Slobs?

Why is it that people just don't care any more?

Yesterday evening my wife and I were picking up a few things in Sam's Club. It was a little more crowded than usual, because BU students had just hit town, and were picking up their stuff for the new semester.

We encountered a group of students who were making the usual guys-away-from-home noises, and saw one of them finish the hotdog he was eating, and casually toss the wrapper on the floor. They continued on down the aisle, and I just stood there getting angrier by the minute. This is MY world too, and I'll be dipped if I'm gonna put up with some slob dumping his garbage anywhere he pleases in it!

So I bent over and picked up the wrapper -- carefully avoiding the side with the ketchup and relish smears, and looked up at my wife. She just rolled her eyes at me, knowing what was coming next. I went down to where the guys were joking about something else, said "Excuse me," and reached out to the guy who had tossed it. He instinctively reached out his hand to see what I was holding out to him, and I stuffed the wrapper -- nasty side down -- into his hand, and said "Maybe you just toss your garbage on the floor where you come from, but we don't do it here. There's a wastebasket right over there -- use it!"

The looks on their faces were priceless! He just said "Yes sir, sorry," and went over to the wastebasket at the end of the aisle.

Dunno if I made any difference, and maybe I'll get my lights punched out some day for doing something like that, but I don't care -- I'll do it every time! Like I said -- MY world!

The Katydids

We just cleaned out my mother's things -- she passed away over a year ago. Among her papers I found a poem I had written as a Mothers Day present, when I was in 4th grade. As I have nothing else to offer on this rainy Sunday night, I'll post it here. I wish I could write as well now! :-)

The Katydids
by Jimmy Tuckey, 4th grade (my middle name)

Sometimes I keep
From going to sleep
To hear the katydids “cheep-cheep!”
And think they say
Their prayers that way;
But katydids don’t have to pray!

I listen when
They cheep again;
And so I think they’re singing then!
But no, I’m wrong,
The sound’s too long
And all alike to be a song!

(To my mother on Mother’s Day)

Just say "Thank You!"

A friend just sent me this - I'd seen it before, but now I'll post it so you can see it too:

Have you ever wished you could say thank you to those who have put it all on the line to protect our freedoms, but you just don't know what to say? Here's how!

On the Health Care Scare

Let me be real clear right up front -- I oppose this socialist agenda with all my being. I think it is an abomination, contrary to the principles on which our country was founded, and if put into legislation and practice it will ruin the best health care industry in the world.

Having said that, I take issue with the hateful rhetoric spewing from both sides of the issue.

I hear my favorite pundits -- Hannity, Beck. Limbaugh, and Savage, as well as many other lesser known folks, parroting the same scary statements -- purported to be actual quotes from the bill. I'm a writer, and I've gotten so I think I can tell when something sounds way too real to be real, and is actually hyperbole, conjecture, and in some cases, outright fabrication.

So I downloaded the current version of the House bill -- it's accessible at http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf -- all 1018 pages of it.

It's a pdf file, so there are excellent search tools to enable one to find anyting in the text. I used them. Guess what? Most of the "exact quotes" being tossed around as scare bombs are simply not there. I did several searches, using different pieces of the quotes in different order, to see if I could piece together something that would equate to those purported quotes, and again came up empty.

Yes, the infamous page 16 (and following) does contain wording that exposes, yet hides the fact that we will be figuratively forced into the single-payer plan eventually, but even that is being stated incorrectly by many on the Right. Yes, there are many dangers in this bill, and yes we need to be alarmed to the point that we take action against it.

My problem is that we are being pushed into using the same tactics as our perceived opponents, and it will turn and bite us if we do not stop. According to the Bible, we do not fight evil with evil, lies with lies, or terror with terror. We are trying to fight the leftwing nihilists with the same tactics they have used all along, and it's the wrong thing to do. In the first place, they are much better at it than we are, and in the second, it is contrary to our own stated stand on the truths on which this great nation was founded.

We need to stop passing on those emails that have no basis in fact, and instead, read the blasted thing. Become informed, maintain our collective (dare I used that word?) cool, and stand up to be counted instead of hiding behind a curtain of screaming, uninformed denial. We cannot win by using their tactics! They will simply smile, point to every instance of inaccurate quoting, and dismiss us as an ineffective gaggle of ignorant right-wing kooks, which it appears we're working hard at becoming.

There are still some in Congress that are unsure about this bill. They have apparently not read it for themselves, but are waiting for us to tell them what we think. When their colleagues point out to them the misstatements coming from uninformed emailers, they will assume that we're wrong, they're right, and there goes the vote! Instead, ASK them to explain certain provisions in the bill. They cannot. Our only hope is that they will then actually read it, and become as alarmed as we are, and will kill this abomination before it's hatched.

Remember how we all got up in arms about Situational Ethics? All of us agreed that it is wrong. THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS! -- think about it.
thanks for reading -- comments are welcome.

On Aging

Been Busy!
Here's a poem that I just got published in the paper, in honor of my 50th highschool class reunion:

On Aging
(c) 2008, 2009 Howard Tuckey

I used to have a six-pack, now it's morphed into a keg.
I got a sag in my Depends, they’re sliding down my leg
It seems my fav'rite word is Huh? -- my hearing went kaput,
And limping is my normal gait, with bunions on each foot.

I’m dropping stuff more often now, arthritis in my hands,
It does no good to watch it fall; can’t bend to where it lands.
My PT makes my muscles hurt, a not too pleasant burn,
My knees they creak, my hips they groan, with every twist and turn.

But even with the aches and pains I still have lots of fun.
That is, I think I do, sometimes -- my memory is gone.
If memory still serves at all, it usually works too late
I think of things from childhood, can’t remember today’s date

I set things to remind me, then I can't recall just where;
I once misplaced my wife, and left her grouchy as a bear.
The TV shut my cable off, forgot to pay the bill,
And half the time I can’t remember if I took that pill.

Folks chuckle some behind my back, I often see them smile,
But I'm not really bothered; I make new friends all the while!
So all in all it ain’t so bad, no matter all the jokes,
But just this once please humor me, just who are all you folks?

cheers!