Killing People is Wrong

The Boston Bomber will be murdered by the state of Massachusetts. The awesome Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Connie Schultz immediately posted on the issue on Facebook and her many friends and follows responded. My comment was:

Sr. Helen Prejean ("Dead Man Walking" nun) feels Dzhokhar is remorseful. She's met with him 5 times. Further, if it is wrong to kill someone, it is wrong for the state to kill someone. PERIOD. We must practice what we preach. The death penalty must go.

The violence must stop. -- And you ought to be following Connie Schultz on Facebook (and elsewhere, like Twitter). She posts about all sorts of issues as well as photos of her husband Senator Sherrod Brown and their dog Franklin.

Venting re Republican (In)action

Thom Hartmann has been venting this week on the deliberate and harmful Republican obstructionism in Congress and I reposted on Facebook a Jimmy Carter quote, "If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying you want a country based on Christian values, because you don't." I followed up by venting in a reply comment and it needs more airing. So I re-vent here:

The Republican politicians have created havoc in Congress -- nothing is being done to help ordinary people or our environment. But the polls show only 49 percent of the people know they are in charge of the House and probably fewer know they are obstructing the Senate. The GOP expect the Dems will be blamed by voters for most of our country's problems and sadly they are probably correct. Meanwhile our citizens see their jobs shipped overseas while companies continue to get tax breaks for this. The Dems tried to reverse this and the GOPS stopped it. They are playing politics and people are starving and our environment is being decimated. Scary times. Not Christian and not ethical.

Accentuating a healing positive

Facebook scrolls on, but today's status update / thought on a more positive year deserves more play:

Looking forward to the unfolding of the year. Breathing in life-giving air and exhaling the negative. Emphasizing the positive, what I wish to see expand. Recommitting my self to doing what I can to create a better self and a better world: it is all connected. Blessings one and all. And healing hugs...

Facebook Quick Take

Patricia [a Catholic school lay teacher]:

Why are we so judged when circumstances keep us from living up to everyone's expectations?

Kate Anne [moi -- and her girlhood friend]:

One of the nice things about getting older is that we become more lenient about expectations. Concentrate on the positive, where there has been success (probably lots of it), and let the rest go. Breathe, release, relax, and then as my sainted mother would say, "Let the asses bray."