Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Me, With Thoughts on Medicare

Rarely in my 82 years have I been deeply worried about my waining years on this earth. Relegated to sitting in front of a TV set is the staple activity during my waking hours of the day. Watch TV these days and it's nearly impossible not get wrapped up in our past election and now the hearings on our new president's appointments engages me. This morning I watched the second senate panel question Rep. Price, the president's desire for Health and Human Services Secretary. From his replies, Price gave me a chill up the middle of my spine since I'm so dependent on the assistance of Medicare to pay medical costs both doctor and hospital and, especially, prescriptions.

Take Medicare away and President Trump may as well add me to the roll of the "too old", of "good riddance", of "only a sickly hanger on".

If fear was the template mounted daily on to our public discourse during the election cycle it has manifested itself in my mind now that the election is over. I fear for the disabled, for the disenfranchised, and for those of different lifestyles. Also, I fear for women kind who will be challenged mightily to remain subservient to males.

The poor, I fear, having never felt part of our great system will remain downtrodden and still won't realize much help from their new masters. In feudal times the serfs rarely knew which court controlled their kingdom and, I imagine, most could care less. Nothing added to nothing is still nothing.

Ronald C. Downie
Women of the World

The Mega Optics of The Women's March on Washington, DC. and throughout the United States and the rest of the World announced : from this date forward - Women of the World - will not permit themselves to be treated as second class citizens.

I laud their joined voices. Voices that initially spoke to their grand scheme which was targeted to the largest population centers throughout the World but, as I see it, this was only a good start.

"All politics is local" screams out loud and clear. Women, don't be lulled to sleep by intrenched male dominion who can easily mobilize a   powerful blitzkrieg undercutting all your previous initiatives.

"Local" means just that. Marches and gatherings must be organized and effected by women in each political entity that is filled by election. The task is enormous but doable because it is broken down into manageable parts : everywhere, from bottom up. "All politics is local !"

Powerful, loud, and massive was the grand rollout of women finding both their footing and voices. If not now, when ? Please don't allow a good thing go to waste. Organize locally, demand attention, and help other locals by supporting their efforts. Why do people march ? They march, to get somewhere, where they're not.

Ronald C. Downie

Monday, January 23, 2017

Alternative fact : defining the indefinable
What you believe is a lie and is only a misconception in reality.
No longer do your senses contribute rhyme or reason to their activations, so ignore their stimulations and listen only to the
powerful to decipher life's episodes.

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Don't Know Where, Don't Know When

Watched again the movie, Doctor Strangelove, last evening which has kept me under a lifetime angst about a nuclear Armageddon during my stay here on this Earth. Sure, I watched the movie to the end, so I could listen to Vera Lynn sing "We'll Meet Again" as the mushroom cloud billows up getting bigger and bigger in an image I never ever want to actually see.

Farcical as the picture is, thru subtle humor, all kind of bizarre notions crossed my mind. The stumbling, bumbling of our military, the ingrained adherence to antiquated policies of that generation displays
a decayed society culminating in the unthinkable.

Will I ever watch this movie again ? Probably, and I'll watch it to the very end just to hear Vera Lynn sing again. It was her voice which urged the dough boys to keep pressing on even as the future seemed bleak. Vera had the presence to engage her audience in many of her songs which further emboldened the solders to keep their energies up and spirits high. In these times we need more uplifting images to offset the dank and bleak things facing humanity.

Ronald C. Downie

Monday, January 2, 2017

A Birthday Wish for Lily Noelle

A read of literature will show you
Punctuation's a necessary evil :

When to pause, when to stop, regulating
The impulses of mental images.

Maybe mental images need be left
To artists painting by brush from pallet.

To those, who effect scenes by light's shadows,
Cause a pause in the viewer, a deep breath.

Art on canvass is not photographic;
Rather, it's to stimulate the senses :

To raise in the viewer emotional
Fervor, exulting, exhilarating.

Who to choose to replicate a snowflake,
Or the flicker of an open fire's flame ?

It is you, Lily Noelle, we've chosen ;
You, who wear the cloak of family artist.

You, who'll dress your barren walls with portraits,
 With pastoral scenes : verdant, expressive.

Happy Birthday ! Lily Noelle Kurtz
Love, Nanny&PopPop