” I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
A mighty rain fell all night and pounded the roof. It was a sweet sound to me, and I easily fell asleep. This morning when I went out to get the papers, I saw the snow was just about gone. Only a few small piles remain, and they won’t last long. It will be 50° today. No sun again this morning, just a gray sky, but the sun will be by later. I’ll be happy to see it after so long.
The Bruins were at the White House yesterday to be feted by the President for winning the Stanley Cup last season. Tim Thomas, the celebrated goalie, did not go. He cited the President’s policies as the reason. I totally disagree with his decision. This was an occasion to celebrate an achievement, one which should have transcended politics. No allegiance was demanded, no votes were cast. It was about hockey, a game with sticks and a puck and a net. That’s all.
My father voted democratic until his salary hit six figures then he changed his allegiance to the republicans. He couldn’t believe he had raised such liberals, all four of us. After every election, he’d make a point of telling me his vote cancelled out mine. Once he called me a pinko communist school teacher poisoning the minds of young Americans. I asked him if he thought teaching Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was subversive. He sputtered but never answered and then left the room. He and I were at loggerheads for the whole of my adult life anytime politics were mentioned. Most times I never told him of any political activism in which I took part. The veins in his head would have popped. We all knew that was a sure sign of how angry he was, and we used to keep track when we were kids. We’d try to out-vein each other. I don’t remember when, we called a truce and politics became verboten between us. I do remember it was some time during the Reagan administration which would have had us at each other’s necks for all eight years.
My mother never said a word. She was the smart one.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Politics, Stanley Cup, Tim Thomas, White House
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January 24, 2012 at 1:00 pm
What a stupid reason that Tim Thomas had for not going to the White House!!! Well the last idiot isn’t born yet 🙂
I know I would be a left wing Democrat if I was american 🙂 Even our right wing conservatives over here would be democrates 🙂 🙂 I guess a true republican would think that anyway 🙂 🙂 The conservative goverment we have are using the labour party’s politics now days 🙂
Cold here and last night it fell to 3F and they say it will tonight as well. So we’ll be keeping the snow for at least ten more days.
I thought I had made a comment here yesterday so I got a bit surprised when i couldn’t find it 🙂 🙂 But I did read Your post anyway 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
January 24, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Christer,
I so totally agree. Tim was fine being a member of the silver medal team at the Olympics in 2010. I wonder why his politics were put aside for that.
Around here liberal democrats say nothing so as not to be chased by angry mobs.
Warm yesterday and now warm again today.
Thanks for letting me know you read my blog. I dropped by yours yesterday but had trouble seeing the pictures: they weren’t there. It was my computer. It was acting strange all last night. I couldn’t even get my e-mail. Today is better. I’ll be by tonight-I’m out until late.
January 24, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I was raised by a Roosevelt Democrat (Roosevelt with a ooh) and have become my father. A little stint in the army kept me from being in Chicago for the ’68 convention but I made it up to Madison quite a few times for last year’s demonstrations and am hoping to be able to make it up there Mar 10th for the Reclaim Wisconsin march at the Capitol. Wisconsin’s fight is America’s fight.
I finally figured out the reason why so many in the government want to raise the retirement age. It’s so we old radicals won’t have time to write our people in Congress or protest unfair actions by the government .
January 24, 2012 at 7:12 pm
John,
Indignation never goes away.
I picketed against Wallace, for Cesar Chavez, even met him, and against the war. My dad would have been horrified. His veins would have been permanently extended!
January 24, 2012 at 4:09 pm
No white house? That’s why he plays hockey for a living. My mother was the activist in our family. Literally dragged us to the MLK I had a Dream speech. We kids waded in the reflecting pool by the Lincoln Memorial with millions of others. It was a humid and hot day. She went door to door talking to neighbors about John F Kennedy and shook his hand at a victory rally in Alexandria, Virginia. She loved politics and loved everything about Washington, D.C. You could always find her at a museum. My father never got involved in her liberal ways. He was career military and pretended not to know what politics was. We grew up strict liberals if there is such a thing. So the Hockey Puck that didn’t go to the White House? Well he can just . . . .
January 24, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Z&Me,
I so agree with your last sentence.
He was happy enough to wear USA on his hockey uniform shirt for the 2010 Olympics but not to go to the White Houase because of political reasons. Oh, please!
January 24, 2012 at 7:03 pm
Hi Kat,
Your father and mine must have been related. Mine was a union democrat and my mother was an old time republican. They didn’t discuss politics at all. I was a flaming flower child with a very liberal point of view. My father and I fought constantly and it always ended up in a screaming match because we were both very stubborn and argumentative people. Eventually I figured out that my father liked to start things because he liked to have a good old argument every now and then. That Irish thing about is this a private fight or can anyone join in? 🙂 One time I heard him arguing with his friend about the Vietnam war. He was using my arguments. The very same points he had been vehemently against when we had the discussion. I was annoyed at first but then I had to laugh.
I heard the weather was lovely here today. I was in the massage treatment room all day so I didn’t see much of it.
January 24, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Hi Caryn,
I think your father and mine are related as are the two of us. “My father and I fought constantly and it always ended up in a screaming match because we were both very stubborn and argumentative people.” I could have written the exact sentence.
I learned to ignore him which had always been my mother’s advice.
The day was warm, still is!
January 24, 2012 at 9:30 pm
Us goalies is contrary types.
Good on Tim.
Cheers
January 24, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Minicapt,
I suspect that is a necessary attribute for any goalie!
January 24, 2012 at 10:04 pm
The story I heard was that Tim Thomas was protesting the government policies of both parties. He sounds like a “Tea Party” kind of guy from the quote on his Facebook page.
Your father’s politics was exactly what divides us today. When you are a working stiff you usually support the Democrates because they have been traditionally the party of the working man. When you are a businessman or a wealthy person you would support the Republicans who will promote policies that conserve your money from those unwashed workers. The only way the Republicans can win is by shipping factory jobs overseas to counties where workers can’t vote and to convince the remining workers that they are not like those unwashed workers. The other Republican voters are those who are Born Again Christians. They believe that god is a Republican. They want to deregulate everything except they want to regulate what happens in the privacy of people’s bedrooms.
It will be a fun election year.
January 24, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Bob,
Without knowing it, my brother and I used to tell people our father was a democrat until he started making money then he became a republican to protect it. Wr laughed to find out we had come to the same conclusion.
Scare people-that’s how to win an election.
January 25, 2012 at 7:53 am
Newt Gingrich commented that “Obama wanted to bring us together, but he has in fact divided us”. Well Newt, Obama has brought 99% of us together, separated from the other 1%. And how has a man who cannot be united with one wife possibly unite Americans??
And Mitt (Wilfred): how can we change the tax code so that we all pay the same percentage tax as you? Why does the method in which our money is “earned” make a difference in how much tax we pay? Please don’t tell me that you are creating jobs. Where are they?
I’m a libertarian at heart, but Ron Paul is a little too extreme. He wants to abolish the TSA so that any extremist can board a plan and destroy it.
Don’t get me started.
January 25, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Bill,
I promise not to get you started!
Bile rises in my mouth when Newt is discussed. He is not a man of integrity, and I cannot abide that. He is a mouth, purely and simply, not a heart or a brain. He could travel the yellow brick road himself looking for what he doesn’t have.
I am, at heart, a democrat though I have voted republican based on the candidate. There are none which attract my vote.
January 25, 2012 at 8:01 am
Oh how the pictures you paint in my mind soothe and refresh me Kat! This has been the strangest winter snow and then rain rain rain here to wash it all away. We had a tornado the other night in Louisville, oldest doll is a RA there in a dorm, i think she spends most of Spring semester in the basement with her 40 residents, starting waaay too early for her tastes. My grandfather was a blue dog democrat and i stand solidly beside him, My brother is the at the other end of the spectrum so we rarely talk politics.I love coming here and hearing everyone’s ideas, its almost as good as sitting together at a table yakking over coffee. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
January 25, 2012 at 12:06 pm
splendid,
I’m thankful for your wonderfully kind words! It is always, well, mostly always, fun to write. I do find that my muse disappears at times and then I struggle.
Today it is 42°. Weirder and weirder!
I’m glad all is well in Louisville and no one in the dorm was hurt. I have this picture of your daughter herding her charges to the cellar.
January 25, 2012 at 8:33 pm
Idol is on, and I am wandering..
Kat, put on your dancing shoes and boogie over to The Shins to hear “A Simple Song” a fab song from the new album dropping in March.
Here is the link, just start the reel to reel and enjoy
http://simplesong.theshins.com/
January 25, 2012 at 11:29 pm
My Dear Hedley,
All of a sudden I realized my feet were moving, keeping the beat. I had to hurry to get my dancing shoes. If the rest of the album is anything like this, it’s mine!
Thank you for sending me. I loved the reel to reel.
January 26, 2012 at 6:39 am
With you Kat. The reel to reel was really nice and the song is hopefully an indication of things to come. March also brings new efforts from The Magnetic Fields and Spiritualized.
January 26, 2012 at 12:25 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Keep me up to date please! I know I won’t remember.
January 26, 2012 at 8:18 am
Here in Australia we have two main political Parties. Traditionally, the Liberal Party is the Consrvative or Republican type party whilst the Labor Party are our equivelant of the Democrats. Again, once you get “rich” you would swing to the former after youtfull daliance with the suposedly leftist Labor party.
Sadly, the latter tries more & more to be like the Consrvatives & there is little difference between them except the Liberals have a “born to rule” chip on their collective shoulders. Being the Party of Big Business they think they know what’s best for all. They also seem to develop & encourage some rather nasty little rodents amongst their members.
It seems that too many politicians these days are so low they could parachute out of a snake’s backside.
Please note I am trying to be “nice” LOL!!!!
January 26, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Pete,
Anyone here can start a political party: look at the tea party. Most of these, however, fit your last sentence. Not only that but they are also pretty scary.
Newt scares the heck out of me and he is curently the front runner. Should he be nominated to run against Obama, maybe people will be smart enough to recognize he will wrest away rights and turn this country on its ass and will not vote for him. That, howver, may be giving people too much credit!