Originally posted on June 3, 2012.

There were only three brave souls who came to stand on the bridge with our peace signs in this pouring rain today. There had been flood warning about the river there.  While we were there the guys were opening the floodgates of the dam just on the other side of the street. It was so beautiful to watch them in their raingear walking across the top of the dam doing what they all seemed to know very well needed to be done….they were all “good at” what they were doing. One by one they lifted barriers or lowered gates. Each time they got one open, the water came gushing over and splashing higher and higher with each open gate.

I couldn’t help myself. I thought of Scott Walker in Wisconsin. I thought of Governor LePage’s nasty comments about workers. I thought about him removing the labor mural. While all of these right wing politicians are going on and on about the workers, I mean both public workers and private workers. They are out there getting the job done…..doing what needs to be done to keep the town from flooding; to keep the schools running and teaching; to answer you call when you call the government with a complaint; to fill the potholes. Meanwhile these politicians doubt their honor. I thought of what great admiration I have for anyone who works at a job and does it well. How grand they seemed compared to the petty people who were denigrating them.

Originally posted on March 19, 2012.

All of the recent chatter about contraception prompts me to ask this question. We keep hearing about the fact that Obama’s attempt to have access to birth control included in women’s health care coverage somehow indicates a government interference with freedom of religion and with the right of people to follow their own consciences. My question is this. Does it follow then that religious organizations ought to control women’s decisions? Are people saying that church should have the right make those decisions for women? Are we more concerned about the freedom of these men to make decisions for women than for a woman’s right to decide for herself. Is that somehow better than having the government limit the churches power on this issue?

I heard Rick Santorum this morning on the news trying to dodge owning up to his former statement that birth control was morally wrong. Then he went on to boast that he was the guy who didn’t believe in man made global warming. After our eighty-degree temperatures yesterday I was surprised that he didn’t try to dodge that issue too. But no one asked him if the odd weather gave him pause. I guess he knew that he could count on the talking heads on the TV not to ask any of those questions.