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My Back Pages: Tis The Season...... :  As we enter another Holiday Season, let's try to get along. Recently, the 'Holidays' have become a time of contention... who&...

 As we enter another Holiday Season, let's try to get along. Recently, the 'Holidays' have become a time of contention... who's celebration is the real  one. Let me tell you, as the product of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic family... as a someone who married someone who was raised in another religion from the one that I was raised in.. we all need to chill and accept everyone else.   I don't care if you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or a Wiccan... I don't care if you believe in Jesus, or Buddha, or just the God Of Abraham... I don't care who, or what you believe in.... I respect your beliefs, or your lack of beliefs! I think that we all have a right to worship whomever we believe in, or to not worship anything or anyone, if that is what you wish. What I would love to see is everyone being accepting of the beliefs of everyone else. Differences it what makes the world go 'round. Difference makes life intriguing.    I keep hearing that there is a ...

My Back Pages: Thoughts.... :  Where to start.... there is so much to talk about, and yet I cannot find a starting place. It seems like we have been here so many times ...

 Where to start.... there is so much to talk about, and yet I cannot find a starting place. It seems like we have been here so many times before.... riots in the streets... peaceful protests gone bad.. Opportunistic sociopaths taking legitimate protests and turning them into reasons to loot and burn businesses and homes, making people who are already living lives of misery more miserable. Spokespersons who, instead of trying to be calm and reasonable, use the protests as a time to justify their dubious claims to being 'Leaders'. It does no good for the people to loot and burn. It does nothing to make anyone's lives better. It does nothing to right any wrong, or to avenge any death. All it does is promote more misery for more people. Dr. King would not be happy with this. He believed in peaceful protests. The violence always came from the other side, not from him. This all just makes me so damned sad. Sad, because I thought that my grandchildren would grow up in a better, ...

My Back Pages: Veteran's Day... :  Veteran's Day, Armistice Day, to me is a time of reflection. Over the years, I have known so many good men and women who quietly served...

 Veteran's Day, Armistice Day, to me is a time of reflection. Over the years, I have known so many good men and women who quietly served their country in time of war, and time of peace. They came from all religions, from a multitude of ethnic groups. They didn't question why their country made the call, they just knew that this was the price of living free and without fear. Some of them did not have the same freedoms  as the majority; but that would change over time.   Most were unassuming young men and women, who's lives were interrupted by the madness of those beyond their immediate control. They were still youngsters, barely out of childhood; yet they were asked to take up arms and place their lives on the line so that this nation could remain free.  Who are the Veterans? They are not politicians... although some politicians are veterans. They are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Liberal, Conservative.. of every political stripe. The thing that they ha...

My Back Pages: A Word For Brittany : Brittany with her husband, and shortly before her death.   Brittany Maynard died the other day. She had terminal brain cancer and was sl...

Brittany with her husband, and shortly before her death.   Brittany Maynard died the other day. She had terminal brain cancer and was slowly slipping away. She had forgotten the name of her husband, even though she still knew him and had been married just a short time.  She suffered increasingly long seizures and excruciating headaches and neck pain. She chose to end her life with dignity, instead of having the cancer take away her sense of self, and having her loved ones bear the agony of watching her slip slowly away, unaware of who they were.    "She died as she intended — peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones," said Sean Crowley, a spokesman for the advocacy group Compassion & Choices. Many people admired her choice. Others, such as myself, think that her decision was a personal one, and that she made it of her own free will. I think that she was a brave young woman who decided to take her final journey by her own hand. It should hav...