Buffalo Gal

Today was THE day!   The culmination of the "Feed My Starving Children " for Haitian orphans saw the first day of Mobile Packs being filled in the High School gym;  this little community has raised over 60 thousand dollars since late January by fund- raising projects like Community Bazaars, a "Hoedown For Haiti" music and supper;  a community Sing for Haiti and other worthy events in order to raise the money needed to pay for the food that is being packed today and tomorrow .  It is destined to reach the hungry children in Haiti in just 10 days to 2 weeks.  The Feed My Starving Children organization depends on volunteers to do all the work necessary for the dry food packets that will feed chidren in orphanges, schools and other places in countries where poverty and hopelessness prevails.  Children all over the world in countries like Zimbabwe and other African nations, children in Asia, children in South America and children on islands such as Haiti which suffered the disastrous earthquake recently are the benefactors of todays’ volunteers from our community.

I worked a 2 hour shift this afternoon along with other adult volunteers and hundreds of enthusiastic 4th, 4th, and 6th graders from the local elementary school along with their teachers and other elementary school staffers.  We packed the mobile packs to rocking music that was turned up to enable all of us to hear it……there must be ringing ears among the adults tonight.  We didn’t recognize the songs but the kids did and they sang along with a lot of the ones that were blasted into the gymnasium’s atmosphere.  Whenever one of the many tables where the volunteers worked together putting the chicken flavored powder, the dried vegetables, the soy protien nuggets and the rice into packets that when filled will feed one child for several days.   At the feeding centers set up by Feed My Starving Children, huge pots of the cooked rice mix are distributed to children who eat this as the one hot meal they get each day.  But they thrive and grow on this ration!!!

We were all dressed in white filmy hairnet covers for our hair and we all enjoyed the sight of each other until we got down to the serious business of packing the food.  Then it no longer mattered that we looked weird in our hair covers.

Each time one of our tables filled another packing carton to the top with the filled bags we would break into Jungle Howls and Shouts to let the others know of our progress.  At my table I worked along side 3 fifth grade students and we began to chant as we packed and poured:   "CHICKEN!   VEGETABLES!   SOY!   RICE!"     We also rocked our bodies in time to the music and sometimes changed our chant to fit the music’s compelling beat.  I never dreamed that I would be so carried away by the loud rock music and be chanting and packing with children who could be my grandkids!  But I did and the two hours went so fast we did not know what hit us.  The gym was absolutely full of kids and adults all working together in a rythym of hard work, pouring the dry foodstuffs into the plastic bags, weighing each packet to make sure it was between 340 and 400 grams;  some kids added rice if the packet was too light, they removed spoonfuls if it as too heavy; others worked on sealing the bags and others lined the readied bags on the table til there was enough to fill another cardboard carton.  When the carton was full we erupted into loud cheers.  If we needed additional food we would hold up our cups and scream for "RICE" or "SOY".  We ran out of rice and soy faster than anything else—–each mobile pack had 1 large cup of rice and 1 large cup of soy.  There were diligent "runners" from the elementary classes who kept the bins full for the packers.  It was marvelously planned and executed packing session that ran so smoothly and so fast that when the 2 hours were over, we had packed enough bags to feed one child for over a year!!!   I do not remember how many packets we filled or how many cardboard cartons were filled but the number was unbelievably high!

Before we began our 2 hour shift we were shown a DVD which was filmed in Haiti with children in orphanages who will receive the food providing a commentary on what the food packs mean to their daily lives.   We saw pictures of very young children that came to the refuges in  states of emaciation so bad that we could scarcely stand to look at the photos of them.  After a few months of nourishment, one could barely recognize the chubby healthy child who has nearly starved prior to being brought to the orphanage.  The most gut- wrenching true story…the one that made the auditorium go so unbelievably quiet that you would never have known the room was filled to capacity with energetic upper-elementary students…was that of "Baby Moses".   His mother gave birth to him in a public outhouse and let her baby fall into the outhouse hole filled with human body wastes.  An elderly man who approached the public outhouse heard a baby’s cries coming from inside the outhouse.

When he realized that the crying baby was down in the toilet hole, he courageously lowered himself down and got the infant out, bathed him , wrapped him up as best he could and brought him to the orphanage.  Later pictures of Baby Moses showed a growing healthy infant; the last picture of Baby Moses was of him as a lively 4 year old, so healthy and happy that he was considered a "troublemaker" among the many children at that orphanage.  Tears of joy were shed at the end of that story.   It was a terrific introduction to the students who went in to pack the food with the fresh images of the children in Haiti who will recieve the food we packed today.

I was amazed that I stood for 2 hours without moving and worked to fill the mobile packs…we did exchange jobs with each other as the three fifth graders wanted to have a hand in all three stations….chicken powder, dried veggies, soy and rice.  We were able to make our exchanges so smoothly we did not miss a beat in our packing.  It was an indescribable experience today…..it was nothing but inspiring and positive.  The students felt it too….they were awe-struck by the enormity of what they were doing today…..packing food for strarving children in Haitian orphanages and refugee camps.

Tonight after another trip to into "town" to visit my Auntie at Eventide and then stopping to do two errands, I returned home sometime after 7 p.m. when the sun was just beginning its  descent in the West.  There were clouds….blue gray in hue…piling up in the west and the formation looked amazingly like mountains….I remembered the first time I saw the distant Rockies from Laurel, Montana on a sunny morning in June, 1950.  The clouds tonight looked just like mountains and I could not help but think of the "mountain" we scaled today at the high school gym where we packed food for those Haitian children. 

I hope the "mountain" for those kids from Haiti is made lower and easier to surmount by the volunteer work we accomplished this afternoon.  The packing continues tomorrow with the adult teams working with the mobile packing.  I hope they can sing to the music (if they play it tomorrow) and shout and cheer as loudly as we did today…. I hope they can sway their bodies to the beat like we did for two hours…..all the elementary kids and all of us Old People who worked side by side with a great bunch of children who will not forget what they did today or why they did it.

I spent a long day yesterday doing multiple things—all of them most pleasant.   To begin the day I did the usual Tueday/ Thursday morning routine at the Silver Sneakers class I dearly love at my favorite community center to which I must drive a 50 mile round-trip…but it is so worth it.  I just wish that the community closest to me would get on the ball with its Community Education program and provide a truly meaningful and excellent excercise program for seniors like me.  There is some feeble excuse for that sort of program going on but it doesn’t do much for giving one the type of excercise, conditionling and cardio workout that older citizens need and should want!  Time to get on my horse and ride to the Community Education director!!!

The second part of the day was also pleasant;  my "favorite cousin" (his own designation) lives in a nearby city and we spent a wonderful afternoon at his home where we had a lot of good conversation and a lot of laughter with him and his wife, who is also a clearly designated  favorite cousin-by marriage.  My cousin is a retired pastor and has many large files of the most interesting materials….also a large a very funny humor file.  He shares a sense of humor with me that came from the side of the family from which we both descend.  Both of us can recall so well, the happy family gatherings of our youth—-at Christmas time and "at the lake" in summertimes where several members of the extended family had "summer cottages"  (real old fashioned ones with hand pumps in the kitchen sinks and an outhouse with a "path" rather than a "bath".  Oh how we remember  the good times  with our family at those wonderful picnics, long summer days of just "visiting" ( the grownups) and the wild and frantic swimming and swinging from a long rope swing attached to a big old tree on the beach.  Swimming always included the ritual of "getting ducked" when your face was firmly placed under water by a larger and stronger cousin.  My cousin whom I visited  yesterday was particularly skilled at ducking his girl cousins.  The whole time we were enjoying each others’ company we watched the steady rainfall come down in their very green and lush backyard and lovely tulip garden that is in bloom.  They have the problem of the "city bunnies" eating the tulips so their solution is to have many big and beautiful bouquets of tulips in vases inside the home.  So wonderful to feast the eyes upon!

It was our intention to visit at Eventide but after we had made the necessary trip to Fleet Farm (if you can’t find it at Fleet,you really don’tneed it) we were hungry and decided to stop at the southern Culvers in Fargo.  When we walked into the business we heard a familiar voice say: "Hey I now THESE people!"   It was our oldest Grandson, who was working last night and taking his one-half hour supper break.  It was such a good time to join him..this handsome, tall, almost- unrecognizeable- at- times..little boy we carried not long ago….he has grown physically but also emotionally, mentally and spritually and he is such a joy to talk with.  We spent our Suppertime Surprise" with the young man whom we love so much and who loves us back in return.  He is graduating from High School this next month and we are sharing plans for the graduation party…..a combination of Luau and Surfers’ party.  Fortunately, I can contribute my Beachboys CD of their "greatest hits".  (the one that is missing is my favorite now: "Go Granny, Go Granny, Go…" a.k.a. "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena")  But we will hear others at the party like "Little Surfer Girl", "California Girls" and other Beach Boys "hits and greats".  

 Maybe I WILL buy another raffia/grass skirt from the Dollar Store where I  bought one for "Johnny" who is required to wear it, plus a bathing suit bra with coconuts and flower leis at his future sister in law’s graduation party this spring also. 

Our two Grandkids were born just months apart and have always been each other’s best buddies through their 18 years.  Now they are grown up and ready to take on the larger world of college)MSUM) and an apprenticeship at at an Energy Providers in Fargo.

We never got to Eventide on time so today after I help on a shift for  packing the mobile food packs for the "Feed My Hungry Children: Haiti" project going on in our small community, I am heading once again to Eventide for another pleasant visit with my now- only Aunt.  She is my "young aunt" at the age of 90 because she was 18 when I was born and she lived with myu parents at that time while attending highschool.  It will be another  pleasant day of fellowship and some fun as well.

What a delightful Suppertime Surprise we got last evening at the Culvers’ store in south Fargo!

There must be many people today who have not heard of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin who became famous in the post-world war 2 era for his extemist views on the dangers of communism in the United States.  The "McCarthy Hearings" held in the senate of that era (late 1940′s- 1950′s) were front page news for years with the hearings publicizing the possible communist party connections of multitudes of American citizens. Those especially singled out by Senator McCarthy and his supporters were government employees and people in the entertainment industry, as well as others…but all of them were American citizens.  Many lives and careers were ruined in the ensuing "Red Scare" and the witch hunts conducted by McCarthy and his followers.  An old saying from that era was "a communist behind every bush and under every rock."     I was pretty young at the time but I do remember seeing the glowering face of Senator McCarthy in Movietone newsreels and on the front page of daily newspapers I had learned to read by that time.  As a result of those senate hearings and investigations  many Americans were sincerely afraid of what seemed to be an internal communist takeover within our own nation.

I have been thinking of McCarthyism in connection with some of the hysterical rhetoric spewing from Washington D.C. and other quarters, regarding the passage of Arizona’s state immigration law which has been the object of much scorn, a lot of scare tactics and plain hysterical speech and action—–all very similar to what occurred at the time McCarthyism reigned so supremely in the United States.  Now it is not a "communist behind every bush or under every rock" but rather a RACIST  or a RACIAL PROFILER behind the bushes and under the rocks.

Our own President—our national leader— has suggested that the Arizona immigration law will surely bring about "Racial Profiling" when local and state police forces began to investigate  who the Illegals are in the state of Arizona….and one thing is for certain—-there are thousands of Illegals who have crossed the state’s border from Mexico and are living illegally in Arizona, probably moreso than other border states.  In spite of the assurances of Arizona’s governor and the Arizonans who serve in the state legislature who crafted the state bill, that "racial profiling" is not part of the new law….that police will not be stopping people because of the way they look….rather if anyone is suspected of criminal activity, traffic violations, et.al. the stopping by the police for legitimate reasons…the suspects WILL BE ASKED FOR PROOF OF UNITES STATES CITIZENSHIP.    And that….to the Hysterics in Washington DC….is grounds for the haunting cry (reminiscent of the McCarthy era) of "Racial Profiling" and "Racism" !!!!!

Have we not all been "profiled" when police authorities have stopped us for good reasons?  I have "profiled" for speeding, for not having my current license tags not displayed , for other minor traffic or other violations.  I know of a person who was detained for along time along side a highway because that person happened to be driving the same sort of vehicle and the same color vehicle as had been spotted at the scene of an armed robbery that included a pistol whipping.  Now that was truly "profiling"…at least until the authorities had consulted with the State Police and License Bureau to satisfy them selves that this person was NOT the suspect in the robbery and the pistol whipping incident.  There was no lawsuit filed against a state or a police force for that sort of "profiling".  Nobody else got hysterical over it and the person who was detained received an apology but nothing else!  We have all been "profiled" at some time or another with no terrible consequences to our persons.

I think we are moving backward in our history to bad times remembered by those who went through the time of McCarthyism.   When the immigration laws of our own country are not enforced by the national government, who can blame a state who is bearing the brunt of illegal aliens and all the consequences of their illegality— for passing a state law to deal with the threat to the citizens of the state?  I cannot blame them.   Since the United States government is not doing much of anything about the serious problems Arizona and other border states face, perhaps they are justifed in doing what was done….passing a state law that DOES deal with illegal aliens who are overrunning the state and its neighbors on the border of Mexico.   A state cannot continue to pay for social services demanded by Illegals….medical, school, living quarters, food stamps and whatever other food aid is demanded as though they actually WERE citizens.   Then the Hysterics’ worries about the violation of "civil rights" is vastly misplaced since I would understand that non- citizens do not have the same "civil rights" as citizens have.

How much more silliness can we bear coming out of the mouths of those  who are supposed to be protecting us from the very things that Arizonans, Texans, Californians, and New Mexicans are suffering from, via illegal aliens coming into the country in droves for years and years?  When the enforcement of already-set immigration laws is questioned by our own President, what are citizens supposed to do?  It is an unsolvable mystery to me.

A statement I found in the summaries of McCarthyism from a multitude of resources, mostly enclyopedic ones, posed some interesting thoughts:    

"The lesson to be learned from his {McCarthy’s} hysteria and the ensuing witch hunts is that even when free speech is protected to the extent that it is in the United States, it is still vulnerable to attacks from those who wish to limit the rights of others to disagree with them."

I hear not only echoes in that statement of what happened in Arizona but also what is currently happening with the Left’s determination to "smear" the free speech of citizens who particpate in the ground level, grass roots movement called the "Tea Party".    It is nearly as scary as the McCarthy Era "Red Scare" and all the resultant freedoms lost by so many citizens of that terrible time in the 1940s and 1950s.

History could be about to repeat itself.

Ever since I became acquainted with him, I have really liked Walter Williams.  I have not met him personally but I would like to…to express my thanks for his many wonderful op-eds. He is now a retired professor or economics and the retired department head of the George Mason University economics department.  He is my age and I think anyone born in that year is quite special!!!   He is an elegant, old world polite gentleman who always refers to his wife of many years, as "Mrs. Williams".  You don’t find those kind of men very often anymore.

Besides that he has a great sense of humor and he is as conservative in his views as I am…another good reason to like him!  (birds of a feather flock together)

One of his recent op eds concerns the Salt Police….the new form of zealotry now rising to replace the tobacco zealots who have succeeded in making tobacco users become pariahs all over the nation.  Now they are turning their attention to the amount of salt found in fast foods and probably, prepared or frozen foods.  One thing about the Zealots….they KNOW without any doubts what is good for the rest of us and currently, they have decided to watch our salt intake by attempting to get laws passed limiting the amount of salt in food.

On the radar screen of what Williams calls  "the nation’s food Nazis" are chains like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, and Kentucky Fried Chicken just for starters.  Williams cites an article that appeared in the Washington Post on April 19 just a few days past.  The headline: "FDA plans to limit amount of salt allowed in processed foods for health reasons" The trouble is that the Food Nazis will not be able to control what amound of salt people sprinkle on their food if it no longer tastes good without the amount of salt they are used to.  I suppose they could go for getting a law passed eliminating salt being sold in food stores but they might encounter troubles and lawsuits from the Morton Company and others whose businesses would collapse.

Williams also speculates that couples who are wanting to adopt a baby might have to go through intensive questioning and screening to find out how much salt they use in their food–for the health of the infant you know.  He also wonders if teachers in public schools might start asking their students to report their parents who use too much salt .

Williams quoted H.L. Mencken, a giant of journalism and writing in past American history. Mencken described the medical personnel of his day and it might fit today’s picture rather well also.   "A certain section of medical opinion,. in late years, has succumberd to messianic delusion.  Its spokemen are not content to deal with the patients who come to them for advice; they conceive it their duty to force their advice upon everyone, including those who do not want it.  That duty is purely imaginary.  It is born of vanity, not of public spirit.  The impulse behind it is not altruism, but a mere yearning to run things."

Yes it does seem to fit  today’s Salt Police to a Tee.  Then Williams quotes Thomas Jefferson who observed in his Notes on Religion (1776) that "Laws provide against injury from others, but not from ourselves."

Please pass me some of those extra salty French Fries!!!  I will take my chances with my health without any advice from the Food Nazis.

Yes, a funny thing did happen on the way—–not to the forum (title of an old Zero Mostel musical play..I think..)   …..the funny thing happened on my way around the many book stacks and wonderful nooks and crannies at Barnes & Noble where I spent a long day on Monday.  I just have to do this—-spend hours at B & N to gain some balance for the mental and emotional parts of me.  While browsing, my friend who knows me better than even I know me, came up to me grinning and holding a small book titled "The Snark Handbook".  "you need to browse this one" she advised.   "Why?" asked I.  "Because you are in it" she said. So I browsed….starting gasping for breath because it was so funny and finally went to the cash register and bought it.  I have been gasping for breath ever since Monday.

The definiton of a Snark or of snarkiness is  " 1. biting wit   2.  a smart- a— remark     3. a snide remark, 4. an irascible snappish person.       ( Yes, I could be in there all right.)

In the intro. to the handbook, author  Lawrence Dorfman says "….who’s not snarky these days? You have to be, really, if you have an ounce of brainpower left after all the beuraucratic " B.S." … fake "business-speak" to replace intelligence, relentless use of the words "like" or "whatever"…and don’t get me started on movies and television.  But I am not saying snark is a bad thing.  I think to be truly fluent in snark you have to be smart."       (Well, I hope so!!)

Where does snarkiness originate?  Some say it goes back as far as the early 1900′s in Great Britain. Think of Monty Python, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook and this should not be surprising.  Dorfman says "the Brits take the Olympic gold medal for snarkiness every time."

Other advice in the introductory chapter includes the fact that "It Is All Personal".  Every day people say dozens of things that can be misconstrued in some way.  Consider each thing like this to be a personal attack and then fight back.   Also to be a Snark you have to be very Negative…see the black lining in every event  Point this out to family and friends that the world is a dark and evil place.

Here are a few snarky things that struck me as especially funny.   

   "I feel so miserable without you  it is almost like having you here."  (Steven Bishop)

"You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and then give in."

"I can always tell when the mother in law is coming to stay.  All the mice throw themselves on the traps"    (Les Dawson)

"I never forget a face but in your case I would be happy to make an exception"  (Groucho Marx.

Under womens’ rules:   "That fat girl sitting at the next table is drinking diet pop with her double cheeseburger and extra  large fries so she will definitely lose weight."                     (I have always wondered about the diet pop with the big, heavy- calorie fast food meal)

"I made a killing on the stock market.  My brother lost all my money so I killed him"   (Jim Loy)

"I’m so poor I can’t even pay attention"    (Ron Kittle)

Snarky remarks on drugs:  "I would never do crack.  I would never take a drug that was named the same as part of my body".  (Denis Leary)

On television:   "Television is more interesting than people.  If it were not, we would all have people standing in the corners of our rooms."  (Alan Corenk)

Snarkiness on music and concerts:   "What has three hundred legs and seven teeth?   Answer: the front row at a Willie Nelson concert"

On death and dying:   "I want to die in my sleep like my Grandfather….not screaming and yelling like all the passengers in his car."    (Will Schreiner)

I am going to be entertained for a very long time with this little Handbook!!!

In the middle of March on a Saturday morning, I went into our local library to hear author Joy Lintelman speak about her book: "I Go To America".   It’s subtitle is  "Swedish-American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson".  (Mina is pronounced "Mee-nah")  It took me awhile to get used to that pronunciation because I had a 4th grade teacher named Mina Otteson and her name was pronounced "Mine-ah".

Joy Lintelman has written a fascinating non- fiction book…it is classifed as 305.8939 which ,if I recall correctly, has to do with the subject of emigration/immigration.  The Dewey classification of the 300′s are for all social sciences.             

Mina Anderson was born in Sweden in the western border province of Dalsand (I cannot put in the Swedish pronunciation markers, but Dalsand would  have 2 broad "ah" sounds, I think. (Dahls-lahnd)    (I could be corrected by a Swedish speaker)    Mina was one of nearly a quarter- million  young single women who left Sweden between 1881 and 1920.   Mina’s family had told her that she should leave Sweden and go to America …"Go only if you will have things better."  about 1890 when Mina began to think very seriously about emigrating to the United States.  

Mina was a rare pioneer woman; she wrote a history of her life called "Livets Skola" (the school of life)    Mina’s reason for her writing (she must have kept a long- time journal/diary which also included poetry… was to provide "a brief , realistic portrayal of my childhood and youth in Sweden, my journey here and my experience as an immigrant."    Mina also observed that most writers are educated people and the majority of pioneers were uneducated (or undereducated) .  "It is people who are have been educated and can write, who write most of what is published.  Those who have actually lived the pioneer life  do not write. They are uneducated and have never, during their hard working life, had time to write.. even if they were able to do so."    

I have not doubt that this is true.  Mina Anderson was a rare exception.  She probably had the equivalent of a 4th or 5th grade education in the small rural school in the village near where she was born. But she wrote well.    Her family lived in what would be called a "poorhouse"…they called it a "castle" because to them it was a very large, many-roomed building owned by an iron works company where most of the men who lived in this building, worked and toiled daily at very hard work.  They barely earned enough to keep body and soul together in the very poor familes that occupied the "castle".  The children had to work hard as soon as they were old enough to do so…they had to help the women  with the daily household work and the care of livestock and poultry.  The children were sent into the thick woods that surrounded the castle to pick wild berries, both for preserving them for the families but also for extra small amounts of money for them if they picked an abundance of berries and could sell them. The lingonberries, blueberries and raspberries were plentiful but the children loved to search for "cloudberries" which were even more valuable for selling to other people.

Mina described the length of the working days for the women.  Rising at 5 a.m. each day they often were still trying to complete daily tasks at 11 p.m…..barely able to stay awake. Not only did the women do all the work at home and with the domestic animals…cows had to be milked twice a day and was done by the women..then they had to prepare the evening meal, wash the dishes and then…only then could they began the sewing , mending and knitting that had to be done for their familes.  Mina tells how these women, almost falling asleep at the  late hours of evening, would drink coffee, go for brief walks and sing to each other in order to stay awake long enough to finish the sewing and knitting jobs. 

I cannot even imagine maintaining such a schedule—even when I was younger and more sprightly than I am now—but the Swedish women did this til they became sick or disabled or died.  There was nothing else to so but keep on keeping on.     It is no wonder that so many young single Swedish women left their homeland for "better things" that they were told they would find in America.

The young Swedish women who emigrated had one skill to offer in the new country: they were prepared to be servants in other people’s homes.   Most of them worked as servants and maids the rest of thier lives unless they married and had their own families, but then, in a sense, they were doing servant’s and maid’s work for the rest of their lives also…but they did not get paid to do it…not even the meager salaries they were paid as single servant women.  When Mina first worked as a servant in Sweden, she was not paid…just given room and board and possibly one new dress or a pair of shoes for a year’s work.  She crossed the border into Norway and worked as a servant there, earning a real salary there where the working conditions for servants was better than in her native Sweden. But her salary there was still very meager. All servants only earned pittances for doing a lot of hard drudgery jobs for other people.  Servant women were also expected to milk the cows and help in the fields in addition to doing child care and housework…the cleaning, the cooking, the laundry..all of it plus the outdoor work—for room and board and maybe a new dress.

Joy Lintelman’s book is a combination of Mina’s own writing from her "school of life" book and also much research that Lintelman has done over the years as a scholar of Swedish history.  Her book triggered a desire to go back to Elaine Lindgren’s "Land In Her Own Name" again.  The pioneer women that Lindgren wrote about had more opportunity and more hope for success than the young single women who immigrated from Sweden as servants and maids.  All the women in Lindren’s book owned their own land and became homesteaders while they were mostly still  single women…sometimes rural teachers who had come to small communities that were barely settled.    My favorite chapter in the Lindren book is the one about Pauline Shoemaker who is the great-aunt of my good friend who grew up on a cattle ranch in North Dakota in a county west of Bismarck/Mandan.  Pauline married a homesteader-rancher and the two homesteaders combined their two properties to make a much larger ranch  where they lived and raised cattle and crops for the rest of their lives.Pauline  was an "easterner" who was eager for adventure in the great new "West" and she found it in abundance.

I have only begun on "I Go To America" but it is a wonderful book that is well written and well documented.  The inclusion of Mina Anderson’s own writing makes it come even more alive.

** Lintelman’s book is available in local Fargo-Moorhead book outlets and stores.  It is also in libraries…I checked mine out from the LARL system.

With the passage of new state immigration law in Arizona, Hell’s Fury has broken loose among many others. (non- Arizonans….  the Arizonans  approve of their new law designed to put a stop to illegal aliens pouring across their borders by 70% of the LEGAL citizens of that state.)

President Barack Obama has weighed in, bemoaning the loss of "civil rights" via the new state law clamping down on the illegals who have nearly inundated the state of Arizona.  What civil rights do NON-citizens possess anyway, Mr. President????  The right to use state services like the hospitals which are going broke?  The schools which are in the same condition due to demands made by the Illegals?   The welfare services the Illegals have no right to use???    Al Sharpton has checked in also, threatening to come to AZ and "lead marches" against the new law….as if there aren’t already marches by the Illegals in the state… Illegals who have smeared a Nazi swastika on the state capitol windows using refriend beans.  Civil rights, indeed!!!

Here are the Immigration laws that need to be obeyed:      1.  Only legal immigrants may enter.   2. Immigrants MUST have the means to support themselves economically.   3. Immigrants are not to be destined to become a burden on the society which they enter.  4.  Immigration law insures that the governmental authorities have full and complete records of all who enter the country.   5. Any foreign visitors when entering the country under false pretenses will be imprisoned or deported.    6.  Any who enter illegally will be sent to prison.

Whoa there!   Those are the leading MEXICAN immigration laws which Mexico enforces strictly at THEIR borders!    The United States government would do well to adopt these strict Mexican laws and enforce them like the Mexican government does!

Here is a key part of U.S. Immigration Law which has NOT been enforced for who knows how long?   At least not strictly enough to discourage all the aliens from Mexico to keep them from crossing our border states like water through a leaky sieve.      "Title 8: Section 1325" of U.S. immigration law which deals specifically with Alien Entry to the United States of America:   It is unlawful for anyone to  "enter or attempt to enter the U.S. at any time or any place other than as designed by Immigration Officers….or….*eludes examination or inspection by Immigration Officers  for attempted illegal entry….or…who willfully makes false or misleading statement to Representatives (of the Immigration Service)  or any concealment of material facts……has committed a FEDERAL CRIME."    This is punishable by heavy fines and 6 months imprisonment.  If repeated offenses occur, heavier fines will be levied and imprisonment of 2 years will be enforced."

And our Highest Government Official, President Barack Obama, is protesting against the Rule of Law in this nation?  He blathers on about violating civil rights of aliens?   He threatens lawsuits against the Arizona law which was passed in total state desperation due to the NON enforcement of our clearly stated Immigration Laws???     I bang my head against the nearest brick wall in utter amazement and disbelieif!!!!   What has this nation come to if the Laws of the Land  having lawsuits filed against it?  What kind of insanity are we living in????

In a national news report written by Austin Hill on April 25, 2010, Hill asks this question:  "Does Washington know better than Arizona what is best for Arizonans?"   Then this quote from the Hill report:    "The new statute (AZ) empowers local law enforcement agents to stop and  check the immigration status of anybody they suspect of being in the country illegally.  It is by far the toughest measure against Illegal Immigration ever to be proposed in the United States, and according to a Rasmussen poll from last Wednesday April 21 it is supported by 70 of Arizonans."

Hill goes on to say that anyone who lives in the Southwestern section of the United States has watched the border-states drama play itself out for twenty or more years as the Washington politicians criticize any states’ attempts to controll the Iillegals pouring into our states while wringing their hands helplessly and doing nothing to stop the illegals from entering the United States across the porous Southwestern states’ borders.

Back Again:  Silver Sneakers completed and appreciated (I am getting SO strong!)

The Rasmussen polling data on the favor/disfavor with the new immigration law in the state of AZ shows some other interesting things also.  According to the Austin Hill piece, "Strange as it may seem, the polling data articulates an important message. ‘We didn’t want it to come to this point,’  Arizona is saying to Washington, ‘We want a free and open society, yes, but in order to achieve this we must remain a society where everyone plays by the rules. You have failed to uphold the nation’s rules, Washington, and as a result our free and open society is slipping away…’   "

Indeed Washington D.C. and its several administrations over the past decades, its Congressional members in both House and Senate have betrayed Arizona and other southern border states by turning a blind eye to the immense and illegal in-flowing of Aliens from Mexico who come into this nation without doing so according to our laws.  And then those Illegals march, parade, carry the Mexican flag, make outrageous demands such as letting their children speak and read Spanish in American schools, letting them work without being legal immigrants, letting them use all the services of medical facilities and hospitals through American welfare systems, letting them run over legal American citizens in so many ways…not the least of which is the high crime rate of illegal immigrants who recently murdered an Arizona rancher who was working on his own land.

Are American citizens able to do all those things as Illegal Aliens in Mexico?  You bet your Booties they are not!!!!   They will wind up rotting in some Mexican jail if they try to do what the Mexicans are doing to the United States, via illegal immigration.

More quotes from the Hill article:     "…when illegal immigrants’ rights advocates began demonstrating in the streets (of California over Prop. 187) …. some literally parking big rig trucks on LA freeways blocking rush-hour traffic for hours on end as a means of ‘protesting’ the ballot measure {which cut off welfare payments to Illegals} the citizens woke up, saw how they were being pushed around by those who weren’t authorized to be in their country in the first place, and then overwhelmingly passing the initiative at the ballot box that year {1994}.  "

Since 2006 and 2007 no less than three Phoenix police officers have been killed on-duty by illegal immigrants.

Our free and open society is slipping away, through no fault of legal American citizens.  The Illegals have brought Arizona’s new strict law on themselves.

What is it going to take to make our Federal government enforce our existing immigration laws???

A great-niece named Eli (pronounced Ellie) lives in Alaska.  She has trained a golden retriever for two years and the dog, Kiko, went on to a West Coast location where she was trained intensely to be a guide dog.   We got an e mail and a forwarded news item from Eli the other day about what Kiko is doing now….Kiko is living with and guiding a lady named Janie Derderian in Redlands, CA.    Kiko’s and Janie’s story is told in the Redlands Daily Facts. It is a story worth telling to others.

Janie Derderian suffered a grand mal seizure when she was rewiring a lamp on May 15, 2007.  She suffered two strokes following the seizure.  She was found 15 minutes later and taken to a hospital in Garverville, Ca.   Her condition was so critical that she was transferred to Napa, California to a larger hospital.  Janie suffered a heart attack on the way back from Napa, further complicating her serious health problems, at the age of only 58.

She suffered much brain damage and cannot remember much of what occurred while she was hospitalized.  She was on a "do not resusitate order"… so serious was her condition. Her family came to say their good- byes to Janie.   Unconscious and slowly slipping toward death, a nurse saw Janie try to sit up and also heard her  make a noise.  She was no longer given up as dying and it took more rehabilitation than can be tracked and mentioned to come back from her brain damage and long term disabilities.  She has suffered much loss of her vision and is now considered to be legally blind.  But  she has recovered to a point where she can live alone again.

After her recovery, Janie moved back to Redlands and applied for the Guide Dog program. This past February, Janie entered a month-long training program at Palm Springs, CA where she met Kiko, her blond labrador retriever, Kiko (formerly Eli’s dog).  During the training session, Janie and others in the program, went out to local cities to practice moving and living with each other (dogs and people).  On March 14, 2010, Janie and Kiko graduated from their training program.

Now Janie Derderian has this to say about Kiko, her constant companion and guide.

"Kiko is a dog that wants to work constantly.  I like to hike and to be on the go. Kiko was raised in Alaska   I think she used to chase polar bears and stuff and maybe moose.  She’s just very active."

(note:  Eli’s grandparents have had moose look into their windows at times!!  And bear cubs on their deck!)

Janie is training Kiko to do additional tasks like pushing the pedestrian button at a cross walk.  Janie still suffers side effects from the seizures and strokes and heart attacks that left brain damage in three places.  She still goes to speech therapy, but her attitude is a positive one.  She gives Kiko credit for helping her with having a positive outlook.  Again, about Kiko in Janie’s  words:  

"She has brought so much joy to my life,  she has made my heart so happy it has a smile on its face.  People say, ‘why are you smiling all the time?’  I say ‘Look at my little partner.’ "

It is a heart- warming true story and I can only imagine how Eli feels knowing that her dog, Kiko, is serving a lady who loves her dog and needs her for everything she does.    What a wonderful thing this teen- aged great niece of ours has done.  She has contributed a great deal to the world outside her home in Alaska.   I think she will do this more times as the years pass.

I have been following news reports recently about the attempts of opponents (Dems/Liberals) to smear the Tea Party Movement even if they have to lie about it to do so.  There have been some very telling revelations lately about these efforts.

The most interesting one is the backtracking of Democratic representative Heath Shuler of North Carolina who originally told the "Henersonville (ND) Times-News" that he had heard  a racial slur from the Tea Party protestors at the Capitol in Washington D.C. on March 20 when Nancy Pelosi, carrying a huge, oversized gavel, lead fellow Dems on a parade right through the Protestors.  Her main crowd with her at that time were members of the Democratic Black Caucus.  It was obvious what they were trying to do…..they hoped to get some racial slurs from the protestors and Heath Shuler claimed he had actually heard the word N—– said from the T.P. crowd, which was enormous that day.  The T.P. people WERE shouting but it was "Kill The Bill"… referring the healthcare bill that Pelosi and her partners were marching to the Capitol building to vote on that night.

It turns out that after James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal and Jesse Washington who does the race beat for the Associated Press began to dig in and investigate the allegations of racial slurs being hurled at the congresspeople, there was a back- tracking maneuver from Rep. Heath Shuler in quick time.  Taranto, or one of his investigators called Shuler’s office and Shuler’s press secretary denied the comment about Shuler hearing the slur that day (March 20)  She said that it was all a "misunderstanding" and that Shuler had not even been near any of the Black members of the House while they walked with Pelosi. Quite a switcheroo from the first statement about "hearing" the N-word!

Taranto wrote about this "incident" that did not happen:  "It may be the most celebrated missing recorder since Watergate…. the non-existent and unacounted for video of the Tea Party protestors at the Capitol on March 20. "          None of the many video cameras, individual cellphone cameras or any other recording equipment picked up any kind of racial slurs that day and the Dems have been caught "making up" yet another incident of racial hatred which they claim is such a hallmark of the Tea Party Movement.   In their minds only, apparently!

In a reversal of the nasty slurs claimed by the Liberals to be such a big part of the Tea Party, Michelle Malkin, who is of Asian origin, tells of receiving an e mail from a person who disagrees with her support of the TP.    The emailer, "sammygeo@yahoo. com… sent the following message to Malkin after she wrote about attending a Tea Party.

"Michelle Malkin you look like a D — n Fool.  The only Jap at at those tea parties. Go somewhere and sit your stupid A – -  down."                          James Carville, a noted Dem/Liberal proponent has recently called Tea Partiers "reptiles".     This is all in addition to the earlier slurs against Tea Partiers from other Dems including Leaders like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi who called them "nazis", "unpatriotic",  "homophobes" and other commonly used slurs that they would like other people to believe about the TP movement.  But unfortunately the smear attempts are falling on mostly deaf ears.

Nice comments from the Libs who claim to be the people of great tolerance  for others.  They are tolerant when the views match their own , apparently.     It is interesting to note that Mary Matalin (an avowed conservative) calls her bald shiny-topped husband, "Serpenthead" so I guess that qualifies for a conservative nasty slur!!!!!    I have seen Matalin and Carville together on Tim Russert’s Sunday show years ago and Carville acts very meek in Matalin’s presence.   It is not what one might call a "marriage made in Heaven" but the truly Odd Couple are happy and love their daughters dearly.  I think that politics might be off the list for conversation at the Carville/ Matalin household!!!

In another piece by Michelle Malkin she describes the frustration of Tea Party "crashers" sent forth to infiltrate the April 15 protests.  Apparently the Tea Party people were ready for them.  In several photos taken at Columbus, OH at an April 15 T.P. there,  an "infiltrator" is shown holding up a sign that showed a hangman’s noose with the words designed to show the TP as really Bad Folks.  "HOPE FOR THE ROPE (picture of the noose)   CHANGE AND ESTRANGE." Then there are subsequent photos of TP people closing in him and holding up signs that said "WE ‘RE NOT WITH STUPID!".    It was funny!!!   Apparently all attempts by Liberal infiltrators fell down flat when Tea Partiers, alert to the infiltrators, were right there to denounce them.

The Tea Party Movement ( not an organized "political party") keeps moving on… dismissing its detractors with more and more gatherings and more and more support from middleclass Americans.   They are determined to change the United States by urging voters to show what their true feelings are about REAL hope and change in our government.

Funerals can be very sad with great outpourings of the worst kind of grief.   I remember several funerals for very young people….a three- year old child of a classmate who succumbed to leukemia;  the funeral for a 17- year old who died in a gun accident;  funerals for young parents who died leaving young children.  Those funerals are heart rending and gut wrenching. 

But  funerals are also for celebrations of the deceased’s life, especially if it was a long and happy and productive one.  One can only give thanks at those funerals for lives well lived, much love given and received, long term friendships that only end with a death.

But funerals are for the Living, not really for the Dead.  The Living gather together and in that process they see people they have not seen for years…maybe even decades. It is a time of reunion as well as a time of remembrance and in Christian funerals, a time of hope and thankfulness for the promise of Eternal Life with the Lord.

We attended Carlla’s funeral yesterday…Carlla… of past days when I was young and my parents were great friends of Carlla and her husband.    I renewed many old friendships and acquaintances there.   Seeing people I had not seen or even thought of for decades….as I sat down to the always substantial midwestern funeral "lunch",  I saw a smiling face across two tables and she waved to me…..I knew her instantly.  It was Dorothy T., wife of Mr. T, our adored teacher who was in our school for all our years as high schoolers and even before that.  He was the agriculture instructor and one of the finest FFA advisors, ever. His teams always took top honors at the State FFA Meet.   He and his wife were gentle, kind, loving parents and good community members.  Dorothy has not changed that much over the many years…I last saw her at the FFA food booth at the Clay County Fair many years ago when my own sons were in FFA and the parents did the cooking at the FFA booth while the boys were the waiters/servers for the people who ate there.  Dorothy and Mr. T and their small sons lived across the street from my parental home….as did many of the teachers of that era because that house was a rental one…one of the few in our town, so lots of teachers lived there temporarily.  They were wonderful neighbors and I loved to go across the street and pay attention to their little boys who were darling little guys at that time.   Mr T was right beside Dorothy so I got to greet him and chat a big as well.   Then I saw Gordy and Carol…..young marrieds and new parents when I last knew them well.   Gordy was the son of  a wonderful lady in our town who was the Aunt of my best friend so I spent a lot of time at their house with my friend.  My friend was only 8 years old when her own mother died.  The dying mother had begged her sister to care for the little girl as nobody else was really available to raise her in the way her mother wanted her raised.  So I got well acquainted with Aunt Nora’s family including Gordy and his brothers and sisters.  He married the most beautiful teacher in the high school, in my opinion.  This was Carol V who taught what we called "Commercial"….typing, bookkeeping, shorthand, all the business classes.  She was such a beauty and Gordy was tall and handsome.  We all sighed and thought it was the most wonderul match ever!  They have lived and loved and worked together for many years, raised their family and are now enjoying retirement.  It was wonderful to see this couple I knew first as such a young handsome pair with their two darling little boys.

Of course it was very emotional to see Carlla’s children again….since their mother lived to the age of 93, both of them are middle aged adults now with grandchildren and even a couple of great grandchildren.  When I saw Jim (the son)  I told him "Here comes ——-(my mother’s name) giving ———-(Jim’s father’s name)  a great  big hug!"   Jim looks like a replica almost of his wonderful Dad and I am told that I look pretty much my dear Mom.  We all become our parents if we live long enough, it seems.

We went out for the burial at the peaceful still-rural cemetery on the edge of our town.  The town is overtaking the cemetery which used to be a good mile out of town but now the town is on the edge of the cemetery. I remember marching that mile out of town, first with the Camp Fire Girls and later with the high school band to the cemetery on every Memorial Day.      It is still peaceful and country-like; birds warbling, breezes wafting over the neat rows of so many gravestones. I have more friends in the cemetery now than I have in the town.   All our neighbors of my childhood are there resting and waiting for the Trumpet Call.  Carlla was laid to rest beside her beloved husband.  Their first daughter who was stillborn also rests in the cemetery near her parents.

It was truly the last chapter of the lives of two good friends from so long ago.  It was wonderful to be able to be there for that Last Chapter.