I received an email that states our First Lady has one of the largest staffs EVER known to the White House for a First Lady. Could this be the truth? I often wonder about the valildity of the emails that get forwarded around. You've all received the email about the failing health of a child and if you forward something will happen. Then there was the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe thing and of late, I received an email about if you contact Applebee's they will give you a $50 gift certificate. All based on a forwarded email.

But you have to take pause when you see a huge list of staffers for the First Lady and then read their respective jobs. Is it true that this First Lady requires the staff of ROYALTY? Is it true that no other First Lady even comes close to her length of staff members? I sat there disturbed by the possibility. I was further disturbed as I realized this was not a case for SNOPES!

How does one go about determining the staff of the First Lady and those of the previous Firsts. It surely must be accessible to the public. I think I am on a mission. Anyone out there KNOW this stuff. Direct me if you please.
 

I have not been writing, but I have, indeed, been listening. Listening to the latest going on at the White House. Our first LADY is waging a war against childhood obesity. Stating to the effect that parents are tired when they come home and it is much easier to feed our children fast food and the results have been, CHILDHOOD OBESITY.

I take some offense to this. I had a weight problem during my lifetime, especially throughout my childhood. Let me back up a bit, I grew up in the country. As kids we had chores, we played outside for hours and hours in a day, week after week, month after month, year after year. We didn't have a lot of money and my family did not get any kind of assistance from the government. The food in our home was wholesome, made fresh daily, there was not snack food in the house. I had a weight problem.

In the seventies, President Nixon had a President Challenge of some sort that our school participated in. We had some exercise program that we did twice a week (I think) and I do remember losing weight having that exercise in our gym program. But we had recess in school then and we had a very active gym program, where we learned things like square dancing. Our lunch program was run by a lady in town that made the best damn rolls I have ever eaten. We had fresh baked pizza every Friday and we begged for seconds. I know kids are not getting that today. Oh, I am sure our water was spring fed.

Where am I going? Let's not screw up some things that may not need fixing. One thing we do not need is our President and his wife, in our homes telling us our children are fat and they know why. Because they, the President and his wife, have been in our shoes and have been tired at night and didn't want to cook a meal for their children and went to the fast food restaurant. WE WISH, don't we AMERICA? Do they really think that our children are fat because we are too tired to cook a meal and we run to a fast food restaurant?

Kids get fat for whatever damn reason they get fat. I was an active young person, from a good family with a good cooked meal on the table every night and I was overweight. I take great offense to our President and his wife thinking they have stood in my shoes. AS a parent I was a single parent and tired and did have the luxury at some times to run by the fast food to buy a dinner for my boys. Neither of them suffered with a weight problem then or now. So the logic from the White House is not fitting in any of the generations of my family. But then I have been away, and only listening.


 

I listen to our President, say once again that his problems all stem from the prior administration. I am tired of hearing this. If every president said this we would have been blaming many a great man for doing many a great thing. Actually I feel like this is what our President is doing. I am retired military, we are taught to respect our Commander in Chief, which is our President. I have served under several different ones. I have not agreed on all the policies of my Commander in Chief's but they were my leaders and I respected that and their position. I never spoke negatively about them or their policy. I expect the same from my president. When he doesn't do this, he is talking badly about every President that served in the very WHITE HOUSE he is so blessed to occupy at this time. The likes of which we could only wish to have known, GEORGE WASHINGTON, THOMAS JEFFERSON, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, need I go on??

I grow tired of our President's need to blame someone else for the job he needs to do. Every president takes on the workload of those before him, it is nothing new or surprizing. Get over it and take care of our country because things are not getting better. Gas is going up again, groceries are going up and I don't see any jobs out there. The predictions are, Moms and Dads are going to be applying with their teenagers for jobs. The chances are that the adults will be hired over their kids. They expect we will have the highest unemployment increase in teenagers since the 1950's. Let me know how you think? What could work? Is the President right by blaming the past administration?


 

Who does PEREZ Hilton think he is anyway? First you have to ask yourself how he got on the panel of judges for the Miss Universe pageant? How in the world did someone so, well let's use the word, disgusting, become one of the judges. Have you seen his website? It's vile. I thought we still had some wholesomeness left in our pageants? Not name-calling, phallic-picture drawing, can do nothing better than talk about somebody else judges.

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, stands up for her beliefs, which is same sex marriage and she is now being dragged through the media. Her crown is being threaten to be taken. Old pictures are showing up. Oh my, her bare back. Who is standing up to support her? Not many. Interesting, isn't it? If you really think about it. This morning M. Kelly brought up on Fox News, why hadn't NOW come out and made some stand about all this? That made me stop. Why?

Personally I feel there are a couple of different reasons. The most prominent is age old. Good against Evil and people back right away when it is a battle of such magnitude. We know it is higher forces than ourselves taking place here and we don't get involved. Think about it. Miss California stands alone. Perez Hilton has many followers and support, coming in from all over. Miss California will lose her crown. This makes Perez happy. Miss California stands proud and says she will go where God leads her. Perez will falter. Watch and see.


 

This morning's news that struck me was the peanut butter poisoning. I have to admit that this is a crazy when you stop and think about it. I don't eat peanut butter, so I don't buy it. So today I stopped for a few moments to think about how people how eat peanut butter might feel. Not to mention children. How did I not think about children? PB&J has been a staple in almost every American family for years. It is nutritious and not expensive. Our families have relied on this silly jar of salty gooey peanuts.

So who would be at fault? Is it our country's complacency again? Is it the company producing the product? Is it greed for the profit margin and the DOLLAR? Honestly it is probably some of each and some of other sources. It goes back to our country's thinking we are safe just because. Just because we think we are. Add in the corporate greed for the dollar and the American public is subject to this very thing, the tainting of an all American food, PEANUT BUTTER.
 

I put on the news this am and hear something to the effect that there were planes flying in the pattern of the World Trade Center yesterday. WHAT?! and the mayor of New York City wasn't privy to the information to allow the city a heads up to the low flying airplane or airplanes. What are they thinking? I am sure they are not thinking but what is more obvious is that we are becoming complacent which is exactly what the terrorists are patiently waiting for.

We are letting our guard down, maybe worried about our economy or a new president and his cabinet. We are thinking about other things and not focusing on threats that have been real and deadly. I am not saying that our economy is not important but it will be far less important if we start losing American lives on American soil again.

I say we are letting our guard down because no one thought flying in that air space would affect anyone or give rise to any pending doom. The persons responsible for allowing the flight must have been living in a cave on a desolate island on 9/11. I cannot imagine the thought process in their minds....

"Yes, indeed, fly over New York City. Good idea, low enough to see people walking in the street and into office windows, yes excellent idea, don't think it's been done."


 

The adage is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it? IS that how it goes? I am not sure but you get the gist of it. I have tried to write blogs out there, you know out there...and I have gotten responses and comments. I have made some pretty blogs, some interesting looking ones, family oriented ones. I have tried all different types. BUT, I get my best feelings blogging here at writing.com. I get my best responses from writing.com. I get more views from here as well. I don't understand it. There is nothing fancy here. Just a writer, lining up letters to make some sort of sense. It's like coming home again.

You know I even bought a magazine that explained how to blog? How to create an effect. After I got home with it and opened it, I knew I would not use it. It wasn't my style which is not having a style at all. I never know from which way I am coming. And I believe that is answering my own question in why my other blogs have not been successful and this is. My other blogs I have tried to have a theme. Here I just write what I feel. It could be about the same subject for days or change frequently. Another old adage if it's too hard, you won't work at it. Okay I am not good at old adages either, but I am proud to be a part of writing.com.
 

Army mom says she can no longer serve in the Army because she has children and her husband has a good job. So her plan to get out of doing her DUTY, was to show up at the base with kids in tow, and along the way somehow the media got hold of this story and turned it into some bleeding heart saga. In my mind, this was a strategetic plan to not go on deployment and it seemed to have worked in her behalf because the latest across the news wire is that she will be discharged. I do not think this country really has an idea of the degree of sacrifice the military men and women make on a daily basis for our country. There is also a great amount that have considerable hardships within their families that request to be "let go" of their contract and most often that is not granted. They are left to stay in the military and endure the hardship at home as well as the stressful military life.

This country has become too TV oriented. What I mean by that is that anyone on TV becomes important to us and we therefore, take up the cause, often without knowing all the facts. I spent a lifetime in the US NAVY. I choose to do it and loved every moment of it. It was never easy, as most of the time I served I did as a single parent of two boys. Being in the military and a single parent is very difficult. They require contingency plans for babysitters, short term care and long term care. They require you to have a plan to get your children to these plans and the funds available at all times. Meaning if I got deployed at a moment's notice, I needed to engage my long term care plan and most often put my children on a plane to someone in their family until I returned home. This put a burden on family members and finances. None of it would be reimbursed if used. I did it because I loved my job and I thought I was doing something good for myself and my boys.

This Army mom will be let go and she will have achieved her desire not to go on deployment. Actually I am glad she will be discharged because I do not want a soldier out there with her attitude or lack of regard for her country. She would not stand up and protect her fellow soldiers just as she is not standing up to protect her country by serving her time.
 

I really don't know some days what I do to spend all the hours in the day, but yet they seem to fly away bringing me closer to spring and sunshine. For that I am grateful, but I have been remiss in writing. Every visit with Ol Gramp brings on more and more stories that are enchanting and overpowering that they are a part of my heritage. I have a blog early on about Ol Gramp and Gramma raising the flag every day in my childhood and how that inspired me to join the military in my adulthood. What I didn't know is that my grandpa in his own way served his country.

He began talking about the economy and the state this country is in. It is inconceivable to him that our country is in such a mess, but he does understand losing his home. It happened to him more than once in his lifetime. During World War II when my mother was not yet born, they were bringing in men for recruitment by the hundreds, at least in his state. He continually would be disqualified because of bad knees. The government did not stop at soliciting his aid to the country though, they recruited him for what his talent was and that was a farmer. The state of Vermont, enlisted him as a farmer. What this entailed was by the time my mother was born, my grandparents first child, they had to move to the farm that the state wanted my grandfather to run. There were no wages to speak of and my grandparents lost the house they were currently buying. There was not a bail out. My grandfather and grandmother did their duty.

Ol Gramp does not talk bitterly about that situation. He did not enjoy working the farm they were required to live on and was very happy when he was finally offered a better job. Ol Gramp also did not let this set back stop him from ever becoming successful. If you have read other blog entries, I have spoken lovingly of him being uneducated but the most astute business man I know. He did not finish grade school, having to work the farm. He has had many pitfalls in his lifetime but yet this man has been and still is at 90 years old a successful businessman.

So I have been a compassionate person to the large amounts of children living in poverty and without opportunity in this country. Lately I have rethought this position. Everyone in this country has opportunity, it is whether or not they chose to use it. If we continue as a nation to subsist the poor choices, then we will have a weak nation. A nation unwilling to stand fortified and united against its enemies. My grandfather did not have opportunities and he had no choices because in our family you did what you had to do, WORK. You keep on working, scratching and struggling until you see the light of day, take a rest and start all over again.


 

As those of you who read know, my dad passed away in November. My mom has been settling financial matters and one of the things was the credit card. MASTERCARD. CITIBANK. I will put it out there because this is something affecting everyone in the country. My mom contacted CITIBANK to inform them my dad had passed. What was their response after them having the credit card for some 25 years plus? They cancelled the credit card on my mom and never bothered to tell her.

It is an old issue, renewed with today's economy. My mom was not the prime holder of the card and even though they had this credit card for over 25 years with stellar credit. CITIBANK would not put the card in her name. Years ago I remember being told to have credit in my name not a husband's name because of this very thing. Today though I feel it is a different take on this as my mom had the income in the family and it was substantial. CITIBANK just received bailout money yet they would not keep a steady paying customer of over 25 years, simply because my father passed on.

It doesn't stop there. They did not inform her that they cancelled the credit card, so she was using the card as always. One day and upon some embarassment she found out it was cancelled when her transaction was denied. CITIBANK has already SOLD her account to a collections agency. Let me tell you my parents PAY THEIR BILLS. Now a collections agency is calling for payment and she is still reeling from the cancellation of the card, not to mention my dad just passed.

Yet our government just gave CITIBANK bailout money. FOR WHAT I ASK? They are cancelling good sound credit cards and sending them to collections in a matter of days? This ruins the AMERICAN public's credit and their belief that our government will work this out.

I listened to the Senate committee asking some of the bank/finance companies how much they received. They would remark $3m, $2m, $3m. They were asked how much their salary was, the CEO, and they responded $1m or more. I ask all AMERICAN people; they are taking OUR money out of OUR checks to fund THIS, does any of this seem right to you? These companies are failing and it seems pretty damn easy to me why. FIRE THE CEO's or make them work for NOTHING. COME ON your MILITARY works for nothing, after hours, all hours, round the clock, in the desert, at sea, in the dark, away from home, away from loved ones, away from everything they know.

This is just an American story but it is THE American story.