Creativity & Technology

Yesterday President Obama in a commencment speech at Hampton University was quoted as saying:

"And meanwhile, you're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it's putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy."

The quote has caused a stir in the tech community as they have translated those words into a slam of their products. Here are the questions of the day:

Do you think he is slamming Ipods, etc in the above quote?

Do you agree with his statement?

I don't think he was slamming technology, I think it was giving a realistic take on how technology has caused a lot of creativity to go away. When video games first came out I always thought that it took away the children's ability to be creative. Instead of going oustide and turning two tin cans into a way to communicate the kids stayed inside and played video games. In my humble opnion that was the start of the loss of many creative programs in schools. Cutting drama and arts, for example.

Is creativity a lost art?


Today's Who Am?

I'm hurt because a lot of women that followed me have been featured in the Who Am Is and I have not been. Born in 1815 my writings at the first women's rights convention are credited with initiating the first organized women's suffrage movement. Before being a suffrage I was an active abolitionist. When I moved on to suffrage besides the women's right to vote I took on many issues pertaining to women. My concerns included women's parental and custody rights, property rights, employment and income rights, divorce laws, the economic health of the family, and birth control. I was also an outspoken supporter of the temperance movement. My commitment to female suffrage caused a schism in the woman's rights movement when she I declined to support passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. I opposed giving added legal protection and voting rights to African American men while continuing to deny women, black and white, the same rights. I was the eighth of eleven children. Five of my siblings died in early childhood or infancy. A sixth sibling died at age 20. My father was a prominent attorney who served one term in the United States Congress and later became both a circuit court judge and a State Supreme Court justice. Dad introduced me to the law and planted the early seeds that grew into my activism. As a young girl I enjoyed perusing my father's law library and debating legal issues with his law clerks. My mother was a descendant of early Dutch settlers. Unlike many women of my era I was formally educated. I studied Latin, Greek and mathematics until the age of 16. I enjoyed being in co-educational classes where I could compete intellectually and academically with boys my age and older, which I did successfully, winning several academic awards and honors, including the award for Greek language. When my brother died I tried to comfort dad, telling him that I would try to be all my brother had been. My father's response: "Oh, my daughter, I wish you were a boy!" Upon graduation I received one of my first tastes of sexual discrimination. I watched with dismay as the young men graduating with me, many of whom I had surpassed academically went on to Union College which only took men as students. I went to a women's college and remember being strongly influenced by Preacher Finney. He made me feel damned. I credit my father and brother-in-law with convincing me to ignore Finney's warnings and after a rejuvenating trip to Niagara Falls, my reason and sense of balance were restored. I never returned to organized Christianity and, after this experience, amaintained that logic and a humane sense of ethics were the best guides to both thought and behavior. I was married in 1840 to a man who would go on to be a legal eagle. I requested that the phrase "promise to obey" be removed from the wedding vows. I wrote, "I obstinately refused to obey one with whom I supposed I was entering into an equal relation." We had seven children, the last born when I was 44. Throughout my marriage and widowhood I took my husband's surname as part of my own but refused to be addressed as Mrs. Our marriage lasted forty-seven years ending with his death. At the first suffrage convention I wrote a declaration modeled after the United States Declaration of Independence. My declaration proclaimed that men and women are created equal. At my death the great Susan B described me as forging the thunderbolts that she fired. Unlike many of my colleagues I believed organized Christianity relegated women to an unacceptable position in society. In my later years I wrote books, documents, and speeches of the women's rights movement. Among my most popular speeches were "Our Girls", "Our Boys", "Co-education", "Marriage and Divorce", "Prison Life", and "The Bible and Woman's Rights". I made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. Congressional seat in 1868. I was the primary force behind passage of the "Woman's Property Bill" that was eventually passed by my state. After nearly five decades of fighting for female suffrage and women's rights my final appearance was before members of the United States Congress. I spoke of the central value of the individual, noting that value was not based on gender. I said "The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear — is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life. The strongest reason why we ask for woman a voice in the government under which she lives; in the religion she is asked to believe; equality in social life, where she is the chief factor; a place in the trades and professions, where she may earn her bread, is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself" I died of heart failure in 1902, twenty years before women were allowed to vote. I was commemorated in the calendar of saints of the Episcopal Church . Who Am I?

Happy Mothers' Day!!

Love you Mom!!!!!!

Thank you for not disowning me when at Kindergarten Bible School graduation the minister asked "What was the first thing that Noah did when he got off of the Ark?" and I answered "Get Drunk."

Thank you for teaching me that women are as good as and sometimes better than men.

Thank you for teaching me that the word acceptance is better than the word judgment.

Thanks for believing me and not the seventh grade teacher when the teacher told you that I was to stupid to learn. Thank you for forcing an IQ test the results of which ended up with me in the gifted program with a new teacher.

Thanks for teaching me that every living soul has good in them.

That you for teaching me that the heart of of a person means more than their sex, orientation, or color.

Thank you for teaching me one of life's greatest lessons. Put a band aid on it, it will get better.

Thanks for believing me and not the doctor when the doctor told you that your teenage son would be in a wheelchair all his life. We beat the odds and did it together.

Thank you for teaching me that if someone takes something from me that they needed it more than I did.

Thank you for all the chicken soup that seemed to cure everything.

Thank you for teaching me that my opinion mattered.

Thank you for listening to me, it taught me to listen to others.

Thank you for being liberated long before Women's lib and teaching me that I can be liberated too.

Thank you for standing behind me when I needed a gentle shove.

Thank you for standing beside me when I needed a friend.

Thank you for standing ahead of me when I needed direction.

Thank you for being you.

Thank you for making me the man I am today.

Thank you for being my Mom.


No Who Am I today, the answer to yesterday's puzzle was the great Elizabeth Van Lew.
Now tell me about your mother!! Remember too that it is Update Day so catch me up on your lives!!

Gift Suggestions

Before talking about gifts for Mothers Day some blog business.

An update about Maryanne and TJ and a some vibes for Dona:

DR wrote yesterday: "MA saw the hand specialist this AM and it appears she won't need reconstructive surgery. They're doing wet/dry bandages, no stitches for now, and he thinks it will largely heal itself. She's on tons of antibiotics and will see him weekly for two months. They found a place to stay - a bike place they visited last year was broken into a month ago. In return for them being there at night, as a "presence" (plus TJ's experience in security), they can park there as long as they need to stay in CSC. For today, good news all around!"

Way to go guys! Still keep Maryanne and TJ in your prayers, positive thoughts, good vibes until she is completely through this ordeal. Now we need to work magic for Dona, an important blog family member. I received this email from Dona yesterday. Just the highlights.

"Thanks for the wishes for the Shankster. Give you a bit of History, he has kidney stones. Lots of them like clockwork every 2 years. He has the worst pain with them too. I mean it is horrible. But in 2003 he got a couple really bad ones blasted and they failed to get one in the kidney. Since then, thank God, nothing. He has been in hospital, since Tuesday, as he is urinating blood clots. We first thought stone, but there is no pain. Very strange for him. Doc thought so too. Have had several tests/scans/blood work done and so far no kidney stones found, no infections or hernias in most of the plumbing area. We are awaiting tons of blood tests. But the scariest is this. Doc a bit worried about Bladder Cancer. No large tumors found there, but he wants to check the wall/lining of bladder to be sure as this peeing blood clots is a symptom. UGH. Doing this next Thursday. Keep him in your prayers please. You guys are my go to prayer/good wishes guys. I am counting on the power of prayer here. "

Get busy Blog family send everything that you can muster Dona's way! I am sending all my prayers, thoughts, positive vibes, white lights and anything with in a hundred miles Dona's husband's way and that the results will be no cancer.

Continuing the Mother Day's Theme here is a link for you guys out there. A list of gifts not to give your wife, mother, grandmother, significant other, or any woman in your life for Mothers'Day:

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/05/07/11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin/?icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentdish.com%2F2010%2F05%2F07%2F11-mothers-day-gifts-that-will-kill-your-sex-life-were-talkin%2F

Do you agree with the list of bad gifts? Anything on the bad list that you would want? Are us guys really so stupid that we have to put scales on the list? I guess so. What would you like to get for Mothers' Day? Got some good gift suggestions? Post them here. Personally, I think there is nothing more treasured than taking a few moments and write a letter to your Mom telling what she has meant to you.

Who Am I?

The woman who lived yesterday's amazing story is Rossetta Wakeman.

Yesterday's woman of the day faked her gender to serve in the Civil War and I faked insanity to help free the slaves. Born in Virginia in 1818, dying there in 1900. I was the only child of a successful business man. At age 26 dad went to Richmond to start a commercial farm with a member of the well known Adams family. The farm failed. Dad turned failure in to success by beginning a hardware store. We lived in ar magnificent mansion of three and a half stories high that was across from the church in which Patrick Henry had called for liberty or death. I went school in Philadelphia. That is where I became an abolitionist being was influenced by her mother. I wrote in my diary: "From the time I knew right from wrong it was my sad privilege to differ in many things from the ... opinions and principles of my locality." I described myself as "uncompromising, ready to resent what seemed wrong, quick and passionate but not bad tempered or vicious. When I was 25 years old dad died and I began to act more on my principles. Mom and I freed all of the family's slaves even though most of them stayed on as paid servants. When I heard that the slaves' children or relatives were being sold by other owners I bought and freed them and wrote: "Slave power crushes freedom of speech and of opinion. Slave power degrades labor. Slave power is arrogant, is jealous and intrusive, is cruel, is despotic, not only over the slave but over the community, the state." When the war began I bemoaned the fate my beloved state and when Virginia seceded I felt it was a crime. After hearing of Union soldiers suffering at Libby Prison I connived my way to being a nurse to the soldiers -- Mom and I would buy and bring clothes, bedding, food and medicines to the prisoners. I even persuaded Confederate physicians to have some soldiers transferred to hospitals. In these seemingly humanitarian efforts I gleaned military information from the soldiers, as well as from the Confederate guards and soldiers at the prison, then passed the information on to Union agents. At various times I was restricted from talking to the soldiers. I then passed out books, and the soldiers passed them back with tiny pin-pricked messages. I would smuggle out letters from the soldiers and even helped several escape; hiding them in a secret space upstairs in my house. For protection I began to accentuate the oddity with which my Richmond neighbors already regarded me. I started walking the streets mumbling and humming to myself, with my head bent slightly, as if holding an imaginary conversation. I combed my hair less carefully and dressed in worn-out clothes. Passers by would look at each other and shake their heads. The prison guards nicknamed me "Crazy B." No one suspected me because they assumed spies would keep a low profile; I purposely called attention to myself. I persuaded one of my slaves to return and help. She became a house servant for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. She also feigned a dim-witted, slightly crazy demeanor, allowing her to listen in on conversations and read documents that were left out. The servant would memorize everything, word for word, then on occasion meet me at night near our farm and pass on the goods. Mom and I were constantly trailed by detectives. I helped prisoners following a major escape through a 60-foot tunnel dug under Libby Prison. I was almost caught as a spy several times but avoided it. On my last assignment, at the Confederate Capitol I searched among ashes for secret documents the Union might need. A special guard found me there; he had been sent by General Grant, knowing I would face danger that day. Later, the general paid me a visit drinking tea and talking politics on my porch. For the rest of my life I kept Grant's calling card. After the war I was appointed postmistress of Richmond. Because of my loyalty to the Union I was ostracized by the community. I wrote: "No one will walk with us on the street, no one will go with us anywhere; and it grows worse and worse as the years roll on." Since I had spent most of my family's wealth on wartime activities I lived in poverty in the mansion with my niece and 40 cats.
I lived only on an annuity from the family of a Union soldier I had helped. In my late 60s, I continued to fight for women's rights by protesting against paying taxes. I died at 81. Relatives of soldiers that I had helped donated my tombstone and wrote on it: "She risked everything that is dear to man -- friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself, all for the one absorbing desire of her heart -- that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved. This Boulder from the Capitol Hill in Boston is a tribute from Massachusetts friends." Who Am I?

Amazing Women

In honor of the beginning of Mothers' Day weekend today's post will be about some amazing women that I had the unique pleasure of spending Wednesday afternoon with.

Some churches have preachers. They preach on Sunday with a lot of fervor and then after the sermon disappear into their own little world not ministering to their flock the rest of the week. Other churches have ministers that enjoy the time going out into the world helping their flock but may not do all that well with preaching from the pulpit. Our church is really lucky to have one that embraces both. She gives great sermons and she relishes the aspect of going out in to the world to minister to her flock. She knows that my Mom has a really hard time getting around and ready for the church so she on occasion visits my Mom. Can't be easy for Janine to get around. See she is blind. She called me last week and asked if I would get her and take her to see Mom. When she called I made the blunder of the year by saying "my Mom warned me you were going to call." Oops. I immediately apologized for my poor choice of words. I think she accepted it but it was hard to tell among the laughter. Wednesday afternoon was the day we determined was the best day for both of us. One in the afternoon. I read somewhere that when a person loses one sense all their other five senses become extraordinary. To prepare for the afternoon to combat that I took two showers instead of one and was easy on the cologne. Didn't think it would be a good start the afternoon by killing our minister with body odor or the overwhelming smell of cologne. I picked her up. I really didn't know how to help, so I asked her. She told me to walk in front of her and she would hold on to me. That's what we did. I was amazed how extremely easy she got in and out of the car. We got to Mom's about a quarter after one.

There is another amazing woman. My mom. How many women in their nineties still play a mean game of Scrabble, reads for to five books a week, and still cooks with the best of them? That's mom. Another thing I admire about her is how people react to her, she must give out the air of openness because whenever we are out people flock to her. She really is kind of a babe magnet. I cannot tell you how many times we are out somewhere when someone comes up to Mom and tells her how beautiful she is. Then they are stunned when Mom tells them her age. Mom usually tells them it is because she has a damn good son. Of course I readily agree with that statement.

It was such a pleasure to watch Mom and the Minister interact. They talked about everything but very little about religion. Family, politics, love, hate, books, movies, were all in there somewhere. That's why I love the minister, not only is she an amazing woman, she didn't give a rip about religion that afternoon she just very simply wanted to get to know Mom. After the almost three hour social event of my week I took the minister back to the parsonage. I know my life had been enriched that afternoon by two amazing women.

One of the things that came out of the discussion was the mention of the book Three Cups Of Tea. That is now one of the Mothers' Day gifts that I bought for Mom. You can read about the book here:

http://www.threecupsoftea.com/about-the-book/

A couple of questions today. Any amazing women in your life? Personally, I think all the women that post and read my blog are amazing but would love to know about the women in your social circles or the women that impacted your life. In addition I would like to know if you sometimes change your behavior (like taking two showers before meeting the blind) when you are around those that have physical disabilities.

Speaking of Amazing Women here is one featured in today's Who Am I? Remember now to email your answers to williamjdahn@aol.com instead of posting them on the blog. If you are new to the blog please trust that your email address will be kept in the strictest of confidences and be used only for the purpose of the Who Am I's.

I was born in New York in 1843 and died in 1864. I was the first of nine children. My dad was town constable and I worked on his dairy farm to help support the family and help my dad who was deeply in debt. Before I was 18 I discovered that I could earn more money if I disguised myself as man. I left home to work as a coal handler on a canal boat dressed like a guy and sent most my earnings back home. I enlisted in a famous war in 1862 under a man's name and by hiding my female attributes. I served in a New York regiment. I had learned from some soldiers that I could get a $152 signing bonus and thirteen bucks a month if I enlisted in the army. Recruiters assumed I was a dude and asked me to join. I lied not only about my gender but also about my age so I could join. The description on my enlistment papers said that I was five feet tall, fair-skinned, with blue eyes. Our regiment was sent to Washington DC where we remained for nine months, defending the nation's capital against rebel advances. I wrote home saying, "I can drill as good as any man in my regiment." I wrote home to mend family fences. In thoser letters I expressed strong religious faith, the pride I felt at being a good soldier, and my strong desire to be financially independent. I was outspoken, independent, and hoped to buy a farm after the war. Our unit was later sent to Louisiana to take part in General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign. I experienced battle up close for the first time. After one famous battle I wrote of the deceased soldiers "sometimes in heaps and in rows… with distorted features, among mangled and dead horses, trampled in mud, and thrown in all conceivable sorts of places. You can distinctly hear, over the whole field, the hum and hissing of decomposition." Near the end of the Red River Campaign, drinking water became scarce, and I and my fellow soldiers drank from streams that were poisoned by the rotting flesh of dead animals. The connection between contamination and infection wasn't understood at the time. The Union soldiers were stricken by chronic diarrhea and died by the thousands. I fell sick and was admitted to the regimental hospital at Alexandria, Louisiana. When my condition worsened I was transferred again to a Federal hospital in New Orleans. By the time I reached my destination I was in the acute phase of dysentery. I died shortly after arriving. If the nurses or doctors discovered my true gender, they didn’t report it. I was buried as a soldier at the Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans as a male soldier. Years later my letters were discovered by a relative in the attic of the farmhouse where I grew up. They were published in 1994. It wasn't until then that the military discovered I was a woman. Who Am I?

Women & Money

Before today's post group we need positive thoughts, healing vibes, and prayers for our friend Maryanne and her husband, TJ. Maryanne got in between one of her dogs fighting with her son's dog. Maryanne's left hand is pretty much ripped apart. To make matters worse she has a history of a certain type of bacterial infection. The hand specialist told the doctors not to do any stitching until they could be sure there's no danger of infection from the dog bites. They have no medical insurance. Please include in your prayers a request they can get the financial assistance they need. In addition to the prayers and good thoughts does anyone have any knowledge of Medicaid or anything that can help them that we can pass on to TJ? Since they are in Colorado if there is anyone out there with the knowledge of Colorado programs it would be appreciated to pass that knowledge on to us. I know all my thoughts and prayers are with Maryanne and TJ for recovered health, financial aid, and for the loss they are going to suffer because they have to put their dog down.

On another blog family note. I checked Mary Z's blog because I was worried about the floods in Tennessee. Her and her husband are fine and getting ready to go on a trip.

The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Mother Jones. No who I am today, just a test to see how much you know about women and money. Answer either true or false to the following four statements. You can also put your answers in the comment section of the blog.

Women focus on non-financial household roles while men deal with the finances.

Women are emotional about money.

Women are impulsive shoppers and equally impulsive with financial decisions.

Women don't have the math skills necessary to make successful financial decisions.

You can find all the answers in the following article:

http://www.aolnews.com/money/article/fed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short/19462417?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl7|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fmoney%2Farticle%2Ffed-governor-duke-debunks-4-money-myths-that-sell-women-short%2F19462417

Are surprised by the results?

A Give Away

Did you know that May 15 is give your stuff away day? You put what you don't want at your curb and someone will take it. It is amazing the things you can learn by reading The Final Word by Craig Wilson in the USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2010-05-05-final05_ST_N.htm

According to the column you can also go to:

http://giveyourstuffaway.com/

What are you giving away? I've got an extra vaccum cleaner, an extra microwave, some clothes that I haven't worn since George Washington was president, and numerous toys and games. What do you have?

Today's Who Am I.

Yesterday's answer was the amazing women behind President Warren G. Harding's success, Florence Kling Harding.

I was born in Ireland in 1830 or 1837 and died in Maryland in 1930. During my early childhood it was common in Ireland to see British soldiers marching through the streets with the heads of Irish freedom fighters stuck on their bayonets. My paternal grandfather was hanged by the British for being a freedom fighter. My father, also a freedom fighter, after gramps was hanged he was forced to flee Ireland with our family. I attended public schools in Canada and graduated normal school at 17. The next year I began working as a private tutor in Maine. I received a teaching certificate in Michigan at 20. I only taught for about eight months, moving to Chicago to work as a dressmaker. From there I moved to Tennessee to teach school again. In 1861 I met and married a staunch and prominent member of the Iron Molders' Union. I traveled with my hubby in his union organizing. Through him I learned about unions and the psychology of working men. I would advise women that the wife must care for what the husband cares for if he is to remain resolute. We had four children in quick succession. In 1867 my husband and all four children died of yellow fever within a week of each other. I stayed in Memphis nursing other victims until the fever epidemic waned. I moved back to Chicago, working as a dressmaker again. Tragedy soon followed when I lost everything I owned in my home and seamstress shop in the great Chicago fire. It was then that I embarked upon the path that made my name synonymous with social justice. Probably the seeds were sown earlier, while sewing in the homes of wealthy Chicago families. I was quoted as saying: "Often while sewing for lords and barons who lived in magnificent houses on the Lake Shore Drive, I would look out of the plate glass windows and see the poor, shivering wretches, jobless and hungry, walking alongside the frozen lake front.... The contrast of their condition with that of the tropical comfort of the people for whom I sewed was painful to me. My employers seemed neither to notice nor to care."

I began to attend meetings of the newly formed Knights of Labor. I continued to work in Chicago as a seamstress even though I had no fixed home. I began volunteering with the Knights of Labor as an organizer traveling back and forth across the country. I lived with the workers in tent colonies and shantytowns near the mills. In essence I adopted the hard workers of America and they called me 'Mother.' When they asked where I lived I told them that my address was like my shoes it travels with me and that I abide where there is a fight against wrong. I would travel to wherever there was a strike organizing and helping the workers. I would hold educational meetingst. Often I was at odds with union leaders. Because at one of the strikes I attended in Chicago policed fired into the crowd of peaceful strikers I am said to have changed my birth date to 1830 in honor of the strike for an eight-hour work day when the shootings took place. At only five feet tall and dressed in black with just a touch of lace at her throat and wrists I was the perfect picture of a grandmother. Yet when I spoke I was dynamic, energetic and enthusiastic often bringing my audiences to tears, applause and laughter. I was a gifted storyteller with a brilliant sense of humor. Two of my most famous quotes were: "I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell-raiser!" and "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." I joined the coal miners' fight becoming an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. I knew the gruesome conditions and hazards of their work, and even went into the mines during strikes to convince scabs to quit and support their fellow workers. In 1902 at a rally in West Virginia I was arrested. When I was told my jail would be a hotel I demanded to be put in jail with the other miners. During my career I was arrested or escorted out of town many times only to return again and again. I started to fight for children, saying the following: "Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of spindles, reaching their little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads. They crawled under machinery to oil it. They replaced spindles all day long, all day long; all night through. Tiny babies six years old with faces of sixty did an eight hour shift for ten cents a day." In 1903 to dramatize the need to abolish child labor I led a caravan of striking children from the textile mills in Pennsylvania to President Roosevelt's home in New York. We carried banners saying "We want time to play!" and "We want to go to school!" The president refused to meet with us but the "Children's Crusade" caught the public's attention. I helped found the Social Democratic Party. Later I was convicted by a military court of conspiring to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. It created such a fervor that the U.S. Senate ordered a committee to investigate conditions in the coalfields. Before the investigations began he governor set me free. In 1924 I was sued for libel, slander and sedition. The publisher of the Chicago Times won a shocking $350,000 judgment against me. Earlier that year I was attacked by a couple of thugs while staying at a friend's house. I fought them off, causing one to flee and seriously injuring the other. My last public appearance was at my 100th birthday party. I was honored throughout the 1930s by labor activists and a Gene Autry recording. The popular children's song "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" is believed to have been inspired by me. Who Am I?

May 4, 1970

It was the day the United States expanded the war in Vietnam by invading Cambodia.

In a picture that is embedded in the minds of many of those that were alive at the time 14 year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio is crying as she kneels over the body of a fatally wounded student.

On that site now is a granite memorial. When it was dedicated in 1990 a daffodil was planted for every soldier killed in Vietnam. A May 4 archive includes a student shirt with a bullet hole through it and a spent MI shell casings.

The Governor at the time called the protesters "the worst type of people that we harbor in America. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptoms."

In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsman fired 61 shots. The young runaway in the picture has spent her life trying to out run that picture.

The incident is said to be one of the reasons that there is no longer a draft. Forty years later it still gets front page treatment in the USA Today. For those that were alive at the time the following article will bring back memories. For those that weren't alive then the article tells of an important event in history. Today is the fortieth anniversary of the event. Here is the article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-03-kent-state_N.htm

Do you remember the day? Are protestors the worst type of people we harbor? Like the girl in the picture has there been an event in your life that you are still trying to run from?



Today's Who Am I

Born in Ohio in 1860 and died, also in Ohio in 1924

I was the eldest child of three children. Dad owned a hardware store, which led to his owning other businesses and banks, making him the wealthiest man in the city of my birth. Father was extremely tyrannical and my mother was depressed and submissive. At the age of 19 I became pregnant by my boyfriend. I did it to escape my father. We eloped in 1880 and moved to another city. I gave birth to a son. My new husband turned out to be a spendthrift and a heavy drinker and left me in 1882. I refused to ask father for help. I rented a room and began giving piano lessons. After two years of this dad finally asked me to move back them suggesting that my son and I take his name. I refused. In 1884 I filed for separation. Dad then proposed another offer. He would not support me raising my son but he would take his grandson as his own, easing her financial hardship. I agreed. I was divorced in 1886. From the ordeal I developed a lifelong empathy for people struggling against society's expectations and refused to judge the choices people made. The seeds of feminism were also planted; developing strong beliefs about the rights and abilities of women to determine their own futures without male interference. "No man, father, brother, lover or husband can ruin my life," I was quoted as saying. "I claim the right to live the life the good Lord gave me, myself." Before eloping I worked in my father's hardware store from the time I could walk. I was a skilled horsewoman, was physically strong, and skilled in the arts of needlepoint and housekeeping. After graduating from high school in 1876, and having great musical talent I attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Dad ordered me back home within the first year. In the 1880's I met a man five years my junior. I relentlessly pursued him even though he had a girlfriend. Dad did not want me with him and circulated rumors that his family was of mixed blood. In spite of my father's acrimony I married him in 1891. We did not have any children. Unlike other women of the time my own career helped establish my husband's success. I became the driving force behind the growth and establishment of his newspaper. I stopped teaching piano after and began going to work with my husband, looking at the accounting, whereupon he put me in charge of circulation. I organized local boys as news carriers, even spanking them when necessary, and devised the city's first home delivery service. I was the confidante big sister and boss to the boys, even sending them baskets and a top doctor when they were ill. I boosted their self-esteem, and organized a social club and a value system with awards for achievements and demerits for bad work. I increased the paper's revenue immediately and consistently. In 1894 my husband checked into a Sanitarium for the second time. While he was gone our business manager quit. I took over and never left. I went down there intending to help out for a few days, and stayed fourteen years. When hubby returned to the paper fulltime he was amazed at my success. At home I nursed him, trying to prevent another relapse. Hubby named me "The Duchess." When he ran for head honcho I enthusiastically backed him. Secretly I was concerned that his extramarital affairs would be exposed. He had had many affairs, including a 15-year relationship with one of my childhood friends. She became the only known mistress in U.S. history to blackmail the head guy. During hubby's run for the races I was concerned about my age and health. I had had a kidney removed in 1905 and was prone to debilitating infections. I put all my concerns aside and campaigned vigorously, even fostering the first use of Hollywood movie stars in a presidential race. The people, weary from The Great War, responded to my hubby's campaign slogan, "Back to Normalcy," and elected him in a landslide victory. I became the first wife of a head honcho to vote for my husband. The previous honcho had closed the big house. I delighted in opening the house to the public again. I held garden parties for veterans and group tours. I also visited injured veterans in the hospital. I always maintained my independence proving to be one of the great feminists of the day. I was my husband's key advisor, was involved in many charities, and crusaded for women's rights. I was the first wife of the main man to fly in an airplane. I made sure the pilot was a woman. At The House I invited other active women scholars, minds and athletes. In one letter to a women's group I commented about the partnership between a husband and a wife and their careers:

"If the career is the husband's, the wife can merge her own with it. If it is to be the wife's, as it undoubtedly will be in an increasing proportion of cases, then the husband may with no sacrifice of self-respect or of recognition, ... permit himself to be the less prominent and distinguished member of the combination."

During my husband's reign there were many scandals including one titled after a whistling kettle and about a lease to a private oil companies in Wyoming. On a tour to fight the scandals my husband became ill and died in San Francisco in 1923. Some rumors said I poisoned him. Others said he died of a heart attack or a stroke or anxiety about all the scandals. The official listing is a stroke. I returned to Washington by train with my husband's body. The public, still unaware of the expanse of the impending scandals greeted the funeral procession in droves. After my husband's death I tried to preserve reputations by burning every personal paper I could find. I returned to Ohio, where I died of kidney disease fifteen months after hubby's death. Who Am I?

Surviving The Recession

What are you doing to survive the recession? What creative things are you doing to cust costs until the economy comes back? This is what one woman did:

http://www.stylelist.com/2010/04/29/how-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.stylelist.com%2F2010%2F04%2F29%2Fhow-to-wear-the-same-dress-for-an-entire-year%2F

I really admire the woman. I couldn't tell from the pictures that she was wearing the same dress!

The main thing I am doing to cut costs until the economy turns around is clipping coupons. Watching for sales and using coupons combined with double off coupons I've been able to reduce my grocery bill by about thirty per-cent. I've also did more free types of entertainment. Walking, museums, etc. The entertainment that I do that costs I've been fortunate enough to have been given gift cards for.

I do think the economy is turning around. I have two small tests that I do. Traffic and want ads. More traffic and more want ads means we are starting the economic turn around. There is definitely more traffic, a lot more. In this week's Sunday's paper there were thee pages of want ads. Three weeks ago their were only three columns of want ads.

The questions for the day are what creative ways are you surviving the recession? Do you think the economic turn around has started?

Today's Who Am I?

I was born in Missouri in 1826 and died in Washington D.C. in 1902. I was the fifth of eight children of a plantation owner. I was raised as a Methodist. My mother was raied in a cultured, educated manner so she made sure all eight of us kids were educated as well. In 1848 I married a man that one day would be president whom I met at West Point when I visited my brother. The first four years of our marriage were spent in Detroit and New York. The marriage was rough. I was separated from my husband when he was sent out West to command an infantry division. He was forced to resign for insubordination. He returned home in 1854 and failed at everything he tried. Everything changed when a war started. Experienced officers were in short supply so he was sent to make a disciplined fighting unit out of a rebellious volunteer regiment in Illinois. He went on to trap the enemy army in Richmond and became the most revered man in the army. During the war I tended wounded soldiers and sewed uniforms. I also joined my husband as often as was safe and took enormous pride in his accomplishments. Unlike many officers my husband insisted that I be with him. My steady nature, cheerfulness, and common sense helped him stay focused. He often would succumb to doubts, depression and alcoholism (which became a problem when he was out West) and I helped buoy his spirits. After the honest man appointed my husband commander during the battle of the river the President would send me to my husband knowing I was a good influence. I also became the center of attention and grew to love being the focus. When my husband was elected head honcho I transferred the famous shabby House into one of elegance and warmth, welcoming visitors with grace and compassion. I was described by many as unpretentious and friendly. The media wrote of my "propriety and dignity." I opened The House on Tuesday afternoons with receptions for "any and all" -- even saying, "Admit all," when asked about colored visitors. However, my staff denied entrance to such visitors without me knowing it. Knowing how much I loved the house my husband kept secret that he wasn't going to run for another term. When my husband was diagnosed with incurable throat cancer he wanted to leave me financially supported. Racing against time, bundled in blankets and wracked with pain, he wrote his memoirs, hoping its sale would support me. He finished it just days before his death with me remaining by his side throughout. I was so overcome I couldn't attend his funeral. I was lost, frightened and severely depressed for quite some time. My husband memoirs -- prompted and arranged by the most famous Mark of the time -- were a huge success, enabling me to move back to Washington, D.C. Living in comfort as a sort of "Grand Dame." I supported Susan B. Anthony and the suffragists. Over time my mental state improved enough to write my memoirs. I was the first woman that held a position to write memoirs. In 1902 I died at the age of 76. I was laid alongside her husband in a national monument. Who Am I?

I'm Catherine The Great

Hope this will be a leisurely and great day for all of you. The biggest news for me of the last week is that I had my annual physical on Wednesday. I still haven't received the results of the blood tests. It is a good sign though that the doctor hasn't billed me yet. He must think I am going to live for a while.

Next week the only thing on the agenda is to pickup our minister and take her to Mom's for a visit. Remember our minister is a blind woman that obviously doesn't drive. She really is an amazing woman. I enjoy spending time with her so for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon I will be in the company of two amazing women, the minister and my Mom.

On to the entertainment update. Saw a couple of movies. The Bounty Hunter, ugh, terrible movie. Backup Plan, not awful. The Amazing Race didn't eliminate anyone last week. I'm still rooting for the Cowboys. They just seem nice and they are having fun. The also seem to fight through obstacles in good spirits. On The Celebrity Apprentice they didn't eliminate anyone either. The two teams did so well with their challenge that the Trumpster kept them all for another week. On Dancing With The Stars sadly they eliminated the bachelor. It should have been Niecy.

OK, before asking about your lives I thought this might be a fun thing to do. Find out what historical figure you are:

http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quizzes/what-historical-figure-are-you/

Here is my answer:

You are Catherine the Great! You are very intelligent and a socialist. It is very important to you that all people be treated equally in a society. You are able to fully comprehend social problems and you are outspoken when it comes to dealing with them.

Now it is your turn. Let me know what went on in your life last week. How everyone in your circle is doing. Friends, relatives, and strangers. Let me know what is on the agenda for next week. I always love to hear what you are up to. If you are new to blog I would absolutely love it if you would introduce yourself. And don't forget to tell me what historical figure you are!

Saving Seattle

A relaxing Saturday deserves a fun, good, and touching story. A huge shout out to the City of Seattle. The world is a safer place because of Super Hero, Electron Boy:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011740342_electronboy30m.html

Have you ever wanted to be a super hero? What special power would you possess if you had the choice? I would love to be a super hero, just don't know which one. The power that would like to have is X-Ray vision.

Off to mow the lawn. May this be a great day for you and may you use your super powers to help others and make this world a better place!

PS

The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Isadora Duncan. The next Who Am I will be Monday.

Casual Friday

Do you think dress has become to casual today? Has casual Friday expanded to every day of the week? Does it annoy when you go into a doctor or lawyer's office and the office staff is in jeans or mini-skirts? Do you appreciate it when someone wears a tie to church?

At the job recently completed everyone dressed pretty well. Friday was casual Friday so the jeans and tennis shoes came on and the dress shoes and nice clothes were replaced. No ties on any day though. What does it say about me that I wore basically the same style of dress everyday? Casual dress up. Nice shirt and pressed slacks. When I first went into the working world at my first job out of college suits were required. White shirts only. Yup, no colored shirts, just white shirts. Winged tipped shoes. If you spent a day working at a client you weren't allowed to brown bag it, you had to eat out. It was considered unprofessional to pack your own lunch. You had to portray an image of success and that included looking rich enough to afford lunch out.

This is my take on it. They went to far at my first job. Now they have gone way to far the other way. I am OK with no ties but when I go to a professional's office I'd like to see a more dressed up look then they have now. Here is Craig Wilson's take on it:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2010-04-28-final28_ST_N.htm

Do you agree with my favorite columnist? What is your take on how people dress today? To casual? Not Casual enough? Just right?

The answer to yesterday's Who Am I was Cassie Chadwick. Can you get today's?

I was born in 1878 in San Francisco and died in 1927 in France. I died when my scarf accidentally became tangled in the wheels of a Bugatti sports car, resulting in a broken neck.

I was the second daughter and the youngest of four children. My father was a poet and my mother was a pianist and music teacher. When my parents married, my father was divorced with four children and 30 years older than Mom. He supported our family through running a lottery, publishing three newspapers, owning a private art gallery, directing an auction business and owning a bank. When the bank fell into financial ruin our family moved to Los Angeles where he divorced and remarried. I did not believe in marriage but did have love affairs with a stage designer and a French millionaire and had a child by each. My children were tragically and accidentally drowned in 1913.

Later in her life I married a Russian poet but separated shortly after. As a child, I learned unconventionally to "listen to the music with your soul." My mother instilled in me a love for dance, theater, Shakespeare and reading. At the young age of 6 years old I danced for money and taught other children to dance. Dancing lessons took precedence over formal education; however, I read and was inspired by the works of Walt Whitman and Nietzsche. I am known as the mother of "modern dance," founding the "New System" of interpretive dance, blending together poetry, music and the rhythms of nature. I did not believe in the formality of conventional ballet and gave birth to a more free form of dance, dancing barefoot and in simple Greek apparel. My fans recognized me for my passionate dancing and I ultimately proved to be the most famous dancer of my time. I moved East and was funded by wealthy New Yorkers to give private appearances. In 1898 I expanded my dancing career by traveling to London on a cattle boat with my mother, my sister and brother. My first professional European performance was at the Lyceum theater in London in 1900. I turned down substantial dancing offers to join Loie Fuller's touring company and toured Budapest, Vienna, Munich and Berlin. I studied for one year in Greece where I purchased a site to construct an elaborate dancing stage. My performances were based on interpretations of classical music including Strauss' Blue Danube, Chopin's Funeral March, Tchaikovsky's Symphonie Pathetique and Wagnerian works. Later I opened a dancing school in Moscow where the Russian government promised to provide me with room and board and a schoolroom. However, after the school was built the government did not support me. To support myself I returned to the stage unsuccessfully in America and then toured Europe once more. Who Am I?

Love vs. Trust

Before today's subject a little bit of a vent. Know how I recently said that this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I had no plans? Well, that is out the window. Sis and her husband got called to Utah to help my niece out. They are leaving tomorrow. So I am the lead caregiver this weekend. Today is fixing lunch for Mom and going out for dinner with the group. I can hear Frank Sinatra singing That's Life in the background.

In Wednesday's USA Today Sports column "Keeping Score" poet George Mac Donald was quoted as saying "to be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved."

Do you agree? Because of being in a business for over thirty years that required clients trusting me with their financial and sometimes personal lives I have been trusted by many. I was touched by each one of my clients that believed in me. That believed whatever they told me stayed with me. It was an extraordinary compliment to be trusted.

Loved? Maybe once or twice in my life I have been loved. Now? I know my Mom and sister love me unconditionally but it would be nice to be loved by a woman that didn't have to.

What feels better to you being trusted or being loved? What is more important to you? Don't they both go hand in hand? How can you love someone you don't trust? Me? I wouldn't even mind being loved by a woman like the one in today's Who Am I:

I was born in Canada in 1859 and died in prison in Ohio in 1907. My first arrest was in 1881 but I was released due to insanity. I married in 1882 but my husband left me eleven days later when he found out I wasn't pure. After that I changed my name and became a fortune teller. Because the name I chose didn't fit the occupation I became Madam Lydia. In 1889 I was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. I served four years before being paroled by then Governor William McKinley. I changed my name again and then opened a brothel. I had one son while working the house. I married a well respected physician in either 1886 or 1897. We met at the brothel but he wasn't aware of my shady criminal past. I assured him that I she was merely an etiquette instructor for the girls. I changed my name again. I moved into my husband's house on "Millionaire's Row" and tried in vain to become part of the inner socialite circle. In 1897 I set up a scam after meeting my husband banker friend, Dillon. I told Dillon that I was the illegitimate daughter of the wealthiest bachelor in America. The bachelor who had a hall named after him and the hall is still famous today as it sits in the City of New York. To prove it my claim, Dillon and I took a carriage ride to the bachelor's Fifth Avenue mansion. While Dillon waited I went to the door and was admitted in, where I stayed for about 30 minutes. Upon returning to the carriage, I waved to a well-dressed man in the front window, then tripped while entering the carriage, surreptitiously dropping a piece of paper. Dillon retrieved the paper and noticed it was a promissory note for $2 million signed the bachelor, I said was the man waving from the window. Dillon wanted details. I supplied them after swearing Dillon to secrecy. I said that the bachelor, out of shame for her illegitimacy, had given me promissory notes, worth $7 million, but with my own shame I had not drawn on them. I also told Dillon I would inherit $400 million when the bachelor died. Shame on me I lied. In truth, the man in the window was the butler, whom I had occupied by purporting to need credentials on a maid I intended to hire. Dillon set up a safe-deposit box for my promissory notes and then shared my ‘secret’ with almost every lender in the state. Eager bankers began offering me loans of up to $1 million, with interest rates of 25 percent, believing millions were available to be gleaned. Instead of demanding repayment, they let the loans compound annually, figuring the bachelor would vouch for any debts and they would get their financial rewards after probate. I became known as the “Queen of Ohio.” I bought diamond necklaces, clothes to fill 30 closets, and a gold organ for my living room. I entertained lavishly – even frittering $100,000 on a dinner party. For several years I lived the high life, amassing loan debts totaling $2-20 million. An Ashtabula newspaper account of my death stated: "The extent of these transactions will never be fully known, but they ran up into the millions. They involved men of high standing in the financial world and caused heavy losses to many bankers." Banks were not the only ones to loan me money; millionaires did, too. And damn one of them was my downfall. He loaned me $190,800 and had the gall to request repayment. I was indignant. I explained that all of my securities (worth $10 million) were in a bank. He went to the police and brought suit against me on November 2, 1904. Upon inspection, my promissory notes were found to be obvious forgeries. I was arrested on December 7, 1904 lying in bed with my money belt containing $100,000. I stood trial in Cleveland and even the bachelor attended. On March 10, 1905, I was convicted on seven counts of conspiracy against the government and conspiracy to wreck a bank. I was sentenced to 10 to 14 years and fined $70,000. I brought trunks of finery to prison; animal skin rugs and clothes, which the warden let me keep. On January 1 or 12, 1906, I began my prison term and died two years later on my birthday. I wrote several letters to my son Emil, one of which asked him to get money from my hiding place to buy a tombstone for the family plot in Ontario. Who Am I?

YAWN!

I had my annual physical this morning. Yesterday when I couldn't find a diet to lose ten pounds in 24 hours I almost canceled the appointment but didn't. The main take away from the appointment this morning is that I have to lose ten pounds. The good thing is I have more than twenty-four hours to do it. After having that dreaded awful bend over test it was determined my prostrate was in good health. The results of the other tests won't be in for about a week. Please keep me in your positive thoughts and prayers.

YAWN! Was that your reaction to what I just typed? Do you think people yawn because they are bored? You could be wrong. OK, one, two, three, everyone yawn now. Did you know that:

That fetuses as young as eleven weeks old yawn.

By one to two years old yawning becomes contagious.

That in one sturdy that twenty-one of twenty-nine dogs that saw their owner yawn, yawned themselves.

If one person yawns within five minutes more than half the people in a group will yawn.

Six seconds is the average length of a yawn.

Yawns most often recur one minute apart.

Psychotics rarely yawn.

Read this fascinating article by Jessica Yadegaran here:

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/virginian-pilot-ledger-star-norfolk/mi_8014/is_20100425/bored-just-blazing-brain/ai_n53292270/?tag=content;col1

Do you yawn? Because you are tired? Bored? Just to relax?

It's The Law

Just to keep you all informed about Blog stuff, there won't be a daily Who Am I but there will be one two to five times a week depending on what I find out there and how much time I have on a daily basis. The answer to yesterday's trivia was the founder of the League Of Women Voters, Carrie Chapman Catt.

Today let us salute an everyday hero. Read about an amazing woman that embraces her disability through art:

http://www.oregonlive.com/art/index.ssf/2010/04/legally_blind_catherine_miller.html

With the rest of the post we are going to honor Pat. She didn't use any excuses to avoid jury duty. Did all the things required of her. Then she didn't get picked. In The Edge Column in today's Oregonian they talked laws. You can read the Oregonian daily at http://www.oregonlive.com/,
Would you like to be on the jury if anyone broke any of the following laws:

If you are in Wilbur, Washington you can't ride an ugly horse, it's the law.

On a hot day in Lexington, Kentucky please don't carry that ice cream cone in your pocket, it could get you arrested.

In Carmel, New York if you go out in a jacket and pants that don't match you may have to take a side trip to jail because it is against the law not to be matched up.

In Zion, Illinois don't give your lighted cigars to dogs, cats, or other domesticated animals because it's against the law.

In Detroit, Michigan if you and you lover get steamy together remember it's against the law to make love in a car unless it is parked on your property.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma if you want to open a soda bottle you can only do it under the supervision of a licensed engineer.

Guys that are living in Idaho that want to give their love a box of candy? Remember it is against State law unless the box of candy weighs fifty pounds or more.

When visiting Wichita,Kansas before proceeding through the intersection of Douglas and Broadway don't proceed through the intersection until you get out of your car and fire three shots into the air. Coming soon at that intersection is my own sidewalk business, a gun rental and hot dog cart.

Any weird laws in your neck of the words? Which of the above mentioned laws do you like the best? And which law do you think will help save society?

Hoarding

I am not really a hoarder. I just think that some day I might need my third grade report card or my sports letters. And the electric football, baseball, basketball games are collectors' items just like my Lionel Electric Train. Certainly I need all those greeting cards I've received over the years. It will remind who to remember when I win the lottery. My Dodger coffee mugs from every year they won the championship? They have to be worth as much as the year books from those years which I also have.

My take on it is that I am not a hoarder because I don't collect things. I'm just a loyal dude that doesn't like to throw things out. How about you? Do you hoard? Do you or your spouse keep things long past their useful life? Do you classify yourself as a hoarder? According to the following article if you hoard it could be dangerous or harmful. Do you agree?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100426/us_time/08599198444400

Today's Who Am I features another woman in history. Email answers to either billdahn@aol.con or williamjdahn@aol.com

I was born in Wisconsin in 1859 and died in New York in 1947, I was the second of three children born to Lucius and Maria. I attended elementary education in a one-room schoolhouse. In 1877, I graduated from high school. My father refused to provide the money for more education so I taught school for a year, earning enough income to enter a State Agricultural College. I supported myself working in the state library and the college kitchen. I graduated in 1880 – the only woman among 18 graduates. I aspired to become a lawyer so I began reading law in an attorney’s office. The next year, I began teaching high school with the intent of earning enough money to study law at the university. However, I found I enjoyed teaching so much that I gave up the idea of becoming a lawyer. Less than two years later, I was appointed principal and superintendent of schools.

When I was 13 years old, I asked why my mother was not getting dressed up to go to town to vote like my father. My sincere question was met with laughter and the reason that voting was too important a civic duty to leave to women. On February 12 1885, I married Leo, an editor of the local newspaper and resigned from teaching (as married women were not allowed to teach). I became his business partner, writing a “Woman’s World” column but not about food or fashion, rather about women’s political and labor issues, and reminding women that if they wanted the vote, they needed to organize. Leo harshly criticized a local Republican candidate in the paper and was sued for libel forcing him to sell the newspaper. He went to San Francisco to find work where he caught typhoid fever. I received a telegram about him and left immediately by train, but he died before I arrived. I was a 27 year-old widow left with no house or financial resources. I decided to stay in San Francisco, finding work as a freelance journalist. I was barely making ends meet when one evening a male associate grabbed me and began kissing me. I managed to break away, but the assault left me feeling frightened and outraged and determined to do something about the vulnerability of working women. I become a public lecturer. After hiring an agent in 1887, I returned to the Midwest and began my work for suffrage. I joined the state branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, becoming head of its suffrage section. As that local group began breaking apart, I began organizing women and creating suffrage clubs. In 1889, I was elected secretary of the state Woman Suffrage Association and the next year a delegate and minor speaker at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in Washington, D.C. On June 10, 1890 I remarried in Seattle, Washington. I replaced Susan B. Anthony as a president of a suffrage organization in 1900. I am known for the famous quote: “The world taught women nothing skillful and then said her work was valueless. It permitted her no opinions and said she did not know how to think. It forbade her to speak in public and said the sex had no orators. It denied her the schools, and said the sex had no genius. It robbed her of every vestige of responsibility, and then called her weak. It taught her that every pleasure must come as a favor from men and when, to gain it, she decked herself in paint and fine feathers, as she had been taught to do, it called her vain.” In 1918 I established a famous league that still is a force in U.S. politics. In 1933 I helped establish the Protest Committee of Non-Jewish Women Against the Persecution of Jews in Germany. We obtained thousands of signatures to a letter protesting the crimes against the Jews. I lobbied Congress to amend the U.S. immigration laws to help Jews and other refugees escape. That same year, honoring my work, I received the American Hebrew Medal – the first woman to do so. Who Am I?

Sunday

First, I am going to start out the day with the gift of music. This is an incredible video of a young singer. To find out how young you will have to click on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=RhemaMarvanne&annotation_id=annotation_364521&feature=iv#p/u/6/PIQl6ygRqhw

Next up is the answer to yesterday's Who Am I. An amazing women that our history books forgot to teach us about, Ursula Bower. Read her story here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1268202/The-Deb-guerrilla--The-Rodean-educated-beauty-saved-Empire-Japanese.html

Now on to my update. You pretty much have been kept on my life last week by my daily blog entries. Coming up next week. Monday a tour of the Y. If I like it I'll join it for a test month. If it works out then I will buy a year membership. Tuesday I take the reading mama to the library and then to lunch with her. Wednesday my annual physical, prayers and good vibes please. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nothing planned. Let me repeat that. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nothing planned.

Entertainment update. Off of Dancing With The Stars, thank goodness, Kate. Off of Celebrity Apprentice Goldberg who had the best line of the year when the men were negotiating with the women on which country singer they wanted to mold, "I don't like negotiating with anyone that I can't beat up." No Amazing Race last week due to the Country Music Awards. The Race returns tonight. Remember the last segment was filmed in Singapore where blog family member Snug resides. She sent me some pictures when she visited the park where the Race was filmed. I love to see pictures of blog members!

http://snugpug.blogspot.com/2009/05/pink-party.html

This week on Top Chef Masters the chefs cook for the cast of Modern Family.

Now it is your turn. The blog is yours to write about anything you damn well please. Update me on your life! Tell me what happened, is happening, and going to happen in your life! If you are new too the blog, then step up to the plate and introduce yourself! This is a good place to meet high quality friends!

Up, Up, Up, & Away

The rumor has that one new reader of the blog isn't sure how to get to the stories mentioned on the blog. A link takes you directly to the article. Links show up in a different color than the rest of the blog entry. Just click on a link with your mouse, that will take you to the sotry.

The good story of the week:

http://www.pawnation.com/2010/04/23/hero-german-shepherd-leads-help-to-a-fire/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl3|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pawnation.com%2F2010%2F04%2F23%2Fhero-german-shepherd-leads-help-to-a-fire%2F

On to another subject. Imagine being stuck in traffic plodding along when you put your car in gear and it rises above the traffic and flies over it. Unrealistic? Not according to the following article:

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2010/4/22/the_flying_car_could_arrive_by.htm

We could be in flying cars by 2015. Do you agree with the article? Would you buy one? I am going to be first in line to buy one.

Today's Who Am I is courtesy of Connie.

When I was thirty years old I was living among the Naga Tribes for nearly five years when World War II reached my corner of the world in 1942. Until then I had been studying the native people as an anthropologist. Malaya, Singapore and Burma had fallen to the Japanese army in the worst defeat in the history of the British Empire. British and Indian troops had been forced into a horrific retreat across the Burmese border, through the Naga Hills into Eastern India. Rumours were rife that the Japanese would push across the border and break through the gateway of India. If India fell, the British war in the East - and the Empire itself - would be finished. Where along the long border would the Japanese come through? It was imperative that the British receive the earliest possible intelligence of such an offensive. Accordingly, a special guerilla troop called V Force was set up to patrol the Naga Hills both sides of the border. Native tribesmen, led by British officers, were recruited to patrol the impenetrable jungle and provide early warning of a Japanese invasion. I was an early, if unlikely, recruit to this cause. I had first visited India in 1937 with a school friend, on a trip where my mother had hoped she would meet a nice husband. Instead, she fell in love with the Naga Hills and their tribes. The Nagas were fiercely independent - they occasionally rebelled against British rule - and merciless to their enemies. Those who had claimed an enemy head in battle wore their victim's hair in tufts on their shields and earrings. They were also deeply moral and loyal. As well as studying the tribe, I dispensed medicines to them, and they took me into their hearts. They asked me to name their babies, and some even worshipped me as a goddess, believing me to be the reincarnation of a rebel priestess imprisoned by the British. When famine struck the villagers in the years before the war, I procured them government aid, saving many lives. Because of the loyalty I commanded among the Nagas, in August 1942 the head of V Force asked me to form the local Nagas into a band of scouts to comb the jungle for the Japanese. I became the only female guerilla commander in the history of the British Army, leading 150 Nagas armed only with ancient muzzle-loading guns across some 800 square miles of mountainous jungle. My story is one of the most extraordinary of World War II, however, like that of so many of the brave veterans of the war in the East, my heroism has faded from the pages of history. A new book tells my incredible tale and tells of the campaign in which she paid a crucial role: the Japanese offensive into India, and the savage battle of Kohima on which the fate of two empires turned. Who Am I?

In Hiding

Tomorrow there will be a Who Am I courtesy of Connie. Remember on the Who Am I to email me the answers rather than posting them on the blog. We don't want the late comers to the blog to cheat and steal your answers. Make them do their own darn homework.

As for today? Have you ever been in that state where you wanted to shut off your computer, turn off your phones, rollup in a ball and shutoff any contact with the outside world because you just didn't want to face the world and have anymore news? I'm there today.

L is my favorite cousin. We are connected at the hip because in a long line of relatives we were the only two with red hair. She is an absolutely beautiful woman. She lives now in Laguna Niguel, South of Los Angeles. A good Catholic girl she taught me how to use pogo sticks and how to play poker.

During my just ended busy season I wasn't really answering emails or returning phone calls. Didn't think I had the time. Last week a couple of days before April 15 she called my Mom worried about me because it wasn't like me to be non-responsive. I felt pretty bad so I got a little card with a picture of a baby's behind on it and wrote on the card that I was sorry for being a butt. I also sent a nice box of Moonstruck Chocolate to her with the card. This is the email that she sent yesterday:

Hi,

Well, aren't you a sweetheart--got the candy and your note today and you didn't have to do that--I will cut you some slack anytime and you have been so, so busy. Three jobs during tax season is terrible. Slow down luv! How are you feeling? Know you have had some heart problems so take care of yourself.

This next info is just for you and not your mom. At her age, there is no reason for her to know this and worry her dear, sweet head, ok? I didn't say anything to her when I called her as just felt she didn't need to hear it. I now have been diagnosed with myeloma (bone marrow cancer). It is at a stage called "smoldering" because they can't find where it is for now. When the doctor called me smoldering I thought why you little devil you as he is quite young and I was beginning to feel like a "cougar"--then he added myeloma and burst my bubble. Ha--gotta keep things light ya know. Actually, the day after I got news of the diagnosis, I got an ad in the mail from a mortuary and laughed and told Clark, isn't this a bit premature. The bone marrow biopsy showed it but the pet scan can't pick it up yet. So I am on hold for now and having blood work and being watched. When it gets detectable, there will be chemo and a wicked kind--they have prepared me to be very ill. But ya know what--I will fight this stuff and keep on keeping on. I go to UCLA now but the doctors there plan to send me to Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ at some point as they are #1 in research and treatment of myeloma. It's a real bummer, isn't it? Excuse my language but I seem to be a "shit magnet" for cancer all of a sudden.

Tomorrow I have my endoscopy to check the lymphoma situation and it better be negative. Love ya much--off to eat chocolates--you have no idea how those came at just the right time.

L

There is no woman on this earth that deserves the trauma she is dealing with less than her. If there is anyone on earth that can beat it though, it is her.

On top of the news of my good friend Dick's passing, I don't want to hear anymore bad news. I am off to hide. Prayers, positive vibes, good thoughts sent my cousin's way would be very much appreciated.

What I Didn't Know & Who Are We?

Dick Wright, a client and a friend, died Tuesday at age 89. He has known my parents for well over sixty years. When we lived in Pocatello, Idaho my parents were part of a group with five or six married couples. The women would get together to play bridge, the men would get together and play poker. The couples would go out together to celebrate whatever holiday or event that was going on at the time. Costume parties at Halloween, for example. Dick was brilliant. For a long time he was the public address announcer for The Spokane Indians, then a farm club of the Dodgers. He later was a public relations director for a local television station. Then he served as point man for the Rose festival. I knew all that. However, whenever a close friend dies it always amazes me what I didn't know about them. Over the years I must have had a thousand conversations with Dick and his wife, Bernice. They were like family. They attended our family events and we spent many evenings out as a group at restaurants. You would think at least once I would have asked Dick had he ever served in the military. I never did. He was a marine stationed in The South Pacific during World War II. What I could have learned had I just asked that simple question. I really need to get out of myself a bit more and into others lives to really get to know them. How about you? Are you surprised sometimes about what you didn't know about a close friend or relative? Dick may you rest in peace, you will be missed.

Today's Who Are We?

A move by congress in 1941 forced the Army to form our group. Still the War Department made an effort to eliminate our unit before it began by setting up a system with a higher education requirement than they expected to be filled. Their efforts failed when the War Department received an abundance of applicants that exceed those education requirements. We were commanded by Commander Davis one of the few black graduates of West Point. Because of segregation in the army the formation of our group lead to black surgeons being employed by our group.
Seventeen flight surgeons served us from 1941 through 1949. At that time, the typical tour of duty for a U.S. Army flight surgeon was four years. Six of these physicians lived under field conditions during operations in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy for almost eight years. Considered ready for combat duty, the 99th was transported to Casablanca, Morocco, on the USS Mariposa and participated in the North African campaign. From Morocco they traveled by train to Oujda then to Tunis, the location from which they operated against the Luftwaffe. Flyers and ground crew alike largely were isolated by the racial segregation practices of their initial command, the white 33rd Fighter Group and its commander Colonel William W. Momyer. The flight crews were handicapped by being left with little guidance from battle-experienced pilots except for a week spent with Colonel Phillip Cochran. The 99th's first combat mission was to attack the small, but strategic, volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The 99th moved to Sicily where it received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its performance in combat. Colonel Momyer told media sources that the we were a failure , cowardly, incompetent, or worse, resulting in a critical article in TIME. In response, the House Armed Services Committee convened a hearing to determine whether the our group should be dissolved. To bolster the recommendation to scrap our group, a member of the committee commissioned and then submitted into evidence, a "scientific" report by the University of Texas that purported to prove that African Americans were of low intelligence and incapable of handling complex situations. Colonel Davis denied the claims by committee members, but only the intervention of Colonel Emmett "Rosie" O'Donnell prevented a recommendation for disbandment of our group being sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On January 27 and 28, 1944, Luftwaffe Fw 190 fighter-bombers raided Anzio, where the Allies had conducted amphibious landings on January 22. Attached to the 79th Fighter Group, eleven of us shot down thirteen enemy fighters. We won our second Distinguished Unit Citation on May 12–14, 1944, while attacking German positions on Monastery Hill (Monte Cassino), attacking infantry massing on the hill for a counterattack, and bombing a nearby strong point to force the surrender of the German garrison to Moroccan Goumiers. We accompanied another combat group on heavy bombing raids into Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany. By the end of the war, we were credited with 112 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down. As a group we were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars, and 744 Air Medals. Who Are We?

No Fancy Dresses

The answer to yesterday's Who Am I?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-20-height-obit_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Now on to a theme park that I think made a Mickey Mouse decision:

http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/04/20/mother-dressed-as-princess-banned-from-disneyland-paris/?ncid=AOLCOMMtravdynlprim0934&icid=main|htmlws-sb-n|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.travel.aol.com%2F2010%2F04%2F20%2Fmother-dressed-as-princess-banned-from-disneyland-paris%2F%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMtravdynlprim0934

Frankly, I think no fancy dresses is the dumbest of dumb policies for them to have. What is a fancy dress? I could understand them banning dressing like the characters but fancy dresses? And what about name tags? Don't all their employees where name tags? So couldn't most of us be smart enough to know that if someone wasn't wearing a name tag their wouldn't employees?

Do you agree with their policy? Or are you with me? And no I don't plan on wearing a fancy dress to the theme park anytime soon.