JUST A LITTLE BIT OF PEACE

I'd like to wish all my friends and readers a happy holidays and only the best in the coming year. Know that I appreciate that you come and graze in this pasture called Organizing Notes now and then. I hear from some of you and am happy to know that you place some value on this meager blog. God knows I love selecting the photos (if you only knew how much fun that is), writing the bits and correcting the bad grammar and punctuation after I've posted them (thanks to the few of you who send me notes tipping me off to my mistakes), and then hearing from you that you've learned something from my ramblings on occasion.

It's kind of like a community gathering spot - long distance - where friends can come and visit and check in.

It's been a tough year, a hard eight years of Bush-Cheney, and my feet are sore from it all. I feel like taking off my shoes and flinging them at someone. I am in complete harmony with my friends at AfterDowingStreet.org who are pushing for the prosecution of the Bush pirate team. Go get em!

But with that said, I am also feeling like a dog with a bone when it comes to making sure we are on the case when Obama swears in on January 20. Not soon after his inauguration the Congress will begin working on the next fiscal year budget and I will be one of those demanding that we cut the damn Pentagon budget that now, in reality, is running at $1 trillion a year. People are hurting out here in the real world and we need to get off the dime!

MB has been helping the Good Samaritan Club at her neighborhood church this winter. They raise money and give it to poor folks to help them heat their homes, keep from getting evicted, and recently have been giving money and gifts to people so they can provide their kids with a few Christmas presents. MB told us recently that the majority of the children in the city of Bath qualify for free lunch at school, which means their families are poverty level. And we need to "rebuild the military"? Bullshit, please excuse my French.

It's a hard time for people here in Maine. The state will cut $140 million from their budget by next June. Education and poor people's health care will feel the most cuts. Then in the next two years the state will slash $800 million more and Maine will begin to look like a Third World country. This is our future I am sad to say. It really pisses me off as I see the Republicans in Maine cheering as our compliant Democratic governor swings the sharp axe. It's like frick and frack. You can hear the politicians saying, "We feel bad but we have to do this....." It reminds me of a paddling in elementary school. You are trying to figure out what you did that deserved four big whacks.

What's an organizer to do? I keep trying to do my bit by organizing locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. I do my cable TV show, I do a radio show with a good friend, and I write letters to the editor as often as possible. But we are sliding down the hill and there is a pit of vipers waiting for us when we land head first in their nest.

What keeps me going is knowing that I am not alone. I know that all over there are good folks working hard, doing their best to be living examples that humanity is not all a bunch of greedy war making thieves. And to each of you that give of yourself I bow and thank you for your grace, your kind hearts, and your gentle spirits. I thank you for your inspiration and your friendship. You are the stars in the dark night.

As they say in the commercials, this blogs for you.

Peace dear ones.