What I did for All Saint's Day/Day of the Dead

It looks like I did do something for All Saint's Day/Day of the Dead after all.

For those who did not read my Halloween rant, Day of the Dead/All Saint's Day is the day of the year when Christians remember those who have passed on and will be raised by God again on the last day. It is a day that everyone remembers not only the "big name" Christians, but also the every-day Christians.

Anyway, at the LMU library this Sunday, there was a small alter for Dia de Los Muetros (Day of the Dead). People had put a few picture of their loved ones, and written letters short letters to them. There was the usual painted skull mask, which although "creepy" was not as scary as you might think. There was an invitation to all students to take a moment, write on some canvas, and pin it to the burlap on the altar.

I took a few moments to remember my long deceased Grandfather. He loved children (which I have inherited), and was married to the same woman for over 50 years. He came from the greatest generation and fought in World War II, yet never became a bitter man. He had a hard life when he was younger, as his parent's died, and never made it past the 8th Grade. He was devout and simple Christian of the Billy Graham generation, and I will never forget how often he prayed at dinners with and for his Grandchildren.

He died at a strange time in my life. I was in the middle of a faith crisis and generally frustrated with my life. I had, at that time, finally decided that set some goals for myself and was going to get through College and probably get a graduate degree. I am now working on that degree. In many ways, I am strangely beyond my grandfather in my understanding of my religion. Most likely, I will also see more of the world than he did, and not because I am getting shipped off to shoot people.

But I think back to that funeral and can remember that my Grandfather still is way ahead of me in many ways. Few people I know died with more loving friends and family around them. He was described as honest and humble businesses man and a gentle lover of children. He impressed even the nurses of his rest room with his kindness. And yes, he remained faithful and married all the years of life.

In that letter, I pinned to the altar, I wrote that my Grandfather's life still inspires me.

Expectamus resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam futuri saeculi. Amen.*

Who did you remember on November 1st?


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*we look foreward the the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Economic recovery....

Please don't call me naive. I choose to listen to what our president says and give him the benefit of the doubt. I choose to look at the glass half full and trust him to tell us the truth. When Obama took office this country was crumbling, the steps he took will be argued for generations to come. Those naysayers who find it so hard to trust all I can say is LISTEN to what President Obamas' plans are, be realistic, these changes are not going to come easily or quickly. Democrats ALWAYS have to come into office and clean up economic disasters from Republican administrations. They have to restructure, rebuild from the ground up. The plans they have are long term sustainable plans. I like what President Obama says at this meeting. I trust him!

I found these comments from a person who viewed this video at ABCnews.com:

There is a clean energy jobs bill going to markup tomorrow-- a bill that would create 1.7 million jobs per $150 billion investment in the renewable energy sector, a sector we ought to be interested in leading globally. If clean-energy investments were to expand more quickly, overall job creation would increase correspondingly. (These job gains would be enough—on their own—to reduce the unemployment rate in today’s economy by about one full percentage point, and the figures account for possible jobs losses in conventional fossil fuel sectors of the U.S. economy as they would contract)

And what are the Republicans doing? Some are following Inhofe's lead and planning to boycott the markup.

Sigh.

Another comment from the same person:

I read a great column by Bruce Bartlett in Forbes on Friday. In it he provides a concise description of why government stimulus was necessary to battle this recession-- but the entire post is worth a read, even for those who are pretty far gone when it comes to economic ideology zealotry (Bartlett is a former Republican supply-side economist; now an independent)--

"The main differences between today's crisis and the Great Depression is that the deflationary pressure is less than a third of what it was in the 1930s and policymakers today reacted much more swiftly and more appropriately than they did after 1929. Those who think the government should have done nothing risked turning the current downturn into another Great Depression. Thankfully, their advice was ignored."

Would the REAL Anti-Christ please stand up!

I was watching some of the Glenn Beck show this weekend, just to get a feel for what this asshole has to say..... My conclusions are..... He's the Anti-Christ! Yup Glenny boy is!! Just look at his charts... look how he sits at his desk and talks to his followers, it's hypnotizing! Hell, even I was becoming hypnotized by him. But luckily I came to my senses and turned it off, just in time!! :-)