Just thankful for another beautiful day in Oregon. PET scan came back clean, so it is official I am cancer free. Now, it is not just a 50/50 chance of beating it, I have a 60 percent chance of a permanent cure.

Sorry, I have not been on. The day I went to get my PET scan taken the lady who drives me and I got road raged by some jerk and I had to go to ER. Can't hardly type but I am SO HAPPY I just had to tell somebody. I might have some health limitations both from before the cancer with the MS, Osteoarthritis, and Degenerative disk and some treatment side effects but I am going to be back to the way I was before they gave me that nasty terminal word.

And now I know just how strong I am!!!! Watch out world, cause here I come! Change is afoot, can't you smell it in the air. Let's fly! I'll find a way to keep up, even with my cane!!!!

 

Together We Can!  

Tami

My Aunt just sent me the cutest song lyrics to a song called "Down on the Farm" by a couple called Lewis and Lewis and I just laughed (it's on You Tube). That made me feel a little guilty. It also kind of made me miss the South a little. Those of you who have never lived there will just have to take my word for it. There is nothing quite like walking down the streets of a tiny Arkansas town with all of your biases in place laughing at the (fill in the ethnic or person who is different) along with everybody else knowing that you fit right in. It made me ponder what I have been learning about diversification and if it was worth blogging about.

 

I have spent the last few years going and getting myself diversified and I think I have just started to learn a few things. I know I ain't supposed to run around saying the words n*****r and q***r.  I don't suppose I wouldv'e anyway, it just ain't polite and I have always know your color or sexual preference was not the be all and end all of who you are. And to be honest, it ain't much fun when they punch you in the nose for it. I never really cared what color they were or who they slept with anyway.  And, I really haven't found many that do. We did not care if they were black, white, red, or yellow and tattooed. We did not care if it was guy on guy, girl on girl or whatever else they could think up. What we were really laughing at was not what they were or who they had done but at thier differences from us which made them seem unusual in our eyes. And we were using the laughter to make ourselves feel better about who we were because at least we were not like them.  After all, they were different.

 

Now; I suppose one of the things I should say that I learned at this point was how we should embrace that difference, celebrate that difference, and then tell others how great it is to accept diversity. Sorry, not what I took away from it. I started to evaluated the diversity/acceptance movement and it made me wonder, did we really accept thier difference? Or is it something we turned to our own purpose again? After all, instead of laughing at them for it to make ourselves feel better about our insecurities we just use a more polite way of making ourselves feel better about ourselves.  Nobody is out saying accept them for what they are, ignore thier differences and treat them the same as you would any other person . Politely, if you are polite and like a jerk, if you are a jerk. That would seem to me to be equality. I suppose, it would be easier to understand if the political correctness applied to all. But, I haven't heard many say "Hey a*****le, quit acting like a jerk when it is just some white guy walking down the street with long hair and some idiot yells "Hey hippy, get a job."

 

Then, just when I was wondering if what I was picking up from my evaluation was right  a professed liberal friend wearing a celebrate diversity T-shirt asked me if I knew someone who could use a little side work then insisted when I suggested my hubby stated "You can't let your husband apply because he has long hair and these good ol boys don't accept that kind of thing and we must work within thier paradigm." Nothing about changing thier mind and absolutely zip about acceptance. Blew the whole diversification thing she had been preaching right out of the water.

 

So, what I ended up learning from it was that what they are really saying is "I am better than you because look, I can even accept the people who are not as good as I am because they are different." What is the difference between them and us hicks who were down south in the 80's laughing at the gay kid?  I believe what they are really saying is accept me for what I am because I am a good person for accepting them.  And what we were saying was accept me for what I am because we are both not like him. Both ways are usually; although, not always a means of making us feel better about who and what we are and a way to gain acceptance. Well I have a better idea!

 

Maybe, everybody should just be taught that if they accept themselves for who and what they are, fixing what they don't like about themselves including thier unacceptance of others differences and spend less time in everybody else's personal business then world would sort itself out.

Oh my, I forget sometimes how much work there is in making your own food. I am so exhausted.  And I still have the rest of the summer veggies to put in over the next few days. But, I feel soooo blessed!!!! I am out of my wheelchair. I have an Associates degree. I am on well on my way to the next one. And my wonderful husband who is also my favorite tech found me a new photo software program I can play with just as soon as I get the chance. I will be examining a watershed project in our area over the next few days to learn how that works and may become politically active on one of those commitees eventually so want to know how the work. My friend who is driving also used to play in the SCA so we have been working on projects for the mechant booth just in case we actually do make an event sometimes soon.  Of course, I have been working for about ten years on projects just in case. So, I guess I could open up shop even without the extra stock but the more different things that are handmade and period the better right? In other words busy, busy, busy.  Next doctor's appt on the 17th.

If you vote Democrat or Republican in the coming election you have voted to allow the U.S. government to continue, in some form, the way it always has pandering to corporate interests, failing to back a universal flat tax that would equalize the burden of running the country among all, and refusing to call for the slashing of the bloated budget. And they won’t even contemplate the repeal of NAFTA and the Taft-Hartley Act, which cripples the ability of American companies to compete in the open market. They are not seeking solutions to imported fossil fuels as an energy resource in any meaningful way which would limit the ability of oil rich countries to manipulate us. These are all issues the voters have repeatedly made their will clear on. Yet the current two party system has refused to address these issues. Is this really the kind of representation you want? Or do you just belive that is the only option available to you?  We the people can write in any American we choose to in the blanks for president and vice president. I plan to fill my blanks with the names of Sean Hannity and Dave Ramsey? Care to join me? Viva la revolution!!!