Special Wonders and Wonderous Specials
So my 2 newest specials are the half off days, and the buy one get one for half off deal or I’ll give you a free half hour gift certificate. This is the first word of it that I’ve put out on the net. Please feel free to share it w/ your friends and loved ones. If I hear from a new client that they were referred by you, you’ll get a 20% discount off of a reg. priced massage.
Saying that my first half off week was busy would be a monumental understatement.
Unfortunately I have to cut back the week, from now on to just a few days of one week in each month, but the other specials should be enough to keep you coming back, happily for a while. I’m hoping that those of you who come to me will feel free to ask me about my various affiliations: Petaluma Mothers Club(previously); Parent Pack (of Sonoma); Petaluma Parents; Society for Creative Anachronism; Connections; Brave People/S.H.E; Barter_lumans; and my other miscilaneous professional contacts outside of the Connections Org;
With internet access being what it is Today, I’m sure that each one of us has more contact around the globe then we realize. Contact is actually influence to a certain degree, and that is power which can be used in any capacity.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget the influence that we have over people that we don’t even know, when we simply sit down to e-chat/email. Somebody reads our words, and may take them to heart or have some other emotional reaction to those words.
I’ve caused some emotional reactions of my own in this manner, in my time, and had some. We can’t control how others perceive what we put on the information high-way, or how they’ll react to it, we can only control ourselves and what we choose to share.
I really hope that my readers occassionally find my blogs worthy of sharing and that my blogs don’t tend to offend. I hope also that in this age of “special wonders” such as a Black man being elected President, that my global community will see the opportunity for us to change our world for the better, and help the change along by choosing to put some words on ballots and petitions that will reveal to our government what’s important to us.
I see that many of us are concerned and upset that the bail-outs that are being handed out are going to banks, auto industry and other big businesses, as opposed to “people who played by the rules” and now are having trouble keeping a roof over their (familys’) heads.
These are broad and sweeping statements, and I feel that they are possibly pre-mature as Obama hasn’t been ACTING Prez. for more than a month yet, but if this is how you feel then stand up and be heard.
My 2 cents is this: Wait and see. Obama inherited a huge deficit with which to work, and a very partisan congress. The parties refuse to play nice together, for the most part, and the Republicans are understandably used to having great influence over our county’s affairs, and are having a hard time adjusting to their perceived fall from power. One could almost feel sorry for them……..if only they had done more to advance our country in terms of financial stability or educational standards or healthcare for those that need it.
Another thing standing between us and improvements to health and educational systems that Obama intends to make, according to The American Prospector magazine, is a huge number of conservatives or “Middle of the Roaders”.
These are the people who can veto or vote no on ballot measures that would otherwise make abortion and contraceptive options more accessible for women by regulating health insurance in such a way that insurance would have to pay for these things.
Unfortunately, Obama had to do something akin to a line item veto on this one, in order to sway the “Middle of the Roaders” to pass the rest of the legislation in that package.
So it’s not yet a perfect world. A black man is at the wheel, but we still can’t see our way clear to allowing gay people to avail themselves of the rights that according to the constitution belong unquestionably to ALL Americans. Out of ignorance and an unwillingness to part with our ignorant, superstitious, and puritanical past, we’ve co-erced our State governments into passing laws of bigotry against people who are different from ourselves.
It is my sincerest hope that we can help our President to quickly change this sorry state of affairs that we have created through this arrogance and misguided sense of nostalgia.
One job per family doesn’t keep a roof over the family’s head anymore, and if a woman is also having to work to support her family or even just herself, then it becomes even more essential that her wages be the same as those of a man who is doing the same job.
Through-out history, it has been women who get left with the children when a man no longer has the inclination to take responsibility for his family and his actions. Even so, we as a country turn a blind eye to this woman who is having to go it alone, because we don’t wish to see. Employers would rather have this woman, and any other worker only part time, so that they don’t have to pay full time wages and cover health insurance and other benefits, too.
This does not promote feelings of loyalty in staff, or a desire to go that extra mile for clientelle which makes them want to come back, and so companies, after digging this hole for themselves, by hiring only part time workers, are falling into it. This is only the most simplistic of explanations for the ever increasing sightings of closing businesses.
CEOs and company owners and managers are not always solely to blame for the failure of their company to stay in the black. Banks closing and the state of Today’s stock market play a part as well.
We simply can’t go on believing in the stock market when all current evidence points to its utter weakness. Many a big business had large amounts of money “put away” in the stock market, for their CEOs and staff alike. When this money was lost, pensions and positions were lost along with it.
Those who lost postions could ill afford to pay their mortgages to the banks that owned their homes. People were and still are being evicted, when shelters are over-full already, and expecting help from the government that the government can’t afford to give, but must give, even as they are giving most of that needed funding to auto industries, banks and other big businesses.
At the same time, auto industries put many people back to work, but is it enough?
Sadly, a certain number of the impoverished who end up in shelters are minors. Some of these minors could be happily and healthfully adopted by anyone who was willing an able. Sadly, by preventing gays from marrying, we put another impediment in the way of their adopting children that might otherwise remain in shelters or on the streets where they are more likely to turn to crime in order to feed themselves and younger siblings, or be victimized by more experienced criminals.
And the vicious circle expands and feeds on itself forever until we all agree that change and compromise is needed, and that we must all part with a good number of our old ways.
I prevail upon you, my dear readers, to re-examine your own belief systems. Do they serve you? Do they also serve your community? How do they not serve you or your community?
Gay people don’t hurt us when they marry. Their dissatisfaction with a system that doesn’t allow them to marry when it allows others that freedom could indeed hurt our community, if only by their withdrawing their services and or loyalty from it.
Women can enrich our community by joining the workforce, but are only willing to do so when fairly treated by employers and their watch dogs.
Children can enrich the community, by growing up to be responsible citizens, but only if the community takes responsibility for seeing that they grow up feeling wanted, supported and protected.