Opinionated Yankee

I got this in my email inbox yesterday:

Thank you for contacting me to share your support for aid to cyclone-ravaged Burma, also known as Myanmar. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

My heart continues to go out to the Burmese people, who have been devastated by Cyclone Nargis. An estimated 130,000 people either died or are still missing since the cyclone struck the coast of Burma on the evening of May 2, 2008, and the Myanmar government has put the death toll at 78,000.

The Myanmar regime has a history of denying and restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid to Burma. On May 7, 2008, as a member of the United States Women’s Caucus on Burma, I joined Senate colleagues in writing to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, urging him to help compel Burma’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to allow international aid workers and disaster relief teams into the country and lift restrictions on international humanitarian organizations operating in Burma and the distribution of aid so that the people of Burma can receive the help they so desperately need.

Also on May 7, the Senate passed with my support a resolution expressing the Sense of the Senate on humanitarian assistance to Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis. Among its important provisions, this resolution expresses support for the people of Burma; supports the President’s decision to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Burma through nongovernmental organizations that are not affiliated with the Burmese regime; calls upon the SPDC to lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance and allow free access to the U.S. government’s disaster assistance response team; and states that the United States Agency for International Development should evaluate which organizations are capable of providing humanitarian assistance without SPDC interference.

On May 23, our efforts and those of others in the international community prevailed when Secretary General Ki-Moon announced that Myanmar’s ruling junta agreed to allow all aid workers, regardless of nationalities, into the country to help the survivors of the cyclone. In addition, Secretary General Ki-Moon guided a conference of 52 donor nations at a meeting on May 25, in which countries pledged in excess of $100 million to help Myanmar recover. It was also established at the meeting that more aid would be forthcoming once aid groups are granted access to the worst-affected areas, an agreement to which the junta agreed.

During my service in the Senate, by cosponsoring legislation and joining Senate colleagues in sending letters, I have consistently voiced my opposition to the Myanmar regime’s record on democracy and human rights. I continue to support sanctions against the Burmese government, which must end its flagrant human rights abuses and provide protections for ethnic minorities. I am cosponsoring the Saffron Revolution Support Act, which Senator McCain introduced on October 16, 2007. This bill would impose targeted sanctions against Burmese officials who played a direct role in the violent repression of peaceful political dissent and those who provide or have provided substantial political and economic support for the junta. The Saffron Revolution Support Act was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it awaits further consideration.

On October 1, 2007, the Senate passed with my support a resolution condemning the junta’s use of violence against peaceful protestors in Burma and encouraging China, India, Russia, and other countries to suspend assistance to the Burmese junta and increase pressure on it to work with opposition leaders and minority groups. In addition, I cosponsored the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, which the President signed on July 28, 2003. This legislation imposed import restrictions in the United States on Burmese goods and articles and provided for democracy assistance in Burma. I also cosponsored joint resolutions in 2005, 2006, and 2007 to renew Burmese import restrictions established under the 2003 Burma Freedom and Democracy Act.

I appreciate knowing your views on this matter and will keep them in mind as the Senate considers this important issue in the future. Please be assured I will follow the situation in Burma closely.

Again, thank you for contacting me.

Thank you, Senator Collins, for this response! Kudos.

It was a generic looking apartment, the kind ubiquitous to the sprawling suburbs of Chicago. Built in the 1970’s, it had a large living room, covered in dirty brown wall-to-wall carpeting. The kitchen was off the hallway, which led to the bathroom and a large bedroom at the back. All the walls were painted off-white, and the paint had seen better days.

The party was in full swing, and I was in the kitchen, talking and laughing with people. We were all high on the buzz of social excitement and booze. At one point, I was included in a circle of people joining arms and dancing, or was it hugging? A young man’s face rose up next to mine: he looked familiar, and I felt a stirring of guilt for being a married woman and having an attraction for another man. Then he moved away and so did my attraction. He wasn’t that good-looking, after all, and it was just a party.

Someone made a tray of watermelon shots. They were in test tubes, liquid layers of green and purple, a nefarious concoction at best, but I wanted one. They disappeared before I could grab one, and then someone told me they’d been put into the fridge.

I opened the fridge door, only to be confronted by an enormity of food, all of it containing tomato sauce. A huge pot of chili on the left, some spaghetti covered in red sauce on the right, and what appeared to be lasagna on the bottom shelf. It was simply packed with red sauce and pasta; I recoiled at the thought of eating anything so acidic at a party where the alcohol was flowing so freely. The watermelon shots were nowhere to be seen, so I closed the fridge and turned around to ask about them, but everyone had disappeared.

At one point, I remember making my way through the dark hallway to the bathroom. Upon entering, I glimpsed two forms standing behind the shower curtain, two drunken revelers who’d taken it upon themselves to have a little fun in the shower. I retreated.

Now, it seemed, everyone had disappeared. Had they gone to the bedroom? I moved through the hall, but it got darker and darker, and the darkness loomed out of the bedroom like a live thing. Something was waiting back there, and it wasn’t my friends. Whatever it was, it was now waiting for me.

My hearted pounded in fear as I turned to run.

Then I woke up.

My husband slumbered on next to me, unaware of my fright. I told him about my dream and he put his arm over me. “I’ll protect you, go back to sleep,” he mumbled.

I drifted off, again seeking to go to the bathroom in my dream. Only this time, I was led to an underground crypt, and a dusty decayed human skull peered out at me. I snapped my eyes open. Suddenly, getting up and having a cup of tea seemed like a good idea.

Fortunately, there were no ax murderers or skulls in my bathroom, just a few dust bunnies on the floor behind the door.

(If you are looking for the MetaFilter Burma Project, please head on over to this post and comment there. Thanks.)

I’ve decided to keep track of my favorite comments on MetaFilter, with the reasons why I favorited them. Sometimes it’s just to bookmark something for later, but most of the time, it’s because I laughed out loud while reading them.

Here’s one from last week:

“MeTa post: Who are the people in your contacts list?

This is really a pirate userbase, with a ninja ruling class. It takes a ruthless dictator to hold it together.

On account of late stage diabetes, said dictator is necessarily baby ruthless.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 1:15 PM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite -]“

I’m always in favor a nicely worded pun. So that’s my favorite for today. More later. I have to go make breakfast and so far I haven’t found anything on today’s MetaFilter’s post that tickles my funnybone enough to make me laugh out loud.

(If you are looking for the MetaFilter Burma Project, please head on over to this post and comment there. Thanks.)

Time for some random venting. Swearing may be imminent, so be warned.

- To the guy in the big black car who saw fit to scream down Woodfords as I was crossing the road: fuck you and your big black car anyway. Go back to Massachusetts. We have a pedestrian law in Maine, and the speed limit on Woodfords is not 80. Slow the fuck down.

- To Twitter: stop having time outs. It happens at least once a day. It’s really starting to piss me off. Stop it, Twitter.

- To my daughter: you need to get over yourself and pick up the phone and call me. Too bad if you are offended, I didn’t make you call me up and scream. Next time you scream at me, I’m hanging up. Most of the time, you’re a nice person, but if you want to scream, go scream into a pillow, not at your mother.

- To the people who give me strange looks on my new bike: take a picture. For every one of you, there are 10 more people who smile at me. Fuck off and get a life, sour-faced people.

- To Hannaford: stop playing subliminal music to make me buy more stuff. I know you’re doing it, because every time I go there, I buy at least three times as much stuff as I’d planned on. Although I did like that Shawn Mullins tune you were playing earlier.

- To Ellen Degeneres: not exactly a bitch, and congrats on your impending wedding. But I was a little shocked at the network change announcement. Next time, check with me first because I need to get used to turning on your show on my local TV stations. They’re very confusing here, so it’s not an easy task. Or maybe I’m just remote-challenged, but still, wtf Ellen? I thought you were so happy there but I guess I was wrong. Anyway, I like you and your show, hope I can figure out where to see it tomorrow.

- To the weather Gods: it’s a little chilly here today, could you lay off the cool weather and make it seem like a week from Memorial Day, instead of March, ’cause I am not buying a grill until it’s 70 degrees constantly every day. This will directly affect our economy here in Maine, so I’d appreciate you hopping to fulfill my demand request. Thanks.

- To anyone who disagrees with what I’ve said here: please click here.

That’s it for today, have a good one! And bitch away in the comments (but not at me, or I might do a post about you).

Ayup.

Read this article this morning, which contains a video of the effects of the cyclone in Burma. One of the mothers says, “we are starving.” They have nothing but rain water to drink and a little rice. 20 people out of 400 in one village, they sit in an open-air building, huddled together. The government helicopters flew overhead, but they received nothing. The children’s eyes look so sad and helpless.

I wish I could hug those poor children and give them shelter and food. It must be hard for their mothers, to not be able to care for their children.

Yay to the French Ambassador to the UN:

The French UN ambassador warned that the Burmese government’s refusal to allow aid to be delivered to those who needed it “could lead to a true crime against humanity”.

Trés bien, Monsieur Ripert, d’accord.

We have given to Doctors Without Borders, I have written to my representatives, and I don’t know what else to do but watch the governments of the world delay help by tiptoeing around the junta regime in Burma. If it were their children starving, they would not hesitate. I appreciate the sentiments, but I would also appreciate immediate action even more. I’m sure those poor children and their parents would agree.

I will light a candle for the people of Burma, and pray they get help ASAP.

In case anyone wants to know… well, this was set up to be my semi-private ranting site. I was ranting about Burma but I think I went about it the wrong way entirely. I should have posted some cool jokes or something. People watch the news, so they don’t need to see news on my blog. Also, making a statement is not something they can actually do and see results. My bad!

So that’s not bugging me, because I fucked up, and I know it.

What’s bugging me is that my daughter didn’t call me on Mother’s Day. Or send a card. I know she’s fine because my son and her stepdad went to visit her Mother’s Day.

See, we get into it every once in a while. She is apt to make mountains out of molehills and I am apt to not want to hear it 24/7. Also she makes dire threats that freak me out. I have all kinds of mental shit going on in my head, anxiety exacerbated by a huge imagination, some phobias (so I’ve been told from a test I took) and panic and all that happy anxiety doom stuff associated with it therein.

Take some happy pills then, Marie, you say. I did. I then saw aliens in every person I met, every white car or van I saw was the FBI, and one time, this is good: a demon jumped out at me from a cough syrup box while on those pills. I got off them and my doc subsequently told me: no more SSRI’s or benzo’s. That means: no Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Lezapro, Xanax, Valium, Klonopin, or any of that shit, because it fucks me up worse than a bad LSD trip. One side effect they don’t exactly mention when scribblin’ on that lil ole prescription pad.

I’ve had this verified by 3 separate psychiatrists and I do really well at managing it with exercise, diet, heavy doses of B vitamins, and mindfully keeping aware of my thought processes and notching myself back when I catch myself getting too antsy. I use lavander, oh christ, how do you spell lavendar? L A V E N D E R, thank you, Google. I use lavender and ylang-ylang essential oil, both in spray form (mixed with witch hazel, an awesome toner, one at a time for the scents) and in my bath. I get soy candles made with essential oils. I used to make soap with all natural plant oils, essential oils, and herbs, so I know my shit when it comes to this stuff.

Andddd…. to top it all off, my brother died. Twenty years ago this past April. I know I should be over this by now, but how do you ever get over that shit? Never. You don’t, you just pray and pretend that they are still alive somewhere and happy and watching over you. I am an agnostic: I really wish there were some benign being looking out for all of us humans, but I’m not sure. I was raised Catholic, so no Christian shit for me, sorry. Believe what you want but don’t come to my door with it (although I really respect Christians who follow the esoteric beliefs and don’t preach, don’t get me wrong, seriously). I mean, if you’re Christian and you want to pray for me, go right ahead, I won’t be offended. Just don’t try to convert me, my beliefs are a personal choice.

So this is my grandbaby when she was born, two months early. Her first bath in the hospital (3.5 lbs.):

This is her at about Easter time, wearing the dress and fairy wings I sent:

I haven’t seen her in almost 2 years. I was there when she was born, and I helped my daughter, going to the hospital to visit her every day for 2 months. Then I saw her at 8 months, and she laughed and came right to me, we all had a great time.

Then I moved from Wisconsin, where I was living (very unhappily, I might add) back to Maine, where I grew up. Talked to my daughter almost every day. Freaked out silently every time she got whacky. Blood pressure went up. Went to the doctor: heart is fine, just need to relax and exercise more. Lose weight, all that good stuff. Every time I talk to my daughter, when she is hyper, I feel my left arm clenching up. I suggest she get counseling and perhaps go back on her meds. Then I am the bad guy. I am out of her life “forever.” Again. For the umpteenth time.

I should not have engaged in an argument with her, knowing her issues. I was wrong. I was sick from a cold and exhausted from lack of sleep the last time she called me. I am a crabby moody bitch at times myself. But she was threatening some serious stuff, which I won’t repeat, but it was enough to push anyone’s buttons. Let alone a mother’s buttons.

So, have kids, but get ready for a nice rollercoaster ride when and if they ever grow up. I still have hopes for my son, and I hope my daughter gets her shit together and doesn’t bleed her rage and moodswings out onto my grandbaby.

That’s about it. Of course I am still upset about Burma and all the other bullshit that goes on in the world, but this personal crap is kinda getting to me lately, so I’m just gonna hide out and deal with it.

Due to overwhelming lack of response, I have stopped the Burma MetaFilter “statement” project. Thanks to Wendell for being supportive and thanks to all the great people I met on MetaFilter, both in person and online. I personally have become too irritated with the tone of some of the not-so-great members of MetaFilter (note, this is not aimed at any one person, just a general tone, maybe it is something in the stars like Mercury Retrograde), so I have closed my MetaFilter account before I say anything worse than I already have. I’m sorry if I upset anyone, please be aware that it’s not necessarily you, it’s me. Going through some stuff right now and am too emotional to control my temper, so taking a step back for a while.

If you want to help Burma and other needy countries, I suggest you donate to Doctors Without Borders or the International Red Cross.

Thanks for visiting!