As we do on most days, Bobby the dog and I walk through Cronesteyn Park. Today it was rather late, around 5ish. But it doesn’t get dark now til after 6pm.

I thought we’d only do half the park and turn around, but it’s hard to stop once you’re there. So we crossed the Rijn-Schiekanaal via the Lammebrug and ended up exiting on the west-north-west side of the park. We walked over the train tracks and onto the the Kanaalbrug.

There was a blind lady on the bridge, using her long pole and other senses to make her way. She was going slowly and seemed a bit tense, a little tentative. So I walked up beside her, saying HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?

Then I realized: she’s not deaf, you idiot! I resumed in at a normal volume: How is everything? Okay? Hey, would you like a hand?

She didn’t hesitate and slipped her arm through mine. She seemed to relax and told me it was okay.

^{cross posted at writing in the rAw and daily kos}

Ahhhhh…the wisdom of the ages.

A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.

So she went to check it out. She went to the Western Wall and there he was, walking slowly up to the holy site.

She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.

“Pardon me, sir, I’m Rebecca Smith from CNN. What’s your name?

“Morris Feinberg,” he replied.

“Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?”

“For about 60 years.”

“60 years! That’s amazing! What do you pray for?”

“I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims.”

“I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop.”

“I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults and to love their fellow man.”

“I pray that politicians tell us the truth and put the interests of the people ahead of their own interests.”

“How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?”

“Like I’m talking to a fucking wall.”

I used to love to vote. There was something powerful about flexing my civic muscle and flicking a voting lever. I loved the older ladies from the League of Women Voters who’d volunteer and sit for hours at school cafeteria tables with big ledgers and match voters to their names there. I loved signing my name in that big book, and I enjoyed the sense of belonging to this tribe of Americans. And yes, I always felt proud to finally walk into the voting booth, make my voice heard, and perform my civic duty….

That said, I’m not voting in the 2012 national American elections.

Voting has, for me, deteriorated to this: pulling the lever for brand-name candidates who will do the least amount of damage to my country while in office.

That’s how if now feels. The lesser of two evils? It’s even more dire: it’s voting for the saner of two evils.

^{cross posted at writing in the rAw and daily kos}

Last week, the world was a bit more humane, more sane. Last week, Teodora Ristea was getting up every day to feed, clean, and tend to the hundreds of street dogs in her care. In 2005, at 60 years old, Teodora found her mission: saving stray dogs in her town of Slatina, Romania from slaughter and torture.

Teodora didn’t have pink ribbons for her cause… or a slogan. She didn’t have a board of directors, she didn’t worry about the politics of those she helped, and the money she collected went directly to the dogs………….

Last week, she was caring for upwards of 500 dogs at Prietenii Nostri, a daunting venture in a country where many of its human inhabitants face hard times and have scarce resources.

I imagine there is little left, in most people there, to worry or have empathy for the even harder life of millions of street dogs.

Seven days ago, Teodora woke up and, as she did most every day since opening the shelter, went to care her dogs despite her own ill health.

It was there, among her beloved friends, her dogs, that she collapsed. She was taken to a hospital in Budapest, where she lay in a coma.

This morning, I received an e-mail from her daughter, Gratiela, to let me know that Teodora has died:

She has died pfiore…

Im so down…

Teodora had me when she was almost 40 yrs old and  she gone so fast and let me to fight alone…

she is teodora, she is my mother, she is the soul and the heart of the shelter….She was every single day there, her body was exausted of too much work and stress. The attacked happened when she just arrived from the shelter…

The dogs are ok, very cold and lot of snow…

Some money have been raised with your help, i think somewhere about 500 euros.

The dog with 2 legs had 2 surgeries and will be adopted this month… I had also an update to send you but was not ready…

Thanks so much for all

Lot of love for you and bobby (my romanian dog) and thanks for all

Teodora is gone, but she is not an unsung hero. There are many humans and hounds who have benefited from her love, her belief in us to be better, to find better lives. She has graced this world with her strength and her determination, and on her behalf, I will continue to do what I can to help Teodora’s 400 cold dogs…

This link brings you to Prietenii Nostri and ways to help Teodora’s dogs.

^{cross posted at writing in the rAw and Daily Kos}

cross posted at writing in the rAw

That’s what I want to know.

We have a Democratic administration in Washington.

We have an escalation of police being militarized.

We are seeing the takeover of our public police force by corporations. Corporates hire the police we pay for with our tax dollars… to protect them from us. It is amazing.

And, fyi, the bail outs? Fought for and pushed by Democrats in Washington in 2008 and still being carried out …

^{cross posted at writing in the rAw & Daily Kos}

copied whole, with permission, from QuestionCopyright.Org

Content is an unlimited resource. People can now make perfect copies of digital content for free. That’s why they expect content to be free – because it is in fact free. That is GOOD.

Think of “content” – culture – as water. Where water flows, life flourishes.

Containers – objects like books, DVDs, hard drives, apparel, action figures, and prints – are not free. They are a limited resource. No one expects these objects to be free, and people voluntarily pay good money for them.

Think of “containers” – books, discs, hard drives – as jugs and vessels. These containers add utility to and increase the value of the water. If you can get water for free in the public river, great – that doesn’t reduce the value of vessels. Quite the contrary: when rivers flow, the utility and value of water vessels increases.

She was sitting on the street somewhere in Slatina, Romania. She was sitting in the rain and cold, with her feet cut away. And yet she lived, this sweet girl with a big desire to survive.

She could use some more help. The wonderful Prietenii Nostri is a shelter and haven for some 400 to 500 dogs. This dog was lucky, as she was brought to Prietenii Nostri’s founder Gratiela Ristea, who does what she can to feed and house and provide medical care for these creatures, our fellow earthlings. I found my dog, Bobby, there almost two years and she is my sweet sweet girl.

Bobby had her tail cut off and her teeth kicked in. But this poor one, well… she’s had two surgeries already. And Gratiela says her spine is not broken, which is very good news.

Perhaps there are some of you who could make a donation to help cover her care … or even bigger: offer her a home… this would be wonderful.

^{cross posted at dKos}

“Occupy Wall Street… et al” doesn’t seem to have a core set of demands, which clearly baffles mainstream media types, like Nick Kristof.

Where the movement falters is in its demands: It doesn’t really have any.

Well, Nick, from where I sit, these folks have something much more powerful than demands. They have a message: we’re changing the game, the rules, and the board upon which it is played. Further, it is saying we’ve had enough of the corrupted political process.

The ordinary Americans showing up across the country speak softly and carry around big ideas promoting dignity, fairness, common sense, and sanity in the dynamics among government, industry, and the rest of the planet.

This whole thing, as I watch it, awakens me.

^{cross posted at Daily Kos}

Wending our way round the soft bends of the Jura mountains in eastern France, we find an even softer landscape there of sloping green fields, pine forests in hues of auburn and umber, and smoothed sedimentary stone struck in blue tones.

It is the stone, this almost 200 million year old Jurassic limestone, I find most intriguing. Rock of ages? I suppose that is so.