was in the days of analogue; thousands of little switches clicked on and off as calls all over Pueblo made their connections. Dad was a whiz at electronics and technology. He took classes in computer programming. Digital was in its infant stage, the transistor was the smallest switch and computers took up whole buildings.
In 1956 we moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. In the mid 60s, Dad’s friend Rudy and his family came for about a 4 day visit. Rudy was a farmer in the mid-west. A year after the visit, Rudy’s wife sent a letter informing us that Rudy had died. He must have been in his early 40s.
In 1966, Dad was promoted to supervisor of the Rifle, Colorado telephone office. My sister Jeanie and I graduated from Rifle High School.
When we moved to Rifle, the local newspaper, The Rifle Telegram, published Dad’s bio. Leonard Robinson, pastor of the Rifle Baptist Church, contacted my Dad after reading the bio. Dad explained to Pastor Robinson that he appreciated the effort, but we were Episcopalians. But Pastor Robinson contacted Dad because Robinson had been on the Bataan Death March.
Pastor Robinson remained a great spiritual comfort to Dad. He never, ever, tried to convert Dad, but he came by the house often, especially when my brother Tom was in Viet Nam, and prayed with us. When Dad died, Pastor Robinson participated in the Funeral at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Grand Junction, Colorado. My memory is so foggy, but Pastor performed military honors and gave the folded American flag that had been draped over my father’s coffin to my mother. That flag has been entrusted to me.
I married and left home in 1971. My first child, David, was born in 1973 in Fairfield, California when my husband was in the Navy and stationed at Mare Island in Vallejo.
In April 1973, Dad was admitted for double bypass surgery to St. Joseph’s hospital in Denver. This was a fairly routine operation even then, so everyone told me not to leave my six-week-old baby and come to Denver for the surgery. The day after Dad’s surgery I got a call saying things were not going well. My wonderful sisters-in-law took my son while my husband and I flew to Denver. I got to see Dad one time. He smiled at me around his ventilator. I was 20-years-old and I didn’t know that was the last time I would ever see Daddy. He had always been so strong that losing him just seemed impossible. We slept in the waiting room, then when Dad seemed a little more stable, went to the adjacent hotel for some much needed rest. There we got a call that we were needed in the ICU. On the way there, Mom dropped her purse and everything scattered. She stopped to pick things up, but I told her to go, I would take care of it. When my husband arrived in the waiting room, my mother and family were gathered in a circle sobbing. The doctor informed us that Dad had died.
What kind of man was my Dad? He’d been a sportsman, hunter and fisher in his younger years. He loved our beautiful Colorado high country. We spent many memorable vacations camping in a rented camper and visiting small mining towns and old ghost towns. We saw so much beauty.
Dad loved animals. He kept a bird feeder and a hummingbird feeder outside the dining room window. He made the hummingbird feeders out of wire and empty whiskey bottles and built the bird feeders. He was very good with his hands. He used to love to watch the hummingbirds dive-bomb each other. He bought books on birds and learned the names and habits of the many migratory species that stopped for a meal at his feeding station.
Though Dad had been a hunter, and had no problem with hunting, he decided he no longer wanted to shoot deer with a gun. When Tom was in Viet Nam, he helped Dad buy a very nice Minolta camera with lots of lenses; telephoto, portrait . . . you name it. Dad still shot deer, but now it was with his camera. He set the camera up at the dining room window and got beautiful shots of the birds. He’d seen so much death and tragedy that he took great joy in capturing natural life in photographs.
Dad loved to cook. He did all the grocery shopping and the cooking. Mom was a nurse who worked weird shifts and long hours. The cooking and shopping were Dad’s way of helping around the house. Not a common trait in men at that time. I learned to cook from my Dad. He always encouraged me.
Dad tried to take over the laundry, but after blue and pink underwear, and shrunken sweaters, Mom convinced him to leave the laundry to her.
My younger sister Jeanie and I loved music. I was a singer, a good one if I do say so myself, and Jeanie was an equally good singer and very talented musician. Dad couldn’t carry and tune in a bucket, but he always supported us. Because we lived in a small town, all the events and competitions that come with high school music happened in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, a sixty mile drive from Rifle. Dad never missed a concert and happily (at least he looked happy) drove us all over the place to our competitions and performances. My children are all musical. Dad must have looked down from Heaven and laughed as I rushed home from work, begged for time off, snuck out when I could, to watch my children’s performances or get them to their music lessons. I loved it, but it wore me out.
Dad was 55-years-old when he died. Since my oldest son was only 6-weeks-old when Dad died, I was not able to bring him to the hospital. I grieve that he never knew my children. He wasn’t big on babies, they scared him, but he was great with toddlers and little kids. It would have been such a joy to see him interact with his grandchildren.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Post Your Pets . . . A Little Late
I know, I’m late, but I have had trouble figuring out how to post images on this blog. In honor of my daughter's posting, Post Pics of Your Pets Day!, here goes.
In my 55 years, many wonderful dogs and cats have enriched my life and the lives of my family members.
Willie, our lamented cocker spaniel, was probably my favorite. He was buff colored with white freckles on his nose, and he was a character. When he was young he spent many joyous hours chasing rain-birds and trying to catch the water.
Willie's pre-feeding ritual included squirting water for him to chase. One day, when he was 15, he collapsed while trying to catch the stream of water my son Dan sprayed for him. I miss him terribly, but he had a full, rich life and a great death. I prefer to think of him in Doggy Heaven where he can actually catch the water.
When Willie was 2, we got a blond female cocker and named her Desdemona. (Willie was short for William Shakespeare.) It was a difficult relationship at times, but once Desi established that she was the boss, the two of them rubbed along well enough. Willie still got his way; he just had to be sneaky about it.
Willie and Desi had 2 litters. The first puppies came just in time for Christmas, and we had no trouble finding homes for them. The second litter came in the spring, and we had a harder time finding new parents for the puppies. We ended up keeping a little red female, Juliet, because she followed my husband around and cried when she couldn’t find him.
We also kept a white male, Bubba, who was terribly sweet, but had an umbilical hernia so no one was willing to take him.
All these wonderful pets are gone now. Juliet was the last to go. She became very ill about a year ago and we had to have her put down. Life with a pack of cocker spaniels was fun, and I miss them all.
I have no electronic pictures of most of these dogs, so this essay is my way of posting their images.
Then there are the cats. We don’t need to go into detail, as I’ve discussed the many cats we have in previous blogs. They’ve been a lot of fun, they’re very nurturing, and they’ve completely destroyed our house. It needed some work anyway.
The worst culprit is our little tuxedo tom, Silly. We didn’t get him neutered soon enough, so he sprays everything. I’m trying this new stuff called “Comfort Zone,” a hormone that’s produced in cats’ cheeks, that is supposed to make them happy and stop spraying. So far it seems to be helping. Not only has Silly stopped spraying the sofa, he’s become a lot more affectionate.
My sister Bobby was kind enough to take 2 black kitties off our hands back when the heard was in full production. Zeus and Missy are well loved and spoiled rotten. Cats always know who the suckers are, and one day Diva, a little black female, won her way into Bobby’s heart. Diva was older than she looked, and that along with some health problems Bobby had, prevented my sister from getting Diva spayed in time. Diva now has 3 adorable 5-week-old kitties; Napoleon and Josephine, darling gray tabbies, and Cutie Pie, a silver tuxedo with white sox.
Enough talk, now it’s time for pictures.
Miss Kitty's litter, left to right;
Smoky, Gateway a.k.a. Princess, Marmy, Lucky, and Zeus (the black kitten hiding in the back) Zeus is now so large he should go by his Roman name, Jupiter.
We still have Smoky, Bobby has Zeus, and all the other kitties, via natural means and foul play, are no longer with us.
In my 55 years, many wonderful dogs and cats have enriched my life and the lives of my family members.
Willie, our lamented cocker spaniel, was probably my favorite. He was buff colored with white freckles on his nose, and he was a character. When he was young he spent many joyous hours chasing rain-birds and trying to catch the water.
Willie's pre-feeding ritual included squirting water for him to chase. One day, when he was 15, he collapsed while trying to catch the stream of water my son Dan sprayed for him. I miss him terribly, but he had a full, rich life and a great death. I prefer to think of him in Doggy Heaven where he can actually catch the water.
When Willie was 2, we got a blond female cocker and named her Desdemona. (Willie was short for William Shakespeare.) It was a difficult relationship at times, but once Desi established that she was the boss, the two of them rubbed along well enough. Willie still got his way; he just had to be sneaky about it.
Willie and Desi had 2 litters. The first puppies came just in time for Christmas, and we had no trouble finding homes for them. The second litter came in the spring, and we had a harder time finding new parents for the puppies. We ended up keeping a little red female, Juliet, because she followed my husband around and cried when she couldn’t find him.
We also kept a white male, Bubba, who was terribly sweet, but had an umbilical hernia so no one was willing to take him.
All these wonderful pets are gone now. Juliet was the last to go. She became very ill about a year ago and we had to have her put down. Life with a pack of cocker spaniels was fun, and I miss them all.
I have no electronic pictures of most of these dogs, so this essay is my way of posting their images.
Then there are the cats. We don’t need to go into detail, as I’ve discussed the many cats we have in previous blogs. They’ve been a lot of fun, they’re very nurturing, and they’ve completely destroyed our house. It needed some work anyway.
The worst culprit is our little tuxedo tom, Silly. We didn’t get him neutered soon enough, so he sprays everything. I’m trying this new stuff called “Comfort Zone,” a hormone that’s produced in cats’ cheeks, that is supposed to make them happy and stop spraying. So far it seems to be helping. Not only has Silly stopped spraying the sofa, he’s become a lot more affectionate.
My sister Bobby was kind enough to take 2 black kitties off our hands back when the heard was in full production. Zeus and Missy are well loved and spoiled rotten. Cats always know who the suckers are, and one day Diva, a little black female, won her way into Bobby’s heart. Diva was older than she looked, and that along with some health problems Bobby had, prevented my sister from getting Diva spayed in time. Diva now has 3 adorable 5-week-old kitties; Napoleon and Josephine, darling gray tabbies, and Cutie Pie, a silver tuxedo with white sox.
Enough talk, now it’s time for pictures.
Silly & Juliet. Julie didn't actually care for cats, but Silly loved her anyway
Juliet. Somehow even as an old lady she still looked like a puppy
Miss Kitty's litter, left to right;
Smoky, Gateway a.k.a. Princess, Marmy, Lucky, and Zeus (the black kitten hiding in the back) Zeus is now so large he should go by his Roman name, Jupiter.
We still have Smoky, Bobby has Zeus, and all the other kitties, via natural means and foul play, are no longer with us.Bobby's new kitties: Napoleon, Cutie Pie, and Josephine.
Proud mama, Diva, nurses her babies
Sunday, October 08, 2006
. . . to Forgive, Inspirational
The Amish community in Pennsylvania suffered a horrific fate; the violent and senseless deaths of five of their daughters. Charles Carl Roberts blockaded himself and the children in the Amish schoolhouse and he had every intension of molesting and murdering the girls. He pulled it off. He killed five of them, and seriously wounded several others.
After the shooting in Bailey, Colorado, where Duane Morrison held six girls hostage, molested them, then murdered sixteen-year-old Emily Keyes, copycats were bound to ooze out from under their rocks.
If God is good, why does he allow such cruelty? I wrestle with this question all the time, and I find no answers.
Voltaire decided the question was not worth worrying about. Just work in your garden.
But I cannot abandon the idea of God nor can I shed my belief in Christ. It won’t go away, I can’t make it go away. My faith is there. I know it, I feel it, and no amount of logic can change it. Faith is not something that can be proved or disproved, it just is.
The families of the victims of Roberts' crime showed their faith through their forgiveness. They went to Roberts' funeral and were there to support his wife and children.
How can they do that? I don’t know. I couldn’t. My thirst for vengeance, my anger and bitterness, would eat me alive.
But hatred and violence only bring more hatred and violence.
Bad things happen, terrible tragedies, and there are no reasons. The Amish accept it as God’s will, but I don’t believe that either. I have no answers.
Emily Keyes parents have called for random acts of kindness in their daughter’s memory.
This I do know, the remarkable strength shown by the Amish and the Keyes family will make the world a better place, and will bring them more peace than violence ever could.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Now I know what He was talking about.
I send my heartfelt prayers out to all the victims.
After the shooting in Bailey, Colorado, where Duane Morrison held six girls hostage, molested them, then murdered sixteen-year-old Emily Keyes, copycats were bound to ooze out from under their rocks.
If God is good, why does he allow such cruelty? I wrestle with this question all the time, and I find no answers.
Voltaire decided the question was not worth worrying about. Just work in your garden.
But I cannot abandon the idea of God nor can I shed my belief in Christ. It won’t go away, I can’t make it go away. My faith is there. I know it, I feel it, and no amount of logic can change it. Faith is not something that can be proved or disproved, it just is.
The families of the victims of Roberts' crime showed their faith through their forgiveness. They went to Roberts' funeral and were there to support his wife and children.
How can they do that? I don’t know. I couldn’t. My thirst for vengeance, my anger and bitterness, would eat me alive.
But hatred and violence only bring more hatred and violence.
Bad things happen, terrible tragedies, and there are no reasons. The Amish accept it as God’s will, but I don’t believe that either. I have no answers.
Emily Keyes parents have called for random acts of kindness in their daughter’s memory.
This I do know, the remarkable strength shown by the Amish and the Keyes family will make the world a better place, and will bring them more peace than violence ever could.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.” Now I know what He was talking about.
I send my heartfelt prayers out to all the victims.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
And the Winner is . . .
Two thumbs up for Bush’s plan to try the Guantanamo detainees. Whew! Now we’re a lot safer.
Wait a minute; what about the NSE report that tells us terrorism is on the rise because of sympathy generated by the Iraq war. Oh, Bush fixed that. He released 4 pages of a 30 page classified document. That explains everything.
We can’t keep evildoers in secret CIA prisons any more. Other countries that allow a certain amount of forceful persuasion just won’t cooperate any more. Surely not because the CIA’s methods were too distasteful even for Egypt?
You have to get a little rough with people to get just the right information out of them. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? Now those guys knew how to get at the truth.
I’ll grant you, we can’t put people on the rack, we can’t even pull out a few fingernails. That would be inhumane.
Instead, we can chain these evildoers to the floor in fetal positions until they defecate and urinate on themselves. What could happen? Maybe they’ll get diaper rash. Surely that wouldn’t induce them to say things that are untrue, but useful to the inquisitors (I mean CIA Agents), just to end the pain.
We went to war with Iraq based on rock solid evidence, obtained by water boarding, that Iraq had atomic bombs and links to the 9/11 attacks.
Wait another minute; now Bush says Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. But he can’t wait to get more evidence against terrorist by using these “humane” tactics. It doesn’t matter that the JAG office is against these procedures. Maybe military lawyers don’t want to bring terrorists to justice. Or maybe they would like convictions that will actually hold up on appeal.
Wait a minute; what about the NSE report that tells us terrorism is on the rise because of sympathy generated by the Iraq war. Oh, Bush fixed that. He released 4 pages of a 30 page classified document. That explains everything.
We can’t keep evildoers in secret CIA prisons any more. Other countries that allow a certain amount of forceful persuasion just won’t cooperate any more. Surely not because the CIA’s methods were too distasteful even for Egypt?
You have to get a little rough with people to get just the right information out of them. Remember the Spanish Inquisition? Now those guys knew how to get at the truth.
I’ll grant you, we can’t put people on the rack, we can’t even pull out a few fingernails. That would be inhumane.
Instead, we can chain these evildoers to the floor in fetal positions until they defecate and urinate on themselves. What could happen? Maybe they’ll get diaper rash. Surely that wouldn’t induce them to say things that are untrue, but useful to the inquisitors (I mean CIA Agents), just to end the pain.
We went to war with Iraq based on rock solid evidence, obtained by water boarding, that Iraq had atomic bombs and links to the 9/11 attacks.
Wait another minute; now Bush says Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. But he can’t wait to get more evidence against terrorist by using these “humane” tactics. It doesn’t matter that the JAG office is against these procedures. Maybe military lawyers don’t want to bring terrorists to justice. Or maybe they would like convictions that will actually hold up on appeal.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Letter to Senator Salazar
Dear Senator Salazar,
The Geneva Conventions were created to protect those who are imprisoned because of acts of war, and it sets the standard for humanitarian behavior. 194 countries have ratified them, but now the Bush administration wants to redefine Article 3, the article that forbids captors to torture prisoners.
The documented abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prove that Bush has neither the wisdom nor the morality to re-interpret treaties that have been accepted as civilized behavior since they were entered into force in October of 1950.
My father became a POW in April of 1942 when the Philippines fell to the Japanese army. Dad told us he survived his ordeal through his faith in God and his love for his country. The memories of the atrocities he endured plagued him until his death in 1973. What must he be thinking now? The country he fought for and believed in has been torturing prisoners, and the Supreme Court had to force the President to accept the Geneva Conventions.
In order to preserve the façade of Republican unity, Senators McCain and Warner and Representative Graham have reached an agreement with the Bush administration on tribunal laws. CIA agents won’t have to worry that they’ll be charged with war crimes if they get a little too rough while interrogating detainees. I agree with Senator McCain’s earlier view that allowing Bush to “define” the Geneva Conventions will only make the world a more dangerous place for us and for our soldiers. Other heads of state will follow Bush’s example and change the Conventions to suit their own needs.
Obviously terrorists don’t worry about the rights of their prisoners, nor do they respect innocent life. But we are supposed to be better than that; we are the moral compass for the world. How can we win the hearts and minds of Muslims when we are becoming exactly like the villains we are supposed to be fighting?
Respectfully,
Joan Cron
http://grandvalleylefty.blogspot.com/
The Geneva Conventions were created to protect those who are imprisoned because of acts of war, and it sets the standard for humanitarian behavior. 194 countries have ratified them, but now the Bush administration wants to redefine Article 3, the article that forbids captors to torture prisoners.
The documented abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prove that Bush has neither the wisdom nor the morality to re-interpret treaties that have been accepted as civilized behavior since they were entered into force in October of 1950.
My father became a POW in April of 1942 when the Philippines fell to the Japanese army. Dad told us he survived his ordeal through his faith in God and his love for his country. The memories of the atrocities he endured plagued him until his death in 1973. What must he be thinking now? The country he fought for and believed in has been torturing prisoners, and the Supreme Court had to force the President to accept the Geneva Conventions.
In order to preserve the façade of Republican unity, Senators McCain and Warner and Representative Graham have reached an agreement with the Bush administration on tribunal laws. CIA agents won’t have to worry that they’ll be charged with war crimes if they get a little too rough while interrogating detainees. I agree with Senator McCain’s earlier view that allowing Bush to “define” the Geneva Conventions will only make the world a more dangerous place for us and for our soldiers. Other heads of state will follow Bush’s example and change the Conventions to suit their own needs.
Obviously terrorists don’t worry about the rights of their prisoners, nor do they respect innocent life. But we are supposed to be better than that; we are the moral compass for the world. How can we win the hearts and minds of Muslims when we are becoming exactly like the villains we are supposed to be fighting?
Respectfully,
Joan Cron
http://grandvalleylefty.blogspot.com/
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