August 18th

On August 18th my family celebrates 2 birthdays. One of them, my son, Ian, who this year turned 17. The other one, my cousin Wendy who would have been 48.
Both of them have been a blessing to all of us who have known them.
My son has been a blessing because he has taught us through his disability how to be patient, compassionate and to value every day of his and our lives.
We cherish and value his progress, and although many times we would like him to be “normal”, in reality then it would not be Ian.
Ian loves people, he loves his family, his school, at church, going out and having fun with different groups that he enjoys going out with. Does he have his moments? Don’t we all? Do we grow sometimes impatient? That is where the teaching comes into the picture.
God will always be with him, Ian is an emissary of God to remind us that he is always in control, and that we need to stop, reflect and value every day of our lives.
My cousin, Wendy, because she taught us, all of us who were fortunate enough to have a relationship with her, that although life can be at times less than what we expected or wanted we can still be compassionate, loving and touch people who need love and caring. This was most evident when she worked at the hospital. She had found her niche there. She loved being around people, helping them in any way she could, many times by just being there, and sharing her love with them. Although she said she was not a believer in Christ she embodied everything that Christ taught us.
We still mourn her loss, it brings sadness to those of us who loved and cherished her. But in that sorrow there is joy to know that her suffering is no more, and that she is in a better place with her creator. More than anything what we miss is her presence.
The reason why we can celebrate her birthday is because she is remembered by people all around the world who came into contact with her, and while one person remembers you, you are alive.
So in this day we give God thanks for the lives of these two people who shared the same birthday. To him be the glory.

Las Primarias de Agosto del 2011

Hoy se celebraron lo que se podría llamar la antesala a las próximas elecciones en Argentina, ,y como era de esperarse ganaron la Presidenta Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, y muchos de sus protegidos como Scioli en la Provincia de Buenos Aires.
Sabíamos que las masas la apoyarían (y la apoyarán), pero con eso no le alcanza para una mayoría. El motivo por el cual ganó hoy y, posiblemente gane también en octubre, es porque no hay una oposición y, más que nada, porque parte de la clase media, y de la mejores ingresos sienten que esta administración los ha beneficiado económicamente.
Su trayectoria, y la de su marido, han dejado mucho por desear,inflación al borde del descontrol, falta de seguridad, cortes de rutas creadas por sus portegidos, agresión contra el campo, empobrecimiento de los jubilados a cambio de seguir manteniendo los gastos personales de la Presidente, y últimamente, el cierre de la importación con mayores costos o falta de mucho de los productos que no se fabrican en el país.
En Argentina, como en muchos otros lugares, el egocentrismo de unos pocos decidió ydecidirá el futuro del país

Each nation has the government it deserves

A few days ago I finished my last blog with the concept that every nation has the government that it deserves.
Back where I come from we would always laugh and make fun on the government, regarding its incompetence, trustworthiness and lack of leadership.
Since last December I have been disappointed with President Obama’s performance. The only exception was the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, I have criticized him for not going to Wisconsin and campaign for State Senators, showing that he has convictions, the same kind of convictions that he showed during the primaries and then in the general election of 2008. He seems in the last 9 months to have turned his back to his base. I had even sent an email to the White House saying that if he went ahead with cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, with nothing in exchange such as tax increases and cuts in defense he had lost my vote.
Comes Thursday night and I sit down to watch the Republican Debate in Iowa.
What a bunch of light weights, amateurs. When Bachmann was challenged for her total lack of success, she defended the fact that she had stuck in a bill the option for people to choose the type of light bulb they could purchase, and the fact that she would through the whole country into default.
Kain, Mr. Pizza man, said that he is learning as he campaigns. Santorum believes we should make a federal mandate that a marriage is between a man and a woman. Don't we have enough issues at the federal level than to focus on marriage?
Ron Paul was the only candidate that made sense in many instances, for example when he said that the military should not be any longer overseas, and that the country is going bankrupt.
But the icing on the cake was when they all agreed that under no circumstances they would include in any deal any kind of tax increase.
Here is where the title of the blog comes into the picture, members of this party are a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and 47 senators.
Some of these people ran last November under the premise of creating jobs, but have proposed no job creation bill since there've been in Washington. To make matters even worse with unemployment they want to layoff 120,000 United States Postal Service employees. They are willing to create more unemployment so that they can blame it on Obama at the expense of the American people. Their recipe is the same for everything: less regulation, less taxes. That is what they did in the past decade and it put this country in the biggest recession since the Great Depression.
It is sad to see this great country heading in a path of rapid decline. The lack of investment, lack of education, lack of vision are the main causes of this rapid decline.
A friend of mine, who sadly past away, and I would always talk about how the poor and the middle are brain washed, to the point where they would vote against their own interests. They vote for a candidate who favors exporting their jobs overseas, but sugar coats it this by telling them that he or she shares their values by being pro-life, and is against gay marriage. At the end of the day they don’t have a job but they can proudly say that their government will ban abortions and will pass, like Santorum wants, a federal amendment against same sex marriage. They are also told that if taxes are cut for millionaires and billionaires that they will invest in job creation. Mr. Huntsman said last night that 90% of the jobs of his business were created in China, not in the U.S. That is how we now have a structural high unemployment, a rapid disappearance of the middle class, the wealthy getting wealthier at the expense of everybody else, and high deficits at every level because there is no industrial base, and therefore lack of employment paying those taxes. That is how we come to cities like Detroit that have lost huge sections of its population, with whole areas of the city now that have become abandoned with empty houses.
Again, these are the people running to be the “government”, and the reason I used the quotation is because WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT, but until WE take it back by showing up to vote, demanding different priorities from our politicians and forcing the haves to pay what they must, nothing will change. It is not the politicians fault, it’s ours.

The downgrading of the U.S credit rating

Last Friday August 5th 2011, Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating from a AAA credit that it has held since 1917 to a AA+.
“Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.” This is a quotation of what the reason Standard and Poor’s gave for the downgrade.
Many Republicans took offense with this because they felt that Standard and Poor had no right to set policy. The entity was not setting policy, it was just basing itself on facts.
As one who believes in facts I have to agree with Standard and Poor’s reasoning.
What we went through during the last few weeks in Washington was inadmissible.
As a big supporter of President Obama is was very disappointed in his leadership. Although he found himself trapped in a situation that was not of his creation, my concern is his willingness in compromising too soon. He did that last December with the extension of the tax cuts, he did the same thing with a single payer health care system . He came across as a weak head of government.
As a big sport fan I look at a leader of a team putting the team on his shoulders, like Kobe Bryant does with the Lakers and Dwain Wade does with Miami Heat, both basketball teams.
When it’s time to deliver, that is when they show up to push the team over the hump.
I don’t think that President Obama has that particular talent. Maybe because he thinks that he should stay above the quarreling of the Congress.
We also now see the candidates, or suspects like a friend of mine would call them, for president on the republican side trying to blame the White House for the downgrading. They must think that most of the country will forget that this president inherited the whole that we are in. This is another reason for disappointment with President Obama, President Reagan kept talking about what he inherited even in his speech at the 1988 Republican Party, so that the country would not forget. President Obama should talk about this every time he addresses the nation. What’s most ironic is what this candidates are proposing is more of what got us in the ditch in the first place, deregulation, more tax cuts for what the republican party these days calls “job creators”, and what we used to call in the past “the wealthy”. It is also amazing is that they never look at what needs to be done to cure the problems we are in. It’s like having a patient with cancer and telling him to take two aspirins and then see how he feels in the morning.
I don’t consider myself an optimist, but I am not a pessimist either. I like to look at myself as a realist, but the future of this nation does not look good. Those days when our representatives used to challenge the population by telling us that the country should put a man in the moon and bring him back safely are long gone. Back then the “job creators”, although they have not been creating jobs for over a decade even when their taxes were lowered, used to pay 70% of their income in taxes; when we could afford to raise seniors from poverty by providing them Social Security first, and then years later, Medicare. When we also created the largest middle class the world had ever seen by having the G.I. Bill, giving people who returned from WWII a college education. Now we want to protect the “job creators” wealth at the expense of pushing grandma and the college students under the bus. Members of the same party are cutting funds in every state that they got their hands on, such as Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, and New Jersey, and labeling teachers as bullies, cutting their rights, saying that they make too much money, then turning around and passing on the savings in the way of massive tax cuts for their wealthy contributors. Those teachers that are so terrible are educating our young generation, the future of this country.
When I used to live in Argentina, many years ago, we would always say that every country has the government that it deserves. I later discovered that the same saying also exists in English. That is exactly how I feel about the government we have these days in the U.S.

Matthew 12:25, JOY and the US Government

We are witnessing Washington in disarray. It starts with a House of Representatives whose own speaker is not respected by his own party. To that we should add the fact that Congress is divided even amongst itself, with the House with a majority Republican and the Senate with a majority Democrat.
It would be useful to this members of government who are Christians to read Matthew 12:25: Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
For those who do not read the New Testament and also for those who do they should also read a speech from who is with not doubt best president the United States of America has had, Abraham Lincoln. That speech said: A house divided against itself cannot stand. Although he was reflecting on slavery and liberty we should reflect on the stability of this country as a whole with a divided government who is so inflexible the only people affected by this lack of respect on both sides will be the vast majority of the population.
It is time to put arrogance aside and do what is the right thing for the future of this nation. We should always remember the real meaning of the word JOY (Jesus, others and then yourself, in that order).

The tyranny of the wealthiest

As we head into the last few days before the United States of America, the largest Gross Domestic Product in the world tell the world that its word means nothing, that it is not able and that it will not pay its bill we need to take a step back and analyze the whole picture.
We have on one side the Democratic Party willing to put everything on the table to be cut or at least reduce the growth of all the budget, and on the other side we can see a bunch of loonies, unqualified members of the House of Representatives who don't know what it means to make a deal, in other words to govern. We can quote Senator John Mcain today on the floor of the Senate: “The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue and the public will turn against Barack Obama, Republicans in the House who refused to raise the debt ceiling will escape, then Democrats will have no choice but to pass a balance budget amendment and reform entitlements and the Tea Party habits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.” Somebody like him who has been around the block a few times can see that creating a catastrophe not just to the country but would push financials markets across the world into chaos. This is the reason that I call these freshmen in the House unqualified.
There is no doubt that President Obama will pay a big price because this happened under his watch but Republicans will also face reality when people find that their 401k have taken a big hit, that the interest rates that they were counting on are gone, and that the unemployment will continue to go up because a new recession will be forced upon us. When the Chamber of Commerce, an ultraconservative institution who was behind many of these infantile House representatives is now running for cover, as they realize that the markets are starting to signal the inflexibility of one half of one branch of government to come to its senses. What we are actually seeing is how the top 1% of income earners have hijacked this country. They are represented through many different front lines groups or entities. One of those entities is Americans for Tax Reform headed by Grover Norquist, a radical right wing extremist that forces Republicans wannabes to sign a pledge that under no circumstance will they ever raise taxes. One would assume that this people would have the option to say no. The other side of the coin is for those who do not sign the pledge or who have signed it and broken that pledge American for Tax Reform will fund new right wing loonies to run against them.
We all really know, whether we want to admit it or not, that the main reason why we are in this whole is because of tax policies that have proved totally false, the theory “that if we reduce taxes there will be greater investment and thus the economy will grow and that will create jobs.” No better proof but just go back to the last two decades, Clinton signed at the time the biggest increase of taxes in 1993 and during his administration 23 million new jobs were created. Then came George W. Bush, he had huge tax cuts for the top 1% of income earners. Only 3 million jobs were created in the same period. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. To make matters worse Bush had two unpaid wars, both that still continue, and unpaid prescription bill. By the time he left we had a financial collapse of a housing bubble created under his watch, and we were losing 700 thousand jobs a month by the time Obama took office.
The top 1% of the population through these puppets in the House are presenting the rest of us with these options: we will protect the jets, the low taxes of the wealthy, their country clubs, but we want Granny to pay more out of pocket for her healthcare, we want to cut her social security benefits, we want the young students to pay more for their tuition to go to school, and cut loose the poor.
What is hard to believe in all of this is that a lot of these people in Congress call themselves Christians. I guess they did not read Matthew 25:40: 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
When I moved to the United States the thing that surprised me the most is how the middle class and the poor accepted the rules imposed by the wealthiest. If we look at society it tends to be a pyramid, with more at the bottom and fewer at the top. By not voting, by not going out and having their voices being heard they have allowed the most radical members of society to run this country to the ground, export their jobs and investment overseas, and then make them pay for the party in which they were never invited in the first place. In 1789 in France the masses said finished to the corruption and lavish lifestyle of the royals at the expense of the people. Maybe its time for the people of this country to wake up and take back what used to be theirs.

A sad story

I have a couple who are friends that I know are heading down a one way road to the abyss. You see them bickering at each other about everything. Every single issue becomes a reason for argument, regardless of the importance.
I’ve known them for a very long time, and it is very sad to see them in this state. I remember when they started dating, they loved being together, even if it meant not going getting together with other friends. They loved doing everything together. They used to walk back from work so that they could spend more time. It looked like 24 hours in a day wasn’t enough time for them to spend together. They shared the same taste for travel, music.
They went through many hurdles but there was always this sense of unity.
But then fate would have it. They were faced with their biggest test. They had a child with a disability.
I know what it means because I have a son with autism, so I know how life puts you to a test. Their son had cerebral pulsy.
And this test that they were faced with would challenge their faith, they belief in each other and primarily their love.
Both of them are professionals but nothing that they had studied in school would prepare them for this.
And the great wall starting cracking. They disagreed about how to raise that child, how to deal with his disability, how he should behave in public, where to go on vacation, etc.
And all of this starting taking its toll on both of them. Their love starting fading away, it didn’t just happen overnight of course. Like everything in life, it was a progression. Their disagreements became more intense. She sought a marriage counselor. It did not work out. It was just a time to disagree with a referee, instead of finding a way of communicating better.
Their lack of communication became silence. They spent less and less time together. When they tried spending some time alone it was just as bad.
Many times in life we put our interests ahead, even if it means hurting somebody else. I consider myself a believer and a follower of Jesus Christ, and if there is something that I can take with me from his teachings is that he laid his life for others. He always put others first.
We are all selfish, the temptation of looking out for our own interests first is something we wrestle with during most of our lives.
When talking with my friend he would go as far as to tell me that their moments of intimacy were very infrequent, if none, and that they were something that he would rather forget. I asked him if that was the way it always was and he said no, that when things were good their sex life was something special, something that both felt good about.
I asked him if he was contemplating leaving his house, and he said that he had thought about many times in the past, but that the only reason he had stayed was because of that child. He felt responsible. The one thing I do remember that he said was that he had tried to bend backwards, forwards and sideways for the marriage to work, but that it had not made a difference.
Time will tell how long they will be able to live under the same roof.
We live in a day and age where people are only focused on their own needs, that’s why marriages end up failing.