I am back. Finally, “able to sit up and take nourishment” as my friend John likes to say when asked how he is doing. That nourishment part has been difficult the past few days. Hopefully, the beastly flu bug will not catch up with any of you! My advice: ‘As soon as your stomach will hold anything down, take the strongest pain pill in the house and sleep it off.” Just a bit of personal advice. Not related to anything professional!Of course, the biggest and almost ONLY news has been from Virginia Tech. I’ve had nothing to do but watch the grim details until I can watch no more!
Early on, I heard the profilers say there had to be more than the emerging initial information, and sadly, they were right. Now NBC has received a homemade video made by the killer himself. It’s gut-wrenching to watch. In fact, I don't understand why CNN and others put such disgustingly horrible film on air! But, if one does, they all have to! I wish someone had told me not to look at it! Please don't bother!
I have some of my own opinions about why this sick, sick man was allowed to go so long leaving these “signs and symptoms” as we say in nurse language.
Not to drag my thoughts out too long on this horrible subject, but I totaled up the number of years I’ve been involved with colleges and universities with immediate family members in college or employed by one, so I dare offer to speak with some ‘authority” on how they function – in public and in private!
While I do not have that coveted college degree, my immediate family has been enrolled in a college or university for a total of 31 years, and we have attended at least ten universities or colleges. My hard work as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) has provided funds for a total of seven college degrees including three Master's and one Ph.D.
The major colleges and universities we have attended include:
Southern College at Collegedale, TN
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI
Lake Michigan College, Benton Harbor, MI
St. Mary’s College, South Bend, IN
Notre Dame, South Bend, IN
University of Michigan, Detroit, MI
Pacific Union College, Angwin, California
Columbus State Community College, Columbus, OH
Franklin University, Columbus, OH
So, I can say with quite some certainty that colleges and universities are quite like aristocratic cats….Both have sophisticated cover-ups!
For almost 10 years, I was the local newspaper reporter for the town where we lived on the university campus. I was forced more than once, to ‘kill the story’ by my editor who was just as furious as I was about the situation. Don’t think news media can pull all the plugs and always report a fair story. Money and power talked then, and still does!
I’m predicting that in the coming years, because of increasing technology, public communication will change. CATS will sit on public pedestals! Public Officials will have to keep up and take notes! They will be forced to look at how they ‘control traffic’ and how it is controlled by others. They will not be able to sit behind closed doors and dictate crazy rules and misinformation!
The “reporter” in me watched with deep interest as the questions were asked during the news conferences in Virginia. Often, questions are asked at news conferences in a way to actually unofficially “report” news the reporters aren't allowed to officially report on the air. But, it didn’t take long for officials to realize what was happening and after that, questions were not allowed at news conferences. Did you notice that? I knew right then that something was amiss!
Coming home tonight from a little drive to another town, Jim and I noticed flags at half-mast all along the way. Well, all except one very conspicuous flag floating in the wind at full mast. It was in front of the United Methodist Church in Sunbury, OH.
Oh please, don’t get me started on the CATS at church.
By the way, I have new cards (already!) for the SOS (Sisters of Sunshine) Club. For those of you that I have addresses, I will send you some but feel free to remind me! Anyone who would like some to pass out to your friends, please contact me through your email at lindasbook@usa.com. They are FREE! Click HERE for the SOS website.
Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda
2 comments:
With this being the day of mourning for Virginia Tech. I thought I would share this article. May we all find a way to be brave and forgive the unforgivable!
This Week's Heartfelt Blessing
FORGIVING THE UNFORGIVABLE
"In a way, forgiving is only for the brave. It is for those people who are willing to confront their pain, accept themselves as permanently changed, and make difficult choices. Countless individuals are satisfied to go on resenting and hating people who wrong them. They stew in their own inner poisons and even contaminate those around them. Forgivers, on the other hand, are not content to be stuck in a quagmire. They reject the possibility that the rest of their lives will be determined by the unjust and injurious acts of another person." — Beverly Flanigan
We have come to expect instant gratification in our lives, so when we are hurting we seek immediate justice and freely admit that the idea of forgiveness is far more incomprehensible than seeking an eye for an eye. Even in this supposed age of enlightenment, many would still rather handle pain through the blast of a gun than through letting it go by forgiving those who have brought us pain.
In the past century, and in the first formative years of this one, more people have died at the hands of others than from cancer and AIDS combined. Violence has become an accepted norm in today's troubled world. We talk about the need to eradicate global warming, hunger, poverty and wars between nations to save us from certain demise, but the real culprit lies much closer to the heart of each and every one of us. It lies in our inability to forgive.
The late Calvinist minister Lewis Smedes once wrote "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." Without forgiveness we cannot hope to rise above the prison imposed by our current human condition. Unless all of us — not just those who pick up guns and kill others, but all of us — learn to forgive we will remain imprisoned by our thinking and it will not be a melting ice cap that will lead to our final end — It will be us.
If we are to survive, we must not only learn how to forgive those who have sinned against us, we must teach others the gentle art of forgiving, too.
May you always find forgiveness in your heart.
Linda I was not sure if I should post this on SOS site as well. It does not seem to have much traffic yet.
Thank-you, Juanita. Yes, please feel free to post to the SOS site. While we don't have many visitors there yet, we hope that site will prove to be positive and uplifting to more women as we get the information out. I'm also thinking of ways other women can add to the site itself.
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