Goodbye George Bush

I will miss George Bush. The people of America will miss him too.

I don’t know the man. I don't know fully why I will miss him-I'm still trying to work it out. It might take me some time, some considerable time, perhaps. The American public - friends and enemies-will miss George Bush, their president, in ways that they do not yet know and in ways that they do not yet understand. And it will take them years to realize this and, or, to admit it to themselves.

He took us to war. Yes, he did. Back then, how we wanted the war.
I feel safe with Bush. I don’t know I will feel the same after he is gone.

The people of America do not like or want George Bush any longer, they tell the pollsters. Not as their president, not as a friend, not as anything much. Not even as an enemy? But back then, they wanted him! How they wanted him. Go hear the names they call men who do not defend their own.

Along came Iraq. It was the war his people wanted. He gave it to them. Try and deny that. Things did not go according to plan, and the world has changed forever. But he would not let up on taking down the bad guys. Not ever.

Bush was just one of us. An ordinary guy. Sort of, in spite of his wealth. The intellects called him stupid....his regular slips of the tongue, fudged sentences, point-blank statements that sent shutters through anyone that ever even had an English college course. No other leader talked like him. Plain, succinct. The language of the man! To watch him work the crowd during election campaigns was to marvel at where he got his joviality-and utter professionalism-from. Didn't he always always show how much he cared and how much he enjoyed being out with the people?

He was the friendly guy in the corner with the ready, funny joke, great sense of humor, the trait of appreciating the humorous, always ready to buy you a drink, always first to ask if you needed one, even if he had to tell you how he had given it up.

I always appreciated his problems and how he was trying to deal with them despite the appalling odds. I found him interesting, he didn’t seem to care what the talk shows were saying about him. There was a fierce intelligence blazing away, well hidden. A great confidence.

How do I explain, on the eve of his departure, that I liked George Bush? Why should I, who is going to understand? He is a man who will be one of the most studied in American history. His place there is assured. And not for the easy reasons. He was America for what America was. Time to bring down the final curtain. Good bye, Mr. President, I for one, will miss you. I do know that much…I’m sure all the reasons will come to the top in time.





Have a good day....Ric

Happy New Year

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
Remember - Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
with love.....DRJ

bra's

More than 60 years ago the United States banned child labor, sweatshops, long workdays and workweeks. But now we are subsidizing, encouraging and failing to criticize the enslavement of young people in the Third World. Many products we buy, use and consume each and every day here in the US are being manufactured in other countries, often at the expense of the children of that country. They are overworked and underpaid. It is nothing but child abuse.

Children are treated as slaves, forced to sew and sew and sew. They work at assembly line centers pushing out all of the products we take for granted. Children as young as 10 are worked up to 16 hours a day for no pay. One 10-year-old boy told reporters he was sold to the sweatshop company by his parents. The countries are so poor they do anything to survive.

Sneakers, jeans and all sorts of garments, but predominantly and especially bras, are being sewn and packaged and shipped to the US. I say, do what you can to help save the children. It occurred to me, if we quit buying their bras, they will quit making them. Save the children. Go Braless.


ya'll be good...Santa'a coming.....