Friday January 22nd 2010

As i begin today i would first like to acknowlege my friend Dennis,without whom i would not be back online.He helped me tremendously by fixing the laptop i was gifted by my older brother,which needed some major upgrades to be able to recognise my modem and so on.I am not very tech saavy,and without his help i would still be stranded offline.So a GIANT THANK YOU to you Dennis for all your help.This guy has rescued me from car and boat problems so many times i cannot count.His mechanical aptitude has proven to be the only way for me to have a roadworthy car or seaworthy vessel and i am lucky to have a friend and neighbor like him.Thanks again brother Dennis.
To update a little on my back pain issues i want to mention a pain clinic visit i had on Thursday.This was just a routine visit,but the doctors i saw seemed to put extra effort forth to comfort me.The clinic is part of a teaching hospital so i get to see alot of residents who always seem very eager to help,but the Physician in charge is always extremely gracious and compassionate to me.This visit resulted in a slight increase in my main pain medicine,and consultation regarding future surgery.I am on the fence still about any more surgical intervention,but i am really limited in my choices for relief.Living with chronic pain is very difficult to understand because sufferers are at first void of any obvious physical limitations that are present in other debilitating disabilities.looking at a chronic pain sufferer it would be hard to distinguish the differance from a normal healthy person.Upon closer inspection though,small differances become more and more obvious.The person seems unable to find any comfortable position to sit or stand.Eyes are a good clue as well,due to the sleepless nature of the struggle with pain.A few hrs at a time,if you are lucky,but any real rest seems a distant memory.Black circles develop and seem to show the signs of insomnia.
Continuing on i think some headlines in the news are in need of public discourse.It seems that because of the daily toils of family and work,or looking for work,seem to dicourage this much needed part of living in a democratic society.In my humble opinion folks need to start sticking their heads out the window and scream"i am mad as hell,and i'm not going to take it anymore."Until we can find common ground and have civil public discourse on the issues that effect us all,the powers that be will continue to ignore our plea's and destroy what is left of the historically young experiment of a nation we call our home.The supreme court has deceided to allow corporations and unions the ability to spend any amount of money on Election advertisement,overturning a 63 yr old law and several of their own prior decisions.I believe that this is going to be ruinous to our democracy and any chance of free and fair elections taking place.
A note in the margins of a non-ruling by the court in the late 1800 is the basis for the idea that a corporation is the same as a person in the eyes of the law.The note was made by a clerk of the court and should have no legal binding opinions based on this clerks margin note.This seems silly to me,but is very serious due to the weight that this is given in relation to current decisions made by the court.This current political environment is being called populist uprising on the part of the key voters,independants.The voters who through the washington system into turmoil in the senate race in mass. are just the beginning,in my opinion.This will continue on into the next election cycle and the losses suffered on the part of democrats will be large.The problem is no matter what happens,the only option to make real change will be out of the hands of the voters.In order to make a serious impact on the way our country operates,we need a sea change in washington.The whole of the incumbants need to be ousted.
My daily routine revolves around my wife and children,and i truly believe in my country and its ability to rebound from the ashes after the people awaken to the reality of their surroundings.I am on an island here it sometimes seems,but as the repercussions of the current political dissent continue it will be the people that stand up and speak out that make a differance.Commenting is not enough,we need to get up,go out and make the changes happen ourselves.It may seem impossible in the face of the struggles life brings us each day,but together we must be to face the challenges of the future.My family is lucky to live in this great nation,and i will try to show my children by example that we must all contribute what we can to make it remain the Free and democratic nation that all others strive to emulate.I am going to end here by saying until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker