Roadside Shrines

So, okay, what exactly is the point of those crosses and other paraphernalia that people put up by the side of the road when a loved one has died in a traffic accident? I don't get it.

Is it supposed to remind us to drive safely? yeah...cruisin' down the road, oh look, what's that?, wha...?, it's a cross, and some flowers, wonder what that's doing th...AAAAHHHHHH!!!! LOOK OUT FOR THAT CAR!!! CRASH!!!! Guess that's not it.

Is it supposed to comfort the ones left behind? "Mommy, Mommy, look! There's where Daddy got dead! I feel better now!"..."Oh, look, Honey, there's where my brother bought the farm. It gives me such a warm feeling to see that every day." Nope, guess that's not it either.

Is it because that's where they buried the body? Nope, we have cemeteries and crematoriums for that, so that can't be it.

Is it for highway beautification? After all, nothing is more attractive by the side of the road than dead flowers, or filthy, discolored ones, or crudely made crosses falling over on their sides. Nope, guess that's not it either.

There is one of these roadside shrines on my way home from work. It's very well-tended; in fact, it's decorated for every holiday - Christmas, Easter, Halloween (Yes, Halloween!!!). I REALLY don't get that one.

I mean, if your father died in the operating room, would you put a shrine there? If your sister falls, bashes her head open, and dies at the local Wal-Mart, do you put a shrine at the checkout counter? If your cousin dies during a bank robbery, do you get all the blank deposit slips embossed with crosses?

All I know is, if I ever die in a car accident, and my family pulls this shrine crap, I'm gonna HAUNT them!!!

Kids, don't do drugs. Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

dragonlady's den

Well, my daughter has now been clean for over three weeks and is looking forward to her NA meeting next Monday night, where she will get her 30-days-clean keychain. My whole world changed the day I found out she was addicted to crack, and I should have seen it; but I guess I just didn't WANT to see it.

I'm really quite proud of her for the things she's accomplished in the last 3 weeks; telling the family, turning over her money management to me, attending NA meetings regularly, cutting off the "friends" she was hanging with, going to the health department for addictions and mental health counseling. I was with her at her 2nd NA meting, and when she stood up and said, "Hi, my name is J---, and I'm an addict," I was hit with a bolt of emotion that I just cannot describe. It was partly grief, partly agony, partly pride, and partly hope. And when they gave out keychains for being clean for certain amounts of time, and got to the "29 days or less" she got right up and got her keychain.

What I'm really thrilled about is this: she went to a meeting Friday night, and found that in this particular group, people had formed cliques, and weren't open to new people. She walked up and introduced herself to people (which is very hard for her to do) but they didn't make her feel welcome. She went home very frustrated and tense, thinking about using, and then...found another meeting that night to go to, where she talked about what had happened, and got the support she needed. She made the right decision, and I am so grateful for that.

Her home group is one that meets on saturday nights; she has made friends, and is actually helping people there as well as being helped herself. I am so hopeful! She tried once before to stop using on her own, and it didn't work. Now, with the support of her family and with taking every avenue of help available to her, I know she's going to beat this thing. It's going to be okay. There may still be some hard times ahead, but she is going to win the fight.

No more Bushit!!!

I'm really upset that Bush won the election. I'm even more upset by his declaration that it was a "mandate." Bushit! 51% of the popular vote is barely a majority and hardly a mandate.

He says the country gained manufacturing jobs. Bushit! Reclassifying fast food jobs as manufacturing is not creating manufacturing jobs, it's just spin.

He said Iraq had WMD. The fact that none have been found means we just haven't found then yet. Bushit! According to the weapons inspectors, all evidence is that Iraq had cooperated in stepping down their weapons programs. My favorite idea that people have is that Saddam shipped them out of the country. Bushit! With Iraq being under the scrutiny of the weapons inspectors, and the UN, and our "intelligence" agencies, and spy satellites, I find it hard to believe he could pull that off.

He tried to tell us that Saddam was behind the attacks on 9/11. Bushit! There was no connection between those attacks and Iraq.

He said that the war in Iraq will make us safer. Bushit! Our people, military and civilian, are dying almost every day in Iraq. The fact that we have not had an attack since 2001 doesn't mean we're safer; it just means that we haven't been attacked again...yet.

He says his tax cuts will stimulate the economy and create jobs. Bushit! I'm told that trickle-down works, but it takes about 50 years (thanks, Trish). Uh, folks? the way things are going, we don't have 50 years left.

He tells us that banning gays from getting married will preserve the sanctity of marriage. Bushit! Look at our divorce rate; look at how we idolize celebrities who change spouses every time they change the litter in the cat box; look at how successful businessmen dump their aging wives for trophy wives. Yeah. Let's keep the sanctity in sanctimonious. Bushit!

The only reason he won this election is that he wears his religion on his sleeve, and got the Christian fundamentalist and evangelist vote. He won on "moral values." Bushit! He and his administration have lied, covered up, and spun the truth throughout the last 4 years, and are directly responsible for thousands of lives lost in Iraq. Abortion is BAD; killing people by the thousands on bad intelligence is GOOD?

Now he's Mr. Cocky. He says he gained political capital in this campaign, and he'll spend it any way he wants to. He knows we can't touch him: I shudder to think what he will do to his benefit and the benefit of his rich cronies.

Yep, this is democracy, all right. Bushit!