Someone Has Always Paid

For every benefit that a people enjoys, Someone has Always paid a price. In S. Africa it was Nelson Mandela and many other African and mixed race people, many of whom lost teir lives. In the U.S. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Fred Hampton, Medger Evers and Malcom X, depending on your point of view. Many men and women (nearly all African Americans) were beaten and jailed.

In Native America N. and S., it has Been Anna Mae Aquash, Leonard Peltier, and the parents of Rigoberta Menchu. In many places it is tribes like the Tunica and Houma peoples of Louisiana who have not received recognition, and thus No Federal Help.

Among blind people those who paid for my civil rights are the piano tuners, chair caners, and basket weavers and beggars of the 1940's. Among deaf-blind people it was Helen Keller, who mastered ten Differing systems of Braille and literally read in an unheated house until her fingers Bled. She convinced Congress to standardize American Braille, And helped push for the establishment of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which has a branch in each state, delivering via mail Braille, large print, and recorded, " talking books" to print disabled people. When an organization for the blind refused to pay her and Annie Sullivan a decent salary they said Forget It, and joined a circus.

In recent times we have had pioneers like Mr. Richard Kenney, former president of the Hadley School for the Blind, educating people around the world via Braille, large print, and taped materials, in correspondence courses ranging from poetry to computer skills. And there is Robert J. Smithdas, of the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults.

If I have misspelled any of these names I offer my honest apology. I cannot know how to spell a name which I haven't read in Braille.

It seems to me that there is a fundamenal difference between those who pay the price for the advancement of themselves and their people and those who are asked by our Government to pay or risk paying the ultimate price, their lives, for a political goal.

The Dalai Lama is Very careful when talking of the Chinese Government's politics to Differentiate Between the Chinese People and their Government.

In the same way, I respect our service men and women. But I do Not always agree with what our Government asks them to do.

My uncle was among those who payed a heavy price to teach the American public to Differentiate between returning Vietnam veterans and the Government which sent them to war. He was from California. And when he returned from three tours of duty in Vietnam people spat on him, shrieked at him, calling him a "baby killer" and much more. He felt completely betrayed by his own people. And it was many veterans of the Vietnam War who gave All of us the Americans with Disabilities Act. I thank you and am Sorry you suffered so Much!

The reasons service men and women sign up to join the military are honorable. They may want a college education to better the lives of themselves and their families. This is a Commendable goal. They may want to protect our country from attacks like the one we sustained on Sept. 11, 2001. This is Also a Commendable goal. So I have no quarrel with our returning service men and women. I think they are Entitled to the best medical or mental health care we can provide. They are also Entitled to our respect!

But I did and still do disagree with the Government's decision to send troops into Iraq in the first place. I have always thought that our Government was heavily influenced by multi-national corporations to engage in that war. Iraq has the second largest amount of oil under its land, after Saudi Arabia. And companies which provide everything from "security" for American personnel to military hardware and armaments have done Extremely well in business during the war in Iraq.

Yes, Saddam Hussein was a despot who gassed his own people, there is No Way in which I can condone that. But We, as a nation, cannot Afford the loss of life of service men and women and the civilian casualties caused by going after every Despot who won't do what our Government and its corporate partners want! That is why I am Also against our intervention in Libya. They too have oil, by the way.

On a personal level, those paying the prices of disability and death in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, are doing so for honorable reasons. But I distrust the reasons of corporations to whom the deaths of our service people and the civilians of other countries mean little, and our Government which I think listens to Those corporate interests Far Too Often.

It is again, honorable Americans who are paying a price, along with Non-combatant civilians, but who are they paying it For this time?

Fourth of July, Independence Day

I am thankful to live in this country where I can say what I want and belong to the religious views of my choice. Thank all of you Veterans for serving and I pray that All of you will come home safe and Receive the assistance you need.

Dear Mr. President, Dear members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican!

Whenever our young men and womenn go to war YOU are CHOOSING to take on a DEBT, for at Least ONE GENERATION! Do you know or Care that One in every Five homeless people in this country is a Veteran? You Should.

When we ask our young people to put their minds and bodies at risk for us and they come home Wounded, in body or mind or Both, You, as well as WE are Responsible for Helping them.

The wars (three now, at least) in which you have Chosen to engage are putting people in situations where the friend looks just Like the "enemy".

My father fought in Korea and walked through the snows on mountains in a Cast. My uncle, (only 9 years older than me) fought in Vietnam. They both came home changed forever and it took my uncle years to be able to live a fairly normal life. By then, of course, he was ill from Agent Orange and other chemicals dropped in Vietnam.

He came home to be spit on and be called a "baby killer".

Fellow Americans, Wake Up! Don't you know that in Any War All Kinds of people die? Yes, babies, mothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and children. So Look at what War Really Is and Stop blaming the Veterans, the President, or the Congress!

Did you and I Vote for a President, Senator, oor Representative who wanted war? Unfortunately, I voted for President Obama, in the belief that he would try to keep us Out of More wars and bring our Service men and women Home. I was wrong. (Grown-ups Can change their minds.)

I think the "War Powers Act" should be envoked, forcing President Obama to get Congressional approval for our war in Libya.

All of you in Congress who whine and tantrum about debt, how much is the war in Libya costing us per day? Why are you mostly Going Along with it?

An executive of a multinational corporation earned nineteen Million dollars last year. Who Deserves Nineteen Million dollars a year while Veterans are homeless and there is talk of cutting social programs for seniors and people with Disabilities? Get a Grip, people! My Oncologist, who helped to save my Life and those of Others didn''t make anything Close to Nineteen Million Dollars last year.

I think our Government has been in the control of multi-national companies, who have no more loyalty to our country than to Mexico, China, or any other place where they export jobs. This means we need a Grass Roots Movement of "Everyday People" to say ENOUGH. Otherwise, what does it matter if the President, Senator, or Representative in Washington is a Democrat or a Republican or a Tea Party activist?

I say ENOUGH of the ridiculous Supreme Court decision that a corporation (which may have no particular loyalty to our United States) has All of the Rights of an individual Citizen of our nation. And ENOUGH to asking our soldiers to kill civilians in Libya, Without the approval of either the American people Or Congress, in order to "protect civilians."

Our Veterans deserve to have that money spent for "regime change" in Libya spent on Their Medical Care and Housing!

And ENOUGH to CEO's salaries of nineteen million dollars per year and More, which "cannot be taxed without hurting economic growth." They Aren't facing any taxes Now and do You see our economy growing by leaps and bounds? I don't!