We have seen the lowest disrespect to this country and to its institutions by what a bunch of republicans have just done.

Republicans don’t seem to realize that they are setting precedents, one after the other, by insulting this president saying that he is a foreigner, yelling in a session of Congress while this president is addressing them that he lies, inviting a leader of a foreign nation to address Congress without consulting with the executive branch, something that never been done since the founding of the nation, and now sending a letter to the head of a foreign leader, with whom the Executive Branch is trying to sign an agreement to stop the creation of a nuclear weapon, not to respect the person who is signing this agreement.

It is also pathetic to see republican presidential hopefuls such as Bobby Jindal urging presidential hopefuls to sign on to GOP Iran letter. What these republican nutcases seem to have overlooked is the Logan Act that says:

“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

The branch of the federal government that sets foreign policy is the Executive Branch, not the Legislative nor the Judicial. There is nothing that says here anything about Senators being above the law.

Now some people will say what is the Logan Act?

The Logan Act, enacted January 30, 1799 is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the U.S.

It was intended to prevent the undermining of the government's position. The Act was passed following George Logan's unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798, and was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. The Act was last amended in 1994, and violation of the Logan Act is a felony.

So we can probably say that these senators are committing treason, as per the Logan Act.

We also know that most republicans not simply disagree but HATE, yes, let me repeat that, HATE this president. They hate the fact that he’s educated, in many instances more than them, that he is smart, that he won with more than 51% back to back elections, but most of all the fact that he is African American. Somebody recently was saying something that has merit: not all republicans are racist, but racists find their home in the GOP.

As far as this letter, it was “supposedly” written by Senator Cotton, a rookie in the senate, who has only been there since the beginning of the year. What about the other 46? Are they as inexperienced as he is, or are they just as irresponsible as Cotton? One thing is for sure, it seems that the young senator loves war, the Iraq and Afghanistan, as much as any other that this country can get itself involved in. The fact that trillions were spent in Iraq, over four thousand Americans died in a conflict of choice, over one hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis died, and that the Iranian government is running the Iraqi government, all  thanks to Bush and Cheney does not seem to have taught anything to the neocons. The only thing that counts to them is what right wing nuts that have never been in harm’s way such as Bill Crystal, Rush Limbaugh, Hannity tell them how to think, and that the Military Industrial Complex does not run out of wars, even if it means the bankruptcy of the USA.

I, for one, was always perplexed that people could vote for people like Cotton, but if travelling around the US has shown me something, it has shown me why people vote the way they do, why they chose people like Cotton, like McCain, like George W. Bush, like Louie Gohmert, like Farenthold, like Barton, like Ted Cruz,like  and others, is because these people tell the constituents that the Federal Government wants to take their rights away, their money away, and their voters believe them. Now, once their representatives become "The Government", that government that they had said was so terrible they end up sending their constituents, their friends, their family into war, they allow them to lose their houses, allow corporate America to ship their jobs overseas, they shut down the government, cut benefits of soldiers who come back from a conflict in which their elected officials sent them into, don’t allow them to get healthcare, to have their kids educated, all of it in the name of their constituents. In reality these elected officials only care about their careers, their future, their fame, the top 1%, corporate America, who pay for them to get re-elected so that they can kiss the rings of the, and care about their constituents as much as they care about the last penguin on Antartica.

My latest visit to Lynchburg, VA

As I spend a weekend in Lynchburg, Virginia at my friends Waldron & Georgia Scott’s house a few things come to mind, for starters, after Waldron’s fall this past April and his last stroke as well, and even though he has made a remarkable recovery, he is still somewhat limited in his mobility. Georgia is devoting her life to his wellbeing, in every possible aspect that she is able to, from changing him, bathing him, helping him get up from the bed and/or the sofa and get him onto the wheelchair, then rolling him from room to room. She was telling me that they had gone across the street to eat at a restaurant enjoying the warm weather, and as I helped take him for a ride down to same restaurant I could not but notice that at many times there are steep climbs and it is not easy getting back and forth to this place. My point here is that Waldron is extremely fortunate to have somebody at his side who is putting into full practice the “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health” wedding vows that we commit ourselves to at the time of marriage. I guess when we say those words we don’t really think about those days and that they may eventually come.
The last time that I witnessed such dedication was between my parents. My mother had a heart condition for many years, and she spent the last seven and half months of her life in a hospital. In that period my father went almost every day regardless of the day of the week, season, weather, during Christmas, New Year, and her birthday even though by then she was unconscious.
What comes to mind are the words of Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians:
“3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Georgia is not in great health either. But she is sacrificing everything for Waldron. She does everything with patience, tolerance, understanding, respect and primarily love.
I am proud and blessed that, not only can I call them my friends, but that they consider me a friend as well. Although the journey from New Jersey is not exactly a short one, I am extremely happy to come and visit them, as I feel that I get more from my visit than what I feel I can give them, and I have been fortunate enough to come a few times since they move from Paterson to Lynchburg.

Anniversary of my mother's passing

As I reflect on the past 12 months, and what we have lived I look at my roller-coaster emotions.  Twelve months ago right at this time I felt a sensation through my body, like if something had happened, I didn’t know what it was. A few hours later my father called me to tell me the news that my mother had passed away. He was very emotional, he had been containing his emotions for days, weeks, possibly months. Once he told me my mind processed it but my heart took a while do so. It was like it had not sunk in. I think at times that it has not sunk in, that she is still in the hospital.  

In the days and weeks before my mother’s passing I used to question my creator on why was he extending the inevitable, why was he making my mother and everybody around her suffer. What was the purpose of it. Those are the mysteries of life. I guess that when we are face to face with God we will have plenty of time to ask him about his ways, even though by then those questions will surely become irrelevant.

As I traveled to Argentina in 2012 I was convinced that I was prepared for what the future would bring. but once the time came I realized that I was not. I went through a long period of depression, of mourning, of loss.

The loss of a parent, or a close one, in my view, is like a heart attack, the heart keeps beating but part of it no longer functions.  We will never be the same. It is like the end of our childhood, the end of an era. Parents always think of their children as kids, even though they are married and have kids of their own.

I miss my conversations with my mother, I miss her support, her love. When my mother passed away not only did I lose my mother I lost a close friend.

I hear her voice, I feel her presence.

I cannot say that I long for the past, like my mother used to do, but I do understand her, at least a little bit more.

Ironically enough my father has been in the hospital since Sunday, and after four days of studies, to his displeasure, he has not told when he is going home. This has made the day of the first anniversary of her passing a “strange” one.

My sister, being in the front line, as she is, has had to do most of the heavy lift, first with my mother, her passing, the support my father needed at the time, and now with him in the hospital, even though it may be hopefully just temporary. His reliance on her is enormous in every way.

As far as the last 365 days it is hard to believe that we have gone round the sun once since the day my mother left us. We may not be able to see her but her spirit, her joy and love will always stay with us.

God bless you, Mum. We love you.

Seven months after my mother passed away my father, my sister, my brother-in-law and the pastor of my parents’ church gave proper rest to my mother’s remains in the place that will hold her ashes until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and at which time God will resurrect us in body and soul to join him in paradise. This was almost 7 months to the date. Although I was not there for her passing, her funeral or her burial I know that the small ceremony of final farewell was full of emotion, just like it had been at the time of her home going.
Although it has been, as I mentioned earlier, seven months since her death I still feel at times as if she has never left. I think that she is still at the hospital. Many times when I talk with my father over the computer, and he walks away from the camera I feel as if I can see her walking down the hallway, coming out of the kitchen or the bathroom.  At times although I cannot see her I feel her presence, her warmth, her love, always giving me strength and reassurance. I think about her every day, and many times that is all that I think about. I see her in my mind laying on the hospital bed.
My mother was a pessimist but she had love, and she would always find a way of sharing it.
My father, during my childhood was not a loving father, as he had come from a home where love was not present, but my mother would make him feel loved, and I think that is what he can take with him for the rest of his days. For those of us who were fortunate enough to have shared part of her path on this world we can also take her love with us.
My mother fully understood the meaning of the words of the Apostle Paul in the 1^st letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13 as she had lived it through my grandparents and their love to each other:

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The past few months have not been easy for me, I cannot say that I am still mourning, even though that is what my therapist calls it, but what I feel is that her passing has knocked me off my rails, it’s like I have lost my path, I feel many times like a ship without a helm, simply going in circles without being able to move forward or with any direction.

I recently watched a movie called The Descendants in which the wife has suffered an accident that has left her brain dead. The husband is told by doctors that there is nothing they can do and that the proper thing to consider is disconnecting her. He has two daughters, and the process of saying goodbye is very painful. I am conscious that I did not go through those motions like this family does in the movie, but being at 5000 miles does not alleviate the pain, the sorrow, the loss and the vacuum of my mother’s passing.
A very good friend of mine who lost his brother when we were very young asked me if I had any regrets about being so far during the last few years of my mother’s life, not enjoying or being nearer during the last few months, and I told him that I didn’t have an answer. My parents were not happy when we moved far away, but they knew it was for the best, and that, together with the fact that we tried to see them as often as we were able to, even though towards the last few years it only meant once a year, made things a little bit easier. Many times people who are physically close does not guarantee that they are emotionally closer.  
I know that my mother is at peace, her ashes are right by the place that she was most attached during all her life, the church. Her spirit belongs to God, and to all of us who loved her, and while she is in our memory she will always be alive.
God bless you, Mum.

The past 13 months

As I reflect on the past months, 13 months to be precise, I can think of June 21st 2012 as the day when the world changed for the Anderson family. My mother had been hospitalized many times since1993 when she developed a heart condition and was at the brink of death. But the real beginning of the rapid descent began in 2007 when she started with pulmonary edemas . My mother would be hospitalized for a week or so, they would put her on a severe "diet" of diuretics,  she would be drained of the liquid she had been building up and then sent back home to return to her activities. But June 21st was not an ordinary hospitalization. For me, from the distance, something didn't sound right when my father told me that my mother had been put into an induced coma. This had never happened before.
From the distance I found myself puzzled and confused about the development of what I thought would be a routine hospitalization. My mother was in an induced coma for a period of two to three weeks.
As I found myself having to travel to Argentina to be with my father I was uncertain what I would find when I arrived. By then my mother had been almost three months in the Coronary Unit of a hospital. The day I arrived we went to see her. She had limited visiting hours, from 12.30pm to 2.00 pm. It hardly gave us time to interact with her and talk with the doctors and nurses before the visiting hours were over. My parents live over an hour away by public transport from the hospital where my mother was staying. There was another visiting hour in the evening but my father felt that it made no sense to go back, primarily because of the length of the journey.
As I was getting ready to travel to see my parents I had some questions for the doctors and nurses who attended my mother. Those questions became irrelevant once I got there and the head of the doctors met us in the hallway of the hospital and explained to my father and me that my mother was then a patient who should not be alive, that she should have deceased with the heart condition she had, and to make matters worse she was having trouble with her lungs as well at the time. That gave me an indication of the severity of my mother's illness. As I had not lived near her for over 27 years I had never seen her in a hospital before. She had completely lost her muscle tone, she could not speak because she had a tracheotomy, and she constantly had secretions from her lungs. She was also suffering from almost complete deafness so communicating with her was not exactly easy. Also, as I spoke to nurses who attended to my mother, I came to realize that there was no way that she could leave the hospital as she was under constant surveillance,  something that made her return to their home out of the question.
My parents live in a 3rd floor apartment with no elevator. Getting in and out for them is somewhat of an ordeal as it is not easy climbing up the steps. Even if my mother could recover to the point where she could return home, getting out would make it impossible, therefore she would just come back to die there. As I said earlier, all these things gave me a very clear picture of the future. It was just a matter of time and when God would have compassion on her and call her home.
My father was not there yet, at least my impression at the time was that he was hopeful for a recovery. I am usually someone who loves to bring people down to reality as I feel that reality is, although tough, the only real barometer of things.
On the other hand, my mother was frustrated, she felt jailed, "tied down" to a bed with all the tubes that she had connected. One day I witnessed the volatile rapid change of her condition. In just a matter of minutes she deteriorated, going from stable to struggling, as her sugar level had gone down. This was all foreign to me.
I was there with them for almost three weeks, and during the last week, as I knew that this would probably be the last time that I would see my mother alive, I wanted to spend a little more time with her. She was alone in a room for 22 and a half hours. I know that I would blow my brains out in that situation. So I decided to go to the hospital twice a day, once with my father from 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm, then go back to my parent's home with my father, have something to eat and then turn around and go back. As I said earlier, we would leave the apartment at around 11.00am, get to the hospital at 12.15pm (if everything went ok with the traffic), stay there until 2.00 pm, take the bus back, arrive at my parent's home around 3.15 pm, have lunch and finish around 4.00 pm. Then leave the apartment around 5.45 pm, arrive at the hospital around 7.00 pm (2nd daily visiting hour). leave at 8.00 pm, arrive at my parent's home around 9.15pm, eat dinner, then relax a little while,  and go back and do the same the next day, until I left on Sunday evening.
Saying goodbye to my mother was actually saying goodbye forever as we both pretty much knew that we would not see each other again. It was the toughest goodbye.
For the next few months I kept in contact with my father on a daily basis, and although my mother tried to get up and walk, I don't know if it was through her own will or my father trying to push her forward, she eventually started feeling the impact of being so many months in the hospital and she started deteriorating gradually but surely. First, around the end of last year, her kidneys stopped functioning properly, and she started retaining more and more liquid around her body and then because of the doctor's recommendations, she was sedated continuously as she suffered from panic attacks when she was not under the effects of the drugs. By then my father started telling me that this would probably go on until her body gave up which gave me the feeling that he was trying to prepare me for the inevitable, my mother's passing, something that, back in August, when I arrived there I knew would be the outcome of her hospitalization. I think that, deep down, he was trying to prepare himself for what he realized was the inevitable.
When I received the call from my father on the morning of February 6th I knew perfectly well why he was calling as he never called in the morning. The news for me was expected. I felt that although saying goodbye to one of your parents, to the person who always supported me regardless of what it was, and always trusted me, I felt that God had finally called her home. She was my mother, a friend and a shoulder. She loved unconditionally. She was warm and caring. It took me some time to come to the realization that she is no longer with us. I have felt her presence at times, when I'm alone. I felt it a few days after her passing. A good friend of mine says that it is all in our mind and that may be the case, but some of us still feel the spirit of a loved one near.
At times I feel I'm still not over her passing. As I wasn't there at the time of her passing, I did not see her body lying on the hospital bed, I did not travel to her funeral and witness the disappearance of her casket on the belt as it was going to the place of her cremation, I say that I did not go through the motions of her death and loss.
After my mother's passing my father came to stay with my family in the U.S. for a couple of months. It was the first time that we would be physically together since her passing. We spoke about the events, the last period of her life, and his hopes, but primarily it was a time of sharing, a time of getting closer, of not having to talk, of mutual support, and of loss.
Like my father said while he was staying on vacation with us, “life goes on”.
There will be another sunset and another sunrise. We will eventually go down the same path that my mother took. Our body is not eternal. But it still doesn't get any easier to get used to. Just as I would always tell my mother while she was alive, we always have to be thankful for what God gives us, that we were able to enjoy my mother's life and the way she enriched all of ours.

Virginia bill to override the voice of the majority

Reps have been famous for gerrymandering, for suppressing votes, and now they came up with a new scheme. McDonnell is on his way out. Republicans will lose the governorship, especially with all the extreme laws that they have passed during the present governor's term. They are so desperate that even money doesn't buy elections, that passing unconstitutional voter id laws doesn't do the trick, they have limited the voting hours in areas that vote democrat, the only thing they have not done is close yours voting areas completely, and it would be no surprise if that is their next move. They are still in disbelief that with all the money they threw the public voted against them. The poison that they carry is coming out of their pores, and then they turn around and talk about Christianity. There is no doubt that their followers buy into this stuff, either because they follow Fox, or listen to Rush, and they are not told the whole facts, they are just filtered the news so that they carry more hatred, become more resentful, or simply they like to stay in their bubble. From 1945, and primarily after the building of the Berlin Wall the Soviet Union state networks used to sell its citizens that the US was evil, and they fine-tuned the news to serve a greater purpose. Fox, Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly do exactly the same with the right.
As far as Virginia is concerned it may be part of the South but it has become a purple state, and primarily the areas surrounding Washington DC vote democratic these days. But republicans cannot accept defeat and will do whatever it takes to regain, and keep power, even if that means not allowing the voice of the people to count. Republicans want the minority to govern the majority. It is a state level what the country deals with electoral college at a Federal level.

The effect of the dismantling of unions

We have seen the assault of the top 1% on the middle class for the past 30 years starting with Ronald Reagan, the champion of union busting when he fired all the PATCO workers. ALEC with all its troglodytes, people like the Koch Bros, Adelson, Karl Rove and his supporters hiding behind a mask that covers their crime, the Supreme Court and their many decisions to hurt workers, have been on a crusade to dismantle the middle class, and take the goods that belonged to the middle class. With a system that encourages the purchase of our elections, we have denigrated the country. In this denigration the top 1% comes out victorious. But if we look at the standing of the country we see it reversing. The right wants to make education for the privileged, it is like during the dark ages when only the clergy and the royal families had access to reading and writing, and the masses were illiterate. It is easier to manipulate the masses when they are less informed. Fox is one of these venues that keeps people ill informed, out of the circle of facts, misleading them with fantasies, scaring its audience by telling them that the big black wolf wants to take their houses and rights away. The same can be said about Rush, Hannity, Weiner, and some other out there. The past 30 years has set the country back, and the world pushes forward. One day we will be like China when they looked over the wall and realized that they had fallen behind. In the 70s we were the creditors of the world, but thanks to Ronald Reagan we became since 1985 the debtors of the world. We hardly make anything in the US, we speculate and gamble on money, but the ones eating from that plate is smaller and smaller each day. Speculating on money does not grow an economy, it does not create jobs, it dismantles jobs. If the Chinese would have planned the downfall of the US they could not have come up with a greater plan than the one self-inflicted by the top 1%. We have seen a stagnation of salaries of the middle class while the top 1% has seen its income go from 50 times to 500 times the average middle class income. To make matters worse the top 1% keeps on taking and taking.
Unless the middle class and the poor take action we will see the middle class impoverished, therefore the country will impoverish. If we do not have a robust middle class we cannot move forward as a nation. Unions form part of this package, and it has been thanks to the unions that we have paid vacation time, 8 hour work days. If the 1% would have their way we would have only the money in the hands of the 1% and the rest of us as slaves.